BG Reads | News You Need to Know (August 25, 2022)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin's 2022 Council Ballot Slate Set (Bingham Group)
As of 5PM yesterday the field was set for Austin’s November Council elections.
The following offices will be on the 2022 Ballot:
Mayor -> 7 candidates
District 1 -> 4 candidates
District 3 -> 6 candidates
District 5 -> 6 candidates
District 8 -> 4 candidates
District 9 -> 8 candidates
Update shows slow but steady rise of monkeypox in Travis County (Austin Monitor)
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control, there are just over 15,000 confirmed cases of the monkeypox virus in the United States, and about 1,280 of those cases are in Texas.
Travis County currently has 76 presumptive cases of monkeypox and 34 confirmed cases, according to Austin Public Health, bringing the total number of cases to 110. That’s up from last week’s nine confirmed and 79 presumptive cases. Dr. Desmar Walkes, Austin’s medical director and health authority explained that presumptive cases all indicate initial positive test results, while confirmed cases are established through additional PCR testing.
Additionally, there are 300 suspected cases of monkeypox in the county, according to tips reported to Austin Public Health by health care providers, but they can sometimes be misidentified cases of chickenpox or syphilitic lesions, an APH official said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin ISD to hold off on superintendent search until after November election (Community Impact)
For the second time in five years, Austin ISD will begin a search for a new superintendent following the June resignation of Stephanie Elizalde, who served for less than two years.
The district plans to name a new superintendent in the summer 2023 and will not start the search until January, following the November election where five of the nine seats will be on the ballot.
“You see this superintendent turnover throughout the state, because superintendents are having to take on challenging issues like COVID-19, like masking,” said Anthony Mays,
acting superintendent and chief of school leadership. “You’re dealing with all of these polarizing challenges that come with us moving back into the schools from remote learning.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin supply chain startup Sustainment raises $12M (Austin Inno)
An Austin startup that helps connect manufacturers with suppliers in the U.S. just raised a fresh round of capital to fuel its growth in Texas and beyond.
Sustainment Technologies Inc. has raised a $12 million series A investment led by Boulder-based Unless Ventures LP, Sustainment CEO Bret Boyd said. University of Texas alumni venture group Congress Avenue Ventures and Oklahoma City-based Victorum Capital also got in on the round along with several family offices and angel investors.
That adds to a $2.1 million seed round in late 2020 that included local angel investors such as Brett Hurt, Andrew Busey and Chris Shonk.
Boyd, a West Point grad and former Army Ranger, co-founded Sustainment in 2020 with Michael Morford, who is also an Army vet. Boyd is former vice president at Austin-based TrackingPoint Inc. and Stratfor. More recently, he was CEO at Knoema and co-founded Grayline Group with local entrepreneur Joseph Kopser. Morford, meanwhile, has a long resume of corporate roles in oil and gas, defense and other industries, and he is also a founding board member of the Oklahoma Defense Industry Association… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Project Connect to give light rail update amid possible scope changes (KXAN)
Austin transportation leaders discussed Wednesday updates to Project Connect’s light rail program, after officials flagged possible scope changes last month due to rising inflation costs.
At the Austin Transit Partnership’s July meeting, ATP officials said they anticipated “costs will continue on an upward trajectory above the projections laid out in April.” Estimates for Project Connect’s light rail components — originally budgeted at $5.8 billion — had increased to a projected $10.3 billion under 15% cost and design estimates.
Officials said in July they are working on “re-envisioning the project scope/sequencing” to avoid program cost hikes. Officials have said on record they do not plan to increase the voter-approved tax rate used to fund the program, instead turning to sequencing alternatives to stagger the program’s launch.
On Wednesday, board members said they are continuing to work with outside resources on independent cost estimates for the light rail’s 30% design and cost elements, building in some cost escalation factors based on some of the current inflation levels, as well as natural cost increases over time.
ATP Executive Director Greg Canally previously told KXAN in July rising cost estimates are related to increased inflation rates and construction costs impacting projects nationally… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texans who perform abortions now face up to life in prison, $100,000 fine (Texas Tribune)
Performing an abortion is now a felony punishable by up to life in prison in Texas after the state’s trigger law, which has only narrow exceptions to save the life of a pregnant patient, went into effect Thursday.
The law was “triggered” when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its judgment in Dobbs v. Jackson, the case that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to set their own laws about abortion.
Abortion clinics across Texas had already stopped performing the procedure, fearing prosecution under state laws that were on the books before Roe v. Wade.
Texas now has three significant abortion bans in place and several administrative regulations governing the procedure, setting up a potential conflict as the largest state to ban abortion navigates this new legal landscape… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas moves to ban BlackRock, UBS from state business over firms’ oil industry ‘boycott’ (The Wall Street Journal)
Texas banned BlackRock Inc., UBS Group AG and eight other finance firms from working with the state after finding them to be hostile to the energy industry. Glenn Hegar, the Republican state comptroller, on Wednesday named the firms he will prohibit from entering into most contracts with the state and its local entities after his office found they “boycott” the fossil fuel sector. The move ends roughly six months of suspense that cost banks business as Texas municipal-bond issuers avoided firms whose status was unclear amid the probe. The comptroller sent inquiries to more than 150 companies in March and April, requesting information on whether they were shunning the oil and gas industry in favor of sustainable investing and financing goals. The survey was triggered by a GOP-backed state law that took effect Sept. 1, 2021, and which limits Texas governments from entering into certain contracts with firms that have curbed ties with carbon-emitting energy companies. Texas is the nation’s top producer of crude and natural gas.
“The environmental, social and corporate governance movement has produced an opaque and perverse system in which some financial companies no longer make decisions in the best interest of their shareholders or their clients, but instead use their financial clout to push a social and political agenda shrouded in secrecy,” Hegar said in a statement. Other companies on the comptroller’s list include BNP Paribas SA, Credit Suisse Group AG, Danske Bank A/S, Jupiter Fund Management Plc, Nordea Bank ABP, Schroders Plc, Svenska Handelsbanken and Swedbank AB. State pension funds including the Teacher Retirement System of Texas will be required to divest from the companies, though the law includes exceptions, according to Hegar. The list may be modified and the comptroller’s office said it will review information on an ongoing basis. The dust-up has its roots in a shift by some asset managers and banks to prioritize policies that take into consideration environmental, social and governance considerations. The firms say they’re simply responding to customer demand for so-called ESG strategies intended to do good for the world while also enriching investors. Because of their contributions to pollution and greenhouse gases that help fuel climate change, oil and gas companies are often excluded from ESG funds… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
A migrant wave tests New York City’s identity as the world’s sanctuary (New York Times)
The four buses crossed into Manhattan on Wednesday morning and turned off a bustling avenue onto a shadowed side street in Midtown. The names printed on the buses — “VLP Charter,” “Coastal Crew Change” — gave no hint of their mission. Only Texas license plates gave them away. One by one, their riders stepped out into an unfamiliar city, some tired but smiling, others just tired: men wearing backpacks, women clutching babies and blankets, children hanging onto teddy bears. One man wore no shoes, just socks. The city’s immigrant affairs commissioner, Manuel Castro, shook everyone’s hand. A man in a green T-shirt high-fived the children. Tables were laden with snacks, sanitizer, clothes, brightly colored book bags. People with clipboards proffered papers to fill out to earn a new identity: In addition to being undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers, the new arrivals would also join the ranks of homeless New Yorkers. The influx of migrants to the city this spring and summer, most fleeing crime and cratering economies in Central and South America, has tested New York’s reputation as a world sanctuary.
And it shows no sign of slowing, thanks in part to Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, whose decision to send busload after busload to Washington and New York to goad Democrats on border policy has helped turn the normal north-flowing river of humanity into a wave. The delivery of 129 migrants to the Port Authority Bus Terminal on Wednesday was the biggest one-day total so far in Mr. Abbott’s campaign. But it was just part of the larger migration of thousands: According to the city, the shelter system now houses 4,900 asylum seekers. They are the chief reason, the city says, that the population of the main homeless shelter system has jumped by 13 percent since May, to 51,000. There is much debate about how much of that increase is attributable to the migrants and how much to local factors like the end of an eviction moratorium and seasonal fluctuations. But whatever the reason, the situation is dire. Shelters for families make up more than half of the city system, and in early June, their vacancy rate, which the city tries to maintain at 5 percent, fell below 1 percent, according to the Legal Aid Society, which monitors conditions at the shelters. On Thursday, the society said, the vacancy figure was 0.18 percent, or 19 available rooms in the entire system, which holds more than 10,000 families… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[BG PODCAST]
Episode 162: Discussing Austin Entrepreneurship and the Black Leaders Collective with Terry P. Mitchell
Today's (162) episode features Austin community leader and serial entrepreneur, Terry P. Mitchell.
She and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss her path into the business world, and the founding of the Black Leaders Collective-> EPISODE LINK
Enjoyed this episode? Please like, share, and comment!
[HEARINGS AND MEETINGS]
Wednesday
SUBSCRIBE / CONTACT US AT: info@binghamgp.com