BG Reads // June 11, 2025

Author

A.J. Bingham
June 11, 2025

Presented By

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Austin Police Association fears recruitment issues after protest confrontations (KVUE)

🟪 Judge sides with city of Austin in Statesman PUD case (KXAN)

🟪 Musk says Tesla's robotaxi service to 'tentatively' launch in Austin on June 22 (ABC News)

🟪 Texas lawmakers finalize bill limiting property owners' right to protest new homes nearby (KUT)

🟪 President Donald Trump pushes ahead with his maximalist immigration campaign in face of LA protests (Associated Press)

Read on!

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[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ City Memos:

🏛️ City Leadership

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ Musk says Tesla's robotaxi service to 'tentatively' launch in Austin on June 22 (ABC News)

Elon Musk says Tesla is “tentatively” set to begin providing robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, on June 22.

In a post on his X social media platform, Musk said the date could change because Tesla is “being super paranoid about safety.”

Investors, Wall Street analysts and Tesla enthusiasts have been anticipating the rollout of the driverless cabs since Musk said earlier this year that the service would launch in Austin sometime in June.

Last month, Musk told CNBC that the taxis will be remotely monitored at first and “geofenced” to certain areas of the city deemed the safest to navigate. He said he expected to initially run 10 or so taxis, increase that number rapidly and start offering the service in Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Francisco and other cities.

Musk has been promising fully autonomous, self-driving vehicles “next year” for a decade, but the pressure is on now as Tesla actually begins to operate a self-driving taxi service. Sales of Tesla’s electric vehicles have sagged due to increased competition, the retooling of its most popular car, the Model Y, and the fallout from Musk’s turn to politics… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin ISD to cut jobs amid budget crisis and enrollment drop (KVUE)

Austin Independent School District leaders are preparing to cut jobs and reorganize positions at the district’s central office as they grapple with a mounting budget deficit and declining student enrollment.

AISD employees received notice on July 5 that all central office positions could be subject to “reorganization.” District officials said staff members will learn by June 18 whether their jobs will be eliminated or reassigned, with changes taking effect on Aug. 1…. 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Judge sides with city of Austin in Statesman PUD case (KXAN)

A Travis County Civil Court judge sided with the city of Austin, potentially moving forward the Planned Unit Development (PUD) on the former Austin-American Statesman property.

According to an attorney for the Save Our Springs Alliance (SOS), the judge “did not provide a reason” for the ruling against the organization.

The PUD was approved in 2022 for a development that would include a 275-room high-rise hotel, six towers of residential units and office space.

According to the city, PUD zoning is meant “to preserve the natural environment, encourage high quality development and innovative design, and ensure adequate public facilities and services” and “must be superior to the development that would occur under conventional zoning and subdivision regulations.”

However, PUD zoning also “provides greater design flexibility by permitting modifications of site development regulations.”

The lawsuit that was rejected in court Tuesday claimed that Austin City Council violated the Texas Open meetings Act and the Austin City Charter when it approved the PUD for 18.86 acres along the south shore of lady Bird lake… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin and Travis County leaders credit federal aid in fentanyl fight (KVUE)

Austin and Travis County leaders are crediting federal funding with saving lives in the fight against fentanyl.

It comes roughly a year after U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin) announced a $2 million earmark for that purpose, less than a month after an opioid overdose surge linked to 79 cases and nine deaths.

During a news conference on Tuesday at City Hall, Austin and Travis County elected officials and department heads highlighted what those federal dollars have paid for: training more than 1,000 people how to spot and respond to overdoses, giving out more than 24,000 doses of overdose reversal drug Narcan and funding a media campaign with 56 million impressions.

In 2024, fentanyl-related deaths dropped 36% from 2023.

"We’re winning," said Austin Mayor Kirk Watson. "We’re going to continue to do what we need to do to make sure that … we’re building the infrastructure. We’re not reacting anymore to a crisis."

That federal earmark will run out later in June, as intended. However, in the year since that money was first announced, there’s less certainty about federal funding under the Trump administration… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin Police Association fears recruitment issues after protest confrontations (KVUE)

Three officers struck by rocks, an officer suffering a shoulder injury and protesters spitting on them: It is a glimpse of the conditions Austin police officers faced following anti-ICE protests on Monday evening.

Organizers held a peaceful rally outside of the Capitol building, calling for an end to immigration crackdowns in workplaces and courthouses. Protesters told KVUE they felt anxiety and outrage over unrest in L.A.

But later in the night, tensions escalated when the J.J. Pickle Federal Building got vandalized and some protesters threw scooters and barricades into roadways. 

"It's extremely demoralizing for officers to have to deal with all of that when we're really trying to just keep our city safe and to keep the peace," Michael Bullock, president of the Austin Police Association, said. 

After the 2020 police brutality protests, Bullock said the police department saw a mass exodus of officers due to the level of confrontation happening toward law enforcement. 

"I do have concerns that this type of activity is reminiscent of that and it can have a negative impact on our recruiting and retention abilities," Bullock said. 

The Austin Police Department still has more than 300 vacancies…  🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ Texas lawmakers finalize bill limiting property owners' right to protest new homes nearby (KUT)

Property owners in Texas hoping to stop or stall new housing next door will soon find it harder to do so.

Texas lawmakers finalized a bill last week that loosens a little-known state law guaranteeing homeowners the right to protest zoning changes in their neighborhoods. A zoning change is when a landowner asks for the right to build something other than what current rules allow.

House Bill 24 has been sent to the governor’s desk. The bill, which received support from both Republicans and Democrats at the state Capitol, takes aim at a century-old law opponents dubbed the “tyrant’s veto” and one that has had an outsized impact in Austin.

The statute deals with the rights homeowners have to object to development near them. Current law states that if owners of at least 20% of land nearby the proposed build site oppose amending rules about what can be built, the city council needs more than a majority vote to pass the measure… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ President Donald Trump pushes ahead with his maximalist immigration campaign in face of LA protests (Associated Press)

Donald Trump made no secret of his willingness to exert a maximalist approach to enforcing immigration laws and keeping order as he campaigned to return to the White House. The fulfillment of that pledge is now on full display in Los Angeles. The president has put hundreds of National Guard troops on the streets to quell protests over his administration’s immigration raids, a deployment that state and city officials say has only inflamed tensions. Trump called up the California National Guard over the objections of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — the first time in 60 years a president has done so — and is deploying active-duty troops to support the guard.

By overriding Newsom, Trump is already going beyond what he did to respond to Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, when he warned he could send troops to contain demonstrations that turned violent if governors in the states did not act to do so themselves. Trump said in September of that year that he “can’t call in the National Guard unless we’re requested by a governor” and that “we have to go by the laws.”

But now, the past and current president is moving swiftly, with little internal restraint to test the bounds of his executive authority in order to deliver on his promise of mass deportations. What remains to be seen is whether Americans will stand by him once it’s operationalized nationwide, as Trump looks to secure billions from Congress to dramatically expand the country’s detention and deportation operations. For now, Trump is betting that they will. “If we didn’t do the job, that place would be burning down,” Trump told reporters Monday, speaking about California.

“I feel we had no choice. ... I don’t want to see what happened so many times in this country.” The protests began to unfold Friday as federal authorities arrested immigrants in several locations throughout the sprawling city, including in the fashion district of Los Angeles and at a Home Depot. The anger over the administration’s actions quickly spread, with protests in Chicago and Boston as demonstrations in the southern California city also continued Monday.

But Trump and other administration officials remained unbowed, capitalizing on the images of burning cars, graffiti and Mexican flags — which, while not dominant, started to become the defining images of the unrest — to bolster their law-and-order cause. Leaders in the country’s most populous state were similarly defiant… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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