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November 13, 2023

In today's BG Reads:

✅ City development programs face rollback following Austinites' legal challenge

✅ Texas A&M to spend more than $75 million to fire football coach

✅ Two young Democratic stars collide over Israel and their party’s future

More stories below. Read on!

[BG PODCAST]

On this episode (223) Bingham Group CEO A.J. Bingham and Associate Hannah Garcia wrap up the week of November 6th in Austin politics.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

✅ Travis County judge signaling 3 Austin land code ordinances will be voided; and

✅ 2024 City Council Race Watch (Districts 2, 7, and 10)

LISTEN HERE

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

City development programs face rollback following Austinites' legal challenge (Community Impact)

Several of Austin's newest affordable housing development programs may soon be voided through a pending decision from a Travis County judge, following residents' legal action over how the city carried out the changes… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Newly elected Austin police union president speaks about outlook on contract negotiations (FOX 7)

The Austin Police Association has elected a new president, Michael Bullock. He says his priorities include teaching Austinites about what officers go through and being back under contract.

"If you look back to 2017 when we started first dealing with contract issues, when the contract got voted down, ever since then, we've incurred problem after problem where we've struggled to recruit, to retain," he said.

Contract negotiations are at a standstill after the last one expired earlier this year. The City Council declined to vote on a potential four-year agreement… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Council approves $15M purchase of the Salvation Army shelter property (Austin Monitor)

The former Salvation Army Downtown Shelter will continue to serve people without homes for years to come, following City Council’s decision to purchase the property for $15 million. The purchase includes the 130-bed shelter on Eighth Street and a retail storefront and parking lot on the 700 block of Red River Street.

The purchase removes the long-uncertain future of the building, which was closed unexpectedly by the Salvation Army early this year. That closure caused a sudden disruption in the number of shelter beds available for women, transgender people and those with disabilities who are served there.

The city stepped in to keep it open through early spring, and City Council in June approved a 12-month lease that allowed time to negotiate the purchase, which was unanimously approved on consent… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Texas A&M to spend more than $75 million to fire football coach Jimbo Fisher (Texas Tribune)

Texas A&M University is expected to fire head football coach Jimbo Fisher on Sunday, according to two sources familiar with discussions.

The university will owe Fisher more than $75 million to buy out his contract, a record amount of money owed to a football coach.

According to a source familiar with discussions, no public money will be used to pay out the massive contract. When major college football programs buy out their football coaches, they often use donor funds. The Texas A&M University System directed questions to the university athletics department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A press conference announcing the decision is expected later Sunday.

The A&M System Board of Regents, which hires and fires athletic coaches, discussed firing the football coach during the executive session portion of their board meeting last week, sources confirm. TexAgs, an A&M fan site, first reported the decision… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Texans fill downtown Austin streets to demand ceasefire in Gaza (Texas Tribune)

Thousands of Texans descended upon the state Capitol Sunday afternoon in support of Palestinians to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to U.S. and Texas aid to Israel.

The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 10,000 people since conflict erupted on Oct. 7, when the militant group Hamas killed about 1,200 Israelis in a surprise attack. Israel launched an intense ground invasion in neighboring Gaza, sparking outrage from the United Nations and many countries as the death toll has continued to rise. Gaza residents face shortages of food, water and medical supplies.

Both the Biden administration and Gov. Greg Abbott have affirmed their support for Israel, even as President Joe Biden faces growing pressure from members of his party over his support for the country.

Some Democrats in the Texas Legislature have urged President Biden to call a ceasefire. State Reps. Ron Reynolds of Missouri City, John Bryant of Dallas, Terry Meza of Irving and Ana-Maria Ramos sent a letter to Texas Democratic Party chair Gilberto Hinojosa last week asking the leader to urge the Biden administration to secure additional humanitarian aid for Gaza and to work towards a ceasefire… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

Two young Democratic stars collide over Israel and their party’s future (New York Times)

They are among the brightest political stars rising from New York. They were born just months apart, 40 years after the founding of Israel. And at the most fraught moment for American-Israeli relations in decades, the clashing views of Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ritchie Torres offer a striking glimpse into the future of one of American politics’ fiercest debates. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, the left-wing standard-bearer known for her social media mastery, has bucked Democratic orthodoxy since Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7 massacre, using her remarkable reach to build support for a cease-fire and a lasting foreign policy overhaul that puts Palestinians on equal footing with Israelis. Mr. Torres, her lesser-known neighbor in the Bronx, is moving to stake his own claim on the national stage as a fervent pro-Israel foil, aggressively taking on what he perceives as crumbling support for the Jewish state on the left.

The debate between two millennial New Yorkers has fueled conflicts playing out in social media feeds and raucous street protests. It is a struggle not so much over traditional levers of power in Washington, but over who will shape the minds of a younger, diverse generation of voters that will soon steer the relationship to one of America’s closest allies. And it could have a profound impact on the two politicians’ trajectories. As wartime passions splinter the left, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, whose boosters envision her eventually running for the presidency, is laboring to hold together a consequential but delicate coalition that has pushed the Democratic Party leftward on climate, policing and economics. Mr. Torres, talked about as a future senator or governor, appears intent on using the moment to smash some of that left-wing movement apart.

“They are two sides of the same coin: young, well-spoken, incredibly smart,” said David Greenfield, an influential Jewish Democrat in New York. “What you are seeing here is really a question of vision for the future of the Democratic Party. Is it going to be the Ritchie Torres version or the A.O.C. version?” For now, there is little doubt about the United States’ position. Though the Biden administration has pushed for humanitarian “pauses” as Israel’s counteroffensive pummels the Gaza Strip, the president and top congressional leaders have repeatedly reaffirmed lock-step support for Israel… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Trump’s rivals seize on opportunities to challenge his acuity (NBC News)

The DeSantis campaign recently posted a thread of more than two dozen clumsy or confusing remarks by former president Donald Trump, positing that “this is why his handlers won’t let him debate.” Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, speaking to Jewish donors, mocked Trump for speaking positively about the leaders of China and North Korea, saying he is evidently “confused” about which countries are American allies and which are adversaries. And the Biden campaign has also stepped up its posts about Trump’s verbal fumbles, including a minute-long video compilation of various miscues. In press statements, it has slammed Trump for mispronouncing “Hamas” and for musing aloud that the abbreviation for United States is spelled like the word “us.”

As Trump’s Republican rivals face growing pressure to stop his momentum, while Democrats seek to neutralize concerns about Biden’s age, the two sides are converging on a common argument — that Trump’s cognition has declined too far for him to lead the country again. The Biden-Harris HQ account on X, formerly known as Twitter, sometimes even reposts jabs at Trump from the DeSantis campaign. When DeSantis’s campaign “war room” posted a video of Trump sounding confused at a rally in New Hampshire, for example, Biden’s account shared it. Biden, 80, has faced a relentless spotlight on his verbal and physical stumbles, and polls suggest his age could be a major political vulnerability in 2024. His team is increasingly eager to point out that Trump, 77, is susceptible to similar missteps, which have sometimes been overlooked amid the other chaos surrounding the former president, including the 91 criminal charges he faces… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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