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HISD keeps schools open, going against own COVID plan

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HISD keeps schools open, going against own COVID plan

Houston ISD campuses remained open for in-person instruction Monday, despite county COVID-19 statistics meeting a threshold that district officials had said would trigger the immediate closure of schools.

In the district’s reopening plan, Houston ISD officials wrote that employees would work from home and students would learn virtually if Harris County’s COVID-19 test positivity rate averaged more than 7 percent over a 14-day period. On Monday, Harris County’s COVID-19 dashboard put the 14-day average percent of positive tests at 7.4 percent.

Houston ISD officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Schools in Texas’ largest school district reopened for in-person instruction on Oct. 19, but 16 campuses closed the following day due to presumptive positive and confirmed cases of the new coronavirus. On Wednesday, officials walked back their criteria for closing campuses due to infections, requiring there be at least two confirmed cases of COVID-19 before shutting down individual school buildings. Previously, a single suspected or confirmed case would trigger a campus closure.

Michelle Williams, president of the Houston Education Association and a math interventionist at Kashmere High School, said she worried Houston ISD officials were “moving the goalpost” on their COVID-19 plans by not closing down campuses after the county positivity rate rose above 7 percent.

“Teachers come with it and expose students, and vice versa, and then it goes home and you have more community spread,” Williams said. “If you look at the coronavirus, it’s an exponential growth model. Based on what’s happening across the nation, we know the positive rate is going to increase.”

Schools across the state are limited in how long they can close after COVID-19 infections under current Texas Education Agency guidance. School districts themselves set their own criteria for when to close individual campuses due to positive cases of COVID-19, but TEA rules say campuses can be closed for a maximum of five days.

Entire districts were allowed to spend the first four weeks of the school year online, and school boards could apply for a waiver that would allow them to remain virtual for an additional four weeks. Houston ISD’s waiver to keep students learning remotely expires Nov. 2. Texas Education Agency officials did not immediately respond to questions about district-wide closures outside of the 8-week waiver window.

However, TEA did grant a two-week waiver extension to El Paso ISD, and several other school districts after that area experienced a surge in COVID-19 cases that has strained local hospitals. El Paso education officials said on Twitter that TEA would monitor COVID-19 conditions and review the waiver extension on a week-to-week basis.

Unless such a waiver extension is granted to Houston ISD, the district cannot close all of its schools due to the community spread of COVID-19 alone after Nov. 2.

Williams said she hopes the state will allow HISD to return to remote instruction.

“I’m confident if they have done it for one school district, they’ll do it for HISD,” Williams said

We’re Celebrating – And You’re Invited

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We’re Celebrating – And You’re Invited

New survey links SW Houston conditions to greater burden of chronic disease

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New survey links SW Houston conditions to greater burden of chronic disease

Southwest Houstonians have a greater burden of chronic disease than residents of other parts of the county and state, according to a new survey.

The survey, conducted by the Texas Health Institute, identified neighborhood conditions as a major reason why southwest Houston’s diabetes rate is 72 percent higher than Harris County’s overall rate and why its hypertension rate is 60 percent higher than Memorial Park’s and 33 percent higher than Hunter’s Creek’s.

Many Southwest residents can’t afford or access fresh produce and issues like crime and a lack of walkable space are barriers to exercise.

“These are deep-seated problems that time hasn’t changed,” said Nadia Siddiqui, director of health equity programs for the Texas Health Institute. “What came back loud and clear in the survey is that area residents know it’s not just about health care. They know that safety, access to healthy food, and other socioeconomic factors are just as critical to their health.”

Siddiqui said COVID-19 not only exposed but further exacerbated southwest Houston’s challenges. She called the area’s conditions “a perfect storm” even before the pandemic hit and emphasized that making the community better able to withstand future crises will require a greater investment in the area’s health infrastructure.

The survey was commissioned by the Memorial Hermann Health System in connection with its initiative to tackle issues that contribute to chronic disease at the community level rather than wait for people to show up at its hospitals. The initiative includes upgrading parks, a partnership with the Houston Food Bank, and school-based clinics.

Dr. David Callender, president of Memorial Hermann, said the system hopes to create a model for how to improve the health of other communities based on the initiative. He said southwest Houston, where the system has a hospital and existing programs, is “at the top of the list of Houston’s neediest areas.”

“Most hospitals today focus on treatment, the core of what we do,” said Callender. “But treating the same patient for the same preventable condition doesn’t help the patient or the community’s overall health. We must find a way to prevent illness in the first place. We need to focus on health as well as health care.”

Kamala Harris to make campaign stop in Texas

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Kamala Harris to make campaign stop in Texas

Harris will be the highest-profile representative from the Biden campaign to visit Texas in person during the general election.

 

Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s running mate, and the California U.S. senator, will be visiting Texas on Friday, according to an email Biden’s campaign sent to Democratic lawmakers in Texas on Sunday.

Harris will be the highest-profile representative of the Biden campaign to visit Texas in person during the general election, though his campaign was already set to spend millions of dollars on TV ads in Texas.

“Allow me to provide as a courtesy, the below in-person travel notification for Sen. Kamala Harris which will be publicly released momentarily,” the email reads. “Sen. Kamala Harris will be personally traveling to Texas on Friday – October 30. 2020.”

Her visit comes as polls project a tight presidential race in Texas. According to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll, Trump leads Biden in the state by 5 percentage points. Trump won Texas by 9 points in 2016.

n the lead-up to Election Day, Texas Democrats have called for both Biden and Harris to invest heavily in Texas. In an October op-ed in The Washington Post, former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who endorsed Biden after dropping his own presidential bid, and Tory Gavito, the president and co-founder of the progressive donor network Way to Win, urged the Biden campaign to steer serious money to the state.

“Biden, his campaign and Democrats in general need to make it clear: We are competing in Texas, and we’ll invest whatever it takes to turn out the state’s true electoral majority and flip Texas once and for all,” they wrote. “Democrats have historically failed to invest in Texas, despite the size of this prize, because they believed the door is closed to Democratic presidential candidates. But, like many things in 2020, this year is different — Biden has his foot in the door and needs to kick it open for a quick end to the election.”

Biden expanded his on-the-ground presence in Texas in September, hiring 13 more staff members — after an initial hiring announcement in early August — to his team.

Biden’s wife, Jill Biden, visited Texas earlier this month to mark the state’s first day of early voting. She rallied voters in El Paso, Dallas, and Houston, telling them a historic opportunity was within reach.

“For the first time in a long time, winning Texas is possible,” Jill Biden said in El Paso. “Not just for Joe, but for the Senate and the state House as well. And if we win here, we are unstoppable.”

Prior to that, Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff, spent two days in the state, swinging through the Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, and Dallas.

Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign has long dismissed the notion that the state is in play.

Though Texas GOP Chair Allen West expressed hope that the president would visit North Texas before Election Day, campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh and former Secretary of Energy Rick Perry told supporters on a press call Sunday that Trump would not visit the state in the lead-up to Nov. 3.

Trump “will be in battleground states,” Perry said. “Texas is not a battleground state.”

The Texas Democratic Party declined to comment on Harris’ upcoming visit. In a statement to The Texas Tribune, spokesman Abhi Rahman took issue with Perry’s comment.

“Rick Perry is either delusional or in denial — or a combination of both. Texas is the biggest battleground state, period,” he said. “Poll after poll shows that Texas is up for grabs and the Trump campaign still doesn’t give a damn about the votes or the lives of Texans.”

 

27th Named Tropical Storm Zeta Forms

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27th Named Tropical Storm Zeta Forms
What is the danger?
Tropical Storm Zeta has formed southeast of the Yucatan Peninsula. Zeta is the 27th named storm of the 2020 Hurricane Season. According to the National Hurricane Center, Zeta is currently moving northwest as it approaches the Gulf of Mexico. At this time, it is unlikely that Zeta will impact Texas, but residents should monitor for changes to the forecast throughout the week.
Image did not load.
What you should do:
Hurricane Season does not end until November 30th. While Tropical Storm Zeta is unlikely to impact Texas, you should still take time to make sure you and your family are prepared.
 
MAKE A PLAN
STAY INFORMED

Texas Supreme Court allows Abbott’s mail-in ballot order to continue

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Texas Supreme Court allows Abbott’s mail-in ballot order to continue

Gov. Greg Abbott’s controversial order to limit Texas counties to one mail-ballot drop-off site was allowed to remain in effect Saturday by the Texas Supreme Court.

The court blocked a previous appellate court ruling that had briefly struck down Abbott’s order, which was widely decried by voting rights groups as a voter-suppression tactic. The lawsuit to overturn Abbott’s order is still pending.

In Harris County, more than 1 million voters have cast ballots during early voting, shattering previous records. Multiple drop-off sites had been set up for voters until Abbott issued his order, which he said would “stop attempts at illegal voting.”

State District Judge Tim Sulak had previously ruled that Abbott’s order would “needlessly and unreasonably increase risks of exposure to COVID-19 infections” and undermine the constitutionally protected rights of residents to vote, “as a consequence of increased travel and delays, among other things.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office issued a statement commending the Supreme Court’s ruling for blocking Sulak’s “unlawful injunction.”

One million people have now voted during Early Voting in Harris County

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One million people have now voted during Early Voting in Harris County

County leaders are hoping to push turnout even higher this weekend.

Harris County has surpassed one million ballots cast during early voting for the 2020 election with more than a week to go.

Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins took to Twitter to announce the milestone Friday afternoon.

“ONE MILLION people have now voted during Early Voting in Houston!!!  Vote at any of our 122 locations and find their wait times: http://HarrisVotes.com/Locations #HarrisVotes Hey, @JJWatt, how ’bout an RT?” Hollins tweeted, tagging the Texans star to get the word out.

The milestone came after he had already announced earlier in the day that early voting turnout in Harris County had already surpassed the total number of ballots cast during early voting in 2016.

County leaders are hoping to push turnout even higher this weekend.

They’re teaming up with the Rockets and MTV to literally roll out the red carpet for voters who show up to the Toyota Center Saturday.

The Rockets offered up their arena to handle big crowds and make voting safer during the pandemic.

The site is a first time-polling place with a first-ever option for Harris County voters to leave their mark.

More than 2,500 companies, nonprofits, and elections officials are taking part in “Vote Early Day” from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.

The early voting period in Texas runs through next Friday.

Second whistleblower fired from Texas AG’s office after accusing Ken Paxton of bribery

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Second whistleblower fired from Texas AG’s office after accusing Ken Paxton of bribery
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

A second whistleblower has been fired from the Texas attorney general’s office after reporting his boss, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, to law enforcement for crimes including bribery and abuse of office, according to a former senior official with the agency who had knowledge about the firing but did not want to be named for fear of legal repercussions.

Blake Brickman, who had served as deputy attorney general for policy and strategy initiatives for less than a year, was fired Tuesday, the official said. Lacey Mase, the deputy attorney general for administration, was also fired Tuesday, The Texas Tribune reported earlier this week.

“It was not voluntary,” Mase said of her departure from the office, but declined to comment further.

Brickman and Mase were among seven top aides in Paxton’s office who alerted law enforcement weeks ago that they believed their boss had run afoul of the law. In internal emails obtained by the Tribune, they have accused Paxton of using the power of his office to serve the financial interests of a donor, Nate Paul.

The most senior aide to Paxton, Jeff Mateer, resigned weeks ago. Paxton placed two other top aides on leave. The agency has not answered repeated questions about the employment status of the other whistleblowers, or what cause Paxton had to fire Mase and Brickman.

The Houston Chronicle first reported the news of Brickman’s firing Thursday evening.

Brickman declined to comment Thursday. He joined the agency earlier this year after working for the governor of Kentucky.

Employment attorneys say by firing the employees who alleged he had broken the law, Paxton may be walking directly into a lawsuit for violating the Texas Whistleblower Act, which protects state employees from retaliation after they accuse their superiors of crimes.

“This situation looks like what the Texas Whistleblower Act was designed to prevent. And the timing looks bad,” Jason Smith, a North Texas employment attorney, told The Texas Tribune this week.

Paxton has denied the allegations as false and dismissed the whistleblowers as “rogue employees.”

HARRIS COUNTY DISTRICT CLERK MARILYN BURGESS LAUNCHES COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY ABOUT JURY SERVICE

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HARRIS COUNTY DISTRICT CLERK MARILYN BURGESS LAUNCHES COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY ABOUT JURY SERVICE

AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY QUE ONDA MAGAZINE

QOM: Today is October 19th, Mon- day, and we are here with Harris County District Clerk, Ms. Marilyn Burgess. How are you today?

Marilyn Burgess: I’m doing great, how are you?

QOM: Just wanted to ask you a few questions regarding the jury survey that you’re putting together for the community. And I wanted to ask you, why are you launching this comprehensive survey for jury service?

Marilyn Burgess: Jury appearance rates in Harris County have been a problem, in the low 20-percent, for years. And when I came into office, I was committed to doing everything I could to increase that appearance rate. Not only do we need people to show up so that we have diverse juries, but it also costs the county a lot of money when our appearance rate is as low as 22%. And now with COVID-19 introduced to it all, it’s even worse. So we were running at about 22-23%. With COVID-19, it’s more about 12%, which you can understand. People are afraid of showing up. But I want to do something on a more permanent basis to increase the appearance rate and to increase diversity. Right now, our appearance rates were over-represented in the Caucasian community. We’re overrepresented in the Asian community. And we’re underrepresented in the African-American community and severely underrepresented in the His- panic community. The Hispanic community makes up about 43% of Harris County demographics and we have about 22% of our people who show up for jury duty who are Hispanic. It’s not as bad with the African-American community, but they are underrepresented as well. So we need to work on those minority communities to show them how important it is to show up for jury duty. It’s kind of like wearing a mask: you do that for others. Same with jury duty: you do that for others. You want to have a jury that’s representative of you, that looks like you. So you need to show up so that other people have that as well.

QOM: How are you going to conduct the survey and for how long?

Marilyn Burgess: We have engaged the services of an outside consulting firm, January Advisors. They will be conducting the survey that started onOctober12thandwillrunthrough November 1st. We’re trying to get 1,000 responses by phone, plus 1,000 responses with our online jury survey, which people can go online to complete that at www.jurysurveyhar- ris.com

QOM: So, you’ll conduct the survey from October to November?

Marilyn Burgess: Yes.

QOM: What kind of precautions is the district taking during this pandemic to bring jurors back to the courts?

Marilyn Burgess: We have worked with the Harris County Public Health Department to make sure that we make our jury assembly just as safe as it can possibly be during the midst of the pandemic. And I truly believe that our jury assembly area is as safe as anywhere you can go outside your own home. We have implemented procedures where people that are coming onto the lot at NRG Arena are asked a series of questions to see if they have been exposed to COVID-19 or are running a temperature or have any symptoms. And then when they come into the building, they’re screened with a temperature check first, and then everybody has to wear a mask. In addition to that, we’ve got hand sanitizer spread throughout the facility. We went out to NRG Arena instead of doing it here downtown because it gave us the space that was necessary to ensure that we could socially distance ourselves throughout the entire jury experience. So we keep everybody six feet apart, the rows that they are sitting in have two empty seats between them, we do seat every other row. When they go into voir dire, they’re given a clear plastic face shield so people can see their facial expressions, but they’re still protect- ed. Again, we’re just doing everything we can. The area is sanitized after every panel comes and leaves. The NRG Arena staff is very good about frequent sanitation of the common areas throughout the day several times a day. Also the restrooms and the tables where people sit to eat and the screening stations. We provide a glove so that when you check-in at our kiosk, you’re using a hand with a disposable glove so that you’re not touching the keyboard that anyone else has touched. And then that glove is disposed of.

QOM: So, when people get there, they don’t need to take their masks or sanitizers? That is all provided by the county?

Marilyn Burgess: Well, we encourage you to bring your own mask, though we do have disposable masks that are provided if you don’t have one.

QOM: Which other agencies are partnering with the survey program?

Marilyn Burgess: We have reached out to the Commissioners Court to ask them to help us promote the survey. Judge Hidalgo has committed to promoting it on her website and social media. Mayor Sylvester Turner has also agreed to promote it on his site. What we’re looking for is, I think I know the reasons people don’t show up and what it’s going to take to increase the appearance rate, but I need statistically sound data to back it up to take it to the court to take it to approve any changes I want to make. This court is definitely data-driven, so we want to have scientifically sound data that support the request that we take back to the court, whether that’s an increase in juror pay, transportation vouchers, childcare vouchers, paid to park. We need to find out what it will take to make a difference to actually increase the appearance rate, particularly in our minority communities. That’s what we will go to court to ask for.

QOM: What happens when you start seeing the results that you’re waiting for and the results are not good, such as people not wanting to come to jury duty? What would you do if the numbers are low?

Marilyn Burgess: Jury service was suspended back in March, and it did not resume until July, and that was just for grand jurors. No trials. And then in August, we had one jury call for one trial. September, we had several. October, we had even more. So they’re beginning to increase. They’re trying to get back to normal. But that result of not having any jury trials from March until one in August has definitely created a huge backlog. So it’s taking people longer to get their case to trial. What we have seen, now that we have implemented resuming jury service and calling jurors, there’s a lot of cases that ask for a jury, they settle before they can get a jury. They know that we’re going to provide you with a jury, so you’re either going to go to trial or you need to settle. And before, nobody was motivated to settle because you go to trial if you don’t. Not that it isn’t an option, a lot of cases are settling. So we’ll have, like, any cases before October on the docket that we need to call juries for, at least a third or a half of them will settle before that day. Whenever a judge asks us for a panel, my office is responsible for providing that panel. Whatever those judges ask for, that’s who we call. And that means if we have to mail out 65,000 summons in order to get 1,000 people there, that’s what we’ll do. we will get the people there, even though we know the response rate is extremely poor right now because of the pandemic.

QOM: Are you providing this information for the Hispanic community? Do you have a Spanish website for people that may have a family that speak only Spanish?

Marilyn Burgess: Our social media is posted in both English and Span- ish. We have engaged Judge Hidalgo and Mr. Garcia in reaching out to other Hispanic collected officials to help get our message out so we can reach out to the Hispanic community. Bear in mind that one of the criteria for serving as a juror is, you have to read and write in English in order to serve. That is a qualification.

QOM: Is there any message you would like to give to the community, not just Hispanic, about filling out the forms?

Marilyn Burgess, We cannot deliver justice in Harris County without jurors. They are essential to the process and we need people to show up so that people can have their day in court. They have a right to a trial by a jury of your peers is guaranteed in the Constitution. We are going to provide that, but we have to have people that are willing to serve in order to do so. It’s just like the masks: don’t do it for yourself, do it for others. And we need you.

QOM: Ms. Burgess, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate all the answers you provided us

Marilyn Burgess And we are committed to making it safe as we possibly can. We want to make it safe for the jurors to show up and all the people working in the courts. I think they’re doing an excellent job at NRG Arena. We got a really good team out there.

Hidalgo asks Abbott to confirm drive-thru voting is legal

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Hidalgo asks Abbott to confirm drive-thru voting is legal

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Thursday asked Gov. Greg Abbott in a letter to confirm that drive-thru voting is legal, amid worries that the Texas Supreme Court will block the voting method.

Hidalgo said the governor’s input is needed because Harris County officials unsuccessfully have sought an answer from Secretary of State Ruth Hughs.

The Texas Republican Party has argued to the state Supreme Court that drive-thru voting violates the Election Code, and thus should be halted. Attorney General Ken Paxton last week issued an opinion in which he suggested Harris County’s drive-thru voting option, new this year, was unlawful.

Hidalgo and County Clerk Christopher Hollins are concerned the Supreme Court may invalidate votes cast at a drive-thru sites. Hollins wrote a letter to Hughs earlier this week, asking her to affirm the legality of drive-thru voting.

“In absence of such an assurance, we can only conclude that state officials, in concert with the Texas Republican Party, are laying the groundwork to intentionally disenfranchise the tens of thousands of Harris County voters who have utilized drive-thru voting by invalidating their votes,” Hidalgo wrote to the governor. “If this were to come to pass, it would be an outrageous act of voter suppression.”

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