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- BG Reads 4.15.2024
BG Reads 4.15.2024
🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - April 15, 2024
Bingham Group Reads
Presented by:
April 15, 2024
Today's BG Reads include:
Read On!
[BINGHAM GROUP]
On this episode we welcome back Jack Craver, independent reporter and founder of The Austin Politics Newsletter. Jack and Bingham Group CEO A.J. Bingham discuss the candidate field for the 2024 Austin Mayoral elections, including incumbent Mayor Kirk Watson.
[AUSTIN CITY HALL]
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Samsung pouring $45B into Austin area — one of largest deals in US history (Austin Business Journal)
One of the largest economic development projects in the history of Texas is set to grow into one of the largest in America's history.
On April 15, representatives from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., the U.S. Department of Commerce and local officials will converge on the tiny town of Taylor, northeast of Austin, to announce a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms for $6.4 billion to the company through the federal CHIPS and Science Act.
Those funds, federal officials said, will spur the South Korea-based electronics giant to widen its planned investment to $45 billion — it's slated primarily for Taylor, where Samsung is building a next-generation chipmaking plant, but also in Austin, where the chipmaker has operated for decades. New commitments include an additional fabrication line, a research-and-design facility and more that's set to come online by the end of the decade.
Samsung also plans to claim the Department of Treasury's Investment Tax Credit of up to 25% of its $45 billion in capital expenditures, or roughly $11.25 billion... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Disability commission to seek replacement of group home rules stricken from code (Austin Monitor)
Advocates for people with disabilities are expected to ask the city to update recent building code changes that promote density but could make it easier for unregulated group homes to set up shop throughout Austin.
At Friday’s meeting of the Mayor’s Committee for People With Disabilities, Zoning and Platting Commissioner Betsy Greenberg spoke about the changes made at the same time as December’s passage of the HOME initiative, the main purpose of which was to encourage denser living options. One of the changes removed caps on how many unrelated people could live in a home under single-family zoning, which Greenberg said was likely done to make it easier to establish co-ops and other dense housing options in areas near the University of Texas campus.
But those changes, which in part eliminated the zoning classifications for covering group homes for residences with 15 or fewer adults, also took away the inspection and other regulatory requirements for group homes that provide care for older adults or people with disabilities. Such changes could impact their ability to live independently. Previously, group residential operations, which are often run as for-profit businesses, were allowed only in multifamily zoning areas and required annual inspections by Austin Fire Department and the Code Department to check for structural safety and make sure no overcrowding or neglect was taking place… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
More than 35K people to fly out of Austin airport Monday (KXAN)
The Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is gearing up for a busy day Monday, airport officials said in a social media post Sunday afternoon.
More than 35,000 passengers are expected to fly out of AUS on Monday, officials noted.
Staff members are advising travelers to arrive at least 2.5 hours early for domestic flights and a minimum of three hours prior to an international flight. That advice applies to those who aren’t planning to check bags and who don’t have PreCheck or Clear access… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Save Our Springs Alliance sues City Council over Open Meetings Act (Austin Monitor)
As he threatened to do at last week’s City Council meeting, Save Our Springs Alliance Executive Director Bill Bunch has sued the city, the mayor and Council for alleged violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act, the Austin City Charter and Council’s own procedures for allowing the public to speak. The suit was filed in Travis County District Court.
Bunch and SOS, which is dedicated to protecting Barton Springs and the Edwards Aquifer, sued the various defendants April 5 over alleged Open Meetings Act violations and amended the suit on Thursday to include allegations about the city’s regulations and the City Charter. He told the Austin Monitor on Thursday he is “trying to get an emergency hearing before next week’s meeting.” At such a hearing, Bunch would seek a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction “to remedy defendants’ violations of law as to the April 4, 2024 consent agenda and to prohibit additional and future violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act and the Austin City Charter.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Lawmaker behind new Texas DEI ban expects universities to still 'strive for diverse outcomes' (Houston Chronicle)
State Sen. Brandon Creighton sponsored the state’s new ban on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at public universities. In letters sent last month, the Conroe Republican told university chancellors and regents that he was worried some may not be fully complying with the new law. His Senate committee plans to hold hearings in May to receive updates from universities. “I am deeply concerned with the possibility that many institutions may choose to merely rename their offices or employee titles,” Creighton wrote in letters to each of the state’s seven public university systems. Days later, the University of Texas at Austin fired dozens of employees who had previously worked in DEI-related roles. On Tuesday, UT-Dallas announced it was also laying off 20 workers and closing its Office of Campus Resources and Support, a new office meant to comply with the DEI ban.
At both campuses, news of the firings has roiled students and advocates, who argue that administrators are overreacting to the law and weakening the schools’ ability to recruit talented faculty. “I'd have to leave it up to university officials and their general counsel on exactly how they are taking actions to comply with the bill. I know through the university leadership's press releases and the statements they issued that they also took action on consolidation and what they phrase, I believe, as duplicative efforts where there was overlap and made some further adjustments. So I'm not sure that I would couch that as taking action beyond compliance necessary to be in line with the legislation. I just know that they're making some overall strategic moves for the future, as all of the universities have to continue to evolve in ways that will make sense with their budgets and their goals,” Creighton said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar warns that using federal aid to help migrants travel makes San Antonio a “magnet” (Texas Tribune)
San Antonio’s migrant aid, which had been dwindling rapidly, will soon get an infusion of $17.8 million from the federal government, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar announced Friday.
But while announcing the money he helped fight for, the Laredo Democrat cautioned cities like San Antonio that their efforts to aid migrants may be contributing to a rise in the number of migrant arrivals.
“My nonprofits in Laredo see the San Pedro site there in San Antonio as the ‘milk and honey center,’ ” he told reporters in a call on Friday. “A lot of the migrants say, carry [on] to San Pedro, not San Pedro, Monterrey, but San Pedro, the center there on San Pedro, by the mall.”
The money San Antonio is receiving will go toward running the Migrant Resource Center on San Pedro Avenue and a holding facility near the airport, as well as feeding migrants while they’re in San Antonio and other efforts put on by the city, Catholic Charities, the San Antonio Food Bank and other groups that help asylum-seeking migrants.
Cuellar, who serves as ranking member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Appropriations, created the grant program cities use for that type of migrant aid in 2014. However, that money was never intended to help local governments pay to transport migrants to other cities, he suggested on the Friday call... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION/WORLD NEWS]
World leaders urge Israel not to retaliate for the Iranian drone and missile attack (Associated Press)
World leaders are urging Israel not to retaliate after Iran launched an attack involving hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron told the BBC on Monday the U.K. does not support a retaliatory strike, while French President Emmanuel Macron said Paris will try to “convince Israel that we must not respond by escalating.”
The Iranian attack on Saturday, less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria that killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consular building, marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
An Israeli military spokesman said that 99% of the drones and missiles launched by Iran were intercepted.
Israel and Iran have been on a collision course throughout Israel’s six-month war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The war erupted after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
As Trump Ponders V.P. Contenders, He Asks: Can They Help Me Raise Cash? (New York Times)
As former President Donald J. Trump sifts through potential running mates, he has peppered some advisers and associates with a direct question: Which Republican could best help him raise money for the rest of the presidential campaign?
That inquiry reflects the evolving calculations of Mr. Trump’s vice-presidential search — and how his scramble to keep up with President Biden’s colossal fund-raising totals may be weighing on his mind as he considers his options.
Mr. Trump’s selection process, which is still in its early stages, has largely revolved around conventional questions like who could step in as president if needed, political calculations including contenders’ position on abortion rights, and more Trumpian curiosities like whether a politician physically resembles his idea of a vice president.
But Mr. Trump has asked several people about the fund-raising prowess of possible running mates, according to three people with direct knowledge of the conversations, signaling a fresh angle in his search for a running mate… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[2024 Austin City Council Race Watch]
This fall will see elections for the following Council Districts 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, and Mayor.
Declared candidates so far are:
Mayor
District 2
District 4
District 6
District 7 (Open seat)
District 10 (Open seat)
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