BG Reads | News You Need to Know (July 29, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
BG Podcast Episode 49 - Downtown Talk with Kevin Burns, Founder and CEO, Urbanspace Real Estate + Interiors (SHOW LINK)
The BG Podcast returns next Wednesday August 5th with Episode 101!
Note: Show also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher
[AUSTIN METRO]
Holding UT football games in the fall ‘not really in the realm of reality,’ Austin’s top doctor says (KXAN)
“I think it’s not really living in the realm of reality for what we’re likely to experience this fall,” Austin’s Interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott said Tuesday in reference to the reopening of University of Texas football games.
In a Tuesday meeting of the Travis County Commissioners Court, Escott gave an update on the county’s continuing response to COVID-19 and fielded a question about UT Austin’s decision to play its regular Longhorn football season at 50% stadium capacity.
“We are in discussions with UT. We were caught a little off guard with the announcement that they intended to open the stadium with 50% capacity — which is in the neighborhood of 50,000 people in one place,” said Escott. “I’ll say again what I said a month or two ago, and that is that large gatherings are the first thing that closed down and should be the last thing to open up again.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Key hurdle cleared for new Rainey Street skyscraper in Austin (Austin Business Journal)
Rainey Street's next tower proposal is moving forward again after delays related to historic preservation concerns.
A city commission on July 27 approved a demolition permit that paves the way for a hotel and residential tower at 90 and 92 Rainey St. on the site of Container Bar and Bungalow.
A residential structure was first built there at 92 Rainey around 1911. But it was significantly modified in 2010 when Bungalow became a bar — with only the facade restored.
Kalan Contreras, a senior planner who is the city's case manager for the project, said the structure's modifications likely make it ineligible to be considered a historic landmark.
"It will not appear on the agenda again unless the commission votes to initiate historic zoning," Contreras said during a July 27 meeting. "The permit will have to be released otherwise."
Commissioners openly dislike the project, upset about the idea of a high-rise replacing a small bungalow in a district on the National Register of Historic Places. They've previously voted to delay the project, acknowledging they didn't have many other ways to voice their disapproval.
But Contreras said they could not postpone the request any further since they had delayed the permit issuance as much as allowed under code.
"Today is the day where it's either a landmark or it's not, unfortunately," she said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
AMD shares soar on strong forecast, earnings (Austin American-Statesman)
Continuing its comeback story, Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday beat Wall Street projections for the second quarter and forecast even stronger sales for the rest of the year as the chipmaker continues to gain ground on larger rival Intel Corp.
AMD -- which is formally headquartered in California but has most of its operations and top executives in Austin -- topped analysts’ estimates for revenue and profit in the second quarter, driven in part by sales of its Epyc server chips and Ryzen PC processors. The tech company also said it now expects third-quarter revenue of about. $2.55 billion, well above the $2.3 billion expected by industry analysts. AMD also raised its full-year revenue projections, saying it now expects year-over-year growth of 32%.
AMD’s shares jumped more than 9% in after-market trading following its earnings report, trading at $74.26. The company’s share price is up more than 30% this month.
AMD pointed to successes in its PC, gaming and data center products.
“For the last five years, we have built the technical, operational and financial foundation required to drive our long-term growth strategy,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said. “Our strong second quarter results and increased full year revenue guidance demonstrate how we are successfully scaling our business through our consistent execution. We are investing significantly and have added resources to further extend our leadership IP and go-to-market capabilities as we pursue our ambitious goal to make AMD a best-in-class growth franchise.”
Su said the company expects to continue gaining momentum in the server business as its second-generation Epyc platforms and cloud deployments ramp up in the second half of the year.
Industry analyst Patrick Moorhead of Austin-based Moor Insights and Strategy said AMD has a “feast or famine-type history,” but has been consistently growing over the past several years… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas attorney general says local health authorities cannot “indiscriminately” shut down schools (Texas Tribune)
Local health officials do not have the authority to shut down all schools in their vicinity while COVID-19 cases rise, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in nonbinding guidance Tuesday that contradicts what the Texas Education Agency has told school officials.
Shortly after Paxton's announcement, the Texas Education Agency updated its guidance to say it will not fund school districts that keep classrooms closed because of a local health mandate, citing the attorney general's letter. Districts can receive state funding if they obtain TEA's permission to stay closed, as allowed for up to eight weeks with some restrictions.
The change represents an about-face for the agency, which previously said it would fund districts that remained closed under a mandate. It will impact schools in at least 16 local authorities, many in the most populous counties, that have issued school closure mandates in the past month… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Even as Texas COVID-19 cases appear to plateau, Hispanic communities bear heaviest burden (KUT)
Ever since medical experts determined that COVID-19 is a pulmonary disease that affects the heart and other organs, the state of Texas has begun counting deaths from the disease differently. Doing so increased the state's COVID-19 death toll by 12% – to 5,700 lives lost so far. But at the same time, the rate of increase in new COVID-19 cases appears to have reached a plateau.
Dr. Peter Hotez is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and co-director of Texas' Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development. He told Texas Standard's Joy Díaz on Tuesday that despite changes in the way Texas tallies COVID-19 deaths, the plateau in new cases is real.
"It's good that [cases] are not really going up so much," Hotez said. "The bad news is that they've plateaued at a very high rate."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Here is what’s in the Senate GOP’s $1 trillion ‘Heals Act’ package (The Washington Post)
Senate Republicans on Monday unveiled an approximately $1 trillion stimulus package that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said will likely represent lawmakers’ last major legislative response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Senate Republicans’ legislation, titled the “Heals Act,” is expected to kick off negotiations with congressional Democrats, who have already vowed to oppose many of the provisions in the Republican plan. House Democrats in May approved a $3 trillion coronavirus response package that sharply diverges from McConnell’s bill in key ways, leaving the path toward a final compromise unclear on many key questions.
The GOP legislation left out some White House priorities, such as the president’s demand for a payroll tax cut, but includes more than $100 billion for America’s schools; a liability shield to protect businesses from coronavirus-related lawsuits; another round of direct stimulus payments; a new round of funding for the Paycheck Protection Program, as well as more money for emergency business loans; and a reduced extension of emergency federal unemployment benefits, among other measures.
The legislation is also notable for what it leaves out, as the GOP opted against including new funding for state and local governments and hazard pay for essential front-line workers, among other policies pushed by congressional Democrats… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
VP hopefuls jockey for position as Biden's final decision nears (The Hill)
The final contenders to be Joe Biden’s running mate are engaged in some furious last-minute jockeying as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee nears a decision.
With the vetting process completed and many of the interviews wrapped up, the candidates hoping to be Biden’s veep are in wait-and-see mode, anticipating his selection. They are also doing what they can to make their final pitches before Biden and his team land on a choice.
“It’s obvious that there’s a fair amount of ‘Pick me! Pick me!’ happening in the final weeks,” said one Democratic strategist who has worked on recent presidential campaigns. “Every week it seems like there’s been a flavor of the week, and the pool of candidates has reacted accordingly.” … (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Can COVID spread with air conditioning? HVAC makers plan upgrades (Bloomberg)
The long-staid world of HVAC is suddenly in the spotlight. With research showing the coronavirus may spread through shared air, property managers are rushing to upgrade heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems before reopening buildings. That’s leading to costly upgrades for equipment that armies of professionals used to take for granted. Building specialists are poring over how well heavy-duty filters block microbes and considering whether to install systems that use ultraviolet light or electrically charged particles in the ductwork to kill the virus. Companies including Honeywell International Inc., Carrier Global Corp. and Trane Technologies Plc are benefiting from the surge in demand, offering everything from air-monitoring sensors to portable filter machines to help make up for deficiencies in ventilation.
“Every building is going to have some kind of solution. Is it going to be 100%? No,” said Hani Salama, head of the New York chapter of the Building Owners and Managers Association. “But it’s going to be better than what they have now, and will help mitigate some of these airborne transmission issues that everybody is afraid of.” Much of the concern for buildings has been centered on whether the virus can spread through surfaces, prompting remedies such as new cleaning procedures, gallons of hand sanitizer and touchless doors and bathroom fixtures. However, more than 200 researchers have urged the World Health Organization to recognize the disease can spread through air currents. A study this spring led by researchers at the University of Oregon found the presence of the virus in a quarter of HVAC systems in hospitals that treated Covid-19 patients. The findings suggest the potential for transmission from shared air from locations separate from the infected person, the authors said… (LINK TO FULL 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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