Murder suicide at pediatric office
Austin Police are still investigating the apparent murder suicide this week at the Children’s Medical Group involving two pediatricians. Lieutenant Jeff Greenwald says the alleged shooter Dr. Bharat Narumanchi had terminal cancer with weeks to live and was recently turned down for a volunteer job there.
“So we feel like his terminal cancer probably played a large part and whatever it was that occurred in his life and what was happening,” says Greenwald.
Greenwald says Narumanchi entered the building with multiple guns and took hostages, all but one of whom escaped. Dr. Katherine Dodson was found dead alongside Narumanchi but his specific reason for killing her remains unclear.
Council buys another homeless hotel
The Austin City Council has decided to buy one more homeless hotel. City leaders approved spending $6.7 million on another hotel near the intersection of Wells Branch and Mopac to house the homeless. Mayor Steve Adler says this will add needed beds to the housing solution.
“I’m excited. The hotel will move forward and 65 units of permanent supportive housing,” says Adler.
Council also agreed to hold off on deciding on buying another hotel in District 6 till next week. But Adler is confident the majority of council will still support its purchase
“Next week again we’ll move forward on that one in District 6. It’s 83 units of permanent supportive housing,” he says.
New Mayor Pro Tem
Austin City Council has a new Mayor Pro TEM. Early expectations were that Greg Casar would be getting the role but the winds quickly changed as counsel began to feel that a female would be more appropriate for the job. Now Natasha Harper-Madison has officially been given the role. She says she believes being both female and black makes her uniquely qualified for the position.
“We’ll continue to have conversations around public safety and homelessness, and I think those are issues that we all recognize are largely rooted in institutional racism,” says Harper-Madison.
She’ll hold the title of Mayor Pro TEM for a year, and the next year it will be given to Alison Alter.
New EMS district in Pflugerville
Discussion over EMS funding by the Pflugerville City Council continues. The city this week postponed its ruling on allowing a vote to create a new emergency services district. Advocates say the proposed ESD would add to residents taxes but fully fund the EMS mission in the area.
“We’re working through the process to understand how reasonable and necessary that district would be and if we should allow them to move forward with an election to create that district,” says council member Doug Weiss.
However, while Weiss agrees the funding solution is needed, he is not convinced the proposed extra taxing district would do the trick.
COVID-19 update
There are more than a dozen fewer hospital beds in use this morning in Travis County than a day ago. Austin Public Health says 559 COVID patients are hospitalized right now, and progress continues also to be made in terms of active cases, which have fallen this morning to 5,333. Around 66,900 cases have been confirmed with nearly 61,000 recoveries.
The ebb and flow of local COVID numbers right now is definitely being seen in Williamson County, where available hospital bed space has been increasing throughout the week. But today, hospital capacity is actually dipped slightly down to 17%. Overall, 1,801 cases are active with 142 more than a day ago. 28,367 people have recovered from the 30,469 confirmed cases.
WalMart vaccine access
Central Texas is about to get another option for COVID vaccine access. That’s WalMart. Stores around the nation have already begun to receive doses and a location on Highway 71 in Bastrop will be getting some as well. However, that location reportedly is not providing them to the public yet. Online scheduling for appointments is set to begin next week.
Texans support for legislation
Police reform and the legalization of both marijuana and casino gambling all have the support of the majority of Texans. This is according to a new poll out of the University of Houston. Of all the legislation being considered by state lawmakers in Austin, police reform ranks among the top.
“Things like banning chokeholds and requiring officers to intervene if another officer is using excessive force. Those are up in the eighties and nineties,” says Mark Jones of the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs.
He says 61% of Texans support legalizing marijuana, but mostly along party lines.
“That’s 76% of Democrats, compared to only 36% of Republicans,” Jones says 58% of Texans polled favor legalizing casino gambling.
New tower planned for Rainey St.
If you’ve been in Austin for any length of time, you know the skyline looks very different now than it did years ago. Within just another year or so, it could begin to take shape even more with the addition of a proposed 64 story tower on Red River in the Rainey Street District. It would be the second tallest building in the city at 802 feet. The Statesman reports it could be finished by 2025.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-1-28-21
