Austin Signal

May 8, 2026

Facing deficit, Austin ISD to cut educator salaries

The Austin Independent School District is set to cut more than 200 educator salaries as they work to address a multimillion-dollar budget deficit. District officials have also identified other ways to reduce the deficit, including cuts to the central office and projected revenue from real estate sales. The City of Austin has given the green […]

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May 7, 2026

Austin considers new contract with Texas Gas Service

The Austin City Council is considering a vote to renew its contract with a for-profit utility that provides natural gas to the city, despite long-standing dissatisfaction locally with gas rates. The IHOP near downtown Austin has finally been sold at auction. The pancake purveyor has remained steady despite rampant development all around it. Why it […]

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May 6, 2026

Austin Police response times ticking upward, even as calls go down

Austin’s SAFE Alliance will no longer provide exams for sexual assault survivors because of a funding shortfall. Other programs could also be on the chopping block. We’ll talk about how others are planning to assist. A swift local police response to the March shooting at Buford’s on Sixth Street was commended in the days after […]

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May 5, 2026

Infowars site shuts down amid tussle with The Onion

A group of civil rights organizations filed a new lawsuit this week seeking to stop parts of the law that would let state police arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. We’ll have more about the law and why it’s been paused. Infowars, long home to Austin-based conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, shut down […]

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May 4, 2026

Texas businesses can keep selling smokable hemp for now

Texas hemp businesses can keep selling their cannabis flower and concentrate products for now, after a Travis County judge blocked key parts of the state’s new hemp regulations while a lawsuit against those rules and increased fees plays out. There was just one bidder for the contract to take operational control of three struggling Austin […]

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May 1, 2026

Georgetown voters to decide on selling part of water system

Voters in Georgetown will decide this weekend whether to sell off parts of their water system. The parts up for consideration lay outside the city limits, and the election comes as Georgetown is looking to manage rising costs. Construction at the Austin Surf Club near the airport has come to a stop, and now contractors […]

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April 30, 2026

Mando Rayo shares some taco hot takes

The inaugural KUT Festival is happening this weekend in Austin. It was scheduled to take place on the UT campus, but now a majority of the events are taking place elsewhere. More about the changes and the back-and-forth between UT and KUT leadership. Beef prices are sticking near record-high prices, an issue that’s been exacerbated […]

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April 29, 2026

Questions about self-driving vehicles during emergencies

It’s been almost two months since a deadly shooting outside a bar on West Sixth Street, and local officials are looking at the emergency response to that tragedy, including concerns about autonomous vehicles. Here in Texas, one of the country’s largest legal cannabis markets is fighting for its life, with exceptions allowing the sale of […]

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