BG Reads | News You Need to Know (February 8, 2022)

News
Written By AJ Bingham

Downtown Austin

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

'Human error' eyed in Austin's third citywide boil water notice in four years (Austin American-Statesman)

Austin Water officials say human error caused the utility’s third citywide boil water notice since 2018, Director Greg Meszaros told the American-Statesman on Sunday, but he cautioned that the inquiry is ongoing.

A series of oversights and errors at the Ullrich Water Treatment Plant in West Austin "were not properly corrected," said Meszaros, saying this is the first time that this failure has happened. The water, from waterway to processing, goes through a series of steps, and that is where the failure happened, he said.

Meszaros said he was first notified that there was a problem Saturday morning, but the city did not put out an alert until Saturday evening. He did not elaborate on why it took so long to alert the public.

The water is being sampled, and the lab at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality needs to sign off on its quality before the city can green-light that it is good to drink, he said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Vela sworn in as District 4 Council member (Austin Monitor)

José “Chito” Vela, who won the election to become the second City Council member for District 4 on Jan. 25, was sworn in Monday morning and took his seat on the dais. Vela joined Council before a large group of family and friends who gathered at City Hall for the occasion. Mayor Pro Tem Alison Alter commented that the audience was the largest she had seen in Council chambers in the past two years.

Vela has attributed his victory to having pounded the pavement throughout his district with many boots on the ground. An immigration and criminal defense attorney, he has served on the city’s Planning Commission and as chair of the board of the Workers Defense Project.

The new Council member started by thanking his friends and family members for joining him at City Hall. “It’s so heartwarming and touching to see so many people here. I’m humbled, I’m grateful and I’m excited to serve the people of District 4 and of Austin and I’m ready to get to work. ”

Summing up his priorities for Ballotpedia, Vela has said, “Austin should be a safe home for the working class, not a playground for the rich. The City Council should always center the best interests of the underserved people in our community. This requires investing in public transit, affordable housing and public safety reform.” He has reiterated those priorities in a number of forums, adding that combating climate change is also important to him… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

City of Austin settles first lawsuit arising from 2020 racial justice protests (KUT)

The City of Austin has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging a police officer injured a woman during protests in May 2020 when the officer shot her in the back of the head with a “projectile.”

At least eight other people have sued the city alleging police used unnecessary force or violated their rights by shooting so-called less-lethal rounds at demonstrators, in some cases resulting in damage to a protester’s eyesight and fracturing another person’s jaw.

A city spokesperson confirmed this was the first of these lawsuits to be settled by the city.

According to a complaint filed in federal court in November 2020, Arianna Chavez joined protests in Austin against police violence and racial injustice following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis that May.

In the complaint, lawyers for Chavez, who was 20 years old at the time, allege an Austin police officer shot her in the back of a head with a “dangerous projectile,” causing "a serious head wound, head trauma and a concussion." The lawsuit does not identify the officer, but as of October 2020, the department said it was investigating seven officers it suspects injured demonstrators during the protests nearly two years ago.

“I just want to extend continued apologies for what happened to people at the protests and people needlessly hurt and to Ms. Chavez in this case,” Council Member Greg Casar said before the vote. “I know there’s a lot of work left at the council to do to make right with everyone that was hurt there.”... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

The GOP is gaining among Texas Hispanics. Women are leading the charge. (Politico)

Democrats were caught off guard by Donald Trump’s numbers in South Texas in 2020. The Hispanic Republican women who live there were not. Many of them have played a leading role in urging their neighbors in majority-Hispanic South Texas to question their traditional loyalty to the Democratic Party. Hispanic women now serve as party chairs in the state’s four southernmost border counties, spanning a distance from Brownsville almost to Laredo — places where Trump made some of his biggest inroads with Latino voters. A half-dozen of them are running for Congress across the state’s four House districts that border Mexico, including Monica De La Cruz, the GOP front-runner in one of Texas’ most competitive seats in the Rio Grande Valley. It’s some of the clearest evidence that Trump’s 2020 performance there may not have been an anomaly, but rather a sign of significant Republican inroads among Texas Hispanics — perhaps not enough to threaten the Democratic advantage among those voters, but enough to send ripples of fear through a party that is experiencing erosion among Hispanics across the country.

“For so long, people here just never had Republicans knocking on their doors and calling them the way we did in 2020. The majority of us are women that did it then and are doing it now because we feel it’s our responsibility to keep the American Dream alive,” said Mayra Flores, a leading candidate for the GOP nomination in a South Texas-based congressional seat. For Flores, the road to becoming a Republican was similar to the path traveled by many Hispanic women in South Texas. She grew up seeing most of her immigrant family vote Democrat and felt that it was standard for Hispanics to only vote for Democrats. Then, she says, came an inflection point where she began to question her loyalty to the party. A family member asked if she knew what both parties stood for, and after looking into it, Flores felt that her religious, anti-abortion and pro-border security views were more conservative than she’d ever thought and more in line with the GOP. Five years ago, she got involved in her local GOP and now a majority of her family votes Republican, too. She wasn’t surprised at all to see Republicans gain ground in 2020 along the Texas-Mexico border, even as Democrats and Republicans outside the region expressed shock at results in places such as Zapata County — where Trump became the first GOP presidential nominee since 1920 to carry the county… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Former Harris County clerk Chris Hollins announces run for Houston mayor (Houston Chronicle)

Chris Hollins, the former Harris County clerk who implemented a number of measures aimed at expanding voting access during the 2020 election, announced Monday he plans to run for Houston mayor in 2023. With his announcement, Hollins becomes the second entrant in the race to succeed Mayor Sylvester Turner, who will be forced out of office by term limits in January 2024. State Sen. John Whitmire, a Democrat and the longest-serving member of the Texas Senate, told supporters at a campaign rally in November that he plans to run for mayor. Hollins’ campaign team said he would spend the coming months “engaging community leaders, thought leaders, and Houstonians in every corner of the city to share his vision for Houston” and hear their concerns about the city.

His campaign will be run by political strategist Grant Martin, who oversaw the successful mayoral campaigns of Turner and his predecessor, Annise Parker. “Our next mayor will lead Houston at a defining moment in its history,” Hollins said in a statement. “The pandemic changed our world overnight, and we as a city have to deal with that change. We can’t go back. I am offering my leadership and experience to propel Houston forward.” Hollins, a member of the METRO board and vice chair of finance for the Texas Democratic Party, previously worked at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where he focused on helping government agencies become more efficient. He has never been elected to public office, though in May 2020 he was appointed to oversee Harris County elections, taking over on an interim basis after his predecessor, Diane Trautman, stepped down because of health issues. With election officials projecting record turnout amid the coronavirus pandemic, Hollins put in place several programs intended to boost turnout while limiting in-person contact between voters during the 2020 general election. Those initiatives included drive-thru voting, 24-hour voting and attempting to send mail-in ballot applications to all 2.4 million registered voters in the county, including those who did not request them… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Greg Abbott, Texas electric grid pass 1st big test since 2021 storm, but power system far from fixed (Dallas Morning News)

The snowflakes and freezing rain fell Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s way. Last week a winter storm stirred horrifying memories of the 2021 blizzard and freeze that left millions without power and led to the deaths of at least 246 people. This year’s bad weather tested the reliability of the grid, which has become the hot political issue of the season. That means it was also an exam for Abbott, who this year is seeking reelection to a third term. Abbott and the electricity grid passed the political pop quiz, but the course on fixing the state’s power infrastructure is far from complete, energy experts say. “Certainly we have to worry about a level of complacency setting in just because we’ve made it through this storm, which was not nearly as bad as last year,” said University of Houston energy expert Ed Hirs on Sunday’s Lone Star Politics, a political show produced by The Dallas Morning News and KXAS (NBC 5). “The grid needs a lot more work and we can’t declare victory.”

But in the school of short-term politics, Abbott gets a win. He benefitted from reasonable but outsized fear that last week’s storm would be as devastating as last year’s behemoth. And though it was forecasted from the start to be much less lethal the storm a year ago, the intense media hype and lingering concern that the grid would collapse set up a scenario in which Abbott couldn’t fail. The storm tossed a giant snowball right down the middle of the plate, and Abbott knocked it out of the yard. The news conferences and updates were much different than a year ago, when the situation was somewhat out of control. That might take some steam from critics like former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke. The probable Democratic nominee for governor is in the fourth day of his 20-city, 12-day “Keeping the Lights On Tour.” Yesterday he made appearances in Dallas and Denton. The road trip ends in Houston on Feb. 15, the anniversary of the 2021 storm and massive blackouts. While O’Rourke can make the case that Abbott was lacking in his response to the 2021 storm, it could prove difficult for him to get voters to blame the governor for not fixing the grid the way experts say it needs to be repaired. Only another crippling storm will prove that point, and most reasonable people don’t want to see a repeat of that…(LINK TO FULL STORY)

Dallas-Fort Worth led nation in multifamily investment in 2021 (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

Last year broke records for multifamily residential real estate investment, and North Texas came out on top. Dallas-Fort Worth led the nation and posted $27.9 billion in sales, making up 8.3% of the U.S. total, according to a report from commercial real estate leader CBRE.

In terms of new supply, Dallas ranked third, behind New York and Houston, adding 15,300 new units in 2021. Fort Worth ranked 17th, with 6,200 new units. In both cities, apartments are being rented faster than they’re being built. Dallas posted a net absorption of 31,900 in 2021; Fort Worth reported 9,700. “While supply headwinds are strong in some markets, overbuilding is not a concern, since vacancy rates remain persistently low,” the report said. Nationwide, rent soared 13.4%. North Texas posted rates above the average; rents increased by 14% in Fort Worth and 16.5% in Dallas. CBRE projects national rent growth will slow this year to between 6% and 7%… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

What the Frontier-Spirit airline merger will mean for Texas travelers (Dallas Morning News)

Travelers flying out of DFW International Airport, Austin Bergstrom or Houston Intercontinental will have one less airline option if Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines are allowed to go forward with a $6.6 billion merger announced Monday. Denver-based Frontier plans to buy Miramar, Fla.-based Spirit in a cash and stock deal for $3 billion, a combination that would create the fifth largest airline in the country and set up a low-cost rival to the major network carriers in Delta, United, American and Southwest. The deal also includes assumption of debt and operating leases that raise the value to $6.6 billion. Spirt and Frontier flew more than 22,000 flights out of the six Texas airports last year and each has been ramping up with new routes as they try to wrestle market share from the major network airlines with hubs in the region. But there are questions about what will happen when you take one low-cost competitor out of the market in the Dallas, Houston and Austin areas. Travelers out of San Antonio, El Paso and Harlingen could see major changes with Frontier operating out of those airports.

Could the airlines cut frequencies that overlap? Will there be more destinations for Texas-originating travelers? What will happen to air fares with one of big low-cost carriers out of the picture? “There isn’t a significant amount of route overlap between the two companies,” said Helane Becker, an airline analyst with Cowen in a note to investors Monday. ”Both networks are domestic-centric, but Frontier tends to have more capacity in the western part of the US, Mexico and Central and South America while Spirit is focused on the eastern part of the US, the Caribbean, and Mexico and Central and northern South America.” The deal will undergo antitrust scrutiny as the Biden administration signals a tougher stance on big mergers. Frontier and Spirit contend the merger creates a stronger alternative to the four big carriers, which together control about 80% of the U.S. air travel market… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[NATIONAL NEWS]

Trump, DeSantis tensions shadow this year's CPAC (The Hill)

The simmering tensions between former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) are looming over the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where both men are set to give highly anticipated speeches later this month.

With Trump eyeing a political comeback and DeSantis seen as a potential contender for the 2024 GOP presidential bid, the high-profile gathering in Orlando, Fla., offers a prime opportunity to take the temperature of the Republican base and pitch their political brands to the conservative activists and leaders who will play a major role in boosting the party’s next presidential nominee.

But the conference also has the potential to highlight — and possibly even deepen — the emerging divide between Trump and DeSantis, stirring both worry and intrigue within the GOP.

“I think he definitely feels threatened by the governor,” one GOP donor, who has given to both Trump and DeSantis, said of the former president. “I can’t necessarily blame him, because there are a lot of people right now who are very interested in what Ron DeSantis has to say, and I think that’s especially true at CPAC.”

Trump has griped behind the scenes for months about DeSantis’s rapid political rise, including chatter about a future White House bid. Fueling the complaints is the Florida governor’s apparent refusal to say publicly that he won’t challenge Trump in 2024 should the former president mount another campaign for the White House… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Spotify CEO apologizes to employees for Joe Rogan, says he doesn’t believe in ‘Silencing’ him (The Wall Street Journal)

Spotify Technology SA Chief Executive Daniel Ek apologized to employees for the way Joe Rogan’s use of a racial slur in previous podcast episodes has impacted them, saying the situation “leaves many of you feeling drained, frustrated and unheard.”

He said in a letter shared with The Wall Street Journal by a company spokesman that he has no plans to remove the star podcaster from the streaming platform and committed to spending $100 million on music and audio content from what he called historically marginalized groups.

“There are no words I can say to adequately convey how deeply sorry I am for the way ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ controversy continues to impact each of you,” Mr. Ek said to Spotify staffers on Sunday, referring to Mr. Rogan’s podcast. “Not only are some of Joe Rogan’s comments incredibly hurtful, I want to make clear that they do not represent the values of this company.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

AJ Bingham
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