BG Reads | News - August 31, 2022
[HEARINGS]
Thursday
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
Austin's 2022 Council Ballot Slate Set (BG Blog)
As of 5PM Monday the field was set for Austin’s November Council elections.
The following offices will be on the 2022?Ballot:?(LINK TO FULL POST)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Black Fund organizers unveil plans for grants with first $1M raised (Austin Monitor)
A new fund aimed at helping Black-led organizations in Austin has raised its first $1 million, with plans to begin awarding the first block of grants totaling $350,000 early next year.
The?Black Fund?is an effort organized by leaders of several Black-led groups. The Austin Community Foundation handled much of the administrative and support duties necessary, in addition to contributing $200,000. Other initial donors to the fund include Notley Group, Google and Indeed.
Larger discussions around the need to?support Black-led nonprofits?and businesses began to coalesce in early 2020, with several leaders expressing frustration that the needs of Black communities weren’t adequately addressed with the funding available to representative organizations.
Pamela Benson Owens, a co-founder of the fund and CEO of the Six Square nonprofit, said Black-led organizations tend to receive a quarter less donor revenue than equivalent white-led organizations.
“The reality is historically, Black-led organizations have been underfunded. The resiliency level and the ability to do a lot with a little is phenomenal,” she said. “The challenge becomes there’s not an awareness of the organizations and the work being done, and in Austin everyone gets in their own bubble and does not realize there is not an equitable distribution of funds and support for these organizations.”…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
City plans for community-owned grocery project in East Austin (Community Impact)
Austin officials are poised to advance plans for the first city-backed and community-controlled grocery store designed for residents who for years have faced a lack of access to healthy food options.
City Council is set to vote Sept. 1 on a contract for the grocery concept with Go Austin/Vamos Austin, a community coalition geared toward improving health outcomes and other longstanding inequities in Austin's Eastern Crescent. The initiative will be funded with $500,000 of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds that council set aside for a community-oriented grocery project during its?ARPA spending?and?budget?discussions last year.
Council's approval of GAVA's contract will start a multiyear process involving resident engagement, project development and analysis, and the launch of a community-based food retail pilot program.
"We have Austinites who have to travel 20, sometimes 30 minutes to get to their nearest full-scale grocer. And that is simply not OK for a city like Austin; that’s prosperous," District 2 Council Member Vanessa Fuentes saId. "This initiative that I?championed?during the ARPA deliberation was really focused on, ‘How do we think through and deliver innovative solutions that are rooted in the community?’ And so Austin is charting a new course when it comes to how a local government gets involved with a co-op."…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Self-driving Lyft rides to start soon in Austin (KVUE)
You may have already seen some of the white Ford cars driving around the streets of Austin with the Argo AI emblem.?Argo AI?started operations in Austin back in 2019, but it is now expanding more of its services to the public.?
The group has about 20 self-driving cars on Austin streets, but for now, they still have a testing specialist in the driver’s seat.
“Our vehicles are designed to be autonomous, so that someday in the future, when they meet the standard for both safety and quality, there will not be testing specialists in the vehicle,” said Sly Majid, the government relations manager for Argo AI.
Right now, a pilot program is underway for autonomous grocery delivery. Argo AI partnered with Walmart and is serving customers in Austin, and soon they will be starting a new pilot program with Lyft.
“The really interesting and cool opportunity that's coming up is that residents in the community will be able to use their Lyft app to hail a ride in an autonomous vehicle,” said Majid…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
领英推荐
Harris County may sue state comptroller after defunding police accusation derailed budget process (Houston Chronicle)
Harris County Commissioners Court this week is expected to hire an outside law firm to take legal action against the state and Comptroller Glenn Hegar, who accused the county of defunding law enforcement in violation of state law. The accusation by Hegar, delivered in a letter to county Judge Lina Hidalgo last week, blocks Harris County from approving its proposed $2.2 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The court will hold a special meeting Wednesday to consider hiring the law firm of Alexander Dubose & Jefferson LLP to pursue legal action against Hegar and other state officials.
Hegar threw the curveball just before county officials presented their proposed spending plan last tuesday, saying the county should reconsider its budget plan or gain voter approval for it. The letter, however, was sent on Monday, the last day the county could get a measure onto the November ballot. Senate Bill 23, passed by the Texas Legislature and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott last year, bars counties with a population of more than 1 million from cutting law enforcement spending without the approval of voters. The defunding accusation was sparked by two Republican Harris County constables — Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman and Precinct 5 Constable Ted Heap — who had complained to Gov. Greg Abbott after the county changed its policy last year to do away with “rollover” budgeting that had allowed departments to save unspent funds and use them in future budget cycles. Herman and Heap did not respond to requests for comment…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
El Paso joins Abbott’s strategy of busing migrants to New York, other East Coast cities (Dallas Morning News)
A chartered bus carrying migrants is scheduled to leave El Paso for New York on Tuesday, marking the first time that city and county officials have agreed to work with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. The move reflects a deepening scramble to better manage increasing migration into Texas and is particularly noteworthy because El Paso largely touts its historic role as the Ellis Island of the southwest. Monday, Venezuelan immigrant Daniela Linares, 23, waited at Opportunity Center’s Welcome Center, near the international bridge, to hop on a bus that would take her to meet her husband already on the East Coast. A smuggler in Mexico told her to reroute through Ciudad Juárez, across from this city, because passage through Piedras Negras and into Eagle Pass was too difficult. The Eagle Pass region has become the busiest crossing point for the U.S. Border Patrol along the entire U.S.-Mexico border.
“I left because there is nothing for me in Venezuela,” Linares said. “No food. No medicine. No electricity. Nothing but misery.” El Paso Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino confirmed the city’s emergency management office was working with the state of Texas to provide transportation for migrants that do not have sponsors. “This issue remains a humanitarian concern for the City of El Paso and the Office of Emergency Management due to the increasing number of migrants passing through the region, limited federal and local shelter capacities, and [an] increasing number of migrants that are not sponsored or have means to travel,” D’Agostino said in an emailed statement. A bus was originally scheduled to leave Monday to Chicago, but only five migrants volunteered, not enough migrants to justify the trip to the Windy City, said John Martin, deputy director of El Paso’s Opportunity Center for the Homeless. The migrants have been processed by federal immigration authorities for entry into the U.S…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas gas companies face fines up to $1 million for failing to prepare for extreme weather (Texas Tribune)
A year and a half after a severe winter storm nearly collapsed the state’s power grid, Texas oil and gas regulators approved new rules Tuesday that would require natural gas companies to properly prepare their equipment for extreme weather.
The rules will require oil and gas companies to be able to continue operating during a weather emergency, but they do not specify the standards the agency’s inspectors will use to measure readiness. They also require companies to submit annual reports to the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state’s massive oil and gas sector, outlining what they have done to ensure their facilities won’t fail during weather emergencies.
If companies do not comply with the new rules, they would be subject to a minimum $5,000 fine and a maximum fine of $1 million…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Why are Californians moving to Texas and how that might change the state (Dallas Morning News)
“Don’t California my Texas” is a common refrain of Texans who don’t want an influx of Californians to influence the traditional Republican values of the state. The California-to-Texas migration trend is hard to ignore, especially after the pandemic led to a wave of West Coasters exiting for more affordable cities like Dallas. One out of every 10 people moving to Texas comes from California, according to a recent study by the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University. Companies like Charles Schwab, Tesla and Oracle are just some of the latest to relocate their headquarters from the Golden State to the Lone Star State. Cullum Clark, director of the Bush Institute-Southern Methodist University Economic Growth Initiative, considers himself a student of what’s driving Texas’ explosive growth.
Why are people leaving California for Texas in droves? People are moving to Texas primarily for economic reasons. They want good job opportunities and to be able to afford the type of lifestyle they want to live. When you look at the West Coast compared to Texas, there’s a gigantic difference in housing prices. And that is by far the biggest driver. But I think people are looking at the whole package when they decide where to live. If people were single-mindedly focused on cheap real estate, they would go to rural places, maybe in the Rio Grande Valley or the Appalachians. But that’s not where they’re going; they’re leaving those places. You want to be able to get the job, make the income you’re aspiring to, and afford the lifestyle that you’ve been wanting to achieve. The big metropolitan areas of Texas are offering that package about as well as any place in the United States today…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Social-Media firms would have to consider children’s health under bill passed by California Legislature (Wall Street Journal)
California’s Legislature passed a bill Tuesday that would for the first time in the U.S. require the makers of social-media apps such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to consider the physical and mental health of minors when designing their products.
The bill passed in a unanimous, bipartisan vote in the Assembly after doing the same in the state Senate on Monday. Both chambers are dominated by Democrats.
Gov. Gavin Newsom hasn’t indicated whether he would sign or veto the bill. A spokesman for the Democrat declined to comment.
“California is home to the tech innovation space, and we welcome that,” state Assembly member Buffy Wicks, a Democrat and the bill’s primary author, said at a news conference urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign the bill Tuesday morning. “But I also want to make sure our children are safe, and right now, they are not safe.”
Social-media companies opposed the bill, arguing that differing state laws regulating their apps would make compliance difficult.
Its passage comes after?the failure of a separate measure?that would have allowed government lawyers to sue social-media companies when their apps cause harm or addiction in children…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[BG PODCAST]
Today's episode (163) features Mayor Craig Morgan of the City of Round Rock. He and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss his path to office, and the challenges and opportunities facing Round Rock. ->?EPISODE LINK
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