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BG Reads 12.29.2023

BG Reads 12.29.2023

🗞️ BG Reads | News - December 29, 2023

December 29, 2023

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December 29, 2023

Today's BG Reads include:

✅ Landowners seek to sidestep Austin development rules

✅ Round Rock businesses push for more billboards along I-35, SH 45

✅ The new star on the political scene: The chip industry

✅ Maine strips Trump from the ballot, inflaming legal war over his candidacy

Read on!

🔎 2024 Austin Council Meeting Schedule

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Landowners seek to sidestep Austin development rules using controversial new state law (Austin Business Journal)

Nearly 200 petitions have been submitted by landowners on the fringes of Austin's city limits seeking to circumvent its regulatory authority through deannexation — with almost 40% approved by the city so far — under a controversial new state law that some municipalities are challenging in court.

Austin city officials received 191 petitions requesting "direct release" from the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction as of Dec. 15, according to a recent memorandum from Director of Planning Lauren Middleton-Pratt to the mayor and City Council. The city has granted release to 74 of them, Middleton-Pratt said in the document.

The law essentially allows landowners on the fringes of major cities to petition to be removed from an extraterritorial jurisdiction, freeing them up to develop with fewer regulations. There are some exemptions based on proximity to major population centers and military bases. Known as Senate Bill 2038, the change was approved during this year's regular session of the Texas Legislature and took effect Sept. 1. It had strong support from developers and others in the business community because it essentially enables them to build on their owns terms... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin saw 40% growth in tech jobs between 2020 and 2022, report shows (Austin American-Statesman)

For decades, areas such as the Silicon Valley and San Francisco have reigned as the place to be if you want to work in tech.

But in recent years, tech jobs increasingly dispersed to smaller tech hubs, including Austin, according to a report from Brookings Institute, which looked at where tech jobs were concentrating in 2020 and 2022.

Mark Muro, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institute and co-author of the report, said Austin is a "signature example" of the rise of non-coastal tech hubs, which have experienced high rates of tech job growth as traditional coastal tech leaders saw more sluggish tech employment trends.

“There were actually significant layoffs in the Bay Area, thousands of people, so that reduced the job share and may have been a push factor for more people to set out to places like Austin,” Muro said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin Public Health triples number of people served at food distribution events in 2023 (KXAN)

With food insecurity on the rise in Central Texas, Austin Public Health said it nearly tripled the number of people served at food distribution events this year, compared to the year before.

Through October 2023, APH served more than 64,000 people at the city’s six Neighborhood Centers. In the same time frame in 2022, it served 26,694 people.

Neighborhood Services Unit Manager Angel Zambrano said the data was “eye-opening” but, unfortunately, the increased need was not surprising… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Round Rock businesses push for more billboards along I-35, SH 45 (Austin Business Journal)

Keep Round Rock Safe, a group of local businesses pushing for more electronic billboards in the Austin suburb of Round Rock, said it turned in 4,203 signatures to the city on Dec. 26, surpassing the required amount needed to get its item on a ballot in May.

Currently, the law in Round Rock states that electronic billboards are prohibited within city limits. There is one billboard in southern Round Rock near Interstate 35 and State Highway 45 because it was grandfathered in before the City Council prohibited such signs.

If voters approve the charter amendment, it will allow up to 12 new privately owned and operated double-faced digital billboards along I-35 and SH 45… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

South of Austin, white supremacist groups are flourishing (Austin Chronicle)

The Hill Country around Wimberley – the picturesque village an hour southwest of Austin – is home to several notable musicians, including Paul Simon, Edie Brickell, and Willie Nelson. It’s also, increasingly, a hotbed for white supremacist activity. A new investigation by Southern Poverty Law Center found the area is stomping ground to a leader of one of the most active white supremacist hate groups in the country.

In October, SPLC identified Brenner Cole of Hays County as a "network director" for the massive propaganda generator Patriot Front. "Since 2019, Patriot Front has been responsible for the vast majority of white supremacist propaganda distributed in the United States," writes the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks domestic extremism. According to the SPLC's hate fliering map, Patriot Front surpasses other hate groups that use this tactic by a factor of 10 to 1.

Put simply, "Patriot Front is the most active white nationalist hate group we track," said Jeff Tischauser, senior research analyst at SPLC's Intelligence Project… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

U.S. Department of Justice says it’ll sue if Texas enforces new law punishing illegal border crossing (Texas Tribune)

The U.S. Department of Justice has threatened to sue to stop a new Texas law that allows state police to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the border — unless Gov. Greg Abbott backs off of enforcing the law.

The new law, known as Senate Bill 4, is “unconstitutional and will disrupt the federal government’s operations” vis-à-vis immigration and border enforcement, an agency official told Gov. Greg Abbott in a letter first reported Thursday by the Houston Chronicle and later posted on social media by a CBS News reporter.

If Texas does not formally refrain from enforcing the law by Jan. 3, the agency will “pursue all appropriate legal remedies to ensure that Texas does not interfere with the functions of the federal government.”

A person with knowledge of the letter confirmed that it had been sent... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

No ‘Texit’ question, but Texas GOP voters to be asked about border, vouchers, foreign wars (Dallas Morning News)

State GOP officials, while rejecting bids to put Texas secession to a vote, announced Thursday a set of rock-ribbed conservative ballot propositions for the March 5 Republican primary. Four of the 13 propositions suggest different ways to crack down on illegal immigration, from ending in-state tuition for people who entered the country without papers to having the state “use physical force to prevent illegal entry and trafficking.” Others would require Congress to declare war before the Texas National Guard is sent to a foreign conflict, bar land sales to people or entities from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, and restore Attorney General Ken Paxton’s ability to initiate vote fraud prosecutions. In 2021, the state Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Paxton does not have unilateral discretion to go after election-law violations but must do so only at the request of county prosecutors.

Although Democrats in the past have placed issue questions on their primary voters’ ballots, there are no plans to do so next year, said Texas Democratic Party spokeswoman Brigitte Bowen. As they were two years ago, Republican voters will be asked in the 2024 primary about school vouchers. Although the GOP ballot propositions are nonbinding polls of the opinions of about 2 million of the state’s more than 30 million people, Gov. Greg Abbott for months has cited how nearly 88% of primary voters statewide approved a pro-voucher ballot proposition in March 2022.

In that election, nearly 1.7 million of the 1.9 million people who voted in the GOP primary voiced support for Proposition 9. The proposition read, “Texas parents and guardians should have the right to select schools, whether public or private, for their children, and the funding should follow the student.” Next year, Proposition 11 will have identical language. During this year’s regular legislative session and two special sessions, Abbott failed to persuade House lawmakers to pass a bill creating education savings accounts, which would publicly fund private school attendance for certain families. The three-term Republican governor hasn’t said whether he will call another special session on voucherlike proposals before the March 5 primary election — though at times, he has hinted he would. Earlier this month, the 64-member State Republican Executive Committee selected the 13 GOP ballot propositions… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Volunteer pilots give flight to women needing abortion (Texas Public Radio)

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Texas made obtaining an abortion virtually impossible. For a state as large as Texas, getting to where abortion is legal can be the challenge. But volunteer pilots are giving flight to women in need of abortion care. Bart — not his real name — rolls back the hanger door where his plane sits. "This is the girl," he said. “So for confidentiality reasons this is Susan.”

TPR also needed to change his pet name for his airplane because Bart and Susan are partners in an active underground effort — flying people to access abortion care when they live in states where abortions are outlawed. Susan is a single engine tight four-seater, built more than 60 years ago. “But it’s got the range to make it to a couple of states out of here, and it’s pretty fast," he said.

Bart is able to ferry someone in need of an abortion to another state where abortion is legal without too much time and trouble. All on the down-low. Even though what he’s doing is completely legal, he asked that his identity be kept secret due to concerns of harassment from zealous anti-abortion activists. “You know, there's a group of people out there that are really gung ho to get on computers and dox people,” he said. Bart is one of hundreds of volunteers with Elevated Access — an organization that coordinates small plane pilots with people in need of an abortion. The match-ups are done online. Elevated Access embraces anonymity. The pilots don’t even know the names of their passengers. “I don't know what they were going up there for. I didn't ask, they didn't tell," he said. "It was just a coordinated request to go get somebody some medical care."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

Maine strips Trump from the ballot, inflaming legal war over his candidacy (Politico)

Maine’s top election official ejected former President Donald Trump from the state’s ballot on Thursday, declaring him ineligible to serve as president because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress.

The ruling by Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, is certain to inflame a roaring national debate over whether the Republican presidential frontrunner should be allowed to hold power again.

The decision makes Maine the second state in two weeks to disqualify Trump’s candidacy due to the constitutional bar on officeholders who supported or “engaged in insurrection or rebellion.” Last week the Colorado Supreme Court barred Trump from the state’s Republican primary ballot under a similar interpretation of the 14th Amendment… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Nikki Haley didn't say slavery caused the Civil War. Now she's facing major backlash (NPR)

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is facing significant backlash after failing to mention slavery as a driving force behind the Civil War during a campaign stop in New Hampshire.

At an event on Wednesday, a voter asked Haley: "what was the cause of the United States Civil War?"

She replied that the cause "was basically how government was going to run, the freedoms, and what people could and couldn't do."

"I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are," Haley continued. "And I will always stand by the fact that, I think, government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people."

After Haley gave her answer, the voter told her that it was "astonishing" that she gave an answer "without mentioning the word 'slavery.'"

Last night, President Biden said on X in response to a video of this exchange that the Civil War was indeed "about slavery."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

The new star on the political scene: The chip industry (Wall Street Journal)

Semiconductors have played the starring role in state visits.

Nvidia ’s chief executive was feted by heads of state like a visiting dignitary. Government delegations have shuttled around the globe hobnobbing with chip makers.

For an industry that suddenly finds itself as a geopolitical showpiece, the attention is a mixed bag.

The spotlight has translated to offers of government-provided funding that helps reduce the vast costs of designing, engineering and manufacturing the tech components. But companies face more trade regulations than ever, with increasing attention from policy makers and the public. Governments are still learning the intricacies of the semiconductor industry, one of the tech world’s most complex arenas.

“It cuts both ways for companies,” said Chris Miller, of Tufts University, the author of a book about the global chip war. “They don’t want to be facing new regulations and restrictions, but if there are going to be incentives on offer, they want to make the most of it.”

The era of chip diplomacy for the U.S. and its allies follows a global semiconductor shortage that revealed the central role the components play in many industries. An aggressive U.S. campaign to block China’s access to high-end chips, and the machines that can make them, added more prominence to the industry. And the boom in generative artificial intelligence has presented a new promise for semiconductors… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[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