Road Closed. Detour.

The sign on Sixth Street in downtown Austin was a clear indication that something was going on. The place was the epicenter of the South by Southwest music festival.

Sixth Street was a musical mecca with an estimated 1,900 bands during the five-day musical mayhem that started March 18. More than 400 bands played Saturday - some for the first time and others for the third or fourth - in the 87 designated venues throughout Sixth Street and the surrounding neighborhood.

After all the tough talk Gov. Rick Perry did regarding the great stimulus rejection of 2009, he had to reject something, but for goodness' sake - unemployment benefits?

Perry rejected the plan on the premise that it would create a bill for the state later on down the line because of what he would have you believe are completely unreasonable changes to the current unemployment criteria.

3:30 a.m. and Danny Meyer is already awake.

4 a.m. and he's walking out the door of his two-story log cabin.

5 a.m. and he's headed southeast on U.S. 287 in his yellow Volkswagen Beetle.

6 a.m. and Meyer pulls into his parking spot on campus, 101 miles from the front gate of his ranch.

As supervising groundskeeper for the east side of campus, Meyer leaves his country home in Buffalo Springs, where ranch land is rolled out like a lumpy blanket, and enters the concrete jungle that is Fort Worth.

Everyone knows the economy is not in the best of health, but uncertainty is fanning the flames of recession thanks to every news media outlet scooping doom and gloom on an already paranoid society.The...

Billboards across town promote the university as being "ahead of the curve." It is time to apply that attitude to the campus communications system.

Some universities are eliminating landlines in dormitories to cut costs. University officials have asked students, faculty and staff to find ways to tighten the belt. What better way to save money than to eliminate landlines in dorm rooms and campus apartments, where they have become negligible?

The Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program has ranked the Dallas-Fort Worth area fifth in the nation of cities with the highest number of energy efficient commercial buildings in 2008.

Although no buildings on campus were classified as commercial buildings, the university strives to stay on the leading edge of energy efficiency, a physical plant official said.

George Bates, physical plant manager of electrical systems, said the university has saved a lot of money over the past 10 years by keeping up with new developments in energy efficiency.

The university Marching Band will receive national recognition after being selected as one of five college bands nationwide to have a prerecorded performance played at the College Band Directors National Association conference in Austin this week, a university official said.

Bobby Francis, director of bands at the university, said the band was among the five chosen this year, based on a performance of "We the People," which includes several American folk tunes.

Mountain West proposal to benefit underrepresented conferences

The Mountain West Conference's attempts to pioneer a new format for crowning a college football champion should be applauded by all fans of the sport.

There is no question that the current system is flawed. One slipup on Saturday during the regular season can cost a worthy team a chance at playing on college sports' biggest stage at the National Championship game. The fact that no playoff system has been established as of yet is unacceptable.

The Neeley Fellows program is helping a local nonprofit organization recruit volunteers to increase support for those in Tarrant County with HIV and AIDS, a nonprofit official said.

Rick Isaminger, family health and education coordinator for Samaritan House, said the students are trying to get corporations involved with the organization in order to build a supportive partnership.

Aaron Siegel, events coordinator for Samaritan House, said the organization is home for people with HIV and AIDS in Tarrant County.