🟪 Austin's economy showed resilient performance in 2025, report finds (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 How South by Southwest became Austin’s soft-power showpiece (Monocle)

🟪 Developer moves to lower public parkland, environmental requirements as COTA resort project advances (Community Impact)

🟪 Trump, Texas Republicans gear up against James Talarico (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 Questions about self-driving cars amplify after one blocked an ambulance responding to Austin shooting (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Americans are now a target in Trump’s immigration crackdown (Wall Street Journal)

READ ON!

✅ Austin's economy showed resilient performance in 2025, report finds (Austin Business Journal)

While Austin wasn’t immune to a national economic slowdown, the region showed resilience in 2025. 

That’s according to a regional economic analysis done on the Austin metro region by PNC, a financial services institution based in Pittsburgh. The report found Austin job growth outpaced the national average as well as the job growth seen in Houston and Dallas. 

Austin’s job growth was 0.7% over the last year, while the national average was 0.1%.  Houston’s was 0.4% and Dallas’ was 0.5%, said Kurt Rankin, a senior economist for PNC who helped create the report. The report also found that Austin’s GDP grew by 2.4%.

He said all of those jobs numbers showed there was an economic slowdown in 2025 but Austin’s economy performed relatively well for the period. 

“Austin simply was unable to escape that gravity of the overall US economy slowing,” Rankin said. “But given the nature of Austin's labor market, job creation, the types of businesses, the innovation that goes on in Austin, and also it's clear that external influence … wasn't able to completely subdue Austin's job growth.”… 🟪 (READ MORE

✅ How South by Southwest became Austin’s soft-power showpiece (Monocle)

There is a moment every March when Austin stops being a mid-sized Texan city and becomes, briefly, a kind of secular Davos with better music. South by Southwest (SXSW to everyone who has ever worn the lanyard) has been running since 1987, several years before the term “soft power” entered the civic vocabulary.

But that is precisely what the festival has become: the most effective urban-branding exercise in American life and one that most cities would spend decades and considerable public funds trying to replicate.

The mechanism is elegant in its simplicity. Rather than sending delegations abroad, Austin simply opens the door. For 10 days the city hosts a rotating cast of technologists, filmmakers, indie musicians, investors, journalists, policy thinkers and the kind of ambitious young professionals who will be running things in 15 years’ time. They eat tacos with handmade flour tortillas at Veracruz All Natural.

They walk Sixth Street and grab freshly shucked shellfish at Clark’s Oyster Bar. They overhear conversations over a cold Topo Chico mineral water on the patio at the Hotel San José – conversations that recalibrate their understanding of what American creative culture looks like. Then they carry Austin home with them… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin ISD to discuss future of 6 closing campuses for lease or sale (Community Impact)

Beginning March 9, Austin ISD will hold community meetings to discuss the future of several campuses that are slated to close.

Next school year, the district will close eight elementary schools and two middle schools amid declining enrollment and growing budgetary concerns. The district may choose to lease, sell or reuse these properties as educational facilities either now or in the future, AISD’s website states.

To decide on the future use of a closing school, AISD officials will evaluate whether the district will need the property within the next 20 years, according to AISD information.

AISD may choose one of the following options for each property:

The district is considering leasing or selling Becker, Dawson, Ridgetop, Sunset Valley and Widén elementaries as well as a portion of the land at Bedichek Middle School. The Bedichek building will house several district departments, 18-plus programming for young adult special education students and community partners, according to AISD information… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Developer moves to lower public parkland, environmental requirements as COTA resort project advances (Community Impact)

The developer behind a new resort planned at Circuit of the Americas is seeking to reduce its required public parkland contributions and other environmental enhancements around the project.

Expansion at COTA has taken place in recent years under a planned unit development, or PUD, covering over 1,000 acres in far East Austin. That city zoning designation applies to larger, more complicated mixed-use projects and can grant broad building flexibility in exchange for "superior" improvements on site.

COTA has been a longtime home to major concerts and motorsports events that are set to continue for years. The property also continues to develop with updates like a new amusement park opening later this year and the resort concept now on the horizon.

While hotel elements were envisioned in the original PUD outline passed in 2020, an expanded $925 million project from RIDA Development is now moving through city review after receiving initial support last year. It'd include:

Additionally, further projects around COTA like high-end residences near the main racetrack and a secondary practice track to the north are planned… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump, Texas Republicans gear up against James Talarico (Austin American-Statesman)

Texas Republicans are quickly aligning with President Donald Trump in targeting Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico following his primary win Tuesday. Talarico, a state representative from Austin, secured the Democratic nomination over U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, finishing with 52.4% of the vote to Crockett’s 46.2%. His victory drew a response from Trump, who wrote Wednesday on Truth Social that Republicans now face “an easy to beat, Radical Left Opponent” in the November general election.

Despite calling Talarico an easy target, Trump urged Republicans to “TOTALLY FOCUS on putting him away, quickly and decisively!” He also criticized U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — who are headed to a runoff, with Cornyn leading — saying they are running “great races, but not good enough.”

"We must win in November!!!" Trump exclaimed. Gov. Greg Abbott also weighed in, resurfacing remarks Talarico made in 2021 about co-authoring legislation to teach “diversity, equity and inclusion” in Texas schools and sponsoring a bill that would have required larger school districts to hire a DEI officer. “Great. A large majority of Texas voters are against your crazy DEI mandates. Also, taking race or sex into consideration when hiring, directly violates the Texas Constitution,” Abbott wrote Wednesday on X. “When Texans and Americans learn about your Bernie Sanders voting record, you will be toast.” Abbott and Talarico recently clashed over the mass shooting near the Austin bar Buford’s.

After the incident, Talarico called for gun reform. Abbott criticized that response, arguing lawmakers should instead address what he described as the “unvetted immigrant loophole.” The shooting suspect, Ndiaga Diagne, was born in Senegal and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2013. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz also criticized Talarico, resurfacing a 2021 X post in which Talarico wrote: “Black Americans in a church. Mexican Americans in a store. Asian Americans in a spa.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Questions about self-driving cars amplify after one blocked an ambulance responding to Austin shooting (Texas Tribune)

A viral image from the March 1 shooting in downtown Austin — an autonomous vehicle blocking an ambulance from reaching the scene where a gunman fatally wounded three people and injured 15 others — has put a spotlight on driverless cars as they hit the streets in more major Texas cities.

A video widely circulated on social media shows a Waymo vehicle blocking the street as paramedics try to reach the scene of the shooting at Buford’s, in the city’s nightlife district on West 6th Street, forcing the ambulance driver to seek another route.

“This is why we should not have self-driving cars,” an onlooker says in the video.

The encounter didn’t significantly hinder the city’s ability to respond to the shooting, local emergency officials have said, and an Austin police officer was able to move the vehicle within two minutes of arriving at the scene, the video shows.

Nonetheless, the encounter tapped into anxieties about autonomous vehicles as their presence grows on Texas roads — despite evidence that autonomous vehicles tend to be much safer than human drivers.

“Their fatality rate is already much lower,” said Adie Tomer, a senior fellow who studies transportation issues at the Brookings Institute. “The promise is, as the technology improves, that it will get better.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ San Antonio has over 20 data centers and more on the way (San Antonio Report)

San Antonio leaders are open to more data centers, but say they want new rules for the companies that build them. San Antonio City Council members say there needs to be new zoning regulations and discussions with local utilities around resources and infrastructure availability — particularly for recycled water. The discussion, which took up much of a Wednesday City Council B Session, came after Councilman Ric Galvan (D6) filed a request to look at data center development and resource use in San Antonio.

“[I’m] very thankful to all the residents in District 6 who have shared their input on this topic, who have shared their personal feedback in living near the highest concentration of data centers in our city,” Galvan said.

Council member ideas ranged from community benefit agreements with data centers to encouraging them to bring tech jobs to asking data center developers to share backup power with local neighborhoods during power outages. Galvan focused on the idea of updating San Antonio’s Unified Development Code, or UDC, and categorizing data centers as general industrial. Amin Tohmaz, the city’s development services director, said current zoning law does not have any rules specifically for data centers. The UDC is typically amended every five years.

The next update is scheduled for 2027, but Galvan and multiple council members, including Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, pushed for earlier amendments for data centers. But Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3) wanted to hold off on amendments until 2027. Councilman Marc Whyte (D10) focused on potential for data centers bringing jobs and more money in property taxes to the area… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ How a surge in microschools could be the wildcard in Texas’ $1B voucher program (Houston Chronicle)

At Mindsprout Montessori outside Houston, children are encouraged to play with dirt in the outdoor mud kitchen, and each classroom cottage features its own pet. Most of its 90 students are homeschooled part-time and show up between one and four days per week. “A Montessori setup is incredibly costly,” said founder Desiree Corbin. “Our goal was to do the heavy lifting for (parents) and to provide a Montessori experience that is more accessible.” The school is part of an emerging trend of microschools, an umbrella term for schools that blur the lines between home education and traditional private schooling and that are poised for a huge boom in Texas under the state’s new $1 billion voucher program.

Rules set by the state could let even the tiniest become accredited and accept the full $10,500 private school voucher, far more than the $2,000 allotted for homeschool. Though loosely defined as schools serving 100 students or fewer, no single philosophy unites microschools other than a belief that some children’s needs can only be served outside of traditional school settings. The range of microschools in Texas is vast. Some, like Mindsprout, are independent and resemble co-operative homeschooling. Others are backed by billionaires like Elon Musk.

National chains are also preparing to stand up scores of new microschools in the state, often supported by funding from school choice advocates, including the pro-voucher billionaire Jeff Yass, and “edtech” investors in Silicon Valley. Few microschools in Texas are currently accredited, a typically rigorous and lengthy process that is required for private schools to accept state voucher dollars. But dozens of microschools are hoping to gain access to the program through a new microschool-focused accreditor that is racing to get state approval, and promises a much cheaper and quicker path to accreditation… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Affordable housing project in Wylie seeks to set national example (Dallas Morning News)

In a community 30 miles north of Dallas, a model for addressing the affordable housing crisis is set to open its doors in the coming weeks in the hopes of setting a nationally replicable example of how to bring families out of housing instability. On Saturday, dozens of community leaders, donors, volunteers and supporters celebrated the soft opening of Jericho Village, a 2.5-acre, 38-unit housing development in Wylie.

The village includes 10 buildings: nine residential units and a community center. Jericho Village is more than an apartment complex. Leaders see it as a community meant to provide an affordable, longterm place to live to help families reach self-sufficiency and stability. “Just putting someone in an apartment to get them off the street, that is not sustainable unless they have empowerment services to help them become who they can be,” said Janet Collinsworth, founder and CEO of Jericho Village.

Jericho Village plans to offer “wrap-around” services such as counseling, access to health care, child care, transportation and educational opportunities. The village has a sliding-scale rent based on income and is open to the general population. Residents are expected to move in as early as next month, though the complex is not yet accepting applications. Wylie Mayor Matthew Porter has supported the project and said Jericho Village is about providing longterm solutions, not Band-Aids. “It’s great to give someone a place to stay,” he said.

“But the wrap-around care that is part of this model sets it apart. It provides a way to change the outcome … the influence that will have on multiple generations of a family is what makes this so special.” In February, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner visited Jericho Village to see how the faith-based project will address housing instability. “For too long, our faith-based partners were excluded from HUD’s work supporting our most vulnerable citizens,” Turner said in a statement. “Jericho Village shows how affordable housing, paired with supportive services, brings hope and dignity to families in need.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Dems aren’t sure whether to actually spend big to flip Texas (Politico)

It didn’t take long for Democrats’ hopes of flipping Texas to dim. Enthusiasm remains high for the party’s Senate nominee, James Talarico, but national Democrats aren’t sure how far they should go to support him — particularly if Sen. John Cornyn emerges from the GOP runoff in May. Interviews with nearly a dozen high-dollar donor advisers and strategists poured cold water on the likelihood that the party would fully commit to the staggering price tag it’d take to finally flip Texas.

“No one’s taking Texas seriously,” said a Democratic bundler who, like most others, was granted anonymity to speak candidly about intra-party dynamics. Among their concerns is that Cornyn did better than expected in the GOP primary against Attorney General Ken Paxton, and with President Donald Trump’s potential endorsement would be able to ease his runoff victory.

Democrats planning for Talarico to compete against Paxton, a scandal-ridden MAGA darling, are instead facing the prospect of trying to oust a 24-year moderate incumbent in a state that hasn’t voted for a Senate Democrat in nearly four decades. There are also competing priorities for national spending — just Wednesday evening, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) dropped his re-election bid in a state Senate Democrats held as recently as 2018 — potentially elevating it as a target for spending. Underlying it all, Democrats said, is the reality that contesting Texas would require a massive injection of cash — while there are other, cheaper options on the Senate landscape.

“We have to be practical about how we use our resources,” said Alex Hoffman, a Democratic donor adviser. “You need a perfect storm to kill a white whale, and if it’s going to be Cornyn [in the general election], then it’s not a perfect storm.” Democrats have long dreamed of turning Texas blue. But the idea of flipping the state — much less retaking the Senate overall — appeared laughable last year, when the party hit new lows in its public polling and sustained sweeping losses in 2024. But a string of overperformances in off-year and special election races, combined with Trump’s own stubbornly low approval rating, have Democrats increasingly bullish about their chances… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump says he won't sign bills until Congress overhauls voting (NPR)

President Trump threatened to withhold his signature on all bills until Congress passes stricter federal voting requirements — a move that escalates his efforts to change election rules ahead of the 2026 midterms.

In a social media post Sunday, Trump said he won't sign any bills into law until Congress passes the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act.

"I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed," Trump wrote.

If passed and made law, the measure would transform voter registration and voting in the U.S. It would require eligible voters to prove their citizenship with documents like a valid U.S. passport or a birth certificate and a valid photo I.D. It's already illegal for non-U.S. citizens to vote in federal elections… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Americans are now a target in Trump’s immigration crackdown (Wall Street Journal)

Prosecutors were ready for troublemakers. Federal officer Dinko Residovic had spoken with the U.S. Attorney’s Office before heading out to arrest two immigrants held at a jail in Washington, D.C. “They were, like, ‘If you need anything, let us know. Anybody interferes, assaults, let us know. Get them on camera. We’ll prosecute,’” Residovic said in a recorded conversation. “I’m, like, f—k yeah.” After he and other federal agents arrived at the jail, they spotted 44-year-old Sidney Lori Reid, who was recording them on her phone.

Reid moved for a clearer view, and an agent grabbed her. He pinned Reid to a wall while a man was escorted from the jail to a government vehicle. That is what videos later showed. But that wasn’t what Immigration and Customs Enforcement alleged after Reid’s July 22 arrest.

Reid was one of the targets in an aggressive public-relations tactic in the Trump administration’s war on illegal immigration, an enforcement campaign praised for record-low southern border crossings but widely criticized for its treatment of U.S. citizens. Protesters, observers and passersby taken into custody by federal agents were declared terrorists and attackers in hundreds of social-media posts by U.S. officials and departments since the start of the immigration sweeps in cities. This includes Minneapolis, where two citizens were excoriated by officials after they were killed by federal agents in January.

The Wall Street Journal found that the Department of Homeland Security, created in 2002 to protect Americans, has turned its force against citizens. Of the 279 people accused by officials on X of attacking federal officers in the past year, 181 were U.S. citizens, the Journal found. Close to half of those Americans were never charged with assault. None have been convicted at trial… 🟪 (READ MORE)