BG Reads | News You Need to Know (November 2, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
*NEW* BG Podcast Episode 112: Discussing Community Healthcare with Perla Cavazos, Deputy Administrator, Central Health (SHOW LINK)
On this episode we speak with Central Health executive Perla Cavazos about the agency’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and initiatives going into 2021.
Coming Wednesday - BG Podcast Episode 113 - Analysis of 2020 Austin Elections.
[AUSTIN METRO]
"These patriots did nothing wrong," Trump says of supporters who surrounded Biden bus (Texas Tribune)
On Sunday evening, President Donald Trump once again cheered on a group of supporters in Texas who surrounded and followed a Biden campaign bus driving up I-35 in Hays County. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was looking into the incident, which happened on Friday and was captured on video from multiple angles.
The "Trump Train" — a caravan of trucks waving Trump and American flags — appeared to try to slow down the Biden campaign bus, as supporters honked their horns and shouted. The confrontation resulted in at least one minor collision and led to Texas Democrats canceling three scheduled campaign events that day, citing "safety concerns."
"In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong. Instead, the FBI & Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of ANTIFA, who run around burning down our Democrat run cities and hurting our people!" Trump said in a tweet. He had previously posted one of the videos showing the caravan along with the comment, “I LOVE TEXAS!”.
Short for "anti-fascists," antifa is an umbrella term for militant groups that resist white supremacists at demonstrations and other events. Trump has portrayed antifa as an organized group threatening national security, often wrongly conflating the term with Black Lives Matter demonstrators who showed up to protest after the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor… (LINK TO STORY)
UT study finds construction workers more likely to be hospitalized with Covid-19 (Austin Business Journal)
According to a new University of Texas study, construction workers are far more likely to be hospitalized by COVID-19 than workers in a different occupation.
UT researchers at the COVID-19 Modeling Consortium analyzed hospitalization data in Austin from mid-March to mid-August and found construction workers were more than five times as likely to be hospitalized with the coronavirus as workers in other occupations.
As local hospitalizations soared during June and July, there was one two-week period where Austin Public Health was tracking six COVID-19 clusters within the construction industry—meaning six sites had three or more cases.
But APH says the good news is the city isn’t tracking any right now… (LINK TO STORY)
Concerned that money will go unspent, Austin makes changes to its rent help program (Austin Monitor)
Renters affected financially by the Covid-19 pandemic can now apply for up to six months of rent from the city’s rent assistance program, where previously they could apply for only up to three. The change comes as the city worries it won’t be able to distribute millions in funds by a federally imposed deadline.
“The money was not going out the door at the rate of speed that we had anticipated,” Nefertitti Jackmon, housing and policy manager with the city’s Housing and Planning Department, told KUT.
As of Sunday, the city had paid rent for 1,477 households, expending just $1.7 million of the roughly $12.9 million allocated for the program.
KUT reported two weeks ago that the city was giving out money much more slowly than it expected it would. This presented a potential problem because the majority of the funds come through the federal CARES Act and must be dispersed by the end of the year.
Jackmon told KUT last month that the city did not know exactly why fewer people applied than expected, but said perhaps the city had overestimated the amount of help needed. At least one tenants advocacy group has complained that the application process, which requires tenants to upload documents like proof of income and a lease, is too burdensome and some people don’t even bother applying.
“We heard from a community partner that people are scared when they see the choice for Social Security number, but you don’t have to have one,” Jackmon said. She said the city is considering amending some requirements, but federal guidelines make that difficult.
The city launched this second rent help program after receiving huge interest in a much more limited program in May. People affected financially by Covid-19 and making less than 80 percent of the median family income could get one month’s rent, which the city pays directly to landlords. Very low-income renters could qualify for up to three months’ rent… (LINK TO STORY)
City ethics commission wrestles with access during pandemic (Austin Monitor)
In its previous, pre-pandemic incarnation, the city’s Ethics Review Commission met in a back room of City Hall that was often jammed full of commissioners, accusers, defenders, and occasionally, reporters. But the meetings were open to the public, and once inside that awkward, cramped room, it was easy enough to figure out what was happening.
Since March, however, it’s been much harder to follow the work of the body tasked with reviewing ethics violations by city employees. Unlike some other commissions, meetings have not been broadcast. And those curious about the commission’s activities were not given an option to listen in. So anyone interested in what was going on had one choice: wait a few days, and then check for an audio recording of the meeting.
It’s a situation commissioners are hoping to change.
Last month, in response to the new state of affairs brought on by the pandemic, commissioners approved a resolution addressing “difficulties including lack of awareness of registration deadlines, shortened speaker times, extended time on hold, incomplete speaker queues, call disconnections, and feedback during calls.” The resolution also acknowledged that “the city’s technology choices and procedural rules have unintentionally limited public participation and even denied members of the public the right to address the Austin City Council and/or City Boards and Commissions.”
The resolution listed a series of recommendations aimed at improving access and public participation in virtual meetings that included clearly posted rules for engagement, limited registration rules and more transparency in communication.
Commissioners also began a conversation about how, in an era where city meetings are taking place online, those meetings could be streamed to the public.
Assistant City Attorney Lynn Carter told the board that, initially, she was told commission meetings held on WebEx could be streamed via Facebook Live. “The problem with that is we don’t have a Facebook page, and the Open Meetings Act prohibits social media,” she said. “We’re not authorized to do social media as a commission, so we’re not able to use the Facebook Live option.”
Carter said the only way to livestream a commission video is to have someone from the communications office physically in Council chambers or the Boards and Commissions Room. “You still have to treat it like you were here in person. We have to find a day of the month that is available, and right now the (rooms) are being used by other commissions on this same night.”
“I know it doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense to me either. I figured, we’re on video, why can’t you stream it?” she said. “But that’s what the experts at the city tell me.”
Carter explained that, because the board is sovereign and makes determinations on ethics and campaign finance violations, she had gotten permission to allow members of the public to call in to listen live to the hearings scheduled for November and December meetings.
Throughout the discussion, commissioners spoke in support of broadcasting meetings… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas' factory of conservative legislation may be at risk (Associated Press)
Win or lose in Texas on Tuesday, Republicans will still run plenty of America's state capitols. Maybe even most of them. "But Texas means more," said Amy Hagstrom Miller, owner of the abortion provider Whole Woman's Health, who has taken lawsuits over new abortion restrictions in Texas to the U.S. Supreme Court. As a generation of GOP dominance in Texas wobbles heading into Election Day — the tight polls and record-shattering early turnout of 9 million voters are unlike anything seen here before — nowhere is the state's recent shift into a battleground more on display than in the fight for control of the state House of Representatives. For a decade the Texas Legislature has been America's foremost factory of conservative legislation. Voting restrictions, expanded gun rights, immigration crackdowns and limits on abortion have passed out of the state House. Other red states, Republicans like to say, have looked to the Texas Capitol as a leader.
But that machine is showing signs of strain. Democrats are just nine seats from seizing a House majority for the first time in 20 years. The GOP still has a commanding advantage in the state Senate and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has two more years in office, which would leave Democrats little way of reversing laws they have fought in recent sessions. But a divided Texas Legislature could still spell an end to the intense era of culture wars and bitterly divisive laws that have made the state Capitol an arena for some of the nation's most explosive battles. "It forces all sides to find their better angels," said Democratic state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, whose first year in the House in 2001 was also the last time his party ran the chamber. "At a minimum, the tone and the tenor of the discussion will instantly change."
Martinez Fischer has already declared his candidacy for House speaker, and would become the first Latino in Texas to hold the position if he won. So did Texas' longest-serving female lawmaker, Democratic Rep. Senfronia Thompson, who would be Texas' first House speaker who is female or Black. Winning the House is widely viewed as Democrats' best chance in what has been an unusually competitive election year in Texas. On Friday, Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris stopped in Houston, Fort Worth and McAllen, along the border with Mexico, for an eleventh-hour campaign swing in a state where Democrat Joe Biden has spent few resources. Republican Sen. John Cornyn is also in a reelection battle with Democrat MJ Hegar… (LINK TO STORY)
State Rep. Dade Phelan files to run for Texas House speaker (Texas Tribune)
State Rep. Dade Phelan, a Beaumont Republican, filed Sunday evening to run for Texas House speaker, he confirmed to The Texas Tribune.
Phelan, chair of the powerful House State Affairs Committee, is the seventh candidate in a race that already includes three Republicans and three Democrats. And it comes ahead of an Election Day that could involve Democrats flipping the lower chamber for the first time in nearly two decades.
Phelan's filing comes after a group of House Republicans gathered Sunday afternoon and picked the lawmaker as their preferred speaker candidate, according to multiple people familiar with the meeting. During that hours-long meeting, some members expressed concern over holding a vote on a speaker candidate before each party knows the partisan breakdown in the 150-member lower chamber.
House members will vote on the next speaker on the first day of the 87th legislative session in January. The winner will be determined by simple majority… (LINK TO STORY)
Texas Supreme Court rejects Republican-led effort to throw out nearly 127,000 Harris County votes (Texas Tribune)
A legal cloud hanging over nearly 127,000 votes already cast in Harris County was at least temporarily lifted Sunday when the Texas Supreme Court rejected a request by several conservative Republican activists and candidates to preemptively throw out early balloting from drive-thru polling sites in the state's most populous, and largely Democratic, county.
The all-Republican court denied the request without an order or opinion, as justices did last month in a similar lawsuit brought by some of the same plaintiffs.
The Republican plaintiffs, however, are pursuing a similar lawsuit in federal court, hoping to get the votes thrown out by arguing that drive-thru voting violates the U.S. constitution. A hearing in that case is set for Monday morning in a Houston-based federal district court, one day before Election Day. A rejection of the votes would constitute a monumental disenfranchisement of voters — drive-thru ballots account for about 10% of all in-person ballots cast during early voting in Harris County.
After testing the approach during the July primary runoff with little controversy, Harris County, home to Houston, set up 10 drive-thru centers for the fall election to make early voting easier for people concerned about entering polling places during the pandemic. Voters pull up in their cars and, after their registrations and identifications have been confirmed by poll workers, are handed an electronic tablet through their car windows to cast ballots.
In a last-minute filing to the Supreme Court, litigious conservative Steven Hotze and Harris County Republicans state Rep. Steve Toth, congressional candidate Wendell Champion and judicial candidate Sharon Hemphill sought to have the votes declared illegal. They argued that the drive-thru program was an expansion of curbside voting and under state election law should only be available for voters with disabilities. The same argument had been made in an unsuccessful previous legal challenge from Hotze and Hemphill — along with the Harris County Republican Party — filed at the state Supreme Court hours before early voting began… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
White House plots possible second-term Cabinet purge (Politico)
President Donald Trump and his top aides are planning a huge overhaul of his Cabinet if he wins a second term, scuttling officials in key health-related and intelligence jobs who Trump views as disloyal, slow-acting or naysayers. The shift would amount to a purge of any Cabinet member who has crossed the president, refused to mount investigations he has demanded, or urged him to take a different, more strict tack on the coronavirus response. The evictions could run the gamut from senior health officials to much of the national security leadership. Already, the White House and administration officials have started to vet names of health care experts who could take over the agencies running many elements of the government’s pandemic response and overseeing the country’s health insurance system, according to two Republicans close to the White House.
And the president is eying a remake of leadership at the FBI, CIA and Pentagon, exasperated with what he perceives as unwillingness to investigate his preferred subjects or take on the government’s “deep state.” This personnel overhaul of the Trump Cabinet at the start of a second term would mirror the turnover his administration has already experienced during his first four years. Of the 23 Cabinet-level posts in the Trump White House, only seven officials lasted all four years. Many, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, had public and contentious departures. And it would represent a fully unencumbered Trump, no longer constrained by political considerations or pushback from Congress.
“I can only imagine the score-settling Trump would undertake if he won,” said one Republican close to the White House about the potential Cabinet shakeup. The reshuffling means a number of key agencies could see swift changes. On the health side, the administration could see the departures of figures like HHS Secretary Alex Azar, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention head Robert Redfield, National Institutes of Health head Francis Collins and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services head Seema Verma… (LINK TO STORY)
Ahead of election, police prepare for violence and disruption (New York Times)
The Las Vegas Police had a quandary. They were on high alert for election-related threats, but when long lines of voters began snaking down streets and around parking lots two weeks ago, they feared that stationing patrol cars outside polling stations might drive people away. “How do you make people feel safe in that environment without creating an overt police presence — that is a challenge for all police departments,” said Andrew Walsh, deputy chief in the Homeland Security division of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. They decided that frequent but random patrols to look for potential trouble was the better choice. Striking that balance is at the root of many of the challenges facing law enforcement agencies nationwide as they prepare for an election rife with uncertainties.
The largest departments have run practice drills on scenarios including violent clashes between Biden and Trump supporters, the sudden appearance of an armed paramilitary group, a cyberattack or a bomb. “This is such a polarized environment and a lot of people are angry,” said John D. Cohen, a former Homeland Security counterterrorism coordinator with 34 years experience in law enforcement. “I have never seen a threat environment as dynamic, complex and dangerous as the one we are in right now.” Police in Las Vegas — like their counterparts in New York, Detroit, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and in other cities all across the country — are grappling with deploying significantly more officers to counteract any disturbances without scaring voters away. So far, cities have stayed mostly quiet. And law enforcement officials like John Miller, the Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism for the New York Police Department, have stressed that no “parade of terribles” has materialized so far.
As Election Day nears, many senior law enforcement and other officials have attempted to inject calm while simultaneously warning of dire consequences for those who would disrupt voting. The attorney general in Ohio, Dave Yost, a Republican, warned that nobody would be allowed to break the law by blocking people from voting. “Hands off the polling places, hands off the vote,” he said in a video statement… (LINK TO STORY)