Capital Metro staff started testing Sept. 2 to figure out how feasible it will be to add midday and evening service to the 32-mile commuter line that connects Leander to downtown Austin.

The Austin Chamber of Commerce awareded 24 Austin-area businesses during the chamber's 10th Annual Greater Austin Business Awards at the Hilton Austin Hotel Sept. 1. More than 300 businesses were nominated in six categories. The awards were founded in 2001 and have grown each year. Award categories included innovation, customer service, community service, education, environment and take on traffic. Each category recognized winners in small, medium, large business sizes and nonprofit.

Austin Pets Alive (APA), a local nonprofit dedicated to making Austin a no-kill city, now has its first Adoption and Resource Center at 2805 Manchaca Road allowing for an increase in adoptions as well as improved resources for animal care.

Austin is one step closer to seeing slick, Formula 1 cars driving over the horizon, after the Formula 1 United States Grad Prix team revealed Sept. 1 details of a racing track proposed to be developed southeast of Austin in Del Valle.

City officials convened at City Hall Aug. 30, in front of a backdrop of bustling traffic on Cesar Chavez Street, to announce the formation of the "Get Austin Moving" political action committee, a group whose goal is to support a transportation bond going to vote Nov. 2.

The potential rise in water and wastewater rates kept concerned Austin citizens and the City Council awake until the early morning hours Friday, after extensive discussions during the Aug. 27 City Council meeting.

During his first appearance in Austin as president, Barack Obama displayed the Hook ’em Horns to a crowd of nearly 3,000 people greeting him in the Gregory Gym at The University of Texas at Austin.

Residential property listings in the Austin area.

Real estate listings for the Central Austin market.

Channel Austin’s productions may cease if the studio loses its contract with the City of Austin to other management.

In the mid-1930s, just as the newly created Lower Colorado River Authority was setting up shop, the Colorado River experienced the basin’s three worst floods of the 20th century.

The Texas Legislature created the Third Court of Appeals in 1892. The court is composed of a chief justice and five justices. Place 4 is being vacated by Justice Jan Patterson, who is stepping down after 12 years in the position. Kurt Kuhn and Melissa Goodwin are both candidates for this position.

Austin Independent School District's TAKS scores and Central Austin-focused feeder chart.

AISD and Texas Disposal Systems is working together to launch a new educational food-waste composting program to teach youth the value of reusing food for other purposes that reduces the amount of waste that ends up in landfills.

For more than a century students have passed through the doors of the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and have come out with a newfound sense of self-reliance.

From Chez Zee to Threadgill’s to Moonshine, Central Austin has a plethora of brunch options available to satisfy those needing a greasy-food fix or simply searching for a morning meal away.

Central Austin's businesses on Barton Springs Road west of South Lamar Boulevard.

Celebrating its fifth year on South Congress Avenue—with an anniversary party Sept. 16 at 7 p.m.—Doc's Motorworks was founded by Neil Francois, Charles Milligan and Ted Karam with the idea to create a place where they would like to hang out and with food they would like to eat.

Instructors at the Orpheus Academy of Music on Far West Boulevard work diligently to teach their students the power of music.

Husband and wife Marco Fiorilo and Shanna Eldridge are providing Austin shoppers with a unique experience at their South Lamar boutique, Aviary Décor.

Impacts from local businesses in Central Austin.

A message from our general manager.

The economic snowball that is The University of Texas at Austin football is still rolling, picking up more momentum as it goes, impacting businesses, lodging and transportation throughout the Central Austin area.

Walking 6 feet above Lady Bird Lake, on a boardwalk colored in green shades, may soon be the future for Austinites seeking an inner city getaway if the 2010 Transportation Bond is adopted.

The latest news and updates from the Austin Independent School District.

Covered in more than 500 single-use plastic bags and riding on a three-wheeled bike across the country is the "bag monster," or Andy Keller, an advocate for the reusability of plastic bags and an educator on their negative environmental impact.

The Austin Fashion Awards show was an eclectic event, with nearly everyone in Austin's fashion scene attending. The red carpet was rolled out and into the Long Center for the Performing Arts came the hip, the fashionable and the curious. Dresses and evening gowns from label Celestino was featured on the catwalk as well as label Betsey Johnson along with several others. The awards show was a colorful and amazing way to celebrate the end of Austin Fashion Week in style, and to some is a testament to the growing fashion community in Austin.

Texas residents along the I-35 corridor will soon have a forum through which they can air their grievances with the congested highway with the beginning of several fall public workshops that will develop a blueprint for improving the corridor.

The dilapidated and ignored storefronts at 909 Congress Ave. may soon be developed into a 16-story office tower, but city regulation and nearby property owners are inhibiting the developer from moving forward.

Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce leaders are considering a move of the chamber’s headquarters located near St. Edwards University in South Austin.

Austin Fashion Week began in style with a kickoff runway show at GSD&M Idea City Aug. 14. The event featured many fashion designers, models and fashionable Austinites. The kickoff is a preview to the fashion that will be featured throughout Austin Fashion Week. The Austin Fashion Awards will be at 5:30 p.m. Sat., Aug. 21 at the Dell Hall in The Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive.

During his first appearance in Austin as the President of the United States, Barack Obama displayed the hook ‘em horns to a crowd of nearly 3,000 people roaring and waving in response at the University of Texas.

The Austin City Council approved the 2010 transportation bond unanimously Aug. 5 totaling $90 million in costs to be voted on by the public this November.

The House of Torment, one of Austin's biggest Halloween traditions, is looking for zombies, monsters, werewolves and other terrifying characters for this year's haunted house crew.

The acclaimed human anatomy exhibit, Our Body: The Universe Within, has come to Austin. The educational and artistic displays show the human interior from every conceivable angle. The exhibit tours all of the major systems in the body including the muscular, skeletal, cardiovascular and nervous systems. The MicroWorld display also gives viewers a look at healthy and diseased tissue in various organs, skin and cells using extreme magnification.

In the midst of a rough economy, sometimes all it takes to get a business off the ground is an innovative idea, a perseverant attitude and faith in something unknown.

The City of Austin has released its proposed $2.8 billion fiscal year 2011 budget that includes no layoffs for city staff, but does include a proposed property tax rate hike and raises for civilian and public safety city employees.

Formula One race promoter Tavo Hellmund announced July 27 that the Wandering Creek area in Del Valle has been proposed as the site of the United States' first purpose-built F1 racing track since the 1970s.

The Capital Metro Board of Directors approved the hiring of Linda Watson as the agency’s new Chief Executive Officer on July 26. Watson will start work at the transportation agency Aug. 16.

A Wells Fargo horse-driven stagecoach rolled up to a crowd of more than 40 community members Monday morning, carrying five officials from local charities and $60,000 in donations.

Joan Marshall, former executive director of the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, Calif., has been named as the new museum director of The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum effective Sept. 7.

In a breakfast presentation hosted by the Downtown Austin Alliance Wednesday morning, stakeholders and city officials discussed the feasibility of forming a downtown Transportation Management Association (TMA) that would exist for the purpose of solving downtown's traffic congestion problems.

Residential property listings in the Austin area

Real estate market data for the Central Austin Multiple Listing Service Areas

Numerous drivers around West Campus scavenge for a free parking spot in an effort to avoid meters, but a new parking plan may soon have everyone paying.

The Texas State Board of Education comprises 15 members elected to represent districts for four-year terms.

Community-supported agriculture, often called CSA, is a way to buy a "share" of the harvest directly from a farmer.