BG Reads | News You Need to Know (August 17, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
*NEW* BG Podcast Episode 103: FY 2021 Budget with Council Member Jimmy Flannigan (District 6) (SHOW LINK)
Note: Show also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher
[AUSTIN METRO]
Andy Brown wins Democratic nomination for Travis County judge (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin attorney and political operative Andy Brown, who lost a hard-fought Democratic primary for Travis County judge to Sarah Eckhardt in 2014, won the Democratic nomination Sunday to succeed her in a special election on the November ballot.
Brown’s victory over Travis County Precinct 1 Commissioner Jeff Travillion and Dyana Limon-Mercado, who recently stepped down as Travis County Democratic Party chairwoman to run for judge, came in a vote of the county party’s precinct chairs who were vested with the responsibility of choosing the party’s nominee for the special election to complete the last two years of Eckhardt’s term.
There was no scheduled election before the Nov. 3 general election to conduct a primary. The county judge is the county’s chief executive and presides over the commissioners court.
Brown won 55.9% of the vote. Each precinct chair’s vote will be posted on the Travis County Democratic Party website, said party Chairwoman Katie Naranjo.
Eckhardt resigned in May to run in a special election for the state Senate seat vacated by Kirk Watson, an Austin Democrat who resigned for a job academia. She finished first in the July 14 special election, barely shy of a majority, and then clinched the seat after state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, dropped out of the runoff race. She was sworn into office on July 31.
Travis County Republicans also will be choosing a nominee before the Aug. 24 deadline to be on the November ballot… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin virus rules extended to December (Austin American-Statesman)
In the latest sign that no resolution to the coronavirus pandemic is in sight, Austin Mayor Steve Adler on Friday extended virus-related local public safety rules through Dec. 15. In addition to measures related to social distancing and facial coverings that were put in place in previous orders, the mayor’s new order, which goes into effect Sunday, will continue the ban on gatherings of more than 10 people that are not on a list of events protected by state shelter-in-place orders.
“COVID-19 continues to menace the health of Austin residents and the Austin economy, and the local Health Authority has advised on the need for continued vigilance by individuals and Austin businesses in complying with mandatory health measures,” the order signed by Adler says. Activities exempted from the city’s 10-person limit include religious services, child care service, summer camps and recreational sports programs. The order states that some outdoor events and locations, such as professional and collegiate sporting events, swimming pools, water parks, rodeos, equestrian events and amusement parks, will have to operate at a 50% occupancy limit. The seven-day rolling average of new daily known COVID-19 cases in Travis County dropped from nearly 550 in early July to 209 on Friday, according to Texas 2036, a nonprofit that examines state data to improve policy-making. The seven-day rolling average of daily known coronavirus deaths in Travis County was five July 24; as of Thursday, according to the latest figures available, it was one… (LINK TO STORY)
UT planning to limit stadium capacity to 25%. Here's what you need to know about Texas college football during the pandemic. (Texas Tribune)
With the first day of school fast approaching, athletics officials at major Texas universities are moving forward with a fall football season, planning to bring thousands of fans back to stadiums. University officials are finalizing stadium capacity and attendance details that they say will keep both athletes and fans safe.
This comes as Texas is still combating high hospitalizations and deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, and as health officials continue to encourage people to keep distance from each other to prevent the spread of the virus.
Earlier this month, the NCAA released guidelines intended to protect collegiate athletes, while expressing “serious concerns about the continuing high levels of COVID-19 infection in many parts of the nation.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
USPS warns Texas that some mail-in ballots may be delayed in November (Texas Tribune)
The U.S. Postal Service has warned Texas officials that some ballots cast by mail may not arrive in time to be counted for the November election thanks to certain state deadlines for mail-in ballots being incompatible with its delivery standards.
"This mismatch creates a risk that ballots requested near the deadline under state law will not be retuned by mail in time to be counted under your laws as we understand them," Thomas Marshall, general counsel and executive vice president of the USPS, wrote to Texas Secretary of State Ruth Hughs in a letter dated July 30. "As a result, to the extent that the mail is used to transmit ballots to and from voters, there is a significant risk that, at least in certain circumstances, ballots may be requested in a manner that is consistent with your election rules and returned promptly, and yet not be returned in time to be counted."
It is unclear how many Texas voters may be affected should such delays occur. A spokesperson for the secretary of state's office, which provided The Texas Tribune with a copy of the USPS letter, did not immediately answer questions about whether the agency plans to respond to the letter or will issue guidance to voters or local elected officials based on it. State lawmakers create elections deadlines and the secretary of state’s office does not have the power to change them, according to state statute… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Two Black leaders are shaping the Dallas business community’s response to inclusion and COVID-19 (Dallas Morning News)
Fred Perpall and John Olajide start each workday with a 7:30 call to plot strategy. The chairs of the Dallas Citizens Council and the Dallas Regional Chamber want to make sure their organizations are doing everything possible to fight the dual pandemics of coronavirus and racial injustice. The duo established this daily routine shortly after COVID-19 set in and have continued it for five months, even when Perpall was on vacation with his family in his native Bahamas. Perpall, the 45-year-old CEO of the Beck Group, is finishing out his two-year term as the Citizen Council chair. Olajide, the 39-year-old CEO of Dallas-based Axxess Technology Solutions Inc., is eight months into his one-year term as chair of the Regional Chamber. It’s the first time in history that Dallas’ two most influential business organizations are being led by Black men.
And they want to be sure the Dallas business community does all it can to save jobs and small businesses. “I’ve heard the word ‘unprecedented’ so many times that it’s losing its meaning,” said Olajide (pronounced oh-LA-gee-day). “But with COVID, it’s totally appropriate. Fred and I realized early on that the Dallas Regional Chamber cannot be saying one thing and the Citizens Council saying another. “We needed to galvanize all the resources in our community to get through this.” Within days of the lockdown, the council and chamber, along with Visit Dallas and Downtown Dallas Inc., had a jobs website running on the chamber’s platform to connect people who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic with companies that were hiring. In the first six weeks after COVID-19 struck, Perpall and Olajide orchestrated and led a series of first-ever combined board meetings via Zoom. “Why these meetings hadn’t happened before is beyond me,” said Olajide. “When we leverage the strength and the power of the DRC and the Citizens Council, great things happen.” Olajide and Perpall co-authored an op-ed in The Dallas Morning News in late March urging the business community to focus on initiatives that would save lives, ensure that our hospital capacity was not overwhelmed and preserve the local economy… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Since Aug. 1, San Antonio COVID-19 hospitalizations have decreased 30%, deaths have increased 70% (Texas Public Radio)
The City of San Antonio has reported 379 new cases and 38 new deaths since Friday, less than half of the number of cases reported last weekend. There have now been 44,052 cases and 598 confirmed deaths total since the public health crisis began. Of the total reported cases, 7,966 (18%) are probable cases, symptomatic cases that have a positive antigen test result. On Sunday, the city reported 59 new cases and confirmed seven deaths. There are still 289 reported deaths under investigation by Metro Health. The death toll has increased nearly 70% since August 1.
Hospitalizations have been trending well, with 126 fewer hospitalizations this Sunday compared to last. There were 612 total hospitalizations on Sunday (+14). Of those hospitalizations, 279 are in intensive care (-6) and 192 are on ventilators (-2). Hospitalizations have dropped nearly 30% since August 1. There are 18% of staffed beds and 56% of ventilators available in local hospitals. At Monday’s briefing, Mayor Ron Nirenberg will update residents on the positivity rate, the doubling time and other progress and warning indicators. The update is given weekly on Monday evenings. On Friday, Boerne Independent School District reported its first confirmed case of COVID-19, three days after the district started the school year. According to district officials, the person who tested positive for COVID-19 is a student or staff member at Champion High School… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
US coronavirus forecasts offer somber outlook (Wall Street Journal)
The U.S. coronavirus death toll is expected to pass 180,000 and could reach 200,000 by Sept. 5, according to modelers whose forecasts are shared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—a somber prediction as the country tries to battle the virus and revitalize the economy. U.S. deaths currently number at least 169,313, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Total infections exceed 5.3 million, with the new cases logged Friday topping 60,000 after two days of over 50,000 new cases, according to the Johns Hopkins data. The U.S. total represents about a quarter of the cases world-wide, which surpassed 21 million.
California became the first U.S. state to report more than 600,000 confirmed coronavirus cases. Deaths there exceed 11,000. Meanwhile, in New York, once the U.S.’s epicenter of the virus., Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday hospitalizations in the state had dropped to 523, the lowest since March 17. Mr. Cuomo also said the state on Friday set a new daily record for the number of Covid-19 tests reported at 88,668, with a 0.8% positivity rate. The CDC updated guidance for people who have recovered from a coronavirus infection, based on findings that they can continue to test positive for up to three months without being infectious to others. People should stay isolated for at least 10 days after symptoms appear and until 24 hours after their fever subsides, but after that need not “quarantine or get tested again for up to three months as long as they do not develop symptoms again,” the CDC website says. McKesson Corp. will lead the distribution of future coronavirus vaccines and related supplies, President Trump said Friday, part of the government’s efforts to accelerate development and production of drugs and vaccines for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. More than a third of Americans surveyed, though, said they would choose not to be vaccinated for the coronavirus, an NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll released Friday showed, while 60% said they would take the shot. Still, that is more vaccine-positive than with the H1N1 flu in 2009, when the margin was 42% no and only 52% yes… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Tracing Trump’s Postal Service obsession — from ‘loser’ to ‘scam’ to ‘rigged election’ (Washington Post)
Soon after taking office in 2017, President Trump seized on the U.S. Postal Service as an emblem of the bloated bureaucracy. “A loser,” he repeatedly labeled one of America’s most beloved public institutions, according to aides who discussed the matter with him. Allies coddled Trump by telling him the reason he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in 2016 was widespread mail-in balloting fraud — a conspiracy theory for which there is no evidence — and the president’s postal outrage coarsened further. Then Trump complained to senior White House advisers that Jeff Bezos — a presidential foe in part because he owns The Washington Post, whose news coverage the president thought was unfair and too tough on him — was “getting rich” because Amazon had been “ripping off” the Postal Service with a “sweetheart deal” to ship millions of its packages, one of them recalled.
They explained that this was not true and that the Postal Service actually benefited from Amazon’s business, the adviser added, but the president railed for months about what he described as a “scam.” And now Trump has fixated again on the Postal Service, this time trying to make it a tool in his reelection campaign by slowing mail service, blocking an emergency infusion of federal funds and challenging the integrity of mail-in balloting. The president acknowledged last week that his opposition is rooted in his desire to restrict how many Americans can vote by mail. The breathtaking moves by the Trump administration this summer to disrupt a government service during the coronavirus pandemic — under the argument that it will boost operational efficiencies — represent the culmination of Trump’s grievance-fueled crusade against the Postal Service that dates to the start of his presidency. Many of his complaints have centered on the post office’s chronic financial problems, which have worsened during the pandemic. “The post office has been run poorly for many, many decades,” Trump said at a news conference last Thursday as he defended his administration’s actions. “Great people in the post office, incredible people, but they’ve had very bad leadership for many years. So we’ll get it straightened out.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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