Austin Daily Drop - Friday June 24, 2022

The Austin Daily Drop

Travis County returns to Medium COVID risk status - at this point Blanco, Caldwell, Hays and Williamson Counties are also at Medium.

Longhorn Nation is abuzz with the news that Louisiana heritage QB Arch Manning has chosen to attend UT.

Austin ISD's 2022-23 budget has been approved: the $1.8 billion budget cuts almost 600 jobs, gives pay raises for some remaining staffers, and raises taxes on district homeowners. An expected "Robin Hood" bill of $846 million takes up almost half of AISD's funds for the upcoming school year.

As reported earlier, fireworks will be legal and allowed this 4th of July holiday, but local sellers have reached an agreement with the Travis County Fire Marshal to suspend the sale of certain types of fireworks, including stick rockets and missiles.

Speaking of holiday hazards - Texas has been named the 5th-worst offending state in the U.S. for drunk driving, and by far the most populous: the top four are Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming and North Dakota.

Major backups resulted yesterday and may continue into Friday at ABIA due to required COVID cleanup protocols on the air control tower - what prompted the deep-clean remains unanswered.

Austin gun store owner Michael Cargill has resigned his position of acting chairman of the Log Cabin Republicans of Texas, an LGTBQ GOP group, following rebuke over his comments that the recent Texas Republican Convention was attended by "crazy people".

Wanna buy a Lake Austin house owned by Counting Crows pianist Charlie Gillingham? $4.25 million, and it's yours.

Austin is closing in on a June record for days over 100 degrees - we've had 17 so far, and 20 is the all-time record for the month, set in 2008. A cooldown into the 90's along with decent rain chances next week could stand in the way of a new June record.