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- BG Reads 9.11.2023
BG Reads 9.11.2023
BG Reads | News - September 11, 2023 🗞️
September 11, 2023
In today's BG Reads:
➡️ Austin is not doing enough to communicate with non-English speakers, audit finds
➡️ Texas parents who care for their disabled children full time will lose money after pay raise
➡️ How child care in New York city became unaffordable for nearly everyone
🔎 Have questions or in need of lobbying services? Fill out Bingham Group’s Service Interest Questionnaire and let us see how we can help.
Read on!
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Austin is not doing enough to communicate with non-English speakers, audit finds (KUT)
Austin is home to nearly 1 million people, and about 10% of those residents report they don’t speak English very well, the city’s demographer says.
In 2014, the city established a translation and interpretation policy to give people equitable access to programs and information.
But a recent audit found the city is not adequately meeting the goals of the program, leaving people to try to navigate these systems alone.
Neha Sharma, who managed the audit, says this is the third time the city auditor’s office has taken a closer look at the language access policy.
"And in all these projects we found that the city may not be meeting the needs of people who have a limited English proficiency," Sharma said.
That gap is a problem especially during emergencies — like an excessive heat wave or a historic ice storm that knocks out power across the city.
Esther Diaz is a translator and interpreter trainer in Austin. Her main languages are English and Spanish, but she trains interpreters in multiple languages, including those commonly spoken by refugees and asylum seekers.
Diaz says while Spanish translation is pretty well established, there are barriers for speakers of other languages, like people who come from Afghanistan, Nicaragua or Honduras… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
And in other Austin Metro News:
➡️ Austin Energy charge increase coming in October amid extreme heat, power pricing (Community Impact) -> LINK TO FULL STORY
Preview: Austin Energy customers can expect to see their power bills increase slightly beginning in October, a change utility officials attributed to "extraordinarily high" electricity costs spurred by this summer's record heat. This is ahead of a separate billing change coming in November.
➡️ Austin firefighters have new contract in place (Austin Monitor -> LINK TO FULL STORY
➡️ Apartment association sees construction, weak demand causing ‘negative rent growth’ (Austin Monitor)-> LINK TO FULL STORY
[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas parents who care for their disabled children full time will lose money after pay raise (Texas Tribune)
Inside an Austin high-rise north of the Texas Capitol in August, tearful parents lined up for a state health commission meeting to beg agency officials not to increase caretaking wages. It would backfire, they said. They would lose their livelihoods.
In a city where state officials typically hear pleas for more funding, this group of parents — many who serve as primary caretakers for their physically and mentally disabled adult children — pushed for the opposite. Some testified in groups, with their disabled adult children sitting next to them as they spoke.
Raising the wage by a small amount would take away their ability to log overtime hours without making up for the difference, and they knew better than most: caretaking was never a 9-to-5 job.
One parent who attended the meeting virtually broke down while sharing that she had to quit her job to start caring for her daughter, who was in a near-fatal car accident.
“You're only one accident away from my life,” the parent, who introduced herself as Jane Mormon, told Texas Health and Human Services Commission officials through sobs... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
And in other Texas News:
➡️ Diverging narratives emerge as prosecutors call AG obsessed and defense says he was betrayed (Texas Tribune) -> LINK TO FULL STORY
➡️ Roads, infrastructure among top priorities for Houston residents in Kinder mayoral survey (Houston Landing) -> LINK TO FULL STORY
[NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS]
How child care in New York city became unaffordable for nearly everyone (New York Times)
In a notoriously stratified city experiencing its worst affordability crisis in decades, the skyrocketing cost of child care is one of the few issues that connects working families across geography, race and social class.
All but the wealthiest New Yorkers — even the upper middle class and especially mothers — are scrambling to afford care that will allow them to keep their jobs.
Median prices for nearly every type of child care in New York City have shot up since 2017, according to state surveys of providers.
Montessori preschool programs can cost more than $4,000 a month in affluent neighborhoods, and working-class families are stretching their budgets to pay at least $2,000 a month for day care.
And the workers who provide child care are reeling from high costs and are leaving the industry.
Many make just over minimum wage, leaving them barely able to afford to stay in New York City or pay for care for their own children.
Interviews with more than three dozen parents, nannies, day care providers and experts revealed a potentially devastating crisis for the future of New York City.
In recent years, only the astronomical cost of housing has presented a greater obstacle to working families than the cost of child care, experts said.
A New York City family would have to make more than $300,000 a year to meet the federal standard for affordability — which recommends that child care take up no more than 7 percent of total household income — to pay for just one young child’s care. In reality, a typical city family is spending over a quarter of their income to pay for that care, according to the U.S. Department of Labor… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
OTHER NEWS:
➡️ For a new generation of Marines, 9/11 is history (NPR) -> LINK TO FULL STORY
Preview: For many Americans, 9/11 is now simply a date to mark, much like December 7th with the Pearl Harbor attacks. Even the military war colleges are moving on. The talk is not of 9/11 the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan and lessons learned, but China and new weapons needed.
➡️ ‘How Are You Feeling, Mr. Leader?’ Mitch McConnell’s Weird Return to D.C. (Politico) -> LINK TO FULL STORY
➡️ Biden admin takes its first big shot at Big Tech (Politico) -> LINK TO FULL STORY
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