BG Reads 12.31.2024

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December 31, 2024  

➡️ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 City of Austin to tackle short-term rental regulations early next year (KXAN)

🟪 Round Rock officials address public safety (Community Impact)

🟪 Austin drivers can have their parking tickets dismissed if they provide certain proof (KVUE)

🟪 Texas comes in No. 1 for new residents in latest Census data (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Trump says H-1B visa program is 'great' amid MAGA feud over tech workers (NBC News)

Read On!

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🟪 Review: The 2025 Austin Council Meeting Calendar 

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

➡️ City of Austin to tackle short-term rental regulations early next year (KXAN)

You’re about to get another purple notification slip in the mail, just like you did for the HOME initiative. Starting next month, the city of Austin will start notifying you about changes they could be making to short-term rental (STR) rules, according to several city council members.

Council Member Ryan Alter said there are a couple of areas city council seems to be focused so far: setting up rules that are “actually workable and usable” and enforcement.

“We want to make sure that if we’re having limitations on the number of licenses or number of short-term rentals, is that an appropriate number? Because right now, we have caps that are just not even enforced,” Alter said. “Second is then on that enforcement piece, we have to make sure that we have the tools necessary so that we can go out and enforce unlicensed short-term rentals.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Round Rock officials address public safety (Community Impact)

In response to unsigned public safety mailers in Round Rock, both Police Chief Allen Banks and Mayor Craig Morgan said claims of increased crimes are incorrect.

The cards, which were sent out to some Round Rock homes in late November, state that aggravated assault with a firearm has increased 3,000% in the last ten years, and also calls for reduced 911 call response times, more detectives, and a specialized unit for human, sex and drug trafficking.Banks and Morgan confirmed that the city, police department and Police Officers Association are not behind the mailers, which are signed only with the email address [email protected].“It's unfortunate that somebody out there would try to pit us against our community and our city council,” Banks said… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Austin drivers can have their parking tickets dismissed if they provide certain proof (KVUE)

Officials want to remind Austinites that you can get a parking ticket dismissed this holiday season with certain proof.

While the reminder comes ahead of the free celebration in Downtown Austin for New Year's Eve, the offer actually stands year-round. All you have to do is prove that you left your car somewhere overnight to take a safe ride home.

The offer works for paid parking spaces in Austin. You can submit a receipt proving that you took a taxi, Uber, Lyft or public transit to go along with your parking ticket from the city, and the ticket could be dismissed.

Austin's Parking Ticket Waiver Program is part of an effort to curb drunk driving and traffic deaths. The site also offers safe and affordable ways to get around Austin, a CapMetro Trip Planner to find bus and train routes, how to use the city's scooters and bikeshare programs and more.

To get your parking ticket dismissed, fill out this Citation Dismissal Request form. If you have any questions, you can also contact the Parking Enterprise Division by emailing them at [email protected] or by calling 512-974-1563… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

➡️ Texas comes in No. 1 for new residents in latest Census data (Austin Business Journal)

Texas added more new residents than any other state over the past year and now has a population of over 31 million people.

According to estimates released Dec. 19 by the U.S. Census Bureau, Texas added just under 563,000 new residents between July 1, 2023, and July 1, 2024.

Florida came in second, adding 467,000 new residents over the 12-month period, and California came in third, adding 233,000. 

The new figures indicate Texas is still in the midst of a population boom, with the state adding over 2 million new residents since 2020 when the last official decennial census took place. It’s now estimated that Texas has 31.29 million residents, up from the 2020 count of 29.15 million.

Despite the influx, Texas remains the second-most populous state. California is No. 1, with 39.4 million people.

But Texas also ranked as the top state in the nation for domestic migration and natural increases over the past year. The state added 85,000 new residents who moved from elsewhere in the United States, and it saw a natural increase — meaning births that outnumbered deaths — of just under 159,000… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Texas public safety department announces systemwide outage, closes driver license offices (Texas Tribune)

An unidentified technology outage resulted in the closure of Texas driver’s license offices across the state Monday.

The Texas Department of Public Safety announced in a social media post that the outage forced the agency to close all driver's license offices on Monday afternoon. Staff was working with customers to reschedule appointments, the department said. The statewide law enforcement and driver's license administration agency’s website was also down Monday evening.

Driver licenses offices will also be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday for the New Year's holiday. It’s unclear if the department would reopen on Thursday.

The outage appeared to be isolated to only the public safety department. The health and education department's websites were working. As was the governor's and Legislature's… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

➡️ Transit systems turn to AI-powered cameras to catch drivers who block bus lanes (NPR)

 If you're the kind of driver who parks in the bus lane to run a quick errand, you might want to think twice.

The nation's biggest transit systems are using AI-enhanced cameras to keep bus lanes clear of illegally parked cars.

The company behind those cameras is a start-up called Hayden AI, which offered to demonstrate how they work in real life on the streets near its offices in this New Jersey suburb.

"What you're seeing on the screen right now is the system identifying different objects as we're driving down the road," said Charley Territo, the chief growth officer for Hayden AI, as we rode in the back of a specially equipped van.

The cameras are mounted inside the front windshield, where they can take in everything that's happening in front of the bus. The system analyzes those images to decide if it's looking at a vehicle, Territo says — and whether that vehicle is stopped somewhere it shouldn't be… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Trump says H-1B visa program is 'great' amid MAGA feud over tech workers (NBC News)

President-elect Donald Trump weighed in on a simmering feud among MAGA allies over H-1B worker visas, telling the New York Post that he supports the program, according to the outlet.

Trump told the New York Post that he has “always liked the visas.” The H-1B visa program allows employers to temporarily hire non-U.S. citizens for highly skilled jobs.

“I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program,” he said, according to the outlet’s report.

A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment about which of Trump's properties employed workers who were on H-1B visas.

During his first term, the Trump administration implemented rules that would have cut the number of H-1B visas issued each year. The rules, however, were ultimately struck down in court… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ US Treasury says Chinese hackers stole documents in 'major incident' (Reuters)

Chinese state-sponsored hackers breached the U.S. Treasury Department's computer security guardrails this month and stole documents in what Treasury called a "major incident," according to a letter to lawmakers, opens new tab that Treasury officials provided to Reuters on Monday.

The hackers compromised third-party cybersecurity service provider BeyondTrust and were able to access unclassified documents, the letter said.

According to the letter, hackers "gained access to a key used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support for Treasury Departmental Offices (DO) end users. With access to the stolen key, the threat actor was able to override the service’s security, remotely access certain Treasury DO user workstations, and access certain unclassified documents maintained by those users."

"Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor," the letter said.

The Treasury Department said it was alerted to the breach by BeyondTrust on Dec. 8 and that it was working with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI to assess the hack's impact… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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