News Values

1. Novelty - This article most likely catches the attention of people, as it did with me because it's about an unusual animal species that is coming in conflict with a drilling company.

Found at the Austin American Statesman.

Judge sides with drillers, lifts rare bird’s protections

Lesser prairie chicken off threatened species list after oil groups’ suit.

ByAsher Price asherprice@statesman.com  

   In a win for oil and gas interests, a federal judge removed special habitat protections for an imperiled prairie grouse, whose range includes parts of West Texas, after ruling that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service didn’t follow its own rules when it put the animal on a threatened species list.

   Senior U.S. District Judge Rob Junell struck down the threatened species designation of the lesser prairie chicken, known for its colorful spring mating display and stout build.

   Drillers say they will continue conservation efforts

   — including ceasing of some operations during the lesser prairie chicken’s breeding season — but the decision to de-list the species appears to remove a federal hammer in case the drillers abandon those pledges.

   “There’s not that threat that the federal government can step in and cease actions,” said Ben Shepperd, president of the Midland-based Permian Basin Petroleum Association, one of the plaintiffs in the case.

   The petroleum association and several New Mexico counties argued — and Junell agreed

   — that the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to properly evaluate a regional plan developed by five states (Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado) to conserve the prairie chicken. The plan calls for industry and landowners to pay an enrollment fee to help finance conservation efforts.

   Junell ruled that the Fish and Wildlife Service acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” by not giving the regional plan a chance before making the threatened species listing in April 2014.

   A threatened listing means the species is likely to become in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future; it is a step below endangered and allows for more flexibility in how the Endangered Species Act’s protections are implemented.

   The wildlife service has considered the lesser prairie chicken to be in trouble for at least 15 years. Once abundant across much of the five states, the lesser prairie chicken’s historical range of native grasslands and prairies has been reduced by an estimated 84 percent. In 2013, its population declined to 17,616 birds, an almost 50 percent reduction from the 2012 population estimate. The states’ conservation plan has a population goal of 67,000 birds.

   The judge’s decision “is a win for local governance, about states getting together for conservation efforts that work,” said Stephen Robertson, executive vice president of the petroleum association.

   But, he added, there are “still a lot of questions out there about what (the decision) is really going to mean into the far future.”

   The federal government is now weighing its options.

   “We are very disappointed with the judge’s decision and are now considering options in conjunction with our legal counsel,” said Brian Hires, a Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman.

   Noah Greenwald, endangered species director of the Center for Biological Diversity environmental group, condemned the ruling.

   “This decision turns the Endangered Species Act on its head by concluding the Fish and Wildlife Service should have given the benefit of the doubt to the oil and gas industry, rather than a species that has seen its habitat and populations vanish,” Greenwald said in a statement. “The lesser prairie chicken was first identified as needing protection in 1995, yet the oil and gas industry did nothing to ensure its survival for 20 years until regulations were proposed to protect it.”

   The decision by a judge to vacate an endangered or threatened species listing is “extremely rare,” said Melinda Taylor, a University of Texas law professor. Taylor is part of a legal team that represents conservation bankers who are trying to sell credits to industry to offset impacts on prairie chicken habitat.

2. Human Interest - This article is concerning to people and catches their attention after discovering that someone was shot and the shooter/s haven't been found yet.

Found at the Austin American Statesman.

Hunt for 3 suspects widens after Illinois officer’s death

By Don Babwin Associated Press

   FOX LAKE, ILL. — Authorities broadened the hunt Wednesday for three suspects wanted in the fatal shooting of a popular Illinois police officer, even as they acknowledged that they had no indication the men were still in the area where the slaying happened.

   After an intensive 14-hour “grid search” of homes, railroad tracks and marshland in the village of Fox Lake, the manhunt turned to the painstaking detective work of chasing down tips, collecting and reviewing surveillance video and interviewing residents near the crime scene. Meanwhile, new search teams rippled out into subdivisions beyond the initial 2-square-mile perimeter established on Tuesday. At least 100 investigators were on the ground.

   A major challenge for investigators was the lack of a description of the suspects beyond the vague one that came from the officer, who told dispatchers he was pursuing three suspicious men

   — two white, one black — moments before he was shot.

   “That was the only description provided,” said Lake County Major Crimes Task Force Cmdr. George Filenko, the lead investigator on the case. “So of course we’re getting the public calling in every time they see that match of three individuals or even two individuals. We’ve closed out those leads completely as being unsubstantiated.”

   Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, a 30-year police veteran, was shot Tuesday morning while pursuing three men he spotted on his way to work along a roadway with nothing around but open fields and abandoned-looking businesses, Filenko said. Gliniewicz told dispatchers the men ran into a swampy area, and he requested a second unit.

   Backup officers found him about 50 yards from his squad car with a gunshot wound. He died soon after.

   Filenko said there was no indication he was intentionally targeted, though authorities did not rule out that possibility.

   The initial search for his killers involved law enforcement agencies from across the state. Some wore tactical gear and toted high-powered rifles. Officers took up positions on rooftops and along railroad tracks and scanned the terrain through rifle scopes and binoculars. Others leaned out of helicopters with weapons at the ready.

   On Tuesday night, they declared the initial search zone clear, allowing investigators to begin poring over the crime scene and surrounding area.

   Still, they knocked on doors with caution.

   “I believe that the search teams did a thorough job, but I know there have been a number of national incidents where suspects have cleverly escaped or hidden in place,” Filenko said. “So anything’s possible.”

3. Conflict - This article is about the conflict between the City Council and the Austin Police Department over the issue of adding new police officers next year.

Found at the Austin American Statesman.

Council not sold on plan to add cops

Austin police chief wants more than 80 new officers next year.

By PhilipJankowski pjankowski@statesman.com  

   The Austin Police Department’s push for more than 80 new officers next year appears to be on the ropes as City Council members are exploring other options as they weigh the city’s proposed budget.

   Police Chief Art Acevedo wants the new officers as part of a five-year plan that would give police officers more free time to be out in the community making personal contact with residents and business owners. Police leaders say they need to hire 410 patrol officers over the next five years to increase the amount of uncommitted time for officers from its current level of 19 percent to 30 percent.

   But some council members are balking at the cost and question the philosophy behind community policing.

   District 8 Council Member Ellen Troxclair has proposed reducing all new police hires for next year, including more than 20 civilians, to a total of 53. Meanwhile, District 5 Council Member Ann Kitchen has proposed cutting the total number of officers hired to 41.

   Council members also have been skeptical of the amorphous nature of the police proposal. The Police Department currently has no way of tracking how officers would spend their uncommitted time while on the job, and it had no readily available model from other cities to compare.

   On Tuesday, Mayor Steve Adler said he was generally supportive of the idea of community policing.

   “But the thinking is perhaps the Police Department had not thought that through, that there wasn’t a best-practices model,” Adler said during a budget workshop meeting.

   Council Member Don Zimmerman has stated multiple times that the idea of improving community relationships by having more police officers spending time looking to “throw a football with a kid” didn’t make sense, in light of the “abysmal” rate at which Austin police solve crimes.

   The department has a projected clearance rate of 14.3 percent for violent crimes and property crimes, such as burglary and auto thefts, which is above the national average for a large city.

   “We pay a lot of taxes for the police to solve crimes, not to build relationships, but to solve crimes,” Zimmerman said last week. “But they’re not mutually exclusive. Because when you go to solve those property crimes, you’re going to build relationships, good relationships for the people that need your services.”

   The department proposes to hire 24 officers at the beginning of the fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. An additional 58 would be hired six months later.

   But those new hires wouldn’t hit the streets as full-fledged officers until more than a year and a half after their hire dates, after they complete police acad- In the light of several incidents across the country, and specifically the case against former Austin police Detective Charles “Trey” Kleinert, who has been charged in the on-duty killing of Larry Jackson Jr., Austin police feel building relationships through community policing is more urgent than ever.

   “I think everybody realizes that the legitimacy of what we do and how we do it is under a level of scrutiny that it’s not been under in decades,” police Chief of Staff Brian Manley said. “That’s why these relationships are so important at this time.”

   Generating community engagement by giving officers more uncommitted time is a pendulum shift away from how officers’ time on the job has changed with the increased use of technology.

   Data-based policing and other technology has led to more time spent in patrol cars and behind desks than time spent walking the beat and generating leads through positive relationships with residents and business owners.

   “In the ’80s and ’90s, I think we didn’t have enough technology so it required us to get out a little bit more,” Assistant Chief Troy Gay said. “Right now, we are a very reactive department, and we have very little time to get out of our cars to have a positive interaction.”

 

4. Impact -This article about migrants fleeing countries and being prevented and killed really makes me wonder how this is going to impact our world and the people in it. Will this change a system in the future?

Found at the Austin American Statesman.

Chaos mounts outside Hungary train station

Migrants pour into capital as leaders search for solution.

Dan Bilefsky, Rick Lyman and Anemona Hartocollis ©2015 The New York Times

   BUDAPEST, HUNGARY — A ragged metropolis of thousands of weary and bedraggled migrants continued to rise Wednesday outside Keleti train station.

   The Hungarian authorities, saying they were merely obeying European migration regulations, continued to keep migrants out of the station, despite having allowed thousands onto westbound trains Monday.

   At the same time, the desperate migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Afghanistan — most of them hoping to reach Germany — continued to pour over the border from Serbia, where the construction of a razor-wire fence seems to have barely slowed them down.

   While European ministers squabbled and made preparations for a series of meetings to discuss the crisis, the squalid city outside Keleti grew and festered, developing new suburbs by the hour.

   “We are sleeping in trash,” said Ramadan Mustafa, 23, a chef from the Syrian city of Qamishli. “We don’t know what to do. It’s a matter of human rights.”

   Hundreds of thousands of migrants have been seeking refuge in Europe, only to find themselves confronted with a patchwork of incoherent asylum policies across the 28-member European Union. At the same time, anti-immigrant sentiment, stoked by far-right political parties, is fostering a backlash in some countries, including Britain, France and Hungary.

   Keleti was not Wednesday’s only flashpoint.

   At least 11 migrants drowned trying to make the sea crossing from Turkey to Greece — from which they hoped to begin the difficult journey to Hungary. A photo of a police officer cradling a drowned child’s body on a Turkish beach became a worldwide social media meme for the crisis.

   One of the proudest glories of the European Union — the ability to travel freely, without border checks, from Estonia to Portugal — was splintering under the pressure.

   Police officers from Hungary and adjoining nations conducted spot checks on trains, demanding documents from suspected migrants.

   Still, German authorities expected more migrants to find ways to evade the restrictions

   — and even hinted that, with a possible agreement on handling the crisis in the works, some might even be permitted to travel directly from Budapest in coming days.

 

5. Prominence - This article is about Obama and his recent success with an issue. Since he is our current president and does things on account of our country, he is very newsworthy.

Found at the Austin American Statesman.

Obama has the votes for Iran deal

Md. senator’s support means nuclear accord can survive rejection.

By Karoun Demirjian and Carol Morello Washington Post

   WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama scored a major foreign policy victory Wednesday after securing enough votes in the Senate to preserve the nuclear deal with Iran, which has come under intense criticism from Republicans and some Democrats.

   The agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, struck by international negotiators in Vienna in July, was the subject of an intense lobbying campaign in recent weeks by both the administration and the deal’s opponents in advance of an expected vote as early as next week on a resolution to block the deal’s implementation.

   Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., on Wednesday morning said she would back the agreement, making her the 34th senator to pledge support for the Iran deal in the Senate. This means that opponents will not be able to collect the two-thirds supermajority vote needed to override Obama’s promised veto of any legislative attempt to dismantle the nuclear pact.

   “No deal is perfect, especially one negotiated with the Iranian regime. I have concluded that this Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is the best option available to block Iran from having a nuclear bomb,” Mikulski said in a statement explaining her decision.

   In recent weeks, all eyes have been focused on about a dozen undecided senators    — including Mikulski — whose votes were seen as potentially making or breaking the deal. The pressure on those lawmakers has been intense, as the deal’s champions and detractors have wielded everything from entreaties to campaign threats in trying to win their votes.

   Congress secured an unorthodox role for itself in the negotiations earlier this year by passing legislation demanding a chance for lawmakers to review the accord that the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany were negotiating with Iran to rein in Tehran’s nuclear development program.

   The deal they struck trades promises from Iran to mothball centrifuges, cut enriched-uranium stockpiles and accept tight oversight in exchange for a stage-by-stage lifting of sanctions that have hamstrung the Iranian economy.

   Lobbying groups and lawmakers opposed to the deal have spent countless hours and millions of dollars in an effort to block its implementation.

   Since the agreement was reached in July, they have complained that it doesn’t do enough to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and, at best, only delays its pathway to becoming an armed nuclear state. Even those on the fence have openly worried that Iran might funnel some of the money that gets pumped back into its economy after sanctions are lifted into nefarious activities, including funding groups that pose a direct threat to Israel.

   “The only reason the ayatollah and his henchmen aren’t dancing in the streets of Tehran is they don’t believe in dancing,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who is also running for president , said after Mikulski’s announcement.

   Israeli news media reported Mikulski’s declaration as a clear loss for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has spent years warning that a nuclear Iran poses an existential threat to Israel. Earlier this year he took the extraordinary step of directly confronting Obama in a speech before Congress.

   But Obama and his proxies have argued that the deal is the best agreement they could have secured, that there is no alternative to it but war with Iran and that those angling to rip up the current deal and call Iran back to the negotiating table do not have a viable alternative.

   Secretary of State John Kerry stressed these points and responded to criticism of the deal in letters he sent to the Senate and House on Wednesday, in which he called Israel’s security “sacrosanct” and noted that the United States and Israel were working out a memorandum of understanding to “cement for the next decade” what he called “unprecedented levels of military assistance.”

   That assistance is expected to include advanced F-35 fighter aircraft, funding to develop newer defense systems, and efforts to identify and destroy tunnels that could be used in efforts to harm Israeli citizens. Obama and Netanyahu have already spoken about countering threats to Israel , Kerry noted.

   In Israel, the immediate reaction was muted.

   One senior Israeli official close to Netanyahu said, “Whatever is going on in Congress does not change the dangers facing the Middle East from the agreement as it has been currently presented.”

   A second Israel official indicated Netanyahu will keep attacking the deal.

   “The prime minister has a responsibility to point out the flaws of an agreement that endangers Israel, the region and the world — and he will continue to do so,” he said.

6. Proximity - This article is written about UT, which is a campus in Austin, and it was also located in the Metro and State section of the newspaper.

Found at the Austin American Statesman.

UT students showcase solar home for contest

NexusHaus team one of 20 in Department of Energy competition.

ByAsher Price asherprice@statesman.com  

   University of Texas students and faculty are hustling to finish a state-of-the-art house capable of consuming no more energy than it produces and no more water than it collects, one they hope will win a federal competition that prizes sustainability.

   NexusHaus is the name of the house that UT students are entering into the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition.

   The 850-square-foot house, built in a sleek, modular style, will be measured on everything from market appeal to affordability.

   The building, which will be shipped to California on Sept. 24 for the competition, is still very much under construction, with a ribbon-cutting on Tuesday evening held amid half-finished walls.

   But the NexusHaus team, which involves more than 60 students from UT and the Technische Universität München in Germany, has already come a long way.

   It was one of 20 selected for the prestigious competition out of more than 150 teams that applied, and six of those 20 finalists, including Stanford and Yale, have already dropped out, say members of the UT team.

   “It’s a war of attrition,” said Charles Upshaw, a graduate student in mechanical engineering who is a team captain of the project.

   In keeping with the architectural vernacular of Central Texas, the building is designed in a “dog-trot porch” configuration, with two rectangular modules connected by a 12-foot breezeway, allowing for cross-ventilation.

   Equipped with its own solar array, a rainwater collection unit, and a gray water system to direct used water from a shower and sink to a garden rather than the sewer, the building is meant to be as efficient as possible while maintaining steady, uniform indoor environmental conditions and allowing its inhabitants to make use of the same appliances as in most U.S. homes.

   This concept house, which the team has spent two years designing and now building, costs roughly $250,000 to produce, said Michael Garrison, a UT architecture professor who is overseeing the project.

   Following the competition, it will be used as staff housing at the McDonald Observatory near Fort Davis.

   But the long-term goal is to mass-produce the house at no more than half that cost, to use, essentially, as garage apartments around Austin. For now, the team is concentrating on finishing the concept house. “We’ve been working frantically to get it all finished,” Upshaw said.

   The month of May was essentially washed out because of heavy rains, he said.

   “It gives me a greater appreciation for construction management,” he said.

   The Solar Decathlon is a competition held every two years that promotes the use of solar technologies in buildings.

   This year’s competition will be in Irvine, Calif. The homes that make it to California will be open to the public free of charge, giving visitors the chance to gather ideas to use in their own homes and learn how energy-saving features can help them save money.

 

7. Timeliness - This article shows timeliness because it's talking about sports that just recently happened or are going to happen in the next few days.

Found at the Austin American Statesman.

Altered roster enters playoffs

Several new arrivals join Express heading into PCL postseason.

By Kevin Lyttle klyttle@statesman.com  

   Now that the Round Rock Express know they’re in the Triple-A playoffs, they can spend a little time on introductions.

   The Pacific Coast League postseason starts next Wednesday night at Dell Diamond, with Round Rock playing either Oklahoma City or Iowa in a best-of-five series. Tickets are on sale for the first playoff contests at the Dell in four years.

   The Express (75-63), who return home this Labor Day weekend to close the regular season, have seven players who weren’t with the team at the start of the week. They lost four players when the Texas Rangers expanded their roster Tuesday.    “When you have two clubs in playoff races, you serve the big-league club first,” Round Rock manager Jason Wood said on Wednesday. “That was the first wave. There will be a second wave at some point.

   “But you can’t just completely deplete this team that’s won 75 games, and the Rangers understand that. We do a good job throughout the system developing players, and we’ve got replacements in Double A who will fill some shoes.”

   Lewis Brinson, for one. The 21-year-old Brinson, who’s listed as the Rangers’ fourth-best prospect, according to MLB.  com  , will pair with 20-year-old Nomar Mazara, the second-ranked prospect, to cover the corner outfield spots. Wood batted them 1-2 Tuesday night, and they combined to go 4 for 8 with four runs scored and three RBIs.

   “It’s exciting to see what they can do at the top of the lineup,” Wood said. “We don’t have a prototypical leadoff hitter. Lewis has got some speed and power. Nomar hits the ball all over the park. They’re an interesting mix.”

   Brinson, who started the year in Class A, is batting .324 with 19 home runs and 66 RBIs. Mazara, recently promoted to Round Rock from Double-A Frisco, is batting .290 with 14 homers and 68 RBIs.

   Versatile Drew Robinson could be a big help, too.

   “He can play all over the infield or in the outfield and has a lot of power,” Wood said of the 23-year-old who clubbed 21 homers at Frisco this year.

   Round Rock also retains core players like veteran infielders Ed Lucas and Thomas Field, center fielder Jared Hoying and catcher Brett Nicholas.

   “These guys have done such a good job all year,” said Wood, who has won division titles the past three years at three different minor-league levels. “They’re happy with the environment they’re in, and every one has a plan and sticks to it. At this level, they know their role. For my staff, it’s not really about developing them, it’s more about keeping them comfortable.”

   The Express front office received word that Round Rock had clinched the divisional title Tuesday afternoon, but the coaching staff didn’t tell the players until that night after a 10-5 victory at Nashville.

   “We enjoyed a few cold (alcoholic) beverages,” Wood said. “It’s too bad we couldn’t be at our park, but we’ll celebrate at home this weekend.”

   The four games with Iowa will be critical to the I-Cubs, who still have a chance to overtake Oklahoma City in their division and end up as Round Rock’s playoff opponent.

   “We’ll give guys some rest for the postseason, but Iowa has a lot at stake, so we’ll go after them,” Wood said. “We take a lot of pride in how we play at home.”