Austin, TX
Drive-up food distribution hosted by Central Texas Food Bank & Austin Pets Alive!
AUSTIN, Texas – The Central Texas Food Bank and Austin Pets Alive! are hosting a drive-up food distribution in Austin for people and pets.
The backstory:
Anyone living in Austin or Travis County is welcome to drive up for food for the people and pets in their households.
The food distribution will be held on Friday, Dec. 26, from 9:00 a.m. to 11 a.m.
It will be held at the Delco Activity Center located at 4601 Pecan Brook Dr. in Austin.
Pets do not need to be present to receive pet food.
Officials say the two non-profits should have enough for approximately 250 households.
The Source: Information from Austin Pets Alive! Community Affairs Officer Suzie Chase.
Austin, TX
Texas Game Wardens warn of dangers as they respond to emergencies across Texas
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Game Wardens stated Saturday evening that they have responded to multiple water-related fatalities and emergencies across the state.
These incidents include the areas of Lake Travis in Travis County, Lake Fryer in Ochiltree County, Galveston Bay in Galveston County, Benbrook Lake in Tarrant County, and Lake Jacksonville in Cherokee County.
ALSO: Marble Falls Area Fire Department dedicates new station to late chief
Texas Game Wardens also stated that many water-related tragedies are preventable. They encouraged people to take precautions including wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket, don’t boat under the influence of alcohol or drugs, keep a close eye on children, and be prepared for changing weather conditions.
Conditions can change quickly, and emergencies often happen with little warning.
Austin, TX
Cedar Park greenlights Texas Materials HQ move with $14M incentive deal
Texas Materials is set to move around in the suburbs after the Cedar Park City Council approved a $13.8 million incentive package for its new headquarters.
The construction materials producer and supplier committed to doubling its employees, and will move its headquarters to the new Balcones Real Estate-developed Cedar Park Town Center, according to the Austin Business Journal. In total, the company employs 3,500 at upwards of 120 sites, and will increase their headquarters’ head count to over 169 employees. The Town Center’s office facility sits at 701 Central Park Drive and they’ll occupy 48,000 square feet.
Texas Materials is currently planning to move out of its old headquarters at 1320 Arrow Point Drive and move into the new digs by May 31, 2028, according to the outlet. The lease could be set in stone by July 31.
The incentives package is contingent on Texas Materials increasing the number of employees at its new headquarters, and the company is also eligible for sales tax revenue rebates. Additionally, if any employee purchases a home or residential lot in Cedar Park, Texas Materials is eligible for $10,000, capped at $500,000, according to the outlet.
The Cedar Park Town Center is still in the process of construction, and future development phases are spaced out over the next couple of years. The town expects to have 300,000 square feet of commercial development in the area by 2032.
The Texas Triangle in general, and the Austin metropolitan area specifically, is home to some of the fastest-growing suburbs in the country. Just to the northeast, Rockpoint, LCOR and Potomac Investment Properties are redeveloping two spots on Thomas Jefferson Street to a 299-unit residential complex. At home, General Investment and Development is putting a $65 million, 194-unit apartment complex in Bell District, with construction slated to be completed in late 2028.
— Hunter Cooke
GID plants flag in Cedar Park’s Bell District with $65M multifamily project
Austin lands another AI tenant as Partly moves HQ from New Zealand
Meta nails down another sublease at Sixth and Guadalupe space in Downtown Austin
Read more
Austin, TX
Paxton says Austin energy code breaks state law
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion Friday saying part of an Austin Energy code that went into effect last year conflicts with Texas law and is unenforceable, opening a new legal challenge for Austin’s push to make new buildings easier to electrify.
In April 2025, the Austin City Council adopted the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code, which, among other things, created new “electric-ready” requirements for residential and commercial buildings that could make it easier for future owners to transition away from natural gas.
Weeks later, Texas Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, asked Paxton whether those provisions conflicted with a 2021 state law prohibiting local governments from discriminating against utility services based on the type of energy used. In his opinion, Paxton concluded that they do.
Paxton wrote that Austin’s new electric-ready requirements have the “purpose, intent or effect” of discriminating against gas utilities, which conflicts with state law, a finding that could intensify the broader political fight over local control, consumer choice and the role of natural gas in Texas.
“We therefore conclude that the Utility Code’s broad prohibition renders (the provision) of the City’s ordinance unenforceable,” Paxton wrote.
Austin Energy did not respond to a request for comment late Friday afternoon.
State opinion escalates fight over Austin’s push toward electrification
It is unclear whether the city will challenge the attorney general’s interpretation in court. An attorney general’s opinion is not the same as a court ruling and does not become law, though agencies often take such opinions into account when making policy decisions.
In his letter to Paxton, Birdwell said House Bill 17, which passed in 2021, was drafted in response to the growing number of Texas cities restricting gas hook-ups in new buildings and was intended to “preserve customer choice and allow Texans to decide how to meet their own energy needs.”
He said Austin’s “electric-ready” provision would “severely affect commercial customers” by requiring additional electrical infrastructure to be installed alongside certain natural gas appliances, raising costs for customers planning to use natural gas for those appliances.
Paul Robbins, vice chair of the Resource Management Commission, argued the city’s intent in adopting the code was not to prohibit building owners from using natural gas, but instead to give them the option to transition to electrification in the future by requiring electrical infrastructure during construction.
“The city tried to pursue this in a fuel-neutral way,” Robbins said. “They did not say you cannot build gas homes; they said you have to give customers a choice, so that if they choose to go all-electric, then it doesn’t cost them a lot of money to rewire their house.”
Robbins said Austin’s approach was meant to expand options, not restrict them.
“You can make a cogent argument that not doing electrification is actually discriminatory.”
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