BG Reads | News You Need to Know (June 24, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
*NEW* PODCAST Episode 95: Building a Community with Kobla Tetey, Austin Area Urban League Young Professionals (SHOW LINK)
Today's podcast features Kobla Tetey, President of the Austin Area Urban League Young Professionals.
He and AJ. discuss the organization’s mission and growth in recent years as hub for young Black professionals in Austin. The two also talk community engagement and economic development, the latter particularly around Opportunity Zones.
Note: Show also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher
Help Re-Elect Austin Council Member Jimmy Flannigan (District 6)
Please join Bingham Group CEO A.J. and fellow co-hosts this Friday, June 26 (5Pm to 6PM) for Council Member Jimmy Flannigan's (District 6) virtual campaign kickoff! We need his voice and leadership on the Council dais. RSVP -> felicia@susanharry.com
Also, join the council member for his campaign kick-off this Sunday, June 28 (4PM to 5PM) -> RSVP here
[AUSTIN METRO]
Travis County discusses possible 20-year tax incentives deal for Tesla gigafactory (Community Impact)
Travis County held its first public discussion about a plan to incentivize electric automaker Tesla’s option to build a local gigafactory on June 23, with commissioners hearing presentations from company representatives and county staff as well as comments from dozens of community members.
Tesla’s proposed 4-5 billion-square-foot plant would manufacture the new Cybertruck, among other Tesla models, at a site near Del Valle in Austin's extraterritorial jurisdiction.
While commissioners did not take a vote on the proposed economic incentives, Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe said a vote could come as soon as June 30… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin ISD School Board Approves $1.6 Billion Budget, After Public Calls To Defund AISD Police (KUT)
The Austin Independent School District’s Board of Trustees passed a $1.65 billion budget early Tuesday, taking $47.6 million from the district’s reserve funds to make up for a shortfall partly caused by COVID-19 expenses.
The budget also includes 2% raises for staff, more money for dual-language programs and more funding for certified academic language therapists, in an attempt to get more students reading on grade level.
Almost 100 members of the community called in during public comment to ask the district not to put more money toward the Austin ISD Police Department. Callers echoed requests from the Austin Justice Coalition to move that money away from policing and toward programs that deal with students' mental health and emotional needs.… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin's COVID-19 case count is slow, making contract tracing ineffective. Blame the fax machine. (KUT)
As Texas sees record spikes in new coronavirus cases, Austin and Travis County's accounting for infections is lagging. A record-breaking surge in cases is partly to blame, but there's another culprit: the fax machine. Austin Public Health's interim Medical Authority Dr. Mark Escott told county commissioners Tuesday that the current system of inputting data is reliant on "archaic" tools like the fax.
"This is a very manual and archaic process of getting information out, and we're struggling with that," he said, "and we had a call this weekend with jurisdictions across the state who are struggling with that."
While some testing providers have migrated to a digital system, many still fax each test record over, and it is then manually inputted into APH's database. Escott said staff enter more than 1,000 faxed test results a day. If there's a question about positivity or other circumstances, there's a back-and-forth and, usually, another fax. That back-and-forth has hamstrung contact-tracing efforts, delaying some results by as long as 10 days – which is particularly problematic if a patient doesn't have COVID-19 symptoms.
That, in turn, further impacts the health authority's ability to bolster testing at hotspots like construction sites or among Latino communities, Escott said, which are experiencing an outsized impact of the coronavirus. "It is causing a backlog, which is impacting people's notification that they're positive and it's impacting our ability to contact trace in a timely fashion," he said. "Right now, it is not uncommon for us to have a week to 10 days between when a person is tested and when their case is entered into the system so they can be called."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin Chamber launches campaign to encourage face masks as virus cases rise (Austin American-Statesman)
The Austin Chamber of Commerce is debuting a new campaign called “Austin, Let’s Be a City of Us” to raise awareness about the spread of COVID-19 as businesses reopen.
The public service announcement encourages residents to come together and take preventive action at a time when cases and hospitalizations in the region continue to rise.
“Encouraging each other to maintain social distancing and wear a mask is the right thing to do and must be top of mind as we navigate this crisis,” said Austin Chamber CEO Laura Huffman. “It is truly wonderful that so many leaders in our community from diverse backgrounds have come together to make this campaign a reality.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Learn more about the Austin US campaign here (Austin Chamber)
[TEXAS]
Gov. Greg Abbott recommends Texans stay home as coronavirus cases surge (Texas Tribune)
With cases of the coronavirus surging to record levels in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott recommended Tuesday that Texans stay home as much as possible and for the first time moved to allow the tightening of two kinds of restrictions that had been eased under his reopening plan.
"We want to make sure that everyone reinforces the best safe practices of wearing a mask, hand sanitization, maintaining safe distance, but importantly, because the spread is so rampant right now, there’s never a reason for you to have to leave your home," Abbott said during an early-afternoon interview with KBTX-TV in Bryan. "Unless you do need to go out, the safest place for you is at your home."
Within hours, Abbott made two announcements to alter the reopening process. He scaled back a previous statewide order and gave local officials the ability to place restrictions on outdoor gatherings of over 100 people, a threshold he originally set at 500 people. And Abbott said the state would enact mandatory health standards for child care centers after prior rules became voluntary earlier this month… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Spike in Houston COVID-19 cases ‘damn scary,’ Rep. Pete Olson tells Anthony Fauci at hearing (Houston Chronicle)
The rising number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Houston has U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, ringing an alarm with the nation’s top infectious disease experts in Washington who last month were praising the city’s efforts to contain the virus. During a U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee meeting Tuesday, Olson warned that the current trajectory of cases in Houston has the city on pace to be one of the worst affected cities in the nation if something doesn’t change. Olson said there are experts comparing Houston’s situation to Brazil’s.
“And that is damn scary,” Olson told Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert who was testifying before Congress on Tuesday. It was in early May that White House officials invited Gov. Greg Abbott to Washington to praise Houston and Dallas for their efforts to “really contain and mitigate” the virus. On Tuesday, Olson said what scares him the most is the increase in infections among people aged 20 to 39. He said young people are acting like the virus can’t hurt them. Olson represents the 22nd Congressional District, which includes most of Fort Bend County, plus parts of Brazoria and Harris counties. Fauci said what makes COVID-19 so perplexing is the range of how it infects people. He said some people have no symptoms, some have mild symptoms, others can be sick for a few weeks, and yet others require hospitalization and can die… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas’ biggest public universities will require masks this fall. Enforcement will be a challenge. (Texas Tribune)
Determined to see students return to college in the fall, some of Texas' biggest universities are requiring face masks as a safeguard against the coronavirus. But enforcing those policies could prove difficult for institutions with tens of thousands of students and sprawling campuses.
Texas A&M University, the University of Texas at Austin and Texas State University officials have all announced that masks will be non-negotiable next semester. Each campus will require masks in buildings other than private offices or rooms and will encourage masks outdoors when social distancing is difficult.
Public health experts, following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have long advised that wearing face masks is the best way to prevent transmission when social distancing isn’t feasible. But mask policies have roused naysayers across Texas, who argue that enforcement in the form of fines or jail time is a violation of their rights.
State leaders, originally loath to publicly endorse mask policies, have recently been urging mask use as case counts and hospitalizations continue to hit record highs. Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott said local officials could require businesses to mandate masks after he previously banned local governments from requiring individuals to wear them… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
EU may ban travel from US as it reopens borders, citing coronavirus failures (New York Times)
European Union countries rushing to revive their economies and reopen their borders after months of coronavirus restrictions are prepared to block Americans from entering because the United States has failed to control the scourge, according to draft lists of acceptable travelers seen by The New York Times. That prospect, which would lump American visitors in with Russians and Brazilians as unwelcome, is a stinging blow to American prestige in the world and a repudiation of President Trump’s handling of the virus in the United States, which has more than 2.3 million cases and upward of 120,000 deaths, more than any other country.
European nations are currently haggling over two potential lists of acceptable visitors based on how countries are faring with the coronavirus pandemic. Both include China, as well as developing nations like Uganda, Cuba and Vietnam. Travelers from the United States and the rest of the world have been excluded from visiting the European Union — with few exceptions mostly for repatriations or “essential travel” —- since mid-March. But a final decision on reopening the borders is expected early next week, before the bloc reopens on July 1. A prohibition of Americans by Brussels partly reflects the shifting pattern of the pandemic. In March, when Europe was the epicenter, Mr. Trump infuriated European leaders when he banned citizens from most European Union countries from traveling to America. Mr. Trump justified the move as necessary to protect the United States, which at the time had roughly 1,100 coronavirus cases and 38 deaths. In late May and early June, Mr. Trump said Europe was “making progress” and hinted that some restrictions would be lifted soon, but nothing has happened since then. Today, Europe has largely curbed the outbreak, even as the United States, the worst-afflicted, has seen more infection surges just in the past week… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Police reform hits impasse in Senate (The Hill)
The Senate is headed for a stalemate on police reform with the prospects for a bipartisan deal unraveling ahead of a Wednesday vote.
Almost a month after George Floyd’s death sparked calls for changes to the country’s law enforcement system, senators appear to be at an impasse with no obvious path toward breaking the logjam.
Democrats, absent an eleventh-hour breakthrough, are prepared to block the GOP police reform bill amid frustration with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over the potential amendment process.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned that the Republican measure — spearheaded by Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.), the only Black GOP senator — would not get the 60 votes needed to overcome a key procedural hurdle.
“The bill, as has been outlined by my colleagues, is fundamentally and irrevocably flawed,” Schumer told reporters Tuesday. “It will never get 60 votes in the Senate. ... It is a cul-de-sac cynically designed by Leader McConnell so that he can say that he can do something but do nothing.”… (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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