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September 3, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Overdoses spark call for wider Narcan access in Downtown Austin bars (KVUE)

🟪 Second phase of the Texas Capitol Complex project achieves milestone (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Texas suburbs resist new state law allowing more apartments (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Trump says he’s set to order federal intervention in Chicago and Baltimore, despite local opposition (Associated Press)

READ ON!

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ 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]

✅ Overdoses spark call for wider Narcan access in Downtown Austin bars (KVUE)

Authorities are investigating a suspected widespread overdose incident that took place early Tuesday morning at Buckshot, a bar located on East Sixth Street near Red River. According to the Austin Police Department, officers located five individuals needing medical attention, one of whom died.

Emergency responders administered Narcan, a life-saving medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, to all five individuals. A 32-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. Three others were transported to a nearby hospital, and one person was treated on-site.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has joined APD in the investigation. Officials have not yet confirmed which substance may have caused the overdoses.

The incident has prompted renewed calls from harm reduction advocates for wider access to Narcan in nightlife establishments. Maggie Luna, executive director of the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance, emphasized the importance of preparedness in public venues.

“Knowing how to use Narcan, having it on you, you never know when somebody's life can be saved." she said. 

In 2022, the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance partnered with Travis County to distribute Narcan to businesses in the entertainment district. The initiative was aimed at curbing the rise in overdose deaths, particularly among individuals out enjoying nightlife… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Second phase of the Texas Capitol Complex project achieves milestone (Austin Business Journal)

The second phase of the $900 million Capitol Complex downtown — which is adding two new office buildings with a combined 525,000 square feet — has topped out and is nearing completion.

General contractor JE Dunn Construction announced the latest milestone in a LinkedIn post, heralding the project as transformative for the area.

The building will house state offices, including the Office of the Attorney General of Texas and the Texas Department of Public Safety. 

The Capitol Complex Master Plan has been in the works for years, with the first project breaking ground in 2017. The state's aim has been to save money by moving workers out of leased spaces as well as to improve operational efficiency, according to the project’s website… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ First Hays County administrator takes the reins (Community Impact)

Kandice Boutté joined Hays County in July as its first county administrator.

What we know

In Texas, a county administrator oversees the daily operations of the government, including:

• Departmental coordination

• Policy implementation

• Budget preparation

• Long-range planning

• Staff supervision

Boutté—who holds a master’s degree in public administration from Georgia State University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia—most recently served as the chief of staff to the Tarrant County administrator… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ Texas suburbs resist new state law allowing more apartments (Texas Tribune)

Until last month, if a developer wanted to build a run-of-the-mill apartment complex in Irving, that building could reach up to three stories and had to have plentiful places for kids to run around.

Now, that apartment complex must have eight floors. It must include a swimming pool, a dog park, a gym and a workspace for remote workers. Builders must also pick from a menu of amenities to add, such as a yoga room, a place to wash pets or cars or a station for cyclists to repair their bikes.

The Irving City Council enacted those rules in August on the eve of a new state law intended to force Texas’ largest cities and suburbs to allow more apartments and mixed-use developments to be built. Texas lawmakers passed that law this year as part of a slate of bills aimed at putting a dent in the state’s high home prices and rents, mainly by overriding local rules to allow more homes to be built.

The law “unlocks new opportunities for more housing,” Gov. Greg Abbott said at a bill signing ceremony last month. “Many local governments make it too slow and too expensive to build more housing. (The bill) slashes regulations and speeds up the permitting process.”… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ At a Texas ICE career expo, thousands line up to ‘defend the homeland’ (Washington Post)

Christian Osborne has been itching to serve his country since he was discharged from the Marines after refusing the coronavirus vaccine. He thinks Americans have a naive view of illegal immigration and wants to be part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. “Every country for its entire existence has always had borders. We’re the only country who says, ‘Come on in,’” said Osborne, 24.

“There needs to be a control on who can come in, to make sure you’re not some psycho.” So last week he shuffled into a Texas arena typically reserved for Counter-Strike and “League of Legends” video game competitions to attend a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement career expo and make the case for why he should become one of 10,000 new officers the agency intends to hire this year.

So far, the Department of Homeland Security said it has received more than 130,000 applications, and if the hiring fair in this community wedged between Dallas and Fort Worth offers any indication, plenty of people are eager to sign up. Despite polls showing that growing numbers of Americans disapprove of Trump’s aggressive tactics and images of masked ICE agents whisking immigrants off the streets, 3,000 applicants showed up to submit résumés at last week’s career expo, drawn in part by the president’s call to serve and the promise of a signing bonus of up to $50,000 for top recruits. Overhead, a video about ICE’s history and mission played on a large screen while smaller TV monitors touted ICE’s hiring mantra: “Defend the homeland.”

Recruiting agents sat at tables parked in front of an ICE-branded Ford Mustang, resplendent in black, gold and red. In a lobby, applicants lined up to submit fingerprints for background checks and urine for drug screening. Competing alongside Osborne for one of the spots was a great-grandson of Mexican immigrants, a former professional MMA fighter and a lanky community college student from Tennessee who drove 12 hours to make his case to ICE recruiters.

Kole Wunschel, 18, passed a dozen protesters who taunted him and his father as they made their way into Esports Stadium. “America was built by immigrants,” read one woman’s sign. Another yelled, “Why are you signing up for the Gestapo?” But that’s not how Wunschel saw it. The agency was promising to make tentative job offers on the spot, and Wunschel was so set on getting hired that he was prepared to drop out of college. “I want to do anything that betters our country,” Wunschel said before his father, Kim, cut him off… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ Judge rules against National Guard in LA, and Trump vows to send them to Chicago (NPR)

Hours after a federal court in California ruled against how President Trump used the National Guard in Los Angeles this summer, Trump touted his use of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., and said he would soon send the troops into Chicago, though he did not say when.

"We're going in," Trump said about sending the National Guard to Chicago. The comment came today during a press conference in the Oval Office to announce the new headquarters of the U.S. Space Force. "I'm so very proud of Washington. It serves as the template."

Speaking at his own press conference later, Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said the National Guard was not needed or wanted in the city. But he said federal agents were already massing in a nearby military base and predicted they would soon start conducting immigration raids in Latino communities in order to spark demonstrations. "We know, before anything has happened here, that the Trump plan is to use any excuse to deploy armed military personnel to Chicago."

Trump deployed some 4,000 guard troops to Los Angeles in June to confront protesters against ICE operations in the city. Only about 300 are still on duty there. Since then, Trump has deployed National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., to assist police, though violent crime rates there were down from recent years, according to Justice Department figures.

Earlier Tuesday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled for the second time that Trump's deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles violated the law, stating the guard performed law enforcement duties that are prohibited for the military. District Judge Charles R. Breyer delayed the implementation of his ruling until Sept. 12, in which time the Trump administration could appeal.

Today's ruling — even if it holds up on appeal — would not impact the use of the guard in other places because it was based on the specific circumstances of what kind of duties the guard has performed in Los Angeles and whether it was overstepping its powers over civilians… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump says he’s set to order federal intervention in Chicago and Baltimore, despite local opposition (Associated Press)

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he’s ready to order federal authorities to mobilize and combat crime in Chicago and Baltimore, despite staunch opposition from elected leaders and many residents in both cities.

Asked by reporters in the Oval Office about sending National Guard troops to the nation’s third-largest city, Trump said, “We’re going in,” but added, “I didn’t say when.”

“I have an obligation,” the president said. ”This isn’t a political thing.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, scoffed at the notion of sending military troops and federal agents into Chicago, reiterating Tuesday that federal intervention was not required or wanted.

Local officials in Baltimore have joined Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore in similarly opposing federal law enforcement intervention.

Trump has already sent National Guard troops into Los Angeles and Washington, where he’s also federalized the police force. He has said he plans similar moves in other Democrat-run cities even as a federal judge on Tuesday deemed the California deployment illegal… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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