BG Reads | News You Need to Know (September 10, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
*NEW* BG Podcast Episode 107: Entrepreneurship and Resiliency with Musa Ato, Founder & President, League of Rebels (SHOW LINK)
Note: Shows also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher
[AUSTIN METRO]
New Austin PAC aims to raise $300,000 to push public safety agenda in council races (Austin American-Statesman)
Eight weeks before the November elections, a new political action committee says it plans to raise $300,000 to support Austin City Council candidates who prioritize public safety and support reinstating a ban on homeless camping in the city.
Founders of the Fight for Austin PAC, which describes itself as nonpartisan, include Travis County Republican Party Chairman Matt Mackowiak, former Austin City Council member Ellen Troxclair and Cleo Petricek, a founder of the SAFE Project, an Austin advocacy group.
Mackowiak and Petricek were also founders of Save Austin Now, the group that led a recent petition drive aimed at getting Austin’s homeless camping ban onto the November ballot. That effort failed as Austin City Clerk Jannette Goodall ruled that the group fell short of the 20,000 signatures required to earn a spot.
Mackowiak said Wednesday that incumbent City Council members have made Austin less safe. “Our Fight for Austin PAC will give Austinites an opportunity to support candidates who will make our city safer. It is time Austin fights back against City Hall. It is time we throw the bums out,” Mackowiak said in a written statement.
Petricek said the city’s homeless camping ordinance “has been terrible for the city and for our homeless.”
“While we do not believe the police budget is untouchable, a $150 million budget cut is unwise. Targeted cuts could make sense and we need independent investigations of police misconduct. We will support candidates who align with our values,” Petricek said in a written statement.
Council members up for reelection include Greg Casar, Jimmy Flannigan, Leslie Pool and Alison Alter. Delia Garza’s seat is also up for grabs after she won her race for Travis County attorney earlier this year.
The Austin City Council recently approved a city budget that included about $21 million in immediate cuts to Austin police, most of which came from freezing cadet classes and eliminating vacant positions… (LINK TO STORY)
Coalition publishes draft amendments for modified local democracy (Austin Monitor)
In a city where an appointed city manager administers policy, midterm mayoral elections are decided by a wealthier and whiter electorate, costly runoff elections draw a fraction of eligible voters, and nearly 70 percent of all City Council campaign contributions trace back to three Council districts, a political coalition is seeking structural changes it claims will make local government more representative, responsive and accountable.
On Wednesday, Austinites for Progressive Reform announced the publication of four draft charter amendments aimed at removing barriers to political participation and making elected city leaders directly accountable to voters.
The campaign seeks to transfer duties of the city manager to the mayor under a mayor-council, or “strong-mayor” style of government. The other amendments include holding mayoral elections in presidential election years to boost turnout, establishing ranked-choice voting to eliminate separate runoff elections and funding a “democracy dollars” plan to put political campaign dollars in the hands of more voters.
“These proposed charter amendments are focused on increasing participation in our political process and making sure we hear every voice,” said Andrew Allison, chair of the group.
The coalition announced the campaign in July and posted a statement on its website declaring a broader context for the amendments: “This is about honoring our values and helping us meet the real challenges that we face as a community, like the rising cost of living, long commutes, declining air and water quality, inequitable health outcomes, and the unequal application of the law to our people.”
The campaign proposes the city address all of these issues by making the elected mayor the city’s chief executive, charged with signing or vetoing draft ordinances from Council and administering city departments in place of the existing city manager. Under the mayor-council government, Council would oversee the mayor’s administration of city policy and both the mayor and Council would be held accountable to voters.
While increasing the mayor’s executive power, the campaign also proposes aligning mayoral elections with presidential election years to increase turnout. Historically, 30 percent of Austin residents who vote in presidential elections don’t show up for midterm elections and those who do are generally wealthier, older and whiter than the presidential-year electorate. The coalition aims to remedy this by electing a mayor for a two-year term in 2022. Mayoral terms would then coincide with four-year presidential election cycles beginning in 2024… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Old Motorola site in Austin headed for bankruptcy auction (Austin Business Journal)
The 109-acre East Austin campus that was once home to Motorola and where an ambitious mixed-use project has been pitched in recent years could go up for auction later this month.
Most recently called Tech 3443, the plan was to build more than 4.6 million square feet of office space for technology companies, including eventually multiple towers, on the site along U.S. Highway 183 near FM 969. But financial woes, partnership disputes, lawsuits and an involuntary bankruptcy filed this spring have cast doubt upon the future of the development.
As a result, the campus is on the brink of being sold at auction in bankruptcy court.
Interested parties must submit bids by 5 p.m. on Sep. 25 to participate in the auction. Assuming two or more bids are submitted, an auction has been set for 9 a.m. Sep. 29 at the Dallas office of Wick Phillips Gould & Martin LLP, the law firm representing Greg Milligan, the trustee appointed to oversee the bankruptcy… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
UT retroactively reports 109 new COVID-19 cases among students (Austin American-Statesman)
The University of Texas has identified 109 new COVID-19 cases among students that were not previously reported, bringing the total number of positive cases within the student body to 573 since March 1.
These 109 students were tested for the coronavirus at off-campus testing facilities and did not self-report their positive results to the university.
An update posted to UT’s coronavirus dashboard on Wednesday said the cases were identified through data from Austin Public Health. All 109 positive results were already reflected in the city’s coronavirus totals.
Travis County had reported 27,206 coronavirus cases, as of Wednesday.
Moving forward, the university said its COVID-19 dashboard will be updated to reflect positive cases identified at off-campus testing facilities on a regular basis… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Gov. Greg Abbott calls on all Texas candidates to sign pledge against police budget cuts (Texas Tribune)
Gov. Greg Abbott made his latest political move to fight efforts to cut police funding Wednesday, calling on all Texas candidates in the November election to sign a pledge “backing the blue.”
“Some cities in Texas want to defund and dismantle police departments in our state,” the Republican governor said in a YouTube video promoting his pledge. “This reckless action invites crime into our communities and threatens the safety of all Texans including our law enforcement officers and their families.”
This summer, as unrest and sometimes violent protests against police brutality and racial injustice rocked Texas and the nation, a revived movement for social justice called for the community and policymakers to rethink the role of police. Alongside proposed reforms to policing practices and accountability — like requiring officers to intervene in other officers’ bad actions — some have also sought to shift local funding away from policing and direct the funds toward other social services… (LINK TO STORY)
Texas proposes to cut millions from safety net programs as officials brace for COVID-19 budget impact (Dallas Morning News)
Healthcare and food assistance programs that benefit low-income Texans would be slashed under proposed budget cuts top state leaders say are necessary to weather the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Documents obtained by The Dallas Morning News show state agencies are proposing to pull back money for women’s health programs, trim funds for food banks and slim the workforce that helps people sign up for health insurance, even as demand for those services grows amid the downturn. Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen in May asked most state agencies and higher education institutions to cut their budgets 5% to offset revenue losses from the pandemic. Leaders spared most public school funding, contributions to state employee pensions and prison security from cuts.
Also exempt are five agencies: the Department of State Health Services, Texas Division of Emergency Management, the Texas Workforce Commission, the Texas Military Department and the Department of Public Safety. While most agencies said the proposals are not yet final, some cuts are moving forward as if they are in place. And at least one targeted program, a mobile stroke unit in Houston that treats people in their homes, did not receive state funding that was supposed to arrive on Sept. 1, the start of the new fiscal year, its director said. “We don’t have the money and I have to pay the bills,” said Dr. James Grotta, the director of the unit and stroke research at Memorial Hermann at the Texas Medical Center. Advocates and some lawmakers are frustrated that the cuts — some of which they warn could undermine the state’s ability to confront COVID-19 — are being discussed and negotiated behind closed doors. “It’s extremely frustrating that a budget is being cut without legislative input,” Sarah Davis, a Republican who chairs a budget subcommittee in the Texas House, told The News last week. “When Dennis Bonnen makes the statement that this is all completely transparent and normal, I don’t know how it is.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Under sex crime spotlight, Army didn’t take long to shake up Fort Hood command (San Antonio Express-News)
By the time details of Army Spc. Vanessa Guillén’s disappearance and death had fully emerged, there was little doubt a shakeup was coming at Fort Hood. Multiple investigations were being launched, and the media spotlight was relentless as Guillén’s family and a universe of sexual assault and harassment victims accused the post itself — its attitude and response to sexual misconduct — of being the reason Guillen was killed. Some of the most prominent voices demanded the Army close the installation. Since it holds 37,000 troops and the headquarters of an entire armored corps, few expected that to happen, though many surmised the post’s acting commander, Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt, would likely take the fall.
Last week, the Army acted — as expected. Efflandt, who was slated to leave Killeen for El Paso to take command of the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, was replaced but told to remain at Fort Hood. Gen. John Murray, head of the Austin-based Army Futures Command, took over an investigation of Guillen’s death, now expanded to include the post’s entire chain of command. And an independent panel had just arrived at Fort Hood to start an investigation of its own. The message in the shakeup wasn’t subtle but the Army also had a talking point, one it made clear at a ceremony Thursday evening for Fort Hood’s new acting commander, Maj. Gen. John B. Richardson IV, and repeated later to news media at III Corps headquarters. “We’re going to work hard to win back the trust of the American people,” Gen. Michael X. Garrett told reporters, calling sexual harassment, assault, suicide, racism and political extremism “things that break that trust.” Garrett, who heads Forces Command, based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, vowed to “look hard at ourselves” and rectify whatever problems are found… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Trump and his aides argue he’s long overdue for Nobel Peace Prize (Politico)
As revelations of President Donald Trump’s early understanding of the coronavirus threat rocked Washington, the White House and its surrogates were focusing on the Nobel Peace Prize.
On Wednesday, Trump vigorously promoted the news that he had been nominated for the prize, tweeting at least 17 times in less than a half-hour about his candidacy for the prestigious commendation.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany led a news briefing by heralding the nomination, and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner cheered the president for “bringing the Middle East closer together” with the drafting of the Abraham Accords.
Christian Tybring-Gjedde, a far-right member of the Norwegian Parliament, revealed his nomination of Trump in a Facebook post citing the “groundbreaking cooperation agreement” the White House announced last month between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
All the while, a number of news reports broke on the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the actions of his administration officials.
The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward revealed that Trump had acknowledged in early February how bad the coronavirus pandemic would be and that he wanted to downplay its impact to reduce public panic. A whistleblower complaint alleged the Department of Homeland Security tried to suppress investigations into Russian interference to help Trump save face. And the Justice Department moved to try to take over a defamation suit against the president, potentially quashing it… (LINK TO STORY)
Trump admits playing down Coronavirus's severity, according to new Woodward Book (NPR)
President Trump is defending himself after interviews from a new book by legendary reporter Bob Woodward reveal that Trump acknowledged the deadliness of the coronavirus in early February and admitted in March to playing down its severity.
"This is deadly stuff," the president told Woodward in a Feb. 7 conversation, according to the book, which is called Rage. "You just breathe the air and that's how it's passed. And so that's a very tricky one. That's a very delicate one. It's also more deadly than even your strenuous flu."
But at the time, Trump was publicly saying that the virus was less of a concern.
On Feb. 10, he told supporters in New Hampshire: "Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away." Later that month, Trump tweeted that the virus was "very much under control in the USA."
And in March, he compared the novel coronavirus to the seasonal flu, saying in a Fox News interview, "We've never closed down the country for the flu."… (LINK TO STORY)
Portland adopts landmark facial recognition ordinances (The Hill)
The Portland, Ore., City Council on Wednesday unanimously adopted two landmark ordinances banning city and private use of facial recognition technology.
The first bars all city bureaus from acquiring or using the controversial technology with minimal exceptions for personal verification.
The second blocks private entities from using the software that scans faces to identify them in all public accommodations.
That second ordinance goes beyond the steps other cities, like Boston, San Francisco and Oakland, Cali., have taken to limit government applications of facial recognition.
"What makes Portland's legislation stand out from other cities is that we're prohibiting facial recognition technology use by private entities in public accommodations," Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) said during Wednesday's deliberations.
"This is the first of its kind of legislation in the nation," he added.
The bans will take effect in January 2021. Limited exceptions exist in both ordinances for personal use of facial recognition, like for opening smartphones.
Facial recognition has come under renewed scrutiny in recent months amid nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism launched by the killing of George Floyd.
The technology has been criticized for replicating existing racist and sexist biases within society… (LINK TO STORY)