Tuesday
September 22, 2026
Today at a glance
- Weather 100° / 78°Triple digits again. Water bottle, shade, and an early start.
- Air quality 45 · GoodClean air today — the heat and the ragweed are what will get you.
- Lake Travis 90.7% fullThe lake is close to full — good for boats and for the summer water supply.
- Allergies HighRagweed and elm and grasses are heavy today. Windows closed, meds early.
- Power grid NormalA busy afternoon: demand near 84,800 megawatts, with 104,800 on hand.
- Sunrise 7:19 a.m.The sun is up for 12 hours and 8 minutes today, and down by 7:27 p.m.
Good morning, Austin. Triple digits again, with a high near 100 and a heat index that could reach 106, and a slight chance of a shower after 1 p.m. that most of us will miss. Sun up at 7:19, down at 7:27. Ragweed and elm and the grasses are all running high, so take the medicine before you leave the house. Lake Travis is holding near full. There is live music in something like 230 places around town today, seven H-E-B stores among them, starting at six in the morning. If you have ever wanted to buy tomatoes to a guitar, this is your day.
The Briefing
Before the shooting there was a month of stops, at gas stations and outside the Dollar Tree
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, on Anderson Square on Sunday afternoon while he was out on a DoorDash run. Monday filled in the rest. Juan Perez, who works at a Mexican restaurant near that intersection, told Austin Current that officers had spent a month picking up construction workers at the gas station and outside the Dollar Tree. Mayor Kirk Watson put a figure on it: detentions and contacts in Austin went from a number you could count on one hand to the thirties, in about a week, with no ramp-up before it. Council Member Chito Vela, whose district covers the site, called the enforcement random.
Then the city met its limits. Eight council members have called for answers. The Travis County District Attorney's office asked to join as a co-equal partner and for access to federal evidence. All of that depends on whether federal officials hand anything over, and Homeland Security Investigations, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is running a review of its own.
Garces Perez spent Monday in a detention center in Pearsall, two hours southwest of here, calling into an Austin news conference by phone. His attorney says the bullet is still in his back.
What's next: Homeland Security Investigations and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have opened a review, and the Austin Police Department's Special Investigations Unit and the Texas Rangers are investigating alongside it; city officials have asked for body and dash camera footage to be released. More in Public safety & courts.
Sources: Austin Current (the restaurant worker, Vela, the month of stops), KXAN (Watson on the rise in detentions, Davis), Austin Current (the council, the district attorney, the federal review), KXAN (Pearsall, the news conference, the bullet)
City Desk
Money & bills
Abbott froze every data center permit in Texas until the grid audit is done
Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on Monday to stop issuing permits for data center projects until the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) finishes its audit of how the industry uses power and water. The Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Water Development Board are running reviews alongside it. TCEQ must report back by Oct. 19. FOX 7 Austin
Also
Developers with pending projects must disclose whether they will generate their own electricity or draw from the grid, plus projected power and water use, cooling technology, tax subsidies and ownership. FOX 7 Austin
Abbott said he will work with lawmakers in the next legislative session to eliminate financial incentives for data centers in Texas. KXAN
Travis County's next budget goes to a final vote a week from today
Commissioners are scheduled to adopt it Sept. 29. They approved a tax rate 2.5% higher last week, but the owner of a median-valued home, worth $372,633, is expected to see a roughly $30 decrease in the county portion of the tax bill, because the median taxable value fell. Judge Andy Brown said counties are asked to do more with limited resources. Austin Current
More than $2 million of the plan is earmarked to expand the county's contract with Axon Enterprise, which could pay for new security drones; the current contract costs about $4.6 million. Austin Current
Daniela Silva told commissioners on Sept. 10 that she hears calls for eviction support and affordable housing, and never hears anyone ask for an expansion in surveillance. Austin Current
The plan also holds $15 million in reserve for mental health jail diversion, $2 million for supportive housing services and $1 million for the juvenile justice program. Austin Current
Public safety & courts
The man shot by an ICE officer called an Austin news conference from a cell in Pearsall
Wilber Rafael Garces Perez spoke by phone on Monday afternoon from the South Texas ICE Processing Center, about two hours southwest of Austin. His attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, translated. He said the bullet had not been removed because it sat close to his spine, that he was in a lot of pain, and that he had been held in a very cold room without a bed. KXAN
Also
Lincoln-Goldfinch said an unmarked vehicle sideswiped her client twice, that no lights or siren came on until after the collision, and that he had asked to pull over. KXAN
The Department of Homeland Security said Garces Perez entered the country illegally, had a final order of removal and is in federal custody pending removal. KXAN
U.S. Rep. Greg Casar said he entered legally through CBP One, the discontinued Customs and Border Protection program; his attorney said he holds a valid work permit but later missed a court date. KXAN
Four people were arrested and three officers hurt as a protest closed the intersection
Hundreds gathered on Sunday evening at the Research Boulevard service road and Anderson Square. Austin police said some in the crowd threw rocks, bottles and pieces of concrete, damaging three police vehicles. Troopers with the Texas Department of Public Safety used pepper ball projectiles and cleared the intersection at about 10:15 p.m. Police arrested three men; troopers arrested a fourth. CBS Austin
Police named Robert Padgett, 48, Armando Menagarcia, 29, and Matthew Hemby, 44, on charges including riot; troopers arrested Kevin Howard Davis, 60, on a charge of obstructing a highway. CBS Austin
About 100 people gathered at the front gates of the Texas Capitol on Monday evening, and the demonstration stayed peaceful under a heavy law enforcement presence. CBS Austin
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett said protests built on throwing rocks and venting anger do not help, and asked people to carry the protest to the polls instead. CBS Austin
Council Member Mike Siegel said the city should demand a local prosecution, and that Austin police have the authority to investigate a suspected crime. Austin Current
Mathew Silverman of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association said federal agencies are not legally required to tell local police about operations in town. KXAN
Davis said the department does not work with federal immigration officers and had not been asked to, and posted a video promising the same transparency it gives its own shootings. KXAN
Growth & infrastructure
Environmental groups sued to undo the Dog's Head deal and the $1 billion behind it
The Save Our Springs Alliance, People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources (PODER) and several neighbors sued the City of Austin and its council on Monday. They want a court to void the 45-year development agreement for the 2,600-acre southeast Austin project and the tax zone that would reimburse the developer more than $1 billion over 35 years. Austin Current
Also
Bobby Levinski of the Save Our Springs Alliance said the approval was rushed and skipped the boards, commissions and notifications a normal process uses. KUT
Lee Edwards of the South East Colorado River Neighborhood Association said neighbors heard about the project two days before the May vote, and heard it from a friend. KUT
The suit says the agreement unconstitutionally delegates the council's legislative authority, and that the land does not qualify as unproductive or blighted under the state law the financing relies on. Austin Current
The city had not been served as of Monday evening, spokesperson Jenny LaCoste-Caputo said, and will respond through the court process. Austin Current
Amazon is expected to be the site's largest tenant and plans to anchor its robotics division there. KUT
Overheard on Reddit
It's baby rattlesnake season! Here's two I relocated this past weekend, plus some tips and facts inside!
Need a relocation? Use the free snake relocation directory! Don't waste your money on "snake repellent". I've literally seen snakes sleeping on top of open bags of "repellent" and climbing over mothballs. If you don't want snakes in your yard, keeping food, water, and shelter at a minimum. A physical barrier for any gaps in fencing is the only monetary investment I would make. The biggest thing to
Elon Musk said the Boring Company is working on a tunnel between Austin and San Antonio that he described as a precursor Hyperloop, capable of more than 200 miles per hour. KXAN
Overheard on Reddit
Yooo is it owl season already?
I have no way to prove this, but I swear this owl always decides to perch above my rooftop and hoots very rhythmically. I believe it first showed up November 2025 and would periodically pop up here and there until about March 2026…and now i think the same one is back. It always does the 3 pattern hoot and the voice sounds so similar. It’s like…if you owned a dog, and i put another dog of same age/
City Hall & county
A candidate for lieutenant governor filed a police report over artificial intelligence ads of herself
State Rep. Vikki Goodwin, the Austin Democrat running against Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, filed a notarized affidavit with the Travis County Sheriff's Office on Saturday. She said videos posted to Patrick's X account showed a version of her describing policies she does not hold, and that a 2019 state law bars deepfakes meant to deceive voters. KUT
Also
Allen Blakemore, a representative for Patrick's campaign, told The New York Times the videos were "an obvious parody produced to entertain" and were not distributed within 30 days of the election. KXAN
The law covers the last 30 days of an election. Early voting begins Oct. 19 and Election Day is Nov. 3; the two posts Goodwin linked have since been deleted. KXAN
Goodwin said she doubts the sheriff's office will pursue the complaint now the posts are down, and wants the Legislature to write a stronger law next year. KUT
The deadline to register for the Nov. 3 election is Oct. 5; dates and official links for Travis County sit on our Vote 2026 page. Community Impact
Schools
Austin Current published a timeline on Tuesday tracing the Austin Independent School District's path toward state intervention. Austin Current
A Callaway House resident returned after Labor Day weekend to find their mezuzah gone from the door, days before the end of the Jewish High Holidays. The Daily Texan
Days later residents found a drawing of a Star of David holding hands with a swastika in a study room. The Daily Texan
A rabbi from the University of Texas at Austin's Chabad center had helped Callaway residents hang mezuzahs before the holidays, which ended after nightfall on Monday. The Daily Texan
Colleges awarded about 164,000 humanities bachelor's degrees in 2025, down 30.4% from about 236,000 in 2012, a Humanities Indicators report found. The Daily Texan
At the University of Texas at Austin, degrees in English, history, philosophy, linguistics, classical studies and languages other than English fell from over 800 in 2012 to over 300 last year. The Daily Texan
Business & street life
More than 700 musicians are playing 230 places today for the musicians' health fund
The Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM) holds its annual HAAM Day fundraiser on Tuesday, the largest in more than two decades. The H-E-B on South Congress Avenue is the headquarters, and seven H-E-B stores carry live music from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Antone's, Scoot Inn, Stubb's and Radio / East are on the list too. KXAN
Also
HAAM was founded in 2005 to help musicians, DJs and music teachers afford care, and says it has provided more than $215 million in services since. Community Impact
Overheard on Reddit
Has anyone been able to make friends out here from social events?
As an adult it’s really hard to make new friends. A lot of my friends are from work. I love my friends but sometimes I wish I knew more people who share similar interests. I like movies and everything related to film making and would love to meet more people who love it just as much. I also get nervous about going to places alone, because usually others are with a group, plus it can be dangerous i
Hundreds turned out at the Long Center on Saturday for the fourth Teresa Lozano Long Community Day, with Ballet Austin, the Austin Symphony Orchestra and Austin Opera each taking the stage. The Daily Texan
Overheard on Reddit
Two peacocks spotted in Bouldin Creek
Your average day in Austin, I guess. When I was biking, I suddenly saw two blue peacocks just strolling around slowly in the neighborhood. They didn't look wild, more so exotic pets that escaped Fortunately they walked themselves to a park nearby and avoided traffic
The Austin Chronicle reviewed "DogGod" at Fantastic Fest, a 1998 Thai satire about a dog-worshipping sect that Thai censors kept banned for more than 25 years. Austin Chronicle
Weather
Today: mostly sunny, with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 p.m. and a high near 100. Heat index values as high as 106. Northeast wind 0 to 5 miles per hour. Tonight: partly cloudy, low around 78, with a slight chance of storms before 10 p.m. No weather alerts are active this morning. National Weather Service
KXAN's forecast team said most of the area will stay dry again, though anyone lucky enough to catch a shower could pick up a couple of tenths of an inch, and a few slow-moving cells could bring over an inch. KXAN
Wednesday will look and feel like today, with spotty afternoon showers and summertime heat, before the rain chances run out later in the week. KXAN
The Back Page
13 days until the voter registration deadline · Texans must be registered by Oct. 5 to vote in the Nov. 3 election; early voting runs Oct. 19 through Oct. 30.
Roger Taylor Sr. founded the J.J. Seabrook Neighborhood Association on Jan. 2, 1983, and served as its president for more than twenty years. He was a single father, and his children say he was the first Black man in the United States to gain custody of twins and raise them. On Friday morning the neighborhood gathered at 2210 Pershing Drive to see a mosaic of him finished: five stories high, more than 70,000 glass tiles set by hand, each one three quarters of an inch across. The arts nonprofit Raasin in the Sun built it with Integral Care. "The Roger Taylor Senior Mural flowing together is a reflection of heart, history, and healing and the healing power of the [J.J.] Seabrook neighborhood," said Raasin McIntosh, who founded Raasin in the Sun. "It represents what happens when artists, neighborhoods, partners, community and storytellers come together with intention." The building it rises on, Seabrook Square II, is permanent supportive housing for 60 people who have lived through homelessness and mental illness, with mental health care, substance use treatment, case management and peer support on site. "Just imagine all the amazing stories that this place will tell," said Jeff Richardson, the chief executive of Integral Care, "all the amazing recovery that will happen here." CBS Austin