Round Rock ISD officials will consider measures to fund maintenance vehicle purchases and contracts funded by the 2024 bond at an upcoming meeting. 

What you need to know: Trustees will consider contracts for the replacement of eight district vehicles, middle school track resurfacing, architects and construction managers for several campus renovations. 
The contracts under consideration total just over $2.3 million in bond funds approved by voters in November 2024.

Austin Steam Train Association is a nonprofit railroad in Cedar Park with eight passenger cars, seven full-time staffers and a team of 100 annual volunteers that help restore, preserve and operate the vintage trains. 

The overview: ASTA has a variety of routes year-round with seasonal themes that have become time-honored traditions. Set routes include the Hill Country Flyer with a layover in Burnet, Bertram Flyer with a layover in Bertram and the North Pole Flyer, which is the biggest event of the year.

The history: The organization has a variety of vintage leased and donated cars for riders to experience from the 1930s-1980s. The cars are maintained weekly and volunteers are consistently working to either maintain, restore or preserve their accuracy.

Learn more: All of the crew, engineers, conductors, crew chiefs, brakemen and car attendants are volunteers who dedicate their time and expertise. 

• 401 E. Whitestone Blvd., Ste. C-100, Cedar Park

Heart Hospital of Austin is aiming to provide preventative health care to a growing number of working professionals in Central Texas.

What happened: Officials with the St. David’s cardiovascular hospital celebrated the opening of an expanded clinic for its Executive Wellness program at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Nov. 17.

In their own words: “Our Executive Wellness program is designed for the busy professional who wants to prioritize their health without disrupting their schedules,” said Brett Matens, Heart Hospital of Austin CEO.

How it works: Through the Executive Wellness program, patients may receive a comprehensive health analysis in one day by undergoing a series of tests and examinations. Many patients visit the Executive Wellness clinic as a benefit offered through their employers, Matens said. 

The impact: The $1.6 million expansion has doubled the program’s capacity to serve patients, now seeing up to six patients in a day and up to 120 patients in one month, Heart Hospital of Austin Director Cara Rivas said.

Texas cannot use its newly redrawn congressional map in the 2026 election, an El Paso federal court ruled Nov. 18.

The details: The state must instead use the congressional map that Texas lawmakers drew in 2021, after the 2020 census. 

“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown wrote in the Nov. 18 preliminary injunction. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map.”

What they're saying: Texas Republican leaders said they would “swiftly appeal” the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the court takes up the case, its justices will be pressed for time ahead of the Dec. 8 deadline for candidates to apply to run in the March primary elections.

Texas Democrats celebrated the Nov. 18 ruling as "very good news for Texans."