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✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 ACC board challenges end of law offering in-state tuition for undocumented students (KUT)

🟪 1st major project complete in Austin airport expansion, FAA staffing falls short (Community Impact)

🟪 Lt. Gov. Patrick rips Gov. Abbott for vetoing THC ban, digs in against calls for regulation (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Texas directs public universities to identify undocumented students (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Hours after attack on U.S. base, Trump says Iran and Israel will begin a ceasefire (NPR)

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

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ℹ️ 2025 Essential Resources for Navigating the City of Austin

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ ACC board challenges end of law offering in-state tuition for undocumented students (KUT)

The Austin Community College District Board of Trustees said it will join a lawsuit challenging the end of a Texas law that allowed certain undocumented students to get in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities.

The 2001 law is known as the Texas Dream Act.

“As the publicly elected arm of the College, the Trustees are asking for the opportunity to engage in a legal conversation that will examine whether the Texas Dream Act is constitutional,” trustees said in a news release.

The board made the decision to take this step during a special meeting Saturday — a few weeks after the Trump administration filed a lawsuit challenging the Texas Dream Act. State leaders immediately agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice’s stance, ending the two-decade-old law overnight… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Endeavor looking to build another project near downtown (Austin Business Journal)

Endeavor Real Estate Group is aiming to redevelop another site near the former Austin American-Statesman building.

The Austin-based real estate firm has filed a planned unit development, or PUD, application for a 1.75-acre property at 600 E. Riverside Drive, the location of a former Joe's Crab Shack restaurant that's currently occupied by the Cidercade arcade.

The potential development would have 200 residential units as well as 8,000 square feet for restaurants or retailers. This building could be up to 510 feet tall, said Will Marsh a managing principal at Endeavor. The application notes that the amount of impervious cover at the site would be reduced by 14% and 10,000 square feet of vegetation would be added. 

Endeavor has owned the 600 E. Riverside Drive site since 2014, and it's one of several redevelopment projects in which the company is involved. Endeavor also is overseeing the redevelopment of the old Austin American-Statesman office site, as well as a 21-acre site along the Colorado River in East Austin… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ 1st major project complete in Austin airport expansion, FAA staffing falls short (Community Impact)

After four years of planning, construction and groundbreaking ceremonies, city of Austin officials celebrated the completion of a major milestone in the multibillion-dollar airport expansion, opening a newly improved International Arrivals corridor June 18.

The details

The improvements add 20,600 square feet of additional space, including expanded passenger queuing areas, new baggage claim carousels and upgraded processing facilities for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Some key features of the International Arrivals project include:

• Baggage Carousels 6 and 7 are now enabled for dual use that can serve both international and domestic flights.

• Baggage Carousel 8 used as a dedicated carousel for international arrivals that can handle oversized luggage, eliminating the need for manual handling.

• Expanded queuing and processing areas providing more space and improved passenger flow, reducing wait times and crowding during peak arrival times.

The updated International Arrivals corridor cost $13.8 million and is part of a larger baggage system modernization initiative with a total budget of approximately $241 million paid for through airport cash reserves, current and future airport revenues, future revenue bond proceeds, and Federal Aviation Administration grants… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ Lt. Gov. Patrick rips Gov. Abbott for vetoing THC ban, digs in against calls for regulation (Texas Tribune)

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the powerful head of the Texas Senate, sharply rebuked Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday for vetoing his top legislative priority — a ban on all THC products — and dug in his heels against the governor’s call for lawmakers to instead place firmer regulations on the hemp industry.

In vetoing Senate Bill 3 just before midnight Sunday, Abbott argued that the measure would have faced “valid constitutional challenges” that would have kept it tied up in court for years. He called the Legislature back to Austin for a special session next month to pass stricter rules for products that contain tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive compound in marijuana known as THC that SB 3 sought to ban.

In a defiant news conference Monday, Patrick refused to cede any ground on his months-long demand for a full prohibition of the substance. He accused Abbott of wanting to “legalize marijuana” by regulating hemp products, claimed that the governor had misled him into believing that he would sign SB 3 into law and lambasted him for failing to weigh in on the issue during the session before vetoing it just minutes before the deadline to do so.

“This is a fight that didn’t need to be,” Patrick said. “Where has he been all session? Where has he been? We get this [veto] proclamation from him last night after midnight, and he parachutes in at the last moment with arguments that we do not think are valid.”…🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Sen. Joan Huffman joins GOP field vying to succeed Ken Paxton as Texas attorney general (Texas Tribune)

State Sen. Joan Huffman, a Houston Republican who is one of the longest tenured members of the Texas Senate, announced her bid for attorney general on Monday, making her the third high-profile entrant and second member of the upper chamber to declare for the open seat.

“I will be elected attorney general because I am the best-qualified, most experienced candidate who understands the intricacies of every function of state government,” Huffman said in a news release.

In her announcement, Huffman, 68, highlighted her experience as an assistant district attorney and state district judge in Harris County, through which she prosecuted and heard various types of felony crimes. She also touted her work as chair of the powerful Senate State Affairs, Redistricting and Finance committees, the latter of which made her the chamber’s lead budget writer over the past two funding cycles.

“The attorney general is the lawyer for the state and every state agency,” she said. “I know the ins and outs of every facet of state government.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas directs public universities to identify undocumented students (Texas Tribune)

Texas is asking public colleges and universities to identify which of their students are living in the country illegally so they can start paying out-of-state tuition, as required by a court ruling earlier this month.

In a letter to college presidents last week, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Commissioner Wynn Rosser said undocumented students who have been paying in-state tuition will need to see tuition adjustments for the fall semester. A spokesperson for the agency said it has no plans to provide further guidance on how schools can go about identifying undocumented students.

“The real lack of legal clarity just leaves institutions again having to come up with their own process,” said Kasey Corpus, the southern policy and advocacy manager of Young Invincibles, a group that advocates for policies that benefit young adults in the state.

Undocumented students who have been living in Texas for some time lost their eligibility for in-state tuition soon after the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state over the Texas Dream Act, a 2001 state law that allowed those students to qualify for the lower tuition rates at public universities. The state quickly asked the court to side with the feds and find that the law was unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor did just that, blocking the law… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Hours after attack on U.S. base, Trump says Iran and Israel will begin a ceasefire (NPR)

President Trump says Israel and Iran have agreed to a ceasefire, a development that comes only hours after Iran fired missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar in response to the American attack on Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend.

Trump's announcement on Monday was not immediately verified or matched by officials in Israel or Iran. But in a statement on social media, the president said the two sides had agreed to a staggered ceasefire process that he said could lead to an end to the war between them.

"It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE (in approximately 6 hours from now, when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in progress, final missions!), for 12 hours, at which point the War will be considered, ENDED! Officially, Iran will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 12th Hour, Israel will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 24th Hour, an Official END to THE 12 DAY WAR will be saluted by the World," Trump wrote… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ NATO leaders gather Tuesday for what could be a historic summit, or one marred by divisions (Associated Press)

U.S. President Donald Trump and his NATO counterparts are due to gather Tuesday for a summit that could unite the world’s biggest security organization around a new defense spending pledge or widen divisions among the 32 allies. Just a week ago, things had seemed rosy. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte was optimistic the European members and Canada would commit to invest at least as much of their economic growth on defense as the United States does for the first time. Then Spain rejected the new NATO target for each country to spend 5% of its gross domestic product on defense needs, calling it “unreasonable.” Trump also insists on that figure. The alliance operates on a consensus that requires the backing of all 32 members. The following day, Trump said the U.S. should not have to respect the goal.

“I don’t think we should, but I think they should,” he said. Trump lashed out at Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government, saying: “NATO is going to have to deal with Spain. Spain’s been a very low payer.” He also criticized Canada as “a low payer.” Spain was the lowest spender in the alliance last year, directing less than 2% of its GDP on defense expenditure, while Canada was spending 1.45%, according to NATO figures.

Then Trump ordered the bombing of nuclear installations in Iran. In 2003, the U.S.-led war on Iraq deeply divided NATO, as France and Germany led opposition to the attack, while Britain and Spain joined the coalition. European allies and Canada also want Ukraine to be at the top of the summit agenda, but they are wary that Trump might not want President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to steal the limelight. The two-day summit in The Hague involves an informal dinner Tuesday and one working session Wednesday morning. A very short summit statement has been drafted to ensure the meeting is not derailed by fights over details and wording. Indeed, much about this NATO summit is brief, even though ripples could be felt for years… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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