State of the State Address
Governor Greg Abbott has delivered this year’s State of the State Address and as expected, the focus was largely on the pandemic.
“Texans are returning to work, students are returning to school. Families are reestablishing routines. With each passing day of more vaccinations and increased immunity, normalcy is returning to Texas,” says Abbott.
There are also five emergency priorities the governor wants addressed this legislative session which include expanding broadband access, overhauling the bail system, imposing civil liability protection for businesses operating during the pandemic, ensuring election integrity and punishing cities like Austin that attempt to defund their police departments.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler says he does support the governor’s statements on law enforcement. Specifically, Adler says he supports the governor’s suggestion to improve law enforcement.
“And really, that’s the focus of what we’re doing in Austin right now. It’s because we respect and value our police officers that we want them working on crime. We want them not being our mental health first responders,” says Adler.
Mayor Adler says he is unaware of any Texas city defunding their police, noting Austin is using unused police staff budget dollars to help address homelessness. He adds that, too, is a public safety concern.
Latino State of the State Address
Improving health care for minority Texans is among the calls made by Hispanic leaders during the Latino State of the State Address. State Rep. Ana Hernandez is the Chief Legal Counsel for the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. In her Latino State of the State address, she called for Governor Abbott to bridge what she calls health care disparity.
“While Latino and Black Texans are disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus, they have been less likely to receive the first COVID-19 vaccination dosage,” says Hernandez.
She specifically called for lawmakers to do what 36 states have already done under the Affordable Care Act.
“We can expand Medicaid coverage, we can allocate adequate resources to vulnerable communities, and we must do it now,” says Hernandez.
COVID-19 update
More progress for Travis County’s hospitals as the total number of coronavirus patients is slowly heading back down. 510 people hospitalized today, which is 4 less than a day ago. Active cases have gone back up a bit, though, to 5,201 but hundreds more recoveries have been reported. That number now stands at 63,547. The counties confirmed a total of 69,408 cases.
Nearly 200 fewer active cases in Williamson County are being reported today. Of the 32,285 total confirmed, 1,608 are currently active and 33,353 have recovered. Available hospital bed space has made a good jump upward in the past day, with the county now reporting 781 free beds, or 21%. ICU capacity has grown to 13%.
The Austin school district continues its focus on vaccinating older and at risk employees, and there are some who have now been fully vaccinated with both doses. Lupe Sudduth is one of them. She tells KVUE she feels very fortunate and hopes it will get things back to normal soon.
“We miss the kids. We know that it would really be great to go back and we can’t can’t wait till it happens. All of my friends that are teachers feel the same way,” says Sudduth.
The district says as many as 1,500 teachers and staff members have gotten at least one dose.
Homeless assistance programs funding
The Housing and Urban Development Department has sent out $2.5 billion to various organizations across the nation dealing with homelessness. More than $10 million of that is being awarded to groups in Travis County. Caritas of Austin getting the most of $1.8 million. More than $350,000 is going to the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition,
Austin Nonprofit Save Austin Now is demanding an independent audit of the city’s homeless spending. Co-Founder Cleo Petricek says they want to know how the city has used $160 million between 2018 and 2020.
“You know with the current camping ban it’s not working, according to the mayor and the city council at large. So what are we doing to address the concern?” says Patricek.
Petricek says allowing public camping has led to an increase in public safety concerns, fires and crime.
Fear The Walking Dead in Round Rock
If you drive around Round Rock on a regular basis, work crews with the AMC show Fear The Walking Dead may force you to take another route today. Part of the Chisholm Trail Road will be closed all day today for filming of the show between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. Actually, the closure will span the area between Old Settlers and Highway 79. So you might want to find another route if you make use of that area on a regular basis.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-2-2-21
