State leaders butt heads with Austin City Council
State leaders butt heads with the Austin City Council once again, this time over the $150 million defunding of the Austin Police Department. Governor Greg Abbott is pushing to ban cities who defund law enforcement from raising property tax revenues. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick says the only reason Austin hasn’t drifted is because of state troopers efforts.
“Hundreds that came to the aid and rescue of the brave officers at APD; that Austin didn’t turn into a potential Seattle or Portland,” Patrick says.
He hopes in the next state legislature, the state can roll back Austin’s defunding efforts.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler joins Councilman Greg Casar and calls the governor and lieutenant governor’s allegations fear mongering.
“The press conference was not about facts. It presented no plans, it presented no data. It was about trying to make us scared or frightening us,” says Adler.
He was responding to the governor’s use of an article saying Austin has the fastest growing murdering the nation. The same article also says Austin has the second lowest homicide rate among major U. S cities
Within Williamson County, there are nearly 55,400 people who live within the city limits of Austin. County Judge Bill Gravell is now requesting help from the governor to give extra protection to those Austin residents in the wake of the council’s cuts to the police department.
“I will not let politics get in the way of protecting the people,” says Gravell.
Gravell says Austin has abdicated it’s duty to provide adequate public safety. He’s asking Governor Abbott to assign DPS troopers to work with the sheriff’s office and fill the void that will be created by Austin’s decision.
Houston police chief hiring Austin cops
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, who was Austin’s chief for a decade, is now trying to poach Austin cops who feel alienated by the council’s cuts. Acevedo says Houston doesn’t want fewer cops, it just wants better policing. Austin Police Association president Ken Casaday tells FOX 7 what Acevedo is doing is not uncommon.
“It is very common when you see departments struggling like ours, due to missteps by the council, for other departments to step in and try to steal officers,” says Casaday.
It’s worth noting Acevedo did the exact same thing while he was at the helm of APD. Casaday says he’s grateful that a city is willing to take in cops who no longer want to work here in Austin.
COVID-19 update
Some more good drops in coronavirus numbers have been recorded in Travis County, 230 people are in the hospital as of today. That’s a drop of six from a day ago. 79 of those patients are in the ICU, that’s a drop of four. The number of people on a ventilator has gone way down. This week, only 56 people are currently in need of one. Of the 24,769 confirmed cases since March, 23,452 are classified as recoveries.
Williamson County saw little movement in either direction over the past day for most of its COVID-19 numbers. The biggest changes are seen in the number of active cases and the number of recoveries. The 766 active cases is an increase of 36. 6,712 recoveries is an increase of 49. There are 71 people currently in the hospital, that’s two more than the same time yesterday.
Social distance guidelines
At six feet of social distance, there is concern that there may not be enough room to allow enough students in the classrooms when on-campus learning resumes. Travis County Health Authority Mark Escott says if a mask is used properly, the social distancing recommendation may change.
“At three feet, there’s about an 80% reduction in the transmission of disease at least in the published evidence. There’s additional benefit beyond that for every additional foot that you add,” Escott says.
The six foot recommendation allows for only about 40% of kids to be back in the average school.
COVID testing
As schools and businesses reopened, the Texas Medical Association is advising against requiring people who have contracted COVID, quarantined for 10 days and show no signs of a fever for 24 hours to be retested before they return. Dr. Valerie Smith says it’s a waste of a test.
“We still have communities within our state that have testing shortages and delays in testing, and so it should help people receive quicker results because the system won’t be so clogged with people who are just looking for that negative return to work test,” Smith says.
People who had the virus may have a call for weeks afterwards, but that doesn’t mean that they’re actually still contagious.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-8-19-20
