1. U.S. TROOPS TO WITHDRAW FROM CHAOTIC NORTHERN SYRIA
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper says President Donald Trump has directed U.S. troops in northern Syria to begin pulling out “as safely and quickly as possible.”
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2. WHO’S UP NEXT TO TESTIFY IN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY
Gordon Sondland, Trump’s hand-picked ambassador to the European Union, is among administration officials being subpoenaed to appear on Capitol Hill this week against the wishes of the White House.
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3. FAMILY WANTS ANSWERS AFTER POLICE KILL WOMAN IN HER HOME
The family of a black woman shot and killed by a white police officer in Fort Worth, Texas, early Saturday says the 28-year-old woman was babysitting her 8-year-old nephew when she was gunned down in the family home.
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4. EXPANDING THE AUSTIN CONVENTION CENTER
Some Austin citizens want to be able to vote on the proposed Convention Center expansion and they have a proposition on the ballot just for that. Fred Lewis with Unconvnentional Austin says the present Convention Center generates less than five percent of tourism business but eats up 72 percent of hotel occupancy tax revenue.
“Our convention center has lost $419-million over the 20-years of its existence, and we believe it’s time that it be put on a budget,” Lewis says.
Lewis wants to see the Convention Center’s HOT tax take reduced to 34 percent with the rest going to other ways to benefit tourism such as historic preservation, arts and music.
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5. NEW PROPOSALS TO ADDRESS AUSTIN’S HOMELESS CAMPERS
Austin city council members Kathie Tovo and Ann Kitchen are proposing what they call an “encampment response strategy” as a way to address the growing number of camping homeless. Kitchen tells CBS Austin she is proposing an ordinance that would make places like storm drains, sidewalks, and access ramps off limits to campers.
“It says where it’s not safe to camp,” she says. “So, it clarifies what we did in June; it names places that it’s not safe to camp.”
Tovo is behind a resolution directing the city manager to begin connecting people with new housing. She hopes to see a plan from him in the next several weeks.
