Austin

There's a lot more to culture in the Lone Star state than dry rub barbecue, the Dallas Cowboys and the collected writings of Rick Perry. For starters, there's the Rude Mechs, although rubes from cow towns like New York and L.A. may find it hard to comprehend that an ensemble-based theater company with the conceptual savvy of a semiotics professor and the physical explosiveness of the Sex Pistols could call Austin its hometown. Even now, roughly 17 years after a handful of renegades formed the collaborative then known as the Rude Mechanicals, company members and their co-conspirators still get dubious stares when they reveal their profession to Texans and non-Texans alike.

It remains illegal in Texas to shoot a buffalo from the second story of a hotel, milk another person's cow, drive without windshield wipers and for Texas to finish 5-7. What happened? Two years ago, we put the No.1 saddle on Texas and rode the Longhorns all the way to the national title game at the Rose Bowl. Yee-haw! Texas was playing Alabama off its feet early before a freak injury caused Colt McCoy to lose throwing-arm feeling, and that probably caused the Longhorns to lose the national title.

WASHINGTON -- What began as a small group of citizens voicing their disappointment with President Obama's victory in last week's presidential election has turned into a plea from hundreds of thousands of citizens to have their states be granted independence from the federal government. The White House has now received secession petitions from all 50 states by citizens requesting that the administration “peacefully grant” them the opportunity to form their own sovereign government.

The powerful narcotic popped up on the cultural grid around the turn of the millennium. A Texas producer-remixer named DJ Screw paid homage to its woozy, heavy-lidded high by dramatically slowing down beats and vocals to replicate the drug's sleepwalker euphoria. Among Southern rappers, the chemical mixture - called "sizzurp" on the street - soon became as ubiquitous as gold jewelry. This wasn't some exotic new hallucinogen. In fact, it was usually mixed with fruit soda and sipped from oversized plastic foam cups.

As Howard B. Unruh barricaded himself in his home against the police -- after finally running out of ammunition -- he got a call from an assistant city editor at a local newspaper who had looked up his phone number. “Why are you killing people?” asked the editor, Philip W. Buxton. “I don't know,” Unruh replied. “I can't answer that yet. I'll have to talk to you later. I'm too busy now.” It was 1949 in Camden, N.J., and Unruh had just killed 12 people and injured four others with a Luger pistol, including women and children.

What happens to the 40% of food produced but never eaten in the U.S. each year, the mounds of perfect fruit passed over by grocery store shoppers, the tons of meat and milk left to expire? At Ralphs, one of the oldest and largest supermarket chains on the West Coast, it helps keep the power on. In a sprawling Compton distribution center that the company shares with its fellow Kroger Co. subsidiary Food 4 Less, organic matter otherwise destined for a landfill is rerouted instead into the facility's energy grid.

You don't want Michael P. Ghiglieri writing about your next vacation. Ghiglieri, an Arizona river guide, Vietnam vet, ecology Ph.D. and seasoned emergency medical technician, is also the co-author of “Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon,” an epic collection of cautionary tales from perhaps America's most iconic national park. In the 10 years since the book's publication, it has sold more than 250,000 copies. Now Ghiglieri and co-author Thomas M. Myers are back with a second edition , thicker than the first.

The Walt Disney Co. is expected to begin layoffs in the coming weeks, with the cuts centering on the company's movie studio, a source with knowledge of the matter has confirmed. The cuts, first reported by trade publication Variety, are said to be the result of an internal corporate review. Layoffs are expected to affect the studio's marketing and home entertainment divisions, and possibly other areas, according to a source. Variety reported that the cuts would also be made in the production department.

Brit­ish roots mu­sic band Mum­ford & Sons took the top hon­or for its album "Ba­bel" at the 55th Grammy Awards ce­re­mony Sunday. The night mostly dis­trib­uted hon­ors broadly to an ar­ray of young­er gen­er­a­tion acts in­clud­ing New York in­die trio Fun., Aus­trali­an elec­tron­ic pop artist Gotye, rap­per-R&B sing­er Frank Ocean and Ak­ron, Ohio, rock group the Black Keys. See the complete list of 2013 Grammy winners and nominees below. #story-body-text h2 { font-weight: bold !

LAS VEGAS - Floyd Mayweather Jr. hasn't fought twice within a five-month period since 2006. But after overwhelming Robert Guerrero by unanimous decision Saturday night, he's scheduled to return to the MGM Grand Garden Arena ring on Sept. 14. "We're going to be back in September," Mayweather said following his victory. The opponent of most interest is Mexico's Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, the unbeaten 22-year-old world super-welterweight champion who last month drew nearly 40,000 to San Antonio's Alamodome when he defeated previously unbeaten Austin Trout.