BG Reads | News You Need to Know (July 20, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
It was over two years ago that we started the BG Podcast. We have done 100 interviews with leaders and experts at the intersections of business, community, and politics. Check out one of our most popular episodes featuring Andy Loughnane, Austin FC President. We’ll resume the show with episode 101 on Wednesday, August 5th.
BG Podcast Episode 46: Austin FC Updates from Club President Andy Loughnane (SHOW LINK)
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[AUSTIN METRO]
Greater Austin jobless rate falls to 7.5% as federal unemployment help approaches expiration (Community Impact)
After two straight months of double-digit unemployment rates, the Austin-Round Rock metropolitan area showed signs of recovery in June as the jobless rate fell to 7.5%, according to the Texas Workforce Commission; however, officials expect a more acute impact on those who remain unemployed as federal jobless benefits are set to expire this month.
The pandemic propelled the metro’s unemployment to 12.2% in April and 11.4% in May. June’s 7.5% rate represented 90,887 residents seeking benefits, down from 132,803 in the month prior. Texas recorded a statewide unemployment of 8.9% in June; the national rate that month stood at 11.2%, according to the TWC. In the commission’s narower Capital Area/Travis County region, the unemployment rate fell from 11.6% in May to 7.6% in June.
Since March 1, 75% of all jobless claims in the Capital Area/Travis County area came from those making less than $50,000 per year, according to Workforce Solutions Capital Area, the quasigovernmental local arm of the workforce commission. A spokesperson said about half of those claims came from people previously making less than $30,000 per year, or up to $625 per week… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Youth vote was surprise factor in Travis County runoffs (Austin American-Statesman)
There’s one thing you don’t ever count on in a primary election runoff: the youth vote.
But the recent Texas runoffs turned out to be the exception to that rule as younger voters appear to have flipped at least one local race and possibly had an impact across the state.
Voters younger than 40 cast about 37% of the votes in Travis County’s Democrat primary runoff, according to early voting and mail-in results from the county clerk’s office. Demographic data from election day has not yet been released. Turnout among Democrats shattered records statewide, with nearly 1 million turning out for a rare July primary runoff amid a pandemic that has seen coronavirus cases spiking in Texas in recent weeks.
In primary runoffs, Austin’s voters are usually “very old, very white, very establishment,” said Mark Littlefield, a local pollster, lobbyist and consultant for Democrats. In primary runoffs “the joke we make is we all know who those 30,000 voters are — the same 70-year-old men and women that always are going to vote,” Littlefield said.
Not this time.
Nearly 141,000 people voted in last week’s election as the finger condom over took the “I voted” sticker as the fashion accessory du jour to post to social media to prove one’s commitment to performing one’s civic duty. Democrats outvoted Republicans by a 6-to-1 ratio in Travis County with turnout bolstered by a competitive runoff between MJ Hegar and state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, to challenge Sen. John Cornyn in November… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Board of Adjustment says maintaining area character is not sufficient hardship (Austin Monitor)
While neighborhood character is an important aspect of design in a historic neighborhood, it is not the only thing the Board of Adjustment takes into account when considering a variance request to modify a home.
Architect Ryan Bollom proposed adding a 450-square-foot, one-story addition to a 768-square-foot home in the historically Black neighborhood of Clarksville.
At the Board of Adjustment on July 13, Board Member Rahm McDaniel said he understood most of Bollom’s justification for the request to decrease the interior side setback from 5 feet to 3 feet, 6 inches; reduce the rear yard setback from 10 to 5 feet; increase building cover allowances from 40 percent to 55 percent; and increase the impervious cover from 45 percent to 65 percent at 1711 Waterston Ave. The requests stemmed from the desire to construct a one-story structure that maintains the character of the neighborhood.
However, he noted that finding common ground with the neighborhood associations in order to get their support is not the primary driver behind the variance decisions weighed at the board. Instead, he said a hardship that prevents reasonable use of the property is necessary to gain a variance.
Board Member Yasmine Smith said that while maintaining the character that speaks to the history of the neighborhood is important to her, she will first and foremost need a hardship to consider voting for a variance allowing construction in setbacks with additional impervious cover… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas GOP convention chaos prompts delegates to create a second gathering for unfinished business (Texas Tribune)
The Texas GOP convention has become so beset with chaos and dysfunction that delegates voted late Sunday night to hold a second convention to finish business that still hadn't been taken up, though key votes for state party chair and other party leadership positions were still taking place overnight during the original convention that rolled into Monday morning.
But even the timeline for those elections looked uncertain as the clock struck 1 a.m.
The party also experienced a purported cyber attack late Sunday night as it took suggestions for who should sit on a 10-member committee to advise Chairman James Dickey on the time, place and other details of the second convention.
The party received over 5,000 names, and in remarks shortly after 11 p.m., Dickey said he would need time to “de-duplicate” the deluge of suggestions. That is also when Dickey announced the party was experiencing a “denial of service attack” — an intentional cyber attack — “on our systems.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Allen West elected new chair of the Republican Party of Texas (KFYO)
A marathon session of the final full day of the Republican Party of Texas 2020 State Convention ran into the early morning hours on Monday, with Senate District caucuses voting for a number of offices. Around 1:30am, a few Senate Districts voted upon the race for Republican Party of Texas chairman between Allen West and Chairman James Dickey.
About two hours later, Allen West's supporters, and social media, began congratulating him on his win for RPT Chairman. Chairman Dickey went ahead and conceded from the race for RPT Chairman after 4am. West will serve a two-year term as chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, from 2020-2022. "I just want to say how truly humbled I am by this honor, and that I will work hard for Texas and Texans. I would like to thank my amazing and dedicated team, as well as an incredible number of supporters. Thank you all! Now the work begins..." West tweeted… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
The end of $600 unemployment benefits will hit millions of households and the economy (NPR)
For Lorena Schneehagen, the additional $600 unemployment payment each week during the coronavirus pandemic has held her family's expenses together.
She's an out-of-work preschool teacher in Ann Arbor, Mich., whose son is about to start college.
"I need that to help pay his tuition," Schneehagen said. "And for food and just to pay the general bills."
Tens of millions of Americans who lost their jobs because of the pandemic are now in danger of having their incomes slashed for a second time. The supplemental unemployment benefits of $600 per week that Congress approved four months ago are set to expire in less than two weeks — threatening to hurt strapped households and the U.S. economy, as billions of dollars' worth in spending suddenly comes to a halt.
As Congress comes back into session this week, lawmakers will debate whether to extend the supplemental benefits, which have been a lifeline for more than 30 million people across the United States… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
As Trump ignores virus crisis, Republicans start to break ranks (New York Times)
President Trump’s failure to contain the coronavirus outbreak and his refusal to promote clear public-health guidelines have left many senior Republicans despairing that he will ever play a constructive role in addressing the crisis, with some concluding they must work around Mr. Trump and ignore or even contradict his pronouncements. In recent days, some of the most prominent figures in the G.O.P. outside the White House have broken with Mr. Trump over issues like the value of wearing a mask in public and heeding the advice of health experts like Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, whom the president and other hard-right figures within the administration have subjected to caustic personal criticism.
They appear to be spurred by several overlapping forces, including deteriorating conditions in their own states, Mr. Trump’s seeming indifference to the problem and the approach of a presidential election in which Mr. Trump is badly lagging his Democratic challenger, Joseph R. Biden Jr., in the polls. Once-reticent Republican governors are now issuing orders on mask-wearing and business restrictions that run counter to Mr. Trump’s demands. Some of those governors have been holding late-night phone calls among themselves to trade ideas and grievances; they have sought out partners in the administration other than the president, including Vice President Mike Pence, who, despite echoing Mr. Trump in public, is seen by governors as far more attentive to the continuing disaster. “The president got bored with it,” David Carney, an adviser to the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, a Republican, said of the pandemic. He noted that Mr. Abbott directs his requests to Mr. Pence, with whom he speaks two to three times a week. A handful of Republican lawmakers in the Senate have privately pressed the administration to bring back health briefings led by figures like Dr. Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, who regularly updated the public during the spring until Mr. Trump upstaged them with his own briefing-room monologues. And in his home state of Kentucky last week, Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, broke with Mr. Trump on nearly every major issue related to the virus… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Trump says Fox News polls 'among the worst' after latest shows him trailing Biden (The Hill)
President Trump disputed a new Fox News poll showing him trailing presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden by 8 points, calling it “fake” and criticizing the network’s polls as “among the worst.”
Trump, during a contentious interview with Fox News’s Chris Wallace that aired on “Fox News Sunday,” insisted he is “not losing” the presidential race, despite a number of recent polls showing him trailing Biden both nationally and in key battleground states.
“I'm not losing, because those are fake polls. They were fake in 2016 and now they're even more fake. The polls were much worse in 2016,” Trump said in the interview taped on Friday, suggesting the surveys were skewed because pollsters did not interview enough Republican voters.
Trump also claimed that his campaign has internal polls showing him “leading in every swing state.”
“Whoever does your Fox polls, they're among the worst. They got it all wrong in 2016. They've been wrong on every poll I've ever seen,” Trump continued. When Wallace tried to interject, Trump stopped him from doing so… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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