BG Reads | News You Need to Know (January 17, 2023)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Q&A: Austin Mayor Kirk Watson lays out vision for new term (Community Impact)
Kirk Watson is once again Austin's mayor after previously holding the seat from 1997-2001, following his inauguration alongside five City Council members Jan. 6.
The new council year is in its early days, but members are already looking to move forward their policies on priority items. Watson said he hopes to hit the ground running in his limited two-year term, cut from the traditional four-year interval following a voter-approved shift that will line up future mayoral elections with presidential election years… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Commission wants to add disabled business owners to minority contracting pooL (Austin monitor)
Advocates for the city’s disabled community are pushing for people with disabilities to be added to the preferred class of vendors considered for contracting opportunities as part of the Minority-Owned Business Enterprise and Woman-Owned Business Enterprise Program.
At last week’s meeting of the Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities, members discussed the ongoing difficulties they’ve experienced in convincing the city to expand its criteria for considering underrepresented groups for city contracts, despite years of asking City Council and staff in the office of Small and Minority Business Resources.
Commissioner Robin Orlowski raised the issue as an agenda item for the group’s February meeting, noting that Houston includes disabilities in its criteria for minority business contracting while Austin only considers gender- and race-based considerations for awarding its contracts… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin tech giant National Instruments exploring a possible sale (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin-based tech giant National Instruments says it's open to the possibility of being sold as it weighs its strategic options.
The company, which rebranded to NI in recent years, said Friday that it has retained advisors to review a range of options, including soliciting interest from potential acquirers and other transaction partners.
The publicly traded company said it has already been approached by some potential buyers. NI also said there was no deadline or definitive timeline set for the strategic review, and that it might not result in an acquisition.
NI, which was founded in 1976, is one of the largest tech employers in Central Texas, with roughly 2,000 local workers. NI has long specialized in testing and measurement hardware and software systems used in a number of industries. In recent years, the company has also been looking to expand its business into other sectors, including aerospace, defense and government, electric and autonomous vehicles and 5G connectivity… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Will Texas Gov. Greg Abbott develop signature achievement during third term? (Dallas Morning News)
Greg Abbott’s tenure as Texas governor has been highlighted by crises. Since he took office in 2015, he’s had to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, the 2021 winter storm that killed 246 people, several mass shootings, including the Uvalde massacre, and other emergencies complicated by political polarization. “Right now his legacy is going to be that he’s a tested governor,” said state Rep. Matt Shaheen, R-Plano. “He has gone through significant disasters, pandemics, tragic shootings and all sorts of things. He’s come out stronger from it, and the state of Texas has come out stronger from all those challenges.” But Abbott wants to be known as more than a crisis governor. After he takes his oath of office Tuesday for a record-tying third four-year term, he’ll offer his vision for Texas over the next four years and beyond.
His inaugural speech is expected to focus on keeping Texas an economic powerhouse, while reducing the property tax burden for residents. He’ll also discuss empowering parents to have a say in their children’s education. And he’ll pledge to confront district attorneys from urban counties that he’s labeled as rogue for implementing progressive criminal justice policies, such as not prosecuting some low-level crimes. “He’s going to be focused on the things he talked about last year, like real property tax reform, parental rights, including enabling parents to have a say in their child’s education,” said Abbott’s chief political strategist Dave Carney during an interview last week with The Dallas Morning News. “He’ll also deal with the ongoing crisis with the border and other things like fentanyl poisonings. And he’s dealing with the easy bail problem that we have in some of the bigger counties and bigger cities.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
How activists used the Super Bowl to get Texas to recognize MLK Day as a state holiday (KUT)
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday became a federal holiday in 1983, but Texas was one of several states that refused to recognize it at first. It took a group of activists and a little help from the NFL Players Association to get a law on the books. In 1990, the issue of whether to make MLK Day a holiday went before Arizona voters. The NFL had selected Arizona to host the Super Bowl in 1993, but threatened to move the game if the measure did not pass. It didn’t, and Arizona lost out on potentially hundreds of millions of dollars. “The NFL pretty much decided that if Arizona was not going to honor Dr. King, then there would be no Super Bowl in Arizona,” said Mario Salas, an associate professor at the University of Texas, San Antonio, and a civil rights activist for much of his life… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
NYC mayor visits Texas border, blasts feds’ migrant responsE (Associated Press)
During a visit to the Texas border city of El Paso, New York Mayor Eric Adams offered up a blistering criticism of the federal government’s response to the influx of immigrants into U.S. cities, saying, “We need clear coordination.”
He said Sunday that cities where immigrants are flowing to need help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“Our cities are being undermined. And we don’t deserve this. Migrants don’t deserve this. And the people who live in the cities don’t deserve this,” Adams said as he wrapped up a weekend visit to El Paso. “We expect more from our national leaders to address this issue in a real way.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
FTC Plan to Ban Noncompete Clauses Shifts Focus to Deferred Pay, Nondisclosure Agreements (Wall Street Journal)
Businesses and lawyers are beginning to assess what the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed ban of noncompete clauses in employment contracts could mean for worker mobility, wages and the way future compensation agreements are structured.
While a full or partial ban could expand the pool of potential hires, it also would weaken a tool that employers have come to rely on to retain talent and protect trade secrets and other proprietary information, lawyers say. More companies likely would turn to a patchwork of alternative mechanisms to keep people from leaving and taking valuable information with them, including nondisclosure agreements and employment contracts that reward longevity, they say.
“Employers have operated with an understanding that they can protect their interests through noncompetes,” said Matthew Durham, a Salt Lake City-based attorney with Dorsey & Whitney LLP who advises companies on employment matters. “What you’re seeing, reflected in the FTC proposal and elsewhere, is a growing hostility to the idea that there should be those kinds of restrictions, and it’s changing the environment that employers have been comfortable with in the last number of years.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Schumer, McCarthy working relationship off to rocky start (The Hill)
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are set to test each other’s mettle as they battle over the debt limit, government funding and the 2024 election.
The two leaders don’t have much of a personal relationship, according to congressional aides and strategists, and their working relationship is off to a rocky start, with Schumer accusing McCarthy and his House GOP colleagues of pushing an “extreme” agenda that would undercut women’s health care and cut Medicare and Social Security benefits.
Despite the shots, Schumer is hoping to develop enough rapport with McCarthy to avoid a government shutdown and to pass a debt ceiling hike that would prevent a downgrading of the nation’s credit rating — or worse.
Bigger legislative deals are much less likely, as is a warmer working relationship… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[MEETINGS/HEARINGS]
TODAY
(6PM) - Zoning and Platting Commission - Regular Meeting Agenda
(6PM) - Asian American Quality of Life Advisory Commission - Regular Meeting Agenda
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY