Saturday
October 3, 2026
Today at a glance
- Weather 81° / 71°Cloudy and mild, with a shower or two before late afternoon.
- Air quality 20 · GoodThree days of rain scrubbed the air. Nothing in it today.
- Lake Travis 92.1% fullThe Llano water arrived and the lake took it. Up again on the week.
- Allergies Very LowNothing is blooming into this. Windows open.
- Power grid NormalDemand peaks near 61,400 megawatts; ERCOT has 86,100 ready and room to spare.
- Sunrise 7:25 a.m.Daylight is down to eleven hours and forty-eight minutes. It goes quickly now.
Good morning, Austin. The rain has finally let go. The flood watch expired at seven last night, the river authority shut its floodgates in the evening, and today is mostly cloudy and 81 with a coin-flip chance of a shower before four. Zilker, on the other hand, is a mud pit, and everyone walking into it this morning knows exactly what they are walking into. Boots again. Weekend one of the festival has two days left in it, Austoberfest is indoors at Scholz Garten if you want a roof, and the rest of the city is as quiet as it gets in October. The lake came out of this week well. The air is clean. Go stand in it.
The Briefing
Monday is the registration cutoff. The rolls are still catching up.
Monday is the last day to register to vote in the Nov. 3 election. Travis County is still working through more than 35,000 registration records the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) never forwarded, about 32,000 of which landed at the Tax Office in one overnight batch on Sept. 22 and 23. Some were filed nearly a year ago.
DPS points to a vendor. The software that handles its daily transfers to the Secretary of State was updated in October 2025 and began cutting off parts of records, the agency said; it found the problem in late August and fixed it on Sept. 13. What that means for a voter is narrower than it sounds: a registration counts from the day of the DPS transaction, so anyone who registered that way by Monday is eligible even if the county has not processed the record yet. A provisional ballot is the backstop.
The candidates are behind on their own paperwork too. Eight Austin City Council candidates missed the Aug. 24 deadline for the city's financial disclosure form and seven missed the Sept. 8 state one, Community Impact's Ben Thompson reported, with candidates in all five races among them. The Ethics Review Commission told him it happens election after election. On this ballot: five council seats, a bond election, and Proposition I, which would require an independent efficiency audit of every city department every five years.
What's next: Registration closes Monday, early voting opens Oct. 19, and Election Day is Nov. 3. The Bulletin's Vote 2026 page carries the official state and county links; Saturday's registration drives are in City Hall & county.
Sources: Community Impact (the backlog, the vendor and the deadlines), KXAN (the missed candidate disclosures), Austin Current (the council races and Proposition I), Texas Secretary of State (the registration deadline)
City Desk
Money & bills
The American Automobile Association (AAA) put the Texas average for a gallon of regular unleaded at $3.94 last month, the most expensive September on record and above September 2012's $3.63. FOX 7 Austin
AAA Texas spokesperson Daniel Armbruster said crude oil has eased back into the $90-a-barrel range while gasoline stays unusually high for the season, and that the state's all-time high is still $4.69. FOX 7 Austin
Texas regular averaged $3.93 on Friday, against a national average of $4.39. Diesel averaged $5.79 in Texas, down 12 cents on the week. FOX 7 Austin
Public safety & courts
U.S. 183 shut in both directions near the airport before dawn
Both directions of U.S. 183 between William Cannon Drive and FM 812, near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, were closed early Saturday while officials responded to what CBS Austin described as a serious collision. The Travis County Sheriff's Office said delays would last several hours. The closure was reported shortly before 5 a.m. Nothing has been said yet about how many vehicles were involved, or whether anyone was hurt. CBS Austin
Austin Municipal Court moves every jury trial to a Tuesday, starting Monday
Austin Municipal Court is consolidating its calendar beginning Oct. 5: all attorney appearance dockets and jury trials will be heard on Tuesdays. The court said it reviewed its docket times, found some underused, and expects the change to free staff and make room for other dockets it needs. Walk-in mitigation hours at the Burleson Road courthouse are unchanged. City of Austin
Also
The Austin Police Department (APD) arrested David Benjamin Coleman-Roush, 35, early Friday in North Austin on a terroristic-threat charge over threats against the University of Texas and a church. KXAN
University of Texas Police Chief Shane Streepy said Coleman-Roush has no affiliation with the university and was reportedly suffering from a mental health crisis when he was arrested. The Daily Texan
APD executed arrest warrants against four men on Sept. 24, in an operation it called Protect Our Parks, built on crime data from around Barking Springs at Barton Springs Pool. City of Austin
The department said reports in that area between Jan. 1 and June 9 included aggravated robbery, vehicle burglary and narcotics offenses, and that the charges filed are drug and weapons counts. KXAN
Detectives are asking for help identifying two people who stole a vehicle in North Austin. City of Austin
Overheard on Reddit
Hazards OFF, headlights ON in the rain
Respectfully: What is the intention behind having hazard lights on when it’s raining hard? We all know, we’re here driving through it too. And now, when you engage your turn signal, we won’t be able to see it because you’re already blink-blinking all over the place. Seems to me like a very appropriate occasion to use headlights, if the intention is visibility.
Travis County District Attorney José Garza did not attend Wednesday's 12-hour Texas House oversight hearing on prosecutors; his office said he offered to meet lawmakers individually. KUT
House Speaker Dustin Burrows said Thursday that the committee's work "is just getting started," signaling support for more state oversight of local prosecutors before next year's session. KUT
Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Gharakhanian, who read the office's statement to the panel, said Austin's violent crime rate has fallen since 2021 and that the office handles about 15,000 cases a year. KUT
Growth & infrastructure
An 18-wheeler hit the I-35 bridge at 12th Street and shut the southbound lanes for eight hours
A tractor-trailer struck the Interstate 35 overpass at 12th Street downtown late Friday morning. Austin police left only the far right shoulder open, and said at 1:16 p.m. that clearing the debris would take another couple of hours. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) kept the rest shut until it judged the bridge safe, and reopened all main lanes at 7:18 p.m. KXAN
Overheard on Reddit
Bridge Damage at I-35 and 12th
Looks like some sort of bridge damage to the overpass at 12th and I-35. Southbound traffic is reduced to one lane.
Also
Southbound I-35 flooded at Riverside Drive again during Thursday's rain, the latest in a run of flooding there since construction started. KXAN
TxDOT said the project's drop shafts are not yet connected to nearby inlets, and will only carry water once the tunnel is bored and the pump station runs. KXAN
TxDOT spokesperson Bradley Wheelis said Riverside Drive sits south of the river and outside the tunnel area, so it will never drain into that system; its elevation and drainage are being redesigned instead. KXAN
Southwest Airlines will add seven seasonal nonstop routes from Austin next June, including weekend service to Liberia, Costa Rica; Nassau; and Punta Cana. KXAN
Daily service to Portland, Oregon, starts June 3, and weekend or Saturday-only flights to Savannah, Sarasota and Bozeman start June 5. American dropped the three international routes in 2024. KXAN
Overheard on Reddit
Be aware with Robotaxis. Mine took me on a 22 minute journey completely out of the way for no reason. It should’ve been a 4 minute trip.
I wonder if anybody else has had experiences like this.
Assistant City Manager Mike Rogers told Austin leaders the city is "a bit behind" on preparing for air taxis, which a federal pilot program is already testing in Texas. Community Impact
Austin Water's lane closures on Knollwood Drive, where it is replacing four water service lines, were extended on Oct. 2 and now run to Nov. 7. Austin open data
City Hall & county
Travis County election staff are processing more than 35,000 registration records DPS failed to send, Voter Registrar Celia Israel said, including some submitted nearly a year ago. Community Impact
DPS said in-person registrations were unaffected and that it has resent every potentially affected record. The state has not released a count of how many there are. Community Impact
The Travis County Tax Office lists registration drives across Austin on Saturday, among them the Central Library, Pease Park's Kingsbury Commons and Wooldridge Square. KXAN
Eight Austin City Council candidates missed the Aug. 24 city disclosure deadline and seven missed the Sept. 8 state one, with candidates in all five races among them. KXAN
The city's Ethics Review Commission, whose members City Council appoints, said candidates have missed those filings in past elections too, including in 2024. KXAN
The city launched an Austin Bond Dashboard, a public page showing the status and the spending to date of projects paid for by past bonds. City of Austin
Schools
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals hears arguments next week on the University of Texas System's appeal of an injunction blocking Senate Bill 2972, the campus speech law. KXAN
The law restricts several forms of protected speech after 10 p.m. and in a semester's last two weeks. Student groups call it unconstitutional; the system calls it a neutral time and place rule. KXAN
Twenty-four semifinalists sang arias in four languages at the Butler International Opera Competition this week, in a round that ran more than five hours. The Daily Texan
Business & street life
Weekend one opens its second day on a lawn that is already mud
The Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival got through its opening day at Zilker Park on Friday in the rain, and video sent to CBS Austin showed the lawn turned over to mud by the end of it. People arrived in rain boots and ponchos, and some said they came hours later than usual to wait the weather out. Organizers told ticket holders to wear boots and a rain jacket again today. CBS Austin
Overheard on Reddit
ACL light show from Cherrywood
Saw this on my walk through the neighborhood this evening. I’m like 4 miles away from Zilker and it’s still this bright. Cloudy skies are definitely helping. Kinda obnoxious tbh! I must be getting old.
Also
With no parking at Zilker or in the neighborhoods around it, Barton Springs Car Wash is selling festival parking at $65 to $75 a night, owner Javier Huron said. KVUE
Co-owner Jae Acosta said the car wash brought in local vendors for the weekend, among them Karmadillo, to reach the crowd walking past. KVUE
Overheard on Reddit
Shoutout to the workers picking up all the trash at acl
Austin Saengerrunde holds its 14th Austoberfest today at Scholz Garten, with live music, sausage, beer and bowling indoors. The club was founded by German immigrants in 1879. The Daily Texan
Somos Tacos Árabes has opened at the Yard, 440 E. St. Elmo Road, where Luis Mendoza and Tony Musleh are folding Palestinian cooking into Mexican street food. Austin Chronicle
Austin-Bergstrom expects its heaviest departure days on Oct. 5 and Oct. 12, the Mondays after each festival weekend, and has told travelers to plan for crowds. KXAN
Weather
Today: a chance of showers and thunderstorms before 4 p.m., then a slight chance, mostly cloudy, a high near 81, with north gusts to 25 mph. Tonight: a slight chance of showers, low around 71. National Weather Service
The Flood Watch that covered Travis County expired at 7 p.m. Friday and no watches or warnings are active this morning. National Weather Service
The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) closed the floodgates at Wirtz and Starcke dams on Friday evening, ending the operation that passed Llano River water down to Lake Travis. KUT
Rain gauges around Travis County recorded about one to three inches over the three days to Friday, according to LCRA's Hydromet system. KUT
Lake Travis stood at 676.32 feet on Saturday morning, 92.1% of capacity and up 2.2 points on the week. Water Data for Texas
Sunday reaches about 83 under mostly cloudy skies with a slight chance of showers before 7 a.m. Monday is mostly sunny and 85, Tuesday sunny and 87. National Weather Service
The Back Page
6 days until the Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival's second weekend · Weekend one runs Oct. 2-4 at Zilker Park, weekend two Oct. 9-11.
Emancipet cut the ribbon last week on a bigger clinic at Levander Loop, in the building where it opened its very first one. The nonprofit has been doing low-cost veterinary work in Austin since 1999 and now sees more than 260,000 visits a year across four cities. The new room is about 4,000 square feet and has been taking patients since early August: spays and neuters, dental work, vaccines, microchips. Prices are the same for everyone, with no income test, and anyone who cannot pay can get help paying. It is named for Amy Mills, who ran the place for 17 years. Community Impact