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Students and staff in the Austin Independent School District are back in class this week. 10 campuses in the district closed their doors for good over the summer, but one school had to open back up to serve students from a damaged school. We’ll tell you why.
We’ve been reporting on and learning more about data centers and their impacts on Texans. Hundreds of these centers are planned in the state, and certain regulations have enticed this kind of development. We’ll have more about those laws.
New public art is coming to the UT Austin campus designed by Maya Lin, the artist who shaped the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. We’ll share more about the new work.
And we’re just more than two weeks away from Texas Longhorn Football returning to DKR-Memorial Stadium. We’ll have a preview of this year’s squad.
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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 Students and staff in the Austin School District are back in class this week. Ten campuses in the district closed their doors for good over the summer, but one school had to open back up to serve students from a damaged school. We’ll tell you why. And we’ve been reporting on and learning more about data centers and their impacts on us Texans. Hundreds of these centers are planned in the state, and certain regulations have enticed this kind of development. More about that coming up on today’s show.
Laurie Gallardo The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano Plus, new public art is coming to the UT Austin campus, designed by the artist who shaped the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in DC. More about that new work. And we are just more than two weeks away from Texas football returning to DKR Memorial Stadium. We’ve got a preview of this year’s squad and plenty more that’s coming up next, right here on Austin Signal. Howdy out there, this is Austin Signal. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. It is Wednesday, August 19th. Thank you for tuning in. It is gonna be hot as all get out today and it’s only gonna ramp up in the days ahead. The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory that starts tomorrow afternoon and will be in effect through the weekend. The forecasted high for Saturday and Sunday is right near 105 degrees at the moment. So keep it tuned to KUT News for the latest. And be safe out there. Tens of thousands of Austin Independent School District students and staff went back to school Tuesday after many schools closed over the summer. Some students are going to new campuses, but for one school, things got a little complicated over the Summer and the community is coming together to pull through. KUT’s education reporter Greta Díaz-González Vázquez has that story.
Greta Díaz-González Vázquez – As Lila Dilly prepared for the first day of school, early in the morning she hung charms, plush animals and bracelets on her recently washed pink backpack.
Lila Dilly Made up my summer camp. This one my teacher gave me. This one I got for Valentine’s Day.
Greta Díaz-González Vazquez Over the summer, the fourth grader was excited to go back to Travis Heights Elementary. She was eager to make new students feel welcome. Her school is one of the receiving campuses for Becker Elementary, which closed at the end of the last school year. But the week before the school started, Laila learned Travis Heights had flooded. All classrooms would be temporarily relocated to Dawson Elementary, which also closed this summer. She went through many emotions.
Lila Dilly I was excited.
Greta Díaz-González Vazquez Excited because she thought the flooding meant a long summer, but that was not the case.
Lila Dilly And then I was mad. And then, I was, what’s the word? Well, yeah, nervous. And then. I was confused. And then just had a bunch of questions.
Greta Díaz-González Vazquez Ian Dilley, Lila’s dad, says their family had to make small adjustments, like driving Lila to the bus stop instead of riding their bikes to school. And while yes, it was frustrating to know Lila wouldn’t start the year at Travis Heights, they’re also grateful their school is not one of the 12 that closed this here.
Ian Dilly In an odd way, yeah, it’s fortunate that there was another elementary a mile away that did close and were able to use that building.
Greta Díaz-González Vazquez With an older son that also went to Travis Heights, Ian says they have seen the school overcome many challenges over the last six years, including teaching online during the pandemic. He says school officials always pull through.
Ian Dilly Just again and again, I’ve seen them come across these, these really big challenges and just take them in stride and kind of keep rolling and just focus on, you know, getting kids educated and keeping them safe and making them feel loved.
Greta Díaz-González Vazquez Over the summer, Travis Heights officials on the PTA also held parent meetups and ice cream socials so incoming families would feel integrated into their new school. Carly Gratton, who is part of the P-T-A, says new friendships were formed over the summer. And now, problem-solving together at Dawson will help them bond.
Carly Gratton Well, we’re all starting somewhere new together and figuring this out together and we can all, I don’t know, try to be problem solvers and get through it together, maybe, yeah.
Greta Díaz-González Vazquez Gretten says that since they learned about the flooding, parents, teachers and administrators have pitched in, not only with donations for teachers, but also to help move entire classrooms to Dawson. And in a few weeks, once their school is fixed, they’ll also help move things back to Travis Heights.
Lila Dilly – Ready? Alright. Have a good day. Have a nice day. Have fun. Fourth grader.
after after school
Greta Díaz-González Vazquez On the morning of the first day of school, Ian drove Laila to the Travis Heights campus where she would be taking the bus to Dawson. A construction crew was on the roof while parents dropped their kids off. Lailah had mixed emotions.
Lila Dilly Because we get to explore a new campus, and we get try new things. But I’m also sad because I wanted to start my school year at Travis Heights.
Greta Díaz-González Vazquez Ayla was also thinking about the new kids that would be coming in.
Lila Dilly I feel really bad for them and also I’m going to try to become friends with them.
Greta Díaz-González Vazquez Her strategy to become friends with them on the first day of school, be as nice as possible. I’m Greta Díaz González Vázquez in Austin.
Jerry Quijano Hundreds of new data centers are being planned across Texas, many of them slated to be used for artificial intelligence. Communities across the state and people of all political persuasions have tried to stop many of these facilities from being built near them, but in many cases local officials have very little power to do anything about it. In the latest installment of our series, The Data Center Next Door, KUT’s Leah Walden, Katie McAfee and Kaylee Hunt. Take a look at the laws and regulations that have helped make Texas a focal point for data center development.
Leah Walden You could barely hear Jared Kingery as he tried to talk in the hallway outside Taylor City Council chambers.
Kaylee Hunt The city is actively pursuing amendments to the comprehensive plan.
Leah Walden Henry is the city’s communications manager. A dozen or so residents followed him into the hallway after a city council meeting in July.
Leah Walden They knew about this before the meeting. Taylor City Council had been set to vote on a temporary ban on data centers.
Katie McAfee In the city. Residents had collected over 1,400 signatures to force the council to either approve a ban or put it on the ballot and let
Leah Walden voters decide. The ban would have paused all of the city’s current data center projects and any additional data centers until more rigorous zoning regulations could be created. But just minutes before the council vote was set to happen, city staff posted a statement online saying council members would not be taking any action on the proposal.
Katie McAfee Fair Pro Tem Kelly Samarik said approving the ban could open the city up to a lawsuit.
Kaylee Hunt State law does not allow a city to enact or change its zoning by popular vote. This is a determination about the legal process available to the city.
Katie McAfee Samarik said council members made the decision after talking to a municipal law expert.
Leah Walden Residents were not pleased. They knew about this before the meeting. Why? It’s so disrespectful.
Katie McAfee So, they began humming during Kingery’s post-meeting press conference in protest, mimicking the sound a data center makes.
That is all the comments that I have.
Everybody get on their social media and go ahead and post one.
Leah Walden Officials across Texas are worried about banning data centers at the local level. And they all seem to be worried about the same thing.
Chase Young I think that if we closed at three, we’d be sued by four.
Leah Walden That’s Chase Young, he’s a lawyer for Hayes County. In February, Hayes county judge Ruben Becerra proposed a moratorium on data centers. The moratorium would send a clear message. Hayes country is not open for business for data center developers. But the moratorium didn’t pass.
Walt Smith We don’t have planning and zoning authority, and if we had the planning and zoning authority I’m sure that this court would vote against having another data center here.
Leah Walden But that’s Hays County Commissioner Walt Smith. He’s worried about the water supply in Hays county. But he was seriously against the ban. Again, because…
Walt Smith If we pass this as written, we’re gonna get sued and we’re going to lose.
Katie McAfee That’s exactly what happened in Hill County, north of Waco. In May, commissioners there passed a moratorium on data centers, and just days later, a Hill County judge and two Hill County commissioners are being sued by a data center developer in a $100 million dollar.
Leah Walden Or lawsuit after the county put a pause on the data center development. Hill County commissioners rescinded their moratorium after the lawsuit was filed and no other county in Texas has passed their own moratorium since. There’s two state laws that make it hard for local governments to ban data centers. One makes it way harder for cities to freeze or ban specific kinds of property development. It’s how local bans on fracking around the have been overturned. And then there’s one known affectionately as the Death Star Bill. This law, passed in 2023, stops city and county governments in Texas from making any laws that conflict with, or go further than, state law on eight topics. The topics include business and finance and natural resources. So like, epically broad topics. Basically, the law says all regulation in these areas is strictly within the purview of the state.
Amanda Rodriguez It was simply the all-encompassing nature of this bill, the threat alone being enough to stoke such significant fear in municipalities to not even try to dare to act to go against anything that the state is doing.
Leah Walden That’s Amanda Rodriguez. She’s a city counselor in San Marcos. She’s been trying to stop data center development for years. We are no longer.
Amanda Rodriguez And have not been for quite a while the state of local control. Quite the opposite. It is a top-down approach that disallows us completely as governing members to listen to the needs and meet the needs of our people.
Katie McAfee Rodriguez says that state law is stopping local governments from passing ordinances that speak to the needs of people in local areas, especially in rural areas.
Amanda Rodriguez People don’t understand that more than half of these facilities that are coming here are set to be here are in counties.
Leah Walden Data centers need wide open spaces and developers are often finding those spaces next door to ranchers, farmers, and rural communities throughout.
Katie McAfee And many of these people have been calling on state lawmakers to do, well, something.
Jim Henson I think they are asking some of the same questions you are and they don’t have the answers yet in terms of, you know, what will this policy actually look like?
Leah Walden This is Jim Henson. He’s the director of the Texas Politics Project. He says it’s not surprising that lawmakers aren’t taking a stance on the issue. We called several state lawmakers to comment on how data center development could be regulated in the future. No one made them.
Katie McAfee Available. Henson says lawmakers are looking to the governor for how to position themselves on the issue. But Governor Abbott hasn’t made it easy.
Gov Greg Abbott Well, thank you, Sundar, for being here. Thank you for the huge announcement. So an announcement…
Leah Walden Last November, Abbott sat beside the CEO of Google to announce a
Katie McAfee big deal they had made, a $40 billion investment in three new AI data centers in Texas.
Leah Walden Abbott said, once the projects are completed, Google will have a larger data center footprint in Texas than anywhere else in the world.
Gov Greg Abbott Texas will be the centerpiece for AI data centers for Google in the entire world.
Leah Walden It wasn’t a surprising announcement at the time, but now people are looking back on it differently. Because this summer, Abbott made a hard pivot. Now he says he’s.
Gov Greg Abbott Pushing back against these AI data centers that are trying to build in our neighborhood.
Katie McAfee At a campaign stop in a tiny town near Dallas, a place called Bullard, Abbott set some new ground rules for data centers.
Gov Greg Abbott Any AI data center, even thinking about coming here, they’ve got to bring their own money, bring their power, reuse their own water, and do it in a way that reduces the cost of electricity for residents across our state.
Leah Walden Since then, Abbott has doubled down. This month, he told state regulators to audit all data center projects under consideration right now. What tax deals they’ve made, their power plans and anticipated water use, and how they plan to, quote, reduce impacts to neighboring communities. If they don’t comply, they don’t get to connect to the state’s sweet, sweet power grid. In an email, Abbot’s press secretary said many data center companies have already to agree to follow the new rules. The major players, like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, have put out their own statements saying they’re happy to comply with the audit. Regulators say they need several more months to review the latest wave of data center proposals.
Katie McAfee But not everyone is convinced Abbott’s new directives will mean anything after Election Day.
Sid Miller This is all campaign fluff on Abbott’s part, nothing more.
Leah Walden That’s Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a Republican. Unlike other state leaders, Miller has no dog in this fight. He lost his primary election in March and is writing out his term until the end of the year. He says if Abbott was actually serious about regulating
Katie McAfee data centers.
Sid Miller He would call the moratorium. If he was, he’d call a special session. If he wasn’t, he would return the campaign donations. He’s done none of those three.
Leah Walden Abbott has taken at least $2 million from companies or individuals with connections to data centers in the state. That’s according to an analysis by the Houston Chronicle. Democrats have also been pushing Abbott to call a special session of the legislature to pass new rules on data centers.
Katie McAfee But Jim Henson from the Texas Politics Project says that’s just not going to happen.
Jim Henson The likelihood of Governor Abbott calling a special session with the general election two months away on an issue that is giving Republicans problems is just vanishingly close to zero.
Leah Walden While the state decides what it’s going to do, and cities and counties are scared of lawsuits, some residents are taking matters into their own hands. Not long after the Taylor City Council declined to vote on the proposed data center ban, the city did find itself in legal trouble, but not with the state. A group of residents asked a court to decide whether Taylor had violated the Texas Open Meetings Act and the city’s charter. Nothing has happened with the case yet. But in some places, the community pressure has worked.
Katie McAfee In June, the city of San Marcos passed the first municipal data center ban in the state. So far, no lawsuit.
Leah Walden So if people are so worried about data centers moving into their neighborhoods, are there ways for data centers to be better neighbors? Is there anything they can do to limit the amount of energy and water they use? Are there more sustainable ways to build them? That’s next week on The Data Center Next Door. I’m Leigh Walden. I’m Katie McAfee. And I’m Kaylee Hunt in Austin.
Jerry Quijano All right, we got a couple of headlines for your Wednesday. Groups opposing the construction of a border wall through Big Bend National Park and surrounding areas are taking their message to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting that is happening today. KUT’s Mo’s Bouchelle is covering that, and we’ll have an update later at KUT.org and on the KUT app, and probably right here on Austin Signal later on in the week. And Frank Beer, the longtime drummer for ZZ Top, died Monday at the age of 77. That’s according to the Houston bass band. Their shows this weekend at ACO Live at the Moody Theater are still going forward. USA Today reports that ACO live at the moody is, was, excuse me, one of Frank’s favorite venues in a city that had been something of a second home to him. This is Austin Signal. This is, Austin Signal, welcome back. A new piece of public art is under construction near the Texas Science and Natural History Museum right here on the UT campus. The installation will blend sculpture, architecture, and ecological design, and is designed by the artists behind the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. For KUT’s Art Beat, Stephanie Federico reports on the latest addition to UT’s Landmarks Public Art Program.
Stephanie Federico Maya Lin’s 3,600 square foot sculpture, Floating Landscape, will sit above a restored meadow near Waller Creek. It was commissioned by UT’s public art program, Landmarks. Andrea Bober is Landmark’s founding director and curator.
Andrea Bober Loading landscape is really an environment that you enter. Mya Lin created this meadow of natural grasses and plants. And rising out of this environment is this gentle sculptural form that people can walk across and gather on.
Stephanie Federico At night, the sculpture will glow with LEDs mapping the constellations in the sky on the date UT was founded. Lynn said the project grew out of the ecology of the site and the openness of the Texas sky. She’ll be designing the landscape in collaboration with the urban design firm Lionheart Places and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. The meadow will help absorb excess water, slow erosion, and restore the natural habitat. Bober said Lynn was the natural choice for the project.
Andrea Bober She has this ability to move between art and architecture and landscape design and environmental thinking and that felt especially right for engineering just because that engineers work, they solve problems creatively and that’s how Maya approached the site.
Stephanie Federico The artwork is funded through the university’s Art in Public Spaces policy, which sets aside one to 2% of capital improvement projects for public art. Maya Lin gained national recognition in 1981 when she won a contest to design the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, DC. She was just 21. Floating Landscape is her first work of public art in Texas. Landmarks gave Lin broad freedom to create the piece.
Jerry Quijano7 Maya came back with something a lot more ambitious than what we had imagined initially. She designed this work of art that could also restore the landscape and create a gathering place.
Stephanie Federico As the sculpture is being built, the meadow will be established over the coming months. An opening celebration with the artist is planned for April 9th. For KUT’s Art Beat, I’m Stephanie Federico in Austin.
Jerry Quijano The 2026 college football season is creeping ever so close, and Texas Longhorns fans have plenty to be excited about this year, after the team came up short of the playoffs last go-around. Along with a bevy of returning star players, led by quarterback Arch Manning, there are some promising new faces on the field, some new coaches on the sidelines, and a whole new playoff format. Danny Davis covers sports for the Austin American Statesman. He spoke with Texas Standard host Laura Rice about what Longhorn fans can expect as kickoff approaches.
Laura Rice Earlier this month in a coach’s preseason ranking poll, Texas landed at number four. What do you make of that?
Danny DavisI think it’s about right. Obviously Texas missed the playoffs last year, so there’s a little disappointment here in Austin, but there’s lot of talent on this team and anytime you have a player as good as Arch Manning on offense and a player is good as Collin Simmons as well as some of the other players they brought in this off season, this team should be competing for a national championship. So you don’t want to put them at one, they have to earn that, but a top five is appropriate.
Laura Rice You mentioned Arch Manning, and of course a lot of eyes on him. Is this his last year? Are we here already? The final year of Arch Maning as quarterback of UT?
Danny DavisWe’ll see. I mean he still has another year of eligibility after this year and I think Steve interviewed her in the summer kind of teased the possibility of Arch coming back for that fifth year. But if he accomplishes what he wants to accomplish and is slated to go high on the draft, I can’t see him coming back another season. He makes good money here but the money is even better in the NFL. So I think if he accomplished what he wanted to accomplish this will be the last year with Arch, which is appropriate. He’s been here for four years. Time to go on and do the next thing.
Laura Rice But what is it that he wants to do? Is it going to be, is it national championship or bus? Do you think he’s going to be satisfied, you know, ending the year at number four?
Danny DavisI mean, I think Arch would definitely like to win a national championship and maybe contend for some of those awards. He’s not going to say that publicly, but I’m sure privately he wouldn’t mind going for a Heisman Trophy. But yeah, it’s just a championship robust kind of season. You don’t want to necessarily say everything is staked to national championship because weird things happen in the playoffs. But I think if Arch wins a national title and joins Vince and James Street and some of these Longhorn quarterbacks who have won titles here, I think he’d be pretty, pretty happy.
Laura Rice Now on the downside, Texas is said to have one of the toughest schedules this year. I think it was Ohio State like second game. I mean, do you think that’s true? Can you break this down for us?
Danny DavisYeah, the coaches’ poll you just alluded to, seven of the teams that Texas plays this season was in that preseason poll, and that starts with week two. Ohio State, that’s obviously one of the tougher non-conference games for both Texas and Ohio State. Ohio State was one in the preseason polls, so that’s a tough game for them coming to Austin and Texas obviously having to host them. And then the SEC plays the Seaguntlet, and Texas found out last year that even the easy games in the SEC play aren’t necessarily easy, and then you have the ranked teams. So this is gonna be a tough schedule. From start to finish, even UTSA or Texas State, those teams are going to want to come into Texas and spring the upset. So there’s no easy games on this Texas schedule.
Laura Rice All right, so for those who haven’t been paying close attention, what’s coming with this new playoff format and are you looking forward to it?
Danny DavisI mean, the new playoff is forming, it’s still in the air. We’re still doing 12 teams this year. Now it’s just kind of a debate. Big 10 wants to expand it. The SEC is kind of holding firm. We’ll see exactly what happens. I don’t like 12 teams personally, so I would prefer for it to go backwards. I think a 4.8 is a perfect number. I think the more teams you add, it kind of waters down the product.
Laura Rice Alright, I’ve been quizzing you, I know it’s still early days, but what else are you going to be watching for this season?
Danny DavisI mean, covering the Texas Longhorns, you just want to see if the Longhorns can live up to that hype. There’s going to be some good games coming to DKR and even if the games of Texas has to go on the road, they’re going to LSU for the first time and forever going to Tennessee for the first time ever. Then you go to A&M and have Oklahoma and Dallas. It’s going be a fun schedule if you’re a Texas fan, whether you’re watching some games at home or you’re one of those fans who likes to travel everywhere. It’s gonna be a fun year with a lot of cool venues, a lot cool things to see and that’s kind of what We want to see you at this time of year.
Jerry Quijano That was Austin American Statesman reporter Danny Davis speaking with Texas Standards Laura Rice. Well, that is it for us today here on Austin Signal. We’re going to have links to the stories we shared with you in the podcast show notes and at kut.org slash signal. Jake Perlman is our technical director, Alexandra Hart is our producer, and Kristin Cabrera is our managing producer. I’m your host Jerry Quijano. We’ll be back at the same time tomorrow. 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.
