🟪 Austin retools economic development strategies as it loses businesses to suburbs (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Rep. Zwiener establishes Hays County group to address data center concerns (Community Impact)

🟪 Austin ISD turns closed school into affordable housing to keep teachers in the city (KUT)

🟪 Houston airports see highest TSA callout rates in the nation, straining security lines (KHOU)

🟪 Supreme Court sounds skeptical of late-arriving ballots, a Trump target (Associated Press)

🟪 Senate confirms Markwayne Mullin to lead Homeland Security as TSA standoff deepens (Associated Press)

🟪 Why Iran does not appear ready to give in, despite heavy losses (Washington Post)

READ ON!

☀️ Client Spotlight: Food delivery app Wonder targets Austin amid Texas expansion (Austin Business Journal)

A New York-based food delivery service plans to expand its operations to Austin next year.

Wonder, a mealtime platform, is targeting Texas as part of its recent expansion efforts, according to an announcement. This marks the company's first move outside of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, with San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Austin as select markets.

The platform combines delivery, pickup, dine-in, meal kits and chef-driven food into one experience across its physical locations and app services.

Customers are able to order from several acclaimed chefs and restaurant brands, including Bobby Flay Steak, Marcus Samuelsson's Streetbird, Di Fara Pizza and Texas-based Tejas Barbecue… 🟪 (READ MORE)

🏛️ Today @9AM: Austin Council Work Session

Items to watch:

🟪 A resolution initiating amendments to City Code Title 25 (Land Development) to create new zoning districts that will allow for a range of small housing types such as townhomes, cottage courts, and small-scale multi-unit residential uses (also known as “missing middle housing”) and new zoning districts that will allow for developments that mix residential and commercial or civic uses (also known as “mixed-use”); and to amend existing Land Development Code provisions and administrative barriers to better facilitate missing middle housing and mixed-use development.

🟪 A public hearing and an ordinance amending City Code Chapter 25-10 (Sign Regulations) to authorize larger signs in the public right-of-way that include electronic images, light, and off-premises advertising and waiving City Code Section 25-1-501 (Initiation of Amendments).

🏛️ Council Economic Opportunity Committee (March 20, 2026)

🟪 Briefing presentation on the Economic Development Roadmap, a strategic plan intended to guide Austin's economic development strategy over the next 3 years. [Dr. Eric A. Johnson - Assistant City Manager, City Manager’s Office]

🟪 Video Link

✅ Austin retools economic development strategies as it loses businesses to suburbs (Austin Business Journal)

The city of Austin has come down from its post-pandemic development and growth high and is facing a few years of slowed economic growth, said a key economic development official for the city.

“Austin is going through a recalibration … which is really defined as adjusting to market changes, growth slowdown, some competition from the suburbs, you know, rebounding from just the whole environment of change and disruption right now, it's at every single level,” said Eric Johnson, an assistant city manager for the city of Austin.

Johnson oversees several key departments related to Austin’s economic future, including Austin Economic Development, Austin Convention Center, Austin Development Services, Austin Planning and Austin Housing.

The city has seen a slowdown in real estate development after years of feverish building post-pandemic and when interest rates were at historic lows… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Rep. Zwiener establishes Hays County group to address data center concerns (Community Impact)

District 45 state Rep. Erin Zwiener announced a Hays County working group tasked with addressing concerns surrounding data centers, water use and the authority of cities and counties to respond to related challenges.

The group will discuss how governing bodies can respond to data center development in Hays County and how officials may strengthen local authority through policy solutions, according to a news release from Zwiener.

“Data centers are posing a new challenge for communities across Texas, and Hays County really has an opportunity to lead because of the experience we have dealing with all of the pressures that intersect when you deal with the data center,” Zwiener said.

The working group will receive presentations from experts in various groups pertaining to data centers. Potential speakers include experts on water, the electric grid, data centers and local control… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin ISD turns closed school into affordable housing to keep teachers in the city (KUT)

Austin is launching a new effort to house and retain teachers as rising costs make it harder to live in the city.

A widening gap between teacher pay and Austin housing costs has created an affordability crisis for district educators. This year, the Austin Independent School District took a step to address that problem by redeveloping the Anita Ferrales Coy facility, formerly Allan Elementary, into mixed-income housing that includes units for teachers. District leaders say the project could become a model as Austin ISD faces a growing number of soon-to-be vacant campuses and looks for ways to help educators find affordable housing.

“We are doing everything we can within our purview of influence,” said Superintendent Matias Segura. “One of the things we have to realize is we are in a much larger market and many of the things are outside of our control, which is why this project is so creative.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Lawsuit over toxic East Austin landfill use dismissed, eminent domain battle continues (Austin Business Journal)

A contentious lawsuit between Travis County, a landowner and a developer was dismissed, and it could spell the end for a mixed-use redevelopment along South Congress Avenue.

The lawsuit is centered around the county’s denial to relocate a scrapyard at 7900 S. Congress Ave. to East Austin's 9500 E. Highway 290, the site of a landfill that has not accepted new dumping since 1982 and is currently home to a flea market, which would close should the scrapyard be relocated. That landfill is owned by Moo Moo Meadows LLC, and relocating the scrapyard would allow Graham Development Corp. to redevelop the South Congress site.

Graham Development and Moo Moo Meadows filed their lawsuit against the county in summer 2025, but on March 17 United States District Judge Robert Pitman dismissed the suit, a decision that Graham Development Managing Partner Corbin Graham said they planned to appeal, as no other site has been identified that would be suitable for the scrapyard… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin airport unveils renderings, new details about ‘Concourse M’ (KXAN)

When Austin-Bergstrom International Airport officials unveiled their design plans for a new terminal, they also introduced ‘Concourse M’ — another new terminal space featuring six gates. Now, we’re getting our first look at the planned space.

The airport released new renderings of the project Monday, along with new details about how the 37,537-square-foot space will be used.

Concourse M will be on the west side of the airport and will feature six gates for narrow-body aircraft: four ‘contact’ gates and two ‘walk-out’ gates. Passengers will access the new concourse via shuttle bus, which will pick up at Gate 13, the airport’s only ground-level gate.

The concourse will be used for flights that are diverted to AUS, as well as reliever space during construction of Concourse B and remodeling of the existing terminal… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Houston airports see highest TSA callout rates in the nation, straining security lines (KHOU)

Travelers at Houston airports are facing significant delays as staffing shortages among TSA officers persist amid the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown, federal officials said. New data released by the Department of Homeland Security shows absenteeism among Transportation Security Administration officers has surged nationwide, with callout rates topping 11.5% on Friday, March 21 — the highest recorded during the shutdown.

In Houston, the numbers were even more severe. At George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), 42.4% of TSA officers reportedly called out, while at William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), that figure climbed to 47.4%, among the highest rates in the country.

Federal officials say the staffing shortages are contributing to long security lines and extended wait times for travelers, particularly during the busy spring break travel period. According to DHS, TSA officers have now gone without pay for the third time in six months, creating financial strain that is impacting attendance.

“Many TSA officers cannot pay their rent, buy food, or afford to put gas in their cars — forcing them to call out sick from work,” the agency said in a statement. Over the past week, TSA callout rates have remained above 9% nationwide, with more than half of those days exceeding 10%, officials said… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas Education Agency orders public schools to remove mentions of Cesar Chavez from lessons (Texas Tribune)

The Texas Education Agency on Monday directed all public schools in the state to revise lesson plans to remove mentions of Cesar Chavez after sexual abuse allegations surfaced against the labor leader.

In written guidance, the agency also ordered school districts to cancel “or otherwise redirect” events and activities planned for Cesar Chavez Day on March 31, an extension of Gov. Greg Abbott’s state directive to not observe the optional state holiday.  

Teachers and labor groups have been reckoning with the late civil rights leader’s legacy after a New York Times investigation revealed allegations that Chavez had sexually assaulted and abused women and girls. The activist had strong ties to Texas, where he supported striking farmworkers and led a rally at the state Capitol following a march from Rio Grande City to Austin in 1966… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Supreme Court sounds skeptical of late-arriving ballots, a Trump target (Associated Press)

The Supreme Court ‘s conservative majority on Monday sounded skeptical of state laws that allow the counting of late-arriving mail ballots, a persistent target of President Donald Trump.

A ruling, likely to come by late June, that bars counting ballots arriving after Election Day would send officials scrambling in 14 states and the District of Columbia, just a few months before the 2026 midterm congressional elections to change their ballot rules.

An additional 15 states that have more forgiving deadlines for ballots from military and overseas voters also could be affected.

The legal challenge is part of Trump’s broader attack on most mail balloting, which he has said breeds fraud despite strong evidence to the contrary and years of experience in numerous states. Trump has repeatedly claimed that his loss to Joe Biden in 2020 resulted from fraud even though more than 60 court decisions and his own attorney general said that argument had no merit… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Senate confirms Markwayne Mullin to lead Homeland Security as TSA standoff deepens (Associated Press)

The Senate confirmed Markwayne Mullin as homeland security secretary late Monday, approving President Donald Trump’s nominee to take over the embattled department after the firing of Kristi Noem during a public backlash over the administration’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation operations.

Mullin, a Republican senator from Oklahoma known for his close friendship with Trump, has tried to present himself as a steady hand, saying his goal as secretary would be to get the department off the front page of the news. He takes over at a difficult time as Trump has ordered ICE agents to bolster airport security during a budget standoff in Congress. And he tangled with the Republican chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, who questioned Mullin’s character and temperament during last week’s combative confirmation hearing… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Why Iran does not appear ready to give in, despite heavy losses (Washington Post)

As the war in Iran enters its fourth week, with U.S. operations increasingly focused on global energy flows, Tehran is rebuffing efforts to identify a diplomatic off-ramp from the war launched by the United States and Israel, according to officials in the region. Instead, Tehran is escalating attacks on its neighbors, betting it can ratchet up global economic pain faster than the Trump administration can relieve it with military force, according to an Iranian diplomat, two European diplomats stationed in the region and a senior Arab official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media on sensitive details.

Iran’s unwillingness to capitulate is wrapped up in the power it exerts over the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s fuel shipments transit, that Tehran has largely closed, roiling energy markets. President Donald Trump gave Iran a 48-hour deadline on Saturday to reopen the critical waterway, threatening to “obliterate” the country’s power plants if Tehran doesn’t comply.

By partially closing the strait, Iran is seeking to “make this aggression super expensive for the aggressors,” according to the Iranian diplomat. “We are alone against the biggest military superpower of the history,” he said. Iran’s leaders see their ability to control the strait and withstand the U.S. and Israeli onslaught as a short-term victory, the Arab official and European diplomats said. But as the war expands, with Iran’s critical infrastructure increasingly threatened, the country’s leadership is also deeply concerned about their ability to recover in the long term, they said.

“As long as the regime is there, they can create terror in the region, they terrorize international markets with the oil and gas prices. Yes, that’s what winning is for them,” said one of the European diplomats, who is based in the Persian Gulf. “They don’t feel any pressure to negotiate.” So far, the conflict’s economic fallout for the United States and its European allies has been “moderate,” by the diplomat’s assessment, not reaching the dire level that would increase pressure for talks on the U.S. side. However, rising energy prices are causing concern in Washington… 🟪 (READ MORE)