Two new shops are set to open at the Houston Premium Outlets in Cypress later this month, the shopping center announced April 30 in a news release.

At a glance: Beauty retailer Sephora and outdoor apparel brand Timberland have joined the directory at Houston Premium Outlets, an outlet mall located off Hwy. 290 near the Grand Parkway.

Both stores are expected to open in late May, per the release. Shoppers can find the Sephora located near Vuori and Timberland located near Victoria's Secret.

A quick note: Two other stores have also relocated within the outlet mall, according to the announcement. Clothing retailer Pacsun can now be found near American Eagle, and the Aldo Outlet has moved near Nautica.

• 29300 Hempstead Road, Cypress

Graduates of Lone Star College System's fall, spring and summer courses for the 2025-26 school year will receive diplomas at ceremonies to be held May 9-16, according to a May 4 news release from the college system.

The overview: Eleven graduation ceremonies will be held for LSCS's Class of 2026 students, according to the release. Graduates will be receiving diplomas and certifications such as:

• Baccalaureate
• Associate
• Workforce and certificates
• GED completion
• Early College High School completion

In a one-year snapshot of Greater Houston attitudes, residents expressed the largest drop in confidence about regional job opportunities in more than 40 years, according to survey results released April 27 from the Kinder Institute for Urban Research.

About the data: Rice University researchers collected nearly 9,000 responses between January and February from residents in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties.

At a glance: One quarter of residents across all three counties named the economy as the “biggest problem” facing the Houston area this year compared to 16% in 2025, survey results show.

Crime and safety was the second-most commonly identified problem, followed by the cost of housing for Harris County residents and traffic for residents of Fort Bend and Montgomery counties. 

Another detail: The percentage of residents reporting they are “just getting by” or “finding it difficult to get by” increased across all income groups in the past year, survey results show.

Also of note: About 7 in 10 residents expressed concern about the environment’s effects on their health, researchers found. 

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."