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Second wildfire in Bastrop County 100% contained

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:20 GMT

BASTROP COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) -- The Bastrop County Office of Emergency Management responded to a wildland fire located near Hellinger Road. The fire, named the Mesquite Field Fire, is separate from the 100-acre Powder Keg Pine Fire that broke out Tuesday. Powder Keg Pine Fire in Bastrop estimated at 117 acres Officials said the Mesquite Field Fire burned roughly 38 acres and is now 100% contained, as of shortly after 6:30 p.m. Thursday. The Mesquite Field Fire has burned about 37 acres in Bastrop County and is 80% contained, according to officials. (KXAN photo/Jake Sykes)While this fire didn't cover as much ground as Tuesday's Powder Keg Pine Fire, it still gave people quite the scare Wednesday. "My neighbor called and said there was a fire out here," said Paul Todd, whose farmland is close to where the fire started. "So I came out here as quick as I could. My thought was to get out here and make sure everything was okay, and everybody's house, whatever I could do to help my neigh...

What happens if you don't wash your car?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:20 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Amid Central Texas' ongoing drought and heat wave, any reprieve from rainstorms is far and few between. That also means your vehicle hasn't received a free rinse down courtesy Mother Nature.But how bad is it if you seldom wash your car -- or, even more extreme, never take it to the car wash or clean it yourself?What happens if you never wash your vehicle?According to online auto resource Carwash Country, any dirt or grim left on your vehicle is abrasive and can deteriorate the car's clear coat over time. Once that clear coat has worn away, that can lead to rusting, pitting, fading and other impacts to the paint layer and sheet metal of the vehicle.While older cars are already vulnerable to all these vehicles woes, not washing your vehicle can speed up the process and cause damages years before they might've happened naturally. What are some weird car issues technicians are seeing during the Texas heat spell? Going through a car wash helps remove dirt and grim on t...

5 things to know this Friday, August 4

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:20 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Happy Friday! Per Meteorologist Jill Szwed, we can expect some active weather this afternoon with the potential for strong to severe storms. Get the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment delivered right to your inbox! A 10-year-old girl reported missing out of the city of Troy has been located. Police said Elizabeth Rosa was located in New York City on Thursday. Also, Saratoga Springs City Council passed an ordinance that bans homeless shelters from being located near schools. Advocates say it sends the wrong message because it equates homeless people to pedophiles. These stories, and more, are covered in your five things to know this Friday morning. 1. Police locate missing 10-year-old girl from TroyA 10-year-old girl reported missing out of the city of Troy has been located. Police said Elizabeth Rosa was located in New York City on Thursday.2. Saratoga passes 1,000 foot buffer for homeless shelterSaratoga Springs City Council passed an ordinan...

Avalanche Journal: Way-too-early NHL Central Division power rankings for 2023-24

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:20 GMT

There will be good teams in the NHL’s Eastern Conference that don’t make the playoffs in 2023-24, and it stands to reason that at least one not-so-good team in the Western Conference will qualify for the postseason.Even after a Stanley Cup champion was crowned out of the Pacific, the current disparity between the East and West has been affirmed this offseason. And there might not be a worse division than the Central as a new NHL calendar nears.That’s good news for the Avalanche, a consensus Cup contender recently named the best team in the league by Sportsnet.How exactly does the Central project at this point? Here is our way-too-early power ranking.8. Arizona CoyotesThe ‘Yotes have a handful of exciting young talents and could very well finish above Chicago in the division standings, but they’ll still be the Central’s biggest losers. Playing at a college rink in Tempe while a future in Arizona appears uncertain at best, times are hard right now. ...

Letters: Colorado Buffs moving back to Big 12 — Realign college conferences to make geographical sense

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:20 GMT

Realign college conferences to make geographical senseRe:  “Buffs return to different Big 12 than they left behind in 2011,” July 28 sports analysisBig 12, Big 10, Pac-12, SEC. Once upon a time, back when traveling by airplanes was new, college football conferences made geographic sense. But now, conference maps resemble a drunken game of cat’s cradle.Competitors are spread across the country as universities jockey to optimize television receipts. Bleary-eyed athletes cross time zones to satisfy the marketplace. With a nod to competitive status, let’s organize the leagues to minimize inter-city distances, thereby reducing travel costs and, more importantly, reducing the amount of carbon emitted in a sports season. In the new age of global warming, is this too much to ask of a university athletic department?DIA to Seattle, about 1,024 miles; DIA to Austin, 775 miles; DIA to Lincoln, 423 miles … you get the idea. A new algorithm is needed for a new era. I’ll bet “AI”...

‘First Descendant’ crossplay beta delayed until September but will be open to all

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:20 GMT

Nexon announced that it’s delaying the crossplay beta for its anticipated free-to-play looter shooter “The First Descendant,” but the news isn’t all bad for fans.When it comes out Sept. 19 to 25, the crossplay beta will be open to all players on PC and PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Producer Beomjun Lee and director Minseok Joo said the during development, the team made so many improvements and wanted to polish new aspects of it that they wanted to create a more complete version for players to experience.In the process, they shifted from a closed beta to an open one in order to get more people in the game. They pointed to a framerate performance and the option for performance or quality modes on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series.They took player feedback into account from the first beta on Steam and revamped how the grappling hook worked and added a few parkour movements. Now, players can use momentum and swing around objects with the traversal g...

Opinion: Trump indictment initiates the most important case in U.S. history

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:20 GMT

The indictment of Donald Trump handed up in federal court in Washington Tuesday initiates the most important case in the country’s history.The document lays out a flagrant series of attacks on the peaceful transfer of power and on constitutional rule itself.The four counts against the former president include obstruction of an official proceeding — namely, Congress’ Jan. 6, 2021, certification of Joe Biden’s election — and three conspiracies: to defraud the United States, obstruct an official proceeding and deny voting rights.Who were Trump’s alleged co-conspirators? Following Justice Department custom, the indictment does not name them because they haven’t been charged, but it isn’t hard to discern some of their identities from their descriptions in the document, including Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.Charges may well follow against the co-conspirators, some of whom could choose to part company with Trump and cooperate with the government. But the decision to begin ...

Opinion: School choice was doomed when it became a cover for segregation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:20 GMT

Camille Edelman is doing the best she can.Even with her and her husband working, the Phoenix-area couple cannot afford to send their three special needs children to the specialized school best suited for them without financial assistance. And for more than a decade, that assistance was Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts.So why would Katie Hobbs, the state’s Democratic governor, want to take that away? She wouldn’t. But she might have to. She said last week that the program is on track to be about 50% over budget, costing taxpayers $1 billion. Republicans in the state predictably rushed to frame this fact as Hobbs ghoulishly preying on families in need.The reality is that families like the Edelmans are caught in a decades-long political tug of war that’s barely about education, sort of in the way that the Civil War was about “states’ rights.” This nationwide struggle is really about race, and it’s coming to a head in certain pla...

Review: Ira Sachs’ ‘Passages’ is passionate and messy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:20 GMT

By Lindsey Bahr | Associated PressIf you’ve been wondering where all the sex has gone from the movies, you’re in luck: The new film “Passages” does not hold back in depicting the fresh passion of a love affair.But “Passages” should really come with a warning, and not because of its realistic illustrations of queer and heterosexual intimacy, which got the film slapped with an NC-17 rating. (Its distributor, MUBI, opted instead to release it in theaters as unrated.) No, “Passages” should come with a warning for its brutal honesty about the intoxicating haze of a new relationship and all its casualties.At least it’s fun and dangerous at the start (aren’t they all, though). Directed by Ira Sachs, working again with his co-writer Mauricio Zacharias, “Passages” is centered on Tomas (Franz Rogowski), a German living in France with his English husband Martin (Ben Whishaw), who begins an affair with a French woman, Agath...

2-mile closure of Highway 1 remains in effect on Big Sur coast due to recent slide activity

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:20 GMT

BIG SUR – A two-mile closure of Highway 1 remains in effect between Lucia and Limekiln State Park on the Big Sur coast due to recent slide activity at Paul’s Slide that has suspended the repair effort at that location for now.Highway 1 on the Big Sur coast remains open in the north from Monterey to Lucia, and in the south from Cambria to Limekiln.The continued movement of the hillside has paused slide removal efforts at Paul’s Slide, Highway 1 postmile marker 21.7, according to Caltrans. The result of current Geotech studies will help determine specific next steps for repair efforts.“The Santa Lucia Mountains are a geologically active range as travelers on Highway 1 on the Big Sur coast can attest,” said Kevin Drabinski, Caltrans District 5 public information officer in an email. “This is an area prone to slide activity both in the winter when the ground is lubricated and often, in months after the rains, when the soil is drying out.”Slides are a common occurrence as a consequence o...