BG Reads // January 9, 2025

Author

A.J. Bingham
January 09, 2026

faustin a

Presented By

www.binghamgp.com

January 9, 2026

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 New water tunnels under Lake Travis provide a lifeline for 3 Williamson County cities (KUT)

🟪 TSTC Williamson County wins $3.5M grant to train semiconductor technicians (Community Impact)

🟪 Hutto council appoints interim member to serve until May election (Community Impact)

🟪 Texas, facing doctor shortage, eases path for foreign-trained physicians (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Texas hands over complete list of registered voters to Trump administration (Texas Tribune)

READ ON!

[FIRM NEWS]

✈️ I had the opportunity to attend yesterday's (1.8.2026) announcement of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) historic new airline agreements—and it marks a defining moment for Austin and Central Texas.

This 10-year deal enables 32 new gates as part of a $5+ billion expansion, laying the groundwork for how our city grows, connects and competes (nationally and internationally) for decades to come.

As Mayor Kirk Watson noted, this is far more than a contract—it’s a long-term framework for Austin’s future.

Proud to see our client, Delta Air Lines, play a leading role—anchoring Concourse A with 15 gates and a $250M investment to modernize the passenger experience, including a new Delta Sky Club.

The next chapter for AUS is officially underway.

A big shoutout to the entire AUS team!

/

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

  • Work Session: Tuesday, January 20 @9AM

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

🏛️ [New Memos]

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ New water tunnels under Lake Travis provide a lifeline for 3 Williamson County cities (KUT)

The Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority has reached a major milestone in the construction of its new water delivery system. All of the project's underground components, including two 11-foot-wide tunnels located underneath Lake Travis, have been completed.

"The underground work, the mining, the lining of the tunnels, is all now complete, aside from minor touch ups," Aaron Archer, senior vice president at the civil engineering firm Walker Partners told the Leander City Council last month.

Formed in 2007, the BCRUA is a partnership of Cedar Park, Leander and Round Rock. It's responsible for treating and distributing water from the Lower Colorado River Authority — the public agency that manages Lake Travis… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ TSTC Williamson County wins $3.5M grant to train semiconductor technicians (Community Impact)

Texas State Technical College is receiving a $3.5 million state grant to train future semiconductor technicians at its East Williamson County campus in Hutto.

The grant money comes from the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund, a state program launched in 2023 to promote economic and workforce development in semiconductor research, design and manufacturing. Texas lawmakers allocated about $948 million for the TSIF during the 2023 and 2025 legislative sessions, according to the governor’s office, which administers the program.

TSTC will use the $3.5 million grant to develop the Accelerated Semiconductor Technician Training Program, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Jan. 8. The college will use existing instructional and lab facilities for the new program.

The 10-week program will train students for careers in semiconductor fabrication, including roles as equipment technicians, process technicians and gas control system specialists, according to a news release. The program is designed to replicate a real semiconductor lab with a wafer-processing learning facility and a mock cleanroom, per Abbott’s office… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Hutto council appoints interim member to serve until May election (Community Impact)

The Hutto City Council voted to appoint Charles Warner to fill the vacant Place 1 seat on an interim basis through May 2026, when voters are expected to elect a permanent replacement.

Warner was appointed with one dissenting vote from Place 4 City Council member Peter Gordon. He currently serves on the Hutto Ethics Review Commission and was one of 14 applicants who sought the temporary position after the city opened the application process to residents earlier this month.

Warner works full time at Dell and is also involved in business and volunteer work through his church.

He said he has been interested in serving in local government for some time, but had not been able to commit because of time constraints. The interim appointment, he said, allows him the opportunity to serve while balancing his professional responsibilities... 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Kickoff time announced for Austin FC's October 31 match at LA Galaxy (Austin FC)

Major League Soccer announced today that Austin FC’s regular season away match on Saturday, October 31 at LA Galaxy will kick off at 4:00 p.m. CT/2:00 p.m. PT at Dignity Health Sports Park… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ Texas, facing doctor shortage, eases path for foreign-trained physicians (Texas Tribune)

Texas has been facing a shortage of physicians, thanks to phenomenal population growth and an aging population of doctors nearing retirement. Of the 100,000 doctors licensed in Texas, about a fourth were trained outside the United States, matching the national ratio. It’s not clear how many of those are actually working as doctors. Still, the Texas Department of State Health Services predicts the state will see a shortage of 10,000 doctors by 2032, and Texas medical schools cannot make up that shortage.

“Current projections for medical education enrollment indicate that the state’s medical education system will not create a supply of physicians that will meet projected demand,” the state health department has concluded.

Enter House Bill 2038, known as the DOCTOR Act, from state Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, an anesthesiologist who wanted to create an easier licensing pathway for military veterans and U.S. and foreign-born doctors who may have graduated but did not complete a residency program in the United States… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas hands over complete list of registered voters to Trump administration (Texas Tribune)

Texas officials have turned over the state’s voter roll to the U.S. Justice Department, according to a spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, complying with the Trump administration’s demands for access to data on millions of voters across the country.

The Justice Department last fall began asking all 50 states for their voter rolls — massive lists containing significant identifying information on every registered voter in each state — and other election-related data. The Justice Department has said the effort is central to its mission of enforcing election law requiring states to regularly maintain voter lists by searching for and removing ineligible voters.

Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, told Votebeat and The Texas Tribune that the state had sent its voter roll, which includes information on the approximately 18.4 million voters registered in Texas, to the Justice Department on Dec. 23.

The state included identifiable information about voters, including dates of birth, driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, Pierce said.

Experts and state officials around the country have raised concerns over the legality of the Justice Department’s effort to obtain states’ voter rolls and whether it could compromise voter privacy protections. The Justice Department has said it is entitled to the data under federal law, and withholding it interferes with its ability to exercise oversight and enforce federal election laws… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ ICE officer who shot Renee Good in Minneapolis has served decades in military and law enforcement (Associated Press)

The federal agent who shot and killed a driver in Minneapolis is an Iraq War veteran who has served for nearly two decades in the Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to records obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

Jonathan Ross, who shot and killed Renee Good on Wednesday, has served as a deportation officer with ICE since 2015, records show. He was seriously injured last summer when he was dragged by the vehicle of a fleeing suspect whom he shot with a stun gun.

Federal officials have not named the officer who shot Good, a 37-year-old mother who was shot as she tried to drive away from federal agents. But Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem said the agent who shot Good had been dragged by a vehicle last June, and a department spokesperson confirmed Noem was referring to the Bloomington, Minnesota, case in which documents identified the injured officer as Ross… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ FBI blocks state law enforcement from ICE shooting investigation (Wall Street Journal)

Minnesota law-enforcement officials said Thursday that the FBI blocked them from participating in an investigation into the fatal shooting of a woman by an ICE agent, intensifying the dispute between the state and the federal government over the death. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz denounced the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s decision to exclude the state from the investigation, saying any probe that doesn’t include state law enforcement can’t be trusted. “It feels very, very difficult that we will get a fair outcome,” Walz said Thursday. Vice President JD Vance defended the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and criticized the woman who was killed, Renee Nicole Good, calling her a “victim of left-wing ideology.” “I can believe that her death is a tragedy while also recognizing that it’s a tragedy of her own making,” Vance said during a lengthy appearance in the White House briefing room on Thursday.

Democratic leaders denounced the Trump administration and its policies and called for a full investigation into the shooting. “The killing of Renee Nicole Good was an abomination,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) said Thursday. “Blood is clearly on the hands of those individuals within the administration who’ve been pushing an extreme policy,” he said. The FBI had originally agreed to a joint investigation on Wednesday, said Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. On Thursday, the FBI said it would solely handle the investigation and would no longer provide state law enforcement with access to case materials or evidence.

“Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected, we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands,” Evans said. “As a result, the BCA has reluctantly withdrawn from the investigation.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Minnesota law enforcement doesn’t have any jurisdiction in the investigation. The FBI’s Minneapolis office didn’t respond to a request for comment. In a separate incident on Thursday, a Border Patrol agent shot two people in Portland, Ore. Homeland Security said the agent fired a defensive shot when the driver attempted to run over agents... 🟪 (READ MORE)

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