🟪 Austin City Council takes up Data Centers Tuesday and Thursday

🟪 Austin seeing mixed childhood well-being outcomes; 5-year improvement strategy launches (Community Impact)

🟪 BG Podcast Ep. 271: Preparing Cities for Air Taxis and eVTOLs with Austin Assistant City Manager Mike Rogers

🟪 UT Austin begins classes amid record 100,000-plus undergraduate applications (CBS Austin))

🟪 Industry warns of blackouts, economic woes if Texas overreacts to data center, transmission line anger (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Texas Space Summit in San Antonio postponed until 2027 (San Antonio Express-News)

🟪 What Texas' surging wealth, new Dallas hub mean for Goldman Sachs in Lone Star State (Dallas Business Journal)

🟪 ‘The writing on the wall’: Trump’s staff departs ahead of possible turmoil (Politico)

READ ON!

Austin City Council is preparing to take its first formal step toward establishing a new regulatory framework for data centers, as the rapid growth of artificial intelligence infrastructure pushes the issue higher on the policy agenda across Central Texas.

Council is scheduled to receive a staff briefing during its Tuesday, Aug. 25 work session before considering Item 61 at its regular meeting Thursday, Aug. 27.

The proposed resolution would initiate amendments to Austin's Land Development Code and other city regulations to create specific land uses, development standards, approval processes and operating requirements for data centers… 🟪 (READ MORE)

Electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, commonly known as eVTOLs or air taxis, are moving from concept toward deployment.

Recorded on March 18, 2026, Episode 271 of The BG Podcast features our conversation with Austin Assistant City Manager Mike Rogers on a question cities increasingly need to answer: How do you prepare for a new transportation system before it arrives?

The conversation followed the March announcement that Texas had been selected for the Federal Aviation Administration’s new eVTOL Integration Pilot Program, creating an early opportunity to examine what deployment could mean for local governments.

Also, at an August 18 hearing, the Texas House Select Committee on General Aviation examined many of the same questions, including airport readiness, charging infrastructure, siting, zoning, land use, and community integration..

Listen on:

🗓️ Events we’re watching:

🏛️ Tomorrow @9AM - Austin Council Work Session // Agenda

🏛️ City Staff Memo RE Data Centers (8.19.2026): The purpose of this memorandum is to provide recommendations to the Mayor and City Council in response to the Managing Large-Load Data Centers post on the City Council Message Board on May 15, 2026.

🏛️ Per Mayor Watson’s Office: On August 25, Austin City Council will hold a Work Session focused on data centers. On August 27, Council will have discussion and possible action related to data centers.

✅ Austin seeing mixed childhood well-being outcomes; 5-year improvement strategy launches (Community Impact)

A child well-being initiative backed by Mayor Kirk Watson and other local groups is advancing this summer following a comprehensive review of local childhood trends and outcomes. The new research will inform a multi-year plan intended to make Austin "the best place in America to be a kid."

"Austin has strong organizations doing important work for kids, but too often that work happens in separate systems that families are left to navigate on their own," Watson said in a statement. "The next five years are about aligning those organizations around the same goals, closing the gaps between them and measuring whether we're making life better for Austin's children."

Watson announced the launch of the citywide initiative, Generation ATX, last year. It centers around three pillars—health, safety and happiness—based on multiple existing frameworks and reporting on child well-being… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ UT Austin begins classes amid record 100,000-plus undergraduate applications (CBS Austin)

The University of Texas at Austin began its first day of classes with record demand for admission, a growing student body and potential curriculum changes on the horizon.

UT said the university received more than 100,000 undergraduate applications for this fall’s class, surpassing last year’s record of nearly 91,000 freshman applications. Last fall, that demand helped push UT’s total enrollment to a record 55,000 total students and over 44,000 undergraduate students.

As thousands of students moved into campus and West Campus over the weekend, the cost of attending UT was already a major part of the back-to-school experience. UT estimates an in-state undergraduate living on or off campus could spend between about $32,500 and $35,500 this school year, including tuition, housing, food, transportation, books and other expenses… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin unveils new LGBTQ+ historical marker a month after rainbow crosswalk is removed (KUT)

More than 100 people gathered on Fourth and Colorado streets in Austin to celebrate the unveiling of a new LGBTQ+ historical marker on Friday morning.

Garry Brown, an Austin LGBTQ+ Quality of Life Advisory Commission member, said the idea came to him toward the end of his time on the Historic Landmark Commission, which, in part, reviews areas that may be designated for landmark status.

“For me, it was overwhelming because this is my baby. From dream to the erection of the marker today in this dedication ceremony. It's been three years," he said. "The wheels of government moved too slowly, but it happened.”

The marker is a small brick structure with the LGBTQ+ flag colors and a bronze plaque, titled, “As Queer As You Want To Be.”

The unveiling ceremony comes a day before Austin’s annual Pride parade, which runs from the Texas Capitol to the Congress Avenue Bridge, according to Visit Austin. The event also coincides with the removal of the Pride-themed crosswalks on Fourth and Colorado streets last month, following a directive from the state… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Can White Rocks' water system plan support the project? Austin Water raises concerns. (Austin American-Statesman)

When developers unveiled White Rocks earlier this summer, they pitched the 71-acre development west of Austin with plans for a hotel, condos and a 10,000-seat amphitheater. Conservationists quickly raised alarms about its potential impact on the neighboring Barton Creek Habitat Preserve.

Now, another question is being raised: Can the water infrastructure at the site support the project?

Documents obtained by the Austin American-Statesman show White Rocks Entertainment LLC and its partner UMusic Hospitality & Lifestyle are proposing to serve the development’s first phase through a 12-inch water main originally built for a single-family housing development.

Developers say the pipe is adequate for the project’s needs. Austin Water, though, says the system cannot accommodate the proposed demand without significant improvements. The utility also questioned White Rocks’ proposal for private infrastructure to serve the site.

“White Rocks understands that to develop the project to the full development plan that water system improvements will be required,” Jacob Valentien of Westwood Professional Services, which consulted for White Rocks on the project, wrote in a service extension request to the utility. “The (request) application attached suggests a phasing plan, although this phasing plan can be accommodated such that the first phase does not result in any necessary improvements.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Industry warns of blackouts, economic woes if Texas overreacts to data center, transmission line anger (Texas Tribune)

For the first time in five years since Winter Storm Uri turned the electrical grid into a political albatross for Texas leaders, the state’s grid has again become a liability for politicians.

Many residents don’t want data centers in their communities, fearing their massive energy, water and land use, a majority of which is planned for rural Texas. Many residents are also balking at transmission lines lawmakers approved to build hundreds of miles across West Texas because they threaten to eat up their land.

The pushback has gotten so overwhelming that the state’s top leaders — the very ones that welcomed these initial proposals with open arms — have called on regulators to delay these projects.

But in this abrupt bid to assuage constituents’ concerns, state lawmakers could be shortsighted.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid operator, has said West Texas is at risk for rolling blackouts if these lines don’t get built, and residents will face higher energy prices as congestion worsens. The oil and gas industry says its ability to expand will be hamstrung without the lines’ construction. And, pushing pause on data centers has created uncertainty in other industries that want to connect to the grid but are unable to know if or when they will get it… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas Space Summit in San Antonio postponed until 2027 (San Antonio Express-News)

Organizers have scrubbed Texas’ first-ever space summit just a few months before it was to occur in San Antonio. The conference on the state’s booming commercial space business had been set for Sept. 21-23 at the Henry B. González Convention Center, but it was pushed to sometime in 2027. Jeff Webster, president and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, said he made the call earlier this summer. The chamber is hosting the event. “I thought we’d have good, but I wanted kick-ass,” he said. “So, we decided to give ourselves more breathing room and extended time.” The Texas Space Summit will happen in San Antonio next year, he said, but no dates have been set.

“I wanted this to be such an out of the park, great experience, and we had great momentum,” he said. “We had great speakers lined up, but it wasn’t to where I wanted it to be. “I think we quasi-rushed it because we really gave ourselves a year to really work up to it.” Webster said the Texas Space Commission and the space companies were good with the delay. “SpaceX was in the middle of their IPO and Blue Origin had stuff going on, and NASA had Artemis,” he said. “The industry people and the suppliers— it’s been a crazy year for them — so, I think we actually end up providing plenty of time for them to breathe.” Planning for the summit began last summer. The space commission committed to holding it in San Antonio after the chamber offered to host the event. Space commission Chair Gwen Griffin, San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and Webster held a news conference at Brooks in November 2025 to announce the summit. At the time, the event was expected to attract more than 2,000 attendees with a budget of between $1.1 million and $2.1 million. Now the budget is closer to the lower amount, Webster said… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ What Texas' surging wealth, new Dallas hub mean for Goldman Sachs in Lone Star State (Dallas Business Journal)

There's perhaps no greater symbol of how far Dallas has come as a financial center and the wave of wealth that has flowed to the region than the new Goldman Sachs building rising on Field Street next door to Victory Park. The 800,000-square-foot building, located on 3 acres on the southeast corner of the North End development, represents a roughly $700 million investment by New York-based Goldman in North Texas. Expected to open in 2028, the campus will serve as a regional base for the financial giant, housing more than 5,000 employees across a wide range of functions and roles.

While Dallas-Fort Worth's ascendance as a financial hotspot was already well underway, many financial and commercial real estate insiders point to Goldman's decision in 2022 to build a hub in Dallas as a tipping point. The campus broke ground the following year, before the "Y'all Street" term was a part of the daily vernacular.

Since that time, the Texas Stock Exchange was formed and launched, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq set up local arms and other financial behemoths like Scotiabank followed Goldman's lead by setting up a regional headquarters. Morgan Stanley could be next. For Scott Mueller, managing director and head of private wealth management for the Southwest region at Goldman, the wealth wave the region has experienced has exceeded everyone's expectations, save for maybe Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson. "He was very bullish," Mueller said of the mayor.

"But I think the way things have played out has really been remarkable, and it's a little bit of lightning in a bottle, right? There's changes that happen like this around the world or around our nation every so often and it so happens that one of them is happening here in Dallas and in North Texas right now." Mueller worked at Goldman for years before serving a stint as Oklahoma's secretary of commerce and workforce development. He returned to Goldman in 2022. In his role, he oversees a seven-state region that includes Texas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, part of Arkansas and part of Louisiana… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ ‘The writing on the wall’: Trump’s staff departs ahead of possible turmoil (Politico)

President Donald Trump heads into the second half of his term with key vacancies among his senior White House staff. That means whoever comes off the bench must contend with the possibility of a Democratic-controlled Congress, a slew of subpoenas, a lingering war in the Middle East and an open Republican presidential primary. James Braid, the top liaison to Congress, this week announced his exit. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she would depart the week before. Replacements for either have not been announced. President Donald Trump heads into the second half of his term with key vacancies among his senior White House staff. That means whoever comes off the bench must contend with the possibility of a Democratic-controlled Congress, a slew of subpoenas, a lingering war in the Middle East and an open Republican presidential primary.

James Braid, the top liaison to Congress, this week announced his exit. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she would depart the week before. Replacements for either have not been announced. Though it’s not unusual for staff to depart around the midterms, Trump’s desire to run the country through a handful of close, fiercely loyal aides means each loss is more impactful than in a White House where power and responsibility are more diffuse. These departures don’t guarantee a tougher road for the administration, but they inject a dose of uncertainty at an already tenuous time, when the president is facing a slew of challenges — both foreign and domestic.

“I think people are seeing the writing on the wall and thinking Republicans probably aren’t going to have the House, might not have the Senate either, and things are going to be stalled,” said an official who served in Trump’s first term, who like others in this article was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “People are thinking, ‘what are my post administration business prospects? Is it worth taking these hits every single day, being part of these battles, and how does that hurt my prospects when I go to the private sector?’” the person said. The president is also losing two key legal hands as he girds for an onslaught of congressional oversight and potential litigation if Democrats take control on the Hill. Trump announced Friday that his pardon attorney and longtime ally Ed Martin would leave for the private sector, coming on the heels of a similar announcement regarding White House counsel Dave Warrington… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ US and Canada fall deeper into a trade war with new tariffs (Associated Press)

The United States and Canada, historic allies along an undefended border, fell deeper into a trade war Saturday marked by angry recriminations and new tariffs that are expected to raise prices for products in both countries. Each side blamed the other for the collapse of negotiations in Washington late Friday, leading the U.S. to impose 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods and Canada setting Sept. 8 as the start of its retaliatory penalties.

President Donald Trump’s import taxes will hit about 5% of what Canada ships to the United States every year, ranging from hockey sticks to tongue depressors. Prime Minister Carney said Ottawa would respond with targeted tariff protection for industries exposed to the new U.S. duties, including some steel products. He also mentioned the dairy, appliance, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper and electronics sectors.

No further talks were planned. Whatever the eventual outcome, a loss of trust seems one of the earliest casualties. Carney accused Washington of using “economic integration as a weapon” and said “its signature was written in pencil.” Resorting to the language of battle, he said his country had been “attacked” by the new American tariffs. “You’re at war when you get attacked,” he said, adding that Canada had the reserves, resilience and plan to respond. But to Trump’s chief trade negotiator, Jamieson Greer, the U.S. was compelled to act after a year of retaliation by its longtime partner. “We’ve said enough, and so we’ve taken countermeasures.

Our interest is in protecting American workers and protecting American supply chains,” the U.S. trade representative told “Fox & Friends Weekend.” Carney said Canada had been willing to drop remaining retaliatory tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos if the U.S. substantially lowered its own, and to encourage provinces to restore U.S. alcohol sales. But he said Washington’s final demands went too far. “They asked too much and offered too little,” Carney said… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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