🟪 3 dead, 14 hospitalized in potential act of terrorism in downtown Austin, FBI says (KUT)

🟪 Redevelopment of former Austin ISD campus with mixed-income housing breaks ground in East Austin (Community Impact)

🟪 Austin ISD projected deficit balloons to $49 million, worse than expected (KUT)

🟪 Political fighting pervades Texas politicians’ responses to Austin shooting (Texas Tribune)

🟪 San Antonio City Council approves formal reprimand of Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones in 8-1 vote (Texas Public Radio)

🟪 Texas Democrats prepare to decide party’s future after divisive, epic Senate primary (Texas Tribune)

🟪 President Trump endorses Sid Miller and Don Huffines, countering Abbott’s picks (Texas Tribune)

READ ON!

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✅ 3 dead, 14 hospitalized in potential act of terrorism in downtown Austin, FBI says (KUT)

Three people died and 14 people have been hospitalized in a shooting on West Sixth Street in Austin early Sunday. The incident is being investigated by the FBI as a potential act of terrorism, according to Acting Special Agent in Charge Alex Doran.

The suspect — identified Sunday night as 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne — was among the dead; he was shot by Austin police officers, Police Chief Lisa Davis said.

The shooting happened just before 2 a.m. at Buford's, a bar at the intersection of West Sixth and Rio Grande streets.

The FBI said it was too early in the investigation to determine an exact motivation for the shooting. "There were indicators on the subject and in his vehicle that indicate potential nexus to terrorism," Doran said.

Law enforcement officials said they are not releasing the name of the victims at this time due to the ongoing investigation… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Redevelopment of former Austin ISD campus with mixed-income housing breaks ground in East Austin (Community Impact)

The repurposing of the Anita Ferrales Coy Facility broke ground in East Austin on Feb. 27, advancing the transformation of the former school site into a mixed-income housing development.

"This project proves that evolution doesn’t mean that you have to lose; it means that you can gain," AISD Superintendent Matias Segura said. "Today we aren’t losing a site, we are gaining new homes, we are gaining green spaces, we are gaining new opportunities for our Austin ISD families and staff and communities to have a home.”

AISD has been planning to bring affordable housing to the old school and Alternative Learning Center campus for years. Under a partnership with developer The NRP Group, the multiphase project will bring almost 700 apartment homes and nonprofit space to about 18 acres at 4900 Gonzales St., Austin… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin ISD projected deficit balloons to $49 million, worse than expected (KUT)

Austin ISD leaders now project a $49 million deficit by the end of the school year, more than double the shortfall board members approved just months ago, intensifying pressure on the district as it struggles with falling enrollment and rising costs.

Superintendent Matias Segura presented the revised forecast during Thursday night’s board meeting, attributing the worsening outlook to lower student enrollment, high operational costs, declining property values and weaker-than-expected revenue from property sales. The update comes months after trustees voted to close 10 schools and implemented a hiring freeze of central office positions to rein in expenses.

District administrators said the $49 million estimate assumes the district can cut $39 million in spending by June. However, if those reductions do not materialize, the deficit could grow. This $39 million target is also tied to the district’s requirement to keep a minimum fund balance… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ San Antonio City Council approves formal reprimand of Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones in 8-1 vote (Texas Public Radio)

The San Antonio City Council approved a censure of San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones on Friday during a special meeting.

The council voted 8-1 with District 9 Councilwoman Misty Spears as the only dissenting vote. Jones had recused herself at the start of the meeting and District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur, who had filed the complaint against Jones, was not present.

The complaint stems from a Feb. 5 incident where Jones has admitted to swearing at Kaur and raising her voice. Five city council members then issued a memo calling for a special meeting where a censure may take place, pending the results of the investigation.

Before recusing herself and before the vote took place, Jones issued a statement saying she would comply with the censure resolution which asked for her to step aside from a city council committee and undergo training.

"Specific to the resolution before you, in the interest of moving forward and focusing on the people's work, I agree to step aside from the Governance Committee for a period of three months, starting today. Additionally, I will participate in in-person leadership training next week as a servant leader. I learned a long time ago that no one is above additional training. We can all learn more and we can all be better," she said… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Political fighting pervades Texas politicians’ responses to Austin shooting (Texas Tribune)

Texas elected officials and candidates’ response to the deadly shooting in downtown Austin on Sunday quickly turned political, as Republicans sharply criticized the country’s naturalization process and Democrats called for stricter gun reform laws.

Republicans’ rebukes of the immigration system came after media outlets identified the gunman, whom police killed within a minute of arriving at the scene, as a naturalized citizen from Senegal. The Department of Homeland Security said the man entered the United States on a tourist visa in 2000, became a lawful permanent resident by marrying a U.S. citizen in 2006 and was naturalized in 2013.

Shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday, the gunman killed two people and injured 14 others at a bar that sits among several popular nightlife venues on West 6th Street… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas Democrats prepare to decide party’s future after divisive, epic Senate primary (Texas Tribune)

For decades, statewide Democratic primaries in Texas were low-octane affairs.

Then came the 2026 election cycle. In a year that Democrats see as a prime opportunity to finally flip Texas — amid flagging approval for the second Trump administration, a vicious Senate primary on the Republican side and the potential to face scandal-plagued Attorney General Ken Paxton in November — Texas Democrats are waging a dogfight primary in the contest for U.S. Senate.

For the first time this century, two Democratic heavyweights with national profiles — U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas and state Rep. James Talarico of Austin — are battling for the party’s nomination, making for an intensely competitive race that has drawn massive attention, dollars and stakes, and cast the outcome of Tuesday’s election as a window into the potential future of the Democratic Party as it continues to grope its way out of the political doldrums of 2024… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Notable A&M alumni warn 'excessive' politics is reshaping campus leadership (Houston Chronicle)

Jon Hagler’s name is etched into the walls of Texas A&M's campus in College Station as the namesake of an academic institute, the headquarters of A&M's philanthropic foundation and an auditorium in the Bush School of Government and Public Service. But his faith in the university system’s board of regents has waned as he watches its members bend to partisan Republican politics, according to an op-ed he wrote in the Dallas Morning News. Other Aggie alumni and supporters are beginning to follow his lead and speak out. “The crisis is pretty serious and pretty deep,” Hagler said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle. “While I respect their authority, I think that they need to think of themselves as stewards of a sacred public trust, and I think in some instances, their fealty to political parties is excessive and damaging.”

Hagler penned the op-ed after the regents made national headlines for banning the teaching of “race and gender ideology” in the classroom. He also cited board Chairman Robert Albritton’s acknowledgement that Gov. Greg Abbott — who appoints the regents — played a role in some of their more controversial decisions, as reported by the Texas Tribune. Albritton, who with his wife has donated more than $1.6 million to Abbott since 2000, told the Chronicle he has “nothing but good things to say” about Hagler. But he denied any loss of institutional independence, as Hagler alleges, and instead framed A&M’s response to lawmakers’ demands as not only in the best financial interest of the system, but reflective of the wishes of Aggies and Texas voters.

“For A&M not to be cognizant of what is going on politically in this state would be total mismanagement by the board,” Albritton said. “What A&M is doing is they are parsing what the law asks us to parse and to adhere by the law. Now, if people don’t like this — whether it’s Jon Hagler or whoever — if they don’t like that we are adhering to the state law, then take that up with Austin.” Hagler is among those who fear that the regents have not only micromanaged but overcorrected after a gender identity lesson in a children's literature class cascaded across social media and snowballed into the resignation of the university president in September… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ President Trump endorses Sid Miller and Don Huffines, countering Abbott’s picks (Texas Tribune)

President Donald Trump endorsed Don Huffines and Sid Miller in their respective Republican primaries for Texas comptroller and agriculture commissioner, a last-minute boost for the candidates that directly opposes Gov. Greg Abbott’s picks in the races.

In two similarly-worded Truth Social posts on Friday night after his appearance at an event in Corpus Christi, Trump praised Huffines, a former state senator, and Miller, the incumbent agriculture commissioner, with “complete and total endorsement[s].” The posts emphasized both candidates’ dedication to border security, veterans and the second amendment.

The endorsements could add even more pressure to Abbott’s chosen candidates, Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock and first-time political candidate Nate Sheets, both of whom have polled behind Huffines and Miller. Abbott’s interest in the comptroller primary, in particular, extends beyond an endorsement, as the position is responsible for implementing the $1 billion school voucher program that he aggressively sought for years… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Hegseth cancels troop attendance at top-ranked schools (The Hill)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the cancellation of members of the military attending some of the country’s top-ranked colleges and universities on Friday, beginning academic year 2026-27, arguing the schools are teaching the “enemy’s wicked ideologies” to service members. Hegseth, who attended Harvard University for postgraduate studies, said the move would affect institutions like Princeton University, Columbia University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University, Yale University and “others.”

“We demand that senior service colleges work to sharpen our war fighters on genuine national security issues, not social justice activism. We demand curriculums grounded in the founding principles of this republic, principles that champion the enduring ideals of peace through strength and putting American interests first,” Hegseth said in a video posted on social platform X.

“We demand universities that invest back into our nation’s prosperity rather than our greatest adversaries,” the Pentagon chief said in the four-minute clip. “It’s common sense.” Earlier this month, Hegseth announced the Pentagon would cut all academic ties with Harvard starting in the 2026-27 school year, contending the country’s oldest university is “one of the red-hot centers of hate-America activism.” The move marks another chapter in Hegseth’s culture war against academia since taking the helm at the Pentagon.

On Friday, Hegseth said he would direct a formal “top to bottom” review of the U.S. war colleges to ensure they are “once again bastions of strategic thought, wholly dedicated to the singular mission of developing the most lethal and effective leaders and war fighters the world has ever known.” War colleges provide professional military education to high-ranking officers, Pentagon civilians and international partners, with a focus ranging from joint operations to national security and strategy. “We’re going to hold ourselves accountable as well,” Hegseth said in the video. “As a final message to our warriors, the Ivy League faculty lounges may loathe you, the so-called elite of academia may mock your patriotism and disdain your sacrifice, but never forget that we the War Department have your back.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)