A COVID spike may be underway as our local new hospitalization rate enters Stage 3 range for the first time since late October and both local and statewide CRT figures jump sharply as well - plus the first local Omicron cases, in three unrelated individuals among the University of Texas community, are detected. A scion of the Charles Maund auto dealership fortune is indicted in a murder-for-hire case that resulted in the deaths of two people in Nashville. AISD announcements: plans to eliminate a class from the secondary school schedule are scrapped, and both a hiring freeze at the district's central office and raises for teachers and staffed are proposed. Candidate filing for next year's election hits a Monday deadline, setting the stage for 2022 races. A fourth security checkpoint opens at Austin Bergstrom International Airport as pre-pandemic travel volume returns. And a warm week will give way to a cooler and wetter weekend with cold front expected late on Friday.
