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- BG Reads 11.20.2023
BG Reads 11.20.2023
🗞️ BG Reads | News - November 20, 2023
November 20, 2023
In today's BG Reads:
✅ 2024 Austin City Council race watch
✅ You may be surprised who qualifies for housing help in Austin
✅ Gov. Greg Abbott endorses Donald Trump during border trip
✅ With 8 million residents, D-FW is largest Texas metro
More stories below. Read on!
[2024 Austin City Council Race Watch]
Next fall will see elections for the following Council positions, District 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, and Mayor. Candidates can’t file for a place on the ballot until July 22, 2024.
Declared candidates so far are:
District 2
District 7 (Open seat)
District 10 (Open seat)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
As median income rises in ATX, you may be surprised who qualifies for housing help (KXAN)
As the Austin-area median family income (MFI) goes up year-over-year, people may not realize they qualify for home ownership assistance. Austin Habitat for Humanity is working to spread the word.
An analysis from Habitat shows Austin-area median income limits have jumped nearly 40% over the past few years, increasing roughly 10% year-over-year. Habitat says that jump is historic and means people Habitat couldn’t serve before now qualify.
“We’ve always played an important safety net role, but now we’re playing that role for different types of earners… folks in the medical system and even some tech workers, who didn’t fit our historical mold, now qualify for Habitat homes,” CEO Michele Anderson said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin charges ahead in Texas' electric vehicle race (KUT)
Austin is leading the shift to electric vehicles in Texas.
More than 2.1% of registered vehicles in Travis County are now battery-powered cars and trucks, registration data obtained through the Texas Public Information Act shows. The number doesn't include hybrids. Travis County's EV adoption rate is the highest of the five biggest counties in the state.
More than half of the EVs on Austin's roads are Teslas, Austin Energy says. The electric vehicle giant is based in Travis County... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
City releases new telework standards for its employees (Austin Monitor)
Interim City Manager Jesús Garza has issued a telework policy for city employees.
In a Friday memo, Garza explained that a new standards will, in general, allow for 50 percent telework within a two-week pay period. All executives will continue to work in the office during the work week, as will front-line operational staff like airport employees and public safety employees. On the other hand, employees who work in IT and call centers may be eligible to telework 80 percent to 100 percent of the time. The determinations will be made by department directors, though there is also an independent appeals process.
“The past several years have required resilience, sacrifice, and an ability to respond to the public in a way that was unprecedented, and we have done it without a consistent citywide standard on telework,” wrote Garza.
“I know when I announced a Citywide standard, employees were concerned about changing their schedules again. Some felt they were losing what many viewed as a new benefit the City had been able to offer. But at the heart of our organization is our ability to serve the public and be available for those needing City services.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Gov. Greg Abbott endorses Donald Trump during border trip (Texas Tribune)
Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday endorsed Donald Trump’s comeback campaign for the White House, while hosting the former president at the Texas-Mexico border.
“We need Donald J. Trump back as our president of the United States of America,” Abbott said, promising Trump would secure the border and “restore law and order.”
Trump said the endorsement was a “tremendous honor” given how hard Abbott has worked to fortify the border under Democratic President Joe Biden.
“Mr. Governor, I am going to make your job much easier,” Trump said. “You’ll be able to focus on other things in Texas.”
Abbott made the endorsement after he and Trump served meals to service members deployed for Operation Lone Star, Abbott’s sprawling border security mission. As part of the effort, which has cost Texas billions of dollars, Abbott sent state troopers and National Guard members to the border to arrest migrants crossing the Rio Grande. Some of the arrests are the subject of civil rights lawsuits against the state… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
How one Texas school district reversed its post pandemic teacher shortage (ABC News)
After the pandemic hit, many schools across the country faced a growing problem of teacher shortages. Around 300,000 public school teachers and other staff members left the field as the pandemic took hold between February 2020 and May 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Kaetlynn Ruiz became a kindergarten paraprofessional, or what’s also known as a teaching assistant, in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, Texas during the pandemic – one of the thousands of teachers in the Mesquite Independent School District, which serves more than 38,000 students in 51 schools. She says there are many reasons why teachers say they have been leaving the field in recent years. "I hear that teachers aren't being as supported when it comes to behavior in the classroom," Ruiz told "ABC News Live Prime." "A lot of them are leaving because of the pay. They just say it's very hard to live on a teacher's salary."
Mesquite District Superintendent Dr. Ángel Rivera said the pandemic also put additional stress on educators. "We had to have teachers work on two platforms, the face-to-face while simultaneously doing a virtual piece. And so pretty much it doubled up their work… and it probably expedited people leaving the profession," Rivera said. "If the teachers were stressed before, they probably doubled their level of stress at that particular time." But the district says it has worked on combating problems facing educators by implementing new strategies that they say have been successful to retain more teachers. Last year, voters passed a tax measure leading to $16 million in new revenue annually for the district – critical funding used in part to boost teacher salaries.
"This money will be paid on safety and security, teacher compensation along with paraprofessionals, and then programming for kids. Those were my three points," Rivera said. In addition, the district implemented new programs such as the Pathways Advancing Certified Educators or "PACE," which helps teaching assistants pay for school as they fill vacancies, while working toward becoming fully certified teachers. Ruiz is a member of the PACE program, which she used to move from being a kindergarten teaching assistant to now being in her first year as a full-time fourth grade teacher at Tosch Elementary School in Mesquite, where she herself was once a student… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
With 8 million residents, D-FW is largest Texas metro, Texas Demographic Center estimates (Dallas Morning News)
The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area could now be home to more than 8 million people, according to the latest Texas Demographic Center population estimates. As of Jan. 1, D-FW for the first time had an estimated 8,060,528 inhabitants. The D-FW area was responsible for 36% of Texas’ population growth in the last three years by adding over 423,000 inhabitants in that period, according to data released this month.
“The four metropolitan areas that we call the Texas Triangle are now 20.5 [million] people,” said Cullum Clark, director of the Bush Institute-SMU Growth Initiative. “So it’s just over two-thirds of all the people in the state and clearly growing faster than the rest of the state.”
Much of the state’s booming growth — there are now about 30 million people living in Texas — comes as suburban communities expand. More than 14 million people live in suburban cities throughout Texas, making up about 44% of the state’s population, according to the report.
“The growth rates are kind of breathtaking,” Clark said, noting significant population gains in Collin and Denton counties to the north and Rockwall and Kaufman counties to the east. Dallas County grew by only 0.9%. But Kaufman and Rockwall counties, northeast and southeast of Dallas, saw significant percentage population gains of 22.3% and 14.3%, respectively, from 2020 to 2023. Collin County has been the epicenter of the state’s largest population boom in the last three years, according to the database. It added over 125,000 people from 2020 to January… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US/WORLD NEWS]
Why Americans feel gloomy about the economy despite falling inflation and low unemployment (Associated Press)
Inflation has reached its lowest point in 2 1/2 years. The unemployment rate has stayed below 4% for the longest stretch since the 1960s. And the U.S. economy has repeatedly defied predictions of a coming recession. Yet according to a raft of polls and surveys, most Americans hold a glum view of the economy.
The disparity has led to befuddlement, exasperation and curiosity on social media and in opinion columns.
Last week, the government reported that consumer prices didn’t rise at all from September to October, the latest sign that inflation is steadily cooling from the heights of last year. A separate report showed that while Americans slowed their retail purchases in October from the previous month’s brisk pace, they’re still spending enough to drive economic growth... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Wall Street has a plan for a soft landing: buy more stocks (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street believes its soft-landing dream is on the verge of coming true. That is prompting a fresh wave of demand for stocks. Markets have rallied since last week’s consumer-inflation report came in softer than expected. Many analysts and portfolio managers said they expect the gains to pick up heading into year-end, reflecting a sense that markets have faced down their most significant challenge: the potential for rising bond yields to crimp economic activity, reduce demand for stocks and send the U.S. economy into recession. Stocks appear once again on an upswing, extending a renaissance that began this month when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen eased fears about a bond-market rout by tweaking U.S. debt issuance plans. The S&P 500 rose 2.2% over the past week, capping the index’s best three-week stretch since June 2020 and putting it up 18% for the year. A torrent of buying in Treasurys has sent benchmark yields down to 4.441%, easing persistent concerns about whether rising financing costs will hamper U.S. growth.
This week, investors will be parsing minutes from the central bank’s last meeting for clues on the Federal Reserve’s continuing effort to contain prices. A series of cooler-than-expected inflation readings have taken another 2023 rate increase off the table, in the market’s view. Many investors now expect the economy to cool enough for the Fed to begin reducing interest rates next year, without prompting a dramatic slowdown in consumer spending or a sharp contraction in the workforce. That should create optimal conditions for buying stocks, investors said.
“We’re in a mini Goldilocks scenario,” said Alessio de Longis, senior portfolio manager at Invesco, who said he is preparing for larger stock gains ahead. “The soft landing is playing out.” The signs so far have been encouraging. Consumer-price inflation cooled more than expected in October, continuing a steady fall. A measure of producer prices fell 0.5% in October, the biggest drop since April 2020—before inflation started crimping Americans’ wallets. S&P 500 companies are on track to increase profits for the first time in a year. Jawad Mian, founder of Stray Reflections, a macroeconomic advisory firm, said he expects the Fed to start cutting rates next year and for stocks to continue their ascent, drawing in some of the investors who had kept an outsize chunk of their portfolios in cash. “There’s this conundrum,” said Mian. “Do we chase or not?”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Senate Republicans get ready to roll Tuberville on military holds (The Hill)
Republican senators are laying the groundwork to vote before Christmas on a Democratic-drafted resolution to circumvent the blockade that Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R) has placed in front of more than 400 military nominees.
Republican frustrations with Tuberville and his ally, Senate Steering Committee Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah), spilled into public view again early Thursday morning in yet another sign of tension between pro-defense GOP lawmakers and conservative populists.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a prominent Senate defense hawk, said that he will be ready to vote for a resolution to change Senate procedure and allow Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to bring hundreds of military promotions to the floor to be confirmed en bloc if Tuberville doesn’t cut a deal to break the backlog by Christmas.
“I promise you this. This will be the last holiday this happens,” Graham told Tuberville on the Senate floor, referring to the uncertainty faced by the group of military officers heading into Thanksgiving… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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