BG Reads | News You Need to Know (September 15, 2021)
[MEETING/HEARINGS]
Work Session of the Austin Council (9.28.2021 at 9AM)
Regular Meeting of the Austin City Council (9.30.2021 at 10AM)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
As Samsung inches closer toward Taylor plant, all eyes turn to housing market (Austin Business Journal)
With Samsung Electronics Co. inching closer toward picking Taylor for its new $17 billion plant, those in the housing market are paying close attention to a city that has historically been behind some of the rapid housing growth of its neighboring cities.
The tech giant was approved this month by the Taylor City Council and the Williamson County Commissioners Court for a slew of incentives for the project, which would create at least 1,800 direct jobs, along with thousands of indirect jobs, at a 6 million-square foot facility on 1,200 acres near Taylor.
While Samsung has maintained that it's still considering other options for the site — including Austin, Phoenix and upstate New York — housing experts said there have already been signs that even the consideration of Taylor for such a large project has kicked the housing submarket into a slightly higher gear.
After Taylor was first publicly mentioned by the Wall Street Journal as a contender for the plant in January, the average median sales price for homes in the submarket has been on an upward climb, according to data from the Austin Board of Realtors.
That median price was $218,150 for 21 sales in January, and $310,000 on 26 sales in June, data show. Documents filed with the Taylor Independent School District officially tied the project to Taylor for the first time in July, where the median price was $314,000 on 24 sales… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
County pledges more than $100 million to eradicate homelessness in three years (Austin Monitor)
On Tuesday, the Travis County Commissioners Court committed $110 million in federal funding toward housing the homeless. The money, sourced from a $247 million chunk of the American Rescue Plan Act funds designated for county assistance, will likely be administered via dozens of nonprofits, including Mobile Loaves and Fishes, Caritas of Austin, Integral Care, LifeWorks and many others.
“City and county officials have come together and set a goal to rehouse 3,000 people over the next three years,” Commissioner Margaret Gómez said.
The funds will be used to build free and affordable housing units, as well as bolster existing strategies to protect people from homelessness, consistent with the Treasury requirements for ARPA use.
Scores of advocates and stakeholder groups applauded the resolution, though a few brought up issues with its procedure, which they say excludes the community when it comes to actual allocation decisions.
“Today, the Commissioners Court approved $110 million of funds to address the issue of housing and homelessness in our community. This innovative, community-led effort reflects our values and commitment to making everyone safer,” County Judge Andy Brown said in a statement.
The idea was first raised months earlier when the city of Austin conditionally committed $84 million toward solving homelessness with the stipulation that the county match the funds. At the time, Commissioner Ann Howard raised the issue to the Commissioners Court and Brown proposed devoting at least $100 million of ARPA funding toward it. “I get that we don’t want others driving the conversation for us,” Brown said, referring to the pressure on the county from City Council’s conditional pledge, “but do we say that there’s some amount that we would like to spend on this general concept?”
Tuesday’s motion was brought forward by commissioners Gómez and Howard. While Gómez proposed the initial resolution to commit the $110 million, Howard – sporting an “End Homelessness” face mask – suggested provisions in the resolution for a community engagement process and to increase equity for disadvantaged communities.
“We can only do this if the federal dollars allow the use for each project and how that project wants to use the money. So to make sure everything is allowed, we’re still waiting from the Treasury on some questions,” Howard said.
“We had the good fortune of getting federal funds into this community. And what better way than to use those funds to make a real dent into probably the most serious social issue that I’ve seen for quite a while,” Gómez said to the court.
Commissioner Jeffrey Travillion indicated support for the intent and volume of the $100 million commitment but, as he has done in the past, expressed skepticism, calling for the need for more specifics with regard to the administration and implementation of the resolution… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin health officials say boosting Central Texas vaccine rates will ease the stress on local hospitals (KUT)
The rolling average for new daily Covid-19-related hospital admissions has been on the decline for more than three weeks. Still, with an average of 57 admissions as of Tuesday, Austin-Travis County remains at the highest level of Austin Public Health’s community risk guidelines.
Resources for the area’s hospital system also remain strained. More than 200 patients are being treated in intensive care units, which have been above or near capacity for more than a month.
Dr. Desmar Walkes, Austin Public Health’s medical director, told a joint session of Travis County commissioners and Austin City Council members Tuesday that one way of helping hospitals is by working with surrounding counties to bring up vaccination rates.
“It’s going to be important for us to look to our neighbors, to collaborate with them and get their populations vaccinated as well,” she said. “Because as we’ve said many times, we’re all in this together. And our hospital systems here in the Travis County metroplex do all serve our neighbors.”
More than 68 percent of Travis County residents 12 and older have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. In Hays County the number is 60 percent; in Williamson County, it’s 67 percent.
Bastrop, Burnet and Caldwell counties are all above 50 percent. But deaths are higher per population in these smaller surrounding counties than in Travis County.
Caldwell County, for example, has a full vaccination rate among those 12 and older of 50.8 percent, but is reporting 245 deaths per 100,000 residents.
Travis County, with its fully vaccinated rate approaching 70 percent, has a death rate of 84 per 100,000 residents.
“We all have to work together to protect ourselves, and particularly protect our children,” Walkes said. “So continue mask-wearing and vaccination and social distancing and staying home when ill.”
Adrienne Sturrup, APH’s interim director, told the officials that the number of people in Travis County who are eligible to be vaccinated but haven’t been shrank by about 25,000 people in recent weeks.
Health officials continue to stress the importance of getting vaccinated against Covid, especially with the Delta variant causing people to stay sicker longer, saying the vaccine is the best protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin moving closer to sending out millions for live music events, musician recovery (Community Impact)
Long awaited city funds are a step closer to reaching members of Austin's live music industry affected by the pandemic, pending a final program review outlined by city staff and members of the Music Commission Sept. 13.
The two $2.5 million initiatives—the Live Music Fund Event Program and Austin Music Disaster Relief Fund 3.0—have been in the works over the past several months at the city economic development department and with input from music commissioners.
The events program is designed to initially send between $5,000 and $10,000 to individual artists and bands for performances in the Austin area,. This is in addition to previous city pandemic recovery efforts with $2,000 grants available to music sector members experiencing income loss through the pandemic.
While the event support is new, an initial round of disaster relief funding that rolled out last year provided around $1.5 million to nearly 1,500 musicians citywide. The event support is directed through the city's hotel occupancy tax, or HOT-funded Live Music Fund while the stabilization fund was created through a portion of Austin's federal American Rescue Plan Act allocation.
The Music Commission's Sept. 13 session provided an overview of the finalized eligibility guidelines for both funds and how dollars will be distributed. Both opportunities were established with a city-backed goal of supporting members of some underrepresented Austin communities, with applicants identifying as Black, Indigenous, and people of color, or BIPOC, eligible to score higher on the rubric determining where dollars are sent. Musicians and contractors from the LGBT community, people with disabilities and women are also in line for a scoring boost… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Justice Dept. asks judge to block Texas from enforcing restrictive abortion law (New York Times)
The Justice Department asked a federal judge late Tuesday to issue an order that would prevent Texas from enacting a law that prohibits nearly all abortions, ratcheting up a fight between the Biden administration and the state’s Republican leaders.
The Justice Department argued in its emergency motion that the state adopted the law, known as Senate Bill 8, “to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights,” reiterating an argument the department made last week when it sued Texas to prohibit enforcement of the contentious new legislation.
“It is settled constitutional law that ‘a state may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability,’” the department said in the lawsuit. “But Texas has done just that.”
As such, the department asked Judge Robert L. Pitman of the Western District of Texas to issue a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction that would prevent enforcement of the law.
“This relief is necessary to protect the constitutional rights of women in Texas and the sovereign interest of the United States,” the Justice Department said in its brief… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
'Cowardly move': Paris ISD lawyer cries foul as AG Ken Paxton trumpets win over mask rule (Houston Chronicle)
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won a temporary restraining order stopping Paris ISD in North Texas from enforcing its mask requirement for students; Paris had attempted to use its dress code policy to circumvent Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on such mandates. Dennis Eichelbaum, lawyer for Paris ISD, said Paxton’s office — despite the fact Paxton had sent multiple letters threatening lawsuits beforehand — didn’t notify the district of the lawsuit until after the hearing was over, and the restraining order had been granted. Paris ISD didn’t get to make its case against the restraining order as a result, Eichelbaum said, describing it as “a cowardly move” from Paxton. “First, it’s against the rules of civil procedure. So he doesn’t care about the law when it applies to him,” Eichelbaum said. “He’s very brave to go to court when you’re not there to defend yourselves.”
“A lot of times attorneys will get sanctioned for it if they do something like this,” he added, saying he will ask the district’s trustees if they want to pursue the matter with the judge. Paxton blasted out a press release trumpeting his victory in court over Paris ISD, describing it “as a win for the rule of law in Texas.” The release doesn’t mention that Paris’ attorneys weren’t present in court. “The law is clear, and this superintendent knows this, yet he has no issue continuing to waste precious state resources on impossible lawsuits instead of providing for his students,” Paxton said in the release. “This temporary restraining order is just the first step in restoring order to our great state and ending this disruption from rogue local officials.” Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Statewide, implementation of Abbott’s ban on local mask mandates has been patchwork. The federal government is pursuing investigations of several states with bans on mask mandates in schools, but not Texas because of inconsistent enforcement. Paxton has acknowledged in court that it will be left to local district attorneys to enforce the ban, and several prosecutors from the state’s largest counties — such as Bexar and Harris — have said they don’t intend to do so… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Newsom easily beats back recall effort in California (The Hill)
"I’m humbled and grateful to the millions and millions of Californians that exercised their fundamental right to vote and expressed themselves so overwhelmingly by rejecting the division by rejecting the cynicism, by rejecting so much of the negativity that’s defined our politics in this country over the course of so many years," he continued.
Supporters of the recall gathered more than 2.1 million signatures to force an election, after a state judge granted them an extension because of the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic, and the lockdowns Newsom ordered, fueled the anger that bolstered the signature-gathering efforts.
But Newsom’s response to the pandemic also undergirded a summer rebound that led to his victory. The race to inoculate Californians against the coronavirus made the state one of the most vaccinated in America, while stimulus measures passed by the Democratic-controlled state legislature send recovery checks to small businesses and low-income residents just as ballots hit mailboxes around the state.
Polls showed most California voters favored the types of vaccine and mask mandates that Newsom has imposed, and Newsom’s paid media had emphasized the contrast with his opponents — and chiefly conservative radio host Larry Elder (R) — who were critical of the mandates. More than 83 percent of Californians have already received at least one dose of the vaccine, one of the highest rates in the nation.
“This is becoming the vaccinated versus the unvaccinated, and a majority of voters are vaccinated. So the math isn’t hard to do,” Rob Stutzman, a Republican strategist who worked for Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) during the last recall of a California governor, in 2003, said before the last ballots were cast…” (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Gen. Mark Milley acted to limit Trump's military capabilities (AXIOS)
In the wake of the Capitol riot Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, took covert steps to prevent President Trump from potentially ordering a military strike or launching nuclear weapons, a CNN preview of Bob Woodward and Robert Costa's new book "Peril," reveals.
Driving the news: According to Woodward and Costa, Milley believed the president had gone into "serious mental decline" following the election and was worried he might "go rogue."
On Jan. 8, Milley called senior military officials in charge of the National Military Command Center to a secret meeting in his Pentagon office.
There, Milley ordered those present not to take orders unless he was involved.
"No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I'm part of that procedure," Milley said, per the book… (LINK TO FULL STORY)