BG Reads | News You Need to Know (July 8, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
*NEW* BG Podcast Episode 99: Episode 99: Impact Advocacy, Lobbying, and Movement Makers with Terri Broussard Williams (SHOW LINK)
Note: Show also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin Public Health could push for more restrictions as COVID-19 hospitalizations surge (KUT)
Austin surpassed a crucial threshold for COVID-19 hospitalizations Tuesday, which could signal possible restrictions on businesses and nonessential travel.
The seven-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions hit an all-time high of nearly 75, according to numbers out Tuesday evening. Health officials have said any average above 70 would push the area into the highest stage of Austin Public Health’s five-stage guidelines. Stage 5 would recommend a shutdown of nonessential businesses and would put in place restrictions on nonessential travel.
The average increased from 64.6 to 74.8. In an update to Travis County commissioners earlier Tuesday, APH’s Dr. Mark Escott said this jump was expected, since the public health authority needed to correct a previously incomplete dataset.
Area hospitals had been submitting their admissions for the day, Escott explained, but they weren't counting already admitted patients who had contracted COVID-19. Hospitals have since course-corrected, giving APH a clearer picture.
"The data we have in hand now suggests we are over the 70 for admissions on that 7-day moving average," he said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Survey predicts 90 percent of Austin live music venues to close by Halloween (Austin Monitor)
A survey of Austin businesses impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic finds that 90 percent of the city’s live music venues are likely to permanently close by this fall.
That forecast was one of the conclusions of a June survey conducted by the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs, with more than 1,000 business owners from all industries sharing their actions following closures and scaled reopening of businesses across the state in recent months.
The survey, which was commissioned by the Austin Chamber of Commerce in coordination with the Central Texas for Business Task Force, found that bars and live music venues in Austin are the most at risk for closure due to the pandemic.
Among other findings:
62 percent of music venues said they would survive four months or less of continued closure19 percent of music venues were able to pay their full June rent, with 67 percent paying less than half of their rent balance83 percent of music venues laid off their full-time employees79 percent of music venues suspended payments to vendors, suppliers and landlords
The survey’s summary noted Halloween as the likely milestone by which a majority of Austin’s bars and live music venues will be closed for good… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Tesla negotiations in Austin seem down to nitty gritty (Austin Business Journal)
One of the biggest economic development projects in recent years will have to wait at least one more day for its first victory on the local level.
Travis County did not take any action July 7 on an incentives deal to try to bring a Tesla Inc. "gigafactory" to East Austin. Commissioners will continue their discussions on an agenda item concerning the deal at 1 p.m. on July 8.
It's the second straight commissioners court meeting where officials punted on acting on the deal — this time after a nearly three-hour executive session behind closed doors.
Commissioners recessed their July 7 meeting, rather than ending it, to "empower economic development staff to take the discussion that we had during executive session and bring back the results so that we can evaluate them tomorrow," said Commissioner Jeff Travillion, who made the recess motion.
Staff will update commissioners July 8 on the status of their work concerning the incentives deal, which could lead to the court taking action or continuing discussions or research.
Tesla Inc. wants to build a 4 million- to 5-million-square-foot manufacturing plant at the roughly 2,100-acre Austin Green site along the State Highway 130 toll road near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
The incentives deal that the county is considering includes an estimated property tax rebate worth about $14.65 million over 10 years.
Tesla is also seeking tax abatements from Del Valle Independent School District that could save the company roughly $50 million over 10 years… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas GOP convention will happen in person — but Republican leaders will speak via video (Texas Tribune)
The Republican Party of Texas is moving forward with its controversial in-person convention during the coronavirus pandemic — but elected officials including Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick will be giving their scheduled speeches virtually.
“All the elected officials are switching from a live, in-person speech to videos,” Kyle Whatley, the party’s executive director, said during a town hall livestreamed Tuesday night. “They’re doing that for us in order to focus all the attention on the business of the meeting and to get everybody in and out of here as quickly and as safely as possible.”
Texas Republican officials typically headline their party’s biennial state convention, which this year is scheduled for July 16 to 18 at Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center. Roughly 6,000 people are expected to attend the event. Attendees will be required to wear masks during most of the gathering, according to party Chair James Dickey, after Abbott issued a statewide mask mandate last week... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
As long as Gov. Abbott’s order stands, older students in COVID-19 affected areas must wear masks (Dallas Morning News)
In counties falling under Gov. Greg Abbott’s statewide mask mandate, students 10 and older will be required to wear masks or face shields, assuming that order still stands at the start of the school year, according to newly released -- and long-delayed -- guidance issued from the Texas Education Agency. A nine-page document setting out safety requirements for school districts for the upcoming school year was released Tuesday, weeks later than expected. The TEA had planned to post guidelines on June 23, but didn’t -- as cases of COVID-19 in the state continued to spike.
The tone of Tuesday’s guidance reflected Texas’ upward trend. While much of the document mimicked recommendations set out in a draft mistakenly posted on the TEA’s website in late June, there were a handful of subtle changes, creating more stringent health and safety requirements. The TEA’s new rules require that schools “comply with the governor’s executive order regarding the wearing of masks.” Abbott’s order explicitly excludes those younger than 10 from its requirements, and TEA spokesperson Frank Ward confirmed that those age limits would not be altered by its guidance. When asked during an interview with San Antonio’s KENS-TV whether he would lower the age requirement in his order, Abbott sidestepped the question… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
TEA: Public schools must reopen campuses in August, with few exceptions (Houston Chronicle)
Texas public school districts must reopen campuses for in-person instruction in August in order to continue receiving state funding, unless Gov. Greg Abbott issues a school closure order or a confirmed case of COVID-19 on an individual campus forces a temporary shutdown of the building, Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced Tuesday. The mandate ensures that families wanting in-person classes will have the option for children to return to campuses, though students have the option to continue learning from home if they choose. Districts can restrict the number of students who receive on-campus instruction for the first three weeks of their school year, a period designed to “facilitate an effective back-to-school transition process,” TEA officials said.
“On-campus instruction in Texas public schools is where it’s at,” Morath said during a conference call with superintendents. “We know that a lot of families are going to be nervous, and if they are nervous, we’re going to support them 100 percent.” The mandate came as Morath released public safety guidance for the 2020-21 school year, ordering school leaders to follow Abbott’s mask mandate as long as it remains in place and encouraging the use of social distancing in buildings, among numerous other protocols. TEA leaders are leaving many health and hygiene decisions to superintendents, a long-expected decision given the varying spread of the novel coronavirus in different corners of the state. However, state officials issued some mandates Tuesday, including a requirement that teachers and staff self-screen for COVID-19 symptoms before entering a campus… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
See, TEA School Year 2020-2021 Public Health Planning Guidance
[NATION]
Trump sets date to end WHO membership over its handling of virus
The U.S. has sent a letter officially notifying the United Nations that it is leaving the World Health Organization, starting the formal process of withdrawal that President Trump first threatened in April when he halted funding to WHO.
In an email to reporters, a U.N. spokesman confirmed that it received the notification: "On 6 July 2020, the United States of America notified the Secretary-General ... of its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, effective on 6 July 2021," wrote Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, adding that the U.N. is checking with WHO to see if all the conditions for withdrawal have been met.
To leave the organization, the U.S. is supposed to give a one-year notice and pay outstanding dues, according to language that the U.S. added to the WHO constitution when it joined the treaty in 1948. As of June 30, the U.S. owed $198 million in unpaid membership dues.
Trump has repeatedly criticized WHO for being slow to respond to the pandemic and for being too "China-centric." On May 29, he announced his decision to leave the organization, claiming that it caved to pressure from China "to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities" and that it's under the "total control" of China… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Justices rule states can bind presidential electors’ votes (Associated Press)
In a decision flavored with references to “Hamilton” and “Veep,” the Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that states can require presidential electors to back their states’ popular vote winner in the Electoral College.
The ruling, in cases in Washington state and Colorado just under four months before the 2020 election, leaves in place laws in 32 states and the District of Columbia that bind electors to vote for the popular-vote winner, as electors almost always do anyway.
So-called faithless electors have not been critical to the outcome of a presidential election, but that could change in a race decided by just a few electoral votes. It takes 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.
A state may instruct “electors that they have no ground for reversing the vote of millions of its citizens,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her majority opinion that walked through American political and constitutional history with an occasional nod to pop culture…(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Why the US is falling behind in COVID-19 fight (The Hill)
The United States is falling further behind the rest of the world in fighting the coronavirus as cases set new domestic records.
New daily cases in the U.S. have spiked to a high of around 50,000, a glaring contrast with the European Union, where new case growth has largely been flattened and suppressed. The EU is averaging around 4,000 new cases per day, according to Our World in Data, less than a tenth of the new cases in the U.S., despite having about 100 million more people.
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, was the latest authority to point to the contrast on Monday.
“If you look at the graphs from Europe ... the European Union as an entity, it went up and then came down to baseline; now they’re having little blips as you might expect as they try to reopen,” he said in an online chat hosted by the National Institutes of Health. “We went up, never came down to baseline, and now we’re surging back up, so it’s a serious situation that we have to address immediately.”… (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.
PLEASE RESHARE and FOLLOW:
Twitter #binghamgp
Instagram #binghamgp