🟪 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:

✅ Ken Paxton demands information from Austin ISD after student walkout last week (KUT)

Students from the Austin Independent School District participated in a national walkout last Friday to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Some district teachers and staff walked along with them, while AISD Police followed along to help keep the students safe. Now, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he’s demanding information from the district about its involvement.

The order comes after Gov. Greg Abbott said on social media Friday that he asked the head of the Texas Education Agency, Mike Morath, to launch an investigation of AISD regarding the walkout.

Paxton is in a tight Republican primary race for the U.S. Senate nomination and is hoping to get President Donald Trump's endorsement. Paxton has asked AISD for internal communications regarding the walkout, their policies on students leaving campus, excused absences and security protocols. The attorney general argues that district staff helped students leave campus in some cases.

But some AISD parents say they appreciated the district's efforts and question the state's investigations… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ CEO of Austin Regional Manufacturers Association stepping down (Austin Business Journal)

The leader of an Austin trade association that represents a key pillar of the local economy is retiring. 

Kevin Fincher is stepping down from his role as the president and CEO of the Austin Regional Manufacturers Association, according to a letter sent to ARMA members by the organization’s board chairman, Andy Salo. Fincher, who is going to turn 60 years old this year, said he decided to retire so he could prioritize his family. He said he was grateful to lead ARMA, where he is a founding board member. 

“It is a bittersweet moment, but I think I'm just at a point in my life where family has to come first, and I need to lean into my family a little bit and just step away from long days and weeks,” Fincher said. 

His last official day on the job will be Feb. 13. He stepped into the role in early 2024 after previously serving as ARMA’s treasurer. Prior to that, he had a decades-long career as a public accountant working with companies in the manufacturing space… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Base Power seeks incentives for $265M Austin expansion (Austin Business Journal)

One of Austin’s fastest growing tech companies could soon rapidly increase its manufacturing presence in the city. 

Base Power is looking to invest $265 million to open a 486,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 8001 Metropolis Drive, and it's seeking help from the city of Austin to do so, according to documents from the city. An economic development agreement, if approved, could help create 500 jobs. 

The Austin City Council is set to consider an agreement under the city's Business Expansion Program at its Feb. 5 meeting that would provide Base Power a total of roughly $4.85 million over a 10-year term. It's projected the city would see $9.8 million in total benefits over a 10-year term. Base Power also projects the agreement would help the company retain 100 positions and create another 500 full-time jobs with an annual average salary of $50,000 and employee benefits. 

Base Power didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Base Power recently opened a 90,000-square-foot manufacturing facility inside the former Austin American-Statesman building on South Congress Avenue, but the site was designed to be temporary because developers have high-rise ambitions for that real estate. The company also recently raised $1 billion in a series C funding round — the largest Austin has ever seen… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ UIL district realignment shifts powerhouse teams in Austin-area schools (KVUE)

Monday was Realignment Day, when we found out which high school teams were switching districts and which would stay put.

The biggest news came out of District 26-6A, a group that used to include three powerhouse programs: Westlake, Lake Travis and Dripping Springs. Now, only one remains.

The Chaparrals and Cavaliers are now in a district with all the Round Rock teams, making life a little harder for Round Rock, and maybe making the path to a perfect regular season a little easier for Dripping Springs.

Other storylines that came from Monday include rivals Anderson and McCallum now sharing a district, making it unlikely they will open the season against each other, like they have for decades.

Liberty Hill and Liberty Hill Legacy Ranch are in a district with five San Antonio-area schools, and they aren't the only ones making long trips out of town. LBJ, Taylor and others are in a district with Kerrville Tivy, over 110 miles away. Marble Falls, Burnet and others are in a district with Stephenville, over 120 miles away… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ After two Houston Congress members died in office, Al Green defends his seniority to voters (Texas Tribune)

In Houston, with the district’s recent history in mind, the potency of generational change as an electoral force will get a major test. Amanda Edwards is 44. Christian Menefee is 37. Green is 78.

“It’s a conversation that’s definitely happening,” said Shea Jordan Smith, a former Jackson Lee staffer and Democratic operative who is backing Menefee in both the special election and the primary. “I think that this primary will be indicative of where we go across the city, across the state and also nationally.”

Among Democrats in Congress, seniority has long been the coin of the realm for amassing power, with committee chairmanships and plum assignments largely reserved for the most seasoned members. Older and long-tenured Black Democrats have often been among the strongest proponents of that system, which they see as one that evens the playing field by minimizing factors such as fundraising ability or popularity. 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ As some states try to show ICE the door, others put out the welcome mat (NPR)

After Trump took office last year, many red states jumped to support the president's mass deportation efforts.

In Tennessee, the state provides grants to law enforcement agencies that work with ICE. Since that was passed last year, the number of sheriff's offices and police departments that have signed a formal agreement with ICE has skyrocketed.

Now, Republican lawmakers in the state are considering making that voluntary program involuntary as part of a bigger immigration package. Kentucky lawmakers are moving in the same direction.

This year, Tennessee is piloting legislation made in partnership with Steven Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy, and the White House.

One of the policies would make it impossible for someone without legal status to buy a car, earn a nursing certificate or receive any government benefits. (Many government benefits are already off-limits to people living in the country illegally.) "We're not spending taxpayer dollars on you unless you're in jail," is how Cameron Sexton, the Republican Tennessee House Speaker, explained it when announcing the legislation… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump’s chaotic governing style is hurting the value of the U.S. dollar (Washington Post)

Fallout from the recent Greenland crisis clipped the U.S. dollar, aggravating a year-long decline that has shaved more than 10 percent off the greenback’s value since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. The dollar is under pressure on multiple fronts. After a long period of U.S. financial market outperformance, many foreign investors are rebalancing their portfolios to reduce excessive exposure to the United States and to capitalize on improving prospects elsewhere.Washington’s failure to address its mounting public debt, including crisis-level annual budget deficits at a time of low unemployment, isn’t helping.

But perhaps the key to the dollar’s drop is the ripple effect of the president’s erratic policymaking, including abrupt stops and starts with tariffs and military action against a lengthening list of countries. After more than a year of nonstop upheaval emanating from the White House, many foreign investment managers are exhausted.

“There is a visceral dislike of this kind of policy chaos,” said economist Robin Brooks, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “I think the dollar will fall around 10 percent [more] this year.” One sign of the dollar’s ebbing appeal has been a staggering surge in gold prices, up almost 80 percent over the past year. On Friday, the dollar rallied — and gold sank — on news that Trump had nominated Kevin Warsh, a former Federal Reserve governor, to be the next chairman of the nation’s central bank.

But the broader trend of dollar weakness remains in place, several economists and money managers said. The president has pushed repeatedly for the Fed to cut its benchmark 3.75 percent interest rate to levels far below what mainstream economists say is appropriate, which would be likely to further erode the dollar’s standing. “We should have the lowest interest rate anywhere in the world. They should be two points and even three points lower,” the president said on Thursday during a Cabinet meeting. The Fed’s policymaking committee left rates unchanged last week. But financial markets expect cuts to resume in June… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ ‘Spy Sheikh’ bought secret stake in Trump company (Wall Street Journal)

Four days before Donald Trump’s inauguration last year, lieutenants to an Abu Dhabi royal secretly signed a deal with the Trump family to purchase a 49% stake in their fledgling cryptocurrency venture for half a billion dollars, according to company documents and people familiar with the matter. The buyers would pay half up front, steering $187 million to Trump family entities. The deal with World Liberty Financial, which hasn’t previously been reported, was signed by Eric Trump, the president’s son. At least $31 million was also slated to flow to entities affiliated with the family of Steve Witkoff, a World Liberty co-founder who weeks earlier had been named U.S. envoy to the Middle East, the documents said. The investment was backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, an Abu Dhabi royal who has been pushing the U.S. for access to tightly guarded artificial intelligence chips, according to people familiar with the matter.

Tahnoon—sometimes referred to as the “spy sheikh”—is brother to the United Arab Emirates’ president, the government’s national security adviser, as well as the leader of the oil-rich country’s largest wealth fund. He oversees a more than $1.3 trillion empire funded by his personal fortune and state money that spans from fish farms to AI to surveillance, making him one of the most powerful single investors in the world. The deal marked something unprecedented in American politics: a foreign government official taking a major ownership stake in an incoming U.S. president’s company. Under the Biden administration, Tahnoon’s efforts to get AI hardware had been largely stymied over fears that the sensitive technology could be diverted to China.

Of particular concern was one of Tahnoon’s own companies, the AI firm G42, which had stoked alarm among intelligence officials and lawmakers over its close ties to the sanctioned tech giant Huawei and other Chinese firms. The company said it severed ties with China in late 2023, but concerns persisted. Trump’s election reopened the door for him. In the months that followed, Tahnoon met multiple times with Trump, Witkoff and other U.S. officials, including in a March visit to the White House where the sheikh told officials he was eager to work with the U.S. on AI and other issues, according to people familiar with the matter… 🟪 (READ MORE)