Headlines / Quote of the Week
Fri., June 28, 2024
Dropping the Mike Ramos Murder Case: After a Travis County jury deadlocked last year over whether Austin police officer Christopher Taylor’s killing of Michael Ramos constituted murder, prosecutors said they’d bring it to trial again. But on Tuesday a grand jury declined to indict Taylor on charges stemming from Ramos’ death including manslaughter and murder. Read more online.
A Year of Dobbs: In Texas, which is home to 10% of the country’s women of reproductive age, there used to be about 4,400 abortions a month. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs decision, the average in Texas is now five per month, according to state data reported by The Texas Tribune.
Abortion Ban and Infant Deaths Linked: Meanwhile, a new study in JAMA Pediatrics found a surge in infant mortality in Texas after highly restrictive abortion bans took effect – between 2021 and 2022, infant deaths in Texas increased 12.9%, compared to just a 1.8% in the rest of the country. The death rates of babies younger than 28 days also increased in Texas by 5.8% while it decreased in the rest of the U.S., researchers found.
What Austinites Want from Police: A survey of 1,200 anonymous Austinites asked what they want to see in the Austin Police Department’s next chief. The Statesman got the results from a public records request. Choosing from a list of options, the most popular selection was the double-barreled and apolitical statement “courage to defend officers and staff when they are right and hold them accountable when they are not.” When asked what the chief’s priorities should be, the most popular answer was crime prevention, followed by recruitment and retention, followed by training on issues such as deescalation and racial profiling.
Renters vs Owners: A Harvard study found that Austin has one of the highest rates of segregation between homeowners and renters in U.S. cities, KUT reported Tuesday. A contributing factor was what researchers call rental deserts – neighborhoods where fewer than one in five homes are rented. And going deeper, researchers posited that zoning may be one reason for these rental deserts.
Rent Dropping, Thank God: Austin is experiencing the longest sustained drop in rent prices in a decade, according to data from Zillow reported by KUT. Rent prices have decreased by about 6% year over year. During the pandemic we saw high demand, lots of new builds, and rent prices rising at an unprecedented pace. The population surge has since slowed, while tens of thousands of new apartments are still opening.
No Debate Here After All: Remember how Texas State University was set to host a presidential debate in September, marking the first ever held in Texas? Well, never mind. The Commission on Presidential Debates announced none of the four universities selected as possible debate venues would actually host one.
Kyle Gets More Water: Kyle, just south of Austin, keeps running out of water. They already have four sources of water, but a new water pipeline being built will draw water from a fifth source: the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer. They’ll be able to use this new pipeline as soon as early 2025, KUT reports. It’ll add about 1.7 million gallons of water per day to Kyle’s supply.
Gender-Affirming Care for Minors: The U.S. Supreme Court will wade into the debate over gender-affirming care for minors for the first time, hearing arguments over a Tennessee law that bans that care. The Biden administration, along with trans teens, challenged the Tennessee law. Texas’ Supreme Court will rule on the legality of our own gender-affirming health care ban this year, before SCOTUS gets to the Tennessee case, The Texas Tribune reported.
More Mental Health Hospitals: Texas will start building seven new state psychiatric hospital projects in 2024 amid a mental health crisis. Lawmakers approved $1.5 billion last year to renovate and build new facilities statewide. The state currently operates nine state hospitals and one treatment center for youth, The Texas Tribune reports.
Giddy Ups Getting Ousted: Longtime South Austin honky-tonk Giddy Ups is being forced to close after 25 years, per the landlord’s choice. They’re looking for a new location and will close the existing space in August. “We call it gentrification and an unsatisfiable act of greed, you might call it progress,” an announcement said. Read more online.
Juneteenth Suspected Shooters: Round Rock police have arrested two suspects in a deadly shooting that took place at a Juneteenth celebration earlier this month. Both are teenage boys.
Slow and Spendy Wins the Race: School vouchers, which divert public school money to pay for private school tuition, have faced an uphill battle in the Texas Legislature for a long time as Democrats and rural Republicans banded together to block it. A Texas Tribune and ProPublica investigation published this week found that after decades of lobbying from conservative Christians with deep pockets, vouchers may finally have the votes needed.
Restraint Remains: In an 8-1 decision, SCOTUS ruled Friday in a major gun rights case out of Texas that protective orders can bar people accused of domestic violence from owning firearms, The Texas Tribune reported. Zackey Rahimi, a Texas man, unsuccessfully claimed it’s unconstitutional. “Since the Founding, the Nation’s firearm laws have included regulations to stop individuals who threaten physical harm to others from misusing firearms,” the opinion reads.
Fun Frog Facts: There’s more than just birds and katydids chirping in your neighborhood. This week, KUT’s Mose Buchele revealed the source of the mysterious creaking sounds in our backyards. Though a lot of people never see them, there are chirping frogs all around us in Austin. UT amphibian expert Tom Devitt revealed lots of fun nuggets about these unusual frogs: They don’t need much water, they don’t have a tadpole stage, and while most frogs simply fertilize their eggs in water and leave them, chirping frogs raise their froggy children.
Quote of the Week
“It’s fascinating that we have biodiversity around us that we know almost nothing about.”
– UT-Austin amphibian expert Tom Devitt, discussing chirping frogs often heard but hardly seen in Austin
Got something to say on the subject? Send a letter to the editor.
