Latest / The People's News / Executions Continue in Texas; No-Knock and Pot on the Ballot; Starbucks Lies About Recycling - TPN 10/11/26

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Executions Continue in Texas; No-Knock and Pot on the Ballot; Starbucks Lies About Recycling - TPN 10/11/26 · The People's News

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's the week of October 11th, 2026, and this is
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: what's on the People's News. Death row in Texas continues
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: despite difficulties in Tennessee. Education panel calls for change when
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: states take over school districts. Pot and no-knock warrants are
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: on the ballot in Houston. Starbucks under fire for environmental
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  Speaker 1: concerns over their cuts. Opioid grant will save more lives
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  Speaker 1: in Harris County. Energy costs in Texas to rise over
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  Speaker 1: the next 15 years. All that and more on the
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: People's News. I'm Steve Gallington. This is the People's News,
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  Speaker 1: and the People's News starts now. Krista Gale-Pyke was a
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  Speaker 1: victim of a botched execution attempt in Tennessee. She was
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  Speaker 1: given a lethal injection that did not work as planned,
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  Speaker 1: and she survived, went to the hospital, and has actually
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  Speaker 1: been returned to prison. Texas did not take a pause executing,
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  Speaker 1: with Jamal Howard being executed this past Wednesday. He was
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  Speaker 1: involved in the 2000 killing of Sillsby, Texas, store clerk
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  Speaker 1: Vicki Swartout. We talked to Gloria Rubick, of the Texas
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: death penalty abolitionist movement.
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  Speaker 2: Jamal Howard had been on death row 25 years. And,
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  Speaker 2: you know, executions are supposed to happen at 6 o'clock. Well,
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  Speaker 2: there was a huge crowd out there, including a dozen
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  Speaker 2: or more members of his family, his sisters, brothers, cousins,
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  Speaker 2: his best friends since kindergarten. along with the abolitionists who
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  Speaker 2: were usually there. So 6 o'clock came and went because
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  Speaker 2: the Supreme Court had not made a final ruling. We
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  Speaker 2: were all kind of hoping against hope that maybe they
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  Speaker 2: were really looking at this in light of what had
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: just happened in Tennessee to Krista Pike. But I guess
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  Speaker 2: it was about 7.40. 745, the Supreme Court finally ruled.
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  Speaker 2: They denied his appeals with no comment, and the execution proceeded.
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  Speaker 2: His elderly father, along with one of his sisters and
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  Speaker 2: a good friend, witnessed the execution. After it was over,
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  Speaker 2: the sister and the spiritual advisor came down to the crowd.
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  Speaker 2: The spiritual advisor was.
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  Speaker 3: Dr.
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  Speaker 2: Jeff Hood, who has witnessed several executions and befriended, I think,
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  Speaker 2: a dozen, he said, around the country. I think this
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  Speaker 2: was the second person in Texas that he was the
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  Speaker 2: spiritual advisor for. And he.
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  Speaker 2: Came down to where we were, got on the microphone
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  Speaker 2: and talked to the crowd and said, you know, Jamal
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  Speaker 2: should never have been on death row to begin with
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  Speaker 2: because he's intellectually disabled. And the Supreme Court has said
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  Speaker 2: people who have the minds of children shouldn't be executed.
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  Speaker 2: And he said, you know, he spent a lot of
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  Speaker 2: his time on death row coloring in kids coloring books.
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  Speaker 2: He said that he was a very nice person in
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  Speaker 2: that he was always glad to see his visitors. And
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  Speaker 2: he apologized profusely to the family of the woman that
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  Speaker 2: was murdered. And, um, So he asked people to come
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  Speaker 2: up and just use one word to say what they were,
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  Speaker 2: what was on their mind. And people came up and
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  Speaker 2: they were saying love and dignity and freedom and justice.
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  Speaker 2: And he goes, nobody has said anger. And I am angry.
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  Speaker 2: This should not have happened. Execution should not happen. So
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  Speaker 2: it was, and his father, His sister, who witnessed, spoke
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  Speaker 2: a little bit. She was angry, definitely. And his elderly father,
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  Speaker 2: I was standing next to him. He just grabbed my
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  Speaker 2: hand and held on to me. But he didn't want
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  Speaker 2: to say anything. But less than a week after Tennessee
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  Speaker 2: totally tortured a woman, Texas should have just taken a pause, right? Because,
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  Speaker 2: you know what, the drug that's used, pentobarbital, the Texas
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: prison system, all of their drugs are expired, but they
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: just keep extending the expiration date. So we don't know
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  Speaker 2: how strong they are. We don't know what dosage should
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  Speaker 2: be used. Every execution is an experiment because they give
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  Speaker 2: the same dose every to some dude weighing 300 pounds
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  Speaker 2: as they do to somebody else weighing 120 pounds. And
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  Speaker 2: it's very interesting. I have found out that no matter
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  Speaker 2: what method of execution you use, they have all been botched.
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  Speaker 2: The electric chair, the guillotine, the gas chamber, everything. What's
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  Speaker 2: the latest? Nitrogen hypoxia. But the most botched executions have
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  Speaker 2: been with lethal injection. So we need to stop the experimenting,
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  Speaker 2: stop the killing. Take the billions that we have spent
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  Speaker 2: on death row cases and appeals and expert witnesses and blah, blah, blah.
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  Speaker 2: Take those billions of dollars And put them for people.
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  Speaker 2: My God, people need jobs. They need houses. They need
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  Speaker 2: food and groceries. And killing somebody doesn't make us any safer.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, the states that execute have higher murder rates
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  Speaker 2: than the states that do not. So, bless his heart.
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  Speaker 2: Jamal Howard was from Sillsby, Texas. His sister's going to
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  Speaker 2: let me know when the funeral is, but they are
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  Speaker 2: a memorial. They're going to have a memorial for him.
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  Speaker 2: And our organization will be going to Sillsby, which is
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  Speaker 2: near Beaumont, apparently, and pay our last respects.
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  Speaker 4: How does the Pikes case play into this? Because this
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  Speaker 4: should be moratorium across the country after her botched execution.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. And you know what is appalling? The man
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  Speaker 2: that was executed September 23rd, Kershawn Ramey, his so-called attorney,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm making quote signs with my fingers.
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  Speaker 5: Was a dentist.
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  Speaker 2: A practicing dentist. Apparently he had a law degree, but
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  Speaker 2: he was not a practicing attorney. Now, how's that for defense?
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  Speaker 4: How did that happen?
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  Speaker 2: I don't know if a dude was appointed or what happened.
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  Speaker 3: But you know what?
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  Speaker 2: There are too doggone many things wrong that happened. And
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  Speaker 2: we need to stop the executions now. Today, not tomorrow,
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  Speaker 2: not in time for the two in November. Today, we
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  Speaker 2: need to just stop it.
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  Speaker 4: How do you plan to say that? Because you still
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  Speaker 4: have a high percentage of the population in Texas that
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  Speaker 4: support the death penalty.
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  Speaker 2: But those numbers are going down. And among the youth,
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  Speaker 2: the majority of youth do not support it.
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  Speaker 6: But.
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  Speaker 2: And we'll be talking about all this Saturday. We're having
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  Speaker 2: our 27th annual march and rally to abolish the death
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  Speaker 2: penalty at the state capitol. And we're going to talk
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  Speaker 2: about what should happen next.
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  Speaker 4: And the answer is nothing.
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  Speaker 2: No executions. But we have two death row exonerees coming
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  Speaker 2: to speak. We have two people whose family was murdered.
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  Speaker 2: One of them, her father was murdered in his church
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  Speaker 2: where he was the pastor. He was shot, and actually
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  Speaker 2: she was shot, and she pretended like she was dead.
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  Speaker 5: And that's the only reason she's here.
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  Speaker 3: With us today.
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  Speaker 2: We also have two women who are going to speak.
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  Speaker 2: who were part of the recent lawsuit victory where the
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  Speaker 2: federal court said that all Texas prisons have to be executed.
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  Speaker 2: We know Texas is appealing it, but this was quite
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  Speaker 2: a victory that had been fought for for many years.
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  Speaker 3: So Dr.
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  Speaker 2: Meet Dominic with Texas Prisons Community Support and Jennifer Toon,
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  Speaker 2: who's the executive director of a group called Lioness Women,
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  Speaker 2: Justice Impacted Women. And that organization is made up of
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  Speaker 2: all women.
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  Speaker 5: Who have been in prison.
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  Speaker 2: Anyway, they're going to be joining us. And Melissa Lucio's
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  Speaker 2: son will be speaking today. And a good friend of
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  Speaker 2: Robert Robertson, who visits him several times every month, is
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  Speaker 2: going to be speaking. So we've got a great lineup.
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  Speaker 2: We've got some incredible poetry. So I encourage people to
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  Speaker 2: come to the Capitol, 2 o'clock Saturday, South Steps.
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  Speaker 4: And so we've seen a case of the Pikes and Mr.
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  Speaker 5: Howard.
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  Speaker 4: But now the Defense Department is talking about bringing back
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  Speaker 4: a firing squad.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, mercy.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I'm sure there's going to be legal challenges.
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  Speaker 2: I hope this December 3rd comes and goes, which is
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  Speaker 2: the date Trump has set. But you know the last
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  Speaker 2: firing squad executions? Three people.
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  Speaker 2: Are supposed to be shooting at the person's heart. The
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  Speaker 2: last one, two of the bullets didn't even hit him.
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  Speaker 2: And one hit him, not his heart, but it did
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  Speaker 2: kill him. So even firing squads can be messed up.
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  Speaker 2: Everything can be messed up. And hopefully Trump will be
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  Speaker 2: challenged in court and this will not happen. But one
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  Speaker 2: interesting thing about this year's executions, we had an execution
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  Speaker 2: of a white man back in January, Charles Thompson. They
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  Speaker 2: call him Runaway Chuck because he actually escaped from the
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  Speaker 2: Harris County Jail. He was white.
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  Speaker 3: The next.
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  Speaker 2: Five or six executions have been African-American men. The next
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  Speaker 2: two scheduled for mid-December are Latino. So all of the
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  Speaker 2: executions this year, except one, will be of people of color.
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  Speaker 1: That was Gloria Rubik of the Texas Death Penalty Abolitionist Movement.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: You can find her organization on Facebook as well as
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  Speaker 1: on Instagram. The state says that their takeover of Houston
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  Speaker 1: Independent School District is going fine, but the Commission on
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  Speaker 1: Houston ISD Takeover released its final report, Diminished, Degraded, and Destroyed.
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  Speaker 1: In it, the Commission's findings do not support the state's
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  Speaker 1: claim that the takeover has been a total success. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: the report finds that improved test scores and campus accountability
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  Speaker 1: scores came at a very high cost. Rigorous and engaging
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  Speaker 1: curriculum was replaced by repetitive, scripted lessons and that focused
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  Speaker 1: on test preparation. Certified teachers with years of experience were
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  Speaker 1: fired for refusing to implement policies they knew were harmful
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  Speaker 1: to children. And democratic processes were destroyed, leaving no means
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  Speaker 1: for citizens to hold the appointed, not elected, district leadership
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  Speaker 1: accountable for squandering tax dollars, unchecked conflicts of interest, and
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  Speaker 1: unprecedented rates of teacher and employee turnover. It concludes that
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  Speaker 1: the takeover has resulted in widespread harm to students, parents, teachers, staff,
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  Speaker 1: and the greater Houston community. We talked to Jasmine Lee,
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  Speaker 1: a member of the HISD Takeover Commission.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, so the commission was, it's a citizens commission, a
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  Speaker 3: group of folks who are in Houston who came to
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  Speaker 3: realize that some of what they were hearing about the
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  Speaker 3: district wasn't matching the day-to-day experiences of either themselves, it
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: was like educators, parents, as well as concerns we've been
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  Speaker 3: hearing for the last couple of years that seem to
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  Speaker 3: go unacknowledged by current state-appointed leadership. And so we were gathered,
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  Speaker 3: as well as some elected representatives. We're a group of
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  Speaker 3: elected representatives, community leaders, as well as academics, both locally
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: and nationally, who study state takeovers, as well as a
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  Speaker 3: couple community member representatives who are families, parents, um, partner
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  Speaker 3: with the district and students. And we also have a
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  Speaker 3: student representative as well. So we're a 14 member commission who, um,
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  Speaker 3: and our goal was to try to understand the lived experiences,
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  Speaker 3: people's personal experiences and the human, uh, cost of this takeover.
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  Speaker 4: What do you have any type of, um, um, power
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  Speaker 4: as far as, um, um, the board itself or Mills?
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 3: So we are completely independent of HISC, of PEA. We're
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  Speaker 3: a group of consistent citizens. And I think our power
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: comes from trying to elevate the voices of the people
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  Speaker 3: who so generously shared their testimonies with us.
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  Speaker 4: So what have you found so far?
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  Speaker 5: Yes.
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  Speaker 3: So we just released our report earlier this morning. We
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  Speaker 3: have five key findings based on multiple listening sessions we
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: did as well as focus groups and an analysis of
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  Speaker 3: primary documents. So our first finding is that the takeover
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  Speaker 3: diminished the curriculum. So now under the takeover, what was
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  Speaker 3: introduced was a centralized, scripted lesson plan that's provided by
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  Speaker 3: the district, which are people who spoke to us described
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  Speaker 3: as being too rigid and narrow. This eliminated opportunities for
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  Speaker 3: rich learning experiences that address students' unique interests and learning needs.
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  Speaker 3: We were especially concerned to hear about the impacts we've
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: had for students who received federally mandated accommodations, specifically special
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  Speaker 3: education students and emergent bilingual students. And obviously, and this
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  Speaker 3: is probably something that many people who've been following HISD know,
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  Speaker 3: people expressed concern about the closure of libraries. and lack
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  Speaker 3: of access to certified librarians and digital media specialists. Our
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  Speaker 3: second finding pertains to the dismantling of relationships. So with
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  Speaker 3: this stringent learning model, what we've heard from both educators, students,
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  Speaker 3: and families is that there often isn't enough time for
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  Speaker 3: students and teachers to develop those relationships that are super
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  Speaker 3: important for the learning experience. We've also seen much higher
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  Speaker 3: teacher turnover, whether that be voluntary or involuntary in terms
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: of educators being removed or reassigned. And that has a
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  Speaker 3: real impact on students' families and the educators themselves. The
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: corrosion of these relationships was often, you know, often provoked
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: grief and mourning amongst people who we talked to. And
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: I think when talking about these experiences and listening sessions,
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: you know, our people who are providing these testimonies often
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  Speaker 3: got very emotional in talking about what they felt like
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: were changes that made their schools unrecognizable as the institutions
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  Speaker 3: they once knew and loved. Our third finding was around
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  Speaker 3: the demeaning of educators. So specifically, multiple community testimonies told
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: us about how educators' professional autonomy was being devalued and dismissed,
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: with educators not only being disrespected, but feeling disposable. They
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: spoke of arbitrary surveillance and punitive enforcement tactics that were
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: part of the new evaluation policy, which was also constantly changing.
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  Speaker 3: So it created for them a hostile organizational environment that
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  Speaker 3: they characterized as being one of fear and bullying. Our
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  Speaker 3: fourth finding is about the... what is it, degraded financial
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: status or state of the district. We've heard, we heard
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  Speaker 3: consistent concerns about the financial state of the district. So
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: this is where we actually did our own analysis of
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: board meetings and local news. So what we found here
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  Speaker 3: was a pattern of increasing the superintendent's discretion and power
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  Speaker 3: such as raising the spending threshold without approval while rolling
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: back financial checks and balances that are there to try to,
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  Speaker 3: you know, ensure the integrity of the district's financial state
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: and fiduciary responsibilities. This allowed for wasteful spending, heavier reliance
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: on unsustainable revenue sources, and unaddressed conflicts of interest. And
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: all together, we have these concerns. I think what stood
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: out to us most is community members told us over
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: and over again how they felt helpless and powerless. Since
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: they had no avenues for recourse, they would try to
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: voice their concerns, but they would go not unless and to,
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: under the new governance structure that was imposed by the
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: takeover because these appointed leaders had no actual responsibility to
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: respond to the concerns of these constituents. And so those
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  Speaker 3: are kind of the high level findings of the report,
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  Speaker 3: which I know is a lot, but the five key
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  Speaker 3: are diminished curriculum, dismantled relationships, demeaning, demeaned educators, destroyed democracy
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  Speaker 3: and degraded finances. So those are the five D's is
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: what we like to call them.
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  Speaker 4: One thing that has been seen is that teachers and
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  Speaker 4: administrators also have been moved or have left the field altogether.
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  Speaker 3: Since this takeover. Yes, we've been seeing elevated teacher turnover
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  Speaker 3: and there's been a lot of good reporting on this,
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  Speaker 3: especially from local sources like the Houston Chronicle and Houston
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  Speaker 3: Public Media and I believe one of the most recent
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: figures I saw was that the turnover rate in HISD
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  Speaker 3: is 2.7 times that of the state. So, and again,
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  Speaker 3: that's not to say like this is all attributed to
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: the turnover or to the takeover because I think as
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: a researcher personally, there are some complex statistical methods you
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: have to figure out because there has been an increase
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: an ongoing teacher shortage that we've really seen since the pandemic.
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  Speaker 3: But we have seen a faster deceleration for HISD compared
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  Speaker 3: to some neighboring school districts. There's a really good report
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: by the University of Houston's Education Research Center that was
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: looking at teacher mobility. So yes, and with that, I
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  Speaker 3: think the human toll then is these dismantled relationships. I
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: remember one student in particular in tears telling us about
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: all the goodbye cards she had to sign She's a
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: high schooler. She thought these were people who would be
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: there to watch her graduate, but now they aren't there.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: And this also means for some students, especially one special
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: ed family, told us that there was a lack of
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: continuity of services for this special education student, which I'm
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: sure you know as having been a special education practitioner yourself.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: Even as autism, like two kids might have autism or something,
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: it manifests in very different ways. And that kind of
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: knowledge that people have about specific students, it takes time
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: to develop. So when those people leave, it's a loss
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: of that knowledge and it's kind of having to start
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: over again with these services. Sorry, that was a really
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: long answer.
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  Speaker 5: Well, it also goes into what is, it seems like
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  Speaker 5: the superintendent is the main source of what comes and goes.
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  Speaker 4: And it's no type of leeway there. Even people that's
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: on his board has been left. So it seems like
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: there's nobody safe, so to speak, within HISD, except his.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: So yeah, under the takeover governance structure, now we still
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: have locally elected trustees and elections happen, but they have
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: no formal decision-making power, right? all of the top-level decision-makers
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: are appointed by TEA Commissioner Mike Morass, both the Superintendent
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: Miles as well as the nine members of the Board
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: of Managers. And TEA Commissioner Morass has exercised his authority
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: to remove some of the Board of Managers and appoint
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: new ones as well. So, yes, it's very different in
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: who is responsible holds the accountability levers, right? Because now
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: you've gotten rid of local elections for people who actually
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: make the decision for this district, the largest district in
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: the state.
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  Speaker 4: Because, you know, you've got vouchers in the charter schools,
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  Speaker 4: which is taking away students from public school, which also,
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: by the way, the voucher money, they have not received
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: the amount of people that pick up the voucher money
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: that they thought they would get. And people are kind
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: of finding out that they were better off at their
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: public school. So how is that going to affect what
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: you got, what your commission is doing?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know if it'll affect the commission's work
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: because our work specifically was around documenting these experiences and
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: generating this report. But I will say in terms of,
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: you know, implications for HISD. There was another report recently
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: on the Center for Voucher Transparency. I might be getting
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: that name wrong, but they had estimated that I think
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: around 1,200 students have left HISD to participate in the
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: voucher program. Even recently, the Houston Chronicles reported that the
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: magnitude of disenrollment is twice what was projected in the budget,
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: and that means very real dollars that are going to schools.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: That's we had expected to go into schools that are
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: no longer there. And we've seen, even before this October snapshot,
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: reports of schools having to lay off teachers and consolidate
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: classrooms because they're facing new budget constraints, right? And so
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: I think it all plays into then, like, what are
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: the resources that are available for our public schools, which
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: we know, like, the research is clear that school funding
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: matters a lot for the quality of education and ultimately
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: student outcomes. And so when you're having these enrollment declines
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: that may potentially be expedited, especially with some of the
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: experiences people are having within their schools where they choose
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: either not to go to their neighborhood school or to
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: opt out of public education altogether, which some of our
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: community testimonies did talk about, I think that has very
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: real ramifications for the day-to-day of how schools are able
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: to support students when they don't have the funds that
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: they need to do so, right?
• 25:44
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: And what happens to these schools that have been closed?
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So the school closures, yes. So there were the
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: 12 school closures, I believe, back in February earlier this year.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: And those are 12 that the board voted on. There
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: were two other schools that were closed that didn't face,
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: that didn't have the same votes. I believe that was
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: Las Americas Middle School and Harper D.A.P., And so I
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: think that's another big question and especially like concerns about
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: the financial degradation as well as the dismantling of democracy, right?
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: We were told that these schools were being closed and
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: part of the reason was to make up for the
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: budget shortfalls because some of these reforms are quite costly, right?
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: And what we talk about in the report is how these,
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: you know, once you sell these buildings, that is an
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: asset that is no longer in the district. That is
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: a community institution that no longer exists anymore. And people,
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: I was at that board meeting, people fought very fiercely
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: to advocate to keep their schools open. And they were
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: only given a two weeks notice before these school closure
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: votes happened, right? And so one, there are like financial
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: ramifications of that. What does it mean when you're selling
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: district land, especially by an appointed board who was only
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: here temporarily, who has the staff power to do so?
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: But then also for these particular communities, what does it
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: mean when you lose a very important community institution? And
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: that's also part of the mourning, right, that people have
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: for our schools.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: That was Jasmine Lee, a member of the HISD Takeover Commission,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: that filed their report on school takeovers in Texas. The
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: commission has no power to make changes or are in
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: charge of anything dealing with school districts. It is an
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: independent group that have studied the situation and suggest changes. Hi,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: this is Steve Gallington, producer and host of The People's News.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: The People's News is people-powered news. We are free to
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: report the unvarnished and unspun truth and challenge the status
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: quo of corporate propaganda and social media advertising disguised as
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: real news. Shiny new one-hour episodes of The People's News
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: drop each Sunday on The People's News Podcast. Thanks for listening.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: If the Freedom of Choice Act passes, no-knock warrants and
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: marijuana possession would be a low priority for the Houston
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Police Department. This is despite the state changing drug laws
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: to make possession a felony. Ground Game Texas is trying
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: to get the word out so that people can vote
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: on the November 3rd ballot. We talked to Katina Volinger,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Executive Director of Ground Game Texas.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: Yes, we are a statewide organization that essentially brings issues
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: that are affecting everyday Texans' lives. We craft policy around
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: those issues, and we put them on the ballot in
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: direct democracy form. So those impacted the most. have an
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: opportunity to shape their futures.
• 29:00
  Speaker 8: All right.
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: And talk to me about the one campaign you have
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: is the Houston Freedom Act.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So the Houston Freedom Act Prop A will be
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: on the ballot on November the 3rd. Essentially what the
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: policy is, is we're asking Houston Police Department to make
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: low-level cannabis arrests their lowest of priority and And we're
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: also asking them to ban dangerous no-knock warrants. There's also
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: an accountability feature in there as well. that will ask
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: HPD to do an audit of those types of arrests
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: and also track how much cost is associated to those
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: types of arrests for the past five years and then
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: to do an annual report.
• 29:59
  Speaker 6: After.
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: Every year.
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: What is it, because we know that the Lieutenant Governor
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: has come out with the marijuana ban, and what they say,
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: the TCE ban. Can you talk about that a little bit,
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: try to explain to people what exactly does it mean?
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so this.
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: So we as Texans have a lot of power in
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: how we shape local government, our city government, and our
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: county government also. And so what the state has gone
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: in and done is increased the threshold of criminalization of
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: these types of cannabis-related products. And so we're trying to
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: reduce harm. We know that these types of policies honestly
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: are just lazy. Instead of going in and regulating the industry,
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: what Texas did was expand the criminalization of more Texans.
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: So whereas You could have bought a gummy, you know,
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: a month ago. That now carries a felony charge that
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: is equal to that of negligent homicide, if you can
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: even imagine. Go ahead. Can you repeat that again? Yeah.
• 31:34
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: So when the state went in and they were supposed
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: to regulate the industry, right, which is honestly the most
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: humane thing that you can do, right? We regulate all
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: kinds of goods in Texas and in America, right? So
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: instead of doing that, what they went in and did
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: is reclassify this drug to have greater penalties. And so
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: what they expanded it out was this is a state felony.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: So if you're caught with a cookie, a brownie, a gummy,
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: or something to that effect, That falls within the criminal
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: penal code now. And we're also asking officers to be
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: chemists too.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: I guess.
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: But what that does is you can get slapped with
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: a felony. And that type of charge is so cruel
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: to Texans, right? Because that means if you're looking for
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: a job and they're doing a background check, you're labeled criminal.
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: You know, you have a felony charge. It can lock
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: you out of housing, lock you out of opportunity. And essentially,
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: at the end of the day, this is just an
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: inept government inaction where they have no vision and they
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: don't want to work, right, to actually bring real solutions
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: to our problems. And that's what Ground Game is essentially about.
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: We see our government, you know, mudslinging. and grandstanding, and
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: not doing anything to actually solve problems. So essentially in Houston,
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: what we are asking is for the city police to
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: make these type of offenses its lowest priority, right? And
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: we know that police discretion is huge, which... You know,
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: it's a crime to ride a bicycle on a sidewalk
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: in Houston, but we don't see an entire unit in
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: the police department dedicated to ticketing and fining and arresting
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: people riding, you know, cycling on the sidewalk. We also,
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: if you've been in a car lately, you know, you
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: go over five miles a You know, over the speed limit.
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: And I think that's like a basic understanding, right, that
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: we all have that that's OK to do. And but
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: that's illegal. Right. A cop can stop you and ticket
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: you for that for going five miles per hour, but
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: they don't. So, you know, we hear all these things
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: like this policy doesn't legalize it. Of course, read the policy.
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: But what we're trying to do is reduce harm in
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: our communities. Because once we, at the front end, once
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: we know someone enters into the criminal legal system, it's
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: expensive with getting an attorney, fines, court costs, diversion costs.
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: We're just trying to... reduce that entry point and make
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: sure that Houston police officers use our precious little resources
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: that we have in the city to go after things
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: that we think make our community unsafe, right? Like domestic violence, murder, right?
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: Things that they should be focusing on and prioritizing on
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: and not trying to arrest you know, a fellow citizen
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: for a joint in their pocket.
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: With the immigration issue also on the burner, that can
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: affect people's immigration status too.
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: Exactly. So, you know, one of our organizers at the very,
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: we've had boots on the ground and we've been organizing,
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: you know, for this campaign for over a year now.
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: One of our organizers that were collecting signatures to get
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: this on the ballot ran into an American Iranian citizen
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: who was taken by ICE for seven months. And again,
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: I want to reiterate, an American citizen, regardless of their ethnicity,
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: he is an American citizen. He was taken by ICE
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: for seven months. for an old weed charge when he
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: was a teen. That was taken care of as well.
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: I just wanna be clear in what this type of
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: offense puts you at risk of, right? To your point,
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: it's not just you entering in into the local police
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: department and these local jurisdictions. It also obviously now that
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: we can confirm it opts you into being charged and
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: handed over to federal law enforcement. Or really not law enforcement.
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: They're not officially law enforcement.
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: So you're asking people on the 3rd to vote against
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: Prop B? No, no.
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: We are asking folks to, on November the 3rd, to
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: vote for Proposition A. This will ask police to... make
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: these types of, you know, to make the low-level marijuana
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: offenses their lowest priority. So we don't want them going
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: in and arresting folks, you know, for that joint. And
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: it also will ban no-knock, dangerous no-knock warrants. You know,
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: Houston back in 2019 had Harding Street raids that killed
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: two innocent Houstonians and their dog and also injured police.
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: So this isn't just protecting our community and our residents,
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: but it's also protecting police. They should want that for themselves.
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: And so that will completely ban that ability. So in
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: the future, cops will have... HPD will have to make
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: themselves known before entering your residence, which we think is
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: common sense and basic.
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: So this is being added to the other side of
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: this act, right?
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: Right. So you vote on one thing and all of
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: these things will happen. So you'll be able to reduce
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: these types of arrests, marijuana arrests. you'll be able to
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: ban no-knock warrants, and that accountability feature locks in as well,
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: forcing Houston Police Department to do that audit to let
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: the taxpayers know also how much these arrests are costing them.
• 39:03
  Speaker 4: What about the aspect of the police unions? How are
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: they feeling about this?
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: The police union, I think that, you know... Mr. Griffith
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: has come out, one, completely against this. I mean, essentially,
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: I think, and also, there's an article that just came
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: out by the Houston Public Media. They did a public
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: information request on data on these types of arrests from HPD.
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: And under this current mayor, Mayor Whitmire, these types of
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: arrests have increased by 1,200%. And so, you know, when
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: they came out, they were like, we already do this.
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: This is stupid. We don't want to see this. You know,
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: this is just like dumb. Even the mayor came out
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: and said, this is just, you know, we already implement
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: these things. But they're not right. The data does not lie.
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: In addition, in that report, they found that they're also
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: arresting more black Houstonians than any other demographic for these charges.
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: When we also know that usage among all demographics is
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: exactly the same. And then the mayor just recently came
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: out and said, oh, this is the fault of the DA.
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: And the DA has been out there going around saying, oh,
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: we already do diversion. We're already not prosecuting. And there
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: was data that came out last month that shows also
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: a skyrocket in prosecutions on the DA side of these
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: types of arrests. So even more important, we need to
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: get this solidified. So regardless of whoever, whatever mayor is
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: in office, whatever DA is in office, these policies are...
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: Courts are doing business with Houston, and they don't change.
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: So they will live in the city charter, which is
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: basically the city constitution. And they're also harder to remove.
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: How are you getting this information out to the public,
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: especially the minority community?
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: So we are running a boots on the ground field organization.
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: When we collected signatures as well, I think it's important
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: to note that we went not door to door. We
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: went to, you know, the third ward community, Sunnyside, and
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: we went to the markets. We went to the Fiesta
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: grocery stores in the parking lots, the Dollar Trees, and
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: places where people don't ever get to participate in democracy
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: or nobody has ever really asked them to participate. And
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: then in addition to that, nobody has ever asked these
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: folks to participate. And then it be about them as
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: well and for them. So we will be reactivating those
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: folks that we had conversations with on the ground earlier
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: this year as well. We were able to get their
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: phone numbers, their email addresses. We have been taking them
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: along on the journey of this entire process. So they
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: are aware what's on the ballot. And to be clear,
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: we talked to over 40,000 Houstonians. and turned in almost 40,000
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: actual signatures, wet signatures, from Houstonians at the very beginning
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: of this year. So that is who we're going to
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: be activating. And then we are also doing canvassing every
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: week to let Houstonians know what they can vote on.
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: And we're texting folks, emailing folks. We're on social media. um, doing, uh,
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: you know, like meta ads. And, uh, we're also activating, um,
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: this great messenger of, um, content creators who are bringing folks,
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: you know, the news on the ground, um, instead of
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: relying on legacy media to do that. Um, and so
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: those folks have been also helpful, um, local content creators,
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: and amplifying our message of what people in Houston get
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: to vote on this year.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: That was Katina Vohlinger, Executive Director of Ground Game Texas.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: Their website is groundgametexasallputtogether.org forward slash Houston. The People's News
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: reached out to the Houston Police Officers Union, Douglas Griffith.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: He has stated that the measure is unnecessary and because
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: the city and the department have already addressed these issues.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: He said they rarely use no-knock warrants, and they still
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: have to file a report if they find marijuana on
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: a person because it's recorded with a body cam on
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: the officers. Starbucks has been accused of union busting, with
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: their many attempts to stop shop's coffee workers from unionizing.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: This has been well documented in the past. Now there
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: is a new concern, as the environmental advocacy group Beyond
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: Plastics conducted a nationwide tracker investigation to test Starbucks' public
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: claim that its single-use polypropylene No. 5 plastic cold beverage
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: cups are recycled when they are placed in recycling bins
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: inside the store. After placing Bluetooth-enabled trackers inside dozens of
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Starbucks in-store recycling bins, Beyond Plastics could not confirm that
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: a single-track cup ended up at a recycling facility, despite
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: Starbucks' claims that the cups are widely recyclable. There was
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: a recent protest in the Montrose area as part of
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: a nationwide week of events in 11 states that are
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: calling on Starbucks CEO Brian Nicole to stop deceiving customers
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: about plastics recycling, switch from plastic cups to fiber cups,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: and follow their own existing policy of providing reusable mugs
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: and glasses for customers who are dining at the store.
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: We talked to Malachi, key climate justice coordinator with Airlines Houston.
• 45:59
  Speaker 6: Well, really, it's a couple of different things. I work
• 46:03
  Speaker 6: as our plastic programs manager. You know, plastic is something
• 46:09
  Speaker 6: that can be harmful environmentally and health-wise at basically every
• 46:16
  Speaker 6: stage of it from production to disposal. So essentially because
• 46:23
  Speaker 6: of our concerns around air emissions and general pollution, we're
• 46:28
  Speaker 6: trying to look at reducing plastic usage. It's a core
• 46:31
  Speaker 6: part of our principles. And we are also partners with
• 46:36
  Speaker 6: Beyond Plastics, which is an organization that seeks to call
• 46:39
  Speaker 6: for accountability relating to plastic. And they recently published a
• 46:44
  Speaker 6: report in which they tracked a large amount of Starbucks
• 46:49
  Speaker 6: supposedly recyclable cups, which in February they announced were essentially
• 46:54
  Speaker 6: 100% going to be recycled. And they tracked them using
• 46:58
  Speaker 6: air tags. And they found that the vast majority of
• 47:01
  Speaker 6: these cups ended up being landfilled or incinerated instead of
• 47:06
  Speaker 6: actually being recycled. So that's the main gist of what
• 47:09
  Speaker 6: we're confronting Starbucks about is both that we want them
• 47:14
  Speaker 6: to be more honest about the recycling claims and we
• 47:17
  Speaker 6: want them to phase out plastic as much as possible.
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: What is Starbucks saying about all this?
• 47:25
  Speaker 6: Starbucks, for the most part, has said that while they
• 47:29
  Speaker 6: did use the language that their cups are 100% recyclable,
• 47:33
  Speaker 6: they've said this does not refer to every cup being recycled. Essentially,
• 47:39
  Speaker 6: that this would depend on each store's individual relationship with
• 47:47
  Speaker 6: the local municipal recycling. Not every city has recycling. So
• 47:52
  Speaker 6: Starbucks has said that this was... They weren't saying.
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: That every cup was recyclable.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: However.
• 48:01
  Speaker 6: We maintain that if you're saying something is recyclable or
• 48:06
  Speaker 6: is going to be recycled, it's generally the consumer that
• 48:10
  Speaker 6: sells the message that if I put it in that
• 48:12
  Speaker 6: bin and there's a recycling logo on it, it's going
• 48:14
  Speaker 6: to get recycled.
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's another thing also is that Starbucks is
• 48:19
  Speaker 4: supposed to be an environmentally conscious company, and when they're
• 48:25
  Speaker 4: saying that, people have the idea that this is a
• 48:29
  Speaker 4: platform that you guys are going by.
• 48:32
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and that's something that we.
• 48:40
  Speaker 7: In a perfect world, I would like more of these
• 48:42
  Speaker 7: cups to be recycled, but there's only... If I recall,
• 48:46
  Speaker 7: at scale, two polypropylene recycling plants in the U.S.
• 48:50
  Speaker 6: That are capable of handling these kinds of cups. So
• 48:53
  Speaker 6: it's not something that's really achievable right now. So we
• 48:57
  Speaker 6: are trying to ask Starbucks to implement switches to other options,
• 49:02
  Speaker 6: such as paper-to-go cups, which they've already done in about
• 49:05
  Speaker 6: 14 different states.
• 49:06
  Speaker 4: And what do they say about that?
• 49:08
  Speaker 6: What Starbucks has said about this is that it's... It's
• 49:12
  Speaker 6: a slower implementation and essentially it's more related to store
• 49:17
  Speaker 6: by store, so it would require longer time to do
• 49:21
  Speaker 6: rollout around this, depending on regional store managers and how
• 49:27
  Speaker 6: they feel about that switch. But we think that's something
• 49:29
  Speaker 6: that they can and should do and commit to doing
• 49:31
  Speaker 6: at all of their stores.
• 49:33
  Speaker 4: This goes in also some of the other problems that
• 49:37
  Speaker 4: Starbucks has garnered in recent months. People know about the
• 49:46
  Speaker 4: issues with the workers at Starbucks. Also, the corporate manner
• 49:53
  Speaker 4: that Starbucks is operating right now is not the same
• 49:55
  Speaker 4: as it as one would gather when they first started.
• 50:01
  Speaker 6: Yes, we'll have representatives from the Starbucks Workers Union at
• 50:07
  Speaker 6: the event today. And I mean, it's very similar. I
• 50:14
  Speaker 6: would say these are connected struggles. We've seen multiple stores
• 50:18
  Speaker 6: in Houston become unionized. Kingwood, for example, is one of.
• 50:22
  Speaker 4: The medical center.
• 50:22
  Speaker 6: And there was one in Montrose. This is key. The
• 50:26
  Speaker 6: Starbucks Workers Union has alleged potential union busting on the
• 50:31
  Speaker 6: part of Starbucks and efforts to make sure that workers
• 50:35
  Speaker 6: don't have a voice. We think that workers having more
• 50:38
  Speaker 6: of a voice will actually lead to better environmental outcomes
• 50:42
  Speaker 6: as that allows for each store to make decisions and
• 50:46
  Speaker 6: connect with community with more worker input.
• 50:50
  Speaker 4: How hard is that to do when you have individual
• 50:53
  Speaker 4: owners and individual store owners?
• 50:56
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, it can be challenging, to the very least.
• 50:59
  Speaker 6: Each of these stores has their own unique relationship with
• 51:05
  Speaker 6: their store owners and with their employees. But in many cases,
• 51:10
  Speaker 6: that just means that Starbucks workers should have the right
• 51:17
  Speaker 6: to have input on their individual stores. If you're organizing
• 51:21
  Speaker 6: alongside of a more regional or individual store-based system, I
• 51:25
  Speaker 6: don't think there's a reason to say workers should have
• 51:29
  Speaker 6: more of a say, in my opinion, because then you
• 51:31
  Speaker 6: can't just say, well, corporate says such and such, so
• 51:33
  Speaker 6: it can't be that way.
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, how much does corporate have a say in this
• 51:38
  Speaker 4: versus the individual store?
• 51:40
  Speaker 6: So I'm not 100% an expert on Starbucks policy. I'm
• 51:44
  Speaker 6: happy to also give you some quotes from the Starbucks
• 51:46
  Speaker 6: union on this one, as I'm not a union organizer.
• 51:50
  Speaker 6: But as I understand it, You know, stores, there's nationally
• 51:55
  Speaker 6: set policies. There's policies that comply with different state laws.
• 51:59
  Speaker 6: But how each store is run, if it's a locally
• 52:03
  Speaker 6: managed store, there is the capacity to make certain specific decisions.
• 52:07
  Speaker 6: For example, we are asking Starbucks to hold more to
• 52:11
  Speaker 6: their policy of using reusables. Every Starbucks has a nationwide
• 52:17
  Speaker 6: policy called a better cup for all. which says that
• 52:21
  Speaker 6: customers should be able to use reusable ceramic cups or glasses.
• 52:25
  Speaker 6: That's a nationwide policy, so each store should be following it,
• 52:29
  Speaker 6: but you do see some differences just depending on how
• 52:32
  Speaker 6: much stores adhere to national policy.
• 52:36
  Speaker 5: And this is an 11-state protest, am.
• 52:38
  Speaker 4: I correct on this?
• 52:40
  Speaker 6: That's correct, yes. We've... We have 11 states. A large
• 52:45
  Speaker 6: portion of these were held the last weekend of September,
• 52:49
  Speaker 6: the week of the 28th. And this was organized through
• 52:53
  Speaker 6: Beyond Plastics, which is a nationwide network. So while Airlines
• 52:58
  Speaker 6: Houston happens to be partnering with them on this, a
• 53:01
  Speaker 6: lot of other protests were held in conjunction with different organizations.
• 53:06
  Speaker 6: We're just speaking for the Houston community in this case.
• 53:08
  Speaker 4: How bad is the plastic industry as far as the
• 53:11
  Speaker 4: environment here in Houston?
• 53:13
  Speaker 6: Starbucks nationally, they're responsible for using nearly 8 million plastic
• 53:19
  Speaker 6: cups a day. Houston's a huge market, of course, being,
• 53:22
  Speaker 6: I believe, the fourth biggest city in the U.S. So
• 53:26
  Speaker 6: you can imagine how much burden that puts on specifically
• 53:31
  Speaker 6: our waste management in Houston. We're big supporters of reform
• 53:35
  Speaker 6: for waste management. We work closely with the City Workers Union,
• 53:39
  Speaker 6: HOPE 123. And one of our bigger concerns is around
• 53:43
  Speaker 6: the disposal of plastic in Houston. A lot of it
• 53:47
  Speaker 6: gets landfilled just because of inadequate recycling systems. So that's
• 53:53
  Speaker 6: got serious environmental concerns. You see microplastics over time from
• 53:58
  Speaker 6: plastic that's disposed of incorrectly or is sitting in landfills.
• 54:02
  Speaker 6: that leaches into food, that leaches into our water systems.
• 54:07
  Speaker 6: You know, it ends up in the bayou somehow. It's
• 54:09
  Speaker 6: not every bit of plastic to dispose of. And of course,
• 54:13
  Speaker 6: you're seeing all the reports about microplastics ending up in
• 54:16
  Speaker 6: human tissue. And we don't fully know the health implications
• 54:19
  Speaker 6: of that, but they are concerning.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: That was Malachi, key climate justice coordinator with Airlines Houston.
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: Airlines Houston can be reached at airalliancehoustonallputtogether.org. Trump's war of
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: choice in Iran has increased the costs of gasoline and
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: diesel to record highs. In Texas, this effect plus others
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: will increase your energy costs for the next 15 years.
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: Freda Ross of Texas News Service explains.
• 54:54
  Speaker 9: Texans can expect to pay more for energy and gasoline
• 54:58
  Speaker 9: over the next 10 years. That's according to a report
• 55:01
  Speaker 9: from the nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation. The group says
• 55:05
  Speaker 9: policy changes made by the Trump administration will slow clean
• 55:10
  Speaker 9: energy deployment and increase consumer cost. Robbie Orvis with the
• 55:14
  Speaker 9: think tank says they use their energy policy simulator to
• 55:19
  Speaker 9: project cost into 2035. Calculations show Texas households will pay
• 55:24
  Speaker 9: an additional $ 45 billion for energy.
• 55:28
  Speaker 8: Those energy cost increases are due in large part to
• 55:31
  Speaker 8: expensive fossil fuel power plants and out-of-control gas and diesel prices.
• 55:35
  Speaker 8: Burning more fossil fuels also dramatically increases air pollution.
• 55:39
  Speaker 9: He adds the increased air pollution will make people sicker,
• 55:42
  Speaker 9: increase health care costs, and lead to premature deaths. Some
• 55:46
  Speaker 9: key policy changes impacting all Americans include the passage of
• 55:50
  Speaker 9: the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, limiting renewable energy development,
• 55:55
  Speaker 9: and the cancellation of the EPA's Solar for All grant program.
• 55:59
  Speaker 9: Researchers say policy and regulation changes impact multiple sectors of
• 56:04
  Speaker 9: the state, including the economy and labor market, electricity capacity
• 56:09
  Speaker 9: and generation, manufacturing and transportation. Orvis says despite the federal regulations,
• 56:16
  Speaker 9: there are things state lawmakers can do to reduce costs
• 56:19
  Speaker 9: for Texans.
• 56:20
  Speaker 8: States can do things like helping remove barriers to clean
• 56:23
  Speaker 8: energy deployment by providing permitting certainty, better using the existing
• 56:27
  Speaker 8: existing grid, states can also help to sustain momentum for
• 56:32
  Speaker 8: clean transportation through policies that bolster clean vehicles.
• 56:36
  Speaker 9: The report also shows the rise of data centers, electrification,
• 56:40
  Speaker 9: and expanded domestic manufacturing, restraining power grids. Texas is one
• 56:46
  Speaker 9: of the largest data center markets in the country with
• 56:49
  Speaker 9: almost 200 facilities in operation. I'm Freda Ross. Texas News Service.
• 56:55
  Speaker 9: Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.
• 57:02
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• 57:05
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