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BG Reads 2.9.2024

BG Reads 2.9.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - February 9, 2024

February 09, 2024

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Bingham Group Reads

Presented by:

February 9, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Austin-area groups awarded record $12M to combat homelessness

🟣 City Manager threatened to quit rather than meet with Council over Acevedo hire

🟣 The Supreme Court seems poised to reject efforts to kick Trump off the ballot

🟣 BFDA move to ban formaldehyde in hair straighteners called too little, too late

Read on!

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

[BG BLOG]

✅ NEW - Five City of Austin Issues to Watch in 2024

🟣 Economic Development Incentives

🟣 Impacts of the HOME Initiative

🟣 Short-term Rentals

🟣 A 2024 Bond Proposal

🟣 Autonomous Mobility

✅ NEW - City of Austin org chart red line (as of 1/31/2024)

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Austin-area groups awarded record $12M to combat homelessness (Community Impact)

Several Austin-area groups involved in the regional response to homelessness received nearly $12 million from the federal government this year for that work.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development detailed its annual round of financial support for nationwide homelessness assistance Jan. 29. The more than $3 billion in awards through HUD's Continuum of Care program included millions of dollars to be spread around Austin and Travis County, as well as statewide.“Now, more than ever, we are doing all we can to get people off the street and into permanent homes with access to services. That is why we are making sure the service providers on the frontlines of this crisis have the resources they need,” HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge said in a statement… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

City Manager threatened to quit rather than meet with Council over Acevedo hire (Austin Chronicle)

Tension between City Council members and interim City Manager Jesús Garza over his surprise hiring of a widely detested former police chief for a new executive position may be loosening up for now, but City Hall sources tell the Chronicle that, just two weeks ago, Garza was threatening to resign rather than be subjected to a closed-door meeting about it… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Korean beauty device maker to open first US plant in Taylor (Austin Business Journal)

Hironic Co. Ltd., a South Korean manufacturer of medical devices for the beauty industry, has signed a memorandum of understanding to open a new production and sales facility in Taylor, northeast of Austin.

While the size, scope and precise location of the project are yet to be determined, the company on Jan. 31 signed the agreement with Korean management firm Mastern Investment Management Co. Ltd., the city of Taylor and its economic development wing "to facilitate Hironic's entry into the North American market," according to a Feb. 8 announcement.

Founded in 2006, Hironic manufactures and sells medical devices for skin beautification, including devices for laser hair removal, tattoo and scar removal and skin tightening… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[BG Podcast]

BG Podcast Episode 236

BG Policy Watch - City of Austin Artificial Intelligence (AI) Guidelines

On this episode the Bingham Group CEO A.J. and Consultant Chris Stewart, former Austin Chief Information Officer (2020 to 2023) discuss Item 24 on the Austin City Council's February 15th agenda.

The item calls for the City Council to, "Approve a resolution regarding transparent and ethical citywide artificial intelligence guidelines and procedures, accountability strategies, and workforce considerations."

Among other directives to the City Manager, the resolution calls for the guidelines to include (but are not limited) to the following principles:

🟣 Innovation and Collaboration

🟣 Data Privacy and Security

🟣 Transparency

🟣 Explainability and Interpretability

🟣 Validity and Reliability

🟣 Bias and Harm Reduction

✅ Learn more here - BG Blog: Policy Watch - City of Austin Artificial Intelligence (AI) Guidelines -> tinyurl.com/b9k29s9u

LISTEN ON: SoundCloud, YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify

[TEXAS NEWS]

Eagle Pass residents on edge as Texas Gov. vows to expand border operations (Texas Public Radio)

Maxwell Hayes unleashed his frustrations on a pair of Eagle Pass police officers. “It’s your job to protect America from criminals! Do it!” Hayes yelled at the officers, who calmly absorbed the abuse. The police had barricaded the streets that lead to Shelby Park. That’s where the Texas National Guard has taken over. It fronts two-and-a-half miles of the Rio Grande, but the riverbank is now piled high with row after row of razor wire and a wall built out of steel shipping containers. “I’m supposed to be down there right now protesting these people coming across my border," Hayes said. A supporter of far right militias, he traveled to Eagle Pass from Colorado to join the so-called “Take Our Border Back” convoy, a mix of Trump supporters, migration hawks, election deniers and conspiracy theorists.

“We got billions of dollars going to Ukraine massacring Russians and nobody cares about that massacre," Hayes said. The police closed entry to the area because of growing concerns about violence, reports of gunfire, and a local bank robbery. This all has locals on edge and feeling like they are caught in the middle. They are alarmed at seeing their once quiet city militarized and becoming a magnet for the extremists.

“There are some people that are being confrontational," said Amber Duncan. She and her five children live next door to Shelby Park. They’ve watched what she calls "chaos" in front of her home. “This is where I live. Cops are worried about us because they know us," Duncan said. "They say be careful with the kids because it’s going to get wild. Make sure you’re safe.” Duncan said she’s worried about the potential for an outbreak of violence similar to the 2019 El Paso Wal-Mart shooting that targeted Mexican Americans and where 23 people were murdered by an anti-immigration white nationalist. Now Eagle Pass is attracting zealots who claim the border is wide open. This past weekend, a few thousand people poured into the border city to show their support for the state of Texas in a court battle over the Border Patrol's cutting of the razor wire stacked along the Rio Grande… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Houston-area Democrats line up in competitive primary to succeed John Whitmire in the Senate (Texas Tribune)

The last time Senate District 15 was an open seat was 1982 — before some of the candidates currently running for it were born.

But after four decades, John Whitmire, the former Senate dean who was elected Houston mayor in December, has moved on. The rare opening is fueling a competitive, six-way Democratic primary for the solidly blue, Houston-based seat in the Legislature’s upper chamber.

The Democratic candidates to succeed him are aligned on most big issues but touting different backgrounds and coalitions of support as they approach a gauntlet of elections this year. There is the March 5 primary, a May special election to finish the rest of Whitmire’s term — and potential runoffs to go with both of those — and then the November election.

“There’s lots of layers to this race,” said Art Pronin, a longtime Democratic activist in the Meyerland area.

The field features a sitting state representative — Jarvis Johnson — plus Whitmire’s 2022 primary challenger, Molly Cook, and the Democrat who first ran against U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston, six years ago, Todd Litton. There is also Karthik Soora, a renewable energy developer who was the first to declare when Whitmire was still the incumbent; Alberto “Beto” Cardenas Jr., a lawyer who has a long history in Houston civic life; and Michelle Anderson Bonton, executive director of the Anderson Center for the Arts… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

The Supreme Court seems poised to reject efforts to kick Trump off the ballot over the Capitol riot (Associated Press)

The Supreme Court seems poised to reject attempts to kick former President Donald Trump off the 2024 ballot, with conservative and liberal justices in apparent agreement in a case that puts them at the heart of a presidential election.

A definitive ruling for Trump, the leading Republican candidate for president, would largely end efforts in Colorado, Maine and elsewhere to prevent his name from appearing on the ballot.

The justices could act quickly, possibly by Super Tuesday on March 5, when Colorado, Maine and 13 other states will hold primaries… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

FDA move to ban formaldehyde in hair straighteners called too little, too late (NPR)

In April, a dozen years after a federal agency classified formaldehyde a human carcinogen, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is tentatively scheduled to unveil a proposal to consider banning the chemical in hair-straightening products.

The move comes at a time of rising alarm among researchers over the health effects of hair straighteners, products widely used by and heavily marketed to Black women. But advocates and scientists say the proposed new regulation would do far too little, in addition to being far too late.

"The fact that formaldehyde is still allowed in hair care products is mind-blowing to me," said Linda Birnbaum, a former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program. "I don't know what we're waiting for.".

The FDA says consumers should ask their hair stylists about ingredients and can look for these words on labels:

Formaldehyde
Formalin
Methylene glycol

Mounting evidence linking hair straighteners to hormone-driven cancers prompted Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) last year to urge the regulatory agency to investigate straighteners and relaxers… (LINK TO FULL STORY)