A Texas man whose truck was stolen tracked it down and confronted the suspected thief, killing him in a public shootout on Thursday, police said.
The owner of the Ford truck found it at the South Park Mall in San Antonio and confronted the man who had been driving it and a woman passenger, demanding at gunpoint they get out of the vehicle, Police Chief William McManus said at a press briefing.
The owner then called the police and made the two sit on the ground beside the truck’s tire to wait, but the man pulled his gun and fired at the truck’s owner, injuring him, police said.
Parking lot of South Park Mall where a man was killed after a confrontation over a stolen vehicle.
The truck’s owner then returned fire, killing the man in the parking lot and injuring the woman, police said.
“The bad guy is the one dead, yes,” McManus told reporters. “The driver of the stolen vehicle is deceased, shot by the owner of the stolen vehicle.”
Police said the truck owner and the woman passenger were taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds. The woman is in critical condition, and the truck owner is in stable condition.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus speaks outside South Park Mall.
San Antonio Police Department
“Look, he was trying to recover his property. I guess it would depend on who you asked if he did the right thing or not,” McManus said.
The identities of the people involved was not immediately released. A woman who was with the truck owner at the time of the confrontation was not injured.
A spokesperson for the San Antonio Police Department told HuffPost there are no new updates as of Friday.
The South Park Mall did not immediately responded to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Alexandria “Lexi” Rubio loved going to Starbucks and ordering a sweetened tall peach green tea lemonade and a cake pop, showing off bright colors like yellow, pink and turquoise. She wanted to grow up to play softball in college and become a lawyer. But the 10-year-old fourth-grader never got the chance – last May, she was among 21 people killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Now, her mom is running to be the city’s mayor, saying in a message to her daughter, “I will honor your life with action.”
“I grieve for the woman you would have become and all the difference you would have made in this world. I grieve for the woman I was when you were still here,” Kimberly Mata-Rubio wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday, along with a photo of a newspaper article announcing her mayoral run. “But, one part of me still exist, I am still your mom.”
10-year-old Lexi Rubio was among the young victims of the Uvalde school shooting
According to Uvalde Leader-News, the 34-year-old mother of five will run for the mayoral seat this November. Mata-Rubio has lived in the city her entire life, graduating from Uvalde High School in 2007. She’s also an award-winning journalist, the local paper – where she is employed as an advertising executive – says.
Mata-Rubio told the paper that she wants to “represent the underserved…whose voices matter but have long been unheard.”
“It would be easy to run from the issues that plague our town, but I have decided to remain in Uvalde and be part of the change that is long overdue,” Mata-Rubio told the Uvalde Leader-News. “…Our leadership became comfortable, which led to the events that unfolded on May 24, 2022. The aftermath has added to the trauma of a grieving and fractured community. It is my hope to bridge the gap because only when we come together can we evolve to something greater.”
Her daughter, Lexi, was among the 19 children killed at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022. Just hours before the shooting unfolded, Mata-Rubio was at the school as Lexi was recognized for getting on the “A” honor roll and was awarded the “good citizen award.”
“We told her we loved her and would pick her up after school,” Mata-Rubio wrote on Facebook the day after the shooting. “We had no idea this was goodbye.”
In her first run for an elected office position, Mata-Rubio is seeking to take the seat left by Don McLaughlin, who has served as the city’s mayor since 2014. He announced earlier this month that he is stepping down to run for the District 80 state House seat, according to The Texas Tribune. The city is now planning a special election this November for his replacement, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
If elected, the Uvalde Leader-News says Mata-Rubio would be the first woman and third Hispanic mayor of the city.
The Department of Justice has sued the state of Texas after it failed to take down a floating barrier on the Rio Grande meant to keep migrants out. Janet Shamlian has the latest.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
In Arizona, we go for a ride in a driverless taxi for a look at the safety behind the technology. Then in Texas, we tour the legendary Stetson hat factory as Western wear rises in popularity. Watch these stories and more on “Eye on America” with host Michelle Miller.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) sent a letter to the Biden administration Monday declaring his plans to continue using a floating wall along the state’s southern border, even after the Justice Department warned him last week that it plans to sue him for deploying the barricade.
“Texas will see you in court, Mr. President,” the governor wrote, saying it’s within his constitutional rights to respond to the “unprecedented crisis of illegal immigration” that he says is caused by President Joe Biden’s border policies.
“The fact is, if you would just enforce the immigration laws Congress already has on the books, America would not be suffering from your record-breaking level of illegal immigration,” Abbott continued, defending the miles of buoy barricades he oversaw going up in the Rio Grande earlier this month.
Workers take a break from deploying large buoys to be used as a border barrier along the banks of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, on July 12.
While U.S. border officials have been stopping a record high number of migrants in recent years, there’s been a lull in crossings for months. Experts say that’s likely because potential migrants are waiting to see what happens with U.S. border policy, and because more migrants are taking advantage of new legal pathways for seeking asylum from violence, political instability and corruption in their home countries.
In his letter, Abbott said his floating barricade is essential to protecting both migrants and U.S. citizens.
“If you truly care about human life, you must begin enforcing federal immigration laws,” he said. “By doing so, you can help me stop migrants from wagering their lives in the waters of the Rio Grande River. You can also help me save Texans, and indeed all Americans, from deadly drugs like fentanyl, cartel violence, and the horrors of human trafficking.”
In reality, recent data shows nearly 90% of convicted fentanyl traffickers were U.S. citizens, and just 0.02% of migrants arrested for illegal crossings had any fentanyl on them.
Abbott’s letter is a response to a notice the DOJ sent him last week disclosing that it plans to sue Texas for the deployment of an “unlawful construction of a floating barrier in the Rio Grande River” that may impede on the federal government’s duties. The department cited the Rivers and Harbors Act.
The impact of the Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strikes aren’t just being felt in Los Angeles or New York, but also in states such as Georgia, Florida and Texas, which have seen a spike in film and television production in recent years. Mark Strassmann reports.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
This week on “Face the Nation,” U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, whose district includes 800 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, discusses the tacts along the border. Plus, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego on the measures her city is taking to deal with the extreme temperatures.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott came under fire for approving a floating barrier along the Rio Grande to limit border crossings. While Abbott defended the measure as falling within the state’s “sovereign authority,” critics said migrants could get stuck underneath the barrier and drown. Skyler Henry has the latest.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Rep. Tony Gonzales, whose Texas district includes 800 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, said the tactics used to deter illegal migration are “not acceptable,” but stopped short of criticizing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Abbott has implemented floating barriers in the middle of the Rio Grande, as well as razor wire, to deter migrants from entering the U.S.
In an internal complaint, a Texas state trooper raised concerns about the tactics, saying it put migrants, including young children, at risk of drowning and serious injury. The trooper also claimed Texas officials had been directed to withhold water and push them back into the river. In one instance, the trooper said he and his team rescued a woman who was stuck in the razor wire and having a miscarriage.
“The border crisis has been anything but humane. I think you’re seeing the governor do everything he possibly can just to secure the border,” Gonzales, a Republican, told “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
“I don’t think the buoys are the problem,” he said, noting that migrants were drowning long before the floating barriers were put in place. “The reality is the buoy is only a very small, little portion of the river.”
When pressed on whether it was acceptable that migrants were being harmed by such measures, Gonzales said, “This is not acceptable. It’s not acceptable and it hasn’t been acceptable for two years.”
The Biden administration has threatened to sue Texas if the barriers are not removed, saying it violates federal law and creates “serious risks” to public safety and the environment. But Abbott appeared unlikely to back down.
“We will see you win court, Mr. President,” the governor tweeted on Friday.
Gonzales called on Congress to step up and offer solutions.
“I don’t want to see one person step one foot in the water and more or less have us talk about the discussion of some of these these inhumane situations that they’re put in,” he said.
“We can’t just wait on the president to solve things. We can’t wait for governors to try and fix it themselves,” Gonzales said. “Congress has a role to play in this.”
Gonzales recently introduced the HIRE Act to make it easier for migrants to obtain temporary work visas to address the workforce shortage. He said the Biden administration is “doing very little, if nothing to focus on legal immigration,” and he said he would “much rather” see a plan to deal with legal pathways than a focus on illegal entry to the U.S.
“What do we do with the millions of people that are already here? What do we do with the millions of people that are coming here illegally? How do we prevent them from taking these dangerous trucks? One of those options is through work visas,” he said.
But Gonzales wouldn’t say if he had confirmation from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy if the bill would ever be up for a vote on the House floor.
London — A Houston woman is trapped in the United Arab Emirates after being briefly detained for “shouting” in public during an argument with a Dubai car rental company, a London-based organization trying to help her get out of the country has told CBS News.
Social media influencer Tierra Young Allen, 29, known to fans online as the Sassy Trucker, was arrested in May following a confrontation with a male employee of a car rental company in Dubai who was trying to intimidate her into paying thousands of dollars she didn’t owe, according to Radha Stirling, CEO and founder of Detained in Dubai, the international nonprofit organization that’s working to free her.
Stirling said Allen was arrested on May 16 and released on bail later that day, but her passport is being held by authorities, preventing her from leaving the UAE.
Texas resident Tierra Allen poses for a photo in front of the Global Village attraction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in a photo posted to her Facebook account in March 2023.
Tierra Allen/Facebook
“She was told at the police station (Bur Dubai) that she has been accused of ‘shouting,’ which under the UAE’s laws is illegal under ‘offensive behavior,’ which is an unclear and subjective regulation, but warrants up to two years in prison, a fine and deportation,” Stirling told CBS News on Thursday.
CBS News requested comment for this story on Thursday from the Dubai Police and the UAE Foreign Ministry, but had not received replies by the time of publication.
Help from the U.S.?
Stirling said the U.S. Embassy in Dubai had not provided Allen with any assistance as of Thursday, adding that the embassy had undergone a staffing change just last week. The State Department did not reply to a request for comment.
Detained in Dubai contacted the office of Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz directly, and Cruz’s office confirmed to CBS News that representatives had spoken with Allen’s family and “contacted the Department of State about the case.”
“Sen. Cruz will continue to gather details and engage on this case until Ms. Allen is returned home to her family,” his office said.
Stirling said Allen’s mother, Tina Baxton, had also contacted Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas’ 18th congressional district, who was also looking into the matter.
“We have advised their offices how governmental representatives are best able to help in these situations and hope for her speedy return home,” Stirling, who is also a lawyer specializing in Middle East legal matters, told CBS News. Jackson Lee’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“A common rental car extortion scheme”
Allen was not allowed to retrieve her belongings from the rental vehicle and later noticed that several fraudulent charges were attempted on her credit cards, which were in the back of the vehicle she returned, Stirling said.
The man who worked at the vehicle rental agency and initially accused Allen left the country for Pakistan after filing his police report, said Stirling.
Reports in Arabic media said the rental agency had offered to drop its case against Allen if she paid approximately $5,700. Stirling said that was evidence of a common scam used by rental agencies in the Arab emirate.
“Tierra is the latest American tourist to get caught up in what is a common rental car extortion scheme,” she said. “Rental car agencies are notorious for opening criminal cases against visitors with the promise to drop the case if they are paid off. The prevalence of blackmail is damaging to the UAE’s tourism and investment sectors and Dubai’s government needs to crack down on this abuse of process.”
“In another recent case, three Americans actually paid over $20,000 to a rental car agency that they did not owe, just so they could get out of the country,” the activist and lawyer said.
Stirling became active in the Middle East when her friend Cat Le-Huy was detained in Dubai. She led a campaign for his release in 2008, founding Detained in Dubai.
She said Allen and her mother were becoming increasingly anxious and “have been going through hell and have no idea what the outcome will be, and when they might be reunited.”
Allen has not posted on her Sassy Trucker social media accounts since her arrest.
Austin, Texas — A heat wave that has consistently pushed temperatures well above 100 degrees across much of Texas this summer had family members of inmates on Tuesday calling for lawmakers to ensure that all of the state’s prisons are fully air conditioned.
“They’re cooking our inmates in the Texas prison system,” said Tona Southards Naranjo, who believes the death last month of her son, Jon Southards, was caused by excessive heat in his prison, the Estelle Unit in Huntsville. Naranjo was one of more than 60 people who attended a rally outside the Texas Capitol on Tuesday.
Advocates for cooling Texas prisons pray during a news conference at the Texas Capitol on July 18, 2023, in Austin.
Eric Gay / AP
Advocates and others have been highly critical of the lack of air conditioning in the nation’s largest prison system, alleging temperatures that often go past 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.9 degrees Celsius) inside Texas prisons in the summer have been responsible for hundreds of inmate deaths in recent years.
Only about 30% of Texas’ 100 prison units are fully air conditioned, with the rest having partial or no air conditioning. Texas currently has more than 128,000 inmates.
However, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, or TDCJ, says there have been no heat-related deaths in the state’s prisons since 2012. There were 17 deaths from 2000 to 2012, with 10 in 2011 alone when Texas experienced a record heat wave, according to TDCJ.
But a November study by researchers at Brown, Boston and Harvard universities found that 13%, or 271, of the deaths that happened in Texas prisons without universal air conditioning between 2001 and 2019 “may be attributable to extreme heat days.”
“These findings suggest that an air conditioning policy for Texas prisons may be an important part of protecting the health of one of our most vulnerable populations,” the study’s authors wrote.
The Texas Tribune reported Tuesday that its analysis of prison death reports and weather data showed that, “This year, since mid-June, at least nine prisoners have died of reported heart attacks or cardiac events in uncooled prisons where the outdoor heat indices were above 100 degrees. … At least another 14 have died of unknown causes in extreme heat, often found unresponsive in their cells by prison staff.
“It’s not clear how much of a role, if any, the heat played in the 23 deaths,” the newspaper continued. “TDCJ spokesperson Amanda Hernandez said last month it is inaccurate to label any death as heat-related before an investigation is complete.”
A thermometer hangs in a make-shift prison cell during a rally on the steps of the Texas Capitol on July 18, 2023, in Austin.
Eric Gay / AP
Officials are still investigating the cause of Jon Southards’ death, Hernandez told The Associated Press. At least eight other inmate deaths in recent weeks that advocates allege are heat-related were either due to cardiac arrest or other medical conditions, Hernandez said. The cause of some are still under investigation.
But Naranjo said her son’s body was covered in a heat rash. The last time she talked with him, just hours before his death on June 28, the 36-year-old, who had asthma, complained about not being able to breathe in his cell’s stifling air. He also complained about having to drink water out of his toilet because it was colder than the water from his sink.
“As a mother, this is crushing,” she said.
Texas is one of at least13 states that doesn’t have universal air conditioning in state prisons, according to a report last year by the Texas A&M University Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center and Texas Prisons Community Advocates, an advocacy group for inmates.
State Rep. Carl Sherman was one of several Democratic lawmakers who unsuccessfully tried getting bills passed in the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature this year that would have required prisons to be fully air conditioned.
“This is not a political issue. This is a humanity issue. … This is about survival,” Sherman said Tuesday.
An advocate for cooling Texas prisons walks past a makeshift cell during a rally on the steps of the Texas Capitol on July 18, 2023, in Austin.
Eric Gay / AP
During this year’s regular legislative session, which ended in May, the Texas House had proposed more than $343 million for the next two years to install air conditioning in state prisons and pay for operating expenses and maintenance. But the Senate declined to provide any funding.
The lack of funding took place as Texas had a more than $32 billion budget surplus to work with during this year’s legislative session.
Cece Perez said her fiancé, Martin Martinez, has endured terrible conditions in his hot prison, the Stevenson Unit in Cuero, without being provided any sort of relief.
“He says that he wakes up gasping for air like somebody is suffocating him or sitting on his chest,” Perez said.
Hernandez declined to comment on criticism of TDCJ from Tuesday’s rally.
Rally participants asked that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott call a special legislative session to allocate funding for prison air conditioning.
A spokesperson for Abbott didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.
In 2017, U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison in Houston said the nation’s largest prison system was “deliberately indifferent” to heat risks and subjected inmates to “a substantial risk of serious injury or death.”
Ellison’s comments came as part of a settlement of a lawsuit filed by Texas inmates at one unit.
Advocates in other states are also trying to bring attention to the issue.
In Las Vegas, where temperatures have reached 116 degrees in a historic heat wave, members of prisoners’ rights group Return Strong stood outside a transitional housing center on Tuesday calling attention to the effect extreme heat has on incarcerated people, CBS Las Vegas affiliate KLAS-TV reported. In Nevada, air conditioning in prisons can be spotty and prone to jams, Return Strong’s Executive Director Jodi Hocking said in a phone interview with the AP..
Hocking said people don’t really think about times when it’s over 115 degrees and inmates are sitting in a cell and the air conditioning only goes to some sections “and it never reaches where you live.”
Visitors to Las Vegas on Friday stepped out momentarily to snap photos and were hit by blast-furnace air. But most will spend their vacations in a vastly different climate — at casinos where the chilly air conditioning might require a light sweater.
Meanwhile, emergency room doctors were witnessing another world, as dehydrated construction workers, passed-out elderly residents and others suffered in an intense heat wave threatening to break the city’s all-time record high of 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47.2 degrees Celsius) this weekend.
Few places in the scorching Southwest demonstrate the surreal contrast between indoor and outdoor life like Las Vegas, a neon-lit city rich with resorts, casinos, swimming pools, indoor nightclubs and shopping. Tens of millions of others across California and the Southwest, were also scrambling for ways to stay cool and safe from the dangers of extreme heat.
“We’ve been talking about this building heat wave for a week now, and now the most intense period is beginning,” the National Weather Service wrote Friday.
A person jogs on the Las Vegas strip during a heat advisory, Friday, July 14, 2023 in Las Vegas.
Ty O’Neil / AP
Nearly a third of Americans were under extreme heat advisories, watches and warnings. The blistering heat wave was forecast to get worse this weekend for Nevada, Arizona and California, where desert temperatures were predicted to soar in parts past 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.8 degrees Celsius) during the day, and remain in the 90s F (above 32.2 C) overnight.
Sergio Cajamarca, his family and their dog, Max, were among those who lined up to pose for photos in front of the city’s iconic “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign. The temperature before noon already topped 100 F (37.8 C).
“I like the city, especially at night. It’s just the heat,” said Cajamarca, 46, an electrician from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.
His daughter, Kathy Zhagui, 20, offered her recipe for relief: “Probably just water, ice cream, staying inside.”
Meteorologists in Las Vegas warned people not to underestimate the danger. “This heatwave is NOT typical desert heat due to its long duration, extreme daytime temperatures, & warm nights. Everyone needs to take this heat seriously, including those who live in the desert,” the National Weather Service in Las Vegas said in a tweet.
Phoenix marked the city’s 15th consecutive day of 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) or higher temperatures on Friday, hitting 116 degrees Fahrenheit (46.6 degrees Celsius) by late afternoon, and putting it on track to beat the longest measured stretch of such heat. The record is 18 days, recorded in 1974.
“This weekend there will be some of the most serious and hot conditions we’ve ever seen,” said David Hondula the city’s chief heat officer. “I think that it’s a time for maximum community vigilance.”
Homeless men watch a movie, hydrate and rest inside the Justa Center, a day cooling center for homeless people 55 years and older, Friday, July 14, 2023 in downtown Phoenix, which hit 112 degrees on Friday.
Matt York / AP
The heat was expected to continue well into next week as a high pressure dome moves west from Texas.
“We’re getting a lot of heat-related illness now, a lot of dehydration, heat exhaustion,” said Dr. Ashkan Morim, who works in the ER at Dignity Health Siena Hospital in suburban Henderson.
Morim said he has treated tourists this week who spent too long drinking by pools and became severely dehydrated; a stranded hiker who needed liters of fluids to regain his strength; and a man in his 70s who fell and was stuck for seven hours in his home until help arrived. The man kept his home thermostat at 80 F (26.7 C), concerned about his electric bill with air conditioning operating constantly to combat high nighttime temperatures.
Regional health officials in Las Vegas launched a new database Thursday to report “heat-caused” and “heat-related” deaths in the city and surrounding Clark County from April to October.
The Southern Nevada Health District said seven people have died since April 11, and a total of 152 deaths last year were determined to be heat-related.
Besides casinos, air-conditioned public libraries, police station lobbies and other places from Texas to California planned to be open to the public to offer relief at least for part of the day. In New Mexico’s largest city of Albuquerque, splash pads will be open for extended hours and many public pools were offering free admission. In Boise, Idaho, churches and other nonprofit groups were offering water, sunscreen and shelter.
Temperatures closer to the Pacific coast were less severe, but still made for a sweaty day on picket lines in the Los Angeles area where actors joined screenwriters in strikes against producers.
A man walks along a sidewalk under the misters, Friday, July 14, 2023 in downtown Phoenix.
Matt York / AP
In Sacramento, the California State Fair kicked off with organizers canceling planned horseracing events due to concerns for animal safety.
Employers were reminded that outdoor workers must receive water, shade and regular breaks to cool off.
Pet owners were urged to keep their animals mostly inside. “Dogs are more susceptible to heat stroke and can literally die within minutes. Please leave them at home in the air conditioning,” David Szymanski, park superintendent for Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the wildfire season was ramping up amid the hot, dry conditions with a series of blazes erupting across California this week, Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, said at a media briefing.
Global climate change is “supercharging” heat waves, Crowfoot added.
Firefighters in Riverside County, southeast of Los Angeles, were battling multiple brush fires that started Friday afternoon.
Stefan Gligorevic, a software engineer from Lancaster, Pennsylvania visiting Las Vegas for the first time said he planned to stay hydrated and not let it ruin his vacation.
“Cold beer and probably a walk through the resorts. You take advantage of the shade when you can,” Gligorevic said. “Yeah, definitely.”
After a frenzied market over the last three years, the latest data coming from Austin, Texas, is now pointing toward stabilization, with prices leveling out and inventory bouncing back. While the days of cutthroat bidding wars may be over—at least for now—the effects on the luxury segment of the market may prove long-standing.
With much attention being drawn to Austin real estate during and after the pandemic, many wealthy buyers have been introduced to the city’s high-end market and its bounty of well-appointed homes. As such, Austin’s reputation as the locale for luxury properties, as well as its population, have only continued to grow.
Check out these three luxury properties in the Texas capital city that are available now.
4211 Watersedge Cove features an outdoor fireplace, outdoor kitchen and swimming pool.
Brian Cole Photography | Moreland Properties
Contemporary Waterfront In Watersedge
More reminiscent of a winding river than traditional lake, Lake Austin runs for a 22-mile stretch through western Austin, gifting the area with desirable waterfront properties, including this next remarkable home. Distinguished in both design and location, the property offers direct access to the water and a curated outdoor space to best enjoy lakeside living. A spacious covered terrace houses an al fresco kitchen and stone fireplace, ending in a negative edge pool just above the water’s surface that seemingly flows into the lake.
Vanishing walls of glass create a seamless connection between the indoors and outside.
Brian Cole Photography | Moreland Properties
Views from the terrace only slightly best those from the floor-to-ceiling walls of glass that line the home, making glimpses of the lake available from almost anywhere across the 5,000-square-foot interior. Wood coats both the oak floor and the ceiling of the main living space for a natural accent against the room’s clean lines and white walls. The main suite sits on the ground floor with a massive walk-in closet and spa bathroom with an oversized marble shower and soaking tub.
Luxury homes along Lake Austin make up some of the most desirable in the city.
getty
Upstairs, two ensuite bedrooms open to the second-floor balcony. Another story up is the third-floor bird’s nest for the farthest-reaching vista of the lake and surrounding landscape.
Located in the gated community Watersedge, the waterfront home is just 15 minutes from downtown Austin. The listing for 4211 Watersedge Cove is held by Greg Walling.
This two-story home sits on 4.71 acres in West Lake Hills just six miles away from downtown Austin.
Moreland Properties
Five-Acre Ranch Estate In West Lake Hills
Although not technically an Austin home, this roughly 5,900-square-foot residence in West Lake Hills is so close to the city that it was once part of a larger ranch just outside of downtown. Spreading across 4.71 acres under the canopy of mature oaks, the property is surrounded by smaller yet still sizable parcels, making for a secluded, private feel while still being only 6 miles from Austin’s core.
Interiors have been updated while maintaining the home’s original charm.
Moreland Properties
Built in 2001, the four-bedroom, five-bathroom home has been updated with an extensive series of recent renovations over the last two years. The result is something that will likely avoid the trappings of time, with a lasting character that is defined by quality materials and well-thought-out spaces.
Large metal-framed windows and floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors let light fill up to the vaulted ceilings. Reclaimed oak hardwood floors run throughout, including through the home’s sophisticated chef’s kitchen complete with custom oak cabinets, marble countertops and Wolf/Miele stainless-steel appliances. Backing the newly remodeled residence is an Ipe wood deck featuring panoramic views over Little Bee Creek. Anna Lee of Moreland Properties holds the listing at 417 Ledgeway Ridge.
Completed in 2004, the home features a unique and award winning design by Heather McKinney.
Moreland Properties
Architectural Marvel In Tarrytown
If you are struck by the architecture of this Tarrytown home, you’re not alone—the five-bedroom contemporary residence has won numerous awards over its nearly 20-year existence and is now available for the first time.
Designed by renowned local architect Heather McKinney, the environmentally-conscious “treehouse castle” is deliberately enclosed by a grove of thick trees, affording rare privacy in one of the most walkable zones of West Austin.
A foldable glass wall opens into a double-height screen porch with limestone fireplace.
Moreland Properties
Distinct beyond specific categorization, the home features an array of styles while remaining aesthetically harmonious from room to room. Windows nearly climb to the height of soaring ceilings in the airy living room. Centered by a limestone fireplace, the double-height screen porch is as impressive to behold from the inside as it is from the outside. Reinforced gallery walls make for a fashionable space to showcase art and photography.
A formal dining room with built-in bookshelves makes for a dual-use space.
Moreland Properties
Other highlights include a yoga nook, formal dining room lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and primary suite with attached balcony. Built to last, the roughly 4,000 square foot home at 2806 Robbs Run is outfitted with durable materials, including hardwood throughout and HardiePlank siding. Solar panels provide a sizable percentage of the power. Moreland’s Clayton Bullock holds the listing.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s top diplomat said Friday her country has sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. government expressing concern that Texas’ deployment of floating barriers on the Rio Grande may violate 1944 and 1970 treaties on boundaries and water.
Foreign Relations Secretary Alicia Bárcena said Mexico will send an inspection team to the Rio Grande to see whether any of the barrier extends into Mexico’s side of the border river.
She also complained about U.S. efforts to put up barbed wire on a low-lying island in the river near Eagle Pass, Texas.
Mexico’s veteran political chameleon, Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, has died at the age of 89. His family did not give a cause of death, but he had been in ill health for some time.
Texas has started rolling out what is set to become a new floating barrier on the Rio Grande. The state’s move on Friday is the latest escalation of Republican Gov.
What this means for many of Tijuana’s 2 million inhabitants is enduring frequent loss of water, having to pay for expensive trucked-in water, and living with uncertainty.
The drug cartel violence that citizen self-defense leader Hipolito Mora gave his life fighting against has flared anew just one day after he was buried.
Bárcena said that if the buoys impede the flow of water, it would violate the treaties, which requires the river remain unobstructed. Mexico has already asked that the barriers be removed.
Migrant advocates have voiced concerns about drowning risks from the buoys and environmentalists questioned the impact on the river.
Once installed, the above-river parts of the system and the webbing they’re connected with will cover 1,000 feet (305 meter) of the middle of the Rio Grande, with anchors in the riverbed.
A 37-year-old woman was fatally shot in the head while driving in Texas after her husband told police they were involved in a road rage incident, officials said.
The Hurst Police Department said the incident happened on Monday night. When they arrived at the scene, they found the victim, who was later identified as Paola Nunez Linares, had been shot in the head. Her husband, Zane Jones, was on the scene when police arrived, and told police that it had been the result of a “road rage incident with another vehicle.”
“An occupant of the other vehicle fired several shots at them, striking the female,” police said in a statement. “The female victim was transported to JPS Hospital by Hurst FD medics, where she was later pronounced deceased.”
Jones told KDFW-TV that he and Nunez Linares were on their way to work a night shift at Kelly-Moore Paints when the incident unfolded as he was trying to pass a car.
“I completed the pass. I got into the right lane, and he started to zoom past me,” JOnes told the station. “But then he leveled off when he got to me, and he like moved over, like pushing me but not touching me because I moved over too.”
That’s when Jones says he flipped off the other driver. He thought the driver was returning the gesture – and then realized it was a gun.
“He slowed down until we were about like that, and he shot through my back left window and hit my wife in the back of the head,” Jones said, adding that the driver fired at least three shots.
The two had just gotten married last year.
“Everybody loves somebody. Everybody is loved by somebody, but I love Paola,” he said.
Police are continuing to look for the person responsible for the shooting. There is no public description of the shooter, but their vehicle has been described as a “small, dark-colored older model car,” police said.
Roland Gutierrez, the Democratic state senator who represents the Uvalde area in central Texas, on Monday jumped into the race to take on Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in 2024.
Gutierrez, a lifelong San Antonio resident and the son of a Mexican immigrant, will be facing U.S. Rep. Colin Allred in the Democratic primary in March. Allred, who represents the Dallas area, has already amassed a $6.2 million war chest since he announced his candidacy two months ago, according to his campaign.
In the wake of the deadly 2022 shooting in Uvalde, Gutierrez has pushed for tougher gun legislation, and he said in a video announcement that in the aftermath of the shooting, the people in his district “came together to demand change.”
Gutierrez has led the calls for gun legislation since the Uvalde shooting, which left 19 children and two teachers dead. In this legislative session, he introduced several bills to the state Senate that did not ultimately receive a vote on the floor. A House bill that he supported to raise the age to purchase an AR-15, advanced out of committee but it failed to make it to the House floor before the legislative session ended.
State Senator Roland Gutierrez speaks with reporters after the conclusion of a press conference by Governor Greg Abbott about the mass shooting at Uvalde High School on May 27, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas.
Michael M Santiago/Getty Images / Getty Images
Gutierrez also recently slammed Cruz for leaving the state during the 2021 electric grid failure. Concerns have been growing in Texas about the grid’s capacity during the current heat wave.
Nick Maddux, a spokesman for Cruz, released a statement Monday saying, “Texans will now get to watch Colin Allred and Roland Gutierrez slug it out for who can be the most radical leftist in the state.”
Cruz was first elected to the Senate in 2012 and ran for president in 2016. Democrats first saw he might be vulnerable in 2018, when Beto O’Rourke raised a then-record $80 million in the race and came within three points of defeating Cruz. Voter turnout surged in the race, and Democrats flipped several state House seats.
A Texas zoo has announced the death of its 31-year-old giraffe, Twiga, saying she was believed to have been one of the oldest in captivity.
The female Maasai giraffe was born in Los Angeles Zoo in 1991 and had reached the age of 31 years, 9 months and 7 days when she died Friday night in Lufkin, the Ellen Trout Zoo said in a statement on Facebook.
“Twiga held the record for the oldest living giraffe in human care. Giraffes typically live about 25 years,” the zoo said.
The giraffe arrived at the Ellen Trout Zoo in 2008, having previously been housed at the Racine Zoo in Wisconsin.
“Twiga helped our other two giraffes, Kellen and Luna, feel comfortable in their new home in Lufkin,” the zoo’s director, Gordon Henley, said in the statement. “She will be greatly missed.”
The owner of a Texas canoe and kayaking company filed a lawsuit on Friday seeking to stop the installation of a marine floating barrier on the Rio Grande, claiming Gov. Greg Abbott has no right to regulate the border.
The lawsuit was filed on the same day that Texas started deploying buoys for the barrier in an attempt to deter migrant crossings on the river along the US-Mexico border.
The suit lists the state of Texas and Abbott, as well as the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard. CNN has reached out to Abbott’s office for comment.
“Our lawsuit seeks to protect communities on the Texas-Mexico border from Governor Abbott’s misleading politics,” said attorney Carlos Flores, who represents plaintiff Jessie Fuentes, the owner of Epi’s Canoe & Kayak Team Llc.
The lawsuit alleges the buoys will prevent Epi’s and Fuentes, the company’s owner-operator, from conducting tours and canoe and kayak sessions in the border town Eagle Pass, causing “imminent and irreparable harm to EPI.”
The suit accuses the Republican governor of misapplying the Texas Disaster Act of 1975 to justify the buoy system – which “has no logical connection to the purpose of the Disaster Act, which is to respond to ‘the occurrence or imminent threat of widespread or severe damage, injury, or loss of life or property resulting from any natural or man-made cause.’ “
Abbott, the suit said, cannot “create his own border patrol agency to regulate the border and prevent immigrants from entering Texas.”
Additionally, the US Constitution and federal statues do not empower Texas with authority to enforce immigration laws, according to the suit.
The suit said the buoys “represent a hateful policy that intends to create the impression that Mexicans, immigrants, and Mexican Americans … are dangerous.” The floating devices also will prevent Epi’s from conducting tours and canoe and kayak sessions in Eagle Pass, according to the suit.
Flores said the lawsuit, which seeks a temporary and permanent injunction, was filed on Friday before the buoys were installed in the Rio Grande.
Abbott posted a 15-second video to Twitter showing buoys being loaded from trailers that would be deployed near Eagle Pass. The Texas Department of Public Safety is overseeing the deployment, the governor said in the tweet Friday.
During last month’s announcement, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw touted the buoy barrier could be “quickly deployed” and said it’s mobile. He explained the buoy would be anchored to the bottom of the waterway, adding the buoys are roughly 4 to 6 feet in height depending on the water level.
Last weekend, a woman and a baby girl were found unresponsive in the river, said Texas DPS Lt. Christopher Olivarez. A dead man and woman were found on Sunday and Monday, respectively, he added.
In recent years, migrants have resorted to increasingly risky – and often fatal – paths to evade detection and enter the US. In March, a migrant was found dead among a dozen people stowed away in a train car near Eagle Pass.
Immigrant rights advocates have attributed the rise in deaths at the border to policies that have made it more difficult for migrants to seek refuge in the US.
Millions of Americans are still feeling the heat. At least 33 states saw temperatures reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday, and it’s a trend scientists say will likely continue. Texas Tribune energy reporter Emily Foxhall joins CBS News to discuss how the Lone Star State’s power grid is keeping up with demand.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
