Emily Donahue, KUT News

The children's book, Octopus Alone, by Austin writer/illustrator Divya Srinivasan is released today. It's already being called a remarkable story that teaches children that it's OK to be by yourself in a safe and quite place.

Octopus is shy. She lives on a reef where there’s always a lot going on. Sometimes it’s more than she can take. One day, she finds herself in a new place far from home, all alone.

Imagine: The world as you know it has ended. People are gone. Food is scarce. Vicious animal roam freely. You are alone, fighting an enemy so devious, so powerful, so undetectable, you question your own sanity. You are 16.

That is the premise of Rick Yancey’s new young-adult novel, The 5th Wave. KUT’s Emily Donahue spoke with Yancey about the existential questions the characters grapple with along the way.

It’s no secret that Austin is a biking city. And while cities around the country are gearing up for National Bike to Work Day, riding to work is nothing new for Austinites: according to Census data, people here commute by bike four times more often than the national average. 

To prove it, the city released a map breaking down bike commuting by neighborhood. But while more people are pedaling to work, cyclists don't always feel safe on Austin roads.

The Attorney General of Texas recently said he’s sued the Obama administration 25 times.

KUT's Emily Donahue checks that statement with Gardner Selby of the Austin American-Statesman’s Politifact Texas project.

As the legislative session comes to a close, no one knows yet if the next state budget will include across-the-board pay raises, but a workers groups claims state workers haven't seen a raise in years.

The Texas State Employees Union said on their website that most state workers haven't seen an uptick in wages since 2009.

Tonight the University of Texas Press will host a gallery opening of Donna DeCesare's photography, along with a reading and signing of her new book "Unsettled: Children in a World of Gangs" at the Netty Lee Benson Latin American Collection in Sid Richardson Hall from 6 to 8 p.m. 

DeCesare's work in "Unsettled" combines nearly 150 photos that focus on youth enmeshed in drug violence in the United States and Central America.  

Some public school students are taking state mandated tests this week. Do Texas schools lose 45 days a year to that testing, as one politico claims?

KUT News' Emily Donahue discussed that question is the Austin American-Statesman’s political fact checker, Gardner Selby.

While campaigning for background checks with gun purchases, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell referenced polls showing public support for the policy.

Mayor Leffingwell joined a press conference supporting background checks in March – and said 90 percent of Americans and 74 percent of National Rifle Association members support universal background checks.

A Travis County state lawmaker says dogs and cats are still being euthanized by carbon monoxide poisoning.

KUT’s Emily Donahue checked that claim with Gardner Selby of the Austin American-Statesman’s Politifact Texas reporting project.

Sebastian Junger has written bestselling books including The Perfect Storm. His documentary, "Restrepo" was nominated for an Oscar.  But none of his works was as personally powerful as the film he’ll introduce tonight at the LBJ Library.  

Jamie Mason’s first novel is called Three Graves Full. It’s part mystery, part thriller and part slapstick comedy of errors. And Jamie Mason is getting rave reviews.

It’s been more than 11 years since the United States' war in Afghanistan began.  Nearly 20,000 U.S. military men and women have come back injured from the war.

Every one of those injuries has a story behind it.  Some were collected by Christine Dumaine Leche, a creative writing teacher at Austin Community College. She left her home and family to work with soldiers in Afghanistan, helping them to write about their experiences in a long and historic war.

On Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report,” a political adviser said improvements in voter registration and turnout could help Democrats win statewide in what has long been Republican-leaning Texas.

Gov. Rick Perry is holding firm to his decision to rebuff any Medicaid expansion under the federal health care law. One lawmaker says expansion is necessary – because Texas has six million uninsured residents– and that makes the state No. 1 in the nation.

How true is that statement?

Galveston Island is famous for many things: miles of beaches, its many festivals and Victorian architecture – and its sea wall – that was built after the hurricane of 1900. That was the deadliest hurricane in US history – and it rewrote the history of Galveston.

Texas author Elizabeth Black has set that famous hurricane at the center of a mystery in her first novel, “The Drowning House." Just as Galveston’s modern history is built on the foundation of the great hurricane, so is the narrative, set moodily in the city’s historic district.