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- BG Reads 12.11.2023
BG Reads 12.11.2023
🗞️ BG Reads | News - December 11, 2023
December 11, 2023
In today's BG Reads:
âś… Expect freezing temperatures in Austin this week
âś… Feds snub Austin-San Antonio region in passenger rail expansion plan
âś… Democrat John Whitmire elected Houston mayor
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 6
Krista Laine
District 7 (Open seat)
District 10 (Open seat)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Expect freezing temperatures in Austin this week. Here's a full forecast (Austin America-Statesman)
A cold front will push through Central Texas on Sunday night, with lows dropping into the 30s on Monday morning, which prompted city officials to open cold weather shelters for the first time this winter.
Eric Platt, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service said Austin's highly concentrated urban areas will not see temperatures below freezing early Monday morning, and can instead expect sub-freezing temperatures, caused by the heat island effect.
"The outskirts of town and low-lying areas can expect to freeze tonight, with temperatures as low as 28 degrees near Austin-Bergstrom Airport," he said.
A warming trend will continue after Monday morning, with highs reaching into the upper 60s on Tuesday, and then dropping the rest of the work-week. Chances of rain will slowly creep up on Wednesday, though precipitation will be more likely on Thursday and Friday… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Labor, affordability remain concerns in strong Austin real estate sector (Austin Monitor)
Austin’s diverse and growing economy has kept the Central Texas region one of the most attractive real estate markets in the country in recent years, but local developers see some recurring issues – affordability, land use policy and the local labor supply – impacting the construction of housing and other building types.
A recent Urban Land Institute Austin luncheon looked at the emerging trends in real estate nationally as well as in Austin, which is ranked as the No. 5 market in the U.S. based on a survey of the national ULI membership.
Debt costs from high interest rates and ongoing soft demand for office space due to the shift to hybrid work are national trends that are also at play in Austin. Josh Parks, a partner with financial consultants PwC, said the market for higher-end class A office space will likely remain strong because of the demand for premium features, but lower-margin class B space could be more prone to defaults or the need to convert the space at considerable cost.
This dynamic is significant in Austin because of the ongoing vacancies in some of the most high-profile office towers downtown… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Feds snub Austin-San Antonio region in passenger rail expansion plan (Austin Business Journal)
The Federal Railroad Administration said Dec. 8 it has designated several corridors for passenger rail expansion in the U.S. But some of the fastest-growing areas in the Lone Star State, including the Austin-San Antonio corridor, didn’t make the cut.
On Friday, President Biden’s administration announced $8.2 billion in new funding for 10 major passenger rail projects across the U.S., including the nation’s first high-speed rail. It also includes projects in Virginia, North Carolina, the District of Columbia and Illinois. It also identified 69 corridors for future development.
Leaders in San Antonio and Austin said the FRA has designated five corridors for passenger rail expansion in Texas but left out an Austin-San Antonio corridor that currently encompasses approximately 5 million people. Its population is expected to swell to more than 8 million residents by 2050, and by that time the two cities are expected to form the next metroplex.
“The FRA’s failure to include the Travis-Bexar County corridor is a significant missed opportunity to support responsible growth and investment across Central Texas,” Travis County Judge Andy Brown said. “We live in one of the most dynamic and booming regions in the world without passenger rail.”
Economic development leaders for decades have been pushing the idea of a train that connects Austin with San Antonio. The last big push, called Lone Star Rail, was pronounced dead in 2016. The Lone Star Rail would have run from near Round Rock on Austin's north side to South San Antonio. It was planned to have 16 stops… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin hasn't allowed more police oversight, despite voter approval. Now it's getting sued. (KUT)
A lawsuit in a Travis County court aims to force Austin's hand in rolling out a voter-backed plan to increase police oversight.
Austin voters approved Proposition A in May by a four-to-one margin. The measure, known as the Austin Police Oversight Act, roundly defeated an opposing plan backed by the city's police union. The APOA was set up to bolster the investigative power of the city's citizen-led Office of Police Oversight.
At least, that's what it was supposed to do.
The city has struggled to square the plan with state law, which opponents argue prohibits Austin from forging ahead. A lawsuit filed in district court Tuesday by Equity Action, the nonprofit that put Prop A on the ballot, argues Austin is dragging its feet and wants a judge to force the city to roll out changes.
The suit names interim Austin Police Chief Robin Henderson, interim City Manager JesĂşs Garza and Gail McCant, director of the Office of Police Oversight as defendants, alleging all three have subverted the will of voters by not implementing APOA.
Specifically, the suit argues, the city is violating its own ordinance by not allowing the Office of Police Oversight to access internal disciplinary files of officers. These files are also known as a "g file."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
DPS appeal halts release of Uvalde shooting records ordered by Texas judge (Texas Tribune)
A Travis County state district judge has ordered the Department of Public safety to release law enforcement records related to the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, more than a year after a consortium of news organizations sued for access.
261st Civil District Court Judge Daniella DeSeta Lyttle ordered DPS to fulfill 28 records requests filed by the news organizations, which include The Texas Tribune and ProPublica, subject to redactions such as personal information of police officers and blurring the faces of minor victims in crime scene photographs.
The files would shed light on the disastrous police response that day, in which officers waited more than an hour to confront the shooter after learning he had an AR-15 style rifle.
Lyttle issued a preliminary order in June; the one issued Tuesday is the final judgment. It required DPS to provide the records sought within 20 days, unless the state police agency appeals the ruling.
“DPS promised to disclose the results of this investigation once it was completed,” said Laura Prather, a media law attorney with Haynes Boone who represents the news organizations. “It was completed in February and they still haven’t provided any answers to these families.”
DPS did not return a request for comment on Thursday. Attorney General Ken Paxton on Dec. 8 filed an appeal on behalf of the agency… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Democrat John Whitmire elected Houston mayor, defeating congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (Associated Press)
Houston elected Democratic state Sen. John Whitmire as its next mayor on Saturday night, elevating a Texas lawmaker who has represented the city for 50 years by giving him a victory over U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee in a runoff.
Whitmire, 74, who is one of Texas’ most powerful Democratic legislators, will now be at the helm of America’s fourth-largest city. His campaign focused on reducing crime, improving streets and bringing people together. He heavily outspent Jackson Lee, who was running to become Houston’s first Black female mayor.
Standing before a ballroom full of cheering supporters in the city’s convention center, Whitmire said he was fired up and ready to go to work as mayor.
“I don’t mind telling folks what a great city we have. But we’ve got great challenges. If we will come together and realize it won’t be easy. In fact, we will face challenges. But I see that as an opportunity. And I need you to join hands with me. We’ll meet our challenges. It’ll be an opportunity to show the nation what the city of Houston can do,” Whitmire said.
At her election night party, Jackson Lee thanked her supporters, congratulated Whitmire and said she was committed to working with him. Jackson Lee said she planned to announce in the near future a decision on whether she would run for re-election next year for her congressional seat… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Entity tied to Las Vegas Sands family made huge Irving land buy before striking Mavs deal (Dallas Mornng News)
A business entity connected to Las Vegas Sands Corp. bought 108 acres across from the former Texas Stadium site in Irving months before the gambling empire’s matriarch made a deal to acquire a controlling stake in the Dallas Mavericks. The land sold in July to a limited liability corporation called Village Walk RE 2 LLC. State records show the LLC’s taxpayer mailing address as 5420 S. Durango Dr. in Las Vegas, which also is the business address for Sands. Sands’ majority shareholder Miriam Adelson and her son-in-law, Sands president Patrick Dumont, shocked the basketball world when they struck a $3.5 billion deal with Mavs owner Mark Cuban two weeks ago. The deal still needs to be finalized and approved by the NBA Board of Governors.
It isn’t immediately known what the Sands entity intends to do with the property, but the city of Irving has long sought a marquee project for the site. Texas Stadium, the former home of the Dallas Cowboys, was demolished in 2010 and the site has since been used as a highway construction staging area. Ron Reese, a spokesman for Sands, confirmed the purchase and said it’s part of the company’s longstanding interest in Texas and Dallas-Fort Worth. “We build buildings of significant size and scale,” Reese said. “This particular transaction certainly gives that opportunity, but there’s likely to be future purchases in the area.”
Reese said Sands is clear in its desire to build an integrated resort property in D-FW. He also said the purchase is unrelated to the Adelson family’s deal with the Mavs, noting they’re two separate entities and that the land purchase happened “well in advance.”
“Sands purchased this in anticipation of at some point its long-held desire to build an integrated resort property,” Reese said. “... additional purchases down the road shouldn’t be surprising and could candidly be expected.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US/WORLD NEWS]
Biden administration says New Hampshire computer chip plant the first to get funding from CHIPS law (Associated Press)
The Biden administration said Monday it would provide $35 million to BAE Systems to increase production at a New Hampshire factory making computer chips for military aircraft, including F-15 and F-35 jets.
This is the first allocation of incentives from last year’s bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which provides more than $52 billion to boost the development and manufacturing of semiconductors in the United States.
The Commerce Department’s choice of a military contractor instead of a conventional chip manufacturer reveals the national security focus of the law, as more and more weapons systems depend on advanced chips that could be decisive in both preventing and fighting wars.
President Joe Biden signed the incentives into law in August 2022 partly out of concerns that a military attack on Taiwan could deprive the world of advanced computer chips and plunge the U.S. into a recession… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
New York joins IBM, Micron in $10 Billion Chip Research Complex (Wall Street Journal)
New York state is joining chip companies to invest $10 billion in a semiconductor research facility at the University at Albany that is set to include some of the most advanced chip-making equipment in the world.
NY Creates, a nonprofit that oversees the Albany NanoTech Complex where the facility is to be built, will coordinate its construction. It will also use state funds to acquire chip-making equipment from ASML Holding, a Dutch company whose machines can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and are key to making the most advanced chips possible.
Once the machinery is installed, the project and its partners will begin work on next-generation chip manufacturing there, according to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office. The partners include tech giant IBM, memory manufacturer Micron Technology, and chip manufacturing equipment makers Applied Materials and
The expansion could help New York’s bid to be designated a research hub under last year’s $53 billion Chips Act. That legislation included $11 billion for a National Semiconductor Technology Center to foster domestic chip research and development… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Giuliani spread lies about Georgia election workers. A jury will decide what he owes them. (Politico)
When Rudy Giuliani steps into federal court on Monday, the only mystery will be how severely he is sanctioned for lies about the 2020 election.
U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell has already found him liable for defaming two Georgia election workers — Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss — who faced threats and harassment after Giuliani and Donald Trump falsely accused them of manipulating ballots after the 2020 election. Those lies fueled conspiracy theories that have festered to this day.
Now, a jury in Washington, D.C., will be asked to determine the amount of damages Giuliani must pay for defamation, infliction of emotional distress and other punitive costs. Freeman and Moss haven’t specified a precise amount but are instead preparing to introduce expert testimony to estimate the harm they have experienced… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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