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- BG Reads 3.5.2025
BG Reads 3.5.2025
🟪 BG Reads - March 5, 2025
Bingham Group Reads
Presented by:
March 5, 2025
✅ Today's BG Reads include:
🟪 Austin air quality one of most unhealthy measures in Texas amid dust, wildfire smoke (Austin American-Statesman)
🟪 Opportunity Austin appoints new chairman (Austin Business Journal)
🟪 The Texas Senate wants more — and smaller — starter homes in new neighborhoods (Texas Tribune)
🟪 Read NPR's annotated fact check of President Trump's address to Congress (NPR)
Read On!
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
🏛️ City Memo: Preliminary Data for Sixth Street Safety Plan (3.3.2025)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
✅ Austin air quality one of most unhealthy measures in Texas amid dust, wildfire smoke (Austin American-Statesman)
The air is thick out there. With wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour Tuesday, dust particles were hitting eyes and tickling noses.
Then the fires in Hays County started. As of 6 p.m. Tuesday night, the air quality in Austin reached the unhealthy range and had one of the most unhealthy air quality measures in Texas, according to AirNow, which reports the official U.S. air quality.
It's a partnership of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Park Service, NASA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and tribal, state and local air quality agencies… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Opportunity Austin appoints new chairman (Austin Business Journal)
Opportunity Austin, which handles business retention and expansion efforts for the Austin region, announced that Gary Farmer is stepping into a new role as a "key strategic contributor" after serving as the chairman of its board of directors for 16 years of its 22-year history.
Casey Dobson, a partner at law firm Scott Douglass & McConnico LLP who has served as vice chair since 2017 and a member of the board since 2012, took over the role on Jan. 1 after he was approved by the board of directors, according to a March 4 announcement. Dobson was credited with aiding in courting the big investments made by Tesla Inc. in eastern Travis County and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. in Taylor. "OA’s work and success would not have been possible without the help of Gary’s leadership over the past 20 years.
We’re grateful that he will continue to serve on the board and further our 5.0 strategic plan," Dobson said in a statement. "Looking ahead, I’m focused on expanding our international impact by attracting foreign investment and driving business growth. With life sciences as a key priority, we will continue collaborating with regional partners to strengthen our ecosystem and build lasting economic success."… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ HUD cuts could endanger portion of more than $15M in federal housing funds (Austin Monitor)
The city could see significant disruptions to its affordable housing and homelessness programs as a result of proposed federal budget cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to a memo released last week.
The memo, issued by intergovernmental relations officer Carrie Rogers, advises that reductions in HUD staffing and funding could affect critical local housing programs that rely on federal grants, potentially slowing the city’s progress in addressing affordability and homelessness.
City officials are closely monitoring reports that HUD may reduce its workforce by as much as 50 percent, with some divisions such as the Office of Community Planning and Development facing cuts as high as 84 percent. CPD oversees multiple grant programs that provide direct assistance to Austin, including the Community Development Block Grant, HOME Investment Partnerships Program, Emergency Solutions Grant, Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS, and Continuum of Care funding.
The memo outlines how Austin currently receives approximately $14 million annually in HUD block grants, with an additional $14 million awarded in January to support homelessness services through local nonprofit partners. These funds support a range of programs, including rental assistance, down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers, emergency shelter funding and infrastructure investments in low-income areas like Colony Park… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Rally Austin eyes affordability programs for creatives in 2026 bond package (Austin Monitor)
Rally Austin, the nonprofit tasked with helping to preserve and expand Austin’s cultural spaces, is eyeing three programs in the city’s upcoming 2026 bond election, including expanding the city’s cultural trust.
During a recent meeting of the Austin Music Commission, organization leaders delivered information from its annual report that included a look at plans to seek bond funding to support local music venues, arts spaces and other creative infrastructure projects.
The three programs would potentially be part of a much larger package of programs and capital projects across all city departments that voters will have a chance to approve funding for, including a substantial portfolio of climate-related needs. In addition to more cultural trust funding for creative spaces, Rally Austin is also developing a proposal for a commercial trust program that would specifically benefit legacy businesses.
Another major component would target affordability for creative workers by funding rental assistance programs and initiatives to provide more accessible studio, rehearsal and live-work spaces… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Evacuation order lifted for residents near Hays County wildfire (KUT)
An evacuation order was lifted shortly before 8 p.m. for a small area in Hays County west of Mountain City and Buda as multiple wildfires cropped up Tuesday. Kyle Fire Lt. David Schultz said the winds died down and the Onion Creek Fire stopped spreading as quickly.
The fire burned 174 acres, the Hays County Office of Emergency Services posted online. No structures were affected. Schultz said a cliffside along Onion Creek prevented the fire from spreading and threatening properties.
He said helicopters put out hot spots that fire trucks had trouble accessing. Now it's just a waiting game, he said. " Active fire or embers, they're easier to see at night," he said. Firefighters "will sit on it most of tonight, and then they'll be here tomorrow just in case something kicks off."… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Icon to build 3D-printed infill homes in Austin's Mueller neighborhood (Austin Business Journal)
Icon Technology Inc., a construction tech company, plans to build several new homes in the Mueller mixed-use community in East Austin as an urban infill project.
The Austin-based company has built a range of its 3D-printed homes across the metro, but these will be its first for-sale homes in Austin since 2021, according to an announcement.
The second floors of the two-story homes will be constructed via traditional methods, but Icon Chief Financial Officer Tom vonReichbauer said the company is preparing to roll out its Phoenix technology next year that will be capable of multistory construction.
Icon’s infill development, located in the southeast section of Mueller on Tom Miller Street, will consist of 12 homes designed by Michael Hsu Office of Architecture.
The dozen homes range from 650 square feet to 2,400 square feet, with one- to three-bedroom floor plans… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
✅ The Texas Senate wants more — and smaller — starter homes in new neighborhoods (Texas Tribune)
New homes in certain Texas neighborhoods could be built on smaller lots, allowing for more homes to be built amid a shortage that has driven up housing costs, if a new proposal from the Texas Senate becomes law. Senate Bill 15 — filed Tuesday by state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston — reduces the amount of land cities can require single-family homes in new subdivisions to sit on.
Doing so makes it possible for homebuilders to put smaller homes on smaller lots, driving down the final cost of the home. The bill wouldn’t apply to homes built in existing neighborhoods, where homeowners often oppose new housing.
“What we're trying to do is come up with changes that get government out of the way of blocking affordable housing in the major urban cities,” Bettencourt said… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Hemp industry pushes back against Senate bill to ban THC (Texas Tribune)
Six years after Texas lawmakers inadvertently triggered the state’s booming consumable hemp market, one chamber of the Legislature is pushing to shut down the industry by barring products that contain tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.
Yet even with the backing of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the powerful Texas Senate leader, the proposal to ban THC faces uncertain prospects in the House, where the hemp industry is bullish about getting lawmakers to tighten regulations rather than quashing most of their products altogether. In the lower chamber, efforts to ban THC products have failed to gain traction, and this session no House lawmaker has filed anything akin to Senate Bill 3, which would outlaw products containing any amount of THC.
House leadership has avoided weighing in on the matter, including Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, who did not respond to a request for comment… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US and World News]
✅ Read NPR's annotated fact check of President Trump's address to Congress (NPR)
President Trump delivered an address to a joint session of Congress in the U.S. Capitol Tuesday night, six weeks into his second term.
Since his inauguration, he has worked briskly to try to radically reshape the government and signed dozens of executive orders, many upending policies created by former President Biden. Trump is took stock of what he's done so far and laid out his vision for the economy, immigration and foreign affairs… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Trump’s address to Congress showed the country’s stark partisan divide (Associated Press)
A president’s speech to Congress — even without the formal gloss of a State of the Union address — is typically a time for a call to national unity and predictable claims about the country being strong. But that wasn’t President Donald Trump’s plan.
His speech on Tuesday night was relentlessly partisan, boasting about his election victory and criticizing Democrats for failing to recognize his accomplishments.
The hard edge reflected Trump’s steamroller approach to his second term, brushing aside opposition and demanding loyalty throughout the federal government. Here are key takeaways from the speech… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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