Body found in South Austin backyard
Two people have been arrested and Austin police are investigating a body that was found buried in a South Austin backyard. Austin Police Department deputy Destiny Silva says officers were called to a South Austin home about a possible body being buried there. Silva says police were tipped off by someone 36 year old suspect Kristie Cardenas talked to.
“The preliminary information shows that she provided that information to the 911 caller. That Kristie Cardenas has provided that information to the person that called 911,” says Silva.
Official reports show investigators found the unnamed body under a concrete and cinder block structure. Police say Cardenas and the second suspect, 22 year old Walker Kaatz, may have had a relationship with the person.
Police shootout in Dripping Springs
For the second time in less than a week, local law enforcement is involved in a shootout. The Hays County Sheriff’s Office says a man in a stolen car led deputies on a chase through Wimberley and into Dripping Springs. Once they got that car stopped, the man then allegedly opened fire and deputies shot back. He was hit by gunfire and taken to the hospital. A deputy was also taken into the hospital for treatment, but officials say that injury was not related to the gunfire. Still no word on the man who was shot’s condition.
Unemployment funds in Texas
Texas is seeking an additional $300 per week and federal funds for unemployed Texans. The money would be coming through the executive order signed this month by President Trump. The Texas Workforce Commission has applied for the additional $300 per week in federal funding from the president’s Lost Wage Assistance program. Back on August 11, Abbott said he thought the federal money would be more substantial.
“I have every reason to believe that when all the final deal is worked out, there will be a more robust deal that is struck between the administration and between congress,” Abbott says
The additional $300 a week should be available starting August 2. He also added that it would be backdated from August 1st.
Just hours after officials announced that Texas had applied for federal unemployment relief to add that $300 onto the checks of those who are out of work, people are saying it’s not enough. Crystal Maher with the group Restaurant Workers United tells CBS Austin it should be no less than $600.
“Nowhere near enough money, like not even close to enough. It’s just embarrassing that we’re supposed to be a leader of the world, and we’re failing so bad at this,” says Maher.
As of yesterday, there were more than 675,000 available jobs on the Texas Workforce Commission’s website.
COVID-19 update
Travis County is nearing an important milestone, which we may reach over the weekend. As of today, there are 208 people hospitalized for coronavirus. That continues the day to day drop that we have seen for a couple of weeks. By Monday, it’s very possible that we will drop back down below the 200 mark for the first time in months. There have been 25,353 cases confirmed overall and 24,046 of those have recovered.
UT employees demand hazard pay
Union workers and other University of Texas employees have made their case to the Board of Regents to move all classes online and provide $500 and hazard pay and other demands. Chancellor James Millikan says they’ve taken great steps to ensure a safe learning environment this semester on all campuses. He says all classes can be converted from face to face to remote learning if needed.
Leander school district struggles with bandwidth
Leander school district is working to beef up its online servers in hopes of preventing another technical snag like the one that prevented high school students from beginning classes last week. Superintendent Bruce Gearing says there wasn’t enough bandwidth to get all the computers online.
“Because we’re running on servers that are in our data warehouse, we’re going to continue to have bandwidth issues as we go forward,” says Gearing.
He says that is being addressed already, and the district has already added 15 new servers to increase that bandwidth.
Much like what’s been done by individual counties across the state, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath says there will be regular reporting of COVID-19 cases within public schools. Morath says that data most likely will be provided weekly instead of daily.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-8-21-20
