Mario Jacinto

Plan on shooting some fireworks off this July 4th?

KUT News recently traveled out to a fireworks stand along Highway 290 to see how sellers were faring. Sales are up from last year, when a ban on fireworks was in effect, but American Fireworks proprietor Keith Coober noted the challenges in a business where you can sales only come on the Fourth and New Year’s.

Republic of Texas Rally riders shared a moment of silence this morning, in a memorial service honoring military and law enforcement members before gearing up for the day's ride.  

The ceremony took place at the Cook-Walden home in Pflugerville. After a blessing of the bikes, riders revved up their engines and took to the highway for this weekend's events.   

The City of Austin is planning to temporarily close Wooldridge Square Park downtown for landscape renovations. The measure will affect several homeless people who call the park home.

KUT News recently spoke with a few Wooldridge regulars who spend most of their days there.

You can listen to interviews with "Ken," "Bruce" and "Michael" by KUT News  interns Mario Jacinto and Filipa Rodrigues above.

As part of a national day of action, undocumented students rallied on the University of Texas campus yesterday in support of the DREAM act.

Students United for the Dream Act called for rallies across the country on Thursday, to urge for passage of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors act, which provides undocumented youth a path to legal citizenship in the United States.

Undocumented youth from Austin and San Antonio, joined by members of the University Democrats, gathered and spoke on the lawn near the LBJ library at UT yesterday. KUT News captured audio from the event's speakers, embedded above.

A small band of Austinites braved the rain this afternoon to rally in support of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, one of the largest organizations of Catholic nuns in the U.S.

Eight protesters assembled outside of St. Mary's Cathedral in downtown Austin, holding signs reading "In solidarity with Women Religious" and "I stand with LCWR." Similar protests were scheduled in other cities today, including Dallas and New York.

On April 18, the Vatican issued a report chastising the LCWR for an insufficiently hardline stance on homosexuality that places it “outside the Church’s teaching,” and “a prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”