BG Reads | News You Need to Know (April 19, 2023)
[AUSTIN METRO]
APD says its DPS patrol partnership is working. Austin council members have unanswered questions. (KUT)
The City of Austin is nearly three weeks into an agreement to have the Texas Department of Public Safety patrol the city's streets. The Austin Police Department says so far the patrolling has been a success, but there's still no hard data to back that up.
At a briefing to the Austin City Council on Tuesday, Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon reiterated, as he did last week, that patrols have led to a drop in violent crime. But Chacon didn't provide council details on where state police are patrolling or how many interactions led to tickets versus arrests.
Council members expressed concern that their districts have been over-policed by DPS troopers since the partnership — an effort to supplement APD's patrols amid the department's staffing woes — started March 30… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Council allocates next three years of Project Connect anti-displacement funds (Austin monitor)
The city continued allocation of Project Connect’s $300 million anti-displacement budget last week.At its regular meeting on April 13, City Council voted to approve a resolution allocating the funds for the next three fiscal years. The first round of funding included $23 million for land acquisition in Fiscal Year 2021-22. Last year, the city allocated another $41 million – this time to put toward existing housing development assistance programs and community-led anti-displacement initiatives.
“These recommendations build on the success of the previously expended Project Connect anti-displacement funds, while creating opportunities for strategically expanding existing programs and exploring additional strategies,” the resolution, sponsored by Council Member Vanessa Fuentes, states.
The resolution directs the city manager to allocate $75 million over the next three fiscal years in the following areas: land acquisition, preservation and rehabilitation; affordable housing development; programs and other strategies addressing immediate needs; and staffing, community engagement and marketing… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Bexar County leaders gives Spurs go-ahead to host two games in Austin in next two season (San Antonio Express-News)
Bexar County leaders gave the San Antonio Spurs a thumbs-up on its plans to play two home games in Austin and host one international game in each of the next two NBA seasons.
The five-member Bexar County Commissioners Court approved the out-of-market games without any reservations Tuesday — unlike last May when the club first asked the court for permission to host games outside the county-owned AT&T Center.
At the time, commissioners and then-County Judge Nelson Wolff voted 4-1 for the plan, but only after echoing Spurs fans’ fears that the team might be testing the waters for a potential move to Austin… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas House approves sweeping limits on local regulations in GOP’s latest jab at blue cities (Texas Tribune)
In a major escalation of Republicans’ efforts to weaken the state’s bluer cities and counties, lawmakers in the Texas Legislature are advancing a pair of bills that would seize control of local regulations that could range from worker protections to local water restrictions during droughts.
A bill backed by Gov. Greg Abbott and business lobbying groups, House Bill 2127, would bar cities and counties from passing regulations — and overturn existing ones — that go further than state law in a broad swath of areas including labor, agriculture, natural resources and finance. It received initial approval Tuesday in the Texas House by a 92-55 vote but must come back before the chamber for a final vote.
The bill’s backers argue it’s needed to combat what they call a growing patchwork of local regulations that make it difficult for business owners to operate and harm the state’s economy. Texas’ economic growth and jobs are overwhelmingly concentrated in the state’s urban areas… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Uvalde families plead for languishing Texas gun bills (Associated Press)
Parents whose children were killed in the Robb Elementary School massacre made sobbing pleads for stricter gun laws before legislators early Wednesday on languishing proposals that appeared headed to stall in the face of a Republican majority.
The emotional late-night hearing — which started Tuesday morning and stretched past midnight — underlined both the sustained anger by some Uvalde families nearly a year after the shooting and the continued GOP opposition in Texas to passing any new restrictions… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Fox News and Dominion reach last-minute $787 million settlement (The Hill)
Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems have agreed to a blockbuster settlement over the network’s coverage of former President Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
The settlement comes after months of courtroom fighting between the two parties in what had been widely seen as a precedent-setting moment for defamation law that could severely alter the financial and reputational health of the country’s largest cable news company… (LINK TO FULL STORY)