BG Reads | News You Need to Know (July 2, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
*NEW* BG Podcast Episode 97: Talking Relief and Recovery with Veronica Briseño, Director of Austin's Economic Development Department (SHOW LINK)
Traditionally tasked with leading Austin’s global business outreach and business expansion incentive programs, EDD has pivoted becoming the lead city department on economic recovery.
Veronica discuss several of the recovery programs developed thus far, as well as the $271.6 million Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. spending framework passed by the Austin City Council on June 4th.
Note: Show also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher
Early Voting for the Travis County Democratic and Republican Primary Runoffs, and Special Elections Runs through Friday, July 10th.
[AUSTIN METRO]
ACL Fest canceled this year, as organizers plan 2021 return to celebrate 20th anniversary (KUT)
Austin City Limits Music Festival has been officially canceled this year, with the festival saying it's "the only responsible solution" given the current COVID-19 situation in Texas.
The organizers of the two-weekend event hope to return to Zilker Park to celebrate the festival's 20th anniversary Oct. 1-3 and Oct. 8-10, 2021.
"The health and safety of our fans, artists, partners, staff and the entire Austin community remains our highest priority," ACL Fest said on its website Wednesday.
Fans who have already bought tickets will be able to use them for next year's festival, ACL said, without a change in price. Refunds will go out to those who bought tickets directly through the festival and cannot attend next year's dates.
The announcement came a day after Texas hit another daily record high of 6,975 new COVID-19 cases — nearly 1,000 more than the previous record set on June 25. Last Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered bars to close and restaurants to limit their capacity as both cases and hospitalizations continue to surge across Texas… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Public Safety Committee to hear testimony on changes to police tactics (Austin Monitor)
City Council’s newly revived Public Safety Committee convenes today at 2 p.m. to discuss the Austin Police Department’s General Orders and tactics. It’ll be a different kind of committee meeting: Rather than lead the discussion, committee members will listen to community members and gather feedback on a new vision for the department.
The meeting comes just weeks after protests calling for justice in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Mike Ramos in Austin. The tactics police deployed against protesters – pepper spray and “less lethal” ammunition – drew ire from the community.
“I’m trying to be very intentional with how we have the public conversation on the work,” Committee Chair Jimmy Flannigan said. “What I’m trying to do is bring the folks to the table that have the background or professional experience” to explain how to move forward and navigate the challenges the city faces.
Flannigan said because of the state laws governing a police chief’s powers, Council has to be “very engaged” in making changes, rather than delegating to City Manager Spencer Cronk.
Cronk, Police Chief Brian Manley and representatives from the Austin Police Association were not invited to the meeting.
“We’ve had those conversations,” Flannigan explained. “Now I want to hear from the officers who we’ll be asking to do a lot of this work. And I want to hear from, not advocates whose job has been successful, but from academics and the lawyers and the researchers who have a broad understanding of the challenges of implementation.”
As Flannigan noted, making changes at the city level doesn’t necessarily mean the police department will comply. Therefore, the city must partner with the department and its officers to make changes that will stick.
From his conversations with union leadership, frontline officers and district representatives, Flannigan said there are things officers would like to see changed. “It’s like turning a cruise ship – you’ve gotta start turning it way before you see it change course,” Flannigan said.
He acknowledged that there might be some things the community wants changed that the union doesn’t agree with, but “can we at least get the 85 percent done while we figure out the last 15 percent? I think we can.”
Flannigan also stressed that the meeting is not going to be a space to relitigate the public outrage over the use-of-force incidents at the protests over the past month. Questions about discipline and the fate of Chief Manley are for another day… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Virus missteps during July 4 holiday could bring dire consequences, Austin health officials say (Austin American-Statesman)
On the eve of a national holiday usually packed with parades, concerts, fireworks displays and festivals, Austin public health officials say any missteps now that would increase the local spread of the coronavirus simply can’t be made.
Both Austin and Travis County have closed all parks through the Independence Day holiday weekend, along with many public spaces where people tend to gather, but Austin Public Health Director Stephanie Hayden said people throughout the city and county should take even more precautions to protect themselves and their families.
“We encourage you to stay home. Think of new traditions within your home, with the people that you live with and think about how you can create a new tradition,” Hayden said. “We encourage (you) to think that as we move forward through this process, it is going to be upon us to take our individual responsibility for us, our family and the community. Please do your part. It takes us all.”
Interim Austin-Travis County Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott said Austin and Texas are in a critical phase of the pandemic that will determine whether some of the worst fears of public health officials are realized in coming weeks and months.
“The cases continue to increase in a manner that we just cannot sustain, and we must all work together to flatten the curve again as we did before,” Escott said, addressing growing case numbers in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and elsewhere. “We cannot afford to have major fires burning in all our major cities and expect to be able to answer the call to be able to provide hospital beds for everybody who gets sick.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says Dr. Anthony Fauci “doesn’t know what he’s talking about” (Texas Tribune)
Despite Texas’ surge of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Tuesday evening that he doesn’t need the advice of the nation’s top infectious disease doctor, Anthony Fauci.
“Fauci said today he’s concerned about states like Texas that ‘skipped over’ certain things. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Patrick told Fox News host Laura Ingraham in an interview. “We haven’t skipped over anything. The only thing I’m skipping over is listening to him.”
Patrick also said Fauci has “been wrong every time on every issue.” While he initially did not elaborate on specifics, the lieutenant governor pointed Wednesday afternoon to an example from January when Fauci told Newsmax that the coronavirus was “not a major threat.” (According to Politifact, Fauci did say that twice in late January, when there were a handful of reported COVID-19 cases in the country, and that Americans should not fret. But both times, Fauci added that the situation could change.)… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Feds planning to ‘blitz’ test in Texas to find young adults silently spreading COVID-19 (Dallas Morning News)
Federal officials are developing plans for a “blitz” of testing in Texas and other states to find young adults who have no symptoms and may be unknowingly spreading the coronavirus. The effort would target people under age 35 in “moderate sized” communities, which have not yet been named. “The strategy would be to surge test,” Admiral Brett Giroir, the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a press call Wednesday. “You would do the number of tests you do in a month in just a few days, to try to make sure we identify these asymptomatics and get a better handle on them.”
The department is currently in discussions with state health officials in Texas, Florida and Louisiana, Giroir said. The announcement comes as new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are surging in Texas to their highest levels since the epidemic began. On Tuesday the state reportedly nearly 7,000 positive cases, a new record. People under age 35 are driving up the case counts and many likely have mild symptoms or none at all, Giroir said. More than half the cases reported in Dallas County since June 1 have been diagnosed in young adults between the ages of 18 and 39, public health officials said. In an effort to slow the spread, Gov. Greg Abbott shut down bars last week and also reduced the capacity at restaurants to 50%. In mid-June, he scolded 20-year-olds for not wearing masks or following social distancing guidelines. While some cities and counties are now requiring masks inside businesses, Abbott has not mandated that everyone wear one in public. It is not clear when the testing surge would begin, who would be targeted or how officials would ensure compliance. The Texas Division of Emergency Management confirmed the state is working with federal officials to increase testing in Texas and said more details will be coming soon. Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas won’t specify where hospital beds are available as coronavirus cases hit record highs (Texas Tribune)
As Texas sets records for new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations day after day, the state’s hospital capacity — one of the key metrics that Gov. Greg Abbott cited as he allowed businesses to reopen — has become the focus of increased attention and concern.
But the state isn’t releasing the information it collects about how many beds individual hospitals have available. And only a fraction of the state’s hospitals, cities and counties are providing that information to the public on their own.
The Texas Department of State Health Services has that data at its disposal. Hospitals across the state have been sending daily reports on how many available regular and intensive care unit beds they have, as well as the number of available ventilators, to regional health authorities, which send the information to the state. The agency then publicly releases that data for the state as a whole and for the state’s 22 trauma service regions… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Trump says he's 'all for masks' despite reluctance to wear one (The Hill)
President Trump on Wednesday endorsed mask-wearing in order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, saying he is “all for masks” despite resisting wearing one in public himself.
“I’m all for masks. I think masks are good,” Trump told Fox Business in an interview, adding that he would wear a face covering if he were in a “tight situation” with other people.
Trump noted that he hasn’t had to wear a mask because people who come in contact with him are tested for the coronavirus. Asked whether he would wear a mask publicly, Trump said he would have “no problem” with doing so… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Daily number of new coronavirus cases in U.S. tops 50,000 for first time (Washington Post)
The United States reported a whopping 52,789 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the largest single-day total since the start of the pandemic. President Trump speculated in a Fox Business interview that the virus was “going to sort of just disappear” at some point, but many other officials are far less optimistic. Across the country, plans for a gradual return to normalcy are quickly being cast aside, with California, Michigan and New York City the latest to rethink some aspects of reopening.
More than 800,000 new coronavirus cases were detected in the United States in June, many of them in Sun Belt states that were quick to reopen. At least 125,602 deaths have been reported since the start of the pandemic.
Here are some significant developments:
California, Texas, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia all broke their previous single-day records for new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, while Louisiana’s infection rates continued to rise… (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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