Update: Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg has been testifying since this morning in what is Day Two of her civil trial.

It’s been slow-going, stop and go with technicalities. Both the prosecution and the defense teams are very experienced attorneys, aware what’s at stake is the job of the highest-ranking prosecutor in Travis County.

Sometimes questions seem to repeat themselves, except for a word or two. The situation became so hard to process that visiting Judge David Peeples asked prosecutors at one point, “Can you come up with something new?” and “Are you going somewhere with this?”

When prosecutors responded they were, Judge Peeples replied “Well, get there.”

From StateImpact Texas:

A lot of people who walk or drive past Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin probably assume it’s a natural feature. They appreciate the trails and parks that line the lake's 416 acres, unaware of the series of floodgates on the Longhorn Dam that hold its waters in. But recent flooding along the waterway has called attention to longstanding mechanical problems at the dam, problems that the City of Austin is aware of, but hasn't found the money to address.

While its been called the "jewel in the crown" of Austin, Lady Bird Lake was created to serve a utilitarian purpose: to provide water for a now-decommissioned gas power plant in the Holly neighborhood of East Austin. Because of its connection to the power plant, the dam is operated under the supervision of Austin Energy, the city's publicly-owned electric utility. Built in 1960, the floodgates on Longhorn Dam have stored and released water from the lake for over 50 years. Now that age is showing.

A new poll released this week shows Texans strongly support reforming how the state punishes non-violent drug offenses. The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Effective Justice polled over 1,000 people about how Texas currently punishes non-violent drug offenders with prison time vs. drug rehab and probation.  

For the past several years, a rotating collection of local artists have been gathering together every weekend to sell their wares at the Gibson Street Artisan Market. Located at a South Congress lot just north of Gibson Street, the market features a wide variety of arts and crafts, all handmade locally and usually sold directly by the artists.

You'll find paintings, jewelry, functional art such as pottery and plenty more. Dogs are welcome and there are a couple of food carts on the premises as well, so it's a great place to do a little weekend holiday shopping.

U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Friendswood, has filed to run against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the March GOP primary, joining at least eight other hopefuls vying for the senior senator's seat, according to a spokesman with the Republican Party of Texas. 

Stockman, who had filed for re-election in Congressional District 36, had to withdraw from that race to seek Cornyn's seat.

The University of Texas System Board of Regents plans to discuss the employment of University of Texas at Austin President Bill Powers during a closed-door executive session at its board meeting on Thursday.

Powers' job at the flagship university, which he has held for nearly eight years, has been believed by some to be in jeopardy since the appointment of new board members in 2011. Multiple board meetings have been preceded by rumors of his impending ousting, but the speculation has consistently proven incorrect.

Think of the Austin skyline as a canvas. Despite all those cranes and construction, it doesn’t change very much on a day-to-day basis.

Andrew Takano’s very familiar with the skyline’s appearance. He filmed and produced two time-lapse videos documenting the city: a haunting tour of the city at night, and an amazing journey through downtown, sunrise through sunset.

In his latest time-lapse video, “Start Fresh: Never Give Up,” he turns to a much more dynamic medium: the HOPE Outdoor Gallery at Castle Hill. 

Librarians are keeping late hours. Coffee shops are serving up triple-shot drinks to zombie-like customers. They’re all signs of one thing: college finals week.

The end of the semester creates an immense amount of stress on campus, which students handle with varying degrees of success. This year, area universities are providing a wider variety of services and resources to help students cope with the stress and anxiety.

In addition to their regular services, the Counseling and Mental Health Center at the University of Texas at Austin is hosting some more unorthodox events. In addition to offering stress management tips for students and promoting its online resource, Stress Recess, the counseling center is bringing therapy dogs to the Perry-Castañeda Library today, Monday, Dec. 9, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Earlier this year, Texas lawmakers passed a law (House Bill 5) reducing high school testing and changing graduation requirements. The changes don’t fully go into effect until next school year, but one portion was immediately implemented: new attendance requirements.

Right now, all high school students must attend at least 90 percent of classes to receive credit. If they attend less than 75 to 89 percent of class, then they must create a plan with their school principal to complete missed work and lessons. If students don’t take that step, they risk failing the class or grade, and must petition the district's school board to see whether or not they can advance to the next grade level.

But under HB 5’s new attendance requirement, all students – kindergarten through 12th grade – must meet that 90 percent attendance mark. 

When a heroin epidemic swept through North Texas in the 1990s, it left at least two dozen young people dead. Then the drug seemed to go into hibernation.

Now the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says it’s seeing an alarming number of women from affluent Dallas suburbs buying heroin. And, for many, the addiction begins with prescription pain pills.

Aside from racial and ethnic slurs, there aren't many words that prompt a more immediate and visceral response than "hipster." Many associate the term with craft beer, smugness and, of course, Brooklyn. Modern-day hipsters have inspired a huge number of Tumblrs, memes and trend pieces in the media.

It may seem like hipsters sprang up out of nowhere sometime in the late 1990s, but the original hipsters were around several generations before that. And they were strongly associated with another uniquely American phenomenon — jazz.

On this edition of In Black America, producer/host John L. Hanson Jr. speaks with Carla Kaplan, Professor of American Literature at Northeastern University and author of "Miss Anne In Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance."

Little could be more unusual in the 1920’s than for white, upper-class women to seek to become, in effect, honorary blacks. "Miss Anne in Harlem," is the first book to tell the story of a number of spirited white women who did just that: crossing race lines to play seminal roles in the great black cultural movement of the early twentieth century that came to be called the Harlem Renaissance.