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🟪 Austin Police lay out timeline of last weekend's shooting spree (KUT)

🟪 Push for license place reader tech grows in Austin following shooting spree (CBS Austin)

🟪 Voters in southeastern Travis County to decide on first new commissioner in 31 years (KUT)

🟪 Austin voters will choose between Montserrat Garibay, Kathie Tovo to take over House District 49 (KUT)

🟪 Central Texas housing market shows growth despite economic uncertainty (Community Impact)

🟪 Texas is still growing overall, but some cities are starting to lose population (Texas Public Radio)

🟪 Summer travelers who relied on Spirit Airlines may struggle to find budget alternatives (Associated Press)

🟪 Jury dismisses all claims in Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (NPR)

✅ Austin Police lay out timeline of last weekend's shooting spree (KUT)

Police shed more light onto the timeline of a string of a dozen shootings in South Austin over the weekend.

In a statement Monday afternoon, the Austin Police Department identified one suspect, 17-year-old Cristian Fajardo Mondragon, and said that the shootings were a mix of "random" incidents and targeted shootings.

"Some victims were known to the suspects, while other incidents appeared to occur without any known connection," APD said in a statement… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Push for license place reader tech grows in Austin following shooting spree (CBS Austin)

Some local leaders and law enforcement advocates said license plate reader (LPR) technology could have possibly ended the search for three shooting spree suspects sooner. Now, the city could bring it back under new privacy guidelines.

"There's no question that it absolutely would have led to a quicker end to all of this," Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock said of LPR technology in Austin on Monday.

Bullock pointed to what happened once the suspects’ vehicle entered Manor, where license plate cameras were available to law enforcement.

“They immediately looked through their license plate camera data and they found the vehicle was in fact in the Manor area and within 40 minutes, roughly, from the time that they get notice from us, they find the vehicle,” Bullock said.

Austin police have not been able to use most license plate cameras across Central Texas after the city chose not to renew its contract with Flock Safety last year, following concerns about privacy and data sharing.

Gov. Greg Abbott criticized the city’s decision not to use the technology on Monday.

“It’s just one of the ways in which Travis County and the City of Austin are behind the ball as it concerns solving crimes, preventing crimes,” Abbott said… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Voters in southeastern Travis County to decide on first new commissioner in 31 years (KUT)

Early voting is underway in the primary runoff for Travis County Commissioner Precinct 4, the only local race on the ballot for Travis County voters.

The race is between two local Democrats: former Travis County Constable George Morales and Del Valle ISD trustee Susanna Ledesma-Woody.

The pair headed to a runoff after a close race in March. Morales and Ledesma-Woody ended election night with about 37% and 36% of the vote, respectively. A runoff election occurs when no candidate earns more than 50% of the vote.

Whoever wins the runoff election will be the first new commissioner overseeing Precinct 4 in over 30 years. The position was previously held by Margaret Gómez, 81, who announced her retirement last year. No Republican candidates are in the running, which means whoever wins the Democratic primary will run unopposed in November.

The Travis County Commissioners Court is made up of four members who each oversee a precinct and one at-large judge. The court sets the county’s tax rate and manages spending of a roughly $2.2 billion budget. The county’s biggest line item expense is the jail, but it also funds roads, parks, healthcare and housing for low-income residents, emergency services and affordable childcare… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin voters will choose between Montserrat Garibay, Kathie Tovo to take over House District 49 (KUT)

Montserrat Garibay and Kathie Tovo emerged out of a crowded field in Texas House District 49's Democratic primary in March to force a runoff. Gina Hinojosa, who was first elected to the Central Austin district a decade ago, is vacating the seat to run against Gov. Greg Abbott in November.

Republicans did not field a candidate, so the winner of the runoff will take the seat.

More than 13,000 voters cast their ballot for Garibay in the March primary, while Tovo earned more than 11,000, according to the Travis County Clerk… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Georgetown officials eye $494M May 2027 bond election (Community Impact)

Georgetown officials updated City Council members on current voter-approved bond projects, such as Blue Hole Park improvements and the Recreation Center renovation at a May 12 workshop meeting.

The city is also preparing for a May 2027 bond election to continue work on transportation, facilities and parks projects throughout Georgetown.

There are several ongoing capital improvement projects in Georgetown that will continue through fiscal years 2026-27 and 2027-28, funded by previous voter-approved bonds.

For the new Fire Station No. 10, the city is working on the land acquisition but has not yet started on design or engineering, Assistant City Manager Nick Woolery said at the meeting. There is $1.25 million set aside in the next two years to secure land… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Central Texas housing market shows growth despite economic uncertainty (Community Impact)

The latest data from Unlock MLS shows signs that the housing market is ticking up in Central Texas, with higher year-over-year home sales and homes selling closer to their original listing price.

Representing the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metropolitan statistical area, or MSA, the data released May 12 shows residential home sales increased 2% year over year in April for the MSA, reaching 2,648. That's the highest number of monthly home sales so far this year, up from a 0.5% year-over-year increase in March and decreases in both January and February.

Additionally, the number of pending home sales increased 15.4% year over year in April to 3,411.

These changes are a response to market shifts that happened earlier this spring, said Vaike O’Grady, market research advisor at Unlock MLS. Toward the end of February, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dipped below 6% for the first time since 2022, according to federal mortgage-buying organization Freddie Mac. Additionally, in mid-February, 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.35%, the lowest rate since 2024 when it reached 5.16%… 🟪 (READ MORE)

📝⏱️ Q2 2026 Survey: 5 minutes, 9 questions. Click here to share your input.

✅ Texas is still growing overall, but some cities are starting to lose population (Texas Public Radio)

The story of Texas in recent decades has been shaped by rapid growth — booming cities and a steady influx of new residents. But new U.S. Census data suggests that is starting to change.

Texas is still growing faster than any other state, from what we can tell, but that growth is no longer concentrated in its biggest cities. Instead, some of the state’s largest urban centers like Dallas, Plano, Arlington and Austin actually lost residents last year.

So what seems to be driving this reshuffling?

Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter said a big part of it is a slow down in international migration into Texas.

“A lot of that has to do with what’s happened with the current administration, that the border has been pretty well locked down,” he said. “We have very few refugees crossing the border and very few unauthorized immigrants. The U.S. Policy on immigration also has slowed legal immigration as well.”

Another factor is slowing birthrates... 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ What soaring gas prices mean for Texas and how long it could take for costs to come down (Texas Tribune)

Texas fuel prices have risen significantly since the U.S.-Israel war on Iran began on Feb. 28, which led to Iran closing a key international shipping lane for oil and gas, the Strait of Hormuz.

The average price for a gallon of gas in Texas, which was $2.55 in early February, surged by nearly two dollars to $4.52 on Monday, according to the AAA.

The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow maritime corridor south of Iran, accounts for one-fifth of the world’s oil supply — the energy trade passing through it was valued at roughly $600 billion annually. Any threat to shipping in the strait can affect oil prices globally… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Summer travelers who relied on Spirit Airlines may struggle to find budget alternatives (Associated Press)

Days after Spirit Airlines shut down in the middle of the night, a lawyer for the defunct budget carrier stood before a bankruptcy judge and apologized to the price-conscious customers who might struggle to find affordable flights in its absence.

“We apologize most specifically to those Americans who may now be priced entirely out,” Spirit lawyer Marshall Huebner said in court, thanking all the passengers who relied on the airline during its 34-year run, many of whom, he said, “could not otherwise have afforded air travel.”

Spirit’s May 2 demise is not the only curveball confronting people planning trips a week before the summer travel season has its traditional U.S. launch on Memorial Day. Rising jet fuel costs tied to the Iran war have pushed up airfares and associated fees across the commercial aviation industry. Two of the remaining U.S. budget carriers just finalized a merger… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Jury dismisses all claims in Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (NPR)

A jury in California took less than two hours to decide that Elon Musk waited too long to file a lawsuit against his one-time business partner Sam Altman over the direction he's steered the artificial intelligence company OpenAI since the two had a falling out nearly a decade ago.

In a unanimous decision, the nine-member advisory jury said Musk was beyond the statute of limitations when he launched his case in 2024. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, agreed, tossing the case out.

"I've always said I would accept the jury's verdict," Gonzalez Rogers said after issuing her decision. "I think there's a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury's finding."

The decision brings a swift end to a three-week trial that laid bare the fears and ambitions that led two of Silicon Valley's biggest personalities to team up 11 years ago to launch OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and then to part ways after a dispute over how to run it… 🟪 (READ MORE)