More than a year after we asked the University of Texas for a copy of a contract with a firm that offers advice on handling the new frontier of student-athletes and sponsorship money, the state attorney general's office forced university officials to fork over an unredacted copy.

Why it matters: University administrators have acknowledged they defer to business interests — instead of simply releasing information to the public.

Details: UT officials had refused to tell Axios Austin how much the university was paying Altius Sports Partners to consult on name-image-likeness (NIL) issues involving student-athletes.

• A couple years ago, the NCAA, under public and court pressure, relaxed rules that had prevented student-athletes from making a buck off their name, image or likeness.
• UT athletes earned more than $2 million in NIL payments during the first athletic year since the rule change, the American-Statesman reported last year.

What they're saying: "What we see, and what we find very troublesome, is governmental entities — not just UT — sitting back and letting private companies control everything when it comes to what the public knows," Kelley Shannon, executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, tells Axios.

The other side: Altius had argued that disclosing the information would "cause substantial competitive harm" in a letter Courtney Brunious, chief operating officer of Altius Sports Partners, wrote to the AG's office in September.

However, citing state law that requires final contract pricing and other key information be made public, the attorney general's office ruled that chunks of the redacted contract had to be unredacted.

• UT is currently paying Altius $7,000 a month and up to $252,000 over three years, per the unredacted document turned over to Axios.

A closer examination of the contract

With last year's population surge, Texas became the second state, after California, to surpass 30 million residents.

Driving the news: Texas saw the most population growth among states between 2021 and 2022, per the U.S. Census Bureau.

By the numbers: The Lone Star State added 470,708 people between July 2021 and July 2022, reaching a total population of 30,029,572, according to data released late last month.

• Texas' population grew in three ways: net domestic migration (230,961), net international migration (118,614) and natural increase (118,159).

Zoom in: New city and county data will be released later this year, but Census Bureau data released last year showed Georgetown was the fastest growing city nationally from July 2020 to July 2021 — increasing by 10.5%.

• Next was Leander (10.1%) ... and New Braunfels (8.3%) took fifth.

Why it matters: Once reliably red, these suburbs are now politically purple as emigres from liberal Austin — and from around the world — head ever farther out of town to buy their first homes.

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🛬 The Austin airport had at least 235 delayed departures and 38 cancellations after the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily halted all air traffic. (KUT)

📉 Startup Cart.com officials announced that they would lay off an undisclosed number of employees, a sign that the e-commerce software market is cooling. (Austin Inno)

 🦠 Austin Public Health officials said the COVID-19 omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 was officially identified in Austin-Travis County. (KXAN)

“XBB.1.5 contains more mutations capable of evading immunity than any other variant."

Austinites hoping to check out Prince Harry’s memoir, “Spare,” should settle in for a long wait.

What happened: The book came out Tuesday, but you can't find a single copy on the shelf at Austin-area libraries.

By the numbers: More than 350 Austin Public Library patrons have joined the waitlist for one of 54 copies of the book.

• An additional 410 holds were placed on 25 copies of the eBook.
• Roughly 567 people were in line for one of 29 copies of the downloadable audiobook.

What they're saying: Austin Public Library spokesperson Baylor Johnson said when staff sees high demand for a book, "We definitely take notice.

• "We look at our collections budget and determine whether or not we need to purchase more copies to ensure that wait times are reasonable," Johnson told Axios.

Zoom out: Even longer waitlists have been reported beyond Austin, according to our colleagues at Axios Twin Cities, D.C. and Richmond.

Driving the interest: "Spare” climbed to the No. 1 bestseller spots on Amazon in the U.S. and U.K. and at Barnes & Noble following a "press frenzy" over juicy leaks and pre-publication interviews.

Dig deeper: Harry’s memoir in three sentences

"Spare" waitlists in surrounding counties

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Austin’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management kicked off its 2024 emergency preparedness calendar contest, calling on kindergarten through eighth grade students to create artwork around safety messaging.

☔️ Be smart: Emergency officials are looking for artwork that contains a safety message about a specific hazard like severe weather, flash flooding, excessive heat or cold conditions.

• Artwork can contain emergency preparedness information such as building a kit or staying informed.

The bottom line: Students looking for emergency preparedness inspiration can head to readycentraltexas.org and ready.gov.

• Artwork must be submitted by 11:59pm on March 31.
• Front cover and monthly winning artists will receive trophies and NOAA weather radios at a City Hall award ceremony. Honorable mentions will receive a ribbon.