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🟪 Officials note Austin's 911 response rebound, warn emergency communications problems persist (Community Impact)

🟪 Austin agrees to pay $35 million to men exonerated in yogurt shop murders case (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 Barack Obama appears with James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa at Austin restaurant (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Blue Origin eyes Williamson County for massive project, sources say (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Corpus Christi moves toward mandatory 25% cut in water use if emergency is declared (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Texas county pauses data center construction in rural areas for a year (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Trump set to meet with Xi in Beijing as war and inflation weigh on his presidency (Associated Press)

✅ Officials note Austin's 911 response rebound, warn emergency communications problems persist (Community Impact)

Austin's handling of 911 calls has rebounded from a recent "crisis" of low staffing and high response times, but some elected officials say city leadership still hasn't taken strides to fix longstanding emergency communications problems.

“It is an area in which I had feared that there was inadequate strategic focus by our city, and so far today those fears have been proven well-founded," council member Krista Laine said after a May 12 briefing.

Scores of personnel from the Austin Police Department, Austin Fire Department and Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services are involved in handling and dispatching hundreds of thousands of 911 calls every year.

The city's emergency communications center was dozens of staffers short just a few years ago, passing a 45% vacancy rate in 2022. Austin police also fell below a national standard of answering 90% of 911 calls within 15 seconds, with some waits averaging more than two minutes… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin agrees to pay $35 million to men exonerated in yogurt shop murders case (Austin American-Statesman)

The city of Austin plans to pay $35 million to three men and the family of a fourth who were wrongly accused in Austin’s yogurt shop murders case, the American-Statesman has confirmed. The tentative settlement, reached Tuesday, would resolve claims that Austin police misconduct upended the men’s lives for decades and sent one of them to Texas’ death row.

The agreement still requires City Council approval. If approved, the settlement would mark the largest payout in city history and likely require it to borrow money through bonds or loans. It also would rank among the nation’s larger wrongful conviction settlements, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.

There is no timeline for finalizing the agreement, but City Council members have met multiple times in recent executive sessions to discuss the city’s strategy. The city also hired prominent Austin attorney Dan Richards to negotiate on its behalf. Mayor Kirk Watson said in a statement that "there is nothing I can say to undo past wrongs. We can only mitigate our mistakes with action. I hope the exonerations bring some relief and closure. And I hope that this proposed financial settlement agreement also brings some relief and closure."

"This settlement closes the final chapter of a devastating story in Austin's history," City Manager T.C. Broadnax said in a statement. "We are pleased to have reached an agreement with those who were wrongly accused and wrongly convicted in this case and hope that this settlement brings a sense of closure to everyone affected by this horrific event." By resolving the matter, officials hope to avoid a lawsuit expected to be filed by Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Forrest Welborn and the family of Maurice Pierce… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Barack Obama appears with James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa at Austin restaurant (Texas Tribune)

It was an ordinary taco Tuesday in downtown Austin — until the former president showed up.

Patrons at Taco Joint near the University of Texas at Austin were greeted Tuesday by the surprise entrance of Barack Obama along with James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominees for U.S. Senate and governor, respectively.

The trio went from booth to booth for around 30 minutes of retail politicking, discussing issues ranging from data centers to voting and taking group photos with a mostly younger crowd that yelped with excitement when the former president appeared. Obama asked one group if they knew Hinojosa and Talarico, referring to them as the state’s “next governor and senator” as the two Austin Democrats stood nearby… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Blue Origin eyes Williamson County for massive project, sources say (Austin Business Journal)

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Enterprises LP is considering a Williamson County city for a massive project.

The Hutto Economic Development Corp. during a May 11 meeting held a public hearing to consider financial incentives for what was only referred to as a "Project Blue Hub" in public documents. The company was not mentioned by name and nobody from the public signed up to speak. No action was taken.

It was described by officials as a 1.3 million-square-foot manufacturing, research-and-development, warehouse and logistics project looking at Hutto. It was said to be bringing more than 2,000 jobs with an average salary of $88,000 over the next five years. The capital investment was pegged at more than $650 million.

The group then discussed an economic development performance agreement for an incentive to support Project Blue Hub during a lengthy executive session. No action was taken upon return into public session and the details of the incentive are not publicly known.

While Blue Origin was not mentioned by name, several sources told the Austin Business Journal the company has indeed squared in on Hutto – a rural but fast-growing city 25 miles northeast of Austin – as a potential location for the project. The details revealed also line up with what was described by the ABJ late last year, in terms of a project approaching $1 billion in capital investment… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ West Lake Hills City Council dismisses City Administrator Trey Fletcher (Community Impact)

West Lake Hills City Council dismissed City Administrator Trey Fletcher at a May 12 special meeting.

The council appointed Jennifer Bills, the director of building and development services, to serve as interim city administrator.

The decision was made after West Lake Hills City Council conducted Fletcher’s annual evaluation at a workshop May 6.

West Lake Hills Mayor James Vaughan said "he would like to thank" Fletcher for his "service to the city" and for the relationship they had built… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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✅ Corpus Christi moves toward mandatory 25% cut in water use if emergency is declared (Texas Tribune)

Corpus Christi residents and businesses — including one of the nation’s largest petrochemical corridors — may be required to cut water use by 25% during a water emergency that city leaders expect to hit by September unless a devastating drought eases. 

The City Council voted 7-2 Tuesday to give initial approval to a water curtailment plan that would set water limits for different customers, ranging from residents and local businesses to large oil companies. The council is expected to take a final vote adopting the curtailment plan on May 19.

City leaders for months have been bracing for a Level 1 water emergency — the point when the city’s supply is projected to be 180 days away from falling short of demand. If there’s no significant rainfall soon, experts are predicting that may be around four months away… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas county pauses data center construction in rural areas for a year (Texas Tribune)

A rural Texas county on Tuesday approved a one-year pause on the construction of new data centers in unincorporated areas, citing public safety and public health concerns.

The 3-2 vote by county commissioners in Hill County, roughly 55 miles south of Fort Worth, appears to be the first by a Texas county to issue a moratorium on the rapidly expanding industry.

Residents and local officials had aired concerns about how a proposed 300-acre development by the Dallas-based developer, Provident Data Centers in north Hillsboro could impact the quality of life in the rural county through noise pollution and consuming large amounts of water and electricity.

“The data center folks have found a sweet spot in the state that has limited regulations, limited enforcement, limited code, and they’re coming faster than we can keep up with,” said Hill County Commissioner Jim Holcomb. “I think it’s imperative … that we tap the brakes and we get our arms around what we’re faced with and do the research, do the studies.”

Holcomb, who voted for the pause, said the move was in “no way, shape or form a push to impair anyone’s right to do with their own property what they want to do with it.”

County Judge Shane Brassell said the temporary pause will allow officials time to study the effects of data centers before projects move forward… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump set to meet with Xi in Beijing as war and inflation weigh on his presidency (Associated Press)

U.S. President Donald Trump is set to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday for his highly anticipated summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a restless moment for a world worried about war, trade and artificial intelligence.

“We’re the two superpowers,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House on Tuesday. “We’re the strongest nation on Earth in terms of military. China’s considered second.”

While Trump likes to project a sense of strength, the visit occurs at a delicate moment for his presidency as his popularity at home has been weighed down by the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran and rising inflation as a consequence of that conflict. The president is seeking a win by signing deals with China to buy more American food and aircraft, saying he’ll be talking with Xi about trade “more than anything else.”

The Trump administration hopes to begin the process of establishing a “Board of Trade” with China to address differences between the countries. The board could help prevent the trade war ignited last year after Trump’s tariff hikes, an action China countered through its control of rare earth minerals. That led to a one-year truce last October… 🟪 (READ MORE)