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Plans to put a border wall in the Big Bend region have been taking shape, and a co-founder of the outdoor brand YETI is connected with a ranch involved in those plans.
Some Taylor residents are proposing an ordinance aimed at creating stricter regulations for data centers in the city. What they’re asking for.
The Austin airport is adding summer flights as expansion work continues.
The first-ever girls flag football state championship is happening this weekend, and the Round Rock High School team is preparing to compete.
Plus: The KUTX staff shares their favorite songs of 2026 so far, from Austin and beyond.
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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] Plans to put a border wall in the Big Bend region have been taking shape, and a co-founder of the outdoor brand Yeti is connected with the ranch involved in those plans. We’re going to tell you more, and some folks in Taylor are proposing an ordinance aimed at creating stricter regulations for data centers in the city, what they’re asking for, and new routes and changes happening out at Austin’s airport. Plenty of show coming up for you today.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:32] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:37] The first ever Girls’ Flag Football State Championship is happening this weekend. We’re gonna catch up with an Austin area high school team preparing to compete. Plus the best songs of 2026 so far. We’ve got a lot for you. It’s all coming up next. And it’s right here on Austin Signal. Howdy out there. This is Austin Signal. Thank you for tuning in to community powered public radio KUT news. It is Friday. It’s June 12th. I’m your host, Jerry Kekunel. Thank you for making us part of your day. A group of citizens in Taylor is proposing an ordinance aimed at creating stricter regulations for data centers in their city. As KUT’s Kailey Hunt reports, they gathered last night to mark the occasion.
Kailey Hunt [00:01:33] Dozens of people gathered at Heritage Park in downtown Taylor Thursday evening. They were there to celebrate the submission of a proposed citizen-initiated ordinance that would stop any data center projects from moving forward until the city adopts special zoning requirements. Organizer Carrie Deanna says those requirements are needed to protect things like the city’s water supply and power grid.
Carrie Deanna [00:01:54] Ultimately tonight is a celebration of the community coming together, but it’s also the last chance for our council and our city staff to champion people instead of corporations.
Kailey Hunt [00:02:04] More than 1,400 people signed a petition to force a public vote on the proposed ordinance. A spokesperson for the city says it will need to validate those signatures and assess the language in the ordinance before moving forward with any response. I’m Kailey Hunt in Williamson County.
Jerry Quijano [00:02:20] And it’s been a busy one for Williamson County reporter Kailey Hunt this week. We’re going to hear from her again later in the show today about an Austin girls flag football team heading to the championship. So stay with us. Austin Bergstrom International Airport is going through some changes with new routes starting and old routes stopping, not to mention a new South Terminal in the works. Here to update us on what is going on we have Nathan Bernier, he is KUT’s transportation reporter. Nathan, great to have you back. Thank you for having me, Jerry. So let’s talk about Delta, this Saturday only service starting tomorrow. Can you tell us where’s that route heading?
Nathan Bernier [00:03:00] Right, so there are, there’s a few of them and they’re mostly vacation destinations. They’re gonna be going, Delta will start flying to on Saturday early service, as you mentioned, Cali Spell, Montana, which is less than an hour’s drive from Glacier National Park, also to Bozeman, Montana which is not far from Yellowstone, both beautiful destinations, needless to say. And another one they’re going to starting tomorrow, Saturdays only for, through the summer is Asheville, North Carolina, which… I have actually been to before, it’s a gray town and that is near Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which I have not been to. But, you know, just summer destinations. There’s also a number of flights through the summer to various sporting events and stuff like that. So yeah.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:42] What going on? Okay? There are more flights for some airlines. That’s not necessarily true across the board is it?
Nathan Bernier [00:03:49] Yeah, that’s correct. Big airlines are doing more expanding and the little ones less. Like, for example, starting this week, Southwest is flying to 132 destinations per day, like on the busiest days, and they’ve never flown to that many before from Austin. So that is huge because this is the biggest airline in the city. They have the biggest presence at ABIA by far. Like last week, Southwest added a new seasonal uh… Nonstop route to cincinnati And they brought back service to Seattle where they haven’t flown nonstop from Austin to Seattle since 2018. So that’s, that’s a new thing. Um, but Allegiant, for example, they, they have a more limited schedule. Um, and, uh, they recently reduced service on routes like Cincinnati, Las Vegas. And Allegiant is planning to suspend Asheville service for part of September. So you can kind of see some of these bigger airlines coming in where the little ones are pulling back and then Air Canada, um, has this non-stop Austin to Montreal flight. They’d been expected to be, it had been expected it to be year round, but now they say, we’re gonna suspend this September 5th and it’s not gonna be back till the summer. However, having lived in Montreal for five years, I have to say, the winter is not the best time to visit anyway. So if you’re gonna go, I would recommend those other months.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:03] Okay, okay. Well, one thing that we’ve been covering in the last few months here on KUT News is the fluctuation of gas prices here in Austin and across the country really. How is that affecting the airport here in
Nathan Bernier [00:05:14] Right. Well, those flights I mentioned, like Air Canada and Allegiant, they blamed energy prices for those decisions. And just like, you know, gas went up and it came down a little bit, jet fuel, it went really high in May, it hit the highest level since 2022, and then has come down a little bit in June. But overall, jet-fuel prices are up 70% from last June. So not quite double, but up by a lot. And airlines… They make route decisions based on that because they have to prioritize flights where the revenue can cover the operating costs. And fuel is just one of four major costs. There’s employees, aircraft, and the fees that airports charge. And on that front, that’s relevant too, because both Frontier and Allegiant are now being charged higher fees since they moved into the Barbara Jordan terminal in March. They were operating out of the old South terminal, but that’s gonna be torn down to make space for new taxiways. Dead. A brand new concourse. So this all, there’s so many moving parts here, but overall I’ll say we, there are more flights in Austin than there were this time last year, but it’s not at quite those crazy highs we saw 2022, 2023.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:25] OK, we only have about 45 seconds left here. What is the latest on the airport expansion project? When when might we see work start on that?
Nathan Bernier [00:06:33] So you’re already starting to see some stuff come online. There’s a new checkpoint four that opened that has been under construction for a couple years. And the West Gate expansion is the other big one that opened, it partially opened. There is going to be the first ever children’s playground opening a little later this year, but they have new gates there. The big pieces though, like that 26 gate concourse I mentioned, and a big expansion of the Barbara Jordan terminal, those are still not expected till the early 2030s.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:59] All right, that is Nathan Bernier. He is KUT’s transportation reporter. Always a pleasure to chat with him. Thank you, Nathan. Thanks, Jerry. You probably recognize Yeti, the brand that makes metal-insulated tumblers and rugged coolers geared toward hunters and fishers. It’s headquartered right here in Austin, just down the street from the capital, and a focus of its marketing is on sustainability, even honoring Big Ben National Park and one of its drinkware collections. The Big Ben region is at the center of a border security and environmentalist clash as the federal government’s plans to build a border wall in the area take shape. A new report from Marfa Public Radio outlines the connection of one of Yeti’s co-founders and a ranch helping with the wall’s construction. Marfa public radio’s Mary Cantrell is the reporter on this story and she is with us now. Hi Mary. Hi, good afternoon. So can you tell us, out there in Marfa, what’s it been like as these plans for the border wall have been taking shape and how has that been for folks out there in West Texas?
Mary Cantrell [00:08:07] It has been a wild ride following this story. We’ve been reporting on this pretty much nonstop since February, um, us customs and border protection is moving pretty fast on this project. Plans are ever changing. Um, and there’s virtually no public oversight or public involvement on the project. And, um. Since plans came out that they were intending to build walls in this area, which has never seen walls before, uh, there’s been pretty bipartisan widespread opposition to the idea, um considering we have low traffic in the region. Um, and we’re pretty, um, proud of our, you know, state and national parks, which are preserved. So yeah, it’s been quite the story.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:45] Can you tell us a little bit about who is Ryan Cedars?
Mary Cantrell [00:08:48] So Ryan Cedars is one of the co-founders of the brand Yeti, which as you noted is well known for their coolers and drinkware products. They’re headquartered right there in Austin. Ryan co-founded the company in 2006 with his brother and since then the company has grown into a publicly traded billion dollar enterprise.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:07] And the Yeti brand has leaned into sustainability as part of its tenants, correct?
Mary Cantrell [00:09:12] Yes, that’s correct. They emphasize a focus on renewable energy and sustainability in terms of the life cycle of their products and being a primarily outdoor lifestyle brand. Of course, there is an overall focus on a love and stewardship of the outdoors, you know, getting outside and appreciating the environment.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:30] Going back to the construction of the wall, what have experts been saying about its possible environmental impacts?
Mary Cantrell [00:09:35] Yes. So a border wall is anticipated to have a broad range of environmental impacts to the Rio Grande corridor. Like I said, we don’t have any border walls out here for the large part. We’re talking about in some places, a 30 foot high steel wall along the river with patrol roads, lighting, technology, just a massive border security suddenly, you know, coming down on the river corridor. Environmental advocates have voiced concerns about impacts to wildlife migration, black bears, mountain lions. Uh, we have an international dark sky reserve, uh, which they’re, you know, worried could be threatened by, uh more lighting and more technology. And of course there’s, uh a lot of rich archeological sites along the river. Uh, this is a long inhabited place. So not only are there environmental concerns, there’s archeological concerns and, um, you now we have flash flooding in the region when it rains. It can be really, uh you know the, the corridors surge with water. And so there’s a concern about, well, how is this gonna, this wall going to impact. Flooding in the region and could it put people at risk?
Jerry Quijano [00:10:38] So tell us a little bit about this ranch up in West Texas and how it’s affiliated with Ryan Cedars.
Mary Cantrell [00:10:43] Right. So Ryan Cedars is one of three owners of this ranch, according to public documents that we obtained. This is a large ranch that crosses multiple counties, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, and Presidio counties in far west Texas. And they have about 12 to 15 miles of border frontage along the Rio Grande. So in terms of border wall building, you know, 12 to 15 mile chunk is pretty significant for contractors. Um, the ranch is also strategically located at, uh, the end of one of the only roads in the area that leads toward, to the border called Chispa road. And that road has been identified by contractors as, you know, a key thorough affair to help them get the equipment and get the crews they need down to the border to see this project to fruition. So yeah, that’s, that’ the connection.
Jerry Quijano [00:11:28] And I know you reached out to Cedars and Yeti. What did they have to say about this?
Mary Cantrell [00:11:33] They have not responded to our requests for comments so far. You know, we’re still open to hearing from them. So yeah, we’ll see, but nothing yet.
Jerry Quijano [00:11:41] Well, this has been a story that’s been going back and forth and back and forth. What comes next for the Big Bend area and the border wall there?
Mary Cantrell [00:11:48] So construction is slated to get underway, according to US Customs and Border Protection in late summer or early fall. We are seeing steel panels, steel wall panels already moving in to staging sites. Man camps are being set up. So billions of dollars have been awarded to see this project to fruition to primarily two firms, one of which is based out of Montana. And so they’re gearing up full steam ahead for the project to try to see it through.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:19] All right, we’ve been speaking with Mary Cantrell. She is a reporter with Marfa Public Radio. We’re gonna have a link to her story in our podcast show notes. Mary, thank you for your time.
Mary Cantrell [00:12:28] Of course, thanks so much.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:30] And while Yeti did not respond to Marfa Public Radio’s request for comment, a spokesperson did offer this comment to the Austin American statesman, quote, Yeti Holdings does not have any involvement or ownership in Moody Bennett Ranch or Trans Pecos Ice LLC, end quote. We have more Austin Signal coming up for you after this break. Thank you for spending part of the Friday afternoon with us. Lots of sports going on. U.S. Plays in the World Cup tonight, but don’t forget the Texas baseball team will be in the Men’s College World Series tomorrow, going against Georgia. And Spurs, game five, going against the Knicks. That’s tomorrow night as well. We’ll be back right after this Break. This is Austin Signal, welcome back. We are almost halfway through 2026, and the team over at KUTX has already been thinking about their favorite songs of the year. So far here to talk about some of them is Ryan Wen. He is a host and producer over at kutx. Ryan, welcome to the show. Hey Jerry, thanks for having me. So there’s a list for Austin songs and there’s list for songs beyond our great city. I wanted to start with here in Austin because Eddie Angel by Yasso was, seemed to be a unanimous choice, it was a choice that I picked when I was asked by the KUTX intern. Why does this song have such a chokehold on everyone?
Ryan Wen [00:14:09] Man, you know, something about this track, I mean, I remember when I first heard it, it just like immediately grabbed me. I was like, this man’s voice, where is this coming from? And you know these lists are always submitted anonymously. So we’re not trying to influence each other. We’re all extremely opinionated too. So it might, you now, break out into a fight. So you know.
Jerry Quijano [00:14:27] So it’s actually kind of against the grain that there is so much cohesion among them.
Ryan Wen [00:14:32] Right, yeah, like almost unanimously, people picked Eddie Angel’s Payaso, and I mean, there’s a great reason for it. Something I love about these lists too is, you know, everyone writing about this track revealed something to me that I was like, oh, you know, like the first track, the first words in the song actually are, Hey baby, que paso. And I didn’t even
Jerry Quijano [00:14:51] realize that that blew my mind and I had not put that together I saw Rene Chavez our engineer he put and I was like huh how did I not notice that
Ryan Wen [00:15:00] I’m glad you’re not the only one because I mean you’re just so focused on this man’s like beautiful Powerful voice and you know, it’s such a great homage to the Texas tornadoes So, you know, Eddie Angel, he was our artist month last month. And if you haven’t had a chance to see him live, you have a great opportunity to do it on the 18th, which is about a week from today, right? Yeah, next Thursday. Yeah. So, I mean, it’s he’s there’s a good reason why we all picked Eddie Angels Payaso for sure.
Jerry Quijano [00:15:35] All right, that show’s going to be at the 29th Street Ballroom. You can check out more at kutx.org. I noticed that there were lots of Artists of the Month from 2026 in this list. The Ani Medals, Eddie Angel, and as well as the Artists of the month for June. Who is that and what’s the song?
Ryan Wen [00:15:55] I had the opportunity to write about them so and I really think that your list that’s going to come at the end of this year it’ll make it to that they’re called touch girl apple blossom uh the track is called the springtime reminds me of and they’re signed to a label called k records which is famous for being like a hub for what’s called tweet pop and the best description of tweet pop is just that it’s really cute it’s like adorable like very like um you know it’s Like, first love. Kind of vibes and they definitely have that it’s very jangly kind of like you know 80s indie rock early 90s indie Rock but they also have this really great Texas Americana angle lots of kind of you know just that that a country twang going on with a cute Tweet Pop sound I really think this band’s got it another band that first moment a lot of us heard it we’re like they got it
Jerry Quijano [00:16:49] I heard the track this morning for the first time and I mean this in the most complimentary way reminded me of a 90s film Soundtrack song and it just it made me feel so good. I was kind of have like the windows down It was it was a great feeling. So that’s a great song case So that a little bit about here in Austin But the KU TX plays so much and there’s a list that goes beyond the city limits. You wanted to highlight Johnny blues guys What’s his track?
Ryan Wen [00:17:14] Right, right, so this is another track that made it to many of our lists, Johnny Blue Skies in the Dark Clouds. You may also know this human as Sturgill Simpson. It is his alter ego and I wouldn’t really compare it to Chris Gaines, but it certainly is a similar kind of like a new persona for Sturgil Simpson. In this track situation. It’s a really like groovy, you know, country rock single. A little friskier than a typical Sturgill track. You know, a lot of it, it made it to many of our lists and it’s a good reason why. He’s also gonna be coming to town in a couple months, but it also has a really cool music video, which I didn’t know about until I, you know, was going through this list, so.
Jerry Quijano [00:18:06] Check that out too. All right, all right, Ryan, last question for you. It’s a two-parter, what is a flump it is and why is flea using it?
Ryan Wen [00:18:14] So a Flumpit is a, it’s somewhere between a trombone and a trumpet. It’s a fairly like modern instrumentals. I think the first one was made in like the nineties. Um, and Flea, who you, he’s a, uh, you may know him as the sock wearing bassist of Red Hot Chili Peppers. Um, so he did a cover of Wichita Lineman, which is like a really, uh, famous pop country song from, I believe like late sixties, like 68 or something like that. So flea covering, that’s already strange. And then the vocalist on it is Nick Cave. And it is one of the oddest combinations I witnessed this year, but it’s also just like an incredible arrangement. I mean, the flump it really adds a texture to it that I never foresaw being a fitting arrangement for a song like this.
Nathan Bernier [00:19:04] And the witch at our alignment
Jerry Quijano [00:19:11] is still on the line
Ryan Wen [00:19:16] And the whole album in its entirety is like this very kind of like delicate, sophisticated jazz album which is not something you would necessarily think would come from Flea. So just as a, you know, surprise but like one of the more interesting singles released this year, I highly recommend that one and I made it to some of our lists as well.
Jerry Quijano [00:19:32] Okay, I certainly didn’t expect that sophisticated and flump it would be in the same sentence today, but that is the beauty of public radio. That is Ryan Wen. He is a host and producer at our sister station, KUTX. We’re going to have links to both of those lists in our podcast show notes. Ryan, always great to talk with you. Thanks, Jerry. Flag football as a sport for girls and women is growing and fast, especially here in Texas. This weekend, the state’s two NFL teams, the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans, are hosting the first ever Girls’ Flag Football State Championship. KUT’s Kailey Hunt went out to watch a practice for one of the Austin area high school teams preparing to compete at the tournament.
Kailey Hunt [00:20:19] A dozen or so teenage girls from Round Rock High School’s flag football team gathered on a turf field this past Monday. Their head coach Ashley Castro led them through a series of passing and catching drills.
Ashley Castro [00:20:32] Go find the ball, go find the Ball. Okay, ready, go!
Kailey Hunt [00:20:38] The team is sponsored by the NFL’s Houston Texans. They’ll be competing at Texas’s first Girls’ Flag Football State Championship this weekend. So while most teenagers were on summer vacation, at home in the A.C., enjoying their free time away from school, these girls are out on the field working, running plays in the summer heat. The Round Rock senior wide receiver and defensive back, Athena Nolan, wasn’t complaining. She described being at practice this time of year as a privilege. I really wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I’m really, really excited that we get to have this opportunity. Getting to this point wasn’t easy either, she says. To qualify for the state championship tournament, Round Rock first had to win the Austin area regional tournament. To do that, the team had to defeat the reigning Austin area champs, Leander Rouse. That game ended up going into two overtimes. Nolan caught the touchdown pass that allowed the team to advance to the tournament’s semifinals. Just having all my teammates come in and we were all celebrating. It was such a surreal moment, it was so much fun. Round Rock would go on to defeat Cedar Park 28-12 in the tournament’s regional championship, securing its spot at state and capping off a perfect undefeated season in the process. Here’s the team’s head coach Ashley Castro again.
Ashley Castro [00:21:51] Just to see their faces light up when you say you’re going to state and you get to represent Round Rock out of 256 teams, believe it or not in the state, you’re one of eight. So I’m just excited for them to really get this opportunity.
Kailey Hunt [00:22:04] Castro says she hopes this weekend’s state championship helps pave the way for the University Interscholastic League to officially sanction the sport in high schools.
Ashley Castro [00:22:13] I think when you grow up in Texas and you live in Texas, we love football here. And why not give that opportunity to female athletes in high school to represent their school with pride and to have the opportunity to go on and play in college and one day in the Olympics and say, you know, that kid came out of Round Rock or Austin or wherever the case may be. And so I think it would just mean a lot to a lot of people if UIL became a for it.
Kailey Hunt [00:22:36] And Castro’s not alone in that hope. Dozens of people, including representatives from the Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys, converged on Austin this past week to attend the UIL’s summer legislative council meeting. There they urged the organization’s leaders to officially adopt girls’ flag football as a high school sport in Texas. The UIL agreed to do a survey of superintendents and develop a plan to possibly sanction the sport in October. In the meantime though, Round Rock coach Ashley Castro says, She just wants her team to embrace the moment.
Ashley Castro [00:23:07] Being at the first ever girls state flag championship is a goal that we’ve had set for a while and so just to see them be a part of that, live in the moment, but also just gain confidence. I think as female athletes growing up, especially in a sport that we were always told was a boy sport, to know that they can do it and that they go out there and play and that they could be as good as they set their minds to be.
Kailey Hunt [00:23:33] This weekend’s state championship is set to take place at the University of North Texas. Austin’s Anderson High School will also be competing. The event is free and open to the public. I’m Kailey Hunt in Williamson County.
Jerry Quijano [00:23:45] And that is it for today’s show. Thank you for tuning in. There’s more about today’s stories and music in the podcast show notes and at kut.org slash signal. Rayna Sevilla is our technical director. Alexandra Hart is our producer. Kristen Cabrera is our managing producer. And we can’t make the show work every day without the work of the KUT newsroom. So thank you to all of them. I’m your host Jerry Quijano, Austin’s Signal will be back on Monday, we will 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.
