Tesla’s Giga Texas increased its annual treated water use by more than 200 million gallons in just two years, raising concerns about whether Austin can fulfill its long-term water conservation plans as Elon Musk advances plans for a new semiconductor plant expected to push demand even higher.

From 2023 to 2025, Tesla’s annual treated water use rose about 68% to 556 million gallons becoming Austin Water’s third-largest customer — up from fifth in 2023, according to Austin Water. The increase is raising new concerns about how water limits are applied, as residents are urged to conserve water while large industrial users continue to expand. In March, Musk announced Terafab, a proposed $20-25 billion semiconductor fabrication plant near Giga Texas, also known as the Gigafactory, in eastern Travis County. Environmentalists warn the project could further strain a persistently drought-stricken region and potentially clash with the city’s long-term water planning efforts.

“It’s extremely alarming,” said Paul DiFiore, an environmental attorney who sits on Austin’s Water Forward task force. “All of a sudden, they’re using more water than the vast majority of people in the city.”

Tesla began construction of the Gigafactory in the summer 2020, with the help of $13.9 million tax rebate from Travis County. The factory opened in April 2022 and has since become one of Austin Water’s largest consumers, with usage rising in a short period of time.

Environmental Attorney Sarah Faust, who also sits on Austin’s Water Forward Task Force, said that Tesla was granted a service extension request from Austin Water, a process that does not require City Council approval. Austin Water said it provides water to only a portion of the Gigafactory, and the company’s property extends across the service boundaries of multiple utility providers.

By last fall, the factory had produced 500,000 vehicles — a manufacturing process that, Faust noted, requires a significant amount of water.

In a separate city process first approved in 2018, the city has worked to solidify and refine its 100-year water resource plan known as “Water Forward.” The plan, which was last updated in 2024, is intended to balance water needs against a future of climate change, the possibility of increasingly severe drought and continued growth.

Faust said the task force charged with updating the plan takes into account large commercial consumers, but “when we get new, big users that grow dramatically in a short amount of time, that does cause a little bit more concern.”

She acknowledged that economic development is important, but said as many Austinites are being asked to conserve, the sharp increase in water use raises questions about whether conservation efforts are being applied evenly, or whether large industrial users are operating under different constraints.

New state rules that eliminate natural smokeable hemp products and increase licensing fees will go into effect at the end of the month. Hemp industry leaders say these new regulations will eliminate a majority of their inventory and force those who don’t have extra income to meet these new fees to close stores.

Earlier this month, the Texas Department of State Health Services released regulations on consumable hemp-derived THC products that will go into effect on March 31. These new regulations include child-resistant packaging, a significant increase in licensing fees, new labeling, testing, and bookkeeping requirements. The rules also codify the legal purchasing age to 21, which went into effect last year as an emergency directive.

However, hemp retailers say the regulation that decreases the amount of total THC in products they sell to 0.3% will eliminate popular smokeable hemp products, such as rolled joints and smokeable flower buds, which make up more than 50% of some stores’ inventories.

The Texas Legislature voted to ban the products out of fear that these intoxicating products were consistently getting into the hands of children. But, Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed the decision last summer, before asking the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and DSHS to increase regulations on the industry instead.

The rules also increase licensing fees for manufacturers of hemp-derived THC from $258 to $10,000 per facility and retail registrations from $155 to $5,000, which industry leaders say will fulfill the ban by forcing businesses to close.

“They did a ban with their own regulatory scheme,” Lukas Gilkey, chief executive of Hometown Hero, a manufacturer of hemp-derived products, said. “The way they wrote the rules, it’s going to eliminate a lot of products that are fully legal and fully fine and not harmed anyone.”

The UK has agreed to a US request to use British military bases for "defensive" strikes on Iranian missile sites, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

But the prime minister said the UK had learned lessons from the "mistakes of Iraq", and was not involved in the initial strikes on Iran and "will not join offensive action now".

Sir Keir said the basis of the decision to accept the US request was the "collective self-defence" of allies and protecting British lives, accusing Iran of pursuing a "scorched-earth strategy".

The BBC understands the US is likely to use RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for strikes on Iranian missile sites.

In his video statement on Sunday, Sir Keir said the US would use UK bases for the "specific and limited defensive purpose" of destroying Iran's missiles "at source".

He added that the move was in accordance with international law, and the UK government had published what it said was a summary of its legal advice.

After today's final home game which was in the mid-60s the Denver Broncos have set records for the highest temperature home game in January as well as a record of all home games being at least 60° or higher for the year. First time ever. Yikes.

On an isolated stretch of Texas coastline, conservation groups have acquired more than 3,000 acres of nearly pristine prairie to preserve as habitat for endangered whooping cranes, one of the rarest birds in North America.

Groups this month announced the $8 million purchase of two tracts in rural Calhoun County, halfway between Houston and Corpus Christi, among the last substantial pockets of unplowed acreage along the Texas coast and the winter grounds for the world’s last wild flock of whooping cranes.

“Large, intact coastal landscapes are disappearing fast, and protecting this one is a major win,” said Julie Shackelford, Texas state director at The Conservation Fund, which bought the 2,200-acre Costa Grande Ranch. Less than 5% of Texas’ native coastal prairie remains, she said.

The purchase of another, 1,100-acre coastal property by the International Crane Foundation marked that groups’ first such land acquisition since it was founded in 1973 to nurse the dwindling whooping crane population back from the brink of extinction.

Five-feet-tall, monogamous and known for elaborate dances, barely two dozen of these birds remained a century ago. Now almost 600 make up the last wild flock that still makes its ancient, annual migration between the Canadian taiga and the middle Gulf Coast of Texas, where only a smattering of protected areas offer them reliable habitat.

A senior Texas A&M University System official testing a new artificial intelligence tool this fall asked it to find how many courses discuss feminism at one of its regional universities. Each time she asked in a slightly different way, she got a different number.

“Either the tool is learning from my previous queries,” Texas A&M system’s chief strategy officer Korry Castillo told colleagues in an email, “or we need to fine tune our requests to get the best results.”

It was Sept. 25, and Castillo was trying to deliver on a promise Chancellor Glenn Hegar and the Board of Regents had already made: to audit courses across all of the system’s 12 universities after conservative outrage over a gender-identity lesson at the flagship campus intensified earlier that month, leading to the professor’s firing and the university president’s resignation.

Texas A&M officials said the controversy stemmed from the course’s content not aligning with its description in the university’s course catalog and framed the audit as a way to ensure students knew what they were signing up for. As other public universities came under similar scrutiny and began preparing to comply with a new state law that gives governor-appointed regents more authority over curricula, they, too, announced audits.

Records obtained by The Texas Tribune offer a first look at how Texas universities are experimenting with AI to conduct those reviews.

When Texas Republicans in the Legislature unveiled their proposed congressional map in July, the dilemma for North Texas Democrats was evident: there were three of them, and only two seats that remained within reach.

U.S. Reps. Jasmine Crockett, Julie Johnson and Marc Veasey currently serve three heavily Democratic districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. But all three saw their seats overhauled, with Johnson’s turned into a safely Republican district that stretches into East Texas, and Veasey’s hometown and political base of Fort Worth removed altogether from his district.

As it turned out, Crockett and Veasey both decided to leave the House. On Monday, the last day for candidates to file for the 2026 ballot, Crockett announced she was running for Senate, while Veasey entered the race for Tarrant County judge.

But Johnson, the only remaining incumbent, still ended up with a tough primary race.

Rather than having to take on Crockett or Veasey, Johnson is facing a primary with her predecessor — former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred. Allred, a Democrat who represented the Dallas-based 32nd Congressional District for three terms before losing the 2024 Senate race, had been running for Senate again this cycle. He dropped out Monday and pivoted to the 33rd Congressional District — where Johnson had already announced her intent to run — in anticipation of Crockett’s entry to the Senate race.

I was listening to Too Many Tabs and Mrs P mentioned a website called storygraph.com as an alternative to Goodreads. I was wondering if anybody had heard about it or had an experience with it. Any pitfalls or skeletons in the closet?

WASHINGTON, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Thursday blamed Biden-era vetting failures for the admission of an Afghan immigrant suspected of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., but the alleged gunman was granted asylum this year under President Donald Trump, according to a U.S. government file seen by Reuters.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, entered the U.S. on September 8, 2021, under Operation Allies Welcome. The resettlement program was set up by former Democratic President Joe Biden after the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 that led to the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and the country's takeover by the Taliban.

FBI Director Kash Patel and Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, both Trump appointees, said during a press conference on Thursday that the Biden administration had failed to conduct adequate background checks or vetting on Lakanwal before allowing him to enter the U.S. in 2021.

Neither official provided any evidence to support their assertion.

A state trooper who made contact with South Carolina players Nyck Harbor and Oscar Adaway III during Saturday's SEC showdown with Texas A&M in College Station was relieved of his game-day duties and sent home, the university's police department said.

"The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is aware of the incident that occurred today during the Texas A&M football game," the DPS said in a statement. "The DPS Trooper involved was sent home from the game. Our Office of Inspector General (OIG) is also aware of the incident and will be further looking into the matter. No additional information will be released at this time."

Voters in Texas seemed poised on Tuesday night to approve a series of tax exemptions and bans as well as new investments in state infrastructure and research.

All 17 constitutional amendments on the ballot held majority support Tuesday night, most of which restrict the creation of certain taxes or allow for new tax exemptions. Other amendments would create state investments in water infrastructure, dementia research and technical college funds.

Proposition 10 received the largest share of voter support Tuesday night. The amendment would temporarily lower homeowners’ property taxes if their homes are destroyed by fires.

Support for all but two of the propositions held 10-point leads in preliminary results on Tuesday. Proposition 6, which would ban the creation of new taxes on securities transactions, like stock trading, leaned toward passage with a 58% supporting vote. Proposition 17 would allow the state government to prevent property values of counties with border security infrastructure from increasing, and held a 60% supporting vote.

Thomas Alter is the second professor in the state to be terminated for allegedly violating university policy after a video was posted on social media.

A Texas State University professor was fired on Wednesday after he was accused of inciting violence in a video of him speaking at a socialism conference posted on social media.

In a video circulated on social media platform X, Thomas Alter, an associate history professor, can be seen talking during a Zoom meeting as part of the Revolutionary Socialism Conference, an online meeting organized by several socialist groups. During his talk, Alter explains how he feels socialists in the United States can organize an effective party, and criticizes the Democratic Party, the Democratic Socialists of America, China and anarchists for their methods of organization.

The video circulated on X cuts one portion of Alter’s speech in half, during which he criticized “insurrectional anarchists” for their method of protesting, urging organization into a party to better reach people. In the full speech posted on YouTube, he notes that some anarchists have faced jail time for their methods of protest, praising their efforts but questioning whether they can achieve their goals.

“While their actions are laudable, it should be asked, to what purpose do they serve?” Alter said during his speech, which is not included in the video posted on X. The second portion of his statement is included. “Without organization, how can anyone expect to overthrow the most bloodthirsty, profit-driven, mad organization in the history of the world — that of the United States?”

Texas State University President Kelly Damphousse announced Alter was fired after the university was made aware of comments he made at the conference, which Damphousse said constituted “serious professional and personal misconduct.” Damphousse said in the statement the university thoroughly reviewed the video posted publicly for their assessment. Damphousse did not specify what comment Alter made that violated university policy.

“Conduct that advocates for inciting violence is directly contrary to the values of Texas State University,” Damphousse said. “I cannot and will not tolerate such behavior.”

Texas State University System Chancellor Brian McCall commended Alter’s firing in a post on X, and also said the university would not “tolerate conduct by any employee intended to incite violence.” McCall specifically pointed to Alter’s claim about overthrowing the United States as misconduct.

“Video recordings made public this week in which a Texas State University professor advocated for the overthrow of our government are inconsistent with our shared values and demonstrate egregious personal and professional misconduct,” McCall said in the statement.