Nathan Bernier, KUT News

Update: The Austin City Council has approved a $1.17 million contract with Metro Aviation to outfit APD's new chopper.

The council had already approved the purchase of a new helicopter, but this morning the council approved a proposal to equip the chopper with accessories, including firefighting equipment. You can read more below. 

Original Post (March 19): A new helicopter for Austin Police could be equipped with thermal imaging, a search-light, night vision goggles, water buckets and other accessories, if council gives the green light to spend the cash.

Austin-area home sales were up 26 percent in February, according to the Austin Board of Realtors.

The board also reports the median sale price grew by seven percent to about $208,000. That’s in no small part because the number of homes on the market is much lower. At the current pace of sales, it would take about two-and-a-half months to sell all the homes on the market right now. That compares to four months a year ago.

The state’s move to drop Planned Parenthood from a health program for low-income women has resulted in a decline in claims of more than five percent. 

From January to the beginning of March, the state says there were 14,124 claims made through the new Texas Women’s Health Program.  That compares with almost 14,908 under the old Medicaid Women’s Health Program that included Planned Parenthood clinics, a drop of 5.24 percent. 

Texas voters are one step closer to deciding whether some state officials should face term limits. The Texas Senate approved a measure today that would limit the governor, lieutenant governor and other statewide office holders to just two consecutive terms in office. The rule would not apply to state lawmakers or judges, according to this Senate Research Center analysis.

State Senator Craig Estes (R-Wichita) was among a handful of lawmakers who voted against the resolution. 

Update: The new elementary school being built in north Austin now has a name: Dr. Janis Guerrero Thompson Elementary. The Austin Independent School District Board voted last night to approve the name.

Dr. Guerrero Thompson was a native Austinite who taught high school in AISD and later worked as the district’s Executive Director for Planning and Community Relations.

Two years ago he was in prison serving a life sentence for murdering his wife. Today, Michael Morton received an apology for that wrongful conviction on the floor of the Texas Senate.

“I want to take this opportunity to give you a collective apology from the members sitting before you today,” said state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. “The system failed you. We apologize and we thank you for being here and watching you for the remainder of your life make such a difference in others lives.”

Fewer Texans are earning minimum wage or less. The number dropped by 21,000 last year to 452,000 people in Texas earning no more than $7.25 an hour. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics analyst Cheryl Abbot says the decline reflects the fact that the minimum wage hasn’t gone up since 2009.

“Every time it did bump, we saw a larger share of workers receiving the minimum wage or less,” Abbot said. “Now that those increases have fallen off a bit, we’re seeing that share start to decline.”

The penalty for possessing small amounts of marijuana in Texas would be reduced under a proposal being examined today by state lawmakers. 

House Bill 184, by State Representative Harold Dutton (D-Houston), would make possession of less than an ounce of pot the equivalent of a traffic violation, a Class C Misdemeanor. And, like a traffic violation, the police officer would issue a fine and let the person go. The fine would be $500, no possibility of jail time. 

Dell has agreed to open its books to billionaire investor Carl Icahn. The company’s founder, Michael Dell, is leading a group of investors who want to buy out the company and take it private for $24.4 billion. Several major investors have said that undervalues the Round Rock-based company.

Now, Icahn says he has signed a confidentiality agreement that allows him to dive deeply into Dell’s financial information. Anthony Michael Sabino is a business professor at St. John's University.

The agency that manages the Highland Lakes, which serves as Austin’s primary source of drinking water, would not be allowed to send water downstream to rice farmers if the lakes are less than 42 percent full, under a bi-partisan proposal in the state legislature.

The bill was filed by State Senators Kirk Watson (D-Austin) and Troy Fraser (R-Horseshoe Bay). Watson says the Lower Colorado River Authority needs to prioritize so-called “firm” customers, such as cities and power plants, over “interruptible” customers such as rice farmers, who pay a fraction of the price for water.

Update: The Austin City Council voted 7-0 Thursday night to give National Instruments almost $1.7 million in incentives. In exchange, the company will expand and create at least 1,000 jobs . 

National Instruments representatives spoke at the council meeting Thursday night, outlining the benefits the city would see. But some local citizens were not convinced, claiming it is not fair to give large companies incentives but to not offer them to local citizens. They also claimed the money could be used elsewhere, something Mayor Lee Leffingwell contested:

"The fact is, if we didn't approve this agreement we couldn't spend that money somewhere else because it wouldn't be there," Leffingwell said. "This money comes from that agreement."

The latest outlook on the drought shows Texas is drier this week than last. The U.S. Drought Monitor says almost 89 percent of Texas is in drought.

In Travis County, the drought ranges from moderate to severe. The Highland Lakes that supply Austin with water are 41 percent full. David Walker at the Lower Colorado River Authority says their worst-case scenario could see lakes drop to their lowest level on record this year.

The electric car maker Tesla is setting up a "gallery" at the Domain shopping center this weekend. It’ll have its new electric cars on display. And while they can’t sell them in Texas without a dealership, the company can show the vehicles and take orders on the Internet.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn says Texas farmers and ranchers in the Rio Grande Valley are suffering because Mexico is not delivering water it owes the United States under a treaty signed in 1944.

Cornyn, is asking an international commission to intervene and require that Mexico divert water from the Rio Grande to Texas.

Homeless people will be selling coffee, snacks and ice cream from push carts during South by Southwest. The local non-profit Mobile Loaves and Fishes is running the program. They call it Street Treats. (Not to be confused with this food truck that bears the same name.)

“We wanted to create a dignifying opportunity for these men and women to earn an income. We’re able to put them in a uniform, and they look really clean and presentable to the community," said Stephanie Asmus with Mobile Loaves and Fishes. She says this is the second year of their program.