BG Reads | News You Need to Know (October 15, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
Early voting in Travis County runs through Friday, October 30 (Monday-Saturday, 7:00 AM-7:00 PM, Sunday 12-6 PM). Find early voting locations here (Travis County only).
***NEW*** BG Podcast Episode 110: Discussing City Governments with Professor Sherri Greenberg, LBJ School of Public Affairs (SHOW LINK)
Overview: She and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss and weigh different local governance structures of cities and their implications on civic engagement. In July, Austinites for Progressive Reform launched with, among other initiatives, a call to adopt a mayor-council form of government, i.e. a strong mayor system. This would transfer the city manager’s duties to the mayor. They are currently gathering signatures for a city charter amendment (Austin’s constitution) vote in May 2021.
BG Blog: What is a County Judge? (Article Link)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Travis County Judge won't let bars reopen at 50% capacity (KUT)
Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe said he’s not going to allow bars to reopen at 50% capacity Wednesday, citing a memo from the county's top doctor saying COVID-19 "continues to be a threat."
"In the past ten days, Travis County has seen an increase in hospitalized individuals, ICU bed utilization, and ventilator use," Biscoe said in a press release. "As such, I cannot in good conscience allow bars to reopen at 50% of capacity at this time."
Biscoe said he will reevaluate the situation with Austin-Travis County interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott in 14 days to determine whether it's safe to reopen bars.
“Given that we’ve just opened schools in Austin ISD and Del Valle ISD, now is not the time to take substantial risk associated with COVID-19 transmission,” Escott said during a news conference Wednesday after the announcement.
He said the recommendation to keep bars closed was based on the COVID data in Austin-Travis County in tandem with projections from the University of Texas Modeling Consortium, which show a “66% chance of increasing epidemic over the next month.”
“We’ve seen major metropolitan areas around the state make the same decision that Judge Biscoe did,” Escott said. “That includes Travis County, Dallas County, Harris County. … We’re seeing that these larger population areas are more concerned about the risk. We will continue to make recommendations based on the science.”
Travis County will not be joining other Central Texas counties — Hays, Williamson, Bastrop, Burnet, Caldwell and Comal — in allowing bars to reopen under the governor's order… (LINK TO STORY)
Travis County posts big second day early voting totals (Austin American-Statesman)
Voters continued to flock to the polls Wednesday, the second day of early voting, with no sign of a drop-off in turnout in Central Texas and elsewhere in the state after Tuesday’s record-setting numbers.
The Travis County Clerk’s office said 38,119 voters cast their ballots on Wednesday, 2,246 more than what was reported on the first day of early voting.
More than 33,000 people had voted in person in Travis County by 5:30 p.m., according to Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir.
“When we compared that with yesterday, we’re having an even bigger turnout today,” DeBeauvoir said. “It’s fabulous.”
By comparison, 33,582 people in Travis County cast their ballots on the second day of early voting for the 2016 elections — 4,537 less than what was reported Wednesday.
The surge of voters comes after 35,873 people cast in-person ballots Tuesday in the county — 2,200 voters more than the first day of early voting in 2016 and a single-day record for early voting in the county.
“This election is far bigger and far more intense than anything we’ve seen before,” DeBeauvoir said.
Voters reported long lines throughout the day Tuesday. By mid-afternoon, the Travis County wait time map showed eight polling locations with a wait time of more than 50 minutes.
No polling place malfunctions or issues were reported in the county Wednesday.
A record 97% of Travis County’s eligible 850,000 voters are registered to vote in the Nov. 3 election. Statewide, 78% of eligible voters are registered. There are 1.8 million more registered voters in Texas than four years ago, keeping pace with the state’s booming population… (LINK TO STORY)
About 11% of Austin ISD students return to campuses during district's first phase of reopening (Community Impact)
Nearly 8,400, or 11.2%, of Austin ISD students returned to campus for the first day of in-person class Oct. 5, while campus capacities were capped at 25%, and the remainder of AISD's 75,000 student continued to learn virtually from home.
Ken Zarifis, the president of Education Austin, the labor union for AISD employees, said Oct. 2 that more than 1,000 Austin ISD teachers were prepared to stay home when in-person learning began despite district plans that would require most teachers to return to the classroom. However, after a weekend of negotiations between the union and district, an estimated 98% of district teachers reported for work Oct. 5 with 175 calling out sick, according to the district.
At a board meeting Oct. 12, AISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde thanked teachers for their continued support in helping students both learn from home and in the classroom. She said by returning to school, teachers are giving students—especially the most vulnerable and youngest learners—a greater opportunity to succeed in the future.
“We know that when schools closed [in March] our students lost, in many instances, academic gains that they had already worked towards during that school year,” Elizalde said. “They cannot afford to lose another year.”
AISD Chief Equity Officer Stephanie Hawley said Oct. 12 that vulnerable learners thrive in “whole spaces” where they see librarians, their counselors and teachers… (LINK TO STORY)
Reworked Kemp Street rezoning continues to draw fire (Austin Monitor)
Today, Austin City Council will take up a contentious Montopolis zoning case that opponents say will speed gentrification and wreak havoc on a nearby preserve. But supporters of the reworked plan for 508 Kemp St. tout the creation of affordable housing as a new way to employ the city’s Affordability Unlocked tool.
The developer is seeking a zoning change from Family Residence (SF-3) to Townhouse & Condominium Residence (SF-6), which will allow them to build 33 units on the 2-acre lot. Without the change, they could build two homes. However, the developer notes that a subdivision of the land could result in five single-family lots, with two units per lot, resulting in up to 10 larger houses.
There is a valid petition against the case, which means nine City Council members will need to vote in support of the rezoning for it to move forward. In the first vote on the rezoning, Council voted 7-2, with Council members Alison Alter and Kathie Tovo voting in opposition and Council members Leslie Pool and Ann Kitchen abstaining.
The project has changed since it was first presented at the Planning Commission. The builder, 360 Degrees Construction, is now working with Habitat for Humanity. Under the new plan, which uses the city’s Affordability Unlocked development bonus program, 17 of the 33 units will be sold to lower-income homeowners. In partnership with Habitat for Humanity, the two-bedroom homes would be sold at a price of $140,000-$187,000 with the remaining homes to be sold at market value.
The proposed development has garnered a tidal wave of opposition online, with groups like Protect Montopolis, Ecology Austin and the Coalition for Racial Justice urging residents to take action against it. On Wednesday afternoon, opponents gathered at the Montopolis Negro School to speak out against the development.
“No means no,” said Fred McGhee, who is vice president of the Montopolis Neighborhood Association. “What the facts actually indicate is that this is not an affordable housing proposal. It is a proposal that will enrich people from the outside of our community. And it will provide housing for people who do not live here. That is not considered acceptable by us, and quite frankly, we resent the presence of organizations such as Habitat for Humanity to the extent that they decided at the last minute to involve themselves in this project.”
“What we want is a proposal that will work for us – that is of, by and for the community, not of, by and for real-estate developers,” McGhee said. To that end, he forwarded a plan by the Montopolis Community Development Corporation for the site. (McGhee serves as board president for the Montopolis CDC.)… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Embattled Texas AG Ken Paxton and outside attorney respond to complaint that led to staff uprising (Texas Tribune)
Houston defense attorney Brandon Cammack got an unexpected phone call in mid-August. It was Attorney General Ken Paxton, who Cammack had never spoken to, personally asking him to interview for a high-profile assignment.
It was an unusual start to what aides called a troubling process of hiring the outside attorney to vet a complaint filed by a Paxton political donor, and it has led to a mutiny from many of Paxton’s most senior staff members and new criminal allegations against the second-term Republican. Now, both Paxton and Cammack are defending their roles in a scandal that has brought calls for Paxton to resign and set the agency at war with itself.
Several of the most senior employees at the agency have accused Paxton of using his office, and the hiring of 34-year-old Cammack, to serve the interests of Nate Paul, an Austin real estate investor and Paxton donor whose home and office were raided by the FBI in 2019. Paxton said he hired Cammack to investigate whether warrants were illegally altered when agents raided Paul’s home and office… (LINK TO STORY)
Texans delaying or skipping health care visits during pandemic, study finds (Houston Chronicle)
More than a third of Texans have put off health care decisions and are now without health insurance during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to figures from the Episcopal Health Foundation, a Houston-based health advocacy organization. In a survey of nearly 1,900 respondents conducted in September, 36 percent of Texans said they or someone in their household had skipped or postponed medical care because of COVID-19.
In the long run, those statistics don’t bode well for Texas, said Elena Marks, president of the Episcopal Health Foundation. Patients who delay or skip doctor’s visits are at higher risk of missing easily preventable illnesses. Without health insurance, many are likely to continue going without until an emergency sends them to the hospital. “Some of the people who skipped care actually needed the care,” Marks said. “We’re bouncing back, but probably not at the rate we’ll make all of it up.” Pushing off care until it’s an emergency means that patients will face higher medical bills later. Marks and fellow researchers also found an interesting change: people who had at least a high school diploma and higher incomes were more likely to skip seeking care. There may be a few reasons for this: those people are more likely to have health insurance, and/or are more likely to get regular, preventive care.
As a result, they might be willing to skip appointments if they’re already healthy, especially if they have a fear of catching COVID-19 in clinic lobbies and doctors’ waiting rooms. Jared Hurt, 41, is among that group. He planned to go in for a checkup over the summer, but ultimately decided to reschedule. Hurt, who is in school to get his phlebotomy certification, said he’s healthy, with no major health conditions. “I don’t want to put myself at further risk,” he said. He hasn’t yet set a date to see his primary care doctor… (LINK TO STORY)
Coronavirus threat level upgraded to red in Dallas County as cases climb (Dallas Morning News)
Dallas County officials want you to think twice before getting a haircut, dining out or heading to the mall as new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations begin to climb. Dallas County officials on Wednesday raised the county’s perceived risk level back to red after just six weeks at a lower level, orange.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins quietly announced the change in his daily report of new cases. Red is the most severe, which suggests limiting travel and activities only to essential matters. In-person voting, which began Tuesday with record numbers, in Dallas County will not be affected, Jenkins said in his statement. “We’ve already had two elections, a primary and a runoff election during COVID-19, both of which took place under a ‘Red’ recommendation from the Public Health Committee,” Jenkins said in his statement. “There has been no known spread from voting or cases attributed back to polling places and this we believe is due to the extraordinary measures everyone is taking to keep you safe at the polls.”
The nonbinding guide, written by public health, epidemiology and infectious disease experts, was first published in May as the state began to reopen the economy during the pandemic. It was a way for county leaders, who have been more conservative in their response to the pandemic, to communicate to the public how to safely navigate a new reality… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Pelosi, Mnuchin continue COVID-19 talks amid dwindling odds for deal (The HIll)
he top negotiators fighting for a deal on emergency coronavirus relief spoke again on Wednesday as they face increasingly dismal odds to secure an agreement before Election Day.
The hourlong phone call between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was a "productive" one, according to Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill, citing a focused effort to find "clarification on language" — a reference to assurances sought by Democrats that new funding allocated by Congress will be spent on intended programs.
But a deal remains a long shot, as Democrats have held firm to their $2.2 trillion demand; Senate Republicans have balked at even the $1.8 trillion proposal from the White House; and President Trump has confused the debate with a stream of mixed messages regarding what he supports… (LINK TO STORY)
Twitter, Facebook restrict users' dissemination of New York Post story on Biden (Reuters)
Facebook and Twitter cast doubt on a New York Post story that made claims about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, taking proactive steps to restrict dissemination of the story in the hours after it was published on Wednesday.
The story contained alleged details of Hunter Biden’s business dealings with a Ukrainian energy company and said that the former vice president had met with an adviser of the company. The story, which Reuters did not independently confirm, sourced details to emails that it said were given to the lawyer of Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney.
Robert Costello, the lawyer for Giuliani cited in the Post story, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Twitter prohibited its users from posting links to the Post story, while Facebook reduced how often the story shows up in users’ news feeds and elsewhere on the Facebook platform.
Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement that Republican-led Senate committees have previously concluded that Biden engaged in no wrongdoing related to Ukraine.
“The New York Post never asked the Biden campaign about the critical elements of this story,” Bates said. “We have reviewed Joe Biden’s official schedules from the time and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place,” he added… (LINK TO STORY)
[WORLD]
Paris under curfew: Europe reacts as countries see highest-ever coronavirus numbers (NPR)
Coronavirus restrictions are taking effect in the Netherlands, the U.K., the Czech Republic and other parts of Europe on Wednesday as nations try to reverse an alarming wave in new cases. The continent is now seeing more new coronavirus cases – an average of 100,000 daily — than at any other time during the pandemic.
Bars, restaurants and schools are being shut down or sharply limited, and officials are working to bolster hospital capacity, to accommodate an expected influx of new COVID-19 patients.
Numbers that showed signs of taking off in late August and September are now skyrocketing. Europe reported more than 700,000 new coronavirus cases last week – a surge representing a 36% weekly increase, as NPR's Reese Oxner recently reported.
Europe's infection rate "has been increasing for 77 days," the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in its most recent weekly report for the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom… (LINK TO STORY)
Germany to give $662 million in aid to Holocaust survivors (Politico)
Germany has agreed to provide more than a half billion euros to aid Holocaust survivors struggling under the burdens of the coronavirus pandemic, the organization that negotiates compensation with the German government said Wednesday.
The payments will be going to approximately 240,000 survivors around the world, primarily in Israel, North America, the former Soviet Union and Western Europe, over the next two years, according to the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference… (LINK TO STORY)