Thursday
September 3, 2026
Today at a glance
- Weather 102° / 78°Triple digits again. Water bottle, shade, and an early start.
- Air quality 48 · GoodClean air today. The heat is the thing to plan around, not the smog.
- Lake Travis 95.1% fullThe lake is close to full — good for boats and for the summer water supply. Down a touch from last week.
- Allergies ModerateGrasses and ragweed and elm are up. Allergy folks, take the pill before it takes you.
- Power grid NormalA busy afternoon: demand near 83,900 megawatts, with 103,300 on hand.
- Sunrise 7:09 a.m.The sun is up for 12 hours and 42 minutes today, and down by 7:51 p.m.
Good morning, Austin. The last of Edouard is still hanging around over Texas, which buys us a 20 percent chance of a shower after four o'clock and not one degree of relief before it — the high is 102 and the heat index goes to 108. If you are flying out today, the airport is asking for three hours, and it is not being dramatic. Everyone else: the shade on the east side of the street is the good shade this afternoon, and the rain, if it finds you, will be over before you have finished being glad about it.
The Briefing
The county's health tax comes in three sizes
Central Health, the Travis County healthcare district, has set an 8 percent increase over the no-new-revenue rate as the ceiling for what it may charge next year. It has not chosen. On a median county homestead valued at $372,638, the three rates still on the table come to roughly $470, $496 or $504 a year, and the top one raises about $49.3 million more than the rate that would collect the same money from the same houses.
What the district says the money buys: $27.3 million in mental health spending, new inpatient behavioral beds, and a $7.3 million reserve toward a crisis center it is discussing with the city, the county and Integral Care. "The place where we deliver the most mental healthcare in our community is actually the jail," chief executive Dr. Pat Lee said, "and our police officers are struggling to try to get people care that just doesn't exist in our community."
The ask lands while hospital money is short. Washington is holding back the supplemental Medicaid payments that match what local hospital taxing districts like this one collect, and Texas hospitals have gone without since Tuesday. Matt Mackowiak of Save Austin Now said the separate asks look small one at a time. "It's $1,500 more than it was three years ago from all the entities for if you live in the city of Austin," he said.
What's next: Central Health's board adopts its fiscal 2027 budget and rate Wednesday, Sept. 9; Travis County commissioners take up the proposal the following week.
Sources: KVUE (Central Health budget hearing), The Texas Tribune (Medicaid hold), Travis County (rate notice)
City Desk
Money & bills
Abbott's office presses Washington over the hospital money Texas is not getting
Texas hospitals have been going without nearly $10 billion in supplemental Medicaid payments since the state fiscal year began Tuesday, a delay the Texas Hospital Association puts at about $27 million a day. Gov. Greg Abbott's spokesman Andrew Mahaleris said Wednesday that the state's financing "fully complies with federal law." The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it is working with states on compliance. The Texas Tribune
Public safety & courts
DNA held for a quarter century closes two Austin sexual assault cases
Michael Lance Gamez was sentenced Aug. 3 to 15 years in prison, and the Austin Police Department (APD) said Wednesday it has closed both cases. A woman was attacked at the Capital Metro Pavilion Park and Ride on Research Boulevard in September 1999; another was attacked inside her Northgate Boulevard apartment five months later. State lab work tied the two scenes to one man, unnamed until 2023. City of Austin / CBS Austin
A Fort Worth man is charged with threatening to kill James Talarico
The Texas Department of Public Safety arrested Billy James McFatridge, 29, of River Oaks on Aug. 25 on two misdemeanor counts of terroristic threat against a public servant, according to an affidavit filed with Travis County courts. It quotes emailed and Instagram messages sent to the campaign and office of state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, after he answered a question about reparations at a July town hall. KXAN
Also
Fourteen of the 15 nurses from Eloise House, the Austin clinic whose forensic nursing funding ended in June, have opened a nurse-run nonprofit, Central Texas Forensic Care, to carry on the work. Austin Chronicle
Austin school district police charged students with riot over an Aug. 25 cafeteria fight at Akins Early College High School that the principal says is believed to be gang related. FOX 7 Austin
Brian Davis, 43, was sentenced to 60 years for the murder of John Walker Oden, 53, who was attacked and run over in north Austin in October 2023, prosecutors said. KXAN
A man was found badly hurt outside the H-E-B at 9414 N. Lamar Blvd. early Wednesday after an aggravated robbery, Austin police said, and one man is in custody. FOX 7 Austin
Police are looking for a man who pulled a knife and took a mountain bike in the 200 block of West Elliot Street around 5 a.m. on Aug. 19. CBS Austin
Growth & infrastructure
The airport's $165 million west gates are nearly done
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport expects to finish its West Gate Expansion this fall. It adds three net-new gates, bigger restrooms, a nursing room, a pet relief area, the airport's first playscape and an upstairs patio looking out on the runways. The airport says no taxpayer money is in it. The gates also have to exist before Concourse B and its tunnel can be built. KVUE
Also
The airport asked travelers to arrive two and a half to three hours early Thursday, when it expects more than 35,000 departing passengers and long lines at security and ticket counters. CBS Austin
Southwest Airlines will put one of its first four lounges at Austin-Bergstrom, in the West Infill Mezzanine across from Gate 22, opening in late 2027. FOX 7 Austin
Overheard on Reddit
What are these waymos doing
turning a less than 5 minute drive into a 15 minute drive. does anyone know why they are navigating like this? they've all been like this lately and werent like this before
Austin police are in early talks with other city departments about congestion on Rainey Street, where Commander Christopher Juusola said the two-lane road makes it hard to get emergency vehicles through. KXAN
The city cleared "Crosswalk on the Lake" from Lake Austin Boulevard, the last of more than a dozen pavement art works removed this year under a Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) standard. Community Impact
Overheard on Reddit
New Development, is this normal or safe? (SE Atx)
Hey y’all! My wife and i moved into this house in a new development back in Spring. I noticed this on the outside of our retaining wall this morning. A few days ago i noticed a gap in the soil near some of the fence posts opposite this area. Theres also a large 2” wide crack in the soil running parallel to the tallest part of the wall. Is this just normal settling of the ground in a new developme
City Hall & county
Austin Climate Action and Resilience awarded $102,000 across 34 community projects through its Food and Climate Equity grants, which give up to $3,000 each for local food and climate work. City of Austin
Overheard on Reddit
Lights Out for Birds, Austin!
Travis Audubon and a coalition of other local and state organizations want us to flip the switch for birds this fall! Nearly two billion birds migrate across Central Texas skies each spring and fall, and many of them fly at night. Fall migration is already underway and we want to make their journey as safe as possible. Artificial lighting can cause birds to be disoriented and collide with building
Overheard on Reddit
Where are the birds?!
I am the crazy lady that leaves water bowls outside of my office for the wildlife. Our building is surrounded by trees that hosts squirrels, birds and whatever else. I left the animals clean water on Monday to return to untouched water Tuesday. Prior to this the water would be dirty from the birds bathing in a day. The trees are eerily quiet and I haven’t even seen the squirrels. Have they already
Schools
Two Austin campuses hit the fifth failing grade that can trigger a state takeover
Two Austin Independent School District (Austin ISD) campuses earned a fifth straight failing grade in the preliminary 2026 accountability ratings — the point at which state law requires the education commissioner either to close a school or to replace a district's elected trustees with an appointed board for at least two years. Nine more Austin ISD campuses sit at four. Districts have until Sept. 11 to appeal a rating. Austin Current
Also
McCallum High School took in 23 donated fans after air conditioning failed in classrooms and portables last week, and Anderson High School's chiller was repaired Wednesday, the district said. KXAN
Business & street life
Taste of Ethiopia leaves South Congress, and the avenue keeps turning over
The restaurant's owners said they will not renew when the lease expires Sept. 30, after 12 years, because of what it costs to operate there. Vespaio, Chapulin Cantina, Prototype Vintage and Tiny Grocer all closed South Congress locations this year; Monkey See Monkey Do moved to South Lamar Boulevard after 20 years. Wrangler and three other retailers are taking the old Vespaio block. KVUE
Also
The Code, a hotel and residential building, is filling its ground floor: the hat shop Manhattan Cowgirl this fall, then Pure Sweat + Float Studio and a strength-training gym in the winter. Community Impact
Reginald Adams's "Absolute Equality: Unity Tunnel," shaped by more than 250 Austin residents, won best collaboration at this year's CODAawards, judged from 302 entries in 19 countries. City of Austin
Overheard on Reddit
Door in but still no Micro Center sign up yet.
Parking lot needs to be resurfaced as well.
Austin Parks Foundation's free "In the Park" series runs September through November, with basketball clinics, story times, art sessions, movies and 10K training at parks around the city. KXAN
Registration is open for the 32nd Lake Travis Cleanup on Sept. 20, which puts divers, shoreline crews and park volunteers at 14 sites across seven Travis County parks. KXAN
The Austin Chronicle marked 45 years in print with this week's issue, which carries an anniversary yearbook of the paper's run. Austin Chronicle
Overheard on Reddit
Been months since the bats have come this close to my balcony
Forgive my terrible camera work. I was just so excited to see them close again I was all over the place. I will lock in next time.
Weather
Today: mostly sunny with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4 p.m., a high near 102 and heat index values as high as 108. There are no active alerts for Travis County. Tonight: partly cloudy, low around 78. National Weather Service
The remnants of Edouard hold enough moisture over Texas for spotty rain this afternoon and a better chance on Friday, KXAN's forecasters say, before coverage thins out over the holiday weekend. KXAN
August was the fifth-hottest August on record at Camp Mabry, where records go back to the 1890s, with a mean temperature of 89.4 degrees. Every warmer-than-normal day in the month reached at least 100. KXAN
The Back Page
2 days until Texas football · Texas State at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium (DKR), Sept. 5, 2:30 p.m.
A group of University of Texas at Austin students spent two semesters trying to make a fabric coating out of corn protein and beeswax, and it works: water beads up on a treated cotton swatch and rolls off. The point is what it replaces. The chemicals that make clothes water- and stain-resistant are usually per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which do not break down and which the students wanted out of the equation. Theirs does break down. "Essentially it creates a sort of waterproof finish," said Joanna Du, a junior chemistry major. The team came out of the university's Sustainable Fashion Materials research stream, where undergraduates get two semesters to chase an idea and see what happens, and they recently took the Outstanding Science Award at the Biodesign Challenge in New York, an international competition in biotechnology, design and sustainability — won this year, in that category, by a handful of Austin undergraduates and a jar of beeswax. KXAN