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What to Know:
- DIR plans to issue a solicitation for wireless, pager and satellite communications services through the Texas Agency Network program.
- The procurement will cover cellular voice and data plans, wireless infrastructure services and related equipment for eligible government customers.
- Multiple vendors may be selected to provide services under indefinite quantity contracts.
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What to Know:
- The lawsuit challenges the comptroller’s 2025 emergency rule that converted the Historically Underutilized Business program into Veteran Heroes United in Business.
- Plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the emergency rule null and void, block enforcement through temporary and permanent injunctions and reinstate HUB certifications.
- The Global Black Economic Forum says the stakes include more than $4 billion in Fiscal Year 2024 state contracting that went to HUB businesses and more than $1.6 billion in HUB spending by three named agencies.
What to Know:
- A Texas Republican primary turned AI infrastructure into a rural political issue, with Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller warning that data centers threaten farmland, water supplies and ranch communities.
- Voters still chose Abbott-backed challenger Nate Sheets, suggesting the political and economic push behind AI development outweighed Miller’s attempt to make server farms a campaign issue.
- Data centers are expanding into rural areas because they need large sites, power and water, setting up an ongoing clash between AI growth and agricultural land use in Texas and other Republican-led states.
What to Know:
- Kerrville Public Utility Board is leading a regional partnership funded through the Texas Middle Mile Program to strengthen flood monitoring and warning capabilities in Kerr County.
- The buildout is designed to move data from stream and rain gauges, weather stations and Texas Department of Transportation bridge sensors in near real time.
- Partners include river authorities, local governments, Hill Country Telephone Cooperative and the Texas Department of Transportation.
What to Know:
- The Texas Space Commission approved $9.3 million for UT Austin to establish a Space Domain Awareness Tools, Applications and Processing Lab supporting U.S. Space Force work.
- UT Austin and the Space Force describe the effort as part of an accelerator framework designed to move new space domain awareness software and analytics toward operational use.
- UT Austin said the lab is designed to run multiple cohort cycles that bring in private-sector teams for structured development aligned with Space Force priorities.
What to Know:
- The agency is hiring a data analyst VI to serve as a data technology and governance lead within the IT Division.
- The role focuses on enterprise data governance and integrity, including setting data standards, improving data quality and leading advanced analysis and reporting.
- Applicants need a bachelor’s degree and at least seven years of relevant data experience, with additional experience in data architecture, reporting or BI tools also required.
What to Know:
- CapMetro’s board approved $4.5 million in tech-related contracts at its Feb. 23 meeting.
- The meeting's consent agenda covered about $3.8 million in tech purchases.
- A separate action item approved a five-year renewal of the Cisco Security Enterprise Agreement for about $720,000.
What to Know:
- DIR reported $882 million in cooperative contract purchases in Q1 FY 2026, down 11 percent year-over-year.
- DIR approved three new Enterprise Technology Solution Services awards, expanding beyond Deloitte as the prior sole provider.
- DIR extended Symbio Ecosystems sourcing and transition support until 2027.
What to Know:
- Hays County commissioners postponed a proposed 30-day moratorium on high-water-use developments, citing concerns the county may not have the legal authority to impose it.
- County leaders are urging Gov. Greg Abbott and the Legislature to give counties more power to regulate zoning, major developments and utilities as data centers expand.
- Water and power impacts are driving the debate, with officials pointing to worsening water scarcity and forecasts that data centers will sharply increase Texas electricity demand in the coming years.
What to Know:
- The department's Governing Board established an AI code of ethics with expectations for documentation, staff training, transparency when people interact with AI and processes for redress tied to AI-influenced decisions.
- Another change focused on how the data governance assessment is treated and reported by agencies and higher education institutions.
- A third action sought to align the state with the U.S. Department of Justice's digital accessibility standards.
What to Know:
- Laredo College received more than $2.2 million to launch a fiber-optic technician training program starting this fall.
- The program plans to train 150 students, with tuition and training equipment covered by the funding.
- The award is part of Texas’ $24.6 million Building the Texas Broadband Workforce Grant Program backed by the Broadband Infrastructure Fund.
Keshnel Penny, who has led Grand Prairie's IT since 2016, discusses cybersecurity, cloud-first modernization and how governance and measurable outcomes shape technology investments.
What to Know:
- Former Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG) Chief Data Officer Antonia Roesler has joined Gartner as a senior director analyst for data, analytics and AI.
- She served as OAG chief data officer from February 2021 to February 2026, leading enterprise data strategy, governance and responsible AI adoption.
- Roesler was named one of Government Technology’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers in 2025 for her leadership in modernizing data and AI operations at the OAG.
Industry Insider — Texas is pleased to welcome Darwin to the Industry Insider family.
What to Know:
- Houston approved a stopgap extension for the Houston Police Department’s current records management system contract, keeping the existing platform in place with two three-month options.
- City records show the replacement system’s go-live targets moved, with a city schedule showing an original target in 2024 and a revised target in 2025.
- The replacement system was approved in 2023 under a city agreement with Versaterm Public Safety.
What to Know:
- A new Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) report says Texas could become the world’s largest data center market by about 2030, potentially overtaking Northern Virginia as growth accelerates in “frontier markets.”
- JLL estimates Texas could reach about 10–11 gigawatts of data center capacity in the next few years based on existing facilities plus projects under construction, putting it close to Virginia’s current scale.
- The build-out is colliding with grid and environmental concerns, as Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approvals and large private investments move forward while the Energy Reliability Council of Texas reports a surge in large-load interconnection requests tied to data centers and other major facilities.
What to Know:
- VIA told the San Antonio City Council it is working to integrate its multiple rider apps into a single experience.
- VIA also said it is shifting back-end technology for VIAtrans to RideCo, aiming to better use VIA Link zone capacity to help manage VIAtrans demand and improve service quality.
- VIA’s FY 2026 budget materials lay out a broader tech plan beyond the app work, including customer relationship management, data and reporting, and a third-party cybersecurity assessment.
What to Know:
- The University of Texas System Board of Regents approved a new School of Computing at the University of Texas at Austin that is slated to open in fall 2026.
- The school will sit in the College of Natural Sciences and will unite programs spanning computer science, information, and statistics and data sciences under a single structure.
- UT Austin said it plans to hire 50 faculty members as part of the launch, aiming to expand teaching capacity and support interdisciplinary research tied to computing and artificial intelligence.
What to Know:
- The Texas Space Commission conditionally approved a $14.2 million award for Rice University to stand up a Center for Space Technologies within the Rice Space Institute.
- The Rice award completes the commission’s first $150 million round of awards, bringing the total to 24 projects.
- The commission said the Rice center is expected to focus on research and development, technology transfer, statewide partnerships, workforce training and space-focused education, with work tied to lunar exploration priorities.
What to Know:
- Midland Independent School District is adding ZeroEyes to its campuses, deploying the AI-based gun detection video analytics platform on top of existing security cameras.
- The move follows other local adopters, including Midland Christian School, which announced a ZeroEyes installation in September 2025, and Stonegate Fellowship, which added the system in January as part of its $40 million expansion.
- Midland ISD serves about 29,000 students and employs 3,200 staff across 40 campuses and is planning to open two new high schools in August 2028.
What to Know:
- The Governor's Public Safety Office awarded $149 million to Texas Tech University to expand cybersecurity research, testing and enhancements tied to critical infrastructure protection.
- The work is centered at Texas Tech’s Reese National Security Complex in Lubbock and is positioned around resilience for critical systems.
- State leaders said the effort will involve collaboration with federal partners and private industry, signaling a broader ecosystem that could shape future security and workforce needs.
What to Know:
- San Marcos City Council reversed course and rejected a key planning request for Highlander SM One LLC’s proposed $1.5 billion data center campus.
- The project has faced sustained community and planning pushback, including a restart of the application process in October and a later commission recommendation to approve in January.
- Water and power impacts are central to the debate, as data centers’ resource demands collide with local supply concerns and broader grid pressures.
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