The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state's electric grid operator, on Wednesday issued a weather watch for early next week, citing extreme cold temperatures forecast across the state.

The state is facing an arctic front on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The weather pattern will drive temperatures well below average throughout Texas, but precipitation is not expected, said Mack Morris, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in New Braunfels. For that reason, it is not a winter storm.

Northern Texas will likely experience the coldest temperatures, including some potentially in the single digits in the Panhandle, but cold air "bottled up in northern Canada" will spill as far south as the border, Morris said. The Austin and San Antonio region will see lows below freezing on Monday and Tuesday.

The ERCOT advisory warns that the roughly three-day cold snap could cause "higher electrical demand" and "the potential for lower reserves," but says ERCOT expects grid conditions to be normal. It does not direct Texas residents to conserve energy… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Link to ACC Board of Trustee Minutes and Recording here

APD announces partial release of mandated data dashboard (Austin Monitor)

The Austin Police Department will transition the chief’s monthly report from a PDF format to an online dashboard complete with explanations and definitions available through the city’s open data portal. The planned dashboard release date is Jan. 18, according to a recent memo from interim Chief Robin Henderson to City Council.

The dashboard is part of a broader initiative – the Open Policing Data Release – mandated by Council last September. The resolution, spearheaded by District 4 Council Member Chito Vela, directed city staff to regularly release APD data across several categories, including attrition, arrests, response times, use of force, inquiries into immigration status and use of discretionary arrest in lieu of citation for certain eligible misdemeanor offenses.

“With a commitment to openness, accountability, and continuous improvement, the department is allocating all necessary resources to support the successful integration and ongoing maintenance of the Open Policing Data Release,” Henderson wrote in the Dec. 22 memo.

The resolution stemmed, at least in part, from a lack of openness… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Texas reactions to Nick Saban's retirement from Alabama: 'Keep Steve Sarkisian in Austin' (Austin American-Statesman)

One of the greatest college coaches of all time, Nick Saban, has finally retired. The Alabama head coach won seven national titles and was a crucial mentor for Texas coach Steve Sarkisian.

In his final year as coach, Saban led Alabama to a 12-1 regular season record and an appearance in the Rose Bowl. His final loss came against Michigan, but his final loss at home came vs. Texas and Sarkisian in the Longhorns' 34-24 win in September.

This decision will have major ramifications for the college football world. With Sarkisian reportedly already in talks for a contract extension, Texas will want to speed things along to prevent any possible discussion of their coach potentially eyeing a position to which he's had close connections… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Semiconductor gas supplier aims to double production capacity in $130M expansion north of metro (Austin Business Journal)

A chemicals manufacturer that provides ultra-clean gas for the semiconductor industry is eyeing a nearly $130 million expansion in Killeen that will double its production capacity to serve customers like Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

MGC Pure Chemicals America Inc. is planning the expansion nearly four years after opening its $32 million manufacturing plant on roughly 12 acres of an 18-acre site at 4500 Roy J. Smith Drive in the Killeen Business Park.

The company detailed the project to the Killeen City Council on Jan. 9 as it seeks to secure roughly $1.9 million in publicly funded incentives for it. The council will vote Jan. 16 on whether to approve the incentives.

The planned expansion is the latest example of the far-reaching impact across Central Texas of the new billion-dollar, next-generation Samsung plant in Taylor, which is being built about 60 miles southeast. The Samsung plant is expected to result in thousands of jobs and millions in investment from suppliers that serve the facility... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

(Click above for meeting times and agendas of this week’s Austin public meetings)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Greg Abbott will use $19 million he raised in 2023 to target anti-voucher Republicans (Texas Tribune)

Gov. Greg Abbott raised a record $19 million over the last six months — money he intends to use toward his crusade to oust anti-school voucher Texas House Republicans in the primary season.

Abbott’s campaign announced the sum Wednesday, adding that he also has $38 million cash on hand across two political accounts.

“With the primary elections just around the corner, Governor Abbott has the resources needed to back strong conservative candidates who support his bold agenda to keep Texas the greatest state in the nation, including expanding school choice for all Texas families and students,” Abbott campaign manager Kim Snyder said in a statement… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Homelessness in Texas on the rise amid high housing costs, federal estimates show (Texas Tribune)

The number of Texans experiencing homelessness is back at pre-pandemic levels, federal data shows.

Homelessness in Texas grew by more than 12% in 2023, in line with national trends, according to estimates released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last month. More than 27,000 Texans did not have a permanent roof over their heads when advocates and volunteers across the country walked Texas streets on a night last January to conduct the Point-in-Time Count annual estimate of people experiencing homelessness. About 43% of those — or some 11,700 people — lived on the streets.

Low-income households in Texas now face significantly higher rents than they did prior to the pandemic — and no longer have the pandemic-era safety net afforded by federal rent relief funds and pauses on evictions that aimed to prevent landlords from ousting tenants who couldn’t make rent. Those factors have contributed to an overall increase in homelessness, homeless experts and advocates say… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Texas Supreme Court won't take up secessionist group’s push to get ‘Texit’ measure on GOP ballot (KERA)

The Texas Supreme Court has denied a secessionist group’s request to intervene after Republican Party officials rejected a ballot measure asking if Texas should leave the U.S. In an emergency petition filed Wednesday, the Texas Nationalist Movement argued state GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi “had no discretion” to reject the more than 139,000 voter signatures the group collected to get the question on the primary ballot. The TNM also requested the court compel Rinaldi to accept the voter petition.

The court quickly denied to take up the group’s filing. “While we’re disappointed in the Supreme Court’s decision, this is not the end of the matter,” TNM president Daniel Miller told KERA. “We will fight to see that the law is honored and that Texans have a say on their fundamental right of self-government.”

Last month, the TNM submitted what it says was the the necessary signatures to add the “Texit” question — asking “The State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation. For or against” — to the primary ballot. Under state law, the minimum number of signatures “that must appear on the petition is five percent of the total vote received by all candidates for governor in the party's most recent gubernatorial general primary election.” But state party leaders said in an open letter to the group that it submitted the signatures after the deadline, and that some of the signatures were invalid because they were submitted electronically.

In its court filing, TNM argued the signatures are admissible under the Texas Uniform Electronic Transactions Act. Rinaldi said in a statement to KERA that that argument could have implications on the state’s election code, including voter registration and mail-in ballot applications.

“The Texas Nationalist Movement is trying to eliminate Texas’s strong election integrity protections by asserting electronic signatures should be valid on petitions, voter registration, and mail-in ballots,” Rinaldi said. “This type of policy opens Texas up to the massive election fraud that cost President Trump his re-election, and the Texas GOP will not stand for it.” But Miller told KERA there’s no connection…

(LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

Oil lobby warns Biden voters 'watching' energy policies (Houston Chronicle)

The oil sector’s largest lobbying group denounced the Biden administration’s climate policies at an event Wednesday, warning that efforts to limit oil and gas development would hurt the administration come the presidential election in November. Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, compared President Joe Biden’s track record to that of former president Barack Obama, saying while the latter’s track record was “not perfect” he had held more than five times as many federal lease sales for oil and gas development as Biden.

“Imagine if a president blocked development of farmland, disrupting our domestic food supply and making us more reliant on foreign countries to feed our families,” he said at API’s annual State of American Energy event. “American voters are watching. And as Americans head to the polls later this year, energy is very much on the ballot — and so is everything energy touches: Jobs, America’s security, manufacturing, inflation.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

South Africa tells the UN top court Israel is committing genocide in Gaza as a landmark case begins (Associated Press)

The dispute strikes at the heart of Israel’s national identity as a Jewish state created in the aftermath of the Nazi genocide in the Holocaust, during which 6 million Jews were murdered.

It also evokes issues central to South Africa’s own identity: Its governing party, the African National Congress, has long compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Blacks to “homelands” before ending in 1994.

In a sign of how seriously Israel is taking the accusation, although it normally considers U.N. and international tribunals unfair and biased, it has sent a strong legal team to defend its military operation launched in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks.

A decision on the request for so-called “provisional measures” will likely take weeks. The case is likely to last years... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

4 ways China is trying to interfere in Taiwan’s presidential election (Washington Post)

Floating high-altitude balloons over the island, funding pro-Beijing social media influencers, and hosting local officials on lavish trips to China: These are among the tactics Beijing is accused of deploying to influence Taiwan’s presidential election to be held on Saturday.

For years, Taiwan — which Beijing claims is an “inalienable” part of China — has been the target of Chinese influence campaigns aimed at convincing citizens that coming under Chinese Communist Party rule is their best option. Those efforts have come to the fore ahead of what is expected to be the closest presidential and legislative race for the island democracy in decades.

Taiwanese authorities are investigating 102 cases of foreign interference related to this year’s election, according to the Supreme Prosecutors Office — the highest number since Taiwan enacted an anti-infiltration law in 2019. Many of them are related to China, which has an interest in unseating the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which it sees as promoting formal independence, and seeing a more Beijing-friendly president in office… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[2024 Austin City Council Race Watch]

Next fall will see elections for the following Council positions, District 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, and Mayor. Candidates can’t file for a place on the ballot until July 22, 2024.

Declared candidates so far are:

District 2