As cities and states push to restrict the use of facial recognition technologies, some police departments have quietly found a way to keep using the controversial tools: asking for help from other law enforcement agencies that still have access.

Officers in Austin and San Francisco — two of the largest cities where police are banned from using the technology — have repeatedly asked police in neighboring towns to run photos of criminal suspects through their facial recognition programs, according to a Washington Post review of police documents. In San Francisco, the workaround didn’t appear to help. Since the city’s ban took effect in 2019, the San Francisco Police Department has asked outside agencies to conduct at least five facial recognition searches, but no matches were returned, according to a summary of those incidents submitted by the department to the county’s board of supervisors last year.

SFPD spokesman Evan Sernoffsky said these requests violated the city ordinance and were not authorized by the department, but the agency faced no consequences from the city. He declined to say whether any officers were disciplined because those would be personnel matters. Austin police officers have received the results of at least 13 face searches from a neighboring police department since the city’s 2020 ban — and have appeared to get hits on some of them, according to documents obtained by The Post through public records requests and sources who shared them on the condition of anonymity.

“That’s him! Thank you very much,” one Austin police officer wrote in response to an array of photos sent to him by an officer in Leander, Tex., who ran a facial recognition search, documents show. The man displayed in the pictures, John Curry Jr., was later charged with aggravated assault for allegedly charging toward someone with a knife, and is currently in jail awaiting trial. Curry’s attorney declined to comment. But at least one man who was ensnared by the searches argued that police should be held to the same standards as ordinary citizens… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Vacant downtown storefronts eyed for arts, music activations to reverse downturn (Austin Monitor)

Seeking to bring more foot traffic to an area with an increasing number of vacant storefronts, the Downtown Austin Alliance is working to partner local artists and musicians with property owners interested in exposing their spaces to new potential businesses.

So far, two spaces have been named as participants in the Downtown Austin Space Activation program, which was announced last week at the Future of Downtown summit that included the release of the latest State of Downtown report. That analysis showed that building activity and occupancy levels have decreased in the past year because of a combination of high rates of office vacancy and high interest rates that have increased the cost of construction.

Jenell Moffett, chief impact officer for DAA, said the positive results of some short-term arts activations downtown in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic showed that there was potential in a more long-term program that could bring events or residencies to public spaces and other open areas as well as open storefronts… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin Energy dialing in to climate protection plan (Austin Monitor)

After pausing to rethink its approach, Austin Energy is revisiting its update to the 2030 Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan with a series of workshops set to begin next month.

The first of four workshops, scheduled for June 7 at the utility’s Mueller headquarters, will focus on the fundamentals, bringing newly participating stakeholders up to speed on utility basics and the framework of the existing generation plan. While the meeting will be open to the public, participation will be invite-only, limited to a panel of interest groups that Austin Energy says will bring a more diverse set of priorities to the table.

The plan, which charts a course for the next five years as Austin Energy juggles its clean energy goals alongside its task of managing growing demand for energy, has been mired in controversy since the utility circulated a draft update last November. Particularly unpopular was its proposal of a new hydrogen-capable combined cycle power plant to weather the system’s growing pains, a move environmentalists criticized for reinforcing the utility’s dependence on natural gas as it barrels toward the 2035 deadline for carbon neutrality... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin metro's unemployment rate ticks down again, signaling tight labor market (Austin Business Journal)

Despite a rash of layoff announcements in the Austin metro over the past couple of months, new unemployment statistics indicate the region's jobless rate actually fell in April.

Unemployment came in at 3% last month, down from 3.5% in March and only slightly higher than 2.9% a year ago, according to figures from the Texas Workforce Commission that haven't been adjusted for seasonal factors.

A jobless rate of 3% or below is widely considered "full employment" by economists, or the point at which most people who want a job have one. Anything below that, and experts start to worry about a market not having an adequate workforce. Economists largely agree that a healthy unemployment rate is between 3% and 5%.

The unemployment rate for Texas and the nation stands at 3.5%.

The new number for Austin doesn't reflect recent layoff announcements — such as the nearly 2,700 workers let go at Tesla Inc.'s Travis County factory in mid-April, the biggest single round of job cuts in the Austin metro in at least four decades — because of a lag between such announcements and when they show up in unemployment figures… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

These are the highest paid employees in the City of Austin (KXAN)

The City of Austin pays its employees more than $1.3 billion each year in base salaries, according to data obtained by KXAN.

The data, as of March 26, 2024, shows the City has 15,164 paid full-time employees and 2,771 paid part-time employees. A further 10 people appeared on the city’s payroll, most of whom are unpaid interns.

The average full-time employee earns $82,727.13 annually, while the average part-time employee earns $31,439.93. The figures only include base salaries, so overtime pay is not taken into account… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Texas triples U.S. job growth rate in April (Office of the Texas Governor)

May 17, 2024 - Governor Greg Abbott today celebrated the strength of the growing Texas workforce and diverse Texas economy following the release of employment numbers showing Texas tripled the monthly job growth rate of the U.S., adding 42,600 non-farm jobs in April. Texas also leads the nation for jobs added over the last 12 months. “Texas grew jobs at three times the rate of the U.S. in April thanks to the strength of our skilled and growing workforce and the best business climate in the nation,” said Governor Abbott.

“Despite economic pressures at the national level, Texas employers are innovating, adapting, and growing in diverse industries across our great state. Of all the top rankings for Texas, one matters most: More Texans are working than ever before, and that means more opportunity for more Texas families to prosper. With continuing, critical investments in education, infrastructure, and workforce development, we are working together to build a bigger, better Texas for decades to come.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

Housing boom in most of the US could ease shortage, but cost is still a problem (Stateline)

The United States has added almost 5 million housing units since 2020, most heavily in the South and most of them single-family homes, making a housing shortage look conquerable in much of the nation. Still, even more homes need to be built — especially single-family homes, experts say — and continuing high interest rates are hurting potential homebuyers. Almost half of the housing increase from April 2020 to July 2023 came in six states: Texas, Florida, California, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, according to a Stateline analysis of U.S. Census Bureau estimates to be released Thursday. That mirrors America’s post-pandemic moving patterns to plentiful suburban housing in Texas and Florida, but also California’s persistent push for more apartments in resistant areas across the state.

Housing experts caution that the supply has still not caught up with demand even after another good year for home construction in 2023. Last year produced the most housing units since 2007. “One Good Year Does Not Solve America’s Housing Shortage” was the title of a Moody’s Analytics report in January, which found single-family homes in particular remain in short supply. Moody’s estimated a shortfall of about 1.2 million single-family homes and 800,000 other units, noting that home sales had slowed since reaching all-time-high prices in 2022 as interest rates climbed and made purchases even more unaffordable.

The National Association of Realtors, in a February report, offered a higher housing shortage estimate of about 2.5 million units, mostly single-family homes. Most of the new housing units in recent years have been single-family homes, according to a separate U.S. Census Bureau construction survey through the end of 2023. Production of new single-family homes reached more than 1 million annually in 2022 and 2023 for the first time since the housing bubble burst in 2007, according to the survey... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

At Morehouse, Biden says dissent should be heard because democracy is 'still the way' (NPR)

President Joe Biden told Morehouse College's graduating class of 2024 that he's committed to serving Black voters while defending freedom and democracy in the face of "extremist forces" that he says threaten the soul of the nation.

With just six months until the general election, the speech, which was filled with religious themes of struggle and resilience, also served as a continuation of Biden's warning to his supporters of what he thinks the country would look like if Donald Trump is elected again.

"They don't see you in the future of America, but they're wrong," he said. "To me, we make history, not erase it. We know Black history is American history."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[2024 Austin City Council Race Watch]

This fall will see elections for the following Council Districts 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, and Mayor.

Declared candidates so far are:

Mayor

District 2

Council Member Vanessa Fuentes

District 4

District 6

District 7 (Open seat)

District 10 (Open seat)

_________________________

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