Headlines / Quote of the Week
Fri., Feb. 16, 2024
Our Bout With Drought: In good news, our historically severe drought conditions seem to be improving. In December, the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District declared a Stage 4 Exceptional Drought for the first time in its 36-year history. But this week, levels in the Lovelady monitor well ticked us down to a Stage 3 drought. (We should continue conserving water, though.)
Grid Me Up, Scotty: In other good news, on Wednesday, members of Congress introduced the Connect the Grid Act, which would require the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to connect to the nation’s major electric grids. It was a joint effort from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, and Texas reps including Greg Casar.
Million-Dollar Moment: Casar was busy. Monday, he and U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, joined an EPA rep to celebrate a $1 million award to the city of Austin to develop climate action strategies.
The Little Engine That Could: Six months ago, Amtrak announced plans to get in on the long-anticipated bullet train from Dallas to Houston. Travis County Judge Andy Brown said at the time that he hoped Austin and San Antonio would be included. This week, Brown and Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai met with representatives from Union Pacific Railroad in Washington, D.C., to discuss solutions to expand passenger rail through Central Texas.
Job Growth Slows: After years of noteworthy job growth, Texas will likely add jobs at a slower pace this year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said last week. We’re still looking at a 2% increase in jobs over 2023, but 2023 saw a more than 3% increase over 2022, The Texas Tribune reported.
Unpaid Wages Galore: Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor recovered more than $8 million in unpaid wages (including unpaid overtime and wrongful firings) for more than 12,000 Texas workers in 2023, The Dallas Morning News reported. Workers have three years to claim their back pay at webapps.dol.gov/wow.
Art Gallery Vandalized: OFC Creatives, a local gallery space and creative consultancy, was recently vandalized. Windows advertising their new exhibition from Black queer artist Jeremy A. Teel were broken. While the perpetrator has yet to be identified, both the gallery and artist speculate this vandalism had racist and homophobic intentions. “This act of hate only deepened my commitment to fight for the visibility and expression of Black queerness,” Teel wrote on his Instagram.
Vouchers Are Fetch: Politicians who oppose school vouchers aren’t very popular with Texas GOP primary voters, according to a new poll from the University of Houston. The survey suggests more than half of these voters are displeased with House members who voted against school vouchers last year.
But Border Beats Vouchers: Still, border security is the top issue Texas Republicans are campaigning on, The Texas Tribune reported. In recognition of this, some vulnerable House Republicans are presenting vouchers as an immigration issue. “Last year I stopped a bill that would have handed out school vouchers – your tax dollars – to illegal immigrants,” says state Rep. Gary VanDeaver, R-New Boston, in one ad.
Russian Civil War Propaganda: Wired recently acquired data from two disinformation research groups showing a coordinated Russian effort on Telegram and X to promote the idea that the U.S. is heading toward civil war. Specifically, they’re aiming to stoke divisions over the Texas border.
Beyond State Lines: Speaking of civil war, recent state and local legal maneuvers in Texas have tested the limits of Texas’ power outside the state (think: counties banning driving to abort in other states, and A.G. Ken Paxton’s demands for medical records from out-of-state clinics providing minors gender-affirming care). As The Texas Tribune’s Eleanor Klibanoff and William Melhado put it this week, “Texas’ conservative movement could be wading into a complicated constitutional morass the country hasn’t dealt with since before the Civil War.”
And Beyond the Border: Abortion law isn’t the only arena in which Texas is testing the limits of its power. This week, The Dallas Morning News turned an eye to the small border town at the center of national border debates. Aarón Torres wrote: “Abbott has turned Eagle Pass into a bold experiment to determine how big a role states can play in immigration enforcement, and this city of 28,500 has mixed feelings about its position as ground zero in a national political fight.”
Would-Be Shooter: The fervor at Eagle Pass has also attracted bad actors. The FBI arrested a Tennessee man earlier this month who threatened to shoot migrants. He told an agent, “patriots are going to rise up,” The Dallas Morning News reported.
Megachurch Shooting: Meanwhile, Houston police are investigating the motivation behind a shooting at Joel Osteen’s megachurch. The shooter, a woman who law enforcement say entered the church with her son, was killed by off-duty officers. No one else died, The Texas Tribune reported.
Legacy Business to Become Landmark: Some good news: A legacy grocery and botanica in East Austin is on its way to becoming a historic landmark. The Historic Landmark Commission unanimously voted last week to push Green and White Grocery’s case forward to the city’s Planning Commission. The business has been open since 1938, the Austin Monitor reported.
Can I get some airspace: A longtime aerospace parts manufacturer in San Marcos wants state incentives for a potential $40 million expansion. If the state approves the project under the Texas Enterprise Zone Act, CFAN Co. could apply for refunds of future state sales and use taxes that it pays, the Austin Business Journal reported.
Parking Problems: The Austin Environmental Commission passed a resolution Feb. 7 asking the city to hire an independent researcher to conduct a parking study focused on the city’s climate goals, the Monitor reported.
APD Overtime: The Austin Police Department paid nearly $50 million in overtime last fiscal year, a substantial increase from the year before, KUT reported this week. The department is facing a huge staffing shortage after a record number of officers left the force last year.
Concerning Shelter Conditions: Austin residents voiced concerns over conditions at Marshalling Yard, the city’s new temporary emergency homeless shelter, at a Feb. 7 Public Health Committee meeting. One speaker who has lived there for several weeks described issues including security guards ignoring safety threats and unsanitary conditions, the Monitor reported.
Bullock Museum Becomes Bilingual: All history collections at the Bullock Texas State History Museum are now available in Spanish and English after the museum completed the five-year language project in December. The initiative began with the bilingual exhibition “Becoming Texas” in 2018, KUT reported.
Quote of the Week
“Slavery is probably the best historical parallel to what we’re seeing now.”
– Kermit Roosevelt, law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, discussing how Texas is testing the limits of extraterritoriality, or how a state can impose laws outside its borders
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