#NEWS // BG Reads | December 23, 2022
[AUSTIN CITY HALL]
2023 Council Staff Picks
[AUSTIN METRO]
José Velásquez promises to deliver access to D3 residents (Austin monitor)
The overarching theme of 2022 for the residents of District 3 was access, according to newly elected City Council Member José Velásquez.
Outgoing Council Member Pio Renteria served the central eastside district for eight years and hit his term limit. After a general election with?six?candidates, Velásquez and community advocate Daniela Silva competed in the December runoff. The heavily endorsed?Velásquez won?a race that was closer than expected…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Vela ready to take action to create more housing in 2023 (Austin Monitor)
City Council Member José “Chito” Vela has been hard at work since he?was sworn in?to the District 4 seat in February following?his election?in January. He’s been holding down two jobs, serving as a Council member and finishing up his work as an attorney. In mid-December, he had six cases to complete before stepping aside from court appearances.
Reacting to the Dec. 13 runoff results, Vela said he was excited about the new Council members, who seem to want to do “the right thing.” The right thing, from Vela’s perspective, is taking actions to create more housing, particularly affordable housing, for Austinites. He noted that, while he is currently one of the younger Council members, he will soon be one of the older Council members, “which is great.”
He expects the new Council to be in tune with him on the need for changes to city regulations that make it harder to build housing…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin’s chief zoning officer to retire after 29 years, starting new role in Sunset Valley (Community Impact)
After 29 years of service, Jerry Rusthoven is retiring as Austin’s chief zoning officer at the?housing and planning department, and moving on to serve Sunset Valley.
Rusthoven will see out December in Austin before beginning his new role as?development services coordinator?in Sunset Valley on Jan. 11…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
How Texas senators want to make schools safer after Uvalde (Dallas Morning News)
Lawmakers should expand the school marshal program, revisit truancy reforms and allocate more money to campus safety, according to a Senate report on how to make Texas schools safer after Uvalde. The state should also funnel more resources to promoting an anonymous threat reporting tool that few districts use, the special Senate committee also suggested. But only one new gun restriction was recommended — making straw purchases a state crime — and the senators remained divided on raising the age of purchase of assault-style weapons, such as the gun used by the 18-year-old gunman to carry out the massacre at a Uvalde elementary school.
The nearly 100-page December report from the committee — convened after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in Texas’ deadliest school shooting — made recommendations touching on school safety, mental health, social media, police training and firearm safety. The question of how to prevent another massacre like the one at Robb Elementary is likely to fuel much of the debate in Austin when lawmakers return for the legislative session next month…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas GOP lawmakers warming to opioid harm-reduction policies they once opposed (Texas Tribune)
Texas lawmakers are changing their tune about how to tackle a growing fentanyl crisis in the state ahead of the next legislative session starting in January.
Earlier this month, Republican Gov.?Greg Abbott?led the way?by coming out in favor of legalizing fentanyl test strips, which help users identify whether the drugs they are planning on taking contain the deadly synthetic opioid. Abbott previously opposed such a policy but said the increase in opioid overdose deaths had brought a “better understanding” that more needs to be done by the state to tackle the problem…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
领英推荐
[NATION]
Jan. 6 report: Trump ‘lit that fire’ of Capitol insurrection (Associated Press)
The House Jan. 6 committee’s final report asserts that Donald Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol, concluding an extraordinary 18-month investigation into the former president and the?violent insurrection?two years ago.
Trump “lit that fire,” the committee’s chairman, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, writes.
The?814-page report released late Thursday?comes after the panel interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, held 10 hearings and obtained more than a million pages of documents. The witnesses — ranging from many of Trump’s closest aides to law enforcement to some of the rioters themselves — detailed Trump’s “premeditated” actions in the weeks ahead of the attack and how his wide-ranging efforts to overturn his defeat directly influenced those who brutally pushed past the police and smashed through the windows and doors of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Fox News' Sean Hannity says he knew all along Trump lost the electioN (NPR)
Fox News star Sean Hannity – one of former President Donald Trump's strongest allies on the air and one of his closest advisers off it – admitted under oath that he never believed the lie that Trump was cheated of victory in the 2020 presidential election by a voting tech company.
That stands in contrast to what played out on some of Fox's biggest shows – including Hannity's. On television, Fox News hosts, stars and guests amplified and embraced such wild and false claims, made by Trump, his campaign lawyers and surrogates, presenting them to millions of viewers.
Hannity and a top Fox News executive who oversees prime-time programs told a different story about Trump's false claims of fraud under oath and in front of attorneys, during separate depositions in a $1.6 billion defamation suit. While the depositions happened in August, their statements emerged yesterday in a Delaware Superior Court hearing relating to a series of motions by the two sides in the case…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[MEETINGS THIS WEEK]
[BG PODCAST]
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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