🟪 Critics weigh appeal after losing lawsuit over Austin convention center project (KVUE)

🟪 Round Rock officials weigh neighborhood compatibility for Skybox data center (Community Impact)

🟪 New poll finds Jasmine Crockett, Ken Paxton leading in their primary bids for U.S. Senate (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Former MLB player Mark Teixeira is heavy favorite in GOP primary to succeed Chip Roy in Congress (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Democrats say White House offer on ICE is ‘insufficient’ as Homeland Security funding set to expire (Associated Press)

🟪 Trump accepts ownership of the current economy: 'I'm very proud of it' (NBC News)

READ ON!

🟪 [Team]: Bingham Group is pleased to welcome Annick Beaudet, MPA, FAICP as a Senior Consultant focused on Mobility and Public Infrastructure.

Based in Austin, Annick brings nearly 30 years of experience working at the intersection of transportation systems, land use, and public-sector capital programs, with a reputation for helping public agencies turn ambitious visions into executable, results-driven initiatives.

Before entering consulting, Annick spent 18 years in senior leadership roles with the City of Austin, including Assistant Director of the Austin Transportation Department and Mobility Officer for Project Connect, where she helped coordinate and advance Central Texas’s landmark transit expansion efforts.

For organizations exploring strategic partners to advance mobility or public infrastructure priorities, Annick’s addition further expands Bingham Group’s ability to support complex, high-impact initiatives. Contact us here.

🟪 [Podcast] Also, check out my recent feature on the Austin Eras Podcast. Host Adam Flagg and I discuss my path into community leadership and the lobbying profession, growing up in Austin, and what’s shaping the future of Central Texas.

🟪 Book Review - The Austin–San Antonio Megaregion: Opportunity and Experience

🏛️ Council Meeting

✅ Critics weigh appeal after losing lawsuit over Austin convention center project (KVUE)

Critics of Austin’s new convention center said on Monday they’ll decide within the next day or two whether to appeal after losing a lawsuit aimed at putting the project’s future on the May ballot.

Over the weekend, a judge ruled the City of Austin acted lawfully when the city clerk rejected petition signatures collected by Austin United PAC. The group argued those signatures should have triggered a citywide vote on what happens to the convention center site.

The petition drive ultimately fell about 500 signatures short of the number needed to qualify for the ballot.

Downtown, the former Austin Convention Center is already gone, replaced by a massive construction site that stretches across six city blocks. Despite the demolition, which began in May 2025, opponents say voters should still have a say in what replaces it.

On Monday, construction activity continued, just days after the judge’s ruling cleared another legal hurdle for the city’s plans.

Bill Bunch, a lawyer for Austin United PAC, said the group was disappointed and surprised by the decision. He argues signatures from people living in areas just outside Austin city limits, known as extraterritorial jurisdictions or ETJs, should have been counted in the ballot petition. Any appeal, he said, would focus on that issue… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Round Rock officials weigh neighborhood compatibility for Skybox data center (Community Impact)

Amid a statewide surge in demand for digital infrastructure, a Skybox data center is proposed for a property near East Old Settlers Boulevard and A.W. Grimes Boulevard in Round Rock.

The property also backs up to the Chandler Creek neighborhood, prompting concerns among some residents. Among the concerns are noise pollution, and energy and water consumption on the property, which is zoned for light industrial use but is under consideration for a zoning change.

Some have asked that the land be considered for other uses, such as residential or multifamily. “We do have to figure out the highest and best uses of land, and currently that is zoned light industrial,” Mayor Pro Tem Kristin Stevens said. “We just have to make that decision. Unfortunately, it’s not zoned residential.” The proposed data center is one of many in Williamson County and throughout Central Texas, promising to yield a large amount of property tax revenue for cities… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Walmart may get millions in incentives to build in Jarrell (Austin Business Journal)

Jarrell is considering providing up to $2.7 million in performance-based incentives to spur a somewhat controversial Walmart Inc. project that would help fund infrastructure improvements that may open up the area to more development.

The Jarrell City Council on Feb. 3 unanimously gave the go-ahead for city staff to negotiate the terms of the agreement with Wal-Mart Real Estate Business Trust, which city documents indicated would include reimbursement of certain water and wastewater-related infrastructure costs and waivers of certain impact fees, all based on the company hitting certain performance requirements like job creation.

It would help advance the 27-acre project near County Roads 312 and 313. Walmart (NYSE: WMT) over the last few months has secured a number of approvals for what's been described as a $72 million, 170,000-square-foot project that could employ more than 300 people, and would represent the city's first major grocer. Those approvals include annexation and zoning, a development agreement and preliminary plat… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ New poll finds Jasmine Crockett, Ken Paxton leading in their primary bids for U.S. Senate (Texas Tribune)

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett are leading their respective Senate primary races, according to new public polling released Monday, just over a week before the start of early voting on Feb. 17.

In a statewide sample of 550 likely Republican primary voters conducted between Jan. 20 and Jan. 31, Paxton led incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn by 7 percentage points. Across the aisle, a similar poll of 550 likely Democratic primary voters shows Crockett running ahead of state Rep. James Talarico by 8 percentage points. The survey findings are a change from recent polls that found both races to be neck-and-neck.

In both primaries, 12% of respondents said that they were still undecided… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Former MLB player Mark Teixeira is heavy favorite in GOP primary to succeed Chip Roy in Congress (Texas Tribune)

In his first-ever run for elected office, former Major League Baseball player Mark Teixeira is overpowering the field of a dozen Republicans competing to replace Rep. Chip Roy in Congress, pumping millions of his personal wealth into his campaign and locking up key endorsements, including a recent nod from President Donald Trump.

Roy, R-Austin, is running for Texas attorney general this year, leaving Texas’ 21st Congressional District up for grabs. The seat, which includes parts of San Antonio and several ruby red Hill Country counties, would have gone for Trump by nearly 22 points in 2024 under its new boundaries — meaning the Republican primary will likely decide the next representative.

Teixeira, a former Texas Rangers and New York Yankees first baseman, has raised more cash than any other candidate, loaning $2.5 million of his own money to his campaign and pulling in another $545,000 from donors. Aside from Trump, he is endorsed by Gov. Greg Abbott — whose push for private school vouchers Teixeira recently supported — and nine of the 25 Republicans from Texas’ congressional delegation. The sheer number of candidates increases the chances of the March 3 primary going to a runoff, which happens when no candidate receives a majority of the votes. But Jon Taylor, political science and geography department chair at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said Teixeira’s endorsements and ability to blanket the district in ads give him a major leg up… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Democrats say White House offer on ICE is ‘insufficient’ as Homeland Security funding set to expire (Associated Press)

Democratic leaders say a proposal from the White House is “incomplete and insufficient” as they are demanding new restrictions on President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and threatening a shutdown of the Homeland Security Department.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement late Monday that a White House counterproposal to the list of demands they transmitted over the weekend “included neither details nor legislative text” and does not address “the concerns Americans have about ICE’s lawless conduct.” The White House proposal was not released publicly.

The Democrats’ statement comes as time is running short, with another partial government shutdown threatening to begin Saturday. Among the Democrats’ demands are a requirement for judicial warrants, better identification of DHS officers, new use-of-force standards and a stop to racial profiling. They say such changes are necessary after two protesters were fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis last month… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump accepts ownership of the current economy: 'I'm very proud of it' (NBC News)

President Donald Trump says it’s his economy now. In an interview with “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Llamas that aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday, the 47th president said the country is already experiencing the Trump economy. “At what point are we in the Trump economy?” Llamas asked. “I’d say we’re there now,” he replied. “I’m very proud of it.”

His remarks come at a time when most Americans tell pollsters they are not satisfied with the state of the economy and as Trump executes a barnstorming strategy to bring his economic message to political battlegrounds before the November midterms. An NPR/Marist/PBS News survey released last week showed that 36% of adults say they approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, while 59% disapprove.

In off-year elections last November, Democrats in Virginia, New Jersey and New York hammered away at “affordability” on their way to victory. In the interview, which was taped Wednesday in the Oval Office, Trump said the economy is doing so well that Democrats are abandoning that message — and also blamed his predecessor, President Joe Biden, for stubbornly high prices on some staples. “In the last four days, it’s only four days, the Democrats have not uttered the word ‘affordability,’” he said. “They’re the ones that caused the problem. I took over a mess in every way.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)