BG Reads | News You Need to Know (September 18, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
*NEW* The Political Life: Politics, Partnerships, and Publishing in the New American South (SHOW LINK)
This is a special post from our friends at the Political Life podcast, a show people whose lives are immersed in the political world, and how they got there. The episode features our Atlanta-based colleague Howard Franklin, Founder and Managing Partner of Ohio River South, a strategy firm focused on “the New American South.”
Also check out CEO A.J.'s Political Life episode: Launching a Firm and Lobbying in the Lone Star State (SHOW LINK)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Council approves SAVES resolution to rescue vital businesses (Austin Monitor)
City Council unanimously approved a resolution Thursday night directing the city manager to bring back viable funding options by Oct. 1 to help sustain the city’s service sector through the ongoing economic pressures of Covid-19.
All the Council members, Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza and Mayor Steve Adler joined as co-sponsors of the Save Austin’s Vital Economic Sectors (SAVES) resolution. The resolution directs the city to explore a wide variety of funding sources that could contribute to support local music and arts venues, bars, restaurants and child care centers, as well as the many professionals and organizations that help sustain those industries.
“This is an attempt to get a significant amount of resources that are necessary to actually save businesses,” Adler said after Council’s vote. “But it’s just not saving businesses; it’s saving businesses that would otherwise fail. It’s more than that: It’s intended to address those that have the greatest multiplier effect … those that would be the hardest to replace and that would not be replaced within the marketplace if they were gone … those whose loss would be an irreparable harm to civic infrastructure.”
Council members proposed many temporary funding options to consider while the service industry recovers. In particular, the resolution directs the city manager to bring an ordinance that reallocates revenue from temporary use of right-of-way fees, alley and street vacation sales, and fees from encroachment agreements into a designated business preservation fund that would last for two years.
While dollars in the business preservation fund would be divided among restaurants, bars, child care providers, and music and arts venues, Nakia Reynoso, musician and president of Austin Texas Musicians, spoke to the need for a separate dedicated live music venue preservation fund.
“Austin isn’t the small business capital of the world,” Reynoso said. “Other businesses aren’t driving billions of tourism dollars to the city’s bank accounts. It wasn’t just any small businesses that made Austin a beacon to the rest of the world. It was the musicians creating music in live music venues that sent that signal out. But that signal is dying. Our music venues are out of time.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Tesla’s Austin site plan outlines footprint for huge factory (Austin American-Statesman)
Bulldozers and other construction equipment have been at work for weeks at the location of Tesla’s future $1.1 billion electric vehicle factory in southeast Travis County, but a site plan filed by the company is providing the first public indication of the facility’s huge eventual footprint.
The document — which outlines Tesla’s intentions for 280 acres of the 2,100-acre tract that it purchased for $97 million in July — might be as notable for what it leaves out, however.
The plan filed with the city of Austin includes a massive oblong factory building just east of Texas 130 that spans from near the Colorado River north to near Harold Green Road. Counting parking lots, the facility’s footprint amounts to 7.9 million square feet — or the equivalent of about 138 football fields.
But it’s still unclear what Tesla will do with its remaining 1,800 or so acres at the site. A spokesman for the company didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said he anticipates a significant amount of additional development at the site by Tesla, although he noted that the company has a reputation for keeping its plans close to the vest.
“I see, ultimately, them making this much more than a typical factory,” Ives said. “It’s not just about the (vehicle) factory.”
He said he considers it likely that Tesla, which is based in California, will “take advantage of Austin’s engineering talent” by building separate research and development and design facilities at the site. He and other analysts also have said they expect the company to locate some of its battery operations in the Austin area, in addition to the vehicle manufacturing plant.
Tesla will need a test-driving area as well, Ives said.
“There is a lot of wood to chop ahead” in terms of development of the location beyond the initial 280 acres, he said… (LINK TO STORY)
Despite outbreak, Austin home prices hit record highs (Austin American-Statesman)
As the summer home-selling season came to a close, median sale prices -- both across Central Texas and within the Austin city limits -- reached all-time highs in August, the Austin Board of Realtors said Thursday.
In its latest report, the board said the Austin-area housing market continued to show strength, despite economic setbacks amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Across the Austin area, home sales rose 12.9% in August compared to the prior August, with 4,019 homes changing hands. The median price increased 11.3% to its highest level on record, with half of the homes selling for more than $355,000 and half sold for less, the board said.
Inside Austin’s city limits, home sales were up 2.4%. The median price of those sales jumped 14.9% to an all-time high, with half the homes selling for more than $435,000 and half for less, the board said.
Across the region, pending sales skyrocketed 40.1% with 4,533 homes in the pipeline to close. Active listings, meanwhile, plunged 44.9%.
Homes across the region spent 42 days on the market on average -- 10 fewer days than in August 2019.
The pandemic has put the Austin market “in a unique situation,” said Romeo Manzanilla, president of the Austin Board of Realtors.
“As more people are working from home and have the opportunity to relocate, Austin-area homes are selling faster now than ever before,” Manzanilla said. “Austin’s popularity has left the market with critically low levels of housing supply, which continues to drive home prices up. While home prices are rising, historically low interest rates are giving buyers increased power to meet the increases.”
The Austin Board of Realtors’ monthly figures are for the five-county area stretching from Georgetown to San Marcos. The board’s report covers single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums, and includes both pre-owned homes and some newly built homes… (LINK TO STORY)
Austin City Limits Music Festival to present virtual broadcast Oct. 9-11 (Community Impact)
The Austin City Limits Music Festival will present a free virtual broadcast from Oct. 9-11, according to an email sent Sept. 17.
Emmett Beliveau, chief operating officer of C3 Presents, announced the news during a livestream benefit performance for the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians on Sept. 15.
“We are working on a very special virtual festival weekend for all of you,” Bellveau said.
ACL Fest, which had run in Austin every year since 2002 prior to its cancellation, was originally scheduled to take place Oct. 1-3 and Oct. 8-10 at ZIlker Park, 2207 Lou Neff Road, Austin.
Details on the lineup will be coming soon, according the festival’s website. www.aclfestival.com… (LINK to STORY)
Army Futures picks ACC as home base for new software initiative (Austin American-Statesman)
Army Futures Command has chosen Austin Community College as the home base for its new Software Factory training initiative.
Futures Command -- which is based in Austin -- announced plans for the soldier-led software unit in July. The unit will act as a “train-with-industry” pipeline to teach soldiers and civilians how to solve military problems using cloud technology and software, as well as to help develop technology for the Army.
Futures Command is a public-private initiative that leads modernization projects for the Army. The military chose Austin for its headquarters in 2018, as part of one of the largest reorganizations of the military branch in decades.
Futures Command’s Software Factory will be at ACC’s Rio Grande Campus in downtown Austin, just down the street from the Futures Command headquarters. It will stretch across a 26,500 square-foot space, and include shared spaces for Futures Command staff and ACC students to interact.
ACC Chancellor Richard Rhodes said the partnership will develop “leaders of the future” through education from ACC, leadership and problem solving development from the Futures Command, and business, industry and corporate relationships.
“When we take a look at what are the problems that are facing our nation today, a lot of it has to do with technology. It has to do with problem solving. It has to do with leadership,” Rhodes said. “When we can put those together in a collaborative environment like this is going to be, there’s no better place for soldiers to develop, and there’s no better place for students to get the right skill sets necessary to be productive in changing the future of our country.”
ACC was chosen after a nationwide search, according to the military. The new software unit will utilize the school’s computer science and information technology programs, and also offer specialized training for new technologies including data science and artificial intelligence. The curriculum will be developed by ACC and Futures Command and include support from outside software companies.
The Software Factory is expected to welcome its first cohort of about 30 soldiers and civilians in January, and add a second cohort that following summer… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Gov. Greg Abbott loosens coronavirus restrictions for restaurants and other businesses in most regions of Texas (Texas Tribune)
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday that most of Texas will be able to loosen some coronavirus restrictions, including letting many businesses increase their capacity to 75%, as soon as Monday.
Retail stores, restaurants and office buildings, which have been open at 50% capacity, will be permitted to expand to 75% capacity. Hospitals will be allowed to offer elective procedures again and nursing homes can reopen for visitations under certain standards.
The new reopening stage applies to 19 of the state’s 22 hospital regions. The three hospital regions excluded are in the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo and Victoria. Abbott said those regions’ hospitalizations are still “in the danger zone," which he defined as places where coronavirus patients make up 15% or more of all hospitalizations.
At the same time, Abbott said the state was not yet ready to reopen bars, saying they are “nationally recognized as COVID-spreading locations.” He stressed, though, that the state is looking for ways to let bars reopen safely… (LINK TO STORY)
Feds say lab’s woes threaten patient safety. Texas sent thousands of COVID-19 tests there (Dallas Morning News)
Texas used a laboratory for COVID-19 testing that has been under scrutiny for months by federal regulators who found widespread flaws that could undermine the accuracy of results and pose “immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety,” according to records obtained by The Dallas Morning News. The state suspended use of the California lab, NovaDX, on Wednesday, a day after The News informed Texas officials of a federal inspection report from July. The report questioned the qualifications of lab workers and found practices that could allow contamination of samples. NovaDX has processed roughly 80,000 COVID-19 tests for Texans, a total that includes samples from two state-run test sites in southern Dallas, officials said.
The federal agency that oversees clinical labs, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, is determining whether NovaDX has fully addressed problems that inspectors found. In a statement, lab CEO Blake Anderson said his company takes seriously its commitment to lab safety and accurate testing. This marks the second time the state has halted its use of NovaDX. The first, in June, came after some nursing homes reported receiving false positive results for residents. The state looked into the matter and determined it was an isolated issue that had been fixed. Around the same time, a federal inspection of NovaDX found more sweeping problems. Experts said the issues raise questions about whether to use the lab.
“The very long list of deficiencies certainly is incredibly worrisome,” said Dr. Geoffrey Baird, interim chair of the department of laboratory medicine and pathology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. The problems point to lapses in how Texas oversees companies that are trusted -- and paid millions of dollars -- to carry out work essential to stemming the spread of the deadly virus… (LINK TO STORY)
Six months into the pandemic, out-of-work Texans are still struggling to navigate unemployment system (Texas Tribune)
When Christine Brill’s unemployment benefits from the Texas Workforce Commission suddenly plummeted this summer, she tried calling the agency to find out what happened.
The 52-year-old Houston widow lost her job as a hair stylist in March and hadn’t heard that the $600 in extra weekly funds for out-of-work Americans approved by Congress in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic had expired.
But whenever Brill called TWC this summer, she encountered a busy signal, echoing the problems she first ran into in April, when she spent 30 hours a week for three weeks trying to find out why her initial request for unemployment assistance hadn’t gone through… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Pelosi: 'Hard to see' Democrats supporting less than $2.2T in COVID-19 aid (The Hill)
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday said that she's hopeful the parties will reach an agreement on the next round of coronavirus relief but suggested Democrats aren't prepared to accept anything less than her last offer — $2.2 trillion — on a deal.
"When we go into a negotiation it's about the allocation of the resources," she told reporters in the Capitol. "But it's hard to see how we can go any lower when you only have greater needs."
The comments come as both sides are voicing some optimism that, after weeks of stalled negotiations, a bipartisan deal on an emergency coronavirus bill is possible before the November elections.
President Trump on Wednesday urged congressional Republicans to accept more emergency funding — the very thing Democrats have been demanding. And Pelosi spoke by phone later in the day with the administration's chief negotiator, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in search of a path forward. Yet the sides still appear to be far apart on the top-line spending number.
House Democrats had passed the $3.4 trillion HEROES Act in May but have since dropped their request to $2.2 trillion. Republicans have called for much less spending, initially proposing a $1.1 trillion package, then trimming that request down to $650 billion — a proposal that was soundly rejected by Senate Democrats last week.
Pelosi pointed out the odd dynamics of the negotiation: Democrats came down $1.2 trillion and, in response, the Republicans went down, too.
"We asked them to go up $1 trillion, instead they went down, not recognizing the need," she said… (LINK TO STORY)
Trump announces 'Patriotic Education' Commission, a largely political move (NPR)
In austere, starkly divisive remarks, President Trump on Thursday said he would create a commission to promote "patriotic education" and announced the creation of a grant to develop a "pro-American curriculum." The move is largely political — a reaction to a growing push by some academics for schools to teach an American history that better acknowledges slavery and systemic racism.
In the speech, Trump decried what he said was a "twisted web of lies" being taught in U.S. classrooms about systemic racism in America, calling it "a form of child abuse." He reprised themes from a speech he gave in July at Mount Rushmore.
"Teaching this horrible doctrine to our children is a form of child abuse, the truest sense," Trump said. "For many years now, the radicals have mistaken Americans' silence for weakness. They're wrong. There is no more powerful force than a parent's love for their children. And patriotic moms and dads are going to demand that their children are no longer fed hateful lies about this country."… (LINK TO STORY)
Due to pandemic, dozens of governors and mayors face recall efforts (Governing)
Tony Evers has run into opposition ever since winning election as governor of Wisconsin. Shortly after his victory in 2018, the GOP-controlled Legislature met in lame-duck session to strip him and other new Democratic executive branch officials of some of their powers. This year, legislators successfully argued before the state supreme court that Evers lacked the power to postpone the April primary election or shut down businesses due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Although the governor’s ability to act unilaterally to address public health emergencies has been severely curtailed, that isn’t enough to satisfy all his critics. Last week, a Wisconsin woman named Misty R. Polewczysnki filed paperwork seeking to recall Evers and Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, calling the governor “unfit for office” and accusing him of tolerating violence during the recent unrest in Kenosha.
“The unconstitutional mandates and lockdowns have cost citizens their businesses, homes, jobs and livelihood,” Polewsczynski wrote in her official complaint.
If Evers’ opponents have routinely sought to undermine him, he’s not alone in facing the prospect of a recall. No fewer than 10 other governors have faced recall efforts since the 2018 elections. Several now face fresh challenges, primarily aimed at Democrats, although Republicans Doug Ducey of Arizona and Brad Little of Idaho have also found themselves targeted. All told, about three-dozen pandemic-related recalls have been launched at the state and local levels… (LINK TO STORY)
Air quality in American West among the worst in the world (AXIOS)
The air quality in Portland has become the worst in the world — with Seattle, Los Angeles and Denver also ranking up there with notoriously polluted places like Delhi and Shanghai.
Why it matters: Big-city residents often consider themselves smugly immune to the physical wreckage of calamities like wildfires, floods and hurricanes. The pernicious smoke now blanketing the splendid cities of our nation's Western spine is a reminder that no one is exempt from climate change.
Where it stands: The EPA maintains a map on its website of the current air quality across the U.S. As of Thursday morning, Portland, Denver, Seattle, Fresno and countless smaller metropolises were girded by contour bands that signified "unhealthy," "very unhealthy" and "hazardous" air… (LINK TO STORY)