Bastrop ISD's board of trustees voted to officially cancel its May election at a March meeting after no opposing candidates filed.

What you need to know: The district's governing board certified in March that candidates Place 3 trustee Josh Coy and Place 4 trustee Priscilla Ruiz submitted applications to appear on the ballot unopposed, and approved a measure to cancel the election it called in January.

Remember this? Coy and Ruiz were the only candidates to file before the Feb. 13 deadline.

What's next? Both trustees will serve three-year terms starting in May, after their current terms end.

First Watch, a Florida-based breakfast, brunch and lunch chain, opened its first Bastrop location in March in the Burleson Crossing East shopping center.

The menu: The restaurant, founded in 1983, offers menu items, such as healthy breakfast bowls, specialty pancakes and the Chickichanga—the restaurant’s take on a chimichanga.

“We had the opportunity to go to their soft open and were very impressed with the food and service,” Jason McCormack, a Bastrop resident, said in a review. “Definiely plan on going again. Several things on the menu we want to try.”

What else? The Bastrop location is open daily from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., according to First Watch’s website.

• Opened March 16
• Burleson Crossing East, 661 Hwy. 71 W., Ste. 101, Bastrop

Three medical cannabis businesses have been conditionally approved to participate in the Texas Compassionate Use Program, state officials announced April 1.

The big picture: The companies received conditional licenses from the Texas Department of Public Safety in an effort to expand access to medical cannabis products. Under the compassionate use program, physicians can prescribe medical-grade, low-THC products to eligible patients in partnership with licensed dispensaries.

Zooming in: Two of the three businesses given conditional licenses April 1 are affiliated with existing medical cannabis dispensaries that work in several other states. The new licensees are:

• GTI Texas, LLC (doing business as RISE Dispensaries) in West Texas

• Cresco Labs Texas, LLC in East Texas

• Texas Medica Collective, LLC in Northeast Texas

Conditional licensees must pass additional state evaluations before they can begin operating, according to the DPS.

More context: As Texas expands its medical cannabis program, the state is also tightening restrictions on the multibillion-dollar consumable hemp industry, Community Impact reported.

The Texas power grid is undergoing “generational” growth, experts said during the Electric Reliability Council of Texas’ annual summit March 31 in Round Rock. Much of that growth is due to data centers—an industry under scrutiny from state lawmakers as some Texas communities push back against proposed developments.

The big picture: Over 2,000 projects totaling 453,000 megawatts are currently looking to connect to the state grid, ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas said April 1. About 357,000 megawatts of those connection requests are potential data centers, ERCOT documents show.

Looking ahead: Communities should take the lead on discussions about individual data center projects, Vegas told reporters. He said that when “communities that are ready to support those investments,” ERCOT is prepared to help data centers connect to the grid.

During a March 31 discussion on data centers, panelists noted that the projects have an “increasingly high” negative reputation in communities across the state. Austin consultant Eric Goff said developers often need to make commitments to local residents to earn their support for data center proposals.