The Week’s Biggest News in Brief: Oct. 1-7

Loose Lips in the GOP’s Ship: Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton has done a great job of dodging questions related to his record and avoiding any debates with his Democratic opponent James Talarico. But now his private conversations are coming back to bite him in the ass, as leaked audio from last week shows Paxton criticizing the Republican Party’s midterm convention, claiming that it actually hurt his candidacy. On Oct. 5, leaked audio reveals Paxton stating that he has no control over his campaign and that “it’s all coming – you know – from D.C.” And on Oct. 7, Axios obtained more audio that reveals Paxton claiming the Iran war and surging gas prices are his “biggest problem.” As Paxton’s loose lips potentially work to sink the GOP’s ship, Talarico kept it short and sweet: “Ken Paxton is a puppet.”

Travis County Registering Voters: A few weeks ago, Texas election officials reported that an unknown amount of voter registration applications had yet to be processed due to a Texas Department of Public Safety error. Since then, county election staff throughout the state have rushed to process those voter applications, as DPS sent an additional 32,000 to Travis County, 18,000 to Williamson County, and 8,200 to Hays County. Some county election officials have expressed frustration with DPS’s mistake, as they now have to comb through large backlogs of voter registration records. As the deadline drew nearer Monday, Oct. 5, election officials here in Travis County were still trying their damnedest to get voters registered, allowing registration locations to remain open through midnight. Early voting begins Oct. 19.

Texas Ranks First in Book Bans: According to a report from PEN America, a free speech advocacy nonprofit, Texas leads the country with the most book bans in public schools, totaling over 8,000 of about 12,000 in the U.S. as a whole. Florida came in second with a little more than 3,200. The report said that states like Texas are relying on artificial intelligence tools to determine which books should be prohibited in public schools “without consideration for nuance, context, or intent, speeding up censorship.” The group also said that there has been a consistent attack on literature regarding race and racism, LGBTQ+ people or characters, people or characters of color, and sex. The report comes a little less than two months after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said that the state is “coming for the books” in public school districts throughout Texas.

A pile of mud at ACL Fest Credit: Lauren Johnson

ACL (Mud) Fest Takes Over Zilker: In case you were living under a rock, Weekend One of the Austin City Limits Music Festival took place Oct. 2-4, bringing over 100 artists from across the globe to Downtown Austin for three days of melodies, mosh pits, and … mud. Yeah, this year’s festival got a bit mucky, as rain began pouring last Thursday, Oct. 1, and carried on in waves throughout the weekend. Zilker Park got pretty roughed up on the first day of the festival, causing a two-hour delay on Saturday, as festival organizers worked to mitigate the muddy terrain, dumping mounds of mulch and laying strips of turf throughout. City Council Member Ryan Alter, who represents the area, released a statement on Saturday, saying that “the damage we’ve witnessed to the Great Lawn is unacceptable,” and calling on the city and festival organizers to take action to make sure the conditions “never happen again.” After the first weekend, Alter said that the festival’s producers are on the hook for repairing the damage to the green space, per the city’s agreement with C3 Presents.

Watson Names GenATX Executive Director: On Thursday, Oct. 1, Mayor Kirk Watson announced that Fran Baylor will serve as the first executive director of Generation ATX – Watson’s citywide initiative to make Austin the best city in America to live in as a child. According to the city’s press release, Baylor has over 15 years of background in establishing relationships and partnerships aimed at economic mobility and opportunity for youth and their families. Watson also named the members who will serve on the movement’s steering committee. The new executive director will now be tasked with bringing the community together to advance GenATX’s “Five Goals in Five Years.”

Austin Unveils Bond Dashboard: Austin launched a new online dashboard that allows residents to track projects funded through its 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022 General Obligation Bonds. According to the city, the tool provides information on project funding and spending and allows users to search by bond year, proposition, or individual project. Residents can also track the progress of projects, as additional improvements are planned as the city rolls out the web page. 

Acting comptroller Don Huffines Credit: Image via comptroller.texas.gov

AISD Chosen For State Audit: Acting Comptroller Don Huffines announced on Monday, Oct. 5, that he has selected four Texas public school districts to be audited, as formally requested by Gov. Greg Abbott in August: Austin ISD, Barbers Hill ISD, El Paso ISD, and Prosper ISD. The audit, coined the Huffines Performance Review, “will examine whether district spending complies with state law and is directed toward students, classrooms, and teachers – rather than toward administrative expansion or non-instructional bureaucracy.” According to the press release, the final report must be completed by the end of the year, “providing the 90th Legislature sufficient time to consider any recommendations for reform.”

Garces Perez Finally Undergoes Surgery: Almost two weeks after being shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, Wilber Rafael Garces Perez finally received surgery to remove the bullet in his upper back last Thursday, Oct. 1, one of his attorneys reported. The medical procedure comes after the Dell Seton Medical Center released Garces Perez into ICE custody just four hours after he had been shot. Since the incident, community advocates as well as local, state, and federal politicians have spoken out, saying that Garces Perez needs to be treated for his injury. Those pleas went unheard up until last Thursday. Read more in Sammie Seamon’s report.

City Takes Feedback on Large Water Users: Austin Water hosted the public on Monday, Oct. 5, for an open house discussion on regulating large water users after Council passed a July resolution, aimed at addressing impacts the customers have on the city’s utility. The city department classifies “high-impact water users” as one or more commercial buildings, including industrial and manufacturing facilities, that uses or is estimated to use more than 85 million gallons of water per year. The conversation comes as the city weighs potentially banning data centers within city limits. City Manager T.C. Broadnax must take the information gathered at Monday’s open house and present recommendations to the Climate, Water, Environment, and Parks Committee by Dec. 9. Read more in Erika Gonzalez’s report.

Locals Protest Prop I: Local leaders gathered at Austin City Hall on Wednesday, Oct. 7, for the kickoff of the “Don’t DOGE Our Austin” campaign, a locally organized campaign against Proposition I, a city charter amendment – brought forward by PAC Save Austin Now – on the November ballot that would require the city to conduct regular, independent audits of city spending, despite the fact that a city audit is already underway, conducted by a third party. Critics claim that if Prop I is passed next month, it will create confusion among residents, as the city will technically have two audits on its hands. 

No Wrong Door First Report: At City Council’s Oct. 6 work session, city staff provided a report to the dais that details the progress made by the city’s new program to mitigate the cycle of homelessness, No Wrong Door. The initiative is aimed at helping homeless individuals with mental health issues that have been cycling from homelessness, to the county jail, to hospital treatment, then back onto the streets. The city’s findings from the first few months of the program show progress, but critics of the plan have raised larger concerns, claiming that the city has worked with the Cicero Institute – a right-wing think tank that works throughout the country to take homeless people off the streets – to formulate the plan. Mayor Kirk Watson denies meeting with the Cicero Institute in regard to No Wrong Door, while HSO’s David Gray and Carrie Rogers of the city’s Government Relations office both said they have met with the group. Read more in Brant Bingamon’s report.

Threats Against State Capitol and UT: Last Thursday, the Texas Department of Public Safety arrested 40-year-old Benny Caldera Jr. for planning to carry out a “violent attack” on the Capitol building on Oct. 1. According to KUT, Caldera told another person that he planned to go to the Capitol and “shoot it up.” He was taken to the Bexar County Jail and charged with felony terroristic threat against a public servant before being taken by FBI agents to face additional federal charges. Just two days later, on Oct. 3, 35-year-old David Benjamin Coleman-Roush was arrested for allegedly making a threat toward the University of Texas-Austin. According to KVUE, a friend of Coleman-Roush – who previously served in the military – said that he made comments about “seeing something tomorrow, about UT and a church in Lakeway,” as he referred to a mass casualty event. The Austin Police Department conducted a welfare check late Friday, Oct. 2, arresting Coleman-Roush early Saturday morning and charging him with third-degree felony terroristic threat to the public, third-degree felony assault on a family member by impeding breath, misdemeanor terroristic threat of a family/household, and misdemeanor assault causing bodily injury to a family member.

Austin Municipal Court Updates Docket: Following a comprehensive evaluation, the Austin Municipal Court announced that it updated its docket schedule on Monday, Oct. 5, to “improve workflow and support staff in providing the highest level of service.” Now, all attorney appearance dockets and jury trials will be held on Tuesdays. The court’s walk-in mitigation docket schedule remains unchanged. 

CapMetro Adjusts Rail Schedule: CapMetro announced that it will be making adjustments to its rail schedule starting Monday, Oct. 12: The public transit company said that it will no longer offer service for the second weekday southbound full trip from Leander as well as the second weekday northbound trip from Downtown. The last northbound weekday trip from Downtown will now depart at 7:42pm, 20 minutes later than its current schedule. These changes will be in effect through early next January. 

Paxton Investigating UnitedHealth: On Monday, Oct. 5, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that he has launched an investigation into UnitedHealth Group “for allegedly engaging in deceptive and unlawful practices that have denied Texans access to medically necessary healthcare.” In a press release, the A.G. said that reports suggest that the group has participated in “numerous unlawful practices in administering health insurance benefits and making patient-care decisions,” including bribing nursing homes to delay patient care. The A.G. also said that one patient received a letter from the group approving a medical procedure, but then sent a second letter after the procedure withdrawing approval and charging the patient with a “large medical bill.” Paxton has issued Civil Investigative Demands to United to gather evidence.

Thousands of Schools Request STAAR Rescoring: Texas schools submitted 64,489 requests to rescore students’ written responses on STAAR reading exams this past spring, nearly triple the 2025 total, The Texas Tribune reported. Thousands of those tests had been evaluated by “automated scoring engines.” More than 13,300 reading scores increased following human review, as 58% of those responses had initially been graded by computers. More than 250 school districts and charter networks requested reviews, with nearly 90% seeing at least one student’s reading score improve. The surge comes as Texas continues using automated scoring for written STAAR responses, a system introduced in 2023 to reduce the number of human graders needed to evaluate the state exams. 

Ground Delay at AUS Amidst ACL: A ground delay was issued at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Sunday morning, Oct. 4, due to weather conditions. As a result, incoming flights were delayed by an average of 66 minutes. The delay came as visitors shuffled in and out of Austin to attend the city’s ACL Festival. Prior to the start of the music festival, AUS said it was expecting over 35,000 passengers on multiple days throughout the first and second weekend of the event.

Semi Strikes Downtown Overpass: All southbound lanes on I-35 in Downtown, except for the far-right shoulder, closed for over six hours on Oct. 2, after an 18-wheeler struck an overpass near 11th and 12th. The Texas Department of Transportation conducted an inspection of the damaged bridge, saying that it was stable overall. However, the westbound right lane and north sidewalk on the 12th Street bridge will be closed until repairs are made. The driver was charged with operating a vehicle over the vertical clearance of a bridge, underpass, or similar structure on Monday, Oct. 5, as law enforcement said that the driver did not have a permit to operate the vehicle.

Credit: Photo by Carter Johnston QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“We will need to rebuild this plane while flying it into a legislative session.”

State Sen. and comptroller candidate Sarah Eckhardt on Don Huffines’ actions as acting comptroller

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