Category: San Antonio News

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but what about video? From disgruntled contractors to golf balls struck by lightning, 2021 has had some pretty incredible visual news stories.

Some of the most-watched videos on KSAT.com from the past year have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

There were huge news stories this year, both good and bad, ranging from the winter storm in February to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic to new laws about constitutional carry and the sale of beer and wine on Sundays.

The videos that resonated the most with KSAT viewers are also a mix of highs and lows.

Here are the top 10 most-viewed videos on the KSAT website from 2020:

1. Viral video shows contractor destroying bathroom after he says homeowner refused to pay

2. Social media video shows brawl between Spurs, Rockets fans in Houston

3. New video at historic, haunted Magnolia Hotel in Seguin shows lots of activity in children’s room

4. This video of a gator swimming with a shark is the most Florida thing we’ve seen today

5. ‘It was all a blur’: San Antonio teen’s golf ball traveling at 88 mph struck by lightning at Topgolf

6. Were your plants damaged by the freeze? Here’s what to do next.

7. Pipe-bursting cold! How to protect your pipes during the South Texas freeze

8. Photo edit outrage: Florida high school employee alters 80 girls yearbook photos to cover ‘dress code violations’

9. San Antonio man reels in 12-foot hammerhead shark along Padre Island National Seashore

10. ‘It changed my life forever’: Man who lost fingers in fireworks disaster tells his story

San Antonio police officers are investigating a shooting that sent one man to the hospital overnight.

Police said the man claimed to have accidentally shot himself around midnight during an altercation on East Ansley Place on the South Side.

He said he was running to his car and pulled out his gun when he realized someone opened fire, police said. That’s when, he told police, he accidentally shot himself in the leg and dropped his gun out of the car.

He said someone then picked up the gun and ran off.

Police said it appears someone shot him through the door of his car.

He was taken to Univesity Hospital in stable condition.

The shooting is under investigation.

Read also:

Man dies after being shot multiple times in vehicle on NW Side, police say

With investment in San Antonio’s growing workforce, the city could become the anchor of the next massive economic region in the state.

Each location will span about 1,600 square feet and will offer dine-in seating as well as a drive-thru — most will have a double drive-thru.

The College Station Police Department is searching for a woman who disappeared on Thursday evening.

Tabatha Lynn Carpenter, 54, was last seen at 7:20 p.m. in the 2700 block of Jennifer Circle, according to a CLEAR Alert. She was in a white 2018 Toyota 4 Runner with the Texas license plate CPAWS.

Authorities described her as 5 feet, 5 inches tall and 145 pounds with blonde hair and green eyes.

Law enforcement officials believe her disappearance poses a credible threat to her own health and safety.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the College Station Police Department at 979-764-3600.

A woman was hospitalized overnight after police say she rolled her vehicle over multiple times on UTSA Boulevard and struck a pole.

The accident happened at 1:45 a.m. Friday in the 6500 block of UTSA Boulevard, between Valero Way and Babcock Road.

Police said the woman was traveling westbound on the road and somehow rolled her vehicle over multiple times.

She struck a utility pole and was pinned inside the vehicle. Firefighters extracted her and she was taken to University Hospital in an unknown condition.

SAPD is investigating the crash.

Read also:

Man dies after being shot multiple times in vehicle on NW Side, police say

Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, and the health crisis doesn’t appear to be coming to an end, with some local doctors blaming vaccine hesitancy.

In the first nine months of the pandemic without vaccines, the death toll in the U.S. was about 200,000 people. A year later, with vaccines, the U.S. now has about 800,000. That’s roughly 600,000 more deaths in the year with vaccines to slow COVID-19.

Some local health officials say vaccine hesitancy is hindering progress.

“The personal choice to not get vaccinated is like a middle finger to society: ‘I don’t care about you enough to do this for the sake of all of us moving forward,’” said Dr. Jared Reading, with the Uvalde County health authority.

Dr. Robert Leverence, chief medical officer of UT Health San Antonio, said, “There’s well over 300 million people in this country, and if 40% of them are vulnerable to the disease, they’re likely going to get it.”

The doctors say if people choose not to get vaccinated, the death toll will continue to rise, new variants will emerge, and the community will remain at risk.

They said vaccines were made available, shutdowns and other restrictions began to be lifted, and people started gathering again, leaving those not vaccinated vulnerable.

The majority of hospitalizations and deaths since vaccines were made available have come from those who are not vaccinated. In Bexar County, nearly 95% of those 18 and up are vaccinated, and only 69% of those 5 and up are vaccinated.

Reverence said he doesn’t understand the vaccine hesitancy because he vividly remembers the struggle of when there was no protection.

“The first nine months — going into a patient’s room and feeling that you were risking your life to then feeling a little bit OK, back to business, even just a little bit,” he said.

Reading said he also remembers the struggles of getting the vaccines to rural areas like his when they were approved for emergency use. Uvalde County is 53% fully vaccinated.

“We struggled to get this. We wanted this. We had a whole year without it. To see them say ‘No, I don’t want this’ after how hard we fought to get it out here is extremely frustrating,” Reading said.

Both doctors urge everyone to get vaccinated and boosted before gathering for the holidays.

South San Antonio Independent School District is turning a new leaf after months of turmoil with its leadership. This week, the interim superintendent addressed the board for the first time, and a group of board members voted themselves into leadership positions.

On Thursday, Three South San ISD board leaders voted to reorganize the board officers with three yeses and one abstaining vote.

The special meeting called by Gilbert Rodriguez, Homer Flores, and Stacey Alderete was in reference to the remarks made between Superintendent Marc Puig and Board President Ernesto Arellano Jr on Nov. 17 when a microphone was left open during a meeting.

The questionable comments and remarks led to the suspension of Puig on Dec. 6, but no action was taken against Arellano in that meeting.

The board voted that night to appoint Henry Yzaguirre as interim superintendent. On Dec. 15, Yzaguirre addressed the board for the first time.

Yzaguirre dismissed the claim saying the school district is dysfunctional and, on the contrary, is passionate about community.

“Tonight will be the beginning of a pivotal change that will focus on academic performance and fiscal responsibility,” Yzaguirre told the board. “Who are we? We are what we say and do and how that is perceived by others.”

He said failure rates are high and failure losses are high. The daily school attendance is low. The district also faces low morale.

Yzaguirre said there are areas where students and the district are doing well.

The district has launched an inquiry into Puig, but it’s unclear which agency has been hired to do that review and how long that investigation will take.

Thursday’s special meeting to change the board leaders passed with a yes vote from Rodriguez as board president, Alderete as secretary, and Flores as vice president. Trustee Connie Prado abstained from the vote.

In the face of a housing affordability crisis, the San Antonio City Council adopted a new 10-year plan on Thursday that aims to produce or protect 28,049 affordable housing units.

The Strategic Housing Implementation Plan, or SHIP, was approved unanimously with one abstention and a second councilwoman away from the dais. At its core, the SHIP is about helping 95,000 Bexar County households who are most at risk of housing instability.

The city’s growth is surpassing housing supply, and housing costs are outpacing incomes, staff say. The SHIP’s approach to resolving the issue is two-fold — build and preserve affordable housing units and help struggling households increase or subsidize their income through job training and public assistance.

The SHIP was designed over the course of a year and a half and developed with the help of 80 stakeholders. The San Antonio Housing Authority, San Antonio Housing Trust, and Bexar County are all partners in the plan, which they are also expected to adopt.

“This is not the City of San Antonio’s plan. This is our community’s plan,” Assistant City Manager Lori Houston told council members.

Houston said the mayor’s housing policy framework, which the council adopted in 2018, was the basis of the SHIP. However, it also takes into account several other plans, like SA Climate Ready and the city’s Homeless Strategic Plan.

With many of the original targets in the framework completed or underway three years into a 10-year time frame, the SHIP contains updated goals.

The framework, for example, had aimed to preserve or produce 18,861 housing units within 10 years. By July 2021, there were already 18,965 units, although that was primarily due to a boom in new rental units.

New targets for preserving and protecting affordable units for residents below specific income levels are the SHIP’s centerpiece.

The plan defines affordable housing as income-restricted housing, limited to people earning below 60% of the area median income (AMI) — $40,020 for a family of three — for renters, and 120% AMI — $80,040 for a family of three — for home ownership.

Nearly half of the housing production and preservation targets are for the city’s poorest households, including 1,000 units of permanent supportive housing, which is often used to help people transition out of homelessness.

To meet its goals, the plan calls for 36 different strategies, from establishing a land bank program to not using public dollars to support market rate development that would displace residents.

Each strategy related to the city would come back before council for approval. The council approved the first, an adjustment of the city’s fee waiver program, immediately following its approval of the SHIP.

The plan calls for $3.4 billion worth of funding for the housing goals. Staff say about $1.1 billion of locally directed resources. One of the big funding blocks is the $150 million included in the proposed 2022-2027 bond program.

District 10 Councilman Clayton Perry was wariest of adopting the plan, saying he supported affordable housing but wanted to ensure the city maximized the use of other pots of money, not city dollars.

“So I’ll support that with that proviso that each one of those things come back to the council for discussion and for an individual vote,” Perry said.

While several people during the public comment portion praised the SHIP, some asked council members to delay their vote so residents could get more time to look at the final version of the plan, which was posted Monday.

District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo supported that request, though the council voted down her motion to delay by a 4-7 margin.

Castillo abstained from the final vote of approval on the SHIP, though she later released a statement signifying her overall support of the plan.

District 7 Councilwoman Ana Sandoval was away from the dais at the time of the council’s vote.

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As many people plan to travel for the holidays, they’ll have lots of company. AAA forecasts a major increase in travel from last year.

A total of 8.8 million Texans are expected to travel 50 miles or more away from home during the year-end holiday period, a 32% increase over 2020. The vast majority of those are expected to drive.

“A lot of people decided, of course, not to spend holidays with family and friends last year. However, different picture this year, we’ve got widespread vaccinations,” said Joshua Zuber, a spokesman for AAA Texas. “The CDC recently released guidance that saying it is safe for fully vaccinated people to travel and gather this holiday season, so people are excited to be reunited with their loved ones to have an in-person celebration.”

Despite the increase, the numbers are still lower than 2019. One hundred nine million people nationwide are projected to travel this year and 100 million of those by vehicle.

Zuber acknowledges the emergence of the omicron variant is adding a bit of uncertainty just as the holiday travel rush begins. He advises checking safety measures at your destination ahead of time, including the AAA’s travel restrictions map. Drivers should also pack face masks, sanitizer and wipes.

“You’ve got to make the decision that’s right for you, and that does look different for everyone,” Zuber said.

When to travel

With so many more people expected on roadways this year, choosing when you go is as important as how you plan to get there.

“Travel volume is typically lighter in the morning time, before or after rush hour,” Zuber said. “And then really, traffic typically builds throughout the day as you get into the afternoon and evening time, especially those days leading right up to the holidays such as Christmas and New Year’s.”

If traveling close-by, consider traveling on the day of the holiday when traffic volumes are at their lowest.

One other factor this year is increased gas prices. But those usually doesn’t stop people from making road trips, according to Zuber.

“They may think of ways to save money when they’re on a road trip, so that may mean dining out fewer times or maybe at less expensive restaurants, as well as maybe picking less expensive accommodations as well as other activities,” he said.

As of Dec. 16, the average gas price in Texas was $2.91 for regular unleaded, the lowest average price in the country. At $2.71, San Antonio has the lowest average price among the state’s largest metropolitan areas.

Have questions about transportation or traffic? Let us know, and your answer may be our next story. Find past answers on our traffic page.