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- BG Reads 5.23.2024
BG Reads 5.23.2024
🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - May 23, 2024
Bingham Group Reads
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May 23, 2024
Today's BG Reads include:
🟣 Austin's triple-digit weekend forecast is one of the earliest on record (KUT)
🟣 Austin to explore ‘climate fee’ to fund $1.8 billion in climate, environmental projects (KXAN)
🟣 Austin's interim police chief under fire for pardon letter in protest shooting (CBS Austin)
🟣 Texas GOP plots its next chapter amid civil war, depleted staff, funding drops (Texas Tribune)
🟣 Nikki Haley says she'll vote for Trump (NPR)
🟣 Daily marijuana use outpaces daily drinking in the US, a new study says (Associated Press)
Read On!
[BINGHAM GROUP]
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Austin's triple-digit weekend forecast is one of the earliest on record (KUT)
Temperatures in Austin could reach into the triple digits this weekend, according to current forecasts. Since record keeping began in 1898, there have been only six years when the city has hit the hundreds earlier, and Austinites are worried the early heat could be a harbinger of yet another scorching summer.
The pattern bringing heat to the region looks familiar: Meteorologists say a high pressure system or “heat dome” that has been parked over Mexico is pushing up into Texas and colliding with humid air to bring forecasted heat indexes as high as 110 in Austin by Sunday.
Those are similar atmospheric conditions to what the region faced last June, when a heat wave gripped the state, eventually bringing a record-breaking heat index of 118 on June 22... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin to explore ‘climate fee’ to fund $1.8 billion in climate, environmental projects (KXAN)
City of Austin chief sustainability officer Zach Baumer estimated the city would need $1.8 billion for its proposed environmental investment plan, according to a city memo Tuesday.
The plan began as a resolution by the city council for the city manager to “solicit community input and prepare options and associated costs of capital improvements or programs that would reduce carbon emissions, decrease water usage, improve water quality and water detention, advance the sustainability of City operations, and improve community resilience.”
Some of these projects came from analyzing preexisting city plans, but others emerged through public input.
A few of the most expensive projects are:
$1 billion purchase of 20,000 acres for use by the city;
Over $100 million for an Austin Resource Recovery transfer station and an electric vehicle charging network;
$100 million for community resilience programs;
Over $60 million for climate improvements to city facilities; and,
$50 million to create a “Food Hub.”
The full memo can be viewed here.
Committee to propose plans for historic Austin Mexican American school (Austin American-Statesman)
Members of East Austin’s longstanding Mexican American community will have a say in the redevelopment of the historic Palm School.
On Tuesday, the Travis County Commissioners Court agreed on a list of residents and partner organizations that will have a seat on the site’s steering committee and propose concept plans for the site. It also approved funding for an oral history project of the school’s alumni.
The former elementary school building’s future has remained in limbo since Travis County moved its health and human services department out of the building in 2020. The county originally considered selling the building. It eventually rejected a bid from the city and later took the building off the market after pushback from many East Austin Mexican Americans, who opposed the private development of the site.
The school served primarily Mexican American students during the last decades of its original life due to segregation and is seen by some as a cultural heritage site… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin's interim police chief under fire for pardon letter in protest shooting (CBS Austin)
There is more fallout Wednesday from a letter drafted by Austin police advocating for Daniel Perry’s pardon. The unsent letter rejects the guilty verdict of a Travis County jury that Perry shot and killed protester Garrett Foster four years ago.
It’s not unusual for police officers to write letters to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles about crimes they investigated. But almost always the letters try to keep convicted criminals behind bars. The letter in question did the opposite. It advocated for freeing Daniel Perry, calling the shooting “justifiable homicide” because while Garrett Foster was legally carrying an assault rifle, Perry says Foster raised it at him.
Governor Greg Abbott made headlines when he pardoned Perry for killing a Black Lives Matter protester in the summer of 2020. At the same time, Austin Police drafted a letter saying Perry acted in self-defense and should not have been charged with murder… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
‘This is the future,’ Austin restaurants use robot delivery in Mueller neighborhood (KXAN)
What if your food delivery came via a robot?
Some restaurants in Austin turned to artificial intelligence to help find cost-effective solutions to meet the rising demand for delivery services.
Austin-based company Avride is behind the autonomous delivery robot seen around the Mueller neighborhood.
“They can detect other objects, pedestrians, bicycles, cars, assess their speeds, distances to them, and plan their route accordingly,” said Avride’s Head of Communications Yulia Shveyko.
Shveyko said the robots will slow down before crossing the street and will yield to cars.
“Robots are technically not pedestrians,” Shveyko said. “So they have to give right away to all other kinds of traffic they meet other these are pedestrians, bicycles, motorbikes or cars.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Headliners Club in downtown Austin to receive $8M facelift (Austin Business Journal)
The Headliners Club in downtown Austin — where plenty of deals have been closed over the decades — is getting a facelift.
The social and professional club chartered in 1954 and located in Procore Tower will undergo an $8 million renovation starting in January, according to a May 22 announcement. A big part of the renovation will involve making it more useful for members, said Brian Greig, club chairman.
The roughly 900 members of the club, located at 221 W. Sixth St., use it as a place to take clients in addition to mingling with each other, Greig said. Members were surveyed regarding priorities, according to the announcement, and they largely requested more a la carte dining options, an updated bar area and enhancements to the overall décor… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas GOP plots its next chapter amid civil war, depleted staff, funding drops (Texas Tribune)
In one of his last speeches as chair of the Republican Party of Texas, Matt Rinaldi declared victory.
“We’ve changed the game,” he told members of the Texas GOP’s executive committee in February. “The biggest con that has been propagated against grassroots Republicans is that you have no other job other than to be a cheerleading society for anyone with an R next to their name.”
Rinaldi has indeed accomplished what he set out to do in 2021, when he was first elected chair. Whereas most of his predecessors focused on traditional party duties — courting donors, recruiting candidates and voter outreach — Rinaldi has turned the chair into a bully pulpit, using it to attack and purge more moderate Republicans and help usher in a dark-red wave in this year’s primaries.
But when he steps down as chair this week, he will leave behind a deeply divided organization, with a decimated staff, that is increasingly dependent on two ultraconservative megadonors who have played key roles in the party’s ongoing civil war.
Last year, the Texas GOP’s fundraising dropped to its lowest level since 2017, and the number of corporate and individual donors to the party’s state account sank to their lowest levels in at least a decade. The party currently has just five employees — compared to 50 at the same point in 2020, the last presidential election year... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Here’s the Houston department that got the biggest budget cut in Whitmire’s new spending plan (Houston Chronicle)
Houston’s Planning and Development Department could see the largest percentage budget cut under Mayor John Whitmire’s $6.7 billion proposal for the fiscal year starting in July. Compared to its estimated spending for last fiscal year, the department could see a 31% decrease in its operating budget.
The planning department oversees land development, sidewalk construction, historic preservation and transportation planning, among other responsibilities. It also helps manage the Houston Permitting Center. It was also one of the first departments to undergo leadership changes after Whitmire took office in January. Margaret Wallace Brown, appointed by former Mayor Sylvester Turner to lead the department in 2019, retired after nearly four decades of work for the city. She was replaced by her deputy Jennifer Ostlind.
The department has been allocated $17.8 million in the mayor’s proposed budget. Only $3.5 million – instead of the estimated $5 million for fiscal year 2024 – would come from the general fund, which is primarily supported by property and sales taxes and used for core city services. The rest of its funding would come mostly from a self-sustaining special revenue fund generated by permit review and other user fees.
Earlier this year, Whitmire asked all departments, except police and fire, to identify ways to cut 5% of their spending to address Houston’s growing financial challenges. The mayor’s final proposal includes more modest savings of $11.7 million across all city departments, mostly from eliminating staff vacancies, according to Finance Director Melissa Dubowski. The reduced funding, however, should not significantly impact core department services.
The decrease is due to the end of several one-time funding sources that supported projects including the expansion of Houston’s bike share program and a tracker for historic preservation applications, according to Ostlind. It is also because of the elimination of an internal accounting practice that previously transferred money between the general fund and the special revenue fund based on staffing needs… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US/WORLD NEWS]
Nikki Haley says she'll vote for Trump (NPR)
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who ended her bid for the Republican presidential run against former President Donald Trump, said at an event in Washington that she "will be voting for Trump."
Haley's remarks, her first on the matter since she dropped out of the race in March, came at an event at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank.
Haley, who served as an ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, held off for months on endorsing her former boss, even after dropping her own bid for the Republican nomination.
"Trump has not been perfect on these policies," Haley said, describing several foreign policy and economic issues. "I've made that clear many, many times. But Biden has been a catastrophe. So I will be voting for Trump."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Daily marijuana use outpaces daily drinking in the US, a new study says (Associated Press)
For the first time, the number of Americans who use marijuana just about every day has surpassed the number who drink that often, a shift some 40 years in the making as recreational pot use became more mainstream and legal in nearly half of U.S. states.
In 2022, an estimated 17.7 million people reported using marijuana daily or near-daily compared to 14.7 million daily or near-daily drinkers, according an analysis of national survey data. In 1992, when daily pot use hit a low point, less than 1 million people said they used marijuana nearly every day.
Alcohol is still more widely used, but 2022 was the first time this intensive level of marijuana use overtook daily and near-daily drinking, said the study’s author, Jonathan Caulkins, a cannabis policy researcher at Carnegie Mellon University.
“A good 40% of current cannabis users are using it daily or near daily, a pattern that is more associated with tobacco use than typical alcohol use,” Caulkins said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
The crypto industry is trying to elect political allies. The stakes couldn’t be higher. (Wall Street Journal)
Crypto companies are fighting for survival after a regulatory crackdown. Their latest strategy: spending big on this year’s elections. The industry has amassed a formidable war chest and is working to elect politicians it sees as allies and defeat those who are critical. A trio of super political-action committees has together raised more than $85 million, one of the largest amounts among PACs engaged in the 2024 elections. Fairshake, along with two affiliated super PACs, raised the funds from an industry A-list, including crypto exchange Coinbase Global and Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest. The push is being powered by a surge in crypto prices.
“This is the first time we’ve really had all the pieces in place,” said Kristin Smith, chief executive of the Blockchain Association, an industry group. Wealthy investors and big companies have long used campaign donations and lobbyists to win influence in Washington. What sets the crypto industry’s push apart this year is that its ability to keep operating in the U.S. is at stake. With regulators filing civil lawsuits alleging that the industry is running afoul of securities laws and prosecutors unsealing criminal indictments, some companies have been looking overseas for growth or relocating entirely.
Earlier this month, former President Donald Trump was asked what he would do if re-elected to stop crypto companies from leaving the U.S. “If we are going to embrace it, then we have to let them be here,” Trump said in support of the industry at Mar-a-Lago, his social club and part-time residence in Florida. Fairshake hasn’t yet weighed in on the presidential election. Previous attempts by crypto advocates to influence elections haven’t been as well-funded. In 2022, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried contributed to a PAC that ultimately raised $12 million. A federal judge sentenced Bankman-Fried to a quarter-century in prison on several counts of fraud earlier this year. This cycle is different. The industry has banded together after a string of lawsuits from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Crypto firms have brought on more lobbyists, working to convince lawmakers that Bankman-Fried’s FTX isn’t indicative of the industry… (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
Jade Lovera
District 6
District 7 (Open seat)
District 10 (Open seat)
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