Houston Seeks Eviction Delays; Acevedo Promises Meaningful Reform; Manley: No More Beanbag Rounds in Crowds; Luby’s to Sell Company to Pay Debt
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BY: @MattMackowiak
FRIDAY – 06/05/20
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TOP NEWS
"How George Floyd’s death has inspired efforts to strengthen Texas’ Sandra Bland Act,"The Houston Chronicle's Taylor Goldenstein -- "The renewed energy around criminal justice reform inspired by George Floyd's death at the hands of police in Minnesota has Texas state lawmakers optimistic that they can pass more police accountability laws next legislative session.
Key among those will be strengthening the 2017 Sandra Bland Act, which made de-escalation and crisis intervention training mandatory and required officers to document all traffic stops even when no arrest is made among other provisions.
But the bill was stripped last-minute of a measure to limit arrests for offenses punishable only by fines. Bland, 28, was arrested and jailed after being pulled over for failing to use her blinker as she changed lanes in 2015; she was found dead by suicide in her county jail cell just days later.
Lawmakers in 2019 tried to revive the limitation on arrests but faced steep opposition from police unions and lost support from some Democrats who disagreed with parts of its language that they felt gave police too much discretion." Houston Chronicle
"Texas anti-vaxxers say COVID-19 contact tracing is government surveillance,"The Houston Chronicle's Todd Ackerman -- "The Texas group that lobbies against vaccine mandates is now launching a campaign against COVID-19 contact tracing, the public health measure used for decades around the world to contain disease spread.
Texans for Vaccine Choice this week called on its members to contact Gov. Greg Abbott and let him know they “do not wish to be monitored or surveilled for any reason” in response to a new state program hiring and training workers to identify people who’ve come into close contact with those who recently tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Such people are then asked to quarantine until testing shows they don’t have the disease.
“The government should stop thinking its job is to keep everyone healthy and instead focus on protecting our rights,” says a post on the organization’s website. “We here at TFVC will remain vigilant as our government expands greatly and the threats to our members grow.”
The campaign drew an immediate rebuke from Dr. Peter Hotez, the Baylor College of Medicine infectious disease specialist who has led public health’s fight against the anti-vaccine movement, which he holds responsible for the resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and whooping cough.
Thanks to the movement’s efforts, some 60,000 Texas parents currently obtain nonmedical exemptions for school vaccines, some 25 times higher than 2003, the first year such exemptions were allowed. A 2018 study by Hotez found Houston and three other Texas cities rank among the 15 metropolitan “shot spots” of such exemptions.
“Awful to see the #antivax lobby in Texas now going the extra measure to halt #COVID-19 prevention,” Hotez tweeted Tuesday in reply to a Texans for Vaccine Choice tweet alerting people to the campaign. “In the name of fake ‘health freedoms’ slogans, they aspire to land thousands of Texans in our hospitals and ICUs.”
John Wittman, a spokesman for Abbott, noted that a contact tracing program was part of the guidelines laid out by President Donald Trump in order to reopen the state and has been used in Texas and the country for decades. He said the program is “completely voluntary” and that the state health department has “taken steps to ensure it protects individuals’ liberty and privacy.”
The contact tracing program became ensnared in controversy last month when The Houston Chronicle reported that the state awarded MTX Group, an inexperienced, little-known private technology company, up to $295 million to hire, train and manage tracers. State lawmakers subsequently questioned the lack of transparency and legislative input for such a large expenditure." Houston Chronicle
"Dallas officials remove Texas Ranger statue from Love Field," via AP-- "A published account of brutal and racist chapters in the history of an elite Texas investigative agency prompted Dallas officials to remove on Thursday a statue from Love Field’s passenger terminal that honored the agency.
The 12-foot-tall bronze statue of a Texas Ranger, called “One Riot, One Ranger,” has been a focal point in the terminal since 1963.
A new book on the Rangers, “Cult of Glory,” offered chilling details about dark chapters of the Rangers’ history. The book by former Pulitzer Prize finalist Doug J. Swanson, a longtime reporter for The Dallas Morning News who is now on the University of Pittsburgh faculty, says the statue depicts Capt. Jay Banks. The captain was in charge of a Ranger contingent dispatched in 1957 by then-Gov. Allan Shivers to keep black students from enrolling in Mansfield’s high school High School and a Texarkana community college despite court rulings that should have prevented Shivers from doing so.
Swanson tells his former newspaper that “Banks became sort of the face for that because there’s a famous picture of him leaning against a tree in front of Mansfield High School while a black figure hangs in effigy above the school, with Banks making no effort to take it down.
“And Banks sided with the mobs who were there to keep the black kids out. So, he was the face of that and of a statue that welcomes people to Dallas,” he said.
Swanson also noted the title “One Riot, One Ranger” came from a Ranger’s report of a scene at the Grayson County Courthouse in Sherman in 1930, when a black man stood trial for assaulting a white woman. The mob eventually set fire to the courthouse and roasted the black man alive after he sought refuge in a courthouse safe.
Arriving amid acute racial tension sparked by the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, the book prompted officials to remove the statue from the airport terminal. Airport spokesman Chris Perry said the statue will be placed in storage for now with its fate to be decided eventually by the city’s Office of Arts and Culture.
This is the third time in four years that Dallas has removed from a public space a statue that had become racially provocative." AP
"Texas restaurant chain to sell company to pay off debts" via AP-- "A popular Texas cafeteria chain known for its comfort foods announced it plans to sell the company to pay off its millions of dollars in debt.
Luby’s said Wednesday that it will begin the process of selling its business operations and assets, including real estate, to pay off $35 million of debt. The remaining money from the sale will go to stockholders, The Houston Chronicle reported.
“We believe that proceeding with this sale process followed by distributions will maximize value for our stockholders, while also preserving the flexibility to pursue a sale of the company should a compelling offer that delivers superior value be made,” Luby’s CEO Chris Pappas said in a statement. “This path also provides for the potential to place the restaurant operations with well-capitalized owners moving forward.”
In the meantime, some restaurants will remain open while the Houston-based company seeks a buyer.
The move to sell comes after a special board committee examined how to maximize shareholder value, which also considered selling the company altogether. Luby’s has been struggling to lure customers in recent years.
But the company’s financial decline took an even steeper hit when officials ordered all restaurants to close due to the coronavirus pandemic. The company used a $10 million coronavirus aid loan from the federal government to continue paying employee during the virus outbreak.
On Wednesday, the company said it took a $3.8 million loss during its second quarter that ended in March. This figure is down from $6.6 million in earnings compared with the same period last year." AP
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
"Harris County, Houston leaders ask for eviction delays due to coronavirus,"The Houston Chronicle's Sarah Smith -- "Houston’s top officials are asking Harris County courts to suspend evictions filed during the coronavirus pandemic until Aug. 24.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo sent a letter, first reported by Houston Public Media, to the 16 county Justices of the Peace on June 2 and asked them to use the guidelines for cases filed March 27 and onward. Each judge will be able to decide individually what to do.
“Doing so is not only the right thing to do given the current crisis, but will contribute to our effort to protect public health,” Hidalgo and Turner wrote in the letter.
The Texas Supreme Court issued an emergency order suspending eviction procedures due to the coronavirus pandemic on March 19, although landlords were still able to file for evictions. After one extension, the order expired on May 19. However, as an analysis from the assistant county attorney notes, the order does not require local courts to restart evictions.
The proposed Aug. 24 resumption date lines up with the federal CARES Act, passed March 27. The CARES Act stipulates that tenants living in certain federally backed properties cannot be served with an eviction notice until July 25. Those eviction notices must be a 30-day notice to vacate, so tenants in housing protected by the CARES Act could not be removed from their homes until Aug. 24." Houston Chronicle
"Abbott talks to Floyd family to express the state’s sorrow,"The Austin American-Statesman's Jonathan Tilove -- "Gov. Greg Abbott spoke with the family of George Floyd on Wednesday night to express sorrow on behalf of the state for the tragic loss of a fellow Texan.
Abbott said he also promised to work with them to make sure that what happened to Floyd on Memorial Day on the streets of Minneapolis cannot happen again.
“I had the opportunity to speak with the family and express condolences on behalf of the entire state of Texas,” the governor said in a noontime interview Thursday on KTBC-TV in Austin.
“As you know, George Floyd is a Texan, and in talking to his family, they were so proud of themselves being Texans, they said that George was proud to be a Texan,” Abbott said. “I let them know we flew a flag over the Capitol that I’m providing to the family, and they were very heartened by that.
“But also I let them how much that I and the state of Texas were grieving about this tragic murder of George Floyd and what we want to do to make sure Texas takes steps to make sure nothing like this ever happens in our state,” Abbott said." Austin American-Statesman
"As police chief urges 'meaningful reform,' critics wonder why it's missing in Houston,"The Houston Chronicle's St. John Barned-Smith and Jasper Scherer -- "Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo’s voice cracked several times and his eyes welled as he railed against the death of George Floyd beneath a policeman’s knee and implored protesters to demonstrate peacefully with him.
“I will not allow anyone to tear down this city, because this is our city,” Acevedo shouted on Sunday to the group of mostly black Houstonians surrounding him at one of many protests in the wake of video showing Floyd’s fatal encounter with police in Minneapolis. “Pay close attention! Because these little white guys with their skateboards are the ones starting all the s---.”
Video of Acevedo’s profanity-laced remarks went viral and, along with his other blunt statements this week, won the chief acclaim from those outraged by the death of Floyd, a former Third Ward resident.
It has also drawn anger from those who say Acevedo has failed to address the very things he’s condemning at home. His calls for police to be more transparent and enact “meaningful reform” have refocused attention on a series of fatal shootings by his own officers and his refusal to release body camera video of the incidents.
“We’re looking at him say one thing on camera, but locally, we know different,” said Dav Lewis, a local activist who was friends with Adrian Medearis, one of the men who died in the spate of shootings. “We know different locally. We have not seen police accountability.”
The chief has also resisted calls to release the results of an audit of his narcotics division, rocked last year by one of its worst scandals in decades, andhe has downplayed calls to bolster the city’s Independent Police Oversight Board, long criticized as a “toothless watchdog” group.
“While these are great photo ops, and maybe the chief has political aspirations, and this is all warm and fuzzy kind of stuff he’s doing, it’s time for some action,” said Mark Thiessen, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association.
In an interview with the Chronicle on Thursday, Acevedo said he is weighing concerns about how family members of people killed by police would react if they saw videos of the encounter spread online. He pointed to the May 8 shooting of Medearis, one of the victims, noting the man’s family had asked the video not be released. He also said publicity caused by a publicly shared video could cause the eventual trial to be moved outside of Harris County, one of the most diverse metropolitan areas in the country.
“It would be a disservice to the people of Houston and to the involved family, in the event of an officer being charged with a criminal offense, for the trial to be moved to a county where the jury pool is not reflective of the rich diversity of Houston,” he said.
The chief said earlier in the week that law enforcement needs a “national standard” to determine how departments release such videos.
“There shouldn’t be 18,000 police departments and 18,000 policies,” he said." Houston Chronicle
"Austin police chief says no more beanbag rounds in crowds,"AP's Acacia Coronado -- "Austin’s police chief said Thursday his department will no longer fire beanbag rounds into crowds after a teenage boy was critically hurt during a weekend protest when he was shot in the head when an officer fired the ammunition that is considered a less-lethal use of force.
Police Chief Brian Manley announced the amended policy during a special meeting of the Austin City Council, where hundreds of people spoke out against police brutality following nationwide unrest over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck.
Edwin Ayala, the brother of 16-year-old Brad Levi Ayala, who is hospitalized after being hit by the beanbag round during a Saturday demonstration, pleaded for witnesses and police to contact the family with video of the moment his brother was shot so they can understand how it happened.
“We just want to know the truth. We just want as much transparency from the police to know what happened,” Edwin Alaya said via phone during the council meeting.
Edwin Alaya said his younger brother has a deep puncture, a brain contusion and a skull fracture that required a seven-hour surgery.
“We thought he was going to die,” Edwin Ayala said in tears.
Manley made only a brief statement about the department’s change in practice.
“It is still an appropriate tool in other circumstances so it is still approved for use, however not in crowd situations,” Manley said. He did not elaborate.
But Austin City Councilman Gregorio Casar, who was among council members who expressed disappointment in how Austin police responded to protesters, pushed back. He said he had seen a video of Levi Ayala being shot by the beanbag round and that the teen was not in a crowd, but standing alone.
“This is not enough,” Casar said.
Levi Ayala is expected to make a slow recovery, according to his family, but he has damage to the pre-frontal cortex, which causes problems processing and balancing emotions. A GoFundMe page for the family set up by Edwin Ayala has raised over $140,000 as of Thursday.
More than 360 people signed up to speak to the council during the online meeting, many calling for Manley and the officers responsible to be fired. Many government meetings have moved online to allow social distancing to fight the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus outbreak." AP
"Texas is short of its contact tracing workforce goal by more than 1,000 people,"The Texas Tribune's Edgar Walters -- "As Texas moves forward with a new phase of Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan for reopening businesses, the state has fallen more than 25% short of its goal for a workforce of disease detectives that experts say are crucial for tracking the spread of the new coronavirus.
One of Abbott’s reopening metrics for June 1 called for up to 4,000 Texas contact tracers, who work to identify people with possible exposure to the coronavirus and call them to get tested and self-quarantine.
But Texas officials said Thursday there were roughly 2,900 contact tracers working around the state. Of those, some 1,140 are working for the Texas Department of State Health Services, 1,170 are working for local health departments or their nonprofit and university partners, and about 600 are working for a company recently hired by the state.
State officials downplayed the importance of meeting the initial goal despite the public health agency’s statements last month assuring that health departments were in a “phase of hiring that will get us up to 4,000 in the coming weeks.”" Texas Tribune
2020
"Court continues halt on expanding mail voting in Texas," via AP-- "A federal appeals court on Thursday continued to keep on hold any expansion of mail voting in Texas, where President Donald Trump has cheered on a fight against relaxing balloting rules amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision by 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is not the last word on the matter, but it stops for now a lower-court ruling that had opened the door for Texas’ 16 million registered voters to cast ballots by mail. The case remains before the court with primary runoff elections in Texas, which are set for July 14, now less than six weeks away.
Trump has railed against mail voting in recent months, arguing on Twitter that there is “NO WAY” that expanding the practice “will be anything less than substantially fraudulent.”
But voting fraud is rare, and Twitter took the extraordinary step of attaching fact-checking notices that infuriated the president.
Last month, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that a lack of immunity to the coronavirus doesn’t qualify someone to cast a ballot by mail. That ruling that has left Democrats to pine their hopes on the federal courts.
Both Republicans and Democrats have said they expect the fight to ultimately reach the U.S. Supreme Court." AP
"Social media post prompts Republicans to call for Bexar GOP chair's resignation,"The Rivard Report's Jackie Wang -- "A spokesman for Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday sharply condemned Bexar County Republican Chair Cynthia Brehm following her since-deleted Facebook post about the death of George Floyd, joining other Republican elected officials in calling for her resignation.
Brehm posted on her Facebook page, but later deleted, an item that began, “Tell me what you think: Subject: George Floyd – A Staged Event?” Before the post was deleted, a San Antonio Express-News columnist took a screenshot and posted it Wednesday on Twitter.
“These comments are disgusting and have no place in the Republican Party or in public discourse,” Abbott’s communications director John Wittman said. “Cynthia Brehm should immediately resign her position as Chair of the Bexar County Republican Party.”
George Floyd, a black man, died May 25 after a white police officer knelt on his neck while he was handcuffed on the ground, an incident captured on video. His death spurred nationwide protests from Black Lives Matters supporters, including in San Antonio.
Brehm went on to muse in her Facebook post that “something is just not adding up.” She floated the idea that Floyd’s death was filmed and planned “with the purpose of creating racial tensions and driving a wedge in the growing group of anti deep state sentiment from common people.”
Brehm, who is seeking reelection for her chair position in a July 14 runoffagainst John Austin, deleted the post later on Wednesday, according to the Express-News columnist who shared the post. Though that post is no longer on her page, people began commenting on another post she shared Wednesday with calls to resign.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) also stated in a tweet that Brehm should step down. “Cynthia Brehm’s comments were wrong, and only serve to divide us at a time when we all need to come together,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Austin), whose district includes part of Bexar County, responded succinctly to the tweeted screenshot of Brehm’s post: “If this is an accurate email – she should resign.” Travis County Republican Chair Matt Mackowiak, who is currently working on Tony Gonzales’ campaign for the 23rd Congressional District seat that U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (R-Helotes) will leave after this term, also tweeted that Brehm should resign.
“She has been an embarrassment for 2 years,” he posted on Twitter. “With this deleted [Facebook] post last night, she is now an embarrassment to [the Republican Party of Texas] and [the Republican Party].”
James Dickey, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas Chairman, said Thursday he personally reached out to Brehm to resign “immediately.”
“Cynthia Brehm’s position regarding the tragic injustice of the death of George Floyd has no place in the Republican Party of Texas,” Dickey said. “We cannot abide by her caustic remarks. They are out of alignment with our core beliefs and our platform.”
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick echoed the calls for Brehm to step down, saying in a Tweet, “There is no excuse for this outrageous, ignorant racist message made worse by using her position as a local party leader to spread it. It does not reflect the thinking of Bexar GOP or Republicans anywhere.”
Brehm did not respond to a request for comment." Rivard Report
TEXANS IN DC
"Rep. Joaquin Castro, House Democrats call on Senate to pass DACA bill,"The Houston Chronicle's Benjamin Wermund -- "With the Supreme Court expected to decide the fates of more than 100,000 so-called Dreamers in Texas as soon as Monday, Democrats in Congress are pushing the Senate to vote on a bill the House passed a year ago to offer them a path to citizenship.
It’s almost certain to go nowhere, as Senate Republicans, including Texas Sen. John Cornyn, and President Donald Trump’s administration have sought to roll protections for Dreamers into broader immigration bills with wider reforms and funding for the border wall.
Still, the Democrats, led by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, say the coronavirus outbreak has shown how vital Dreamers are, as some 200,000 of them work in essential jobs across the country. In Texas, as many as 14,000 work in fields such as health care, food service, farming and transportation in 2017, according to data from the Migration Policy Institute.
“Let’s be clear, their future is at risk because of President Trump and his Republican enablers in the Senate,” Castro said on Thursday, calling for “maximum pressure” on the Trump administration and Senate Republicans to strike a deal ahead of the Supreme Court ruling.
Trump in 2017 ended Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era initiative that gave certain young immigrantsa work permit and temporary protection from deportation. The move sparked a long-running push-and-pull between the president, Congress and the courts over a group of more than 700,000 immigrants brought to the country illegally as children — many of whom have only known the U.S. as home — who most Americans agree deserve protections.
As the Supreme Court heard arguments over the move last November, Trump, who has repeatedly said Congress should act to protect Dreamers, tweeted that he may strike a deal with Democrats to keep the Dreamers in the U.S. But no action followed, and a bill to put Dreamers on a path toward citizenship that passed the House last June remains stalled in the Senate. ...
The House bill would offer permanent residency for a decade to those who were younger than 18 when they came to the U.S., as long as they have an American high school diploma or GED and pass a background check. The bill also would extend permanent residency to some living in the U.S. with temporary protected status." Houston Chronicle
REMAINDERS
UT FOOTBALL: "Texas football players march to Capitol to honor Floyd"AP
'MACK ON POLITICS' PODCAST
LATEST "MACK ON POLITICS" PODCAST: The George Floyd killing and resulting protests are the subject of the 191st episode.
Our guest is social commentator and activist Toure, who hosts two podcasts, “The Toure Show” and “Democracyish”.
In this conversation we take stock of this national moment, examine real solutions to police brutality, consider whether police union contracts are part of the problem, and probe the concepts of systemic racism and white privilege. Finally, we discuss how the protests will end.
Available on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher and on the web at http://www.MackOnPoliticsPodcast.com.
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