🟪 After Austin ISD student protests over ICE, Gov. Abbott calls for investigation (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 Austin City Council set to discuss camera surveillance at parks (KVUE)

🟪 South Congress reaches tipping point between local and non-local businesses (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 The deadline to register to vote in Texas' March 3 primary election is today (KUT)

🟪 Democrat Taylor Rehmet wins solidly red Texas Senate seat in stunning special election upset (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Tump says feds won't intervene during protests in Democratic-led cities unless asked to do so (NPR)

🟪 Who is Kevin Warsh, Trump pick for Fed chair? (The Hill)

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 Meetings

🏛️ City of Austin Memos:

✅ After Austin ISD student protests over ICE, Gov. Abbott calls for investigation (Austin American-Statesman)

In a demonstration against the recent actions of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, students walked out of their classes on Friday at schools across the state. Thousands in the Austin Independent School District participated in the protests, with some leaving their middle and high schools to walk to the Texas Capitol.

Responding to videos posted online of the Austin ISD protests that showed district police vehicles near the demonstrating students, Gov. Greg Abbott called on Education Commissioner Mike Morath to investigate the demonstrations.

“AISD gets taxpayer dollars to teach the subjects required by the state, not to help students skip school to protest,” Abbott wrote Friday evening. “Our schools are for educating our children, not political indoctrination.”

The protests were not sponsored or endorsed by the district or any AISD campus, Superintendent Matias Segura wrote in a letter to families. The district always wants to have students in the classroom during instructional hours, he said… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin City Council set to discuss camera surveillance at parks (KVUE)

This week, Austin City Council members are set to discuss a $2 million contract for AI-powered surveillance at city parks. But as some council members are concerned about the use of this type of technology, they're also proposing an ordinance to add more oversight. 

On Thursday, council members will vote on a contract with LiveView Technologies for a three-year contract for a mobile security trailer and monitoring services in Austin parks.

Back in 2023, Austin Parks and Recreation launched a pilot program with the trailers, aimed at reducing crime. Looking at the data, they said the program succeeded in reducing theft and other criminal activity in the parks.  

LiveView said under the contract, the city would own all of the data and only authorized employees and Austin police would get access to it. They said the data is hosted in a U.S.-based cloud and would be deleted permanently after 60 days. The company also clarified that no facial recognition would be used, and license plates will be redacted when it's not relevant to the property crime investigations.

On Tuesday, council members will discuss the contract in a work session before voting on it on Thursday. The public is welcome to speak about the contract at Thursday's meeting… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ South Congress reaches tipping point between local and non-local businesses (Austin Business Journal)

Local retailers are neck-and-neck with national and international brands on South Congress.

South Congress Avenue has become one of Austin’s top tourist attractions, and a storefront on the street basically acts as a billboard for operators. A presence on South Congress comes at a steep cost that many large companies can afford, but it makes it more difficult for locals to make the math work, where rents on the street have risen to about $200 per square foot. For years, local operators have felt the heat from being on cool "SoCo" — forcing many longtime mom-and-pop shops to close — and the scales are beginning to tip in favor of the outsiders.

Starting at Ego's near Riverside Drive and ending at C-Boy's Heart and Soul near Leland Street, the number of local businesses on the strip is almost the same as national and international names, according to a calculation by the Austin Business Journal, which found 47 local businesses and 48 non-local businesses on the street.

The calculation includes a few incoming high-end businesses, such as Paige and The Butcher's Daughter, which have not officially opened but are confirmed. The count did not include a few outgoing local restaurants because it’s unclear what will happen next in those spaces. Often, when a local exits South Congress, an outsider backfills the space because larger businesses can afford the high rents… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Delta adds summer flight between Austin, Asheville (Austin Business Journal)

Delta Air Lines Inc. is adding a new destination out of Austin’s airport this summer. 

Representatives of the Atlanta-based airline told the Austin Business Journal that it will offering a summer flight from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to the Asheville Regional Airport in Asheville, North Carolina. The North Carolina city is known for attracting tourists. It ranked No. 9 on Travel and Leisure's favorite cities to visit list in 2025.

The route will be offered from June 13 to Sept. 5, and there will be one flight to and from Asheville that will run on Saturdays. Service will be expanded during the week of the Fourth of July. ABIA officials confirmed the new route in an email to the ABJ.

ABIA has long aimed to increase the number of routes and destinations it can reach and is currently undergoing a $5 billion expansion effort that will see the airport add 32 new gates to help with these efforts. Delta is going to be a key part of that expanded airport — it will occupy 15 gates once the current expansion phase is complete… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ The deadline to register to vote in Texas' March 3 primary election is today (KUT)

Monday is the deadline to register to vote in Texas for the March 3 primary election. Voters get to decide who will appear on the November ballot for a range of elected offices, including governor, attorney general, U.S. House and Senate, and seats in the Texas Legislature.

You can check to see if you're registered to vote through this Texas Secretary of State voter portal. If you're not, here's what you need to know… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Democrat Taylor Rehmet wins solidly red Texas Senate seat in stunning special election upset (Texas Tribune)

Democrat and machinist union leader Taylor Rehmet won the special election Saturday to represent a solidly red Texas Senate district that President Donald Trump carried by 17 points in 2024, a stunning upset that injected a fresh and urgent sense of a panic into the GOP from the Texas Capitol to the White House heading into November’s midterm elections. 

With ballots tallied from all but a handful of voting centers, Rehmet had 57% of the vote, besting the 43% for his GOP opponent, conservative activist Leigh Wambsganss, who vastly outspent Rehmet as Republicans including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick mounted a furious funding push in a bid to tilt the election in their favor in the final days. 

Patrick, the Senate’s powerful presiding officer, had raised alarm bells about the race and urged Republicans to turn out — as did Trump, who posted three separate get-out-the-vote messages on social media in the 48 hours preceding the election.

The win will be short-lived for Rehmet, a first-time candidate who will serve out the roughly 11 months remaining in the term of Republican Kelly Hancock, who vacated the seat to become Texas’ acting comptroller. But the outcome serves as a warning shot for Republicans that will likely embolden Democrats as they angle for other red-leaning seats across Texas — and the country — in November… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ ICE plans ‘mega’ migrant detention center near Dallas (Dallas Morning News)

The warehouse has stood vacant for months, a hulking shell of concrete, its doors closed and parking lot empty. Now, it’s on track to become the nation’s largest migrant detention center. Tucked just east of Interstate 45 in Hutchins, population about 8,000, the building could house as many as 9,500 people as part of President Donald Trump’s push to dramatically increase deportations of undocumented migrants. Hutchins Mayor Mario Vasquez said the city had little warning about Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s plan to use the warehouse as a holding center before deportation. Vasquez said he’s firmly opposed.

“No benefit to it whatsoever,” he said. ICE officials say converting large warehouses into detention centers near major hubs will allow the agency to handle rising arrests more efficiently and avoid shuttling detainees around the country in search of space.

The competing views in Hutchins, less than 10 miles south of downtown Dallas, reflects rising tension across Texas as ICE moves forward with a major four-part expansion. An internal agency document reviewed by The Dallas Morning News identifies, for the first time, the address of the Hutchins warehouse and names three other new centers statewide that together would add at least 20,000 beds.

The four facilities would significantly increase ICE’s detention footprint in a state where Republican leaders largely have backed the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Establishing more detention facilities will expedite” the federal government’s “work to remove criminal illegals and make our communities safer,” said U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Terrell.

“We wouldn’t need to expand detention space if Joe Biden and Democrats didn’t leave our border open for four years.” Critics say the scale of the plan could strain local infrastructure, spread fear among immigrant families and raise health and safety concerns about conditions inside large detention centers… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Who is Kevin Warsh, Trump pick for Fed chair? (The Hill)

President Trump on Friday nominated former Federal Reserve board member Kevin Warsh to succeed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

In an announcement on Truth Social, the president touted Warsh’s resume, expressing his confidence that his nominee “will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best.”

The former Fed governor was born in Albany, N.Y., and is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School, according to his bio on the central bank’s website.

Powell, whose term ends in May, has been at odds with the president in recent months over interest rate decisions and renovations at the central bank’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. Trump has consistently threatened to fire the current Fed chair, who he nominated for the position in 2017, during their clashes… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Tump says feds won't intervene during protests in Democratic-led cities unless asked to do so (NPR)

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he has instructed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem not to intervene in protests occurring in cities led by Democrats unless local authorities ask for federal help amid mounting criticism of his administration's immigration crackdown.

On his social media site, Trump posted that "under no circumstances are we going to participate in various poorly run Democrat Cities with regard to their Protests and/or Riots unless, and until, they ask us for help."

He provided no further details on how his order would affect operations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and DHS personnel, or other federal agencies, but added: "We will, however, guard, and very powerfully so, any and all Federal Buildings that are being attacked by these highly paid Lunatics, Agitators, and Insurrectionists."… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Kennedy Center to close for 2 years for renovations in July, Trump says, after performers’ backlash (Associated Press)

President Donald Trump said Sunday he will move to close Washington’s Kennedy Center performing arts center for two years starting in July for construction, his latest proposal to upturn the storied venue since returning to the White House.

Trump’s announcement on social media follows a wave of cancellations by leading performers, musicians and groups since the president ousted the previous leadership and added his name to the building. Trump made no mention in his post of the recent cancellations.

His proposal, announced days after the premiere of “Melania, " a documentary of the first lady was shown at the center, he said was subject to approval by the board of the Kennedy Center, which has been stocked with his hand-picked allies. Trump himself chairs the center’s board of trustees.

“This important decision, based on input from many Highly Respected Experts, will take a tired, broken, and dilapidated Center, one that has been in bad condition, both financially and structurally for many years, and turn it into a World Class Bastion of Arts, Music, and Entertainment,” Trump wrote in his post… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Pro-gun groups warn vulnerable GOP seats on the line after Pretti response (Politico)

Second Amendment advocates are warning that Republicans shouldn’t count on them to show up in November, after President Donald Trump insisted that demonstrator Alex Pretti “should not have been carrying a gun.” The White House labels itself the “most pro-Second Amendment administration in history.” But Trump’s comments about Pretti, who was legally carrying a licensed firearm when he was killed by federal agents last week, have some gun rights advocates threatening to sit out the midterms. “I’ve spent 72 hours on the phone trying to unfuck this thing.

Trump has got to correct his statements now,” said one Second Amendment advocate, granted anonymity to speak about private conservations. The person said Second Amendment advocates are “furious.” “And they will not come out and vote. He can’t correct it three months before the election.”

The response to Pretti’s killing isn’t the first time Second Amendment advocates have felt abandoned by Trump. The powerful lobbying and advocacy groups, that for decades reliably struck fear into the hearts of Republicans, have clashed multiple times with Trump during his first year back in power. And their ire comes at a delicate moment for the GOP. While Democrats are unlikely to pick up support from gun-rights groups, the repeated criticisms from organizations such as the National Association for Gun Rights suggest that the Trump administration may be alienating a core constituency it needs to turn out as it seeks to retain its slim majority in the House and Senate. It doesn’t take much to swing an election, said Dudley Brown, president of the National Association for Gun Rights.

“All you have to do is lose four, five, six percent of their base who left it blank, who didn’t write a check, who didn’t walk districts, you lose,” he said. “Especially marginal districts — and the House is not a good situation right now.” And it wasn’t only the president who angered gun-rights advocates. Others in the administration made similar remarks about Pretti, denouncing the idea of carrying a gun into a charged environment such as a protest. FBI Director Kash Patel said “you cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want,” and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said she didn’t “know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)