APD release body cam footage
Austin Police today are set to release the body camera footage of an officer involved shooting earlier this year involving Alexander Gonzalez. Austin Area activists decry the shooting, calling it a murder.
“Our community is in danger because we do not trust APD. We’re scared. Our Children are not being trained of how to handle when they are being stopped by a police officer,” says local activist Bertha Delgado.
The shooting took place in early January after an off duty cop says Gonzalez cut him off on the road and pointed a gun at him. The cop then fired upon Gonzalez. On duty Police later arrived and shot and killed Gonzalez after he disobeyed orders, got out of his car, went to the rear passenger door and reached inside.
Jail diversion program
Travis County Judge, District Attorney, County Attorney and Court administration have all agreed to budget $247 million in federal dollars to create a new jail diversion program. County Judge Andy Brown says they’re calling it the Travis Center.
“Which will help provide community based preventative services to help people avoid interaction with the criminal legal system altogether,” says Brown.
He says the investment will help the homeless people with drug addiction and people with mental health issues access the kinds of services they’d get in jail, but without actually having to get arrested to get it.
Early morning crash in Manor
Manor police are still investigating an early morning crash yesterday involving seven Manor school district students. The driver of the truck carrying the teens has been arrested for drunk driving. Police say some of the teams were riding in the truck bed when the truck hit another car, head on. Two students were hospitalized and one has since been released.
Safety survey at UT
A survey conducted by the University of Texas Police Department shows the majority of people do feel safe on campus. 75% of those who responded say they’re comfortable with security on campus, although areas that people say they’re most concerned about are parking garages, where 87% say they feel much more vulnerable.
Early voting is now over in Austin
Voters will make their final say on the eight propositions on the ballot on election day this Saturday. Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir tells CBS Austin the final day of early voting yesterday brought out a lot more people to the polls.
“A lot of the items on the ballot are kind of emotional and I think voters have taken some time to make up their minds about which way they’re going to vote on some of these issues,” says DeBeauvoir.
She predicts just under 30% overall voter turnout, which is about 200,000 people.
New CDC guidelines on masks outdoors
Austin Public Health is an agreement with new CDC guidelines on masks outdoors. Health Authority Mark Escott says the positivity rate of testing has fallen below 4% in Travis County and he expects things to keep going down as younger age groups are ultimately cleared for vaccines.
“Most of us are expecting that 12-16 age gap be filled sometime in May for the Pfizer vaccine,” says Escott.
He thinks kids under 12 could be cleared by late Summer. Escott says outdoor transmission is pretty rare, so it’s likely more local restrictions could be eased soon, dropping us down to stage two restrictions by next week.
Austin Public Health Director Stephanie Hayden-Howard has been named as a new Assistant City Manager. Her official title will be Assistant City Manager for Health and Environment and Culture and Lifelong learning. She’ll take over that role on May 10 and the city will begin to search for her replacement at Austin Public Health.
Proposed light rail stations
Capital Metro has unveiled proposed light rail stations on the Orange Line, which would run from Slaughter to Tech Ridge. Stations would be located along South Congress, Rundberg and Breaker. On the Blue Line, running between Republic Square and the airport and various stops would run along the lake shore and on Riverside Drive.
Home prices increase
The hot real estate market can be seen all over central texas, including out in Bastrop County, where the price of homes has jumped up by 13.5% this year to just under $231,000. Bastrop County Chief Appraiser tells The Statesman, a lot of that increase is because people fleeing the higher property costs here in Austin.
Gender reassignment bill
Child abuse in texas would include anyone facilitating the gender reassignment of a minor if legislation in the Senate becomes law. Republicans in the Texas Senate passed Senate Bill 1646 by a vote of 18 to 13. The bill would amend the definition of child abuse to include those advising consenting or administering medication for gender reassignment of a minor. State Senator Charles Perry authored the bill.
“Should a child be subjected to things that they could not undo, that they may have made a decision differently once they could understand the consequences of those decisions,” says Perry.
Democratic Senator John Whitmire opposed it, “you’re really taking family’s decision and parents decisions away from them.”
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-4-28-21
