Terrence Henry, KUT News

Two weeks ago, a fire ignited at a fertilizer plant in the small Central Texas town of West, and 20 minutes later, a massive explosion killed 15 people. More than 200 were injured and nearly 150 homes destroyed.

Thursday, Texas lawmakers questioned state agencies that had oversight over the plant, but they didn’t get many answers.

The second Austin Food & Wine Festival wrapped Sunday, with a new setup and schedule.

While last year's festival was marred by long lines, little food and a dusty Auditorium Shores, a venue change to Butler Park (with plenty of grass and shade) and some tweaks to the schedule (with less events competing with each other) made for a vastly improved festival experience.

The investigation into what caused the fire at the West Fertilizer Plant that led to Wednesday's explosion is still ongoing. But officials say they’ve found no sign of criminal activity.

Investigators will also look into any safety or regulatory issues at the plant. But even at this early stage, there are signs that not all was right with the plant. The disaster has also brought up questions about how well regulation of facilities like these works in Texas.

Search and rescue efforts are still ongoing in the town of West outside of Waco. On Wednesday night, a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant rocked the small community. At least 200 were injured and twelve fatalities have been confirmed by state officials.

For the first full day after the blast, residents and first responders tried to understand what happened, while continuing search and rescue efforts. 

Thursday in West began with locals like Darryl Garrick thinking back to what had happened the night before. He lives just south of Main Street.

A word of warning: if you're going to see “Maidentrip” at SXSW Film this week (and by all means, you should), you may want to secure a large line of credit beforehand, as afterwards you'll likely have the inclination to go out, buy a boat, and set off to circumnavigate the globe.

The city of Branson, Missouri is home to under 11,000 permanent residents, but enjoys more than 7.5 million visitors a year. A new documentary premiering at SXSW Film this week takes a peek behind the rhinestone curtain to look at the lives of the performers when they’re not on stage. It’s called ‘We Always Lie to Strangers.’

Hurricane Katrina changed more than just the landscape of New Orleans. After the disaster, thousands of people moved away from the city, most of them black and poor. In the years since, the city has slowly been rebuilt. But what has become of its culture?

KUT News reports on a new film premiering today at the South by Southwest film festival, “Getting Back to Abnormal,” that tries to answer that question.

The longest part of the South by Southwest festival, the film portion, starts Friday. This is its 20th year, with more than 100 features to screen. KUT News talked with SXSW Film Festival Producer Janet Pierson about the festival's allure.

People love coming to the SXSW Film Festival – filmmakers and talent, they have a great time here; and partly it’s the magic of Austin, and it’s what happens with the Austin audiences.

Fracking has opened up huge deposits of oil and gas in Texas and other parts of the county. It’s brought plenty of jobs – and profits – to the state. But it also requires something Texas has in short supply these days: water. 

As Texas begins a third year of drought, conflicts with neighboring states over water are progressing as well. Now, as Terrence Henry reports for StateImpact Texas, one state lawmaker is hoping to bring some calm to Texas’ water wars.

There’s an abundance of water that’s available that flows into the Gulf of Mexico, and no one’s capturing the economic benefit from it.

We’re sitting on the edge of a massive global transformation.

Soon robots, globalization, consumption and pollution will all intersect to create a world that’s unlike anything humanity has every known. That’s according to former Vice President Al Gore’s new book, The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change.

Some people in the small East Texas town of Timpson are wondering if oil and gas drilling disposal wells are causing earthquakes in the area. The town registered its third earthquake in a week yesterday afternoon.

Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst is accusing one of his aides of stealing at least $600,000 from his campaign.

The Dallas Morning News reports that Kenneth “Buddy” Barfield, an Austin political consultant who has worked for Dewhurst for years, is alleged to have use accounting tricks and false invoices to take the money. The embezzlement allegedly goes back years, and could involve up to a million dollars of campaign funds.

If you're headed on a flight out of Austin today, you may want to heed official advice and get there 90 minutes early. Or maybe even a little earlier than that.

KUT's own Mose Buchele, a reporter for StateImpact Texas, sent us the photo above from the airport early this morning, well before the day's flight schedule had peaked. And it's only expected to get busier throughout the day. 

Republican incumbent Rep. Francisco "Quico" Canseco, R-San Antonio, was defeated by challenger state Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, for the 23rd congressional district, according to projections by the Texas Tribune. The district encompasses much of far West Texas, from San Antonio to El Paso along the border. With 82 percent of precincts reporting, Gallego has fifty percent of the vote to Canseco's 46 percent. 

The race was among just a handful of competitive races for congressional seats in Texas this fall, along with Republican Randy Weber’s race against Democrat Pete Lampson for the 10th congressional district.

Canseco was a Tea Party candidate who won office two years ago, but lost re-election to Gallego, who has served in the state legislature for 22 years.