Austin police budget talks continue
Austin City Council member Natasha Harper-Madison is proposing approving part of the Austin Police Department budget now and pushing back further talks until next year. She says that would give the council more time to maneuver on such a large decision.
“This will ensure that council is in a position to vote on those items prior to or as a part of the media budget authorization in six months,” says Harper-Madison.
It doesn’t look like she has a ton of support from her colleagues. In the meantime, Greg Asare wants to reallocate more than $100 million from APD and slash the overtime budget by $6.5 million. Jimmy Flannigan wants to divide APD into five separate departments. All the push back against the plan to overhaul the police department is really falling on deaf ears. The council does not appear interested in hearing any of it. Chief Brian Manley has warned the city that the proposed cut of $100 million or more from APD could have disastrous results for the community, but council member Delia Garza is not buying it.
“It’s getting incredibly hard and making it harder when we just hear just this defensiveness: no, If you do that, you know the world’s gonna explode,” says Garza.
Manley also warns against canceling cadet classes, which is another proposal. That prompted council member Jimmy Flannigan to accuse him of fear mongering.
Adelaido Bernabe Urias’ killers identified and charged
Police say Marquis Davis, one of the three men charged with killing ice cream vendor Adelaido Bernabe Urias, was arrested days earlier for a separate aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge. Davis, Jermaine Jones and Devlon Wardy were all charged this week with capital murder, each with $1 million bond. Police say they’re looking for a fourth man who was the getaway driver after they allegedly robbed and shot Urias.
Texas school reopening plans
Recent comments by Governor Greg Abbott about reopening schools during the pandemic has angered some teachers. Many believe Abbott is putting students, employees and families at risk. The comment Abbott is being called out for happened during his Tuesday press conference in San Antonio while addressing who has the power to reopen schools.
“This is not my decision and no one is having to place trust or non-trust in me. The decision is made by local school boards,” said Abbott.
The president of the Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, Zeph Capo, says the governor and his TEA commissioner are the ones pressuring school district’s to open when it’s not safe.
“If the governor’s office didn’t have any responsibility for it, then why are they threatening defunding school district’s if they don’t follow their lead?” says Capo.
Austin area Travis County health authority is laying out some new guidance for school districts. Area health authority Dr. Mark Escott says in a new draft they’re recommending schools that do open up hold capacities at 25%.
“And that’s important because schools need to sort of know how this is going to work. Having a small number of students present in person will allow them to work through issues regarding how the classrooms are set up, how students move, how they’re gonna feed students, how they’re gonna bus students,” says Escott.
Escott says in areas across the country that reopened too aggressively, another round of closures followed. In pointing to Florida, there is also some concerning data that there have been eight child deaths due to COVID-19.
New semester at UT will include extensive testing
When the new semester begins at the University of Texas, there will be campus wide testing available for COVID-19. UT Chief Medical Officer Terrance Hines says they’re spending many millions of dollars on these mitigation efforts.
“For just three new machines, which allow for rapid testing. Up to 100 tests per day with a 15 minute turnaround time,” says Hines.
They plan to test 5,000 people a week with special attention paid to places like dorms, where the risk of transmission may be higher. Students can use insurance to pay for the testing or the school will subsidize the cost.
COVID-19 update
Travis County’s hospital count has fallen by one over the past day, now at 309 overall. That does fall in line with the belief from county health officials that the numbers are no longer falling but just plateauing. There’s also been smaller movement terms of new cases. That’s good news, but that includes smaller movements also in terms of recoveries. There are a total of 21,822 cases confirmed since March, and 19,570 recoveries. Williamson County has tacked on nearly 90 more recoveries over the past day. Of the 5,930 total confirmed cases, 551 are still active, 5,299 are considered to be recoveries.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-8-5-20
