BG Reads | News You Need to Know (February 4, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW -> Episode 72: Market Talk - Atlanta and Southeast Lobbying with Howard Franklin of Ohio River South (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
To Address The City's Wildfire Risk, Austin Firefighters Look To California (KUT)
Nearly 10 years ago, destructive wildfires forced mass evacuations and destroyed thousands of homes near Austin. Today, the city’s soaring growth is raising concern that Austin remains ill-prepared for a wildfire outbreak. California firefighters recently visited the capital city to educate community and city leaders on what they need to do to prepare for and prevent destructive wildfires.
On a sunny and windy day last week, about 40 people crowded the top of a scenic Hill Country overlook in Austin. But they weren’t there for the view. This group of city and state leaders listened as firefighters from California and Austin pointed out the cedar trees and brush climbing up the incline. They also noted the strong winds funneling up to the overlook. Despite this spot’s great views, it’s a fire hazard. A potential wildfire could quickly travel up this slope through the trees and brush, threatening dozens of nearby homes.
“I look at the continuous fuel that goes right up to the houses and I’m like, uh, in the conditions we’ve experienced, that is not good,” says Dave Russell, a California firefighter who helped coordinate responses to that state’s most recent “mega-fires,” including the Camp Fire in 2018. That fire destroyed the town of Paradise, California, and killed 85 people… (LINK TO STORY)
Realtors pledge record donation to village for formerly homeless (Austin Business Journal)
The Austin Board of Realtors is making its largest donation ever to combat one of the area's most pressing ongoing issues: homelessness.
The ABOR Foundation on Feb. 3 pledged $1 million to Community First Village, the Northeast Austin community developed by nonprofit Mobile Loaves & Fishes to provide permanent housing to the chronically homelessness.
The foundation said it will give annual installments of $100,000 over the next 10 years. The money will be used "to help develop homes" in the community, along with a "donor recognition park uniting phases one and two of the village," according to the announcement.
“Over the past year, our city leaders and residents have been grappling with how to best help those in our community who are experiencing homelessness,” Romeo Manzanilla, the 2020 president of ABOR, said in a statement. He added that, with Realtors riding a record housing market, "it’s only fitting that our foundation’s contributions go toward one of the most creative and life-changing housing communities in the nation.”… (LINK TO STORY)
C3 Presents partnership will bring touring acts to Moody Amphitheater starting in 2021 (Austin Monitor)
The new Moody Amphitheater in Waterloo Park will be programmed with large touring music acts booked through local live concert giant C3 Presents and Live Nation.
The Waterloo Greenway nonprofit that is steering the creation of the urban parks system along Waller Creek has announced a 15-year agreement with the concert promoter that will bring up to 35 performances a year to the 5,000-seat venue, beginning in spring 2021. As part of the agreement, the nonprofit will retain a portion of all ticket revenues to help fund operations in Waterloo and other nearby parks.
C3 Presents began in the early 2000s as the promotion company responsible for the Austin City Limits Festival in Zilker Park, and has grown into a global giant in the live music and outdoor festival promotion industry.
Peter Mullan, CEO of Waterloo Greenway, said the company has advised his group on how to outfit and engineer the amphitheater to best accommodate live concerts and other events that will be held at the facility.
“Them being a local company and understanding the conditions on the ground here in Austin, they were helpful to us in laying out what would work best here in Austin in trying to use it and create something we knew would work,” he said. “For us at the greenway this is a big deal for a couple reasons. It will support and reinforce downtown Austin as a music center and we saw this as a way to enhance that… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Lackland Will House Quarantined Evacuees From China As Coronavirus Spreads (KUT)
Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland announced on Saturday it had been selected by the Department of Health and Human Services to house people arriving from China who are at risk of being infected with coronavirus.
At least 250 of an estimated 1000 evacuees could be housed at Lackland while a two week quarantine period plays out. Lackland tweeted that base personnel will not be directly in contact with the evacuees, and evacuees will not have access to any base location other than where they're being housed.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg released a statement saying, in part, that those quarantined at Lackland pose no threat to people in the city. His complete statement follows:
“We were notified that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense have decided to evacuate American citizens from China and quarantine them at U. S. military installations, including Lackland Air Force Base. We have been told that these individuals have no symptoms of the virus and pose no risk to our community.
We should all be comforted by the extra precautions being taken by federal, state and local health officials.
We do not currently have any individuals diagnosed with the coronavirus here in San Antonio, and our Metro Health Department will continue to monitor the situation and exercise an abundance of caution.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Dallas Fed: Energy Will Drag Down Texas Economy This Year (Houston Public Radio)
Speaking in San Antonio at an event by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas on Friday, economist Keith Phillips said he expects the Texas economy to again be stronger than the nation’s in 2020.
That’s despite job losses in the oil and gas industry.
“Overall, I expect the energy sector to be a slightly negative drag on the state,” he said. “But generally mostly neutral in terms of growth from last year to growth to this year.”
Phillips said the good news is that the U.S. economy is strong, and it’s expected to continue to grow this year.
“Texas is more dependent on the national economy than it is on oil prices,” he said. “But when oil prices swing it affects our relative performance to the U.S. economy.”
Historically low unemployment means a tight labor market, which means there isn’t much room for job growth, he said.
“Last year, we had 2%, my model says 2.1% – pretty much the same as last year,” Phillips said.
He said some risks to the forecast are a sharp decline in oil prices, an escalation of the trade war and a national recession…
[NATION]
After controversial trial, U.S. Senate poised to acquit Trump (Reuters)
Donald Trump was on the brink of ending the darkest chapter of his tumultuous presidency on Monday as the U.S. Senate began the final phase of his impeachment trial that will almost certainly conclude on Wednesday with his acquittal. Donald Trump was on the brink of ending the darkest chapter of his tumultuous presidency on Monday as the U.S. Senate began the final phase of his impeachment trial that will almost certainly conclude on Wednesday with his acquittal.
The Republican-run Senate voted on Friday not to hear from witnesses including Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, despite a strong push by Democrats and opinion polls showing most Americans wanted to hear from them. When the arguments are complete, the senators will be able to make speeches until Wednesday when a final vote will be taken at 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT) to determine whether Trump is guilty of the charges and should be removed from office. The tenor of the speeches is expected to reflect the deepening polarization between Democrats and Republicans as senators seek to justify to the American public why they plan to vote yay or nay for ousting Trump. The Senate is almost certain to acquit the president, as a two-thirds majority is required to remove Trump and none of its 53 Republicans have indicated they will vote to convict… (LINK TO STORY)
SARS stung the global economy. The Coronavirus is a greater menace. (New York Times)
In 2002, when a lethal, pneumonialike virus known as SARS emerged in China, the country’s factories were mostly churning out low-cost goods like T-shirts and sneakers for customers around the world. Seventeen years later, another deadly virus is spreading rapidly through the world’s most populous country. But China has evolved into a principal element of the global economy, making the epidemic a substantially more potent threat to fortunes. International companies that rely on Chinese factories to make their products and depend on Chinese consumers for sales are already warning of costly problems.
Apple, Starbucks and Ikea have temporarily closed stores in China. Shopping malls are deserted, threatening sales of Nike sneakers, Under Armour clothing and McDonald’s hamburgers. Factories making cars for General Motors and Toyota are delaying production as they wait for workers to return from the Lunar New Year holiday, which has been extended by the government to halt the spread of the virus. International airlines, including American, Delta, United, Lufthansa and British Airways, have canceled flights to China. China’s economic growth is expected to slip this year to 5.6 percent, down from 6.1 percent last year, according to a conservative forecast from Oxford Economics that is based on the impact of the virus so far. That would, in turn, reduce global economic growth for the year by 0.2 percent, to an annual rate of 2.3 percent — the slowest pace since the global financial crisis a decade ago… (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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