BG Reads | News You Need to Know (October 21, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
Early voting in Travis County runs through Friday, October 30 (Monday-Saturday, 7:00 AM-7:00 PM, Sunday 12-6 PM). Find early voting locations here (Travis County only).
***NEW*** BG Podcast Episode 111: Discussing COVID-19's Impact on Austin's Tech Scene with Amber Gunst, CEO, Austin Technology Council (SHOW LINK)
On today’s episode we speak with Amber Gunst, CEO, Austin Technology Council (ATC). She and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss COVID-19’s impact on the Austin tech scene, as well as major state and local policy priorities/concerns going into 2021.
[AUSTIN METRO]
Council requests emergency economic development corporation (Austin Monitor)
As part of the Save Austin’s Vital Economic Sectors program, City Council is seeking to expedite formation of the Austin Economic Development Corporation, an entity that may be able to help refine and administer the long-term sustainability component of SAVES.
The fully composed corporation will include a board of directors with 20 appointees that are to be chosen before Jan. 1. In the meantime, Council has appointed a six-member interim board and asked the city to consider standing up an emergency interim economic development corporation to begin the SAVES work as soon as possible.
On Thursday, Mayor Steve Adler said the interim corporation structure “may be very different from what the long-term is, in order to get it up and going.” Among its potential tasks, it would be charged with making the final decision of which specific long-term strategies – such as providing businesses with legal and accounting services – would be supported by the SAVES fund.
Council chose not to move forward with the city’s SAVES proposal that would have awarded the bulk of the $15 million in cash assistance to struggling business owners. Instead, Council’s direction calls for a nuanced approach that provides businesses with legal and financial expertise to help them not only survive the pandemic, but reemerge with a stronger, more sustainable financial strategy.
For the specific purpose of administering the long-term part of the SAVES program, Adler said the interim corporation may be as simple as “hiring several people with particular expertise that could take that structure and get it up and moving.” The corporation would help refine long-term strategies that could include helping businesses negotiate lease terms, bring in investors, obtain historic preservation dollars, purchase a leased building, or file for bankruptcy… (LINK TO STORY)
UT experts predict a 96% chance of worsening COVID-19 rates in Travis County in coming weeks (Community Impact)
Although projections from University of Texas statisticians paint a concerning picture of the future spread of the coronavirus, Dr. Mark Escott, Austin-Travis County interim health authority, said the community still has the ability to set a new course.
“This disease hasn’t changed. What’s changed is us, and the fact that we have ‘pandemic fatigue,'” Escott told Travis County commissioners Oct. 20. “Now’s the time for us to be vigilant again, because we can change this forecast."
Projections from UT's COVID-19 Modeling Consortium show a 96% chance of worsening local coronavirus numbers in the coming weeks after both COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations ticked upward October.
Data from the consortium—which is compiled using local hospitalization numbers and “anonymized cell phone mobility data”—shows multiple potential tracks COVID-19 hospitalizations could take in the coming weeks, all of which are “equally plausible possibilities for what the future looks like,” according to Escott. Not all of those possibilities show viral transmission and consequent hospitalizations worsening, but most do.
Escott said residents of the Austin-Round Rock area may be able to avoid the harsher projections presented by UT statisticians if they “reinforce their vigilance” against the virus… (LINK TO STORY)
Parsley Energy agrees to $4.5B sale to Pioneer Natural Resources (Austin Business Journal)
One of the few publicly traded oil companies based in Austin has agreed to be acquired.
Irving-based Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (NYSE: PXD) will buy Austin-based Parsley Energy Inc. (NYSE: PE) in an all-stock transaction valued at $4.5 billion, the companies announced Oct. 20. The total value of the transaction, inclusive of Parsley debt assumed by Pioneer, is approximately $7.6 billion.
"This transaction creates an unmatched independent energy company by combining two complementary and premier Permian assets, further strengthening Pioneer’s leadership position within the upstream energy sector," said Scott Sheffield, president and CEOPioneer, in a statement.
News of a potential deal first came late Oct. 19 when the Wall Street Journal reported the two parties were in talks.
The deal, slated to close in the first quarter, is projected to produce annual cost savings of $325 million for the combined company.
The headquarters for the company will remain in Las Colinas, an area in Irving dubbed the "Headquarters of Headquarters" for the large number of Fortune 500 giants that call the region home… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas joins Trump administration's lawsuit against Google, arguing the tech company has a monopoly (Texas Tribune)
Texas joined the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Google, accusing the tech giant of monopolizing the search engine market and controlling how online ads are bought and sold, according to the suit filed Tuesday morning.
Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement that the multibillion-dollar company engaged in anti-competitive and exclusionary practices that eliminate competition for internet searches and search advertising.
“Google’s anticompetitive business strategies have disrupted the competitive process, reduced consumer choice, and stifled innovation,” Paxton said. “Our action today is intended to restore competition and allow rivals and next generation search engines to challenge Google so that the marketplace, not a monopolist, will decide how search services and search ads are offered.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Texas still hasn’t made up construction jobs (Dallas Morning News)
Despite a boom in residential building and industrial development, Texas is still struggling to regain construction jobs lost to the COVID-19 pandemic. Texas has lost almost 52,000 construction jobs since February, before the pandemic hit and the economy turned down. Only California, with a decline of 54,800 construction jobs, has lost more workers in the sector during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Construction employment has fallen this year in all but eight states. The biggest gain was in Virginia, which has added 4,300 jobs in the sector since February. “New spikes in coronavirus cases, along with ongoing pandemic-related costs and revenue losses, are causing ever more private owners, developers and public agencies to delay and cancel projects,” Ken Simonson, General Contractors of America’s chief economist, said in a new report. “Although single-family homebuilding is gathering steam, multifamily and nonresidential construction activity has stalled, leaving large numbers of workers at risk of losing their jobs as current projects finish up with nothing on the horizon.” With many construction projects delayed and some canceled, construction firms relied on federal programs, which have run out… (LINK TO STORY)
Defending himself against criminal allegations, Ken Paxton gave his first interview to a website identified as part of a pay-for-play network (Texas Tribune)
When Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton decided to break his silence about accusations by his top aides that he had committed crimes including bribery and abuse of office, he turned to a little-known legal outlet called the Southeast Texas Record.
In the exclusive interview, he trashed the aides and claimed that before his top deputy resigned, Paxton had planned to put him on leave anyway.
The website where that interview was posted has been identified as part of a national network of some 1,300 pay-for-play news websites that publish on-demand coverage for Republican political campaigns and public relations firms. According to The New York Times, those websites, whose names sound like ordinary local news outlets, have received at least $1.7 million from Republican political campaigns and conservative groups.
Ian Prior, who promoted the story for the Paxton campaign, denied to The Texas Tribune that the campaign had paid the outlet to run the story — “definitive no,” he said — saying he had merely reached out to set up an interview with an outlet that had already covered the story... (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Parents of 545 Children separated at U.S.-Mexico border still can't be found (NPR)
Despite a federal judge's order that the government reunite families who had been separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under the Trump administration's "no tolerance" migration policy, the parents of 545 children still can't be found, according to a court document filed Tuesday by the U.S. Justice Dept. and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Thousands of families were separated under the policy before the Trump administration ended the practice in 2018. The ACLU successfully sued the government, winning a court order to reunite families. Thousands of parents and children were reunited within weeks.
But about 1,000 families who had been separated in a pilot program in 2017 were not covered by the initial court order — reunification of this group was ordered only last year. The passage of time has made finding both parents and children more difficult.
"What has happened is horrific," says Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, who has been leading the litigation. "Some of these children were just babies when they were separated. Some of these children may now have been separated for more than half their lives. Almost their whole life, they have not been with their parents."… (LINK TO STORY)
Progress, but no breakthrough, on coronavirus relief (The Hill)
After months of slow-moving talks on another round of coronavirus relief, the top negotiators on Tuesday appeared to be where they’ve been for weeks: making some progress but without a major breakthrough to report.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had indicated over the weekend that Tuesday would be a make-or-break moment for the fate of the legislation, the day to decide if the sides were close enough to a stimulus deal to enact it before Election Day.
Yet after a 45-minute phone call with the top White House negotiator, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Pelosi’s office signaled that while the parties are “closer to an agreement,” there remain key differences requiring another transfer of proposals — and more time consumed as Nov. 3 quickly approaches. The pair is scheduled to talk again on Wednesday.
“Today’s deadline enabled the Speaker and Secretary to see that decisions could be reached and language could be exchanged, demonstrating that both sides are serious about finding a compromise,” Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s spokesman, tweeted.
Both sides are facing pressure to solidify an agreement before the elections, as the number of coronavirus cases rises and the summer’s economic recovery shows signs of tapering off. President Trump, trailing in the polls, has urged another massive stimulus bill before Nov. 3, and Pelosi is facing her own calls for a deal from moderates in her caucus… (LINK TO STORY)
MAGA world, GOP unite on social-media bias after Hunter Biden story (Politico)
MAGA world is uniting with mainstream conservatives to whip up a frenzy over social-media bias in the final weeks of the election, convinced that the handling of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden has presented a validating example of years-old MAGA complaints.
Twitter and Facebook’s attempts to limit sharing of the Post story, citing policies meant to throttle the distribution of hacked materials and fact-challenged articles, is being used as proof positive in MAGA world that social media firms have a liberal agenda, and are using whatever means necessary to censor conservatives and protect liberals. And Republicans across the ideological spectrum are agreeing.
The incident has fueled Republican plans to vote on subpoenas that would force testimony from the CEOs of both Twitter and Facebook on the issue. That hearing would come on top of another one already planned for next Wednesday, when Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will face a grilling over liability protections the tech industry enjoys for content posted on their platforms. Other Republican lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, have signaled shifts in how they wanted to regulate social-media platforms. And at the White House, chief of staff Mark Meadows has threatened to sue the two companies over the issue… (LINK TO STORY)