Austin

The Austin Humane Society will offer free adoptions this Saturday. Adoption fees are typically over $80 for dogs and cats.

All animals will be spayed or neutered with current vaccinations and microchips. And the pets come with 30 days of pet health insurance and a bag of food.

The Humane Society will be open from noon to 7 p.m. Those wishing to adopt will need to fill out an application and pass an interview.

Study Advises APD to Grow with City

A new study commissioned by the City of Austin recommends the Austin Police Department increase its staffing numbers by over 250 by 2017.

The study, released by the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit organization which has studied police departments around the nation, suggested APD increase its officer-to-population ratio to 2.11 officers per one thousand residents. Right now, Austin has 2.08 officers per one thousand residents.

The department spends 57 percent of its time responding to calls, leaving little time “to engage the community, solve local crime and disorder problems, or patrol hot spots,” says the report. The study recommends aiming to drop the time spent responding to calls to 45 percent.

Just months before Formula One arrives in Austin, city officials left today to tour the F1 Silverstone circuit in Northampton, England, and meet with race and safety officials.

Mayor Lee Leffingwell and City Manager Marc Ott have their full travel expenses covered the Circuit of the Americas, the organization responsible for building the Austin-area track and hosting the race.

The other city officials, including Police Chief Art Acevedo and Fire Chief Rhonda Mae Kerr, have a portion of their expenses covered; their flights are being paid for with approximately $5,500 in city taxpayer dollars.

The Austin and Travis County fire departments have responded to dozens of grass and trash fires in the last 24 hours. Crews responded to 29 small grass fires and 11 trash fires.

But, they say, for a hot, dry Fourth of July, there were actually fewer fires than they expected.

Most of the fires are still under investigation but Battalion Chief Thayer Smith says fireworks were likely involved in many.

“When you have 29 grass fires on the 4th of July and on the 3rd of July you only had two, certainly you would expect that the majority of those grass fires are obviously going to be related to fireworks in some form or fashion," said Smith.

Beloved Austin Family Doctor Dies

Dr. Mathis Blackstock, a well-known Austin doctor, died Tuesday from melanoma. He was 87.

According to his obituary, Dr. Blackstock remained engaged with former patients and doctors at the Blackstock Family Health Center, named for him, until about two weeks ago. In the 1970s, he helped found a clinic at the San Jose Catholic Church in South Austin in order to serve underprivileged patients.

The funeral for Blackstock will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, 4700 Grover Ave. Dr. Blackstock is survived by three children and a wife of 63 years.

While Austin doesn’t hold a citywide Fourth of July parade, it’s somewhat of a tradition for individual neighborhoods to hold their own Independence Day celebrations. 

KUT News traveled to the Delwood II neighborhood July 4th parade this morning. It’s the 50th annual parade the neighbors have held (which they claim makes it the longest running neighborhood parade in the city.)

A parade to honor Iraq War Veterans is scheduled to take place this Saturday, July 7.  The event was inspired by a parade in St. Louis, Missouri.

“We figured that if St. Louis could do it, we could do it,” said Conor Kenny, the event’s head organizer. “This plan was hatched over beers one night, and that’s when we decided to do this whole thing.”

The team of Austinites that organized the event is expecting a wide range of people to participate in the parade, reflecting the diversity and “weirdness” of Austin.

Pack Your Picnic: Info on Tonight’s Fireworks Show

Thousands are expected to flock to Auditorium Shores for the Austin Symphony July 4th Concert and Fireworks.

The symphony will start its performance at 8:30 p.m. The fireworks show will run from 9:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

If you’re planning to attend, leave behind all alcohol, glass and Styrofoam. Smoking is not allowed and neither is grilling – because of the number of people expected to be at Auditorium Shores.