Latest / The People's News / Early Voting Ends in Texas Runoff; Houston Unions Fight Ahead of WC; Comicpalooza 2026 - TPN 5/24/26

Transcript

Early Voting Ends in Texas Runoff; Houston Unions Fight Ahead of WC; Comicpalooza 2026 - TPN 5/24/26 · The People's News

0:03
Speaker 1: It's the week of May twenty fourth, twenty twenty six,
0:07
Speaker 1: and this is what's on the People's News. Early voting
0:10
Speaker 1: in the runoffs ended on Friday. Conservative race for Congress
0:15
Speaker 1: gets a boost. Workers rally at stadiums ahead of the
0:20
Speaker 1: World Cup, demanding better pay, eating oysters and oyster shortage
0:27
Speaker 1: might make that more expensive. This year's Comic Palooza. All
0:33
Speaker 1: that and more on the People's News. I'm Steve Gallington.
0:37
Speaker 1: This is the People's News, and the People's News starts now.
0:49
Speaker 1: It's on. Early voting started in Harris County this past Monday,
0:54
Speaker 1: but for candidate Al Green, it started this past Sunday
0:57
Speaker 1: as he brought in the sun of civil rights icon,
1:01
Speaker 1: the Reverend doctor Martin Luther King Junior Martin Luther King
1:05
Speaker 1: the Third.
1:06
Speaker 2: I first want to thank God for the opportunity to
1:11
Speaker 2: be back in Houston and to be with some of
1:16
Speaker 2: the leadership, elected officials, religious leaders. Always good to be
1:21
Speaker 2: with Bishop Dixon.
1:24
Speaker 3: And so many more.
1:26
Speaker 2: Now I have somewhat mixed emotions because you're Congressman. Also
1:39
Speaker 2: I've worked with for many many years and almost remember
1:46
Speaker 2: the first time he ran, he had been a judge.
1:49
Speaker 2: He's been involved with the always involved with INAACP one
1:54
Speaker 2: of the greatest minds, because you can't just lead, You've
2:00
Speaker 2: got to also have information to know what to lead,
2:05
Speaker 2: what to do. We've been to jail together two us,
2:09
Speaker 2: some of you have, meaning the Congressman and I, And
2:14
Speaker 2: a few years ago I was in Washington, D C.
2:18
Speaker 2: And the concept of slavery in the four Sudan came up.
2:26
Speaker 4: Georgia, George Lord.
2:30
Speaker 5: I have a senior homie, George George Colony.
2:33
Speaker 2: You know, you know what happens at a certain certain times.
2:35
Speaker 2: Some people may have Alzheimer's and some of us have
2:39
Speaker 2: part time I mean part time remember anyway, in all seriousness,
2:44
Speaker 2: but the Congressman and I. I called the Congressman and
2:47
Speaker 2: I called Dick Gregory and they both joined us as
2:51
Speaker 2: we all were arrested protesting against that critical situation in Sudan.
3:00
Speaker 2: The Congressman and I also traveled to India in two
3:05
Speaker 2: thousand and nine. My father and mother had been there
3:09
Speaker 2: in nineteen fifty nine, and so I am. Congressman John
3:15
Speaker 2: Lewis led a delegation of academics, of elected officials, of
3:22
Speaker 2: business leaders to India to trace the steps of Gandhi
3:27
Speaker 2: from when my mom and dad had been there in
3:29
Speaker 2: nineteen I yes, fifty nine. And there's so many many
3:33
Speaker 2: other things that this congressman has done. Now when I
3:37
Speaker 2: said I feel conflicted, my conflict is I'm not sure
3:43
Speaker 2: we need to come or encourage We do always good
3:46
Speaker 2: for encouragement, but some things you ought to know.
3:51
Speaker 6: Let's all to note.
3:52
Speaker 2: Nobody should have to explain to you why you need
3:55
Speaker 2: to be supporting this man.
3:57
Speaker 3: That's what my conflicted.
3:59
Speaker 2: And I've been doing this for many years now, you know,
4:02
Speaker 2: thirty forty years going around the country and just has
4:08
Speaker 2: been said. When you think about what my father and
4:11
Speaker 2: his team and others have tried to do, I don't know.
4:17
Speaker 6: My job.
4:18
Speaker 2: My objective is to always be positive in the midst.
4:22
Speaker 5: Of a storm.
4:24
Speaker 2: Because the folks in this state, and you all can
4:31
Speaker 2: correct me if I may be a little bit off.
4:34
Speaker 2: But the leadership and the governor's mansion and many of
4:38
Speaker 2: the state Republican legislators. I mean I heard the states
4:44
Speaker 2: we were trying to remove history. Now you can't really move.
4:48
Speaker 2: But they use the example of I have a dream.
4:51
Speaker 2: I have a dream speech where my father talked about
4:54
Speaker 2: the day where his four little children would not be
4:57
Speaker 2: judged by the color of their skin, but by the
5:00
Speaker 2: content of their character. Now, that really was a reflection
5:04
Speaker 2: of all kids, not just us. But the fact of
5:08
Speaker 2: the matter is we just ain't there yet. People don't
5:11
Speaker 2: understand that. So you use that to say, well, you
5:14
Speaker 2: know what, we don't need to teach that. I have
5:17
Speaker 2: a dream speech and until a certain level, you can't
5:21
Speaker 2: teach that, and so many other things history being written out,
5:25
Speaker 2: And so I'm trying to understand what kind of group
5:27
Speaker 2: of people, what kind of people are these people? How barbaric,
5:32
Speaker 2: how insensitive?
5:34
Speaker 3: How I don't even know.
5:36
Speaker 7: What I mean?
5:36
Speaker 3: I don't know who this is.
5:38
Speaker 2: What I know is what they're doing, and they're doing
5:41
Speaker 2: it because we are not doing what we're supposed to
5:44
Speaker 2: be doing. The day we stand up, they will have
5:48
Speaker 2: to sit down. We really don't understand who we are,
5:52
Speaker 2: because if we did, we would be able to control
5:56
Speaker 2: the process as it relates to our destiny. Oftentimes, there's
6:02
Speaker 2: still people.
6:02
Speaker 3: Who just don't feel like it's important.
6:04
Speaker 2: To vote, And I'm like, how do you get to
6:07
Speaker 2: that conclusion? You got a lot of garbage on the internet,
6:12
Speaker 2: things that are just not true, and we don't do
6:15
Speaker 2: our research. That's part of why we need not just
6:18
Speaker 2: Al Green, but people like Al Green, those who are
6:21
Speaker 2: here today who represent you, because they're telling you and
6:25
Speaker 2: educating you, and you should take this information and apply it.
6:29
Speaker 2: And then you need to go out and identify a
6:32
Speaker 2: minimum of ten, hopefully.
6:35
Speaker 3: One hundred other people who you can encourage to.
6:37
Speaker 2: Go out and vote on the tomorrow is to start
6:40
Speaker 2: tomorrow up through the twenty second, and then those who
6:43
Speaker 2: didn't vote on the twenty six is election day. My
6:47
Speaker 2: dad would say that a voteless people is a powerless people,
6:51
Speaker 2: and one of the most important steps that we can
6:53
Speaker 2: take is that short step to the ballot box that
6:56
Speaker 2: still applies today.
6:59
Speaker 1: During the last weekend celebration of life of Malcolm X,
7:02
Speaker 1: the Black United Front held a town hall meeting to
7:05
Speaker 1: meet the candidates. The questions from the audience mainly focused
7:10
Speaker 1: on what the candidates will do for the African American community.
7:14
Speaker 1: We talked with some of the candidates during the break was.
7:17
Speaker 8: Alex Maldonah, I'm ready to be your next Harrison County
7:19
Speaker 8: District Clerk, sir. So I've spent the last you know,
7:23
Speaker 8: ever since I was seventeen year olds. I've spent my
7:25
Speaker 8: whole life managing volunteers as a director of music for
7:28
Speaker 8: our local community churches. Or I've spent it I'm managing students,
7:32
Speaker 8: you know, I teach college level statistics, managing up to
7:35
Speaker 8: thirty students that are ready to go into the workforce.
7:37
Speaker 8: Or I've spend in managing stab also working as a
7:39
Speaker 8: director of music currently, you know, taking you know, managing
7:43
Speaker 8: in a compani miess and managing an assistant director. But
7:46
Speaker 8: above those qualifications, I have, you know, transformed my educational classroom,
7:52
Speaker 8: not just in my room, but also around my classrooms.
7:54
Speaker 8: You know, I'm coding inside the learning management system so
7:58
Speaker 8: my students have better accessibility to under stand the curriculum.
8:01
Speaker 8: I have developed live streaming software during the COVID crisis,
8:05
Speaker 8: I have reimagined music programs post COVID. And then on
8:10
Speaker 8: top of that, I've also I'm a graduate student. I'm
8:12
Speaker 8: a graduate from Rice University with my master's in secondary education.
8:16
Speaker 8: I'm working on my second master's in industry engineering that
8:20
Speaker 8: will help me navigate the complexity of our courts, but
8:23
Speaker 8: also help me revitalize technology that needs to be updated
8:27
Speaker 8: in the Harris County District.
8:28
Speaker 9: Next office, Hi then my name is Melanie Miles and
8:31
Speaker 9: I'm running for Justice of the Peace Precinct seventh place.
8:34
Speaker 6: Two.
8:35
Speaker 9: Yeah, great question. So tomorrow early votes start. It's going
8:39
Speaker 9: to go tomorrow May eighteenth through Friday only. It's only
8:42
Speaker 9: for five days. And let me tell you this Justice
8:44
Speaker 9: of the Peace Court just to be clear, this is
8:47
Speaker 9: a court where evictions happen small claims. Is the judge
8:51
Speaker 9: judy of the community. So it's a judge judy type
8:54
Speaker 9: court of the community.
8:55
Speaker 4: It is a.
8:56
Speaker 9: Community court where people usually come there to resolve their
8:58
Speaker 9: issues without a llawy. The things that need to change
9:02
Speaker 9: and why I'm running is because Number one, this court
9:04
Speaker 9: has over two thousand more evictions than any other court
9:07
Speaker 9: in Harris County. That means landlords know to come to
9:11
Speaker 9: this court in order to get an eviction and get
9:14
Speaker 9: it quickly without a person being able to be heard.
9:16
Speaker 9: I want to change all that. I want to make
9:18
Speaker 9: sure that everybody that comes to that court. Number One,
9:20
Speaker 9: that they're treated with compassion and respect. Everybody deserves that.
9:24
Speaker 9: Number Two, that they're heard.
9:26
Speaker 10: They're not rushed through the system.
9:27
Speaker 9: They're not giving seconds to say why they should or
9:29
Speaker 9: shouldn't be able to stay in their homes, but they're
9:32
Speaker 9: actually heard. Every situation is different, every person is different,
9:37
Speaker 9: and they deserve and they have the right to be heard.
9:40
Speaker 9: The other thing I want to do is accessibility. Fifty
9:43
Speaker 9: percent of the cases in this court end up in divorced,
9:45
Speaker 9: I mean end up in default. That means fifty percent
9:49
Speaker 9: of the case is just get a judgment against them
9:51
Speaker 9: without ever showing up. That means the court's not accessible.
9:54
Speaker 9: We're going to make sure that we implement zoom hearings.
9:58
Speaker 9: We're going to make sure that we have hearings that
10:00
Speaker 9: once a month on a Saturday, once a month in
10:03
Speaker 9: the evenings. That way, if someone has to work, they
10:05
Speaker 9: have childcare issues, they can still have their cases heard.
10:09
Speaker 9: And last, but most important, are resources. Simply because somebody's
10:14
Speaker 9: going through some kind of life changing event like an eviction,
10:18
Speaker 9: then that doesn't mean that, you know, they need to
10:21
Speaker 9: then end up.
10:22
Speaker 10: On the streets of Houston.
10:23
Speaker 9: If we have resources in this court, like legal assistance,
10:27
Speaker 9: like housing assistants, utility assistance, if eviction is the only option,
10:32
Speaker 9: then that doesn't mean that they should not have their
10:34
Speaker 9: resources right there to transition into stability. Again, just putting
10:38
Speaker 9: people out on the streets is not an option. That
10:41
Speaker 9: is not what we should be doing.
10:42
Speaker 5: My name is Lawrence A. Allen, Junior.
10:44
Speaker 11: I'm running for the state representative House District one thirty
10:46
Speaker 11: one that encompasses the Harem Clock Sunnyside a Leaf area
10:52
Speaker 11: all the way down to Pasadena where Black Road is
10:55
Speaker 11: and the guests in the area.
10:57
Speaker 4: What's the biggess issues?
10:59
Speaker 11: Big issues are always education? Education rules today, how well
11:03
Speaker 11: we are not just in the classroom, but how well
11:06
Speaker 11: we're treating our employees, which means teacher pay, which means
11:10
Speaker 11: what our custodians make, what our anciary starts make. Because
11:14
Speaker 11: when we improve the system itself and make it solid,
11:18
Speaker 11: then the children benefit. And when the children benefit, we
11:20
Speaker 11: have a stronger Texas.
11:21
Speaker 4: How are you going to do that when you got
11:23
Speaker 4: a strong his D board. That's not looking forwards anything
11:30
Speaker 4: but what the state is for.
11:32
Speaker 12: It's also adding to that, vout your programs and property taxes,
11:36
Speaker 12: taking money out out of the public schools.
11:38
Speaker 5: Okay, well, how do we strengthen that one?
11:40
Speaker 11: We're not talking about just hid when I'm talking, I'm
11:42
Speaker 11: talking about the state educational system. Because as an elected official,
11:46
Speaker 11: as a state represented you want to make sure that
11:49
Speaker 11: the system is good for Texas. And so why do
11:51
Speaker 11: we talk about proper funding of the school system. That's one,
11:55
Speaker 11: that's what you want to do at your state legs.
11:56
Speaker 11: Let you want to properly fund, but you also want
11:59
Speaker 11: to immact that fund, earmarked that funding for certain entities.
12:02
Speaker 11: And that is teacher pay raisers, that is ancillary start
12:05
Speaker 11: play raiss that is the things that makes people's life better.
12:09
Speaker 11: Because we find that most of our educators are coming
12:11
Speaker 11: in one, two, three, four, In the fifth year they
12:13
Speaker 11: are gone. Not necessarily are they just engaging in his
12:16
Speaker 11: spaces saying I'm not making enough money, but there are
12:19
Speaker 11: not enough support systems in place for the children to
12:21
Speaker 11: be able to act appropriately, if you know what I'm saying.
12:25
Speaker 11: And so all those things have to get addressing. But
12:27
Speaker 11: you need a strong educator.
12:29
Speaker 5: To make a case.
12:30
Speaker 11: When you're in that room talking to others, you have
12:32
Speaker 11: to win friends and influence others. And I believe my
12:36
Speaker 11: experience as an educator allows my voice to speak louder
12:40
Speaker 11: about the situation going on and being in the inner
12:43
Speaker 11: city Jones High School, Yates High School, HID. I can
12:46
Speaker 11: speak authentically about what occurs on the ground here but.
12:50
Speaker 1: On the Republican side, Donnie Trump announced his support for
12:55
Speaker 1: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for senator
12:59
Speaker 1: against the current US Senator John Cornyn. This is a
13:04
Speaker 1: major announcement. As we talked to Republican strategists and radio
13:08
Speaker 1: talk show host at The American Chronicle, Vlad Davidok, he
13:12
Speaker 1: also gave the conservative perspective on the destruction of the
13:17
Speaker 1: Voting Rights Act.
13:19
Speaker 6: Yeah. Look, President Trump has been for a long time
13:27
Speaker 6: concerned that the Senate has not been moving fast enough
13:34
Speaker 6: to advance the America First agenda that the American people
13:39
Speaker 6: elected him to accomplish. And for a long time, the
13:43
Speaker 6: Senate has always felt itself to be separate but equal
13:49
Speaker 6: to the president in terms of being able to set
13:51
Speaker 6: the agenda, being able to decide what moves forward, what
13:53
Speaker 6: doesn't move forward, how fast things move. And President Trump
13:58
Speaker 6: has been signally for a long time that he was
14:00
Speaker 6: going to start taking action, and there's been some some
14:04
Speaker 6: recent incidents, some recent events have really crystallized that that
14:13
Speaker 6: development and and really made it possible to move forward
14:20
Speaker 6: on having giving President Trump an opportunity to shape a
14:24
Speaker 6: Senate that is in line with what he needs and
14:28
Speaker 6: this is just the latest step in that.
14:31
Speaker 4: So John Cornyan has been a big supporter of the president, and.
14:39
Speaker 6: Yeah, look, President Trump has always said that he respects
14:45
Speaker 6: and he appreciates the work that Senator Cornyn has done
14:50
Speaker 6: in the United States Senate. And that is no, no,
14:53
Speaker 6: not asto on anyone. But what President Trump has consistently
14:57
Speaker 6: said is that he knows that this is the time
15:01
Speaker 6: to strike and really push forward with a strong America
15:05
Speaker 6: First agenda to really make America great again. And that
15:08
Speaker 6: requires having everyone on board. And the Senate has really
15:11
Speaker 6: dragged its feet on a lot of things, especially the
15:13
Speaker 6: Save America Act, which is saying that President Trump has
15:16
Speaker 6: been pushing for a long time. And so, you know,
15:18
Speaker 6: when President Trump looks at the political landscape and he
15:23
Speaker 6: sees that he asked legislators in Indiana to redistrict Indiana
15:29
Speaker 6: to make sure that it's more fairly representative of the
15:32
Speaker 6: voting populace and gives Republicans the opportunity to add more
15:37
Speaker 6: seats to Congress, and those legislators, you know, refused. What
15:44
Speaker 6: happened next was was logical. Those representatives that refused to
15:48
Speaker 6: help advance the Republican agenda were primary now and President
15:52
Speaker 6: Trump led that charge to make sure that that you know,
15:55
Speaker 6: voters in Indiana had the opportunity to express their concern
16:00
Speaker 6: and that these legislators were not following through on an
16:02
Speaker 6: agenda to help push forward those policies that will help
16:08
Speaker 6: you keep America first. And so then you see what
16:11
Speaker 6: happened in Virginia where Virginia the leftists who were led
16:17
Speaker 6: by their governor in Virginia tried to redistrict the state
16:21
Speaker 6: in a way to disenfranchise Republican voters. And President Trump
16:25
Speaker 6: saw what happened when they failed in itself flat on
16:27
Speaker 6: that space. And then now you see on this past
16:31
Speaker 6: weekend where Senator Cassidy from Louisiana was defeated in the
16:36
Speaker 6: primary and President Senator Cassidy has been a long time
16:40
Speaker 6: vocal critic of President Trump. And so President Trump looks
16:42
Speaker 6: at each of these three things, and I think that
16:46
Speaker 6: really helped him realize now is the time to step in.
16:50
Speaker 6: Because President Trump had previously said he was going to
16:53
Speaker 6: make an endorsement in this race between Paxson and Cornyan,
16:56
Speaker 6: and it just never materialized, and it seemed like maybe
16:58
Speaker 6: he was stepping back. And for a while it seemed like,
17:00
Speaker 6: if he was going to endorse it, we're going to
17:02
Speaker 6: be John Corny. But I think this reluctance to move
17:05
Speaker 6: forward with the Save America Act in a timely fashion
17:08
Speaker 6: and get it done when we have control of both
17:12
Speaker 6: houses of the Congress and we have the President ready
17:15
Speaker 6: to sign the villa into law really rubbed President Trump
17:19
Speaker 6: the wrong way and got him frustrated enough where he
17:22
Speaker 6: decided enough was enough and he would rather send someone
17:25
Speaker 6: who's going to be a champion for those policies into
17:29
Speaker 6: the Senate rather than someone like John Cornyon, who's, you know,
17:32
Speaker 6: a career politician who's been in Senate for twenty five
17:35
Speaker 6: years and has refused to move forward expeditiously on some
17:40
Speaker 6: of these huge priorities. And I think that really motivated Trump.
17:45
Speaker 4: And shit, boy, how's that campaign going?
17:50
Speaker 6: Yeah, it looks like it looks like that race is
17:52
Speaker 6: really going to come down to the wire. I think,
17:54
Speaker 6: you see, President Trump has also not made an endorsement
18:00
Speaker 6: in that race at this point. And and I don't
18:04
Speaker 6: I suspect that there's has he I haven't seen anything.
18:10
Speaker 12: Uh.
18:11
Speaker 6: I I suspect that there's not going to be a
18:13
Speaker 6: whole lot of of of motivation to really move forward
18:17
Speaker 6: in that race as well. I think part of the
18:19
Speaker 6: problem there is that both of these candidates, both Chip
18:26
Speaker 6: Roy and Maz Middleton, have been strong, reliable votes that
18:33
Speaker 6: President Trump can count on, certainly chip Roy in the
18:35
Speaker 6: Congress and and Mace Middleton in the in the Texas Senate,
18:39
Speaker 6: and they're both Conservatives, and and they're both people that
18:43
Speaker 6: Texans can count on. And I think it's it's possible
18:47
Speaker 6: that that President Trump could weigh in. If he were
18:49
Speaker 6: to weigh in, I would expect him to weigh in
18:52
Speaker 6: on May on behalf of Mays Middleton. That said, I
18:56
Speaker 6: think it's it may be a little bit less likely, uh,
19:01
Speaker 6: simply because the United States Senate was just so much
19:06
Speaker 6: more urgent to make sure that, you know, he would
19:11
Speaker 6: have somebody who he could count on. And I think
19:14
Speaker 6: that really motivated his action today and has motivated his
19:17
Speaker 6: action to hold off on saying anything in the Texas
19:21
Speaker 6: Attorney General race.
19:24
Speaker 7: And to talk about registering for a minute, because it
19:29
Speaker 7: seems like it seems like southern states have taken upon
19:34
Speaker 7: it themselves to go ahead and.
19:37
Speaker 4: Registrict of you know, especially.
19:39
Speaker 7: In alb and draw up a new map and I'm
19:43
Speaker 7: talking about Alabama, Louisiana, et cetera. Do you think that
19:48
Speaker 7: it's fair or what's your opinion on its conservative side?
19:54
Speaker 3: What?
19:55
Speaker 6: Well, well, look what we have seen is for years,
20:02
Speaker 6: states that are dominated by Democrat legislators and Democrat leadership
20:06
Speaker 6: have worked over time to disenfranchise Republican voters. You see
20:10
Speaker 6: multiple states, the entire state, all the states in New
20:13
Speaker 6: England have Republican voters sometimes upwards of forty five, almost
20:19
Speaker 6: fifty percent, and they have zero Republican legislators in Congress.
20:24
Speaker 6: And that's because those states have been so effectively gerrymandered.
20:27
Speaker 6: Has to ensure that only Democrats are sent to Congress,
20:31
Speaker 6: or if a Republican has sent, it's a milk toast,
20:34
Speaker 6: watered down, washed out Republicans that doesn't move forward the
20:40
Speaker 6: agenda that Republicans nationally elected Trump to accomplish. So this,
20:46
Speaker 6: this move now to redistrict these states is really in
20:51
Speaker 6: response two decades of disenfranchisement of half of the voting
20:57
Speaker 6: populace by multiple states. And it's it's long overdue, and
21:04
Speaker 6: it's it's going to level the playing field such that,
21:07
Speaker 6: you know, the the ability of Congress to get work
21:14
Speaker 6: done finally and advancing these policies and these priorities that
21:19
Speaker 6: the majority of Americans want to have moved forward. It's
21:22
Speaker 6: finally going to get on the table and finally get
21:24
Speaker 6: to President Trump's death.
21:25
Speaker 7: Well, you talked about it as Republicans are being discriminated
21:29
Speaker 7: against that goes by, you know, discapnority. District districts, so
21:37
Speaker 7: to speak, have been discriminated for for years with no representation,
21:43
Speaker 7: and up until up until amidst his sixties.
21:48
Speaker 4: They have had no representation.
21:50
Speaker 7: One in Louisiana one district. You know, they only had
21:53
Speaker 7: four representatives in the last one hundred and some years.
21:56
Speaker 7: So so I don't understand the fairness in that.
22:00
Speaker 6: Well again, gosh, no, no worries. Well, again, what we
22:05
Speaker 6: have to look at is we have to look at
22:06
Speaker 6: we have to look at this historically and both in
22:10
Speaker 6: terms of what is happening recently and in terms of
22:14
Speaker 6: the evolution of the voting public and what we've seen
22:19
Speaker 6: across the board is in district after districts, certainly in
22:24
Speaker 6: twenty twenty four, you know, voting voting behavior and voters
22:30
Speaker 6: shifted right and really embracing President Trump, embracing Republican politics,
22:36
Speaker 6: embracing Republican policies and agenda from from the you know,
22:42
Speaker 6: valley districts of Texas, two districts across the state and
22:47
Speaker 6: across the country. And so what we've seen is, you know,
22:51
Speaker 6: historically those districts you know, have been drawn in a
22:55
Speaker 6: way that really disenfranchised you know, a lot of voters
23:01
Speaker 6: such that you know, they were redrawn in ways that
23:05
Speaker 6: were illegal. And the Supreme Court has already ruled that,
23:08
Speaker 6: you know, drawing districts along these lines that democrats that
23:14
Speaker 6: wind up favoring Democrats simply because they're drawn in a
23:17
Speaker 6: racially discriminatory way runs a foul of the law and
23:21
Speaker 6: our equal protections and and and against the Constitution. And
23:26
Speaker 6: so when you take those districts that historically have been
23:29
Speaker 6: drawn in an a legal way and and and in
23:31
Speaker 6: a way designed to disenfranchise voters, and then you redraw
23:36
Speaker 6: them so they're fair, Republicans have a better opportunity to win.
23:41
Speaker 3: And so.
23:43
Speaker 6: When you give people an opportunity to vote their conscience,
23:48
Speaker 6: to vote their values, rather than to vote based on
23:52
Speaker 6: how they're told they should how they should behave, you're
23:55
Speaker 6: going to get this kind of opportunity, Uh where you
23:58
Speaker 6: actually see people express, seeing their voice and making their
24:02
Speaker 6: voices heard.
24:03
Speaker 1: Early voting started and ended this last week. Election day
24:08
Speaker 1: is May twenty sixth. If you need help or want
24:11
Speaker 1: to know where to vote, you can go to vote
24:14
Speaker 1: Texas put Together dot org or you can go to
24:17
Speaker 1: the League of Women Voters at LWV dot org. This
24:22
Speaker 1: is Steve Gallington of the People's News here on Houston's
24:25
Speaker 1: community station KPFT ninety point one FM. Become a sustaining
24:29
Speaker 1: member today and help keep KPFT and the People's News
24:33
Speaker 1: on the air. Your donation at seven one, three, five
24:36
Speaker 1: two six five, seven three eight makes it possible. Or
24:39
Speaker 1: use our website KPFT dot org. Click on the donate
24:42
Speaker 1: button and remember at the top of the page to
24:44
Speaker 1: select the dragdown list and scroll down to the bottom
24:47
Speaker 1: and select the People's News. Unions continue to fight and
24:54
Speaker 1: win in Houston. Just like the hotel workers, stadium workers
24:59
Speaker 1: are suffering the same difficulties in cost of living on
25:03
Speaker 1: the pay they make while the city prepares for a
25:06
Speaker 1: global event like the Men's Football World Cup. Houston stadium
25:10
Speaker 1: workers are facing the ever increasing cost of living, including
25:14
Speaker 1: necessities like food, rent, and transportation.
25:17
Speaker 6: Costs.
25:18
Speaker 1: As we prepare for the eyes of the world to
25:20
Speaker 1: be on Houston, the food service workers or at the
25:24
Speaker 1: backbone of these events are poised very much to be
25:27
Speaker 1: in the spotlight. Hospitality workers along with food and beverage
25:31
Speaker 1: workers employed by Shell Stadium and members of Unite Here
25:35
Speaker 1: Local twenty three rallied in front of the stadium to
25:38
Speaker 1: talk about the difficulties they are facing. We talk to
25:42
Speaker 1: Willi Gonzalez of Unite Here twenty three.
25:45
Speaker 13: My name is Willi Goanzales. I'm the Sextake Treasures I
25:48
Speaker 13: hear Local twenty three, And what we're doing is we
25:52
Speaker 13: are supporting all stadium workers in Houston at all the
25:55
Speaker 13: sports stadiums, you know, having livapool aviation, being that we're
26:00
Speaker 13: respecting dignity because you're a key part of this tourism
26:04
Speaker 13: industry and they've been left behind and we're demanding that
26:07
Speaker 13: they be hurt. So today we're rallying on outside of
26:11
Speaker 13: the soccer stadium to deliver our message that all stadium
26:14
Speaker 13: workers in Houston deserve respect, indignity.
26:18
Speaker 4: L was a going though so far because millions of dollars,
26:23
Speaker 4: even billions of dollars.
26:25
Speaker 12: Actually coming to Houston and We know you want to
26:28
Speaker 12: want rights for the hotel workers and the people that's
26:32
Speaker 12: working at Georgia Brown. How is it going to be
26:36
Speaker 12: for the stadium, especially since who's running, because who's running
26:41
Speaker 12: the stadium?
26:42
Speaker 13: Well, it's no different. We want at the hotels, we
26:45
Speaker 13: want at the feed service units, we wanted at the airport,
26:48
Speaker 13: and we can win it for all the stadiums, So
26:51
Speaker 13: no difference. It's about workers standing up and demanding to
26:53
Speaker 13: be respected and the communities with them, and we're going
26:56
Speaker 13: to make sure it happens.
26:58
Speaker 12: How is it going so far?
27:00
Speaker 13: Get we're really initiating this campaign, so it's not a negotiate.
27:06
Speaker 13: It's a campaign to raise the wages for all workers.
27:10
Speaker 13: It's not our negotiation with any particular employees for the
27:13
Speaker 13: entire industry.
27:16
Speaker 12: With the World Cup days away, how is it going
27:20
Speaker 12: to you know, the terms on the ansence As far
27:23
Speaker 12: as getting something going before before the World Cup comes here.
27:27
Speaker 13: Well, I think that's the question for the stadiums because
27:31
Speaker 13: they need to think about that. So we're already willing
27:35
Speaker 13: and able to do what we got to do through
27:37
Speaker 13: even the World Cup, So that's a question for the
27:40
Speaker 13: stadium's answer because we just want the workers to be
27:42
Speaker 13: treated with respect and pay the livable wage and treated
27:46
Speaker 13: with respect.
27:46
Speaker 4: And is there any type of any bargain being done
27:51
Speaker 4: right now?
27:53
Speaker 13: There's no bother. We are trying to raise the waves
27:56
Speaker 13: across the board for everyone.
28:00
Speaker 4: How can people find out about the route the organization.
28:03
Speaker 13: And you have to go to our website on social
28:06
Speaker 13: media unit here Local twenty three one of all the
28:09
Speaker 13: major social media outlets and you can find out all
28:11
Speaker 13: about this and upcoming actions.
28:15
Speaker 1: That was Willi Gonzalez of Unite here twenty three speaking
28:18
Speaker 1: on organizing efforts of workers at sports stadiums. Do you
28:23
Speaker 1: enjoy Texas oysters? Well, Texas oysters are in crisis as
28:28
Speaker 1: Texas Parks and Wildlife has closed many harvesting areas due
28:32
Speaker 1: to a decrease in the oyster population. This has a
28:36
Speaker 1: major effect on the jobs and the industry as a whole,
28:40
Speaker 1: as there are only ten harvesting areas remaining open in
28:44
Speaker 1: Texas waterways. The decrease in population is caused by a
28:49
Speaker 1: number of issues like environmental and regulatory concerns. John Blaha,
28:55
Speaker 1: with a conservative conservation association, spoke on the crisis.
29:00
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it's honestly, it's been a it's it's
29:04
Speaker 5: something that's been building for for quite a while now. Honestly,
29:09
Speaker 5: I mean if you look at the research, I mean,
29:11
Speaker 5: oysters are you know, down eighty percent across the world
29:16
Speaker 5: since nineteen hundred. But you know, specific to Texas, Uh,
29:20
Speaker 5: Hurricane Ike was kind of a you know, in my mind,
29:23
Speaker 5: a big turning point. Hurricane Ike. Uh it uh, you know,
29:29
Speaker 5: it killed about fifty percent of the oysters in the
29:32
Speaker 5: Galaston basis, some eighty percent in East Galston Bay alone. Uh,
29:37
Speaker 5: you know, just you know, pushing all the segmentation covering
29:39
Speaker 5: the oyster beds and just you know, it killed.
29:43
Speaker 9: Uh.
29:43
Speaker 5: When that happened, the fleet became you know, before the
29:47
Speaker 5: fleet was somewhat you know, I'll say the fleet, the
29:50
Speaker 5: commercial fleet was somewhat uh spread out and up and
29:57
Speaker 5: down the coast, and the fleet became very mobile, going
30:02
Speaker 5: from from bay to bay, whatever bay was open, that's
30:05
Speaker 5: where the fleet went. You know, I live in Rockport
30:08
Speaker 5: full time, and you know, I think it's twenty sixteen
30:12
Speaker 5: time frame, twenty fifteen. We you know, we had probably
30:16
Speaker 5: three on our boats show up here and just descend
30:19
Speaker 5: on the base systems here and just really really really
30:24
Speaker 5: hit it hard. I think the issues are both environmental
30:30
Speaker 5: and over harvest. A lot of over harvest has occurred
30:35
Speaker 5: through the last you know, several decades, frankly, and I
30:40
Speaker 5: think there's those within the industry will tell you too,
30:43
Speaker 5: is you know, the ustry is over capitalized. So you know,
30:50
Speaker 5: there's been a big push the last a few years
30:54
Speaker 5: to bring that number of licenses that are allowed to
30:59
Speaker 5: fish oysters and Texas down.
31:01
Speaker 6: Uh.
31:02
Speaker 5: It was in the five thirty five range, I believe.
31:05
Speaker 5: Uh last year. We had a big buyout push last
31:09
Speaker 5: year to buy out licenses and retire those licenses from
31:13
Speaker 5: the from the from the fleet and from the resource.
31:16
Speaker 5: And we were able to buy out one hundred and
31:18
Speaker 5: twelve licenses. You know, CTA kicked in a million dollars
31:23
Speaker 5: of that text Parson, while I foundation had donors and
31:27
Speaker 5: somewhere's in a million dollar range. And then there were
31:30
Speaker 5: several uh you know, private donors to make that happen.
31:36
Speaker 5: And all you know, one hundred and twelve license that
31:38
Speaker 5: thirty thousand dollars a pop were or retired last year.
31:42
Speaker 5: So I ain't we would love to see that number
31:48
Speaker 5: from to be fifty percent of what it was at
31:51
Speaker 5: it's high at its peak, you know, something more in
31:54
Speaker 5: the two hundred to two fifty range, and you know there,
32:00
Speaker 5: you know, maybe they've got you know, Park my life
32:02
Speaker 5: may have some other numbers that are really you know,
32:05
Speaker 5: maybe lower, a little higher up, probably more to the
32:08
Speaker 5: lower sides. But just the strong push to cut that
32:12
Speaker 5: in half. And again it's it's just it's been a
32:15
Speaker 5: combination of environmental stuff over harvests, and you know it,
32:25
Speaker 5: you know, bottom line is, you know, there's only so
32:27
Speaker 5: much that can be taken. And once you once you
32:29
Speaker 5: take it and you beat these reats down, you just
32:33
Speaker 5: they just don't produce anymore.
32:34
Speaker 12: So what what when you say the hurricane came to
32:39
Speaker 12: them and and it's like the soil they moved the
32:44
Speaker 12: soil over the oysters.
32:46
Speaker 5: That's yeah, they move you know when those storms come through.
32:50
Speaker 5: I mean they moved sedimentation around and they covered those oysters,
32:54
Speaker 5: and the sedimentation covered those oyster beds. And here's and
32:57
Speaker 5: here's where I'm gonna go with that is is the
33:01
Speaker 5: fact that you know, when those reefs are harvested, you know,
33:06
Speaker 5: they just go over them and over them. Uh, They're
33:10
Speaker 5: they're knocking the heights down on those reefs, they knock
33:14
Speaker 5: those heights down. The oysters they put back, you know,
33:17
Speaker 5: they're throwing them overboard. And you flatten that reefs to
33:21
Speaker 5: where that reef has no vertical heights to it. It's
33:25
Speaker 5: just and you take that vertical height away. Then all
33:29
Speaker 5: it takes is all it takes is a storm to
33:34
Speaker 5: come through and cover it up with you know, with silts,
33:40
Speaker 5: and and just once they cover them inselts, it suffocates
33:44
Speaker 5: them and kills them. Then those you know, those races
33:48
Speaker 5: are covered. So then when you do have an oyster spawn,
33:52
Speaker 5: you don't the spat doesn't have the ability, doesn't have
33:56
Speaker 5: anything there for it to attach itself to and grow.
34:00
Speaker 5: So it's just, you know, one is just a cascading effect.
34:04
Speaker 5: You know, in the rock Port area, when Hurricane Harvey
34:07
Speaker 5: hit you fortunately at the time you had the reefs
34:13
Speaker 5: and they had some vertical relief to them, they had
34:17
Speaker 5: some vertical heights to them. Now the hurricane absolutely damaged
34:21
Speaker 5: them and knocked some of the tops off and scattered
34:24
Speaker 5: some of that, but it also gave the commercial industry
34:29
Speaker 5: an access to a lot of stuff that they didn't
34:34
Speaker 5: have access to before. And when you start harvesting, and
34:38
Speaker 5: you stay on top of that same reef and just
34:40
Speaker 5: keep horsting and harvest and then you spread it out
34:42
Speaker 5: and you spread it out, and then the next storm
34:45
Speaker 5: you get it covers it all right back up and
34:47
Speaker 5: it kills it. You know. So in a nutshell, you know,
34:54
Speaker 5: in a nutshell, you know, over harvests and environmental effects,
34:58
Speaker 5: is it kind of was what's pushed us to where
35:01
Speaker 5: we are today?
35:03
Speaker 6: How bad is it?
35:07
Speaker 3: You know?
35:07
Speaker 5: Uh, they're struggling. I mean, I'm not going to speak
35:12
Speaker 5: on the industry, you know, for the industry, but they're struggling.
35:15
Speaker 5: I mean they uh, you know last year the season
35:19
Speaker 5: was shut because there was no horror, you know, Texas
35:23
Speaker 5: parkan a while, I'll set thresholds. They do samples, and
35:26
Speaker 5: when they set these thresholds, and I'm hesitant to say
35:32
Speaker 5: those thresholds are just off the top of my head.
35:34
Speaker 5: Say I'm just going to use an example. Say that
35:36
Speaker 5: threshold is when they're doing that sample that say, fifty
35:42
Speaker 5: of those oysters and their sample dredge are not marketable oysters.
35:49
Speaker 5: Sty'll close that system down again at fifty percent. I
35:52
Speaker 5: know that's not the right number. I'm I'm just using
35:55
Speaker 5: it as an example. Then you've got to let that
35:58
Speaker 5: reef grow back to where it reaches a threshold where
36:02
Speaker 5: you can start harvesting that again, sunding it opens back up.
36:08
Speaker 5: They descend right back on it. And that's what like
36:11
Speaker 5: last year, the seasons shut down. I want to say
36:15
Speaker 5: that season was you know, season runs to April fifteenth
36:18
Speaker 5: and it was closed and I think early March last year.
36:23
Speaker 5: I'd have to go back and look, but the season
36:26
Speaker 5: closed early because no, there was no areas open to
36:29
Speaker 5: commercial harvests of oysters. Because the host abundance of those oysters,
36:34
Speaker 5: the three inch oysters is what the commercial guys can harvest.
36:38
Speaker 5: That abundance was just not there.
36:44
Speaker 4: And people don't know there's a lot of jobs that
36:45
Speaker 4: stayed with the with the oyster industry. Is this possibly
36:49
Speaker 4: can cut the amount of fishermen out there.
36:54
Speaker 5: For oyster fishermen, Well, that's I mean, that's part of
36:56
Speaker 5: the licensed buy back is to buy back those lives
36:59
Speaker 5: and is and bring it down to a manageable level.
37:02
Speaker 5: And in the end, it's it's good for the industry,
37:05
Speaker 5: it's good for the resource. You cut that number of
37:09
Speaker 5: licenses down and you know, everybody can start making a
37:13
Speaker 5: living again now, you know, sadly it's you know, all
37:17
Speaker 5: you've Hotport for instance, you know, we had a small
37:20
Speaker 5: commercial fleet here. You know, we had you know, a
37:24
Speaker 5: fleet here that stayed here. They didn't travel, they just
37:27
Speaker 5: fished here and everybody was good. And then Galaston got
37:33
Speaker 5: hammered by the hurricane, by floods and everything else. And
37:37
Speaker 5: then you bring another two hundred and fifty three hundred
37:40
Speaker 5: boats down here, and it pushes the little guys out.
37:43
Speaker 5: You've got the big you know, you've got the big players,
37:46
Speaker 5: and they're gonna you know, and they're the ones that,
37:49
Speaker 5: in my mind, they're the ones that are gonna benefit
37:51
Speaker 5: by cutting the licenses back. Because you cut those licenses
37:55
Speaker 5: back the moment, pop shops just simply can't exist more.
38:01
Speaker 6: H What do you think?
38:03
Speaker 4: What do you when you see an environment?
38:04
Speaker 7: Uh, some of the environmental aspects of things is some
38:07
Speaker 7: of the plants down there is that hurting it?
38:11
Speaker 4: That hurting the industry. Also is like as far as
38:14
Speaker 4: dumping and.
38:14
Speaker 5: Stuff, well, I mean, right, we don't have that in
38:18
Speaker 5: miss Rockport system. We don't have uh, we we don't
38:23
Speaker 5: have plants around here that dump, you know, in the water.
38:27
Speaker 5: For SAE to affect that. Now, if we if you
38:30
Speaker 5: have a flood, you may you may leave the whole
38:33
Speaker 5: season to a flood, which is a common you know,
38:36
Speaker 5: it's been a common occurrence up in the Upper Coast
38:38
Speaker 5: where you lease the whole season because of a flood.
38:43
Speaker 5: Then on the same hand, you know, cocon Obay has
38:47
Speaker 5: had a die off somewhat because we've been in the drought.
38:52
Speaker 5: And then solenity levels get so high, so it's you know,
38:55
Speaker 5: it's where's that you got to be in that middle
38:58
Speaker 5: somewhere then you know, you get it out, you get
39:00
Speaker 5: super high salinities, then that that encourages the growth of
39:07
Speaker 5: oyster drills and other diseases that kill the oysters. And
39:11
Speaker 5: then you get too much fresh order. Then too much
39:14
Speaker 5: fresh order that that kills the oysters. So you got
39:18
Speaker 5: to be somewhere there in the middle. And the unfortunately,
39:21
Speaker 5: you know, mother nature has not being real kind either.
39:24
Speaker 1: Uh.
39:25
Speaker 5: On the on the other side of.
39:26
Speaker 4: It, how can people find out about your organization? And
39:29
Speaker 4: once you guys are doing.
39:30
Speaker 5: CTA Texas, Uh, we've got a lot of information out there.
39:34
Speaker 5: I'm gonna pull up our our website real quick. We've
39:38
Speaker 5: got an oyster h pages dedicated strictly to oysters, and
39:43
Speaker 5: it's pretty simple as want to make sure I give
39:45
Speaker 5: it to you correctly. Uh, if you go to CCA
39:50
Speaker 5: Texas dot org backslash oysters.
39:54
Speaker 1: That was John Blaha with a Conservative Conservation Association. If
39:59
Speaker 1: you want more information and you can go to CCA
40:02
Speaker 1: Texas dot org forward slash oysters. It's fun. Drive time
40:08
Speaker 1: at KPFT. Call us and donate what you can seven
40:12
Speaker 1: one three, five, two six, five, seven three eight seven
40:16
Speaker 1: one three five two six five seven three eight.
40:19
Speaker 4: We love the People's News.
40:21
Speaker 1: Since two thousand and eight, Comicpalooza is Texas's foremost comic
40:26
Speaker 1: and pop culture event. It takes up three floors now
40:29
Speaker 1: at the Georgia Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston every
40:33
Speaker 1: Memorial Day weekend and has become the biggest multi format convention,
40:37
Speaker 1: celebrating not just comics, but also sci fi, anime, cosplay, literature, fantasy,
40:44
Speaker 1: horror films, and gaming of all types. It reflects Houston
40:49
Speaker 1: in its diversity. Normadiaz represents Comicpalooza and talked about how
40:54
Speaker 1: the event is diverse.
40:56
Speaker 14: It's cutting bigger and better every year on Comic Polussins
41:00
Speaker 14: annual Pop Culture Festival. It's a three day weekend of
41:06
Speaker 14: everything pop culture, celebrating some of our favorite fandoms and
41:11
Speaker 14: our favorite celebrities as well.
41:13
Speaker 12: What are some of the things that Some of the
41:15
Speaker 12: things I noticed is diversity over the years, I remember
41:19
Speaker 12: coming down here and not seeing as much diversity, more
41:24
Speaker 12: African Americans here and Latinos, and it's more the first
41:29
Speaker 12: now we're talking about that.
41:30
Speaker 14: It's really cool because it's not only we not only
41:34
Speaker 14: span many fandoms, but he's in such a diversity it's
41:38
Speaker 14: it's a melting pot. And so being able to have
41:41
Speaker 14: that reflected here at the show, it's really special. Some
41:45
Speaker 14: of one of our programming cohorts is Comic flu Said University,
41:51
Speaker 14: where we talk and delve a little bit more into
41:54
Speaker 14: representation within pop culture, whether it be within the Latin
41:58
Speaker 14: X community or the African americanmunity. So it's really special
42:01
Speaker 14: to see that represented all throughout the show.
42:02
Speaker 12: For and the disability, we have a disability, yeah, so.
42:09
Speaker 14: And in fact we have some panels dedicated to that,
42:12
Speaker 14: so consimulating with the disability and also a lot of.
42:16
Speaker 10: Topics that go into mental health as well. So it's
42:18
Speaker 10: really special.
42:19
Speaker 4: Talk about that a little because I've you know, you
42:21
Speaker 4: had that, Yeah.
42:22
Speaker 14: With mental health, having that compared with some of the
42:28
Speaker 14: comic book panels. Yeah, so this Saturday we have storytelling
42:31
Speaker 14: mental health and communities in traumatic time. So this is
42:34
Speaker 14: one of our Comic Poolicey University panels. So it kind
42:37
Speaker 14: of delves into the moments and profound trauma stories and
42:42
Speaker 14: seeing how people connect to it and how it's kind
42:46
Speaker 14: of represented through comic book icons like Panther and Storm,
42:52
Speaker 14: and it really kind of delves into or opens up
42:56
Speaker 14: the conversation to talk about that and also in a
42:58
Speaker 14: safe space with panelists that are kind of they know
43:04
Speaker 14: what they're talking about and they have kind of the credentials.
43:06
Speaker 10: To back it up.
43:08
Speaker 12: Is just the first year you're doing this, because.
43:09
Speaker 14: It's the second year of comic plusa University is returning,
43:13
Speaker 14: So it's something that's really exciting, and it's it's grown
43:16
Speaker 14: since last year too, we have more panels.
43:18
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's to me, it's it.
43:22
Speaker 12: Delves into a whole different, different category and makes it
43:26
Speaker 12: something to build up that people don't know about. People
43:29
Speaker 12: think it's just comic books.
43:31
Speaker 14: Yeah, you think comic books, And I mean we've all
43:34
Speaker 14: grown up with comic books, whether it be on TV
43:38
Speaker 14: and Merge that we bought, but once you kind of
43:43
Speaker 14: delve a little bit into it, sometimes it's an escape
43:47
Speaker 14: for us from reality and sometimes we do need that
43:51
Speaker 14: when times are hard.
43:53
Speaker 12: Yeah, and talk about some of the people you have.
43:56
Speaker 12: You have a pretty big allowanment of people coming to speak.
44:01
Speaker 12: You know, you have Pam Breer.
44:03
Speaker 1: It's just like wow.
44:05
Speaker 5: Yeah.
44:06
Speaker 14: So every year we try to bring in guests that
44:08
Speaker 14: are icons legends within pop culture. So we do have
44:12
Speaker 14: Pam Greer coming this weekend. We also have the iconic
44:16
Speaker 14: Lawns Fishburn from the Matrix. We have the cast of
44:21
Speaker 14: The Daredevil Born Again SII, so we're really excited. So
44:26
Speaker 14: and it really shows the type of the different fandoms
44:30
Speaker 14: that we touch on. We even have voice actors from
44:32
Speaker 14: the epic video game series Halo that are coming in and.
44:36
Speaker 12: People don't allow big best gone like for like voice acting.
44:41
Speaker 14: Yeah, we we have voice actors. We have also Spanish
44:45
Speaker 14: voice actors here making their appearance for the first time
44:48
Speaker 14: here from Dragon Ball C as well.
44:51
Speaker 10: Very excited.
44:52
Speaker 12: It's another thing also because has been doing this for
44:57
Speaker 12: so long and now you have takeoffs on common Fluza
45:01
Speaker 12: all year round and this is that? Does that take
45:04
Speaker 12: away from that the people that tell me this one
45:07
Speaker 12: or is it just a good thing that it is
45:09
Speaker 12: getting that it is getting bigger?
45:13
Speaker 14: So Comic Pulusa, it's only once a year, so we
45:16
Speaker 14: do have off season events like CP three sixty five,
45:20
Speaker 14: So it doesn't really take away from the attendance here
45:25
Speaker 14: at Comic Pelusa, but it does kind of make people
45:27
Speaker 14: more aware that we're out here and we have the.
45:30
Speaker 12: Show exists and it gets bigger and bigger every year,
45:34
Speaker 12: for sure, it does.
45:35
Speaker 10: We have every year we have new attractions.
45:38
Speaker 14: This year on the first flour we have our Ascro
45:39
Speaker 14: World display, which is it's been popular from what I've seen.
45:43
Speaker 10: I've walked the show floor a little bit and it's
45:45
Speaker 10: very sick.
45:46
Speaker 12: Is that the same one from the Public Library?
45:49
Speaker 10: I don't believe so, so it's something definitely to check out.
45:56
Speaker 6: Hi.
45:56
Speaker 1: This is Steve Gallington, co producer and host of the
46:00
Speaker 1: People's News. The first thing I want to say is
46:04
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you for your years of support keeping
46:08
Speaker 1: us on the air at KPFT ninety point one FM.
46:12
Speaker 1: Today I want to talk to you about the Catch
46:14
Speaker 1: twenty two that is Ears versus donations. So station management
46:21
Speaker 1: at KPFT picks the winners and picks the losers by
46:25
Speaker 1: putting programs on the air HD one and HD two.
46:31
Speaker 1: The shows that are on HD one and HD two
46:33
Speaker 1: more times during the day and during the week are
46:37
Speaker 1: the ones that get more donations. That makes sense because
46:41
Speaker 1: there are more people who can hear the program. So
46:44
Speaker 1: with The People's News we air for three hours on
46:48
Speaker 1: HD two each week, which I'm very grateful for, but
46:52
Speaker 1: because of that choice by station management, not very many
46:57
Speaker 1: people actually hear the program. I encourage you, when you
47:00
Speaker 1: donate to the show also to reach out to KPFT
47:04
Speaker 1: and ask that The People's News get put on HD one.
47:08
Speaker 1: And I also wanted to announce we are in podcast form.
47:12
Speaker 1: You can go to speaker dot com and there are
47:14
Speaker 1: ways you can support us directly there. Thanks again for listening.
47:19
Speaker 1: I am so grateful to be able to do this
47:21
Speaker 1: for you every week, and I am so grateful for
47:24
Speaker 1: your support. Thanks again. The Houston Dynamo won their last
47:36
Speaker 1: home game before the Men's World Cup break, defeating the
47:40
Speaker 1: Vancouver Whitecaps one to oh who are playing with a
47:43
Speaker 1: man down with white Caps goalkeeper Yohi Takota's red card foul.
47:49
Speaker 1: Manager Ben Olsen was excited to see the team come
47:52
Speaker 1: together for the win.
47:53
Speaker 3: Alert and we got.
47:55
Speaker 15: Him in good hands and he may even come back
47:59
Speaker 15: to his home US Tonight's we're all thinking to him.
48:02
Speaker 3: But he's going to be fine. So that's the that's
48:05
Speaker 3: the most important thing. As far as the.
48:07
Speaker 15: Game, just just a wonderful. It wasn't easy that that
48:12
Speaker 15: team's good. You know, they're They're where they're at for
48:15
Speaker 15: a reason. And this was reminiscent of the l A
48:19
Speaker 15: f C game in the Colorado game, where it was
48:23
Speaker 15: a real group effort and everybody showed up and put
48:27
Speaker 15: put a pretty pretty good performance on And certainly in transition,
48:31
Speaker 15: we're we're getting into these moments and maybe we could
48:35
Speaker 15: make it easier on ourselves by being cleaner and more
48:37
Speaker 15: clinical in those moments because it's happening quite a bit
48:41
Speaker 15: and and we were a bit wasteful in that area.
48:45
Speaker 15: But as far as guys uh defending and understanding the
48:50
Speaker 15: game plan, I can't say enough about that group. We'll
48:54
Speaker 15: come pay money to see us and were trying to
48:56
Speaker 15: entertain and we want them cheering at the end, and
48:58
Speaker 15: and you know, nothing and makes me happier than walking
49:02
Speaker 15: around and seeing happy faces and proud of the group's effort.
49:06
Speaker 6: Uh.
49:06
Speaker 3: And they they, this team is resonating. I think with them,
49:11
Speaker 3: it's a different way we're going about things. I get that.
49:13
Speaker 15: And then but again, I think there's a there's a
49:17
Speaker 15: and we're starting to figure ourselves out, which is nice.
49:20
Speaker 15: That's the first time we've been in a similar lineup.
49:24
Speaker 15: We're starting to figure out who our starters are and
49:27
Speaker 15: staying in a consistent structure, which I think is helping
49:31
Speaker 15: these guys.
49:35
Speaker 6: Well, it's.
49:38
Speaker 3: It's not a beer. You can share a GB sparkling
49:44
Speaker 3: water coach.
49:46
Speaker 16: Good evening, and forgive me for being laid and you've
49:48
Speaker 16: been asked this, I apologize beforehand.
49:51
Speaker 3: Defensively talk to us.
49:52
Speaker 16: About what you had in mind, because I think it
49:55
Speaker 16: worked that perfectly and some people may not see the
49:58
Speaker 16: art behind it or live in perspective that you were
50:01
Speaker 16: spot on and the way you approached the Spanish civil.
50:03
Speaker 6: To l a FC.
50:05
Speaker 16: Talk to us about that piece because maybe people miss
50:07
Speaker 16: that and are focused on the goal.
50:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, it's you know, yeah, there's there's an.
50:14
Speaker 15: Art to defending and starts a commitment and selflessness and willing,
50:18
Speaker 15: you know, to follow a game plan and being okay
50:21
Speaker 15: with that and being comfortable at times absorbing and being
50:24
Speaker 15: a mid block at a times low block and understanding
50:26
Speaker 15: that we can maybe that's the best version of us
50:30
Speaker 15: right in this moment.
50:31
Speaker 3: Is that where we're going to live. I'm not sure,
50:33
Speaker 3: but right now, in that.
50:34
Speaker 17: Moment against this opponent, the coaches and players, you know,
50:40
Speaker 17: brought into what this needed to you know, what this
50:44
Speaker 17: needed to look like.
50:44
Speaker 15: And there's some other teams that aren't going to look
50:48
Speaker 15: like this. So each game is different and how we're
50:50
Speaker 15: going to go about it. But this was more like
50:54
Speaker 15: the l a FC game, you're right, and more like
50:57
Speaker 15: the Colorado game.
50:58
Speaker 3: And that everybody came to play. Everybody showed up.
51:01
Speaker 15: And had a certain selflessness about them on the defensive
51:04
Speaker 15: end and was really committed for each other. And then transition,
51:09
Speaker 15: we're dangerous. We break out pretty.
51:12
Speaker 3: Well, and as I said, we're here, but I said,
51:16
Speaker 3: we were wasteful in some of.
51:17
Speaker 15: Those moments stuff three v two s, two v ones,
51:20
Speaker 15: one v ones, and we have to continue to work
51:23
Speaker 15: on if we are in a game like that, being
51:26
Speaker 15: more efficient in some of those transition moments.
51:29
Speaker 3: We brought in some I've talked about personality in this group,
51:33
Speaker 3: and it was we brought that in. We brought experience in.
51:38
Speaker 3: We're deeper than we were last year.
51:40
Speaker 15: Again, we're better, you know in the final third, I
51:42
Speaker 15: think and finish it were dangerous in transition, and I
51:46
Speaker 15: think we have you know, a better you know, better
51:50
Speaker 15: box defending.
51:51
Speaker 3: So there's there's a lot of improvements in this group,
51:53
Speaker 3: but we got a long way to go. We got
51:56
Speaker 3: a long way to go, and this this wacky season
52:00
Speaker 3: that we're living in.
52:01
Speaker 15: You know, we're gonna have to one more league game
52:04
Speaker 15: and you know, an open Cup game, and then we
52:06
Speaker 15: go away for you know, two months, and then we
52:09
Speaker 15: have a game for another two months. And it's a
52:10
Speaker 15: it's a wacky So then you go through this whole
52:13
Speaker 15: preseason to kind of still fight and reinvent yourself, and
52:16
Speaker 15: you're gonna bring in a player or two. So it's
52:19
Speaker 15: it's tricky. We're really focused on.
52:20
Speaker 3: The next two games and finishing out and the strong
52:24
Speaker 3: going into this World Cup. How are you to keep players.
52:35
Speaker 15: When the season starts, Well, essentially they're they're going for
52:39
Speaker 15: a few weeks and then we report back in we
52:43
Speaker 15: have another preseason, so it's like two seasons, you know,
52:46
Speaker 15: preseason into this first half and then we're gonna report
52:49
Speaker 15: and we have five weeks to get them ready for UH.
52:52
Speaker 15: I think DC United, UH the first game back here.
52:56
Speaker 15: So this is UH again, we're doing this for the
52:59
Speaker 15: first time, but we know how to do a preseason.
53:01
Speaker 15: We know how to get ready for you know, the
53:03
Speaker 15: second half of the year. The second half of the year,
53:05
Speaker 15: it would be Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday is a lot of
53:08
Speaker 15: the midweek games. So we're going to continue to build
53:10
Speaker 15: depth because we're gonna need it.
53:12
Speaker 1: For Vancouver. The team is on top, but they are
53:15
Speaker 1: dealing with outside influences like the moving of the team.
53:18
Speaker 1: But coach Jasper Sorenson, in his second year, says the
53:22
Speaker 1: loss was difficult but looks forward to the break as
53:25
Speaker 1: the players can heal.
53:29
Speaker 17: Yeah, the game today was.
53:32
Speaker 10: It was special.
53:34
Speaker 18: It was I think that we came we came out
53:36
Speaker 18: good and Benwell had a nice blow.
53:38
Speaker 10: Then we had this very bad incident.
53:41
Speaker 18: Of course, we hope all the best ball or the
53:43
Speaker 18: Houston plan and hope that he will he will recover
53:46
Speaker 18: and do well and hopefully see him on the pitch again.
53:49
Speaker 18: Soon then we lost a little bit of a blow
53:54
Speaker 18: and momentum, but still did.
53:56
Speaker 5: Okay in the first half.
53:59
Speaker 3: But in the second half, we.
54:02
Speaker 18: We did some some things that you know, made it
54:06
Speaker 18: the difficult to us.
54:08
Speaker 5: For us, we.
54:10
Speaker 18: We gave away too many transition moments that we talked
54:12
Speaker 18: about in the break that we should try to avoid
54:15
Speaker 18: and playing the past of the right places and yeah,
54:20
Speaker 18: and then of course the red card changed the momentum
54:23
Speaker 18: of the game a lot, so it became a defensive
54:26
Speaker 18: game for us from then on.
54:27
Speaker 3: And they was, yeah, it was what it was.
54:30
Speaker 4: We're going We're going to a World Cup. How's that?
54:33
Speaker 4: How do you go into that forture close?
54:36
Speaker 12: Coming out of that?
54:38
Speaker 18: We will give the players a break they needed, they
54:41
Speaker 18: to serve it, and then we will build up, build
54:45
Speaker 18: them up again to watch a long stretch in the
54:48
Speaker 18: in the in the fall, and and hopefully we're going
54:51
Speaker 18: to be solved as well.
54:52
Speaker 6: So I think.
54:54
Speaker 18: I'm used to it from European football that we have
54:56
Speaker 18: a summer break. So I will try to to to
55:00
Speaker 18: give him from days off, give him the rest, and
55:03
Speaker 18: then when they return, we'll try to pick them up
55:04
Speaker 18: towards the last part of the season and We're gonna
55:08
Speaker 18: have a lot of games because we participate in the
55:10
Speaker 18: League Cup and champions Canadian Championship and the MLS. So
55:15
Speaker 18: so we will make sure that we're ready when we
55:19
Speaker 18: when we're back, but they will be like a preseason
55:21
Speaker 18: for us.
55:21
Speaker 3: Again, we talked about it here in this last question.
55:23
Speaker 4: We talk about it a little uh, playing too many
55:26
Speaker 4: of these matches.
55:28
Speaker 12: And here in the States also in n LS, you
55:31
Speaker 12: know we have some little top of competitions that hurts.
55:34
Speaker 4: Is that hurt or help Junior has a breaks? A hell,
55:37
Speaker 4: it's a holiday break. Is that something that happened that
55:41
Speaker 4: given the players more of a boid?
55:44
Speaker 18: Again, I think you know going forward here that it
55:47
Speaker 18: will be uh, that it will be. There will be
55:51
Speaker 18: a summer break in the winter break right when we
55:54
Speaker 18: switch the schedule going forward, and that will that will
55:56
Speaker 18: look a little bit like what we see also Germany
55:59
Speaker 18: when they have a break over the winter and over Christmas.
56:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you do.
56:05
Speaker 18: Well in all competitions, you end up playing a lot
56:07
Speaker 18: of games. But that's that's actually what you want. And
56:12
Speaker 18: I think the number of games is is good. I
56:15
Speaker 18: think it's okay. It can't like we last year had
56:17
Speaker 18: a lot of games. It can be half of the players,
56:21
Speaker 18: of course, but I think that in general that it's
56:23
Speaker 18: it's it's okay, it's.
56:24
Speaker 1: Not over the top, I think. In Women's National Soccer League,
56:27
Speaker 1: the Houston Dash played San Diego Football Club to a
56:30
Speaker 1: two to two draw at home. This past Saturday night,
56:34
Speaker 1: they played Angel City Football Club, finishing out their regular
56:38
Speaker 1: season before the summer break with a two to one win.
56:40
Speaker 1: They traveled to New Jersey to play Gotham FC at
56:43
Speaker 1: the end of the month. It's fun drive time at KPFT.
56:49
Speaker 1: Call us and donate what you can seven one three, five,
56:52
Speaker 1: two six, five, seven three eight seven one three five
56:55
Speaker 1: two six, five, seven three eight.
56:57
Speaker 4: We Love The People's News.
57:02
Speaker 1: The People's News is a production of Steve Gallington and
57:04
Speaker 1: Richard Hannah and is protected by copyright laws. All the
57:08
Speaker 1: information broadcast on air and online, as well as published
57:12
Speaker 1: in both print and or online, including articles, audio clips, illustrations, graphics, photographs,
57:18
Speaker 1: and videos, are protected by these copyright and other state
57:21
Speaker 1: and federal intellectual property laws. Therefore, you may not use
57:25
Speaker 1: our content in any prohibited way, including reproducing, publishing, transmitting, selling, rewriting, broadcasting,
57:32
Speaker 1: or posting on the Internet without the expressed written permission
57:36
Speaker 1: of the People's News. Prohibited use also includes publication of
57:40
Speaker 1: our material in printed or electronic brochures, newsletters, or flyers,
57:44
Speaker 1: as well as all website or email distribution. To obtain
57:48
Speaker 1: permission to use copyrighted material, email Steve Gallington at Steve
57:53
Speaker 1: at gallington dot com. Thank you.