BG Reads 7.9.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - July 9, 2024

July 09, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

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July 9, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Beryl knocks out power to nearly 3 million in Texas (Associated Press)

🟣 Austin inches closer to air conditioning mandates for residences (Community Impact)

🟣 How Williamson County narrowly lost out on a multibillion-dollar semiconductor project (Austin Business Journal)

🟣 Read Biden’s full letter to congressional Democrats declining to leave the 2024 presidential race (PBS News)

Read On!

[BINGHAM GROUP]

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Austin inches closer to air conditioning mandates for residences (Community Impact)

A new city mandate for air conditioning in all residences is moving closer to final approval, and residents can weigh in on the change in July.

The city is in the process of revising its technical codes, including its first proposed air conditioning mandate under the building code.The update would require all residential property owners to keep rooms at least 15 degrees cooler than outdoor temperatures, and no hotter than 85 degrees Fahrenheit at most.If implemented, the standards would apply for all existing properties and new construction in Austin.

Austinites can weigh in on the new building code items online until July 24. The revisions will also be discussed at the July 9 planning commission meeting before heading to City Council later this summer for final approval.The provisions are proposed to go into effect in January, although council would finalize that timeline. If adopted, the city's development services department would enforce the cooling rule through its inspections team for new buildings and through code compliance teams in existing residences… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

How Williamson County narrowly lost out on a multibillion-dollar semiconductor project (Austin Business Journal)

During spring break 2023, leadership of South Korea-based SK Hynix Inc. gathered at the headquarters of the Georgetown Independent School District to hear a pitch from economic development leaders about potentially following the lead of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and locating in Williamson County.

The event, which lasted for over seven hours, began as more of a pep rally than a business meeting. To kick things off, the company was shown a video of the Texas Longhorns winning the 2005 college football national championship — and specifically, the famous highlight of quarterback Vince Young scampering into the Rose Bowl end zone for the game-winning touchdown.

"They responded really well, but they went bonkers though when we had Vince Young run into the room," Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell said.

It wasn't enough, however.

More than a year later, some of those involved in making the pitch — which included officials from the county north of Austin as well as the University of Texas, Opportunity Austin, Williamson County Economic Development Partnership, the city of Georgetown, the school district, the governor's office, Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area and others — pulled back the curtain on that high-stakes, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to lure one of the world's largest semiconductor vendors…(LINK TO FULL STORY)

Food banks struggle to keep up post-pandemic (KUT)

Sari Vatske, president and CEO of the Central Texas Food Bank, said more than 16% of adults and 25% of children in the region are food insecure. This means they don't know if they will have enough food or where their next meal will come from.

At the end of 2023, food insecurity in the 21 counties the Central Texas Food Bank serves — including Travis, Hays and Williamson — was at 14%. That's slightly higher than the national average, according to Vatske.

The phasing out of COVID-19 assistance, like stimulus checks and temporary food stamp programs, has increased reliance on food banks. Inflation has added to the strain.

The USDA reports the cost of groceries should go up by about 2.5% each year, with some items like beef and eggs getting even more expensive annually. But prices increased overall by 11.4% in 2022 and another 5% in 2023.

“We are surpassing the number of individuals that we're serving now, beyond at the height of the pandemic,” Vatske said.

A survey conducted by her organization in 2023 showed 36% of respondents had to choose between paying for food or for rent… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Pro-Palestine protests at UT Austin bring changes to the university's free speech rules (CBS Austin)

 Pro-Palestine protests at the University of Texas at Austin have resulted in changes to the university’s speech, expression, and assembly rules. Revisions are made on an ongoing basis to the free speech policies, but the latest changes came after an executive order from Governor Greg Abbott. The Texas Governor ordered an update to the university’s free speech policies as protests against the Israel-Hamas war escalated on campuses across the country.

The protests on the UT Austin campus resulted in more than 130 arrests during the last week of April. More than two months later, updates to the university’s free speech policies are bringing them more closely in line with UT’s police response to those protests.

Section 13-101 of the policies governing Speech, Expression and Assembly reads: "The University of Texas at Austin Police Department (UTPD) and any other peace officer with lawful jurisdiction may immediately enforce these rules if a violation of these rules constitutes a breach of the peace, compromises public safety, or violates the law. They may also assist dean of students staff or other University officials, as appropriate, when individuals refuse to follow University rules."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Beryl knocks out power to nearly 3 million in Texas (Associated Press)

After Hurricane Beryl slammed into Texas early Monday, knocking out power to nearly 3 million homes and businesses, unleashing heavy rain and killing at least three people it moved east and later weakened to a tropical depression, the National Hurricane Center said Monday evening. The fast-moving tempest threatened to carve a harsh path over several more states in coming days.

Texas state and local officials warned it could take several days to restore power after Beryl came ashore as a Category 1 hurricane and toppled 10 transmission lines and knocked down trees that took down power lines.

Beryl later weakened into a tropical storm and then a tropical depression, far less powerful than the Category 5 behemoth that tore a deadly path of destruction through parts of Mexico and the Caribbean last weekend.

But the winds and rains of the fast-moving storm were still powerful enough to knock down hundreds of trees that had already been teetering in water-saturated earth, and strand dozens of cars on flooded roadways… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Texas funnels millions to anti-abortion groups with little oversight (Texas Tribune)

Year after year, while Roe v. Wade was the law of the land, Texas legislators passed measures limiting access to abortion — who could have one, how and where. And with the same cadence, they added millions of dollars to a program designed to discourage people from terminating pregnancies.

Their budget infusions for the Alternatives to Abortion program grew with almost every legislative session — first gradually, then dramatically — from $5 million starting in 2005 to $140 million after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the right to an abortion.

Now that abortion is largely illegal in Texas, lawmakers say they have shifted the purpose of the program, and its millions of dollars, to supporting families affected by the state’s ban.

In the words of Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican from Plano, the goal is to “provide the full support and resources of the state government … to come alongside of these thousands of women and their families who might find themselves with unexpected, unplanned pregnancies.”

But an investigation by ProPublica and CBS News found that the system that funnels a growing pot of state money to anti-abortion nonprofits has few safeguards and is riddled with waste… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

Read Biden’s full letter to congressional Democrats declining to leave the 2024 presidential race (PBS News)

President Joe Biden, in a letter to congressional Democrats, stood firm against calls for him to drop his candidacy and called for an “end” to the intraparty drama that has torn apart Democrats since his dismal public debate performance… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

The week when big Biden donors started defecting (Wall Street Journal)

President Biden’s widely anticipated television interview Friday seemed mostly to harden already-forming positions among major Democratic donors—in both directions. For some doubters, the 22-minute sit-down with Biden, while seen as neither eminently encouraging or disqualifying, did little to undo last week’s debate damage and the concerns it unleashed.

Rick Caruso, a Los Angeles developer, former L.A. mayoral candidate and Democratic donor who co-hosted a multimillion-dollar fundraiser for Biden in December, said in an interview Saturday he would pause efforts for Biden’s re-election until he can get more clarity. Caruso said he lost heart with the debate, and Friday’s interview on ABC News didn’t change his position. “The question is not only can you be a viable candidate, but also do you have the ability to be the president of the United States,” Caruso said.

On X on Friday, he said stepping aside was the “honorable thing for President Biden to do.” With Biden reiterating his determination Friday to stay in the race, a political game of chicken is taking shape. Some Democrats have said they would withhold support if Biden is the nominee. But if Biden hangs on, those donors might bow to pressure to give once again or feel they will risk aiding former President Donald Trump’s victory by remaining on the sidelines.

The Biden campaign since the June 27 debate debacle is working to avoid a trickle of defectors from turning into a waterfall. In recent days, Democratic supporters such as Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and Abigail Disney, an heiress to the Disney fortune, said they were halting support until a new nominee was atop the ticket. Others said they would shift their funding efforts toward House and Senate races, where Democrats are worried the president’s poor showing could affect down-ballot results. Some held firm for Biden.

“I have been a long-time admirer of the president and continue to support his reelection efforts,” said philanthropist Amy Goldman Fowler in an email Saturday. It said the prior day she made an additional significant contribution; someone familiar with it said it exceeded $400,000… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Earnings season to test investors’ faith in big tech stocks (Wall Street Journal)

An elite cadre of tech giants that drove the stock market to records is under pressure to keep the party going this earnings season. The S&P 500 has climbed 17% this year, fueled by investor excitement over artificial intelligence that has sent shares of Nvidia and its fellow tech titans to dramatic heights. The chip maker’s stock has more than doubled this year, pushing its market value above $3 trillion. Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft have surged as well, with all logging double-digit gains. The growing size of the index’s heavyweights means a lot is riding on their ability to deliver profits and guidance in coming weeks that justify their sky-high valuations.

“You have an unusual situation where you have fantastic companies and transformative industries, but is the bar set too high even for them?” said Jim Smigiel, chief investment officer at SEI.

Optimism has abounded even after last year’s AI-fueled rally. The top 10 companies in the S&P 500 make up 37% of the index’s market cap but contribute 24% to its earnings—the widest such gap since the third quarter of 1990, according to data from Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management. “The problem for the S&P 500 today is not only the high concentration but also the record-high bullishness on future earnings from a small group of companies,” Slok wrote.

Overall, companies in the S&P 500 are expected to report a fourth straight quarter of earnings growth, with profits projected to have climbed 8.8% from last year’s second quarter, according to FactSet. That would mark the biggest increase since the first quarter of 2022. In the week ahead, investors will get results from banking behemoths JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, as well as Delta Air Lines, PepsiCo and Conagra. They will also get fresh insight on inflation with the release of the consumer-price index for June, which could influence the Federal Reserve’s outlook on interest rates… (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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