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- BG Reads Weekend Edition(6.15.2025)
BG Reads Weekend Edition(6.15.2025)
A.J. Bingham
June 15, 2025
PRESENTED BY
[TOP CLICKS OF THE WEEK]
🟪 Recruitment of Austin Energy's next GM advances with $110K search firm contract (Community Impact)
🟪 Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s push to ban THC in Texas draws rare backlash from the right (Texas Tribune)
[WEEKEND NEWS]
🟪 Thousands join 'No Kings' protest in Austin as arrest is made in threat against Texas lawmakers (KUT)
Thousands of people gathered around the Texas Capitol in Austin for a “No Kings” demonstration that coincided with President Trump’s birthday and a military parade marking the Army’s 250th anniversary in Washington, D.C.
Many in attendance at the Saturday evening protest said their opposition to the Trump administration's actions, ranging from immigration policy to cuts to the federal workforce, brought them out… ✅ (READ MORE)
🟪 Austin’s Project Connect survives state legislative session as legal proceedings continue (Community Impact)
State legislation that could've threatened Austin's multibillion dollar Project Connect system once again failed to pass this year, while the transit initiative still faces legal hurdles in the months ahead.
The Project Connect light rail and bus system is funded through an ongoing civic tax increase authorized by Austin voters' approval of Proposition A in November 2020. Project Connect is overseen by the Austin Transit Partnership, a local government entity created for the program, but its local funding comes from the city tax.
Property tax rates are split into two portions: maintenance and operations to cover day-to-day expenses, and debt service to pay off long-term obligations like bonds. Austin's Project Connect tax was added to the city maintenance and operations rate, and the revenue is regularly transferred to ATP to pay off its own bonds issued for project development, and for the future operations of bus and train lines… ✅ (READ MORE)
🟪 Round Rock to expand license plate reader program as other cities reverse course (CBS Austin)
As the use of automatic license plate readers remains controversial in some Central Texas cities, Round Rock is expanding its program.
Thursday night city council unanimously approved buying 40 more cameras to place across the city.
"This will just give us the additional resources, the additional tools to continue and fight crime." Round Rock Police Chief Allen Banks said.
Chief Banks says license plate readers have been used over the last fifteen years. 30 Flock Automatic Cameras have been in use since 2022.
"I have a number of cases I can talk about that they have helped us solve, helped us put folks in jail that deserve to go to jail." Chief Banks said.
Thursday night city council voted to purchase 40 more readers for $181,000, thirty for police vehicles, and another ten at fixed locations… ✅ (READ MORE)
🟪 Suspect named in targeted shootings of Minnesota lawmakers (NPR)
Officials have named a suspect in the shooting they say targeted two lawmakers at their homes in Minnesota, killing one state representative and her husband and wounding a state senator and his wife.
According to authorities, the suspect officials are seeking is 57-year-old Vance Boelter.
Boelter is not yet in custody. Officials urged residents to call 911 if they believe they have seen him and to consider him armed and dangerous. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to Boelter's arrest and conviction.
Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman, a former state House speaker, and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed at their home in Brooklyn Park, Minn. early Saturday morning by a man impersonating a police officer.
Earlier, in a separate incident just miles away in Champlin, Minn., Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were shot and wounded at their home. Hoffman is believed to be in stable condition in a hospital at this moment. Authorities did not give updates on the status of Hoffman's wife… ✅ (READ MORE)
🟪 Anti-Trump demonstrators crowd streets, parks and plazas across the US. Organizers say millions came (Associated Press)
Masses of demonstrators packed into streets, parks and plazas across the United States on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump, marching through downtowns and small towns, blaring anti-authoritarian chants mixed with support for protecting democracy and immigrant rights.
Organizers of the “No Kings” demonstrations said millions had marched in hundreds of events. Governors across the U.S. had urged calm and vowed no tolerance for violence, while some mobilized the National Guard ahead of marchers gathering.
Confrontations were isolated. But police in Los Angeles, where protests over federal immigration enforcement raids erupted a week earlier and sparked demonstrations across the country, used tear gas and crowd-control munitions to clear out protesters after the formal event ended. Officers in Portland also fired tear gas and projectiles to disperse a crowd that protested in front of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building well into the evening.
And in Salt Lake City, Utah, police were investigating a shooting during a march downtown that left one person critically injured. Three people were taken into custody, including a man believed to be the shooter, who also suffered a gunshot wound, according to Police Chief Brian Redd… ✅ (READ MORE)
🟪 Trump celebrates US military might amid tensions at home and abroad (Politico)
President Donald Trump on Saturday celebrated his birthday at the massive military parade he’s dreamed of for eight years.
It was a fête befitting of the approach Trump has taken as commander-in-chief, using military iconography to telegraph strength to opponents, foreign and domestic.
“Time and again America’s enemies have learned that if you threaten the American people, our soldiers are coming for you,” Trump said. “Your defeat will be certain. Your demise will be final, and your downfall will be total and complete.”
His speech, which focused on lauding the Army’s history, was a more disciplined and marked departure from the more campaign rally-like events Trump presided over in recent weeks at Fort Bragg and West Point.
Still, across the nation, hundreds of thousands saw Saturday’s events in the nation’s capital in a more ominous light, marching in “No Kings” protests aimed at highlighting the ways in which demonstrators argue Trump has acted more like a dictator than a president… ✅ (READ MORE)
