After Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax's proposed budget did not fully fund some existing homeless services nor allocate enough dollars to keep up with new permanent supportive housing units, City Council members are pushing to fill those gaps and expand other existing programs, like rapid rehousing, before approving the final budget this week.

To maintain status-quo operations at the city's Northbridge and Southbridge homeless shelters and have funding for new permanent supportive housing units expected to become available in the coming fiscal year, Mayor Kirk Watson proposed two budget amendments totaling just over $5.4 million that would be automatically included in future budgets.

Other City Council members have additional programs they would like to fund in the homeless service realm. Those include a one-time bump of between $2 million and $4 million to increase the number of people the city can take into rapid rehousing and just under $1 million in ongoing funding to fill "unmet needs" at the Downtown Austin Community Court… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Central Health board questions UT contracts in light of DEI firings (Austin Monitor)

Central Health leaders signaled they may seek to curtail or end contracts with the University of Texas’ Dell Medical School over objections to the university’s firing all staff involved in diversity, equity and inclusion programs in April.

At last week’s meeting of Central Health’s budget and finance committee, discussion turned to the health care district’s assorted services and cooperative agreements in place with the medical school aside from its annual $35 million payment that was approved by voters to cover treatment for vulnerable communities.

Board Member Cynthia Valadez said by enforcing the requirements of a new anti-DEI law passed last year by the state Legislature, the university was acting counter to Central Health’s commitment to equitable health care in Austin… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Driverless semis take on Texas (Community Impact)

The Texas Department of Transportation and road technology company Cavnue will establish a “smart corridor,” featuring sensors and cameras, on SH 130 from Georgetown through Del Valle in 2025.“SH 130 is one of many advanced toll roads in Texas with several technologies already like fiber, cellular, cameras and tolling facilities,” said Darran Anderson, TxDOT’s director of strategy and innovation... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Unionized restaurant workers at airport authorize strike if new contract not reached (Austin Business Journal)

Hundreds of food service and hospitality workers at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport could go on strike this fall if they don’t receive pay raises.

Employees of Delaware North — one of the airport's independent concessionaires that operates restaurants and other businesses at the facility — voted unanimously on Aug. 8 to authorize a strike if a collective bargaining agreement with the New York-based company isn't reached by Oct. 1, according to Unite Here Local 23. The union said it represents over 900 Delaware North employees at ABIA.

The union's main request is a minimum wage of $25 an hour for employees due to the rising cost of living, a 20% increase from $20.80 an hour now. The current minimum wage for city of Austin employees is $20.80 and took effect in 2023, a figure that applies to most city contractors.

In addition to the pay raise, the union also is seeking improved healthcare and retirement benefits, a union spokesperson said. The last collective bargaining agreement between Delaware North and Unite Here Local 23, a national union of food service workers and others, expired July 30… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Robert Kennedy Jr. will be on the 2024 Texas ballot (Texas Tribune)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent presidential candidate, will be on the Texas general election ballot this November.

The Texas Secretary of State's office announced Thursday afternoon that it had accepted Kennedy's petition to appear on the state ballot with 122,513 valid signatures. The Texas election code required a petition to have at least 113,151 valid signatures.

State Democrats said that Kennedy’s campaign didn’t have enough valid signatures and that his “attempt to overwhelm the system with bad signatures is just another example of his campaign’s disregard for the rules.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Democrats running for Sheila Jackson Lee’s congressional seat debate who is best suited to replace her (Texas Tribune)

Seven candidates vying to succeed Sheila Jackson Lee in Congress all pitched themselves on Saturday as the best equipped to bring home federal dollars, pass progressive policies and maximize Democratic turnout.

But few policy differences emerged as the seven – including former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards and state Reps. Jarvis Johnson and Christina Morales — appeared in the only scheduled debate ahead of a critical vote to decide who will replace the late Houston congresswoman on the November ballot.

Jackson Lee died July 19 at age 74 amid a battle with pancreatic cancer, having already won the Democratic primary earlier this year. Under Texas law, a committee of precinct chairs from Jackson Lee’s 18th Congressional District will pick a new candidate Tuesday to appear on the Nov. 5 ballot. The replacement nominee will be heavily favored to defeat Republican Lana Centonze in the solidly blue district… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

City is not in a recession or heading for one, Greater Houston Partnership economist says (Houston Chronicle)

The Houston region is not in a recession nor is it expected to slip into one, a leading local economist said Wednesday, despite fears that weaker-than-expected job growth in July had cast a pall on the nation’s outlook. “I think for the next 12 months, we’re OK,” Patrick Jankowski, senior vice president of research at Greater Houston Partnership, the area’s economic development organization, said at a downtown event. The gathering, marking the publication of GHP’s annual compendium of Houston Facts, came after several days of a whipsawing stock markets and fretful headlines caused by a disappointing jobs report released Friday. Federal data showed that the nation added 114,000 jobs in July while unemployment increased to 4.3% from 4.1%.

Jankowski highlighted statistics that bode well for the Houston region: From June 2023 to June 2024, the region added 78,000 jobs, bringing total employment in the region to nearly 3.5 million. About $22 billion in construction contracts were awarded from January to June, compared with $15.6 billion over the same period a year earlier — even as interest rates remain elevated. And in this year’s edition of the Kinder Institute’s long-running Houston Area Survey, released in May, 72% of respondents expressed excitement about the future — a result that suggests the kind of optimism that can bolster consumer and business spending, Jankowski said. “It’s hard to measure the impact, but it’s got to have an impact,” Jankowski observed.

“If three-fourths of everyone in the survey are excited about their future, that’s going to support some growth.” Jankowski also pointed to signs of strength in the national economy that suggest a more balanced picture. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, for example, on Tuesday forecast that the United States will see real growth in gross domestic product of 2.9% in the third quarter, compared with 2.8% in the second quarter. This is not the first time Jankowski has offered a similarly optimistic yet opposing view of the economy… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Dickinson council axes mayor's city hall office in drama's latest chapter (Houston Chronicle)

Once again, Dickinson’s political shenanigans are putting other towns in Galveston County—and the rest of Greater Houston, really—to shame. In its latest move, as reported by the Galveston County Daily News, Dickinson City Council voted earlier this week to do away with the mayor’s office entirely.

Not the position of mayor, mind you. Slated for elimination is the private physical space within City Hall designated for the mayor to do business. Furthermore, Mayor Sean Skipworth wasn’t even present when the vote came down, having been called away for a medical emergency.

"I wish they had waited to have this discussion when I could attend," he told the Daily News… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

As a new semester looms, students and colleges brace for more protests (NPR)

Many schools see it as a dangerously heady mix: students rested, ready and riled up, an intensifying conflict in the Middle East, and a turbulent U.S. election season. Many students are planning to join tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators expected to protest outside next week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

“It's just getting amped up, and unfortunately I think that translates into the potential for more, frankly, violent sort of activity on campuses,” says crisis communications consultant Jeff Hunt who’s working with dozens of schools this summer. He points to escalating rhetoric, for example, in Washington, D.C., where some protestors recently were supporting not just the Palestinian people in Gaza, but also Hamas and Hezbollah.

“That’s pretty goddamn scary,” Hunt says. “So there's a lot of administrators at these institutions quite worried and doing their best to prepare.”

For many schools, that means tightening their rules on protests and also reviewing or clarifying disciplinary processes. Case Western Reserve University, for example, has rolled out new rules limiting demonstrations to two hours’ duration, during the daytime, in only one designated space, and requiring written preapproval from the school at least seven days in advance.

The school has also banned the use of light projections on buildings and microphones or bullhorns, though students can file for an exception. A draft policy by Harvard would ban messages from being written with chalk on school property, and Columbia is considering giving their security officers the power to make arrests… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Americans’ refusal to keep paying higher prices may be dealing a final blow to US inflation spike (Associated Press)

The great inflation spike of the past three years is nearly spent — and economists credit American consumers for helping slay it.

Some of America’s largest companies, from Amazon to Disney to Yum Brands, say their customers are increasingly seeking cheaper alternative products and services, searching for bargains or just avoiding items they deem too expensive. Consumers aren’t cutting back enough to cause an economic downturn. Rather, economists say, they appear to be returning to pre-pandemic norms, when most companies felt they couldn’t raise prices very much without losing business.

“While inflation is down, prices are still high, and I think consumers have gotten to the point where they’re just not accepting it,” Tom Barkin, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, said last week at a conference of business economists. “And that’s what you want: The solution to high prices is high prices.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)