The nomination of policy wonk Ashton Carter to lead the Defense Department marks the most significant change to President Barack Obama's beleaguered national security team in nearly two years. But there is little indication the shake-up portends a broader shift in administration policy — nor is it clear that Carter can break into the president's tight inner circle.

A former Austin police detective has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man last year.

The indictment in May against Detective Charles “Trey” Kleinert in the death of Larry Jackson Jr. marked the first time in more than a decade that a Travis County grand jury charged an officer in an on-duty shooting, despite some public criticism in several other controversial cases.

More than two dozen people sat in the courtroom on Friday as Judge David Wahlberg read the indictment against Kleinert, who stood silently by his lawyers.

Rolling Stone is casting doubt on the account it published of a young woman who says she was gang-raped at a fraternity party at the University of Virginia, saying there now appear to be discrepancies in the student's account.

A statement posted to the magazine's website Friday said "our trust in her was misplaced." The lengthy article, published last month, put a spotlight on the issue of sexual assault on college campuses in the U.S. and detailed what it called a hidden culture of sexual violence at U.Va.

Where are all the black people in Austin?

A new social media campaign and portrait exhibit by the Greater Austin Black Chamber of Commerce is trying to answer that question.

Faced with a persistent decline in Austin’s African-American population, the Twitter campaign — #iamblackaustin — seeks to show African-Americans immersed in daily Austin life.

NASA's new Orion spacecraft made a "bull's-eye" Pacific splashdown Friday following a dramatic journey 3,604 miles beyond Earth. The achievement opens a new era of human exploration aimed at putting people on Mars.

The unmanned, 4½-hour test flight set at least one record: flying farther and faster than any capsule built for humans since the Apollo moon program.