Local News

Jeremy Leech wants to give back to the woman who saved his life.

“I got a kidney transplant on December 21 and my donor lives in Rockport,” Leech said. “Once the hurricane hit we knew we needed to help her in some way.”

He posted on social media about his efforts to collect donations and the response has been great. People have been dropping of donations at his business, J. Shea’s Jewelers in Abilene.

“We’ve got water, pet food, dog food, canned goods, blankets, cleaning supplies, peanut butter, gas cans and trolling motors,” Leech said.

Today kicks off the new school year for for Abilene ISD, it’s also meet the teacher day at Abilene’s early learning center. Abilene consolidated its Woodson, Reagan and Locust campuses, moving everyone to Long Early Learning Center where more than 800 students, all 3- and 4-years-old, will attend the renovated facility.

Teachers like Beverly Self are overjoyed to welcome students into brand new classrooms

“I have so much room, I have so much storage and we have a beautiful window in the back and I’m just really excited to see all we can do in this school,” Self said.

The Abilene city council has had a busy week with discussions ranging from sidewalks, to city boards to development at the airport. City manager Robert Hanna offered a analysis of the week's events. (Transcription of audio coming shortly)

The Abilene Police Department has been understaffed for several years because officers are retiring faster than new recruits join the force. Abilene City Manager Robert Hanna said the APD is authorized to have 216 officers, but has only about 189 officers. The city is working on a new plan that will give APD the funds to hire more officers for the academy than what was originally set in the budget. It takes 18 months to train new hires because the Abilene police academy is longer and more rigorous than many other departments.

Monday night the Abilene ISD board voted against changing the board election process to single-member districts. After months of public discussions, they voted against changing the election methodology, despite pressure from community members. Timothy Chipp, education reporter for the Abilene Reporter News, joins me to talk about what the vote means for the district.

Two-a-days are well underway at Texas high schools as football teams prepare for the upcoming season, only a few weeks remain before those Friday night lights illuminate starry Texas skies. And If you’re a football fan, you may have heard of the Mighty Matadors. In 1968, Lubbock’s Estacado High football team won the Texas Class AAA championship in their first year playing varsity football. Estacado also happened to be Lubbock’s first integrated school. A new book tells the story of the team that overcame racial division to become state champions.

It’s been almost a century since a total solar eclipse was visible across the entire lower half of the United States. For those of us living in West Texas, we’ll be lucky to witness the August 21st eclipse... but we won’t hit the jackpot.  Only part of the natural phenomenon will be visible from this region, that’s because the Abilene area is nowhere near the path of totality. But what exactly is the path of totality?

About 5,000 people live in the West Texas town of Coleman. When he moved there in the early 90’s, Dr. Sandip Mathur was struck by one characteristic:

“I guess in a word, its openness,” Dr. Mathur says. “The land is wide open, the skies are big and the people are open-hearted.

The special session is underway, and of the 20 items Gov. Greg Abbott says he wants lawmakers to tackle, one is getting a lot of attention from teachers.

"I want legislation on my desk that increases teacher pay by $1,000,” Abbott said. “To achieve that, Texas doesn’t need to spend more, it just needs to spend smarter.”

The Abilene Boys and Girls Club has consolidated for the summer, keeping just one club open. Inside, hundreds of kids were busy playing. Far in a corner several elderly women sat at a table surrounded by quiet children with their little fingers trained on crochet hooks.

“So we’re going to go yarn under, over, and pull it out,” Marian Rivas said as she helped a young girl learn the basics.

“It’s real easy, let’s try it sweetheart,” Rivas said.