BG Reads | News You Need to Know (August 23, 2023)
[BG PODCAST]
Welcome to BG Podcast Episode 212! Bingham Group Associate Hannah Garcia CEO A.J. Bingham review the week (of 8.14.2023) in Austin politics and more. This week we focus Austin Council's passage of the FY 2024 city budget.
>>> SHOW LINK <<<
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
[AUSTIN METRO]
Texas Takes Attacks on Austin to New Level With “Death Star” Law (SLATE)
On Sept. 1, a bill with the pithy title “An Act Relating to State Preemption of and the Effect of Certain State or Federal Law on Certain Municipal and County Regulation” will take effect in Texas. The bill —signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in June—was given a much zippier name by its opponents: “Death Star,” because it could obliterate whole swaths of city and county laws and regulations… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin ends streak of triple-digit temperatures with first rainfall in a month (KUT)
Austin's record-breaking streak of triple-digit temperatures is finally coming to an end.
The temperature at the Camp Mabry weather station is not expected to climb above 99 degrees Tuesday, capping 45 days of uninterrupted triple-digit heat.
The previous record, set in 2011, was 27 days of consecutive triple digits. KUT's Mose Buchele reported last week that meteorologists expect this summer to surpass 2011 as Austin’s hottest ever on average… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Tesla to expand in Kyle, south of Austin gigafactorY (Austin Business Journal)
Tesla Inc.'s footprint is spilling over into Hays County as the electric-vehicle maker plans to lease warehouse space south of Austin.
The Austin-based manufacturer will lease three of the five buildings in the new Kyle/35 Logistics Park, which is a 1.4-million-square-foot development along the interstate near Logistics Drive and South Goforth Road, Mayor Travis Mitchell said Aug. 22 during his State of the City address. Tesla will use the space, which is about 35 miles south of the company's billion-dollar gigafactory, for warehouse storage and light assembly, he said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Affordable housing program launches in Austin (KXAN)
A new City of Austin program to help small-scale real estate developers grow their businesses and create more affordable housing and job opportunities in the Austin area launched in July and will continue through October, organizers said Monday.
The Austin Housing Finance Corporation said 20 participants were selected for the Austin Small Developer Training Program.
It said the program, led by Capital Impact Partners and HousingWorks Austin, will provide small developers with training, mentorship, networking and potential pathways to financing for eligible real estate projects in Austin… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Here’s How Downtown Austin’s Block-Sized Hobby Building Could Redevelop (Towers)
Mega-brokerage CBRE is offering the Hobby site to investors and developers on behalf of the state, and the firm has cooked up some marketing materials that show the tremendous potential of the property — it’s a full block completely unencumbered by Capitol View Corridors or other constraints, and could support nearly 2 million square feet of mixed-use development according to these concepts, which show off an eye-popping supertall building containing more than 100 floors... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
TxDOT clears last major hurdle for I-35 widening plan (Community Impact)
A roughly 8-mile stretch of I-35 that runs through downtown Austin is on track to be widened and reconstructed after the Texas Department of Transportation issued its Environmental Impact Statement and record of decision Aug. 21.
“The EIS process is very, very rigorous,” TxDOT Austin District Engineer Tucker Ferguson said. “It’s not just the TxDOT Austin district putting together an analysis. It's reviewed by environmental experts, attorneys, experts outside of TxDOT, in addition to several rounds of public comments we've received over the years in the publication of the draft and individual meetings.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
CAMPO board OKs amendments to I-35 expansion project without votes from 3 Council members (Austin Monitor)
The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Transportation Policy Board voted last week to approve amendments to its highway improvement plans, which will pave the way for the latest version of the Interstate 35 Capital Express project. It did so without the votes of three City Council members appointed to the board.
The 22-member board considered Items 5 and 7, which are the conclusion of an amendment cycle for the Transportation Improvement Program and the Regional Transportation Plan. The out-of-cycle amendment process was conducted to assist the Texas Department of Transportation with its redistribution of unspent transportation funding.
TxDOT this week announced its finalized plans for the I-35 Central project, which expands the stretch of interstate from Ben White Boulevard to U.S. Highway 290. Many of the requested amendments approved by the board on Aug. 14 concern engineering and construction in that portion of the project… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
At Texas Border, Some Support for Abbott’s Crackdown Is Waning (New York times)
Lt. Christopher Olivarez, a spokesman for the public safety department, said landowners who had agreed to cooperate with the initiative were expected to lend their land to the operation until it wound down. Plans for Operation Lone Star, as the state operation is known, are “indefinite,” Lieutenant Olivarez said.
But many residents who own land near the Rio Grande said the state law enforcement agents had already overstayed their welcome. While he initially agreed to cooperate, Mr. Urbina said he had watched in dismay as state troopers had “completely taken over” his land.
The local migrant shelter has reported that many migrants are arriving with serious lacerations from the razor-wire barriers, and Mr. Urbina is concerned that some of those injuries are occurring on his land. “We don’t want to see people get hurt,” he said.
“I want to be clear that we support the aspect that we need to have some kind of border control. But they have taken over this whole area,” he said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Mayor Karen Bass rips Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for busing migrants to L.A. during Tropical Storm HilarY (NBC NEws)
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass blasted Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott late Monday for transporting migrants to the city as Tropical Storm Hilary bore down on the region.
"It is evil to endanger the lives of vulnerable migrants by sending a bus with families and toddlers on board to a city that at the time was under an unprecedented tropical storm warning," Bass said in a statement.
Bass said that as she warned Angelenos about the storm, "the Governor of Texas sent families and toddlers straight for us on a path through extreme weather conditions."
"If anybody understands the danger of hurricanes and thunderstorms, it’s the Governor of Texas — who has to deal with this threat on an annual basis. This is a despicable act beyond politics," she added.
Bass' office said that migrants were transported by bus, which left Brownsville, Texas, on Sunday and arrived Monday evening at Los Angeles' Union Station. Her office said she mayor and her team became aware of the bus while Los Angeles' emergency operations center was activated at a higher level to handle the major storm… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
How to watch the first GOP 2024 presidential debate (PBS)
The two-hour debate will start at 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday. It’s being moderated by Fox News Channel hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.
Unlike some previous presidential debates, which have been simulcast across a number of major networks and cable channels, the first forum is airing exclusively on Fox News and the Fox Business Network as well as on Fox’s website and other streaming and digital platforms… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Activist Behind Supreme Court Affirmative Action Cases Is Now Suing Law Firms. (Wall Street Journal)
The conservative advocate who engineered the lawsuit behind the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision to end race-conscious affirmative action in college admissions on Tuesday sued two law firms that offer fellowships for diverse candidates.
The lawsuits, filed by Edward Blum’s two-year-old, anti-affirmative-action organization, American Alliance for Equal Rights, accuse the law firms of unlawful racial discrimination against white candidates. They ask the courts to remove race from consideration when selecting fellows. The law firms have offices in Texas and Florida. The suits are filed in federal courts in both states.
The lawsuits target the international law firms Perkins Coie and Morrison & Foerster, but fellowships for diverse candidates are common across the legal industry… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
What is 'skiplagging' and why do the airlines hate when you do it? (NPR)
A new lawsuit brought by American Airlines against a controversial ticketing website is bringing renewed attention to "skiplagging," or "hidden city ticketing" — a technique used by some passengers to get lower fares… (LINK TO FULL STORY)