| For the First Time Ever, ACL Expands to 2 Weekends
October 4-6 & 11-13 @ Zilker Park
Depeche Mode + The Cure + Muse
Kings of Leon + Atoms For Peace + Lionel Richie
Phoenix + Wilco + Vampire Weekend
The National + Eric Church + Passion Pit
Arctic Monkeys + Queens of the Stone Age + Fun
Kendrick Lamar + Franz Ferdinand + D’Angelo + Kaskade + Tame
Impala + Local Natives + The Shouting Matches + Toro Y Moi
Grimes + Portugal The Man + Silversun Pickups + The Joy for Midable + Niko Case + Divine Fits + Grouplove + Jimmy Eat World + The Black Angels + The Bright Light Social Hour
The Mavericks + Okkervil River + Shuggy Otis + Purity Ring + Dawes + Haim + Smith Westerns + Junip + Walk the Moon + Vintage Trouble + Noah & The Whale + Paper Diamond + Lissie + Pinback + The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion + Wild Belle + Phospho Recent + Court Yard Hounds + Thoa & The Get Down Stay Down + Foxygen + Little Green Cars + Savages + Autre Ne Vue + Parquet Courts + Fidlar + White Denim + True Believers + The Blind Boys of Alabama + Delta Rae + Blind Bug + The Lone Bellow Electric Guest + Dan Croll + Deap Vally + Wild Nothing + Typhoon + Hundred Waters + Twin Forks + Red Baraat + Electric Six + Shovels & Rope + Reignwolf + Mona + Ms Mr Widowspeak + Asleep at the Wheel + Bear Mountain + Greensky Bluegrass + JD McPherson + Pacha Massive + Valerie June + Wild Feathers + Road Kill Ghost Choir + JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound + Desert Noises + The Band of Heathens + Holly Williams + Alana Royale + Cherub + The Dynamites feat. Charles Walker + Shiny Ribs + Jacuzzy Boys + Wick-It the Instigator + Shakey Graves + Houndsmouth + Wild Cub Peterson Brothers Band + Luella & the Sun + X Ambassadors + Sons of Fathers + Courrier + My Jerusalem + Not in the Face + Dana Falconberry + Bobby Jealousy + Whiskey Shivers + The Preservation + Max Frost + Natasha Lee & The Blackties + Caleb Shannon Labrie + Andrew Duhon + Kristin Diable & the City + Colin Lake + Brooke Wag Goner + Tyree Morris & Hearts of Worship + Endurance + Stapletones + Heavenly Voices Choir + The McCrary Sisters + Disciples of Christ + The Hensley Ensemble + The Durdens + The Warrior Gospel Band + Barton hills Choir + The Verve Pipe + School of Rock + Tim & The Space Cadets + Peter Distefano & Tor + Grace London + Playdate + The Ohmies + The Q Brothers + Andy Z + Caspar Babypants
www.ACLFESTIVAL.com
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| While Austin ISD has seen slight year-on-year increases in key benchmarks such as graduation rates, post-secondary enrollment, and college and career readiness, progress during the past five years has been relatively flat, a recent report shows.
The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce released its 2012 Education Progress Reports in April, providing business owners, educators and parents with a snapshot of what is happening in local school districts. Kwee Lan Teo Yam, vice president of education and talent alignment for the chamber, said it has partnered with school districts and other Central Texas chambers for the past eight years to compile student performance data relevant to the business community.
“This is the cohort that’s entering the workforce or is already in the workforce,” Teo Yam said. “This is what your business and your community can get to hire. Is it a community of students that have generally pursued some form of post-secondary education? How many graduate within four years? And if you hire them, are they going to need remedial math [refresher classes]?”
Questions such as these matter to business and companies considering relocating to Austin, she said, and the reports can be used to gauge the health of a district.
Graduation Rates
In AISD, 80% of students graduated within four years in the 2010-11 school year, the most recent year for which data was included, compared with 79% in 2009-10. AISD’s graduation rate goal for 2001-12 is 93%. District officials said to bridge the gap, AISD will emphasize professional development.
Vincent Torres, AISD board of trustees president, said the district has also focused on attendance and offering more activities including athletics and fine arts. “Those are things that we’re doing to try to get kids to stay in school first, because if they’re not in school, they’re not going to learn, and if they’re not learning, they’re not going to graduate,” he said. “For us, you’ve got to move further back in the pipeline to be able to solve the graduation problem.”
African-American, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students saw slight graduation rate improvements during the past five years. To target English language learners, or ELL, the district offered teachers more professional development, Chief Academic Officer Pauline Dow and Chief Schools Officer Paul Cruz said.
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| Market Value change is not the same for all areas.
According to the Austin Board of Realtors, the median sold price for single family homes in the Austin area rose 9.1% in March 2013 compared to March 2012. The increase in the median price indicates competition is increasing among buyers as the inventory of homes continues to shrink. Although an overall increase was seen throughout the Austin region, changes in value vary significantly from one MLS area to the next. For example, area 1B (in Travis County) saw a 25.1% increase in March compared to the previous year, and nearby area 9 saw a decrease of 1.1%. Also, there are many other factors that contribute to the market value of each individual home besides the market changes in your home’s area. Use the information below as a guide to determine whether your tax appraisal is a fair assessment.
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| An attractive Ausitn Texas home is categorically easier to sell. That's pretty basic, and although most sellers will put a lot of work into fixing up the interior of the home, they forget about the outside appearance. The esthetic aspect is extremely important when it comes to real estate. You might compare this with the packaging of a sentimental gift -- it often is the case that the packaging is as important as the gift itself in that it makes the first impression.
This is why most real estate agents typically advise homeowners before selling their Central Texas area home to pay sufficient attention to the whole package, both outside as well as in. The outside is vital because the buyer sees it first, and as they say "There is no second chance to make a good first impression." A weak first impression locks you out of further consideration. In today's real estate market there are plenty of homes competing for attention and the buyer can just move on. For this reason, at least some minimal landscaping would be great, as this will help you attract buyers which gives the home some curb appeal. Curb appeal refers to the appearance based on a quick look by someone looking from the street. If you fail to get their attention on that step, it hardly even matters how good the rec room is.
Landscaping Secrets
For any homeowner, whether or not selling is in the picture, there are plenty of possible home improvement jobs that can be tackled. If you are getting ready to put it up for sale, however, you need something that is inexpensive, yet is quick and worth the effort.The yard should look inviting. Rather than stopping with just a regular trim of the lawn, make an edge with flowers. Make a border all around. Flowers are always a good touch. In case it is too much for you to plant a flowerbed, you could just add potted plants around it in a similar manner. If they are on the ground and not actually planted they give a nice look but are not a part of the property and you might choose to take them with you after the sale if you want to. |
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| Travis County was ranked the 12th-healthiest county in Texas out of 232 surveyed for the 2013 County Health Rankings, which examines the overall health of nearly every county in all 50 states. Williamson county was ranked 1st, and Hays County was ranked 14th. The report was released March 20th by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This report is intended to help communities identify factors that are successful along with those that need improvement.
“While we ranked high overall, our goal is to be the healthiest county in the country, and that requires addressing our disparities,” said Carlos Rivera, the director for Austin and Travis County Health and Human Services.
The rankings allow counties to compare a range of factors that influence health such as high school graduation rates, obesity, smoking, access to healthy foods and more. The report also contains new county-level graphs detailing trends and changes for measures such as children in poverty and quality of care. |
| What’s the difference between the nation’s capital and the so-called live music capital? The answer reveals as much about the lure of Austin as it does about why, in September 2011, Erin Hallagan and her boyfriend, Matt Nikolajevic, quit what they considered great jobs, rolled the dice and left Washington, D.C., for new lives in Austin. “In D.C., the first question a stranger will ask you is, ‘What is it you do for living?’ They’re looking for networks to advance themselves,” Hallagan said. “In Austin, the question is, ‘What is it you like to do?’ It’s more about self-nourishment and development. It’s a great fit for us.” Hallagan, 27, was a film and theater major in search of a film community. She found it in Austin, where she is the conference director for the Austin Film Festival. “The creative culture here is huge. That’s the biggest thing for me,” Hallagan said. Nikolajevic, 28, who graduated with a history degree from George Mason University and worked for a culinary school in Washington, now works in the admissions department at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Austin.
Like Hallagan and Nikolajevic, the new neighbor next door might be young, college-educated and not from around here. The Austin metro area attracted more young people and college graduates than any other major metropolitan area in the country during the period from 2009-2011, the second consecutive three-year period in which Austin has led the pack in those categories, according to an analysis by William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. He measured rates for annual average net migration (including people who left Austin) of young adults ages 25 to 34 and young adults with college degrees.
According to an American-Statesman analysis of census estimates, in 2011 about 50,000 people moved to the five-county Austin region from another state, comprising 2.8 percent of the metro area’s population. (By comparison, 1.6 percent of the nation’s population moved to a different state in 2011; 2 percent in Texas.) An estimated 30,000 Austin-area residents left for another state that year. Still, with net migration of about 20,000 people, the Austin region ranked second among the state’s five-largest metro areas, behind Dallas, which had a net migration of about 25,700 people who had lived in a different state the previous year. Those figures and other mobility data bolster Austin’s long-standing distinction as an attractive destination, especially for young people and people looking for jobs. “Austin hits the trifecta. It’s got jobs, cachet, it’s got people who see that it’s a pathway to careers, either because they go there to get an education or to use an education,” Frey said. “It really boils down to Austin’s ability to exert this gravitational pull for the young and talented,” city of Austin demographer Ryan Robinson said. |
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| Parking around Austin just got a little easier because Wednesday the city launched EasyPark, a device that allows drivers to pay parking meters from the comfort of their car. "I always use a lot of coins, and sometimes I don't always carry my debit card with me," explained Robert Cox, who works downtown. "But if I were to get this, it would actually make it easier." EasyPark is an outside company that's providing the service to the city. Drivers would be able to leave the coins and credit cards behind and transfer money onto a little yellow device that parking enforcement can see. People have to first sign up and buy a device, but the company will ship it with $10 already on it as a beginning balance.
How does it work?
1. Drivers will first select the city they're in.
2. Choose the proper parking "zone," which is located at parking stations.
3. Then hang it on the window closest to the curb.
"It's a little more convenient for folks than getting out of your car in 100-degree weather, walking over to the pay station, to get a receipt. And it's also green," said Steve Grassfield, the parking enterprise manager with the city.
There is a price tag for this convenience, including a monthly membership fee which would include support and battery replacements.
What it costs. |
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| No matter how nice the Austin Texas neighborhood, it seems that every neighborhood always has at least one house with an uncut lawn that is always weedy. You probably don't have to be the subject of disgruntled neighborhood gatherings, because if your lawn looks bad your house cannot look good. The two are related and it can damage your home's value. So how about considering these quick tips for keeping your house in order from the outside in.
Lawns Like Water
A frequently believed myth is the belief that grass must be watered daily. The problem with that is, it is not just that it is wasteful of water but also that it doesn't really help the grass down at the roots. The preferred frequency of watering has always been 2 or 3 days a week. If your climate is too dry for that frequency of watering, consider checking into xeriscaping or landscaping with rocks. During this time, you should let the water run for around 30 to 60 minutes so the roots can drink in all of the nutrients and lengthen themselves deeper into the dirt.
The Lawn Needs to Eat
Much like we need four square meals every day (OK, three then), turf grass needs to be fed four times a year. A good fertilizer is a necessary part of taking care of your lawn and it isn't so hard to keep up with. Just feed the lawn in June for the summer, September for the fall, November before the snow starts and then finally around February after the snow melts. This will provide your lawn with a healthy balanced diet that will have it springing with green as soon as the weather warms up a little. |
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