COVID stats are hovering in upper Stage 2, but City health officials fear a late-year spike if precautions are relaxed too quickly - meanwhile AISD reports an 81% vaccination rate among its staff. A Circle C homeowner has died in a Wednesday SWAT standoff that resulted in the home destroyed by fire. A traveling anti-Semitic activist group that disrupted Austin over the weekend continues its public disturbances in San Antonio. Austin gas prices have hit a 7-year high, and toll road prices will be raised over 5% this January. Three stolen dinosaur statues are returned to a Bastrop park after being spotted at a UT frat house. Block 21, including ACL Live and W Austin, is being sold to the owners of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. The French Legation is set to re-open with a public event on Saturday. Lester Holt and NBC Nightly News will broadcast from and focus on Austin on Monday evening. The vast majority of Austin transplants lately are not Californians - they're mostly coming from other parts of Texas. Two days of early voting remain, and looks like nice sunny fall weather thru the weekend.
