BG Reads | News You Need to Know (July 21, 2021)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Austin health officials recommend masking up indoors as Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations spike (KUT)
Austin Public Health is recommending everyone – including those who are vaccinated – wear a face covering indoors as Covid-19 cases continue rising in Austin and Travis County.
Local Health Authority Dr. Desmar Walkes told a joint session of Travis County commissioners and Austin City Council members on Tuesday that hospitalizations are up among all age groups.
“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We know what to do. We know what works,” Walkes said. “Masks stop the spread, and vaccinations stop severe disease and illness.”
Austin reported 38 new hospital admissions on Monday, bringing the seven-day average to 30, a level that could send the area to stage 4 of APH’s risk-based guidelines. The area was moved up to stage 3 guidance just last week after the state confirmed the first cases of the highly contagious Delta variant in Travis County.
Intensive care unit admissions are rising, too. Walkes said almost all of the patients in those beds are not vaccinated.
“Almost all of the cases we’re seeing right now from case investigations are in people who are unvaccinated, and almost all of the people who are being hospitalized are unvaccinated,” Walkes said. “But we all need to take precautions, wear a mask to stop the spread, and everybody should be vaccinated to prevent severe disease.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Austin area may see over 12,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations before October, UT projections show (KXAN)
The Austin-metro area could experience three vastly different COVID-19 realities over the next three months, depending on what happens starting now. That’s according to a report released Monday by the University of Texas at Austin: which used trending data, in addition to vaccination rates, to project how the disease may spread through October 1. UT’s COVID-19 scenario projections for Austin, Texas divides the possibilities based on if precautions continue as they currently are, if Austin enacts stricter guidelines and if residents actually comply with strict measures. Here are the possibilities.
If guidelines continue as they are: Hospitalizations: 12,279; Probability of a 7-day average of 30 new hospitalizations per day: 94%; Probability of exceeding estimated ICU capacity of 200 beds: 87%. If stricter guidelines are enacted: Hospitalizations: 1,078 — a 92% reduction in hospitalizations than if current guidelines continue; Probability of a 7-day average of 30 new hospitalizations per day: 37%; Probability of exceeding estimated ICU capacity of 200 beds: 2%. UT says these projected numbers will depend on the city enforcing universal mask recommendations for both vaccinated and unvaccinated residents — and if residents comply. If residents only comply with stricter guidelines about 50%: Hospitalizations: 4,355 — a 65% reduction in hospitalizations than if current guidelines continue; Probability of a 7-day average of 30 new hospitalizations per day: 82%; Probability of exceeding estimated ICU capacity of 200 beds: 53%. The researchers say they’re sharing the results of the study without peer review — a typical measure to indicate veracity — out of public safety concern, in addition to hope that it provides “intuition” for policy makers and residents… (LINK TO STORY)
Travis County begins incentives negotiations with Samsung for possible $17B facility (Community Impact)
Travis County commissioners will begin negotiations to draft an agreement with Samsung Austin Semiconductor, which seeks performance-based tax incentives to bring a $17 billion chip-making plant to the county.
The company, which already has a semiconductor facility in North Austin, submitted an application for Chapter 28 economic development incentives to Travis County on June 26, county staff said.
County commissioners first signified their intent to receive an application from Samsung—then under the guise of “Project Silicon Silver”—in January, after lifting a moratorium on Chapter 28, which had been in place for over a year while the county considered adjustments to the policy.
At the time, commissioners also adopted a new, temporary set of adjustments to the Chapter 28 policy, such as a mandated $15/hour base pay for workers associated with Silicon Silver, including construction workers hired to build the facility. They also adopted measures to improve public transparency on Chapter 28 proceedings, including holding at least two public hearings on any given agreement.
Christy Moffett, Travis County managing director for economic and strategic planning, said the next step is for county staff and commissioners to begin formal negotiations with Samsung and create a draft performance agreement, which would include studies measuring effects on local property taxes.
“We will work to do our best to move as quickly as possible, but at this point in time, I can't tell you exactly when that draft performance agreement would be available. It all depends on how negotiations go,” Moffett said… (LINK TO STORY)
Audit finds APD failing officers who need helps (Austin Monitor)
The Austin Police Department’s system for identifying officers in need of help and connecting them with support or wellness services is failing both the officers and the department, according to an audit released Tuesday.
The audit, which was conducted by the Office of the City Auditor, found that the early intervention system used by APD is ineffective, has significant data collecting and reporting issues, and fails to connect officers to services that might help them. In addition, auditors found that there is minimal reporting on what is called the Guidance Advisory Program (GAP), insufficient officer training about the program, and that the program lacks transparency.
Auditors found that the program may not be tracking the right information to identify officers truly in need of assistance. Additionally, in some instances the program may be indicating a need for assistance when that need does not exist, resulting in “unnecessary activation.” However, it appears that APD does not take “activation” very seriously.
“We reviewed a random sample of 60 activation response memos,” auditors wrote, “and found that 93 percent of the time, supervisors and the chain-of-command did not identify any issues to address. While informal counseling or conversations were noted in 7 percent of the memos, none of the memos recommended a formal action plan or referral to services.”
The Austin program, which was implemented in 2006, only records three indicators that may reveal the officer’s need for assistance. Those include use-of-force (called response to resistance), Internal Affairs complaints and use of sick leave. Auditors found APD’s “performance indicator thresholds may be too low and result in unnecessary activations.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Global firm recommended to redevelop St. John site in North Austin (Austin Business Journal)
A city-owned tract in North Austin is getting closer to a long-anticipated transformation.
Greystar Development Central LLC has been recommended by city staff to redevelop the 19-acre St. John site in North Austin, which comprises a former Home Depot and a former Chrysler dealership at 7211 N. I-35 and 7309 N. I-35, respectively. Several developers were considered after responding to a request for proposal issued last year to redevelop the city-owned land into "an innovative, catalytic, mixed-use project that improves the quality of life for neighborhood residents," according to a July 19 memo to Austin City Council. The city could sell or lease the land to the development partner.
Council will consider authorizing staff to negotiate and execute an exclusive negotiation agreement with Greystar at its July 29 meeting, according to the memo. A master development agreement will still need to be solidified before any project can move forward, and any details from the company's proposal could change in future negotiations.
Charleston-based Greystar is a global real estate firm that specializes in property and investment management, as well as development and construction, of conventional multifamily, student housing as well as active adult and corporate housing, according to its website. The company manages and operates more than $220 billion of real estate in more than 200 markets around the world and it has more than $19.2 billion of assets under development.
Locally, its real estate division recently moved dirt on Symphony Square — a mixed-use development replacing a Velocity Credit Union facility and the Austin Symphony offices at 11th and Red River streets. Its local property management portfolio includes South Lamar Village, Gibson Flats Apartments and Lamar Union Apartments, according to past ABJ reporting. Greystar Real Estate Partners last year ranked as the No. 2 multifamily developer in Austin with over 1,650 units under construction or delivered in 2020, according to ABJ list research.
Greystar's proposal is in partnership with Housing Authority of the City of Austin to ensure long-time affordability and tenant services, according to the memo. Officials with Greystar could not be immediately reached for comment… (LINK TO STORY)
Housing affordability report points to a need for greater disbursement (Austin Monitor)
Austin may look good on paper as one of the hottest housing markets in the country, but a closer inspection of each City Council district reveals a disparate picture of economic vitality, according to the findings of a 2020 report on housing affordability.
“While the city of Austin has seen overall gains in home sale prices, household wealth, and a decreasing poverty rate, these trends have not occurred equally across the city,” HousingWorks Austin Executive Director Nora Linares-Moeller said in a statement accompanying Tuesday’s release of the group’s annual review of housing affordability by Council district.
It’s the sixth such report the nonprofit organization has released; it includes a compendium of district-by-district demographics, median incomes, number of unsheltered individuals, vehicle miles traveled as opposed to mass transit, and other data. It suffices to say that the vast majority of residents remain heavily reliant on vehicles. Additionally, the number of people experiencing homelessness increased by nearly 500 above the 2019 count.
With affordable housing, or subsidized housing, at the heart of the HousingWorks report, the findings show that District 1 carries the highest share of affordable housing (8,610 units), followed by District 3 with 7,650 units, and District 2 with 6,643. District 4 has 4,163 affordable housing units, followed by Districts 5, 7 and 9. Districts 8 and 10 show the lowest number of affordable housing units, at 435 and 668, respectively.
Districts 1, 2, 3 and 4 have the highest percentage of residents who identify as people of color and have median family incomes that are nearly half of the citywide MFI… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
UT hired consultant for up to $1.1 million to revamp battered image of “Eyes of Texas” song (Texas Tribune)
As outrage swirled among University of Texas at Austin students last fall over the school's alma mater, “The Eyes of Texas,” and its early association with campus minstrel shows, President Jay Hartzell made a classic higher education decision: He organized a committee.
This one, he said, would include 24 Longhorn athletes, historians, professors and students who would investigate and “chronicle the full history of ‘The Eyes’ and recommend ways we can openly acknowledge, share and learn from it.”
But by the time the group released its final report in March, a new name had quietly been added to its ranks: Brad Deutser, a Houston consultant who helps organizations with everything from company culture to crisis communications and branding… (LINK TO STORY)
Fourth COVID wave on the horizon, could overwhelm emergency rooms, Houston medical leaders warn (Houston Chronicle)
A fourth wave of COVID-19 cases is on the horizon and could potentially overwhelm emergency rooms as predominantly unvaccinated people seek treatment for the more deadly and contagious delta variant, three of the Houston region’s top medical leaders said Tuesday. And, they said, it’s likely to come as testing centers remain closed, schools welcome back students and many people discard masks and other precautions ahead of a potentially serious flu season. “As this fourth wave begins in force, our radar is down,” Texas Medical Center CEO William McKeon said in a conference call with reporters. “We have only a fraction of the testing…. We’re going to be running much more blind to the spread of delta variant in our community.”
The warning came one day after Houston Methodist Hospital reported a 70 percent increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations in the last week, nearly all of them delta variant cases among those who have not been vaccinated. Methodist Hospital also reported its first recorded case of the lambda variant, which originated last year in Peru and has devastated many Latin American countries. Meanwhile, the more contagious and deadly delta variant is likely to continue wreaking havoc across southeast Texas, said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital.
“Delta will accelerate, and it will accelerate the most in places where vaccination rates are low” including many rural parts of Texas, Hotez said during Tuesday’s call. Hospitalizations across the state have more than doubled this month, ballooning from 1,591 on July 1 to 3,319 as of Tuesday, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The state’s hospitalization count peaked in January at 14,000. That has the potential to overwhelm hospitals as more people continue to get elective surgeries that they delayed during the height of the pandemic, or seek emergency room care now that they feel more comfortable in hospitals, said Baylor College of Medicine President Paul Klotman. “There is a lot of pent up medical need,” he said… (LINK TO STORY)
Elon Musk brings exploding rockets and real estate to South Texas. Not everyone is happy. (Houston Chronicle)
A Starship spacecraft exploded midair and spread debris across South Texas. Somehow, that was not the most surprising or significant development here on March 30. “Please consider moving to Starbase or greater Brownsville/South Padre area in Texas & encourage friends to do so!” Elon Musk tweeted that day. This was followed by “Am donating $20M to Cameron County schools & $10M to City of Brownsville for downtown revitalization.” The phones of real estate agents and the local economic development group began ringing immediately. People snatched up houses and began touring vacant downtown properties. “The day he tweeted it caught everybody off guard,” said Josh Mejia, executive director of the Brownsville Community Improvement Corp. “The interest in downtown was already picking up, but with one tweet everything sort of boiled over.”
No one could really be prepared for the likes of Musk, who communicates by tweet, has legions of fans and haters alike and is comfortable with both exploding spaceship prototypes and public regulatory spats. Officials in South Texas certainly were not. His company, SpaceX, has pursued a rapid test-fail-fix-test strategy in developing the Starship system that could carry humans to Mars, meaning lots of explosions and fireballs. SpaceX has about 1,400 employees and hundreds of contractors working in Boca Chica, according to Cameron County. Musk, who calls the area Starbase and would like to incorporate a city, said it could grow by several thousand over the next year or two. His company has provided college internships and boosted the business of local restaurants and food trucks. But it also has created friction, with some locals feeling bullied by the newcomers. They are worried about rising home prices and SpaceX encroaching on the habitat of shorebirds. The road closures, launches and crashes are disruptive. It’s an expected dichotomy when a brash billionaire and his legion of engineers pick your backyard to launch rockets… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Sean Hannity, who downplayed Covid, urges viewers to 'take it seriously' (NBC News)
Fox News host Sean Hannity, who has spent considerable airtime downplaying the effects of Covid-19, urged his viewers Monday to "take it seriously." "Please take Covid seriously. I can’t say it enough. Enough people have died. We don’t need any more death," he said. "Research like crazy. Talk to your doctor, your doctors, medical professionals you trust based on your unique medical history, your current medical condition, and you and your doctor make a very important decision for your own safety." After highlighting the importance of "medical privacy" and "doctor-patient confidentiality," Hannity added: "And it absolutely makes sense for many Americans to get vaccinated. I believe in science, I believe in the science of vaccination."
He stopped short, however, of directly encouraging vaccination. During a segment on universities mandating that students get the vaccine, Hannity said there are very "rare cases where people have serious underlying health conditions that could be aggravated by the vaccine." He highlighted a woman who he reported was paralyzed for a month after taking a different vaccine in 2019. "That's why it's important you research, talk to your doctors, and you make the decision — in conjunction with your doctor — that is best for you," Hannity said. In the early days of the pandemic, he preached to his viewers that Covid was only as bad as the flu, and Democrats were using the virus to attack then-President Donald Trump.
Fox News hosts have been criticized for minimizing the effects of the deadly virus in its early days and now, turning vaccinations into a political fight by pushing back on President Joe Biden's efforts to get Americans vaccinated. White House officials said Friday that almost all recent hospitalizations and deaths involve unvaccinated people. Meanwhile, five of the top six states with the highest daily average cases over the past two weeks, driven in part by the delta variant, have below-average vaccination rates and voted for Trump last fall… (LINK TO STORY)
President Biden wants to make it easier for you to get your broken smartphone fixed (NPR)
High tech has become ubiquitous in our lives. Everything from tractors to toasters to what we used to call telephones are now built with microchips. But when these devices and machines are broken, your choices to repair them are pretty limited.
"Anything that has a chip in it, now, it's actually unusual, rare even that you could have somebody help you fix those products other than the manufacturer," says Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of The Repair Association, which wants to make it easier for iPhone owners, farmers and other consumers to get their products fixed.
President Biden is on board. He issued an executive order earlier this month calling on the Federal Trade Commission to write regulations that would force manufacturers to change their policies and allow what consumer groups call the "right to repair."… (LINK TO STORY)