Presented By

August 27, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 City of Austin plans to roll out new alert system to assist during flood events (KVUE)

🟪 Austin looking for local businesses to set up shop in bigger airport (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 UT launches permanent patrol teams in West Campus to bolster safety (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 Most of Gov. Greg Abbott’s priorities await passage in session dominated by redistricting (Dallas Morning News)

🟪 The ‘Mayor of Somewhere Else’ demands in-person attendance in Dallas. (D Magazine)

🟪 Newsom jabs Abbott over Dallas murder rate amid competing redistricting efforts (Dallas Morning News)

🟪'No magic fixes' for Democrats as party confronts internal and fundraising struggles (Associated Press)

READ ON!

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ Austin City Council Work Session (Agenda) – Today at 9AM / Livestream Here

🏛️ Climate, Water, Environment, and Parks Council Committee (Regular Meeting) – Wednesday, August 27 at 9:30 AM

🏛️ Austin City Council Regular Meeting – Thursday, August 28 at 10:00 AM 

🏛️ City Manager Executives and Advisors Staff Visual Chart

🏛️ City of Austin Org Chart (as of July 2025)

💰 2026 City of Austin Bond - Public Input

ℹ️ 2025 Essential Resources for Navigating the City of Austin

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ City of Austin plans to roll out new alert system to assist during flood events (KVUE)

The city of Austin is overhauling its emergency response following the deadly floods over the Fourth of July weekend.

During an Austin City Council work session Tuesday, city leaders outlined a new communication plan for flood events — including before, during and after storms.

As part of the changes, the city will begin holding pre-storm briefings with the National Weather Service and the Texas Division of Emergency Management to coordinate potential responses.

The city can now also send out its own emergency alerts without needing approval from county or state authorities. Unlike Warn Central Texas, residents do not need to subscribe to receive the alerts… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ With reservoirs replenished, Austin will loosen some water use restrictions (KUT)

The dramatic rise in water levels in the reservoirs that supply Austin is allowing the city to loosen drought-related watering restrictions that have been in effect for about two years.

Under the new system, which kicks in Tuesday, Austin will go from Stage 2 drought restrictions to the baseline rules the city calls “conservation stage.” Despite the change, limits will remain on when and for how long people are allowed to water their lawns.

Those rules still restrict lawn watering with an automatic irrigation system to once a week on designated days. But under the new rules the window of time watering is allowed has been extended to 15 hours, between 7 p.m. and 10 a.m.

Hose-end sprinklers, which were allowed only once a week under Stage 2 restrictions, can now be used twice a week during designated days and times.

Drip irrigation is still allowed twice a week on assigned days… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin looking for local businesses to set up shop in bigger airport (Austin Business Journal)

As Austin’s airport expands, it wants to bring in more local small businesses and help them be prepared for the business environment of airport concessions.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and the city of Austin Small Minority Business Resources Department will host a three-part prep series next month for small businesses interested in expanding into the airport.

The series, called Gateway 2 Concessions, was designed to “give prospective concessionaires the tools and insight they need to successfully navigate the unique business environment of airport concessions,” according to an announcement.

Some of Austin's most popular brands, including Salt Lick BBQ, Tacodeli, Juiceland, Jo’s Coffee, Peached Tortilla, Toy Joy, Antone's and Book People, operate in the Austin airport. Those companies are run by Delaware North, which is in the process of selling its $500 million U.S. travel hospitality division — which includes food, beverage and retail in 22 airports around the country — to Areas, a global leader in travel dining and retail. The company has been one of three concession operators at ABIA… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin could reconsider Zilker Café alcohol sales next to Barton Springs (Community Impact)

Austin leaders could scrap a proposed concessions deal for the long-vacant Zilker Café next to Barton Springs over concerns about the lack of a local vendor and the impacts of a ban on alcohol sales there.

The historic Zilker Café has been shuttered for nearly a decade and currently serves as a ticket window for Barton Springs Pool. Multiple attempts to revive the concession stand have stalled out due to factors like building renovations, the COVID-19 pandemic and a nearby construction project, leaving the facility empty since 2016.

Austin moved to restart operations in 2019 and a vendor was selected, but that deal eventually fell through. The city again solicited concession operators in 2023 but no selection was made.

Additionally, the Parks and Recreation Department sought to permit the sale of alcohol at the cafe in 2021. However, public pushback and safety concerns led the Parks and Recreation Board to reject that plan twice and the proposal was eventually voted down… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ UT launches permanent patrol teams in West Campus to bolster safety (Austin American-Statesman)

Building on years of efforts to bolster student safety off campus, the University of Texas has now assigned a permanent UT police patrol unit to the popular West Campus neighborhood to increase oversight in partnership with Austin police.

About 24 UT police officers are assigned to the new West Campus patrol district to work alongside Austin police officers to increase coverage and visibility in the urban area. 

The neighborhood, spanning from Guadalupe Street to North Lamar Boulevard parallel to campus, houses about 20,000 UT students – nearly half the university’s undergraduate population. For many. it's their first experience living in an urban environment.

“The university’s commitment to the safety and security of our students, families, employees and visitors has never been greater,” UT President Jim Davis said at a news conference Tuesday. “Today, we highlight a renewed commitment to partnerships in the creation of the West Campus patrol district.”

Austin and UT police both can oversee West Campus thanks to an agreement between the agencies, but UT police are primarily responsible for university-owned properties. The new deployment in West Campus is aimed to increase the presence of university officers in the area to meet the needs of the UT community it serves beyond campus spaces… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ Most of Gov. Greg Abbott’s priorities await passage in session dominated by redistricting (Dallas Morning News)

With less than three weeks to go before the second special legislative session ends, Gov. Greg Abbott is still waiting for nearly all of his priorities to land on his desk. The first one to hit will be a new Congressional map of districts that is designed to flip five seats to favor Republicans in Washington — a plan pushed by President Donald Trump that has torn apart the Texas Legislature in recent weeks.

Legislation dealing with flood relief and disaster response are in negotiations between the House and Senate, and a couple of bills addressing property taxes, state judges and police personnel files have passed both chambers -- although some may go into negotiations before they head to Abbott. Many other Abbott priorities, of which there are 24 on the special session agenda, are still waiting to pass before lawmakers run out of time on the 30-day session, which began Aug.15.

Bills that are still moving through the Capitol include legislation throwing out the mandatory STAAR tests for public school students, a regulatory framework for retail consumables containing THC, stronger enforcement against the abortion pill, limits on transgender students’ use of public school bathrooms, a ban on taxpayer funded lobbying and approval for the Texas attorney general to prosecute election fraud.

The Republican governor had called lawmakers back to Austin in late July to deal with the same list of priorities, but the session stalled out when more than 50 House Democrats left the state to stop a vote on Congressional redistricting. When it became clear they would stay away until the session ended, Abbott called the second session in mid-August. House Speaker Dustin Burrows has said he hopes to have business completed before the Labor Day weekend, which starts Saturday. But lawmakers have a long way to go, with only one priority on the way to his desk… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ The ‘Mayor of Somewhere Else’ demands in-person attendance in Dallas. (D Magazine)

During its Wednesday meeting, the Dallas City Council will, at the behest of Mayor Eric Johnson, consider a move to consolidate and rename two committees and to require council members to attend committee meetings in person unless they are on official city business, according to a memo from Johnson. Johnson wants to change the Committee on Government Performance and Financial Management to the Committee on Finance. He wishes to change the Committee on Workforce, Education, and Equity to the Committee on Government Efficiency. Johnson has not yet named committee assignments, aside from the Ad Hoc Committee on Legislative Affairs, which was named shortly after Gov. Greg Abbott called the first special session.

But it’s the second item on his resolution that is the most interesting. Johnson says it’s time to do away with the COVID-era policy that allowed council members to attend virtually. It’s worth noting that the mayor does not attend committee meetings. It’s also worth noting that this is the same mayor whose actions prompted his hometown newspaper to write: “[S]o little of what he says and does seems connected to actual leadership of the city we live and work in. It often feels as if he’s the mayor of Somewhere Else.”

The mayor’s attendance record hovers around 94 percent, but if you look at the time he spends at each meeting, his track record is a little less stellar—especially when you factor in his lack of attendance at other things like the DFW International Airport Board meetings. We looked at that last year. So far this year, Johnson has attended all of the meetings and briefings, but has still managed to miss more than 10 hours, including meetings where he missed an hour and a half or more. (The Council’s year goes from August to June, with a July break.)… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ Newsom jabs Abbott over Dallas murder rate amid competing redistricting efforts (Dallas Morning News)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom sharpened his rivalry with Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas over the weekend. In his second term, the Democratic governor — whose name has been floated as a potential 2028 presidential candidate — used his press office’s X account to note that Los Angeles recorded a lower murder rate than Dallas in 2024. The post, titled “Facts you won’t see on Fox News,” states Dallas has a murder rate per 100,000 residents that is nearly two times higher than Los Angeles, according to crime data reported to the FBI.

In 2024, Los Angeles recorded 264 murders, a total that includes nonnegligent manslaughter and excludes any homicides determined to be “justified,” according to the data. Dallas recorded 180 murders in the same period. That means Los Angeles saw 6.95 murders per 100,000 residents that year, while Dallas saw 13.62 murders, according to an analysis by The Dallas Morning News.

Since 2000, Dallas police reports of murder had trended down, reaching their lowest in 2014 at 116 cases, before peaking in 2020 at 249 during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to crime data reported to the FBI. Since 2020, the numbers have trended downward, with Dallas police reporting 180 murders last year, the data shows. The post marked the latest spat between Newsom and Abbott, a Republican.

The two have increasingly targeted each other as Texas lawmakers move to redraw as many as five Democratic-held districts to bolster the Republican hold on Congress ahead of next year’s midterms — a maneuver that has drawn pushback from California lawmakers who are moving to redraw as many as five of their state’s Republican-held seats in response. Los Angeles and Dallas ranked among the 10 most populous cities in the U.S. as of July 2024.

Los Angeles came in second, with nearly 3.8 million residents, and Dallas ranks eighth, with more than 1.3 million, according to U.S. Census data released this year. Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city with more than 2.7 million residents, recorded the highest murder rate among the 10 most populous cities: 17.4 killings per 100,000 people, according to the data reviewed by The News. Chicago counted 461 murders and cases of nonnegligent manslaughter in 2024. Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city with more than 2.7 million residents, counted 320 murders and cases of nonnegligent manslaughter in that time, which comes out to a rate of 13.79 per 100,000 residents, the data shows. Houston is the largest city in Texas. The lowest rate among the top 10 largest U.S cities is San Diego, which counted 35 murders and cases of nonnegligent manslaughter in 2024. That comes to a rate of 2.51 per 100,000 residents, according to the data... 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ 'No magic fixes' for Democrats as party confronts internal and fundraising struggles (Associated Press)

Ken Martin is in the fight of his life. The low-profile political operative from Minnesota, just six months on the job as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is charged with leading his party’s formal resistance to President Donald Trump and fixing the Democratic brand. “I think the greatest divide right now in our party, frankly, is not ideological,” Martin told The Associated Press.

“The greatest divide is those people who are standing up and fighting and those who are sitting on the sidelines.” “We’re using every single lever of power we have to take the fight to Donald Trump,” he said of the DNC. And yet, as hundreds of Democratic officials gather in Martin’s Minneapolis hometown on Monday for the first official DNC meeting since he became chair, there is evidence that Martin’s fight may extend well beyond the current occupant of the Oval Office.

Big Democratic donors are unhappy with the direction of their own party and not writing checks. Political factions are fragmented over issues such as the Israel-Hamas war. The party’s message is murky. Key segments of the Democratic base — working-class voters and young people, among them — have drifted away. And there is deep frustration that the Democratic Party under Martin’s leadership is not doing enough to stop the Republican president — no matter how tough his rhetoric may be. “There are no magic fixes,” said Jeanna Repass, the chair of the Kansas Democratic Party, who praised Martin’s performance so far.

“He is trying to lead at a time where everyone wants it to be fixed right now. And it’s just not going to happen.” At this week’s three-day summer meeting, DNC officials hope to make real progress in reversing the sense of pessimism and frustration that has consumed Democrats since Republicans seized the White House and control of Congress last fall. It may not be so easy... 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump administration is reviewing all 55 million foreigners with US visas for any violations (Associated Press)

The Trump administration said Thursday it is reviewing more than 55 million people who have valid U.S. visas for any violations that could lead to deportation, part of a growing crackdown on foreigners who are permitted to be in the United States. In a written answer to a question from The Associated Press, the State Department said all U.S. visa holders, which can include tourists from many countries, are subject to “continuous vetting,” with an eye toward any indication they could be ineligible for permission to enter or stay in the United States. Should such information be found, the visa will be revoked, and if the visa holder is in the United States, he or she would be subject to deportation.

Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has focused on deporting migrants illegally in the United States as well as holders of student and visitor exchange visas. The State Department’s new language suggests that the continual vetting process, which officials acknowledge is time-consuming, is far more widespread and could mean even those approved to be in the U.S. could abruptly see those permissions revoked. There were 12.8 million green-card holders and 3.6 million people in the U.S. on temporary visas last year, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The 55 million figure suggests that some people subject to review would currently be outside the United States with multiple-entry tourist visas, said Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute. She questioned the value of spending resources on people who may never return to the United States. The State Department said it was looking for indicators of ineligibility, including people staying past the authorized timeframe outlined in a visa, criminal activity, threats to public safety, engaging in any form of terrorist activity or providing support to a terrorist organization… 🟪 (READ MORE)

Have comments or questions? 📩 Contact me