Chelsey Zhu

If that’s something you can get behind, please consider supporting our work. Donations are truly our livelihood and the reason we’re able to bring you these stories about Austin. donate.kut.org

Of course, we cover serious, not-always-happy news that people in Austin need to know. But overall, local news reminds me over and over that there are good people here doing good things. And I think we really need that now.

Black-owned Austin bookstore champions banned books and community “If an entity is going to try to restrict access to a title or a book, we are going to try to figure out how to make sure people have access to that book,” said Eric Brooks, who owns Black Pearl Books...

Or how a local bookstore is making sure people have access to banned books (from Elizabeth McQueen): www.kut.org/business/202...

UT cut funding for a Latinx grad ceremony. Students raised money to have one anyway. Latinx students at UT Austin raised more than $8,000 to be able to put on the bilingual graduation ceremony. Families traveled from all over Texas to hear the students' names read in Spanish as they c...

Or how UT Austin students banded together to organize a Latinx graduation ceremony after the university cut their funding (from Greta Díaz González Vázquez): www.kut.org/education/20...

Austin has an edible food forest open to everyone — and it's getting bigger Festival Beach Food Forest is in the early stages of expanding its edible garden from less than an acre to 3.5 acres. Organizers hope to plant hundreds more fruit trees, vegetables, herbs and medicina...

Or how Austin has its very own edible food forest that provides fresh produce to anyone who stops by (from
Katy McAfee): www.kut.org/energy-envir...

Austin is no longer the Texas metro with the highest rent prices According to data from Zillow, average rents in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro now outpace those in Austin for the first time since at least 2015.

... developers in Austin built a bunch of housing and prices actually came down (from @mcglinchyreports.bsky.social)

www.kut.org/housing/2025...

I fell in love with Austin by reading @kutnews.bsky.social. Why? Because my colleagues put a TON of work into reporting about the cool/weird/genuinely good things Austinites are doing to make this city a better place to live. Like how, after years of rent increases ....

The Austin skyline with Lady Bird Lake in the foreground

I’m saying this as a journalist. Trying to keep up with the news right now sucks. Stressful things happening everywhere. But there’s an easy cheat code to learning the important stuff, supporting democracy and feeling happier. LOCAL NEWS. 🧵

CapMetro's secret fight to fix a broken fare system For about a month last spring, QR code scanners riders used to pay fares suddenly became unreliable, sometimes not working at all. Internal documents obtained by KUT News reveal the extent of the agen...

EXCLUSIVE: CapMetro's entire fare system collapsed for over a month in 2024. The public never knew just how bad it got.

New documents reveal the crisis — and CapMetro's secret fight with German megacorporation Siemens to fix it.

www.kut.org/transportati...

Heard anything about Ad Astra, Elon Musk’s new school near Austin? What about #Snailbrook? Neuralink?

DM or email me at LMcGaughy@kut.org with any tips. #txlege #atx #bastrop #AdAstra #ElonMusk