🟪 Austin airport gears up for SXSW amid federal shutdown delays, staffing shortages (KXAN)

🟪 Passenger traffic climbs at Austin airport as JetBlue, Frontier see big gains (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 Q&A with San Marcos' first economic and local business development director (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Under new proposals, Pflugerville ISD could close as many as six schools (KUT)

🟪 Travis County approves borrowing $138M for infrastructure projects, $12M for Precinct 2 facility (Community Impact)

🟪 We’ve got to pay attention’: GOP anxiety spikes over rising energy prices (Politico)

READ ON!

✅ Austin airport gears up for SXSW amid federal shutdown delays, staffing shortages (KXAN)

With South by Southwest just days away, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) is preparing for one of the busiest travel periods of the year. The surge comes at a challenging time for airports nationwide, as a partial federal government shutdown and the annual wave of spring break travelers strain TSA operations.

Over the weekend, federal officials reported significant delays across the country. Peak wait times on Sunday stretched to three-and-a-half hours at Houston Hobby Airport, while travelers in New Orleans faced waits of about an hour-and-a-half.

At Austin’s airport, security lines remained steady on Monday, with more than 29,000 passengers expected to pass through checkpoints.

Public Information Specialist for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport Samantha Rojas said the airport considers anything above 35,000 passengers busy.

In a statement, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at Department of Homeland Security Lauren Bis pointed to the partial government shutdown as the driver behind the delays... 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Passenger traffic climbs at Austin airport as JetBlue, Frontier see big gains (Austin American-Statesman)

Passenger traffic at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport ticked up in January, continuing a steady climb that reflects strong demand for air travel in Central Texas.

A total of 1,435,466 passengers traveled through the airport during the first month of the year, a 2.77% increase compared with January 2025, according to data released Friday by AUS. Twelve passenger airlines reported year-over-year increases in traffic, while four carriers saw declines.

A few carriers posted particularly sharp gains. JetBlue Airways more than doubled its passenger traffic from January 2025, surging 120%. Frontier Airlines traffic jumped 91%, while Spirit Airlines carried 50% more passengers over the same period. Delta Air Lines, the airport’s second-busiest carrier, increased its passenger count by nearly 29% in January.

Southwest Airlines saw traffic remain essentially flat, dipping 0.3%. Still, the Dallas-based carrier remains the most dominant at AUS by far, moving 289,700 more passengers in January than No. 2 Delta. United Airlines, the fourth-busiest carrier at the airport, reported a 1.3% increase year over year… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Q&A with San Marcos' first economic and local business development director (Austin Business Journal)

Helen Ramirez views San Marcos as a city that already has all "the right ingredients."

It's situated 30 miles south of Austin, halfway to San Antonio, in one of the highest growth corridors in the country. It's home to booming Texas State University and another 40,000 students. It's got a burgeoning industrial sector buoyed by a growing airport, and rail and highway connectivity. And it's rife with natural beauty.

That was enough to sell Ramirez to start last month as San Marcos' first economic and local business development director after nearly 30 years in municipal management. She returns to the area from Brownsville in South Texas, where she was city manager after previously working a variety of roles at the city of Hutto, among several other stops… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Under new proposals, Pflugerville ISD could close as many as six schools (KUT)

Pflugerville ISD could close as many as six schools by 2030 as district leaders weigh sweeping changes to streamline operations in the face of declining enrollment and a budget deficit that has more than doubled over the past year.

Due to declining enrollment, all but four of Pflugerville ISD’s 22 elementary schools are now operating at less than the minimum standard of 75% capacity. Some sit far below that benchmark. That, combined with a soaring budget deficit that has ballooned from a predicted $4 million to an estimated $10.9 million, has left the district scrambling for solutions. District leaders say consolidation is now a serious consideration as part of a dozen possible scenarios that also include schedule changes and redrawn attendance boundaries for schools.

Consolidation has become a familiar threat statewide as falling enrollment rates and persistent funding woes stretch public school dollars and resources thin. Across the country, school districts are confronting similar pressures as demographic and economic shifts shrink the pool of school-age children. Birth rates have been falling for more than a decade, leaving fewer kindergarteners entering classrooms each year. In many higher-cost cities, like Austin, rising housing prices are pushing young families to more affordable areas or out of urban districts altogether. At the same time, tighter immigration enforcement and fewer newly arriving immigrant families have reduced another traditional source of enrollment growth for many public school systems… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Travis County approves borrowing $138M for infrastructure projects, $12M for Precinct 2 facility (Community Impact)

The Travis County Commissioners Court approved $12 million in funding for a new Precinct 2 building at a March 3 meeting.

The new facility comes as the county prepares to borrow nearly $138.88 million through certificates of obligation in Fiscal Year 2025-26.

Travis County officials are planning to issue $138.88 million in certificates of obligation, or COs, for infrastructure improvements, including:

About $65.31 million in debt is expected to be issued over five years while $73.56 million is expected to be issued over the next 20 years, according to county documents. The county is planning to sell and close on the bonds in May… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ After a decade of missteps, Corpus Christi careens toward water catastrophe (Texas Tribune)

The imminent depletion of water supplies in Corpus Christi threatens to cut off the flow of jet fuel to Texas airports and other oil exports from one of the nation’s largest petroleum ports, triggering potential shockwaves through energy markets in Texas and beyond.

Without significant rainfall, Corpus Christi is headed for a “water emergency” within months and total depletion of the system next year, according to the city’s website. “The impacts are going to be felt tremendously through the state, if not internationally,” said Sean Strawbridge, former CEO of the Port of Corpus Christi Authority, the nation’s top port for crude oil exports, in a 40-minute interview Thursday. “This should be no surprise to anybody. We were talking about this over a decade ago.”.

Other current and former officials, alarmed at what they call a lack of preparations, have suggested the potential for an economic crisis involving mass layoffs, disruption of fuel supplies and billions of dollars in emergency spending to avoid an evacuation of the city… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Mayor Jones commissions advisory group to boost San Antonio’s technology and AI industries (Texas Public Radio)

San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has commissioned a new advisory group made up of local CEOs focused on economic security for the city.

The group is called the “Economic Security Advisory Group" and will look at growing sectors of technology, specifically a strong focus on the AI, quantum technology, biotechnology, and space manufacturing industries in the city. Jones made the announcement at San Antonio City Hall on Monday, just days before she and members of this group will be part of a delegation to Taiwan.

The mayor said this group — which she referred to by the acronym ESAG — is meant to strengthen and unleash San Antonio’s innovation ecosystem.

“These are foundational technologies and growing sectors that will be needed to power the global economy, and San Antonio will lead the way,” she said.

Among the companies participating in this initiative are Port San Antonio, Texas Biomed, Southwest Research institute, and AI companies like Forward Edge AI and unmanned aviation companies like Darkhive. There are also retired members of the Air Force and Navy participating, each with some knowledge in cybersecurity… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump’s food industry friends are warning him RFK Jr.’s agenda is bad for business (Politico)

America’s food-makers have a message for President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers: You must choose between Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agenda and ours. Since Trump teamed up with Kennedy to win the 2024 election and made him Health secretary, the GOP’s traditional allies in the food industry have mostly stood down as Kennedy called their products poison and blamed them for chronic disease. They aren’t standing down anymore.

“Anytime that you’re increasing the regulatory burden or changing a system…you end up driving up the cost of the product,” said Jay Timmons, CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers. In a new video and report titled “Manufacturers Feed America” shared first with POLITICO, NAM warns the food industry is “under increasing strain” and federal and state rules targeting ingredients “risk undermining the system.”

NAM is demanding national uniform standards and a seat at the table on policies stemming from Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again agenda. Last year, Timmons warned the White House strategy on MAHA would “take America in the wrong direction.” Food and beverage companies make up the largest segment of NAM’s membership, which includes jam-maker Smucker’s, spice- and condiment-maker McCormick & Co., and the maker of processed meats Smithfield Foods, among other iconic American names. The NAM campaign is the latest escalation from the food industry against Kennedy and his MAHA movement’s efforts to target their ingredients.

It underscores how companies are exploiting Republican vulnerabilities on the economy in an effort to push their agenda ahead of the November midterm elections, which will shape Trump’s influence for the remainder of his term. Midterm pressures have prompted the Trump administration in recent weeks to recalibrate its messaging on MAHA. On Feb. 18, Trump signed an executive order to boost glyphosate production, a weedkiller that a Kennedy-backed White House report last year linked to cancer. Kennedy has also embarked on a messaging blitz, touting the administration’s new dietary guidelines and drug pricing deals while talking less about his efforts to downsize the vaccine schedule. He has endorsed a Super Bowl ad paid for by the MAHA Center featuring boxer Mike Tyson and the slogan “Eat Real Food.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ ‘We’ve got to pay attention’: GOP anxiety spikes over rising energy prices (Politico)

The economic fallout from President Donald Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran is imperiling the GOP’s legislative sales pitch ahead of the midterms, with energy price spikes threatening at least some of the pocketbook gains Americans are seeing from the sweeping tax cuts Republicans enacted last year.

Analysts with the Wall Street advisory and investment firm Evercore ISI estimated Monday that the impact on household costs attributable to the current crisis could erase the tax benefits from the “big, beautiful bill” for at least the bottom 30 percent of Americans — even if oil prices come off their $100-plus-per-barrel highs.

Some top Republicans acknowledged rising energy prices are cause for political concern.

“The price of gas is always kind of a benchmark,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters on Capitol Hill Monday. “I do think the fact that we’ve increased our supply here domestically will help ease it, but it’s something obviously we’ve got to pay attention to. And hopefully the operations in Iran … won’t be an extended situation.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump says U.S. is 'achieving major strides' in Iran but doesn't cite endpoint (NPR)

President Trump on Monday touted the success of the military as the U.S. enters its second week of strikes in Iran but didn't cite a firm endpoint for the conflict.

"We're achieving major strides toward completing our military objective. And some people could say they're pretty well complete," he said at a press conference at his resort in Doral, Fla., his first since the beginning of the U.S.-Israel-led war. "We've wiped every single force in Iran out, very completely, most of Iran's naval powers have been sunk."

Trump also said the U.S. has held off hitting "some of the most important targets" such as electricity production sites… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Iran signals a fight to the end with appointment of Khamenei’s son (Wall Street Journal)

The appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as Iran’s new supreme leader defies President Trump and signals that Tehran won’t back down as it fights a war with the U.S. and Israel. The elevation of Mojtaba Khamenei, a conservative long close to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, shows that Trump’s efforts so far to cow the regime into surrender have failed.

It also appears to have put hard-liners in firm control of the country, with moderate and reformist factions long marginalized. The 56-year old Khamenei is expected to take a confrontational stance toward the West. His appointment also shows that Iran won’t acquiesce to Trump’s demand that he approve the country’s new top cleric. Trump told Axios last week that “Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me.”

The younger Khamenei’s ascendance “suggests the continuation of the same old strategy: repression at home and resistance internationally,” said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House. The Revolutionary Guard and Iranian army pledged allegiance to the new leader. Following his appointment, Iran launched a wave of missiles toward Israel, state media said. In addition to his father being killed at the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli campaign, the new leader has also lost his mother, wife and a son in the strikes. Israel said on Sunday that it would target whoever was appointed as the new supreme leader.

Despite the risk, the appointment of a new top cleric is important in signaling to Iranians and the world that the regime can still function. The ability to appoint a new supreme leader defied the expectations of its enemies, said Ali Larijani, head of the national security council. He added that Khamenei had been “raised in the school of leadership,” with teachings from his father, which would help him govern the country. The younger Khamenei has mostly kept away from the public eye, and his political views aren’t well-known… 🟪 (READ MORE)