BG Reads | News You Need to Know (December 30, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW // BG PODCAST - Episode 119: A Discussion with Derrick Chubbs, President and CEO, Central Texas Food Bank
On today’s episode Bingham Group CEO A.J. speaks with Derrick Chubbs, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Central Texas Food Bank.
The two discuss COVID-19’s impact the Food Bank’s operations, pivots to serve an ever increasing need, and needs going into 2021.
NEW // WHAT WE’RE WATCHING: The Battle for Mayor Pro Tem
In under two weeks, what seemed like a lock for Council Member Greg Casar (District 4) on the largely symbolic title has shifted, with two new entrants, Council Members Natasha Harper-Madison (District 1) and Alison Alter (District 10). The Council will be sworn in on Wednesday, January 6th. See the Austin Council Message Board
Pre-filed bills for the 87th Texas Legislature:
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin And Travis County will limit dine-in hours at restaurants starting Thursday (KUT)
The City of Austin and Travis County are restricting dine-in food and beverage service between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6 a.m., starting Thursday and lasting through Sunday, Jan. 3.
Businesses that offer these services can still operate during those hours, but only offer drive-thru, curbside pick-up, takeout or delivery services.
The restriction applies to businesses that serve food or drinks, including food trucks, according to a press release from the city and county.
Read the city’s order here.
Read the county’s order here.
The orders come as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to rise in the Austin area… (LINK TO STORY)
Austin-area home sales surge higher heading into 2021 (KUT)
The Austin metro area is on track to break a record for the number of homes sold in a single calendar year. Market analysts say the trend appears likely to continue at least into early 2021 as rock-bottom interest rates translate to lower monthly mortgage payments and more buying power for consumers.
But the extreme scarcity of homes for sale – the metro area would sell out in less than a month, all things being equal – is pushing prices to all-time highs.
People bought 3,397 homes across the five-county Austin area in November, according to the most recent monthly report from the Austin Board of Realtors. That was an increase of 23.8% over November 2019. The median sales price in the metro area rose by 19.7% last month to $365,000, the highest ever for the month of November.
Austin remains the most expensive place to buy a home in Texas. Within city limits, the median sales price last month was $433,493, an increase of 10% over one year.
Eldon Rude with the market research company 360 Real Estate Analytics expects more of the same in early 2021.
"There are a lot of people that are still looking that did not find what they were looking for in terms of a home in 2020 that will renew their search in 2021," Rude says… (LINK TO STORY)
Power shift on City Council could reshape debate over Austin land use code (Austin American-Statesman)
A drawn-out struggle to write new rules that govern land use in Austin ended 2020 the same way it began: with a power-shifting victory for property owners who are resistant to multi-family homes popping up in their single-family neighborhoods.
A pair of game-changing events --- a court judgement against the city in March and an upset in the City Council runoff election in December --- have made it so that neither side in a multi-year fight on the City Council has much of an upper hand right now. That rebalance of power could lead to negotiations heating back up and the council hammering out an agreement in 2021.
"I think there are a lot of reasons why that's true," Mayor Steve Adler said recently.
The rewrite of the city's land use plans --- a dry but important process dictating where things can be built and how big they can be --- has been bumpy. A California-based consulting firm promised to have the answers in 2012 when it introduced CodeNext, as the rewrite of the land-use code was initially dubbed… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas officials push hospitals, local health authorities to administer COVID-19 vaccines faster as infection rate reaches "red flag" levels (Texas Tribune)
Top Texas officials again urged health care providers to administer more coronavirus vaccines Tuesday, the same day the state reported that the proportion of Texans whose coronavirus tests come back positive has hit levels not seen since a summer wave of cases that overwhelmed some hospitals.
The state reported Tuesday that 163,700 Texans had been vaccinated with at least one dose of the vaccine. About 1.2 million doses have been allocated to providers across the state through the first three weeks since their arrival, according to the Department of State Health Services.
"A significant portion of vaccines distributed across Texas might be sitting on hospital shelves as opposed to being given to vulnerable Texans," Gov. Greg Abbott said in a tweet Tuesday evening… (LINK TO STORY)
Dallas Fed survey: Texas service executives are more optimistic about the future (San Antonio Express-News)
Texas’ service industry began bouncing back in December and executives are feeling rosier about the future, but retail sales stayed relatively flat amid the holiday shopping season, according to a monthly survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
The revenue index, a key measure of the service sector’s health, increased from -0.7 in November to 4.2 in December. Positive readings indicate an expansion, and negative readings a contraction.
“Service sector activity rebounded in December, with revenue and labor market indicators pointing to growth following weakness in November,” said Christopher Slijk, an associate economist at the Dallas Fed.
After a year that upended restaurants, bars, hotels and other businesses, executives are feeling more optimistic about the months ahead. The future revenue index registered its highest reading since the coronavirus pandemic began.
“Firms were mixed in their assessment of current business conditions, but expectations of future activity picked up,” Slijk said… (LINK TO STORY)
Louie Gohmert sues Pence in far-fetched bid to overturn election results on Jan. 6 (Dallas Morning News)
Rep. Louie Gohmert of Tyler is suing Vice President Mike Pence in an improbable bid to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
Gohmert and several other Republicans named in the suit, including the Republican slate of electors from Arizona, aim to allow Pence to overturn President Donald Trump’s defeat in some key states when Congress meets to count Electoral College votes on Jan. 6. The vice president traditionally presides over this meeting as president of the Senate, where the official results of the election are announced.
The lawsuit challenges the 1887 Electoral Count Act, which dictates the vice president’s role in announcing the results as a ceremonial one. Instead, it says this federal law violates the 12th Amendment, which provides for separate Electoral College votes for president and vice president. The lawsuit is filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Gohmert is asking Jeremy Kernodle, a U.S. District judge in Tyler who was appointed by Trump, to allow Pence to choose which electoral votes to count in key states that Trump lost.
Trump retweeted a supporter’s theory that Pence could overthrow the results of the election.
Legal and election experts immediately took to Twitter to debunk the lawsuit… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
First case of fast-moving U.K. COVID-19 variant found in Colorado (CBS NEWS)
State health officials in Colorado announced Tuesday they had identified America's first confirmed case of a fast-spreading COVID-19 variant first identified in the United Kingdom. The strain, which is believed to be more contagious, has been linked to a surge in cases in Britain and has also spread to several other countries across the world.
Colorado officials said the case had been identified by the state's public health laboratory in a male in his 20s with "no travel history." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been also been notified of the case, according to the state health officials.
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is aware of Colorado's report of the first U.S. case associated with the U.K. variant of COVID-19," CDC spokesperson Belsie González said in an email.
"In addition to the reported case in Colorado, we expect that there will be additional cases that are likely to be detected in the coming days," said González.
Public and private labs around the country have ramped up sequencing efforts to search for the U.K. variant, named B.1.1.7. Public health officials in the U.K. have warned it appears to be more transmissible than other strains of COVID-19…U.S. health officials have repeatedly warned that the variant was likely already circulating here, though public health laboratories had yet to identify any cases. Unlike the U.K., the U.S. has sequenced only a small percentage of COVID-19 cases, so variants here are likely to escape detection.
… (LINK TO STORY)
Louisiana Rep.-elect Luke Letlow dies of COVID-19 (The Hill)
Louisiana Rep.-elect Luke Letlow (R) died on Tuesday after being hospitalized with COVID-19.
Letlow, 41, was first admitted to St. Francis Medical Center due to complications from the coronavirus on Dec. 19 before being transferred to the Ochsner LSU Health ICU on Dec. 23 as his condition worsened.
"The family appreciates the numerous prayers and support over the past days but asks for privacy during this difficult and unexpected time. A statement from the family along with funeral arrangements will be announced at a later time," his family told the Monroe News-Star, which was first to report the news…(LINK TO STORY)