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- BG Reads 1.2.2025
BG Reads 1.2.2025
🟪 BG Reads - January 2, 2025
Bingham Group Reads
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January 2, 2025
➡️ Today's BG Reads include:
🟪 Paige Ellis is feeling energized for Council collaboration on parks, climate and mobility in 2025 (Austin Monitor)
🟪 Drawing on his last two years, Qadri hopes to expand his leadership on mobility (Austin Monitor)
🟪 In Austin and nationally, 'stale' inventory accumulating in housing market (Austin Business Journal)
🟪 Longhorns survive Peach Bowl thriller to reach CFP semifinals (Austin American-Statesman)
Read On!
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
🟪 Review: The 2025 Austin Council Meeting Calendar
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
➡️ Paige Ellis is feeling energized for Council collaboration on parks, climate and mobility in 2025 (Austin Monitor)
If Paige Ellis had to sum up City Council’s work this year in one word, she said she would choose “momentum.”
Ellis, who represents Southwest Austin’s District 8, has served on Council through a series of challenges that were truly unprecedented – a pandemic, severe winter storms accompanied by sweeping power outages and contentious, generational policy debates on issues like public safety reform, homelessness and land use.
After several challenging, divisive years, Ellis told the Austin Monitor she was pleased with how much Council had been able to accomplish in 2024.
“We’ve actually wrapped up a lot of loose ends lately,” she said. “With the way the Legislature is working, with the way that national politics are working … maybe there’s an incentive for the dais to work in tandem … and to see each other as brothers and sisters as opposed to adversaries. … We can do big things when we are streamlined.”
Ellis also credited some of the successes of the past year to City Manager T.C. Broadnax, who joined the organization in May… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Drawing on his last two years, Qadri hopes to expand his leadership on mobility (Austin Monitor)
After a busy year, Zo Qadri has set his sights on taking on more mobility work in 2025.
That seems an apt role for the City Council member who represents District 9, which covers Downtown, the University of Texas and much of Central Austin.
When the mayor hands down new committee assignments – a decision typically made with input from each Council member – Qadri hopes he’s able to secure a seat on either the Capital Metro board or CAMPO, also known as the Central Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. Qadri also expects to remain on Council’s Mobility Committee, where he currently serves as vice chair.
Looking back on his work in 2024, Qadri said he was happy to see Council’s approval in November of funding the Red River Cultural District.
“That’s something I’m really proud of,” Qadri said of the $150,000 funding authorized for the district each year for four years. “Making sure that we’re really taking care of our artists and creatives in the city is extremely important.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ In Austin and nationally, 'stale' inventory accumulating in housing market (Austin Business Journal)
Nationally, more than half of home listings in November had been on the market for two months or longer, and Austin’s housing market is among the leaders of the trend.
That’s according to a recent Redfin report, which found that 62% of home listings in Austin in November had been sitting on the market for at least 60 days without going under contract, second only to Miami’s 64%. The report specifically looked at homes actively listed for sale on the final day of November.
Across the country, roughly 55% of home listings in November hadn't been sold after sitting on the market for 60 days.
The report cited surges in new-build homes and overpriced listings as factors in what it termed the “stale” inventory.
The report comes as Austin’s housing inventory and active listings have steadily risen over the past year, according to the Austin Board of Realtors and Unlock MLS’ latest market report, a favorable development for homebuyers. In November, the Austin-Round Rock metro had 4.8 months of inventory, up by 1.1 months from November 2023, and active listings came in at 10,845, a 5.2% year-over-year increase… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Longhorns survive Peach Bowl thriller to reach CFP semifinals (Austin American-Statesman)
After opening the new year in Atlanta, the Texas football team is moving onto Arlington.
Texas survived a fourth-quarter meltdown and Andrew Mukuba's game-ending interception sealed a double-overtime win Wednesday over Arizona State at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. That effort in a 39-31 victory made Texas a winner in its first-ever appearance in the Peach Bowl, which was serving this season as a quarterfinal game in the College Football Playoff.
Next up for Texas (13-2) is the Cotton Bowl and the CFP semifinals. The fifth-seeded Longhorns will face either No. 1 Oregon or No. 8 Ohio State at AT&T Stadium on Jan. 10… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Filing period to open for Hutto council seats (Community Impact)
Ahead of the filing period for Hutto City Council, the city released guidelines for the May 2025 election.
There will be three open positions on the next Hutto City Council ballot, including mayor, place 3 council member and place 6 council member. Those running for any of the open positions must:
Be at least 18 years old as of the date of application
Be registered to vote by the state of Texas within the city of Hutto
Be a resident of the city and have resided within the limits for at least a year before the date of the election
A candidate guide with the necessary information and forms required to file is available upon request from the city's secretary office… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
➡️ Texas man identified as suspect in deadly New Orleans truck attack (Texas Tribune)
Federal authorities said a Texas man was behind the wheel of a pickup truck that plowed into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans’ French Quarter early Wednesday, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more.
The FBI identified the suspect as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. citizen and Army veteran who lived in north Houston, public records show. After ramming into the crowd, Jabbar crashed the truck and opened fire on police, injuring two officers before he was fatally shot by law enforcement, FBI officials said.
Inside Jabbar’s truck — a Ford pickup that “appears to have been rented” — was an Islamic State flag, weapons and a potential improvised explosive device, according to an FBI statement. The agency said it is investigating the slaughter as “an act of terrorism” and looking into how Jabbar gained possession of the vehicle. An FBI official said the agency believes Jabbar may have been working with accomplices, though none had been identified by Wednesday afternoon…
🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Irving-based Vistra is first utility to top S&P 500 since 2001, powered by AI boom (Dallas Morning News)
Vistra Corp. just pulled off a feat that no other utility stock has managed since 2001 — it topped the leaderboard of the S&P 500 Index with an eye-popping 264% annual gain. Shares of Vistra, which joined the S&P 500 in May, posted their best year in the Dallas-based firm’s history and led a pack of nuclear power plant operators higher in a performance more akin to the high-growth tech sector than the typically boring and defensive play of utilities.
Long considered one of the sleepier corners of the market, utilities advanced as the growth of artificial intelligence and data centers fueled demand for power. And growing acceptance of nuclear power as an emissions-free energy source provided a further boost.
“Everywhere you look, power demand has never been this strong,” said Shahriar Pourreza, an analyst with Guggenheim Securities. “There’s a finite number of these power plant operators and they have a scarcity value.” Independent power plant operators — unlike regulated utilities — have seen a “tipping point” amid the rise of data centers, a huge re-shoring effort and electrification trends, Pourreza said. The combination of increased demand and greater acceptance of nuclear power propelled Vistra’s stock to even outperform AI darling Nvidia Corp.’s 178% gain.
The one stock with a claim on Vistra’s position on the S&P 500’s leaderboard is Palantir Technologies Inc., whose 350% gain comes with the caveat that it was only added to the S&P 500 in September. The four best-performing S&P 500 utility stocks this year are all independent power producers — known as IPPs — that own nuclear generating facilities. After Vistra, those stocks are Constellation Energy, which has climbed 94%, followed by NRG Energy Inc., up 78%, and Entergy Corp., up 50%...
🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US and World News]
➡️ Firework mortars, gas cannisters stuffed inside Tesla that exploded outside Trump’s Las Vegas hotel (Associated Press)
Firework mortars and camp fuel canisters were found stuffed into the back of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel early Wednesday, killing a suspect inside the vehicle and sparking an intense investigation into possible terrorism.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and Clark County Fire Department officials said that a person died inside the futuristic-looking pickup truck and seven people nearby suffered minor injuries.
By late Wednesday afternoon, authorities were still working to get the body out of the vehicle and start processing the evidence inside. President Joe Biden was briefed on the explosion.
“Our number one goal is to ensure that we have the proper identification of the subject involved in this incident,” said Jeremy Schwartz, acting special agent in charge for the FBI’s Las Vegas office, “Following that, our second objective is to determine whether this was an act of terrorism or not.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Power is restored to nearly all of Puerto Rico after a major blackout (NPR)
Power was restored to nearly all electrical customers across Puerto Rico on Wednesday after a sweeping blackout plunged the U.S. territory into darkness on New Year's Eve.
By Wednesday afternoon, power was back up for 98% of Puerto Rico's 1.47 million utility customers, said Luma Energy, the private company overseeing transmission and distribution of power in the archipelago. Lights returned to households as well as to Puerto Rico's hospitals, water plants and sewage facilities after the massive outage that exposed the persistent electricity problems plaguing the island.
Still, the company warned that customers could still see temporary outages in the coming days. It said full restoration across the island could take up to two days… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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