- The BG Reads
- Posts
- BG Reads 2.21.2025
BG Reads 2.21.2025
🟪 BG Reads - February 21, 2025
Bingham Group Reads
Presented by:
February 21, 2025
✅ Today's BG Reads include:
🟪 $105M federal grant for Austin’s I-35 ‘cap and stitch’ project on shaky ground (KXAN)
🟪 Silicon Labs wins Texas CHIPS Act funds to expand here (Austin Business Journal)
🟪 Texas lawmakers want to make it easier to convert office space into apartments and condos (Texas Tribune)
🟪 After NASA was spared job cuts, attention now shifts to Pentagon and Texas military bases (Houston Chronicle)
Read On!
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
✅ $105M federal grant for Austin’s I-35 ‘cap and stitch’ project on shaky ground (KXAN)
Austin City Council members received several major transportation updates during its Mobility Committee meeting Thursday including how federal grants may be impacted by changes in federal leadership and a progress update on Austin’s light rail project.
The committee also looked at the mobility project planning process and got a report from the Transportation and Public Works Department (TPWD) on mobility programs and projects in progress. You can find the full meeting details here.
TPWD said city staff are reviewing current and pending federal funding agreements after the Department of Transportation (DOT) put out new guidance on how funding will be distributed to better align with the priorities of President Donald Trump’s administration… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Austin's new CapMetro Rapid lines debut this weekend with buses every 20 minutes (KUT)
Capital Metro is finally rolling out its long-awaited Rapid lines this weekend, but "rapid" for now will mean a 20- to 30-minute wait for the next bus.
Originally slated for 2023 with ambitious plans for an all-electric fleet, 10-minute frequency and end-of-line park and rides, the Rapid routes — formerly known as MetroRapid — will launch with reduced service and diesel vehicles instead of battery-powered.
Neither of the two park and rides is ready yet, so the routes will end at temporary stations nearby. Pleasant Valley Route 800, from southeast Austin to northeast Austin, will stop at the southeast corner of Slaughter Lane and Vertex Boulevard. The Expo Rapid Route 837 will have a temporary stop at the northwest corner of Loyola and Decker Lanes… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ SXSW, public safety leaders detail road closures and prep for festival season (Austin Monitor)
The city plans to completely close or restrict more than 30 streets during the South by Southwest festival next month as part of safety planning for the event, a major economic driver for the area.
The heads of all of the city’s relevant safety and planning departments participated in an online forum Thursday that detailed the closures as well as the steps public safety entities are planning for this year’s spring festival season, which also includes the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, the MotoGP Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas and the Moontower Comedy Festival, all running in addition to SXSW from early March through the third week of April.
Among the major changes this year, the free public concert series has been moved to Brush Square Park on two stages operating from March 10-15. Festival and public safety leaders stressed the importance of the public staying aware of planned street closures, and the considerations in place for residents and businesses located in affected areas… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Silicon Labs wins Texas CHIPS Act funds to expand here (Austin Business Journal)
Austin-based Silicon Laboratories Inc. has secured funding to expand here. The fabless semiconductor company said Feb. 19 that it has been awarded a $23 million grant from the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund, which is part of the Texas CHIPS Act.
The funds will help the company set up a new research and development lab in Austin where it will focus on next-generation IoT wireless tech and semiconductor design. "
As a Texas-born company and global IoT wireless leader, Silicon Labs is committed to driving innovation, fostering economic growth, and developing a talented workforce in the state," Silicon Labs President and CEO Matt Johnson stated. "The Texas CHIPS Act funding will empower us to accelerate wireless chip design, create transformative technologies and strengthen Texas' leadership in the semiconductor industry."
Gov. Greg Abbott said the grant is expected to spur more than $80 million in total capital investment and "further cement Texas' position as a trailblazer in technological advancement and keep Texas at the epicenter of the semiconductor industry."… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Newly minted commercial real estate developer now responsible for Mueller, Colony Park (Austin Business Journal)
A new commercial real estate development firm is launching in Austin with major mixed-use developments in its portfolio through a partnership with another prominent company. Arterra Development LLC is being led by founder and CEO Greg Weaver, formerly executive vice president of Catellus Development Corp.
Arterra will serve as development and asset manager of multiple Catellus projects, including Austin’s Mueller and Colony Park developments and San Antonio’s Victoria Commons.
“I came up with this opportunity to allow me to take my team with me here in Austin and start up my own company and do it in partnership with Catellus,” said Weaver, who became prominent in Austin real estate more than 20 years ago when Catellus was redeveloping Austin's old airport into the Mueller neighborhood.
“It was just a really unique and fortunate situation that allowed me to chase my dreams, and it allowed me to continue to work with Catellus. So I had business and opportunities on day one — I didn’t have to start from scratch.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
✅ Texas lawmakers want to make it easier to convert office space into apartments and condos (Texas Tribune)
As Texas’ major urban areas grapple with a glut of vacant offices, state lawmakers may make it easier to transform empty office and commercial space into dwellings.
A bill by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, a Mineola Republican, would effectively allow owners of struggling office properties in the state’s largest cities to convert that space into residences. The bill would forbid cities and counties from requiring owners of flagging office buildings and commercial properties like shopping malls and strip centers to go through a rezoning process if they want to add apartments or condominiums.
The idea is among a slate of proposals state lawmakers are weighing to remove barriers to housing construction and boost housing options to put a dent in Texas’ deep housing shortage — a key driver of the state’s high home prices and rents… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Rates of pregnancy-related sepsis and deaths grow in Texas after abortion ban (Texas Tribune)
Pregnancy became far more dangerous in Texas after the state banned abortion in 2021, ProPublica found in a first-of-its-kind data analysis.
The rate of sepsis shot up more than 50% for women hospitalized when they lost their pregnancies in the second trimester, ProPublica found.
The surge in this life-threatening condition, caused by infection, was most pronounced for patients whose fetus may still have had a heartbeat when they arrived at the hospital.
ProPublica previously reported on two such cases in which miscarrying women in Texas died of sepsis after doctors delayed evacuating their uteruses. Doing so would have been considered an abortion.
The new reporting shows that, after the state banned abortion, dozens more pregnant and postpartum women died in Texas hospitals than had in pre-pandemic years, which ProPublica used as a baseline to avoid COVID-19-related distortions.
As the maternal mortality rate dropped nationally, ProPublica found, it rose substantially in Texas… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ After NASA was spared job cuts, attention now shifts to Pentagon and Texas military bases (Houston Chronicle)
With each passing day, President Donald Trump’s administration seems to set its sights on a different agency for job cuts. Last week the Energy Department and Department of Health and Human Services lost hundreds of workers.
But now the attention is getting a lot more Texas-oriented. After an initial scare earlier in the day, NASA employees at the Johnson Space Center learned Tuesday night that the center’s probationary employees would be spared from the latest round of layoffs under the Trump administration.
Now it's the Pentagon’s turn to sweat it out. Trump’s team has directed defense agencies to turn over a list of their probationary employees, with the expectation that many could be fired as soon as this week, according to reporting by the Washington Post.
With 15 military bases that directly employ over 200,000 people and support an ecosystem of defense contractors, Texas has a lot at stake in what the Trump administration does next. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, said he’s worried that the “reckless and dangerous” way the administration is slashing agencies could ultimately hurt San Antonio. Joint Base San Antonio employs more than 65,000 people directly and another 240,000 indirectly in jobs. “It is only a matter of time before they get to the Department of Defense,” Castro said.
“I am very concerned about the manner in which these cuts are taking place.” The Pentagon, with a budget of more than $840 billion, is the federal government’s largest agency. It has about 950,000 civilian employees. Castro said the administration's cuts to the National Institutes of Health last week hit particularly close to home for him. Castro, a cancer patient himself, said he worries that the cuts will hit researchers working on finding cures for diseases.
The White House tried to counter that criticism, saying their cuts are aimed at making sure money is getting to the research it's supposed to be funding.
“Contrary to the hysteria, redirecting billions of allocated NIH spending away from administrative bloat means there will be more money and resources available for legitimate scientific research, not less,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement to the media last week… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US and World News]
✅ Progressives struggle to stem bleeding after brutal year (The Hill)
Progressives are struggling with recruitment, morale and fundraising as they seek a path forward heading into next year’s midterm elections. While some on the left, such as Justice Democrats, have called for primary challenges to moderate Democrats in 2026, many progressives acknowledge the hurdles and lack of attention they face.
Despite a couple of names floated, like former Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) who is believed to be considering another House bid, liberals are more disorganized about their potential challenger roster. They’re also contending with waning donor enthusiasm.
All together, these predicaments paint a picture of a left wing in trouble, with little idea of how to repair itself after a damaging year. “I don’t think there’s a single human, including myself, that honestly knows what to do next,” said a longtime Democratic strategist who’s worked on progressive campaigns. “Do I want to do this anymore? How strategic can I really be?”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Trump’s attempts to denigrate Zelenskyy have led to a surge in Ukrainian unity (Associated Press)
Days before the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainians are as somber and tense as they were right before Moscow launched the war.
Only now, they aren’t just worried about their longtime enemy. Ukraine’s stunning new threat comes from its once staunchest ally, the United States, whose support appears to be fading as President Donald Trump echoes the narrative of Russian President Vladimir Putin while pledging to stop the fighting between the two countries.
Over three years of war, Ukraine’s initial unity had started to wear thin, as old frictions and political spats reemerged. But after Trump’s false claims this week that Ukraine is led by a “dictator” who started the war with Russia, even some of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s harshest critics have rallied around him and feelings of unity have surged again… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Copyright (C) " target="_blank">unsubscribe