BG Reads | News You Need to Know (December 17, 2019)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW -> BG Podcast Episode 65: Commercial Real Estate Market from Banking Perspective with Allan Rayson, Regions Bank (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Supreme Court Passes On Boise Camping Ban Case, Opening Up Austin's Rules To Lawsuits (KUT)
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to a ruling that found a ban against camping in public in Boise, Idaho, is unconstitutional.
The case against that city's ban on camping inspired, in part, Austin's decision to scale back its bans on camping and resting in public earlier this year. The justices' nondecision could open up Austin to lawsuits over its ordinances. "Theoretically, they could be challenged as unconstitutional now."
The Boise suit was first filed in 2009 by a handful of homeless people, who alleged the city's ticketing them for sleeping outdoors when it didn't have enough shelter space was unconstitutional. In 2014, city retooled its rules to prohibit ticketing when shelters were full. But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said that wasn't enough and that the ban on sleeping outdoors was unconstitutional… (LINK TO STORY)
Conflicts of interest have tainted Austin school closures, critics say (Austin American-Statesman)
The Austin school district has awarded $3 million to a company headed by the business partner of the district’s operations officer since he was hired in March 2018.
Matias Segura, the operations officer, is involved with his business partner in a separate, unrelated venture, and district officials insist that contracts have been properly awarded.
Still, critics have pointed to Segura’s position at the district — his job duties include overseeing contracting and procurement of services — as a possible conflict of interest…(LINK TO STORY)
Endeavor buys Aussie’s site south of downtown Austin (Austin American-Statesman)
In another acquisition of prime land, Austin-based Endeavor Real Estate Group has added to its holdings in a high-profile area just south of downtown Austin, purchasing the one-acre site that is now home to Aussie’s Grill & Beach Bar.
Bryce Miller, a founding principal with Endeavor, told the American-Statesman on Monday that the company has no immediate plans for either that site at 306 Barton Springs Road, or the adjacent one-third-acre tract that Endeavor bought in May that is home to Zax Restaurant & Bar. Zax is scheduled to close Dec. 31.
However, Miller said the purchase of the Aussie’s site sets the stage set for commercial development on the properties, which are in an area that is transforming with new development. With a significant stake in the area, Endeavor will have a major hand in shaping the south waterfront’s destiny… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Students face felony charges, expulsions as Texas schools ramp up fight against vaping (Texas Tribune)
Before entering the halls of Channing School high atop the Texas Panhandle last year, students were required to roll up their shirt sleeves to show they weren’t sneaking in e-cigarettes.
In North Texas’ Coppell Independent School District, “vape-detecting technology” — sensors akin to smoke alarms — are tucked in secret locations on campuses. They automatically ping administrators when suspicious chemicals wafting in the air indicate students might be vaping.
In other Texas school districts, students must sign out to use the bathroom during class, and drug-sniffing dogs are making the rounds.
Caught by surprise over the past two years as vaping flipped from trendy to deadly, terrified Texas school officials are aggressively attempting to quash the newest public health epidemic sweeping the nation’s youth and playing out in their bathrooms, classrooms and football stadiums… (LINK TO STORY)
Previewing second term, Turner vows to ‘expend political capital’ when needed (Houston Chronicle)
Mayor Sylvester Turner said he would seek to enact “transformational” changes in his second term, previewing an agenda that will require city leaders to confront politically difficult issues and vastly expand the use of public-private partnerships — a critical step for some of the mayor’s otherwise unfunded signature programs. Fresh off his re-election victory over Tony Buzbee, Turner also spoke in new detail Sunday about his plans to restructure the fire department, accelerate the city’s permitting process, build a new theme park and intensify efforts to repair damaged streets.
“I said when I came in, in 2015, I wasn’t going to ignore things because they were not politically convenient. That has not changed,” Turner said in an interview with the Chronicle. “If I have to expend political capital to get some things done, that’s exactly what we’re going to do.” Chief among Turner’s priorities, he said, is to improve Houston’s flood mitigation infrastructure and quicken the pace of recovery from Hurricane Harvey, which has lagged. The key flood control projects, Turner said, are the construction of new gates on the Lake Houston dam, detention basins in Inwood Forest, the North Canal Bypass channel and an underground detention basin south of the Memorial City area. Three of the projects have received initial funding through a federal grant program that covers a large share of the cost, with only the underground basin awaiting approval… (LINK TO STORY)
Democrats could gain control of the Texas House for the first time since 2001. Here are the seats in play in 2020. (Texas Tribune)
For the first time in years, Republicans and Democrats are acknowledging that the GOP could lose its grip on the Texas House — a turning point that would mark the state’s biggest political shakeup since the chamber last flipped nearly two decades ago.
With the 2020 ballot all but set, both parties are readying their candidates for the 150 state House races, with roughly 30 seats seen as competitive.
As recently as 2017, House Republicans relished in a 95-member majority. But now, Democrats, bolstered by their 12-seat pick-up last year, are effectively only nine away from gaining control of the chamber — and having a larger say in the 2021 redistricting process… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Vaping Nicotine Linked To Increased Risk Of Chronic Lung Disease (NPR)
The extreme cases of lung injury caused by vaping have raised awareness of the potential harms of electronic cigarettes.
Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began tracking the problem last March, there have been 52 confirmed deaths and about 2,400 hospitalizations.
Many of these acute illnesses are linked to black market THC products, but a growing body of evidence points to the risks associated with vaping nicotine.
For starters, there's evidence that teens who use e-cigarettes are more likely to have increased coughing, wheezing and other short-term effects such as asthma flares… (LINK TO STORY)
US tech groups rebuff Trump’s new anti-Huawei push (Austin Business Journal)
US technology companies have rebuffed a Trump administration request that they pledge to stop sourcing supplies from some Chinese companies, amid concerns that such a policy could break competition laws.
The state department asked telecoms carriers and chipmakers to sign up to a set of principles which would have in effect shut out Huawei, and possibly others, according to three people briefed on the proposals.
The initiative, led by Keith Krach, under-secretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, and a former tech industry executive who oversees its Office of Global Partnerships, was aimed at securing support for what the department called a Global Digital Trust Standard… (LINK TO STORY)
The DNC chairman knows no one is happy. Neither is he. (New York Times)
Some Democrats say the party’s presidential debate stage is too big. Some say it is too small. Some say it is too white. Nothing the Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez does is just right. “I’ve had days where I’ve gotten calls, literally, one after another, from person A, who I have great respect for, who said, ‘You’ve got to help. We need a narrower field,’” Mr. Perez said from the couch in his office, four blocks south of the Capitol. “Then person B calls saying, ‘The field is too narrow.’”
Being a national chairman for the party that doesn’t hold the White House is among the worst jobs in American politics. It’s a high-profile position with little power. There is endless grief from fretting party regulars and nonstop comparisons to the president’s party, which has the president himself as its chief fund-raiser. Mr. Perez never aspired to be Democratic Party chairman. But weeks after Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton, he was privately urged to do it by President Barack Obama, under whom he had served as labor secretary. Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas, among others, thought it was important to have a Latino at the head of the party. He joined other Latino officials who gave Mr. Perez a nudge during a late-night session at the Capitol Hill townhouse of Henry Muñoz, who was then the party’s finance chairman. Mr. Perez won an endorsement from former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr… (LINK TO STORY)
The Bingham Group, LLC is an Austin-based full service lobbying firm representing and advising clients on municipal, legislative, and regulatory matters throughout Texas.
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