BG Reads | News You Need to Know (August 20, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
*NEW* BG Blog: State Leaders Threaten Property Tax Revenue Freeze Over Police Defunding (BLOG LINK)
*NEW* BG Podcast Episode 103: FY 2021 Budget with Council Member Jimmy Flannigan (District 6) (SHOW LINK)
Note: Show also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher
[AUSTIN METRO]
Study weighs market impact of convention center expansion, predicts rebound from Covid-19 (Austin Monitor)
A new market analysis finds that the proposed expansion of the Austin Convention Center would bring more than 1,700 jobs to the city and add $306 million in annual economic impact from the local events and tourism industry.
The market viability study and planning update from HVS Convention, Sports & Entertainment Facilities Consulting of Chicago looked at the recent performance of the convention center relative to other peer cities and found that Austin is losing out on dozens – perhaps more than 100 – bookings a year because the facility lacks sufficient exhibition and meeting space.
City Council approved plans in 2018 for a two-phase expansion that would dramatically reconfigure the center and cost more than $1 billion.
The study also forecasts that the worldwide convention and meeting industry business is expected to return to normal and grow further following the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, with Austin expected to remain a sought-after destination. An expanded convention center could attract more than 800,000 attendees a year by 2033, with more than 200 events taking place throughout the facility yearly.
Representatives from the convention center are scheduled to make a presentation about the study to City Council at the Sept. 15 work session, with the Office of Real Estate Services putting together a negotiating agreement related to property acquisition that is expected to be voted on at the Sept. 17 meeting.
Mayor Steve Adler said moving forward with the expansion is necessary to help the local tourism industry rebound and drive growth of Hotel Occupancy Tax revenues that fund the expansion, convention center operations and a variety of cultural arts programs.
“I think that business will come back and I think cities will be competing for it because the ability to have money brought into your city from other people that don’t use city services and come in, spend their money and leave is a good thing,” he said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Icon raises $35M to fuel development of 3D home printer ready for mass market (Austin Business Journal)
Austin-based Icon Technology Inc. is making preparations to build 3D-printed homes that could hit the market for sale in Texas in the next year.
The startup’s $35 million series A funding round, announced Aug. 19, will fuel the development of its next-generation printer that will be sold to homebuilders as well as the creation of a variety of home types and designs and enhance Icon’s core technology.
Chicago-based venture capital firm Moderne Ventures led the funding round, which also included international architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group, CAZ Investments, CITI Impact Fund, Crosstimbers Ventures, Ironspring Ventures, Next Coast Ventures, Oakhouse Partners, Trust Ventures, Vulcan Capital and Wavemaker Partners.
Constance Freedman, founder and managing partner of Moderne, and Khan Tasinga, director at Denver-based software company Palantir Technologies, joined Icon’s board of directors, the startup announced.
While some in the sector express doubts 3D printing can ever be implemented as widely as traditional construction methods such as post and beam, people are longing for disruption in homebuilding. With the new funding round, Icon has raised $44 million since it was started in 2017 by CEO Jason Ballard, Alex Le Roux and Evan Loomis, making it a clear frontrunner in the field. The series A seems to move the company closer to commercialization, although executives are reticent to share many details yet.
In an interview, Ballard teased the startup’s latest technology and multiple projects that it has in the works to build middle-market housing in the Lone Star State, or housing for the middle 60% of income earners.
While the first project will be constructed using Icon’s current printer Vulcan II, Icon is preparing to build its third-generation printer that will be sold to homebuilders at its South Austin headquarters… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
UT’s plan for 25,000 fans at Longhorns football games is too many people, Austin’s top doctor says (KXAN)
Longhorns Athletics Director Chris Del Conte confirmed just days ago that UT’s Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium will be welcoming in fans this fall — at a recommended 25% capacity. But Austin-Travis County Interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott still believes that’s too many people, given the ongoing spread of the novel coronavirus.
As DKR can hold just over 100,000 fans, opening at 25% capacity will mean that around 25,000 fans can attend when football games start Sept. 12 with a game hosting the University of Texas at El Paso. At a weekly press briefing on COVID-19, Escott told members of local media that his position in the past has been that it would be best to make sure that football games can be played involving two teams without any spectators. If that can be done successfully, then Escott said he would be open to discussing “if and how many people we can put in the stands.” Escott was direct in his disapproval for the Texas Longhorns’ current plan for fans, saying “I think 25,000 [spectators] is too many.” “I think we should start small,” he continued… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin virus cases plateau as school openings approach (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin-Travis County health officials say a plateau in new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations has continued through August, but they said more progress needs to be made in curbing the virus before schools reopen in September.
The downward trend in the number of new daily hospitalizations and infections from the virus began in mid-July, but the rate of decline has slowed, according to health data.
Interim Austin-Travis County Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott said the greater Austin area has done a good job of managing the outbreak over the past two months. To enter the school year in a better position to contain the virus, Escott said he hopes to get to a point where the area drops to single-digit numbers of new hospitalizations per day.
“We can do it. We know that other places have done this. They have pushed past plateaus so they can hit the floor. We want to hit the floor in Austin,” Escott said.
The seven-day rolling average of new hospitalizations in the greater Austin area has not seen single-digit numbers since the end of May.
On July 18, the area had seen an average of about 70 or more daily new coronavirus hospitalizations for more than two weeks. That number has remained below 40 since the beginning of August, and reached its lowest point since June 22 on Monday, when the average dropped to 29.4.
The number of new infections has also remained lower than figures from last month, currently usually in the mid-200s each day, with occasional spikes of 300 or more cases.
Escott said many of those cases are occurring in younger people, who are not being hospitalized at high rates compared with older age groups… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas Democrats are successfully suing to kick Green Party candidates off the November ballot (Texas Tribune)
State and national Democrats are waging a legal offensive to kick Green Party candidates off the ballot in some of Texas' highest-profile races this fall — and they are seeing success.
On Wednesday, both a Travis County district judge and a state appeals court blocked the Green Party nominees for U.S. Senate and the 21st Congressional District from appearing on the ballot. The Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals additionally forced the Green Party nominee for railroad commissioner off the ballot.
Earlier this week, it surfaced that a Green Party contender for chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court had withdrawn after the Democratic nominee questioned his eligibility.
The Democrats are largely targeting Green Party candidates because they have not paid filing fees — a new requirement for third parties under a law passed by the Legislature last year. The filing fees were already required of Democratic and Republican candidates. Multiple lawsuits that remain pending are challenging the new law, and the Green Party of Texas has been upfront that most of its candidates are not paying the fees while they await a resolution to the litigation… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Travis County judge temporarily blocks Texas ban on smokable hemp products (KUT)
A judge in Travis County has issued a temporary restraining order against a state ban on "smokable" hemp products while a lawsuit against the ban proceeds.
“We applaud the judge’s decision,” Zachary Maxwell, president of Texas Hemp Growers, said in a press release. “While today’s ruling is not a concrete declaration that the state overstepped its boundaries, it does reinforce the idea that manufacturing, processing and selling smokable hemp products in Texas was perfectly legal prior to the enactment of the rule on Aug. 2.”
The state passed legislation last year that legalized the production, manufacture, distribution and sale of hemp. The Texas Department of State Health Services issued the ban on smokable hemp products – like pre-rolls and vape cartridges – at the beginning of August as part of the ensuing Consumable Hemp Program… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas oil and gas companies brace for drilling restrictions if Joe Biden wins (Houston Chronicle)
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who won the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday night, has pledged to stop new drilling on federal lands and waters to address growing concerns over climate change, a move that would have sweeping consequences for the nation’s oil and gas industry largely concentrated in Texas. Proponents say a drilling ban on federal property would help combat climate change and protect the environment. Opponents fear a ban could cost thousands more industry jobs and threaten U.S. energy independence.
“We think the most important second-half-of-2020 narrative for the (energy sector) is the looming U.S. election given the disparity of views from each political party on energy regulation,” Arun Jayaram, an energy analyst with JP Morgan Chase, said in a research note this month. “While Biden’s platform is not focused on banning hydraulic fracturing, his administration would look to restrict new permits on federal lands and waters, while activity on state lands would not be impacted.” The debate over a banning drilling for oil and gas on federal property comes as the energy industry is recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, which decimated demand for petroleum products and led to tens of thousands of layoffs across Texas. It also is unfolding when more nations, corporations and consumers are shifting to renewable energy sources to mitigate the effects of climate change. With Biden leading Trump in several polls, many oil and gas companies are growing wary about the prospect of new drilling restrictions, which would deal another blow to the struggling energy sector. A federal ban on drilling would hamper oil and gas production across much of New Mexico, North Dakota and Wyoming, three of the nation’s largest oil and gas producing states, as well as offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, which produces 2.3 million barrels of oil and gas per day… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Obama enters battle, enraging Trump (The Hill)
Former President Obama returned to the political battlefield with full force on Wednesday — and immediately got under the skin of his successor.
Obama cast President Trump as an existential threat to American democracy during his speech to the Democratic National Convention. Such an intervention by a former president against his successor is unprecedented in recent history — but merited, in Obama’s view, given the stakes.
“This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that’s what it takes to win,” Obama said near the climax of his speech.
The president responded in two all-caps tweets, one accusing Obama of having “SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN” and another asking why Obama had refused to “ENDORSE SLOW JOE UNTIL IT WAS ALL OVER.”
The first tweet is a reference to the Justice Department’s investigation into contacts between Russia and Trump 2016 campaign officials. As for the endorsement, it is customary for former presidents not to endorse candidates during competitive party primaries.
The larger point, though, is that Obama is putting his weight behind the push to defeat Trump.
At earlier stages in the Trump presidency, liberals were sometimes frustrated by Obama’s reluctance to take on his successor. During that period, Obama often either stayed quiet entirely or veiled his criticisms.
But that has all changed now. The 44th president, having conserved his political capital in the early Trump years, has decided now is the time to use it.
His convention speech scorched Trump on several fronts… (LINK TO FULL STORY HERE)
Trump calls for Goodyear boycott after company bans MAGA attire among employees (Politico)
President Donald Trump on Wednesday promoted a boycott of Goodyear, angrily reacting to a viral company policy that banned employees from wearing “MAGA Attire.”
“Don’t buy GOODYEAR TIRES - They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS. Get better tires for far less!” Trump wrote on Twitter. “(This is what the Radical Left Democrats do. Two can play the same game, and we have to start playing it now!).”
The president appeared to reference an image that a Goodyear employee said was taken during a diversity training slideshow that went viral this week.
According to Kansas television station WIBW, a slide labeled “Zero Tolerance” was presented at the company’s Topeka, Kan., plant and spelled out appropriate and inappropriate displays.
“Black Lives Matter” and “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride” were considered acceptable. Listed under the “unacceptable” section were “Blue Lives Matter,” “All Lives Matter,” “MAGA Attire” and “Political Affiliated Slogans or Material.”
WIBW reported that a worker at the Topeka plant captured the picture and provided it to the news station.
According to Kansas television station WIBW, a slide labeled “Zero Tolerance” was presented at the company’s Topeka, Kan., plant and spelled out appropriate and inappropriate displays.“Black Lives Matter” and “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride” were considered acceptable. Listed under the “unacceptable” section were “Blue Lives Matter,” “All Lives Matter,” “MAGA Attire” and “Political Affiliated Slogans or Material.”
WIBW reported that a worker at the Topeka plant captured the picture and provided it to the news station.
In a statement following Trump’s tweet, Goodyear denied that the slide was created or distributed by their corporate office and claimed it was not part of a diversity training class.
The company did not indicate the image was doctored and stood by the ban on political messaging articulated in the slide.
“To be clear on our longstanding corporate policy, Goodyear has zero tolerance for any forms of harassment or discrimination,” the statement read. “To enable a workplace environment free of those, we ask that associates refrain from workplace expressions in support of political campaigning for any candidate or political party, as well as similar forms of advocacy that fall outside the scope of racial justice and equity issues.”
The statement also established the company’s support for law enforcement and pushed back on claims Goodyear is “anti-police.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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