#NEWS // BG Reads | July 10, 2023
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[BG PODCAST]
EPISODE 204?// Bingham Group Associates Hannah Garcia and Wendy Rodriguez with CEO A.J. review the week in Austin politics and more.
The discussion covers:
? City of Houston sues state to block new law (HB 2127) they argue erodes cities’ power →?https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/03/houston-texas-lawsuit-local-control/
??The City of Austin begins their budget adoption process on July 14th. —> viewtopic.php
? The City of Austin Planning Commission is urging a quicker process for Land Development Code Amendments after more than a dozen amendments were initiated this year →?https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2023/07/planning-commission-urges-quicker-processing-of-land-development-code-amendments/
? City of Austin Ethics Review Commissions approves pandemic-era changes to lobbying ordinance →https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2023/07/ethics-review-commission-oks-pandemic-era-changes-to-lobbying-ordinance/
? Fraud revealed after audit of Parks and Recreation Department →?https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2023/07/insufficient-staffing-revealed-in-audit-of-fraud-and-waste-at-parks-and-recreation-department/
>>>?SHOW LINK?<<<
Also available on?Apple Podcasts?and?Spotify.
[AUSTIN METRO]
District-by-district analysis shows unequal progress on affordable housing construction (Austin Monitor)
The nonprofit HousingWorks Austin on June 29 released its eighth “District by District and Community at a Glance Analysis,” an annual report that shows how many units of subsidized affordable housing have been built in each City Council district, as well as other stats about housing affordability.?
The report tells a two-sided story. On one hand, investments in affordable housing have brought substantial progress. On the other hand, stark disparities remain in where affordable units are being built, and the city remains in a housing crisis that continues to push residents out of the city.?
First, the good news: The stock of subsidized affordable housing in the city has grown 155 percent over the past eight years to 50,888 units (there was a 9.1 percent year-over-year increase in units built from 2021 to 2022)…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin could be 3rd biggest metro in US by year 2100, new report says (KVUE)
An?analysis?by moving services site moveBuddha published June 22 says Austin's population could swell to 22.29 million people in the next 77 years.
Based on current population and migration trends, in fact, America’s three biggest metropolitan areas by 2100 will be Dallas-Fort Worth (No. 1), Houston (No. 2), and Austin (No. 3), replacing New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago as the country’s most populous metros, the report predicts…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin ISD teachers must pay back $2K stipend after district processing error (Community Impact)
After a payroll processing error made by Austin ISD, teachers are now being forced to pay back a $2,000 stipend payment they received on their June 30 paychecks.
The district sent teachers an email July 1 explaining the situation. According to the email sent by Brandi Hosack, AISD chief human capital officer, a processing error led to teachers being mistakenly paid a $2,000 stipend that was intended only for?newly hired?bilingual, special education, career and technical education, math, and science teachers. Hosack said the stipend was part of the fiscal year 2022-23?compensation plan…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
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[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas Democrat enters race to unseat Ted Cruz (AXIOS)
Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a San Antonio-area Democrat, is launching a bid for the U.S. Senate on Monday, with the hope of challenging?U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz?in 2024.
The big picture: Gutierrez gained attention during the last legislative session for his push for gun restrictions following the mass shooting in?Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Houston ISD’s state-appointed superintendent will cut over 500 jobs (Texas Tribune)
More than 500 positions will be cut from Houston Independent School District’s central office staff, the first round of staff downsizing that will further clear the way for new Superintendent Mike Miles’ plan to overhaul campuses across the district.
Miles has been vocal about trimming a central office he described as “bloated” and “amorphous” upon his appointment last month to run Houston ISD by Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath. But Friday’s announcement offered the first glimpse into which departments will be impacted by his plans.
Miles said about 500 to 600 positions will be cut from academics-related departments, along with 40 from human resources. More departments will be affected in the coming weeks, he said…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Where Clarence Thomas Entered an Elite Circle and Opened a Door to the Court (New York times)
On Oct. 15, 1991, Clarence Thomas secured his seat on the Supreme Court, a narrow victory after a bruising confirmation fight that left him isolated and disillusioned.
Within?months, the new justice enjoyed a far-warmer acceptance to a second exclusive club: the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, named for the Gilded Age author whose rags-to-riches novels represented an aspirational version of Justice Thomas’s own bootstraps origin story.
If Justice Thomas’s life had unfolded as he had envisioned, his Horatio Alger induction might have been a celebration of his triumphs as a prosperous lawyer instead of a judge. But as he tells it, after graduating from Yale Law School, he was turned down by a series of top law firms, rejections he attributes to a perception that he was a token beneficiary of affirmative action. So began his grudging path to a judicial career that brought him great prestige but only modest material wealth after decades of financial struggle.
When he joined the Horatio Alger Association, Justice Thomas entered a world whose defining ethos of meritocratic success — that anyone can achieve the American dream with hard work, pluck and a little luck — was the embodiment of his own life philosophy, and a foundation of his jurisprudence. As he argued from the bench in his concurrence to the?recent decision?striking down affirmative action, the court should be “focusing on individuals as individuals,” rather than on the view that Americans are “all inexorably trapped in a fundamentally racist society.”…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
New York City hotline to advise police on involuntary hospitalizations has gotten zero calls (Politico)
No one has called a 24/7 city hotline to help NYPD officers determine whether to force someone to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, a resource launched by Mayor Eric Adams’ administration as he sought to involuntarily hospitalize people unable to meet their basic needs.
NYC Health + Hospitals, which operates the hotline, disclosed the information to POLITICO Friday in response to a public records request for data on calls since it went live on Jan. 31.
Adams announced the hotline last November alongside the rollout of his?controversial involuntary removals directive, touting it as a tool to guide police officers who encounter someone in crisis and are unsure whether it is appropriate to force the person to a hospital.
It is staffed by 30 trained psychiatrists, social workers and other medical professionals employed by Health + Hospitals, a health system representative said…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
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