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- BG Reads // May 14, 2025
BG Reads // May 14, 2025
A.J. Bingham
May 14, 2025
Presented By
✅ Today's BG Reads include:
✈️ Newark problems and recent crashes put focus on air traffic controller shortage and aging equipment (Associated Press)
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[CITY OF AUSTIN]
🏛️📊: Dr. Eric Anthony Johnson, Ph.D. has joined the City of Austin as an Assistant City Manager. In this role, he will oversee the following departments:
Prior to joining the City, Dr. Johnson served as President and CEO of Aeon, a nonprofit affordable housing developer based in Minneapolis. Aeon owns and manages nearly 6,000 affordable housing units. Under his leadership, the organization navigated post-pandemic challenges and moved toward long-term sustainability.
Dr. Johnson previously served as Chief of Economic and Neighborhood Revitalization for the City of Dallas where he provided oversight of housing, urban planning and design, permitting, historic preservation, and economic development.
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Washburn University, a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee and a Doctorate in Urban Affairs and Public Policy from the University of Delaware.
We’re growing BG Reads and want to better understand who’s reading. Your quick answers help us shape content and build a stronger community.
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
✅ Austin welcomed Musk. Now it’s weird (in a new way). (New York Times)
Each weekend for the past few months, Mike Ignatowski has gone to one of two Tesla dealerships in Austin, Texas, to protest Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive and the most famous transplant to the state’s most left-leaning city. Not too long ago, Mr. Ignatowski, a 67-year-old computer engineer, was an admirer of Mr. Musk — before Mr. Musk aligned himself with President Trump. Now Mr. Ignatowski waves a “Fire Elon” sign during the protests, even as he conceded he’s not quite mad enough to part with the blue Model 3 Tesla that he bought “before we knew Elon was crazy,” as his bumper sticker attests. That’s how it goes in Texas’ capital, where Mr. Musk’s sharp rightward shift has been received with a mix of anger and hair-pulling agony.
Austin’s conflicted feelings reflect both the billionaire entrepreneur’s economic influence on the city and the city’s broader transformation from a medium-sized college town arranged around the State Capitol to a tech-fueled metropolis with a glass-and-steel skyline and a changing image. Tie-dyed T-shirts still urge residents to “Keep Austin Weird,” mostly in hotels and tourist shops.
But a different kind of counterculture has taken root amid an influx of decidedly right-of-center figures (including Mr. Musk), self-described freethinkers (like the podcasters Joe Rogan and Lex Fridman), and conservative entrepreneurs (like Joe Lonsdale). Already in town was Austin’s resident conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, and his far-right Infowars.
There’s even a new, contrarian institution of higher learning looking to compete with the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Austin. Weird, perhaps, but not in the way of the old bumper-sticker mantra. “If you say ‘Keep Austin Weird’ to somebody under the age of 40, they would think of that as an antique-y slogan, like Ye Old Shoppe,” said H.W. Brands, a historian at the University of Texas.
“It doesn’t have any resonance for their lived experience of Austin.” The city’s transformation followed a deliberate, decades-long project to attract technology companies to its rolling hills. “I’m one who thinks it has changed for the better,” said Gary Farmer, who helped attract new businesses as the founding chairman of Opportunity Texas, an economic development group. “The culinary arts, the performing arts, the visual arts, the music scene — it’s all better.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Changes on the way for Austin’s scooters (Austin Monitor)
New rules — and a new focus on equity — have arrived for Austin’s scooter rentals.
Transportation and Public Works posted a new set of draft director’s rules governing the city’s shared micromobility program on May 12, which like a similar update to the residential parking program would offer tweaks in response to survey responses. The posting of the rules comes after presentations to the City Council Mobility Committee in April, where the department presented the program so far as mostly successful, and then in greater detail to the Urban Transportation Commission during a meeting on May 6.
Transportation’s Joseph al-Hajeri said that the new changes are mostly to device standards and safety, rules around where devices can be used and parked, and a new section focused on equity.
He also said the department was hoping to usher in a period of better communication between the public and the department with respect to the program, which has received some criticism over the years, including by city commissions… 🟪 (READ MORE)
🟪 Austin traffic increased after state workers returned to office, but travel speeds barely changed (KUT)
Traffic volumes on Austin's highways climbed after state employees were ordered back to the office full-time March 31, according to new data obtained by KUT News. But average travel speeds during morning and afternoon rush hours were little changed on Interstate 35, MoPac and U.S. Highway 183.
City streets showed even less fluctuation in travel times, aside from some construction zones.
Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise. Government employees make up less than 2% of the 1.5 million workers in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metro area, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The mixed results also reflect a complicated reality: traffic congestion is shaped by overlapping forces — everything from crashes to signal timing — not just the number of vehicles on the road… ✅ (READ MORE)
🟪 Austin ISD to consolidate schools by 2026-27 to prevent deeper budget cuts (CBS Austin)
Austin Independent School District says it will consolidate schools starting in the 2026-27 school year to avoid deeper budget cuts.
In an online release, the district says resources are spread too thin, leaving schools under-resourced.
It says consolidating will allow it to invest more in fewer campuses.
The merging of one or more campuses will include school closures, boundary changes, transfer policy evaluations, and facility repurposing… ✅ (READ MORE)
✅ AU40 2025: 17 young Austin pros honored (Austin Business Journal)
Winners for the 26th annual Austin Under 40 awards have been revealed.
KXAN News anchor and reporter Jennifer Sanders walked away with the top honor, Austinite of the Year, after winning in her category. The glass award presented to her at a gala on May 10 will join an Emmy and Edward R. Murrow award already on her shelf.
The list of finalists and winners of the Austin Under 40 awards is used widely in the business world by eager networkers, job recruiters, mentors and mentees. They are listed below, with the winners italicized… 🟪 (READ MORE)
[TEXAS NEWS]
✅ Pressing deadlines, unfinished business: Where the Legislature stands on abortion, water, property tax and more (Texas Tribune)
Less than three weeks remain in the Legislature’s 140-day session, and while Gov. Greg Abbott has secured passage of his top priority — school vouchers — nearly every other top issue remains unfinished.
Making their way through the legislative gauntlet — and soon facing end-of-session deadlines — are measures to lower property taxes, tighten the state’s bail laws, dedicate money for water projects and clarify when doctors can perform life-saving abortions. Also unresolved is the final makeup of the state’s more than $330 billion two-year budget, along with a nearly $8 billion package to boost public school funding.
And there are a raft of social conservative priorities endorsed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick hanging in the balance, including bills that would infuse more religion into public schools and give school boards and parents more say over which books can be put on school library shelves.
The closest big deadline is Thursday: the last day for House lawmakers to give tentative approval to most bills that began in the lower chamber. Senate bills have another 12 days after that to reach the House floor, which means, in practice, they must advance out of their assigned House committees by May 24. That will be the next key hurdle for several items atop the to-do lists of GOP state leaders, from restrictions on personal injury verdicts to abortion… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ U.S.-Mexico water treaty under scrutiny as drought persists in South Texas (Houston Chronicle)
Farmers in South Texas celebrated earlier this month when the Trump administration announced it had struck a deal with Mexico to increase water releases into the Rio Grande. But it was nowhere near what Texas farmers were owed. With drought ongoing on both sides of the border — conditions that are only expected to worsen with climate change — the future of the more than 80-year-old treaty governing water rights between the two countries appears increasingly unstable.
Some Texas lawmakers say it's time to redraw the terms of the deal so Mexico has to release water more frequently. The river's water is use to sustain a more than $800 million farming industry in South Texas that ships grapefruits, onions and other produce around the country.
"This has been a longstanding problem," U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said in an interview earlier this month. "The timing of water is critical to our farmers, so it doesn't do much good to get it at a time when frankly they don't need it as much." There's still a looming question about how much water will even be available to send. Scientists are projecting that not only will rainfall in South Texas and northern Mexico decline slightly in the decades ahead, but rising temperatures caused by climate change will increase evaporation rates, reducing the amount of water that ends up in the Rio Grande.
"The Rio Grande is the most vulnerable river in Texas to climate change," said John Nielsen-Gammon, the Texas state climatologist. "When we look at projections, in most months the stream flow decreases. There's going to be months, one or two or four per decade, where the intensity in the rainfall increases the flow, but that's more erratic, which isn't good for farmers."
The recent deal negotiated by the Trump calls for the release of more than 50,000 acre feet of water controlled by Mexico from the Amistad dam, along with an increase in water flows into the Rio Grande from seven tributaries on the Mexican side of the river, said Brian Jones, a farmer in Edcouch who sits on the board of the Texas Farm Bureau… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Texas lawmakers advance separate plans to eliminate STAAR test, adjust A-F system (Community Impact)
Texas House lawmakers approved legislation May 13 that would eliminate the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness next school year. The STAAR test is administered to third through 12th grade students each spring to measure student progress and teacher performance, although critics have said the high-stakes exam causes undue stress for students and does not help teachers improve instruction throughout the school year.
“One test on one day leads to anxiety at your kitchen table with your kids, it leads to anxiety in our classroom with our teachers and it leads to absolutely no information that a parent can understand,” bill author Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, said on the House floor May 12.
House Bill 4 would replace the STAAR test with three shorter exams, which students would take throughout the school year. The proposal would also adjust Texas’ public school accountability system to better reflect how individual schools serve students, Buckley said. Buckley’s bill received nearly unanimous support from House members, passing with a 143-1 vote May 13.
A month earlier, state senators approved a separate bill aimed at eliminating the STAAR test, although the details of the proposals vary… 🟪 (READ MORE)
[US and World News]
✅ Newark problems and recent crashes put focus on air traffic controller shortage and aging equipment (Associated Press)
The recent chronic delays and cancellations at New Jersey’s largest airport have highlighted the shortage of air traffic controllers and the aging equipment they use, which President Donald Trump’s administration wants to replace.
The Federal Aviation Administration is working on a short-term fix to the problems at the Newark airport that includes technical repairs and cutting flights to keep traffic manageable while dealing with a shortage of controllers. Officials are meeting with all the airlines that fly out of Newark starting Wednesday to discuss the plan.
But even before those problems, aviation was already in the spotlight ever since the deadly midair collision of a passenger jet and a U.S. Army helicopter above Washington, D.C., in January, and a string of other crashes and mishaps since then. The investigations into those crashes continue while the U.S. Department of Transportation tries to make progress on the long-standing issues of not having enough air traffic controllers and relying on outdated equipment. A U.S. Senate hearing Wednesday morning will focus on the FAA’s efforts… 🟪 (READ MORE)
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