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6 bills filed on school safety, funding and the teacher shortage — what you need to know

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:57 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Days before the bill filing deadline, Texas lawmakers announced a flurry of new bills aimed at solving some of the largest problems facing the state’s public schools: safety and its dwindling workforce.Here’s what you need to know.House Bill 11: Teacher pay and workloadThis bill, filed by Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, will attempt to codify many of the recommendations made by the Teacher Vacancy Task Force.The group of more than 40 public school teachers and administrators spent more than a year coming up with potential solutions to an overwhelming number of teachers quitting and retiring.One of the recommendations found in the bill is an increase in the state’s per-pupil funding – or basic allotment – from $6,160 to $6,210.The state would also adopt a new tiered structure, under this bill, to set the minimum salary for teachers. Right now, school districts can’t pay a first-year teacher less than $33,660 salary.  Dallas Independent School District placed a bil...

Multiple dead in Jehovah's Witness hall shooting in Germany

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:57 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Shots were fired inside a building used by Jehovah's Witnesses in the northern German city of Hamburg on Thursday evening, and several people were killed or wounded, police said.“We only know that several people died here; several people are wounded, they were taken to hospitals,” police spokesman Holger Vehren said of the shooting in the Gross Borstel district of Germany’s second-biggest city. . He said he had no information on the severity of the injuries suffered by the wounded. Police did not confirm German media reports, which named no sources, of six or seven dead.The scene of the shooting was the Jehovah's Witnesses' Kingdom Hall, a modern and boxy three-story building next door to an auto repair shop. Vehren said police were alerted to the shooting about 9:15 p.m. and were on the scene quickly. He said that after officers arrived and found people with apparent gunshot wounds on the ground floor, they heard a shot from an upper floor and found a fatally wounded ...

Study shows exercise plays a direct role in reducing breast cancer

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:57 GMT

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KXAN) – It has long been understood that exercise can be beneficial in preventing some types of cancers, but only in recent years have scientists started to understand why.A team of Texas A&M researchers showed in a recently published paper that a hormone secreted by muscles during exercise can reduce tumor growth and even kill cancerous cells. “That was the cool and, I guess, groundbreaking news that we were able to show mechanistically – there is something released from skeletal muscle. When we put it on cancer cells, it slows the growth and sometimes kills them,” said Amanda Davis, a Clinical Assistant Professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine.When skeletal muscles contract during exercise, hormones called myokines are released. This hormone goes into the bloodstream and can suppress the growth of those cancerous cells. Davis said they also investigated whether this phenomenon occurred in both long-time fitness enthusiasts and exercise n...

How Williamson County is paying for ice storm cleanup

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:57 GMT

GEORGETOWN, Texas (KXAN) — Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell said the county expects the bill for storm damage could reach $15-$20 million in just a few months.This week Williamson County Commissioners extended the county's disaster declaration, which gives it the opportunity to be reimbursed by the federal government for ice storm recovery costs. Williamson County extends disaster declaration until June after ice storm Currently, the county estimates it already spent $12 million on recovery, most efforts going toward brush pickup and disposal.Gravell said a lot of the money being spent for recovery has come out of a 'rainy day' fund.He said the county does not budget for emergencies per say, but has used this same fund for past disaster relief.Gravell said the county's commissioner's court has put money into that fund over the years it anticipated using for surprise expenses including disasters.Some of those recent disasters being the COVID-19 pandemic, 2021 February freeze an...

Despite uptick in tech layoffs, Austin hasn't yet seen job carnage

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:57 GMT

AUSTIN (Austin Business Journal)-- While reports of technology layoffs have become much more common in recent months, the Austin area has been spared from serious job market carnage."We're not seeing a lot of pain yet in Austin," said Thom Singer, CEO of the Austin Technology Council, a nonprofit advocacy group. "I don't know what's going to play out. There's a lot of smart people who are predicting this year is going to get worse. But so far, we're not hearing a lot of huge impact in the Austin market." (Listen to the full conversation with Singer in the podcast player at the top of this page, or on popular platforms such as Spotify and Apple Podcast.)To be sure, the cloudy macroeconomic picture has led to tens of thousands of layoffs announced nationwide in the past few months, including by tech companies either headquartered in Austin or with signification operations here. Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks reports of job cuts, has recorded at least 7,300 announced by locally bas...

Austin City Council approves measure to expand public charging stations

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:57 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN)-- Due to the growing interest in electric vehicles, Austin City Council took steps Thursday to ensure the City of Austin has a "robust network" of public charging stations, according to a news release from the city.The council voted to direct the city manager to develop a plan for the equitable distribution of public charging stations, including direct current (DC) fast charges and Level 2 chargers, which the city said are more common in homes and workplaces, the release said.The resolution, brought by District 7 council member Leslie Pool, aligns with the goals of the Austin Climate Equity Plan- which calls for reaching net-zero community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 as well as the distribution of a mix of public charging stations throughout the city, the release said.“Making charging stations, especially fast chargers, more accessible throughout the city might nudge people who may be on the fence about electric vehicles to make the switch,” Pool said. “Havin...

Daylight saving time begins this weekend. Some want to make it permanent.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:57 GMT

Get ready to spring forward on March 12, at least one more time.Most of the U.S. will move the clocks forward by one hour on Sunday at 2 a.m. for daylight saving time, which will end on Nov. 5 of this year.The question is: Will this be the final time most Americans feel aggrieved over losing an hour of sleep?Daylight saving time is the result of a federal law applying to most of the United States; Hawaii, most of Arizona and U.S. territories in the Pacific and Caribbean do not follow daylight saving time. In March 2022, the Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent, removing the need to change clocks twice per year. The bill stalled in the House of Representatives but remains alive.With permanent daylight saving time, there is more sun in the evening hours. The trade-off is less daylight in the mornings, especially in the winter months.Currently, 19 states have passed legislation to avoid the changing of clocks, but such l...

Granite City native smashes glass ceiling at Storm Prediction Center

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:57 GMT

NORMAN, Okla. - March is Women’s History Month, and we want to celebrate a woman originally from Granite City.Her name is Liz Leitman, and she is a meteorologist at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. The Granite City High School graduate’s job is to assess the storm risk around the country. But it is a Lead Forecaster that issues thunderstorm or tornado watches. And those lead forecasters had always been men. That is, until Feb. 15, 2023.“Recently, I started training on the lead forecaster desk so I can assist in issuing those severe thunderstorm and tornado watches,” explains Leitman. “And that’s what I was doing on February 15 when I had the opportunity to issue the first watch issued by a female forecaster at the Storm Prediction Center.” Trending: Ladue estate with luxury auto house sold in record-setting 8-figure deal In the 70-year history of the Storm Prediction Center, no woman had ever issued a storm watch until Leitman. Why? Like many science...

Monument damaged at Piasa Park in Alton

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:57 GMT

ALTON, Ill. - Vandals have knocked over and cracked the marble arrowhead at Piasa Park in Alton that described the legend of the Piasa Bird.“It was split in half where all the wording is, and some of these chunks came out," said Michael Haynes, director of Parks and Recreation in Alton. "It would not be easily repairable."On the limestone bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River just north of downtown Alton is a painting of the original pictograph of the Piasa Bird. The Piasa Bird is said to be a mythical creature from Native American mythology that lived near the Alton area. Trending: Ladue estate with luxury auto house sold in record-setting 8-figure deal The arrowhead, which was donated by the Illinois State Historical Society in the mid-1980s, is made of marble granite.Haynes said it isn’t the first time the arrowhead has been toppled. This time, though, it was broken, and he encouraged anyone with information about the vandalism of the arrowhead to contact the Alton Police De...

Man shoots wife, father-in-law, himself in Lincoln County domestic dispute

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:57 GMT

LINCOLN COUNTY, Mo. - A Lincoln County father shot his wife, his father-in-law, and then himself as his four children watched. It was a horrifying end to a deadly domestic dispute.Lincoln County Sheriff Rick Harrell said 56-year-old Phillip Lee Foland shot and killed his wife Lauren Jennings Foland, 38, and her father Scott Preston Causet, 72, then turned the gun on himself.Investigators said the double murder-suicide happened at around 8:15 p.m. Wednesday in the 2500 block of Highway W. Police are still trying to figure out what led up to the deadly shooting. Police: Accused Schnucks shooter has medical condition, may be with girlfriend According to the police, Lauren and Causet had died on the scene. The suspected shooter, Phillip, was suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and had to be airlifted to the nearest hospital. He later died from his injuries.“There is no criminal history involving this address and no reports of previous domestic violence," Harrell said. "The t...