Headlines / Quote of the Week
Fri., Aug. 9, 2024
VP’s VP: Have you seen the picture of him holding a pig and smiling ear to ear? On Tuesday, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to run as her VP. Walz is a former geography teacher, football coach, and 24-year military veteran who communicates easily with urban and rural voters. As governor, he signed into law free school meals, paid family and sick leave, marijuana legalization, and reproductive rights protections. He is credited as having described Trump and the current crop of fascist Republicans as “weird” in late July, a bit of messaging that has gone viral.
911 Cyberattack: A cyberattack interfered with 911 operations in Austin on Sunday, KUT reported. Intermittent 911 outages happened due to a denial-of-service attack in which hackers flooded call centers with robocalls. It affected Austin, Cedar Park, Hays County and Lakeway.
Suing Over the Glitch: Speaking of tech chaos, the worldwide glitch caused by an update to Microsoft systems created a cascade of legal issues for the Austin-based cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. A proposed class action lawsuit filed in Austin accuses CrowdStrike of negligence. Also, Delta’s CEO said there is “no choice” but to sue since they lost $500 million, the Statesman reports.
Dell Downsizing: After years of growth, the tech industry is scrambling. Now, mass layoffs have reached the Austin-born and Round Rock-based Dell. A memo to employees Monday described Dell’s decision to downsize its sales staff and some managerial positions. Already from February 2023 to February 2024, the company lost 10% of its workforce, the Statesman reports. The Monday memo describes an emphasis on artificial intelligence.
Devastating Detention: Texas is violating the constitutional rights of the children held in its five juvenile detention facilities, the U.S. Department of Justice declared last week. The Texas Tribune reports the five facilities, scattered across the state and run by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, are accused of routinely exposing children to excessive force and prolonged isolation; failing to protect them from sexual abuse; and failing to provide adequate mental health services. According to the DOJ, there are currently about 700 children ages 10-19 in the department’s custody and 65 percent have significant mental health issues.
Admitting Heat Can Kill: Director Rick Linklater was on hand at a hearing last Friday in Austin federal court over a lawsuit arguing that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is cooking prisoners to death by failing to install air conditioning in its prisons. Currently, only about one in three of the system’s 130,000 prisoners live in air-conditioned cells. There have been persistent reports linking the heat to prisoners’ deaths, something TDCJ routinely denies. Linklater’s friend Bernhardt Tiede, the subject of his movie Bernie, filed the lawsuit last year after collapsing in a cell where a temperature of 112 degrees had been recorded days earlier. TDCJ Director Bryan Collier admitted on Friday that heat was partially responsible for three prisoner deaths last year.
Under and Above I-35: Austin leaders would like to sink I-35 below ground on its passage through Downtown over the next decade, as the highway is remade by the Texas Department of Transportation, and cap it with a park. This week KUT’s Nathan Bernier dove into a successful template in Dallas for such a development: Klyde Warren Park, which sits over the sunken Woodall Rodgers Freeway. Finished in 2012, Klyde Warren Park has become one of Dallas’ most popular gathering spaces, with a splash pad, food trucks, a dog park, and 247 trees.
Chronicle Suit Dismissed: A federal judge has thrown out The Austin Chronicle as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse and trafficking. Last fall, an Austin woman sued Chronicle co-founder and former Editor Louis Black and the paper itself, claiming that Black coerced her into a “state of sexual servitude.” A federal judge found no evidence of the paper’s involvement in any such offenses.
AISD Leader Arrested: Austin ISD’s Chief Financial Officer Eduardo Ramos was arrested on felony insurance fraud charges last week, according to reporting by the Statesman. He’s on paid leave and a district spokesperson said, “The arrest does not involve any alleged criminal activity related to his work on behalf of Austin ISD or with any Austin ISD staff, faculty, or students.”
Mayoral Missteps (Maybe): A former member of the city’s Ethics Review Commission has filed ethics complaints against two mayoral candidates – Kirk Watson and one of his three challengers, Doug Greco. Betsy Greenberg alleged that Watson and Greco both received more than the $46,000 allowed by the charter from sources other than natural persons eligible to vote in the listed ZIP codes, the Austin Bulldog reported.
Censorship Costs: A nearly decadelong legal saga over Gov. Greg Abbott’s censorship of a Bill of Rights display has finally ended this week with the state paying $358,073 in attorneys’ fees to the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Medical Money: Central Health will hold the first of three August sessions to consider the hospital district’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2025. The public may sign up to address the board. The proposed 2025 tax rate amounts to a $66 annual increase for the average household.
Facebook Pays for Biometric Thievery: On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that he had squeezed a $1.4 billion settlement out of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, for the platform’s attempts to collect biometric data from subscribers without their consent.
UT Ready for Battle: Resentment and distrust between UT administrators and faculty continues at a full boil. Last week, a group of faculty – the Committee of Counsel on Academic Freedom and Responsibility – charged in a 21-page report that UT officials improperly arrested at least 60 students without cause during the pro-Palestine demonstrations in April.
Water Problems Ain’t Over Yet: Okay, this has been a miracle summer. The rains in July helped ease drought anxiety. But Austin Water is thinking ahead, and recently unveiled new potable water reuse plans for severe water shortages, the Monitor reported. They plan to recapture effluent wastewater – treated sewage – and return it to Lady Bird Lake, where it would reintegrate into potable water supply.
Quote of the Week
“These guys are creepy and yes, just weird as hell.”
– Kamala Harris’ Vice Presidential Pick Tim Walz referring to Donald Trump and JD Vance
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