Downtown Austin protest
Trump and Biden supporters descended on downtown Austin over the weekend. One man was arrested for allegedly pulling a knife on another demonstrator as Austinites, Democrats and Republicans, took to downtown over the weekend following the projected victory of Joe Biden over President Donald Trump chanting and singing. Police documents show it wasn’t all peaceful as one man named Darius Berkley pushed someone telling them and other Trump supporters to leave, and when they refused, out came a knife. There were no reported injuries.
COVID-19 update
Travis County is beginning the week not far from where it was in terms of COVID-19 hospitalizations heading into the weekend. 135 people are hospitalized today. That number really hasn’t fluctuated all that much over the past week even as active cases have climbed up to 1,248. Overall, 33,168 cases have been found and 31,463 of them are recoveries.
The UT COVID-19 Modeling Consortium is seeing an uptick in the number of construction workers catching the virus. Associate director Dr. Spencer Fox says it’s pretty easy to socially distance outdoors, but there’s a lot of work that requires standing in tighter quarters
“Construction work that is kind of finalizing the last aspect of construction and building is indoors in very tight areas where often multiple people are needed,” Fox says.
Further studies will be needed to see if construction workers or contracting the virus at home are actually catching it on the job.
Williamson County has 250 active cases of COVID as of this morning. 24 of those require hospitalization. 9,848 cases have been confirmed by the county since March. Of those, 9,440 people have made a recovery.
City council run off
We’re still several weeks away from the Austin City Council run off and two seats are still very much in play. Either way, in January, the council will look almost identical to how it does now. Some political strategists blame the council’s stance on de policing for Democrat losses across the state last week. Dave Carney, a strategist with Governor Abbott’s office, says the Austin council’s extreme stance scared a lot of people and ultimately was a gift to Republicans across the state.
East Austin shooting
One person is dead after shooting at an East Austin Waffle House parking lot. Austin Police Officer Marcus Davis says they were called to the restaurant out by US 290 near Chimney Hill, about so called vehicle disturbances.
“Upon arrival, they located shell cases in that parking lot and signs of a disturbance. We’re currently working on two crime scenes. One is located here, and then we have one that’s a short distance away, where there is a deceased male inside of a vehicle,” Davis says.
They don’t know yet if the victim drove himself away from the scene before dying, or if someone else might have been with him.
Murder rate up in Austin
Not in 20 years has Austin seen as many murders, as it has seen so far this year. The numbers climbed up to 43 as of this weekend, including one on Friday and another on Saturday. Mayor Steve Adler says it’s not what it looks like.
“The suggestion that Austin is a dangerous city is just flat out wrong,” says Adler.
Austin Police Association President Ken Casaday feels otherwise telling FOX 7 the growing anti police sentiment has not helped matters.
“I really contribute a lot of it to the new wave of not wanting to prosecute,” Casaday says.
The spike also comes as the city continues to grow. Casaday says the number of officers is still falling every single month.
In response to the ongoing rise in violent crime around the UT campus, some UT police officers left their red and blue lights flashing on their cruisers overnight on Saturday to help increase visibility in the area. Several armed robberies were reported last month in West Campus, as well as a violent home invasion that left one tenant at an apartment wounded from being pistol whipped.
Cyber Start America
Texas is searching through high schools for the next generation of cybersecurity talent. The state is participating in a cybersecurity game competition available to all high school students. It’s called Cyber Start America; a video game funded by the National Cyber Scholarship Foundation. It teaches students about cybersecurity while allowing them to compete nationally solving online puzzles.
“We’re trying to find the next generation of cyber talent that can protect the power companies and the military organizations and the finance organizations,” says Alan Paller with Cyber Start.
“There’s $2 million in scholarships minimum this year, the kids can use the money at any college they get into,” says Paller.
The program will be promoted by teachers and counselors.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-11-9-20
