BG Reads | News You Need to Know (July 29, 2021)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Mayor, manager at odds over requiring vaccinations (Austin Monitor)
On Wednesday, Mayor Steve Adler urged City Manager Spencer Cronk to require all city employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19, with a few exceptions. His comments came in an emailed press release.
A few hours later, a city spokesperson released the following statement by email: “The Governor’s Executive Order GA-35 prohibits the city from requiring vaccinations. However, the city manager has urged staff to get vaccinated as an essential part of helping us end this pandemic. Being fully vaccinated is proven to provide the highest level of protection against Covid-19 and Covid variants.”
Gov. Greg Abbott’s order specifically prohibits governmental entities from requiring “any individual to receive the Covid-19 vaccine administered under an emergency authorization.”
The federal Food and Drug Administration has authorized use of several Covid-19 vaccines under an emergency use authorization. It appears that once the FDA gives general approval of the vaccines, the order will no longer apply. However, the governor could simply rewrite the order.
But Adler is not backing down. According to his press secretary, Ryan Poppe, the mayor is “OK with taking the risk of being sideways with the city manager. We think that public pressure will make him rethink his line of thinking on this one.”
New York City, California and a number of California cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, will require health care workers and government employees to show proof of vaccination or undergo weekly testing for the virus. President Joe Biden is expected to announce Thursday that all federal government employees must be vaccinated or submit to regular testing… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Tyson Tuttle to step down as Silicon Labs CEO (Austin Business Journal)
Tyson Tuttle, a longtime Silicon Laboratories Inc. executive and its CEO for nearly a decade, is retiring.
Come Jan 1., 2022, the fabless semiconductor company will be led by Matt Johnson, currently its president. Silicon Labs (Nasdaq: SLAB) announced the transition early July 28.
"I've dedicated nearly 25 years — almost my entire adult life — to Silicon Labs," Tuttle wrote in a LinkedIn blog post. "Since joining as the tenth employee in 1997, I’ve believed whole-heartedly in the power of connectivity. Through a variety of engineering and management roles, including CTO, COO and CEO, I’ve worked with others to simplify the complexities of wireless technology from silicon to cloud."
In the blog post, Tuttle touted the company's shift in focus to internet of things technology — the chips that connect everyday items such as refrigerators and clocks to the web. That transition was cemented July 26, when Silicon Labs completed the $2.75 billion sale of its infrastructure and automotive business to Skyworks Solutions Inc… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Kevin Burns reveals new details about Rainey Street skyscraper, including name and project team (Austin Business Journal)
The tower formerly known as 9092 Rainey, which has been in the works for several years, officially has a new name and new project specifications.
The Modern Austin Residences will have 55 stories featuring 345 market-rate residences and 20 affordable housing units. Austin’s Urbanspace Real Estate + Interiors is developing the project.
The affordable housing units will be available to people earning 80% of median family income, which is $98,900 in the Austin metro. The market rate units will start in the $400,000 range for a one-bedroom unit. Three-bedroom units will go for $1.6 million and above.
These updates, provided by Urbanspace CEO Kevin Burns, come just a few months after Austin City Council approved a density bonus for the project, allowing the building to go higher than typically allowed. At the time, the tower was planned to be 51 stories high and to contain 400 total units.
Burns said some of the extra stories were added to improve the look of the crown of the building by hiding water cooling towers and other mechanical features. He said they ended up reducing the number of market rate residences but maintaining the same number of affordable ones.
Many have wondered about the fate of Container Bar, the popular bar made of shipping containers that sits on the project site. Burns said the bar will close just before crews break ground on The Modern, which is set for late March 2022.
However, Bridget Dunlap — who owns Container Bar as well as Clive Bar and Lustre Pearl — has signed on to run an entertainment space in the basement of the building.
"Container Bar had a good run, but I'm excited for what's next," Dunlap said in a statement. "This next concept will fill a niche that Austin is missing in the music/hospitality scene, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to stay in our spot."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Ascension, Baylor Scott & White to require all employees be fully vaccinated against coronavirus by fall (Community Impact)
As the rate of new coronavirus cases in Central Texas continues to trend upward over recent weeks, two local hospital systems will require all employees to be inoculated against the coronavirus by this fall.
In separate news releases, Ascension and Baylor Scott & White have announced all eligible employees must be vaccinated against COVID-19 in the coming months.
Ascension stated its employees must be inoculated by Nov. 12, 2021—regardless of whether they provide direct patient care. The deadline aligns with Ascension’s annual influenza vaccination requirement, according to the health care system’s July 27 news release.
The new mandate applies to people employed by Ascension’s subsidiaries and partners; both employed and independent physicians and advanced practice providers; and volunteers and vendors working in Ascension facilities.
“Tens of thousands of Ascension associates have already been vaccinated with the available vaccines, as have millions of people across the country and the world. But we must do more to overcome this pandemic as we provide safe environments for those we serve,” the July 27 news release states… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
A Texas deputy attorney general called Simone Biles a ‘national embarrassment.’ His boss publicly disagreed. (The Washington Post)
A conservative media publisher on Tuesday posted a video of Kerri Strug’s gritty performance 25 years ago, when the legendary gymnast battled through a serious ankle injury to help the U.S. women’s team on its way to winning Olympic gold.
“The great ones find a way,” the publisher wrote on Twitter.
The message was unsaid but clear: Simone Biles — who has withdrawn from both the gymnastics team and individual all-around finals in this year’s Olympics, citing mental health reasons — was not great.
For anyone who didn’t connect the dots, a Texas deputy attorney general did it for them.
“Contrast this with our selfish, childish national embarrassment, Simone Biles,” Aaron Reitz wrote in a tweet that quoted the original about Strug.
Biles, a fellow Texan, is the most decorated gymnast of all time, with 31 Olympic and world championship medals. Explaining why she withdrew from this week’s Games, Biles cited the overwhelming pressure to perform, the stress of dealing with pandemic life and a sudden onset of “the twisties” — a dangerous condition in which a gymnast becomes disoriented while flipping and twisting through the air.
Other Texas conservatives joined Reitz in criticizing Biles, according to the Houston Chronicle. A conservative radio host in Dallas wrote a column about how the gymnast’s decision “reveals our softened world.” The head of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility tweeted a video of a robot at the Olympics sinking a basketball shot from half court, saying “they will never have to take a mental health day.”
Reitz’s boss, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, was not one of them. A day after Reitz attacked Biles, Paxton chastised “one of our employees” for making “a very inappropriate and insensitive tweet.”
The tweet from the Attorney General’s Office account included more from Paxton: “I know Simone Biles — she is a fantastic athlete but an even better person. Mental health is far more important than any athletic competition and I fully support her decision.”
Six hours later, Reitz deleted his original tweet and apologized on Twitter: “I owe [Simone Biles] an apology. A big one,” he said, adding that he spoke out of turn in “frustration and disappointment.”
“I can’t imagine what Simone Biles has gone through. Simone Biles is a true patriot and one of the greatest gymnasts of our time. I apologize to her, and wish her well.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Economist calls Texas’ slip from top three U.S. states for business ‘eerily disturbing’ (Dallas Morning News)
Veteran Waco economist Ray Perryman is used to seeing an annual parade of best for business rankings that put Texas at the top. Those rankings shape perceptions about the state’s business climate — a longtime selling point touted by politicians and economic development specialists alike. That’s why Perryman finds one recent ranking “eerily disturbing.” Texas fell to fourth in business news network CNBC’s annual ranking of best states for business, dropping two spots from its 2019 ranking. Virginia, North Carolina and Utah beat out Texas. The network didn’t do a 2020 ranking because of the pandemic.
So what led to Texas’ decline? Look no further than the Lone Star State’s 49th place finish — ahead of only Arizona — in CNBC’s expanded category called life, health and inclusion. This year, that category included inclusiveness initiatives, health care resources, progress in ending the pandemic and other more traditional quality-of-life measures. “This ranking is a compelling early warning signal that short-sighted, counterproductive policies risk eroding the progress over the past 30 plus years in building Texas to be the most competitive economy in the country,” said Perryman, president and chief executive officer of The Perryman Group. His firm produces economic estimates of everything from Texas’ epic winter storm to the consequences of Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 athletic conference. “It’s an unforced error that the state can ill afford,” he wrote in his weekly column published on his website. The column was titled “This Stuff Matters!” The study, released July 13, ranked states based on 85 metrics across 10 categories that ranged from infrastructure to cost of living… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Gov. Greg Abbott draws criticism for ordering state troopers to pull over vehicles with migrants, saying it will stem COVID-19 risk (Texas Tribune)
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state troopers on Wednesday to begin pulling over vehicles whose drivers are transporting migrants who pose a risk of carrying COVID-19, escalating his hardline approach on immigrants and eliciting outrage from advocates calling the order a ticket to racial profiling.
The executive order allows Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to reroute those vehicles back to their origin point or a port of entry, or seize the vehicles if the driver does not comply.
Abbott said in a statement that his order “will reduce the risk of COVID-19 exposure in our communities," though the governor will not allow local government officials to issue mask mandates even as coronavirus infections are again increasing across the state... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Justice Dept. warns states on voting laws and election audits (New York Times)
The Justice Department on Wednesday sent another warning shot to Republican state legislatures that have initiated private audits of voting tabulations broadly viewed as efforts to cast doubt on the results of the presidential election. The department warned that auditors could face criminal and civil penalties if they destroy any records related to the election or intimidate voters in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 and federal laws prohibiting voter intimidation. The admonishment came in election-related guidance documents issued as part of the department’s larger plan to protect access to the polls, announced by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in June. Another document released on Wednesday outlined federal laws on how ballots are cast and said that the department could scrutinize states that revert to prepandemic voting procedures, which may not have allowed as many people to vote early or by mail.
The warning was the Justice Department’s latest effort to alert state lawmakers that their audits could run afoul of federal law. Department officials cautioned the Republican-led Arizona State Senate in May that its audit and recount of the November election in Maricopa County, widely seen as a partisan exercise to fuel grievances over Donald J. Trump’s election loss, may be in violation of the Civil Rights Act. Last month, the Justice Department also sued Georgia over its recently passed, sweeping voting law, accusing the state’s Republican-led legislature of intentionally trying to violate the rights of Black voters in crafting the legislation.
The lawsuit, particularly its attempt to prove lawmakers’ intent, was the Biden administration’s most aggressive effort yet to expand or preserve voter protections. But it comes as Senate Republicans have stymied efforts to pass federal voter protection laws and the Justice Department has acknowledged that Supreme Court rulings have limited its own ability to prevent discriminatory voting laws from being enacted in states. While the department can sue over state voting laws it deems discriminatory or over audits that violate federal statutes, multiple election cycles will play out before those cases are resolved in the courts… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Gun violence is up across the country. It’s changing mayoral politics. (Politico)
Kasim Reed wasn’t planning on running for another term as mayor of Atlanta. But rising crime and the problems that have come with it — like one of Atlanta’s wealthiest districts trying to secede from the city — pushed him out of mayoral retirement and into an already crowded race. Homicides and shootings are up and the number of cops is down in cities from Atlanta to Seattle. Crime, as a result, is dominating the discourse in mayoral races — driving candidates to talk about beefing up police patrols and bolstering depleted departments’ ranks. “When I talk to people, they’re scared,” said Atlanta City Council President Felicia Moore, who’s running against Reed for mayor. “We have seen and experienced on a daily basis crime that we just haven’t seen before. People know that something has to happen — and they know the first responders to a crime situation are police officers.”
It’s a far cry from the calls to “defund the police” that took center stage in these cities just last summer. But the sobering reality of rising gun violence and flagrant theft is changing the conversation, pushing candidates to get tougher on crime in Democratic-leaning cities. Eric Adams seemingly mastered this new, delicate balance in New York City, where the long-ascendant progressive call to cut police funding and end the “carceral state” landed with a dull thud this spring amid a surge of shootings and hate crimes. Poll after poll showed crime as the top concern on the minds of Democratic voters, and that was the message Adams — who retired as a captain in the NYPD before entering politics — hammered home almost exclusively from the start of his campaign. Adams balanced that by promising reforms to abusive policing, surging late in the game to clinch the Democratic nomination over another pro-police candidate and progressive rivals who favored shifting funds away from the cops. Yet Adams’ victory is less a model to be replicated than an example of a shift that’s been taking place on the ground for months as candidates already being pushed to tackle police reform are simultaneously being forced to confront crime head-on… (LINK TO FULL STORY)