President Donald Trump issued a directive on Monday ordering a sweeping freeze on federal grants, including money to state and local governments. This action caused an immediate uproar, as well as lawsuits to put the order on hold. A federal judge stayed the order just before it was slated to take effect but legal wrangling […]
Greg Casar
United States Congress representative for Texas’s 35th congressional district since 2023 and former Austin City Council member for District 4
Posted inEnvironment
Meadows Center receives $500,000 to study link between climate change and polluted beaches
If you’re considering a trip to the coast this summer, maybe think again: Texas beaches have a poo problem. In 2021, Environment Texas published a study that found 90 percent of the state’s beaches contained dangerous pathogens found in fecal matter. (Especially avoid Cole Park Beach in Corpus Christi.) So this week, Austin’s U.S. Rep. […]
Posted inEnergy
U.S. Rep. Greg Casar files bill to connect Texas grid to rest of the country
Of the numerous vulnerabilities exposed by the deadly 2021 Texas blackouts, one caught people’s attention more than the rest: Texas exists as an energy island. Unlike any other power grid in the continental U.S., the energy system that serves 90 percent of Texans cannot share much electricity with neighboring grids. That means when the Electric Reliability Council […]
Posted inTransportation
Austin airport’s safety is under scrutiny after a string of near misses
A disturbing string of dangerous incidents at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport – including near misses and two tarmac deaths this year – has elected officials clashing with city staff over safety at an airport where passenger volumes have more than doubled in the last decade. Now, some of those frustrations are boiling into public view. City […]
Posted inPublic Health
Greg Casar calls for national standard to prevent heat-related illness, deaths on construction sites
Amid an oppressive summer, U.S. Rep. Greg Casar is calling on the federal government to enact stricter protections for workers to ensure they don’t suffer heat-related illness on the job. Casar, a former City Council member whose congressional district includes parts of Austin and San Antonio, led efforts to establish the city’s local protections, which […]
Posted inCity Council
Casar says 2021 was about helping people in crisis
From community organizer to City Council member to congressional candidate, Greg Casar exudes the energy of someone eager to get things done. Since taking office in January 2015, he has accomplished much of the social agenda he put forward as a Council member. Now he’s poised to make an early departure from Council once his […]
Posted inElections
Austin Council Member Greg Casar will run for Congress, vacating his Council seat midterm
Greg Casar, who has served on Austin City Council since 2015, will run for U.S. Congress, he announced Thursday. Casar last month teased a race for federal office, saying he was “considering” a run and had convened a committee of advisers. “I believe that working families from Bexar to Comal to Hays to Travis County […]
Posted inCity Council
Greg Casar: 2020 was the ‘hardest year’
“I was wrong,” Council Member Greg Casar said. He was recalling his observations of 2017, the first year of the Trump presidency. At the time, he’d called it “a hellish year” – but that was before he knew what a hellish year was really like. It’s a year of pandemic, made worse by an economic […]
Posted inElections
Casar to seek reelection
Council Member Greg Casar announced Monday that he will not be seeking Sen. Kirk Watson’s now-vacant District 14 seat. In early March, Casar explored the possibility of running for state Senate. However, that move was quickly overshadowed by the cancellation of South by Southwest and the unprecedented fight against Covid-19 that has since consumed Austin […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Something we agree on
The link between governmental and residential Texas houses… Occasionally a contentious zoning case stirs up old memories that have been tucked away, but not forgotten. In the wake of the Historic Landmark commissioners’ reaction to the presented plans for 1602 West Lynn, Bergan Casey, the granddaughter of former U.S. Rep. J.J. “Jake” Pickle and a member […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporters Notebook: APD on ICE
Life after SB 4… Following Texas’ Senate Bill 4, also known as the “Sanctuary City bill,” Austin City Council asked that all instances of city collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement be tracked. A Feb. 28 memo from Austin Police Chief Brian Manley sheds light on events from 2018, revealing, “There were 581 instances where APD […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Carrying on
A bump in the road… As long expected, the state’s Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals voided the city’s paid sick leave ordinance on Friday. The 24-page opinion by the three-judge panel found that the ordinance – which was passed in February but placed under injunction prior to its Oct. 1 efficacy date – is unconstitutional […]