With midterm elections approaching, several North Texas legislators representing McKinney are up for reelection, including state representatives Keresa Richardson, Matt Shaheen, Jeff Leach and Candy Noble.

The details: During the 2025 Texas legislative session, these lawmakers voted on several key bills that were signed into law, including:

• House Bill 2, which appropriated $8.4 billion for public school funding and increased educator salaries.

• Senate Bill 2, which allocated $1 billion for education savings accounts for private school or homeschooling expenses.

• House Bill 4, which established new congressional boundaries for the 2026 midterm elections.

• Senate Bill 1, which enacted summer camp safety measures following fatal floods at Camp Mystic.

• Senate Bill 23 and Senate Bill 4, which raised homestead property tax exemptions.

• House Bill 1481, which banned student cellphone use during the school day.

• Senate Bill 13, which increased parental oversight of school library materials.

A clothing boutique called Grace+Emma is now open in downtown McKinney, a marketing representative confirmed.

The gist: The store sells women’s apparel including tops, dresses and pants. Grace+Emma also sells accessories such as jewelry, hats, scrunchies and bags.

• 101 E Louisiana St., Ste. 100, McKinney

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality must stop issuing new permits for data centers, Gov. Greg Abbott said Sept. 21.

The overview: His order expands an existing pause on data center development in the state amid consistent public criticism of the booming industry. Abbott, who is running for a fourth term as governor, has recently moved to slow the growth of data centers after calling Texas “the epicenter of AI development" last year.

The context: Hundreds of proposed data centers are currently being audited by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state power grid.

Some developers may be able to get around the ERCOT pause by building in-house power infrastructure that is not connected to the grid, experts have said.

However, any construction project impacting at least 1 acre of land requires permits from TCEQ.

What they're saying: "As Texas faces increasing pressure on our water supplies and electric grid, we need to ensure that data centers operate efficiently and sustainably," said Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas.