Austin Gamblers, the city’s first professional bull-riding team, has now commenced its fifth season in the PBR Camping World Team Series.

The context: The Gamblers were established in 2022 after PBR switched from being an individual sport for 30 years to a regional team format. The Gamblers gave locals another home team to root for and out-of-towners another reason to visit Austin, tourism data shows.

Learn more: The team kicked off its season July 10 in Colorado, and riders are heading back down south in late August for their only local event of the season: Gambler Days. The three-day bull riding event signifies half a decade of competition, growth and economic impact on city tourism.

The local impact: In 2025, Gambler Days generated approximately $4.5 million in direct economic impact to the Greater Austin region, according to Nathan Kopp, Austin Sports Commission executive director. That impact translated to about 5,800 hotel rooms and $218,000 in local tax revenue.

Asmbly Makerspace, a local Austin creative community, is celebrating five years of operations. The space serves as Austin’s largest nonprofit makerspace, according to Asmbly’s website, offering access to woodshop, metal shop, a ceramics studio and more. 

“It's a little bit mind-boggling to me that it's only been five years because so much has just completely changed about the space,” Wilmont said. “We've gone from 8,000-square-feet to 13,333-square-feet. We were at 250 members, now we're at 575.”

What they offer: The makerspace is a membership-based organization with access to the woodshop, metal shop, lasers, textiles, 3D printing and electronics lab. Asmbly Makerspace also hosts classes and events for the community, including markets, demonstrations and showcases. 

• 9701 Dessau Road, Ste. 304, Austin

Texas is halting the approval of new data center projects until state regulators can audit all data centers seeking to connect to the power grid, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Aug. 3.

The overview: The governor directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to conduct “a comprehensive verification and audit” of all data center applicants “before any additional data centers are approved to move forward.” 

Data center regulation has emerged as a bipartisan issue in recent months, and the move comes amid both growing public criticism of Texas’ booming data center industry and recent political pressure for Abbott to respond.

Zooming in: Abbott asked the PUC and ERCOT to collect information about the tax exemptions each data center is collecting; details about each project's anticipated water and electricity usage; and how data center developers will work to limit noise, light pollution and other impacts on local communities.

Officials did not say how long the pause would last or when the audits would begin.