H-E-B opened its newest store in the Austin, Texas, suburb of Pflugerville on Nov. 13, the San Antonio-based grocery chain announced. 

The 127,000-square-foot location, which includes a True Texas BBQ restaurant, opened about a month after H-E-B announced plans for a new location in San Marcos, about 40 minutes south of the Texas capital. That location will also feature a True Texas BBQ restaurant. 

The new Pflugerville store will include a dedicated covered parking area for curbside delivery, a full-service pharmacy with a two-lane drive-thru, a fuel station with car wash, and a Texas Backyard section with gardening and outdoor products, the grocery chain said in a press release. 

H-E-B operates more than 30 True Texas BBQ restaurants now in the state.

The grocer noted that the Pflugerville location incorporates environmental sustainability elements including CO2 refrigeration units, LED lighting, and native landscaping on the property.

The new store at 2641 E. Pflugerville Parkway is H-E-B’s third Pflugerville location, the retailer said. H-E-B operates more than 435 stores in Texas and Mexico. 

H-E-B has been rapidly expanding across the Lone Star State, breaking ground on a 101,000-square-foot store in Manor, which is just southeast of Pflugerville. The grocer also broke ground on a third location in Georgetown, Texas, in September, about 30 miles north of downtown Austin. That follows the opening of another Georgetown location in 2023. 

On Oct. 9, the grocery chain announced plans to open a new store in the Dallas suburb of Forney. And in June, H-E-B opened a 128,000-square-foot store in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex town of Mansfield, Texas.

In 2023, H-E-B opened four more locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area cities of Allen, Frisco, Plano, and McKinney. 

The expansion of H-E-B stores in Texas also includes its specialty banners, Joe V’s Smart Shop and Central Market. H-E-B opened a Joe V’s, which is the grocer’s small-format discount concept store, in metro Houston in June and plans to open another in Dallas in Spring of 2025. H-E-B now operates 10 Joe V’s stores in metro Houston. 
H-E-B also recently confirmed that it plans to open a Central Market, a concept store that focuses on natural and organic foods, in Dallas. It will be H-E-B’s 11th Central Market location.

AUSTIN, Texas – A man has been arrested in connection with a deadly shooting early Friday morning in North Austin.

31-year-old William Jameson Bruce has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder and second-degree felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

He is currently in the Travis County Jail and bond has been set at $500,000 for both offenses according to jail records.

MORE CRIME COVERAGE

Around 1 a.m., on Nov. 15, Austin police were called to the Thurmond Heights apartment complex on Goldfinch Court off Thurmond Street and N Lamar Boulevard near US 183.

When officers arrived, they found the victim dead. 

Multiple homicides in ten days

This homicide was the fifth in a string of homicides over the last ten days. 

The first homicide happened Thursday, Nov. 7 at a little after 4:30 p.m. in East Austin on Rosewood Avenue. Investigators said 20-year-old Matthew Escalante was meeting up with someone and was shot. The suspect fled with other people. 

The second homicide happened about an hour and a half later in Northeast Austin. 30-year-old Lavonta Harrison allegedly shot and killed 33-year-old Shelby Wayne Cody who was standing outside the Texas Health and Human Services building when Harrison pulled up.

Harrison has been charged with first-degree murder in Cody’s death.

The third homicide happened on Sunday in Southeast Austin at East William Cannon Drive. Police said at around 6:30 p.m. Elijah Martinez was stabbed in the chest in a homeless encampment next to the AutoZone. A suspect has not been arrested yet.

The fourth homicide happened on Wednesday at a gas station in South Austin. Court documents said 32-year-old Luis Marroquin admitted to stabbing a man he knew as ‘Flacco’ after he had said something he didn’t like. He said he didn’t mean to kill him, just intended to hurt him. The victim has not been identified as of Friday, Nov. 15.

The sixth homicide happened on Saturday in North Austin, just 24 hours and ten minutes away from the Thurmond Heights homicide. 

Just after 4 a.m. on Nov. 16, Austin 911 received reports of gunshots at the Espero Rutland apartment complex in the 1900 block of Rutland Drive near Metric Boulevard.

Officers responded about five minutes later and found a woman with gunshot wounds inside one of the apartments. Despite life-saving measures, the woman died from her injuries at the scene. There is currently no word on a suspect or arrest as of Sunday.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard delivered a relentless three-hour marathon of psychedelic brilliance, seamlessly blending genre-defying sounds into an unforgettable live experience.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard is an Australian band known for exploring different sub-genres of rock music. The band currently consists of members Stu Mackenzie, Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Cook Craig, Joey Walker, Lucas Harwood, and Michael Cavanagh. Their first few albums were more garage rock, then they progressed into a few psychedelic rock albums, while their album Quarters! incorporates various elements of jazz. In August 2024, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard released their 29th full-length album, Flight b741.

Opening is the Australian rock band King Stingray. In 2020, the band added its final members and was signed to Bargain Bin Records. Their music draws influence from Yolŋu, a northeastern region in the Northern Territory of Australia. The lyrics of their songs are sung in both English and Yolŋu Matha. They also use unique instruments such as clapsticks and a didgeridoo, which they perform live. Only a few days before their show in Austin, the band released a new album, For The Dreams. 

King Stingray opened their set with “Looking Out,” a song from their new album, along with “Best Bits.” Mid-set, they invited Joey Walker, lead guitarist of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, onto the stage with them. They performed a cover of Warumpi Band’s “Waru.” After a few more minutes of straight jam session, they closed their set with “Let’s Go,” a track from their debut album.

At 8:30 PM, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard started their extremely anticipated show with “Head On/Pill,” the opening track from their album Float Along – Fill Your Lungs. As to be expected, all of their songs performed were lengthy shredding sessions, each being longer than five minutes and some lasting up to 15 minutes. Next, they played two songs from their new album, “Field of Vision” and “Antarctica.” Mackenzie and Walker informed fans that they were excited to be back in Austin and that Austin was the first city where they performed a show outside of Australia. In 2014, they played at Austin’s Psych Fest.

A few minutes after the two-hour mark, they invited a fan onto stage to sing the intro of “Nuclear Fusion.” With no clear instructions, the eager fan began to sing a different song before Walker stopped him to ask if he knew what he was supposed to do. After understanding the assignment, the audience member gave a barbaric guttural growl of the lyrics, “Nuclear fusion.” The audience gave him an A+ as a wave of exuberance spread across the now-cheering fans. 

Mid-set, crew members rolled out a giant synth table that they gathered around to perform their more electronic songs such as “Set” and “Extinction.” Audience members crowd-surfed consistently throughout the night and danced around the back of the pit where packed groups of people didn’t restrain them. “Gila Monster” was a fan favorite and was the cause of the giant mosh pit that took place in the GA pit. To close their set, they performed a cover of Yothu Yindi’s “Treaty” accompanied by King Stingray and Stuart Kellaway himself on bass, a founding member of Yothu Yindi. Stuart Kellaway is also the father of King Stingray’s lead guitarist Roy Kellaway. 

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard closed out their mega three-hour marathon show run at Austin’s Germania Insurance Amphitheater. They will continue their regular tour in Houston and a few other southern cities. Their shows are typically available to stream live on their YouTube channel and can be watched in full after each show.

KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD 
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KING STINGRAY 
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GERMANIA INSURANCE AMPHITHEATER 
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