City Council meets today, March 1, with a relatively short agenda, including confirming paid sick leave for the city’s part-time and temp workers, another Champion Tract zoning case, and a big contract decision for digital community outreach. “Council: Buckets Before Vendors,” March 2.
Cervi’s in Service: Austin ISD hired Bob Cervi as executive director of Construction Management and Facilities, replacing Gordon King and Paul Turner, who both announced their retirement last month. (The district folded their two positions into one.) Cervi spent the past three years as Chief Operations Operator at Round Rock ISD, and before that working for Eanes ISD.
The Alamo’s Baker School redevelopment hit a snag Tuesday night when the Planning Commission postponed their expected approval after architects revealed that the development might be commercial rather than residential, as planned.
A federal court jury found Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, guilty of 11 counts of fraud stemming from his connection with FourWinds Logistics, a defunct oilfield services company that ran a Ponzi scheme against its investors. His colleagues in the Senate Democratic Caucus are calling for his resignation. The attorney has no plans to step down and says he’ll appeal the jury’s decision.
Our dear leader Don Trump dropped into Texas politics on Tuesday, tweeting that his “many Texas friends” should vote for Greg Abbott, Ted Cruz, Dan Patrick, and Ken Paxton. He later added George P. Bush, Sid Miller, Glenn Hegar, and Christi Craddick. So, front-running Republicans.
Snubbed by SCOTUS: The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to pick up the DACA appeal requested by the Trump administration after two federal judges allowed the program to keep going. So for now, DACA recipients can continue to turn in application renewals. SCOTUS also ruled that immigrants held by the government and facing deportation have no right to a bond release hearing, even after serving years in detention.
Speaking of SCOTUS, the high court set a date for the Texas redistricting case: April 24. The case will determine if Texas legislators racially discriminated when creating electoral maps. A decision is expected mid-summer.
A new report from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, reconfirms similar studies about immigrants and crime: An analysis of DPS data from 2015 reflects that the state criminal conviction and arrest rates for immigrants overall were well below those of native-born Americans, and the conviction and arrest rates for even illegal immigrants were lower than those for native-born Americans, over a wide range of crimes. See “Criminal Immigrants in Texas,” Feb. 26, at www.cato.org.
This article appears in March 2 • 2018.