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- BG Reads 3.27.2025
BG Reads 3.27.2025
🟪 BG Reads - March 27, 2025
Presented By:
March 27, 2025
✅ Today's BG Reads include:
🟪 A bill that would put Austin under state control is dead – for now (KUT)
🟪 UT hopes to play leading role in Austin’s evolving development scene (Austin Monitor)
🟪 Stream Realty aiming to change Sixth Street's 'Dirty Sixth' reputation — these tenants are being targeted (Austin Business Journal)
🟪 Texas speaker says House has more than enough votes to pass school vouchers (Houston Chronicle)
🟪 The plight of boys and men, once sidelined by Democrats, is now a priority (NBC News)
Read On!
[COMMUNITY]
⚾ Check out the joint Austin Chamber and Round Rock Chamber April Area Business Connections Event, on Wednesday, April 2nd, at Dell Diamond Stadium.
The evening features two dynamic panels—one on the business of entertainment and venues, and another on infrastructure and economic growth—highlighting regional leaders and public officials.
Open to members and non-members. More Here!
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
🏛️ City Hall:
🏛️ City Memos:
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
✅ A bill that would put Austin under state control is dead – for now (KUT)
The City of Austin can keep making its own budgets and laws. A bill creating a "District of Austin" that would've given state lawmakers the final say on local decisions was voted down 11-0 by the Texas House State Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
During a committee hearing on the measure was last week, Houston-area state Rep. Briscoe Cain, the bill's author, offered little detail on where Austin City Council's responsibilities would end and where state lawmakers' would begin. The Deer Park Republican cited a spike in crime as proof the state needed to take over operations.
Though Austin has struggled to staff its police department, local data submitted to the FBI shows violent crime is down 20% compared to two years ago. Even Cain's Republican colleagues were skeptical of the proposal, which was paired with a bill to put the issue to a statewide vote. Members of the committee chuckled ahead of a unanimous vote Wednesday to reject the plan… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Carole Strayhorn, first woman to serve as Texas comptroller, dies at 85 (Texas Tribune)
Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a trailblazing Texas politician who was the first woman elected for the roles of mayor of Austin and state comptroller, died Wednesday.
She was 85. Strayhorn passed surrounded by her family in Austin, according to an obituary provided by her son, Scott McClellan. A dedicated Austinite, Keeton was born and raised in the city and attended the University of Texas at Austin.
She served on the board of trustees for Austin Independent School District before becoming the city’s first female mayor in 1977, serving three terms. Strayhorn served two terms as Texas Comptroller, from 1999 to early 2007.
While running as a Republican for comptroller, toward the end of her tenure she ran an unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign as an independent against former Gov. Rick Perry during the 2006 election, where she referred to herself as “one tough grandma.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ UT hopes to play leading role in Austin’s evolving development scene (Austin Monitor)
At Wednesday’s Urban Land Institute Austin breakfast discussion, interim University of Texas President Jim Davis offered a candid assessment of the university’s evolving role in Austin’s booming development scene. Once regarded as one of the city’s largest builders and employers, Davis said UT now finds itself competing for attention alongside tech giants and multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects transforming the area. “There was a point in time that UT was like the big builder in town. We’re not anymore, not in this town,” Davis said, pointing to challenges the university faces in attracting contractors and improving its partnerships. “We’re struggling to be in the top 10 anymore of people who want to come work for us. … Sometimes we’re hard to work with.” Those remarks, delivered to a room full of developers and land use professionals, touched on the university’s long-term ambitions to reshape its real estate strategy, including plans to install caps over portions of Interstate 35 near campus, expand student housing and better align future construction with Austin’s workforce and economic development goals… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Austin City Council to vote on extending license plate reader program trial (CBS Austin)
The future of automated license plate readers in Austin is set to be decided by the City Council, as the trial run of the controversial program comes to an end. The use of these cameras, which was suspended in 2020 due to concerns about unfair targeting, was reinstated for a one-year trial following community discussions and updated guidelines.
Forty cameras have been deployed across the city, capturing license plates and feeding vehicle information back to the Austin Police Department. The data is retained for seven days, and the cameras only photograph license plates, not drivers… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Stream Realty aiming to change Sixth Street's 'Dirty Sixth' reputation — these tenants are being targeted (Austin Business Journal)
New restaurants and coffee shops could be the key to turning East Sixth Street into a vibrant daytime destination. That’s according to Paul Bodenman, senior vice president of investments at Stream Realty Partners, who said the company — which owns more than 30 properties along East Sixth from I-35 to Congress Avenue — is aiming to bring in daytime-focused food and beverage businesses as a means of enticing more than just late-night revelers to the historic stretch of downtown Austin.
“We're looking to serve as the catalyst for change on Sixth Street and to really return Sixth Street back into what is a true neighborhood street district,” Bodenman said, speaking March 25 during an "Issues & Eggs" panel discussion hosted by the Downtown Austin Alliance.
“The fastest way to change the perception of not only Sixth Street, but really any area or any part of town, is to go have an amazing meal with friends or family," he said. "Spend three or four hours down in that area, and you will bring your friends, you will bring your family back, you will bring other people back.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
✅ Texas speaker says House has more than enough votes to pass school vouchers (Houston Chronicle)
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows on Tuesday said more than enough House members are lined up in support of private school vouchers, building on his earlier optimism that the measure would overcome longstanding opposition from Democrats and rural Republicans.
The Republican speaker vowed legislation allowing public dollars to be spent on private schools would clear a committee early next week and be on the House floor “very soon thereafter — and pass.”
So far 76 Republicans have signed onto the bill, which would pour $1 billion into “education savings accounts” that students could spend on private school tuition, tutoring and other education costs.
That marks a narrow majority in the House. Burrows said he expects even more members would vote for it. Burrows made the comments at a joint press conference with Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — a show of GOP unity on the issue that has driven division in the party previously and had a hand in the last speaker’s downfall. Abbott spent months campaigning against House Republicans who opposed the voucher bill last session, backing many candidates who eventually rebelled against Burrow’s predecessor, Dade Phelan.
Patrick, who regularly butted heads with Phelan, backed a failed primary bid against him. Patrick claimed Tuesday that he has “never had a better working relationship with a speaker.”
Also at the press conference was Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who touted the state’s first-in-the-nation voucher program. Ducey said 13 other states have followed Arizona’s lead in passing similar programs, but “no state even close to as big, as impactful and as consequential as Texas has passed it.” “When Texas passes this, it changes everything for every child in this state and across the nation,” Ducey said… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Republican moves to censure Rep. Jasmine Crockett over (Politico)
A Texas Republican is proposing to censure Rep. Jasmine Crockett after she appeared to make light of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s use of a wheelchair.
The Dallas-area Democrat has drawn backlash after referring to Abbott, who was paralyzed after a tree fell on him over 40 years ago, as “Governor Hot Wheels” during a Human Rights Campaign gala on Saturday.
That prompted Rep. Randy Weber to file a censure resolution Wednesday targeting Crockett: “The story of our great Governor of Texas is one of unwavering resilience and perseverance. Meanwhile, the actions of Jasmine Crockett — stooping to vile levels of discrimination and despicable political attacks — are nothing short of reprehensible,” he said in a statement. It’s not clear when or if the measure will come to the House floor.
Weber said in a brief interview he did not have immediate plans to call it up as a privileged measure, which would kick off an expedited timeline to force its consideration… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US and World News]
✅ The plight of boys and men, once sidelined by Democrats, is now a priority (NBC News)
For Democrats, reaching male voters became a political necessity after last fall’s election, when young men swung significantly toward President Donald Trump. But for some — like Maryland Gov. Wes Moore — it’s also a personal goal. The first-term governor, who has spoken about his own struggles as a teenager, recently announced plans to direct his “entire administration” to find ways to help struggling boys and men.
“The well-being of our young men and boys has not been a societal priority,” Moore said in an interview. “I want Maryland to be the one that is aggressive and unapologetic about being able to address it and being able to fix it.”
Moore’s not the only Democrat vowing to help boys and men. In her State of the State address, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer shared plans to help boost young men’s enrollment in higher education and skills training. And Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced what he called “a DEI initiative, which folks on both sides of the aisle may appreciate,” to get more men into teaching.
The announcements come at a critical time. Researchers have argued that the widening gender gap reflects a crisis that, if not addressed, could push men toward extremism. And Democratic pollsters fret that if liberal politicians, in particular, do not address these issues, the party is at risk of losing more men to the GOP.
“When Trump talks about fixing the economy and being strong, they hear someone who gets it,” said John Della Volpe, director of polling at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, and an adviser to Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. “That doesn’t mean they trust him. But it does mean he’s speaking to their reality in a way most Democrats aren’t.”…
✅ Trump announces new 25% tariff on imported cars and car parts (NPR)
President Trump said on Wednesday that he will impose 25% tariffs on imported cars and car parts starting next week, using his national security powers to take the action.
"I think our automobile business will flourish like it's never flourished before," Trump said in remarks from the Oval Office. The United Auto Workers union praised the move, saying it could mean more shifts for workers at plants with spare capacity. The latest policy is yet another example of the president's tariff-centric second-term economic agenda.
Thus far, Trump has imposed tariffs on Chinese goods, steel and aluminum, and some goods from Canada and Mexico. Mexico is by far the largest exporter of auto parts to the U.S., followed by Canada, China, Japan, and South Korea, according to Commerce Department data.
The list of the biggest vehicle exporters is similar: Mexico far outstrips other countries, followed by Japan, South Korea, Canada, and Germany… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Trump says Signal chat isn’t ‘really an FBI thing.’ The FBI has a long history of such inquiries (Associated Press)
FBI Director Kash Patel was not part of a Signal chat in which other Trump administration national security officials discussed detailed attack plans, but that didn’t spare him from being questioned by lawmakers this week about whether the nation’s premier law enforcement agency would investigate.
Patel made no such commitments during the course of two days of Senate and House hearings. Instead, he testified that he had not personally reviewed the text messages that were inadvertently shared with the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic who was mistakenly included on an unclassified Signal chat.
That Patel would be grilled on what the FBI might do was hardly surprising. Even as President Donald Trump insisted “it’s not really an FBI thing,” the reality is that the FBI and Justice Department for decades have been responsible for enforcing Espionage Act statutes governing the mishandling — whether intentional or negligent — of national defense information like the kind shared on Signal, a publicly available app that provides encrypted communications but is not approved for classified information… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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