BG Reads // April 16, 2025

Author

A.J. Bingham
April 16, 2025

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✅ Today's BG Reads include:

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ Austin City Council:

🟪 TODAY @9:30AM: Audit and Finance Committee

💡 Item Spotlight: #5 Audit of Austin Police Department recruiting and hiring

🟪 TOMORROW @1PM: Mobility Committee

💡 Item Spotlight: #4 Briefing regarding a one-year update on the Shared Micromobility program, which includes scooters and e-bikes.

POLICY SPOTLIGHT: Austin Council to Vote on AI Ethics Framework
📅 Scheduled Austin Council Hearing: April 24, 2025 (Agenda Link)

🏛️ Austin City Council will consider a resolution (Item 55) to establish ethical guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in City operations.

🏛️ The proposed framework would guide how AI is deployed across departments—such as permitting, public safety, and translation services—while prioritizing transparency, workforce protection, and digital equity.

💡 Key directives include:

  • Annual audits of AI tools used by the City

  • Public awareness and engagement campaigns

  • Training resources on AI literacy and responsible use

  • Clear restrictions on AI use for surveillance, discrimination, or job displacement

📩 Have questions on how this might impact your operations or policy goals? Email me for a consult. Please include Item 55 AI Framework Question in the subject line.

We’re growing BG Reads and want to better understand who’s reading. Your quick answers help us shape content and build a stronger community.

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ 716,000 meals canceled for Austin-area food bank as federal funding is cut (KUT)

The Central Texas Food Bank is feeling the effects of the Trump administration's funding cuts after the U.S. Department of Agriculture slashed more than a billion dollars in funding for programs that support food banks and help schools buy goods from local farmers.

Within two weeks following the decision, 39 loads of food were canceled, said Beth Corbett, Central Texas Food Bank's vice president of government affairs and advocacy. Those deliveries included pantry staples, dairy products and vegetables, as well as turkey, pork and chicken.

“That equates to nearly 913,000 pounds of food. For perspective, that’s the equivalent of about 716,000 meals,” she said.

The cuts are happening as demand for food assistance grows and grocery prices remain high. The Central Texas Food Bank, which is headquartered in Austin, serves more than 93,000 families each month within a 21-county region. Corbett said the organization expects demand to rise... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ At least 24 homes damaged, 6 injured after Austin house explosion (CBS Austin)

Six people were injured, a two-story home was leveled and two dozen other homes were damaged when a house exploded in Austin on Sunday, according to officials.

Just before 11:30 a.m., emergency crews were called to a home explosion in the 10400 block of Double Spur Loop, near DK Ranch Road, the Austin Fire Department said. 

Responding crews found a two-story home completely leveled by the explosion, Austin FD said, a neighboring home with "significant structural collapse," and a vehicle on fire.

Twenty-four other homes in the area were reported damaged by the explosion, according to Austin FD. The affected area includes Spicewood Mesa, Pantera Ridge and Muley Drive… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Garth Brooks, Kygo among headliners for 2025 F1 U.S. Grand Prix (Austin CultureMap)

Austin's Circuit of the Americas (COTA) has announced the musical headliners for the 2025 Formula 1 MSC Cruises United States Grand Prix. The event runs from October 17-19.

Kygo, the Norwegian DJ and producer, will play Friday, October 17. Garth Books, the country music superstar, will play Saturday, October 18. These are the two headliners during the racing event. Red dirt country band Turnpike Troubadours will wrap things up after the Grand Prix on Sunday, October 19… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Facing displacement, Acacia Cliffs apartment tenants mobilize at City Hall (Austin Monitor)

Plans to redevelop an apartment complex in Northwest Austin are off to a rocky start, drawing a crowd to City Hall last week with demands for more concessions to displaced tenants.

Acacia Cliffs residents and their neighbors took to the podium on Thursday to request time for more robust negotiations with owner Price Realty Corporation, which is angling to rezone the site to construct a brand-new, seven-story apartment building. After nearly an hour of testimony, the divided dais ultimately landed in favor of their request, opting to postpone a final ruling on the case from April 24 to May 22. The motion passed in a 6-3-2 vote, with Council members Zo Qadri and Marc Duchen abstaining and Paige Ellis, Ryan Alter and Mayor Kirk Watson voting against.

Acacia Cliffs, which sits just west of MoPac Expressway off of Far West Boulevard, is an anomaly in a desert of affordable housing stock, offering one- and two-bedroom units at prices ranging from $700 to $1,300 per month. With an HEB, Austin Regional Clinic and AISD schools all within walking distance, the complex has become a saving grace for low-income renters, particularly those without the luxury of a vehicle… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

✅ Texas House set to debate school voucher bill, sweeping school finance legislation (KUT)

The Texas House on Wednesday is poised to debate a contentious bill that would create a voucher program where public funds could be used towards private schools.

Senate Bill 2, which was already passed by the Texas Senate in February, would create Education Savings Accounts, or ESAs, allowing parents to use over $10,000 of public funds per student towards private school tuition and other approved educational expenses. The proposal bill was fast-tracked through the Senate just days after Gov. Greg Abbott made what he calls “school choice” an emergency item for the current legislative session.

Earlier this month, the Texas House Education Committee amended SB 2, essentially combining the proposed bill with the chamber’s own ESA legislation.

Abbott — along with other state Republican leaders like Lt. Gov. Dan Partick — has championed the proposed voucher program for years. Supporters argue that the measure empowers parents to choose the best educational setting for their children, especially those in underperforming schools. Opponents argue the plan would divert state funding away from public schools and that the legislation doesn’t have enough accountability mechanisms built in to track student outcomes… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Texas House Democrats could hold GOP priorities hostage to force statewide school vouchers vote (Texas Tribune)

Texas litigation powerhouse Susman Godfrey filed a federal lawsuit late Friday accusing President Donald Trump of issuing unconstitutional executive orders against it and other law firms.

The law firm calls the president’s actions a violation of the rule of law and “a grave threat to this foundational premise of our Republic.” The 66-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleges that President Trump “is abusing the powers of his office” and “is engaged in an unprecedented and unconstitutional assault on those bedrock principles [found in Article I and in the First and Fifth Amendments] and on the independent bar.”

“In recent weeks, the president has issued multiple executive orders targeting law firms and their employees in an express campaign of retaliation for representing clients and causes he disfavors or employing lawyers he dislikes,” the lawsuit states, “If a president can with impunity seek to destroy a law firm because of the clients it represents, then the rule of law itself is in grave danger.”

“The executive order makes no secret of its unconstitutional retaliatory and discriminatory intent to punish Susman Godfrey for its work defending the integrity of the 2020 presidential election,” the Houston-based firm states in the complaint. Susman Godfrey served as legal counsel for Dominion in its defamation lawsuit against Fox News and other media outlets, which broadcasted claims by President Trump and his supporters that the Dominion electronic voting machines helped rig the 2020 election. Fox News settled the lawsuit for $787.5 million instead of going to trial. And the very same day that the White House released the executive order against Susman Godfrey, lawyers for the firm won a huge court victory for Dominion in a billion-dollar defamation case against the conservative news channel Newsmax Media in another 2020 presidential election dispute.

On Wednesday, President Trump issued an executive order that accuses the firm of “egregious conduct and conflicts of interest” and representing “clients that engage in conduct undermining critical American interests and priorities.” The order by the president suspends “security clearances held by individuals at Susman Godfrey pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.”

“Susman spearheads efforts to weaponize the American legal system and degrade the quality of American elections,” President Trump wrote in the executive order. “Susman funds groups that engage in dangerous efforts to undermine the effectiveness of the U.S. military through the injection of political and radical ideology, and it supports efforts to discriminate on the basis of race.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ What can Texas counties do when it comes to regulating noise ordinances? Turns out, not much. (Houston Chronicle)

While cities can regulate and control noise ordinances, it’s not so simple in Texas counties. Texas law requires counties to follow state criminal statutes to manage noise outside the city limits. But there’s no law that currently allows counties to set more stringent noise standards that would help residents deal with noisy neighbors. “Counties constitutionally are an extension of the state government,” said Jason Smith, deputy chief of staff for County Judge Mark Keough.

Why do counties have no authority to regulate noise? According to Montgomery County officials, Texas lawmakers would have to pass legislation to give counties the authority to enact noise restrictions. “It’s no simple task,” Smith said. “You’ve got to get it through the House and the Senate and get the governor to sign it. Then, we will have the ability to come in and pass the ordinance.”

In previous legislative sessions, politicians have introduced various bills hoping to give counties the power to pass noise ordinances. However, none of the proposed bills survived. “We get these complaints all of the time about noise ordinances and so we have to explain to folks all of the time that it’s not that we wouldn’t do it, we just don’t have the legal authority to do it,” Smith said. “Counties are kind of set up, as we like to call it, as the 'Land of the free,' because you can pretty much, for the most part, do what you want on your own property,” he added. Smith said the only way to enforce noise regulations is through the Texas Penal Code’s disorderly conduct statute. The law says an offense has been committed if one “makes unreasonable noise in a public place other than a sport shooting range or in or near a private residence that he has no right to occupy.”

The Texas Penal Code says "a noise is presumed to be unreasonable if the noise exceeds a decibel level of 85 after the person making the noise receives notice from a magistrate or peace officer that the noise is a public nuisance." “It’s very intricate,” Smith said. “They have to have a decibel meter where they can measure how many decibels that the sound is and it has to be at a certain place. Whoever is complaining about the noise, they would essentially have to get on that person’s property and measure what the decibels are at their property line.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Susman Godfrey files federal lawsuit against President Trump (Dallas Morning News)

Texas litigation powerhouse Susman Godfrey filed a federal lawsuit late Friday accusing President Donald Trump of issuing unconstitutional executive orders against it and other law firms. The law firm calls the president’s actions a violation of the rule of law and “a grave threat to this foundational premise of our Republic.”

The 66-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleges that President Trump “is abusing the powers of his office” and “is engaged in an unprecedented and unconstitutional assault on those bedrock principles [found in Article I and in the First and Fifth Amendments] and on the independent bar.”

“In recent weeks, the president has issued multiple executive orders targeting law firms and their employees in an express campaign of retaliation for representing clients and causes he disfavors or employing lawyers he dislikes,” the lawsuit states, “If a president can with impunity seek to destroy a law firm because of the clients it represents, then the rule of law itself is in grave danger.”

“The executive order makes no secret of its unconstitutional retaliatory and discriminatory intent to punish Susman Godfrey for its work defending the integrity of the 2020 presidential election,” the Houston-based firm states in the complaint. Susman Godfrey served as legal counsel for Dominion in its defamation lawsuit against Fox News and other media outlets, which broadcasted claims by President Trump and his supporters that the Dominion electronic voting machines helped rig the 2020 election.

Fox News settled the lawsuit for $787.5 million instead of going to trial. And the very same day that the White House released the executive order against Susman Godfrey, lawyers for the firm won a huge court victory for Dominion in a billion-dollar defamation case against the conservative news channel Newsmax Media in another 2020 presidential election dispute.

On Wednesday, President Trump issued an executive order that accuses the firm of “egregious conduct and conflicts of interest” and representing “clients that engage in conduct undermining critical American interests and priorities.” The order by the president suspends “security clearances held by individuals at Susman Godfrey pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.”

“Susman spearheads efforts to weaponize the American legal system and degrade the quality of American elections,” President Trump wrote in the executive order. “Susman funds groups that engage in dangerous efforts to undermine the effectiveness of the U.S. military through the injection of political and radical ideology, and it supports efforts to discriminate on the basis of race.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

✅ The Oklahoma City bombing was 30 years ago. Some survivors worry America didn’t learn the lesson (Associated Press)

Thirty years after a truck bomb detonated outside a federal building in America’s heartland, killing 168 people in the deadliest homegrown attack on U.S. soil, deep scars remain.

From a mother who lost her first-born baby, a son who never got to know his father, and a young man so badly injured that he still struggles to breathe, three decades have not healed the wounds from the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995.

The bombers were two former U.S. Army buddies, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, who shared a deep-seated hatred of the federal government fueled by the bloody raid on the Branch Davidian religious sect near Waco, Texas, and a standoff in the mountains of Ruby Ridge, Idaho, that killed a 14-year-old boy, his mother and a federal agent.

And while the bombing awakened the nation to the dangers of extremist ideologies, many who suffered directly in the attack still fear anti-government rhetoric in modern-day politics could also lead to violence.

A 30-year anniversary remembrance ceremony is scheduled for April 19 on the grounds of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Housing affordability issues show few signs of easing (The Hill)

U.S. house prices are out of reach for millions of Americans, and the Federal Reserve’s pause in interest rate cuts means that financing costs will likely dog the real estate market for months to come. Affordability metrics show housing costs squeezing household finances, pressures made more intense by a long-term shortage of lost-cost housing. Affordability in general was a top issue in the 2024 election, with dueling strategies coming from Democrats and Republicans about how to deal with it.

Concerns about the staying power of inflation and uncertainties about the Trump administration’s macroeconomic policies suggest the issue — particularly in the housing market — could persist for the foreseeable future. The median price of a new single-family home in the U.S. is about $460,000, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), a trade group for residential construction companies.

Based on mortgage rates at 6.5 percent and current underwriting standards from banks, that price is out of range for about three-quarters of all U.S. households, the NAHB found in March. Mortgage rates are currently above that level at 6.65 percent for the most popular 30-year mortgage.

Even houses that cost $300,000, which is substantially less than the median sales price of $398,000 for existing homes in February, are too expensive for 57 percent of households, the NAHB found.

The National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) housing affordability index, as reported by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is well-below the 30-year trend line. Households with a median income of about $80,0000 are just able to afford a mortgage for the median-priced home. That number popped up to a break-even at the end of last year after falling into negative territory in the back half of 2024… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ DOGE is collecting federal data to remove immigrants from housing, jobs (Washington Post)

The Trump administration is using personal data normally protected from dissemination to find undocumented immigrants where they work, study and live, often with the goal of removing them from their housing and the workforce.

At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, for example, officials are working on a rule that would ban mixed-status households — in which some family members have legal status and others don’t — from public housing, according to multiple staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution.

Affiliates from the U.S. DOGE Service are also looking to kick out existing mixed-status households, vowing to ensure that undocumented immigrants do not benefit from public programs, even if they live with citizens or other eligible family members. The push extends across agencies: Last week, the Social Security Administration entered the names and Social Security numbers of more than 6,000 mostly Latino immigrants into a database it uses to track dead people, effectively slashing their ability to receive benefits or work legally in the United States.

Federal tax and immigration enforcement officials recently reached a deal to share confidential tax data for people suspected of being in the United States illegally. The result is an unprecedented effort to use government data to support the administration’s immigration policies. That includes information people have reported about themselves for years while paying taxes or applying for housing — believing that information would not be used against them for immigration purposes.

Legal experts say the data sharing is a breach of privacy rules that help ensure trust in government programs and services. “It’s not only about one subgroup of people, it’s really about all of us,” said Tanya Broder, senior counsel for health and economic justice policy at the left-leaning National Immigration Law Center.

“Everyone cares about their privacy. Nobody wants their health-care information or tax information broadcast and used to go after us.”

The White House did not reply to a request for comment. In response to questions, a DHS official said, “The government is finally doing what it should have all along: sharing information across the federal government to solve problems.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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