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- BG Reads 7.10.2024
BG Reads 7.10.2024
šļø Bingham Group Reads - July 10, 2024
Bingham Group Reads
Presented by:
www.binghamgp.com
July 10, 2024
Today's BG Reads include:
š£ Spectrum says internet has been restored for Austin and Texas customers (KUT)
š£ Gov. Abbott says Biden comments about Hurricane Beryl aid are a ācomplete lieā (Texas Public Radio)
š£ U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett doubles down on push for Biden to step aside (Texas Tribune)
š£ House Demsā āsadā venting session yields no clear path forward on Bidenās future (Politico)
Read On!
[BINGHAM GROUP]
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Spectrum says internet has been restored for Austin and Texas customers (KUT)
Internet, cable and mobile services have been restored to Spectrum customers in Austin and Texas who experienced outages, the company tweeted Tuesday evening
In an earlier emailed statement, the company said the outage was due to a "third-party infrastructure issue caused by the impact of Hurricane Beryl."
Customers in the Austin area had reported the internet was down in several ZIP codes on social media. People started reporting outages in the city around noon, according to Downdetector.
People in San Antonio, Dallas and Houston also said they were experiencing service interruptionsā¦ (LINK TO FULL STORY)
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett doubles down on push for Biden to step aside (Texas Tribune)
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, dug in his heels during a meeting of House Democrats on Tuesday morning, urging the party to rally around an alternative candidate to President Joe Biden.
Doggett, who was the first House Democrat to publicly call for Biden to step aside, told reporters as he walked out of the closed-door meeting that he made his case once again to his colleagues that Biden is too weak to defeat Donald Trump.
āThe debate cannot be unseen,ā Doggett said of the June 27 debate, where Biden was raspy and at times incoherent. āThe president has been running behind. We needed a surge, we got a setback.ā
Biden is scheduled to visit Doggettās district on Monday, speaking at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austinā¦ (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Home sales increase year over year in San Marcos, Buda and Kyle in May (Community Impact)
The most recent data compiled by the Four Rivers Association of Realtors shows the number of homes sold in San Marcos decreased by over 21% year over year. Kyle saw an over 25% increase in homes sold in May 2024, with Buda having about a 9% increase since May 2023... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
For one city employee, Facebook posts lead to an impossible process (Austin Monitor)
In January, Rivera discovered a human resources complaint had been made against him and was shocked to discover that complaint was made by the head of his department, Planning Department Director Lauren Middleton-Pratt.
āItās not normal for someone at that level to make a complaint because they are the boss. ā¦ You counsel with the employee about your concerns,ā said Carol Guthrie, who is the business manager for the union representing city and county workers, Local 1624 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. āI have been doing this work for 30 years, and this is a first.ā
Because Middleton-Pratt took the unorthodox route of going to HR instead of talking directly to her employee about her concerns, she has decision-making power to uphold her complaint under the current system. On June 7, she found that her own complaint had merit and did not reverse a decision to issue a written reprimand. If Rivera would like to appeal that decision, that appeal would also go to Middleton-Prattā¦ (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas governor says Biden comments about Hurricane Beryl aid are a ācomplete lieā (Texas Public Radio)
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says itās not true that the president couldnāt reach state leaders about distributing emergency relief supplies after Hurricane Beryl, calling Joe Bidenās statements āa complete lie.ā
On Tuesday, the Houston Chronicle reported that Biden said he was trying to ātrack downā the governor to secure the disaster declaration request needed to release federal aid. Biden told the newspaper he did not connect until Tuesday afternoon with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is acting governor while Abbott is on an official trip to Asia.
A White House spokesman told the newspaper federal officials attempted to reach Abbott and Patrick multiple times. The president did not provide more details about his attempts to reach them.
āI've been trying to track down the governor to see ā I don't have any authority to do that without a specific request from the governor,ā Biden saidā¦ (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas leaders worry that Bitcoin mines threaten to crash the state power grid (Texas Tribune)
Texas is now home to 10 of 34 large Bitcoin mines.
During cold spells or heat waves, Texans are commonly called on to conserve power. For example, in August 2023, the stateās grid operator issued eight conservation requests, asking the public to reduce electricity use to help prevent an emergency in which rolling blackouts could be required. Increasingly, Texas lawmakers are worried that energy-hungry mines will make it harder to keep the lights on across the state.
āTheyāre going to put our grid at risk because of the power theyāre drawing,ā said state Sen. JosĆ© MenĆ©ndez, D-San Antonio, at a public hearing on June 12.
For more than six hours, senators on the Business and Commerce Committee (hearing link) pressed grid operators, public utility commissioners and representatives from industries, including manufacturing, oil and gas and cryptocurrency. Chief among legislatorsā concerns was the massive growth in energy demand on the stateās main electrical grid, which is estimated to go from a peak demand of about 85,000 megawatts last year to 150,000 megawatts in 2030, according to estimates from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
Following the hearing, in a post on social media, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick declared, āit canāt be the Wild Wild West of data centers and crypto miners crashing our grid and turning the lights off.āā¦ (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US and World News]
House Demsā āsadā venting session yields no clear path forward on Bidenās future (Politico)
House Democrats spent Tuesday morning privately venting to each other about President Joe Bidenās future. It left them no closer to resolving the split that has consumed their party.
In a closed-door caucus meeting hosted at Democratsā campaign headquarters, increasingly distressed Democrats spoke candidly to each other for the first time since Bidenās unnerving debate performance. Several lawmakers who have already called for Biden to step aside made their case, provoking a larger block of the caucus that believes Democrats need to stay united behind the president, according to about a half-dozen members in the room.
āItās the stupidest thing Iāve ever seen,ā said Biden-backer Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.), who called the presidentās critics a ācircular firing squad.ā
Closely watched House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries opened the private meeting with remarks about unity, according to one member, who interpreted those comments as support for Biden. But the New Yorker said little the rest of the meeting, allowing members to spend most of the time speaking to each other on open mics. Another person briefed on the meeting, granted anonymity to discuss private matters, described the mood as āsad and frustrated.āā¦ (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Ozempic's popularity leads to shortages for people with Type 2 diabetes (NPR)
Telehealth company Ro built a free online tool to help patients report shortages of these drugs. Every few seconds, the map lights up with a little lightning bolt, indicating someone at that location went to their pharmacy to get their weight loss or diabetes drug and couldnāt fill the prescription.
The tracker received 35,000 reports of shortages by mid-June, within the first two weeks of its launch, says Roās CEO Zach Reitano. āIt's sad that we received that many.ā The tool, which is available even to those who arenāt Ro.co customers, also tells people when it finds a supply of their GLP-1 drug within 100 miles of where they live.
These medications have been so wildly successful that the drugmakers canāt keep up with demand, says Boston University health economist Rena Contiā¦ (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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