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(Arnold Garcia/Facebook)
Arnold Garcia, one of the nation's longest-serving Hispanic editorial page editors and a leading voice in Austin's recent growth as a large and diverse city, died early today at the age of 73.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, which was diagnosed in June. In December, his wife Vida died, also of cancer.
Garcia graduated from Angelo State University and began his career as a police reporter for the San Angelo Standard Times. Garcia recently recalled that a police dispatcher nicknamed him "Wet" for Wetback. As he often did in later years, Garcia let the slur pass and the dispatcher became one of the young reporter's best sources.
He worked for the Austin American-Statesman for 38 years, the last 22 as editorial page editor. When he retired in 2013, he was the longest-serving editorial page editor in Texas.
"One of the greats of our newspaper generation," said Zita Aroche, executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
While editor, said his close friend Mack Martinez, "Arnold fought as hard for African Americans as he did for Hispanics and as he did for working-class people."
During his reporting at the Statesman, no one knew the innards of the Travis County Courthouse better than Garcia. Judges, lawyers, government workers and felons became his sources, and Garcia remained one of the best-sourced journalists in the capital. His network "extended from the barrio to the boardroom," said Martinez.
Garcia successfully campaigned to have the new county courthouse named for Heman Sweatt, a black civil rights activist who challenged Jim Crow-era laws, including the "separate but equal" doctrine in Sweatt v. Painter. Thurgood Marshall tried the lawsuit in Austin.
Alberta Phillips, an editorial writer who worked with Garcia, said he told her that she needed to harden herself against racism she was experiencing inside and outside the newsroom. Garcia had a back door in his office that many reporters, especially those of color, slipped through to get his advice and support when they ran into similar challenges.
Austonia's Editorial Adviser Rich Oppel, editor of the Statesman for 13 of Garcia's years there, said he was "one of the finest newspaper men or women I've ever worked for. Tough, blunt, honest, and a friend and colleague all could depend on."
He added, "Over the last decades of his editorship, Austin matured as a large, sophisticated, diverse and tolerant city--and the capital of a huge state. Arnold Garcia's imprint is all over Austin."
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(Tesla)
Giga Texas, the massive Tesla factory in southeast Travis County is getting even bigger.
The company filed with the city of Austin this week to expand its headquarters with a new 500,000-square-foot building. The permit application notes “GA 2 and 3 expansion,” which indicates the company will make two general assembly lines in the building.
More details about the plans for the building are unclear. The gigafactory has been focused on Model Y production since it opened in April, but the company is also aiming for Cybertruck production to kick off in mid-2023.
While there is room for expansion on the 3.3 square miles of land Tesla has, this move comes after CEO Elon Musk’s recent comments about the state of the economy and its impact on Tesla.
In a May interview with Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, Musk said the gigafactories in Berlin and Austin are “gigantic money furnaces” and said Giga Texas had manufactured only a small number of cars.
And in June, Musk sent a company wide email saying Tesla will be reducing salaried headcount by 10%, then later tweeted salaried headcount should be fairly flat.
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(Dullnig Ranch Sales)
You’ll have to leave city limits if you’re looking for a proper ranch property like 417 Acres Shipp Lake Ranch, aptly named for its acreage. The property comes built out with three farmhouses, one of which has bedrooms and two bathrooms and two of which have two bedrooms and one bathroom. The nearly untouched property, which surrounds the 100-plus-acre Shipp Lake, has remained in the same family since the early 1900s and gives you picturesque views for the making of a dream home. In fact, the previous owners ran a water ski camp on the property.
Sitting waterside on Lake Austin, this home gives you the unique opportunity to own a piece of the lush Hill Country with views of Mount Bonnell. The 2,750-square foot, three-bedroom, four-bathroom house allows you to integrate indoor and outdoor life with large windows opening to an outdoor living area. The crown jewel is the .76-acre parcel of land that tapers off to your own lakeside resort, featuring an covered outdoor kitchen, fire pit, stone boat house to store your water sports supplies and veranda sitting at the mouth of the water, perfect for an entertainer.
Got dreams of becoming a real Texas rancher? 7814 Brown Cemetery Rd. is the perfect place to start with 40 rolling acres of land and its very own swimming hole. Just east of Austin in Manor, the modest-on-the-outside home clocks at 4,412 square feet with five bedrooms and five-and-a-half bathrooms, but there are an additional two living structures on the property. The horseshoe-shaped pond sits in the heart of the property and comes equipped with a water slide, diving board and a fishing dock.