This category is for general business news stories local to San Antonio.
The Woodlawn Theatre is opening their 2022 Season with Hairspray. Performances will run from March 4th to March 27th with a special ASL performance on March 18th.
For more information about the show and to purchase tickets click here.
Watching history’s first attack on a nuclear power plant Thursday evening, Burt Grabo, a former nuclear power plant manager and nuclear consultant, said he was initially alarmed like much of the rest of the world.
“I wanted to find out what type of reactor it was because that makes a big difference,” Grabo said.
Grabo already knew the infamous Chernobyl nuclear plant in northern Ukraine, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, had a graphite pile reactor.
“It didn’t have the same kind of shielding or containment process that these plants in Ukraine have,” he said. “The containment building was literally a steel and girders shed. There was no containment. It just was a shed over the building.”
He soon learned the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in the southeastern part of the country, the largest in Europe, has six pressurized water reactors.
“My concern level ratcheted down quite a bit,” Grabo said.
He said those reactors are within steel-reinforced, highly fortified cement containment buildings.
The reactors are built to withstand tremendous pressure. The four-foot thick reactor wall is “effectively the same thickness as 37 feet of concrete,” Grabo said.
The reactor also has multiple safety systems to protect it and even backups for the backups.
“They’re designed to actually take a missile hit,” Grabo said. “You’d have to penetrate the containment itself before there would be any radiation release.”
Even then, he said, it would have to be “a pretty sophisticated attack.”
The fire that was eventually extinguished was in a building about 1,500 feet away. Grabo said the Ukrainians did what was needed.
“When you’re under attack, the best thing to do is shut your reactors off,” Grabo said.
However, Grabo said a fourth of Ukraine’s power supply would likely undergo rolling brownouts and blackouts until the reactors cool down and go back online.
Grabo said he speculates the attack was more ploy by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It’d be crazy to destroy six nuclear reactors if you’re talking billions and billions of dollars in assets,” Grabo said.
He said nuclear power plants in the U.S. are protected by a security force surrounded by high fences and have laser beam technology to detect movements.
Hear Grabo describe the safety training in the nuclear power industry in the video player below:
ALSO ON KSAT.COM
Ukrainians living in San Antonio are hoping to have their voices heard in Washington, D.C. A total of six women who represent the local nonprofit Ukrainian San Antonio met directly with Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio) on Friday.
They wanted to share their concerns and frustrations with the war in their native country. They are looking for any answers to help loved ones back home.
“I keep in touch with my friends who are hiding. They are scared and living in constant fear,” said Viktoriya Lundblade.
Lundblade said her hometown of Kharkiv has been leveled by Russian bombing. It’s one of many areas under a constant Russian assault.
“You see a beautiful city, people dancing. Right now, this city is bombed, destroyed,” said Lundblade.
Castro hosted the roundtable discussion and wanted to reassure these women their pleas are being heard.
“I wanted to let them know that I’m listening and congress is listening,” said Castro. “I know they are speaking in very desperate voices, because a lot of them have family members still there.”
These women are seeking harsher sanctions on Russia.
“The United States is stepping up its military support, also imposing very severe sanctions on (President) Putin and Russia,” said Castro.
Castro said he is also working with Missouri Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO) to impose social and cultural sanctions in Russia, along with a way to help refugees.
“I’m going to take this conversation and speak to other lawmakers in Washington. There’s been talk of a humanitarian corridor for people fleeing the country to have a safe route out, so they aren’t in danger of being hit by Russian fire,” said Castro.
These women just hope they can one day travel back to the Ukraine they once called home.
“Please stop this war. I want to go back to my hometown, which is already bombed, and I want to see my people,” said Lundblade.
Most of the dust has settled from Tuesday night’s primary election, but two races in Bexar County are still too close to call, according to election officials.
There are slim margins in the Democratic primary races for county clerk and district clerk that could still change as additional ballots come in by the close of business on Monday, Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen said in an email to KSAT 12 News. The ballots will then go through a final tabulation on Tuesday.
In the county clerk race, incumbent Lucy Adame-Clark holds a 256-vote lead over Rachel Garcia Cavazos. In the district clerk race, Gloria Martinez is likely heading to the runoff with 26% of the vote, but it is unclear who she will face. Christine Castillo, who currently has 19% of the vote, holds a 582-vote lead over incumbent Mary Angie Garcia.
Roughly 35% of mail ballots were rejected due to new voting restrictions that went into effect this year. Election staff have been notifying voters about their rejected ballots, and those voters have until Monday to cure their ballots.
According to the unofficial results, 183,432 voters cast a ballot in the Bexar County primary races, amounting to a 15% turnout. Democratic voters led the way with 95,361 votes, while 88,071 Republican ballots were cast.
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For the second time in the last three seasons, the Fredericksburg girls basketball team found themselves on the court at the Alamodome for the UIL Class 4A State semifinals.
In 2020, the Battlin’ Billies came up short in the semis against Argyle, 49-38. This year, after rallying past Boerne thanks to Lauren Danz’s dramatic buzzer-beater in the Regional Final, Fredericksburg lined up against Brownsboro looking for their first win at the state level since 1951.
The Battlin’ Billies wasted no time taking control of the game in the first quarter. Back-to-back baskets from Ella and Kirsten Hartmann turned a 4-4 tie into a 9-4 Fredericksburg lead, and a three-pointer from Danz gave Fredericksburg their largest lead, 12-5. But Brownsboro turned the game on its head with a 14-2 run, and the Bearettes entered halftime up 26-21. Brownsboro guard Paris Miller led all scorers with 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting. Taylor Grona paced the Billies with five first-half points.
In the third quarter, Anabel Araiza pulled the Billies within five points again, 30-25, but Brownsboro’s Khayla Garrett hit a jumper of her own with 18 seconds left in the frame to give the Bearettes a 38-31 lead entering the fourth quarter. Danz then battled her way to the free throw line and sunk five of six free throws to cut the deficit down to four points, 40-36 with 6:28 left in regulation. She posted a team-high 10 points, but the Bearettes quickly countered with a 13-3 run that essentially put the game away. Miller finished with a game-high 22 points, as the Billies fell 60-41.
Fredericksburg ends their remarkable season with a 36-4 overall record.
A Northeast Texas school district is planning to arm some staff members with concealed weapons on school campuses.
Grand Saline ISD, located between Dallas and Longview, announced on Friday that the board of trustees and administration have to decide to implement something called the Guardian Plan.
“We believe this will serve as a deterrent to someone trying to harm our students, but if harmful action is taken against our students we have several staff members prepared to stop the threat,” Superintendent Micah Lewis said in a post on the district’s Facebook page.
Lewis said the plan has been in the works for more than two years, with the Guardians having been trained in high-stress situations.
The superintendent said the weapons will always be on their person and will never be stored at school.
“We have worked with our local law enforcement to ensure the utmost safety for them, our Guardians, staff, and students,” Lewis said.
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A Dimmit County sheriff’s deputy was arrested this week on two felony charges from an incident that also led to the arrest of the Dimmit County sheriff, according to court documents.
Deputy Abraham Garza was booked on two charges stemming from Aug. 14, 2021, records obtained by KSAT 12 Defenders show. On Thursday, KSAT reported the arrest of Sheriff Marion Boyd.
Garza and Boyd are both charged with tampering with physical evidence, a third-degree felony, in a motor vehicle crash investigation, according to court documents.
The tampering with physical evidence charge is based on accusations that Garza concealed a 2020 GMC pickup truck “with intent to impair its availability as evidence” in any investigation or official proceeding.
Garza is also charged with abuse of official capacity, a state jail felony, after he used the pickup truck for personal use, according to court records. The truck was valued at $30,000 or more but less than $150,000.
Garza’s bond for both charges is set at a combined total of $12,500.
Two days after the incident, Boyd was accused of coercing a witness to stop his investigation into the crash to “abstain, discontinue or delay the prosecution” of Garza. He’s since been charged with tampering with a witness.
Boyd is also facing a third felony charge — stalking — in a separate incident on April 3, 2021. Boyd allegedly sent explicit images of another man’s genitals to a woman, causing her to feel “harassed, annoyed, alarmed, abused, tormented, embarrassed or offended.”
On Thursday, the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed to the Uvalde Leader-News that there is an active investigation into Boyd’s charges.
KSAT 12 reached out to DPS and the sheriff’s office for further details but we have not yet heard back.
Boyd has served as sheriff since 2013, and his term was set to end in 2024, according to the Uvalde newspaper.
With Boyd in custody, it’s unknown who is running the sheriff’s office and the jail in the meantime, the newspaper reports.
The Dimmit County Jail and county seat are in Carrizo Springs, located about a 2-hour drive south of downtown San Antonio on Interstate 35. The county is about 50 miles east of Eagle Pass and the U.S.-Mexico border.
Read more on KSAT:
Dimmit County Sheriff arrested by Texas Rangers on 3 felony charges
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New information on a murder-suicide at a West Side home last month — San Antonio police say their investigation shows a woman shot and killed her longtime boyfriend before killing herself.
Joanne Sandoval, 41, and Gavino Daniel Rios, 50, were found fatally shot when the man’s brother went to check on him in the 100 block of Enrique Avenue, not far from West Commerce Street and Hortencia Avenue on Feb. 21.
The man’s brother told officers that he hadn’t heard from him in a few days, SAPD Chief William McManus said in a news briefing held after the bodies were discovered.
Family members say Sandoval and Rios had been a couple for a long time, but Sandoval’s family described their relationship as tumultuous.
Neighbors also told police and KSAT that there was a lot of fighting, and McManus said there were “a number of calls” to the home.
Sandoval’s family said the couple had a daughter who is less than a year old. She was with other family members at the time of the shooting.
Read also:
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