Eileen Pace

Now in its 10th year, today's PACfest at Palo Alto College is a free family-friendly event that  offers games for kids, and has plenty of music for everyone.

PACfest is one of the few Fiesta events that offers no alcoholic beverages, and PACfest Co-chair Carmen Velasquez said it provides plenty of opportunities for families to enjoy themselves.

On Tuesday Bexar County Commissioners celebrated the 5-year anniversary of the Mental Health Court.

In 2008, the program began diverting non-violent, mentally ill offenders from jail, and instead entered them into a structured treatment program and case management to stop the cycle of arrest-release-arrest that many offenders get caught in.

Judge Michael Mery, who founded the court, said people who are  now recovering from drug abuse or mental illness often tell him how the court changed their lives:

According to a city ordinance read into the record Monday night, three-wheeled pedicabs would be allowed to take pedestrians around downtown area.

New Braunfels Mayor Gale Pospisil said there are already business people hoping to start running pedicabs as soon as possible.

"I think it will just be a nice added amenity and particularly since it does cover the historic downtown area where we have a lot of historic buildings and things. I think it will certainly be a nice attraction," Pospisil said.

The so-called Gang-of-Eight are still working to hammer out an immigration reform bill, despite criticism from conservatives who call it a "bad bill."

San Antonio Congressman Joaquín Castro is looking forward to seeing a comprehensive immigration package this year. He said he believes the bi-partisan group will be able to meet the standards that constituents expect.

The Toyota USA Foundation announced it will contribute $100,000 to the annual CORE4 STEM Expo for students studying science, technology, engineering, and math.

toyota USA National Vice-President Pat Pineda said by 2018, 1.2 million STEM jobs will go unfilled.

"That’s because we don’t have enough people that have the requisite skills, and I think unfortunately we all know that this is a particularly acute problem in the Latino community," Pineda said.

UTSA has acquired a Rice University professor to lead its top-ranked business school through the next decade of San Antonio. 

Dr. William Gerard Sanders has been named Bodenstedt Chair of the College of Business. Sanders launched a PhD program in strategic management at Rice University, where he has served for the last 5 years, and in the previous 12 years served as a department chair and faculty member at Brigham Young University.

Dr. Emily Kidd, an assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Health at the UT Health Science Center, said she was in West from midnight Wednesday to 4 a.m. Thursday to assist at the scene of the explosion.

Kidd said she was impressed with what local responders had been able to do in such a short period of time:

"Initially I thought that we were going to be seeing a lot of patients, however, by the time I arrived, the far majority of the patients had actually already been triaged, treaded and transported to area hospitals," Kidd said.

Travelers departing the San Antonio airport will soon have another way to get through security faster. A private program will allow travelers to be vetted once for all departing flights from participating airports.

It’s  a new program just approved by Homeland Security called CLEAR, which allows those approved to jump to the front of the line at the TSA security check. CLEAR members still have to take off their shoes and go through security.