Austin Transit Partnership’s plan to seek court validation of its bond procurement process for the project — which is in response to legal pressure questioning the financing of the planned light rail network — is now being sidelined by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Paxton issued a recommendation on March 15 that the Travis County District Court dismiss the city's request.

ATP announced in February that it will seek to combine the request made in Travis County court with a lawsuit filed by former Travis County Judge Bill Aleshire that challenges the project’s financing methods.

If the court approves ATP's request, it would fast-track the lawsuit for completion within a year, compared with 18 months otherwise. The court is expected to review the case this spring; however, Paxton’s opinion may complicate that goal… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

I-35 Corridor looks to make a leap (San Antonio Business Journal)

Humility isn’t a common trait among communities engaged in the high-stakes recruitment of companies and talent. Yet, three years ago, amid a global health crisis that had shaken San Antonio’s economy, there was a moment of self-assessment that altered this city’s economic development playbook.

Compared to peers such as Austin, Denver and Nashville, San Antonio lacked strategy and funding.

“We don't stack up well with those top-performing economies,” the CEO of what was then the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation, Jenna Saucedo-Herrera, said.

In the summer of 2021, the group rebranded as greater:SATX and a year later it had raised nearly $40 million to back a multiyear, regional recruitment plan that now includes Austin among its allies. The organization has teamed with Opportunity Austin and other stakeholders in nearby communities on a multiyear regional plan backers believe could pay major dividends.

There are also some skeptics who wonder if San Antonio can work in tandem. And there are well-connected leaders who believe that San Antonio’s road to riches runs south — to Corpus Christi, Laredo, the Rio Grande Valley and Mexico… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Real estate lawsuit settlement upends decadeslong policies that helped set agent commissions (Associated Press)

Under the terms of the agreement announced Friday, the National Association of Realtors also agreed to pay $418 million to help compensate home sellers across the U.S.

Home sellers behind multiple lawsuits against the NAR and several major brokerages argued that the trade group’s rules governing homes listed for sale on its affiliated Multiple Listing Services unfairly propped up agent commissions. The rules also incentivized agents representing buyers to avoid showing their clients listings where the seller’s broker was offering a lower commission to the buyer’s agent, they argued.

As part of the settlement, the NAR agreed to no longer require a broker advertising a home for sale on MLS to offer any upfront compensation to a buyer’s agent. The rule change leaves it open for individual home sellers to negotiate such offers with a buyer’s agent outside of the MLS platforms, though the home seller’s broker has to disclose any such compensation arrangements… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

TikTok’s lobbying firms may be next target of blacklist by lawmakers (Politico)

After a successful effort to get some of K Street’s top firms to stop representing Chinese companies alleged to have links to China’s military, some China hawks in Congress are now considering blacklisting lobbying firms that represent TikTok or ByteDance from any meetings with congressional offices, four people familiar with the conversations tell Daniel.

— Members and staffers have had these discussions for around four months, but the conversations have become more serious in the last two weeks during the battle over Congress’ bid to force the sale of TikTok, according to two of the people, who were granted anonymity to talk about private discussions. The two staffers said that some members may make a formal decision and announcement on the matter in the next few weeks.

— “The volume of TikTok lobbyists in the last three weeks is eyebrow-raising and suspicious, and lobbyists or lobbying firms taking TikTok money will be viewed differently moving forward,” said a Republican member on the House China Committee, adding that the group of lawmakers discussing the idea is bipartisan…(FULL STORY HERE)

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