BG Reads | News You Need to Know (May 27, 2022)
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[BINGHAM GROUP]
Join Bingham Group CEO A.J. and co-hosts on June 1 (6:30PM) for a fundraiser supporting Austin Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison. The Council Member is seeking re-election to Austin Council District 1, an area encompassing Central East Austin and parts of Downtown.
DETAILS
When: Wednesday, June 1 @6:30PM
Where: Gilfillan House
RSVP to Lindsey Smith -> smithstrategiesatx@gmail.com
[AUSTIN METRO]
Get ready for the busiest Memorial Day weekend ever at Austin's airport (KUT)
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is expecting the busiest Memorial Day weekend ever as daily passenger volumes flirt with all-time highs.
The busiest day on record at ABIA is Oct. 25, 2021 — the Monday after the United States Grand Prix — when TSA screened 35,298 departing passengers.
"Whether or not we'll have a new record for the single busiest day this Memorial Day weekend is a little too soon to tell," ABIA spokesperson Sam Haynes said. "But we are expecting a couple, at least, 30,000-plus days."
Austin's Department of Aviation was projecting some 33,000 passengers would pass through TSA security today. The estimates, generated by the TSA, are based on scheduled flights and fluctuate as the travel day approaches… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Round Rock officials greenlight incentive agreement for $12M Valex project (Community Impact)
Round Rock officials approved an economic development agreement with Valex Corp. during their May 26 meeting.
Valex Corp. is a manufacturer of components for gas distribution systems used to manufacture semiconductors, according to the city.
Jordan Robinson, Round Rock Chamber president and CEO, told council during a May 24 packet briefing that Valex is part of an industry of ancillary businesses eyeing Central Texas following Samsung's announcement of a $17 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility planned for nearby Taylor.
"We all knew that when Samsung announced that they're committed Taylor ... we would be receiving some of those ancillary benefits from suppliers coming to the region," Robinson said. "This is one example of that."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
City braces for imminent drought restrictions – and stiffer penalties for violators (Austin Monitor)
The city of Austin likely will enter the first stage of its drought response plan later this month or next, triggering stricter restrictions and testing out recently updated penalties for customers who violate the rules.
Robert Goode, Austin Water’s interim director, wrote in a May 20 memo to City Council that the utility anticipates the combined storage of Lake Buchanan and Lake Travis will fall below 1.4 million acre-feet later in May or June based on forecasts from the Lower Colorado River Authority, triggering the stage-one restrictions.
The main difference between restrictions in the water conservation stage, which the city has been in since November 2018, and the first stage is a two-hour reduction in the number of automatic irrigation watering hours.
Other restrictions that carry over from the water conservation stage include a once-weekly schedule for automatic irrigation systems and a twice-weekly schedule for hose watering, and limited use of patio misters by commercial customers from 4 p.m. to midnight.
Residential and commercial customers who are found to be in violation of these restrictions will be subject to updated – and in some cases increased – penalties… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin ISD police chief leaving after 4 years (KVUE)
The chief of Austin ISD's police department is leaving to lead a different agency.
Ashley Gonzalez posted his announcement on social media on May 24, saying he has accepted an offer to lead another agency in New England.
"It has been my honor to serve and help keep our students, staff and campuses safe," Gonzalez said.
The announcement was made on the same day the chief marked four years of leading the school district's police force… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas already “hardened” schools. It didn’t save Uvalde. (Texas Tribune)
Four years after an armed 17-year-old opened fire inside a Texas high school, killing 10, Gov. Greg Abbott tried to tell another shell-shocked community that lost 19 children and two teachers to a teen gunman about his wins in what is now an ongoing effort against mass shootings.
“We consider what we did in 2019 to be one of the most profound legislative sessions not just in Texas but in any state to address school shootings,” Abbott said inside a Uvalde auditorium Wednesday as he sat flanked by state and local officials. “But to be clear, we understand our work is not done, our work must continue.”
Throughout the 60-minute news conference, he and other Republican leaders said a 2019 law allowed districts to “harden” schools from external threats after a deadly shooting inside an art classroom at Santa Fe High School near Houston the year before. After the Uvalde gunman was reportedly able to enter Robb Elementary School through a back door this week, their calls to secure buildings resurfaced yet again… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas Gov. Abbott going to Uvalde — not NRA — on Friday (Dallas Morning News)
Gov. Greg Abbott is returning to Uvalde on Friday, and will skip the National Rifle Association convention in Houston. But before returning to the South Texas city still grieving from this week’s school massacre, Abbott will videotape remarks for airing at the gun group’s event, a spokesman said. “The governor will be addressing the NRA through prerecorded video,” said spokesman Mark Miner. An advisory issued by the governor’s office late Thursday did not mention the NRA convention, saying the governor would be briefed and then hold a press conference “on state’s ongoing efforts to support the Uvalde community.” Abbott’s visit to Uvalde will be his second since an 18-year-old shot and killed 21 people at Robb Elementary School there on Tuesday. Abbott will hold the news conference at 3:30 p.m., the governor’s office announced.
Earlier, the Republican governor agreed to speak at Friday’s NRA Leadership Forum. A schedule for the event released late Thursday showed Abbott slotted to speak at 2:37 p.m., right after NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre and before South Dakota GOP Gov. Kristi Noem. The event at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston is hosted by the NRA and the Institute for Legislative Action, its lobbying arm. As of 8:45 p.m. Thursday, the NRA’s online schedule for the event still showed Abbott as a “confirmed” speaker, though it made no distinction between in-person and prerecorded talks. The group’s website also lists U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw as confirmed speakers, though the Texas Republicans said before Tuesday’s mass shooting that they would not attend — Cornyn because of a scheduling conflict and Crenshaw because he was going to Ukraine. Abbott, who is seeking a third term this year, has been a strong supporter of gun rights. Last year, he signed a bill letting Texans carry a handgun in public without a license or training. Tuesday’s slayings at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, though, renewed a public discussion of school safety and gun laws. On Wednesday, during Abbott’s first post-shooting visit to Uvalde, he pushed back strongly against suggestions that tighter Texas gun laws might prevent such tragedies. The governor ridiculed gun laws passed in blue enclaves as ineffectual… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
The GOP's two favorite Dems try to turn their cred into a guns deal (Politico)
Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema quickly ruled out weakening the filibuster to pass gun safety legislation. Now it’s up to their Republican colleagues to prove to the centrist pair that there’s any middle ground. The West Virginia and Arizona Democrats’ dismissal of a partisan approach, along with Sen. Chris Murphy’s (D-Conn.) lobbying against a failed vote on Democrats-only legislation, has forced Republicans to the table on guns. Whether it’s enough for the GOP to agree to even the most modest response to the murder of 19 children and two teachers in Texas is another question altogether. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said that Sinema and Manchin’s enduring opposition to gutting the 60-vote threshold “pushes the bipartisan discussions, I think, harder.” “They’re actually saving the Senate from itself,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who wants to review Manchin’s background checks expansion legislation. “I’ve told him, ‘Look, Joe, I’m more than willing to visit with you on these issues if we could do something that could actually work and stand the test of time.’” Bipartisan bids to legislate on guns failed repeatedly in the past decade, mostly due to GOP opposition to stricter gun laws.
But Republicans acknowledge that because Manchin and Sinema preserved the filibuster, they need to at least listen to Democrats who are desperate for an agreement to reduce gun violence. Manchin and Sinema insisted on working with Republicans to pursue last year’s infrastructure law, which resulted in a rare big bipartisan triumph. But since then, progressives have criticized Manchin and Sinema for their opposition to changing Senate rules to pass election reform, and Manchin’s own efforts to attract Republicans to back voting legislation came up empty. And firearms are even more of a third rail issue in the Republican Party. Just two GOP senators remain in office who supported the Manchin-Toomey background checks expansion in 2013: Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, both of whom are part of the new bipartisan group. Still, more potential supporters could be emerging. “I salute them for having the presence of mind to retain the institution of the Senate,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) of Manchin and Sinema. “Manchin-Toomey has a lot of appealing features and red flags make a lot of sense. I have to look at the final bill, but the answer is I am inclined to vote for that kind of legislation.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[BG PODCAST]
Episode 158: Managing Growth in the City of Kyle - A Discussion with Council Member Dex Ellison
Today’s episode (158) features City of Kyle Council Member Dex Ellison. He and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss the growth and associated challenges with one the fastest growing cities in Texas.
According to the U.S. Census, the city grew from a populations of 5,000 in 2000, to just over 52,300 (and growing) in 2020.
First elected to Kyle City Council in November 2019, Council Member Ellison was re-elected in November 2019. -> EPISODE LINK
[HEARINGS]
Tuesday, 5/31
Wednesday, 6/1
Public Health Committee Meeting (9:30AM)