BG Reads | News You Need to Know (August 7, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
*NEW* BG Podcast Episode 101 - Criminal Justice Reform with José Garza, Democratic Nominee for Travis County DA (SHOW LINK)
Note: Show also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin ISD's school year delayed until Sept. 8, first eight weeks could be online-only (KUT)
The Austin Independent School District’s Board of Trustees voted to delay the start of classes for the school year until Sept. 8. Virtual classes were supposed to begin Aug. 18, but the board wanted to give teachers more time to prepare for online learning.
School board members also took into account recommendations from local health officials and are allowing more time for COVID-19 cases to potentially decrease before school starts.
The first four weeks of school will be taught virtually, but if students don't have technology, they'll be able to show up to school in person. The delay means the district will have additional time to get wi-fi hotpsots and computers out to more students, so they can learn from home.
The board also voted Thursday to apply to add four additional weeks of virtual learning to the beginning of the school year, meaning most students could be learning remotely until the beginning of November. The change must be approved by the Texas Education Agency.
The TEA has said school districts can do virtual learning for the first four weeks, but after that, they must be open in some capacity for in-person learning. To extend virtual learning beyond four weeks, districts must request a waiver or they risk losing funding.
If approved, the second four-week period will include a phase-in of in-person instruction, according to Supertinendent Paul Cruz. He said students who don't have technology to complete classes at home will be allowed to attend at a school building… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Asymptomatic coronavirus tests now available through Austin Public Health (Community Impact)
Seeing a recent decrease in testing demand, Austin Public Health will resume offering coronavirus tests to people who are not showing symptoms, said Dr. Mark Escott, interim Austin-Travis County health authority, on Aug. 5.
In early July, Austin Public Health stopped asymptomatic testing as it experienced a surge in new cases, an overwhelming increase in testing demand and long wait times to receive test results. In recent weeks, Travis County has seen its daily new case average dip below 300 and demand for testing slow down. Escott said test results, which, at one point, were taking more than a week to come back, are now being delivered in one to two days.
These factors, Escott said, will allow people without symptoms to qualify for and schedule a test through Austin Public Health’s online testing portal.
However, despite the relative progress, Escott said much work remains.
In his State of the City address Aug. 5, Austin Mayor Steve Adler said the community’s infection rate—the rate of tests that come back positive—has been hovering between 10% and 15%. Escott said that number needs to be closer to 5% and added that rapid antigen testing—a hot topic in the community recently—needs to become more widely available… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Public Safety Commission considers how to restructure its partnership with Council (Austin Monitor)
The Public Safety Commission is working with City Council Member Jimmy Flannigan to offload some of its oversight duties in favor of becoming more of an advisory body.
“We are particularly ill-suited for oversight,” Commissioner Rebecca Webber said at the commission’s Aug. 3 meeting.
Webber sent a letter to Council members Greg Casar and Jimmy Flannigan on June 18 stating that the commission needs to be disbanded due to the impression that “the very existence of the Public Safety Commission has given the appearance over the years that Council abdicates some of its oversight of APD to us.” She added, “The overlapping and similarly named Public Safety Committee and Public Safety Commission are quite confusing and should not work at cross purposes.”
In an attempt to clear up some of the confusion, Flannigan told the Austin Monitor that he and Casar will meet with Webber and Commissioner Rebecca Gonzales before the commission’s next meeting to hammer out the committee’s and the commission’s next agendas, as well as schedule a regular conversation between the groups. The Public Safety Commission will not be disbanded.
At the Public Safety Commission meeting, Webber explained that as a volunteer commission that meets two hours a month, she and other members of the commission are not equipped to provide the supervision necessary to ensure city staffers are fulfilling Council ordinance mandates related to public safety. She said it would be more beneficial to have city departments report back to the Public Safety Committee, which is composed of Council members.
Flannigan agreed, telling the Monitor, “The Council committees work best when we are performing an oversight function for policies and direction that have already been adopted by the whole Council.” He clarified that since the committee’s work follows a ruling made by the full dais, it offers an ideal forum to make sure that staff implementation follows Council’s intent and allows for the language in a resolution to be adjusted if intent and implementation do not align… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Group behind Austin homeless camping petition asks for donations to continue fight (Austin American-Statesman)
The group behind a petition drive to bring Austin’s homeless camping ban before voters in November is asking for donations after City Clerk Jannette Goodall ruled Wednesday that Save Austin Now failed to collect enough signatures to earn a place on the ballot. The petition sought to restore a ban on camping in public spaces and overnight panhandling. The Austin City Council last year rescinded that ban.
The decision sparked a political firestorm that pitted city leaders against Gov. Greg Abbott, who waded into the fray by sending state resources to Austin to conduct cleanups and established a camp site on state-owned land as an alternative for those with nowhere else to go. Save Austin Now, which opposed the rule change, announced plans for a formal petition initiative in February, just before the COVID-19 pandemic began in Austin. After five months of collecting signatures, Goodall certified about 19,122 of the more than 24,000 collected. The effort needed 20,000 to get on the ballot. “We do not believe there is any chance whatsoever that we submitted fewer than 20,000 petitions signed by registered voters in the city of Austin,” Matt Mackowiak Travis County Republican Party chairman and co-founder of Save Austin Now, wrote in a Facebook post. “After throwing out hundreds of signed petitions, they are now claiming that a 25% sample found 18.9% invalidity. We believe this is impossible since roughly 75% of our signed petitions came in the mail.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
With school reopening, Gov. Greg Abbott sets off another debate over whether local or state officials are in control (Texas Tribune)
Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott moved to block local health authorities from shutting down classrooms before the school year has started. Since then, he has repeatedly said he is trusting local school leaders to decide whether and how to bring students back to classrooms this fall.
Those actions have left local officials confused about the limitations of their authority as the debate over reopening schools in the state continues. Abbott’s decision to curb the role of local health authorities has added to the ongoing conflict between the governor and local governments during the pandemic, with mayors and judges across the state voicing frustration over having their hands tied by the state’s response.
Some superintendents say that despite Abbott’s statements to the contrary, their ability to respond to the pandemic is still limited, and many of their questions have gone unanswered even as school is slated to start in the coming weeks. They are worried their decisions could result in consequences from the state, including cuts to funding, and some say they would prefer high-stakes decisions affecting student and employee health to stay with medical experts… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
After NY seeks to dissolve NRA for fraud, Trump suggests move to Texas and state GOP leaders offer red carpet (Dallas Morning News)
With New York trying to dissolve the NRA over allegations of persistent corruption, President Donald Trump suggested a friendlier home base Thursday: Texas, where some top Republicans shrugged aside the accusations and rolled out a welcome mat for the powerful gun lobby. “The NRA should move to Texas and lead a very good and beautiful life,” Trump said at the White House after news of the New York attorney general’s investigation. “Texas would be a great place and an appropriate place for the NRA....They’ve been absolutely decimated by the cost of that lawsuit and it’s very sad.”
While the suggestion seemed to come out of the blue, this time last year the Washington Post reported that NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre – accused Thursday of draining tens of millions of dollars from the nonprofit for personal gain – had sought to have the NRA buy him a $6 million mansion in a gated community in suburban Dallas. The 10,000-square-foot French country style estate in Westlake has lakefront and golf course views. The deal never went through but it attracted the attention of New York investigators. LaPierre maintained that he and his wife needed a more secure place to live after the February 2018 rampage at a high school in Parkland, Fla., where a gunman killed 17 people. Soon after Trump’s comments Thursday, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick issued open invitations to the National Rifle Association to relocate… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Covid talks going nowhere as deadline nears (Politico)
Negotiations between the White House and Democratic congressional leaders on a new coronavirus relief package were on the brink of failure Thursday night, both sides said after a fruitless three-hour meeting in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office.
The apparent deadlock in the high-level talks now shifts the focus back to President Donald Trump, who warned earlier in the day that he will issue a series of executive orders to address the economic crisis facing millions of Americans if no deal can be reached with Congress. Trump could issue these orders as early as Friday, senior administration officials said.
After their 10th face-to-face session with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) blamed the White House for failing to reach a bipartisan agreement that would allow the resumption of federal unemployment payments or provide hundreds of billions of dollars in new aid to state and local governments. Democrats are pushing a relief package costing more than $3 trillion, while the White House and Senate Republicans want to keep the price tag closer to $1 trillion… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Biden VP race is highly fluid days before expected pick (The Hill)
Days before Joe Biden is set to announce his running mate, Democrats including confidants of the former vice president say the race is fluid, with different candidates gaining or losing momentum.
Three candidates — Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), former national security adviser Susan Rice and Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) — are seen as the top candidates in contention.
But as Biden examines internal polling and conducts one-on-one interviews with each of the contenders this week, sources say another candidate could pull a surprise.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who was seen as a front-runner in the spring but seemed to fade from the spotlight, is still very much in the race, said several sources.
“Joe has always liked her,” one source close to Biden said of Whitmer. “They’re very similar. He can relate to her. It shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that she’s still very much in the mix.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is also not out of the running and has taken part in the final stages of the process, sources say, and several Democrats say a surprise from Biden is possible.
“I think the list has narrowed a bit but … it’s going to be a surprise to whoever gets it,” said one source who has spoken to one of the contenders.
The source described the process as “being in a pitch-black room.”
“You know where you are but you don’t know where everyone else is,” the source said. “You can only speculate like everyone else.”… (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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