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Karen Brooks Harper
Karen is a contributing editor and writer for Austonia.com, where she covers criminal justice and social issues. She is a veteran Texas journalist with more than 20 years in newspapers, TV and digital media. Karen studied journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia and lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, son, and four rescued pets. Twitter: @kbrooksharper
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Austin police and city leaders say they are preparing for November protests as the city steels itself for an election that has wrought tension at the highest levels of national government.
The election, which President Donald Trump has warned will be "rigged" and said the outcome may not be clear for "months," comes after a summer marked by near-daily demonstrations, both in downtown Austin and across the nation, over civil rights and police brutality.
Nearly two dozen people were hospitalized in late May after clashes with Austin police, whose use of bean bag rounds during protests resulted in sweeping changes ordered by the Austin City Council and a ban on the use of less-lethal weapons against demonstrators.
In July, demonstrator Garrett Foster was shot by a man who said he was unconnected to protests but driving for Uber in the area when his car was attacked by protesters. Daniel Perry, an active duty sergeant with the U.S. Army in Killeen, said he shot Foster in self defense. Charges have not been filed.
A tense memorial for him brought clashes between those who thought Perry was there to cause trouble, and those who believed Foster threatened him—with both sides heavily armed, including armed members of the Proud Boys militia, an extremist right-wing group that has made national headlines recently.
Police said this week that they are getting ready for the protests but declined to specify what their plans will include. An emailed statement suggested that officials are planning for potential unrest beyond the peaceful atmosphere seen in the majority of protests through the last several months.
"The Austin Police Department will plan and prepare for any large protest or civil unrest events related to the upcoming elections," said police spokesperson Tara Long, in a statement emailed to Austonia. "The goal of such preparations is to ensure the safety of the community, while protecting the rights of people to peacefully exercise their First Amendment Rights."
Demonstrations a way of life in Austin
In 2016, on the day after the November election between Trump and Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, demonstrators marched in Austin to protest the fact that Trump had won the election in spite of the fact that Clinton had won the popular vote.
On the day after Trump's January 2017 inauguration, tens of thousands descended on downtown Austin to show solidarity during the Women's March on Washington.
"Austin has a storied history of large-scale peaceful protests when election results have offended our community's sensibilities," said City Council Member Jimmy Flannigan, chairman of the Council's Committee on Public Safety.
Home to the state Capitol, Austin has played host to countless demonstrations throughout the years.
Local and statewide groups have demonstrated on myriad issues including immigration laws, gun control, or demanded higher pay for teachers or the legalization of marijuana or the protection of a woman's right to choose abortion.
"As a state capital city, we are always prepared and continuously improving our process for peaceful protest," Flannigan said.
Flannigan said he doesn't anticipate any voting issues on Election Day that might cause clashes at the polls, saying that elections in Williamson and Travis counties, parts of both of which fall within his district, have worked hard to accommodate voters with little incident.
Even with the recent national tensions over masks and potentially thousands of partisan poll watchers at voting sites, he and others said they don't anticipate clashes on a local level over those issues.
"Austin has a long history of safe and fair elections, and I have no doubt that Austinites of all political perspectives are eager to vote and will do so responsibly and safely, wearing their masks and taking the necessary precautions," Flannigan said.
He and others noted, however, that the potential for unrest after the election is fairly high—given the likelihood that the presidential election may not be over on Election Night.
The appetite for protest in Austin certainly hasn't abated in recent weeks, with groups from all parts of the political spectrum planning protests over voting sites, masks and other issues.
PROTESTS MUST HAPPEN NOW. Gov Abbott reduces drop boxes to one per county. Harris County has 4.2 million people. VO… https://t.co/LKm3iOgYjc— Helen Armstrong (@Helen Armstrong) 1602040887.0
Austin City Council Member Greg Casar, one of the council's loudest voices for police reform in the wake of the protests, called on Austinites to "continue to raise our voices, exercise our rights, and keep holding officials accountable" after votes are cast.
"APD, by their own admission, needlessly harmed peaceful protesters this summer, including hurting medics and nearly killing two teenagers, and the entire City Council has made it clear that this is not acceptable," Casar said in a statement to Austonia. "We remain committed to protecting all people's First Amendment rights, and we remain committed to safety for our city employees as well as everyday residents. I will continue to fight for policies that protect Austinites' health, safety, and right to protest, no matter the election results."
Asked whether downtown businesses were taking any actions in anticipation of rowdy protests, the Downtown Austin Alliance released a statement that did not detail any plans but supported the notion of civic engagement—noting that demonstrations on the Capitol steps and along Congress Avenue are a way of life in Austin and "a foundation of our democracy."
"For the past several months, there have been peaceful protests and demonstrations almost every day downtown," the statement said. "As stewards of downtown, we remain focused on ensuring that downtown is a vibrant and welcoming place for all who want to engage civically."
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Popular
Digital billboard in Michigan.
Up to 85 digital commercial billboards could light up the skies all over nature-loving, small-business-owning Austin after a decades-old ban on the bright, flashy signs was recently found by a court to be unconstitutional.
The billboards, which switch images up to every eight seconds, offer exponentially more affordable ad options for small business owners but create what opponents call "visual blight" along highways in both urban centers and unincorporated areas.
At least one City Council member, whose district could include up to 20 digitized billboards if the opinion stands, indicates she would fight for the current ban.
"I believe the City's prohibition of off-premise digital signage stands on solid legal ground, and I will be talking with City legal staff to ensure that this rule remains in place," said Council Member Kathie Tovo, whose District 9 includes much of downtown.
The opinion is focused on an Austin lawsuit but, if allowed to stand with no appeals, would set a precedent that could have statewide and national implications.
The signs in question are "off-premise," which means they advertise businesses that are not at the property where the sign is located. "On-premise" signs are more loosely regulated, and digital signs are generally allowed if they are on the business property.
The two companies who own the analog signs in lawsuit, Lamar Advertising Company and Reagan Outdoor Advertising, asked the city of Austin to allow them to digitize their signs in 2017 but were denied based on the city's sign code.
They sued, arguing, among other things, that the regulations were discriminatory because they allowed some signs to be digital and not others, a distinction they said was content based—and thus violated the First Amendment—because the signs' content is what indicates whether it is off-premise or on-premise. The Fifth Circuit agreed in its Aug. 25 opinion.
The argument against them is at odds with Austin's culture of supporting small businesses, which would benefit from having access to more sign inventory at lower prices and avoiding costs of production, Bill Reagan, founder, chairman and CEO of Reagan Outdoor Advertising, told Austonia in an interview.
"We look forward to the ability to avail ourselves of this technology," Reagan said. "Everything in this world is going more and more digital, not less. Billboards shouldn't be excluded from that technological evolution."
But in a town that loves the soft lights of its historic moon towers and has tried to guard against over-populating the highways with billboards, the idea of digital signs, officially known as "changeable electronic variable message" billboards, blazing against the night sky is a tough one to swallow for opponents.
"It just doesn't make sense for Austin," said Sarah Tober, executive director for Austin-based Scenic Texas told Austonia. "We are a city that loves our wild, natural beauty, and this is the furthest thing from that."
In a Sept. 23 letter to Austin Mayor Steve Adler and the City Council, the group asked the city to appeal the ruling. City officials have not yet indicated whether they will appeal. Their deadline is January 2021.
Tober and other opponents also argue that the signs are dangerous and distracting, while Reagan pointed to federal studies saying they appeared to be no more a distracting than analog billboards.
A long history in Austin
The issue comes up every few years in Austin. Informal polls typically come back with an overwhelming "no" response from locals.
Supporters have also argued that updating analog billboards with the digitized ones is "good for the local economy, will produce less light pollution than floodlights on traditional billboards and can help public safety," according to a report in the Austin Monitor in 2015, before the city updated the codes the following year.
Opponents said the tall commercialized digital billboards do more harm than good, stipulating that highway safety messages currently allowed are often lower to the ground and easier to see while driving.
"The State of Texas has said we do not need to have a digital device in our hands, so why do we need to be looking at a digital device in the sky?" Tober said. "There are health implications, there are mental health health implications, there are physical health implications, and there are physical health implications of having digital billboards. There are also broader environmental implications."
There's also the potential risk of hackers, she noted, who in late 2019 broke into a digital billboard over an interstate in Michigan and broadcasted pornography for several minutes.
At the time, groups like Scenic Texas and its Austin chapter were trying to ban or eliminate billboards altogether. Meanwhile, the supporters were pushing for the codes to further regulate on-premise signs while allowing them to upgrade the technology on existing off-premise billboards to digital.
Eventually, the city landed here on the issue: Keep the 700 billboards the city already had at the time, only let a new one up when an old one comes down, and maintain the ban on digitized off-premise billboards, with some exceptions.
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Former UT tennis coach Michael Center completes his prison sentence and is released from halfway house.
Former University of Texas men's tennis coach Michael Center was released from a Texas halfway house on Friday, where he finished a six-month federal prison sentence for falsely designating a wealthy West Coast student as a Longhorns recruit.
He was among dozens accused of bribery deals cut between officials at prestigious universities around the country and the rich and famous who wanted their children to attend them—all revealed in a stunning nationwide college admissions scandal in 2019 that netted coaches and movie stars alike.
Center, 56, began his sentence in April in a South Texas prison facility, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. His release date was listed as Oct. 2, according to the bureau, but it was unclear whether he returned to his Austin home before that under a monitored release, for which he was eligible in mid-September.
Mr. Center was unable to be reached for comment by Austonia on Sunday.
The bureau website shows that Center spent the last portion of his sentence in custody at the Residential Reentry Management center in San Antonio, which oversees several facilities in Texas. It was unclear from online information where in Texas his specific facility was located. Calls to the bureau by Austonia were not returned.
RRMs offer employment counseling, job placement services, financial management assistance, other services and some freedoms, according to the bureau.
It is not clear when Center left the Federal Corrections Facility Three Rivers, a medium-to minimum-security men's facility, where he served the first portion of his sentence.
The nationwide college admissions scandal involved more than 50 people, including actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, along with coaches from universities such as Yale, Georgetown, several California schools and UT-El Paso.
Center admitted to accepting $100,000 in 2015 in exchange for helping the son of a Silicon Valley venture capitalist gain admission to UT-Austin as a recruit for the Texas Longhorns tennis team, which he was not.
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and was ordered to serve a year's probation and pay back $60,000 he had pocketed in the deal. The other $40,000 went to the tennis team.
In February, Center was visibly upset at the sentencing, which his attorney called "harsh," and which started right as the nation was in the early stages of the pandemic shutdowns.
By comparison, a Stanford sailing coach was sentenced to one day in prison and six months house arrest, along with probation and a fine.
Huffman was released after two weeks and Loughlin, who told reporters she was "terrified" of going to prison during the pandemic, will start a two-month prison sentence in November. Both were also fined and given community service hours for their role in schemes to bribe college officials to get their kids into certain schools.
Center was a celebrated and popular coach who spent 18 seasons at UT-Austin and was awarded the 2007 U.S. Professional Tennis Association's National College Coach of the Year. Each season under his leadership, Longhorns made appearances in the NCAA Championship, including three trips to the Final Four. Then in 2019, his team won the national championship.
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