Austin, TX
Travis County to help low-income families pay for child care
AUSTIN, Texas — It’s Spanish only for the kids enrolled at Cielito Lindo Spanish Immersion Preschool. Maria Dominguez owns three Spanish immersion preschools in Travis County.
“We focus on the social and emotional part of child development,” said Dominguez.
The average cost of child care in Texas is $1,300 per month, and while Cielito Lindo offers scholarships, many families still can’t afford it.
“Even for those kids that we do receive assistance, they’re not paying the full amount that we charge a month. We’re constantly trying to make up for that amount because, again, we still have to pay for a facility for teachers being able to provide competitive wages because they deserve it,” said Dominguez.
Last week, Travis County voters approved Proposition A, a property tax increase which is expected to generate $75 million to create nearly 2,000 new child care slots and nearly 4,000 new after-school and summer programming slots for school-age children. But there are nearly $80,000 children on a waitlist for subsidized care in Texas with an estimated wait time of two years.
Child care advocates suggest it will cost $90 million per year in state funding to get at least 10,000 kids off the waitlist.
“We have seen voters say over and over again that this is a priority,” said David Feigen with Texans Care for Children.
During the last legislative session, lawmakers defeated a $2 billion proposal to step in and fund child care providers. And now that federal pandemic-era funds are gone, policy experts say state lawmakers need to act.
“If we don’t provide this funding, we will see more parents leaving the workforce, more businesses struggling to recruit and retain staff, more children in low-quality settings,” said Feigen.
Travis County Judge Andy Brown hopes the passage of proposition A sends a message to state leaders to act.
“If we are figure out ways to provide that, like we’re doing here in Travis County, it’s going to help our economy,” said Brown.
But some representatives expressed uncertainty about allocations this time around during an interim House hearing.
“We don’t always know, in the environment, [if we] can keep funding going up because there are other priorities for our states,” said Republican Rep. Angie Chen Button.
The priority for child care providers will always be the kids.
Another body was found in the popular Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas, where other deceased individuals were found recently.
The latest body found joins the growing mystery after at least 6 additional bodies were found throughout the year in the lake in 2024. On Friday, police were called to investigate reports of a dead person in the water near 1st Street Bridge and the 300 block of Cesar Chavez.
The Austin Police Department (APD) said that they do not suspect foul play as the body showed no signs of trauma, but are investigating the incident.
Despite APD attempting to quell community fears, questions and speculation have run rampant. Police have attributed most of the deaths to accidental drowning due to the lake’s proximity to nightclubs and bars.
BODY FOUND IN SAME AUSTIN LAKE WHERE OTHER DECEASED INDIVIDUALS DISCOVERED IN RECENT MONTHS
Mounted police patrolling down Rainey Street after several bodies appeared in a nearby lake. (Matteo Cina/Fox News Digital)
The most recent body was found on December 1. The victim was recently identified as 73-year-old Thi Lang Nguyen. Austin police said that there is nothing connected to the other deaths this year.
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In September, a man was behaving erratically near East Cesar Chavez and Nueces Streets. He then went into the water and did not resurface. He was later pulled out and pronounced dead.
WATCH:
Back in February, a woman’s body was found in the water about 20 feet from the north shore and in April, a fisherman spotted another person floating in the water.
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In July, a man was suffering from blunt force trauma on the trail near Rainey Street. The man was pronounced dead a short time later.
In September, a body was found along a trail near the lake off Pleasant Valley Road.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the APD for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
Born and Braised, a food trailer specializing in native wild game meats and seasonal food, recently opened at the Sign Bar in Austin at 9909 FM 969, Building 3. Chef and owner William Woodland, a.k.a. Woody, is looking forward to his new venture and serving wild game meats and other special menu items to Austinites.
Menu items customers will enjoy includes birria tacos, birria ramen, venison frito pie, pulled pork Cubano tortas, venison bratwurst, venison smash burger, and sides like braised greens, beans, and street corn.
Born and Braised started at Lustre Pearl in 2022. The food trailer moved to Sage Brush for over a year. The trailer worked at Bastrop, but now it operates in East Austin at the Sign Bar.
Born and Braised hours include Tuesdays through Fridays from 4 pm to 2 am, and Saturdays from 11 am to 2 am, at Sign Bar Austin (9909 FM 969, Bldg. 3).
Vitals
- Address: 9909 FM 969, Bldg. 3, Austin, TX
- Website: https://bornandbraisedatx.square.site/
Map to Born and Braised
Featured image from Born and Braised Instagram page
Texas-based noise artist Danny Tantrum performed in Austin, TX at the Coral Snake last night alongside Schizing Out and Terminull. However their onstage antics may have rubbed the venue and some attendees the wrong way. During the performance, Tantrum appears to perch themselves up on a stool and proceed to channel their inner GG Allin.
Attendees and venue staff were shocked to witness the solo noise act defecate on the stage and then immediately consume it. There is also a video of the act on Instagram (below) posted by Tantrum. In the video venue staff can be seen trying to somewhat intervene to stop it but to no avail. Finally calling for the set to be cut short.
If you dare, you can watch the video via Instagram Reels if the embed below does not work.
This is seemingly not the first time Tantrum has performed this act, a previous video on their Instagram features a similar shocking performance from several months ago.
Following the incident there seems to be a divide and discourse online either condemning or defending the act.
The venue itself re-shared a message directed at all other Austin venues warning them about booking Tantrum and the extreme show.
The venue shut the show down and forced the act and other members of the crowd to clean up the mess with cleaning supplies. Tantrum would ultimately take responsibility and clean the mess up himself and claim there were no bad intentions towards the venue.
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