News

The cities of San Antonio and Chicago are entering a competition to see which one has the healthiest city employees.  

It’s a battle to see which city can reduce the bulge, put out the cigarette, and create a healthy lifestyle among its workers. The two cities will compete for three months to win a grant from the American Beverage Association.

An Air Force judge has postponed the sixth court martial in a series of cases against basic military training instructors at Joint Base San Antonio - Lackland.

The judge is allowing time for the Department of Defense to analyze cell phones messages between the Instructor and one of his trainees.

Staff Sgt. Craig LeBlanc is accused of crimes from aggravated sexual assault of two female trainees, to lying to military officials about his AWOL status after he was arrested in Comal County while he was partying with a trainee and didn’t make it back to the base.

The statewide totals for the amount of sales tax returned to local communities was on the plus side of $551 million and showed an overall 11 percent increase over Sept. 2011.

Comptroller Susan Combs said continued strength in the manufacturing and oil and natural gas sectors led to the increase, but consumer spending was also up in restaurants and retail stores.

James Dick has a good relationship with the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin and conductor Mischa Rachlevsky; in fact they have performed together previously in Texas, as well as in Moscow.

"They're the finest players in Russia, either in the conservatory or playing professionally," says soloist James Dick. "It is a pleasure to work with them. I can also guarantee you haven't heard Beethoven like this before, a new orchestration that has written the wind parts out for the strings and piano. It is breathtaking!"

On Sunday, October 14, the San Antonio International Piano Competition gets underway at Trinity University's Ruth Taylor Recital Hall. The eleven young men and women hail from Malaysia to Italy, and China to the United States. They will play music by Beethoven, baroque and a new piece written by Pulitzer Prize winning composer Paul Moravec.

"Of course I have to make it difficult." Moravec says, adding that it is not just about virtuosity. "I wanted the work to be beautiful, and hopefully helpful for the competitors, that they can use it later in their career on recitals."

A new treatment for cancer involves the use of a childhood virus that has been shown to kill cancer cells in mice. The virus is on its way to clinical trials in San Antonio and Houston.

This is a virus that Santanu Bose, Ph.D., at the UT Health Science Center-San Antonio has been researching for 15 years, and he came across its efficacy in killing cancer cells by accident.

"I never expected that we could use RSV for cancer," said Bose. "When we were conducting some experiments with this virus; we were using normal cells and at the same time, we were using cancer cells."

Coming up next week, a solo piano recital by Lang Lang, Tuesday, October 16 at 7:30 p.m. at the Majestic Theatre. As he did in his last appearance in San Antonio, the image of his hands will be projected over the piano during the concert, so you’ll see his technique from every seat in the historic Majestic.