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September 4, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Fitch Upgrades City of Austin’s Credit Rating to ‘AAA’ (City of Austin)

🟪 Austin Public Health says federal funding cuts are impacting ability to combat diseases effectively (KVUE)

🟪 Construction begins on redevelopment of Austin Convention Center (KXAN)

🟪 Texas Legislature ends second special session marked by new political maps, slew of conservative wins (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Most Texas THC products remain legal after GOP leaders fail to break legislative impasse (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Texas National Guard isn't preparing to deploy to Chicago, Abbott's office says (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 Trump asks Supreme Court to quickly take up tariffs case and reverse ruling finding them illegal (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]

✅ Fitch Upgrades City of Austin’s Credit Rating to ‘AAA’ (City of Austin)

The City of Austin is pleased to announce that Fitch Ratings has upgraded the City of Austin’s credit rating to ‘AAA’, the highest possible rating. This applies to both the City’s overall financial standing and a $810 million bond issuance planned for early September. This upgrade reflects Fitch’s confidence in Austin’s long-term financial health.

“This upgrade to ‘AAA’ is a powerful endorsement of our city’s financial stewardship and long-term planning,” said Ed Van Eenoo, City of Austin Chief Financial Officer. “It reflects our commitment to responsible governance and positions us to continue investing in Austin’s future.”

Fitch’s decision is based on several key strengths… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin Public Health says federal funding cuts are impacting ability to combat diseases effectively (KVUE)

Austin Public Health (APH) leaders say federal funding cuts are hurting their ability to effectively combat diseases in the community.

Back in the spring, the federal government abruptly rescinded a multi-million-dollar COVID-19 immunizations grant given to the city of Austin, just a few months before it was set to expire. APH said that grant allowed the department to carry out mobile vaccine clinics.

During an update to city leaders Wednesday morning, APH said losing that money is impacting the infrastructure the department put in place to combat COVID-19, measles, RSV and the upcoming flu season.

"We're not going to be able to be in places and spaces that the community has come to expect us to be," APH Director Adrienne Sturrup said. "We still have our brick-and-mortar clinics that provide key services. We still have a skeleton team that will be able to support community health fairs and different events. But that capacity is reduced."… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Construction begins on redevelopment of Austin Convention Center (KXAN)

 The Austin Convention Center Department (ACCD) has officially entered the first phase of construction, according to a release from the city. While demolition of the existing facility continues, the city said crews have now begun the first step of structural construction, building the diaphragm wall.

The diaphragm wall system will form the perimeter earth retention and foundation structure for the new convention center, the release said. Over the past week, crews began trenching operations on the east side of the site between 2nd and 3rd Streets, the city said.

“We are building more than just a venue—we’re building Austin’s future. This facility will reflect the city’s spirit of innovation, its global appeal and its commitment to inclusive growth,” Trisha Tatro, ACCD director, said in the release… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Family of man stabbed on CapMetro bus sues operator and bus driver (KVUE)

Those who were close to Akshay Gupta say he had a vision.

An immigrant from India and an engineering graduate of Penn State, Gupta held a prestigious nonimmigrant visa for people at the top of their field. He came to Austin with hopes of starting his own company. 

"This is a person who chose to move to Austin because he thought it was safer here," attorney Aaron Von Flatern said. 

Von Flatern is representing Gupta's parents, after their son lost his life in May. Gupta was killed when police say 31-year-old Deepak Kandel stabbed him in the neck on a CapMetro bus. 

Police say Kandel stabbed Gupta because he resembled his uncle.

Gupta's parents filed a lawsuit against CapMetro's operating partner Keolis and the bus driver, alleging Keolis was not enforcing the fares when Kandel boarded the bus. 

"You have to ask whether the basic rules could have helped Mr. Gupta in this case, and I think this is easily preventable," Von Flatern said. 

The lawsuit alleges Kandel was homeless and had a history of mental illness and violent behavior. According to the lawsuit - at the time of the arrest - he had the murder weapon and no free fare card, credit card, money or phone. Boarding a bus without paying or presenting a free-fare card is a Class C misdemeanor in Texas… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ Texas Legislature ends second special session marked by new political maps, slew of conservative wins (Texas Tribune)

The Texas Legislature gaveled out its second overtime session with a fresh inventory of GOP victories, including a new congressional map gerrymandered to maximize Republican representation, a host of socially conservative priorities that had long failed to reach the governor’s desk, and unprecedented retribution leveled against the minority party.

The final adjournment, coming late Wednesday in the House and shortly after midnight in the Senate, closed out a tense six and a half weeks of overtime legislating, punctuated by a two-week walkout by Democratic lawmakers over GOP redistricting that prompted Republicans to end the first special session early and launch right into a second. After the Legislature resumed business, GOP lawmakers quickly pushed through much of Gov. Greg Abbott’s agenda, sparking fiery debates over abortion, bathrooms and ivermectin that underscored the bitter partisan divisions taking root at the Capitol.

"I don't think in the history of the state any Senate body has accomplished so much,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said before adjourning, joking that the passage of a landmark school voucher bill earlier this year had become almost an afterthought with the heap of major legislation passed in the months since… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ Most Texas THC products remain legal after GOP leaders fail to break legislative impasse (Texas Tribune)

The Texas Legislature ended another legislative overtime round without banning or further regulating most THC products after a monthslong fight between lawmakers to rein in the exploding hemp industry.

The Texas House gaveled out of the second special session late Wednesday, leaving behind Senate Bill 6, which would have broadly banned consumable hemp products with any “detectable amount of any cannabinoid.” Only those with cannabidiol or cannabigerol, which are both non-psychoactive, would have stayed legal.

That means most forms of consumable hemp-derived products stay legal in Texas. There also remains no age limit on who can purchase these goods, which come in the form of gummies, smokeable flowers and drinks. Yet it is now illegal to sell — but not possess — THC vape pens under a separate law, passed earlier this year, that went into effect Monday.

The House’s move followed a last-minute effort earlier in the day between top Republicans to hash out a compromise, after SB 6 sat without a hearing for two weeks in a House committee… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ Texas National Guard isn't preparing to deploy to Chicago, Abbott's office says (Austin American-Statesman)

Gov. Greg Abbott's office disputed a claim from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday that the Texas National Guard was preparing to deploy to his state as part of a law and order crackdown by the Trump administration. Texas is not preparing to deploy troops to Illinois, a spokesman for Abbott said on Tuesday afternoon. Pritzker, a Democrat, made the claim during a press conference responding to President Donald Trump's announcement that he planned to send federal troops to Chicago.

When pressed by reporters on how he knew the administration had "begun staging the Texas National Guard for deployment," Pritzker declined to offer any more information. "Let's be clear: I'm not going to reveal the sources," Pritzker said. "These are people who are patriotic Americans who either work in the administration or work in the various branches of the military who've been willing to share what they know with us."… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump asks Supreme Court to quickly take up tariffs case and reverse ruling finding them illegal (Associated Press)

The Trump administration took the fight over tariffs to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, asking the justices to rule quickly that the president has the power to impose sweeping import taxes under federal law.

The government called on the court to reverse an appeals court ruling that found most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs are an illegal use of an emergency powers law.

It’s the latest in a series of Trump administration appeals to a Supreme Court he helped shape, and one that is expected to put a centerpiece of the president’s trade policy before the justices.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit left the tariffs in place for now, but the administration nevertheless called on the high court to intervene quickly in a petition filed electronically late Wednesday and provided to The Associated Press. It was expected to be formally docketed on Thursday… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Behind this season’s bumper earnings: Job cuts, price hikes, glum workers (Wall Street Journal)

American companies are once again beating profit expectations, but this time around they aren’t banking on blockbuster consumer spending to make it happen. Instead, the latest batch of quarterly earnings are getting a lift from managers who are squeezing out costs, boosting productivity and turning to new technologies. Companies from Monster Beverage to Estée Lauder said they are holding down hiring, often while finding new ways to get employees to work more efficiently. And they are raising prices when they can.

“The processes are human-light now,” Damon Lee, chief financial officer of C.H. Robinson Worldwide, said last month as he told investors about an initiative that includes automation upgrades. The global logistics company reported higher profit margins in the second quarter despite a nearly 8% drop in revenue, which it attributed to a prolonged freight recession. It said it had increased productivity 35% since 2022.

“The outcome of those transformations means less head count, more productivity,” he said. More broadly, the gains enjoyed by companies and their investors aren’t softening the unease consumers and employees feel—and might be obscuring signals that ordinary Americans are putting their anxiety into action. So far, corporate efforts to trim their way to profit growth haven’t led to the deep business or consumer-spending cuts that often precede recessions, said Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon.

Still, he added, “My fear is that the longer this lasts, the more likely we are to enter something akin to a downturn.” Estée Lauder, the cosmetics company, said its job cuts and pricing hikes are part of an initiative announced in February to improve profitability and restore sustainable sales growth, alongside some price reductions. The drink maker Monster Beverage told investors last month that it cut jobs in its small alcohol-brands unit as part of cost-reduction efforts and that sales and gross profit rose on pricing and supply-chain changes… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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