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🟪 Who's running for Austin City Council? 5 races set for November election (Community Impact)

🟪 Paige Ellis seeks unprecedented third term on Austin City Council (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 SXSW adds a new category and high-end badges for CEOs (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 San Antonio City Council rejects public vote on $489M Spurs arena contribution (Texas Public Radio

🟪 New Braunfels to pursue more convention business (San Antonio Business Journal)

🟪 On the ground at ground zero for growth in DFW (Dallas Businses Journal))

🟪 Islamophobia’s rise in Texas: ‘I won’t rest until every Muslim is gone’ (New York Times)

🟪 Amazon set to expand drone delivery of lightweight packages to 500 US cities (Associated Press)

🟪 Trump says U.S. and Canada reached deal to delay 50% U.S. tariffs on Canadian imports (NPR)

READ ON!

Events we’re watching:

✅ Who's running for Austin City Council? 5 races set for November election (Community Impact)

Almost two dozen candidates have filed to run in Austin's five City Council races this fall, four of which may include incumbents seeking reelection.

Half of Austin's council seats are on the November general election ballot, with candidates in districts 1, 3, 5, 8 and 9 seeking four-year terms starting in January. Residents can look up their council district online… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Paige Ellis seeks unprecedented third term on Austin City Council (Austin American-Statesman)

Council Member Paige Ellis submitted a petition Monday to seek a third term on Austin City Council. Ellis was first elected to represent District 8, which covers Southwest Austin, in 2018.

Ellis’ campaign announced that she turned in 3,409 signatures, more than the 3,044 it said were required to qualify for the 2026 election. The city clerk's office on Tuesday confirmed that Ellis needed 3,044 signatures and that it had received her petition and begun its signature verification process.

“I’m encouraged by the strong show of support from thousands of voters around Southwest Austin, including many who were excited to come out and sign the petition on the last day,” Ellis said in a news release.

If Ellis qualifies for the ballot and wins, she would become the first council member elected to a third term under Austin's current 10-district council system. City Council members are limited to two terms but can petition to run again if they collect signatures from at least 5% of registered voters in their district, according to the city charter. 

The only other council member to petition for a third term under the 10-district system was former Council Member Kathie Tovo in 2018. At the time, it was unclear whether Tovo needed to petition for another term because she joined council before the district-based system was implemented in 2014… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ SXSW adds a new category and high-end badges for CEOs (Austin Business Journal)

South by Southwest is adding a new branch to next year's conference.

SXSW announced Aug. 18 that it will add a Podcast Festival to its operations, running March 17-20. It will be open to all badge holders. 

The Podcast Festival will “bring talent, platforms, brands, marketers and the broader podcast industry together in one dedicated home,” according to the announcement. 

The podcast industry has steadily increased in popularity. The Pew Research Center found that 54% of U.S. adults have listened to a podcast within the last 12 months, and that people aged 18-29 are more likely to listen to a podcast – 67% of this group listened to a podcast in the last 12 months. 

Austin already is home to one of the most popular podcasts — “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which features the comedian interviewing guests ranging from President Donald Trump to retired boxer Mike Tyson. It ranked as the most popular podcast in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2026, according to a report from Edison Research.  

In total, SXSW will take place over seven days from March 15-21. The SXSW EDU festival runs March 13-16… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ San Antonio City Council rejects public vote on $489M Spurs arena contribution (Texas Public Radio)

San Antonio City Council rejected calls to hold a public vote on its $489 million Spurs arena contribution on Monday, voting down a proposal to put it on the Nov. 3 midterm ballot.

The move means that last November’s election approving $311 million in Bexar County venue tax dollars for the arena, known as Proposition B, could be both the first and only time voters are asked about a public investment that totals more than $800 million.

Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones called Monday’s meeting knowing she likely lacked the support from colleagues to get a city vote on the ballot.

Now that the council is facing a ballooning budget deficit, Jones said that investment of this scale deserved its own public hearing.

The majority of her colleagues disagreed, saying it was bad for business to invite the public to weigh in on major spending decisions that don’t legally require it… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ New Braunfels to pursue more convention business (San Antonio Business Journal)

New Braunfels Convention & Visitors Bureau is taking on a new identity as Visit New Braunfels.

“Visit New Braunfels brings some credibility to the group audience. At a national level, you really need to follow the standard,” Visit New Braunfels Director Amanda Ciarlone said.

The shift is part of a larger strategy aimed at attracting a wider audience. New Braunfels tourism industry leaders believe the fast-growing city is positioned to feast on an industry undergoing seismic changes.

“We don't have a hard time getting people to come here in the region for the weekend, but those weekday groups are something that we've never focused on or knew quite how to approach successfully,” Ciarlone said. “We’re moving more into group business and being strategic about how we position ourselves.”

The economic impact from convention- and visitor-related business on New Braunfels topped the billion-dollar mark in 2024. That figure is expected to grow, especially as Austin razed its convention center and won’t have a new one in place until 2029.

“It's really timely for us to leverage that and introduce ourselves as a good place to meet for a good value,” Ciarlone said.

New Braunfels has some more traditional meeting space in place, including a 50,000-square-foot convention center, and it’s pursuing the possible expansion of those facilities. Meanwhile, the city is working to be more creative in its infrastructure offerings… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ On the ground at ground zero for growth in DFW (Dallas Businses Journal)

Kaufman County's rapid transformation from a largely rural area into one of the nation's fastest-growing counties is forcing its cities to make a difficult calculation: how to accommodate thousands of new residents without losing their distinctive appeal.

The county's population rose an estimated 5.6% from June 2024 to July 2025, according to the U.S Census Bureau. That ranked first in Texas and third in the nation for percentage growth. Since 2020, the county's population grew by about 44% from about 145,000 to over 209,000.

Forney in the northwestern part of the county has been ground zero for that growth, while communities such as Crandall, Kaufman, Terrell and Kemp are at different stages of economic evolution.

The challenge looks different in each city, but their mayors largely agree that growth cannot be stopped. Instead, they're trying to manage it by expanding infrastructure, attracting businesses and finding new ways to pay for roads, police, utilities and other services. The pressures aren't unique to Kaufman County. In Collin County, Princeton made headlines when city leaders enacted a temporary moratorium on new residential development in order to catch up on infrastructure to accommodate rapid growth… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Islamophobia’s rise in Texas: ‘I won’t rest until every Muslim is gone’ (New York Times)

Ghulam Kehar rose before dawn in early June to attend the day’s first prayer at his local mosque in Irving, Texas, before heading off for a monthslong deployment with the U.S. Coast Guard. He had been deployed before, but this time was different. He felt apprehensive about leaving his wife and four children behind in Texas, even for a short while. Rhetorical attacks on Muslims by top Texas leaders had become more pronounced, and seemed to be trickling down.

At his mosque, the Valley Ranch Islamic Center, and others across the state, congregants and religious leaders swapped stories of ugly comments directed at them while praying in public or sitting in public parks. In recent months, a man was arrested and charged with making a terroristic threat at a major new Islamic center in Houston. Not far away, in Conroe, a woman told Muslim shoppers at a grocery store they were “not welcome in this state or this country” — after losing her job, she received nearly $250,000 from supporters after video of her comments circulated widely.

In McKinney, a Dallas suburb, a woman grabbed a former mayor and stuffed paper with an anti-Muslim message down his shirt during a heated City Council hearing over a mosque expansion. “Leaving them alone in this environment, it would be a little worrisome,” Mr. Kehar said of his family.

“It’s just the fear of what’s being spewed out there.” He arranged for his family to join him on his deployment near the Canadian border as soon as they could get there. Mr. Kehar, who grew up in California, is part of a growing number of Muslims who moved to Texas in recent decades in search of good schools, affordable homes and a thriving community of fellow believers. The Dallas-Fort Worth area has been a particularly strong magnet for families like his. Dozens of mosques have opened. Some are expanding. Others, like the glittering DeSoto House of Peace, south of Dallas, aim to provide new anchors for Muslim communities in Texas… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Amazon set to expand drone delivery of lightweight packages to 500 US cities (Associated Press)

Millions more people may be able to get smaller, lightweight Amazon packages delivered by drones by the end of the year under a plan the company announced Thursday to expand the airborne shipping to suburban areas in nearly 500 U.S. cities.

Customers could receive the drone deliveries in as fast as 30 minutes, Amazon said in a news release. The drones can carry packages up to 5 pounds.

The plan will intensify the battle between Amazon and Walmart to provide consumers with the fastest delivery times. Both giants rely on a mix of drones and drivers to deliver everything consumers have ordered.

Amazon’s plan would expand its drone delivery operation more than sixfold nationwide into hundreds of new communities, including the Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland and Boise metro areas. The drones will primarily fly in the suburbs well away from skyscrapers and major airports that could cause problems… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump says U.S. and Canada reached deal to delay 50% U.S. tariffs on Canadian imports (NPR)

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he was delaying the 50% U.S. tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian imports after the two countries reached a last-minute deal less than two hours before the sanctions were to go into effect.

The announcement, which Trump made on his social media platform, buys time for more negotiations and avoids, for now, another strain in already tense relations between the historic allies.

"I have paused the 50% Tariffs against Canada, that were scheduled to kick in tomorrow morning for a three day period, based on the fact that Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!" Trump posted on Truth Social.

If they had gone into effect as scheduled at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, Trump's import taxes would have hit Canadian products ranging from hockey sticks to tongue depressors… 🟪 (READ MORE)