BG Reads 6.10.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - June 10, 2024

June 10, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

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June 10, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 City exploring private real estate for homeless shelters ahead of Marshalling Yard closure (Austin Monitor)

🟣 Environmental Commission looks to make Austin buildings safer for birds (Austin Monitor)

🟣 Texas Democrats to focus on gaining ground in November, boosting their urban advantage (Dallas Morning News)

🟣 With new rules, the Texas GOP seeks to keep its elected officials in line (Texas Tribune)

🟣 Supreme Court to rule on pivotal abortion cases two years after overturning Roe v. Wade (NBC News)

Read On!

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

✅ Today is the submission deadline for prospective Austin Police Chief candidates. Posting link here. It was shared by the City Manger’s office last week that APD Interim Chief Robin Henderson would not be applying, and intended to retire once a permanent chief was hired.

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

City exploring private real estate for homeless shelters ahead of Marshalling Yard closure (Austin Monitor)

The city is searching through a variety of private real estate options that could serve as temporary congregate shelter space beginning in March 2025, when the Marshalling Yard facility is slated to close.

Last week, City Council’s Public Health Committee heard a presentation from the Homeless Strategy Office on the progress in creating a plan to wind down operations at the 300-bed shelter that has become the primary location for diverting those living in encampments or other areas without housing.

With the closure looming, HSO Director David Gray told the committee that the Marshalling Yard will begin limiting its intake of new clients beginning in September to those who already have a pathway to rehousing, whether with a family member or via a voucher for permanent supportive housing. In December, the facility will stop accepting new clients entirely so staff can focus on rehousing the remaining people in permanent housing or in shelter facilities operated elsewhere in the city.

“When possible, we’re gonna move people into permanent housing or a housing opportunity,” Gray said in response to questions about contingencies for the unhoused currently living at the Marshalling Yard.

“We might move people into shelter, but we are not going to return anybody to the streets, unless that client decides to reject every opportunity that we give them and then they self-select to return to homelessness.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Environmental Commission looks to make Austin safer for birds (Austin Monitor)

The Environmental Commission voted Wednesday to form a working group to delve into how Austin can live up to its “Bird City” title by creating bird-safe buildings.

The near-unanimous vote, with Colin Nickells abstaining, followed a presentation by Heidi Trudell, who researches the prevention of birds colliding with human-made structures and who prepared her report at the request of the Travis Audubon Society.

Trudell previously presented her work to the Design Commission and the South Central Waterfront Advisory Board.

The working group will include commissioners Jennifer Bristol, Peter Einhorn and Dave Sullivan. Representatives of the Austin arm of the American Institute of Architects, Travis Audubon, the Design Commission and the Animal Advisory Commission will be asked to join the working group.

Texas lags behind other states and cities that have passed regulations requiring builders to integrate bird-friendly materials – such as covered light fixtures and nonreflective glass – into their developments.

The resolution introduced by Bristol notes that Austin could potentially lead the way for other Texas cities to adopt bird-safe design standards. An avid birder, Bristol said it’s “sobering” to witness the decline in bird species from season to season… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Owner of iconic Austin boat rental company trying to save it as contract issue looms (KVUE)

Zilker Park Boat Rentals has held a prime location near Barton Springs since 1969. But now, a contract issue is threatening to move them out.

Laura Massengale’s parents Dorothy and Howard Barnett started the boat rental company with just nine canoes 55 years ago.

“I think it’s the number one bucket list place to go to experience old Austin,” Massengale said. “We’re the original ‘Keep Austin Weird’ people."

Every five to 10 years, the company has to put their contract out for a bid. Massengale said over the past few years, the bidding process has become more difficult, especially with the Zilker Park Vision Plan that will no longer be moving forward.

In 2024, the city was supposed to put out their new contract around May, but it hasn’t happened yet… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Texas Democrats to focus on gaining ground in November, boosting their urban advantage (Dallas Morning News)

Texas Democrats concluded their state convention with hopes of making gains in the November general election, starting with electing Colin Allred over U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. They also want to pick up seats in the Texas House and help President Joe Biden improve his performance in Texas, with the latter providing critical coattails for down-ballot candidates. Here are three takeaways from the convention in El Paso: Much of the narrative surrounding Texas Democrats is how they haven’t won a statewide race since 1994, a losing streak that has defined the party’s futility but doesn’t account for the power they have gained in urban strongholds. Democrats control nearly every major city and many of the state’s largest counties. In Dallas County, Democrats hold every countywide office and every seat on the county commissioners court. There are only two Republican state lawmakers — Reps. Morgan Meyer and Angie Chen Button — who live in Dallas County, once a bastion of conservatism.

The Democratic advantage in urban areas means elected leaders can implement progressive policies that frequently run counter to the Republican statewide agenda. In 2019, DeSoto became the first North Texas city to offer paid family leave to its employees, though city government is technically nonpartisan. Some urban district attorneys have embraced criminal justice reform, including Dallas County’s John Creuzot, a Democrat who is a pioneer of diversion programs that steer nonviolent offenders away from prison and into treatment and prevention programs. Allred, a member of the U.S. House from Dallas, kept his keynote convention address simple. His goal is to oust Cruz from the Senate.

That feat, he contends, would instantly make Texas better. Allred needs a united Democratic Party, but that won’t be enough. There are more Republicans than Democrats in the Texas electorate, and it’s likely too late and too impractical to rely on a mass mobilization of new and infrequent voters to impact the November elections. That’s why Allred is running for Senate by touting bipartisanship, at times pressing Biden on issues related to border security and energy — both important to Texas... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

With new rules, the Texas GOP seeks to keep its elected officials in line (Texas Tribune)

Republican voters in Texas sent a strong message this primary season about their expectations for ideological purity, casting out 15 state House GOP incumbents who bucked the grassroots on issues like school vouchers or the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton.

At the same time this spring, the party itself has been making moves beyond the ballot box to keep its elected officials in line.

At its biennial convention last month, the Texas GOP tried to increase its party purity by approving two major rules changes: One would close the Republican primary elections so that only voters the party identifies as Republicans can participate. The other would bar candidates from the primary ballot for two years after they had been censured by the state party.

Jon Taylor, a political science professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said the moves are clear political shots by the increasingly dominant right wing of the party to root out dissenters and shape the party in its image... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

Supreme Court to rule on pivotal abortion cases two years after overturning Roe v. Wade (NBC News)

The Supreme Court is set to rule this month on two major abortion cases with significant nationwide implications as the justices revisit the issue for the first time since overturning Roe v. Wade. The 2022 decision to end the right to obtain an abortion sent shockwaves across the country, leading to a new wave of state abortion restrictions and emboldening anti-abortion activists to seek other ways to restrict the practice. In the most closely watched case, the court is weighing whether to impose new restrictions on the commonly used abortion pill mifepristone, including putting new curbs on access by mail.

In the other case, which has received less attention but could have far-reaching implications of its own, the justices are considering whether a near-total abortion ban in Idaho conflicts with a federal law requiring emergency medical care for patients, including pregnant women.

Rabia Muqaddam, a lawyer at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which backs abortion rights, said the 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization “set off a chain reaction that we are seeing in all sorts of ways,” including the two cases now before the court… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Apple expected to enter AI race with ambitions to overtake the early leaders (Associated Press)

Apple’s annual World Wide Developers Conference on Monday is expected to herald the company’s move into generative artificial intelligence, marking its late arrival to a technological frontier that’s expected to be as revolutionary as the invention of the iPhone.

The widely anticipated display of AI to be embedded in the iPhone and other Apple products will be the marquee moment at an event that traditionally previews the next version of software that powers the company’s hardware lineup.

And Apple’s next generation of software is expected to be packed with an array of AI features likely to make its often-bumbling virtual assistant Siri smarter, and make photos, music, texting — and possibly even creating emojis on the fly — a more productive and entertaining experience.

True to its secretive nature, Apple hasn’t provided any advance details about Monday’s event being held at the company’s Cupertino, California, headquarters… (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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