MRT: Daily Deaths Drop Below Record High; Tropical Depression Could Hit This Weekend; Mask Mandate Helping in TX; Harris County Seeks Extra Week of EV
Here's What You Need to Know in Texas Today.
MustReadTexas.com – @MustReadTexas
BY: @MattMackowiak
FRIDAY – 07/24/20
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TOP NEWS
"Texas COVID-19 deaths drop slightly deblow latest record high," via AP-- "Daily deaths from coronavirus infections in the official Texas count fell from record levels to the third-biggest total the state recorded Thursday.
New confirmed cases reported to the state also fell.
State health officials Thursday reported 173 deaths linked to COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. That was down from Wednesday’s record of 197 deaths and last Friday’s previous high of 174. The official total death toll in Texas since outbreak tracking began in early March rose to 4,521.
The state reported 9,507 new cases, 372 off Wednesday’s total that now tops 361,000 for in Texas since tracking began. Meanwhile, 8,858 patients with confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses were hospitalized in Texas on Thursday, down from 10,893 hospitalized patients Wednesday.
The state does not include probable cases in its totals. The true number of cases is likely higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected and not feel sick.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms like fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death. The vast majority of people recover." AP
"Tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico expected to strengthen before hitting Texas,"The Dallas Morning News' Jesus Jimenez -- "A tropical depression that has developed in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to strengthen into a tropical storm before making landfall along the Texas coast this weekend, according to the National Hurricane Center.
If the tropical depression strengthens as expected, it would become Tropical Storm Hanna, the eighth named storm of the season. The system was moving west-northwest Thursday, and it is expected to reach Texas by Saturday, according to a forecast by the hurricane center.
The direct path of the tropical system is still uncertain, but it could make landfall anywhere from the Galveston area to Corpus Christi, according to the hurricane center. Much of the Texas coast is under a tropical storm watch.
The system is expected to dump to several inches of rain, resulting in flash flooding in some areas, as well as strong winds, the center said." Dallas Morning News
"Aurora Jumps Into Robo-Delivery Race With Self-Driving Truck And Van Tests In Texas," Forbes' Alan Ohnsman -- "Aurora, a Silicon Valley-based developer of software and hardware for autonomous vehicles, is expanding tests of self-driving delivery vans and trucks in Texas as the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic pushes companies that initially prioritized robotaxi services to instead focus on logistics.
In the weeks ahead the company will test a small fleet of vehicles in the Dallas-Fort Worth region operated by its Aurora Driver software and outfitted with its new “FirstLight” laser lidar sensor. It will run tests on commercial routes at the center of heavily used delivery corridors, first using some of its Chrysler Pacifica minivans modified as delivery vehicles and then followed by Class-8 semi-trucks. Aurora didn’t say how many vehicles will be used or identify companies it will be working with for the tests.
“While the Driver will ultimately move both people and goods, our first commercial product will be in trucking – where the market is largest today, the unit economics are best and the level of service requirements is most accommodating,” the company said. More than 10% of all long-haul truckers in the U.S. drive in Texas, according to Aurora. “Texas’ role as a crucial state in the movement of goods makes it a natural place for Aurora’s expanded testing. With more public road miles than any other state, Texas understands that self-driving technology will have a critical safety impact for those who drive on its roads.”
Billions of dollars have flowed into dozens of startups and subsidiaries of tech giants in the past four years to perfect the software, sensors and computing power needed for safe, reliable self-driving vehicles. Alphabet’s Waymo is the farthest along toward commercializing robotaxis, but technical hurdles and health concerns triggered by the coronavirus have complicated the timetable for that business. That’s led Waymo to place new emphasis on its Via automated logistics business and influenced a similar move by Aurora. The company is also a member of Forbes’ AI 50 list, along with startups Nuro, TuSimple and Pony.ai which are also developing autonomous delivery and trucking services." Forbes
"American, Southwest add to US airline industry's 2Q losses," AP's David Koenig -- "Two major airlines reported huge second-quarter losses Thursday, and their leaders warned that the new surge in U.S. coronavirus cases has stalled the recovery in air travel and added to their industry’s disarray.
American Airlines posted a loss of more than $2 billion, and Southwest Airlines lost $915 million. That pushed the combined second-quarter loss of the nation’s four biggest airlines to more than $10 billion.
Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said he was encouraged by a pickup in leisure travel during May and June after the dark days of March and April. Southwest added flights for July and August.
Then in the last few weeks a surge in U.S. COVID-19 cases caused bookings to fall, Kelly said. Southwest rewrote its August schedule, dropping some flights.
“We’re just going to have to be prepared to have a lot of volatility and be prepared to make frequent adjustments,” Kelly said, “because it’s really almost impossible to plan right now.”
American — with hub airports in Texas, North Carolina and Arizona and a big operation in Miami — benefited when Sun Belt states eased health restrictions in the spring to boost their economies. Bookings by small and medium businesses in Texas rose from 10,000 in April to 45,000 in June even while corporate bookings were nearly zero, executives said.
The airline added flights in June and July, hoping to capture an increase in summer leisure travel. The gambit apparently worked. However, after Labor Day about 40% of American’s revenue typically comes from business travel.
“It’s pretty unreasonable at this point to think that we’ll be anywhere close to that” this fall, said Vasu Raja, the airline’s chief revenue officer. He said American still plans to increase flying from Dallas-Fort Worth and Charlotte but will trim routes that depend on business travelers.
Analysts believe the April-through-June quarter will turn out to be the industry’s low point. The recovery, however, is likely to be slow and uneven. United Airlines executives said this week that eventually they expect revenue to rise to 50% of last year’s level — they didn’t say when — and stay around that depressed mark until a vaccine is widely available." AP
"Court upholds Alex Jones sanctions in Sandy Hook case," AP'sDave Collins -- "The Connecticut Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a sanction against Infowars host Alex Jones over an angry outburst on his web show against an attorney for relatives of some of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, who are suing him for defamation.
The court issued a 7-0 decision rejecting Jones’ claims that his comments aimed at attorney Christopher Mattei were protected by free speech rights, and upholding a lower court’s ruling that Jones violated numerous orders to turn over documents to the families’ lawyers.
The lower court judge barred Jones from filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, as a penalty for his actions.
The families of eight victims of the 2012 shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, and an FBI agent who responded to the massacre are suing Jones, Infowars and others for promoting a theory that the shooting was a hoax. A 20-year-old gunman killed 20 first-graders, six educators and himself at the school, after having killed his mother at their Newtown home.
The families said they have been subjected to harassment and death threats from Jones’ followers because of the hoax conspiracy.
Jones, whose show is based in Austin, Texas, has since said he believes the shooting occurred.
The sanction came after Jones, on Infowars last year, accused Mattei of planting child pornography that was found in email metadata files that Jones turned over to the Sandy Hook families’ lawyers. Jones’ former lawyer, Norman Pattis, who argued the case before the state Supreme Court, has said the pornography was in emails sent to Jones that were never opened.
“You’re trying to set me up with child porn,” Jones said on the show. “One million dollars, you little gang members. One million dollars to put your head on a pike.”
Jones mentioned Mattei by name and pounded on a picture of Mattei while saying, “I’m gonna kill ... Anyway I’m done. Total war. You want it, you got it.”
In Thursday’s decision, Connecticut Chief Justice Richard Robinson wrote, “We recognize that there is a place for strong advocacy in litigation, but language evoking threats of physical harm is not tolerable.”
Pattis, who withdrew as Jones’ attorney without explanation in May, said Thursday that he could no longer speak on behalf of Jones.
“Personally, I’m disappointed by the Supreme Court’s lackluster commitment to the first amendment,” Pattis said in an email to The Associated Press. “I hope Mr. Jones seeks U.S. Supreme Court review.”
An email message seeking comment was sent to Jones and Infowars on Thursday.
Joshua Koskoff, a lawyer for the families, said in a statement that the ruling was a win for the integrity of the court system.
“As other branches of government show signs of cracking under the weight of threats and falsehoods, this ruling reminds us that the courtroom is still a sacred place that remains dedicated to the truth, to precedent and to long-established rules created over centuries,” he said.
Sandy Hook families sued Jones and others in several states for defamation related to the hoax conspiracy.
Last year in one of the lawsuits, a Texas judge ordered Jones to pay $100,000 in legal fees and refused to dismiss the suit. And a jury in Wisconsin awarded $450,000 to one of the parents in his lawsuit against conspiracy theorist writers, not including Jones, who claimed the massacre never happened." AP
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
"Mask mandate appears to be helping in Texas, but experts ask Gov. Greg Abbott not to rule out a shutdown,"The Texas Tribune's Edgar Walters -- "Three weeks after Gov. Greg Abbott required Texans to wear masks, epidemiologists and disease modelers say they are cautiously optimistic that the mandate is helping the state turn a corner in its efforts to contain an outbreak that has killed more than 4,500 Texans.
Throughout the summer, Texas’ coronavirus outbreak became grimmer by the day and by almost every metric: case counts, hospitalizations, deaths. But in the past week or so, Abbott and some of the state’s public health officials began to see hope in the daily case counts as they appeared to stabilize.
A growing body of evidence points to widespread mask-wearing as an effective strategy for containing the virus, and one North Texas researcher’s statistical analysis published this week argued that local mask orders in the region reduced viral transmission enough to avoid a lockdown. The governor, who has faced blistering criticism for his handling of the pandemic from members of his own political party, immediately seized upon those findings in defense of his statewide order.
“A community lock down is not needed as long as masks & other distancing strategies are used,” Abbott wrote Monday on Twitter, citing the analysis by Rajesh Nandy, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of North Texas Health Science Center." Texas Tribune
2020
"Citing pandemic, Harris County clerk seeks extra week of early voting for November election," The Houston Chronicle's Zach Despart -- "Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins has asked Gov. Greg Abbott to extend the early voting period for the November general election to ensure residents can cast ballots safely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a letter to the governor Wednesday, Hollins asked for at least one additional week of balloting, and urged Abbott to set a schedule by the end of July. Early voting is scheduled to begin Oct. 19; Election Day is Nov. 3.
“It is crucial that elections officials and voters know the amount of time early voting will take place so that the many required complicated elections plans may be undertaken,” Hollins wrote. “Without that information, full planning and preparation for this important election cannot be undertaken.”
A spokesman for Abbott did not respond to a request for comment. Hollins noted that Abbott added extra days of early voting during the July primary runoffs, which were rescheduled from May because of the pandemic.
More than 1 million Harris County voters are expected to cast ballots in the November presidential election, which may be the highest-turnout contest in county history.
Hollins, who was appointed to the post in June, said elections officials must provide a way for voters to socially distance at the polls. They must also be able to provide personal protective equipment to election staff and convince enough of those workers to work during the outbreak.
In the July runoff, the county clerk’s office placed voting machines six feet apart, expanded curbside voting and provided masks and face shields to election workers, among other safety precautions.
The Harris County Democratic Party supports more early voting in the fall, chairwoman Lillie Schecter said, especially because the party unsuccessfully sought to expand mail-in voting.
The county Republican party did not respond to a request for comment.
During the primary runoff, Hollins sent each voter 65 an older a mail ballot application, a departure from the previous practice of requiring voters to request one. An unusually high number of voters cast ballots in that election." Houston Chronicle
"Securing American superiority: How the US is countering the rise of China," The Houston Chronicle's Taylor Goldenstein -- "Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, known nationally for his legal efforts to roll back policies enacted by President Barack Obama, was named one of four co-chairs of the new Lawyers for Trump coalition.
The Trump campaign, in announcing the creation of the group, said its goal would be to “mobilize support for President Trump and secure four more years of strong leadership.”
Paxton, who last year served as the chair of the Republican Attorneys General Association, joins co-chairs Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, California National Committeewoman of the Republican National Committee Harmeet Dhillons and former Deputy White House Counsel Stefan Passantino.
Other members of the group include Republican attorneys general Kevin Clarkson of Alaska; Lynn Fitch of Mississippi; Tim Fox of Montana; Jeff Landry of Louisiana; Steve Marshall of Alabama; Jason Ravnsborg of South Dakota; and Eric Schmitt of Missouri.
Trump’s personal attorneys, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and William Consovoy, a veteran Supreme Court litigator, are also part of the campaign.
The top criminal prosecutor in Texas, Paxton continues to await trial after being indicted five years ago on felony securities fraud charges." Houston Chronicle
TEXANS IN DC
"Securing American superiority: How the US is countering the rise of China," The Houston Chronicle's Ben Wermund -- "As Congress negotiates the next coronavirus relief package, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is pushing for it to target relief to Latinos, with polls showing that nearly 30 percent of their households in Texas didn’t get economic stimulus checks or any other support from the federal coronavirus relief bill passed in March.
Among the biggest issues: The last round of stimulus checks did not go to as many as 940,000 Texans who are citizens or legal U.S. residents because their spouses or parents entered the country without legal authorization, according to estimates by the Migration Policy Institute. Members of such “mixed-status” families were cut out of the stimulus aid.
Yet the coronavirus has disproportionately hammered the Hispanic community. Latinos made up 35 percent of all COVID-19 cases for which data on race and ethnicity were available as of July 1, according to a recent report by national advocacy group UnidosUS. Latinos make up 19 percent of the U.S. population. The same data show that Latinos account for 55 percent of all confirmed COVID-19 cases in children.
“Sadly, our fellow Texans — particularly Latinos and communities of color — are now bearing the brunt of this suffering,” U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a San Antonio Democrat who chairs the CHC, wrote in a letter to U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas. “It is imperative that the federal government take robust action to provide the assistance that our constituents desperately need.”
More than three-quarters of Latinos in Texas are worried that they wouldn’t be able to afford COVID-19 treatment if they got sick, according to a May poll by the two advocacy groups. Nearly 60 percent of Latinos, meanwhile, say they have struggled to buy food, medicine and household items, while 40 percent are having trouble making rent or mortgage payments.
Over the last two months, rapid case growth among Hispanic residents has drastically outpaced COVID-19 spread among other ethnicities, Hearst Newspapers reported, with up to 65 percent of those hospitalized being of Hispanic ethnicity. Experts say language barriers and lack of translated health information are a big reason.
Castro is pushing for the next relief package to include provisions included in the version that House Democrats passed earlier this year that would, among other things, direct stimulus checks to anyone who pays taxes, including those with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, used by many undocumented immigrants to pay federal taxes.
He is also calling for automatic extension of work permits for people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and those with temporary protected status, which the House legislation would do, as well. Texas is home to more than 106,000 DACA recipients, according to estimates by the Migration Policy Institute. Castro’s letter says there are 48,600 people with temporary protected status in Texas.
All told, as many as 2.4 million Texas immigrants and their families — including those who are in the country illegally — didn’t get stimulus checks the federal government cut earlier this year." Houston Chronicle
Kay Granger guest column: "Securing American superiority: How the US is countering the rise of China," via The Hill -- "As many of us were growing up, America became the wealthiest, most prosperous, and dominant country the world has ever seen. We led in manufacturing, scientific development, education, and so much more. However, as the world has become more connected, we have seen the rapid rise of China.
While staggering growth has brought a higher quality of life to the Chinese people, it has also bolstered the global influence of the Chinese Community Party. China’s rapid industrialization, along with a political system that shuts down any dissent, has catapulted them into the status of a global superpower.
We often hear about how significant the threat from China is. From space technology to deceptive trading practices, the Chinese are challenging America’s role in the world in almost every area imaginable. These concerns are well founded, and I share them.
But there are many steps that Congress and the U.S. government are taking to counter destructive actions by the Chinese and maintain American global superiority for the decades to come.
One of my greatest concerns is our reliance on China for pharmaceutical and medical equipment." The Hill
Chip Roy guest column: "Swamp politics is threatening the nation's refineries," via The Washington Examiner -- "While refineries across the nation work overtime to produce the fuels that make us go, and more recently, even the hand sanitizers we use to fight COVID-19, politics surrounding the 15-year-old Renewable Fuel Standard threaten to shut them down.
The RFS was put in place in 2005 amid rising fuel costs, war in the Middle East, and uncertainty about our domestic energy future. A lot has changed. The United States now leads the world in energy production, surpassing all expectations at that time. The RFS is, therefore, obsolete policy, propped up only by regional politicos and agribusiness lobbyists who benefit from its inflexible mandates. But the swamp does not easily surrender a good deal.
The RFS requires refiners to blend corn-based ethanol into the nation’s fuel supply at levels set each year by bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency. This annual determination is called the Renewable Volume Obligation. If a refinery cannot blend ethanol, it is required to buy EPA-created compliance credits called RINs, whose price is being run up by Wall Street speculators and hoarders. This is throttling refineries across the country, causing many to spend more on compliance with an obsolete policy than they do on payroll. This issue, coupled with COVID-driven reduced demand, puts refineries in a no-win situation made all the worse by failure to adjust this government mandate.
If elected officials take anything away from the pandemic response, I hope we learn that it is not in the U.S. national security or economic interest to depend on China and other foreign governments for essential goods. To ensure against this, we need robust domestic manufacturing. But if a wave of refineries across the country become uncompetitive because of government mandates like the RFS, it will undermine our independence from gasoline price shocks and raw material availability." Washington Examiner
REMAINDERS
HOUSTON ROCKETS: "Rockets poised to make deep playoff run after delays" AP
DALLAS MAVERICKS: "Restart sets up Mavs' Doncic, Porzingis for playoff debuts" AP
SAN ANTONIO SPURS: "Spurs' 22-year playoff streak on line as NBA restart begins" AP
DALLAS COWBOYS: "Cowboys, rookie WR Lamb agree on $14 million, 4-year deal" AP
HOUSTON DYNAMO: "LA Galaxy salvage 1-1 draw against Houston in MLS tournament" AP
'MACK ON POLITICS' PODCAST
LATEST "MACK ON POLITICS" PODCAST: John Solomon is our returning guest for the 197th episode.
John is the co-author of the new book, “Fallout: Nuclear Bribes, Russian Spies, and the Washington Lies that Enriched the Clinton and Biden Dynasties”.
In this conversation, we explore the purpose of the book, what the central revelation is, how Uranium sales and Ukraine fit in, what he’s learned about the Steele Dossier, what his reporting has found about Roger Stone, George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, what he expected from the Durham Report, what questions he still has about the false Russian collusion story, how he answers his critics, and why he started his own news site.
Available on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher and on the web at http://www.MackOnPoliticsPodcast.com.
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