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- BG Reads Weekend Edition (8.10.2025)
BG Reads Weekend Edition (8.10.2025)
A.J. Bingham
August 10, 2025
PRESENTED BY
[TOP CLICKS OF THE WEEK]
🟪 City departments release initial $3.9B project wish list for Austin's 2026 bond (Community Impact)
[WEEKEND NEWS]
🟪 Texas identifies the 119 people killed in Kerr County floods (Texas Tribune)
Almost a month after catastrophic floods in the Texas Hill Country swept away local residents, out-of-towners and summer campers in Kerr County, Texas Rangers have released the names of the 119 people who lost their lives.
On July 4, heavy rain caused the Guadalupe River to rise 36 feet, hitting Kerr County the hardest.
People of all ages from all over Texas, from Midland to Beaumont, were on the list released by the Texas Rangers on Friday. The youngest victims were 1 year old; the oldest was 91.
Among the victims were a mother and daughter from Florida visiting their vacation home in Hunt, a family of three from California, and three people from Alabama… ✅ (READ MORE)
🟪 Loss of $105 million federal grant not expected to stop Austin plan for parks over I-35 (KUT)
A plan to add parks over I-35 in Austin is expected to move forward despite the loss of a $105 million federal grant.
A city spokesperson told KUT News on Friday that "the downtown Austin highway caps approved by City Council will continue to move forward."
The city was set to receive the Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant to help pay for parks on decks installed over the highway after the state lowers the main lanes. In a memo sent to the City Council on Wednesday, Carrie Rogers, the city’s intergovernmental relations officer, said the funding had been rescinded after the grant was eliminated under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Austin city leaders had anticipated the loss when the City Council approved the project in May… ✅ (READ MORE)
🟪 Dallas and Fort Worth end their diversity efforts to keep federal funding (Texas Tribune)
Two of Texas’ largest cities ended their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts this week to preserve hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.
The Dallas and Fort Worth city councils said the shift was needed to align with the Trump administration, which has made ending such initiatives a top priority. The votes follow similar decisions by state agencies, universities and school districts across the state and country.
Other Texas cities, including Houston, San Antonio and Austin have yet to take similar action.
Dallas City Manager Kimberly Tolbert on Wednesday said she has directed all city departments to stop using policies and programs considering race, gender, ethnicity, religion or national origin while allocating funds or benefits... ✅ (READ MORE)
🟪 Rep. James Talarico mulls U.S. Senate bid as his profile rises amid Texas Democrats’ redistricting standoff (Texas Tribune)
State Rep. James Talarico has inquired with television stations about potential Senate ad rates, according to two sources with knowledge of his requests — the most concrete step he has taken yet toward running for statewide office.
Already a Democratic rising star, Talarico, a fourth-term representative from Austin, has been ubiquitous since Democrats decamped to Illinois Sunday over a Republican plan to redraw Texas’ congressional map. The 36-year-old has appeared everywhere from network television to podcasts to Washington newsletters, flooding the zone with discussions of the redistricting clash.
He logged 25 interviews in the first 24 hours of the quorum break and reached 9.8 million viewers around the country through his TV hits alone, he told the Tribune.
Talarico, a seminary student and former teacher, has built a large social media following, including on TikTok, through his criticism of Christian nationalism as a progressive Democrat and devout Christian himself. A number of Talarico’s widely circulated clips show him confronting Republican colleagues on the House floor during the legislative session that ended in early June. Shortly after, he revealed his interest in a possible 2026 Senate run… ✅ (READ MORE)
🟪 Paxton, Burrows ask Illinois court to enforce Texas arrest warrants against Democrats who left the state (KUT)
exas Attorney General Ken Paxton and House Speaker Dustin Burrows are asking an Illinois court to enforce arrest warrants against Democratic lawmakers who have left the state to delay passage of a GOP-backed congressional map.
Burrows, R-Lubbock, issued civil arrest warrants on Monday, ordering the sergeant-at-arms and state troopers to track down and arrest the dozens of House members who absconded Sunday to deny quorum, or the minimum number of members required for the lower chamber to pass legislation.
These warrants are only enforceable within state lines, making them a largely symbolic threat that also ensures any members who return to the state can be apprehended and returned to the chamber.
The request to Illinois’ 8th Judicial Circuit Court marks a significant escalation in Republicans’ efforts to restore quorum and pass the new congressional map, which aims to secure five additional seats for Republicans. The Legislature undertook the unusual mid-decade redraw under pressure from President Trump, who is looking to pad his party’s narrow majority in the U.S. House ahead of next year’s potentially difficult midterm election… ✅ (READ MORE)
🟪 Ken Paxton asks Texas Supreme Court to expel 13 House Democrats over redistricting standoff (Texas Tribune)
Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday asked the Texas Supreme Court to expel 13 Democrats from the state House, the latest in a flurry of unprecedented actions aiming to resume business at the Capitol and pass new congressional maps to benefit Republicans.
Gov. Greg Abbott previously asked the court to expel Houston Rep. Gene Wu, the chair of the Texas House Democrats.
Wu is also named in Paxton’s petition, alongside Reps. John Bucy, Lulu Flores, Vikki Goodwin, Gina Hinojosa and James Talarico of Austin, Jessica González and Mihaela Plesa of Dallas, Suleman Lalani of Sugar Land, Christina Morales of Houston, Ron Reynolds of Missouri City, Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos of Richardson and Chris Turner of Grand Prairie.
Paxton argued that these representatives effectively abandoned their offices by leaving the state Sunday to stop the House from passing a new congressional map that would redraw district lines with the aim of netting five seats for Republicans. He said these 13, among the dozens who have left the state, “made incriminating public statements regarding their refusal to return, essentially confirming in their own words the very grounds for this legal action.”… ✅ (READ MORE)
🟪 New rules could change everything for government Drones (GovTech)
The first draft of a new federal rule set to dramatically change how state and local governments use drones has just been released. The public now has 60 days to send their feedback to the Federal Register to shape a policy that could make an enormous difference in their operations.
The proposed rule would create a standardized pathway for drones to fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), entering the country into a new era of public safety, infrastructure management and emergency response as well as overhaul the use of commercial drones by private companies.
For years, agencies and companies wanting to fly drones beyond a pilot's line of sight — for example, to inspect a long stretch of pipeline or respond to an emergency on the far side of a mountain — had to get a special waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This was a slow, one-by-one process that made it hard for drone programs to grow… ✅ (READ MORE)
