BG Reads 11.13.2024

BG Reads - November 13, 2024

November 13, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

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November 13, 2024  

➡️ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Austin leaders take next steps to make sure the city has enough water for the future (KVUE)

🟪 Latest State of Downtown report shows the city core’s businesses and housing are in transition (Austin Monitor)

🟪 Is banning DEI in college courses the next step for Texas? (Dallas Morning News)

🟪 Here are the people Trump has picked for key positions so far (Associated Press)

🟪 If Trump tries to fire Powell, Fed Chair is ready for a legal fight (Wall Street Journal)

Read On!

[CITY OF AUSTIN/TRAVIS COUNTY]

In an October 30 memo, City Manager T.C. Broadnax announced several key additions to the city leadership team, effective November 4.

You can view the memo here: CITY OF AUSTIN MEMO: Executive Leadership Team and Organizational Announcements. An org chart is included on page 3.

We particularly wanted to flag the creation of a Grants Division within the Intergovernmental Relations Office to focus on creating a centralized grant funding strategy and governance for the City that advances City Council’s strategic priorities, leverages local resources, and targets investments for Austin. 

The memo notes “the City lacks a centralized grants function causing us to potentially leave federal and state funding on the table. Staff from across the organization are currently being identified for potential reassignment to the Grants Division.”

🟪 The Austin Council has three (2) regular meetings left in 2024:

  • November 21

  • December 12

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

➡️ Latest State of Downtown report shows the city core’s businesses and housing are in transition (Austin Monitor)

The latest report on downtown Austin’s economic and cultural health shows the city core is seeing ongoing vacancies and low utilization of office space in a trend that has caused a flattening of many indicators of business activity. That analysis was among the findings of Downtown Austin Alliance’s Q3 State of Downtown report, which looked at commercial, housing and cultural activity for the area.

The report highlights the struggles of the office market, where vacancy rates remain above 20 percent despite a slight increase in gross asking rents. Sublease space has grown as well, reflecting ongoing uncertainty in the sector even as more employees return to in-person work, with weekday office populations reaching a post-pandemic high.

Downtown office vacancies increased by 70,000 square feet in Q3, pushing sublease space higher and keeping overall vacancy rates elevated while the gross asking rent for office space rose by $0.35 per square foot quarter-over-quarter, suggesting signs of stabilization... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Austin leaders take next steps to make sure the city has enough water for the future (KVUE)

Austin leaders took the next steps to ensure the Capital City has enough water for the future.

The Austin Water Oversight Committee met on Tuesday to discuss updates to the city's Water Forward 2024 plan.

Also known as Austin’s Integrated Water Resource Plan, Water Forward is the city's water plan for the next 100 years.

Austin Water staffers said they've identified three things that could present problems later on.

The first is population and demand growth. By 2120, the city's population could rise to more than 3.5 million people.

The second is drought and climate change. With water levels already dropping in our two reservoirs – Lakes Travis and Buchanan – water experts said they're expecting worse droughts in the future.

The third is regional supply development. The Lower Colorado River Authority, or LCRA, has plans to create more water supply projects to meet demand for the entire Central Texas area, but how much water those projects create is still up in the air… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Firefly Aerospace raises $175M at $2B-plus valuation (Austin Business Journal)

Ferrying new technologies into Earth's orbit, or even to the moon, is big business. And an Austin-area company is continuing to find new ways to increase its share of that market.

Cedar Park-based Firefly Aerospace Inc., which builds rockets and lunar landers to support the growing space economy, said Nov. 12 that it has raised $175 million in new funding.

The series D round was led by Ann Arbor, Mich.-based RPM Ventures, which is making its first investment in the company alongside GiantLeap Capital and Human Element and a group of firms that have backed Firefly in previous rounds.

Firefly also announced that it is now valued at more than $2 billion. That's roughly $500 million more than its value about a year ago. The company has raised a total of about $830 million since its founding in 2017.

Firefly's new funding will help it continue to develop new launch vehicles, as well as continue to hire top aerospace talent. The fresh investment also comes a little over a month after its new CEO, Jason Kim, took charge… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Austin funds workforce, business support for minority and LGBT chambers (Community Impact)

The four groups in Austin's Diversity and Ethnic Chamber Alliance, or DECA, will receive millions of city dollars over the next few years to support local hiring, job creation, marketing and other economic activity.

A group of three-year contracts approved Nov. 7 builds on a previous city commitment to send a total of $2.52 million to the DECA organizations. Approved funding includes:

With the city support, the chambers are expected to pursue ways to make Austin a destination for minority and LGBTQ+ businesses and to diversify the area workforce.

The funding also comes as the participants are nearing the release of their recently developed Regional Economic Equity Development, or REED, plan intended to guide some of that work… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

➡️ Is banning DEI in college courses the next step for Texas? (Dallas Morning News)

Texas lawmakers are eyeing how DEI is woven into college courses and how much influence faculty senates have on campuses. A group of senators met on Monday to debate two issues that are some of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s legislative priorities for next year’s session. Patrick wants legislators to review the role of faculty senates and enforce Texas’ ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs at state colleges and universities.

The DEI ban, which passed last year, has exceptions for research and course instruction. However, during Monday’s hearing lawmakers suggested that instruction might be targeted next. “While DEI-related curriculum and course content does not explicitly violate the letter of the law, it indeed contradicts its spirit,” said Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, who authored the DEI ban and oversees the Senate higher education subcommittee.

Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, who opposes the DEI ban, said as colleges have reviewed programs, they have “revealed no so-called smoking gun proving that DEI is racist or exclusionary as some of my colleagues continue to suggest.” West emphasized that while many associate DEI with race, DEI programs eliminated to comply with the new law included those for veterans and various faculty support groups.

He questioned Texas A&M University President Mark Welsh III on academic minors that were cut last week, including one for LGBTQ studies. The Dallas senator asked whether political motivation was behind the decision to cut that specific minor. Welsh denied any.

A&M faculty members have complained about the way university officials cut these programs without consulting them. Welsh agreed that faculty was not “sufficiently” involved in that decision but will participate moving forward. Creighton said he received multiple reports about college courses that have DEI content woven in across various fields of study.

The subcommittee’s goal is to examine programs and certificates that “perpetuate any discriminatory efforts within diversity, equity and inclusion,” he said. Courses that have such lessons in them do not “reflect the expectations of Texas taxpayers and students who fund our public universities,” Creighton said.

Much of the day’s focus explored how the politics of faculty senate members potentially play a role in what’s taught on campuses. He asked repeatedly whether political interference from faculty members influence decisions and votes for the approval of programs. Jay Hartzell, president of the University of Texas at Austin, stressed that new courses are implemented based on market demand…

[US and World News]

➡️ If Trump tries to fire Powell, Fed Chair is ready for a legal fight (Wall Street Journal)

When a frustrated Donald Trump flirted with removing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in a dispute over interest rates back in 2018, Fed leaders privately readied a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency response: a legal challenge against the president to protect the integrity of America’s central bank. Powell told then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that he would fight his removal if sought by the president, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump was upset the Fed was raising interest rates against his wishes. For Powell, the unsavory prospect of a legal showdown—one he might have to pay for out of his own pocket—was imperative to preserve the ability of future Fed chairs to serve without the threat of being removed over a policy dispute. Six years later, Trump is heading back to the White House and the dormant drama of his fraught relationship with Powell is back on display.

When asked last week whether he would resign if asked to do so, Powell offered a one-word reply: “No.” He gave the same answer when asked if the president had the authority to dismiss him. Powell, a former private-equity executive who has a law degree, was later pressed to explain his rationale. He delivered another curt response: “Not permitted under the law.” His unflinching rejoinders laid bare the prospect that any attempt to force Powell to leave before his term ends in 2026 would likely be resolved in an unprecedented legal battle—the same one Fed leaders had prepared for years ago.

“If the president were to succeed at this, that would mean every future chair is subject to removal at the whim of the president,” said Scott Alvarez, who served as the Fed’s general counsel from 2004 to 2017. “I don’t think that’s a precedent Jay would want to set, and that’s why I think he would fight it. This is a humongous precedent.” To be sure, Powell and other senior Fed officials have taken pains to avoid saying anything provocative about Trump or the election. In keeping with his no-drama, low-profile approach, Powell hasn’t sought to publicly raise the issue of his job status. It resurfaced as an issue last week only in response to repeated hypothetical questions... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Here are the people Trump has picked for key positions so far (Associated Press)

President-elect Donald Trump is starting to fill key posts in his second administration, putting an emphasis so far on aides and allies who were his strongest backers during the 2024 campaign. Here’s a look at who he’s selected so far. Susie Wiles, chief of staff. was a senior adviser to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager. Wiles has a background in Florida politics. She helped Ron DeSantis win his first race for Florida governor. Six years later, she was key to Trump’s defeat of him in the 2024 Republican primary. Wiles’ hire was Trump’s first major decision as president-elect and one that could be a defining test of his incoming administration considering her close relationship with the president-elect. Wiles is said to have earned Trump’s trust in part by guiding what was the most disciplined of Trump’s three presidential campaigns.

Mike Waltz, national security adviser. Trump asked Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, a person familiar with the matter said Monday. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter before Trump made a formal announcement.

The move would put Waltz at the forefront of a litany of national security crises, ranging from the ongoing effort to provide weapons to Ukraine and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah. Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs. Tom Homan, ‘border czar’.

Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history. Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border, an issue Trump made central to his campaign. Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long been a loyal supporter of Trump’s policy proposals, suggesting at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to “run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.” Democrats have criticized Homan for his defending Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ China's hacker army outshines America (Newsweek)

Hacking competitions in China have surged over recent years, supported by strong government backing and rising public interest, raising alarm in the U.S., where officials are warning that the widening cyber skills gap is placing America at a strategic disadvantage and posing national security risks.

China has made great strides since President Xi Jinping's call for the nation to become a "cyber powerhouse" a decade ago. University programs in cybersecurity have been standardized, a National Cybersecurity Talent and Innovation Base capable of certifying 70,000 cybersecurity experts per year was established, and hacking competitions—many touting their alignment with Xi's "powerhouse" ambition—have proliferated.

"China has built the world's most comprehensive ecosystem for capture-the-flag (CTF) competitions—the predominant form of hacking competitions, ranging from team-versus-team play to Jeopardy-style knowledge challenges," the Washington, D.C.-based Atlantic Council think tank observed in a recent report.

In cybersecurity, CTF competitions are games where participants solve security challenges to capture hidden pieces of data (the "flags") in systems, websites, or applications. They provide a controlled environment for hackers to practice problem-solving, reverse-engineering, and secure coding… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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