The Week’s Biggest News in Brief

AISD’s Attempt to Save Funds: After the approval to close 11 schools, Austin ISD was left on the hook to pay nearly $100 million in bond funds that would go to those schools, despite the closures. Now, the district is hoping to terminate the contracts – the goal being to save over $70 million, according to KUT. AISD has already spent $24 million on developments for the impacted schools, and, according to Michael Mann, AISD executive director of construction, the estimated final amount spent on renovations for closing locations could be just above $40 million, after terminating the existing contracts. AISD anticipates all contract changes to be completed by the end of the summer.

More Social Service Cuts to Come: The impacts of the failed Prop Q vote remain, as the city continues to evaluate how to save funds. Since the failed vote and the revision of the city’s budget, City Manager T.C. Broadnax has confirmed that social services will see funding cuts. According to reporting from Community Impact, city officials are evaluating social service contracts that amount to tens of millions of dollars. Through the evaluation, the city’s budget team has found that about 25% of the General Fund goes to social services and that the city allocates more funding to homelessness services than county governments or local health districts. Sometime this spring, city staff will make recommendations for how to proceed, followed by public updates to City Council in early summer, with final decisions to be made prior to the budget adoption in August.

DPS Trooper Indicted: Last Thursday, Feb. 5, a Travis County grand jury indicted Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Jason Tye for aggravated assault onElijah Barrientos in July 2023. According to Statesman reporting, the Travis County D.A. José Garza said that his office’s Civil Rights Unit is set to prosecute the case. Texas police union the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas has since raised opposition to the indictment. “The revolving door of justice is placing our law enforcement officers in great danger, and this is being perpetuated at an unprecedented level by Garza and the Travis County District Attorney’s Office,” said Robert Leonard, executive director at CLEAT, in a statement.

Travis County Issues Burn Ban: Following an increase in wildfires fueled by dry conditions, the Travis County fire marshal issued a burn ban on Tuesday, Feb. 10, for unincorporated areas of the county. The ban will remain in effect for 30 days unless lifted earlier. It prohibits all outdoor burning, with the exception of prescribed burns and some hot work operations.

Rendering of the new convention center Credit: City of Austin

Judge Sides With Austin on Convention Center: Following the December filing of Austin United PAC’s lawsuit against the city of Austin for rejecting its petition to force a public vote on the anticipated convention center, Travis County District Judge Jessica Mangrum sided with the city on Friday, Feb. 6, according to Statesman reporting. The lawsuit emerged after Austin United claimed that City Clerk Erika Brady invalidated signatures of the group’s petition. Now, Austin United PAC is considering appealing the ruling. Construction of the new convention center has begun and is set to be complete by spring 2029. 

Call for El Paso ICE Camp Investigation: On Tuesday, Feb. 10, 39 members of the Texas House Democratic Caucus urged state Rep. Cole Hefner, a Mount Pleasant Republican, to launch an investigation into human rights abuses at ERO El Paso Camp East Montana through an interim hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Public Safety & Veterans’ Affairs. According to a press release from the group, the ICE facility detainees have resided within “unsanitary facilities for months, lacked access to proper nutrition, [and] were prevented from calling attorneys, threatened with extrajudicial deportation, and physically and sexually abused by the facility staff.” The request for an investigation comes after the El Paso County medical examiner ruled detainee Geraldo Lunas Campos’ death as a homicide, along with two confirmed cases of tuberculosis within the facility.

Credit: Getty Images

Confusion Surrounding El Paso Airspace: After the Federal Aviation Administration announced on Tuesday, Feb. 10, that there would be no flights to and from El Paso International Airport for 10 days, the FAA reopened the airspace on Wednesday morning. Trump administration officials claim that the temporary closure was due to Mexican cartel drones within the area. In the short time between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning in which flights were paused, El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson said that the scene was “chaos,” stating that surgical equipment meant for city hospitals failed to be delivered and that medical evacuation flights had to be conducted at other airport locations. “This should have never happened,” Johnson said on Wednesday morning. “You cannot restrict airspace over a major city without coordinating with the city, the airport, the hospitals, the community leadership.”

Camp Mystic Faces Another Lawsuit: Following the July floods that killed over 100 Texans, Kerr County summer camp Camp Mystic has had four lawsuits filed against it. Now, the organization faces yet another after the parents of an 8-year-old Austin girl, who has yet to be found, filed suit on Wednesday, Feb. 4. Will and Catherine Steward’s lawsuit alleges that the summer camp leadership failed on multiple fronts, which ultimately led to their daughter Cecilia “Cile” Steward’s death. The lawsuit states that leaders of Camp Mystic failed to move campers to safer spaces, despite receiving multiple weather alerts warning of flood risks. The camp plans to open as summer approaches.

Austin to Serve as Saudi Arabia World Cup Base: As countries prepare to visit the U.S. this upcoming summer for the 2026 World Cup, teams have been selecting base camp cities around Mexico, Canada, and the States. The Saudi Arabian men’s national soccer team has chosen Austin as its base for the event. As the team prepares for its group stage matches, it will use Q2 Stadium, home to Austin FC, for training, meetings, and other pre-match activities.

Barton Springs Pool Credit: Getty Images

Barton Springs Pool Temporarily Closed: The Barton Springs Pool will temporarily close from Feb. 23 to March 13 as Austin Parks and Recreation works on removing out-of-use infrastructure that has created environmental and safety concerns. The pool has two “bypass” features that help sustain the flow of Barton Creek, and the city is working on removing “some or all sections of the 1940s skimmer bypass” before the spring season begins.

Trump Administration Sends Pregnant Minors to South Texas: According to reporting from KUT, officials from the Trump administration have been moving pregnant unaccompanied minors who have been arrested by ICE to a group shelter in San Benito, despite objections from health and child welfare officials who claim that the site lacks adequate care. Over a dozen pregnant minors have been moved to the facility since last July, some as young as 13 years old, and over half having become pregnant as a result of rape. Previous federal practices moved immigrant children who are pregnant to Office of Refugee Resettlement shelters or foster homes throughout the nation that are properly equipped to manage each individuals’ circumstances. But, an email obtained by the California Newsroom and the Texas Newsroom reveals that ORR Director Angie Salazar directed staff to send the children to San Benito. ORR staff have said that they are worried about the children’s safety, as ORR has submitted a proposal to rescind the requirement of moving pregnant girls to pro-abortion states for the procedure at their request.

Credit: Flix Brewhouse

Goodbye Drafthouse, Hello Brewhouse: Last Saturday, customers of the two Alamo Drafthouses in El Paso, as well as their locations in Houston and Lubbock, found that all four theatres were closing. The theatres were operated as franchises by Houston-based Triple Tap Ventures, which has pulled out of the theatre business. However, on Tuesday, it was announced that those locations will reopen on Feb. 23 as part of the Round Rock-based Flix Brewhouse chain. Flix CEO Chance Robertson called the acquisition “a natural extension of who we are and what we believe in.”

UT Austin Cuts 23 Staff Positions: UT Provost William Inboden announced the dismissal of 23 members of the Academic Affairs office and closure of four student and faculty support centers last month, according to Statesman reporting. The school’s Center for Teaching and Learning, Vick Advising Excellence Center, Center for Undergraduate Research, and Office of Community Engagement will all conclude operations by the end of the semester. In addition to office staff, the layoffs eliminated several office leadership positions. Dismissed faculty will lose their jobs in May. The closures “are designed to enhance collaboration, create new pathways for partnerships, prudently steward our resources, and strengthen existing units within our colleges and schools,” Inboden said in an email to select faculty in January. Recent university leadership changes have resulted in university wide restructuring efforts, including the dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, which resulted in the firing of about 60 staff in 2024.

Pro-Deportation TXST Lecturer Fired: After Texas State University lecturer Bret Bryon sent a liberal social media influencer a message wishing for her deportation, the university fired the educator, according to Statesman reporting. Institute for Advanced Breast Reconstruction founder and CEO Dhivya Srinivasa posted a screenshot last week of a Facebook message from Bryon, in which the former College of Applied Arts lecturer called her derogatory names and said that he hopes Srinivasa will be deported. With about 270,000 followers on Instagram, the influencer posted the messages that she received from Bryon, calling for the university to take action. Not long after, TXST left two comments on the post, stating “We are looking into the matter and will take appropriate action based on findings,” followed by, “As of February 4, 2026, Bret Bryon is no longer teaching classes at Texas State University.”

Council Supports Affordable Housing Proposals: At last Thursday’s City Council meeting, officials approved resolutions of support for six affordable housing developments – Rowen Vale, the Lenora, the Maven, Residencies at Springdale, Jordan II, and Sunflower Apartments – to apply for 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits from the state. According to a press release from Austin Housing, the approval is the first step needed prior to developers applying to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs for the potential funding. After the TDHCA reviews and decides which projects will receive funding, awards are expected to be made in July.

Juniper Creek Apartments Opening: Austin Housing is holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony today, Feb. 12, to celebrate the opening of the 110-unit affordable, multifamily rental housing community Juniper Creek Apartments. The housing, which is owned and managed by Foundation Communities, has been developed for households who earn between 30% and 60% of the median family income, offering one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. The community also has access to a food pantry, a learning center, and on-site services for its residents. The ceremony will be held at the Laurel Creek Apartments Learning Center between 10 and 11am, with multiple city leaders confirmed to attend.

Renamed Park Honors Austin Baseball Legend: Central Austin’s Westenfield Neighborhood Park will now be called Don Baylor Neighborhood Park. Born in 1949, the African American Austinite broke racial barriers throughout his life and 19-year playing career within Major League Baseball. After being one of the first Black Texas ballplayers to be signed to a professional team straight out of high school, Baylor would go on to earn the American League MVP award in 1979 and win a World Series with the Minnesota Twins in 1987. He would go on to manage the Colorado Rockies and Chicago Cubs, and was recognized as Manager of the Year in 1995. Austin Parks and Recreation will host a celebration at the park on Saturday, Feb. 28, as it officially renames the area and dedicates a historical marker to Baylor.

Groundbreaking on North Lamar: The city of Austin will break ground on a new project to improve pedestrian safety at 11900 N. Lamar this week. The construction will install a pedestrian hybrid beacon, or traffic signal that remains dark until a pedestrian activates the beacon, to provide a safer crossing just north of the entrance to the North Austin Muslim Community Center. The location was prioritized following community input in the wake of a fatal pedestrian car accident that occurred last summer, according to a city advisory. As a part of the North Lamar Boulevard corridor project, the installation will be funded by the 2016 Austin Mobility Bond. 

Credit: Jessica González's Facebook QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The atrocities that have been documented in Camp East Montana should make every Texan angry and appalled. As Texas legislators, we must investigate abuses of the Constitution on Texas soil, even when they happen in federal facilities or on military property.”

State Rep. Jessica González regarding El Paso ICE camp

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