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- BG Reads 12.4.2023
BG Reads 12.4.2023
🗞️ BG Reads | News - December 4, 2023
December 4, 2023
In today's BG Reads:
âś… Austin and Travis County officials say they are ready for major winter weather response
✅ Texas attorney general sues Pfizer, claiming vaccines didn’t end pandemic quickly enough
âś… Biden admin circulates map showing states that benefit from Ukraine aid
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]
Austin and Travis County officials say they are ready to respond to major winter weather (KUT)
Austin and Travis County officials said Friday they are prepared to respond to major weather events this winter, including freezes or ice storms, but urged residents to also be prepared at home.
Friday's update was the first of the season. Communication was one of the major shortfalls identified in two after-action reports following the city's response to winter storms in 2021 and 2022. The update is part of the city's plan to be more proactive in communicating with the public ahead of extreme weather events.
Mayor Kirk Watson said the city has made several changes this year so that mistakes made in the past are not repeated. He acknowledged that previous issues were not addressed after the 2021 winter storm… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Nearly a third of top level Austin leadership positions are in new hands under JesĂşs Garza (Austin American-Statesman)
Since his appointment as Austin's chief executive in March, Jesús Garza has used his authority under the city's “council-manager” structure to quickly move employees into temporary — and sometimes permanent — leadership roles overseeing key city departments.
Garza appointed 17 people to city leadership positions in a nine-month period, according to an American-Statesman review of city organizational charts. Some appointments were made to fill vacancies; others were to made lead newly formed departments.
In total, Garza has appointed more than a third of the nearly 50 leadership positions the city manager is tasked with overseeing.
These leaders guide departments with some of the largest staffs and most expensive budgets in Austin — departments that make sure the airport is operational, that ensure Austinites have electricity, that provide services to the city's unhoused community and more… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Tesla rolls out its futuristic Cybertruck at Austin-area gigafactory (Austin Business Journal)
Tesla Inc. rolled out the first of its long-anticipated Cybertruck on Nov. 30 at its Austin-area gigafactory, a key milestone for the company as it continues to ramp up production in Central Texas.
The electric vehicle maker began delivering the futuristic electric vehicles at the event to the first of thousands of buyers who have been patiently waiting for years to get behind the wheel of the latest Tesla model. The Austin-based company (Nasdaq: TSLA) held a random drawing to determine who was invited to the in-person event, which was also live-streamed to the public.
The electric pickup truck is designed to be bulletproof with "rock proof" windows, CEO Elon Musk said at the event. It can also tow over 11,000 pounds and accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 2.6 seconds, he said. Musk even showed videos to the crowd to prove how strong the Cybertruck is — for example, they showed video of it beating a Porsche 911 on the drag strip while towing a Porsche 911 behind it… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas GOP executive committee rejects proposed ban on associating with Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers (Texas Tribune)
Two months after a prominent conservative activist and fundraiser was caught hosting white supremacist Nick Fuentes, leaders of the Republican Party of Texas have voted against barring the party from associating with known Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers.
In a 32-29 vote on Saturday, members of the Texas GOP’s executive committee stripped a pro-Israel resolution of a clause that would have included the ban. In a separate move that stunned some members, roughly half of the board also tried to prevent a record of their vote from being kept.
In rejecting the proposed ban, the executive committee's majority delivered a serious blow to a faction of members that has called for the party to confront its ties to groups that have recently employed or associated with outspoken white supremacists and extremists.
In October, The Texas Tribune published photos of Fuentes, an avowed admirer of Adolf Hitler who has called for a “holy war” against Jews, entering and leaving the offices of Pale Horse Strategies, a consulting firm for far-right candidates and movements... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas attorney general sues Pfizer, claiming vaccines didn’t end pandemic quickly enough (Texas Tribune)
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused drugmaker Pfizer of fear-mongering and lies about the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine, which the company insinuated would end the pandemic, according to a lawsuit Paxton announced Thursday.
“In a nutshell, Pfizer deceived the public,” reads the 54-page lawsuit, filed in a Lubbock state district court.
The lawsuit alleges Pfizer “engaged in false, deceptive, and misleading acts and practices by making unsupported claims regarding the company’s COVID-19 vaccine in violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.”
Pfizer was the first drugmaker to get the federal government’s emergency approval for the vaccine in late 2020, less than a year after the first infection was detected in the U.S… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US/WORLD NEWS]
Biden admin circulates map showing states that benefit from Ukraine aid (Politico)
According to the map, obtained by POLITICO, Pennsylvania has received $2.364 billion in investments to build munitions and tactical vehicles for Ukraine, the most of any state. Meanwhile, Arizona is a close second with $2.259 billion. Texas and Arkansas received $1.449 billion and $1.478 billion, respectively, while Florida got $1.011 billion.
In total, the states have enjoyed more than $27 billion in investments from arming Ukraine, according to the graphic, the existence of which was first reported by Reuters… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
College football delivers the perfect fiasco to cap the four-team playoff era (Associated Press)
The commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference got it all wrong when he sent out a defiant statement Sunday claiming “college football deserved better.”
Actually, college football got just what it deserved.
Florida State being left out of the four-team playoff despite a 13-0 record and ACC championship was the perfect capper to decades of foot-dragging and illogical debate over the proper way to decide a national champion… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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