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🟪 Austin City Council meeting agenda and livestream link

🟪 Austin weighs potential data center crackdown amid massive development growth (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 As Austin officials debate 2026 bond election, city staff suggest 2-year delay (Community Impact)

🟪 New dashboard shows Austin police shootings often involve less experienced officers, Hispanic men (KUT)

🟪 Austin Energy wants to buy a new power plant but won't say how much it costs (KUT)

🟪 With Massie and other critics defeated, Trump notches more GOP primary wins (NBC News)

🟪 TSA's new 'Gold+' program looks to increase private security screening at airports (NPR)

The Austin City Council meets today at 10AM:

LIVESTREAM LINK (ATXN 1)

AGENDA LINK

✅ Austin weighs potential data center crackdown amid massive development growth (Austin American-Statesman)

Austin leaders are considering a crackdown on data center development amid concerns about how artificial intelligence infrastructure will impact the city’s supply of power and water. 

Mayor Kirk Watson and four City Council members are asking the city manager to evaluate whether new large-scale data centers should be allowed within city limits and how future development should be handled. They’ve given the city manager until July to bring an item to the City Council.

Austin is just one of the local governments in Texas researching the potential impacts of data centers in their communities and several counties are weighing potential moratoriums despite questions about whether they have the legal authority to do so. Hill County, in rural North Texas, recently approved a one-year pause on data center construction.

With the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence, Texas has become the country’s fastest-growing data center market, drawing developers with available power capacity, incentives and open land for the facilities… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ As Austin officials debate 2026 bond election, city staff suggest 2-year delay (Community Impact)

City Council is continuing to weigh whether to put a bond measure to Austin voters this fall, while city staff have recommended pushing the potential election to 2028.

Council members started the latest round of city bond planning in 2024, which has since included analysis by city staff and public review by the resident-led 2026 Bond Election Advisory Task Force, or BEATF. Their bond development work resulted in several recommendations for a new package this spring.

Bond proposals now on the table include two larger comprehensive options from staff and the BEATF of $750 million and more than $766 million, respectively. Those came alongside two trimmed versions of $390 million and $436 million, created at the request of a council subquorum.

Each $100 million of new bond spending would cost the median homeowner more than $14 annually, based on previous city estimates… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ TxDOT denies Austin request to keep 'Black Artists Matter' mural, Pride crosswalk (KUT)

The state of Texas is rejecting Austin's request to keep some of the city's most recognizable painted street markings, including the "Black Artists Matter" mural on East 11th Street, the downtown Pride crosswalks and the giant burnt orange "TEXAS" painted along Guadalupe Street in front of the University of Texas at Austin campus.

In a May 18 letter to Richard Mendoza, the director for Austin Transportation and Public Works, the Texas Department of Transportation said several of the city's painted crosswalks and street murals are "not acceptable" under state and federal rules on road markings.

TxDOT gave the city until June 22 to submit an action plan for bringing the locations into compliance… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ New dashboard shows Austin police shootings often involve less experienced officers, Hispanic men (KUT)

A new Austin police shooting dashboard is raising questions about who is most often involved in deadly encounters with officers and whether the department is adequately preparing new recruits to avoid using lethal force.

Data released Tuesday by Austin Police Oversight, an independent office that monitors the Austin Police Department, shows Hispanic men were the racial group most often shot by Austin officers between 2018 and 2025, while officers involved in shootings had relatively little experience on the force.

The dashboard, built over the past year by Austin Police Oversight, tracks police shooting locations, demographic information, reasons for police involvement and case outcomes. Activists and police experts say the tool can help identify long-term trends, inform future policy discussions and hold officers accountable.

The data also immediately raises questions about APD training practices because officers involved in shootings often were early in their careers.

“It does leave me concerned about what it implies about the failure of APD to institute training policies that instruct or coach officers on how to be less likely to use lethal force against residents,” said Austin Justin Coalition’s Peter Hunt. “This is an eight-year data set. If APD were instituting policies that effectively train officers to be less likely to needlessly use firearms in situations, you would expect to see the [officer’s] age actually increase over this data set.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin Energy wants to buy a new power plant but won't say how much it costs (KUT)

Austin City Council Members are set to decide on whether to pursue a new natural gas power project without a public debate or public vote on Thursday.

Any discussion between City Council and representatives of Austin Energy, the city's electric utility, will take place during executive session, where the mayor and council go behind closed doors.

Opponents of the plan, including environmentalists and people from neighborhoods where the project be located, are questioning both the need for the new gas generators and the secrecy around the council vote.

"They're literally asking for a blank check, which rate payers are the ones that will be on the hook for," said Kaiba White, climate policy specialist for Public Citizens Texas. "It's everybody who pays an Austin energy bill that will pay this price.”

The location and full cost of the potential new gas "peaker" plant is remains unknown. The gas generators the city utility proposes to buy could be housed in new facility, or installed in existing city power plants.

Austin Energy, the city's electric utility, says the project is necessary to fight high energy costs and guarantee reliability into the future.

Gas peakers are natural gas power generators that can start up quickly and run when demand for energy is at its peak and energy costs are highest.

Austin Energy says that is exactly what the utility needs to confront booming energy demand, much of it from planned data centers, and overloaded transmission lines… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Manor picks developer for its new city hall and library (Austin Business Journal)

Manor has approved a strategic road map that will guide the development of the 84-acre Manor Town Center project. The effort will serve as the new civic heart for the fast growing suburb east of Austin. 

Manor announced on May 19 that it approved the conceptual plan that calls for a new town hall and city library. The project will also include mixed-use residential and retail buildings, a medical district with office buildings, an outdoor event space, hotel and conference center, and townhomes. 

Most of the Manor Town Center project will be developed by the Shenandoah Development Group, which is also the landowner for the 84 acres that has frontage along US-290. Hunt Real Estate and Infrastructure, a subsidiary of the El Paso-based Hunt Cos., will be the developer of the city hall, library, central lawn and civic related components of the Manor Town Center project… 🟪 (READ MORE)

📝⏱️ Q2 2026 Survey: 5 minutes, 9 questions. Click here to share your input.

✅ Trump endorses Ken Paxton in Senate GOP runoff (Texas Tribune)

President Donald Trump on Tuesday endorsed Ken Paxton in the Republican runoff for U.S. Senate in Texas, ending over a year of furious lobbying and giving the attorney general a significant boost in his campaign against Sen. John Cornyn.

“Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on social media, praising Paxton’s support for ending the Senate filibuster and the GOP’s signature voting restrictions bill, and dinging Cornyn for being late to support his 2024 presidential bid.

“John Cornyn is a good man, and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough,” Trump said. “John was very late in backing me in what turned out to be a Historic Run for the Republican Nomination, and then, the Presidency, itself, both of which were Landslide Victories and, more importantly, gave us the Country that we have today.”

In a statement, Paxton said he was honored by the endorsement and looked forward to “championing his America First agenda in the Senate.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Why Trump bucked Republicans with a risky bet on Texas’ Ken Paxton (Wall Street Journal)

Sen. Tim Scott called President Trump on Tuesday with a last-ditch plea. The president was on the verge of publicly endorsing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the state’s tightly contested Republican primary. Scott, a South Carolina Republican who leads the Senate’s campaign arm, urged him to reconsider, according to people familiar with the conversation.

Thirty minutes later, Trump backed Paxton anyway, breaking with Scott and other senior Republicans in Washington, who have long believed that Paxton’s GOP opponent, four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, was a safer bet.

The decision, which came after months of waffling, reflected the president’s renewed conviction that he maintains an iron grip on the party following recent electoral victories, according to people familiar with his thinking. It was also a warning shot to Republicans in Congress that Trump won’t tolerate dissent.

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment. Trump’s decision comes with political risks. Though Republicans still have a good shot at winning in deep-red Texas, many GOP strategists worry that Paxton is a flawed candidate.

He has been accused by his top lieutenants of abusing his office (he has denied wrongdoing), impeached by his own party (he was later acquitted), charged with securities fraud (he resolved the charges with a pretrial deal) and is currently in the middle of a divorce initiated by his wife “on biblical grounds.” Paxton has consistently denied wrongdoing and characterized accusations of illegal or immoral behavior as attacks by left-wing enemies.

The winner of next week’s Republican runoff will face Democrat James Talarico, who some national GOP groups view as a formidable opponent.

Trump has told advisers in recent weeks that he views Talarico as a weak candidate. Though both Paxton and Cornyn have vied for Trump’s coveted endorsement, the president had long resisted picking a favorite in the race. The competition between the two men has been ugly, with Cornyn attacking Paxton for infidelity in marriage, and Paxton calling Cornyn old, weak and too bipartisan for Texas… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ With Massie and other critics defeated, Trump notches more GOP primary wins (NBC News)

President Donald Trump flexed the strength of his party-transforming political movement again Tuesday, continuing the successful process of eliminating political enemies within the GOP this month. At the same time, Trump’s low approval ratings and the war with Iran have raised red flags in key Republican primaries among base voters who supported his “America First” agenda that included the idea of a focus on domestic issues.

Those red flags may persist with independent voters and base turnout alike when the general election gets underway in a few months. But in the meantime, Trump continues to prove he can not only influence the Republican primary electorate but also attack Republicans who have opposed him in any way without feeling there are significant negative consequences.

“I think what everyone can take away from this is that Donald Trump is going nowhere,” said a Trump adviser working for his political operation. “He has won and will continue to win.” Trump this month defeated five Republican state senators in Indiana who opposed his push for mid-decade redistricting. Over the weekend, his political machine also blocked Sen. Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict him in his 2021 impeachment trial, from advancing in his primary in Louisiana, a state he has represented for two terms. The biggest and most exciting win for the White House, though, came Tuesday: defeating Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who opposed Trump on key issues, including on the “big, beautiful bill” tax and spending plan and on pushing for the release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Massie lost to Trump-backed Ed Gallrein, who got 54% of the GOP primary vote.

For months, Trump and his allies have attacked Massie, and they got their win Tuesday in the most expensive House primary in history in terms of ad spending. Trump, however, did not outright win everything he touched Tuesday night. In Georgia’s nationally watched race for governor, Trump-backed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who also has major GOP establishment backing in the state, moved on to a runoff against billionaire Rick Jackson, who has framed himself as a Trump ally… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ TSA's new 'Gold+' program looks to increase private security screening at airports (NPR)

Federal officers handle security screening at all but a small fraction of U.S. airports, but the Trump administration is hoping to change that. Under the Transportation Security Administration's new program called TSA Gold+, private companies would play a much larger role in airport security than they have in decades.

The TSA is set to host officials from airports and security contractors to an "industry day" at its Springfield, Va., headquarters on Thursday, as it looks to develop TSA Gold+, a public-private program that the agency calls "transformative."

The agency is billing the program as an update to the Screening Partnership Program, or SPP, in which 20 U.S. airports currently use private security screeners rather than federal workers.

"TSA Gold+ marks a significant evolution in the agency's approach to aviation security," a TSA spokesperson told NPR via an emailed statement… 🟪 (READ MORE)