COVID-19 update
COVID hospitalizations in Travis County remain unchanged for the most part over the past day. A slight fluctuation here and there, but nothing major this morning. There are 182 people in the hospital for the virus that includes 61 in the ICU and 40 on a ventilator. Of the 77,669 confirmed cases, 1,251 are active, and 75,638 are recoveries.
APH vaccine scheduling
Technical issues with the website grind Austin Public Health’s vaccine scheduling to a halt as thousands of people were waiting to secure a slot yesterday evening. Austin Public Health says it had to shut the entire system down because of the problem, so an extra day of scheduling will now have to be added. It is expected Austin Public Health will address the issue today, but so far officials have not said what exactly that problem was.
Round Rock teacher salaries
Central Texas teachers are starting to back a bill that would allow their starting salaries to go up. Round Rock State Representative James Talarico is pushing a bill that would raise the starting pay for Texas teachers to $70k a year.
“This is only fair. This should be considered a minimum. There are currently places in Texas where teachers with master’s degrees barely make $40,000 a year,” says Round Rock Education Union President Dan Wright.
Other union leaders are also voicing their support for a $15 minimum wage.
Austin rent help
There is $25 million now available for Austin renters who need help. Mike Gerber, with the Housing Authority of the City of Austin, says it can be used for any rent related expense included in your lease.
“Such as utilities included with rent, internet services, fees for garages, storage service, animals and pets that may be on your lease as well,” says Gerber.
And property owners who have renters can now get involved in this upgraded rent relief program as well. Landlords can create an account of the city’s website, allowing them to send messages to their tenants, encouraging them to pay rent. Mayor Steve Adler says if the renters get help, the landlords benefit,
“Get some income stream because landlords have also been hurting when tenants can’t pay rent,” says Adler.
When a tenant applies for the aid, the city said the money will go straight to the landlord. Tenants will be chosen randomly and could get up to 15 months of taxpayer funded assistance.
Layoffs at Baylor Scott & White
Baylor Scott & White is eliminating more than almost 150 jobs in the area. Documents filed with the Texas Workforce Commission show 83 people will be laid off at the Round Rock location and 62 in Austin. Those layoffs are expected to be complete by May.
Austin airport passengers
Passenger volume through Austin’s airport continues to be much lower because of the pandemic, and the airports released its numbers for January, showing 414,177 people flying into and out of the city. That’s a drop of nearly 68% from January of last year.
Electric overcharges bill
The Texas Senate has very quickly approved Senate Bill 2142 by near unanimous vote and addresses the $16 billion in electric overcharges during the storm last month and would require the market to correct the error. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is hopeful this will move just as quickly onto the governor’s desk.
“I hope he will now, like he often says, get that bill to me and I’ll sign it. I hope the House follows up and passes this bill on,” Patrick says.
Patrick says this should save taxpayers ratepayers billions of dollars.
Anti abortion bills
Texas Republicans have rolled out seven anti abortion bills of the capital. The Texas Senate held a marathon committee hearing on legislation that would immediately ban discriminatory abortion, in two years all abortion after a heartbeat and an outright ban in four years.
“These policies and their enactment dates are crafted to give us the best chance to save lives immediately,” says John Seago with the Texas Right To Life.
No abortion rights advocates testified. Carisa Lopez of the Texas Freedom Network released a video.
“These laws create a web of barriers that make access to safe and affordable abortion care much harder or nearly impossible,” says Lopez
Reward for information on shooting downtown
The Austin police department is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person who killed Dorian Hardaway over the weekend at the Swing Hookah Lounge on 7th Street. Police say Hardaway was shot inside the nightclub and was pronounced dead at the hospital. The police are also looking for any video that might have been taken that night.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-3-16-21
