BG Reads | News You Need to Know (July 31, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
BG Podcast Episode 91: Public Transit in a COVID-19 World with Randy Clarke, President & CEO, Capital Metro (SHOW LINK)
The BG Podcast returns next Wednesday August 5th with Episode 101!
Note: Show also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher
[AUSTIN METRO]
Despite sinking hospitalization rate, Austin to keep coronavirus restrictions in place (Austin American-Statesman)
The seven-day moving average of daily new hospitalizations related to the coronavirus fell below 40 on Thursday for the first time since late June.
At 39.9 daily new hospitalizations, the number is now below the city’s threshold for Stage 4 restrictions to slow down the spread of the virus.
However, city and county health officials said they will not reduce restrictions to Stage 3.
Under Stage 4 restrictions, higher-risk people are asked to avoid gatherings with more than two people, and avoid all nonessential shopping or dining. Those not at a higher risk are asked to avoid gatherings with more than 10 people as well as nonessential shopping or dining.
Stage 3 would advise higher-risk people to avoid gatherings of 10 or more, and remove the restriction on shopping and dining for lower-risk individuals to only expanded essential businesses.
According to Austin Public Health risk-based guidelines, Stage 3 restrictions are meant to be in place when the average daily hospitalization rate is between 10 and 40 people.
Health officials said that while the hospitalization rate is the primary consideration when determining risk-based guidelines, other indicators — including the number of new cases, how quickly the number of cases doubles, and intensive care and ventilator capacity — also are in play… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin City Council further commits to combating institutional racism with string of agreements (Community Impact)
With a series of July resolutions, Austin City Council said Juneteenth should be an official, paid city holiday; inequitable public consumption laws should be undone; streets and city assets bearing the names of Confederates and white supremacists should be renamed; and racism should be addressed as a public health crisis.
The four resolutions, drafted by District 1 Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison, City Council’s lone Black representative, garnered unanimous support from the dais. All four are meant to continue the citywide reckoning over Austin’s history of institutional racism and inequity.
“The city of Austin turned 181 years old this year. ... Since then, we’ve had slavery, the KKK, Jim Crow, segregation, ... racial violence, disinvestment, displacement and the distinction of being the only fast-growing U.S. metropolitan city with a shrinking Black population,” Harper-Madison said. “The inequities are countless, and they aren’t because African Americans are inherently inferior. ... Most of the time, explicit racism is no longer accepted in polite society. That doesn’t mean the job is done.”
None of the resolutions changed laws; rather, they directed City Manager Spencer Cronk and city staff to formalize proposals that fulfill the requests and to come back to City Council for a vote or to provide an update… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
For Austin officials investigating Garrett Foster’s death, a key question may be which party acted in self-defense (Texas Tribune)
Austin police are investigating the fatal shooting of an armed 28-year-old man who was killed during an encounter with an armed motorist while protesting against police brutality. But whether the unnamed driver faces criminal charges in Garrett Foster’s death could hinge on which man police, prosecutors or a grand jury believes first provoked the other.
Foster was visibly carrying an AK-47 rifle — which is legal in Texas — as he pushed his fiancée in her wheelchair across an intersection in downtown Austin during Saturday’s protest, according to The New York Times.
A motorist was attempting to turn his vehicle onto Congress Avenue and honked at protesters, who were in the crosswalk, according to a video of the incident filmed by independent journalist Hiram Gilberto. Michael Capochiano, a demonstrator at the scene, told The Texas Tribune that protesters including Foster surrounded the car after it hit a traffic cone and the driver stopped… (LINK TO STORY)
San Marcos ranked as the ninth most economically vulnerable college town in light of the pandemic (KUT)
College towns across the country could face major losses in population and revenue if students don’t return to campus this fall, a new study finds. One of the most at-risk towns? San Marcos.
The city, home to Texas State University, ranked as the ninth most economically vulnerable in the study, which compared 95 college towns with populations of 50,000 or more. College Station, home to Texas A&M University, ranked second.
“[San Marcos] is really dependent on the local student body for spending,” said Mark LoCastro, a spokesperson for SmartAsset, the financial technology company that conducted the study. In 2018, students in San Marcos made up about 40.08% of the population. The study found the city had the fourth-highest student population relative to the city's overall population… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Across Texas and the nation, the novel coronavirus is deadlier for people of color (Texas Tribune)
Texas’ southernmost county, Cameron, is home to just 1.5% of the state’s population, but it accounts for nearly 5% of its known COVID-19 fatalities.
Cameron County — where 89% of residents are Hispanic and nearly a third live below the poverty line — stands out as just one stark example of widespread disparities in COVID-19 outcomes. Across Texas and the nation, the novel coronavirus is deadlier for communities of color and low-income communities.
These disparities, and a wealth of other demographic information, became more apparent this week when new tallying methods at the state health agency revealed a more complete picture of who has died in Texas and where. Trends showing that Black and Hispanic individuals had been disproportionately hit by the virus were clear nationally and apparent in local snapshots, but until earlier this week, the Texas Department of State Health Services’ limited demographic data had clouded the picture of those disparities statewide… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas schools need some certainty during coronavirus pandemic, not more confusion, superintendents group tells state leaders (Dallas Morning News)
Texas superintendents need flexibility to respond to concerns about COVID-19 without the worry that they’ll lose funding for their schools, an administrators’ group told state officials on Thursday.
Many superintendents thought they were ready to tackle back-to-school issues, but moves by state leaders this week upended their plans and led to widespread confusion and worry.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday released a letter stating that local public health authorities could not keep schools closed indefinitely and prohibit in-person classes as a preventative measure to curb the spread of the coronavirus. As a result, Texas education commissioner Mike Morath said that guidance letter — though not binding — meant that schools would not necessarily receive full state funding for virtual-only learning if closed because of a local health order.
The Texas Association of School Administrators issued a statement Thursday saying Paxton’s letter has only “muddied the waters and created more confusion. We believe schools should have the authority to work with local health officials to determine when it is safe for schools to be open for in-person instruction without the threat of funding cuts by the state.”
TASA, which represents superintendents, said schools need certainty that they will be fully funded all school year if they have to pivot to online or hybrid classes because of the pandemic… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
How Tesla was lured to Austin (Texas Monthly)
Amid a frog-drowning on Sunday, several dozen members of the Austin Tesla Club gathered jubilantly in a parking lot in East Austin. Masked fans cheered as a middle-aged man flashed the Bevo with one hand and fired a flamethrower with the other. The crowd was there to celebrate the deal between Travis County and the electric car manufacturer, inked late last week, to build a $1.1 billion, two-thousand-acre factory, named Giga Texas, in the tiny municipality of Del Valle, near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
The proposed Tesla plant, which will produce Cybertrucks and Model Y SUVs, is expected to be a billion-dollar investment that will employ five thousand in manufacturing jobs and benefit hundreds of contractors and suppliers. When the deal was announced, Tesla said that about 65 percent of the factory’s jobs will be “middle-skilled” and will not require college degrees, with salaries starting at $35,000 a year and averaging more than $47,000. The company pledged to make at least half of its hires from among Travis County residents, and stated it would make a “good faith effort” to hire women and people of color.
The deal was praised by Governor Greg Abbott, the Austin Chamber of Commerce, various local labor groups, and leaders of job training programs. “It’s like winning the lottery …,” said Ed Latson, CEO of the Austin Regional Manufacturers Association… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
‘Rigged election’ goes from Trump complaint to campaign strategy (Politico)
Donald Trump’s suggestion that he might try to delay the election — or might not accept the result — is rapidly coming to the forefront of the presidential campaign, foreshadowing a final stretch roiled not only by the coronavirus and the economy, but by clashes over the nation’s most fundamental democratic norms.
Though Trump has no authority to move the election — an idea he floated Thursday — Democrats are already bracing for Republican challenges to absentee ballots and at vote counting on Election Day. They have good cause to be prepared: the president has repeatedly raised the prospect of a “rigged election” and recently declined to say if he’ll accept the results.
Trump’s rhetoric points increasingly to the possibility that he will dispute the outcome in a year marked by primary election administration meltdowns — a prospect that is heightened by his absolute control of state and national party machinery and an attorney general who has amplified Trump’s unsubstantiated claims about mail-in voting fraud… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Birx recommends face shields in addition to masks (The Hill)
Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, is recommending the use of face shields along with masks to protect against COVID-19 infection.
Face shields can offer more protection to the wearer than cloth face coverings, which are intended to prevent asymptomatic individuals from spreading coronavirus to others.
“The mask protects others, to block those droplets and block that contamination that happens when you speak or sing or talk, or even breathe,” Birx said on "Fox & Friends" Thursday morning.
“The thing about the face shields — we think that could protect the individuals and that it would decrease the ability for them to touch their eyes and spread the virus as well as those droplets coming towards them. So there are two different technologies for two different reasons.”
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease doctor and member of the White House coronavirus task force, recommended the use of eye shields or goggles Wednesday.
"If you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it. It's not universally recommended, but if you really want to be complete, you should probably use it if you can."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Unemployment benefits to expire as coronavirus talks deadlock (The Hill)
Enhanced unemployment benefits are set to expire as congressional negotiators are deadlocked over a coronavirus relief deal.
The additional $600 a week in unemployment insurance that Congress provided in late March will sunset on Friday at midnight, dealing a significant financial blow to millions of jobless Americans amid a weakening labor market.
Lawmakers had hoped the deadline, which was known for months, would result in the kind of eleventh-hour agreement that was once commonplace in Washington. But in a sign of how far apart negotiators are, the Senate left town for the week on Thursday, ensuring Congress will careen over the looming unemployment cliff… (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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