Gov. Abbott halts unemployment benefits
Governor Greg Abbott orders an end to the additional $300 per week in federal unemployment benefits, citing a booming economy and a high level of fraudulent claims. James Bernsen with the Texas Workforce Commission says Texas has 60% more job openings now than before the pandemic started.
“We have 837,378 job openings. That’s as many job openings as people who are currently on unemployment who are looking for jobs,” says Bernsen.
Nearly 45% of the jobs posted offer wages higher than $15 an hour. So these federal benefits will expire on June 26.
COVID-19 update
Austin and Travis County surpassed another big milestone as the number of active COVID cases falls below 600. Austin Public Health says only 580 cases remain active out of the 83,366 confirmed cases since March of last year. Hospitalizations have also hit a pretty significant benchmark, falling well into the double digits now at only 85 today. Nearly 82,000 people have made a recovery.
Austin Public Health is hosting a handful of vaccine clinics later this week from May 21st to the 23rd. COVID vaccinations will be given free of charge. No ID required. More than 412,000 doses have been given out throughout Austin and Travis County
Vaccine hesitation
Health officials continue to implore people to get a Covid vaccine, but a lot of people just aren’t interested. Jim Henson with The Texas Politics Project at UT says they’re polling has found 33% of people are right now going about their lives as normal without a vaccine.
“Good example, we asked people, do you think it’s safe or unsafe to go to a bar or a club. 56% of people that were vaccine hesitant said they thought it was safe. Only 27% of people that were already vaccinated said that they thought it was safe,” says Henson.
He says the likely outcome there will be the COVID lingers around for a lot longer. Even though cases are steadily declining.
Mask mandate expires
The expiration date for Austin’s mask mandate is today. The Travis County Health Authority will be giving a presentation to the city and county leaders later on this morning where he will likely update the local masking recommendations to fall in line with the CDC. But plenty of businesses have already said they will still require a mask, no matter what.
Former Wilco deputy facing charges
Also in the news this morning, a former Williams County deputy is out on bail after turning himself in. County Sheriff Mike Gleason says former Deputy Lorenzo Hernandez faces unlawful use of force, assault and trespassing charges. This stems from body camera footage of the deputy putting his hands on a domestic violence victim’s neck, pushing her into a wall and then illegally searching her home. The sheriff says the victim in this case has been reluctant to speak with law enforcement, making it hard to move forward.
“I can’t imagine being that fearful of the police where you won’t even come in and talk to us,” says Gleason.
He hopes this arrest will let the victim and the community know the sheriff’s office is serious about this case.
New Lakeway police chief
The City of Lakeway will have to find a new police chief. The city council has accepted the resignation of Chief Todd Radford, who spoke briefly to the community at last night’s council meeting.
“Many of you know, I’m a man of faith. I believe that whatever happened is for a purpose. It may not be for my purpose, but it will be for someones,” says Radford.
Details about the resignation are really not known but Radford says he has resigned “upon request”. He hasn’t specified who made the request or why. Radford’s been chief in Lakeway for 12 years so a search for his replacement will begin immediately.
Election reform
The fate of the state’s election reform legislation is now in the hands of 10 state lawmakers. The Senate bill would limit the number of polling places and voting hours and enhance the power of poll watchers and put restrictions on those assisting voters. Then the Texas House added 18 amendments. That didn’t sit well with the bill’s author, senator, brian Hughes.
“The house made some significant changes. The bill, we’re gonna need to do some work in conference. So I move that the Senate refused to concur and requests the appointment of a conference committee.”
Whatever the committee comes up with, will again need to be passed by the state House and Senate before governor Abbott could sign it into law.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-5-18-21
