Free Republic

Some people wait in line for five hours just to get their fix at Austin’s famous Franklin Barbecue. And who can blame them? The establishment is less than 10 years old but has been cited as the nation’s best. Of course, President Obama is not “some people.” After a campaign-style speech in Austin on Thursday afternoon, the commander in chief made a stop by Franklin Barbecue and was quickly ushered to the front of the line. It’s common practice to let a president cut to the front of the line at a dining establishment. After all, the president arguably has...

President Obama was heckled by two men in his speech in Austin today, in which he discussed the economy and again pushed for immigration reform. About a half hour into the speech, two men stood in their seats near the front of Austin's Paramount Theater and began shouting. At first, the President spoke over them, but later said to them, "sit down guys, I'm almost done.' The men continued shouting, and the audience tried to shout them down, and two Austin Police Officers emerged, but the President asked that they not be removed, and he promised to speak to them...

Bill Powers, the president of the University of Texas-Austin, has announced that he will step down from his post in June 2015. The announcement brings to a close a power struggle that has shaken the state in the past week, signalling the twilight of the eight-year reign of one of the most powerful figures in higher education. The outcome is a compromise between Powers and University of Texas Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa, who had demanded that Powers depart by October or else find himself fired at Thursday’s Board of Regents meeting. By serving for another year, Powers will be able to...

Gov. Rick Perry Monday turned down what he characterized as President Barack Obama’s offer for a “quick handshake on the tarmac” at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Wednesday, but said he would juggle his schedule to accommodate a “substantive meeting” with the president on the border crisis any time during his two-day visit to Texas. In a letter to the president, Perry wrote, “I appreciate the offer to greet you at Austin-Bergstrom Airport, but a quick handshake on the tarmac will not allow for a thoughtful discussion regarding the humanitarian and national security crises enveloping the Rio Grande Valley in South...

Obama Skips Border Chaos, Will Fundraise in Austin with Director of Pro-Illegal Immigration Film President Barack Obama is refusing to visit the turbulent U.S.-Mexican border, where a flood of illegal immigrants continues to overwhelm the region. Instead, Obama will visit the home of Austin-based filmmaker Robert Rodriguez this week as part of a trio of Texas fundraisers. The Austin visit features tickets ranging in price from $5,000 to $32,400. The July 9 fundraiser also will feature actors Rosario Dawson, Danny Trejo and Jessica Alba. Both Trejo and Alba star in Rodriguez's ultra-violent Machete franchise. The first film in the series...

Between Rick Perry, Ted Cruz and Wendy Davis, Texas politicians in recent years have lived up to their state's reputation for producing larger-than-life characters. That makes the Texas political scene a natural for the Hollywood treatment. HBO has given God Save Texas, a drama about the state's often raucous political culture, the green light for development. It's set to unfold at the Texas statehouse, a perennial flashpoint for national debates about issues ranging from abortion to gun rights to the size and role of government. According to an early description first reported by Deadline.com, the show will follow an "idealistic...

A Texas court ruled Thursday to overturn the conviction of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who was found guilty of money laundering in 2010. According to KHOU 11 and the Associated Press, the Third Court of Appeals in Austin said the case's evidence was "legally insufficient to sustain DeLay's convictions," formally acquitting the former congressman on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Burton Wilson’s camera was Austin’s memory during the hippie era when, as the saying went, if you could remember it, you weren’t there. The former Vermont farmboy who documented the vibrant scene at the Vulcan Gas Company in the 1960s and the Armadillo World Headquarters in the 1970s passed away Monday morning. He was 95. Wilson got it down while those around him were only concerned with getting down. In the process, he created the defining documents of an enchanting era in Austin’s history. “Burton was one of my mentors,” said photographer Todd V. Wolfson. “He made me want to...

On a recent evening, more than 300 homeowners who are worried about their rising property tax bills filled First Unitarian Universalist Church in North Austin for a town hall meeting. If something doesn’t change, many said, they will soon be priced out of their homes. Two nights later, a similar discussion played out in South Austin, where homeowners gathered at Grace United Methodist Church in Travis Heights to talk about what can be done to slow escalating residential tax values. “I’m at the breaking point,” said Gretchen Gardner, an Austin artist who bought a 1930s bungalow in the Bouldin neighborhood...

“I have voted for every park, every library, all the school improvements, for light rail, for anything that will make this city better. But now I can’t afford to live here anymore. I’ll protest my appraisal notice, but that’s not enough. Someone needs to step in and address the big picture.”

NIMBY, literally. “I’m at the breaking point,” said Gretchen Gardner, an Austin artist who bought a 1930s bungalow in the Bouldin neighborhood just south of downtown in 1991 and has watched her property tax bill soar to $8,500 this year.“It’s not because I don’t like paying taxes,” said Gardner, who attended both meetings. “I have voted for every park, every library, all the school improvements, for light rail, for anything that will make this city better. But now I can’t afford to live here anymore. I’ll protest my appraisal notice, but that’s not enough. Someone needs to step in...

Ted Cruz gives an inspirational Commencement address at Stephen F. Austin State University.

3 p.m. update: A man is hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after the construction foreman he shot pulled out a concealed handgun and shot back, according to police. The man had been employed at a construction site at Rio Grande Street near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard but was fired this month, senior police officer Veneza Bremner said. He returned to the site last week and was threatening the foreman, a disturbance that was reported to police, she said. When he returned again Wednesday, he shot and injured the foreman, according to police. The foreman, who is a concealed handgun license...

A YouTube video has gone viral that shows a black teen slapping a black Wendy's cashier in the face and then running away -- part of a little-known trend called "smack cam." The incident provides an unsettling glimpse into black-on-black violence -- and black thug culture. The incident in Austin, Texas, is being investigated by the local police. It is especially disturbing because of who was involved: not only two black teens or pre-teens but a black adult female who appears to be a guardian or role model. Identified as "CB," she drives the get-away car; it's not clear if...

Rapper Tyler, The Creator, was arrested Saturday for allegedly inciting a riot during his show at the Scoot Inn at South By Southwest music festival. Travis County Sheriff's spokesman Roger Wade said the Odd Future rapper, whose name is Tyler Gregory Okonma, was arrested at Austin-Bergstrom Airport and was to be arraigned later Saturday. If convicted of inciting a riot, which is a misdemeanor, he faces up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. His Bond was set at $25,000 "Specifically, the subject encouraged a large crowd on more than one occasion to force themselves past venue employees...

What Pop Star Lady Gaga Did on Stage Thursday Night Has Some Calling It Downright ‘Sick’ (GRAPHIC) Pop star Lady Gaga is known for her shocking outfits and antics. But what she did on stage Thursday night at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, has left even some of the most desensitized critics calling it “ridiculous” and “sick.” While performing her song “Swine,” the singer was joined by someone named Millie Brown. Brown is an artist of sorts who specializes in painting with…vomit. That’s right, she ingests colored liquid and then sticks her fingers down her throat and...

That picture is worth a thousand words. Rashad Charjuan Owens is the feral thug who is now the suspect in the fatal DWI crash that killed two people and injured dozens more at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.

 Travis County, Texas, the home of the State Capitol, Austin, is one of the most "progressive" areas of the state.  The county commissioners have shown that they have no respect for constitutional rights, and would like to ban gun shows in the county if they could.   They attempted to use contract law to weasel around the limitations placed on them by federal and state law.  But, they have been a bit conflicted, because to do so would significantly reduce revenues to the County.   Their politically correct pandering has had a result, whether they desire it or not.  It has...

Austin, Texas Police Chief Art Acevedo was asked to defend the actions of his officers, who subdued and arrested a jogging woman because she was wearing earbuds and couldn’t hear their instructions. His response to the controversy was this: It could be worse–at least she wasn’t sexually assaulted. That response upset many Texas residents, and Acevedo was forced to walk back his comments on Monday. Austin police arrested the jogging woman last week. They were stationed at an intersection near the University of Texas’s Austin campus, giving jaywalking tickets to dozens of people. The woman ran right past them, unable...

Austin police chief Art Acevedo has issued an apology for comments he made during a press conference yesterday concerning the arrest of a female jogger near the University of Texas campus on Thursday. Acevedo dismissed the controversy over police handling of a jaywalking jogger, saying 'Cops are actually committing sexual assaults on duty so I thank God that this is what passes for a controversy in Austin, Texas.' Today, he released a statement saying that he was trying to put the arrest of jogger Amanda Jo Stephen 'into context by bringing attention to the fact that law enforcement deals with...