Houston officials have been going back and forth on the city’s excessive overtime budget spending in its three critical departments—fire, police and solid waste—since late 2025.

What’s happening: In the most recent financial report given during the April 29 City Council session and a preceding Budget and Fiscal Affairs meeting, Controller Chris Hollins said that the city is continuing to add to a shortfall by still approving overtime costs—most notably for the fire department, he said.

By the numbers: During the presentation of the financial report, Hollins said the budget for the Houston Fire Department has increased by $73 million since the fiscal year 2025-26 budget was approved last June, including an additional $22 million spent this month. He said the majority of those increases went toward overtime costs.

“If just the overages in the fire department were its own department, it would be the fifth largest department in the city of Houston,” Hollins said. “That’s something that we need to take seriously. It’s larger than our library system [and] the health department.”

Jeff’s Bagel Run, a Florida-based bagel chain, is planning to open a new location in the Houston Heights this fall, according to a company representative. 

On the menu: Located on Yale Street, the bagel shop will serve an assortment of bagels, including asiago, blueberry, cinnamon sugar, garlic, poppy seed and sesame, among other bagel flavors. 

The backstory: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeff and Danielle Perera began running freshly baked bagels over to their friends and neighbors.

The demand for the bagel runs continued to grow until the couple opened their first storefront in 2021, turning the home kitchen operation into a national franchise.

• 2702 Yale St., Houston

The Houston-Pasadena region rose one spot, and is now ranked No. 6 out of 226 metropolitan areas for its number of high ozone days, according to the 2026 State of the Air report released by the American Lung Association on April 21.

Looking back: The region was ranked No. 7 in 2025, Community Impact previously reported. Between 2022-24, the Houston region’s annual weighted average of high ozone days was 43.3, according to the report.

Some context: Ozone air pollution, aka smog, is a lung irritant and can cause health problems, such as chest tightness, coughing and shortness of breath, according to the ALA.

What else: With regard to annual particle pollution, the Houston-Pasadena area ranked No. 8 out of 211 metropolitan areas. The region also ranked No. 89 out of 224 metropolitan areas for 24-hour particle pollution, according to the report.

Demolition of the vacant Northwest Mall is underway within the Hwy. 290 and Loop 610 corridor, the site for a proposed train station that would offer high-speed travel between Houston and Dallas, a project spokesperson confirmed with Community Impact.

What we know: Demolition began in mid-April and is expected to take approximately 12 months, the spokesperson said. The historic mall opened in 1968 but shuttered its doors in 2017, causing the building to sit abandoned for nearly 10 years.

The spokesperson did not answer questions regarding the approval process for the proposed high-speed rail project, which has not received an official green light, or a timeline for any construction beyond the demolition.

Some context: Texas Central, which has since rebranded to Texas High Speed Rail, originally led the project as a privately-funded venture, Community Impact previously reported. Amtrak then temporarily joined the project after receiving a $63.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. 

However, the federal government pulled the grant last year due to ballooning costs, pushing the project back to the private sector. 

Camp Mystic, the Texas Hill Country camp where 28 people died in catastrophic flooding last July, announced April 30 that it will not welcome campers this summer.

The background: The decision comes nearly 10 months after 25 young campers, two teenage counselors and the camp’s executive director, Dick Eastland, died as the Guadalupe River camp flooded July 4. Camp Mystic’s owners had planned to open a secondary campsite called Cypress Lake in late May, but backed down at the urging of flood victims’ families and state lawmakers.

What's happening: A spokesperson for the Department of State Health Services, which licenses youth camps, confirmed to Community Impact that Camp Mystic had withdrawn its application to operate in summer 2026. 

In a statement, Camp Mystic officials said they did not want to “unintentionally effect further harm” on flood victims and their families.

"We also recognize that over 800 girls want to return to Camp Mystic Cypress Lake this summer," they wrote. "Our special bond with our Camp Mystic families does not change or end with the announcement."