SUMMARY: Following a severe microburst on May 28, 2025, Austin Energy experienced its third-worst outage event, with over 72,500 customers (12.8%) losing power at the peak. Winds reached 85 mph, uprooting trees and damaging power infrastructure. Restoration was complicated by subsequent storms but was fully completed by June 2, about 4 days later. Over 163,000 total outages affected roughly 124,000 customers out of 566,000. The storm damaged 91 poles, 52 transformers, and 32,000 feet of overhead cable. Austin Energy leveraged lessons from past storms, improving incident management, outage communication, and mutual aid coordination, with help from 250 utility crews to restore power efficiently.

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SUMMARY: Former Texas Governor Rick Perry remains active in state and federal policy, notably promoting research on ibogaine, a psychedelic compound believed to aid veterans with PTSD and addiction. Texas recently allocated $50 million to ibogaine clinical studies, championed by Perry and Bryan Hubbard. They also formed Americans for Ibogaine, aiming to expand trials nationwide and reclassify ibogaine for medical use. Perry supports Governor Abbott’s decision to deploy the National Guard to manage protests and commented on the halted Texas Dream Act, attributing its demise to immigration issues under the Biden administration. Perry praised retiring Texas A&M chancellor John Sharp and welcomed incoming chancellor Glenn Hegar.

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SUMMARY: A peaceful “No Kings” protest in downtown Los Angeles on June 14, 2025, turned tense when law enforcement ordered dispersal and deployed tear gas and flashbangs. Police claimed some protesters threw objects, though no video evidence or witness confirmation has surfaced. The protest coincided with Flag Day, President Trump’s birthday, and opposition to his immigration policies. The “No Kings” group urged non-violence, and their organized activities ended by 6 p.m. Despite confusion during dispersal, over 200,000 protested in L.A. and nearly 5 million nationwide. A citywide 8 p.m. curfew was in effect as tensions escalated between protesters and officers.

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