BG Reads | News You Need to Know (April 6, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
BG PODCAST EPISODE 81: Ilissa Nolan, Executive Director, Texas Hemp Coalition (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
As Classes Move Online, Austin ISD Closes School Buildings Indefinitely (KUT)
School buildings will remain closed for an "indefinite period of time," Austin Independent School District Superintendent Paul Cruz announced Friday.
"This extension to the previously announced closure is a cautious and necessary action considering our wide-ranging community efforts to combat the COVID-19 outbreak," he wrote in a letter to parents and teachers.
Classes resume Monday in a digital format, but there is no uniform way students will be taught; it will be up to each school and teacher. Teachers can use Zoom video conferencing or online learning programs schools had already been using.
Lisa Goodnow, associate superintendent of academics and social emotional learning, says the district is figuring this out as it goes. She says parents and students should treat Monday like the first day of kindergarten or when they started high school, when they had to learn new routines and systems.
She said flexibility is the biggest goal right now… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin and Travis County advise residents to start using face masks, coverings when in public (Community Impact)
The city of Austin and Travis County jointly announced April 5 that the entities have adopted new Centers For Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, recommending local residents wear face masks or fabric coverings—such as scarves or bandanas—when going outside to perform essential activities such as going to the store. According to the city and county, wearing a face mask or covering should be paired with social distancing to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
“This is another piece of a complex process to slow the spread and flatten the curve in our community,” Interim Health Authority Mark Escott said in a news release. “While you might otherwise feel well and healthy, we need everyone’s help to prevent the potential asymptomatic spread to others who could face more severe symptoms.”
According to Austin Mayor Steve Adler, using fabric to cover faces is the next step in preventing the spread… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Hiring dips in Austin — but picture is much bleaker in other cities (Austin Business Journal)
New data from LinkedIn shows hiring in Austin dropped 3.7% in March as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked economic havoc.
Thousands of jobs have been lost in Austin across essentially every part of the economy. Still, the LinkedIn study suggests hiring declines from February to March were much higher in other U.S. cities.
Detroit had the most severe drop in hiring in the LinkedIn study at 20.6%. Philadelphia (16.5%), Los Angeles (15.2%) and New York (15%) also saw double digit percentage decreases in hiring last month. Nationwide, hiring dropped 1.3% month-over-month, according to LinkedIn, representing the largest such decline in more than four years.
The hiring decreases caused by COVID-19 are essentially unprecedented, said Allen Goldsmith, managing partner of Austin-based Technology Navigators LP.
"We've had Technology Navigators for 20 years now ... we went through 9/11 and the dot-com bust, and we went through the '08 meltdown," Goldsmith said. "This is different; it's affecting everyone."
LinkedIn calculated the hiring rates by looking at how many members added a new employer to their profile the same month they began a new job, then divided that figure by the number of LinkedIn members in that community.
The data reflects a rash of layoffs that have hit all corners of the country in recent weeks…(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Analysis: What makes a business essential depends on where you sit (Texas Tribune)
Austin has one of the best independent bookstores around. It’s called BookPeople. The general manager is Charley Rejsek, a former Texas Tribune employee who recently returned to the book business.
The store’s been closed since mid-March because of the new coronavirus. On the last Sunday customers could come inside, employees counted 98 shoppers in an hour. The next day, the store decided the risks were too high and went to curbside sales — order a book online or on the phone, pick it up at the curb. That lasted less than a week, and March 21 was the last day any employees were allowed inside… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas first responders need equipment to tackle Covid-19 (Austin Monitor)
Two-thirds of emergency service district first responders reported they have been unable to procure a sufficient amount of the necessary personal protective equipment since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a study by the Texas State Association of Fire and Emergency Districts (SAFE-D).
“It is clear after the early weeks of combating Covid-19 that first responders from many agencies, including ESDs, may lack the protective equipment they need if this crisis persists,” said SAFE-D Executive Director Cliff Avery. “We must ensure the dedicated men and women charged with responding to all calls for emergency services, not just Covid-19 related calls, are protected from infection.”
Avery warned that failing to protect first responders will put the community at risk of an overwhelmed health care system and a shortage of healthy first responders. SAFE-D asks any Texans with Covid-19 related calls to let their 911 operators know in order to help protect first responders from exposure and prevent any potential transmissions.
Avery called on all Texans to follow social distancing protocols. “We must act now and do everything we can to protect the people who protect us,” he said. “We can accomplish this by staying home and social distancing to help flatten the curve and by donating any protective gear individuals or businesses may have to first responders or local hospitals and health care providers.”
Two weeks ago, the Austin EMS Association revealed that one of its own medics became the first positive case in Austin’s public safety team. “Today, ATCEMS medics are the very front line of defense against the pandemic,” Selena Xie, association president, wrote in a Facebook post on March 25. “As uniformed personnel, sworn to protect the public, ATCEMS medics are the only ones who respond to all medical calls for help despite the threats to our own health and well-being.” … (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Abbott says Texas’ 20,000 hospital beds for coronavirus should help state avoid New York’s situation (Dallas Morning News)
The number of Texas hospital beds available for coronavirus patients has more than doubled in 15 days, Gov. Greg Abbott said Friday. Though the peak need remains unknown, the state on Thursday had 19,695 available beds, up from 8,155 on March 18, Abbott said. He attributed the 142% increase to his order that physicians and dentists postpone for three weeks all elective surgeries and procedures not immediately necessary and his rule waiver that allowed hospitals to put two patients in a room.
Increased staffing, assisted by relaxation of licensing requirements on newly trained or retired health care professionals, is another big reason more beds are available, Abbott said. “We are fully prepared for the hospital needs of Texans as we continue to respond to the coronavirus,” he said at a Capitol news briefing. “We have the capacity to add even more beds as are needed in regions that may increase in patient need,” Abbott said. “And our capacity should prevent us from facing the type of situation that New York [City] is having to deal with today.” However, a spokeswoman for the state’s largest hospital trade group said hospitals still lack sufficient personal protective equipment for care staff… (LINK TO STORY)
Can you lead in a pandemic without picking sides? Greg Abbott is trying (New York Times)
On Thursday, in a public service announcement filmed in his wood-paneled office, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas gestured toward his most recent executive order propped up in front of him, one that Democrats, health care professionals, and a growing number of Republicans in the state had been clamoring for. Beginning that day, he said, all Texans were required to “stay at home, except to provide essential services or do essential things, like going to the grocery store.” Just don’t call it a stay-at-home order. “That obviously is not what we have articulated here,” Mr. Abbott stressed when first unveiling the directive on Tuesday. “This is a standard that is based on essential services and essential activities.”
As the coronavirus spreads across the United States, officials like Mr. Abbott, a Republican who was re-elected to a second term in 2018, have been forced to weigh the preventive value of wide-reaching public-health mandates against the economic cost they will inevitably wring. That debate is especially fraught in Texas, where increased calls for collective action find themselves at odds with an abiding ethos of “don’t tread on me.” It’s a big moment for governors, who, along with having crises to manage, may see their crisis management as a springboard beyond the state capitol. In New York, Andrew Cuomo’s appointment-viewing televised briefings have sparked calls for a presidential run. Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer already sports a T-shirt emblazoned with President Trump’s coronavirus coinage for her, “That woman from Michigan.” But unlike many governors, Mr. Abbott’s task is not so much building national political clout from scratch as maintaining the regard he already has. And in Texas, competing passions for how to approach the virus — of which there are currently 5,330 confirmed cases and 90 deaths — are high. So Mr. Abbott, rather than drive a stake down, has focused his energies where he often does: placating all sides… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Health experts call for Roosevelt-style programs to kill virus, revive economy (The Hill)
A first-of-its-kind program that will deploy almost a thousand people across Massachusetts may be a small-scale test of what public health experts hope could eventually stamp out the coronavirus even before a vaccine becomes widely available.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) said Friday that his state would join with Partners In Health, a Boston-based global health nonprofit, to turn staffers into contact tracers, the backbone of any robust public health effort to squelch a deadly disease.
Those contact tracers will interview people who have come down with the coronavirus to determine who around them might also have been exposed. Those who may have been exposed will be warned to watch for symptoms themselves, giving public health officials a window into how the coronavirus is spreading and who might next be at risk… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
The Bingham Group, LLC is an Austin-based full service lobbying firm representing and advising clients on municipal, legislative, and regulatory matters throughout Texas.
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