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Austinites gathered over the weekend to mourn Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the man fatally shot last week by an immigration officer in Houston.
We have new details about the June plane crash that killed Austin tech entrepreneur Joshua Baer. An update from the National Transportation Safety Board details how pilots noticed an “unusual vibration” early in the flight.
The boom of million-dollar homes in Austin is stretching well beyond the city limits.
Fireflies have been a staple of Texas summer nights, but if you’re thinking you don’t see as many lately, you’re not alone.
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The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:08] A couple of hundred folks gathered in Austin over the weekend to mourn Lorenzo Salgado Arrajo, the man fatally shot last week by an immigration officer in Houston. We’ve got reactions from those who attended the vigil. And we have new details about the plane crash in June that killed Austin Tech entrepreneur Joshua Baer, the latest from the National Transportation Safety Board. Plus, the boom of million dollar homes in Austin is stretching well beyond the city limits. More about the numbers and the stories coming up on today’s show.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:37] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:42] And Fireflies have been a staple of Texas summer nights, but if you’re thinking you don’t see as many lately, well, you’re not alone. One person asked our ATXplain project about it. The story, coming up next, it’s right here on Austin Signal. Howdy out there. This is Austin Signal, I’m your host Jerry Kihannel. It is Monday, July 13th. Thank you for tuning in to listener-supported public radio. This is KUT News. About 200 people packed a sweltering South Austin church on Saturday night to mourn Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Houston homebuilder fatally shot last week by a federal immigration officer. As KUT’s Nathan Bernier reports, people at the vigil heard from local immigrants who described living in fear of detention and deportation.
Nathan Bernier [00:01:43] People carried white flowers into Wildflower Unitarian Universalist Church on East Old Wharf Street. The air conditioning wasn’t on, so attendees used the bilingual programs to fan themselves. The seats filled up, and late arrivals stood along the walls.
Sulma Franco [00:01:58] God of love, may their lives give us the courage to continue to resist this violence against our immigrant neighbors and to continue create communities that reflect your will.
Nathan Bernier [00:02:08] After an opening prayer in English and Spanish, an immigrant from Guatemala, Sulma Franco, said families across central Texas were living with the fear of arrest and separation. She spoke to the crowd through a translator.
translator [00:02:19] It’s impossible to say that we feel safe in Texas. It’s impossible to say that we feel safe here in Texas because they have the cruelest laws I can see.
Nathan Bernier [00:02:30] Speakers at the vigil connected their experiences to the death of Salgado Arajo, a Mexican national and father of three who’d lived in the U.S. For more than three decades. He was shot by an ICE officer last week during a vehicle stop in Houston’s Magnolia Park neighborhood. The Department of Homeland Security said Salgado arajo attempted to run over an officer. The men in the van dispute that account.
Kele Estevez [00:02:51] Buenas tardes. Mi nombre es Kayla Estevez.
Nathan Bernier [00:02:54] At the vigil in Austin, Kele Estevez said many immigrants have lived moments of fear and pain. She fled her home country seeking safety for herself and her children. Now her daughter is buried in the U.S. And Estevez wondered whether immigration enforcement would ever prevent her from visiting the grave.
Kele Estevez [00:03:11] ¿Y muchas veces me hago una pregunta que rope? Will I still be able to take flowers to my toe? And I also ask myself, will I be able still to go to work and come back and hug my kids? That fear lives with me.
Nathan Bernier [00:03:27] Leticia Juarez told the crowd that she and her husband were arrested by ICE agents in Austin last summer. She said, like the incident in Houston, the agents who arrested her were not wearing body cameras.
translator [00:03:38] Pero este momento no la llevaban ni tampoco había…
Kele Estevez [00:03:43] Without any evidence, they could not say any version of what had happened.
translator [00:03:47] Today, I am alone here. My husband was deported. My family was separated.
Nathan Bernier [00:03:54] Her husband was deported, and now she’s living here alone.
Kele Estevez [00:03:57] Lorenzo Salgado-Arajo. Amen.
Nathan Bernier [00:04:03] The program ended with the crowd answering Presente as organizers read the names of people who had died in ICE custody or during enforcement operations. Outside the sanctuary, organizer Juanito Reyes said it’s difficult for people to see ICE operations in Texas because local and state law enforcement agencies often help carry them out.
Juanito Reyes [00:04:21] So we might not see these huge masses of ICE agents in our streets, but they’re around and people are living in fear every single day.
Nathan Bernier [00:04:31] Earlier this year, Austin police adopted new immigration rules. Officers who learn that someone in their custody has an ICE administrative warrant should contact ICE when it’s, quote, operationally feasible. The change was made after Governor Greg Abbott threatened to withhold state funding. Saturday’s vigil in Austin was one of several planned across the state demanding for a full independent investigation and calling for the release of the three men who were in the van with Salgado Arrajo when he was fatally shot. I’m Nathan Bernier in Austin.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:10] A preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report says a jet carrying an Austin Tech entrepreneur that crashed in Laredo last month had both engines flame out before it crashed. Texas Public Radio’s Jerry Clayton has the story.
Jerry Clayton [00:05:25] The crash killed Austin tech leader Joshua Bearer and injured three teenagers and two pilots. Investigators say the flight crew reported a generator failure and multiple system problems including a low fuel level alert before attempting to land on a highway while on approach to Laredo Airport. As the airplane touched down on the highway, it sheared off several light poles, struck a vehicle and came to rest, straddling the right-hand edge of an overpass. The report also revealed that the crew of the Citation Latitude operated by net jets reported unusual vibrations shortly after departing Los Cabos, Mexico, bound for Austin. Several components of the aircraft have been sent to a laboratory in Washington, D.C. For analysis. I’m Jerry Clayton in San Antonio.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:22] Much has been said about the rising costs of homes in Austin over the past decade plus, but the rising cost of housing, particularly million dollar plus homes, goes beyond just Austin city limits. Increasingly, luxury homes are cropping up in small surrounding towns in the Texas Hill Country. It’s a trend Nancy Keats has covered for the Wall Street Journal. She is with us now, welcome to the show. Thank you. So first off, can you talk more broadly about the increase in average home prices in these Hill Country towns outside of Austin that you were looking at?
Nancy Keates [00:06:51] Yeah, I mean, I think it all started with COVID and in Austin itself, there were 729 Austin homes sold for nearly over a million between January and April of 2026, and that’s compared to 262 for that same period in 2019. So that’s a huge jump. And I think what happened was people couldn’t afford to live there anymore or wanted more house for their money. Um, started looking outside of Austin and these small towns were really appealing. As a result, the number of homes sold over a million in these towns, uh, soared between 2019 and 2023.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:29] And we’re talking about over a million, exactly how much did these prices trend up?
Nancy Keates [00:07:34] Well, like in Dripping Springs, for example, the median home sale price was $600,000 in 2026, and that’s up 23% from 2019. 4% of the homes sold in 2019 were over a million, and 13% of homes sold over a 1,000,000 in 2036, so it’s a huge increase. That’s just Dripping springs that happen in every other town, like for example Wimberley, the median sales price. Went up 73% since 2019. And the percentage of homes sold over a million went up to 25% from 0% in 2019.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:13] Well, from your reporting, who is it that is buying these properties? Is it locals, the people here around Austin that are looking to move out, or is it people that are coming from out of state?
Nancy Keates [00:08:23] I think it depends on the town, like Dripping Springs seems to be more commuters and it seems to be people moving from Austin. Wimberley seems to people coming from out of state and it seem to be the people who want a second home or who can work from remotely. And then Spicewood seems to more people coming form other parts of Texas, which was interesting to me and it also seems to retirees, there’s a lot of golf communities and sort of wellness communities springing up there.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:53] Yeah, you mentioned second homes, do these tend to be primary residencies for these people?
Nancy Keates [00:08:58] Um, I think in general no, but you know, like I said, Dripping Springs has become more of a commuter town, so in that case, yes.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:07] Okay, with growth like this, of course, comes headaches, like increased traffic, crowds, all that kind of jazz. How have longtime residents of these towns responded to that growth that’s popping up around them?
Nancy Keates [00:09:19] I think it depends again on the residents. So like the real estate agents love it and they’re all local. I think that a lot of people feel like it’s a mixed blessing. So the increase has meant more shops, more restaurants but it’s also meant more traffic. And so that’s good for the locals who own local businesses. They want more people but for people sort of trying to get around on a day-to-day basis, it can be frustrating.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:46] Was there anything else that stood out to you while you were doing this reporting?
Nancy Keates [00:09:50] Well, I think it’s the issue of the water. A lot of these communities and development are using a lot of water, and there are water shortages in the area. So that seems to be a big hot button issue. The other thing that also interested me was I was expecting, just having talked to real estate agents before I went there, I was expecting to sort of see big developments. And it really is still charming and beautiful. And and fairly rural I would say. And so I think even though I’m documenting all of this development and all these people moving in and the prices going up, I think there’s still a lot of charm.
Jerry Quijano [00:10:29] But from the people you spoke with, what is it that’s drawing them to move out to these smaller Texas hill country towns versus this bigger city of Austin?
Nancy Keates [00:10:40] Well, the feeling that I got was that Austin has just, in their words, has become chaotic. You know, there’s more traffic, there are more techies, there is more building. And people just want sort of maybe what Austin used to be for them, which was kind of quiet, kind of weird, kind of quirky, you know, they had space. And I think that these towns are starting, you now, there, there’re music venues, there’s barbecue joints. So there’s some of the same things that Austin had, but without all the chaos.
Jerry Quijano [00:11:09] Okay, we have been speaking with Nancy Keats. She is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal covering real estate, architecture, and design. We’re gonna have a link to her reporting in today’s show notes. Nancy, thanks for joining us.
Nancy Keates [00:11:20] Thanks for having me.
Jerry Quijano [00:11:21] And thank you out there for spending part of your Monday here with us. This is Austin Signal, and we are on community-powered public radio KUT News, 88 degrees outside the KUT studios with a chance for showers today and the rest of the week. We’re going to tell you more about that coming up after this break. This is Austin Signal. Welcome back. Checking in on a few headlines for the day. A flood watch is in effect for much of central Texas this week, including Austin. The National Weather Service says that advisory begins tonight at 9 o’clock and will last until Thursday evening. Taking a look at the forecast, our rain chances are above 50%. Now through Thursday, of course things are always changing, but that is a good sight, especially because July is normally our driest month of the year. And if you were hoping to hit the trails during a break in that rain, be advised that a section of the Ann and Roy Butler hike and bike trail will be detoured today and tomorrow for tree maintenance. The closed section is on the east side of Barton Creek, from the Barton creek pedestrian bridge to the shore of Lady Bird Lake. Fireflies bring a bit of magic to our spring and summer nights, but depending on where you live, you might have noticed that there don’t seem to be as many of them around. One austenite wondered why, so he asked our ATX lane project, KUT’s Chelsea Zoo, when to find out.
Chelsey Zhu [00:13:05] No matter how old you are, whether you live in Texas, or Florida, or New York, lots of us have memories of watching fireflies float around our yards after sunset. That includes Gordon Gunn. He’s 76 and has lived in Austin since 1981.
Gordon Gunn [00:13:21] Late spring into summer, there were fireflies everywhere. I’d sit on my back deck doing some wheeling and probably look around and see 10 to 20 of them at any one time flashing around me.
Chelsey Zhu [00:13:36] But that was a long time ago. Over the years, Gordon has seen fewer and fewer fireflies around his home in Southeast Austin. He says there hardly seems to be any at all now.
Gordon Gunn [00:13:46] It was just kind of an indication of, you know, the easy days of summer, but now they’re gone.
Chelsey Zhu [00:13:55] And it wasn’t just his house. His friends living in different parts of Austin were telling him the same thing. So he asked A.T. Explained, are fireflies disappearing from the city?
Gordon Gunn [00:14:05] I just missed some
Chelsey Zhu [00:14:07] To answer his question, I wanted to go straight to the source. If the Fireflies weren’t coming to Gordon, I would try to bring Gordon to the Firefly’s. So on a humid evening in June, we went out into the woods together to try and find them. It does look like the sun is on its way down, which is good. Gordon and I met up at the entrance of the Violet Crown Trail by Zilker Park. I also brought KUT’s multimedia producer, Michael Manasi, and our intern Lola Rodriguez to help document the hunt. Now the stakes were high. It was hot. The mosquitoes were out in full force. And I was looking for the darkest, most isolated spot we could find to see those fireflies. Not exactly the most comfortable way to spend a night. Plus, this could be a big deal for Gordon. I asked him how long it’d been, since he’d seen a huge number of fireflies,
Gordon Gunn [00:15:01] Oh, the last time I saw a lot of them must have been, I don’t know, 20 years ago.
Chelsey Zhu [00:15:05] So this could either be an amazing memory or a really disappointing one. Are you stressed? Good, because I was stressed. I wanted this to go well. To prepare for the outing, I called up a few experts to ask if something was really going wrong with firefly populations. Are there fewer fireflies around Austin or just in general? I would say yes and yes. That’s Wizzy Brown. She’s an entomologist with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. She says fireflies are facing a few different threats, driven by human activity. First up, development and habitat loss, which you can imagine is a bigger issue in a growing city like Austin.
Wizzy Brown [00:15:45] It seems like every time you’re driving down there’s either a road being constructed or fixed or, you know, new buildings that are going up.
Chelsey Zhu [00:15:55] Many firefly species need moist soil as larvae. They favor areas near water with long grass and decaying matter, which leads us to the next problem, drought. Now, you might be thinking, Austin’s had some good rain, even some flooding over the past few months. But fireflies are in the ground as larva for as long as two years. It takes consistent good weather over time.
Wizzy Brown [00:16:17] So if you’re having these extremes, whether that’s flooding, drought, heat, freeze, that’s gonna be hard on insect populations.
Chelsey Zhu [00:16:30] Then there’s the light problem. Many fireflies famously use flash patterns to find a mate, so light pollution can confuse them. And pesticides that target other insects hurt fireflies too. But there is some good news, which is that much of the stuff is in our control. You can build your own firefly habitat by turning off your porch lights, avoiding pesticides and growing native plants. And when fall comes around, don’t rake up those leaves. Wizzy says you might accidentally be throwing away fireflies living in them.
Wizzy Brown [00:16:58] When my neighbors put their bags of leaves on the curb, I take them and put them into my backyard. So I’m that crazy person.
Chelsey Zhu [00:17:08] Wizzy says she’s seen a good amount of interest in firefly conservation as part of her job. It seems like everyone has a memory to share. Back on the trail, we traded our own stories of chasing after fireflies. Gordon says it was a big part of growing up in Louisiana.
Gordon Gunn [00:17:26] And you know, my cousins, I would run over the yard and we’d catch like, I don’t know, hundreds of them, put them in jars and use them for light sources.
Chelsey Zhu [00:17:36] He says they found them fascinating.
Gordon Gunn [00:17:38] It’s just mysterious, you know, how do they make that light? Bugs that glow at night?
Chelsey Zhu [00:17:45] But even though we were willing the fireflies into existence by talking about them, they had yet to appear. Our photographer, Michael, went out ahead of us to search and report it back.
Gordon Gunn [00:17:55] Did you see the car class? Nothing yet.
Chelsey Zhu [00:17:58] Man, that’s so sad. There’s another challenge fireflies face that’s hard to quantify. Literally, there’s not enough firefly data. Before our trip, I tried looking for hard numbers on firefly populations around Austin over time, but Texas firefly researcher Ben Pfeiffer says those numbers don’t really exist.
Ben Pfeiffer [00:18:17] Largely, I hate to say this, but we really just don’t know how much we’ve lost and it is probably a lot less abundance of fireflies in the area than there used to be historically since like settlers came to Texas
Chelsey Zhu [00:18:33] When it came to Gordon’s question though, Ben did say that the amount of fireflies around can depend on what’s happening in a specific area. Several years ago, Gordon says the developer cleared some woods next to his property to build townhouses. That might play a part in what’s going on around his home, which means he could have better luck in other parts of Austin. Back on the trail, we were walking along Barton Creek, it was getting dark, and I was getting worried. The path was rocky and muddy from recent flooding. My clothes were starting to stick to me. We still hadn’t seen a single firefly, and the trail was getting pretty empty. All right, I’m getting a poor movie vibes. I’m out. We’re the perfect size group that only one or two of us will die.
Chelsey Zhu [00:19:23] Then, all of a sudden… Oh, I think I just saw one! Oh, that one? Yeah.
Chelsey Zhu [00:19:27] A single flash. Oh, I see it! I see It!
Chelsey Zhu [00:19:30] Then another several minutes later, then a group of three or four, and slowly, slowly, the space between the trees was filled with dozens of twinkling lights.
Gordon Gunn [00:19:43] Okay, this is this is kind of how I remember them now
Chelsey Zhu [00:19:48] We lingered on the trail, at times falling into silence as we peered into the darkness. The sound of crickets and frogs swelled in our ears as the fireflies danced. It was like nature was putting on a show. Can I ask you how you feel right now? Yeah
Gordon Gunn [00:20:04] Yeah, it’s really gratifying to see them, this brings back memories of my childhood.
Chelsey Zhu [00:20:12] Even though fireflies are facing a lot of challenges, there are still pockets around Austin where they can be safe. And Gordon says his question was answered.
Gordon Gunn [00:20:20] Well, the answer to my question is where did all the fireflies go? They all went to the Barton Creek.
Chelsey Zhu [00:20:28] I’m Chelsea Zhu in Austin.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:34] Howdy podcast listeners, we can’t include our segment this week in Texas Music History in this podcast because of music streaming rights, but if you want to keep up with Texas Music History, and we know you do, not to worry, just head on over to KUTX.org. And that is it for us today on Austin’s Signal, you can find more about the stories we shared with you in the podcast show notes and at KUT.org slash Signal. Rayna Sevilla is our technical director, Alexandra Hart is our producer, and Kristin Cabrera is our managing producer. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. Austin Signal will be back at the same time tomorrow. We’ll talk to you then.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
