News

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.

The last day to register to vote is Tuesday, October 9th. Bexar County Elections Administrator Jackie Callanen says the date is extended because of the Monday holiday, and she’s optimistic that a few extra people might register before the deadline.

"When we had the primary election, here in Bexar County we had 875,000 people registered to vote," said Callanen. "Today when I looked at the numbers, we had 898,000. So we're increasing by about 1,000 or 1,500 a day from the applications that we have."

Three people remain in recovery after an SAISD school bus jumped the guard rail on interstate 37 and plummeted fifteen feet to the ground; the district and SAPD are investigating the accident.

San Antonio police say the SAISD bus was traveling northbound on I-37 around 4:45 p.m. Thursday when another vehicle struck it, causing the bus to careen off the freeway and land front of a Comfort Suites hotel off East Houston St..

Sherry Chaudhry is the owner of the hotel and she said she and others in her office heard screeching coming from the freeway.

Fred Lewis, the Director of Texans Together, says the real challenge is getting people involved more often on a local level, so they can see concrete results from participating. University of Texas at San Antonio political science professor Walter Wilson says poorly distributed congressional districts contribute to poor Latino voter turnout. Saul Elbein's article, “No Shows: why so few Texans bother to vote” also explores the reasons why so many people don't even try to get to the polls.

Members of the Hays Street Bridge Restoration Group lined the steps of San Antonio City Hall Monday to demand a public vote on the use of the vacant land adjacent to the historic bridge. The group wants a park in the open space, not a brewery.