BG Reads 5.24.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - May 24, 2024

May 24, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

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May 24, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Austin is sued over vote to redevelop former Statesman offices (KUT)

🟣 Travis County judge decides to not issue final judgment now in case against Central Health (Austin American-Statesman)

🟣 Texas GOP convention kicks off with party leaders attacking Speaker Dade Phelan (Texas Tribune)

🟣 NCAA, leagues back $2.8 billion settlement, setting stage for current, former athletes to be paid (Associated Press)

Read On!

[BINGHAM GROUP]

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Austin is sued over vote to redevelop former Statesman offices (KUT)

A local organization has sued the City of Austin and council members over their handling of a plan to allow developers to build hotels, housing and restaurants along Lady Bird Lake.

The development has been referred to as the Statesman PUD, in part because the 19-acre plot is home to the former offices of the Austin American-Statesman. In December 2022, council members voted to approve a planned unit development for the site, meaning developers could build much more than allowed under current zoning rules.

Endeavor Real Estate Group planned to build nearly 1,400 apartments, 1.5 million square feet of office space and a 275-room hotel. A small fraction of the proposed housing could be set aside for people earning low incomes, although the council asked Endeavor to pay at least $23 million instead of building affordable housing on the property. The developer had also agreed to set aside land for parks and for a future light-rail station.

But in a lawsuit filed in Travis County District Court on Wednesday, the Save Our Springs Alliance alleges the city violated state law and local ordinances when it approved this plan for development. Attorney Bobby Levinski said the city violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by not adequately notifying nearby residents of the extent of the changes this development would have on the area… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Travis County judge decides to not issue final judgment now in case against Central Health (Austin American-Statesman)

A Travis County state district judge has decided not to issue a final judgment in the 2017 lawsuit against Central Health for funding projects that a group of local taxpayers said were outside Central Health's mission of providing health care for poor people in Travis County. The lawsuit is expected to proceed.

At the heart of the lawsuit were questions around whether Central Health, the hospital district for Austin and Travis County, could legally give $35 million each year to the University of Texas Dell Medical School, funding that taxpayers voted on in 2012 as part of establishing a medical school in Austin.

The plaintiffs believe Central Health can only spend money on providing health care to people at or below 200% of the federal poverty level in Travis County. Central Health provides care mainly through its Medical Assistance Program, which is similar to an insurance for people who don't qualify for Medicaid or Medicare and can't afford private insurance. It is funded by a property tax rate of 10.0692 cents per $100 valuation… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin Airport officials celebrate 25 years of travel, expand for the future (Community Impact)

ABIA first opened to the public May 23, 1999, replacing the Robert Mueller Municipal Airport. Mayor Kirk Watson was serving as Austin’s mayor at the time.Watson said at a groundbreaking on an expansion project for the airport April 22 he thought it was a “big airport” at the time, but now, the facility needs to expand for the growing number of passengers every year.

In 2023, airport officials experienced the busiest year on record for ABIA, breaking the year prior’s record by more than a million passengers.

This year alone, four days made the list of top 10 busiest days for ABIA, including the days following a total solar eclipse.An expansion and development program, spanning over multiple years and consisting of multiple projects, aims to address this growth and modernize the airport, said ABIA spokesperson Sam Haynes… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin airport anticipates 33,000 passengers Friday ahead of Memorial Day weekend (Austin American-Statesman)

Traveling to or from Austin on Memorial Day weekend? Austin-Bergstrom International Airport officials recommend arriving to the airport well in advance of your flight.

About 33,000 passengers are projected to pass through the doors at Austin-Bergstrom on Friday, airport spokesperson Sam Haynes said. A typical day can see between 28,000 and 30,000 people, she said.

The airport categorizes anything above 30,000 people as busy, 35,000 as very busy and 37,000 as record-breaking busy.

A total of 215,000 people passed through the Austin airport over Memorial Day weekend last year.

Domestic travelers should arrive at least 2.5 hours prior to their flights, and international passengers should arrive three hours prior, Haynes said. Passengers returning rental cars or checking luggage are encouraged to arrive even earlier to allow enough time for unexpected lines... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Texas GOP convention kicks off with party leaders attacking Speaker Dade Phelan (Texas Tribune)

Several top state Republican officials took aim at Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan on Thursday as the state party kicked off its biennial convention, intensifying the Texas GOP civil war days ahead of Phelan’s primary runoff.

Party Chair Matt Rinaldi, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton were the morning’s star speakers. All three of them called for a change of leadership in the Texas House.

Phelan, a Republican from Beaumont, is fighting for his political life in a primary that culminates next week. Despite a series of GOP wins under Phelan’s leadership, including the state’s abortion ban, critics say Phelan’s tenure hasn’t been conservative enough… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Documents detail how Texas’ DEI ban is changing university campuses (Texas Tribune)

In the most comprehensive picture yet of how Texas’ DEI ban has changed campuses across the state, recent communications with lawmakers reveal the range of steps university leaders have taken to comply with the law and keep billions in state funding.

University system leaders described their efforts in written responses to Sen. Brandon Creighton, the author of the DEI ban, after the Conroe Republican warned them they could lose their funding or face legal consequences if they weren’t following the law, which went into effect in January.

In documents obtained by The Texas Tribune and in public testimony before senators, leaders from all of Texas’ seven university systems said they have closed multicultural offices, fired or reassigned DEI staff and stopped requiring diversity statements, or letters in which job candidates in academia share their previous efforts to promote diverse learning spaces and help students of all backgrounds succeed… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

NCAA, leagues back $2.8 billion settlement, setting stage for current, former athletes to be paid (Associated Press)

The NCAA and the nation’s five biggest conferences announced Thursday night that they have agreed to pay nearly $2.8 billion to settle a host of antitrust claims, a monumental decision that sets the stage for a groundbreaking revenue-sharing model that could start steering millions of dollars directly to athletes as soon as the 2025 fall semester.

NCAA President Charlie Baker along with the commissioners of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conference released a joint statement saying they had agreed to settlement terms. They called the move “an important step in the continuing reform of college sports that will provide benefits to student-athletes and provide clarity in college athletics across all divisions for years to come.”

Terms were not disclosed, though some details have emerged in the past few weeks. They signal the end of the NCAA’s bedrock amateurism model that dates to its founding in 1906. Indeed, the days of NCAA punishment for athletes driving booster-provided cars started vanishing three years ago when the organization lifted restrictions on endorsement deals backed by so-called name, image and likeness money… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

House GOP to grill college leaders for negotiating with protesters (Politico)

A pair of university presidents testifying Thursday on Capitol Hill managed to quell their campus protests without calling in the police — only to make themselves a target for House Republicans who are lambasting their tactics as defeats.

Once praised in some circles for finding less chaotic ways of diffusing tensions over the Israel-Gaza war, Northwestern University and Rutgers University presidents are now facing GOP backlash for making deals with students to disband their pro-Palestinian encampments. The hearing about campus antisemitism is the latest in a litany of conservative reprimands for the way colleges balance free speech and public safety. It also serves as another political flare as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Education Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and other Republicans look to squeeze more attention out of campus strife and cement the idea that their party stands for restoring order ahead of the November election.

Thursday’s hearing serves to warn other institutions against hashing out deals with protesters and prod them to impose their policies around campus protests. House Republicans argue that the presidents sidelined the concerns of Jewish students and caved to small groups of students. “Enforce your rules that say no camping on campus, no threatening students, no harassing students, no occupying buildings,” Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.), a GOP member of the House education committee, said in an interview. “What you shouldn’t do is negotiate with people who are breaking the law.”

Foxx has called those leaders “spineless” and referred to their agreements as “shocking concessions to the unlawful antisemitic encampments on their campuses.” To disband the encampment on his campus, Northwestern President Michael Schill agreed to cover the tuition and other costs for five Palestinian undergraduates to attend the school and allowed students to continue protests through the end of the quarter, among other deals. At Rutgers University, President Jonathan Holloway agreed not to retaliate against pro-Palestinian protesters, and announced the school would discuss divestment requests with protesters, explore creating an Arab cultural center and support displaced Palestinian students so they can finish their studies at the school… (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

District 6

District 7 (Open seat)

District 10 (Open seat)

_________________________

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