BG Reads | News You Need to Know (January 6, 2023)
[AUSTIN METRO]
'Find the unity:' New Austin Mayor Kirk Watson says he's taking office with sense of urgency (Austin AMerican-Statesman)
In a one-on-one interview with the American-Statesman, Watson said he will enter his two-year term as mayor with a sense of urgency. In his first 100 days in office, he said, residents should expect to see movement on homelessness, housing affordability and Project Connect, the area's multibillion-dollar transit plan.
“We are in a cost-of-living emergency,” Watson said. “And in my view, affordability obviously includes housing, and I believe we should be taking significant action in the first 100 days that will address housing. But you will also see me looking at other areas to address affordability in other ways.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Kelly, Guerrero allege Adler broke law in endorsements (Austin Monitor)
Council Member Mackenzie Kelly and former City Council candidate Linda Guerrero have filed complaints with the Texas Ethics Commission and Travis County Attorney Delia Garza alleging that Mayor Steve Adler broke the law when he endorsed Zo Qadri and José Velásquez at a news conference carried on the city’s TV channel, ATXN, on Dec. 1.
Attorney Bill Aleshire is representing Kelly and Guerrero, who have also filed a complaint with the city attorney alleging a violation of the city charter.
The video is available on the city website as “Austin Mayor Vote News Conference” and indicates that ATXN employees did the filming. However, Adler told the Austin Monitor Wednesday that he did not instruct the city employees to be there or invite them to the press conference.
The press conference begins with Adler saying that Dec. 1 is the first day of early voting in the Dec. 13 runoff elections for mayor and Council candidates. After encouraging people to vote, Adler said he also wanted to warn Austinites about a fraudulent petition related to police oversight that would have the opposite effect of the previous petition already set for a spring election… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Cruise soft launches 'robotaxi' service in Austin, Phoenix (Austin business journal)
Austin continues to play a key role in the development of autonomous vehicles.
Cruise LLC has expanded its “robotaxi” service to a limited list of riders in Austin and Phoenix, Arizona. The service, which now has a presence in Central Texas, Arizona and San Francisco, is expected to expand to the public later in 2023.
Backed by General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM), Honda (NYSE: HMC), Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), T. Rowe Price (Nasdaq: TROW) and Walmart (NYSE: WMT), the company shared on its website that it has raised $10 billion in funding to develop and roll out its services. GM holds the majority ownership stake in the company.
Cruise’s fleet of Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles began navigating Austin’s streets in late December… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
NOTE: Cruise is a Bingham Group client.
UT Austin fires head basketball coach Chris Beard (KVUE)
The University of Texas at Austin announced Thursday that it has fired head men’s basketball coach Chris Beard.
"The University of Texas has parted ways with Chris Beard. This has been a difficult situation that we've been diligently working through. Today [Jan. 5] I informed Mr. Beard of our decision to terminate him effective immediately," UT Vice President and Athletics Director Chris Del Conte said in a statement… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
How Texans helped scheme, foment and carry out the Jan. 6 insurrection (TExas Tribune)
The Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection would not have been possible without the help of a number of key Texans.
That much is clear on the two-year anniversary of the attack and in the wake of a massive congressional report that exhaustively details how former President Donald Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, despite knowing there was no evidence of widespread fraud.
Released late last month, the report and accompanying interview transcripts — which together span more than 10,000 pages — read like a who’s who of Texas conspiracy theorists, conservative activists and extremists.
From those who planted the seeds of Trump’s strategy to try to challenge the election to others who sowed doubt and anger by spreading baseless theories on election fraud, Texans played major roles in fomenting, planning and, eventually, carrying out the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
As Southwest Airlines recovers from one meltdown, how does it prevent another? (DalLAS morning News)
Reeling from one of the worst months in company history, Southwest Airlines leaders are trying to figure out what options there are, if any, to prevent another cancellation meltdown. Make it up to thousands of disgruntled passengers? Apologies, refunds, reimbursements and flight credits should help. Fix and upgrade “overmatched” crew scheduling systems? Eventually. Stop another wave of cancellations the next time bad weather hits? It’s the only thing that matters if Southwest hopes to recover, travel industry veterans and analysts said. Flights for Dallas-based Southwest Airlines have returned mostly to normal over the last six days since the carrier shut down two-thirds of its operations to reset from a cascading avalanche of 17,000 cancellations around the busy Christmas travel holiday.
The carrier is now trying to figure out how to fix a crew scheduling software system that buckled and broke following a winter storm that hit major bases in Denver and Chicago. Thousands of pilots and flight attendants were out of place and unaccounted for as airline management tried to locate them and get them back in the air, only for plans to fall apart over and over again. “There will be immediate work to understand what lessons are learned here and how we keep this from ever happening again, because it cannot happen again,” CEO Bob Jordan said in a video message to Southwest’s 66,000 employees. Jordan and other Southwest leaders have admitted it will take time — possibly months and years — to replace outdated technology infrastructure that led to the holiday breakdown. That system, called SkySolver, was unable to keep up with the number of cancellations and delays as it tried to find new flights for pilots and flight attendants. In the meantime, they will need plans to prevent another strong storm from crippling flight operations and stranding millions more passengers. “Some of these systems are so complex, they take time and you can’t do this in three months or six months,” Jordan said in a call with reporters last week. “When we replaced our maintenance system, it was a multi-year project.” Analysts and airline industry veterans said the company may need to take drastic steps while it invests in a new system to schedule and accommodate pilots and flight attendants during periods of heavy delays and cancellations… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Enablers, line-straddlers and quiet resisters: How GOP lawmakers contributed to Jan. 6 (Politico)
A handful of Republicans who remained in the Jan. 6 committee’s sights throughout its investigation are now leading the effort to deny Kevin McCarthy the speakership — using their power to bring the House to a standstill.
During its last days of existence, the Capitol riot panel unleashed a massive trove of evidence with an unmistakable conclusion: At every stage of former President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 election results, a phalanx of hardline GOP lawmakers were egging him on. The committee’s latest material, including 250 witness transcripts, often portrayed those House Republicans as drivers, enablers and even architects of Trump’s Jan. 6 scheme.
And several conservatives currently standing against Kevin McCarthy’s bid for the top gavel, including House Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), were among the handful of true believers in Trump’s efforts.
“There are some members who clearly have a track record opposing democratic norms,” select panel member Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) said, when asked about the nexus between McCarthy dissenters and Jan. 6. “And I think it’s pretty clear if you read [former White House chief of staff] Mark Meadows’ text messages and the January 6 report who exactly we’re talking about.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
McCarthy offers deal to end standoff in House speaker fighT (Associated Press)
The contours of a deal that could make Republican leader Kevin McCarthy the House speaker have begun to emerge after three grueling days and 11 failed votes in a political spectacle unseen in a century. It has left Republicans in disarray and exposed anew the fragility of American democracy.
The House will be back at it Friday, with Republicans trying to elect their new House speaker — this time, against the backdrop of the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The deadly attack was an unimaginable scene of chaos that shook the country when a mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters tried to stop Congress from certifying the Republican’s 2020 election defeat.
McCarthy made no promises of a final vote that would secure him the speaker’s gavel, but glimmers of a deal with at least some of the far-right holdouts who have denied him support were emerging.
“We’ve got some progress going on,” McCarthy said late Thursday, brushing back questions about the lengthy, messy process. “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”
The agreement McCarthy presented to the holdouts from the conservative Freedom Caucus and others center around rules changes they have been seeking for months. Those changes would shrink the power of the speaker’s office and give rank-and-file lawmakers more influence in drafting and passing legislation… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Ahead of El Paso visit, Biden says U.S. will allow 30,000 migrants from four countries to enter monthly (Texas Tribune)
President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a weekend visit to the Texas-Mexico border, along with a new immigration plan that would allow 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the country and be able to work legally for up to two years.
In order to qualify, the migrants must apply from their home countries, pass a background check and prove they have a financial supporter in the U.S.
As part of the plan, the Biden administration also will begin to use the emergency health order known as Title 42 to expel the same number of migrants from those four countries to Mexico if they attempt to enter the U.S. illegally. According to the Department of Homeland Security, Mexico has agreed to accept up to 30,000 migrants a month from those countries under Title 42… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
McCarthy allies, opponents signal optimism to breaking House Speaker deadlock (The Hill)
After two long days of clashes and deadlock, Republicans on Wednesday said there were some signs of progress in the grueling process to seat the Speaker to lead their new majority in the new Congress.
In six votes over two days, a group of roughly 20 conservative firebrands has blocked the bid by Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to lead the lower chamber into a crucial 2024 presidential election… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[meetings this weeek]
TODAY
[BG PODCAST]
Bingham Group Week in Review (12.21.2022)
Bingham Group Associate Hannah Garcia and CEO A.J. catch-up on the short holiday week including:
Council staff picks; Official runoff election results (LINK TO FINAL RESULTS: bit.ly/3FMlZEv); and this week’s winter storm advisory
Episode 178
The BG Podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, and Spotify
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