BG Reads | News You Need to Know (November 4, 2021)
Bingham Group CEO A.J., chair for the inaugural Austin FC 4ATX Foundation Gala (10.28.2021)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Austin FC salutes fans, looks ahead to ‘really important’ offseason as inaugural MLS season comes to an end (KXAN)
It’s no secret Austin knows a thing or two about hosting professional soccer matches.
Results haven’t always gone Austin FC’s way during the club’s first ever MLS season – but as that season draws to a close with the team playing its last home game at Q2 Stadium, there have been plenty of positives.
It starts with the team’s vibrant fanbase and the electric atmosphere they’ve forged at their new home, Austin FC president Andy Loughnane said.
“We have created something special here inside of Q2 Stadium,” said Loughnane, speaking ahead of the team’s final home game of the 2021 season against Sporting Kansas City. “And when I say ‘we,’ really that is the fans.
“I think that alone stands out as the success of 2021,” he added.
Although the team has struggled on the pitch, particularly away from Q2 Stadium, the season has been a roaring success off the field.
The club has been buoyed by significant local support in Austin, which is reflected in the regular high attendances at home.
According to data from SoccerStadiumDigest.com, the stadium has the fifth-highest average attendance among the 27 teams in MLS… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Meet Austin tech unicorn Everly Health's new COO (Austin Business Journal)
Cindy R. Kent remembers the moment she was hooked on health care.
As a junior at Northwestern University, she was an intern at Eli Lilly & Co. and taking a tour of a manufacturing facility. A quality engineer held up a handful of powder in one hand. In the other, she held a capsule.
"'This will one day save your life or the life of somebody that you love'," she recalled the engineer saying.
Kent said she was bawling after hearing that.
"That was my hook for my life — that I can do work and commit myself to work that would one day save lives," she said.
Kent has followed through with that passion, building her career further at Eli Lilly before taking on leading roles in Medtronic's gastroenterology and urology division, and later 3M's global infection prevention division. Now, Kent has a new opportunity to help save lives as the chief operating officer at Austin-based digital health and diagnostics startup Everly Health Inc.
It comes at a transformative time for the company, which has recently made several acquisitions on the heels of two huge funding rounds in 2020. Following first two of its three acquisitions in March, Bloomberg reported the company had reached a $2.9 billion valuation, which Everly Health founder and CEO Julia Cheek recently said is on the low side of its current status… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
‘Big Battles Ahead’: What’s next for the group behind Austin’s Proposition A (KXAN)
Despite Tuesday’s resounding defeat of Austin’s Proposition A, the group behind the ballot initiative says there are “big battles ahead.” Matt Mackowiak and Cleo Petricek, the founders of the political action committee Save Austin Now, addressed their supporters at the group’s election night party, expressing disappointment over Tuesday’s results, but vowing that more work is ahead. “We are not going anywhere,” Petricek said, her words greeted with applause. Mackowiak said Save Austin Now could wade into a potential city council special election to replace District 4 Austin Council Member Greg Casar, who recently confirmed a potential run for Congress.
“And then we’re going to have an epic battle for half of our city council seats and the mayor’s office in November, potentially with runoffs in December,” Mackowiak said. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” Mayor Steve Adler will not be running for re-election, as he will have served the maximum term for the position. In an interview with KXAN last week, Mackowiak confirmed the group is also looking at possibly placing another ballot item in the upcoming May election. He said there are three topics under consideration: housing affordability, transportation needs and “transparency at City Hall.”
Before the projected failure of Proposition A, Save Austin Now had been riding a wave of political momentum following last spring’s voter-approved reinstatement of the city’s homeless camping ban. Mackowiak, who is also chair of the Travis County Republican Party, has maintained the PAC is nonpartisan, pointing to his co-founder, Petricek, a Democrat who voted for President Joe Biden. Speaking to KXAN ahead of Tuesday’s election, the chair of the Travis County Democratic Party, Katie Naranjo, called Proposition A an “attack from the far right,” and said Save Austin Now is a conservative machine in disguise. “I think that there are a lot of folks who don’t understand what’s happening and who Save Austin Now really is,” Naranjo said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
'What do you want us to do now?': Leander school district examines options after bond election fails for new schools (Austin American-Statesman)
The Leander school district is exploring its options after voters rejected a $727.2 million bond proposal that would have paid for five new schools, renovations at 13 schools, new playgrounds and new instruments for band members.
Voters on Tuesday also turned down an $11.6 million bond proposal to replace lighting and sound equipment in high school auditoriums and pay for renovations at two high school performing arts centers.
"There is disappointment because we spent considerable time and effort listening to the community in bringing forth something we felt it would support," Superintendent Bruce Gearing said Wednesday. "Our charge now is to go back to our community and ask, 'What do you want us to do now?'"
He also said he didn't think there was a clear answer as to why the two bonds failed.
The district's Proposition B, the only bond proposal that voters approved, has $33.3 million that included money to replace laptops, tablets, printers and other technology devices used by students and staff.
Proposition B "also funded the replacement of projectors with interactive television panels, but the necessary classroom renovation to install the new technology existed in the rejected proposition A," a district press release said Wednesday… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
World’s largest community of 3D-printed homes unfolds in Austin (CultureMap Austin)
Construction is scheduled to get underway next year in Austin on what’s being touted as the world’s largest neighborhood of 3D-printed, single-family homes.
Miami-based Lennar, one of the country’s biggest homebuilders, and Austin-based ICON, a technology pioneer specializing in large-scale 3D printing, say the 100-home neighborhood will be built at an as-yet-undisclosed location in the Austin metro area.
“Labor and material shortages are two of the biggest factors pushing the dream of home ownership out of reach for many American families,” Eric Feder, president of LenX, Lennar’s investment arm, says in a news release. “Lennar has always expanded the boundaries of technological innovation to keep quality homes affordable, and 3D printing is an immensely encouraging approach.”
Lennar recently invested in ICON as part of a $207 million funding round.
ICON says its 3D printing technology produces resilient, energy-efficient homes faster than conventional construction methods with less waste and more design flexibility. ICON co-founder and CEO Jason Ballard notes that with a national shortage of 5.5 million homes, “there is a profound need to swiftly increase supply without compromising quality, beauty, or sustainability, and that is exactly the strength of our technology.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas will receive more than 1.3 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11 (KUT)
The Texas Department of State Health Services has instructed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to “ship Pfizer’s pediatric COVID-19 vaccine to over 900 providers in 155 Texas counties over the next week” so the state can begin vaccinating children ages 5 to 11.
There are approximately 2.9 million Texas children in that age group.
According to the state health agency, about 1 million doses of the vaccine will go straight to vaccine providers in Texas — including local health departments — and about 350,000 doses will go straight to pharmacies that are already part of the federal pharmacy program…“More than 400,000 doses of vaccine have already arrived with 162,000 expected to arrive today, and delivery of the full amount will continue through the next week,” the Department of State Health Services said in a press release Wednesday.
“Vaccinating children between the ages of 5 and 11 helps to protect all Texans from COVID-19,” Dr. John Hellerstedt, DSHS commissioner, said in a statement. “Twenty-two Texas children between the ages of 5 and 11 have died from complications of COVID-19 and 118 have been diagnosed with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children. The pediatric vaccine will further help reduce the spread of disease and prevent the rare but serious complications of COVID-19 in this age group.”
Travis County Judge Andy Brown said he was glad the CDC panel had officially recommended the Pfizer vaccine for children.
“As a parent, I’m excited that my children will hopefully soon be vaccinated,” he said in a statement Wednesday… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Local legal tech startup raises $6.2M in equity funding (San Antonio Business Journal)
San Antonio-based E-legal Inc., which does business as Easy Expunctions, raised $6.2 million in equity funding, according to a document filed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Oct. 22.
The Series A funding round was led by Hong Kong-based VC Morningside Technology Ventures, Virginia-based Stand Together Ventures Lab, TheLegalTech Fund with participation from existing investors such as Austin-based Capital Factory, Graham Weston, Pat Matthews, Springtime Ventures, Theo Capital and Rice University Ventures, Easy Expunctions CEO Yousef Kassim told the Business Journal.
A total of 17 investors participated in the funding round with the first date of sale listed as Oct. 15.
All of the new investors brought in were strategic, as the company looks to scale into more markets, Kassim said. The company will also use the garnered funds to increase its employee headcount to at least a dozen within the next year and expand its product offerings.
Easy Expunctions, founded in Austin in 2015, sells software that helps people expunge their criminal records on their own, almost like the "Turbo Tax helps people with taxes," Kassim, said. It moved its headquarters to San Antonio in Aug. 2016 with incentives from the city of San Antonio and Bexar County, as previously reported by the Business Journal… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
QAnon supporters gather in downtown Dallas expecting JFK Jr. to reappear (Dallas Morning News)
Scores of QAnon believers gathered Tuesday afternoon in downtown Dallas in the hopes that John F. Kennedy Jr. would appear, heralding the reinstatement of Donald Trump as president. The supporters first gathered Monday night in downtown Dallas, and about 1 p.m. Tuesday there were several hundred people near Dealey Plaza, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Kennedy’s son died in a plane crash in 1999 at age 38, but some supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory believe that he has spent the last 22 years in hiding. They think John F. Kennedy Jr. will reappear at the plaza before midnight Tuesday, Newsweek reported. One post from a widely followed QAnon social media account said that after Trump was reinstated as president, he would step down and JFK Jr. would become president. Then former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn would be appointed as his vice president and Trump would ultimately become the “king of kings,” according to Newsweek.
Experts who have been following QAnon since its inception said that even they were surprised by the number of people who showed up Tuesday in Dallas. ”Frankly, I’m kind of shocked at how many people turned out for this,” said Jared Holt, a resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab who researches domestic extremism.
“This wasn’t a widespread belief, even among QAnon followers.” The QAnon conspiracy theory centers on fealty to Trump, who adherents believe will dismantle a shadowy “Deep State,” which they believe comprises leftist politicians and celebrities who are pedophiles. Law enforcement groups, including the FBI, have warned of the dangers of real-world violence by followers of the movement. QAnon believers were well-represented during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In 2019, a supporter of the movement allegedly gunned down a reputed underboss of the Gambino crime family ? an act The New York Times described as “the most high-profile mob killing in decades.” Earlier this year, a California man said the conspiracy theory led him to kill his two children, NPR reported. QAnon is an umbrella group, in which different segments don’t always agree on ideologies, Holt said. He believes Tuesday’s event grew out of chat channels that are obsessed with numerology… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Mayor-Elect Eric Adams wants to create a New York City Cryptocurrency (Forbes)
New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams hopes to create a city-wide cryptocurrency in the vein of Florida’s MiamiCoin, the politician told Bloomberg Radio Wednesday, a move that would make the Big Apple the second city in the nation to collect revenue through digital currency and could position it to become a hub for the emerging crypto industry… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Miami’s Mayor says he’ll take his next paycheck in Bitcoin (Bloomberg)
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who’s up for re-election Tuesday, said that he would take his next paycheck “100% in Bitcoin.”
“Can you help?” Suarez said in a tweet, referencing the city’s director of innovation and tech, Mike Sarasti.
Suarez, who has been advocating to turn Miami into a new center of digital finance, said last month that he was working on a plan to pay city employees in the cryptocurrency. He made his comment on Tuesday in response to a question from crypto promoter Anthony Pompliano of Morgan Creek Capital Management.
The Miami mayor also has jobs as a lawyer and with a private equity firm. The tweet appeared to reference his public sector salary, which was set at $97,000 as of 2018… (LINK TO FULL STORY)