Musicians from the San Antonio Symphony — which recently dissolved — have come together to form a new group called the San Antonio Philharmonic. This comes almost a year after musicians of the Symphony went on strike in light of disagreement with management over cutting the size of the orchestra as well as pay cuts for musicians. The new season for the Philharmonic will consist of 13 concerts, including 10 classical and three pop concerts. The group will perform at the First Baptist Church of San Antonio starting on Sept. 16. More information about the Philharmonic can be found on their website.

On Thursday morning, city officials cleared a homeless encampment under Interstate 37 at Brooklyn Avenue in downtown San Antonio. It was estimated that anywhere from 25 to over 100 people were living there. The San Antonio Express-News reports that the plot, which is owned by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), will be partly leased to a developer. 

According to mysanantonio.com, an unknown abortion rights activist put up a message on the Torch of Friendship in downtown San Antonio that read “Abortion Pills By Mail Aidaccess.org,” which directed the reader to a website that provides online consultation to obtain abortion pills by mail. The message has been removed as of Friday, Aug. 26.

A petition asking for Northeast Independent School District (NEISD) to undo its ban on books has now gained close to 15,000 signatures. This comes after the San Antonio school district was one of the districts reported to have banned the most books in the state of Texas. A total of 431 books were examined by NEISD, of which 119 were ultimately removed prompting backlash against the district from the ACLU as well as the district’s own teachers’ union, mysanantonio.com reports. Many of the books removed are a part of a list circulated by Texas Rep. Matt Krause.