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Carlos St. James joined the Pedernales Electric Cooperative board of directors after winning the District 2 election with 55.1% of the votes, defeating opponent Elexis Grimes.

District 2 includes Leander, parts of Cedar Park and portions of Liberty Hill while District 3 includes the southwestern region of Cedar Park, Jonestown, Lago Vista and Volente.

The details: PEC held its District 2 and 3 board elections from May 19 through June 12, with approximately 7.3% of eligible residents casting their votes.

In District 3, incumbent Mark Ekrut was reelected to his third term on the board with 53% of the vote, defeating challenger Matthew Weldon. Ekrut was elected to serve as president during the board’s June meeting.

Emily Pataki, former District 2 governor and board president, had reached her term limit after serving on the board for 12 years.

Diving in deeper: Since PEC is a member-owned electric utility cooperative, customers can vote for the board of directors, which approves decisions about rates, services and other aspects of the cooperative.

M Gelly Luxe Boards is eyeing an expansion to a brick-and-mortar location in the Leander and Liberty Hill area after nearly a year of operations. The concept offers charcuterie catering for customers in the North Austin and suburban areas.

The background: Marginelly Montanez, founder and operator of the company, began making charcuterie boards after searching for options to bring to a friend’s gathering and realizing there were few to choose from. Instead, she opted to bring her own.

“It started like a small board that people enjoyed a lot,” Montanez said. “After that, I started to create more and more boards to bring to different events, family events.”

What else? Additionally, the business offers a charcuterie cart for indoor and outdoor events as well as a monthly charcuterie box subscription.

Last year, the Austin-area job market grew faster than any other major metro in the country—adding 27,200 jobs in 2025, which represents 2% year-over-year growth, according to an April 2026 report from Opportunity Austin.

Diving in deeper: The health care industry is among the fastest-growing, and is expected to grow 2.4% annually, adding about 6,780 workers per year, said Ashley King, director of health care partnerships at Workforce Solutions Capital Area.

As of November, the education and health services sector had added 4,100 jobs, or 2.5% growth, from the prior year, according to Opportunity Austin’s January 2026 economic indicators. Meanwhile, the information sector, which includes most of Austin’s tech workforce, declined 2.4%, or about 1,200 jobs, during the same time frame, according to the report.

What's happening: Nursing programs across the country turned away 93,176 qualified applications in 2025—a record high—primarily due to insufficient clinical placement sites, faculty shortages and limited classroom space.

Despite the hurdles, health sciences was the fastest-growing area of study at Austin Community College in fall 2025.