BG Reads 10.29.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - October 29, 2024

October 29, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

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October 29, 2024

➡️ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Over one-third of Williamson and Hays County voters cast ballots in first week of early voting (Community Impact)

🟪 City Council moves to complete purchase of combined public safety headquarters (Austin Monitor)

🟪 City shares update on parks-nonprofit relationships (Austin Monitor)

🟪 Colin Allred embraces his inner Democrat, and a fired-up base responds (Dallas Morning News)

🟪 McDonald’s finds an unlikely savior to finally fix its McFlurry machines (Wall Street Journal)

Read On!

🗳️ Early voting ends this Friday, November 1st. Find voting locations and sample ballots here:

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🟪 The Austin Council has three (3) regular meetings left in 2024:

đź“ş City Council Candidate Forum: District 2 - Video (9.26.2024)

đź“ş City Council Candidate Forum: District 4 - Video (9.19.2024)

đź“ş City Council Candidate Forum: District 6 - Video (9.5.2024)

đź“ş City Council Candidate Forum: District 7 - Video (9.5.2024)

đź“ş City Council Candidate Forum: District 10 - Video (9.30.2024)

đź“ş City Council Candidate Forum: Mayor - Video (10.3.2024)

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

➡️ Over one-third of Williamson County voters cast ballots in first week of early voting (Community Impact)

Over one-third of registered voters in Williamson County cast ballots during the first week of early voting for the Nov. 5 election.

More than 163,000 voters in Williamson County took to the polls Oct. 21-27. The first day of early voting had the highest turnout, with 31,594 voters casting their ballots that day, according to county documents… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Over 61K ballots cast in Hays County in first week of early voting (Community Impact)

In the first week of early voting, nearly 33% of registered voters in Hays County have cast their ballots in the Nov. 5 general election.

There are 186,492 registered voters in Hays County, and—as of Oct. 27—61,297 people have cast their ballots, according to data from the Hays County Elections Office… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ City shares update on parks-nonprofit relationships (Austin Monitor)

During a special called meeting of City Council’s Audit and Finance Committee on Oct. 9, three speakers stated their concerns about the relationship between the Parks Department and its nonprofit partners, specifically regarding special events and the Trail of Lights.

This public testimony was the latest chapter in a recent ongoing dialogue about the relationship between Austin Parks and Recreation Department and its nonprofit partners, and there are strong opinions on both sides.

Diana Prechter, one of the speakers, told committee members she was concerned that there wasn’t enough transparency around revenue and ticket sales with the Trail of Lights. Prechter said she believed that in previous years, Council had erroneously waived park use fees for the event.

Prechter added that event organizers could be earning profits that exceeded the value of fee waivers and event costs, without enough clarity on where the money was going... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ South Korean supplier to the automotive sector is setting up shop in Hutto with aim of attracting more industry players (Austin Business Journal)

A major Korean auto parts supplier with ties to some of the largest vehicle manufacturers in the world aims to be a catalyst for other Korean automotive suppliers to move to the Austin metro.

Seoyon E-hwa Co. Ltd. executives made the assertion on Oct. 24 as the company continues to build out its 200,000-plus-square-foot manufacturing site in Hutto about 30 miles northwest of downtown Austin. The facility, located in Building 7 of the Hutto Innovation Park at 1501 Innovation Drive, is on track to open in January.

Hyun Kwon Jo, Seoyon's Texas president and managing director, said the facility is the first piece in what the company hopes will eventually be a major investment at the Hutto site.

It plans to start with one manufacturing line and about 80 employees. But he said he has relocated to Texas to continue to drum up more customers for future manufacturing lines — and potentially open a research-and-design facility in the area.

He said Seoyon wants to be the magnet that attracts other automotive suppliers to the region, similar to how Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has been a magnet for companies in Korea's semiconductor industry that want to locate close to Samsung's huge factory under construction in Taylor, which is near Hutto.

"In my opinion, Seoyon E-hwa is the biggest automotive parts company in South Korea," Jo said, adding that many companies in Korea don't yet know where Hutto is, although they are familiar with Austin and Taylor. "If we succeed to sell down here, we can affect a good size of other South Korean companies."… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Construction begins on 2nd phase of Sixth & Blanco in Austin's Clarksville neighborhood (Austin American-Statesman)

Construction has kicked off on the second phase of a high-profile development set to transform part of Sixth Street in the Clarksville area near downtown.

Sixth & Blanco is the first mixed-use project by three well-known names in the restaurant and hospitality industries — Larry McGuire, Tom Moorman and Liz Lambert of Austin-based MML Hospitality. McGuire, Moorman and Lambert are partnering on Sixth & Blanco with Austin-based Riverside (formerly Riverside Resources).

Riverside is a real estate development and investment firm whose projects include prominent downtown residential towers, suburban mixed-use developments and office buildings.

Phase two of the 1.6-acre Sixth & Blanco project is underway at West Sixth and Blanco streets in Clarksville, one of Austin’s most desirable and walkable neighborhoods. To finance the project, MML Hospitality and Riverside have closed a $193 million construction loan with Arvest Bank, with participation from Prosperity Bank and Southside Bank… đźźŞ (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Colin Allred embraces his inner Democrat, and a fired-up base responds (Dallas Morning News)

For much of his underdog campaign for U.S. Senate, Colin Allred has made pointed appeals to independents and Republicans he hopes will abandon Sen. Ted Cruz. Allred, a Democratic congressman from Dallas, has campaigned with former U.S. Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois to lure disaffected Republicans to his side.

Touting his bipartisan credentials and a willingness to criticize President Joe Biden, Allred has downplayed his Senate campaign as a party building exercise. A Democrat hasn’t won a statewide race since 1994. Throughout the summer, Allred has been a tacit supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for the White House. He rarely mentions her at his rallies.

Now, in the final days before his Nov. 5 showdown with Cruz, Allred has fully embraced Harris and is making a strong push for voters who strongly identify as Democrats. While he’s still pitching Republicans and independents, Allred is trying to shore up support from potential Democratic voters, especially those infrequent voters who don’t keep up with politics and may not be familiar with him. His job was made easier Friday when Harris publicly endorsed his candidacy in front of more than 30,000 enthusiastic people at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston.

Harris told the crowd that Allred would be her partner in moving the country forward and in restoring reproductive rights for women. That was the theme of the star-studded mega-rally that included music sensations Beyoncé, Willie Nelson and Kelly Rowland. “There are many important races, including Colin Allred running for Senate,” Harris said before criticizing Cruz’s record on women’s reproductive rights. “Let’s remember, Texas, your vote is your voice, and your voice is your power.”

Before Harris spoke, Allred’s speech drew a thunderous ovation, easily the most intense display of support he’s received on the campaign trail. That the rally occurred at all is significant. Harris has all but conceded Texas to former President Donald Trump. Her campaign chose Houston for the rally because Texas, with its strict abortion regulations, is considered ground zero in the fight for reproductive rights...

Hill Country sees surge in battery energy storage sites (San Antonio Business Journal)

Battery energy storage sites are becoming a booming industry across Texas, and the nearby Hill Country is proving to be a key part of that growth.

About 15 miles northwest of Boerne, an 8-acre site near Comfort is being developed by Albany, New York-based Key Capture Energy. The company is working on a new battery energy storage system site that was proposed over the summer.

When complete, the site will store 100 megawatts of energy, which can be used by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas' electrical grid supporting the state and community during times of peak demand.

Recently, Kendall County commissioners voted to establish an agreement with Kerr County to assert more control over development of storage sites in the two counties, including any future developments near Comfort.

The move comes after months of public outcry during Kendall County meetings over concerns about potential noise and fire safety issues related to the site.

The meeting, which took place Oct. 19, resulted in the commissioners court passing a resolution urging the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to reject any permits for proposed battery energy storage system facilities in the county… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Another Houston-area city blocks utility-scale battery storage project. How will it affect the grid? (Houston Chronicle)

Battery storage facilities, seen by many as a key component in shoring up the state's fragile electricity grid, have taken fitful steps to gain a foothold in some Houston area cities. After months of delays, League City in September allowed its first under a newly crafted ordinance, and Katy earlier this month voted to block an application.

Batteries, which can store excess electricity when it’s plentiful and cheap and sell that electricity back to the power grid when it’s expensive and in short supply, have made key contributions to the Texas power grid over the last two summers. Still, several area cities have paused or denied development, often due to residents’ fears of uncommon battery storage fires. Earlier this month, Katy City Council unanimously voted to deny a permit for a battery storage application.

Dozens of residents wrote to council members or spoke at council meetings against the project, proposed by developer Vesper Energy, many citing its location just over a half-mile from Katy High School. Some also noted that Vesper has no experience operating battery storage facilities, though it has operational solar farms.

The opposition in Katy mirrors the wave of protest from residents seven months earlier in League City when battery storage developers began applying to build there. After pausing its consideration of applications in April, the city hired a consulting firm to draft a battery storage ordinance.

The ordinance, which requires setbacks of at least 200 feet from homes and schools, or what’s deemed necessary by airborne hazards modeling, passed in July. The community pushback comes as Texas is one of the fastest-growing states for battery storage facilities, a technology that began to take off across the country in 2018. More than 4,700 megawatts of energy storage are connected to the grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, compared to just 275 megawatts online in 2020.… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

➡️ Trump’s Madison Square Garden event features crude and racist insults (Associated Press)

Donald Trump hosted a rally featuring crude and racist insults at New York’s Madison Square Garden Sunday, turning what his campaign had dubbed as the event where he would deliver his closing message into an illustration of what turns off his critics.

With just over a week before Election Day, speakers labeled Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” called Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris “the devil,” and said the woman vying to become the first woman and Black woman president had begun her career as a prostitute.

“I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now.

I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” said Tony Hinchcliffe, a stand-up comic whose set also included lewd and racist comments about Latinos, Jews and Black people, all key constituencies in the election just nine days away.

His joke was immediately criticized by Harris’ campaign as it competes with Trump to win over Puerto Rican communities in Pennsylvania and other swing states. Puerto Rican music superstar Bad Bunny backed Harris shortly after Hinchcliffe’s appearance.

The normally pugnacious Trump campaign took the rare step of distancing itself from Hinchcliffe. “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement.

But other speakers also made incendiary comments.

Trump’s childhood friend David Rem referred to Harris as “the Antichrist” and “the devil.” Businessman Grant Cardone told the crowd that Harris ”and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.” The marquee event reflected the former president’s tone throughout his third White House campaign.

Though he refrained from doing so Sunday, Trump often tears into Harris in offensive and personal terms himself, questioning in recent weeks her mental stability and her intelligence as well as calling her “lazy,” long a racist trope used against Black people.

The event was a surreal spectacle that included former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, politicians including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Reps. Byron Donalds and Elise Stefanik, and an artist who painted a picture of Trump hugging the Empire State Building… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ McDonald’s finds an unlikely savior to finally fix its McFlurry machines (Wall Street Journal)

The U.S. government wants to make it easier to fix McDonald’s MCD 1.43%increase; green up pointing triangle ice-cream machines, whose problems have for years annoyed lovers of the McFlurry. 

Frequent breakdowns of the appliances have long been a struggle for the fast-food chain. Out-of-service machines have gotten roasted by comedians and fast-food rivals and spawned an online tracker of broken machines called McBroken.

Now a new determination from the Copyright Office could make it cheaper or faster for restaurants to fix broken machines and keep the McFlurrys churning. The McFlurry is soft-serve ice cream with candy or cookies mixed in.

At the core of the issue is the software in the machines, said Meredith Rose, senior policy counsel at Public Knowledge, a consumer-advocacy group that focuses on technology issues. When one encounters a problem, it is difficult or impossible to figure out what has gone wrong, leaving franchise owners dependent on technicians from the primary manufacturer of the machines, Taylor Commercial Foodservice. 

Owners of McDonald’s outlets have said the machines are prone to breaking, and there have been complaints of long wait times for a Taylor technician. McDonald’s has said it was trying to improve maintenance of the machines and train crew members to use them. being done about it. They talk about it, and then another one happens.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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