BG Reads | News You Need to Know (February 28, 2022)

News
Written By AJ Bingham

[BINGHAM GROUP]

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Travis County: 2022 Primary Elections Voter Guide (KUT)

It's primary season in Texas. Republicans and Democrats across the state will decide who their party's nominee will be in the November general election. Election Day is Tuesday, March 1, and early voting for the primaries runs from Monday, Feb. 14, through Friday, Feb. 25. Runoff elections can take place between the top candidates if no one reaches a 50% majority of the vote… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Habitat for Humanity head to step down (Austin Business Journal)

Austin Habitat for Humanity Inc. CEO Phyllis Snodgrass, who has been with the organization for seven years, is leaving her role before the end of the year.

It’s not yet clear who will take over for Snodgrass, but she said she will stay involved during the transition period. 

During her tenure, Snodgrass has been honored as an Austin Business Journal “Best CEO,” helped expand the organization’s services farther throughout Central Texas and focused on advocating for policies that make affordable development easier, among other achievements. Before taking on her role at Habitat for Humanity, Snodgrass served as the chief operating officer of the Austin Chamber of Commerce.  

Snodgrass has overseen Habitat for Humanity, which builds and refurbishes affordable housing, among other services, during a critical time in Central Texas… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Parks board continues weighing Zilker Park outreach efforts (Austin Monitor)

The fabled adage, “Please all and you will please none,” seems to be an apt description of many of the city’s community engagement endeavors, with the ongoing outreach around the Zilker Metropolitan Park Vision Plan serving as a timely example. 

On the one hand, the city goes to great lengths to reach out to various communities, conduct surveys and hold pop-up events to gather input on planning projects or programs. On the other hand, there are always segments of the community that either don’t wish to participate or are caught unawares and express frustration over being left out of the conversation. Then there are other community members – often the same people – who are always aware and eager to weigh in on a topic. 

No matter the outcome of community outreach, there is a widely held belief that city management already has a preconceived notion of how to proceed on a project before ever starting the community engagement process. 

These points were just part of a lengthy discussion at the Parks and Recreation Board meeting Tuesday night, with community engagement processes and the Zilker Park plan appearing as separate items on the agenda while also overlapping with each other. 

Board members had so much to say about both agenda items that the Zilker presentation and discussion were cut short for time; the parks board is expected to continue its dialogue on Zilker and community outreach at its next meeting. 

Board Member Rich DePalma noted the lack of participation of Black and Latino and other underrepresented communities in the planning process for Zilker, the city’s oldest and busiest metropolitan park… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

As farming goes high-tech, John Deere opens development facility in Austin (Austin American-Statesman)

When thinking of John Deere, most people probably picture the company's signature green tractors.

But as the world becomes increasingly dependent on technology, the farming and lawn equipment sectors have been no exception.

That has led Illinois-based John Deere to step up its focus on technology and operations, said Julian Sanchez, the company's director of emerging technology.

"We are a tech company," Sanchez said. "We also just happen to build awesome tractors."

Austin will now play a key role in John Deere's tech future, as the company has opened an office on South Congress Avenue as part of its agriculture technology team, which aims to develop products to help farmers be more profitable, sustainable and better able to tackle farming's challenges... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

After CDC revises COVID-19 recommendations, Dallas County narrows its mask mandate (Texas Tribune)

As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mark a new stage of the pandemic by loosening masking guidelines, Dallas County has quickly scaled back its mask mandate.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins revised guidelines Friday, no longer requiring masks in public settings, except in jails, homeless shelters, long-term care facilities and health care settings. Immunocompromised residents are still strongly encouraged to continue to wear masks in all indoor settings… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Texas border deployment gets $480M boost after top Republican leaders move money from other agencies (Dallas Morning News)

With no fanfare, five of Texas’ top Republican leaders late last month moved nearly a half-billion dollars from three law enforcement-related state agencies to pay for the mounting costs of keeping thousands of National Guard soldiers deployed at the U.S.-Mexico border. Leaders of the three money-yielding agencies — which run prisons and the state police and regulate bars — signed letters affirming their departments and programs wouldn’t be “negatively affected” by the transfers of about $480 million. In a letter on Gov. Greg Abbott’s stationery granting approval on Jan. 26, he and four top legislative Republicans sought to underscore the point made by agency chiefs that the money transfers — funneled through a disaster fund in Abbott’s office to the Texas Military Department — wouldn’t harm law enforcement efforts but actually would augment preservation of law and order, given a migrant surge.

“We understand these were appropriations that would have otherwise lapsed at the end of fiscal year 2021, and thus this transfer will not affect any agency or program function,” Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Speaker Dade Phelan and top budget writers Sen. Joan Huffman and Rep. Greg Bonnen wrote the three department heads. Using the Texas Public Information Act, The Dallas Morning News has amassed letters and internal emails confirming what it reported in early January — that the $412 million that lawmakers approved for the National Guard’s part of Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star” wasn’t nearly enough and that the cost could well be as much as $2 billion a year. On Friday, Col. Rita Holton of the military department acknowledged that the latest cash infusion for the National Guard’s mission supporting Department of Public Safety officers at the border would last until the end of spring, at best. While Holton stressed that mission objectives and scope could change, she confirmed that, if nothing changes, $2 billion a year would be the cost… (LINK TO STORY)

Ahead of mayoral bid, state Sen. John Whitmire faces unexpected test in Senate primary (Houston Chronicle)

On the last day for candidates to file for the 2022 primary in Texas, things were looking good for state Sen. John Whitmire. The longtime Democrat, sitting on an $11 million campaign war chest, had recently announced his plan to run for mayor of Houston in 2023. The more pressing matter — Whitmire’s re-election to the state Senate in 2022 — seemed a mere formality, with the filing deadline hours away and no other Democrat running in his deep-blue district. Instead, Whitmire drew a last-minute challenge from Molly Cook, an emergency room nurse and progressive activist who appears to be the incumbent senator’s most formidable opponent in decades. The longest-serving member of the Senate, Whitmire is heading into Tuesday’s election with clear-cut advantages over Cook, having outspent her roughly 3-to-1 and represented the district since nearly a decade before she was born. Still, Whitmire’s declared — and potential — mayoral opponents are keeping a close eye on the contest, which poses a fresh test of the senator’s electoral strength in a district that takes in a large chunk of the Houston electorate.

Whitmire said he takes “each and every opponent very seriously,” including Cook. He has shaped his re-election bid around his 39 years of experience in the Senate, arguing that his knowledge of the legislative process and presence on key committees — as chair of the Criminal Justice Committee and a member of the budget-shaping Finance and Business & Commerce committees — give him clout even in the Republican-dominated chamber. “I think my chairmanship of Criminal Justice is reason alone for people to support me,” said Whitmire, 72. “Experience matters. … I don't even think it's a close call on who is prepared, from Day One, to represent Houston.” Though Cook, 30, is making her first run for elected office, she entered the race after spending more than a year as a lead organizer behind Stop TxDOT I-45, the group opposing the state transportation agency’s controversial $7 billion plan to remake Interstate 45 north of downtown Houston. She said her deep ties to grassroots organizing would shape her approach to serving in the Senate, vowing to seek input from community advocates through “bottom-up planning.” At the same time, Cook argues that Whitmire — who was elected to the House in 1972, while a senior at the University of Houston, before moving to the Senate a decade later — has lost touch with the district through his nearly half-century in office. She has also accused Whitmire of “running for two offices at once” by way of his early mayoral announcement. At a forum in late January, Cook said Whitmire’s “way of doing things is no longer serving our district or our state. She touted her own “fresh perspective and public health and policy expertise.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[NATIONAL NEWS]

Trump wins CPAC straw poll as DeSantis’s support grows (The Hill)

Former President Donald Trump emerged as the clear winner in the Conservative Political Action Conference’s (CPAC) highly anticipated presidential straw poll, capturing a solid majority of support in a hypothetical primary match up and cementing his status as the heavy favorite for the 2024 GOP nomination among the most devoted conservatives. The straw poll, which received responses from more than 2,500 conference attendees, found that 59 percent back Trump for the 2024 Republican nod, a slight increase over last year’s poll, which showed him with 55 percent support. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finished in a distant second with 28 percent support, making him the only other prospective candidate to notch double-digit support. In last year’s straw poll, DeSantis notched 21 percent support.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo finished in third place, with just 2 percent support. The straw poll confirmed two trends that were evident throughout the four days of this year’s CPAC in Orlando, Fla. Nearly 15 months after losing his 2020 reelection bid, Trump remains overwhelmingly popular among the GOP’s conservative base and would likely run away with the 2024 Republican presidential nomination should he mount a comeback bid. Eighty-five percent of respondents said they would support Trump again in 2024 if he launches another campaign for the White House. But the straw poll also reaffirms DeSantis growing star power among conservatives, many of whom are eager for fresh leadership in the coming years… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

AJ Bingham
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