US Supreme Court extends civil rights law to LGBTQ workers
The Austin LGBT Chamber of Commerce is very pleased with the US Supreme Court’s landmark civil rights ruling this week. The court ruled that you cannot be fired for being gay or transgender under existing federal anti-discrimination laws. The Chamber’s Tina Cannon says it’s a great day.
“In my early years, it was one of my greatest fears to be outed at my workplace and to lose my livelihood. And today that is no longer true. It’s a great day to be exactly who you are and to be fully American,” says Cannon.
Prior to the ruling, many Austin companies understood letting people be who they are helped them collect top workforce talent. She sees this as an opportunity to get the rest on board.
Austin’s stay-at-home orders extended
Mayor Steve Adler has extended Austin’s local stay-at-home order through August 15th. That means the city is continuing to call for masks to be worn and limits gatherings to no more than 10 people. State orders do prevent the city from imposing criminal penalties on those who choose not to follow the city’s commands.
Interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott says people need to be much more cautious about interactions with others as the area has entered stage four on the COVID risk chart. People with underlying health issues and those above age 65 need to continue to be on high alert.
“Including diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease; those folks need to stay home. They only need to go out if it’s absolutely essential that they go out, if they do have to go out that they wear a mask 100% of the time,” says Escott.
Mayor Steve Adler is recommending businesses that have already opened up to limit their capacity to only 25%.
Local governments want more power as COVID cases climb
With coronavirus case numbers climbing, local governments continue to express frustration over not being able to force people to stay at home or wear a mask. Hays County Judge Ruben Beccera says he wants the state to give municipalities much more autonomy.
“I will be asking the governor to please give local control back to the local leadership because right now everything that I could do is being done,” says Beccera.
He says the state shouldn’t be taking a one size fits all approach to individual county needs.
COVID-19 update
There are 142 people in Travis County hospitals, currently 31 of whom are in need of a ventilator. 106 deaths have also been confirmed. However, almost 3,600 people who previously had the virus have since recovered. In total, 4,664 cases have been confirmed by Austin Public Health since March.
As Travis County’s hospital count has increased, the past 24 hours has actually seen a decline in that same category. In Williamson County there are 10 people currently needing hospital care for coronavirus this morning, there were 11 yesterday. 584 people have made recoveries. The county still has 346 active cases.
Williamson County Sheriff and District Attorney tensions continue
Tensions grow between Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore and Williams County Sheriff Robert Chody over the death of Javier Ambler last year, who died after being tased by deputies. Moore claims Sheriff Chody is stonewalling the investigation but Chody tells CBS Austin the ball has been in Moore’s court for months.
“Margaret Moore has my phone number, has my cell phone number, has not called me one time during the soul investigation for 16 months and hasn’t inquired about anything,” Chody says.
He says the death was a terrible tragedy that’s been politicized by Travis County, and he wants the Texas Rangers to now step into the investigation.
Mayor Steve Adler reconsiders defunding the police department
The Austin City Council went all in supporting the reallocation of millions of dollars from the Austin police budget last week. Now Mayor Steve Adler appears to be on the fence about defunding APD. He told KXAN that $100 million is a lot of money.
“Until we see an actual budget proposal, to show us what that means or what’s involved with that. I just don’t know what that means,” says Adler.
According to a poll from the Austin Police Association, 77% of people who were polled don’t want the council to take money from police and pump it into other city programs.
Baseball project developer sues Hutto
The City of Hutto has been sued by Legacy Development, which is the developer behind the Perfect Game baseball project. The deal would have brought the company from Iowa to Hutto for an $800 million mixed use development on the suit claims the city backed out of the deal. The suit doesn’t specify a dollar amount in the city of Hutto is not currently commenting.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-6-16-20
