🟪 New numbers out for SXSW 2026 (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Austin ISD considers teacher and staff cuts amid $181 million deficit (KUT)

🟪 City exploring options to keep SAFE Alliance programs open amid funding crisis, Austin mayor says (KVUE)

🟪 Amid license review, Camp Mystic being investigated by Texas Rangers and state health officials (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Data center opponents put Ken Paxton in bind ahead of Senate runoff (Houston Chronicle)

🟪 What has the U.S. war with Iran accomplished? (NPR)

READ ON!

✅ New numbers out for SXSW 2026 (Austin Business Journal)

Both the organizers and some local businesses viewed the 2026 South by Southwest festival as a success. But they also noted some improvements could be made to the new format, and hotel bookings were notably down compared to last year when the festival ran longer.

The 2026 South by Southwest festival ran March 12-18 and brought thousands of attendees to Austin. This year’s festival looked different than in recent years. It ran for fewer days, wasn’t centralized because the Austin Convention Center was closed and the individual music, innovation and film and TV festivals all were running on the same days instead of being parsed out.

Despite all those changes, SXSW organizers said the early returns and reviews for the festival were mostly positive from both attendees and sponsors, and they clocked about as many attendees this year as last year.

“I think it was a huge success,” said Jenny Connelly, SXSW’s director in charge. “We knew we were doing so many things, not everything was going to be nailed exactly right. We'll be transparent about that. But we really reinvented a lot of things to try to improve our attendee experience, and I'm so proud of how this staff executed that.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin ISD considers teacher and staff cuts amid $181 million deficit (KUT)

The Austin Independent School District is facing a budget deficit of $181 million for next school year. That’s according to the preliminary budget draft presented at a work session with board members on Tuesday night. The draft is an initial version of the budget used to guide decision making.

Superintendent Matias Segura said to reduce the budget deficit, the district will have to make sacrifices, including some that will directly impact students, like teacher cuts.

“We’re no longer at a point where we can protect all things,” Segura said. “The cuts are going to impact our ability to serve our students in a way we see best.”

Segura and AISD’s Chief Financial Officer Katrina Montgomery explained four different scenarios involving budget cuts. In three of them, the district could end up with a balanced budget after applying “strategies” that would help save $132 million.

The proposed cuts include saving $24.5 million with “staffing adjustments” on school campuses, including middle schools and elementary schools. The biggest savings — nearly $41 million — could come from staffing reductions at department levels.

It is still unclear how many teachers and staff would be affected by these cuts. Segura said staff would be told about possible impacts by May 7… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ City exploring options to keep SAFE Alliance programs open amid funding crisis, Austin mayor says (KVUE)

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson says the city is leading talks to keep SAFE Alliance services open after voters rejected Proposition Q.

Eloise House, which provides forensic nursing for sexual assault victims, is slated to close on May 31. Planet SAFE and SAFE Futures, which are supervised visitation programs for parents, are slated to shut down this summer.

The community shelter for domestic violence survivors closes on Oct. 1.

According to SAFE officials, Eloise House conducts about 95% of all forensic exams in Austin, handling roughly 600 cases each year.

The mayor called the potential closure of the Eloise House a "community challenge" that needs a "community solution." He went on to say it's a critical need in our community and important that conversations continue to keep the facility open… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Two towers still planned for DoubleTree hotel site near UT (Austin Business Journal)

Plans to redevelop a DoubleTree hotel near downtown into two soaring towers are still alive, and could include more uses than originally thought.

The redevelopment, called Pinnacle Plaza, received rezoning approval in April 2024 that would allow a maximum building height of 280 feet, or about 25 stories. But there have been few new developments for the project in the two years since. That is until recent weeks, when the landowner resubmitted a site development plan for the 3.3-acre property.

A site development plan for the property at 1617 N. IH-35 Service Road Northbound — which is home to the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Austin - University Area — was initially filed in 2024. It contained little information about project details and ultimately was set to expire in February. That deadline appears to have prompted the owner — an entity affiliated with San Diego-based national hotel investment firm Pinnacle Hotels USA — to withdraw and resubmit the application. The resubmitted plan contains new information about Pinnacle Plaza… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ TSTC adding semiconductor, automation, robotics curriculum this fall (Community Impact)

The East Williamson County Texas State Technical College campus will add semiconductor technology as well as automation and robotics technology curriculum this fall, the trade school announced April 8.

The addition of these courses to the Hutto school's curriculum is a direct response to a surge in demand for skilled workers in the semiconductor and manufacturing industries in Williamson County, per a news release shared by TSTC. This surge in demand is largely driven by increased local fabrication and domestic chip production.

"With the launch of these two programs, TSTC is strengthening the bridge between Texas students and the semiconductor industry," said Kelly Coke, provost of TSTC’s Williamson County campus. "We are excited to offer Williamson County a specialized pipeline of talent that addresses the urgent need for local chip production and automated systems. This is a win for our students, our local industry partners and the Texas economy."… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Amid license review, Camp Mystic being investigated by Texas Rangers and state health officials (Texas Tribune)

Texas health investigators are looking into complaints filed against Camp Mystic with help from the Texas Rangers, while the health agency also evaluates whether to renew the camp’s license to operate this summer, according to state officials.

The Texas Department of State Health Services is reviewing what it said were hundreds of complaints filed about the care of children at Camp Mystic, a historic youth camp on the Guadalupe River where 27 girls and counselors died along with the camp’s owner when the river flooded on July 4 last year.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick cited the investigation Tuesday in a public letter to the health agency, urging it for the second time not to renew the camp’s license.

“With many questions remaining unanswered surrounding the deaths of 27 young girls, parents and Texans deserve to have all issues resolved prior to Camp Mystic and/or their operators being allowed to welcome children back into their care this summer,” Patrick wrote to DSHS Commissioner Jennifer Shuford.

Camp Mystic submitted its application to renew its license to operate at the end of March. The camp has sought to reopen a newer portion of its property this summer that is on higher ground and had no fatalities during the flood, called Camp Mystic Cypress Lake… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Data center opponents put Ken Paxton in bind ahead of Senate runoff (Houston Chronicle)

Last month, county commissioners in Fayette County, a deeply Republican area between Houston and Austin, approved a resolution opposing the development of data centers after word spread that tech companies were targeting the area. The push from cities and counties across Texas to slow the flood of data center development comes as Texas Republican leaders are heralding their arrival as another economic boom, putting pressure on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to weigh in ahead of his runoff next month with U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.

As the state's top lawyer, Paxton has been asked to weigh in on whether municipalities have the power to hold up data projects, pitting the Republican between top tech companies and their GOP supporters, including Gov. Greg Abbott and President Donald Trump, and the rural Texans who have long supported him.

In conservative Hood County in North Texas, close to Paxton's home base, a flood of applications for the construction of data centers has drawn opposition among residents who worry the facilities, which require large volumes of water and electricity and often stretch across thousands of acres, will deplete the region's water supplies and drive up power prices. "The concern most people have is this new type of development is going faster than the speed of information coming to the public," said state Rep. David Cook, a Mansfield Republican.

"People are looking for assurances that our water and power supplies are not going to be wiped out here." Hood County commissioners narrowly voted down a moratorium on data center construction in February but have, alongside other counties, sought Paxton's opinion on whether they can take such action. That followed a request from state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican, for Paxton to uphold state law he says denies municipalities the ability to block data centers. Paxton declined to comment for this story… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ City of Fort Worth faces $49M budget shortfall for fiscal year 2026-27 (Community Impact)

The city of Fort Worth may see a budget shortfall of nearly $50 million during the next fiscal year.

During a Fort Worth City Council work session meeting on April 7, Brady Kirk, Fort Worth Lab finance assistant director, provided a long-term budget forecast to the council.

“We’ve known that fiscal year [2026-27] would be another somewhat tough year and that picture is always coming into focus,” he said.

His presentation unveiled rising costs and shrinking revenues. He mentioned economic conditions such as interest rates being near 25-year highs, three government shutdowns, Tarrant Appraisal District's reappraisal plans and national and global uncertainties.

Kirk said the city’s budget depends heavily on taxes, and the whims of the economy have an impact on those numbers.

The fiscal year 2025-26 budget, which runs from Oct. 1, 2025, to Sept. 30, was $3.09 billion, an increase of 10.77% compared to the previous budget, according to the city website… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Newly created Polymarket accounts bet big on US-Iran ceasefire in hours before Trump’s announcement (Politico)

A group of new accounts on the prediction market Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for these new customers.

These bets were made even though, in the hours before a two-week ceasefire was announced on Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s rhetoric had escalated sharply and there were few signals that a ceasefire deal was imminent. Early in the day Trump had issued a warning on social media that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran did not meet his demand to open the Strait of Hormuz by his 8 p.m. ET deadline.

An analysis of publicly available blockchain data from Polymarket, using the crypto analytics platform Dune, shows that at least 50 accounts, or wallets, placed substantial “Yes” bets Tuesday before Trump announced the ceasefire in a Truth Social post at around 6:30 p.m. ET. These were the first bets made by these particular wallets.

One of these wallets, created Tuesday around 10 a.m. ET, placed roughly $72,000 in bets at an average price of 8.8 cents. The buy-in for each betting event ranges from $0 to $1 each, reflecting a 0% to 100% chance of what users think could happen. This Polymarket user then cashed out for a profit of $200,000.

Another, which joined the platform on April 6 and traded on this exact event, shows a win of $125,500… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ What has the U.S. war with Iran accomplished? (NPR)

President Trump's goals for the war with Iran included putting an end to the country's nuclear program, destroying its military capabilities and creating regime change.

Yet after more than five weeks of fighting, and with a two-week ceasefire now in place, the president has fallen well short of those aims.

In addition, Iran's control over the economically crucial Strait of Hormuz has created a crisis that didn't exist before the war began.

The Trump administration stresses that U.S. and Israeli military successes have inflicted severe damage to Iran's military. Still, Iran's military and government survived the onslaught, are still functioning, and are now making their own demands in negotiations that lie ahead… 🟪 (READ MORE)