Reporting Texas
News and features from UT-Austin's School of Journalism
byMax Mazoch
Michelle MacAlpine knew something was wrong when white steam escaped from her home’s air vents. Before long, her home in Manor lacked air conditioning in the 107-degree August heat.
“Typical Whisper Valley,” MacAlpine said.
MacAlpine has lived in Whisper Valley, Texas’s first geothermal community, for seven years. Developers marketed the neighborhood, which completed construction of its first homes east of Austin in 2017, as having an affordable cost of living thanks to the solar-panelled roofs and a geothermal system that connects to each home to provide energy-efficient heating and cooling.
But as their homes age, Whisper Valley residents report failing geothermal HVAC systems and foundations that have left them with bills in the thousands of dollars.
byMikhelia Williams
Austin’s firefighters union derailed its own tentative contract this week after launching a petition for a citywide vote to require four-person staffing on all fire engines, a new demand city officials say should have been raised at the bargaining table, not after months of negotiations. The four-year, $63 million agreement had been scheduled for a […]
byMikhelia Williams
Long before tech bros and $8 matchas, the South Austin neighborhood of Bouldin Creek had wandering peacocks in its front yards. Nearly six decades later, the colorful birds are still strutting through driveways, shrieking at sunrise and sunning themselves on porch railings.
And in true old-Austin, keep-it-weird fashion, most residents like it that way.
Neighbors slow to a stop on Oltorf and Fifth streets to let the peahens saunter across the street. Some even leave birdseed on their steps just in case one decides to drop by. But not everyone who moved to 78704 understood the culture when they arrived.
byDestiny Lewis
Abby Moore, catcher for the Arlington High School baseball team, finally has a route to play professional ball.
For the first time in more than 70 years, women in the United States will have a professional baseball league built for them.
The league held its first-ever player draft Thursday, streamed live on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
More than 100 draft-eligible players from 10 countries were in contention, along with thousands of young girls who suddenly have a future in a sport that once shut them out.
Moore, 18, had already built a résumé that positioned her as one of the youngest serious prospects in the inaugural draft.
