BG Reads | News You Need to Know (June 9, 2021)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
With self-imposed deadline approaching, Council rushes to divide stimulus funds (Austin Monitor)
City Council members plans to pass a spending framework for the remaining $143.6 million in American Rescue Plan funds, but the allocations for a variety of services and programs are still in flux as their Thursday meeting approaches.
Because of its upcoming summer break, Council must decide how to spend the funds or wait almost two months until the next meeting on July 29.
Most Council members support moving ahead, pointing to urgent uses such as rental assistance that need funding now, but some said at Monday’s special called meeting that they felt rushed and indicated that they may vote against the framework for lack of details.
The funds will not be spent immediately. Council’s framework will simply give city staffers the direction on how to spend the funds, much of which will have to come back to Council in the form of contracts or other spending items.
Council has two competing frameworks to reference ahead of the meeting. Staffers proposed a spending framework based on Council’s previous direction while Mayor Steve Adler proposed a separate spending framework, with different amounts envisioned for some spending categories. Funding for homelessness will take up the majority of the spending in both frameworks.
There are two main differences between the frameworks: Adler nixed $10 million in historic preservation funding that staff had included and also proposed spending reserve funds, which staffers did not. Council will wrestle with both of these alternatives on Thursday, with some members in favor of historic preservation and using reserve funds, and others opposed.
The amount of funds for food insecurity may also change. Staffers proposed spending $3 million of ARP funds on food insecurity, which includes developing an Austin/Travis County food system plan, extending emergency food access programs and funding co-ops and nonprofit grocery stores. But some argued that the amount is too little… (LINK TO STORY)
Austin City Council 'danced around' sanctioned encampment discussion, says Mayor Steve Adler (KVUE)
The Austin City Council held a special-called meeting on Monday. Most of the four hours were spent discussing homeless funding – specifically, what the City plans to do with American Rescue Plan funds. However, the city council also briefly talked about the plan for a sanctioned campsite. This came as Austin is less than a week away for Phase 2 implementation of Proposition B, the homeless camping ban. In Phase 2, Austin police officers can start giving written warnings to people who violate the ordinance. On Monday, Councilmember Leslie Pool said there were around 3,000 people experiencing homelessness in the City. She said if they were to try and find land big enough for all of them, it would have to be 120 acres.
Previously, staff laid out criteria for a sanctioned campsite, which included needing 4 acres of land for every 100 people. By that criteria, if the City wanted a piece of land big enough for the estimated 3,000 Pool mentioned, it would need to find a 120-acre plot that would also need to meet the other criteria laid out. Last week, the homeless strategy officer and staff said the criteria for land should be loosened because they were having a hard time finding pieces of land that would work. In Monday's meeting, Mayor Steve Adler noted Council has "danced around" the topic of a sanctioned campsite. He said he hopes the plan is not to find a site big enough for 3,000 people. Adler said this would be too expensive, too difficult and take too long. He added it would not build a system that brings the City to equilibrium… (LINK TO STORY)
Austin-Travis County health officials say Covid vaccine data shows there’s still work to be done (KUT)
More than three quarters of people age 65 and older in Austin-Travis County are fully vaccinated, Austin Public Health officials said Tuesday. For the entire eligible population — that's people 12 years and older — the number is more than 54%.
The area remains in stage 2 of APH's risk-based guidelines, and the city’s medical director says projections from the UT Austin COVID-19 Modeling Consortium show that’s likely to stay the case for a while.
Dr. Desmar Walkes said that’s due in part to masks no longer being required in most places and life slowly returning to normal ahead of the summer months.
“There’s been a sense that we’re at the end of this [pandemic]. We are not,” Walkes told a joint session of Austin City Council and Travis County commissioners, stressing that it's never been easier to get a free vaccine.
Adrienne Stirrup, APH's interim director, said data on vaccination rates broken down by race and ethnicity show there is still much work to be done.
"We’re still seeing numbers that need to improve in the Black and African-American community," she said… (LINK TO STORY)
Austin Convention Center redesign could be developed via competition to envision 'a world-class, fabulous building' in eastern downtown (Community Impact)
Austin City Council on June 10 could take action to push forward a long-discussed expansion of the Austin Convention Center.
Two items on council's extensive June 10 agenda center on the process of planning for how the facility's revamp could play out. If approved, the first item forwarded by staff would see council back the construction manager at-risk method of contracting for the project. That process would allow for the hiring of a general contractor to oversee the entirety of the center's partial demolition, reconstruction and expansion while providing for the separate hiring of a group to manage design aspects of the project.
That allowance for outside design work from an architecture firm is the basis for the second related item, sponsored by District 9 Council Member Kathie Tovo, that would see the city launch a competition to solicit design concepts for making the facility a public gathering space and "landmark of great distinction" in line with the city's Central Library. Tovo, whose district includes the convention center, said her resolution as written may be altered before its potential approval this week but that her overall hope is to open the door for outside proposals on a new Austin Convention Center in the near future.
"We’ve had lots of conversations about the convention center and a possible expansion over the last several years, and it is critically important, in my opinion, that we have on that site a world-class, fabulous building," Tovo said. "I hope that we can get to a place on Thursday where we are initiating a process that will lead to a really great design."
The expansion of the nearly 30-year-old structure has been an item of council interest for years. Officials in 2017 commissioned a study on the convention center's economic and cultural potential that was released in 2019, and last year recommitted to moving forward on an expansion. And while plans for the center's growth westward were put on hold this April, a desire for an overhaul of the existing property remains… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas power generation companies will have to better prepare for extreme weather under bills Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law (Texas Tribune)
Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law Tuesday two bills meant to improve the state’s main power grid and change the governance of the agency that operates it.
Calls for sweeping changes to Texas’ power infrastructure have amplified since February, when a catastrophic winter storm left more than 4.8 million homes and businesses without power for days. The state reports that 151 people died, though a BuzzFeed News analysis found the number of fatalities may be 700.
The legislation written and finalized over the session addresses key areas of improvement, such as “weatherization” of power generators to prepare them for extreme weather, while neglecting other initiatives called for by experts, such as providing direct aid to consumers impacted by the storm.
“Everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid in Texas,” Abbott said at a press conference Tuesday… (LINK TO STORY)
In Texas AG race, George P. Bush confronts criticism about courting Trump (Spectrum)
The battle for the GOP nomination for Texas Attorney General is heating up. Last week, current Land Commissioner George P. Bush launched his campaign against GOP incumbent Ken Paxton who’s shadowed by securities fraud charges and an FBI investigation. Bush is focusing hard on Paxton's legal troubles. “These are very damaging allegations that the governor, Lt. governor and other statewide leaders, including myself, have said from the beginning are problematic charges that are being levied against our top law enforcement official,” Bush said in an interview on Capital Tonight Tuesday. While that will be a big focus, Bush is also facing criticism about favoring former President Donald Trump over his own family. Bush was the first to break with his politically famous family over supporting Trump. He made no mention of his family during his campaign announcement but name-dropped Trump on numerous occasions. Bush says his family gets it.
“In terms of the criticism out there my message is simple: This campaign is about tomorrow, not about the past,” he said. Bush said his dad, Jeb Bush, reached out before his announcement and wished him luck and his uncle, George W. Bush, talked to him this weekend. He offered advice and said he’s off to a great start. Jeb Bush lost a bitter 2016 presidential primary to Trump and former President Bush did not support Trump for president.
“Politics is rough and tumble and my family has been around the block when it comes to tough and sometimes nasty races. But as conservatives and Republicans, we always come together after a nomination process,” he said. Bush said he expects his family to campaign with him. “I’m not going to pressure anyone to join me on the trail. I think people in Texas have fond memories of my family and, at the right time, they’ll be coming out and hopefully we’ll have other surrogates and other members of Trump’s family as well,” Bush said. Bush said he’s also talked with Trump since his announcement. Trump has promised to endorse in the race soon. After Bush’s announcement, Paxton’s campaign put out a statement saying, “Paxton has been and will continue to be the tip of the spear in protecting President Trump’s America First principles.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Fort Worth elections results more evidence city’s growth is affecting its politics (KERA)
Fort Worth Mayor-elect Mattie Parker started her campaign with very low name recognition but won over 46,000 runoff votes, more than double what she got in the first round in May. “She built, in a very short time, a pretty broad coalition of voters,” said Dee Kelly Jr., a Fort Worth attorney and Parker supporter. The other runoff candidate, Deborah Peoples, also increased her support, from more than 20,000 to more than 40,000 votes. Parker, a Republican, represents continuity with the tenure of her former boss, current Mayor Betsy Price. Yet taken as a whole, Fort Worth’s local runoffs had mixed results ideologically. (The seats are officially nonpartisan.)
Two longtime incumbents won't be returning to the city council, Jungus Jordan and Kelly Allen Gray. Unseating them were Jared Williams and Chris Nettles, both young, progressive Black men. Dee Kelly Jr. said the city is constantly changing — it grew over 20% from 2010 to 2019. That kind of influx shifts the composition of a council district and the kind of candidate it may want. “The candidates who did upset the incumbents, they had their finger on those shifts and the changes in those districts,” he said. Bob Ray Sanders, a journalist and co-chair of the Fort Worth Task Force on Race and Culture, thinks Peoples’ failed citywide campaign helped pull the new councilmembers over the top by boosting turnout among Black and brown voters, especially in Williams’ district. “Even though it didn’t work out for her, in [District 6] it worked out that a minority male was elected to the City Council in a district that’s never had a minority to represent it,” Sanders said. After the candidates are sworn in June 15, there will be four people of color on the city council, out of nine total votes when you include the mayor… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Senate approves sprawling $250 billion bill to curtail China’s economic and military ambitions (The Washington Post)
The Senate voted on Tuesday to adopt an approximately $250 billion bill to counter China’s growing economic and military prowess, hoping that major investments in science — and fresh punishments targeting Beijing — might give the United States a lasting edge.
In a chamber often racked by partisan division, Democrats and Republicans found rare accord over the sprawling measure, known as the United States Innovation and Competition Act, as lawmakers warned that Washington risked ceding the country’s technological leadership to one of its foremost geopolitical adversaries.
The proposal commits billions of dollars in federal funds across a wide array of research areas. It pours more than $50 billion in immediate funding into U.S. businesses that manufacture the sort of ultrasmall, in-demand computer chips that power consumer and military devices, which many companies source from China. And it paves the way for the next generation of space exploration at a time when Washington and Beijing are increasingly setting their eyes on the stars.
With it, lawmakers also approved a host of proposals that seek to limit China’s economic aspirations and curb its political influence. The bill opens the door for new sanctions targeting Beijing over its human rights practices, commissions a new study about the origin of the coronavirus and calls for a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics. It even authorizes $300 million specifically to counter the political influence of the Chinese Communist Party.
“I have watched China take advantage of us in ways legal and illegal over the years,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), the lead author of the bill, said during an interview before its passage. “The number one thing China was doing to take advantage of us … was investing heavily in research and science. And if we didn’t do something about it, they would become the number one economy in the world.”
The bill still must be adopted by the House, where some Democrats have raised early concerns with the Senate’s approach. Its passage comes on the same day the White House organized a new task force to address potential disruptions in the U.S. supply chain, seeking to further boost U.S. manufacturing of key medicines and technology at a time when many of those products and materials are made in countries including China… (LINK TO STORY)
The highly contagious Delta variant is on the rise in the U.S. (NPR)
The Delta variant, which was first detected in India, now accounts for more than 6% of all infections in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And this highly transmissible variant may be responsible for more than 18% of cases in some Western states.
The variant, also known as B.1.617.2, is spreading rapidly in the U.K., and has quickly become the dominant strain there, responsible for more than 60% of infections and causing surges in some parts of England.
"We cannot let that happen in the United States," says Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Speaking at a White House COVID briefing Tuesday, Fauci warned that the Delta variant may be associated with more severe disease and a higher risk of hospitalization.
The good news is the vaccines look like they can protect people against the Delta variant. A new study from Public Health England showed two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were 88% effective against symptomatic disease from the Delta variant compared to 93% effectiveness against the Alpha variant, the variant first detected in the U.K. Effectiveness declined to 33% after just one dose… (LINK TO STORY)
Ferrari turns to a chip guy as CEO amid industry pivot (The Wall Street Journal)
Ferrari NV has hired a top executive from the semiconductor industry as its new CEO, as the car industry focuses on microchips and digital technologies that increasingly control everything from the brakes to entertainment systems.
Benedetto Vigna, 52, will take over at Ferrari on Sept. 1. Until then, John Elkann, the company’s chairman, will continue as interim chief executive. Mr. Vigna is currently a divisional president at French-Italian semiconductor manufacturer STMicroelectronics NV, where he has worked for more than 25 years.
In announcing the appointment, Mr. Elkann cited Mr. Vigna’s “deep understanding of the technologies driving much of the change in our industry.”
The global chip shortage that has led to production delays in the auto industry is expected to continue for months to come. That has called into question the auto sector’s rebound as the severity of the coronavirus pandemic recedes in many countries… (LINK TO STORY)