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September 25, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Austin begins planning redevelopment of former Tokyo Electron campus (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Austin approves site plan for convention center redevelopment (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Parks and Recreation Department urges parkland acquisition in 2026 bond (Austin Monitor)

🟪 City of Austin boosting local film incentives to attract more productions (KVUE)

🟪 Texas jobless claims spike 92% — But officials say it’s fraud, not job loss (WFAA)

🟪 As Texas flooded, key staff say FEMA’s leader could not be reached (Washington Post)

🟪 Pentagon chief orders US military officials from around the world to Virginia next week (Reuters)

READ ON!

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ Austin City Council Agenda - September 25, 2025 // Livestream (ATXN1)

🏛️ Memo: Austin’s Downtown Homeless Shelters - September 15, 2025

🏛️ City Memo: Short-Term Rental Regulations – Upcoming Action Item (Development Services Department)

🏛️ City Manager Executives and Advisors Staff Visual Chart

🏛️ City of Austin Org Chart (as of July 2025)

💰 2026 City of Austin Bond - Public Input

ℹ️ 2025 Essential Resources for Navigating the City of Austin

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ Austin begins planning redevelopment of former Tokyo Electron campus (Austin Business Journal)

The city of Austin is in the planning stages for its redevelopment of the former Tokyo Electron Ltd. campus, though it will still be a while before construction crews break ground.

The city has combined the former tech campus with another city-owned property to form a 125-acre site that is being called Grove-Riverside. The property is near the intersection of Grove Boulevard and East Riverside Drive.

City officials are wrapping up the first phase of the redevelopment, which involved researching what is currently on the site and what could be added to it. The second phase, which a city spokesperson said may launch later this year, will involve engaging the community and local stakeholders about the scope of development and what should actually get built.

“This next phase is all about listening — gathering input on community priorities and goals to guide future development,” the spokesperson said. 

The city bought the 107-acre site that housed Tokyo Electron’s old campus in Southeast Austin for $87 million with plans to turn it into a dense, transit-oriented neighborhood. Tokyo Electron last year moved its North American headquarters into a roughly 99,000-square-foot office at RiverSouth near downtown Austin… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Parks and Recreation Department urges parkland acquisition in 2026 bond (Austin Monitor)

n 2009, Austin City Council adopted the urban parks initiative, setting a goal to provide parks within a five- to 10-minute walk of all residents. As of 2025, only about 70 percent of Austin residents live within walking distance of a park. The Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) wants to get that number to 100 percent through the city’s 2026 comprehensive bond package.

The 2026 bond package would be Austin’s first since 2018. But the city will not be able to fund everything it wants to, with a $3.87 billion wishlist from city departments being well over five times the recommended limit. As each city department’s wishlist continues to be whittled down, PARD told Council’s Parks Committee on Wednesday morning that its top priority is funding for parkland acquisition.

PARD is requesting $100 million — a relatively small chunk of the proposed package. Transportation and Public Works is seeking more than $925 million, and Watershed Protection is seeking nearly $600 million for proposed drainage and stormwater infrastructure. Climate initiatives are leading the package as well, with $300 million requested for flood and wildfire mitigation, water quality protection and other conservation uses… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ City of Austin boosting local film incentives to attract more productions (KVUE)

With the Texas Legislature approving millions of additional dollars this year to keep film productions in the state, Austin city leaders want to make sure Austin is where they’re going.

On Thursday, Austin City Council members voted to update the city’s Creative Content Incentive Program (CCIP) for the first time since it was created back in 2014. The program incentivizes filmmakers and creatives to bring productions to the city.

“The program update brings a bigger grant opportunity to film, TV and video game projects that are made in Austin, that proudly present Austin, employ people from Austin,” Austin City Council Member Mike Siegel (District 7) said.

To date, nine projects have been approved under CCIP, nearly $410,000 has been awarded and more than 2,000 Austin residents have gotten jobs from these projects, generating about $62 million in wages. But with new updates, the city is hoping those numbers continue to grow. 

Those updates include making the application process smoother, as well as increasing the incentive amount from 0.75% up to 2.5%… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin approves site plan for convention center redevelopment (Austin Business Journal)

Progress on the redevelopment of the Austin Convention Center is marching on.

The City Council approved a site plan Sept. 25 that creates development regulations for the project. The approval moves the project into its second phase, which will include installing permanent utility connections, infrastructure upgrades, street improvements and further construction work. 

As things stand, demolition is being finished on the site and some early stages of construction have already begun. The old convention center closed in April, and the new expanded facility is planned to open in its place in time for the spring 2029 festival season. 

According to city documents, the new convention center will encompass almost 1.53 million square feet, although only 620,000 square feet will be rentable space. Much of the exhibit and meeting space at the new convention center will be underground, allowing for plenty of outdoor areas and also for city streets to traverse the site… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ Texas jobless claims spike 92% — But officials say it’s fraud, not job loss (WFAA)

Something odd has been happening with unemployment claims in Texas. You can see it if you check out the chart for the past year of claims. 

After an initial spike in jobless applications in January of this year, the state got into an up-and-down rhythm for many months.

In the first week of September, though, the state saw its largest weekly batch of unemployment claims not only for this year, but going all the way back to pandemic times in 2021! The report this month showed that Texas had 92% more unemployment claims in the first week of September than it had in the last week of August.

That signals big trouble if it’s true…which the state says…it is not. The Texas Workforce Commission, which handles unemployment claims in Texas, characterizes the recent spike like this: “The increase in initial claims for unemployment insurance in the week ending September 6th is directly related to an increased volume of fraudulent claim attempts. Since Labor Day, we've observed an uptick in identity (ID) fraud claim attempts aimed at exploiting the unemployment insurance system. It is crucial to understand that while we have identified a large volume of fraudulent claim attempts, our systems are working to detect and shut down these suspicious claims. We are actively working to prevent these fraudulent claims from impacting legitimate claimants.”

The agency says that if you, as an employee or an employer, get correspondence from TWC for an unemployment claim you were not aware of, you need to let them know on their secure portal, “By working together, we can effectively identify and shut down these fraudulent activities”… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ As Texas flooded, key staff say FEMA’s leader could not be reached (Washington Post)

On a Friday morning in July, shortly after deadly Independence Day floods swept through parts of Texas Hill Country packed with camps full of young children, the Federal Emergency Management Agency scrambled to coordinate a response. The next afternoon, teams readied search-and-rescue crews, imagery and other emergency equipment. Then their hustling hit a roadblock. They couldn’t reach a key U.S. official needed to deploy the resources, one required by law to be accessible during emergencies: FEMA’s acting administrator, David Richardson. Just a few weeks earlier, his boss, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, instituted a policy requiring her approval for any expenditure over $100,000. That meant, in order to deploy resources to Texas, FEMA officials needed Richardson to get those requests in front of Noem — fast. But for about 24 hours in the early aftermath of one of the nation’s deadliest flash-flooding events in decades, key staff members could not reach FEMA’s top official, according to eight current and former officials with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they said they feared retaliation.

The agency’s typical posture is to get resources to a disaster zone before state and local governments even have to ask for them, current and former officials have said, because minutes can cost lives. “Nobody could get a hold of him for hours and hours,” said one D.C.-based senior official who coordinated search-and-rescue resources. After the disaster, Richardson told House lawmakers at a July subcommittee hearing on FEMA’s response that he had been in constant contact with administration and Texas officials from his truck while on vacation with his sons.

Two people with knowledge of the situation said teams at FEMA couldn’t get in touch with him until Sunday evening. While Texas officials say their own resources combined with help from other states enabled a fast and effective response, the state’s emergency management department still asked FEMA for additional assets, documents obtained by The Washington Post show. FEMA’s urban search-and-rescue teams — those with specialized training for swift water rescue, equipment to look for bodies and data to do any damage assessments — would not arrive in Texas for nearly four days, limiting the region’s access to high-level resources and expertly trained crews during a critical window when responders were still looking for missing people. In a role that for decades has prioritized expertise and responsiveness, Richardson’s limited accessibility during the catastrophic Texas floods reflects what current and former agency officials describe as a general lack of urgency since he took over as acting director in May, according to interviews with nearly 30 such people, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they said they feared retaliation.

The Post also reviewed internal messages, emails and records that supported the officials’ claims that Richardson is frequently inaccessible, especially on evenings and weekends… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ Pentagon chief orders US military officials from around the world to Virginia next week (Reuters)

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned senior U.S. military officers from around the world to a meeting in Quantico, Virginia next week, five officials told Reuters on Thursday, a rare gathering of U.S. military leadership in one location.

It was not clear why Hegseth has ordered the generals and admirals to meet in one place on such short notice, and two of the officials said this has created uncertainty among the expected attendees.

Senior military officials in some cases command thousands of troops. Most have detailed schedules weeks in advance, which have now been upended.

"People are scrambling to change their plans and see if they have to attend," one U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

It was unclear how many officials will actually attend the event, but it is rare to have so many senior officials in the same room at the same time.

Asked for comment, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said only: "The Secretary of War will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week." Trump has ordered the department to rename itself the Department of War, a change that will require action by Congress… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ Ex-FBI Director James Comey indicted after Trump pushes for prosecution of longtime foe (Associated Press)

James Comey was charged Thursday with lying to Congress in a criminal case filed days after President Donald Trump appeared to urge his attorney general to prosecute the former FBI director and other perceived political enemies.

The indictment makes Comey the first former senior government official involved in one of Trump’s chief grievances, the long-concluded investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, to face prosecution.

Trump has for years derided that investigation as a “hoax” and a “witch hunt” despite multiple government reviews showing Moscow interfered on behalf of the Republican’s campaign, and has made clear his desire for retribution.

The criminal case is likely to deepen concerns that the Justice Department under Attorney General Pam Bondi is being weaponized in pursuit of investigations and now prosecutions of public figures the president regards as his political enemies. It was filed as the White House has taken steps to exert influence in unprecedented ways on the department, blurring the line between law and politics at an agency where independence in prosecutorial decision-making is a foundational principle.

Trump on Thursday hailed the indictment as “JUSTICE FOR AMERICA!” Bondi, a Trump loyalist, and FBI Director Kash Patel, a longtime vocal critic of the Russia investigation, issued similar statements. “No one is above the law,” Bondi said. Comey, in a video he posted after his indictment, said: “My heart is broken for the Department of Justice but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I’m innocent. So let’s have a trial.” Comey was fired months into Trump’s first administration and since then has remained a top target for Trump supporters seeking retaliation related to the Russia investigation.

He was singled out by name in a Saturday social media post in which Trump appeared to appeal directly to Bondi bring charges against Comey and complained that Justice Department investigations into his foes had not resulted in criminal cases. “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump wrote, referencing the fact that he himself had been indicted and impeached multiple times. “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

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