BG Reads | News You Need to Know (January 13, 2021)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW // BG PODCAST - Episode 121: Talking COVID-19 Vaccination with Dr. Aliza Norwood
On today’s episode Bingham Group CEO A.J. speaks with Dr. Aliza Norwood, an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Population Health and Internal Medicine at Dell Medical School. The two discuss her experience with the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination, the differences between it and the Moderna treatment, vaccine misconceptions and more.
NEW // What to Expect in Austin 2021: Thoughts from a Lobbyist (Texas CEO Magazine Q1 Issue)
Check out Bingham CEO A.J.’s recent Texas CEO Magazine article on the coming year.
THE 87TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE:
LINK TO FILED HOUSE BILLS (1144)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Alternate care site opens in Austin as area hospitals reach capacity (KUT)
The COVID-19 alternate care site at the Austin Convention Center is now open as the county’s interim health authority warned overwhelming the area's hospital system is “inevitable” at this point.
“Patients will be deferred here directly from hospitals; this is not a site where individuals can show up and receive care for COVID-19,” Dr. Mark Escott told Austin City Council members Tuesday.
Escott said the site is staffed to host 25 patients as soon as today, “with plans to ramp up from there.” He said the site will host patients who are improving, opening up hospital beds for people who need more immediate and intensive care.
The convention center can currently house anywhere from 250 patients to nearly 1,000.
“I want to be very clear: Our hope is that we never see a patient in this site. That will indicate that we as a community have driven down the positivity [rate] enough to decompress our hospitals,” Escott said. “But unfortunately at this stage, our expectation is that we will receive patients.”… (LINK TO STORY)
The man behind Central Texas' toll roads will leave his post after 17 years (Austin American-Statesman)
The head of Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority Mike Heiligenstein will leave the toll authority on Jan. 24, the authority announced Tuesday.
Heiligenstein has led the mobility authority since it was formed in 2003, stewarding the organization as it built tolled highways throughout the greater Austin area. Under his watch, the mobility authority has built more than $2 billion in infrastructure, including 230 lane miles of tolled and non-tolled roads, according to a news release from the authority.
Heiligenstein submitted his resignation in January 2020 with the intention to stay on through June to aid in transition. He extended his time in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which sent shockwaves through the authority's revenue streams as traffic on its toll roads, including 183-A and MoPac Boulevard's express toll lanes, cratered… (LINK TO STORY)
Some downtown Austin businesses board up ahead of planned protests (CBS Austin)
Federal Law enforcement officials are concerned last week’s attack on the U.S. Capitol could increase potential for armed demonstrators to feel emboldened to carry out violence.
Protests are expected at state capitols across the country this weekend and ahead of Inauguration Day, including in Austin.
Employees at a 7-eleven downtown corner store told CBS Austin they boarded up their glass windows just a precaution ahead of any protest in the coming days.
The state capitol had throngs of armed DPS officers on watch to protect people and property for the first day of Legislative Session. Downtown Austin business owners like Dave Kruger, owner Kruger Diamond Jewelers on Congress, doesn’t have the same sense of security.
“I don’t know whether to board up or not,” said Kruger.
Since the summer, Kruger said he’s boarded up 3-4 times during downtown demonstrations. He said his store front only saw minimal damage.
Now with more protests planned where the FBI says protesters are expected to be armed - he’s having to weight boarding up again.
”I hope they’ll just be at 11th street. You don’t know. Who anticipated last Wednesday in Washington D.C.? It was mostly unexpected,” he said.
”Like things spun out of control in Washington, thing can spin out of control pretty much anywhere,” said Fred Burton, Executive Director at the Ontic Center for protective intelligence… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas House elects Dade Phelan speaker as 2021 legislative session gets underway (Texas Tribune)
The Texas House on Tuesday elected state Rep. Dade Phelan as the next House speaker, ushering into office a new leader who will oversee a chamber facing its toughest set of legislative challenges in years against the backdrop of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The House voted 143-2 for Phelan, with four members not voting. The two members who voted against Phelan were GOP freshmen Bryan Slaton and Jeff Cason.
Phelan, a Beaumont Republican, replaced former House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, who retired from office thanks to a secret recording scandal that fractured relationships in the 150-member lower chamber. Phelan has billed himself as a figure who has earned the trust of his colleagues and who wants to lead the House by letting members drive the business of it.
Phelan’s election to the gavel was one of the House’s first orders of business Tuesday, when the Legislature gaveled in for the 2021 legislative session… (LINK TO STORY)
Lawmakers shun masks in Texas Senate chambers as mid-pandemic session opens (Houston Chronicle)
Lawmakers returned to Austin on Tuesday for the start of a new legislative session, electing a new House speaker and displaying at least a moment of unity amid deepening political divides, the resurging coronavirus pandemic and an economy teetering on the edge of recovery. The mostly ceremonial day kicked off what is sure to be a grueling five months, centered on shoring up the state’s battered budget and responding to the growing health crisis. Republicans retain their majorities in both chambers, and will also oversee the once-in-a-decade redistricting process, in which they are all but certain to strengthen their electoral chances. But even as members of both parties came together for opening remarks and the swearing in of new members, divisions remained over health and safety measures amid the pandemic. In the Senate, at least half of lawmakers declined to wear masks while seated at their desks, though they had all reportedly been tested in the morning.
While plexiglass barriers lined administrative desks at the front of the room, only Sen. Borris Miles, a Houston Democrat, had a protective shield around his desk. “We’re here to do the people’s business,” said Lt. Gov Dan Patrick, who heads the Senate and has been a vocal opponent of mandated restrictions. “We want our Capitol open this session, unlike many states,” he added. “We want the public to be here and have your voice heard in committee, to be able to visit your representative.” The session opened as infections in Austin have reached all-time highs. On Tuesday, state and local emergency officials opened a temporary facility for overflow hospital patients as the city’s hospitals continued to be overrun with coronavirus patients. Restrictions inside the Capitol were already certain to be divisive heading into Tuesday.
On Monday afternoon, two House Democrats from the Dallas area — Reps. Michelle Beckley and Ana-Maria Ramos — announced they would not participate in the ceremonies in person over concerns about it becoming a “superspreader” event. Instead, the two were to be sworn in by Ramos’ husband, who is a public notary, at an alternate location. Across the nation, many state legislatures convened for the first time this week with varying degrees of safety protocols. In New York, the state Legislature is meeting mostly over Zoom, and the Capitol building is closed to the public. California had intended to begin session last Monday but delayed its opening day by a week amid a surge in coronavirus cases; its Capitol precautions include temperature checks and plexiglass dividers between employees… (LINK TO STORY)
Report: COVID-19 in communities of color could cost Texas $2.7 billion in excess medical spending (Houston Chronicle)
Chronic illnesses, the result of inadequate access to health care, are more prevalent in Texas’ Black and Latino communities, contributing to more deaths from COVID-19 and costing billions of dollars in increased health care costs and lost economic activity, according to a new study. The study, by the Episcopal Health Foundation, a Houston nonprofit, found that disparities in both health and access to health care between Blacks, Latinos and the overall population are expected to cost Texans up to $2.7 billion annually in excess medical spending. That includes increased spending during the pandemic due to more serious cases as a result of chronic conditions, according to the report.
Black and Latino populations are both more likely to contract COVID-19, because they disproportionately work in restaurants, retail and other industries that face the public, and more likely to die from it because of a higher prevalence of chronic conditions such as diabetes or asthma, according to the report. Blacks and Latinos are also more likely to work in jobs with health benefits. Experts say that having health insurance leads to better medical outcomes as people are more likely to get preventive care. These factors have contributed to higher Black and Latino COVID-19 death rates. Black and Latino people are 2.8 times more likely to die from COVID-19 compared to white people diagnosed with the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers estimate that if these disparities in death rates were eliminated through better access to health care, 5,000 fewer people would have died in Texas through September… (LINK TO STORY)
In South Texas, Trump says his border wall saves lives and jobs, and warns of danger from Biden’s looser policies (Dallas Morning News)
President Donald Trump, in South Texas for a final visit to the border wall on Tuesday, boasted that his signature project has saved countless lives and billions of tax dollars and warned that President-elect Joe Biden will erode American security if he reverses the hardline immigration policies of the last four years. He also insisted that he bears no blame for last week’s riot at the Capitol and shrugged aside Democrats’ demand to hold him accountable and oust him with just days left on his term.
“We believe in the rule of law, but not in violence or rioting,” he said. “The impeachment hoax is a continuation of the greatest and most vicious witch hunt in the history of our country.” The visit near Alamo gave Trump a final chance to revel in progress toward walling off the border as promised, and for opponents to celebrate that his defeat will soon bring construction to a halt. Roughly 452 miles of barrier have been erected under Trump, far short of the “big beautiful wall” he envisioned yet far more than most border residents and Democrats nationwide wanted.
In South Texas, Trump autographed a plaque on the barrier and told a small audience of uniformed Border Patrol agents and others that “we inherited a broken, dysfunctional and open border. Everybody was pouring in at will.” Trump insisted the wall saved taxpayers “hundreds of billions of dollars a year” by keeping out narcotics and immigrants who displace American workers, abuse the welfare system and strain school and hospital budgets, oft-repeated claims that economics call fallacious. And he warned that “smugglers and coyotes are preparing to surge the border” when Biden loosens restrictions he imposed… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
The House is expected to impeach Trump a 2nd time. Here's how it will work (NPR)
The House of Representatives is on track to impeach President Trump for the second time in 13 months — marking him as the only president to receive the rebuke twice in history.
This time, though, impeachment could be bipartisan. Republicans all opposed the House vote in December 2019, arguing that it was politically driven. But now some GOP lawmakers are joining Democrats at pointing the finger at the president for using rhetoric that helped spark a violent insurrection at the Capitol last Wednesday that left at least five dead.
The impeachment resolution on the House floor Wednesday includes one article, citing "incitement of insurrection," will be debated on the House floor. Sponsors of the resolution maintain they have the votes already to pass it.
The resolution states: "President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States."… (LINK TO STORY)
YouTube suspends Trump for at least a week (Politico)
YouTube said late Tuesday it’s suspending President Donald Trump’s channel for at least one week for violating the company's policies amid fears of additional violence in the wake of the insurrection at the Capitol.
The details: The Google-owned video-sharing service announced in a tweet that the action would count as an initial strike against Trump’s account, which could lead to Trump being permanently banned on the platform if he violates its rules twice more.
“After review, and in light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, we removed new content uploaded to Donald J. Trump’s channel for violating our policies. It now has its 1st strike & is temporarily prevented from uploading new content for a *minimum* of 7 days,” YouTube’s press arm tweeted late Tuesday.
YouTube added that it would be “indefinitely disabling comments” on Trump’s account, again citing “ongoing concerns about violence” surrounding his online postings… (LINK TO STORY)
Parler Faces Complex, Costly Route to Getting Back Online (The Wall Street Journal)
Parler, the social network popular among conservatives and other right-leaning users that was plunged into internet limbo this week, faces a technically complex and costly path to getting back online.
Amazon.com Inc. booted the company from its cloud-computing service Sunday night, knocking Parler offline. To stay alive, the self-professed free-speech social platform must find a new vendor willing to host its data after some of the app’s users stoked last week’s deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters seeking to stop certification of the election results. Alternatively, Parler could build its own network infrastructure, although that approach could lead to further delays resuming its service.
Potential cloud operators other than Amazon include Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. The search-giant declined to comment. Last week it pulled Parler from its app store, saying some users’ content incited violence—the same argument Amazon made in withdrawing its service… (LINK TO STORY)