#NEWS // BG Reads | July 7, 2023
And check out?BG Media, a public strategy firm?providing comprehensive communications and engagement services in the Austin Metro area.
[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]
Austin could change how it notifies you about new development (KXAN)
It’s a section of the Austin City Council agenda that’s easy to overlook: zoning and neighborhood plan amendments. But city council members say when you provide feedback on changes that could be made to a property near you, it makes a difference.
“I can think of numerous instances where neighbors have showed up and said, you know, this change isn’t really something we support, we think it should be more in line with this or that. And we listen, and we make those changes, right then and there,” said Council Member Ryan Alter.
Council members will evaluate who gets a heads up when the city is looking at those changes after council asked the?Office of the City Auditor to do a report?on the current process…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
What you need to know about Austin’s budget season (Austin Monitor)
It’s that time of year again. The process to adopt the annual city budget is set to begin late next week and last through mid-August, according to a?detailed schedule?released by Mayor Kirk Watson last Friday.?
Over the next several weeks, city staffers will brief City Council on how different departments plan to spend money in Fiscal Year 2023-24, which begins Oct. 1. Council members will then respond with amendments before voting to adopt the budget sometime between Aug. 16-18.
Community members will have multiple opportunities to participate and give feedback…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Volkswagen will start testing self-driving cars in Austin as it moves on from Argo AI (CNBC)
Volkswagen?said Thursday that it will begin testing self-driving electric vehicles in Austin, Texas, later this month.
The German auto giant said it will deploy about 10 of its ID Buzz electric vans equipped with autonomous driving systems developed with?Mobileye?by the end of 2023. The first two of those vans are already in the U.S. and will begin testing before the end of July, it said.
The self-driving ID Buzz vans are equipped with lidar, radar and camera systems. The vehicles are “geofenced,” meaning they will operate only in specific areas of the city that have been carefully mapped, Volkswagen said.
For now, all of its self-driving vehicles will have human safety drivers on board while testing.
“We selected Austin as the first U.S. hub, as the city has a track record for embracing innovation and offers a conducive climate for the testing of autonomous vehicles,” said Katrin Lohmann, the executive leading Volkswagen’s self-driving efforts in the U.S…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
领英推荐
[TEXAS NEWS]
'Everyone felt like they meant something to Tamoria': Texas Capitol mourns death of Houston staffer (Houston Chronicle)
Tamoria Jones didn’t easily take no for an answer. About two years ago, for example, Jones and her longtime boss, state Rep. Harold Dutton, got into a heated argument. Dutton doesn’t remember what it was about, but it was bad enough that he told her to gather her things and go. In hindsight, he said, “I think I probably lost the argument, which is why I fired her.” The next day, the Houston Democrat walked into his office, and Jones was sitting at her desk. Dutton asked her: What are you doing here? I thought I fired you. “You didn’t mean that,” Jones told him. She was right.
Jones’ persistence made her a natural lawyer, a fierce education advocate and a beloved figure in the Texas Capitol. She died last week in Houston at age 35. She spent a decade in Dutton’s office, working her way up from secretary to chief of staff — or, as Dutton calls her, the “chief of the chiefs of staff.” She was passionate about education and literacy, spearheading legislation this year to improve third-grade reading scores. “She knew what education had done for her,” Dutton said. “She would make sure every child had the same opportunity that she did.” Jones was known around the Capitol — mostly as “T” — for her intelligence, tenacity, good humor and ever-changing hairstyles. Her loved ones described her as strong-willed and passionate, someone who followed through on her promises and made sure to pass on her knowledge to others. She made friends across and beyond the political spectrum. She cared deeply about improving opportunities for children and helping other Black women succeed, friends and colleagues said. “It didn't matter for her whether the opposition was Goliath or David,” Dutton said. “She was about making it happen. She will be missed.”…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Dallas braces for impact of new state law that limits how cities govern themselves (Dallas Morning News)
Dallas officials are worried about a new state law expected to heavily restrict what cities and counties can regulate. But nearly two months before the law goes into effect Sept. 1, city authorities won’t say how they’ll respond and it’s still unclear how many current Dallas rules will become illegal. House Bill 2127 or the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act bans local municipalities from adopting or enforcing ordinances and rules that go further than what’s already allowed under state law. The act applies to state laws that cover agriculture, business and commerce, finance, insurance, labor, local government, natural resources, occupations, and property. The new law, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 14, requires cities to get permission from the Legislature if they want to enact rules that go beyond what the state allows in those areas. It also allows a person or group to sue a municipality if they feel they’ve been negatively impacted by a local rule that conflicts with state law.
“It’s an attack on home rule cities under the guise of trying to make regulations statewide consistent,” said Dallas council member Paul Ridley. “The problem is that cities like Dallas face many individual, situational, unique issues that have to have regulations customized for the needs of the local community. And this prevents us from doing that.” Ridley said city officials have been talking with other cities about the new law, and he assumes taking legal action is among the options being considered to try and block it from taking effect. Houston officials launched the first legal challenge of the law by suing the state on Monday. “I think we need to take some kind of action about this act,” said Ridley, who declined to say whether he supported Dallas being involved in suing the state. “This is a very ill-considered act that substitutes the day-to-day operation of municipalities under locally elected officials for bi-annual state oversight, which is just inappropriate, and we need to change it if we can.” The Dallas Morning News reached out to the 15 members of the Dallas City Council, including Mayor Eric Johnson, as well as the city’s legislative director and interim city attorney. Only three of them agreed to comment when asked about the ramifications of the new law…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
No discipline for Texas judge who used racial slur to describe Latino defendants (Houston Chronicle)
The State Commission on Judicial Conduct has declined to discipline a judge who referred to Latino defendants as “wetbacks,” calling his comments “not necessarily appropriate” but also not punishable. “I’m stunned,” said Emily Miller, the defense attorney who filed the complaint. “It’s 2023, not 1953. If using a racial slur against a litigant is not sanctionable, then I don’t really know what is.” The complaint stems from a conversation Miller had with Judge Allen Amos, who was at the time overseeing cases of people arrested on state criminal charges under Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s border crackdown, Operation Lone Star. The initiative targets migrants suspected of crossing the border illegally.
The judge and the defense attorney had run into each other one day in court and were having a casual conversation during which Amos told Miller that the defendants coming through his court were not “your regular wetbacks,” according to the complaint. “They have phones and clothes and all kinds of other things,” the then-80-year-old Amos told Miller, as she recounted in her complaint. “I took that to mean that he believes the defendants are affluent and not really indigent.” On the contrary, Miller said her former clients in some cases spent their life savings to come to this country and give their families a better life. She said she did not share Amos’ comments with her clients, who were awaiting outcomes to their cases from jail, as she did not want to add to their stress. Amos, a former Concho County judge picked by the Kinney County judge to adjudicate Operation Lone Star cases in his southwest border town courtroom, did not respond to a request for comment. The judicial commission’s executive director, Jacqueline Habersham, declined to comment on behalf of herself and the rest of the panel…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh Are Now the Supreme Court’s Swing Votes (Wall Street Journal)
The Supreme Court completed its annual term last week with resounding conservative victories, ending a half-century of?affirmative action in college admissions, curbing gay rights when they clashed with religious objectors and canceling President Biden’s plan?to forgive student debt?owed by 40 million Americans.
Yet, Chief Justice John Roberts, concluding his 17th term in charge, sought to signal that his wasn’t purely a partisan court.?
Roberts wrote opinions frustrating Republican efforts to win new legal advantages in the 2024 elections, rejecting Alabama’s plea?to roll back Voting Rights Act protections?for minority voters and turning down another, filed by North Carolina’s legislative leaders, that sought to block state courts from?reviewing gerrymandered congressional districts.
At Roberts’s side in both cases was Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who has proven to be the chief’s most reliable ally. They voted with the liberal bloc to leave current election law in place, joined as well in the North Carolina case by Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Roberts and Kavanaugh voted together in 95% of cases, while Barrett joined Roberts?89% of the time and Kavanaugh 91% of the time, creating the court’s fulcrum, according to Empirical Scotus, a website that provides?statistical analysis of the?Supreme Court…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
U.S. Raises Pressure on China to Combat Global Fentanyl Crisis (New York Times)
Just four years ago, a joint American and Chinese effort to stem the flow of fentanyl produced in China from reaching the United States appeared set to take off. Beijing had unveiled a sweeping new law banning the synthetic opioid, leading the Trump administration to praise China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, for “a wonderful humanitarian gesture.”
Soon, Chinese and American law enforcement agents joined forces to investigate and prosecute fentanyl traffickers in China.
But today, cooperation between the two countries on fentanyl is at an impasse. Mutual efforts to crack down on a narcotic responsible for tens of thousands of drug overdoses in the United States each year have been thwarted by wider geopolitical tensions over trade, human rights, Russia and Taiwan. The failure to cooperate on fentanyl interdiction is emblematic of the myriad ways the bilateral relationship has run aground.
In part to try to get other countries to pressure China to do more to curb the outflow of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is scheduled to lead on Friday the first virtual meeting of a global coalition of nations aiming to end the threat of dangerous synthetic drugs.
China was invited to take part and join the initial coalition of 84 or so countries that have agreed to be involved in the effort, but it has not given any indication it plans to participate, said Todd D. Robinson, assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement. By contrast, the government of Mexico, another nation critical in the supply chain of fentanyl and other deadly opioids, has committed to participating…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
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