Austin, TX
Texas’ Adorable City Outside Of Austin Is A Hill Country Gateway Full Of Wildlife And Small-Town Charm – Islands
The Texas Hill Country is downright easy on the eyes — and on the soul. The scenic terrain stretches across the heart of the Lone Star State, west of Austin, as far as the eye can see. The central region is known for its rustling rivers, freshwater springs, towering oaks, and, of course, its rolling stony hills. It’s also chock-full of historic communities, from Mason, the “Gem of the Hill Country,” to the German-infused town of Fredericksburg.
The roots run just as deep in Copperas Cove, a humble farming town founded in the late 1870s. The darling city has sprouted much since then. About 40,000 people now call this rural-suburban area home, making it the largest city in all of Coryell County. Despite its size, Copperas Cove is still beloved for its tight-knit, small-town atmosphere. As one resident shared on Niche, the city is full of “quaint neighborhoods with lots of trees and friendly faces.” Another local added: “If you’re looking for a great area to raise your kids or to even start a family, Copperas Cove is it.”
Straddling Highway 190 about 70 miles north of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), the city serves as a gateway to the seemingly boundless lands of the Texas Hill Country. Put simply, there’s no room for boredom in this nook of the state. Copperas Cove teems with a variety of parks, wildlife, and outdoor adventures, with sprawling lakes and recreation areas just a short drive away.
Experience the wilds of Copperas Cove
The rural flair of Copperas Cove is pretty hard to ignore. ‘Round these parts, it’s not uncommon to see speedy roadrunners, burly armadillos, wild turkeys, and various other wildlife roaming the lands. If you’re keen on seeing more critters, mosey on over to Topsey Exotic Ranch. Perched on the outskirts of the city, the safari excursion is one Copperas Cove’s top-rated attractions.
“Deer, cattle, emu, an ostrich, zebras and more will walk alongside your vehicle in hopes of getting tossed some food pellets to snack on,” reads one review on Tripadvisor. “You will also see rabbits, prairie dogs and squirrels. Some kangaroos and a camel can be seen behind a fence.” The animal-filled outing costs $16 per person, at the time of writing, with discounts available for seniors and children 12 and under. Buckets of animal feed can be purchased for an additional fee.
You can also find a few green spaces in town. Copperas Cove City Park is among the more popular outdoor haunts; it includes ponds and a seasonal pool. You can also make a splash at Belton Lake or Stillhouse Hollow Lake, both about a 30-minute drive away. The former spans more than 12,000 surface acres of water, while the latter covers just over 6,000. A bevy of sandy beaches and parks hug the waters. If you opt for Belton Lake, tackle trails at the Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area or do more wildlife watching at the Miller Springs Nature Center, situated on the southern end of the reservoir.
Where to stay and eat
Wondering where to hunker down for the evening? If you’re up for braving the wilds, grab your best camping gear for a comfortable night outdoors and snag a spot at one of the many campgrounds along the lakes. Live Oak Ridge Park Campground sits right next to Miller Springs Nature Center on Belton Lake and receives strong reviews for its amenities and setting. If you find yourself at Stillhouse Hollow Lake, Union Grove Campground offers a few screened shelters for those without camping gear. The facility also has plenty of spots to park a rig or pop a tent. Both campgrounds offer showers, a dock, and a playground. A swimming beach can also be found at Union Grove.
Don’t want to rough it? If you’d prefer a more luxurious abode, there’s a decent selection of familiar hotel brands in Copperas Cove, too, including the Comfort Suites, Days Inn by Wyndham, and Best Western Inn & Suites, all of which are located in the same vicinity. You won’t go hungry in this part of Texas, either. Feast on fettuccine alfredo, cheesy ravioli, baked lasagna, and other pasta staples at Giovanni’s Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria — rated the No. 1 restaurant in the city over on Tripadvisor. If you’re craving down-home country classics, grab a table at Lil-Tex Restaurant or Bobby B’s Southern Cooking & More. Just don’t skip dessert.
AUSTIN, Texas — Self-driving cars have become a common sight on Austin streets, but a new Texas law is adding tougher requirements for the companies behind the wheelless vehicles.
Senate Bill 2807 imposes stricter rules on autonomous vehicle companies operating in the state, including state authorization, emergency response plans for law enforcement, and a public portal where residents can verify operators and file safety complaints.
The changes come as Austin continues to track incidents involving autonomous vehicles. The city’s autonomous vehicle dashboard shows 75 incidents in 2026, including a collision, eight near misses, and seven incidents of ignoring police direction.
Attorney Drew Gibbs, a partner at Slingshot Law, said one crash involved a Waymo vehicle.
“There was a T-bone collision. A pretty serious T-bone collision where a Waymo just crashed into the side of my client’s vehicle,” Gibbs said.
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One of the incidents of ignoring police direction happened during the mass shooting on West Sixth Street back in March, when three people died, and 15 others were injured.
Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock said autonomous vehicles can struggle in unusual situations.
“It didn’t impede on anything in the moment, but it’s not necessarily uncommon where these vehicles don’t quite know how to deal with these one-off scenarios,” Bullock said.
The new law requires autonomous vehicle companies to be authorized by the state, to provide an emergency response plan for law enforcement, and to participate in a public-facing portal that allows the public to verify operators and submit safety complaints.
Kara Kockelman, a professor of transportation and engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, welcomed the added oversight.
“I’m glad that the state is taking this a bit more seriously now,” she said. “It’s important not to just let others slip in without kind of meeting those basic minimums.”
Bullock said the emergency planning requirement may not make a major difference in fast-moving situations. Asked how impactful it is to have a fully laid out emergency response plan, Bullock said, “These plans are great, but it takes time to work through all of those versus the immediacy of having someone behind the wheel.”
The four autonomous vehicle companies operating in Austin — Waymo, Zoox, AV-Ride, and Tesla — are all state-authorized.
The Texas DMV said an autonomous vehicle company can lose its authorization to operate in Texas if the agency deems the vehicles are operating in a way that endangers public safety.
Waymo was contacted for comment, but had not responded.
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson said Tuesday she will leave the post next month.
What we know:
In a statement, Nelson said her resignation will be effective July 17 but did not provide a reason for the departure.
“It has been an honor to serve the people of Texas in this role,” Nelson said. “My time as Secretary came at an important moment for Texas, and I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish as an agency in under four years.”
Nelson has served in the role since 2023.
Among other things, the Secretary of State oversees elections and business filings in the state and serves as the chief diplomat of Texas.
View of Texas State Senator Jane Nelson, during the 80th Texas Legislature, on the floor of the Senate at the Texas State Capitol, Austin, Texas, January 22, 2007. (John Anderson/The Austin Chronicle / Getty Images)
What they’re saying:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott described Nelson as extraordinary.
“I am deeply grateful for her long and loyal service and outstanding leadership. She has represented our state with grace and honor across the globe, and Texas is better because of it,” Abbott said. “Cecilia and I wish her all the best in the next chapter of her distinguished career.”
Dig deeper:
According to the Secretary of State’s office, Nelson has presided over seven statewide elections during her tenure with a cumulative 27 million ballots cast and broke a record with more than 3 million active business filers.
Nelson also served three decades in the Texas Senate, where she remains the longest-serving Republican in state history.
The Source: Information in this story came from the Texas Secretary of State’s office.
Michael Dorman
Austin, Texas, is revving up to sell $2.35 billion of debt for a convention center and a wastewater treatment plant, while a legal battle continues over bonds to help finance a light rail system.
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The bond boom comes as the city council voted on Thursday to pursue the development of a $390 million baseline general obligation bond package for the November ballot despite a call by Mayor Kirk Watson to wait until 2028.
“I believe we can and we should bring forward significant investments in the future,” he said. “In fact, if we restore compliance with our financial policies and we maintain the discipline we actually will have greater future capacity to do more for this community in 2028.”
A bond election would
The city, which last held a successful GO bond election in 2022 for $350 million of debt for affordable housing, had $1.03 billion of unissued voter-approved GO bond authorization as of the Sept. 30 end of fiscal 2025. Last year,
On Thursday, the city council signed off on a $34.5 million wrongful prosecution and conviction settlement with four individuals to be financed through the sale of non-voter-approved GO bonds.
The council approved up to $1.35 billion of special tax revenue bonds on May 21 for a $1.6 billion project to replace the city’s now-demolished convention center with a facility that will increase rentable event space to 620,000 square feet from 365,000 square feet.
Rich Saskal
The bonds are backed with revenue from certain city hotel occupancy taxes and incremental state tax revenue generated within a project finance zone the city established in 2024. Amounts and timings for issuing the debt are being determined, according to the city, which filed a petition with a Travis County District Court for an expedited validation of the bonds.
An ordinance approved in October
The city also plans to refund hotel occupancy tax-backed debt issued for the prior convention center in order to pledge a 4.5% hotel tax for the upcoming bonds.
“The refunding bonds are a separate, but related item to the expansion bonds and will only be secured by 2% venue HOT,” city documents said. “The 2% venue HOT will not be pledged to the expansion bonds and will cease to be collected upon final maturity or early payoff of (the refunding bonds).”
A petition drive that would have delayed the project fell 494 signatures short of a requirement for 20,000 valid signatures of registered voters, Austin City Clerk Erika Brady determined in November.
Petition backers are appealing a district court’s refusal to force validation in state appellate court after the Texas Supreme Court dismissed
The petition drive by Austin United PAC and others sought a ballot measure to stop the demolition and reconstruction of the convention center for seven years — or until the project was approved by voters — and prioritize city funding for local live music, arts, cultural, and outdoor tourism.
The Austin City Council also approved as much as $1 billion of water and wastewater system revenue bonds last month for the Walnut Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion and enhancement project. The bonds will be used to obtain a direct low-interest loan from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program.
Other financing sources for the $1.5 billion project are $59 million from the Texas Water Development Board Clean Water State Revolving Fund program and funding from Austin Water.
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The plant, which serves more than 50% of Austin and operates at a treatment capacity of 75 million gallons per day, will have its capacity increased to 100 MGD, helping meet future demand and requirements set by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for Austin’s projected growth of 1.5 million by 2040, according to a city statement.
A legal logjam over a light rail system eased May 22 when the Texas Supreme Court finally ruled on a procedural issue related to an initial $150 million of bonds for the project. The high court ordered a Travis County Court judge to decide whether the bonds’ issuer, the Austin Transit Partnership, a nonprofit corporation created by the city and Capital Metro Transportation Authority, has standing to seek court validation for the debt.
City taxpayers who filed a lawsuit in 2023, along with the Texas Attorney General’s Office have been challenging the legality of the bonds, which would be paid off with a portion of Austin’s operation and maintenance property taxes
Escalating costs led ATP to downsize Project Connect to an initial less than 10-mile, 15-station system with a similar price tag. The completion of a federal environmental review in January allowed the project to continue a process
ATP said Project Connect is moving forward with construction scheduled to begin next year.
“We are confident in our case and look forward to our day in court,” ATP said in a statement. “The pending litigation has not slowed our progress advancing Austin light rail, which has hit major milestones in the federal funding process, design, and pre-construction work this year.”
Bill Aleshire, an attorney who filed the taxpayers’ lawsuit, cautioned that several issues remain before the court, including the legality of the downsized project and the ability to pay off bonds with property tax revenue that is supposed to be used for operations.
“Their federal funding is uncertain, their ability to issue bonds is uncertain, and they just stubbornly will not listen to us and say it’s time to pause Project Connect and rethink it, that maybe rail isn’t the best way to go at this time and maybe we can’t afford it at this time,” he said.
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