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After initially planning to cancel its adult indoor basketball and volleyball leagues, the city now plans to find an outside company to run them. Players worry they could be priced out.
Next week, Republicans will gather in Texas for the party’s first-ever midterm convention. What does it mean to be a Texas Republican in 2026?
How one survivor of the Buford’s shooting is recovering — and how his family and a former professor have helped him along the way.
An Austin teenager is bringing old Hollywood to a new generation and building a community of classic film lovers.
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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.
Alexandra Hart As changes are coming to some of the City of Austin’s indoor recreational sports programs, the City plans to outsource certain leagues to private companies. Why that’s got some people concerned. And next week Republicans will gather in Texas for the party’s national convention ahead of the midterm elections, but the definition of Republican has been shifting. What does it mean to be a member of the GOP in Texas? We’ll explore.
Laurie Gallardo The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Alexandra Hart.
Alexandra Hart We’ll be checking in on how one survivor of the Buford shooting is recovering and how his family and a former professor have helped him along the way. Plus, we’ll meet an Austin teenager who’s bringing old Hollywood to a new generation and how he built a community of classic film lovers. That’s up next, right here on Austin Signal. Hey Austin! It’s Thursday, September 3rd, 2026. I’m Alexandra Hart and this is Austin’s Signal. Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department is planning to stop running some adult sports leagues and find an outside company to operate them instead. KUT’s Luz Moreno Lozano reports that has some players concerned.
Luz Moreno-Lozano Leslie Ivy and her husband have played indoor volleyball at the Austin Recreation Center near downtown every Monday night for the last 25 years.
Lesley Ivy We started playing in an outdoor sand league, Friday night fun league, and we were looking for something more competitive and not in the Austin climate all the time. Their family has grown over the years.
Luz Moreno-Lozano They’ve got three kids now, but Ivy says they’ve kept dedicating their Monday nights to volleyball.
Lesley Ivy Through crazy kid schedules and all of that. It’s really important. It is a date night for us. It’s a cheap date night because if you look at the cost per league, per person, it’s five, six, seven bucks a night to play. You can’t get a cheaper date than that.
Luz Moreno-Lozano Marriage, good for their mental and physical health and it has allowed them to form a community with the people they play with each week. Alina Scott has been playing in the league for the last several years. She says over the years you become part of each other’s lives.
Alina Scott The team that I currently play with. Like I said, we’ve played together for almost three years now. We’ve gone through different life cycles with each other. We’ve seen…
Luz Moreno-Lozano Graduations and weddings and trips. It’s a story that many who play volleyball at the Austin Rec Center on Monday nights have shared. It’s an outlet for their health, socialization, a sense of community. But that could all change soon. Austin’s Parks Department plans to cancel adult indoor basketball and volleyball leagues. It would save the city about $400,000 a year. Parks and Rec says they’ll outsource those leagues to private companies, but the outsourcing has some athletes worried. To play indoor volleyball for an eight-week season, it costs $250 per team right now. Each team has six players. Pete Signore is captain of his volleyball team. He says it comes out to about $42 per player. But he worries if the city starts using private companies like Austin Sports and Social Club or sports kind, some people will be priced out.
Pete Signore Those leagues and companies, they tend to charge a lot more money. And I think Austin has had an affordability issue for many, many years. And in the last couple of years, in particular, it feels like things are ramping up even worse.
Luz Moreno-Lozano Take the company sports kind. They have an indoor volleyball league set to start at the end of this month. The cost, $725 per team. Almost three times as much as parks and rec charges. Austin Sports and Social Club has once started in October for $529 per team Crystal Leah Phillips played volleyball on Monday nights with ID and five others. She calls the decision disappointing. Austin has already changed so stinking.
Alexandra Hart Much. Keep Austin, just a little piece of it, weird and normal. Authentic, yeah.
Luz Moreno-Lozano Then everybody’s moving here, everything is increasing in price. Several others said they felt blindsided, that they didn’t get a chance to get feedback. Parks Director Hsiao Sagiri said during a Parks and Rec board meeting last month that the decision was not up to them.
Hsiao Sagiri It was one of those decisions of many in that we submitted this list and then again the city manager selects those working with the budget office working with council and then of course council has the opportunity to make changes before they adopt a budget.
Luz Moreno-Lozano City officials say it will take some time to find a vendor to run these programs. In the meantime, they’ll allow the league to continue as is. They’ll start looking for a vendor soon, and ultimately, the city council will have to sign off. Still, it has many players feeling uncertain. Here’s Leslie, Kristalia, and their teammate Brie Longoria.
Alina Scott I don’t think we’ve discussed it on levels of are we boycotting it or are we going to just suck it up and play because we want to continue to play, to stay healthy, to stay active for our mental health and our physical health, you know?
Luz Moreno-Lozano There’s no clear timeline for how soon the transition could happen. I’m Luz Moreno Lozano in Austin.
Alexandra Hart Next week, Republicans from across the country will gather in Dallas for a national party convention aimed at rallying the GOP ahead of the midterm elections. Of course, Texas is familiar territory for Republicans. The party has dominated politics here for more than three decades. But what it means to be a Texas Republican has changed over time. The Texas newsroom’s Blaise Gainey looks at what and who defines the GOP in 2026.
Blaise Gainey This summer at the Texas GOP convention in Houston, Governor Gregg
Abbott gave Republicans a simple assignment.
Gregg Abbott Our job is to keep Texas Texas this election.
Blaise Gainey The implication there, keep Texas Republican. So what does that mean today?
Shelby Williams Honestly, it depends on which Republican you are.
Blaise Gainey That’s Shelby Williams, who used to chair the Collin County Republican Party.
Shelby Williams There are different pockets of Republicans. Some who identify as Republican are unquestionably populous. Some, like myself, I consider myself a Reagan Republican. And then great swath of people who identify as Republican, maybe they’re Trump Republicans, maybe they are Bush Republicans.
Blaise Gainey And all that gets filtered through a Texas lens.
Sarah Gardner Texans tend to be more conservative. So I would say they lean a little bit further right, maybe comparatively to other parts of the country.
Blaise Gainey Sarah Gardner is 31 and serves on the board of the Dallas Young Republicans.
Sarah Gardner Texas Republicans generally I think are aligned very much with the core conservative values.
Blaise Gainey Gardner points to lower taxes, limited government, personal liberty, and property rights, along with the Second Amendment and border security. But the party’s priorities have broadened beyond that, especially in the last decade. Here’s UTSA political scientist John Taylor.
Shely Williams Capitalism combined with social conservatism becomes the rule of thumb for Texas Republicans.
Blaise Gainey So then, who’s leading the charge for the GOP in Texas today? Republican strategist, Brendan Steinhauser, says the answer to that question depends on when you ask it. During the legislative cycle, it’s the legislators and the governor that are driving the ship, but I think leading into election season, it is more of the activist base. They’re the ones most likely to vote in primaries, so that activist base has an enormous influence on which Republicans get on the ballot and ultimately into office. And increasingly, those voters have favored the party’s most conservative candidates, according to Rice University’s political scientist Mark Jones.
Mark Jones The ability of sort of the moderate wing to drive policy is pretty much evaporated.
Blaise Gainey One very big example, this year’s Republican runoffs when four term U.S. Senator John Cornyn, long identified with the party establishment, lost to Trump back Ken Paxton. He praised the president in his victory speech.
John Cornyn President Trump is the leader of our party and his endorsement is the most powerful force in politics.
Blaise Gainey What Paxton said, that’s true nationally, but in state government, Mark Jones stresses that Governor Greg Abbott is top dog.
Mark Jones Ray Gabbitt is still in the driver’s seat of the Texas Republican Party. Now, he has to share essentially with different people who are riding shotgun and shouting directions from the backseat, but he is the main driver of the Republican Party today.
Blaise Gainey And with its control of the Texas legislature, Republicans have been increasingly willing to use state power to pursue social and cultural goals. Another thing UT Austin’s James Henson says defines Texas Republicans today.
Alexandra Hart5 The focus on limiting transgender rights, the implementation of anti-DEI policies. All of those things are examples of a culturally conservative agenda that has had great success in the legislature.
Blaise Gainey So a Texas Republican can be many things, a business conservative, an evangelical voter, a Trump loyalist, or all of those and more. But Shelby Williams says there’s one thing that ties them all together, liberty.
Shely Williams That’s the central thing that underpins all Republicans, whatever kind of Republican they think they are, no matter our identity crisis, liberty, the concept of liberty.
Blaise Gainey And he hopes that underlying goal helps unite Texas Republicans before the midterms. I’m Blaise Gainey in Austin.
Alexandra Hart The last day to register to vote in the fall’s general election is October 5th. In-person early voting runs from October 19th through the 30th. Election day is November 3rd. You can check your voter registration status at votetexas.gov. Six months after he was shot in the head at Buford’s on West 6th Street, Rodolfo Rudy Garza Jr continues to recover. After months in and out of the hospital, he’s home with his family and working at finding a new sense of normalcy. In just a moment, we’ll hear from Rudy and his mother Cynthia Hernandez about his journey. They both spoke with KUT intern Valeria Cruz-Boutron, who wrote a story on Rudy’s road to recovery. And she joins us now. Hi, Valeria. Hi, thank you for having me. It’s been a bit more than half a year since the shooting took place and so much has happened to Rudy since then. What was his life like prior to being shot? So before being shot.
Valeria Cruz-Boutron, He was actually a senior at UT. He was about to graduate in May, studying mechanical engineering. And one of the things he was doing was a capstone project, researching and creating harnesses for children with disabilities. Oh, wow.
Alexandra Hart So you got a chance to speak with Rudy and his mother, Cynthia Hernandez. How did she find out about what happened to her son?
Valeria Cruz-Boutron So the interesting thing is that Rudy does not remember anything that happened.
Rodolfo Rudy Garza Jr All I remember is hanging out with some friends the day of, and it was a birthday bash, I think, because it was two birthdays. So we combined them, posted a party, and went. And then we went to six. I didn’t want to go. But we still went. And then I was with some friends. That’s all I remember. I don’t remember what happened during all that.
Valeria Cruz-Boutron Yeah, so Cynthia was on a travel assignment in Iowa a thousand miles away almost and her Friends from Rudy called her saying we can’t find Rudy. There’s been a mass shooting and she was freaking out obviously and She went on find my friends the location thing on iPhones and she saw that he was already at a hospital So immediately she had to like get on a plane and just try to figure out what was going on with him Oh my gosh, what?
Alexandra Hart Way to find out. Oh my goodness. And so what were the extent of Rudy’s injuries?
Valeria Cruz-Boutron Yeah, so he was actually shot in the head and he was unconscious and they had to give him emergency surgery and then His mom didn’t know how he was going to be when he woke up. So it was kind of a waiting game And then he did wake up and he Was going through rehabilitation He graduated he walked the stage and then he had to have I think it was a third emergency surgery because he had a brain bleed Um, so you had to be rushed back to the hospital But then Cynthia said that they were really worried about when he wake up if he would regress in his rehabilitation
Cynthia Hernandez I felt like it was starting all over again, going through the same thing. But he was blessed. He came out of that third surgery and woke up pretty fast. He was talking and it was just like right where he had left off, you know? His therapy continued like right where she left off. So it was really good, it was good. I remember the first time he started talking, making noises, I recorded that and he said, I love you mom. I was very much shocked.
Alexandra Hart It sounds like there was just like a lot of uncertainty there, but it kind of, you know, worked out. Yeah. So it sounds like she was really playing a critical role in his recovery. Has her nursing experience, how has that played into this recovery time?
Valeria Cruz-Boutron So she said that she was definitely familiar with some of the aspects of Rudy’s recovery because she was a post anesthesia care nurse, but she told the doctors and the nurses like, don’t treat me like a healthcare professional, I’m a parent. It was like a whole different ballgame being on the other side of a tragedy. So she just wanted to be treated like a parent, basically. Right.
Alexandra Hart And so there’s also a professor here at UT Austin who’s been following Rudy’s recovery, who is he, what’s his relationship to Rudy and how has it impacted his teaching?
Valeria Cruz-Boutron So his name is Dr. Joshua Kina, and he is an associate professor of practice at the Cockrell School of Engineering. So he was actually teaching Rudy’s capstone course, helping his team create those harnesses. And after finding out, he let the rest of the team know what happened, and they actually helped him with making some devices for him to help him with the stability and everything. And Cynthia said that Dr. Kina was actually a really big help for her and his family. The cube he would go to the hospital he would visit and just make sure that Rudy was getting all the care he needed. Yeah. Oh, wow. It’ll like start.
Alexandra Hart Moment. That’s amazing. So how else is Rudy recovering? And what’s you know, what are you doing with this time these days?
Valeria Cruz-Boutron He was finally out of the hospital fully like last month. So he was finally cleared to eat a regular diet. So he said his favorite thing was Korean barbecue and dumplings. He was Finally able to enjoy those foods. And he said that he loves to talk with his friends on the phone or watch them play video games. His hand stability is not the best yet. So he just, right now he just watches them play video games, but he hopes that soon he can join them.
Alexandra Hart So what’s next for Rudy, Cynthia, and their family? What’s the road to recovery look like?
Valeria Cruz-Boutron So, Cynthia and the rest of his family actually live in Mission, Texas, but they all relocated to Austin because that’s where all the doctors that helped Rudy are, and the bullet fragment will be in his brain for the rest his life, so he has to get care pretty much for the rest of this life. So they all moved here. They relocated. His brothers are going to start school here and everything, so, he has all his family here to support him, and he said he’s working hard at physical therapy, trying to get his endurance up, stability, and his speech working again.
Rodolfo Rudy Garza Jr What does it look like? A lot of therapy, a lot. While I share at home, then later, I would do outpatient rehab, which they drop me off at the rehab center and then for a couple hours, I would to rehab. So I’m good as new.
Alexandra Hart That was the voice of Rodolfo Rudy Garza Jr. We also heard from his mother, Cynthia Hernandez, earlier in the interview. We’ve been speaking with Valeria Cruz-Boutron, and you can read more about her story on Rudy’s recovery in today’s show notes. Valeria, thank you. Thank you. You’re listening to Austin Signal. We’re gonna be right back after this break. Stay with us. This is Austin Signal, welcome back. Old movies have found a new fan base among Austin youth thanks to the efforts of 15-year-old Hudson Perma. He’s the founder of Flick Click, that’s a film series aimed at getting teenagers interested in classic cinema. Joining us now is Hudson Purma and his mother, Mackenzie, Hudson, Mackenzie. Welcome to Austin Signal.
Hudson Purma Hi. Hi. Thanks for having us.
Alexandra Hart Hudson, tell us a bit about your introduction to classic cinema. How did this passion get started?
Hudson Purma I think about three years ago, me and my dad went to AFS and saw Nickelodeon, not the kids’ show channel, the movie. Richard Linklater was there, and he gave an introduction and he did Q&A afterwards. I didn’t really know there was a big film community or classic old film community in Austin, but seeing all these people ask these insightful questions and hearing his answers And here, his introduction really changed my point of view, and that kind of… Started the ball rolling. And after that, me and my dad, I told my dad like, I need to see more of this. So we went and saw as many movies as we could at the Paramount. Nice. That next summer, I think we saw over 30. So, we saw a lot that year. And again, seeing Steven Janisse, the programmer there, his introductions again, and you know, the crowd like, the crowd would like answer the questions he would say and like kind of pitch in things. Like if you forget a name for an actor, like someone from the crowd will know and just This community really blew my mind. But the problem was I didn’t have anyone to talk to about these films that were my age and no one knew about them.
Alexandra Hart And so what was the first step to getting the flick clique rolling?
Hudson Purma I would you wouldn’t first of all we needed to find a venue that was the most important thing uh… So we took a couple months looking for things we reached out to the ALMA we reached out to Austin Film Society and we eventually landed on uh… We Love Video uh… Which they have a cool screen in the back and I mean that’s that was kinda it they were really nice and cooperative and my dad does film though so we we had to get those you know printed out I have to do my introduction but With them, we’d just pretty much find the venue, get the movie, and screen it. There wasn’t much to it.
Alexandra Hart What was the early days of the program like?
Hudson Purma I mean, it was pretty much the same as it is now. Obviously, we weren’t as smooth. Maybe my introductions weren’t good back then. But I mean it was fun. It was also just kind of back when we started, not new people, basically friends and stuff.
Alexandra Hart So it sounds like your family and friends have kind of helped make these nights special. Your mom is here, of course. And how’s your family and friends supported the project?
Hudson Purma I mean, it’s been amazing, especially my mom and my dad. I think it wouldn’t have happened at all if they hadn’t been helping me or anything like that. And then my friends as well, like, I always say that one of my favorite parts is after we screen a movie, everyone talks and my friends say, oh, that was great. Thanks for the introduction, thanks for showing that. And just seeing everyone’s support and like really enjoy and talk about the film.
Alexandra Hart Mackenzie, what have you enjoyed about seeing this community come together?
MacKenzie Purma Um, mostly seeing my friends and their families grow because of the films that we’re showing. A lot of the times after a series, they’ll come back to me and they’ll say, man, I did not know that or I had no idea that this even existed. Like, thank you so much for giving this this to my family.
Alexandra Hart A big movie person before this got started or did this kind of get you get you into it more?
MacKenzie Purma Yeah, I’ve seen my share of movies for sure. When I first moved to Austin 20 years ago, I was a regular at the Alamo, going to the weird Wednesdays and everything. But this has given me a different appreciation for classic film.
Alexandra Hart So for sure, Hudson, what’s been your favorite part of these movie nights beyond the films that you’re showing?
Hudson Purma I mean, like I already said afterwards, hearing everyone talk about it and just being able to share these movies with people and then them share like just a chain reaction I’ve seen. Like, a friend will come for the first time and they’ll love it. And then they’ll bring a friend and seeing like a whole wave of people get inspired. Just like seeing everyone learn. And then basically what she said, like people realizing that there’s more to it. And what really surprised me with these classic films people invite people on that day they don’t want to come i think it is a boring all of the and then they’ll come and then you’ll say for a classic movie that was really good and i think i mentioned this uh… But in my article or whatever but it’s back again blew my mind like people don’t even think that these are good any opportunity to like share that with them and help them realize that there’s more to it That can be appreciated.
Alexandra Hart What have you learned about community while putting the Flick Click together?
Hudson Purma I mean, I’ve really learned that like, I’m not sure really, there’s, the main thing that I’ve noticed is people who come early and stuff, they wanna help like set up chairs and stuff. And these community is more than just people who come and watch a movie to be entertained. They really care about learning and whatnot. And like, we do trailers before the movie like that are kind of in the same theme or maybe our next screening and people will appreciate that and we’ll do theme music. Before the movie. People really appreciate that. And that community kind of surprised me. I thought people would just like come watch the movie and go and yeah.
Alexandra Hart Seeing that like investment. Mackenzie, how have you seen your son kind of grow and mature through this endeavor?
MacKenzie Purma Oh my gosh, a ton. Yeah, this has really taught him kind of like how to start something, how to Start a business, how to start a community project. Before, I don’t even know if he had an email address before we started this. Because he was only were you 14? 13? He was 13 when we started. Now he’s emailing people all the time, and yeah.
Alexandra Hart Just learning a lot of life skills, it sounds like. Yeah, all the life skills. Yeah, for sure. That’s great. Would you say that this has brought your family closer together?
MacKenzie Purma Absolutely.
Alexandra Hart Thanks. We’re all working on it together. Yeah, that’s for sure. Hudson, last question. Do you feel you have achieved your goal of being able to talk about classic movies more with people your age? Definitely.
Hudson Purma I mean, we’re not all the way there yet, but every screening, every little thing we do like this, it brings us to a step closer. And I think if we hadn’t seen this progress, we probably would have stopped by now or something. But really just seeing, yeah, I think we have. I haven’t really thought about that, like if we’ve achieved what we wanted to, but just seeing everyone’s reaction and getting new people and doing things like this. I think definitely.
Alexandra Hart Yeah, it sounds like you’ve been able to build a really strong community through this. Alright, well we’ve been chatting with Hudson Perma, film programmer for Austin Flick Clique and his mother Mackenzie. Hudson, Mackenzie, thanks so much for coming in. Thank you. Thank you! You can find out more about Flick click and all of today’s stories in today’s show notes. That’s it for us today on Austin’s Signal. Jake Perlman is our technical director, Kristin Cabrera is our managing producer, and I’m your host Alexandra Hart. We’ll be back tomorrow. See 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.
