MRT: Abbott Pauses Reopening, Bans Elective Surgeries in Four Urban Counties; Hispanic Growth Surges; Paxton Case Moved Back to Collin County
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BY: @MattMackowiak
FRIDAY – 06/26/20
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TOP NEWS
"Gov. Greg Abbott pauses Texas’ reopening, bans elective surgeries in four counties to preserve bed space for coronavirus patients,"The Texas Tribune's Sarah Champagne -- "Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday morning that he will pause any further phases of reopening businesses in Texas and that he is once again putting a stop to elective surgeries to preserve bed space for coronavirus patients in certain counties that are seeing a surge of COVID-19 cases.
Abbott's latest action does not reverse any of the reopening phases he's already allowed — meaning that bars, restaurants, malls, bowling alleys and other businesses can still remain open with some occupancy limitations. Restaurants can operate at 75% capacity, and virtually all other businesses, including bars, can operate at 50%.
“The last thing we want to do as a state is go backwards and close down businesses, ” he wrote in a Thursday press release, but the "pause will help our state corral the spread."
The latest ban on elective procedures applies to Bexar, Dallas, Harris and Travis counties, which have seen a rapid increase in the number of patients hospitalized with the virus.
Just Tuesday, Abbott stressed that hospital capacity in Texas was “abundant.” A day later, he acknowledged in a TV interview that capacity issues in some parts of the state "may necessitate a localized strategy."" Texas Tribune
"Texas putting reopening on 'pause' as virus cases soar,"AP's Jim Vertuno and Paul J. Weber -- "Faced with surging coronavirus cases and hospitalizations that have made Texas one of the nation’s virus hotspots, Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday halted elective surgeries in the state’s biggest counties and said he would “pause” it’s aggressive economic reopening statewide.
The suspension of elective surgeries is designed to protect hospital space in the Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio areas. Statewide, the number of COVID-19 patients has more than doubled in two weeks.
Texas has reported more than 17,000 new cases in the last three days with a record high 5,996 on Thursday. The day’s tally of 4,739 hospitalizations was also a record. The state’s rolling infection rate hit nearly 12%, a level not seen since the state was in a broad lockdown in mid-April.
Abbott has said the exploding numbers show a “massive outbreak” sweeping through Texas.
But those rising numbers, and a doubling of the infection rate to more than 10% — a mark Abbott said in May would be a “red flag” in his reopening plans— still haven’t convinced the Republican to roll back his previous orders that pushed Texas into an aggressive relaunch of one of the world’s largest economies.
And its not clear what impact such a pause will have.
Thursday’s slowdown imposes no new restrictions and doesn’t repeal current rules that allowed most businesses to reopen. It would appear to delay any plans to expand occupancy levels at places like bars, restaurants and amusement parks and other venues, although Abbott had not indicated when that would even happen.
Texas has no capacity limits on houses of worship, child care or youth camps and sports leagues, and professional sports leagues are allowed to hold outdoor events at 50% fan capacity.
“We are focused on strategies that slow the spread of this virus while also allowing Texans to continue earning a paycheck to support their families,” Abbott said in a statement. “The last thing we want to do as a state is go backwards and close down businesses. This temporary pause will help our state corral the spread until we can safely enter the next phase of opening our state for business.”
Texas restaurants are struggling under the current rules of 75% capacity and were glad Abbott didn’t roll the state back to previous restrictions, said Anna Tauzin, chief revenue and innovation officer of the Texas Restaurant Association.
“We are grateful for that, but unless the public dramatically improves their behavior, what other choice is he going to have? That’s the last thing we want to see,” Tauzin said.
By reimposing a ban on elective surgeries, Abbott is returning to one of his first actions when the virus first emerged in Texas in March. He later rescinded the order during an aggressive reopening of the state in May that lifted lockdown orders ahead of most of the U.S.
The leaders of several Houston hospitals said their facilities are capable of handling a surge in new patients.
They also sought to tamp down alarm about data from the Texas Medical Center, an umbrella group of the city’s major hospitals, that 97% of intensive-care beds are in use. The center’s current models suggest its hospitals could reach “unsustainable surge capacity” by mid-July.
Doug Lawson, CEO of CHI St. Luke’s Health, said facilities can open or close beds as needed and said St. Luke’s would almost double its critical care capacity over the next several weeks.
“Our hospitals are OK and ready to manage this surge appropriately and effectively,” he said.
Abbott this week has taken a newly urgent tone about the worsening trends and is now telling the public they should stay home. He also has urged Texans to wear masks in public.
The governor hasn’t issued a statewide mask order, but the state’s cities and counties has imposed new rules on businesses to require customers and workers to wear face coverings." AP
"Austin man charged with damaging Texas Capitol during protests, more suspects sought,"The Houston Chronicle's Taylor Goldenstein -- "The Texas Department of Public Safety on Tuesday arrested Keegan Dalton Godsey, 23, of Austin, for allegedly causing damage to the Texas Capitol during a May 30 protest.
Godsey, who authorities say was arrested without incident, was charged with felony criminal mischief, riot and interference with public duties, and booked into the Travis County Jail. His was the first arrest related to damage to the Capitol and grounds that occurred May 30.
DPS said Godsey was one of a number of protesters who “intentionally damaged” the Capitol building, monuments and fixtures, as well as DPS patrol vehicles. Special agents say they reviewed hundreds of hours of video from various platforms, surveillance camera footage, law enforcement databases and open source information to identify Godsey.
The agency is working with the Capital Area Crime Stoppers to locate several people who were captured on video and in photos during an alleged assault on DPS Troopers about 3:30 p.m. May 30. The agency said two troopers were assaulted and property was damaged. Staff Sgt. Victor Taylor, a DPS spokesman, said he did not know the extent of their injuries or exactly how they were assaulted." Houston Chronicle
"Texas’ Hispanic population grew by 2 million in the past decade, on pace to be largest share of state by 2021,"The Texas Tribune's Alexa Ura and Anna Novak -- "Texas’ Hispanic population has grown by more than 2 million since 2010, according to new population estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau, and the state's demographer now predicts that Hispanics will be the state's largest population group by mid-2021.
An annual gain of 201,675 between July 2018 and July 2019 pushed the count of Hispanic residents to more than 11.5 million, the census estimates show. Although annual growth has slowed slightly in recent years, the new figures put a sharp point on how quickly the Hispanic population continues to climb. The annual growth in Hispanic residents has outpaced the combined growth among white, Black and Asian residents every year since 2010.
Texas still has a bigger white population — up to 11.95 million last year — but it grew by just 36,440 last year and by about half a million since 2010. White population growth has been so sluggish this decade that the increase in the number of Asian Texans, who make up a small share of the total population, has almost caught up with the increase in white Texans.
The latest estimates could be the last to come in before lawmakers embark on redrawing the state’s congressional and legislative maps in 2021 to account for population growth — a fraught exercise that has previously led to drawn-out litigation over claims that new maps discriminate against voters of color who are behind the state’s growth. During the last redistricting cycle, Hispanics accounted for about 65% of that growth. With a year of growth left to be accounted for, their share of Texas’ population increase since 2010 is at nearly 54%." Texas Tribune
"7 people die in car crash during Texas Border Patrol chase," via AP-- "Seven people were killed and three others were injured when a car being pursued by the Border Patrol smashed into a building in a Texas border city early Thursday, authorities said.
El Paso Police Sgt. Robert Gomez said the victims were all inside a four-door car when it crashed shortly after 2:15 a.m. The three injured people were taken to hospitals, where they are in stable condition, he said.
The ages and nationalities of the victims weren’t immediately known, Gomez said.
Gomez said the Border Patrol was trying to stop the car for a failure to yield violation.
The Border Patrol said in a statement that the agency is cooperating with the police investigation and that the crash was also under review by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility." AP
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
"Governors who quickly reopened backpedal as virus surges,"AP's Paul J. Weber -- "When Texas began lifting coronavirus restrictions, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott didn’t wear a mask. He wouldn’t let mayors enact extra precautions during one of America’s swiftest efforts to reopen. He pointed out that the White House backed his plan and gave assurances there were safe ways to go out again.
Two months later, a sharp reversal is unfolding as infections surge.
The backpedaling is not just in Texas, where Abbott abruptly halted the push to loosen more restrictions and is now urgently telling people to stay home. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, also a Republican, did the same, declaring the state “on pause” as hospitals accelerate toward capacity.
As an alarming coronavirus resurgence sets records for confirmed cases and hospitalizations across the U.S. South and West, governors are retreating to measures they once resisted and striking a more urgent tone.
“I think they’re going to have to,” said Dr. Mark McClellan, former head of the Food and Drug Administration. “It doesn’t take most people in a community getting sick to overwhelm health care systems.”
Critics bristle that the actions are too little, or worse, possibly too late as patients fill up intensive-care beds and the U.S. closes in on hitting all-time highs for daily confirmed cases.
And governors are not entirely bending in their resolve: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who until recently had rarely worn a face covering, has said he won’t impose statewide mask orders or delay reopening. And Abbott says shutting down the Texas economy again is a last resort.
The escalating crisis is testing governors — many of them Republicans who aggressively reopened before most of the U.S. — as pressure mounts from their biggest cities, health experts and even friendly business groups. Any move backward could land them at odds with President Donald Trump, who has sought to move on from the virus and return to the campaign stage, all while refusing to wear a mask in public." AP
"Gov. Abbott gambled Texas' reopening on contact tracing. Here’s how it went bust,"The Houston Chronicle's Jeremy Blackman -- "Gov. Greg Abbott was certain that contact tracing would help dig Texas out from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.
As he prepared to reopen the state in late April, the governor boasted that more than 1,000 tracers were in place to track down infections and advise anyone exposed to stay home. A website was up and running. Within weeks, thousands more tracers would be deployed and the technology to manage their progress available statewide.
“What that process does is, it will box in the expansion of COVID-19,” Abbott said in a press conference April 27.
But local health officials say standing up an army of tracers and the infrastructure to support them has been far more complicated than it may have seemed. Key components of state and local tracing programs were not in place as Abbott expanded reopenings in May and June, even as cases began to rise and testing for the virus fell short of expectations.
“It was a plan,” said Rebecca Fischer, an epidemiologist who leads a team of contact tracers at Texas A&M University. “I think the impression was that it was ready to roll out.”
The rushed debut, compounded by an outdated reporting system and delays in processing tests for the virus, made it difficult for tracers to head off the rise in cases now sweeping across Texas, according to health officials." Houston Chronicle
"Texas man cited with disorderly conduct over mask disputed," viaAP-- "A 47-year-old Texas man was cited for disorderly conduct Thursday after he allegedly smacked the hand of a San Antonio-area official who was trying to persuade him to put on a face covering, officials said. The man’s lawyer disputes the claim.
Terry Toller turned himself in to the Bexar County Sheriff’s office the day after he was accused of striking the hand of County Judge Nelson Wolff, who local authorities said tried to intervene as Toller berated a cashier at a Lowe’s home improvement store for requiring him to wear a mask.
Toller was taken into custody on a charge of assault on a public servant, but prosecutors dropped the felony at Wolff’s request and instead cited Toller for using profanity in a public place, said Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales. Toller could be fined up to $500, if he’s convicted of the low-level misdemeanor.
Nico LaHood, Toller’s lawyer, said his client was not yelling at the cashier and never touched Wolff. “This case was extremely overblown,” he said.
Toller was released less than three hours after he turned himself in and was not booked into jail, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.
Toller’s confrontation with Wolff, the county’s top executive, came after the judge ordered businesses to require face coverings to slow the spread of COVID-19. The order comes with a possible fine of $1,000 per violation.
Security camera footage of the Wednesday incident shows Toller swat a proffered business card out of Wolff’s hand as the two men are at the store’s checkout.
There is no audio with the footage, but LaHood said Toller’s calm demeanor as he can be seen placing items by the register shows he was not berating the cashier.
Wolff said in a statement that he told the district attorney he did not want to pursue criminal charges against Toller as it might draw focus from efforts to address the drastic rise in hospitalizations and cases of the new coronavirus.
“We do not need any distractions from our mission to make sure this virus does not continue to spread within our community,” he said." AP
"Texas prepares for showdown over sex ed," The Austin American-Statesman's Melissa Taboada -- "For the first time in two decades, the Texas State Board of Education is slated to make changes to its sex education curriculum, triggering a likely showdown between conservative and liberal state activists.
The last revisions to the health education standards were in 1997, and much of the debate is expected to revolve around issues of contraception, sexual orientation and gender identity.
The state board is holding its first public hearing on the issue Monday with a final vote on the changes in November.
Texas law requires schools that offer sex education to promote abstinence as the preferred behavior for unmarried students. Most of those lessons are relegated to middle and high school levels.
The proposed revisions remain focused on abstinence, but some groups are pushing for a more comprehensive sex education curriculum. Changes still could come and it’s up to the state board to determine whether students should learn more and be introduced to topics earlier.
Curriculum work groups comprised of school officials, teachers and health experts began the undertaking of the drafting revisions to the standards last September." Austin American-Statesman
"Judge returns Ken Paxton fraud case to his home county," via AP-- "A judge on Thursday ordered that the felony securities fraud case against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton be returned to his home county in North Texas.
State District Judge Robert Johnson in Houston agreed with a July 18 motion filed by Paxton’s attorneys that pointed out that the assignment of state District Judge George Gallagher, a Tarrant County judge, to Paxton’s case in Collin County had expired before he ordered Paxton’s case moved to Harris County.
Johnson voided the change-of-venue order and returned the case to Collin County, a conservative suburban Dallas county that is Paxton’s home.
Special prosecutors assigned to Paxton’s case had argued they were unlikely to find an impartial jury in Collin County. In opposing Paxton’s motion to void the change of venue, the prosecutors argued that the state’s 5th Court of Appeals had rejected the contention that Gallagher was not authorized to order a move. The appeals court ruled Gallagher’s authority extended until he ordered the case moved in April 2017.
“The only thing more wrong than the judge’s ruling is that it took him almost a year to make it. We’re confident the court of appeals will set it aside and keep venue in Harris County where it belongs,” said special prosecutor Brian Wice.
There was no immediate comment from Paxton or his legal team.
Paxton, who would face five to 99 years in prison if convicted, has pleaded not guilty. Even though re-elected in 2018, he has spent the bulk of his five years in office under an indictment that accuses him of improperly steering investors toward a tech startup without disclosing that he was being paid by the company.
A civil fraud case filed against Paxton by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was dismissed in March 2017." AP
"Police: Texas officer fatally shoots woman who stabbed him," viaAP-- "A North Texas police officer shot and killed a woman Thursday morning after she stabbed him and another driver after a car crash, police said.
The officer arrived at the scene of the crash in the Dallas suburb of Plano around 7 a.m. and checked on the people in both cars.
After the officer arrived, one of the drivers got a knife out of her car and began stabbing the other driver, police spokesman David Tilley said. When the officer tried to intervene the woman stabbed him in the arm and then tried to get into the passenger side of the other driver’s car, he said.
As the woman began to enter the car, the officer shot her multiple times, Tilley said.
Both drivers and the officer were taken to a hospital. The woman who was shot died of her injuries, while the officer’s and other driver’s wounds are not life threatening, Tilley said. He did not provide any of their names.
Authorities have not released details about the circumstances of the crash, its severity or why it escalated into violence. Tilley said the car driven by the woman who was shot had been stolen, but did not immediately respond to a question about who stole it.
Tilley said the officer was put on paid leave as the police department and local district attorney’s office investigate the incident.
Local media had earlier reported police saying that the woman stabbed the officer before stabbing the other drive, but Tilley said the sequence of events has since been confirmed with body camera footage." AP
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
"11 Texas immigrants detainees test positive for COVID-19," via AP-- "Eleven detainees at a South Texas family detention center have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported Thursday.
The outbreak was reported at the center near Karnes City, about 50 miles southeast of San Antonio.
Starting Monday, all of the center’s detainees were tested for COVID--19, the illness the coronavirus causes, according to court monitor Andrea Ordin. ICE officials reported the test results Thursday, and all 11 detainees who tested positive showed no symptoms but were placed under medical isolation and are being monitored for any symptoms.
It was unclear how many were tested, but the center has a capacity of 830 residents." AP
REMAINDERS
TEXAS RANGERS: "Lynn named Rangers' opening day starter over Minor, Kluber" AP
HOUSTON ASTROS: "Astros hope to move on from cheating scandal as MLB restarts" AP
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