Adler asks to continue wearing masks
Austin Mayor Steve Adler is pleading with people to keep on wearing a mask. With the state mask mandates set to end tomorrow, Mayor Adler asked that you go ahead and keep on masking anyhow.
“Virtually every person dealing with the data and the doctors are telling us is what we should be doing and I hope that we do,” says Adler.
Adler says several businesses are taking to social media about why they will still have mask orders in place and is calling on more to do the same.
Williamson County officials say all government buildings and facilities will be opened at 100% capacity beginning tomorrow. County Judge Bill Gravell says the decision to wear a mask inside of a government building will be left entirely up to you.
Service workers protest the lifting of the mask mandate
Texas service industry workers rallied outside of the capital, demanding that Governor Abbott not lift the statewide mask mandate. Much of the anger of the service industry workers had to do with the dangerous work conditions now that Governor Abbott has rescinded the mask mandate, which takes effect on Wednesday.
“If you’re going to open us up 100% we need to at least be allowed to make the appointment to go choose to get a vaccine right?” Prioritizing service industry workers for vaccinations was a recurring theme, “we are thanked every day as essential workers, yet no one seems to give us any sort of dignity. You don’t even want to raise the minimum wage. You don’t want to provide any hazard pay.”
APH vaccine time slots
Austin Public Health has announced that it will start making first dose vaccine appointment time slots available every Monday evening. Availability will be shown for the entire week, and the number of slots could vary from week to week, based on inventory. If more doses do become available later in the week, Thursday evening would then be when more slots would be opened up to the public.
COVID-19 update
228 people are in the hospital for COVID this morning in Travis County. That’s actually an increase of four from a day ago. 72 people are in the ICU, that’s actually gone down slightly. Number of active cases has also fallen to 1,411. There’s been 74,565 recoveries out of a total of 76,742 confirmed cases.
STAR test
The Austin school district will hold a virtual discussion on the STAR test and other end of course exams. A handful of district officials will be answering questions from parents through the event on Facebook Live, and it all begins this afternoon at 5:30 p.m.
Leander book club suspended
The Leander School district has suspended the student book club after parents complained recently about sexually explicit subject matter. Superintendent Bruce Gearing says he does think they moved too quickly with the chosen material.
“As we entered into that process, we got hit by COVID and we did not do due diligence in making sure that that was appropriately reviewed,” says Gearing.
A team of more than 70 parents, teachers and staff will be reviewing all of the books before approving them for use and the school board is also drafting a new policy prohibiting the purchase of literature for students that is deemed to be inappropriate.
Tesla battery
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been a big critic of ERCOT since the power outages and a new report from Bloomberg says Musk has been building a massive 100 megawatt battery out in Angleton, not far from Houston, which is capable of powering 20,000 houses on a typical summer day. The report says Tesla is looking at ways to bolster the Texas power grid with that battery, which could be operational by June.
HEAL initiative
The City of Austin is blaming last month’s winter storm for a delay in getting an update on the HEAL initiative. And that’s the plan that would ban public camping in four specific areas and then relocate the people living there to other, safer places. Matt Mackowiak, with the group Save Austin Now tells CBS Austin a weekend fire at a homeless camp under an overpass is a very good example of why public camping is so dangerous.
“If you’re fortunate enough to be in an area that a couple council members decide deserves to be safe and clean, congratulations. 80 or 90% of Austinites don’t live in and around those four areas,” says Mackowiak.
The City Council is not expected to get any new updates about the HEAL initiative until at least next month.
Brush fire contained
A more than 100 acre brushfire out near the Caldwell Bastrop Travis County line that broke out over the weekend grew to more than 150 acres before finally being brought under control. The Texas A&M Forest Service says the so-called brushy gate fire is now 100% contained.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-3-9-21
