New agreement for poll watchers
The Travis County Republican Party is calling it a victory as a new agreement has reached with the Travis County clerk’s office. The agreement gives poll watchers more access during the elections. The local GOP’s Brian Ruddle says the last election was rather restrictive for poll watchers.
“Initially, the poll watchers were sequestered into a separate room and were forced to watch the election counting done from the other side of a pane of glass and had to listen to what was going on over speakers,” Ruddle says.
He says that was unacceptable. Now those barriers have been removed, giving poll watchers the ability to do their job and make sure elections are done legally.
COVID-19 update
The number of people hospitalized for COVID in Travis County has continued an upward trajectory today. There are currently 156 hospitalized . That’s an increase of 11 from a day ago. Over the past eight months, officials have flagged 33,769 cases of the virus in Travis County. Right now, 1,483 of those are active. 31,824 of those have resulted in recoveries.
COVID numbers are also rising for Williamson County. It has 331 active cases. Today, 37 of those require hospitalization. Health officials have bumped the county into the orange stage. That means gatherings should be limited to five or less. A total of 10,676 cases have been confirmed since March. There are 10,187 recoveries.
Hotel for the homeless
Another hotel may come into the possession of the City of Austin today as council considers leasing the Fairfield Inn and Suites on 183 not far from Anderson Mill road. Homeless Services Officer Vela Carmen says it would be a 60 day least costing more than $910 grand.
“We’re looking at both internal funding and federal funding to cover these operations,” says Carmen.
The lease would also include two 30 day extensions. The goal would be to house people who need isolation during the pandemic. If it’s approved, it would be the sixth motel that the city has acquired either for COVID-19 isolation or for housing the homeless.
COVID vaccine
A lot of Texas doctors are gearing up for a COVID vaccine to become available. The Texas Department of State Health Services says more than 2500 healthcare providers have applied to be able to administer it already. Pfizer’s vaccine candidate does appear the most likely to be rolled out first. The drugmaker says it’s vaccine has been more than 90% effective so far.
Brick Oven to close permanently
Austin is losing another longtime restaurant. Brick Oven is calling it quits at the end of this month after serving up wood fired pizza in Austin for decades. Management says COVID-19 and rising property taxes certainly haven’t helped, but the main reason they say the closure is because the nearby HEB there in the Arboretum is expanding, and it’s not renewing Brick Oven’s lease. Brick Oven first opened up in Austin in 1982.
Police hunt for assaulter
A woman was sexually assaulted in East Austin, and that has Austin police on the hunt. Detective Leticia Acosta says it happened Monday near the Texas State Cemetery, and they’re hoping someone in the area saw something
“At this time, no arrests have been made. The victim is currently in the hospital due to her injuries sustained during this violent attack.” Acosta says.
They are committed to assisting the survivor and tracking down the attacker.
Abbott to deploy state troopers
Governor Greg Abbott showing no signs of lessening his criticism of the Austin City Council. He tells FOX-7 he’s prepared to begin sending in state troopers to assume some control of policing from the river to 32nd Street and around the UT campus from I-35 to either Lamar or Mopac.
“Within that square area, we wanna make sure that it’s safe and secure from the type of crime that Austin is causing an increase of,” says Abbott.
He says he would take the money to fund those officers directly from the City of Austin. He calls it outrageous to defund police in the year in which murders in Austin are up to a decade high.
Anti gun bills
Anti gun groups have added to the hundreds of pre-filed bills that will be addressed in the next session of the Texas Legislature. Some bills make mention of assault rifle bans. Ed Scruggs with Texas Gun Sense says they support a ban on high capacity magazines,
“Which could possibly save lives. It basically is just to interrupt the flow of the shooting events,” says Scruggs.
He doesn’t expect that to win approval, though. Scruggs also says they’ll lobby in favor of red flag laws, which allows family members to seek a judge’s order to remove guns from someone who was deemed to be a danger.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-11-12-20
