BG Reads | News You Need to Know (May 25, 2021)
[MEETING/HEARINGS]
[THE 87TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE]
LINK TO FILED HOUSE BILLS (6,631)
LINK TO FILED SENATE BILLS (2,831)
Black leaders say Austin’s list of proposed sites for homeless camps is inequitable (Austin Monitor)
Black leaders in Austin called the city’s list of proposed sites for public encampments inequitable and criticized staffers for placing most of the locations east of Interstate 35.
The group on Monday called for a revision of the plan, which is less than a week old, at a news conference hosted by the Black Leaders Collective and Mayor Pro Tem Natasha Harper-Madison.
The plan was spurred by Austin’s reinstatement of a ban on public camping, which prohibits resting in certain areas and puts limits on panhandling.
Black leaders including Harper-Madison, Austin’s NAACP chapter President Nelson Linder and Travis County Commissioner Jeff Travillion said the city didn’t consider their input when drafting the map.
Harper-Madison, who saw the preliminary list of sites a day before it was released Tuesday, said the proposal isn’t equitable and was hastily drafted.
“The fact that nearly all of the proposed campsites are east of (Interstate) 35 indicates a mindset that the land and the people are expendable,” she said.
City staffers ultimately aim to put a temporary camp in each of Austin’s 10 City Council districts, but those gathered at City Hall on Monday noted the lack of infrastructure at the proposed sites east of I-35.
That lack of infrastructure, Harper-Madison and other speakers argued, goes all the way back to the city’s 1928 Master Plan, which forced Black Austinites to the city’s east side. She said the current camping plan is a continuation of that mindset “of sweeping all of its unwanted people and things to the east side of I-35.”
Harper-Madison said the majority of her East Austin Council district voted against reinstating bans on behavior related to homelessness and pointed out that the area already hosts the Salvation Army’s Rathgeber Center, as well as other nonprofits and housing developments that help people trying to get out of homelessness. She called on other districts to “start shouldering their fair share.”
One of the proposed sites is at Colony Park in Northeast Austin. Colony Park Neighborhood Association president Barbara Scott has been involved in efforts to build a health center in the neighborhood for the last 10 years. It’s a 208-acre tract of land without grocery stores, health care facilities and infrastructure, she said… (LINK TO STORY)
Despite initial consideration, Austin's frequently used public parks unlikely to house designated homeless camps (Community Impact)
Austin parks that are frequently used by the public are unlikely to reach the shortlist for possible designated homeless campsites, and city officials and staff this spring are continuing their search for suitable locations for the short-term housing initiative.
City Council on May 18 was presented with a list of more than 40 city-owned properties—including numerous parks—that staff identified as preliminary candidates through the first stage of planning for sanctioned campgrounds. Staff are now in the process of refining and adding to that initial site list ahead of a presentation on the camping program's schedule, costs and other details due before council June 1, although an updated campsite listing may not be part of that briefing… (LINK TO STORY)
Council OKs Pease Park public-private partnership (Austin Monitor)
City Council on Thursday approved a public-private partnership between Pease Park Conservancy and the Parks and Recreation Department, making the conservancy the official private steward of the park.
Initially, the conservancy will oversee event programming, capital improvements and maintenance to Kingsbury Commons, a 7-acre section of the park that has undergone extensive renovation. As the rest of the improvements outlined in the park’s 2014 Vision Plan get built, the conservancy will also take over maintenance and programming for those areas. In the meantime, PARD, which still owns the 84-acre park, will remain in charge of most maintenance. The park, established in 1913 on land donated by Texas Governor E.M. Pease, is one of the oldest in Austin.
Public-private partnerships are a common way to leverage private donations for public parks. Many prominent parks and trails in the city have nonprofit stewards, such as the Trail Foundation, Waterloo Greenway and Shoal Creek Conservancy, that make plans, fund improvements, conduct maintenance and program events… (LINK TO STORY)
House Democrats sink another Austin-targeted bill on parliamentary maneuver (Austin American-Statesman)
For the third time this session, an objection raised by a House Democrat has killed a Republican bill targeting the city of Austin.
Senate Bill 566 by Sen. Dawn Buckingham, R-Lakeway, would have given large retail customers five years to appeal Austin Energy rates to the Public Utility Commission.
The bill emerged from the Senate on April 28 with support from all Republicans and opposition from all Democrats, but it ran into a point of order raised Monday night by Rep. Vikki Goodwin, D-Austin, who argued it ran afoul of a House rule that forbids using "artificial means" to bracket a bill so it affects a specific area.
After consulting with House parliamentarians, Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, postponed consideration of the bill for 12 months, long after the legislative session ends.
Afterward, Goodwin said part of her job is to protect Austin residents from harmful legislation like SB 566.
"The impact of the bill would have been immense, allowing for potentially continuous and costly rate reviews, potentially curtailing some of the clean energy programs, and favoring large commercial customers over individual homeowners through the review process," Goodwin told the American-Statesman… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas Legislature moves on two fronts to prevent state’s largest cities and counties from cutting law enforcement budgets (Texas Tribune)
The Texas House and Senate on Monday advanced two separate proposals that aim to stop the state’s most populous cities and counties from cutting law enforcement funding.
The House initially approved the Senate’s bill to require voter approval before a county could reduce its law enforcement budget — but only for counties with more than 1 million residents. About an hour later, the Senate passed the House’s legislation to financially punish cities with more than 250,000 people if they decreased their police department’s funding.
The bills are part of a Republican-led effort to protect law enforcement funding after civil rights advocates last year called on local governments to reduce what they spend on policing and to reform police behavior, leading Austin to cut its police budget. The demand for systemic change came in the wake of repeated law enforcement killings of Black and Hispanic people in Texas and around the country, including George Floyd's murder last May.
If both bills become law, Texas’ most populous cities and counties will have substantially different obstacles to cutting law enforcement funding.
On Monday, the House tentatively approved state Sen. Joan Huffman’s Senate Bill 23 on an 86-57 vote after about two hours of passionate speeches and debate between the bill's sponsor, state Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, and several House Democrats. When passed by the Senate, the Houston Republican’s election-triggering bill applied to all Texas cities and counties, but it was changed in the House State Affairs Committee to only apply to the most populous counties. It now complements the House bill, which instead targets large cities.
"Texans deserve to feel safe in their communities, and this bill guarantees that local voters have input in a critical decision,” Oliverson said on the House floor Monday… (LINK TO STORY)
George P. Bush consults with Donald Trump before his expected challenge against Texas AG Ken Paxton (Dallas Morning News)
Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, on the verge of challenging incumbent Ken Paxton in the GOP primary for attorney general, has discussed his political options with former President Donald Trump. “We talked about the importance of putting the right team on field, because the Democrats are targeting our state,” Bush on Monday told The Dallas Morning News. “We talked about my race and the vision that I have for the state of Texas.” Bush has invited supporters to a campaign kickoff rally on Jun. 2, but hasn’t specified the office he’s seeking. He said Monday that he’s waiting until the Texas lawmakers conclude their legislative session before launching his campaign.Though his options include running for reelection, Bush is expected to challenge Paxton, the embattled two-term incumbent who is under federal investigated on bribery allegations. Once considered the future of the Texas Republican Party, Bush has said he’s considering running against Paxton because of the incumbent’s ethical questions. Paxton is also under indictment for securities fraud. “As you know I’ve been taking a very close look at the Attorney General’s office,” Bush said. “Texans need to take a deeper look at who we nominate in our party.” Last week Paxton told Dallas conservative radio talk show host Mark Davis that Bush wanted to use the attorney general’s office as a stepping stone for a run for the White House. “He’s kind of got this mentality that he’s going to be president someday and he’s got to get started,” Paxton said of Bush. “I know for a fact that he’s told people that he was either going to run for governor, lieutenant governor or against me.” Paxton then claimed Bush decided against challenging Gov. Greg Abbott or Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, both Republicans, because they have too much cash in their campaign coffers… (LINK TO STORY)
Politicians from Mexico spar in Texas court over who's more corrupt (San Antonio Express-News)
For nearly a decade, prosecutors from San Antonio to Saltillo, Mexico, have depicted Hector Javier Villarreal Hernández as a poster boy for cross-border corruption. The former treasurer of the border state of Coahuila is at the center of allegations that officials in Mexico stole hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers and laundered the money through South Texas banks and real estate. In his first public testimony since he surrendered at an international bridge in El Paso in 2014, Villarreal tried to shift responsibility to his former boss, Jorge Juan Torres López, who has pleaded guilty to money laundering. Villarreal testified Friday at a sentencing hearing for Torres in Corpus Christi before U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos. Prosecutors put Villarreal on the stand to bolster their contention that Torres was a leader of the scheme and deserves to be sentenced accordingly.
Federal sentencing hearings are usually brief affairs. Court officials interpret the judiciary’s complex sentencing guidelines and provide judges with recommended ranges of prison time for each defendant. But after spending much of the morning looking for an interpreter and hearing about four hours of testimony and legal argument, Ramos said she would wait until June 23 to decide on Torres’ sentence. Villarreal painted Torres, who preceded him as Coahuila’s finance secretary and who later served as interim governor, as a ringleader in the scheme. Shortly after Torres joined the state’s finance department in 2005, high-ranking officials held a meeting to determine who would be the next governor, Villarreal testified. Their choice, he said, was Torres. To fund their political ambitions, state officials inflated construction and paving contracts and approved fraudulent invoices for airplane flight hours. The conspiracy involved more than 50 people, according to the testimony. Some of that money ended up in Texas, and Villarreal said that when bankers here asked questions, Torres concocted a complex scheme that involved showing them fake contracts for the sale of airplanes to justify the income the two men were claiming… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
On the anniversary of George Floyd’s killing, debate about race reaches across American life (Wall Street Journal)
A year after George Floyd was killed, Americans remain roiled by a broad and deep debate about race that is playing out in classrooms and boardrooms, in communities and at dinner tables and in sports, Hollywood and Washington, D.C.
The killing sparked millions of Americans to join protests last summer prompted by the widely circulated video showing Mr. Floyd, a Black man, pleading for his life while Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. Mr. Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder and manslaughter in April; three other officers await trial.
Demonstrators pushed to “defund the police,” reallocating police funds toward social spending and investment in Black communities. Many argued America has yet to come to terms with what they see as a racist history and society.
Under pressure, big companies pledged billions of dollars toward diversifying their workforces and suppliers and rolled out new initiatives on training and investment. Some will hold moments of silence or mark the anniversary in other ways on Tuesday.
Broader demands for change have reverberated across popular culture. The Golden Globe Awards were canceled after several big entertainment companies and stars said they wouldn’t participate in the awards show or work with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organization that oversees the event, criticizing what they said was a failure to diversify among other complaints. The National Basketball Association and the National Football League let players wear slogans like “Say Their Names” on uniforms and helmets. Before the first Major League Baseball game this season, the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals players knelt on one knee and held black fabric in a moment of silence.
Many schools added new curricula and equity training for teachers. Sales of books on race and antiracism skyrocketed, with titles such as “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo, “So You Want to Talk About Race” by Ijeoma Oluo and “How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi dominating bestseller lists last spring and summer.
Some white Americans have described Mr. Floyd’s case as a turning point for them. “Watching a Black man die under the knee of a police officer—it just changed it for me,” says Brian Kilde, a white Christian church pastor from Vancouver, Wash.
But as the year has gone on, some Americans have pushed back on some of the efforts, calling them excessive and divisive. Some schools that have incorporated critical race theory, for instance, face resistance from parents and politicians. Rising crime rates have prompted some cities to amp up police funding.
One-tenth of U.S. adults say race relations, lack of racial justice or racism is the most important problem facing the nation, Gallup polls show. That is up from 4% before Mr. Floyd’s killing, but down from 19% in June 2020, just after Mr. Floyd was killed.
In March, 73% of Americans said they worried about race relations a fair amount or a great deal. That was up from 55% in 2015, 41% in 2010 and 37% in 2005, according to Gallup polls.
For many Black people, Mr. Floyd’s death was galvanizing. Soon after he was killed, Aurora James, 36 years old, devised what she called the Fifteen Percent Pledge, an effort to get large retailers to devote 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses, in line with the Black share of the U.S. population. About two-dozen companies, including Gap Inc. and Macy’s Inc., have signed on, and Ms. James’s New York-based group is helping connect them with Black entrepreneurs… (LINK TO STORY)
‘The final straw’: How the pandemic pushed restaurant workers over the edge (Washington Post)
Jim Conway started working in restaurants in 1982, making $2.13 an hour, plus tips. And though the world has changed significantly in the nearly 40 years since then, his hourly wage has not. At the Olive Garden outside of Pittsburgh where he worked when the pandemic hit last year, he was making $2.83 an hour, the minimum wage for tipped workers in Pennsylvania, plus tips. So after being furloughed for months last spring, Conway, 64, decided to retire. Being paid the rough equivalent of a chocolate bar an hour from the chain was little incentive for him to stick it out longer in the industry after so many years, especially with tips no longer a reliable source of income and lingering health concerns about covid-19. “The main issue for me was safety,” Conway said. “There are lots of people who don’t want to participate in the old ways.” Conway is one of the millions of workers who left the restaurant industry during the pandemic and haven’t come back.
The industry has 1.7 million fewer jobs filled than before the pandemic, despite posting almost a million job openings in March, along with hotels, and raising pay 3.6 percent, an average of 58 cents an hour, in the first three months of 2021. Restaurant chains and industry groups say a shortage of workers like Conway is slowing their recovery, as the sector tries to get back on its feet amid sinking covid cases, falling restrictions and resurgent demand in many areas around the country. The issue has quickly become political, with Republicans blaming the labor crunch on the Biden administration’s move to boost federal unemployment insurance supplement, which has been a central part of the government’s response to the pandemic for most of the past year. GOP leaders and business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce say the extra unemployment insurance is a disincentive for some workers to return to work… (LINK TO STORY)