BG Note | News - What We're Reading (February 5, 2018)
[Austin Metro]
Stadium opposition moves east to Guerrero Park (Austin Monitor) LINK TO STORY
East Austin residents and other community groups are pushing for City Council to take a vote on a resolution that would remove city parkland from the sites under consideration for a proposed stadium for a Major League Soccer club.
Groups such as People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources (PODER) and the East Riverside/Oltorf Combined Neighborhood Planning Area want Council Member Ann Kitchen to put the resolution back on the agenda for the Feb. 15 Council meeting. The item was proposed when two parkland sites were under consideration for the stadium site, but was pulled after Precourt Sports Ventures – the group looking to relocate the Columbus Crew team to Austin – said it would no longer try to build the stadium on Butler Shores Metropolitan Park...
Austin Monitor Radio: District 1 candidate Lewis Conway Jr. (Austin Monitor) LINK TO STORY
This week, District 1 City Council candidate Lewis Conway Jr. sits down with Austin Monitoreditor Elizabeth Pagano and freelancer Caleb Pritchard for a conversation about why he’s running for office, why there is some question about whether he can serve and what he thinks District 1 needs...
Austin council members want to restore parts of police contract (Austin American-Statesman) LINK TO STORY
Some members of the Austin City Council plan to bring forward a resolution to restore some provisions of the former contract between the city and Austin police union while a larger agreement is worked out.
A post on the council’s online message boards from members Alison Alter, Jimmy Flannigan, Ora Houston, Ann Kitchen and Ellen Troxclair said their offices have been forging a path toward a new contract since the council voted to send the last proposed contract back to negotiators in December...
New 459th district judge’s seat draws three candidates (Austin American-Statesman) LINK TO STORY
No matter what happens in the March 6 Democratic primary, Aurora Martinez Jones will come out of it as a judge. She presently holds the title of Travis County associate court judge, charged with taking on cases whenever the county’s state District Court judges need a hand. She was hired to the nonelected position when the Commissioners Court created it in 2014. But Martinez Jones wants a bigger role with more influence as she runs against Austin lawyers Greg Hitt and Maya Guerra Gamble to be judge in the new 459th District Court...
[STATE]
Democratic candidate for governor owns a business that touches border debate (San Antonio Express-News) LINK TO STORY
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew White owns a company that sells “heartbeat” technology to find people hiding in vehicles, counting the federal government and the state of Texas among its customers. The Geovox Security Inc. technology isn’t used on the U.S. border, White said, although the company has demonstrated it to the Border Patrol and would happily sell it for that purpose if given the chance.
“We sell it to anybody to who has a security need, whether it is a prison or a nuclear facility, a border crossing or a military facility. We sell it all over the world,” White told the San Antonio Express-News. “We will sell it any time anyone wants to buy it...
Texas Transportation Commission member Victor Vandergriff reportedly stepping down (Texas Tribune) LINK TO STORY
Texas Transportation Commission member Victor Vandergriff plans to step down from the board that oversees the state’s transportation agency, according to a report from D Magazine. That would make the North Texas man the second transportation commissioner to decide to step down in recent days.
It would also leave Republican Gov. Greg Abbott needing to replace two members of the five-person body as the Texas Department of Transportation figures out how to rework a long-term transportation plan without relying on toll lanes or toll roads to help fund major highway projects...