BG Reads // January 21, 2026

Author

A.J. Bingham
January 21, 2026

faustin a

Presented By

www.binghamgp.com

January 21, 2026

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 To save district from takeover, Austin ISD will likely cede control of three middle schools (KUT)

🟪 Austin Community College's free tuition program doubles in size (KUT))

🟪 Kendra Scott, Yeti, Valero and other Texas firms sue U.S. over tariffs. But don't ask them about it. (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 ERCOT: Texas power grid is ready ahead of incoming winter storm (KUT)

🟪 Forecasters warn of a ‘potentially catastrophic’ storm from Texas to the Carolinas (Associated Press)

🟪 Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have been subpoenaed by the DOJ (NPR)

🟪 How ICE grew to be the highest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency (NPR)

READ ON!

[FROM THE FIRM ]

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ City of Austin Memos:

🏛️ Meetings next week:

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ To save district from takeover, Austin ISD will likely cede control of three middle schools (KUT)

Three struggling Austin middle schools will likely come under the operation of charter schools after a detailed review of testing scores and projections showed the schools are unlikely to improve enough to avoid a district takeover.

Austin ISD board members are expected to vote later this month on whether to seek the charter partnerships and relinquish control of Dobie, Webb and Burnet middle schools as part of a scramble to maintain control of the district.

At a board meeting Thursday night, Superintendent Matias Segura confirmed the schools were showing meaningful academic gains but not enough, or at least fast enough, to escape Texas’ accountability clock. Without dramatic improvement this year, the campuses could trigger a chain reaction that allows the state to close the schools or seize control of the entire district… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin Community College's free tuition program doubles in size (KUT)

Austin Community College’s free tuition pilot program doubled its number of students over the last year.

The pilot program began in the fall of 2024. The first year, participation was higher than what administrators had expected. A total of 4,894 enrolled in the 2025 spring semester. Now, a year later, participation has grown to nearly 10,000 students.

Jenna Cullinane Hege, ACC’s vice chancellor of institutional research and analytics, says the college has done a series of interviews with students who have received the free tuition benefit. She says the program appears to be having a meaningful effect on three specific types of students: those who thought they wouldn’t be able to attend college at all for economic reasons; those who would have waited a couple of years until they had sufficient funds to attend college; and those who planned on getting only a certificate and jumping into the workforce.

The program was created to make college more accessible for students who otherwise wouldn’t have pursued a higher education degree. Students can attend ACC without having to pay tuition and general fees for up to three years or up to five years if students seek one of the bachelor’s degrees the college offers… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Almost 800 homes planned for budding neighborhoods in Manor, Pflugerville (Austin Business Journal)

Ashton Woods Homes shows no signs of slowing down with two new housing communities planned in the Austin metro.

The Georgia-based homebuilder recently announced it will build in Lagos Reserve in Manor and The Trails at Carmel in Pflugerville, which will add 294 and 500 homes, respectively, to the area.

The two developments are among 14 communities in the Austin metro fleshed out at least in part by Ashton Woods, including a 523-home Creedmor neighborhood announced in May. The company closed on 839 homes in 2024, ranking No. 5 on ABJ’s latest ranking of homebuilders observed by Zonda. 

Both neighborhoods are in Travis County — the only county in the Austin region to see a slight rise in home pricing last year, according to Unlock MLS’s year-end market report. The county’s median home price came out to $508,000 in 2025. The two communities will have starting prices in the $400,000 range… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Kendra Scott, Yeti, Valero and other Texas firms sue U.S. over tariffs. But don't ask them about it. (Austin American-Statesman)

Even in deep red Texas, companies wanting to stay in the black are taking on President Donald Trump’s tariffs. More than a dozen companies across the state, including well-known drinkware purveyor Yeti Holdings Inc., jewelry designer and manufacturer Kendra Scott and the marketing arm of Valero Energy Corp., have challenged the president’s use of executive action to upend global trade.

The broad range of companies fighting the cost-warping import taxes demonstrates how Trump’s chaotic trade war has disrupted all aspects of the economy, a Texas trade expert says. “It’s everybody. It’s not just one sector. They’re widespread,” said Raymond Robertson, director of the Mosbacher Institute of Trade, Economics and Public Policy at Texas A&M University. “It’s incredibly widespread. And it’s really unprecedented in scope.”

Despite their publicly filed lawsuits, most Texas companies reached last week either declined to comment or simply did not respond. Though many publicly traded companies have told investors and spoken privately about the fact tariffs are increasing costs, harming consumers and increasing uncertainty, few business leaders are willing to publicly speak out, Robertson said.

They fear retaliation from the White House. “The president has not hesitated to target individual companies,” he said. “There was really a deafening silence from the business community.” The Texas Association of Business, long an advocate for free trade, now makes no mention of the issue on the “Federal Priorities” page of its website.

As recently as December, it had listed free trade as one of its priorities. The bulleted entry on that document previously said: “Oppose tariffs that disrupt economic development, particularly those affecting key trading partners like Mexico and Canada whose supply chains are strongly connected to the Texas economy.”

The “About Us” section of the website still stresses sensible trade policies as a core principle, and an association spokesperson emphasized that free trade remains a policy priority. He cited a letter the association sent to the U.S. Trade Representative in December pushing for strengthening the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement — negotiated during the first Trump administration but which the president last week called “irrelevant” — and decrying tariffs… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ ERCOT: Texas power grid is ready ahead of incoming winter storm (KUT)

Texas grid officials say the state is prepared to meet electricity demand ahead of a powerful winter storm that's expected to bring days of freezing temperatures and the chance of ice or snow across parts of the state later this week.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees the state's power grid, told The Texas Newsroom on Tuesday that based on expected weather conditions, it "anticipates there will be sufficient generation to meet demand" ahead of the storm.

"ERCOT will continue to deploy all available resources to manage the grid reliably and coordinate closely with the Public Utility Commission, generation providers, and transmission utilities," the council said in a statement.

Subfreezing temperatures are forecast to arrive by Friday as arctic air pushes south into Texas. Forecasters say moisture arriving late Friday night into Saturday could set the stage for hazardous winter weather throughout the state.

"We'll start out with a cold rain across North and Central Texas, and that will quickly devolve into a wintry mix Friday and Saturday, so we're expecting some ice, some snow," said Allison Prater, meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Dallas-Fort Worth office… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Forecasters warn of a ‘potentially catastrophic’ storm from Texas to the Carolinas (Associated Press)

With many Americans still recovering from multiple blasts of snow and unrelenting freezing temperatures in the nation’s northern tier, a new storm is set to emerge this weekend that could coat roads, trees and power lines with devastating ice across a wide expanse of the South.

The storm arriving late this week and into the weekend is shaping up to be a “widespread potentially catastrophic event from Texas to the Carolinas,” said Ryan Maue, a former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“I don’t know how people are going to deal with it,” he said.

Forecasters on Tuesday warned that the ice could weigh down trees and power lines, triggering widespread outages.

“If you get a half of an inch of ice — or heaven forbid an inch of ice — that could be catastrophic,” said Keith Avery, CEO of the Newberry Electric Cooperative in South Carolina... 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Alcohol commission finalizes rules for hemp industry in Texas, but debate likely to continue (Texas Tribune)

New regulations for the consumable hemp industry were approved by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission on Tuesday, concluding the agency’s involvement in a yearlong effort to more tightly regulate the products in the state.

The rules change little for the $5 billion industry, replacing the temporary emergency rules in place since September. The rules prohibit the sale of consumable hemp products by TABC license holders to people under 21 and require ID checks on all sales.

The rules apply to 60,000 TABC license holders, including convenience stores, restaurants and liquor stores, many of which sell consumable hemp products… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have been subpoenaed by the DOJ (NPR)

The Justice Department has issued grand jury subpoenas to multiple government officials in Minnesota, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, expanding the agency's probe alleging that Minnesota officials conspired to impede law enforcement amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her have also been subpoenaed. NPR has not yet confirmed reports that other state and local leaders have also been issued subpoenas.

Frey's subpoena requires him to appear in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on Feb. 3. The mayor accused the federal government of weaponizing its power to intimidate local leaders.

"We shouldn't have to live in a country where people fear that federal law enforcement will be used to play politics or crack down on local voices they disagree with," he said in a statement… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ How ICE grew to be the highest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency (NPR)

Just 10 years ago, the annual budget for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, was less than $6 billion — notably smaller than other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. But ICE's budget has skyrocketed during President Trump's second term, becoming the highest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency, with $85 billion now at its disposal.

The windfall is thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, enacted last July. After hovering around the $10 billion mark for years, ICE's budget suddenly benefited from a meteoric spike.

"With this new bill and other appropriations, it's larger than the annual budget of all other federal law enforcement agencies combined," said Lauren-Brooke Eisen, senior director of the justice program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan policy institute.

ICE is now the lead agency in President's Trump immigration crackdown, sending thousands of agents into U.S. communities. As its funding and profile has grown as part of those efforts, ICE has come under increasing criticism for its officers' actions, from masked agents randomly stopping, questioning, and detaining people and thrusting them into unmarked vehicles to the recent killing of Renee Macklin Good in Minneapolis… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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