BG Reads | News You Need to Know (October 28, 2019)
[BG PODCAST]
NEW -> Episode 58: The Future of Austin politics with Good Politics' Liz Coufal and Nathan Ryan (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Gov. Abbott and Mayor Adler clash over homelessness again (KXAN)
The Mayor of Austin and the Governor of Texas are at it again – arguing over homelessness in Austin. Mayor Steve Adler and Gov. Greg Abbott have a history of debating over the issue on Twitter, and this time it is about a video from February 2018.
Friday evening, Abbott shared a video on Twitter that showed a man throwing parts of street signs at a car in downtown Austin. “Austin’s policy of lawlessness has allowed vicious acts like this,” Abbott said in his tweet. “Austin’s inability to restore order will compel the State to act beginning Nov. 1 if action is not taken to ensure public safety.” Adler responded to Abbott’s tweet Saturday morning informing him the video posted is from February 2018, before the recent ordinance changes.… (LINK TO STORY)
Weekend testimony highlights continued rift among Austinites’ competing visions for new land development code (Community Impact)
Hundreds of Austinites spent their Saturday at City Hall to tell the city’s volunteer planning commissioners what they thought about the proposed revision to Austin’s rules governing how city land is used. The testimony highlighted the continued gaps between competing visions for the future of Austin’s land use and housing landscape.
The community effort to rewrite Austin’s land-development code has been ongoing and polarizing since 2012. The impact of Austin’s explosive growth on land demand, housing affordability and availability sparked the decision to rewrite the land code, which has not seen any significant revisions since 1984.
City staff released the latest proposal for the land code rewrite, which included updated zoning maps and a revised code text, on Oct. 4. The release marked the fourth such draft since 2017. According to numbers provided by city staff, the new code creates room for 397,000 new housing units—up from 145,000—and roughly 9,000 new, incentivized income-restricted units—up from 1,500. The proposed zoning maps allow for the denser development of apartments and missing middle housing—which offers between two and eight units on a single lot—in high-opportunity areas, such as in and around neighborhoods along busy transit corridors. Roughly 80% of new housing capacity is proposed to be in these locations… (LINK TO STORY)
Austin Leaders Will Officially Recognize The Intersex Community This Weekend (KUT)
On Saturday, the City of Austin will officially recognize Intersex Awareness Day for the first time.
According to the Texas Freedom Network, Council Members Greg Casar and Jimmy Flannigan will join Mayor Steve Adler “to publicly commit to enacting concrete protections for intersex individuals.” Members of the medical community also plan to issue a public apology for what they see as “past wrongdoings.”
People who are intersex were born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit typical definitions of “female” or “male.”… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Houston mayor’s race barrels toward Election Day with rowdy first week of early voting (Houston Chronicle)
With early voting underway in the Houston mayor’s race, political rivals Tony Buzbee and Bill King have sharpened their attacks on each other, while Mayor Sylvester Turner has sought to capitalize on the strife with ads pummeling Buzbee for his recent dust-up with a conservative anti-LGBTQ power broker.
The crossfire between the three mayoral adversaries has reached arguably its most intense and aggressive point yet, with King bashing Buzbee daily in hopes of leap-frogging him into a runoff with Turner, and Buzbee assailing both of his foes as he aims to deny Turner an outright win and maintain his second-place position. King, who trailed Buzbee by 16 points in a University of Houston poll released Oct. 20, has flooded his email blasts and social media posts with anti-Buzbee jabs…. (LINK TO STORY)
Drawing Trump parallels, Sylvester Turner battles Tony Buzbee, other competitors in rollicking Houston mayoral race (Texas Tribune)
The ominous specter of Donald Trump. “Late-night texts” with a generously compensated intern. A “deep fake” ad — allegedly. And on Thursday morning, a reported break-in at a campaign headquarters.
With early voting underway, the Houston mayoral race is not lacking for drama, but through it all, a fundamental question has persisted: Whatever the first-term stumbles of incumbent Sylvester Turner, is the solidly blue city willing to vote him out for a less-than-Democratic alternative? His closest competitor, swashbuckling attorney Tony Buzbee, is feverishly testing that hypothesis ahead of the Nov. 5 election, spending millions of his dollars to portray Turner as awash in corruption — and Buzbee as the City Hall outsider who can clean it all up… (LINK TO STORY)
Conditions deteriorating at makeshift camp on the Rio Grande where thousands await U.S. asylum (Texas Tribune)
The makeshift shelters are clustered just past the river’s edge, a rainbow of tarp colors, woven with trash bags and held together with sticks, stones and metal rods that have become home to an estimated 2,000 migrants from Honduras to El Salvador, Nicaragua to Mexico.
Some have lived here for months; all of them are waiting for decisions on asylum claims that may never succeed.
This refugee camp yards from the Texas border has been here since summer 2018, but it has grown exponentially since July — the result of Trump administration policies aimed at forcing migrants to wait south of the river before and after requesting asylum. Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, agreed to these policies after Trump threatened tariffs, but the Mexican government isn’t providing much help to the migrants camped on its northern border…. (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
John Conyers, longest-serving African American congressman, dies at 90 (Politico)
Former Rep. John Conyers, the longest-serving African-American congressman in American history, died Sunday.
The Detroit Democrat, who served from 1965 until a sexual harassment scandal led to his resignation, was 90.
“Former Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan has died at 90,” the journalist Yamiche Alcindor tweeted Sunday afternoon. “I just spoke with his son, John Conyers III who told me his father passed away in his sleep. Rep. Conyers represented the Detroit area for more than five decades before resigning in 2017.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Rep. Katie Hill, Facing An Ethics Investigation, Says She Will Resign (NPR)
Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., says she plans to resign in the face of an ethics investigation stemming from allegations that she had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a member of her congressional staff.
"It is with a broken heart that today I announce my resignation from Congress," Hill wrote in a statement released on Sunday. "This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do, but I believe it is the best thing for my constituents and our country."… (LINK TO STORY)
Wind-Fueled Wildfires Push California Governor To Declare State Of Emergency (NPR)
California's governor declared a statewide emergency on Sunday to free up state aid as extreme winds continued to fan wildfires, prompting mandatory evacuations of nearly 200,000 residents.
The raging fires have engulfed thousands of acres in both Northern and Southern California. And as firefighters race to control the blazes, those who have not been forced to evacuate are dealing with other effects from the flames — including rolling blackouts and poor air quality.
"We are deploying every resource available, and are coordinating with numerous agencies as we continue to respond to these fires," Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement…. (LINK TO STORY)