Reporting Texas
News and features from UT-Austin's School of Journalism
byNatalia Rodriguez
ALAMO — Hallways full of families. Vendors in stalls scrambling to attend to every customer. Dance floors full of laughter and community. For decades, these scenes would play out at the Mercadome Flea Market in the Rio Grande Valley town of Alamo. Today, those same hallways are empty. Many stalls in the flea market, or […]
byOisakhose Aghomo
After a two–year hiatus due to inclement weather, the Martin Luther King Jr. Community March and Festival returned Monday at the Texas Capitol against a backdrop of national political uncertainty — and threats to MLK Day itself
“Our commander in chief is trying to remove this day,” said 61-year-old Austin resident Jackie Sanders. “We’re going to still fight for this day because he (MLK) has earned it and we are here to support and represent.”
byRachel N. Madison
On Thursday morning, 48 hours before a winter storm was forecast to bring dangerously low temperatures, Austin Pets Alive’s shelter was filled with over 100 dogs waiting for homes. By the end of the day, the shelter had fewer than a dozen as animal lovers heeded the shelter’s call for emergency help.
“It was almost an empty shelter last night,” said Luis Sanchez, communications director for Austin Pets Alive. “It could be the least amount of animals we’ve ever had.”
As closing approached Thursday evening, parking lots overflowed, lines went out the door, and wait times for meet-and-greets stretched to hours. The shelter called it a record-breaking turnout never before seen in its 30 years on Cesar Chavez Street, west of downtown.
byMeredith McKelvey
A 16-year-old boy and his older siblings, both in their early 20s, were detained with more than 40 others during a law enforcement raid at a party in Hays County. According to a press statement, the raid was the result of a federal investigation into a Venezuelan gang that has become a target of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.
The siblings’ mother told Reporting Texas that the authorities are wrong.
“I want the public to know that my children are not linked to any gang, as the government is saying,” the mother said.
The siblings remain detained at an undisclosed location.
