BG Reads | News You Need to Know (January 4, 2022)
Texas Capitol building
[BINGHAM GROUP]
The BG Podcast is back! EP. 148 features Jose "Chito" Vela III a candidate for Austin's Council District 4.
The immigration and defense attorney declared in early November, following Council Member Greg Casar announcing his candidacy for Congress (triggering an automatic resignation).
Bingham Group CEO A.J. and Associate Wendy Rodriguez discuss Chito's campaign and what he hopes to achieve if elected.
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Austin to sponsor City Council District 4 candidate forum on Thursday (Austin American-Statesman)
The city of Austin will sponsor a City Council candidate forum at 6 p.m. Thursday virtually, on air or by phone. The forum is for District 4 residents to learn about the candidates running for the open council seat.
The city’s Ethics Review Commission and the League of Women Voters Austin Area will host the forum; the special election will occur Jan. 25. A forum is also being planned in the event of a runoff election.
Candidates in ballot order include Amanda Rios, Isa Boonto, Ramesses II Setepenre, Melinda Schiera, Jade Lovera, Monica Guzmán and José “Chito” Vela.
The community can tune in live at ATXN.TV (English and Spanish), cable TV channel 6, AT&T U-Verse channel 99 and on the ATXN app on Roku or Apple TV. The forum can also be heard on KAZI FM 88.7 and by telephone in English, Spanish and Vietnamese (855-756-7520, ext. 78384# for English; 78385# for Spanish; 78390# for Vietnamese)… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Cronk: Police reform efforts put Austin in national spotlight (Austin Monitor)
Looking back at 2021, City Manager Spencer Cronk feels proud of the way city employees performed in the face of a seemingly never-ending pandemic, an unprecedented ice storm, and state legislation that not only redirected use of city funds, but restricted how much money the city can collect. This followed on the heels of a 2019 bill that dictated a 3.5 percent cap on the city’s authority to raise property taxes without an election.
The Austin Monitor sat down with Cronk in mid-December, just as stories about the new Covid-19 variant called omicron were beginning to dominate the media. Cronk had hoped a year ago that we would not be having a conversation about the virus again, but now he expects Covid will continue to be with us. He reiterated what he said in an earlier meeting: “We may be done with the virus, but the virus is not done with us.”
Mayor Steve Adler and Travis County Judge Andy Brown had just extended the health authority rules until June 10, 2022, making it mandatory that students, faculty and staff in local schools continue to wear masks. They also extended masking requirements for buildings under their control. Cronk said he did not anticipate any additional rules in the near future.
According to Cronk’s data, 68 percent of Austin/Travis County residents over the age of 5 were fully vaccinated by Dec. 6. Austin Public Health, which was a little-known department prior to the arrival of Covid-19, had administered a total of 355,607 vaccine doses since vaccines became available on Dec. 18, 2020. Nevertheless, the number of Covid cases in Travis County had risen to 125,592 by December 20, 2021.
Cronk said, “I think that there was the impression that once the vaccines came this would be over, like a light switch, that we would be able to move on, and this is clearly something we’re going to live with.” While some disagree with measures taken to curtail the spread of the virus, “It is important that we continue to talk through the importance of vaccinations, the importance of getting a booster, how it has allowed us to do more things than when we were in Stage 5, but it’s going to be with us and so we can’t stop talking about it.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Conservative local attorney Richard Smith announces run for Austin Council District 8 (KVUE)
Local attorney Richard Smith announced on Monday he is running for Austin City Council in District 8, which covers southwest Austin and includes communities such as Oak Hill, Circle C and Travis Country.
Smith, a conservative, will face liberal incumbent District 8 Councilmember Paige Ellis, who is up for reelection this year.
Smith, a former patent judge, said he moved to Austin in the mid-'90s. He is a member of the Austin Board of Adjustment, which rules on city zoning ordinances. He was appointed to that role by District 6 Councilmember Mackenzie Kelly.
“It is time for District 8 to have an engaged, passionate and fiscally responsible representative on city council that cares about the safety, prosperity and affordability of Austin,” Smith said in a release. “Police response times and traffic fatalities are unacceptably high. Violent crime is spiking across our city. Property taxes and rents are skyrocketing, making Austin less affordable. And our traffic congestion is unsustainable. The rapid growth in District 8 requires responsible attention to traffic issues and proactive awareness of the character of existing communities.”
Smith said he believes the City should increase police staffing and said Austin’s Housing First policy, which provides those experiencing homelessness with subsidized housing, “has failed.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick tested positive last week for COVID-19 but didn’t tell Texas right away (Texas Tribune)
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is quarantining after testing positive for COVID-19 last week, his campaign said Monday.
In a short news release, Patrick senior adviser Allen Blakemore said the lieutenant governor experienced mild symptoms and tested positive for the virus last week but has subsequently tested negative and is completing his quarantine period.
"His symptoms were mild and no one else in the household was infected," Blakemore said. "He continues working from home and will return to a public schedule by the end of the week."
The release did not say what day Patrick received the positive test or why it was not disclosed earlier.
When Gov. Greg Abbott tested positive for COVID-19 in August, his office disclosed that information the same day. Abbott isolated at the Governor's Mansion and received Regeneron's monoclonal antibody treatment. His office notified everyone he'd been in close contact with. Abbott had attended a "standing room only" campaign event in Collin County the night before his positive test.
Four days after later, Abbott tested negative and credited his vaccination for keeping the infection "brief and mild."
Patrick tweeted in November that he was vaccinated and encouraged "others to do their own research." Like Abbott, his public statements have been more focused on fighting mandates than promoting immunization… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Irving is one of the country’s most diverse, and it’s getting even more diverse (Dallas Morning News)
Irving — long considered one of the country’s most diverse cities — is growing even more diverse, according to 2020 U.S. Census figures. Over the past decade, Irving’s total population grew 18%, from 216,290 to 256,684. During that time, the largest influx was in people of color, particularly Asian residents. Meanwhile, the number of white people in Irving fell roughly 38%, from 114,779 in 2010 to 71,138 in 2020. White residents now account for about one-quarter of the city’s overall population, according to the census. A decade ago, they accounted for more than half. The city’s Asian population exploded by nearly 90%, from 30,359 in 2010 to 57,504 in 2020. Asians now account for roughly 22% of the city’s overall population, up from 14% in 2010.
Irving is particularly known for a thriving Indian-American population and a hub of Indian and Asian restaurants and grocery stores. Irving’s Latino and Black populations also grew, although on smaller scales. The Hispanic and Latino population jumped 18%, from 88,967 in 2010 to 105,469 in 2020. Latinos account for 41% of the city’s overall population, a percentage that has remained steady over the past decade. The number of Black and African-American residents grew by 22%, from 26,522 to 32,484. They account for roughly 12% of the city’s population, a figure that has also stayed steady. According to the census, the number of American-Indian and Alaska native residents nearly doubled, from 1,878 in 2010 to 3,551 in 2020. In 2020, Irving was named the second-most culturally diverse city in the country by personal finance website WalletHub. Real estate website Trulia previously named Irving’s 75038 zip code as the most diverse neighborhood in the U.S… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas police admit to some 'Trump Train' text messages in new court filings (San Antonio Express-News)
The city of San Marcos admits in new court documents to text exchanges among its police officers about the Joe Biden bus incident in October 2020. But it denies what it calls a “characterization” of the exchanges by the original complainants. In documents filed in federal court Dec. 30, attorneys for the defendants denied almost all of the 173 allegations laid out in the original complaint. The defendants include the city’s public safety director, Chase Stapp; an assistant police chief, Brandon Winkenwerder; a police corporal, Matthew Daenzer; and the City of San Marcos.
In the lawsuit, which originally was filed in June 2021 by campaign staffers and volunteers for then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, the plaintiffs say the Police Department refused to provide a police escort or assistance for their campaign bus after it was surrounded by a pro-Trump caravan on Interstate 35 in October 2020. The lawsuit alleges that Biden staffers called 911 and “begged” for help from police, but the police “privately laughed and joked about the victims and their distress, including by calling them ‘tards,’ making fun of a campaign staffer’s ‘hard’ breathing, and retorting that they should just ‘drive defensively’ or ‘leave the train.’” Attorneys for the campaign staffers and volunteers obtained text messages via a public records request between Stapp, Winkenwerder, Daenzer and other police officers that they said showed the officials mocking and laughing at the bus occupants. In the defendants’ response to the complaint filed last week, attorneys for Stapp, Winkenwerder, Daenzer and the city denied almost all the allegations in the lawsuit or said that they did not have enough “knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief” about them… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
AT&T, Verizon won’t delay 5G rollout that airlines fear will pose safety hazard (Dallas Morning News)
AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. rejected a U.S. request to delay this week’s launch of a new variation of 5G mobile service that airlines said might interfere with aircraft electronics, posing a safety hazard. But the CEOs of the two telecommunications giants also said in a joint letter Sunday that they would be willing to commit to a six-month pause in deployment near certain airports that will be selected in negotiations with U.S. officials and the aviation industry. The U.S. request seeks steps that would be “to the detriment to our millions of consumer, business and government customers,” Verizon Chief Executive Officer Hans Vestberg and AT&T’s John Stankey wrote to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Steve Dickson, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration.
In a letter Friday, the U.S. officials asked the wireless providers to delay the planned Jan. 5 start of the new service. The officials forecast possible “widespread and unacceptable disruption” to air traffic as planes avoid airports bathed in 5G signals that could affect electronics used during landings. “Your proposed framework asks that we agree to transfer oversight of our companies’ multi-billion dollar investment in 50 unnamed metropolitan areas representing the lion’s share of the U.S. population to the FAA for an undetermined number of months or years,” Vestberg and Stankey wrote. “Even worse, the proposal is directed to only two companies.” The wireless executives said agreeing to the proposal would be “an irresponsible abdication of the operating control required to deploy world-class and globally competitive communications networks.” The new 5G signals would use a set of airwaves made freshly available to mobile communications providers. The frequencies are near those used by altitude-sensing radar altimeters. Aviation interests have said that creates a chance of interference that could leave some landings unsafe. The wireless industry said power levels are low enough to preclude interference, and the gap between frequencies is sufficiently large to ensure safety… (LINK TO FULL STORY)