BG Reads | News You Need to Know (May 19, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
BG PODCAST EP. 86: COVID19 Update with Selena Xie, President, Austin EMS Association (LINK TO SHOW)
COVID19 Resources: Gov. Abbott Announces Phase 2 of Open Texas
See all current Open Texas protocols at: https://gov.texas.gov/organization/opentexas
[AUSTIN METRO]
Public Safety Commission gives EMS a boost, criticizes APD (Austin Monitor)
On Monday the city’s Public Safety Commission unanimously recommended an additional $2.3 million for Austin-Travis County EMS to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, while rejecting almost every request from the police department for additional funding.
The commission also voted to recommend $3.8 million for overtime at the Austin Fire Department, $818,000 for an additional cadet training class, $1.6 million for staffing for additional aerial firefighting apparatus, and $225,000 for maintenance of AFD’s records management system.
Selena Xie, president of the ATCEMS employees association, told the commission that the department’s budget had been put together before Covid-19’s appearance in Texas. Since then, everything about how emergency responders deal with people seeking help has changed. For example, she said, all EMS employees must don personal protective equipment if there is a possibility of encountering the virus. That equipment must be removed after each call. After each potential Covid-19 call, medics must decontaminate the ambulance and all equipment. And as the commissioners noted in their resolution, emergency personnel must often shower and change their uniforms before they can be available for another call.
In addition, the department has created a paramedic consult line to provide information to people who think they might have the virus. Xie said using the phone line has kept an extra 1,000 people from unnecessarily going to the emergency room… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Grocery stores In Travis County won't be polling sites during the July election (KUT)
Travis County voters won’t be able to cast their ballots in grocery stores during July’s runoff election. Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir said the option is too risky during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Grocery stores are out of the question,” she said. “They are doing everything they can to feed us and we are entirely grateful for their extra efforts, but there is no way to provide safe voting and proper social distancing for that group of people when we already have such crowded conditions in the grocery stores.”
Travis County residents have been voting at grocery stores since the 1990s; they quickly became, by far, the most popular voting sites in Austin. They are not the only locations that won’t be available during the election. DeBeauvoir said other sites – including Austin Community College campuses – have decided not to open their doors to voters during the pandemic. “We have had some locations that have said, ‘No, we don’t want to take the risk,’” she said. “And you know, that’s their prerogative.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Some gyms, fitness studios reopen, others hold off for now (Austin American-Statesman)
After two months of using Zoom to conduct its yoga, barre and spin classes, fitness studio Define Austin South Lamar is again teaching in-person classes.
But for now, Define is only offering spin classes twice a day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, said owner Jenny Lindemann.
“We had our first class, and it felt so good to reconnect with our community,” she said. “But we are starting really, really slow — for both our clients and our employees. We are easing back in because we want everyone to be comfortable.”
With physical distancing and other new protocols in place, some Austin gyms and fitness studios opened their doors on Monday under Gov. Greg Abbott’s reopening plan. Others said they will wait until June 1 or beyond.
Last month, Abbott announced that Texas businesses would be allowed to reopen with limited capacity after closing amid the coronavirus pandemic. The initial phase permitted retail stores, restaurants, malls and movie theaters to reopen. Salons and barbershops were allowed to open on May 8.
On Monday, Abbott announced that child care facilities, youth clubs and sports activities, massage and other personal services can reopen immediately. On Friday, bars, bingo, bowling alleys, rodeos, zoos, aquariums and natural caverns can also reopen… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Child care centers, bars and sporting events scheduled for Texas' next phase of reopening (Texas Tribune)
Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday announced his next wave of reopenings designed to restart the Texas economy during the coronavirus pandemic, saying child care facilities can reopen immediately, bars can open Friday with limited capacity and sporting events can return without fans at the end of the month.
Abbott also said he would permit restaurants to operate at 50% capacity starting Friday, up from 25% that’s allowed now.
At the same time, Abbott exempted two hot-spot regions — Amarillo and El Paso — from his latest decisions, saying they would need to wait a week — until May 29 — while the state's surge response teams work to contain outbreaks in each area.
Abbott’s news conference came 18 days after he began a phased reopening of the state, starting with letting restaurants, stores, movie theaters and malls open up at 25% capacity. He then allowed barbershops and salons to reopen May 8 under certain restrictions. Monday was the first day gyms were allowed to open, also under restrictions.
Previously, child care was only available to workers deemed essential by the state. Abbott's announcement Monday allows child care centers to reopen to help all workers returning to their jobs… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas had plans to replace its outdated unemployment system. The coronavirus pandemic hit first. (Texas Tribune)
The Texas Workforce Commission’s unemployment benefits services system — the online platform for one of the biggest elements of the state’s safety net for Texans affected by the pandemic — is on a mainframe computer system built in the early to mid-1990s, Ed Serna, the commission's director, told The Texas Tribune. When the novel coronavirus brought much of the state economy to a standstill, the system experienced a surge of unemployment claims it has struggled to handle.
Now the agency is working to process the nearly 2 million unemployment claims filed in the past two months through a system running on outdated technology and code. And when Texans try to call the commission’s phone lines to file claims or seek answers, they run into busy signals or automated messages saying the agency is unable to take their calls. On April 7, the Texas Workforce Commission received 3.5 million calls, 3.1 million of which received busy signals.
Marcus Turner — chief architect of Enola Labs, a software development company focused on cloud-based solutions — said the state’s data centers don’t have enough computer capacity to meet the demand the Texas Workforce Commission is experiencing… (LINK TO STORY)
Tesla request reveals deep divide among agencies over battery power (Houston Chronicle)
A simmering dispute between the state’s electric grid manager and the Public Utility Commission has burst into view over a request by Tesla to make it easier to develop battery storage systems in Texas. The electric carmaker’s request before a committee of Electric Reliability Council of Texas, wouldn’t normally attract much attention. But Texas regulators and ERCOT have been struggling for more than two years over how to accommodate developing battery storage technology that experts predict could accelerate demand for renewable energy sources and ultimately reduce electricity prices.
Large batteries can be charged from solar units or other forms of energy at night when power is cheapest and the stored energy sold when prices peak during midday. But Texas has been slow to adopt the technology, treating battery storage as a form of power generation and retail consumption with big cooling systems instead of just one integrated network. One Texas regulator said he’s embarrassed by the time it has taken for the state to nimbly embrace new technology. “This is the kind of thing Texas should be able to adopt to,” Commissioner Arthur C. D’Andrea said. “When there is a new technology, a new way of doing things, we embrace it and pull it into the market and we make it work.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Despite FDA Caution, Trump Says He Is Taking Hydroxychloroquine As A Preventive (NPR)
President Trump on Monday revealed to reporters that he has been taking hydroxychloroquine and zinc to protect against the coronavirus.
"I was just waiting to see your eyes light up when I said this," the president told reporters, volunteering the information at the end of a roundtable with restaurant owners.
Trump said he asked his doctor about taking it after hearing from people who had done so. "Here's my evidence — I get a lot of positive calls about it," he said.
"I've taken it for about a week and a half now. And I'm still here," he said.
White House physician Sean P. Conley said Monday evening that "after numerous discussions he and I had regarding the evidence for and against the use of hydroxychloroquine, we concluded the potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risks." A statement from Conley also referenced a recent positive case of the coronavirus in the president's inner circle… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Two Coasts. One Virus. How New York Suffered Nearly 10 Times the Number of Deaths as California. (ProPublica)
By March 14, London Breed, the mayor of San Francisco, had seen enough. For weeks, she and her health officials had looked at data showing the evolving threat of COVID-19. In response, she’d issued a series of orders limiting the size of public gatherings, each one feeling more arbitrary than the last. She’d been persuaded that her city’s considerable and highly regarded health care system might be insufficient for the looming onslaught of infection and death.
“We need to shut this shit down,” Breed remembered thinking.
Three days later in New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio was thinking much the same thing. He’d been publicly savaged for days for not closing the city’s school system, and even his own Health Department was in revolt at his inaction. And so, having at last been convinced every hour of delay was a potentially deadly misstep, de Blasio said it was time to consider a shelter-in-place order. Under it, he said, it might be that only emergency workers such as police officers and health care providers would be allowed free movement.
“I think it’s gotten to a place,” de Blasio said at a news conference, “where the decision has to be made very soon.”… (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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