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  • 🤠Mayor Parker says what she wants, IRS says it will be đź‘źfaster + country music history

🤠Mayor Parker says what she wants, IRS says it will be 👟faster + country music history

+BNSF agreement, Amazon expands delivery, people on the move & more bite-size business news

August 04, 2023

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🗞️NEWS OF THE DAY:

With nearly 300 open detention officer positions, Tarrant County Commissioners voted to hire recruiting firm Recourse Communications for a fee not to exceed $37,485 during a 90-day period.

Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker released her letter to City Manager David Cooke on her 2024 budget priorities (which are outlined here). The budget is pretty much prepared and Cooke will present it next week.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and BNSF Railway reached an agreement that will significantly benefit locomotive engineers. The tentative agreement includes up to eight paid sick leave days and grants access to scheduled time off to improve work-life balance.

(Photo: BNSF)

An icy I-35, a day in hell: "That's when it sunk in: There was going to be a car coming in my lane, and it might not be able to stop." Trey McDaniel is a paramedic with MedStar Mobile Healthcare in Fort Worth and he was on a frozen I-35W southbound about to feature a pileup of 133 vehicles. He tells his dramatic story here.

Vote of confidence: Bank of America revoked its forecast for a recession, becoming the first large Wall Street bank to officially reverse its call. Sees first rate cut in June 2024.

The hottest real estate play is in your neighborhood. Unglamorous strip centers are signing leases faster than tenants can move in. (WSJ gift article)

Congrats to Brant Ringler with Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, winner of this week’s drawing for a $100 gift card to Lili’s Bistro. Watch Monday’s newsletter for your next chance to win.

NOTABLE & QUOTABLE:
“I wouldn’t be a good banker, and my granddad would not be happy with me if I just turned Pollyanna on a loan portfolio. I think he would come out of the grave and clobber me a couple of times.”

—Robert Hulsey, CEO, American National Bank of Texas

đź‘žđź‘žPeople on the move:

  • The Armstrong Company: Hires Ken Walter, Commercial Relocations

  • CSE Leadership: Lara Burnside and J.R. Labbe, startup healthcare and communications firm

  • Astound Broadband: Hires Leslie Moore as Enterprise Account Executive

  • Schooler Truck & Auto: Hires Matt Blake, sales

  • Cape Equipment & Services: Adds Stephanie Alexander as Senior Consultant

The construction industry has the highest level of open positions ever recorded, with roughly 650,000 workers needed in the U. S. With such an extreme labor shortage, delays are common in the completion of projects from residential homes to infrastructure to hospitals.

The IRS plans to deliver faster refunds to millions of taxpayers. The agency expects to eliminate up to 200M pieces of paper/year, cut processing times in half, and speed up refunds by several weeks. Here’s the plan.

Dallas-Fort Worth is a rollout area for delivery of Amazon's grocery service to non-Prime members. Fees are $13.95 for deliveries under $50; $10.95 for orders between $50-$100; and $7.95 for orders over $100. Pick-up orders, where available, do not have a fee. Non-members pay about $4 more than Prime subscribers. More here.

In order for a first-time homebuyer to afford a typical starter home in the U.S., they must earn about $64,500—an increase of 13% from a year ago, in large part because of higher mortgage rates, fewer listings and higher home prices, according to a new study from Redfin.

The Wolf of Wall Street’s 1989 Lamborghini Countach is up for auction. The supercar that Leonardo DiCaprio drove in the 2013 film has an estimated value of up to $2 million. Actually, two cars were used in the Martin Scorcese movie, one driven recklessly with lifelike damage and the other a “hero” car kept in pristine condition. The car being sold is the latter.

RM Sotheby’s will auction the vehicle (one of just 12 imported to the U. S. in white-over-white) on Dec 8 in New York.

đź“°BELOW THE FOLD:

  • Country music lands win, place and show. In June, singers Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs made history when their songs “Last Night” and “Fast Car” held the top two positions on Billboard’s Hot 100 list, the first time both spots were taken up by country songs since 1981. This week, Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” reached No. 1, with Wallen and Combs 2nd and 3rd, the first time country songs have held all three spots.

Jason Aldean (Photo: Gage Skidmore)

  • How much must you make to be among the wealthiest 1% in Texas? More than $631,000 a year, according to SmartAsset, which analyzed data from the IRS and Bureau of Labor. Texas’ cutoff of $631,849 ranks 14th, about $20,000 lower than the nation as a whole. The 1% threshold varies widely — from a high of $952,902 in Connecticut to a low of $367,582 in West Virginia. 

  • CBRE’s annual Scoring Tech Talent report lists Dallas-Fort Worth as an emerging technology hub with its large talent labor pool, job growth and affordability. D-FW’s tech labor pool increased by 45,170 workers, 28.1% from 2017 to 2022. At 205,920, North Texas ranked as the sixth largest tech labor pool in North America, behind Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Toronto, New York and San Francisco. The average Texas wage is $91,051.

“We’re looking for an outfit that says we are really going to buckle down this semester”.

Today’s snippet: Collecting athletes’ old cleats, jerseys, and helmets is a booming business.

On this date in history (1693): French monk Dom Pierre PĂ©rignon accidentally makes champagne. He wasn’t the first to discover this sparkling beverage as sparkling white wine had been around for many years, and other winemakers were producing champagne around the time. PĂ©rignon contributed to the development of what we call champagne today; consequently, his name is one of the most well-known champagne brands.

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