After hopes build for a lull, another spike is recorded in Austin's COVID hospitalization average. Pflugerville, Liberty Hill and Granger ISD's suspend school days due to staffing outages, and Austin ISD administrative staff pull double duty as substitute teachers. UT is to open a fourth testing center ahead of the return of fully live classes at the end of January. A significant Arctic front is affecting all of Texas through Friday afternoon, threatening hazardous driving conditions but (hopefully) not a repeat of last February's energy problems, which continue to reverberate in the industry. The Rolling Pines fire is at 58% containment - no individual person is likely to blame for the blaze. A man who terrorized Nyle Maxwell Supercenter with an AK-47 early this month has been arrested, a San Marcos police officer involved in a fatal crash in June of 2020 has been fired, and a wanted murder suspect has been seen near Riverside and Pleasant Valley. Austin's home sale price average jumped to $450,000 last year, with a total sales volume of almost $23.4 billion. Former TCU football coach Gary Patterson, though still not officially announced, looks to be joining the staff at Texas. A developer wants to revive the Austin Opera House. Shaquille O'Neal's Big Chicken will open an outlet in the new Moody Center, a new map of Austin's best pizza is published, and Bird Bird Biscuit is named one of the ten best restaurants in America by Yelp.
