Sarah, the youngest, had met someone at work and had told a friend her father "would kill her if he found out." The police are afraid that this phrase may have been an ominous foretelling instead of teenage hyperbole....

This is a good example of poor judgment.The students of Penn State University should have taken a note from their counterparts at Tarleton State University when picking out this year's Halloween costumes. Even more idiotic than their costume idea was their decision to post the resulting pictures on Facebook. Photos of two Penn State students donning Virginia Tech t-shirts, covered with bullet holes and fake blood, were put up on Facebook and quickly spread over......

Photo by lilapants ln flickrPatrol car video footage that documents the final, pleading calls of police shooting victim Kevin Alexander Brown was made public by the city of Austin yesterday according to The Austin American-Statesman. "Please turn me over," Brown asks repeatedly from the distant background of the grainy video. His last request falls on deaf ears. "I'm gonna die," he says to the officer who shot him. The cop in question, Sgt. Michael Olsen,......

Photo by my favorite yarn on flickr Sgt. Michael Olsen is appealing his firing by APD. While the housing market everywhere else is on the decline, Austin still a place to buy, according to real estate expert. David Letterman in Austin for a Habitat build. Someone is going door-to-door claiming to be raising money for Big Brothers/Big Sisters. Video: Bobby Knight's neighbor isn't happy about how close Knight is shooting to his property. New, more......

Photo by hamron on flickr 48 cats rescued from deplorable conditions in Rescuties' founder's home earlier this month; a judge is allowing her to keep 3 of them and recommended psychological counseling. Capitol One will not be buying Austin-based business NetSpend for $700 million as was planned, but will buy a minority share of the company. Work starts on making Cesar Chavez fully 2-way. Starting this week and going through January 1, APD will be......

Photo by hamron on flickr Austin City Council is pretty much ready to sign a contract setting up red-light cameras at 15 intersections (to start with). Big Brother - er, APD - is watching your energy usage. And Austin Energy is cool with that! Southeast Austin standoff this morning ends with cop shooting the suspect. Round Rock police on the lookout for a suspected stalker. Local company under Neil Bush (Dubya's bro) is being investigated......

In terms of the new businesses in the wake of a Navy base closure, ‘revitalization’ is a hard nut to sell. More like 'damage control'. In Alameda, the closure meant the exodus of literally tens of thousands of civilian jobs, not to mention the millions of dollars enlisted Navy personnel poured into the city's economy trying to impress local high school girls....

The Statesman is reporting that a gunman walked into a business in North Austin this afternoon and began shooting. The Travis County/Austin STARFlight Rescue team has been deployed. The incident happened at the 13500 block of US-183, near Anderson Mill Road. Update 1: The shooting occurred at a car dealership service center. The gunman reportedly shot himself after leaving the building. Update 2: The gunman, an ex-employee of the service center, attempted to shoot the......

Senator Larry E. Craig of Idaho will remain in the Senate despite calls for his resignation. Myanmar junta summons U.S. envoy for talks. Ig Nobel awards celebrate jet-setting Viagra-using hamsters and our military's attempt to make a "gay bomb." East Sixth Street, between Pedernales and Robert Martinez, now open after yesterday's train accident caused it to be closed. North Korea agrees to dismantle "all" of its nuclear facilities by the end of the year.......

The Austin Film Festival is right around the corner, and this year's Marquee programming is some of the best in the festival's history. With a wide variety of stellar comedies, dramas, and documentaries (not to mention several strong Oscar contenders) announced, there's something for everyone in the 2007 Marquee category. To help you plan out your festival schedule, we've put together a list of best bets for this year's program. The whole program looks excellent......

We were strolling through West Campus this morning when we came across a gaggle of cops, endless yellow Police Line tape and, of all things, the bomb squad. Rio Grande between 22nd and 24th streets had been sealed off. Word was that some residences had been evacuated as well. Minutes earlier, the ubiquitous post-9/11 "suspicious package" reared its ugly head and was reported to the police. We stuck around, alongside the small crowd of bleary-eyed......

Seattlest watches as a S.L.U.T. is born and Seattle Flickr users go nuts over a local art installation. A restaurant critic demands a Diner's Bill of Rights over a gnat next to her drink, and, in lieu of a Portlandist, Seattlest debates with itself over the identity of the Northwest's crown jewel. Seattlest also joins the guys from Fantagraphics for an ill-fated gun party in the woods. Bostonist got a crash course in what not......

Delaware State University is locked down after two students were shot there in the wee hours of the morning. Burmese monks have been walking in protest of the dictatorship for four days now. The Justice Department hasn't forgotten DeLay (or his staffers). Military cemetery at Ft. Riley in Kansas is full. The Vatican actually approves of China's pick for bishop of Beijing. In case you were worried: Paddington Bear still eats marmalade. Well, it......

Today is the day! Fantastic Fest--North America's coolest, fastest growing genre film festival--officially kicks off this afternoon at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. With around 100 feature films, shorts and special events, Fantastic Fest is a horror / sci-fi / fantasy / action film lover's dream come true. As of yesterday, badges are all sold out. But don't despair, badgeless film lovers--you can still buy individual tickets to certain screenings. We got an early look......

In 2005, Bloc Party released their debut album Silent Alarm, a glorious highlight of the postpunk revival that the New York Times described as "angsty and urgent, with jagged guitars and sexy dance-punk drums." Unlike many of their British rock contemporaries, the band have aggressively toured America in the interim, stopping in Austin for both SXSW and ACL Fest in 2005 and 2007 and at Stubb's in 2006. This approach may help explain why......

Calls of a reported stabbing brought Austin police to a unit at the University Canyon Apartments in Southeast Austin yesterday. Inside the apartment, they were greeted by a ghastly sight: a handcuffed woman was clutching her 3-year-old girl, whose throat had been slashed. Both were covered in blood. That's when the woman's ex-boyfriend, knife in hand, came stumbling out of the bedroom. He approached the cops, refusing to relinquish the weapon. One of the officers......

NBC's sweaty teen pigskin drama Friday Night Lights, now shooting in Austin, is still casting extras. And they made a MySpace page about it! Now, interested young hopefuls eager to sample the Dionysian craft-service spoils of the new Texas film incentives plan may simply hit up FNL on MySpace for instructions and call times. They're casting football players, cheerleaders, teachers and students, and seeking all ages and ethnicities. However, their MySpace page does hold one......

Two news items coming out this afternoon relate to Chester's, the East Austin nightclub near where a fatal shooting occurred earlier this summer. First off, Sgt. Michael Olsen has been cleared of any possible charges related to the shooting; the grand jury decided that Olsen's killing of Kevin Brown was not criminal. Brown had been patronizing Chester's before being shot as he raced from police. Secondly, and perhaps more damning to the club and......

Tonight and tomorrow night, the Paramount's Summer Classic Film Series gives you a double dose of the man who once singlehandedly freaked out some radio listeners so much that they ran out on the streets, shooting at menacing water towers and searching for meteorites: the corpulent and magnetic Orson Welles. First, enjoy 1958's border story Touch of Evil, recently restored and also featuring Charlton Heston; then, regardez-vous the best movie of all time, Citizen Kane......

Say what you will about Tom Cruise’s career choices, religion, or personal relationships, the man has certainly made some fantastic action movies. Witness his sweaty brilliance firsthand tonight as 101X presents this week’s Summer Movie Series classic Top Gun. Cruise plays Maverick, a Naval Aviator whose record is less than pristine due to his high-flying high jinks and general loose cannon-itude. He makes it into the elite Fighter Weapons School by the skin of his......

Saturday night's alright for fighting, but Sunday night? Well, last night APD was called to the Pleasant Valley/Quicksilver Lane area in Southeast Austin after someone reported hearing gunshots. So they were on the scene when the driver of a pickup truck attempted to drive over a group of people, and then tried to run over some police officers. When the driver, Reynaldo Loredo Gonzalez, started towards the cops, he was fired at by a......

Brian B. is convinced he's a messiah--but only a "local" messiah, his powers limited to a 100-mile radius. What good is a local messiah, you might ask? Well, Brian's not too sure, either, but he's raising money to help himself--and his town--find out. The Proper Care and Feeding of an American Messiah follows Brian's quest to prove himself, raise funds, and gain "a posse" of apostles. The film's funnier than a nun on a pogo......

Austin city leaders announced late Friday afternoon that the U.S. Department of Justice is starting an investigation into the Austin Police Department and its use of force, specifically when dealing with minorities. "We are obliged to determine whether APD is systemically violating the Constitution of the United States," read the letter sent to the city from the Justice Department. In 2004, the Austin American-Statesman analyzed police data from 1998 to 2003, revealing that Austin police......

We’ve had a soft spot for Jamie Kennedy ever since his performance as mega film geek Randy Meeks in Wes Craven’s Scream. And we’ve also spent a lot of time watching his short-lived but very funny hidden-camera show, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment (which for our money was much more daring and inventive than that lame-ass Punk’d. For example…). At the tail end of South by Southwest this year, we got a chance to chat with......

- If you are one of the many in the South Austin area who feel that downtown is hogging all of the good wine bars, take heart. Central Market's Westgate location has actually opened a wine and cheese bar in the middle of their store. The bar, dubbed A22, will feature a rotating mix of 16 wines by the glass, along with approximately 25 cheeses. Both wine and cheese flights will be available, and......

Scientists, nature buffs and stoners alike have gathered in front of their television sets every Sunday night for the past few weeks in order to catch the awe-inspiring footage of the Discovery Channel mini-series, Planet Earth. Originally produced and aired by the BBC, the eleven part mini-series took crews around the world, working for 5 years and shooting 2,000 days of footage with the latest in high-definition camera technology. Capturing the rarities and wonders......

Despite being removed from office, Tom DeLay is up to his old tricks: comparing Democrats to Nazis; comparing himself to the Duke students falsely accused of rape; proclaiming that if the liberals can take down Don Imus, the conservatives can get Rosie O’Donnell off the air; and now this, the most egregious of his statements. In what is one of the most disturbing things we have heard in the wake of the shootings at Virginia......

"Grindhouse," the Tarantino-Rodriguez project filmed in Austin, opened nationwide this past weekend. And while the critically-lauded double-bill may well herald the resurgence of campy exploitation flicks, it might also bring us yet another Hollywood celeb. In an interview with News8Austin, Rosario Dawson (Sin City, Kids, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints), who stars in the Tarantino-directed "Death Proof," professes her love for Central Texas and hints at the possibility of opening up a production......

We don't know about where you are, but it seems like spring can't decide whether or not to happen. Some days are warm, some days are cold, and sometimes you aren't sure which. Baseball may have started up (and soccer/football winding down) but it still seems cold out there. Unless it's not. Anyways, onto the -ists. Austinist happily anticipated fall's Austin City Limits, even though they're not fully recovered from South By Southwest. In......

Texas country music legend and one-time spiritual advisor to Kinky Friedman, Billy Joe Shaver was questioned by Waco-area police after a man was shot in the face near Papa Joe's Texas Saloon. Details about the shooting remain scarce, including any possible role that the Texas Country Music Hall of Famer might have had played in it, but Shaver's attorney reportedly confirmed his client's involvement. The Waco Tribune-Herald also quoted an anonymous truck driver yesterday,......