BG Reads | News You Need to Know (June 25, 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]
Area hospitals could reach capacity in mere weeks because of Covid-19, Austin officials warn (KUT)
Austin-area medical professionals and health authorities warned that local hospitals could be overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients in the next several weeks as the number of cases in Central Texas has surged.
“If we do not make significant change right now then we are going to be in a situation within the next week to two weeks where I’m going to have to make the recommendation to the mayor and judge that we shut down,” Austin Public Health interim Medical Director Dr. Mark Escott said at a news conference Wednesday.
Escott said area hospitals can handle siphoning up to 1,500 beds for coronavirus patients; while he couldn’t say how many beds are currently taken up, Travis County’s weekly average for new daily hospital admissions Tuesday was 40.
Escott said there could be as many as 50 new patients hospitalized because of the virus Wednesday.
New models from researchers at UT predict that if nothing in the Austin area changes, local hospitals could exceed their capacity by mid-July… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
New orders urge Austin businesses to self-impose stricter capacity limits than allowed by state (Community Impact)
As the pandemic reaffirms its grip on Austin and hospitalizations and new confirmed cases surge, local officials, trying to work around reopening orders from the governor, are placing a significant responsibility on open businesses to help curb further spread of the coronavirus.
Earlier this week, Austin Mayor Steve Adler issued an order requiring employees and customers of open businesses, in most cases, to wear face coverings. Business owners are responsible for ensuring everyone on their property complies. The order carries new teeth: a $1,000 fine, on the shoulders of the business owner, for failure to enforce the new face-covering policy. The order extends through Aug. 15.
Also packed into that order is a plea from local officials to business owners: self-impose tighter capacity limits than what the state currently allows.
“While the city of Austin is declared to be in a Stage 4 Alert ... all business establishments reopened by the Governor’s Orders ... are strongly encouraged to operate at a capacity less than otherwise permitted to make it more feasible for customers and staff to maintain proper social distancing within their establishment, or in a manner maximizing social distancing ... as much as possible,” the order reads.Austin entered Stage 4, the second-highest pandemic alert according to its risk-based guidelines, on June 15 after the seven-day rolling daily average of new hospitalizations eclipsed 20. As of June 24, the seven-day average was more than 39 new hospitalizations from the coronavirus per day… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Tesla breaks silence: Execs explain interest in East Austin for factory, what carrots they're offering community (Austin Business Journal)
Austin on June 23 got its first chance to hear from Tesla Inc. about its potential $1.1 billion factory in far East Austin.
Speaking during the virtual weekly meeting of Travis County commissioners, executives for the electric carmaker addressed the tens of millions of dollars of incentives on the table for the project, as well as what the company might bring to the community.
If approved, Travis County's tax rebates to Tesla could total $14.65 million over the first 10 years — and even more in the decade after. Separately, Tesla is also seeking tax abatements from Del Valle Independent School District that could save the company more than $68 million over 10 years. State tax breaks may factor into the equation at some point.
Rohan Patel, Tesla's global director of public policy and business development, on June 23 addressed why the company was seeking the incentives.
“Compared to most other states, you’ve got high property taxes in Texas, sometimes presenting some barriers to large investment," he said. "That’s especially true for businesses like Tesla with extremely high machinery and equipment costs. So we’ve got, as a part of our production, literally some of the most expensive equipment on the planet. That’s considered part of the property tax costs in Texas."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas’ coronavirus positivity rate exceeds “warning flag” level Abbott set as businesses reopened (Texas Tribune)
Seven weeks after Gov. Greg Abbott began allowing businesses to reopen, Texas exceeded another one of the his key metrics Wednesday when the seven-day average positivity rate passed 10%, a level that Abbott previously called a “warning flag.”
The positivity rate is the ratio of positive cases to the number of tests conducted. The seven-day average has returned to 10.42%, a level the state hasn’t seen since mid-April, when Texas was under a stay-at-home order. In other words, for the past week, an average of about 1 out of 10 people tested for the coronavirus were positive.
It’s the latest in a streak of rapidly increasing indicators that have worried public health experts and local officials in Texas.
“The outlook is not good,” said Rebecca Fischer, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health. “We are in a super dire situation.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas’ Hispanic population grew by 2 million in the past decade, on pace to be largest share of state by 2021 (Texas Tribune)
Texas’ Hispanic population has grown by more than 2 million since 2010, according to new population estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau, and the state's demographer now predicts that Hispanics will be the state's largest population group by mid-2021.
An annual gain of 201,675 between July 2018 and July 2019 pushed the count of Hispanic residents to more than 11.5 million, the census estimates show. Although annual growth has slowed slightly in recent years, the new figures put a sharp point on how quickly the Hispanic population continues to climb. The annual growth in Hispanic residents has outpaced the combined growth among white, Black and Asian residents every year since 2010.
Texas still has a bigger white population — up to 11.95 million last year — but it grew by just 36,440 last year and by about half a million since 2010. White population growth has been so sluggish this decade that the increase in the number of Asian Texans, who make up a small share of the total population, has almost caught up with the increase in white Texans… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas travelers to New York, New Jersey or Connecticut will have to quarantine for 14 days (Dallas Morning News)
Texans traveling to New York, Connecticut and New Jersey will have to quarantine for 14 days as part of a new set of travel restrictions announced by governors in those states Wednesday. The governors announced the travel restrictions as several states start to reopen businesses and there has been an accompanying sharp uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases in those states.
Texas is one of nine states with infection rates high enough to fit into the required quarantine category, but other states could be added if rates increase. ”We now have to make sure the rates continue to drop,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday. “We also have to make sure the virus doesn’t come on a plane again.” The quarantine program goes into effect at midnight tonight. Visitors from states over a set infection rate will have to quarantine, Cuomo said. As of Wednesday, states over the threshold were Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Judge Nelson Wolff involved in altercation that turned physical at Northwest Side Lowe's (San Antonio Express-News)
The Bexar County Sheriff's Office is investigating after a man hit Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff on the hand Wednesday over the face mask mandate at a Northwest Side Lowe's.
Wolff was at the hardware store at Interstate 10 and Callaghan Road, when he attempted to intervene between a customer and a cashier arguing over the former's refusal to put on a mask, Sheriff Javier Salazar said during a news conference.
The customer was being "verbally abusive" and Wolff attempted to diffuse the situation, said Bexar County manager Monica Ramos. Wolff attempted to give the man his business card, saying he could call the judge to talk further about the mandate. The man then allegedly slapped the judge on the hand while trying to knock away the business card, Salazar said.
The judge was able to write down the man's license plate, and Salazar said they know the man's identity.
Deputies arrived on site and began collecting witness statements as well as video surveillance footage from Lowes.
"What's scary is that this could have been an assault on one of the cashiers or anther customer," Salazar said. "Look we don't like wearing masks. Not even I like wearing it, but it is what we have to do. COVID-19 is rampant in this community right now."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
House to pass sweeping police reform legislation (The Hill)
House Democrats are poised to pass historic police reforms on Thursday, setting the stage for a showdown with Republicans in the Senate where efforts to strike a bipartisan deal are dwindling.
A day after the Senate failed to advance a GOP-authored police reform bill, House Democrats will use passage of their legislation to pressure Republicans on the tougher changes they’re seeking to prevent excessive use of force by police nationwide.
George Floyd’s death on May 25 sparked nationwide protests over police brutality and racial injustice that have put immense pressure on Congress to act. But with both parties digging in on their respective proposals a month after Floyd’s death, odds are decreasing that lawmakers will come to an agreement that can secure President Trump’s signature in an election year… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
California seeks to force Uber and Lyft to reclassify drivers as employees within weeks (The Verge)
California is seeking to force Uber and Lyft to reclassify their drivers as employees, in a dramatic escalation of the state’s months-long war with the gig economy companies.
In May, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, along with city attorneys of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego, sued Uber and Lyft, arguing that their drivers were misclassified as independent contractors when they should be employees under the state’s AB5 law that went into effect on January 1st.
Now, Becerra plans to file a motion for a preliminary injunction that would compel the ride-hailing companies to reclassify drivers as employees within weeks, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. A spokesperson for Becerra didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
“Californians who drive for Uber and Lyft lack basic worker protections,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in May. “Sometimes it takes a pandemic to shake us into realizing what that really means and who suffers the consequences.”… (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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