Two Travis Co. property owners filed suit Wednesday against members of the Travis Co. Commissioners Court, saying the group exceeded their authority when they voted to set the county tax rate in excess of the amount needed to address the July 4 flooding disaster. austinfreepress.org/property-own...

Austin voters slam-dunked the city council on Tuesday with a resounding rejection of Proposition Q – a proposal that would have permanently raised the city’s property-tax rate to generate roughly $110 million annually. austinfreepress.org/nope/

A tax increase to aid homelessness also would price some people out of their homes. austinfreepress.org/tuesdays-ele...

City of Austin park officials privately signed a new Event Agreement in August with Live Nation-controlled C3 Presents that locks Zilker Park into hosting the Austin City Limits Music Festival through 2040. austinfreepress.org/acl-palooza/

More than a decade after Austin became the nation’s largest no-kill city for shelter animals, local leaders voted to revise the city’s no-kill policy, raising the ire of animal welfare advocates across the city. austinfreepress.org/bark-and-bite/

Days after AFP published a story last week on local homeless nonprofits funding a PAC promoting the Prop. Q tax-increase on Austin’s Nov. 4 ballot, TX AG Ken Paxton announced a probe of “a potentially illegal fundraising scheme” by those nonprofit PAC donors. austinfreepress.org/political-sp...

Top contributors to a political committee promoting a city of Austin tax increase on the Nov. 4 ballot overwhelmingly stand to benefit politically or financially from Prop Q funding priorities, such as affordable housing, homelessness, and public safety. austinfreepress.org/tax-dilemma/

Austin has a long history of LGBTQ+ activism and active leadership from local groups like allgo, Out Youth, and Austin Pride. Yet Pride in Black ATX is one of the city’s few coalitions creating events that center the Black LGBTQ+ community. austinfreepress.org/black-queer-...

ATX United PAC leaders told AFP that they will deliver petition signatures to the city clerk Monday, requiring the city council to put a measure on the ballot asking voters if they want to delay the city’s $1.6 billion replacement plan for the Convention Center. austinfreepress.org/voter-conven...

​​Locals wouldn’t know it hiking around Town Lake or shopping at Whole Foods, but Black people have always existed in Austin. austinfreepress.org/where-we-at/

OPINION | Thursday the Austin City Council is scheduled to consider saving animal shelter money by revising city reporting of the spaying of visibly pregnant animals and by adjusting how it calculates live-release rates (agenda item 3). austinfreepress.org/pet-peeve/

The July floods that hit Central Texas were catastrophic, killing more than 135 people, including 27 campers and counselors at Kerr County’s Camp Mystic and 10 people near Leander in Travis County. Estimated damages are approximately $20 billion. austinfreepress.org/washed-out/

​​Almost a year after the Austin City Council voted to demolish the downtown convention center and sink $1.6 billion into a larger replacement, the future of that new downtown convention center might be left up to voters. austinfreepress.org/competing-vi...

As Austin continues to struggle with an affordable housing crunch, the Austin City Council passed a resolution Thursday that aims to fund the preservation of the city’s older naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH). austinfreepress.org/noahs-arc/

The Austin City Council today is scheduled to consider a resolution that would direct city staff to study ways to inventory, fund, and protect the city’s endangered stock of existing affordable housing. austinfreepress.org/the-vanishing/

Since 2009, Recycled Reads has proven to be as weird and engaging as the city that owns it. austinfreepress.org/turning-the-...

With the number of unhoused people in Austin rising significantly, city officials have released a new online app tool to better connect people experiencing homelessness to support services. austinfreepress.org/home-page-ne...

D10 Council Member Marc Duchen was the sole dissenter in the Austin City Council’s 10-1 vote to approve an unprecedented $6.3 billion budget on August 14. Afterwards, Duchen discussed the city budget and taxes with Austin Free Press. austinfreepress.org/lone-wolf/

Austin City Council members are tackling the city’s rising number of reported hate incidents by restructuring Austin’s Hate Crimes Task Force to make it a city-led initiative that does a better job of tracking and responding to crimes and building public trust. austinfreepress.org/barton-stings/

Looming over AISD are stark disparities between campuses revealed in an independent analysis presented to trustees in December but largely hidden from the school community. austinfreepress.org/inequality-l...

Former mayoral candidate Jeff Bowen filed a legal petition today asking a local appeals court to correct “intentionally misleading” language that the Austin City Council recently approved for a November ballot measure to increase city property taxes. austinfreepress.org/taxations-re...

The Austin City Council on Thursday tied the fate of a guaranteed income program — which helps local families stave off homelessness and economic hardship — to voters approving a tax increase in November. austinfreepress.org/fate-uncerta...

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) — which the city of Austin hopes will grant half of the money needed to build its Project Connect light rail line — lists the Austin project’s cost as $8.2 billion on its online Capital Investments Grants Dashboard. austinfreepress.org/elevated-tra...

Of 6,000 units in Taylor’s development pipeline, just four multifamily projects have been approved for construction. austinfreepress.org/give-me-shel...

Newly elected Travis County Democratic Party Chair Doug Greco, harkening back to his work leading Central Texas Interfaith, has scheduled a year of listening. austinfreepress.org/community-or...

It’s very challenging to construe U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s memo as a win for Austin’s Project Connect. austinfreepress.org/the-derailers/

Unique. Groovy. Passionate. Fighter. Friend. Father. These are some of the words that people use to describe longtime Austin artist and activist Daniel Llanes. austinfreepress.org/el-luchador/

As heat-related illnesses have increased, the Austin-Travis County Public Health Commission is weighing an incentive program aimed at keeping outdoor workers safe in extreme heat. austinfreepress.org/give-em-a-br...

Inflation has ravaged the rail project, which faces legal challenges from Austin taxpayers and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. austinfreepress.org/moodys-blues/

Richard Samuel says the origins of RichesArt gallery can be traced to his mother, who encouraged her young son to enter art competitions. austinfreepress.org/wide-receiver/

Life was already tough enough for transgender Texas kids. But a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling has made things a lot tougher. austinfreepress.org/supreme-sadn...

Wheatsville Food Co-op is exploring plans to open a grocery in a College Houses dorm near campus. austinfreepress.org/grocery-dese...

A new documentary by Austin’s Steve Mims and Brian Rodgers attempts to wipe out Procter & Gamble’s profits from tissue products — including Charmin toilet paper. austinfreepress.org/pulp-nonfict...

In a rare, if not unprecedented move, a Travis County district judge this week blocked $440 million in road bonds that Hays County voters approved last fall, finding that the county violated the Texas Open Meetings Act. austinfreepress.org/roadblock/

KAZI is making improvements, and expanding, under new leadership as it broadcasts from ACC Highland Mall Campus. austinfreepress.org/community-tr...

OPINION: History repeats itself as Austin school policies continue segregating Austin schools. austinfreepress.org/shaming-the-...

State District Judge Jan Soifer ruled in favor of the City of Austin and developers last week in the latest legal battle over how to develop the former Austin American-Statesman property on Lady Bird Lake. austinfreepress.org/on-the-water...

Families of four in the Austin metropolitan area make a median income of around $134,000, according to new U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development data. That’s up 6 percent — or almost $8,000 — over last year, continuing Austin’s decade-long upward trend. austinfreepress.org/elusive-affo...

Most weekdays from 9 to 5 he’s on Lady Bird Lake’s Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail, encouraging rowers, bikers, hikers and runners from his wheelchair. austinfreepress.org/second-wind/

ATX City Council passed a resolution Thursday to reform its controversial DB-90 development program, which has spurred heated city council meetings and protests due to its negative impacts on affordable housing and neighborhood aesthetics. austinfreepress.org/unhappy-expe...

Brandywine contributed $10,000 to an independent PAC backing Mayor Watson’s reelection last fall as the cash-strapped company negotiated selling $108 million in properties to the City of Austin. austinfreepress.org/emergency-se...

OPINION: Two species of Austin-area residents won a big victory this week, when the Texas legislative clock ran out on bills to authorize private landowners to remove Ashe juniper trees without local-government interference. austinfreepress.org/beaks-vs-bil...

Conventional wisdom holds that a dollar spent locally generates $3 in benefits to the local economy — with higher returns for labor-intensive businesses such as restaurants and bars. austinfreepress.org/closing-curt...

Texas has the notorious distinction of leading the nation in the number of workplace fatalities, exceeding California, which has a substantially larger population, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. austinfreepress.org/living-wager/

​​Seventeen local art and culture organizations recently learned that the National Endowment for the Arts has rescinded their 2025 grants totaling $485,000. austinfreepress.org/artful-doge/

Hearing the word “therapist,” few people picture half-ton domesticated animals. But the popularity of “equine therapy” is growing as a result of horses’ knack for sensing emotions and building trust with patients. austinfreepress.org/servant-lead...

Joining with the global partnership Fast-Track Cities, Austin Public Health is conducting an in-depth study of how stigma affects local people living with HIV. austinfreepress.org/stigma-enigma/

Tensions boiled over last week as community organizers and members of the Acacia Cliffs Tenants Association confronted Austin City Council members about a developer’s proposal that would reduce affordable housing in their Northwest Hills neighborhood. austinfreepress.org/razing-acacia/

Local advocates for equality are fighting back as the rights of LGBTQ+ Texans are under attack again at the Texas Legislature – including by a bill up for a key House vote today. austinfreepress.org/rally-at-tex...

To avoid building 244 affordable units, downtown developers paid fees that produced 47 apartments in East Austin. austinfreepress.org/false-equiva...