BG Reads // December 31, 2025

Author

A.J. Bingham
December 31, 2025

faustin a

Presented By

www.binghamgp.com

December 31, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 New nonstop flights coming to Austin in 2026 (KUT)

🟪 Unlock MLS shares key Austin-area housing market takeaways for 2025 (Community Impact)

🟪 After an anti-Muslim protest, Austin police are changing how they handle hateful demonstrations (KUT)

🟪 City announces new Austin Animal Services director (KXAN)

🟪 AI guardrails, tax rates after disasters: New Texas laws take effect Jan. 1 (Community Impact)

🟪 More musicians cancel Kennedy Center concerts after board votes to add Trump's name to the building (NBC News)

🟪 After a year of blistering growth, AI chip makers get ready for bigger 2026 (Wall Street Journal)

READ ON!

[FIRM NEWS]

📕 I wrapped up my 2025 reading list this week with The Austin–San Antonio Megaregion: Opportunity and Experience.

Published in September 2025, the book makes a clear and persuasive case for thinking about Austin and San Antonio not as separate metros, but as parts of a single, growing megaregion.

The book traces the growth of the communities that increasingly link Austin and San Antonio, including Schertz, Cibolo, New Braunfels, Kyle, and San Marcos, and shows how development along the I-35 corridor is reshaping daily life, the economy, and long-term planning across Central Texas.

For Austinites, the book also offers valuable insight into San Antonio’s history and development, going well beyond the Alamo and helping readers understand how the two cities’ paths are converging.

Overall, this is an excellent primer for anyone (insiders and near-insiders included) who want to understand where Austin and San Antonio (and the cities surrounding them) have been, and the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead as the region’s future becomes increasingly shared.

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

  • Work Session: Tuesday, January 20 @9AM

  • Regular Meeting: Thursday, January 22nd @10AM

🏛️ [New Memos]

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ New nonstop flights coming to Austin in 2026 (KUT)

If you're flying out of Austin in 2026, the list of places you'll be able to reach nonstop is changing, and in many cases, the destinations are tilting in a more vacation-friendly direction.

New flights will make it easier to head straight to ski towns, beach cities and Midwest hubs, even as a handful of familiar nonstop options quietly fade away.

Add it all up, and the number of seats for sale is set to rise nearly 9% in the first three months of 2026 compared to the same period a year earlier, according to airport data… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Unlock MLS shares key Austin-area housing market takeaways for 2025 (Community Impact)

Unlock MLS market research adviser Vaike O’Grady shared an end-of-year update on the Austin-Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area's housing market, including where the MSA is seeing employment growth and projected housing trends.

According to Unlock MLS' year-to-date data on single-family homes:

  • Homes spent 73 days on the market on average, nine days longer than 2024 YTD

  • Total sales were down 5% from 2024 with 26,455 homes sold

  • Median sale prices were down 1% from 2024 at $438,532

Similarly, with multifamily units:

  • Average lease prices were $1,369

  • 86.6% of units were leased

  • 19,533 units were under construction with 58,995 proposed

✅ After an anti-Muslim protest, Austin police are changing how they handle hateful demonstrations (KUT)

The Austin Police Department is changing its policy on how to address incidents in which people feel threatened by hate speech after an Islamophobic demonstration last week.

Last Saturday, a monthly breakfast potluck hosted by the North Austin Muslim Community Center was interrupted by two protesters who called attendees "evil" and "wicked," according to video posted online by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR condemned the demonstration, asking APD to investigate.

Muzzammil Ahmad, one of the people who regularly gather at Walnut Creek after morning prayers, said they do so "in good faith" and called on APD to make sure "spaces remain safe and welcoming to everyone regardless of their faith."

"It was deeply troubling that those hateful individuals chose to intimidate and threaten us in a public place that is meant for children to play around safely," Ahmad said… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ City announces new Austin Animal Services director (KXAN)

The city of Austin announced Monica Dangler as its new Animal Services director, according to a Tuesday news release.

Dangler, who brings over 15 years of experience in animal sheltering, will officially take the title in February. 

The city of Austin said her extensive background in animal services underscores her commitment to build and improve success for animals in the community.

Before joining Austin Animal Services, Dangler most recently served as an executive leadership consultant at the Riverside County Department of Animal Services in California. There she created a strategic plan, “implementing data-driven decision-making systems and strengthened alignment between field, shelter and community programs,” the release said… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin police officer Christopher Taylor acquitted in 2019 shooting by appeals court (Texas Tribune)

An appeals court has overturned the conviction of Austin police officer Christopher Taylor in a fatal shooting in downtown Austin in 2019, and in a rare move, acquitted Taylor.

Taylor’s lawyer announced the acquittal on social media late Tuesday.

Taylor was convicted of deadly conduct by an Austin jury in the 2019 fatal shooting of Mauris DeSilva, who was suffering from a mental health episode and holding a knife when Taylor shot him in DeSilva’s downtown condo building. The shooting occurred after officers responded to a 911 call about a man with a knife. Officers confronted DeSilva a few feet away from the elevator.

Taylor was originally indicted for murder, but his charge was reduced to deadly conduct before the start of the trial… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ AI guardrails, tax rates after disasters: New Texas laws take effect Jan. 1 (Community Impact)

Approximately three dozen new Texas laws are scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, impacting how artificial intelligence is used in state government, when local officials can raise taxes after natural disasters and how much of businesses' inventory is taxed.

Texas’s biennial legislative session ended in early June. Gov. Greg Abbott signed over 1,100 laws passed by state lawmakers, many of which took effect in mid-June or on Sept. 1. About a dozen other bills became law Dec. 4, following two special legislative sessions this summer during which legislators approved new congressional boundaries, responded to the deadly July 4 floods and made changes to Texas’s school assessment system.

Other measures could not become law until they received voter approval in November.

Keep reading for details about some of the bills becoming law in the new year. The following list is not comprehensive; more information about the new laws is available from Texas Legislature Online…  🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas appeals court says AG Ken Paxton can’t require counties to hand over case data (Texas Tribune)

Texas will be receiving the biggest slice of the federal government’s first rollout of a $50 billion fund created to fortify rural health care across the country. 

On Monday, the Trump administration announced how it plans to allot billions of dollars to states over the course of five years from its federal Rural Health Transformation Program — the fund Congress created earlier this year after approving the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That legislation, in tandem with creation of the fund, slashed Medicaid funding by an estimated $1 trillion.

States made bids to receive portions of the one-time federal funding and Texas, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, is slated to receive more than $281.3 million for the first year of the program in 2026. That’s around $81 million more than what the state asked for in its application… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ DOGE by the numbers: Why San Antonio was hit harder than other Texas cities (San Antonio Express-News)

In Texas, one city has taken by far the biggest hits from the government cost cutting agency formerly led by Elon Musk. From its January launch until its apparent early demise last month, the Department of Government Efficiency killed federal contracts with Texas businesses worth at least $3.9 billion — with $3.6 billion of that cut from San Antonio vendors. The department’s estimates suggest the Texas cuts will ultimately save taxpayers more than $3.1 billion. But the math is murky and, though the agency promised transparency, it has offered few details about its calculations.

Most government contracts run for several years, which means much of the money claimed to be “saved” in the future hadn’t actually been doled out yet. Also, a canceled contract doesn’t mean the money is automatically returned to federal coffers. And sometimes the awarded contract amounts wouldn’t have been spent even if the contract hadn’t been cut. Musk left in May and, by September, DOGE had gone from killing billion-dollar deals to targeting contracts worth tens of thousands of dollars, including a Texas veteran’s prosthesis worth $15,289. The agency fell far short of its stated goal of cutting $2 trillion then quietly faded from the scene.

In late November, the director of the Office of Personnel Management told Reuters that DOGE “doesn’t exist” as the centralized entity it was when President Donald Trump tapped Musk to lead it. Despite that, Wired magazine quoted government sources suggesting the agency hasn’t folded but instead had transformed and “burrowed into agencies like ticks.” Here are the findings of a Hearst Newspapers review of the slashed federal contracts across Texas: Of the total $3.1 billion in claimed savings from federal contracts in Texas, nearly 97% was from canceled contracts with San Antonio vendors… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ More musicians cancel Kennedy Center concerts after board votes to add Trump's name to the building (NBC News)

More musicians have canceled their upcoming concerts at the Kennedy Center after its board voted to rename the performing arts venue to include President Donald Trump’s name. The canceled performances to date include shows previously promoted for Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and Jan. 14.

The Cookers, a jazz band that was scheduled to perform Wednesday night, did not cite a specific reason in announcing their decision, but their statement hinted at politics. “

Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice. Some of us have been making this music for many decades, and that history still shapes us,” the statement read. "Our hope is that this moment will leave space for reflection, not resentment."

Kristy Lee, who was scheduled to perform Jan. 14, announced her cancellation on Instagram, saying canceling shows hurts, “but losing my integrity would cost me more than any paycheck.” “When American history starts getting treated like something you can ban, erase, rename, or rebrand for somebody else’s ego, I can’t stand on that stage and sleep right at night,” said Lee, who described herself as "just a folk singer from Alabama." She said that instead of playing at the Kennedy Center next month, she would play a live show from her home.

In a separate statement on her website, Lee said the cancellation was due to concerns for the center’s “institutional integrity.” She said she “believes publicly funded spaces must remain free from political capture, self-promotion, or ideological pressure.” “This decision is not directed at the Center’s dedicated staff, artists, or patrons, whose work and commitment to the arts remain deeply respected. Rather, it is a statement in defense of the Center’s founding purpose and the ethical responsibility shared by artists who grace its stage,” the statement read. The Kennedy Center, Lee and The Cookers did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday night… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ After a year of blistering growth, AI chip makers get ready for bigger 2026 (Wall Street Journal)

Driven by the explosive growth of artificial intelligence, the largest semiconductor companies in the world recorded more than $400 billion in combined sales in 2025, by far the biggest year for chips on record. Next year promises to be even bigger. Yet the blistering pace of growth, fed by what CEOs and analysts describe as “insatiable demand” for computing power, has created a host of challenges, from shortages of vital components to questions about how and when AI companies will be able to generate reliable enough profits to keep buying chips.

Hardware designers such as Nvidia, which more than doubled its revenue year-over-year, are the main suppliers of the picks and shovels behind this new digital gold rush. But Nvidia faces growing competition from the likes of Alphabet’s Google and Amazon.com, while the battleground shifts under its feet.

Last week, Nvidia signed a $20 billion licensing deal with the chip startup Groq, which designs chips and software that help accelerate AI inference, the process whereby trained AI models serve up answers to prompts. Where the last leg of the AI race was defined by training, tech giants are now competing to deliver the fastest and most cost-efficient inference. “Inference workloads are more diversified and may open up new areas for competition,” analysts at Bernstein wrote after Nvidia’s recent deal was announced. Data-center operators, AI labs and business customers have clamored for Nvidia’s advanced H200 and B200 graphics processing units.

Google’s increasingly sophisticated custom chips, known as TPUs, and Amazon’s Trainium and Inferentia chips, both of which compete with Nvidia’s GPUs, are also scooping up customers, while software developers such as OpenAI are joining with custom designers such as Broadcom to design their own chips. Advanced Micro Devices, a half-century-old maker of gaming, personal computer and data-center chips, is launching a GPU in 2026 that represents its first major challenge to Nvidia’s AI processors… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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