Ian Crawford, KUT News

Happy New Year! A warm start to 2012 brought crowds to Auditorium Shores for ring out the old year, it brought some warm news to Ron Paul's presidential aspirations just ahead of Iowa GOP caucuses and 2012 could bring some warmth to people living on Austin's streets.

Austin Welcomes 2012

With the Iowa Republican presidential caucuses four days away, a new Des Moines Register poll show a razor-thin margin between former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Texas Congressman Ron Paul.

A federal appeals court in Washington, DC granted the State of Texas a stay today against new EPA air pollution regulations that take effect next year.

The Cross State Air Pollution Rule would require some coal plants in Texas to retrofit their equipment or to switch to a higher-grade coal fuel, in order to meet new sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emission rules.

The injunction sets the stage for an court hearing in April.

A new opinion poll of Iowa Republican voters shows an interesting shift, but no real gains for either Texas Congressman Ron Paul or Governor Rick Perry.

A ruling in a New York federal court is requiring the Social Security Administration to restore benefits to eligible people who may have a warrant out for their arrest.

According to the National Senior Citizens Law Center, an advocacy group for low-income seniors, as many as 100,000 people could benefit from the ruling in Clark v. Astrue that was issued earlier this month. The government had denied Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Supplemental Security Disability Income (SSDI) benefits to people with outstanding warrants for alleged parole or probation violations.

Ah, the plethora of year-end lists, the Top-Ten this and that for 2011. Top stories, top trends, top celebrities, you know the lot.

Stratfor, the Austin-based intelligence think tank whose website was hacked over the weekend, is warning that people who are rallying to the company's defense on Facebook may become hacking targets, themselves.

On the company's Facebook page, officials write:

Austin fire officials believe that yesterday's boat fires on Lady Bird Lake were intentionally set.

Investigators don't know the specific cause of the fire that destroyed three boats--including a two-story party barge--and part of a dock near the Ann Richards Congress Avenue Bridge just after 2:00 on Christmas Day afternoon. They do say that someone was seen running from the area about the same time the fire broke out.

Intelligence Company’s Website Hacked

Austin-based security company Stratfor says its website has been hacked. The site was down Monday morning. In an email, Stratfor says it believes the names of some of its corporate clients have been placed onto other websites. Stratfor’s clients include Apple and the U.S. Air Force.

Boat Fires on Lady Bird Lake

Two boats caught on fire on Lady Bird Lake Christmas Day afternoon, near the Ann Richards Congress Avenue Bridge.

The first fire was reported shortly after 2:00 p.m. AFD dispatches indicate the fire grew quickly. Another boat nearby also caught fire, bringing bringing in more firefighters and limiting traffic on the bridge. The fires were reported contained just after 3:00, but firefighters were remaining on the scene to extinguish any hot spots left over. No injuries have been reported. Investigators don't know how the fires started yet.

Best wishes for this Christmas Day! There was a Christmas homecoming at Fort Hood, the loss of a house in East Austin this morning, and a look into the Hill Country home of America's 36th President.

Troops Return to Fort Hood

Happy Christmas Eve! Parts of Texas are looking at an honest-to-goodness white Christmas, Virginia puts a lump of coal in Rick Perry's stocking and a Justice Department ruling could affect a law taking effect in Texas in 2012.

Snow blankets West Texas, Rain Dampens Central Texas

Texas Gov. Rick Perry won't be on the ballot in the Virginia Republican primary on March 6.

Several media outlets are reporting that the Perry campaign failed to get the needed 10,000 valid petition signatures to qualify for the Super Tuesday contest.

The Washington Post reports that Perry's campaign chairman in Virginia didn't know how many signatures they gathered, But former Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore described the process of qualifying for the state's GOP presidential ballot as "a daunting task."

From the Post's Virginia Politics:

Governor Rick Perry Wraps Up Bus Tour Second Leg Today

Today is the last day of Governor Rick Perry's eight-day bus tour through Iowa. Tomorrow Perry will return to Texas for a brief Christmas break, then it's back to campaigning. KUT's Ben Philpott reports from the Iowa bus tour on whether this tour has helped his chances in the state.

Trinity River Defies Drought

Police in Denver City have canceled an Amber Alert for Devin Iban Tobar after the boy was found early Wednesday evening.

Devin is 2½ years old. Authorities say he went missing at about 2:20 p.m. Wednesday.