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BG Reads 2.20.2024

BG Reads 2.20.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - February 20, 2024

February 20, 2024

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Bingham Group Reads

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February 20, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 EPA: Austin area has dangerously high levels of air pollution

🟣 Mayor calls for shut down of Austin’s involvement in Fayette Power Plant

🟣 Interim city manager pushes for improvements within Austin Police Department

Read on!

Click here for this week’s Austin public meeting meeting times and agendas.

[BG BLOG]

✅ NEW - City of Austin org chart red line (as of 2/9/2024)

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Mayor calls for shut down of Austin’s involvement in Fayette Power Plant (KXAN)

When looking at the future of Austin’s energy generation, Mayor Kirk Watson says he’s looking at three prongs: sustainability and climate, affordability and reliability.

Those prongs are elements Austin Energy is looking at right now as part of its 2030 Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan, which is slated to come back to Austin City Council next month.

But late Friday, Watson announced in a newsletter that he was “concerned” about the direction Austin Energy was heading with that plan. Namely, that he didn’t feel it incorporated a hard enough approach to departing from Austin’s largest greenhouse gas producer — the Fayette Power Plant.

“I think we need to set a clear vision of a goal on when we’re going to get out of this,” Watson said. “And we should continue to balance those three things that I talked about, we run our issues and our questions through the prism of how do we get out of Fayette Power Plant no later than January of 2029.”

Austin Energy said in a written response to KXAN Friday that it was exploring options “in light of the mayor’s remarks.”

The Fayette Power Plant, roughly an hour from downtown Austin, is a coal-fired power plant. It was one of the plants included in a University of Texas research project that looked at the health impacts of that kind of energy generation nationwide… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin area has dangerously high levels of air pollution, according to new EPA standards (KUT)

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced long-awaited updates to air quality standards for fine particulate matter, also known as “soot,” pollution. The new, tighter limits mean some places that previously had acceptable levels of pollution are no longer meeting health standards.

Austin and its surroundings are among those places.

Before this month's rule change, regions were determined to have harmful air quality if they recorded 12 micrograms of fine particulate matter per cubic meter of air. The new standard considers 9 micrograms per cubic meter to be unhealthy… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Buc-ee's up for incentives to build big travel center in San Marcos (Austin Business Journal)

Buc-ee's Ltd. is eyeing a 74,000-square-foot family travel center in San Marcos, which would be as big as some grocery stores.

The Lake Jackson-based company — known for its highway food, rows of gas pumps, clean bathrooms and Texas-sized footprints — on Feb. 20 will be considered by the San Marcos City Council for incentives to open on the southbound frontage of I-35 south of Yarrington Road, according to Council documents.

The 22-acre site is slated to include 120 gas pumps and the capacity for between 100 and 175 electric vehicle charging spots, according to the documents. The company would be required to invest at least $50 million in the site and create 175 full-time jobs, with an average wage of $43,855 and benefits, although officials reported between 200 and 225 employees can be expected… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Q2 Stadium offers free rail rides to Austin FC game Saturday as new McKalla Station opens (Austin American-Statesman)

Austin FC's new season begins Saturday, giving the Q2 Stadium its first dose of fans in months.

These fans will have an easier time than ever getting there, too, as CapMetro McKalla Station will officially open for public use on Saturday as well. It's adjacent to Austin FC's home, offering foot and bike paths directly to the stadium's gates. It'll also be free for CapMetro customers to use on Saturday to celebrate the opening of the station and the season.

“This transformational addition to our neighborhood and matchday experience is the result of remarkable collaboration and commitment from our partners at City of Austin, CapMetro, Project Connect, and Austin Transit Partnership,” Austin FC President Andy Loughnane said. “Having Q2 Stadium be directly accessible via easy-to-use, environmentally friendly public transportation is a gamechanger for our club, our fans, and our community.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin interim city manager pushes for improvements within Austin Police Department (FOX 7)

The Austin Interim City Manager is pushing for improvements within the Austin Police Department before city council finds a new city manager.

"Public safety is an enormously important function for our community," Austin Interim City Manager Jesus Garza said.

With more than 300 Austin police officer vacancies, Garza said, "We’re struggling right now."

Garza said the community should feel safe and not have to worry about being attacked by a man with a machete like 19-year-old Seth Gott had last month in Auditorium Shores.

"This is a machete that he's attacking me with. This is real," Gott said.

"That sends alarm bells out to the community," Garza said.

Garza said increased police staffing and a revamp of training is needed… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Ken Paxton wants revenge on impeachment supporters, but Greg Abbott stands in his way (Dallas Morning News)

Wearing jeans and tan cowboy boots, Attorney General Ken Paxton thanked a roomful of voters for helping to save his job, then asked them to drive out House Republicans who voted last year to impeach him. “You let your voice be heard, and by the grace of God I’m here today,” Paxton said at a recent political rally, telling the crowd of about 100 at Collin College in Wylie that their work was not yet done.

“This matters more than anything I’ve ever done, that we win these races and that we win the Texas House,” he said. Paxton’s quest has been described as a revenge tour, but to succeed in ridding the House of Republicans who supported impeachment, he has to go through Gov. Greg Abbott. Paxton has endorsed the primary opponents of 20 GOP House incumbents who voted to impeach him. Abbott, operating under different priorities, is backing at least 17 incumbents on Paxton’s target list. Their biggest clash centers in Collin County, where Paxton is trying to oust the GOP’s entire five-member delegation to the Legislature in the March 5 primary. Abbott has asked voters to return four of the five to the House.

The conflicting endorsements reflect contrasting goals. Abbott, who has endorsed about 60 GOP House candidates, wants to retool the House to add supporters for his school choice plan, which has been thwarted by mainly rural Republicans and Democrats. On Feb. 6, Abbott stopped in McKinney — Paxton’s hometown — asking voters to rally behind GOP House incumbent Jeff Leach, once a Paxton friend whom the attorney general badly wants to defeat. Leach urged senators to remove Paxton as unfit for office during closing arguments at September’s impeachment trial. Where Paxton sees an opponent, Abbott sees a like-minded Republican.

“He’s a powerful conservative leader that I need back in Austin to work side-by-side with me to keep Texas the No. 1 state in the United States of America,” Abbott said of Leach. The split endorsements are part of a rollicking primary season that has some of the biggest names in Republican Party politics choosing sides, including U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, former Gov. Rick Perry and former President Donald Trump. Political observers say they need a scorecard to keep track. “We need to diagram these races between people that are not for school choice, people who voted for impeachment and all the other subplots,” said Austin-based lobbyist Bill Miller. “It’s just a mess. I’ve never seen such a cross-section of interests and opposition.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

After bruising loss in Houston mayoral race, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee faces her toughest reelection yet (Texas Tribune)

In 1994, Sheila Jackson Lee, then a 44-year-old Houston city councilwoman, unseated four-term U.S. Rep. Craig Washington in the Democratic primary, securing a seat she’d come to hold for the next 30 years.

This March, former Houston City Councilwoman Amanda Edwards, 42, is hoping to replicate that political upset as she faces off against Jackson Lee in the Democratic primary for Congressional District 18.

Jackson Lee, who did not respond to requests for an interview, has only drawn four primary challengers over her 14-term career, all of whom she defeated by landslide margins, winning 94% of the vote in 2002, 67% in 2010, 85% in 2018 and 77% in 2020. She’s a household name in her Houston-based district known for her frequent visibility at constituent graduations, funerals and baby showers.

But last year she ran for Houston mayor against then-state Sen. John Whitmire. It was a bruising primary — unfamiliar territory for Jackson Lee — and her campaign was roiled with negative media after audio of her berating her congressional staffers was leaked. She ended up losing the race by 30 points and then immediately announced she was running for reelection to the U.S. House… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

Sinclair’s recipe for TV news: Crime, homelessness, illegal drugs (Washington Post)

Every year, local television news stations owned by Sinclair Broadcasting conduct short surveys among viewers to help guide the year’s coverage.

A key question in each poll, according to David Smith, the company’s executive chairman: “What are you most afraid of?” The answers are evident in Sinclair’s programming. Crime, homelessness, illegal drug use, failing schools and other societal ills have long been core elements of local TV news coverage. But on Sinclair’s growing nationwide roster of stations, the editorial focus reflects Smith’s conservative views and plays on its audience’s fears that America’s cities are falling apart, according to media observers, Smith associates, and current and former staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal company matters.

Smith, an enthusiastic supporter of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump who has built Sinclair into one of the largest television station operators in the country, purchased the Baltimore Sun last month. In a private meeting with the Sun’s journalists, he urged them to emulate coverage at the local Sinclair station, Fox45, which in 2021 produced a documentary titled simply “Baltimore Is Dying.”

Sinclair’s local network of 185 stations across the country makes it an influential player in shaping the views of millions of Americans, especially at a time when local newspapers are rapidly being gutted — or closed altogether. As Sinclair increasingly fills the void, it offers its viewers a perspective that aligns with Trump’s oft-stated opinion that America’s cities, especially those run by Democratic politicians, are dangerous and dysfunctional. “Sinclair stations deliver messages that appeal to older, White, suburban audiences, and they play up crime stories in a way that is disproportionate to their statistical presence,” said Anne Nelson, a journalist and author of “Shadow Network: Media, Money and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right.” “All of it is fearmongering and feeds into a racialized view of cities.”

Nelson, who has spent decades studying conservative media and political propaganda, said that local TV news reports traditionally cover local crime stories, but Sinclair’s programming does it “more than usual, and with a particular message.” She said that the lack of local papers has changed the role of local TV news... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Musk’s SpaceX forges tighter links with U.S. spy and military agencies (Wall Street Journal)

SpaceX is deepening its ties with U.S. intelligence and military agencies, winning at least one major classified contract and expanding a secretive company satellite program called Starshield for national-security customers.

The Elon Musk-led company entered into a $1.8 billion classified contract with the U.S. government in 2021, according to company documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal. SpaceX said in the documents that funds from the contract were expected to become an important part of its revenue mix in the coming years. It didn’t disclose the name of the government customer.

The size and secrecy of the agreement illustrate a growing interdependence between SpaceX—a dominant force in the space industry—and the national-security establishment.

SpaceX’s work for U.S. defense clients has long included blasting off classified and military satellites. The Pentagon has more recently done business with SpaceX’s Starlink broadband service, including agreements to pay for Ukrainian internet links during Ukraine’s war with Russia.

Less is known about SpaceX’s Starshield unit, which is tailored for government clients and counts a former Air Force general among its leaders. Starshield won a $70 million award from the military last August to provide communications services to dozens of Pentagon partners. However, the group has largely operated out of the public eye… (LINK TO FULL STORY)