- Coming up on "Austin InSight": a multimillion-dollar investment to get rural Texans legal help, plus keeping Austin's live music scene alive and thriving, the event that will help the music makers make ends meet.

"Austin InSight" starts now.

- [Announcer] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from Sally & James Gavin, and also from Daniel L. Skret.

(lively music) (lively music continues) - Hi there, and thanks for joining us.

I'm Laura Laughead.

One of Austin's marquee music events is just around the corner.

Yes, ACL is fast approaching, but today we're actually talking about HAAM Day.

HAAM is the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, a nonprofit that provides healthcare and services for the people who make Austin's live music scene what it is.

And HAAM Day is the annual music festival to support those efforts.

Joining me today to talk about HAAM Day are HAAM CEO Paul Scott and musician Zach Morgan.

Thank you both so much for being with us today.

- Glad to be here.

- Yes.

- So first, Paul, we'll get to you in a second, but HAAM Day is coming up Tuesday, September 22nd.

What do you have planned this year?

What are the highlights we can look forward to?

- Yeah, it's an incredible day of live music throughout the entire community.

We start at 6:00 AM at the H-E-B at South Congress and Oltorf, and we spread out across the entire community throughout the day, ending at 2:00 AM at the jazz clubs.

We have over 250 musicians playing across... 400 musicians playing across 250 performances and 100 venues.

So it's a tremendous amount of live music to celebrate what live music means to the culture of Austin.

- I love that.

That is an absolutely stacked schedule.

I'm impressed.

How does this event connect to the broader mission, the day-to-day of what HAAM does?

- Well, it's important to realize, like, what live music means not only to the economy of Austin, but to the culture of Austin as well.

And so HAAM steps in to provide access to affordable healthcare, wellness, and prevention services to over 3,300 musicians to make sure they stay here, create here, and play here, and keep us the Live Music Capital of the World.

- And that is so important, especially now more than ever.

And on that note, Zach, I want to ask you, as a musician yourself, what is your experience being a musician in Austin, the Live Music Capital of the World, at least we still like to claim that?

How long have you been doing it, and how have you seen it change as of late?

- So I've been a full-time musician since 2015, and everything's changing all the time.

I think for me, bills are going up, rent was going up, everything's going up.

But just kind of trying to find your way and doing what you can do to make it work, whether that's playing corporate events or playing weddings or playing at church or just whatever you can do besides obviously playing in clubs and doing what we're all doing, just finding your way.

There's so many ways to make it happen, but part of that equation is making sure you're taking care of yourself and your health.

And luckily we have this guy and HAAM making that happen for us.

So it's just kind of, there's so many ways to carve your path, but just finding what works for you.

- And how has HAAM supported your work directly as a musician?

- I think the biggest thing is just peace of mind over everything.

I came from a corporate background after I graduated college, and the first thing after I left that was like, okay, health insurance, both for myself, but also my mom was like, "What are you going to do?

We have to have this."

So having that safety net supporting my health, whether it's mental health, dental, vision, hearing, health insurance.

HAAM is so much bigger than just health insurance.

So just having all of that kind of in your back pocket when you need it, and then staying on top of everything else just as you live your life, it's a game changer for sure.

- Well, everything hearkens back to health.

If you don't have health, you can't do anything.

You can't show up for yourself, you can't show up for other people.

And I know it has been trickier for everyone.

Everyone is feeling like that pinch as things get more expensive, but I know especially musicians, and we've heard from several musicians that are now moving out of Austin, the live music capital of the world, I guess it's Lockhart now.

To some people, they're all moving out.

So for the people that are hearing this and they're energized, they want to support HAAM and they want to get more involved, how can they support HAAM best, and how can they get in on HAAM Day?

- Well, first of all, you can find out a lot about HAAM through going to our website at myhaam.org.

And so you can learn how you can volunteer, how you can support our musicians.

It costs about $1,600 a year to provide all the services that we provide to our musicians, and it allows them to get dental care, vision care, healthcare, and many other services.

And so go to our website, sign up, and support.

Volunteering is great because you get to hear some great music at tabling events.

But for HAAM Day as well, we have a really cool app this year that you can download, and it's a web-based app.

You can choose kind of where you want to go in your neighborhood and see where you want to eat, where you want to shop, all that to support our local musicians.

And of course, it's all part of Support Local Music Month, which I have here on the pin.

- Oh, there you go, hello!

- So the mayor declared September Support Local Music Month.

And so we're encouraging everybody to go out there, not just on HAAM Day on Tuesday the 22nd, but throughout the entire month, and really support your local musicians.

And sign up and go to the website and figure out how you can participate on HAAM Day.

- I love that.

So beyond just the day itself, there's so many ways during the whole month you can get involved.

Okay, and Zach, where and when can we catch your performance?

- So I'm kind of doing the shaking hands, kissing babies for HAAM and playing some big donors events during HAAM Day.

So I'm actually not doing any public HAAM Day events.

- Okay, VIP exclusive.

- I'll be out there seeing public shows, and I may pop in and sit in with some people that are playing public shows.

But, yeah, I'll be behind the scenes kind of playing for some of HAAM's biggest supporters on HAAM Day this year.

- Gotcha, but that'll be cool.

As a musician, you not only get to enjoy performing yourself, but you also at times get to kind of sit back and see all the other incredible musicians that make Austin Austin.

Well, we are certainly so excited.

Paul Scott and Zach Morgan, thank you so much for joining us today.

And best of luck, or maybe we should say break a leg, on Tuesday for HAAM Day.

- Thank you.

(lively music) - Austin Mayor Kirk Watson is weighing in on the threat of a state takeover of Austin ISD.

Because two campuses, Burnet and Webb Middle Schools, earned a fifth consecutive failing rating, state law says the state education commissioner must step in.

He can close those two schools or replace the elected school board with a board of managers he appoints.

But the same state law also says parents at the failing schools can petition the education commissioner for the option they want.

In his weekly newsletter, Mayor Watson encouraged them to do that, writing, "Texas law gives the parents at Webb and Burnet a powerful voice.

If a majority of parents petition for closure, the commissioner must close the campuses rather than replace AISD's elected board.

That gives this community a path to act instead of simply waiting for something to happen to us.

It gives the families most impacted a say in what comes next."

It's unclear, though, whether the mayor's call will spark any action.

A post on the Webb Middle PTA Facebook account said they do not agree with the mayor's plan.

A new initiative aims to give rural Texans better access to legal aid.

It's called the Rural Justice Initiative, a product of the Texas Access to Justice Foundation and with initial funding from the Supreme Court of Texas.

Here to tell us more about it is the foundation's executive director, Betty Balli Torres, and Texas Supreme Court Justice Brett Busby.

Thank you so much, both, for being with us today.

- Thank you for having us.

- Absolutely.

So let's start with an overview of the problem, and then we'll talk more about this solution in a minute.

What are the obstacles to legal services for people living in rural Texas, and what problems do those obstacles create?

- Well, one of the things, just to get a sense of the scale of the problem, is that 123 out of our 254 counties in Texas are legal deserts, which means they have fewer than one lawyer per 1,000 people.

And so the scale of the problem is enormous, and the barriers range from, you know, just limitations on staff, not being able to have offices for legal aid groups historically in some of these small and mid-sized communities, lack of access to technology, and those sorts of things.

And so this program aims to remedy that by giving an initial $26.7 million grant to start establishing an infrastructure to provide basic civil legal services for Texans in these rural areas.

- And it's tough to wrap your mind around that ratio because we've had the conversation about healthcare deserts, but people, it doesn't really cross their minds, this concept of a legal desert.

We think of a barrier to entry as the cost, but not necessarily the distance.

So this is enough of a problem that the State Supreme Court is putting forth, as you mentioned, almost $27 million to help.

Why is this issue worth committing this amount of money to solve?

- Well, one of the things that we really value is being sure that every Texan has access to the courts and access to legal help in order to be able to present their arguments and their issues, their civil legal problems, fairly to the courts.

And the types of issues that can come up, these are very basic civil legal problems that most Texans may encounter sometimes in their lives.

And it's designed to help.

We have specialty help for veterans, for example, also for people with disabilities and for people who may be suffering domestic violence.

So we have some specialty providers who are involved, and also our legal aid community from around the state that's going to be focusing on bringing in just these lawyers who know how to help with basic civil legal issues that ordinary Texans encounter.

- And Betty, with this Rural Justice Initiative, can you talk about the coalition your foundation is assembling and what they're going to be able to do to help?

- I just want to say that this initiative is really historic and it's really generational.

And seven Legal Aid programs have come together to build an infrastructure, and that infrastructure will consist of 170 outposts in 170 rural counties that have not seen a Legal Aid office in at least a generation, if ever.

And so it is something that is, you know, truly remarkable.

And what we're going to be able to do is, we were talking about legal deserts, but there's access to justice deserts as well.

Currently, there are 42 Legal Aid offices.

So if you think about that, that's 42 counties that have a Legal Aid office.

We're about to add 170 rural counties into that mix.

So those counties and those families who have not seen a Legal Aid lawyer will be able to meet one and get their basic civil legal services met.

- Certainly access to legal services like this are important, but I imagine, more foundationally, there's a lot to be said for building confidence that our justice system is in fact just and fair.

How important for each of y'all... how important is building that trust?

- It's a huge part of these services because we want people to have confidence in their justice system, that it is something where they can get a fair shake.

And we really are excited about the innovations that this program is going to bring because it's not just sending more lawyers in, and we certainly are doing that, but they're going to be riding circuit into different communities so that they can reach more Texans.

But they're also going to be assisted by technology, and we're going to have kiosks in some of the rural counties as well so that people who may not have access to technology can be able to come in, get on the computer, and either speak to someone or have a guided program to help them with their needs.

And then also a big part of this is working with trusted community partners who are already in these smaller and mid-sized communities in Texas, so that people will trust the services and understand that this is something where people really are coming to help them and have their best interests in mind.

- Well said.

And Betty, anything to add to that there?

- Well, yes, I think it's not just to be able to trust the justice system.

Currently, they feel there is no justice system that wraps around them because they're legal deserts, there's no legal aid office in their community.

- Well said.

- And so you end up for the first time being in a situation where you're going to be able to access the justice system that, you know, you should be able to access no matter where you live in this state.

- And that is such important work.

Well, Betty Balli Torres of the Texas Access to Justice Foundation and Texas Supreme Court Justice Brett Busby, thank you so much for being with us today.

- Thank you so much.

- Thanks for having us.

(lively music) - It's deja vu all over again, as even more Central Texas communities are cutting ties with Flock over concerns about their high-tech surveillance cameras.

Since we last talked about this a few weeks ago, Bastrop, Leander, Elgin, and Liberty Hill all made decisions to stop using them.

And while Austin stopped using the cameras more than a year ago, there are still conversations about how this technology shows up in the community.

Our local government reporter, Sam Stark, is here to discuss how activists against this technology are not done fighting its use in the city.

Hey there, Sam.

- Yeah, thanks for having me, Laura.

- So, Sam, driving around Austin, we still see those Flock cameras, don't we?

- Yes, certainly.

There are still dozens of Flock cameras still in Austin.

In February, several months after Austin ended its contract with Flock, the Department of Public Safety installed more cameras on state-owned roadways and rights of way around the city, even one across the street from Austin City Hall.

But DPS's Flock cameras only represent some of the cameras still around town.

Many private businesses and homeowners associations have Flock cameras, some of which police are able to tap into.

- So can the Austin Police Department tap into the network around town?

- No.

So the 2025 Flock ban stopped the Austin Police Department from having its own Flock system it could search, but privacy experts say the department still can access some of Flock's data through joint investigations with neighboring jurisdictions that have Flock contracts and by asking businesses with Flock cameras to share their data.

I talked to privacy activist and digital rights attorney Mackenzie Ryan, who explained why the number of Flock cameras still operating in Austin remains a concern for some.

- It's like not this idea that someone is definitely watching you at all times, it's that they could be, and therefore you start managing yourself as though someone were watching you at all times, which means you stop perhaps participating in political dissent, perhaps you stop engaging with certain people that you think don't fit the record that has been compiled against you, perhaps you stop speaking as freely.

- And of course, many still support the use of these cameras, calling them police force multipliers that can help departments quickly recover stolen vehicles and locate missing people.

- So we know the whole state is currently grappling with this technology, but is the city planning to take any further action?

- Yeah, I spoke to Council Member Mike Siegel, who has been outspoken about this issue.

He said his office is contemplating amending the city's upcoming legislative agenda.

- This summer the council adopted a state legislative agenda for the next legislative session, but it didn't include, you know, fighting surveillance like Flock cameras.

And so that's an action that we're developing in the next couple weeks.

- And, Laura, we'll of course be keeping tabs on that over the coming weeks.

- Indeed.

We'll be looking forward to that.

Sam, thank you so much for your reporting.

- Thank you, Laura.

(lively music) - This November, voters in five Austin council districts will pick who they want to represent them at City Hall.

To help you get to know the candidates, Austin PBS is teaming up with other nonprofit newsrooms, KUT and Austin Current, for a series of candidate forums.

We hosted the first two here at the Austin PBS studio this week.

First, we heard from five of the six candidates vying for the seat in District 1, where current Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison is term-limited.

- I'm running for city council because I care about the community that I come from.

I have heard the complaints of the community.

I have heard the concerns of the community.

I have lived the history of this community.

- I'm running because I believe District 1 deserves leadership that's just not talking about change, but someone that's actually been doing the work in the community and around the city.

- I'm running for Austin City Council because I want to be able to help my community.

Right now, if you live in District 1 or the Eastern Crescent, what ZIP code you live in determines whether or not your life expectancy is high or low, and that's just not acceptable.

- I'm an economist with an advanced degree from UT here.

One key focus of my campaign is the money in people's wallets.

Since 2017, I've been working to lower the rents in Austin.

- D1 deserves a champion that's actually going to show up consistently and be the voice of the working class and challenge the status quo at City Hall.

- [Laura] Then it was District 3, where four of the five candidates participated.

This race will have the incumbent on the ballot again, Councilman Jose Velasquez.

- We make sure at every step of the process, that every single piece of policy that has brought before us that we have initiated has been founded and centered around the community, and we will continue doing that and that's why I'm running for another four years.

- I am not a politician.

I am simply a citizen who has watched our city change dramatically.

My campaign is really focused on two things, that is affordability and public safety.

- My priorities when elected is to come up with a no-tax-increase budget, funding for mental health services for uninsured, a spend and freeze except for EMS, fire, and police for our safety departments for one year.

- This campaign is all about rebuilding that trust, rebuilding and stabilizing our communities with really straightforward, smart policies that rely on my over 20 years of experience working in tech, both on the policy side and as a software builder, startup founder, and entrepreneur.

- [Laura] Forums for the other three districts, 5, 8, and 9, will be in the coming weeks, and you'll be able to watch them all on the Austin PBS YouTube channel.

(bell ringing) (group cheering) That's Austin Councilwoman Vanessa Fuentes celebrating a big milestone recently in her battle with breast cancer.

She was diagnosed when she was 37 weeks pregnant.

She delivered her baby girl safely on May 5th, and she's since been balancing treatment with being a new mom while continuing to represent Austin's District 2 at City Hall.

She's joining us today to share more about how her journey is going.

First, we want to say congratulations on your sweet baby girl, and thank you so much for being with us today.

- Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

- Of course.

And she's four months old now?

- That's right.

She's four months, wide awake and cooing a lot.

- I love that.

I love that.

And you know, that video that we all just watched of you ringing the bell is such a powerful, beautiful moment.

Anyone who's had a loved one in that situation, that really hits home.

And your daughter, she was there for that.

She's been on this journey with you even before she was born.

What did that moment mean to you?

- You know, for me, it was something that was very emotional and it was important for me to have my family there and my friends there because they were all part of my journey.

And having Vivian on my arms with me ringing that bell meant a lot because I know that, you know, as I was giving birth to her, I was also carrying a deadly disease and knowing that, like, your body is this incredible thing that can do both, right?

Fight a deadly disease and give birth is something amazing.

So it was kind of symbolic for me to have her there as testament that we're on this journey together.

She's the reason why I fight every single day against cancer and really just, it was just meaningful to have my family there too.

- It's really beautiful.

And I loved everyone wearing pink, everyone really rallying together.

It's hard not to feel inspired by that.

So we want to ask, how are you doing now, and where do things after ringing the bell stand in your treatment?

- Yeah, so I'm about a third of the way through the journey.

I finished chemo, which is a huge part and I would say the hardest part of the journey I think so far.

But next up is surgery and then radiation.

So I still have a ways to go before I can officially be declared, you know, cancer-free.

And so we're just taking it day by day.

- Yeah.

Now, can you take us back to the beginning?

Your diagnosis came at a really significant time in your life.

You were 37 weeks pregnant.

You're already preparing for another enormous life change when you get this news.

How did you first find out you had cancer and what was going through your head in that moment?

How do you even begin to process something like that?

- I mean, it was definitely a shock to find out I had cancer.

And, but you know, part of why I think it's so important to share my story and talk about what happened to me is that it was just through a self-exam, right?

I felt a lump on my breast and was kind of like, this feels weird, this is off.

And I flagged it at my next medical appointment.

And it just so happened to be that when you're pregnant, you have lots of doctor's appointments.

And so it was good that we were able to get to it very quickly.

But right away we knew something was off.

And you know, thankfully to my medical care team, we were able to act quickly and we're able to catch the cancer early.

You know, I was stage two when we found the tumor and we caught it before it spread, so... - And right now you're juggling continued treatment with new baby and you're still showing up to represent your district.

That's really amazing and impressive.

You've also, as you mentioned, chosen to share a lot of this journey publicly.

Why was that so important to you and what has the response to that been like?

- Well, you know, the crazy thing is when you're a younger adult, you often think of cancer as something that happens to older people and you never think they can happen to you.

In my family, we didn't have history of cancer disease in my family.

So it came as quite a shock to us and I really wanted to talk about my experience with cancer because it can happen to anyone.

It can be indiscriminate and more people that you know of or may not know of are experiencing cancer and fighting it every single day.

Me going back to work was important because I know that I joined millions of Americans who deal with cancer or battle cancer every day and are still serving their communities.

They're still showing up for work.

They're still raising their families, and I'm no different in that.

And it's important that we normalize, you know, what it's like living with this disease and what it takes to fight it.

And then also, you know, I want to ensure that everyone else has the opportunity to prevent cancer from happening, or if they do experience cancer, to act quickly to treat it because we do have incredible life-saving technology and research out there.

And so we want to give everyone the best opportunity for a fighting chance.

- Has going through this journey changed the way that you think about your role in the community as a public servant or the things that you want to prioritize now at City Hall?

- For me, it certainly made things a lot more crystal clear in the stakes of what I advocate for and what I fight for.

And I've always been very family-oriented and working families policies have been what I've championed on council.

Now raising my little one and knowing that, you know, I am fighting a deadly disease, it kind of makes things... it really prioritizes things on what's important and what's not important.

And so you know, I really want to ensure that every family has access to the basic things that I have the privilege of having access to.

So for example, healthcare, you know, like I feel so incredibly blessed that I have health insurance that is helping cover my chemo treatment, and that's not the case for many families.

And so if anything, it's just made everything much more clearer in the priorities.

- That's amazing.

And I know so many families, including my own, resonate with a journey such as this.

And I'm personally inspired by your courage through this and how you've shared.

Thank you on behalf of Austin.

Councilwoman Vanessa Fuentes of Austin's District 2, thank you so much for sharing your journey with us here on "Austin Insight."

We want you to know we are thinking of you and congratulations again on your sweet baby girl, Vivian.

- Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

(lively music) - That's our show.

If you want to see more "Austin InSight," you can catch all our episodes on the Austin PBS YouTube channel and in the PBS app anytime for free.

Thanks again for watching.

We'll see you next time.

(lively music) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) - [Announcer] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from Sally & James Gavin, and also from Daniel L. Skret.

(light music)