Southwest Airlines will open a lounge at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, set to welcome guests in late 2027.

A closer look: The airline also announced on Sept. 2 its first-ever lounges will be built at:

• Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport

• Daniel K. Inouye International Airport

• Nashville International Airport

The lounges, including at Austin, are already under construction, according to a Southwest Airlines news release. The company also plans to build seven more lounges at different airports but did not specify where in the release.

Diving in deeper: ABIA is currently undergoing an expansion to accommodate passenger growth.

In July, airport officials announced that June 2026 was the airport's busiest month ever for passenger traffic, servicing 2,102,853 departing and arriving passengers. Southwest Airlines saw the most passenger traffic that month, with 916,510 passengers served, up 10.9% year over year, according to previous Community Impact reporting.

Mo Bamba, former University of Texas basketball player and NBA player, is headed back to campus. The Longhorn athlete is opening up Mo Bamba Cards & Collectibles in West Campus on Sept. 11. 

The business will welcome veteran card collectors and newcomers, according to a news release, offering sports cards, Pokémon and more. 

Dig deeper: The store will include lounge seating, community trading tables, game play, opening boxes and a TV wall showing sports events, according to the release. The business will also host monthly trade nights and collector events. 

For retail offerings, card collectors can find football, baseball, basketball, soccer and hockey trading cards, as well as Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece and Magic: The Gathering. 

Check this out: The new cards and collectables business will also act as a consignment hub. Staff will be available to assess card rarity, market value and determine if a card needs additional grading. 

• 2350 Guadalupe St., Austin

The Texas comptroller's office is requesting that lawmakers provide more than $2 billion for the second and third years of the state's education savings account program, which gives participating families taxpayer dollars for private education and homeschooling.

How we got here: The legislature created Texas Education Freedom Accounts in 2025 and allocated $1 billion for the program's first year, the 2026-27 school year.

Nearly 110,000 students have received state dollars from the program so far, and officials said providing another $1 billion annually would ensure the state can "maintain our current participation" in the next two years.

Zooming in: According to the comptroller's legislative appropriations request for the 2028-29 biennium, it would cost approximately $4 billion to maintain funding for current participants, accept the siblings of participating children who will soon qualify for the program and admit more than 106,000 waitlisted students.

Something to note: The comptroller's $2 billion base budget request would not fully cover the waitlist and interest list, which would cost nearly $4 billion for the 2027-28 and 2028-29 school years.