Four men are facing federal charges in connection to the mounting count of 53 migrants who died of heat exhaustion after being abandoned in a tractor trailer near San Antonio this week - including the driver of the truck, who tried to pass himself off as a migrant himself when confronted by police.
The first Texas city on record saying it will not enforce new abortion restrictions in Texas isn't Austin - it's Denton.
Following the closure of Jacob's Well this week comes the closing of Hamilton Pool, also due to high bacteria levels in the water. Meanwhile, after months of pleading for new lifeguards, some of them have not been getting paid on time by Austin's Parks and Recreation Department.
Austin's Music Commission is requesting that the City Council expedite the deployment of the Live Music Fund to an earlier date than the one currently planned, next July.
Stream Realty Partners, the company heavily invested in revitalizing East 6th Street has unveiled plans for new live music venues in several spaces it controls, including the former Buffalo Billiards and Dirty Dog spaces.
SXSW is planning an offshoot event in Sydney, Australia, in October of 2023 (it's spring down there at that time).
Travis and Williamson counties both made U.S. News' new rundown of the 500 healthiest counties in the country - Collin County ranked highest in Texas at #50, and Williamson significantly outranked Travis, at #121 and #295, respectively.
Thursday live music roundup for the weekend: Friday shows include album releases with Sir Woman album release at The Parish and Big Bill at Hotel Vegas, a TC Superstar tour kickoff show at Cheer Up Charlie's, Bigg Robb at Antone's as part of their 47th Anniversary run, and a Nancy Griffith tribute show at the Cactus Cafe. Saturday catch Antone's anniversary fun with Jimmie Vaughan, a heavy 2nd Anniversary party at Hold Out Brewing with Holy Death Trio and Eagle Claw, and Los Pendejos del Norte featuring Ed Miller of Sun Radio and Rich Brotherton of the Robert Earl Keen band at New World Deli. Sunday Fleet Foxes are at Waterloo Park's Moody Amphitheater, and the Antone's anniversary features Miss Lavelle's Birthday Bash. And Monday the 4th, Willie Nelson's 4th of July Picnic rolls into Q2 Stadium for the first time with Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Tyler Childers, Allison Russell, Steve Earle & the Dukes, and tons more.
Austin weather: a tropical disturbance in the northwestern Gulf Of Mexico is expected to dump rain on the Texas coast, and there's hope some of that will come our way, but officially our rain chances for this week are dropping and our hopes for significantly cooler temps are fading too. Highs Thursday and Friday of 96, rain chance now down to 20% for Friday. We're back to upper 90's by Saturday, and then back to what looks like a long string of triple digit days starting Tuesday.
