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- BG Reads 1.20.2025
BG Reads 1.20.2025
🟪 BG Reads - January 20, 2025
Bingham Group Reads
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January 20, 2025
➡️ Today's BG Reads include:
🟪 Winter storm warning is in effect for Austin from Monday evening to Tuesday (KUT)
🟪 Texas Democrats hope to benefit after boosting Dustin Burrows to House speaker (Texas Tribune)
🟪 Relations between leaders of the Texas Senate and House are already off to a rocky start (Dallas Morning News)
🟪 Rubio details what Trump’s ‘America First’ foreign policy will entail (Washington Post)
🟪 Trump expected to sign more than 50 executive orders Monday (NBC News)
Read On!
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
ℹ️ Helpful City Links:
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
➡️ Winter storm warning is in effect for Austin from Monday evening to Tuesday (KUT)
The National Weather Service is warning Austinites of freezing temperatures, snow and slick, icy roads for the next few days. A winter storm warning is in effect from 6 p.m. Monday to 6 p.m. Tuesday. Mack Morris, a meteorologist for the NWS, expects about 1-2 inches of snow and sleet in the Austin area starting Monday evening.
Austin, Bastrop, Georgetown, Hays, Round Rock and San Marcos school districts will be closed on Tuesday due to the weather.
Schools were already closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Check your school district's website for the latest updates.
The daytime temperatures on Monday and Tuesday will be near freezing, and the "feels like" temperature could be in the teens due to the wind chill… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ WilCo opens emergency operations center Jan. 20 (Community Impact)
The Williamson County Office of Emergency Management will open an emergency operations center Jan. 20, staffing essential personnel from several county offices in anticipation of extreme winter weather set to roll in around 6 p.m. that evening… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Steve Sarkisian, Texas football agree to terms on contract extension (Austin American-Statesman)
Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian and the university have agreed to terms on a contract extension, a source confirmed with the Austin American-Statesman. The news was first reported by the Action Network. A high-ranking official told the Statesman on Saturday that Sarkisian’s current contract was extended to seven years through the 2031 season.
Sarkisian also received an increase from his current salary but the source did not give a specific number when asked. The source added two or three NFL teams reached out requesting to interview Sarkisian for their coaching vacancies but did not name those organizations.
When the new deal is signed, this will be the second consecutive offseason in which Sarkisian inks a new contract. Last year, Sarkisian was connected to the open Alabama job after Nick Saban's retirement before Texas extended him. That contract, signed in January 2024, made him the third-highest-paid coach among public universities. He earned $10.6 million in base pay in 2024... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
➡️ Trump heads back to the White House and he’s taking these Texans with him (Texas Tribune)
President-elect Donald Trump will take the oath of office Monday, elevating a handful of Texans to some of the top positions in his administration. Trump will be sworn in around 11 a.m. Central Time, officially starting his second presidential term and allowing him to formally nominate his cabinet. He has already named whom he plans to select, allowing the Senate to hold nomination hearings in advance and vote on confirmation immediately.
Trump tapped former Texas state Rep. Scott Turner to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, former Gov. Rick Perry policy director Brooke Rollins to lead the Agriculture Department and former U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe of Heath to lead the CIA.
Trump named Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii who has recently moved to Texas, as his pick for Director of National Intelligence and Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta to be ambassador to Italy… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Texas Democrats hope to benefit after boosting Dustin Burrows to House speaker (Texas Tribune)
When Democratic lawmakers cast their votes for speaker of the Texas House on Tuesday, the vast majority of them saw a clear choice between two Republicans.
On the one hand was Rep. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock, a known entity they had grappled with for years. Much of Burrows’ support came from moderate and establishment Republicans who Democrats had worked with in the past to gain small victories for their districts — and limit what they saw as the most extreme elements of certain GOP bills.
On the other was Rep. David Cook of Mansfield, a newer member who was backed by the chamber’s rightmost flank and GOP activists who routinely blasted House leadership for any perceived compromise with Democrats.
Though viewed as an affable colleague and middle-of-the-road conservative, Cook had pledged to box the minority party out of leadership positions and stymie their ability to pass legislation. Given that binary choice, the decision was easy… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Relations between leaders of the Texas Senate and House are already off to a rocky start (Dallas Morning News)
Shortly after Lubbock Republican Rep. Dustin Burrows was elected Texas House speaker, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick questioned the legitimacy of his victory and issued a legislative challenge. Perhaps it was a threat.
Pass conservative measures or else, Patrick suggested in a social media post and news release. That approach is similar to the disdain he showed Beaumont Republican Dade Phelan, who declined to seek a third term as speaker after clashing with Patrick and grassroots Republican activists who accused Phelan of giving Democrats too much influence.
It’s Groundhog Day in the Texas Legislature. Patrick, who presides over the Senate, is miffed because Burrows needed crucial support from Democrats to best Mansfield Republican Rep. David Cook, who was endorsed by the House Republican Caucus. Needing help from Democrats in the Republican-dominated House, Patrick said, makes Burrows a “counterfeit speaker.”
The Patrick-Burrows relationship, already off to a rocky start, will determine if the House and Senate can smoothly pass conservative priorities, or if some sought-after conservative legislation is lost through acrimony. Policy disagreements used to be an accepted part of the American political discourse, but this era stresses allegiance by party members and discourages fraternization with the other side. Based on Patrick’s social media to-do list for Burrows, there’s a strong chance for the House and Senate to be on the same page.
The priorities he outlined for Burrows include school choice, a ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying, bail reform, posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms, banning critical race theory and “multiple election integrity bills.” “Each of these bills will be passed again by the Texas Senate,” Patrick said in the statement.
“The voters will hold our new speaker accountable to keep his promise of being the most conservative speaker in Texas history.” Many House Republicans share the same priorities. They want to fortify the state’s power grid, make sure the state meets the demand for water and deliver another property tax cut. Most Republican lawmakers are also on the same page with other issues, including curbing illegal immigration and making sure Texas has the nation’s toughest anti-abortion laws… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Bush, Hobby Airports to be closed Tuesday due to arctic blast (Houston Chronicle)
George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Hobby Airport will be closed on Tuesday. An arctic front is expected to pass through the Houston area, ushering in the coldest air of the season.
During a news conference with Houston Mayor John Whitmire and other public safety officials, Houston Airport System Director Jim Szczesniak said Bush, Hobby and Ellington Airports will be closed Tuesday beginning at midnight. Airlines have implemented their travel waiver programs, meaning travelers can go to their airline and change their flights without change fees, according to Szczesniak.
Airport officials said they would monitor weather conditions throughout the day Tuesday to decide if the airports will resume operations Wednesday.
"Please check with your airlines to make other arrangements besides Tuesday," Szczesniak said during the news conference. Airport officials said that although there would be no arriving or departing flights, employees would remain on-site working "diligently to prepare for a swift and safe return to normal operations when weather permits."… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Dallas City Council set to pick the new city manager Wednesday (Dallas Morning News)
The Dallas City Council is expected to appoint the city’s top administrative official Wednesday, according to the city’s meeting agenda. There are three contenders vying to be the city manager: Fort Worth Assistant City Manager William Johnson, Sacramento Assistant City Manager Mario Lara and Dallas Interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert.
The three were interviewed by council members earlier this week during an executive session that eclipsed the seven-hour mark. Prior to that, the candidates also met with community members to make their pitch.
The search process leading up to a final appointment has been topsy-turvy. It began with a brochure with Houston’s skyline instead of Dallas’ and ended with a fight between two factions of the council over concerns of transparency. All three candidates come packed with decades of experience. Johnson and Lara are in cities that are either experiencing or have experienced a change in leadership.
The Fort Worth City Council selected former deputy city manager Jay Chapa as its new top executive last month. The Sacramento City Council named another assistant city manager, Leyne Milstein, as interim city manager. Tolbert, who has been leading the city in an interim role for close to eight months, has had the advantage to demonstrate how she’d tackle the role in real time. It’s not yet clear what salary the new Dallas city manager will be offered. Former city manager T.C. Broadnax was making $423,247 a year before he left the city… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US and World News]
➡️ Trump expected to sign more than 50 executive orders Monday (NBC News)
Donald Trump plans to sign more than 50 executive orders Monday — and possibly more than 100 — on the first day of his second presidency, according to a person in his transition operation.
Trump, who is scheduled to take the oath of office inside the Capitol at noon, intends to sign several of the orders in front of a crowd at an event in Capital One Arena in Washington later in the afternoon.
The inauguration-related events were moved to indoor locales because of inclement weather in the nation's capital.
The first wave of Trump's executive orders, some of which may be rolled out later in the week, are expected to include a mix of campaign trail promises, reversals of outgoing President Joe Biden's policies and a restructuring of the federal workforce… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Rubio details what Trump’s ‘America First’ foreign policy will entail (Washington Post)
The United States under a second Trump administration will stay committed to core allies such as Israel and Taiwan, pursue a more aggressive strategy to counter China, and take a more “realistic” approach to dealing with Ukraine, humanitarian aid and other global crises if they don’t “advance U.S. interests,” the president-elect’s pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told senators Wednesday.
Rubio, 53, the long-serving Republican senator from Florida who is widely expected to win Senate confirmation, used his hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to explain the incoming administration’s vision for an “America First” foreign policy.
The hearing was noteworthy for its depth of policy discussion — a sharp contrast with the contentious exchanges over sex and alcohol that characterized Tuesday’s confirmation hearing for Trump’s defense secretary pick — and it offered a glimpse into Donald Trump’s international priorities. More typically, the president-elect is prone to sharing such views with little context or detail over social media or in impromptu remarks to reporters.
China is “the most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted,” Rubio said, making clear that countering Beijing will be a key focus of the incoming administration — and echoing a belief expressed by the Biden administration, which was to a certain degree diverted by the conflicts and crises in Ukraine and Gaza. China dominates critical global supply chains. It is a competitor in science and technology, in global markets, and in political and military influence, Rubio said. It is wholly unlike the Soviet Union and other adversaries the United States has faced.
“When they write the book about the 21st century, there’s going to be some chapters in there about [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. There’s going to be some chapters in there about some of these other places,” Rubio said. “But the bulk of that book about the 21st century will be not just about China but about the relationship between China and the United States, and what direction it went.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ TikTok restores service for US users based on Trump’s promised executive order (Associated Press)
TikTok restored service to users in the United States on Sunday just hours after the popular video-sharing platform went dark in response to a federal ban, which President-elect Donald Trump said he would try to pause by executive order on his first day in office.
Trump said he planned to issue the order to give TikTok’s China-based parent company more time to find an approved buyer before the ban takes full effect.
He announced the move on his Truth Social account as millions of U.S. TikTok users awoke to discover they could no longer access the TikTok app or platform.
But by Sunday afternoon, a message greeted those who signed on thanking them — and the president-elect — for their support.
“As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!” the message read… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Gaza cease-fire begins after last-minute delay (Wall Street Journal)
A cease-fire in Israel’s war with Hamas went into force in the Gaza Strip on Sunday after a last-minute delay, halting 15 months of conflict and paving the way for the militant group to release Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
The fragile truce pauses a war that is among the deadliest in modern Middle East history, killing 46,000 Palestinians and reducing much of the strip to ruins following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and seized about 250 hostages.
If it holds, the cease-fire could also ease tensions in the region after more than a year of a conflict that drew in the U.S., Iran and Tehran’s allied militias across the Middle East, including the first direct exchanges of fire between Israel and Iran and an Israeli offensive against Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement last year.
The halt in fighting was delayed by about three hours after Hamas failed to hand over the names of hostages it planned to release by the time the agreement was meant to come into effect Sunday morning, highlighting the challenges ahead to implementing an agreement between two bitterly opposed sides. Hours later, the militant group made a public announcement of the names of the first three Israeli women to be released, a move that put the deal back on track but which sidestepped the official negotiating channels with Israel and undercut Israel’s ability to inform the families of those set to be freed. The Israeli prime minister’s office said the cease-fire had begun at 11:15 a.m. local time and confirmed it had received the names of hostages set to be released later on Sunday.
The three women are Romi Leshem Gonen, a 24-year-old waitress who was taken from the Nova music festival in southern Israel; Doron Steinbrecher, 31, a veterinary nurse who was kidnapped from her home in kibbutz Kfar Aza; and Emily Tehila Damari, 28, a British-Israeli citizen who was also taken from her home in Kfar Aza. Hamas said earlier Sunday the delay in submitting the list of hostages was due to “technical and field-related reasons” and that it was committed to the terms of the agreement… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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