News

Over the years of listening to the San Antonio International Piano Competition, I've noticed that nerves play an important part. Just enough, and a performance can be charged with excitement, too much, and disaster awaits.

With the competitors narrowed from 11 to eight, the stakes are higher, and that could help the judges separate the best as the competition continues.

Ted Cruz and Steve Stockman have quickly established themselves as vocal and active members of Congress, and their gusto is ruffling some feathers. How much do we know about the cost of state lawmaker pensions? Apparently not much, but why not? Debate about changing the way electric utilities get paid; should they be paid for capacity? Quail hunting used to be a part of everyday life, but quail populations have been declining for the past 25 years.

Each week on World Music (Saturday nights from 8-10 on KSTX 89.1 FM), I take a look at celebrations happening around the world. This week, a 'lovely' contest off the coast of Ireland.

TED FEST

(Update: 02/15/2013): The judge sentenced LeBlanc to prison for 30 months, reduced his rank to E-1 and issued an order for a dishonorable discharge. Seventy-seven days will be subtracted from his sentence, which LeBlanc has spent in pre-trial lockup due to continued misbehavior.

(Original Post: 02/14/2013): Staff Sgt. Craig LeBlanc was acquitted Thursday on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a female trainee who had just graduated boot camp, but the former military training instructor is facing punishment for 11 other offenses.

Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland has been hosting the global Thomas Jefferson Award competition in the U.S. Air Force division for the past two weeks. The program recognizes top military and civilian employee journalists for furthering Dept. of Defense Internal Information objectives.

According to one nonprofit company, San Antonio and Austin generate the vast majority of solar energy produced in the state. As the expansion of solar moves across Texas, both cities are emerging as solar front runners.

San Antonio and Austin combined for 85 percent of the state’s solar energy installations. That’s according to a report from Environment Texas.

Lasting works that are so much a part of our lives and the general culture have often had the most improbable origins; it is one of music's greatest ironies.

The arduous birth of Wagner’s "The Ring" is the stuff of legends, and decades of work, sacrifice and immense debt. Berlioz' "Les Troyens" was a desperate, singular throw of the dice urged on by his correspondence with Liszt's mistress and his lifelong love of Virgil. But what about Verdi’s overwhelmingly popular "Rigoletto"? What happened there?

Ever evolving...

Fronteras: The immigration proposal senators are crafting calls for an expanded use of border drones, we look at how effective they have been along the border so far. We hear the story of an American veteran's two-year quest to get an Iraqi family to the safety of U.S. soil. Finally, a San Antonio surgery resident talks about his immigration experience so far, and the hurdles immigrant doctors face to work in the U.S. even though there are doctor shortages.

Visitors to the Alamo were greeted by some mid-day busking (street performing) yesterday morning.  Dotan Negrin has been hauling his upright piano all across the country for more than two years, performing on streets from New York to here in San Antonio.

Parked illegally next to the Alamo, Negrin unloaded his Baldwin piano from a fire-engine red van.

The compact upright piano has a laminated map velcroed to one side showing all the places Negrin has gone on his travels.