BG Reads 1.28.2025

🟪 BG Reads - January 28, 2025

January 28, 2025

Bingham Group Reads

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January 28, 2025

➡️ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Austin Council Work Session Agenda + Livestream Link (Today @9AM)

🟪 Austin saw 'solid' economic activity in 2024 — here's what to expect in 2025 (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Austin political candidates raised $2.6M, spent $3.1M on 2024 elections (Community Impact)

🟪 Task force delays decision on possible 2025 environmental bond package (Austin Monitor)

🟪 'Everyone's nervous' — U.S. farmers gather in San Antonio ahead of mass deportations (Texas Public Radio)

🟪 What is DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company upending the stock market? (Associated Press)

Read On!

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ TODAY -> Austin City Council Work Session @9AM

  • Agenda 

  • Live Stream (ATXN1 Live)

  • From Mayor Watson (Council Message Board):

    • For the Work Session, we will begin with public comment, if any, and then take up the discussion re committees and intergovernmental appointments. We will then go to the pulled item. Finally, we'll go into executive session for the item that's posted. At the conclusion of the executive session, we will return to the dais, adjourn the Work Session, and the new Austin Energy Oversight Committee Chair will call the committee to order.

  • Texas Tribune CEO Sonal Shah sits down with Watson to discuss his plans to address issues from housing affordability and homelessness to workforce development and the expansion of I-35, and how the city will interact with state leaders known to relish a fight with local elected officials.

🏛️ Austin City Hall Executive Management Team Announcement

ℹ️ Helpful City Links:

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

➡️ Austin saw 'solid' economic activity in 2024 — here's what to expect in 2025 (Austin Business Journal)

When asked to sum up 2024, local economic leaders use labels like "solid," a "continuation," and "bright" — healthy, in other words, but not necessarily stellar.

That's because it was a mixed bag, with Austin continuing to search for equilibrium after huge wins in recent years, such as the successful courting of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to Taylor and Tesla Inc. to eastern Travis County. Central Texas has long been a hotbed for relocations and expansions, starting largely with IBM Corp. coming to town in the 1960s, and continuing with big steps like Samsung picking Austin for a factory in the 1990s.

The trend picked up steam and hit a fever pitch during the pandemic, with companies such as Oracle Corp. and Tesla moving their headquarters to Austin. Many others followed, including X, formerly known as Twitter, last year… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Austin political candidates raised $2.6M, spent $3.1M on 2024 elections (Community Impact)

Austin political candidates raised $2.61 million dollars and spent nearly $3.1 million last year, according to campaign finance reports filed for 2024.

Six Austin City Council seats were up for election last year, including mayor and five district representatives. Most contests were settled in the November general election, while the race for North Central Austin's District 7 was decided in a December runoff.

Throughout the year, incumbent candidates held strong financial leads over their competition, while two races for open seats saw closer fundraising and spending totals. Final finance reports covering activity in late 2024 were due in mid-January. In the end, three out of four incumbents held their seats, while District 6's Mackenzie Kelly was defeated by challenger Krista Laine.

The two candidates in the open District 10 race won by Marc Duchen ended up spending more than $350,000 combined. District 7's six candidates ended up spending more than $600,000 in the lead-up to the general election and the runoff eventually won by Mike Siegel… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Task force delays decision on possible 2025 environmental bond package (Austin Monitor)

The Bond Election Advisory Task Force has postponed making a recommendation on a potential 2025 bond election focused on environmental projects, citing the need for additional preparation and clarity from city staff.

The decision to table the discussion until February came during the task force’s Monday meeting, where members expressed uncertainty about the scope of the long-discussed Environmental Investment Plan and its implications for both the proposed 2025 bond and a more comprehensive 2026 bond.

The task force’s discussion was shaped substantially from a Jan. 9 memo from Assistant City Manager Robert Goode to City Council, which emphasized the challenges of planning a comprehensive 2025 bond election. The memo recommended focusing on a limited set of general obligation bond-eligible projects under the EIP that would not require extensive coordination across city departments or external entities.

The memo also highlighted that advancing any 2025 projects could reduce funding availability for a broader 2026 bond program, which city financial staff has recommended be capped at $600 million… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Austin's Waterloo Greenway project aims to boost walkability, reduce congestion (CBS Austin)

The Waterloo Greenway Conservancy and the City of Austin have embarked on the second phase of their master plan to enhance walkability from Lady Bird Lake to Waterloo Park on Twelfth Street.

"There was only one bridge down here that crossed Waller Creek along Butler Trail," said John Rigdon, Chief Planning and Design Officer at Waterloo Greenway Conservancy. "Rainy Street was challenging to get in and out of, and so now we're building three bridges that will connect east and west."

The 130-foot Hartman Bridge is set to link the trail and Rainey Street to the Lance Armstrong Bikeway downtown. "We hope it will improve recreational opportunities for trail users, but also it will really help with congestion and mobility downtown," Rigdon said… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Norovirus, the leading cause of vomiting and diarrhea, is spreading in Austin (KUT)

It’s stomach flu season in Austin. Norovirus – the leading cause of vomiting and diarrhea in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – surged across numerous states heading into 2025, according to the latest CDC data.

Texas isn’t part of the CDC’s norovirus reporting network, and norovirus is not a condition that health care providers are required to report to local and state health authorities.

That means there isn’t official local data available on the virus’ spread. But Dr. Desmar Walkes, the medical director for Austin Public Health, confirmed the virus is spreading here. “We've been seeing norovirus circulating in our community for the last couple of months,” she said… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

➡️ Texas job growth outpaces national average as state adds 284,200 positions in 2024 (San Antonio Express-News)

Texas employers grew the state’s job count by 2% last year — outpacing the national average — adding a total of 284,200 jobs. The latest figures from the Texas Workforce Commission show the growth continued in December, when another 37,500 jobs were added. That helped push the state’s full-year growth rate 0.6 percentage points higher than the national average. Texas finished the year with a record 14.32 million positions.

“This new record-high level for jobs and the civilian labor force shows the strength of Texas’ economy,” Texas Workforce Chairman Bryan Daniel said in a statement. The labor force, a tally that includes both those working and actively looking for work, hit nearly 15.6 million in December. That was up about 3.5% from a year earlier. Texas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment held steady at 4.2%, just above the national average of 4.1%. The leading sector for job growth in December was professional and business services, adding 17,800 jobs.

The trade, transportation, and utilities sector added 10,400 jobs while the hospitality sector added 3,700. The San Antonio-New Braunfels metro area’s unadjusted unemployment rate dropped to 3.4% from 3.9% in November. It was 3.1% a year ago. The area added 2,400 jobs over the month.

While hospitality helped lead statewide growth, the San Antonio area lost 1,000 of the service-oriented jobs in December. The trade and utilities sector accounted for the biggest boost locally with 2,400 new positions. Private education and health services, a combined sector, added 900 jobs. “The Texas economy is thriving in diverse sectors,” said Commissioner Alberto Treviño III. Unemployment fell to 3.1% in the Austin-Round Rock metro area from 3.5% in November. It was up from 3% a year ago… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Houston Mayor John Whitmire repeats calls for crackdown on homeless street presence after freeze (Houston Public Media)

As freezing temperatures and snow swept through Houston this week, Mayor John Whitmire was trying to convince homeless people to move from the streets to shelter — including one woman who he said was concerned about her safety at the crowded warming centers.

"We assured her, but she wouldn't go," Whitmire said during a news conference Wednesday. "We'll deal with that population effectively in days to come by making sure that they’re safe, secure, and let people know you can’t sleep on the streets of Houston as current ordinance allows."

In November, Whitmire announced an initiative to "end homelessness" in Houston. He called for a ramp-up in funding for services and outreach as well as an expansion of the city's "civility ordinance." Currently in effect across 12 areas in Houston, the ordinance prohibits lying down, sitting or placing personal possessions on sidewalks from 7 a.m.-11 p.m. Whitmire said he wants to enact a citywide version of the rule and lengthen the hours to include the nighttime.

Whitmire said about 1,300 people sought shelter at the city's 10 warming centers, which opened ahead of a freeze that spanned largely from Monday night through Thursday morning. The city's Office of Emergency Management reported finding two people dead outside on Wednesday. One had dementia and wandered from a residence to a vacant church, while the other person was found in a parking lot, according to authorities. During news conferences on the storm response this week, Whitmire repeatedly expressed frustration with those homeless people who refused shelter.

"We’ve got to deal, ladies and gentlemen, anyone that can hear my voice, with the mental health conditions of some of our residents," he said. "When you’re in single-digit temperatures, and you’re begging a person to go to a warming center and he or she refuses, we’ve got to handle that population compassionately, appeal to the state of Texas, the federal government and our partners at the county to treat mental health in our community."… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

➡️ 'Everyone's nervous' — U.S. farmers gather in San Antonio ahead of mass deportations (Texas Public Radio)

As President Trump’s mass deportation of unauthorized immigrants is ramping up, a question many have is: How will this impact American farms? And that is also a question that farmers are asking. At the American Farm Bureau Federation convention in San Antonio this weekend, Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall summed up the mood regarding mass deportations and agriculture labor. “Everyone’s nervous," Duvall told TPR.

"I think what makes us most nervous is we don’t know what steps the full deportation plan has in it.” Duvall said he is hearing from some farmers that migrant workers are not showing up. But he has not heard any reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducting raids at farms and agricultural businesses.

“We’re hearing some concern. It’s not a real high level yet," he said. "We’ve had some communication with some members and most of it is just out of people being fearful to show up for work.” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said he is not at all concerned. He said the modern farm operates without migrant labor.

“We used to use a lot of illegal labor, but we really don’t anymore," Miller said on TPR's Texas Matters. "We’ve gotten into 'Agriculture 3.0,' which is technology. So, we got cows that milk themselves, tractors that drive themselves. We can harvest almost all of our crops mechanically— including vegetables now.”

But Brent Hollard, a northern Illinois farmer at the convention, said a mass deportation reduction in farm labor is going to hurt farmers. “Whether it’s a row crop farm, or a specialty, or just a livestock farm like I have, it is very, very tough to get people to help us on our farms,” Hollard said. “We do have some farm labor that we use.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Chip stocks tumble after China’s DeepSeek AI models raise doubts over U.S. tech dominance (Wall Street Journal)

Global chip stocks slumped Monday after Chinese artificial-intelligence company DeepSeek said it had developed AI models that nearly matched American rivals despite using inferior chips, raising fears the global dominance of U.S. tech could be under threat.

DeepSeek said last week that the performance of its latest R1 model was on par with OpenAI’s o1-mini model that the ChatGPT maker released in September.

The announcement came after DeepSeek said in a late-December report that it used a cluster of more than 2,000 Nvidia chips to train its V3 model, compared with the tens of thousands of chips that are normally used for training models of a similar size.

The company said training one of its latest models cost $5.6 million, compared with the $100 million to $1 billion range cited last year by Dario Amodei, chief executive of AI company Anthropic. DeepSeek’s models, both in the top 10 on popular ranking platform Chatbot Arena, sparked a Monday selloff led by chip stocks amid concerns that lower costs to run the models could undermine demand for increasingly sophisticated semiconductors.

The E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures contract shed 4%, signaling the tech-heavy index is expected to log losses at the open. Nvidia shares slumped more than 11% premarket, with Micron Technology down nearly 9% and Advanced Micro Devices down more than 5%. Swissquote Bank’s Ipek Ozkardeskaya said futures were clearly hammered by news that DeepSeek could run its latest AI models on less advanced chips, raising fears it could disrupt the global dominance of U.S. tech.

In Asia, shares of chip-making equipment supplier Tokyo Electron closed nearly 5% lower. In Europe, shares of Dutch semiconductor-equipment maker ASML Holding and its smaller rival ASM International were both down more than 10% in Amsterdam. Some energy stocks were also under pressure, with Siemens Energy down more than 20% and Schneider Electric down more than 10%... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ What is DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company upending the stock market? (Associated Press)

A frenzy over an artificial intelligence chatbot made by Chinese tech startup DeepSeek was upending stock markets Monday and fueling debates over the economic and geopolitical competition between the U.S. and China in developing AI technology.

DeepSeek’s AI assistant became the No. 1 downloaded free app on Apple’s iPhone store Monday, propelled by curiosity about the ChatGPT competitor.

Part of what’s worrying some U.S. tech industry observers is the idea that the Chinese startup has caught up with the American companies at the forefront of generative AI at a fraction of the cost.

That, if true, calls into question the huge amounts of money U.S. tech companies say they plan to spend on the data centers and computer chips needed to power further AI advancements… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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