Matt Largey / KUT News

Lee esta historia en español. 

Texas reported more than 5,000 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, as hospitals in some parts of the state begin to show signs of straining to keep up with the renewed spread of the virus.

The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that "lack of immunity" to the coronavirus is not a disability under state law that would qualify someone for a mail-in ballot. In the same ruling, the court acknowledged that county election clerks have no duty to question or investigate the disability of voters who claim it.

But if you’re curious about how you would even go about voting by mail (or if you’re eligible), here’s how it works.

Texas is changing the way it publishes its accounting of coronavirus tests after the practice of conflating two types of tests was disclosed last week.

What do you want to know about the search for a COVID-19 vaccine?

Join KUT’s Jennifer Stayton for a discussion with Jason McLellan, an associate professor of molecular bioscience at UT Austin, about how vaccines are developed and learn more about the search for one for the new coronavirus.

Texas has seen a noticeable increase in the number of coronavirus tests being reported by the Department of State Health Services over the past week. The state saw its largest one-day total for reported tests to date Wednesday – at more than 49,000 tests, about four times as many tests reported the day before.

The first thing you should know about contact tracing is that it’s time-tested. It’s been around for a long time — one of the original weapons in the public health arsenal for fighting infectious diseases. It was used before vaccines. Before antibiotics. Before we knew most of what we know now about infectious disease.

Do you have questions about the coronavirus?

KUT is planning a live, one-hour program aimed at answering your questions about the virus, its potential effects on Austin and Central Texas and what we can all do to help stop the spread of the disease.

The Arctic is warming faster than any other place on Earth. Twice as fast.

That’s not easy to grasp when you’re thousands of miles away. But over the summer, one Austin high school teacher went to see it firsthand.

Susan Morrison was two years old when her dad left.

Her mother, Eleanor, was left to care for Susan and her two siblings. The experience led Susan on a journey to change the Texas Constitution to make sure other kids didn't have the same experience she did growing up.

At least one person has died on Texas roads every day since Nov. 7, 2000. Despite efforts to “End the Streak,” as the Texas Department of Transportation puts it, the state still leads the nation in traffic deaths.

Fatalities did fall about 2% between 2016 and 2017, but more than 3,700 people died in 2017.

The University of Texas at Austin is among eight schools now being investigated in connection with a nationwide admissions bribery scandal.

Keeping track of federal court cases can be confusing even for reporters whose job it is to follow this stuff, let alone the general public.

We made a commitment last year to figure out how we're reflecting the diversity of our community in the voices you hear on KUT. We started with a baseline of the first three months of 2018, when we weren't paying attention, to get an idea of the diversity of voices on-air. 

Funeral services will be held Jan. 12 at 11 a.m. for Richard Overton, the oldest man in America and the oldest military veteran, who died Thursday.

A couple weeks ago, we asked you to help us answer a question for ATXplained.

Sarah Edens moved to Austin about six months ago. She wanted to know: "When can you call yourself a 'real' Austinite?"

Hundreds of Texas firefighters will start heading to California on Monday morning to help battle wildfires burning in Southern California. 

Early voting in the 2020 Texas primaries runs from Feb. 18 until Feb. 28, and before you head to the polls, make sure you know your rights as a voter.

Austin Water officials have lifted a boil-water notice for all its customers that’s been in place since Monday. They say the water is now safe to drink straight from the tap.

In Texas, the city of Austin's water utility has issued a citywide boil water notice as it struggles with the impact of debris from flooding on its water treatment capabilities.

"The high level of debris, silt and mud requires extended filtration that slows the process of getting treated water into the system," Austin Water said in a press release. "To provide necessary water pressure for fire protection, plants must distribute water at treatment levels not typical of the utility's high standards for consumption."

With the registration deadline only three days away, Texans looking for voter-registration forms on the Secretary of State's website this weekend got an error message for nearly a day. Applications for mail-in ballots were also inaccessible. Information about who's running for office this November was also knocked offline.

Service was restored by late Saturday.

Ninety-three percent of eligible voters in Travis County are expected to register to vote by the Oct. 9 deadline, according to the county’s voter registrar. So far, 91 percent of eligible voters have already registered.

The Austin-based company at the center of a lawsuit over 3D-printable guns will send plans directly to customers, its founder said Tuesday, a day after a federal judge blocked the State Department from letting the company publish the files online for free.

A federal judge in Seattle has agreed to extend an order blocking an Austin-based company from publishing 3D-printable gun designs on the internet. 

A court battle over an Austin-based company’s plans to post 3D-printable gun designs online continues Tuesday. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia are asking a judge in Seattle to block the U.S. State Department from allowing the files to be posted until the case can be argued in court.

The judge temporarily halted the posting on July 31.

A federal appeals court is upholding a decision to dismiss a challenge to a 2015 Texas law allowing licensed handgun owners to carry concealed weapons in most places on public college campuses. Three UT-Austin professors brought the lawsuit, arguing it violated their constitutional rights — mainly that it has a chilling effect on free speech by introducing guns into a classroom setting.