BG Reads | News You Need to Know (June 2, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
BG Podcast Ep 88: Austin Council Member Paige Ellis discusses the Healthy Streets Program (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin City Council sets emergency hearing to review police tactics during protests (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin City Council members said Monday that they will hold an emergency hearing this week to address concerns about officers’ response to racial injustice protests over the weekend and to address what they see as little cooperation from Austin police leadership to transform policing policies.
Council members scheduled the hearing for Thursday afternoon, after the regular council meeting.
The emergency hearing follows a weekend of protests and unrest in Austin and other U.S. cities following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes while he was handcuffed on the ground, saying he couldn’t breathe and pleading for help
Floyd’s killing, which led to a murder charge against officer Derek Chauvin, continued a disturbing trend nationwide of unarmed black men dying in police custody or being shot by officers. That list includes the April death of 42-year-old Michael Ramos, who was seen on a bystander video fleeing in a vehicle when he was fatally shot by Austin officer Christopher Taylor. The shooting is scheduled to be reviewed by a Travis County grand jury.
Among the issues expected to be addressed at the emergency hearing is officers’ use of tear gas and rubber bullets against people who appeared to have been protesting peacefully… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin ISD planning for blended teaching approach for school year beginning Aug. 18 (Community Impact)
Austin ISD Superintendent Paul Cruz said during a board presentation June 1 that the district is working toward a blended approach for classes for the 2020-21 school year.
Options under consideration by the district include limitations created by following safety guidelines as well as those required by the Texas Education Agency.
While the district typically follows a 22-to-1 student to teacher ratio within a classroom, Cruz said that classrooms next year could be limited to 6-8 students each due to social distancing requirements and available space. Similarly, the district may have to reduce its bus capacity from 60 students down to 12-14 per route, which would make transporting its estimated 23,000 students who rely on buses challenging. Serving an estimated 75,000 meals a day could also be difficult, as would finding places for students to eat on campus while keeping a safe distance from one another.
"There are a lot of implications, which is why it takes a little time to study some of the work to make sure we're making the best decisions for our students," Cruz said.
According to a presentation by the district, a blended approach would allow the district to switch from in-person learning to virtual learning when needed, and a calendar would also include intersectional breaks throughout the year as recommended by the Texas Education Agency… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Why deep-pocketed investors like Brett Hurt, Walter Robb backed a Chinese food delivery business (Austin Business Journal)
Tso Chinese Delivery is riding high.
The company is preparing to close a $2 million funding round that includes some of Austin’s biggest business names, but that’s just the start of it.
At a time when many food service businesses are getting hammered by Covid-19 and related safety restrictions, Tso has seen steady sales for its model of just delivery and takeout meals. The company is operating at the forefront of a new wave of eateries that eschew dining rooms in favor of lower-priced real estate that can completely change the financial calculus for a restaurant.
“We don’t go into fancy shopping centers and strip malls and pay exorbitant rent rates,” co-founder Min Choe said. “Our rent rate to our income is under 2%.”
Food delivery was already on the rise and has gained extra steam during the pandemic. Morgan Stanley predicts that the addressable market for food delivery nationwide will reach $375 billion in 2020 and $467 billion by 2025… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
As Donald Trump threatens to deploy the military, Texas officials urge calm after a weekend of protests (Texas Tribune)
President Donald Trump urged state and local governments to implement increasingly stronger crackdowns against a backdrop of nationwide protests.
Officials in Texas remained on high alert Monday night, expressing sympathy with the protesters' anger while also warning of stiff consequences for those who turn violent during demonstrations.
Trump told the nation's governors in a phone call Monday to "dominate the streets" to get control of the protests, and in a later press conference threatened to deploy the military if they don't. Gov. Greg Abbott didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's direction, but already activated the Texas National Guard on Saturday. The governor's aides said Monday afternoon that he'll be traveling to Dallas on Tuesday to provide an update on the state's response to the protests.
Meanwhile, curfews remained in effect in Dallas and Fort Worth for Monday night, and San Antonio said it would close Alamo Plaza until 6 a.m. Tuesday… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
More than a third of Texans speak a language other than English. That means key coronavirus updates aren’t accessible to them. (Texas Tribune)
Days after Hidalgo County’s stay-at-home orders went into effect in late March, some of the area’s mostly Latino residents learned about the new rules not from the government officials charged with their protection, but from police officers at checkpoints writing them citations for unknowingly violating the rules. While action around the COVID-19 pandemic was rapidly changing, news wasn’t reaching people in their native languages in real time.
Hidalgo County, where some of the checkpoints were set up, is 92% Latino. Carlos Sanchez, a county spokesperson, said police officers didn’t immediately issue tickets. The first week of the executive order, officers were in “education mode,” explaining to some residents who were hearing for the first time how the county and state were adapting to the pandemic.
More than a third of Texans speak a language other than English at home, according to census data. Spanish is largely the most spoken language, with Vietnamese, Chinese languages and Tagalog — spoken in the Philippines — holding the other top spots. But news broadcasts and articles, changing government mandates and the latest health safety guidance are mostly being communicated in English.
Local and state leaders need to make greater strides to get critical, life-saving information out to the masses in as many languages as possible, nonprofit leaders and state residents said… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Trump threatens to end protests with military (Politico)
President Donald Trump on Monday declared himself the “president of law and order” and said he would mobilize every available federal force both “civilian and military” as he vowed to put an immediate end to violent protests that have swept the nation for days.
In a brief statement delivered from the Rose Garden of the White House as law enforcement forces deployed tear gas and cleared out protesters just on the opposite side of Pennsylvania Avenue, Trump ordered governors and mayors to establish “an overwhelming law enforcement presence” until the protests have been quelled, and he threatened to send in the U.S. military to “quickly solve the problem for them.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Twitter had been drawing a line for months when Trump crossed it (New York Times)
Jack Dorsey was up late Thursday at his home in San Francisco talking online with his executives when their conversation was interrupted: President Donald Trump had just posted another inflammatory message on Twitter. Tensions between Twitter, where Dorsey is chief executive, and Trump had been running high for days over the president’s aggressive tweets and the company’s decision to begin labeling some of them. In his latest message, Trump weighed in on the clashes between the police and protesters in Minneapolis, saying, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” A group of more than 10 Twitter officials, including lawyers and policymakers, quickly gathered virtually to review Trump’s post and debate over the messaging system Slack and Google Docs whether it pushed people toward violence.
They soon came to a conclusion. And after midnight, Dorsey gave his go-ahead: Twitter would hide Trump’s tweet behind a warning label that said the message violated its policy against glorifying violence. It was the first time Twitter applied that specific warning to any public figure’s tweets. The action has prompted a broad fight over whether and how social media companies should be held responsible for what appears on their sites, and was the culmination of months of debate inside Twitter. For more than a year, the company had been building an infrastructure to limit the impact of objectionable messages from world leaders, creating rules on what would and would not be allowed and designing a plan for when Trump inevitably broke them. But the path to that point was not smooth. Inside Twitter, dealing with Trump’s tweets — which are the equivalent of a presidential megaphone — was a fitful and uneven process. Some executives repeatedly urged Dorsey to take action on the inflammatory posts while others insisted he hold back, staying hands-off as the company had done for years. Outside Twitter, the president’s critics urged the company to shut him down as he pushed the limits with insults and untruths, noting that ordinary users were sometimes suspended for lesser transgressions. But Twitter argued that posts by Trump and other world leaders deserved special leeway because of their news value… (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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