Latest / The People's News / GOP Threatens WC Safety in Houston; Trump's War and Persians; Earth Day in Houston - TPN 4/26/26

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GOP Threatens WC Safety in Houston; Trump's War and Persians; Earth Day in Houston - TPN 4/26/26 · The People's News

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Speaker 1: It's the week of April twenty sixth, twenty twenty six
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Speaker 1: and this is what's on the People's News. City Hall
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Speaker 1: turns its back on its citizens and caves to threats
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Speaker 1: of defunding by GOP Texas governor. We get local reaction
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Speaker 1: of the shaky ceasefire between Iran and the US veterans,
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Speaker 1: and mental health celebrating Earth Day in Houston. All that
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Speaker 1: and more on the People's News. I'm Steve Gallington. This
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Speaker 1: is the People's News, and the People's News starts now.
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Speaker 1: Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott threatened to withhold all funding
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Speaker 1: for the City of Houston for police and fire for
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Speaker 1: safety for the fife of World Cup if the ordnance
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Speaker 1: which defines the interactions between ICE and HP was left
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Speaker 1: in place. A week ago, as reported by the People's News,
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Speaker 1: the City of Houston passed an ordinance that the Houston
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Speaker 1: PD only hold people detained on non criminal administrative warrants
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Speaker 1: up to thirty minutes to allow ICE to show up
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Speaker 1: for immigration violations. After the ordinance was passed, the Republican
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Speaker 1: Texas governor and the Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
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Speaker 1: gave Houston an ultimatum to change the order. Houstonians voiced
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Speaker 1: their support for the new ordinance. Civil rights attorney Randall
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Speaker 1: Callenan spoke on Tuesday, well, it's.
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Speaker 2: Certainly very novel that the governor would try to influence
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Speaker 2: an ordinance at the City of Houston. It's a political electioneer,
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Speaker 2: and it's the right wing is just promoting its anti
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Speaker 2: immigrant agenda, and this is part of it.
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Speaker 3: Now. At today's City councilmen.
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Speaker 2: Meeting, the Mayor's office announced the brand new edit to
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Speaker 2: this ordinance, and what it did was to take out
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Speaker 2: that time requirement of thirty minutes to see if this
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Speaker 2: ordinance should remain in place, the one that was just
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Speaker 2: voted on, to try to give to make it not
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Speaker 2: mandatory that ice be called, which is unconstitutional if it
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Speaker 2: delays any of the police actions like getting a ticket
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Speaker 2: or something. So we see here as this is a
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Speaker 2: complete political move by the governor and his anti immigrant base.
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Speaker 3: And so that's what we have here today.
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Speaker 2: Is whether the mayor will stand up for the City
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Speaker 2: of Houston and all the constituents. There's over a million
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Speaker 2: immigrants in Houston when you consider their families and everything,
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Speaker 2: and that is a huge part of Houston, and the
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Speaker 2: mayor and the city council members represent those people as well.
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Speaker 4: It seems like the governors you don't want to stand
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Speaker 4: to Indiantorney General in Texas is doing this.
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Speaker 3: It's all political.
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Speaker 4: But can would you say it's unconstitutional in a matter?
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Speaker 2: Well, if there is a policy which the police have
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Speaker 2: to hold an immigrant on an ice detention warrant because
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Speaker 2: it's non criminal, that violates the Constitution under the case
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Speaker 2: of the United States versus Rodriguez, which says that once
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Speaker 2: the reasons for your traffic stop are.
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Speaker 3: Over, the person has to be let go.
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Speaker 2: And these warrants are not evidence of a crime. So
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Speaker 2: you cannot hold anybody longer than what it takes to
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Speaker 2: you and give out that ticket. If you do, then
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Speaker 2: evid it's the Fourth Amendment. It becomes an unreasonable detention
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Speaker 2: actionable under forty two USC.
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Speaker 3: Section nineteen eighty three.
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Speaker 5: And this is something that in terms General is going
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Speaker 5: to come down on Houston.
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Speaker 6: But it's not just Houston coming.
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Speaker 5: Down on it, coming in Houston, San Antonio and Austin
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Speaker 5: and Dallas.
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Speaker 2: Well, once again, it's politics, and they're coming down hard
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Speaker 2: on the immigrants because because the Republicans believe that they
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Speaker 2: can help they will get re elected. They're charging up
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Speaker 2: their base with their anti immigrant further and they're doing it,
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Speaker 2: as you know, wherever they can, and that's what this
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Speaker 2: is about.
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Speaker 1: Reverend James Dixon of the NAACP was on hand and
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Speaker 1: he gave this opinion on the Fourth Amendment and other
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Speaker 1: problems with the decision.
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Speaker 7: By the alcohol. The governor's action put city council in
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Speaker 7: a very very difficult position. When you talk about the
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Speaker 7: possibility of losing one hundred and fifteen million dollars to
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Speaker 7: a budget that's already challenged, that's a difficult thing for
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Speaker 7: city council members to contemplate. But the fact that you know,
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Speaker 7: the constitutional rights of every individual must be protected. I
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Speaker 7: think the language in this revised ordinance is still vague.
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Speaker 7: They're questions about that. It leads a lot to discretion,
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Speaker 7: and so I don't think the optimum ortomance at all.
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Speaker 7: But I think that city Council made a decision based
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Speaker 7: on the fact fact that they were torn. I've not
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Speaker 7: seen any counsel with this kind of consternation before. The
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Speaker 7: Mayan counsel had a difficult decision. I do say this
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Speaker 7: that any time we start moving on this direction, though,
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Speaker 7: where that is that kind of overreach and that kind
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Speaker 7: of power coming from other sources outside of Houston. Any
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Speaker 7: municipality is threatened, the elected officials to challenge who would
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Speaker 7: they represent and what would they stand for the future?
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Speaker 7: Is you have to be the termtive how this affects things?
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Speaker 7: And I think at the same time too, our nation
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Speaker 7: is in a very difficult and questionable place. How do
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Speaker 7: we deal with the new realities with executive orders and
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Speaker 7: with things coming from Washington affecting local municipalities. It's a
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Speaker 7: very dangerous presidents, and anyone who thinks about justice needs
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Speaker 7: to really think about long and hard. How do we
5:49
Speaker 7: have this conversation in a way we begin to construct
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Speaker 7: a legenda forward that would prevent this from going further,
5:56
Speaker 7: because I'm sorely afraid that if we don't do that,
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Speaker 7: we're gonna end up here again and again, and the
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Speaker 7: consequences might become dist force.
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Speaker 8: Many of the counselors spoke about the federal government or
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Speaker 8: the state's overreach in controlling Houston. What kind of negative
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Speaker 8: president could that said? If the governor's decision runs Houston.
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Speaker 7: But I think here again, as I said yesterday. Civil
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Speaker 7: discourse is important. I think that leaders in this city
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Speaker 7: and across the state need to be stuking to engage
6:25
Speaker 7: the government in this conversation in general, not around a
6:29
Speaker 7: particular issue, but how are we going to govern our
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Speaker 7: cities if this is the state's role in everything that
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Speaker 7: the state disagrees with. I think that's a real hard
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Speaker 7: conversation that has behad. We've not had those kind of
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Speaker 7: conversations yet, and I think we're waiting to react as
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Speaker 7: opposed to being proactive understanding that the climate political comment
6:48
Speaker 7: has changed in the state and the nation. If we
6:50
Speaker 7: don't have those strategic conversations ahead of time, I think
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Speaker 7: it's going.
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Speaker 9: To get my sports.
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Speaker 3: You think we'll be back here soon.
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Speaker 7: There's no way for us not to end up back
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Speaker 7: here soon if this continues to be the president that
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Speaker 7: we follow, And so I'm very concerned about that. I
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Speaker 7: think every justice worker, every faith leader should be concerned
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Speaker 7: about it. If citizens could be concerned about it. If
7:11
Speaker 7: we elect people to represent us locally, do they not
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Speaker 7: have the right to govern based on local realities without
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Speaker 7: the state or any other entity having that kind of power.
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Speaker 7: By saying we'll take money from you. That matters to
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Speaker 7: your citizens and to the words of your city. If
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Speaker 7: that governor and if others can do that, then that's
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Speaker 7: going to mute if not newter local governments.
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Speaker 5: Just looking at football World Cup or for.
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Speaker 7: That well, well, I don't think that's all they're looking
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Speaker 7: at it. Of course, people run company's important. We're all
7:45
Speaker 7: supportive of that, and we wanted to go well, when
7:47
Speaker 7: we're people be safe. I think it's very important because
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Speaker 7: this has been a dividing issue and it's miscolored many
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Speaker 7: of us. I am pro police, I am pro law enforcement.
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Speaker 7: I am probe law and order. At the same time,
8:02
Speaker 7: I am pro constitution. I understand democracy and we also
8:06
Speaker 7: understand civil liberties. We also understand the whole plight of
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Speaker 7: immigrants in our city and that ourilation. We've got to
8:12
Speaker 7: have a holistic concept dignity, humanity, and stability has to
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Speaker 7: be protected. If we don't do that, do were going
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Speaker 7: down the rappitt hole again. That's going to put people
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Speaker 7: at jeopardy, treating them as if they're objects as opposed
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Speaker 7: to people. I think this is a divisive issue, it's discoloring.
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Speaker 7: Is most of us to be misinterpreted. I'm struggling right
8:32
Speaker 7: now with the fact that people think somehow the NACP
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Speaker 7: is anti HBD. Nothing further from the truth. We want
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Speaker 7: police to do their job, but we'll going to do
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Speaker 7: their job within the constructs of the constitution.
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Speaker 4: Aren't you talking about racial profiling?
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Speaker 3: Because for black and brown people in the community, you're
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Speaker 3: feel scared.
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Speaker 7: What fear is legitimate In the environment that we're in.
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Speaker 7: Racial profiling is a reality. It has been and still
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Speaker 7: continues to be. We just saw a racist cop on
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Speaker 7: film a couple of days ago. There are people in
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Speaker 7: the partners who are looking for opportunities to do things
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Speaker 7: to ethnic minorities and the immigrants just because so there's
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Speaker 7: a lot of things that you're taking the situation here,
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Speaker 7: and I think again we were asking yesterday for more
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Speaker 7: time to study this, the language in this in this
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Speaker 7: revise of ordinance, because we need to get I say
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Speaker 7: every word matters, and I think to think the words
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Speaker 7: don't matter, I think that's a mistake. Every word doesn't matter.
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Speaker 8: And then the final question for me is that some
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Speaker 8: of the counselors who voted in favor so that this
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Speaker 8: is more than protection for immigrants, this is for the
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Speaker 8: greater Houston population.
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Speaker 3: What do you say to.
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Speaker 10: That, or how do you balance the need.
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Speaker 8: For protections across such a large spectrum.
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Speaker 7: Well, again, I think the order to should be protective
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Speaker 7: of every citizen and using everyone's safety matters, right, I
9:50
Speaker 7: think that's critically important. But I think we need to
9:53
Speaker 7: also be a mindful of the fact that, again, language matters,
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Speaker 7: and if I read this this deal quickly, we're going
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Speaker 7: to gloss over terminology and misturnagy that should be there.
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Speaker 7: I think that the in fact the amendment to the
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Speaker 7: amendment try to bring that into the conversation. But again,
10:13
Speaker 7: here it will the counsel is up against the wall.
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Speaker 7: The governor gave a deadline, and the mayor is dealing
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Speaker 7: with a deadline. He worked as hard as he could,
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Speaker 7: obviously to try to get the language that the governor
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Speaker 7: would accept that would still appease counselor and meet the
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Speaker 7: constitutional requirement. That's difficult to balance, and so I'm not
10:33
Speaker 7: here to criticize as much as I am here to
10:35
Speaker 7: evaluate the fact that the pressure that the mayor and
10:38
Speaker 7: the council will under in this situation is unfair for
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Speaker 7: them to be in the first place.
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Speaker 5: It's still not stopping the Attorney General from policy.
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Speaker 7: It does not, but based on the agreement, I don't
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Speaker 7: think we should expect that, But I do think again,
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Speaker 7: I'm calling for leaders to be proactive. We've got to
10:57
Speaker 7: begin to have this kind of conversation with public discourse
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Speaker 7: outside of a particular issue, because if we always issue,
11:05
Speaker 7: or if we're reacting to a situation not being proactive anticipated,
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Speaker 7: what could happen unless we do something to previt?
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Speaker 1: Him to Houston Mayor John Whitmyer, fearing funding cuts, presented
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Speaker 1: an edit on the ordinance that was voted on Wednesday
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Speaker 1: to remove the thirty minute rule, giving HPD the power
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Speaker 1: to detain as long as they felt necessary, with no
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Speaker 1: time limit. This was supported by the Houston Police Union
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Speaker 1: and other conservatives on the Houston City Council. The vote
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Speaker 1: went thirteen to four, while Keen Martinez voted originally for
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Speaker 1: the ordinance but changed his vote citing it was not
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Speaker 1: worth the fight.
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Speaker 10: So ultimately, I think the responsibility of local government is
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Speaker 10: to make sure that we're stable right financially, public safety
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Speaker 10: and the intent of the original propert is good, but
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Speaker 10: we also need to understand the restrictions that we live within.
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Speaker 10: The you know, and unfortunately the request from the state
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Speaker 10: is you know, you need to work with us as well.
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Speaker 10: So for me, it's important that we focus on the
12:08
Speaker 10: entire city, all custodians, including ondocumented that will be impacted
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Speaker 10: by this funding. We heard from the Attorney General, from
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Speaker 10: the city attorney, it's not much change, right, So the
12:20
Speaker 10: fight I have confident HBD. I've had several conversations with patrol.
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Speaker 10: Thankfully there was very minimal to no interactions whenever I
12:30
Speaker 10: called certain HPD officers. HPD is doing a heck of
12:34
Speaker 10: a job in a tough situation. So I do feel
12:37
Speaker 10: that with the prop A that was initially passed, the
12:41
Speaker 10: transparency and we'll come and continue to hold HPD accountable
12:44
Speaker 10: and that's our job at the end of the day.
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Speaker 10: But quite frankly, as I shared whenever we passed the
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Speaker 10: original prop A, you know, policies are great with the
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Speaker 10: actual work of being out in the community, bringing HPD
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Speaker 10: and community together.
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Speaker 11: That is the work.
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Speaker 10: With everything that we're saying around this horse toyear is
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Speaker 10: for nothing if we don't bring HPD in the community
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Speaker 10: together to understand, you know that collaboration with community and
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Speaker 10: HPD community policing is important. If we don't do that work,
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Speaker 10: there's no reason why we even have this discussion.
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Speaker 5: But Dallas, San Antonio, Austin all Actually.
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Speaker 10: There's some conversations already about Austin having some you know,
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Speaker 10: talks with the governor. And quite frankly, we're not Dallas,
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Speaker 10: Austin or San Antonio. We have two point three residents
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Speaker 10: here in the City of Houston.
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Speaker 3: That's our concern.
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Speaker 10: You know, Dallas and Austin and San Antonio. We're not
13:31
Speaker 10: being impacted prior to this ordinance, and then we saw
13:34
Speaker 10: what happened, so they're gonna have to make those tough decisions.
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Speaker 3: We make tough decisions today, and.
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Speaker 10: We're going to continue to make sure that we look
13:40
Speaker 10: at the safety, public safety of all. He still is
13:43
Speaker 10: quite quite frankly, the quality of life and every every
13:45
Speaker 10: aspect that we're here to serve.
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Speaker 2: He stolen exactly.
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Speaker 3: You know, you heard the city attorney. There's very little.
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Speaker 10: But what the difference is is that we're going to
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Speaker 10: receive the money, right, and that's what I'm That's what
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Speaker 10: I was focused on. You know, folks wanted to continue
14:05
Speaker 10: to debate what is the difference. It was already mentioned.
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Speaker 9: There's very little difference.
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Speaker 10: So at what point do we stop, pause and then
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Speaker 10: look at what is the real work that we have
14:14
Speaker 10: to do around.
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Speaker 1: This worship in this Abby Kamen, in her final days
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Speaker 1: of serving District c before becoming the new Harris County
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Speaker 1: District Attorney, spoke on her vote against the changes to
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Speaker 1: the new ordinance.
14:28
Speaker 12: Austin.
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Speaker 13: Yeah, other cities are Other cities are standing up. They
14:38
Speaker 13: are standing in line with what they are legally able
14:42
Speaker 13: to do, and let's continue to do to protect the
14:46
Speaker 13: rights of their citizens. We should not be rolling over.
14:49
Speaker 13: We should be protecting the rights of Houstonians, and we
14:51
Speaker 13: should be apporting those rights people the opportunity to review
14:55
Speaker 13: what we're voting on before we vote on her period,
14:58
Speaker 13: the rights of Houstonians are not for sale.
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Speaker 14: If you got to know, because you said that you
15:03
Speaker 14: need more time, the new language was too vigue. Yet
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Speaker 14: the majority of the councilors believe that materially the amendate
15:11
Speaker 14: still keeps a proper pretty much in place. I'll talk
15:14
Speaker 14: to me a little bit about what you would have
15:16
Speaker 14: wanted to happen.
15:18
Speaker 13: Yeah, in the normal course of events, we would publish
15:22
Speaker 13: in the language.
15:23
Speaker 3: For the public to review.
15:26
Speaker 13: In time for them to be provided an opportunity to
15:29
Speaker 13: review it, to provide public comment, and for us to
15:32
Speaker 13: ask questions still outstanding to this day, our questions about
15:38
Speaker 13: the grant funding what had already been distributed versus not
15:41
Speaker 13: what money do we have.
15:42
Speaker 3: Versus don't have?
15:43
Speaker 13: What are federal brands versus not federal brands, Because each
15:46
Speaker 13: of those questions matters. We've heard a lot of scare tactics.
15:51
Speaker 13: Police overtime is going to become but we are fifty
15:55
Speaker 13: million dollars over budget and police overtime for this year
15:59
Speaker 13: and time has.
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Speaker 6: Not been cut.
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Speaker 13: This ordinance, specifically that we had passed, ensured that officers
16:06
Speaker 13: are not waiting on the side of the road in
16:08
Speaker 13: additional thirty minutes. Not only is a time stamp one
16:12
Speaker 13: when there's no time on when.
16:14
Speaker 15: The constitution goes into effect, So that was not proper.
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Speaker 13: But in addition to that, we don't have the local
16:19
Speaker 13: law enforcement resources to be doing the job of customs
16:24
Speaker 13: and immigration enforcement. That is not the law of local
16:27
Speaker 13: law enforcement. And I want to make sure it's clear
16:29
Speaker 13: that anyone in the City of Houston that poses a
16:33
Speaker 13: public safety risk, regardless of immigration status, law enforcement is
16:38
Speaker 13: empowered to address that and nothing in that changed, either
16:42
Speaker 13: in the ordinance that we've passed.
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Speaker 3: Or any other.
16:46
Speaker 16: Proposals that were put forward.
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Speaker 13: But what happened today we were given less than twenty
16:52
Speaker 13: four hours to review Abbot's amendment that he is imposed
16:56
Speaker 13: on the City of Houstons, and yet again we have
16:59
Speaker 13: rolled over. As a council, we had the right to
17:04
Speaker 13: enact an ordinance within the bounds of local, state, and
17:07
Speaker 13: federal law, and that's what we had done.
17:11
Speaker 7: Deep.
17:12
Speaker 12: Yeah, when you talk about you know, you were talking
17:17
Speaker 12: about I don't know if it's already been asked, but
17:19
Speaker 12: just that getting all the information needed to review this
17:21
Speaker 12: you talked about some of the grands is what are
17:24
Speaker 12: they to know?
17:25
Speaker 13: What did this all effect? We have specifically requested the
17:28
Speaker 13: language of those contracts, because the language of contracts there
17:34
Speaker 13: to say whether something is within the bounds of vote
17:36
Speaker 13: we've passed or not. If someone's saying it's not within
17:38
Speaker 13: the bounds of the contracts agreement, show us that the
17:43
Speaker 13: controller has asked for this information. City council members have
17:46
Speaker 13: asked for this information for overall week. So how is
17:49
Speaker 13: it that we can't get that information but less than
17:52
Speaker 13: twenty four hours before a vote we're given out of
17:54
Speaker 13: language that he wants and above all else, in fact
18:00
Speaker 13: that this is about the constitutional protections afforded to the
18:05
Speaker 13: rights of all Houstonians and our oath, our duty that
18:07
Speaker 13: we swore to uphold back. We cannot begin to chip
18:12
Speaker 13: away at those price. The rights of Houstonians are not
18:16
Speaker 13: for sale, and the rights.
18:18
Speaker 17: Of Houston are not for sale.
18:21
Speaker 9: So it sounds like nothing was changed, the rent changed.
18:28
Speaker 13: The language is so vague it raises significant questions about
18:34
Speaker 13: what was or was not change. We heard from the
18:37
Speaker 13: city attorney, one thing, we heard from the may or
18:39
Speaker 13: another thing. We have not heard from the public.
18:42
Speaker 3: And that's a problem.
18:44
Speaker 5: You feel that you feel that this is the governor
18:46
Speaker 5: and the Attorney General takes Attorney General happy.
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Speaker 13: It is a look Abboin and Ken Paxson should not
18:56
Speaker 13: be the compass under which we determine our rule and
19:00
Speaker 13: ensure the protections of the people of Houston, especially not
19:04
Speaker 13: when you look at their records. Governor Abbott attempted to.
19:10
Speaker 3: Defund law enforcement. He did that, not us. Ken Paxton
19:17
Speaker 3: has lost.
19:18
Speaker 13: In court how many times filing frivolous suit after frivolous suit.
19:24
Speaker 3: The fact that we have a fiduciary.
19:26
Speaker 13: Duty to defend the city in court is another component
19:32
Speaker 13: of this. We have a duty to defend the city
19:35
Speaker 13: of Houston.
19:36
Speaker 15: We have a duty to defend the.
19:37
Speaker 13: Rights of Pustonians, and we have a duty to defend
19:39
Speaker 13: the legal rights of this body.
19:41
Speaker 5: What do you say about the racial profiling that black
19:44
Speaker 5: and brown people feel?
19:45
Speaker 13: Down the comments that remade that came out by an
19:54
Speaker 13: HPD officer, and I want to be clear, that's a
19:57
Speaker 13: bad apple, and I do not believe reflects the spirit,
20:01
Speaker 13: the caliber of professionalism that HPD shows every single day
20:05
Speaker 13: and their dedication to the community. But the fact that
20:08
Speaker 13: that was said and that the department where the city
20:12
Speaker 13: have issued a statement condemning it, even twenty four hours
20:16
Speaker 13: after it happened, is disturbing. Again, they couldn't issue a
20:23
Speaker 13: statement twenty four hours within twenty four hours of this
20:26
Speaker 13: coming to lights, but yet less than twenty four hours
20:30
Speaker 13: we get the governor's amendment and expected to vote on that.
20:34
Speaker 1: It is not known as of Friday if the Republican
20:37
Speaker 1: Texas governor will allow the funds to roll into Houston.
20:41
Speaker 1: It is also unclear if the lawsuit filed by Texas
20:45
Speaker 1: Attorney General Ken Paxton will be taken off the table,
20:48
Speaker 1: So now Houston waits. The World Cup is coming, and
20:54
Speaker 1: Houston is said to be ahead of most major cities
20:57
Speaker 1: on their preparation. John Coppins is Vice President of Operations
21:01
Speaker 1: for FIFA World Cup twenty twenty six Houston Host Committee.
21:05
Speaker 1: He updated us on where Houston stands.
21:08
Speaker 16: Yeah, with respect to preparations and not the aforementioned topic.
21:13
Speaker 16: We're in a great spot. We had executives from FIFA
21:16
Speaker 16: in town last week. We've got probably twenty plots pizza
21:19
Speaker 16: staff members in town leading various functional areas planning around
21:23
Speaker 16: the event, hand in hand with our team and our
21:25
Speaker 16: partners around the city. So we feel confident we've got
21:29
Speaker 16: a good plan in place and really just ready for
21:31
Speaker 16: the tournament to kickoff in fifty four some odd dates.
21:37
Speaker 4: The fan zone is still planned to be on the
21:39
Speaker 4: East Side. Am I correct on it?
21:40
Speaker 18: Yeah?
21:41
Speaker 16: The FIFA Fan Festival will still be in East Downtown
21:44
Speaker 16: just three four blocks directly south of Shell Energy Stadium,
21:50
Speaker 16: combination of public green space, parking lots and warehouses that
21:55
Speaker 16: will repurpose. So yep, still full steam ahead with our
21:58
Speaker 16: plans there.
22:00
Speaker 4: And how is the downtown going to be set up.
22:03
Speaker 4: Can you talk about that.
22:05
Speaker 16: With respect to.
22:08
Speaker 4: With respect to fans being downtown, because it's going to
22:11
Speaker 4: be thousands of fans. I'll see you get more than
22:14
Speaker 4: thousands of fans downtown in town.
22:17
Speaker 16: So core partners that at Downtown Houston plus the Downtown
22:21
Speaker 16: Management District for Central Houston, if you will, have actually
22:24
Speaker 16: been working on a pretty expansive project they've termed via Football,
22:28
Speaker 16: which is a series of connected pedestrian corridors to help
22:31
Speaker 16: get folks who may be staying downtown or parking downtown,
22:35
Speaker 16: or even folks who just work downtown over to East
22:39
Speaker 16: Downtown in a safe, shaded and easy to follow manor
22:45
Speaker 16: so to speak. So there's significant improvements and enhancements going
22:49
Speaker 16: on with sidewalks, some potential sidewalk expansions temporary in nature,
22:55
Speaker 16: again to help get folks from downtown to East Downtown,
22:58
Speaker 16: but a significant effort under the direction of Downtown Houston plus,
23:03
Speaker 16: but with a lot of other stakeholders and partners involved.
23:06
Speaker 4: And you know, Houston, we have every time I turned
23:10
Speaker 4: the corner, we have construction and and that's all around us,
23:14
Speaker 4: all around the city. Rat now is in the concern
23:16
Speaker 4: on the traffic aspects of things.
23:18
Speaker 16: I mean, it's a fair question and point, but I
23:22
Speaker 16: like to answer with somewhat of a sarcastic answer. If
23:25
Speaker 16: we waited until there wasn't any construction going on to
23:27
Speaker 16: host the World Cup, we would never host the World Cup.
23:30
Speaker 16: So from from the standpoint of whether it's Tech Dot,
23:35
Speaker 16: Center Point, downtown Houston again, the management district, reservicing roads,
23:41
Speaker 16: everyone knows.
23:42
Speaker 3: About the World Cup.
23:42
Speaker 16: Their their schedules have been built around the World Cup,
23:45
Speaker 16: and you'll start to see work wrapping up and lanes reopening,
23:51
Speaker 16: somewhat of a mad dash now to the finish line.
23:53
Speaker 16: But I'm confident in our local and state partners who
23:58
Speaker 16: are involved in different construction project around the area that
24:01
Speaker 16: they're going to do everything they can to make sure
24:03
Speaker 16: the experience for for the out of town visitors and
24:05
Speaker 16: HOUSTONI and alike is as good as it can be.
24:09
Speaker 4: And one thing I thought was great was Houston. I
24:12
Speaker 4: saw with Boso was jacking up a price of transportation
24:15
Speaker 4: of mass transportation to the stadium, and I didn't see
24:19
Speaker 4: Houston doing that.
24:20
Speaker 16: And that's one that's that's.
24:22
Speaker 18: That's a that's a big positive.
24:24
Speaker 16: Needs certainly, I mean, I think you know, if we
24:28
Speaker 16: want to strive to continue to be that welcoming city
24:30
Speaker 16: and a host of international sporting events. You know, especially
24:33
Speaker 16: with fan bases that in their home countries may be
24:36
Speaker 16: accustomed to taking public transport to and from major events
24:39
Speaker 16: and sporting events, that that we shouldn't discourage that or
24:43
Speaker 16: try and capitalize on that, and and in fact do
24:45
Speaker 16: the opposite. Let's lean on, lean in on the infrastructure
24:48
Speaker 16: we have, which you know, as you see through concerts
24:51
Speaker 16: or rodeo events or football games down at NRG or
24:54
Speaker 16: Reliant Park or Houston Park, that there's a pretty efficient
24:59
Speaker 16: system in place.
25:01
Speaker 3: But but again we also have to.
25:02
Speaker 16: Be mindful of the everyday user of those transit systems
25:05
Speaker 16: and making sure that their journey and impact to work
25:09
Speaker 16: or to home isn't overly impacted by the influx of visitors.
25:13
Speaker 16: Metro or planning partners at the Metro have done a
25:15
Speaker 16: fantastic job to ramp up services and plans, all while
25:19
Speaker 16: retaining again the normal fare schedules. As we do our
25:22
Speaker 16: best again to welcome folks, not not bring folks into
25:25
Speaker 16: town and discourage them from using public transport.
25:29
Speaker 4: We are we hit or are we a hit as
25:32
Speaker 4: far as hotel space or places for people to stay
25:35
Speaker 4: in the in the.
25:38
Speaker 16: Ahead and in what terms as in as.
25:40
Speaker 4: Far as right is having enough space for all these
25:44
Speaker 4: people coming.
25:46
Speaker 16: Yeah, I mean, I'll be truthful. You know, the way
25:50
Speaker 16: folks book their travel these days, you know, with with
25:54
Speaker 16: the advancement of the Internet and booking tools, it's hard
25:58
Speaker 16: for me to sit here and say I know exactly
26:00
Speaker 16: where folks are booking. I know a lot of the
26:01
Speaker 16: international guests have told us, you know, they're looking at
26:04
Speaker 16: the Airbnb v RBO markets, so to speak. But Houston
26:08
Speaker 16: has plenty of hotels, plenty of hotel rooms. I would
26:11
Speaker 16: anticipate the vast majority of them to be busy over
26:15
Speaker 16: the World Cup with with so many folks in from
26:17
Speaker 16: out of town. But yeah, no, no concerns with this
26:19
Speaker 16: event around hotel inventory. And I think there's ample inventory.
26:23
Speaker 16: And you'll start to see bookings pick up here in
26:26
Speaker 16: the final kind of fifty days ahead of the event,
26:29
Speaker 16: and you.
26:29
Speaker 4: And your staff paddled back because you guys are you
26:33
Speaker 4: guys are ahead of a lot of other cities. That's
26:35
Speaker 4: that's that's that they're hosting the World Cup, and that's
26:39
Speaker 4: that's if you feel good about that, great.
26:43
Speaker 16: Yeah, but I mean that isn't a horse race, right,
26:45
Speaker 16: I mean, being ahead doesn't doesn't really win you anything
26:48
Speaker 16: in the game of You know, we're worried about Houston
26:51
Speaker 16: and Harris County and making sure we have a safe
26:53
Speaker 16: and enjoyable event. So it's certainly refreshing to read some
26:58
Speaker 16: of the stories you read in other cities about the
27:00
Speaker 16: challenges they're facing and know that, you know, those aren't
27:03
Speaker 16: issues we're dealing with, at least at the moment. But
27:06
Speaker 16: at the end of the day, we will rate ourselves
27:10
Speaker 16: on our own performance and metrics right to make sure
27:14
Speaker 16: that that this city and this county have done a
27:16
Speaker 16: great job getting ready to host, and then the experience
27:19
Speaker 16: for fans and teams and players and you know, corporate sponsors,
27:22
Speaker 16: everyone who's in town in addition to the locals.
27:25
Speaker 3: It's the best it can possibly be.
27:28
Speaker 4: And the staff that you guys hosted the Congo. The
27:31
Speaker 4: Congo will be headquarters here in my curricula, correct.
27:34
Speaker 16: Yeah, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An important distinction there.
27:39
Speaker 16: They will be No, it's okay, they will be.
27:44
Speaker 3: It's a mouthful.
27:45
Speaker 16: They will be here in Houston base camping, which is
27:48
Speaker 16: you know, as you can imagine flying back and forth
27:51
Speaker 16: to the dr Congo doesn't make a lot of sense
27:54
Speaker 16: as far as sports performance and recovery goes. So all
27:57
Speaker 16: forty eight teams in the event will have a base
27:59
Speaker 16: camp and US Canada or Mexico and we've got we've
28:03
Speaker 16: got a great h facility and option here in Houston
28:05
Speaker 16: to support their efforts. Uh and excited. Uh you know
28:08
Speaker 16: that that's a fan base and a team that haven't
28:10
Speaker 16: been in the World Cup in fifty two years. So
28:13
Speaker 16: there's a lot of excitement and energy around coming to
28:17
Speaker 16: town seeing all that Houston has to offer. But the
28:20
Speaker 16: first and foremost of the team preparing for the matches
28:23
Speaker 16: that that's why they're here and to compete and hopefully
28:25
Speaker 16: when then we're gonna do everything we can to support
28:28
Speaker 16: that that journey for them.
28:30
Speaker 4: Are we gonna buy you? Are we going to be
28:32
Speaker 4: utilizing some of the universities or some of the other
28:34
Speaker 4: football stay I always say football, but some of the
28:37
Speaker 4: other stadiums around.
28:39
Speaker 16: Yeah? Not not for the team base camp that'll be
28:43
Speaker 16: down at the SaberCats Stadium, the the old SaberCats major
28:46
Speaker 16: League rugby team that that seats operations.
28:49
Speaker 15: Uh.
28:50
Speaker 16: I don't know, sixty eight months ago, they've they've got
28:53
Speaker 16: a great you know, the FISA is very specific about
28:56
Speaker 16: the size and condition of the pitches that or fields
29:01
Speaker 16: if you will, that the teams can use practice. So
29:03
Speaker 16: that'll be the base camp, and then we're lean on
29:06
Speaker 16: our partners at the Dynamo and Dash you know both
29:08
Speaker 16: Show Energy Stadium, and then the Houston Sports Park Dynamo
29:11
Speaker 16: Training Facility will serve as the uh the term FIFA
29:15
Speaker 16: uses as venue specific training sites, so where teams would
29:18
Speaker 16: train that are coming into town to play in matches
29:21
Speaker 16: here in Houston. So no no, uh, no U of
29:25
Speaker 16: H or Rice for this go around. But but you know,
29:29
Speaker 16: Rice is is obviously a host city supporter. They're an
29:32
Speaker 16: official sponsor of ours here and U of H continues
29:34
Speaker 16: to be a supporter, you know, with with various elements
29:37
Speaker 16: of the event that do require some practice or training areas.
29:41
Speaker 16: I guess one item of note of a pre match
29:44
Speaker 16: ceremony training space. I know U of H is talking
29:47
Speaker 16: to FIFA without serving as that. So again, our our
29:49
Speaker 16: universities and colleges continue to be great partners.
29:53
Speaker 4: I call it pitch also, and that the favorite cast
29:56
Speaker 4: stadium likely enough it's not just one one pitch on
29:59
Speaker 4: the there's a couple of pitches and they're all very nice.
30:04
Speaker 16: Yeah, so we're actually restarting the stadium pitch. That effort
30:08
Speaker 16: is underway right now to get them a brand new,
30:12
Speaker 16: a fresh playing service there. And then it's still to
30:16
Speaker 16: be determined if they're going to elect to use any
30:18
Speaker 16: of the secondary pitches out at the facility, but I
30:23
Speaker 16: would anticipate they probably will at a minimum. You know,
30:26
Speaker 16: you can that second pitch for goalkeeper practice or you know,
30:29
Speaker 16: some other type of function is a nice bonus to
30:33
Speaker 16: the primary pitch.
30:35
Speaker 1: That was John Coppin, vice president of Operations for five
30:38
Speaker 1: at World Cup twenty twenty six. The Houston Host Committee. Hi,
30:43
Speaker 1: this is Steve Gallington, producer and host of the People's News.
30:48
Speaker 1: If you have a story that needs to be told,
30:50
Speaker 1: come to us. We accept fully produced audio, written material,
30:54
Speaker 1: or just give us the idea and we will run
30:57
Speaker 1: with it. Shiny new one hour episodes of The People's
31:00
Speaker 1: News drop each Sunday on The People's News podcast hosted
31:05
Speaker 1: by spreaker dot com and linked to my website Gallington
31:09
Speaker 1: dot com to distract from the Epstein files and is
31:14
Speaker 1: horrible pulling numbers. The convicted, felon and criminal President Donald
31:19
Speaker 1: Trump started an illegal war of choice against Iran and
31:24
Speaker 1: the fighting has been going on for six weeks. There
31:28
Speaker 1: has been a ceasefire which has been violated by both
31:31
Speaker 1: Israel and the United States, and Iran has retaliated by
31:36
Speaker 1: keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed. Trump is measuring his
31:41
Speaker 1: success in the war by the stock market, not by
31:44
Speaker 1: the lives lost, and by reaching any kind of goal
31:47
Speaker 1: with the Iranians regarding their nuclear ambitions. What has been
31:51
Speaker 1: completely lost in all the talk around the war is
31:55
Speaker 1: the plight of Iranians in Iran. Zangana represents the Persian
32:02
Speaker 1: community in Texas and the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
32:08
Speaker 1: He commented on how their community feels right now.
32:13
Speaker 6: Well, Richard, first of all, thank you for taking time
32:18
Speaker 6: and and doing this interview.
32:20
Speaker 18: Yeah, the Umanian.
32:21
Speaker 6: Regime is busy, busy executing people inside Iran. You know,
32:26
Speaker 6: it's unfortunate while the war's going on, or while this ceasfire,
32:30
Speaker 6: the regime is always busy executing innocent people, and especially
32:38
Speaker 6: the member of m K that they are they have
32:42
Speaker 6: they're confronting the IGC and in the just last a
32:48
Speaker 6: few days, about twelve of the m K members been
32:52
Speaker 6: being executed.
32:55
Speaker 18: It's very unfortunate.
32:56
Speaker 19: While the people are paying for this war is going on,
33:01
Speaker 19: regime is on the ground.
33:03
Speaker 18: Is executing people.
33:05
Speaker 4: So the.
33:07
Speaker 6: Seafire, it doesn't stop the regime from the real war
33:11
Speaker 6: that is between the Iranian people and the and the regime.
33:14
Speaker 6: That's the that's the that's the war. That's the regime
33:18
Speaker 6: is afraid of the most because they are ready to
33:22
Speaker 6: overthrow the regime. And that's why they're they're afraid.
33:26
Speaker 20: Of what you see is the end result from the
33:32
Speaker 20: American side because now they seem to.
33:37
Speaker 4: Be working with the Iranians or saying the Iranians are
33:42
Speaker 4: okay to work with.
33:45
Speaker 6: Iranian If you're referring to the regime and the head
33:51
Speaker 6: of the regime and ILGC, you know they you know,
33:54
Speaker 6: they have been a master of deceiving and and and
33:59
Speaker 6: and lying, you know for the last decade, many decades.
34:04
Speaker 6: You know, the n CLI and emy Kay are the
34:07
Speaker 6: one that who revealed all the atomic projects since twenty
34:11
Speaker 6: twenty five years ago.
34:13
Speaker 18: But now not this.
34:16
Speaker 6: They were just trying to build it, you know, now
34:20
Speaker 6: not they are in the situation. They cannot go further,
34:23
Speaker 6: and they're just trying to buy time. And you know,
34:27
Speaker 6: the problem is the regime itself unless it's been overthrown
34:33
Speaker 6: by the Iranian people. You know, obviously, you know well
34:37
Speaker 6: that no regime can be overthrown from the sky, you know,
34:40
Speaker 6: by bombing. It has to be boots on the ground.
34:44
Speaker 6: It has to be the people, it's themselves. We don't
34:46
Speaker 6: want to know boots on the ground from inny foreign countries. However,
34:50
Speaker 6: Iranian already they proven in the last few decades that
34:54
Speaker 6: uprising and just the last one and last one.
34:57
Speaker 18: And the one before that, and that before that.
35:00
Speaker 6: They've always been coming to the street and they try
35:04
Speaker 6: to end the regime, and they want nothing less than
35:07
Speaker 6: overthrowing the regime entirely. However, it's unfortunate that they see
35:12
Speaker 6: that the United States of America never recognize the right
35:16
Speaker 6: of Iranian people to overthrow the regime, right of the
35:18
Speaker 6: Iranian people to confront it iolog you see, which is
35:22
Speaker 6: a terrorist organization. Those are the things that the Iranian
35:26
Speaker 6: people looking for, looking for and being recognized their rights
35:31
Speaker 6: by the United States of America and other free countries.
35:37
Speaker 4: It seems like it seems like the United States is
35:41
Speaker 4: happy with seeing they will having having its Uranians are
35:49
Speaker 4: to give up new capacity, then they're happy with that.
35:53
Speaker 4: Human rights and the opposition, especially in the United States
35:58
Speaker 4: has been undermined. Am I looking at this role?
36:03
Speaker 6: No, Actually it's through the Iranian the Uranian regime. They're
36:07
Speaker 6: never going to give up if they they proven they
36:10
Speaker 6: did it many times. They always try to get this
36:13
Speaker 6: atomic bomb for the Hurvago because they they want to
36:17
Speaker 6: stay in the power, just because, like I said, the
36:21
Speaker 6: real war is between the Iranian people and the regime,
36:24
Speaker 6: and they prove them to many many, many, many many decades.
36:27
Speaker 6: Now the United States has to recognize that's right. The
36:31
Speaker 6: regime has to go entirely. There is no negotiation that
36:36
Speaker 6: it can go forward no matter how part of this
36:39
Speaker 6: regime is stay in power. They are they are not
36:43
Speaker 6: someone that you can you can deal with. They because
36:46
Speaker 6: the Uranian people are you know, they are the they
36:50
Speaker 6: are the one that who want to get relevant.
36:52
Speaker 18: So we have to just and the regime. The regime
36:55
Speaker 18: has to go, and.
36:57
Speaker 6: That's that's why they they could survive for many decades.
37:02
Speaker 6: Forty seven years from day one that they came in
37:05
Speaker 6: the power. Even and people. Shortly after Romani changed the the.
37:13
Speaker 18: The rule of people himself, sovereignty go to the people.
37:17
Speaker 6: He started doing the Vlaiete Faki and they put the
37:20
Speaker 6: molas only in the power and the war started. Shortly
37:23
Speaker 6: after that. They say no, Amy Kay and CRI back.
37:26
Speaker 6: Then shortly after that in Cra was formed and opposed
37:32
Speaker 6: the regime. And but the regime started killing, executing many thousands,
37:39
Speaker 6: many thousands people being executed from the universities, high educated people,
37:45
Speaker 6: young girls, woman and just because they say no, the
37:50
Speaker 6: people overthrew the previous dictatorship because he was he was
37:55
Speaker 6: a dictatorship. Shot dictatorship.
37:58
Speaker 18: I'm sure you remember that he has he has thought
38:01
Speaker 18: like he asked. He has.
38:03
Speaker 6: He was killing at people, intelligence, intellectual, everybody that anybody
38:08
Speaker 6: that he has potential leadership for taking the revolution. Unfortunately
38:14
Speaker 6: they were in the jail of being executed, so that
38:17
Speaker 6: the Comeni was the only monot network and Comane was
38:21
Speaker 6: the only one available. They hijacked the Indian people revolution
38:26
Speaker 6: and then shortly after that and they start executing people.
38:30
Speaker 18: And just like shot.
38:32
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm sorry, but we mentioned the show.
38:35
Speaker 18: The show was put.
38:36
Speaker 4: In Power about the United States in in a coup
38:40
Speaker 4: that was that was sponsored by the United States and
38:42
Speaker 4: in the British with the help of the British. It
38:46
Speaker 4: seems like people for especially the United States. We you know,
38:50
Speaker 4: we talk about the Iranian Revolution, but we but those
38:54
Speaker 4: in the United States forget about the coop that happened.
38:58
Speaker 6: Yes, I am gonna Richard, thank you very much for
39:01
Speaker 6: bringing that up. Absolutely.
39:03
Speaker 18: You know, Shaw Shaw was show was back.
39:07
Speaker 6: They put them back in the power after Iren and
39:09
Speaker 6: people overthrew him and doctor Mozade took over, and you
39:14
Speaker 6: know that was democratic representative for the arena and people.
39:18
Speaker 18: But but you know well that.
39:21
Speaker 6: The United States and and United Kingdom together they did
39:26
Speaker 6: this coup and whatever Irenian people today paying the price
39:31
Speaker 6: is because of that injustice.
39:34
Speaker 18: Coup that it happened, that coup, you know, he brought Shaw.
39:39
Speaker 6: Into power, and then when it came into power, he
39:41
Speaker 6: started being much more brutal, started the Savak started executing.
39:46
Speaker 18: So many people.
39:47
Speaker 6: And and then now at the end of the end of.
39:50
Speaker 18: It, Romenez.
39:51
Speaker 6: Romenez and Mother's Network was the only one that was
39:55
Speaker 6: free and available in during the show. It was it
40:00
Speaker 6: was growing so big because they were helping Shaw.
40:04
Speaker 18: They were just with the show.
40:06
Speaker 6: As you know, the coup itself, it happened because of
40:10
Speaker 6: the Yeah, because of the United States, CIA and United Kingdom.
40:17
Speaker 6: But did the help of the I said Kashani, which
40:20
Speaker 6: was the godfather of the same romeny. You know, they
40:24
Speaker 6: are the one that who make it happen and.
40:27
Speaker 18: With the that was very devastating for the r inn
40:31
Speaker 18: and people.
40:31
Speaker 6: Every time they think about that and the price of
40:34
Speaker 6: their paying for seventy three years since then, since that coup,
40:39
Speaker 6: seventy three years people been paying during the last monarchy
40:44
Speaker 6: Shaw and now this romenious regime.
40:48
Speaker 4: They up, before I leave, let you go, what do
40:51
Speaker 4: you want to see happened in the person whs the
40:54
Speaker 4: Persian community here, I want to see happened and tell
40:58
Speaker 4: us about the rally want to go on here in
41:00
Speaker 4: the uston coming up in.
41:02
Speaker 18: May, Okay.
41:03
Speaker 6: Here's they think that, you know, the Iranian people, obviously
41:07
Speaker 6: Irenian people, they want nothing less than over through the
41:10
Speaker 6: regime and less than having the freedom and democracy and
41:15
Speaker 6: the power go to the people. That's what the people
41:19
Speaker 6: are dreaming for.
41:21
Speaker 18: That's what the people are fighting for.
41:22
Speaker 6: That's what people are demonstration here and people inside Iran,
41:26
Speaker 6: especially the resistance unit, they have any care resistance unit
41:31
Speaker 6: that even now during this very very tough time, they
41:34
Speaker 6: have all kinds of activities uh inside Iran and trying
41:40
Speaker 6: to trying to overthurround the regime. So what we want
41:44
Speaker 6: from the United States to recognize this right? What is
41:47
Speaker 6: so hard to recognize the right of people to overthrow
41:50
Speaker 6: the regime? I mean you you say this regime is bad.
41:53
Speaker 19: You see that this regime is not only the enemy
41:56
Speaker 19: of Iranian people but the entire world.
41:58
Speaker 18: So so saying you're any people, you have right to.
42:01
Speaker 6: Overthrow this illegit in legitimate regime. Regime is not belong
42:06
Speaker 6: to this history, legion is updated is devil, is.
42:10
Speaker 19: Lying and never can be trusted. And people people that
42:14
Speaker 19: doesn't want And that's why.
42:15
Speaker 6: You United Stations support Iranian people right to overthrow the regime,
42:20
Speaker 6: right to confront EELGC.
42:22
Speaker 18: And they do it.
42:23
Speaker 6: We don't need no war, There is no there is
42:25
Speaker 6: no need for war because war never gonna overthrow the regime.
42:32
Speaker 19: Because you know there has to be someone on the
42:36
Speaker 19: ground to over through the regime.
42:38
Speaker 18: All right, I want to wrap it up here.
42:41
Speaker 6: How can people get in touch with you on your organizations? Yeah,
42:45
Speaker 6: you can you can go to oha oh I a
42:50
Speaker 6: c organization.
42:52
Speaker 18: You're in an American community dot org. You can have all.
42:56
Speaker 6: Kinds of questions or you have a phone number, contact
42:59
Speaker 6: the information and everything that you can contact and support.
43:04
Speaker 1: That was Kareem Zangane, who represents the Persian community in
43:08
Speaker 1: Texas and the National Council of Resistance of Iran. They
43:12
Speaker 1: are having a rally for democracy on May sixteenth in Washington,
43:16
Speaker 1: d C. Wednesday, April twenty second was Earth Day. Earth
43:22
Speaker 1: Day was first put in place in nineteen seventy when
43:26
Speaker 1: twenty million Americans turned out to support the Earth and
43:30
Speaker 1: to protest against pollution and lack of environmental regulation. Richard
43:36
Speaker 1: Hannah was a Discovery Green for Earth Day talking to
43:39
Speaker 1: various organizations.
43:41
Speaker 3: Hey, my name is Andy Ascobar.
43:43
Speaker 11: I'm here with the Coalition for Environment Equity and Resilience
43:46
Speaker 11: also known as SEER, where a nonprofit coalition of thirty
43:51
Speaker 11: one other members of climate, environmental labor groups working together
43:56
Speaker 11: to make the connections between people, place, pollution, and public health.
44:01
Speaker 11: And we're here to celebrate Earth Day. We want every
44:05
Speaker 11: day to be Earth Day. What we're really celebrating today
44:08
Speaker 11: is also the Harris County Climate Justice Plan. Harris County
44:13
Speaker 11: became the first county in the United States to adopt
44:16
Speaker 11: a climate justice plan that focuses on culture, ecology, economy,
44:20
Speaker 11: community and infrastructure. And so we want everyone to get involved,
44:26
Speaker 11: learn about the Climate Justice Plan and find out how
44:29
Speaker 11: you can plug in to make Harris County a more
44:31
Speaker 11: sustainable place for all of us.
44:33
Speaker 3: All few people get involved, and how can I found
44:34
Speaker 3: out about you that?
44:35
Speaker 11: So y'all can start off by checking out the Harris
44:38
Speaker 11: County Office Sustainability. They are spearheading this endeavor from the
44:43
Speaker 11: government level and us here where the co partner from
44:49
Speaker 11: the community level, and so y'all can search up sere
44:52
Speaker 11: or y'all can search up the Office of Sustainability and
44:55
Speaker 11: look up the Harris County Climate Justice Plan, sign up
44:57
Speaker 11: for updates and stay plugged in.
45:00
Speaker 21: Yeah, So we're American Youth Work Texas Conservation for We're
45:02
Speaker 21: a workforce development program. We provide AMERICORP program seeing adults
45:06
Speaker 21: seventeen to thirty two. You don't need any experience to
45:09
Speaker 21: join our programs. You just need to be willing to
45:11
Speaker 21: go out there and do the work. We're currently recruiting
45:13
Speaker 21: for our summer program. So we're recruiting for our Summer
45:17
Speaker 21: Youth Conservation Corp. And you can learn more about us
45:20
Speaker 21: at aywt oh no do works sorry?
45:23
Speaker 5: Okay okay, and anything that people need to know what's.
45:27
Speaker 4: What in volunteer.
45:28
Speaker 21: You don't need any experience to join our programs. You
45:31
Speaker 21: just need to be willing to sign up and do
45:33
Speaker 21: the work that we have. It's a great experience for
45:35
Speaker 21: you to develop your skills and it is a career
45:37
Speaker 21: path in the environmental conservation world here in the Houston area.
45:40
Speaker 3: Hi, my name is Courtney Paul.
45:42
Speaker 22: I am with Citizens Climate Lobby. Our organization is a
45:46
Speaker 22: national space organization that encourages individuals to become informed about
45:55
Speaker 22: smart climate policy so that we can have a liverable world.
45:59
Speaker 22: Our our overall goal is to put a price on
46:03
Speaker 22: carbon and as we've been working towards this goal, we
46:08
Speaker 22: also support legislation that is going to help develop a
46:16
Speaker 22: climate that is more livable, and for example, we support
46:22
Speaker 22: permitting permitting reform, and we support initiatives to help healthy
46:28
Speaker 22: habitats like saving our forests. And so that's at the
46:33
Speaker 22: national level, and each state has different chapters that you
46:37
Speaker 22: can become involved with, and each of the chapters have
46:41
Speaker 22: different initiatives at the For the Texas state chapters, every
46:46
Speaker 22: other year there's a Texas based legislation legislative session that
46:52
Speaker 22: we go to and attend and we help to inform
46:55
Speaker 22: our state representatives about climate wise policies and climate solutions
47:03
Speaker 22: that they could vote on in the different bills that
47:06
Speaker 22: are on that legislative Session's uh stock it and So
47:13
Speaker 22: what I find interesting about Citizens Climate Lobby and why
47:17
Speaker 22: I've been a volunteer for over ten years now is
47:21
Speaker 22: that it focuses on building bridges for climate solutions. We
47:27
Speaker 22: keep our initiatives broad and to help interest a variety
47:34
Speaker 22: of people with different backgrounds. So anything from folks who
47:38
Speaker 22: are meteorologists or health professionals or just enthusiastic about having
47:46
Speaker 22: a livable world. There's the opportunity to make a difference
47:51
Speaker 22: at our our representatives that they can vote for policy
47:58
Speaker 22: that is going to be long lasting. So are approaches
48:01
Speaker 22: by partisan We try to get everyone to the table
48:05
Speaker 22: to talk about climate policies and wise solutions for a
48:11
Speaker 22: love of life.
48:13
Speaker 15: So I'm Hailey Schultz. I'm with Public Citizen in Texas.
48:16
Speaker 15: We're a national organization that provides service to our citizens.
48:21
Speaker 15: We're basically like the watchdogs of Congress who protect the people.
48:25
Speaker 15: We advocate here in Texas for clean energy, clean resources,
48:30
Speaker 15: ethics in the halls of Congress. And yeah, we have
48:34
Speaker 15: a lot of great campaigns that happen across our great
48:36
Speaker 15: state of Texas.
48:37
Speaker 5: How hard is it being in Texas that you know,
48:40
Speaker 5: you have people in administration here in Texas that are
48:43
Speaker 5: against any type of environmental england.
48:47
Speaker 15: It is certainly an uphill battle. It keeps us on
48:49
Speaker 15: our toes for sure, But there's a lot of people
48:52
Speaker 15: that are very motivated and very activated by that as well.
48:56
Speaker 15: So again, we work within the community and where these
49:00
Speaker 15: policies are affecting people in their home and in their
49:03
Speaker 15: day to day lives. We're connecting with those folks and
49:05
Speaker 15: making sure that they're mobilized to effect change for them
49:08
Speaker 15: in their community. So, while there is a lot happening
49:11
Speaker 15: at you know, the federal or even the state level,
49:13
Speaker 15: there's a lot of there's a lot more communities that
49:16
Speaker 15: are activated to push back for theirs.
49:18
Speaker 5: What's the biggest concern here in Houston?
49:21
Speaker 15: In Houston, there is obviously a lot of petrochemical build out.
49:25
Speaker 15: We are one of the top petrochemical capitals of the world, honestly,
49:30
Speaker 15: But we also have the state's largest coal plants in
49:34
Speaker 15: our backyard in Fort Bend County. So it's not just
49:37
Speaker 15: the petrochemical in the industry that's you're hearing like the
49:40
Speaker 15: ship channel or along the coast, but we also have
49:43
Speaker 15: a top polluter. Just again, what are the top polluters
49:46
Speaker 15: and not just the state but in the country as well.
49:49
Speaker 15: So I say air pollution is a top concern for Houston.
49:52
Speaker 5: One thing is mentioned the petro chemical plants. One has
49:55
Speaker 5: been fined and for a number of issues, namely namely
50:01
Speaker 5: catching fires that has gone off the last couple of
50:04
Speaker 5: years in the past few weeks. Yes, yes, And what's
50:08
Speaker 5: you're concerned on that and try to try to get
50:10
Speaker 5: some of these signs or patrolling these companies.
50:14
Speaker 15: Yeah, so that is something that I'm deeply concerned with.
50:18
Speaker 15: It's actually what kind of motivated me to get into
50:20
Speaker 15: this space.
50:21
Speaker 3: I actually used to.
50:21
Speaker 15: Work with oil and gas companies and I always saw
50:24
Speaker 15: like who was watching them? Who is like the watchdog
50:27
Speaker 15: who's protecting us, and that would be our Texas Commission
50:30
Speaker 15: on Environmental Quality or the TCQ. They have permits that
50:34
Speaker 15: are issued to these facilities, and those permits tell them
50:36
Speaker 15: exactly what limitations of you know, air emissions or water
50:40
Speaker 15: wastewater emissions are supposed to go out. But they're not
50:43
Speaker 15: holding them accountable. And it's pennies on the dollar on
50:47
Speaker 15: what they actually owe to the citizens of Texas and
50:51
Speaker 15: they're not even being held to that.
50:53
Speaker 5: One thing also is the governor has stated in the
50:55
Speaker 5: press conference that we need to lessen.
50:57
Speaker 4: The illustrations on.
51:00
Speaker 5: Our companies, petro chemical companies because because jobs and jobs
51:05
Speaker 5: are at stake when you try to try to pose
51:07
Speaker 5: these that.
51:08
Speaker 15: Is absolutely not true. They would do fine with even
51:12
Speaker 15: just paying like a million dollar fee. They have the capacity,
51:16
Speaker 15: they have the resources, they have the money to pay
51:18
Speaker 15: that and then more and still grow as a company.
51:21
Speaker 15: And again, like I understand, there's a balance, y'all. There's
51:24
Speaker 15: going to be a need for industry to a certain extent,
51:27
Speaker 15: but most importantly, we need to be holding them accountable
51:29
Speaker 15: and they need to be good neighbors because the people
51:31
Speaker 15: were here first.
51:33
Speaker 23: First of all, this is Keith Stevens k E I
51:35
Speaker 23: T H S T E P H G and S.
51:37
Speaker 3: Stevens a center point energy.
51:39
Speaker 23: Hey, talking about preparedness is so important when you think
51:42
Speaker 23: about Harris County and the Greater Houston area. We are
51:45
Speaker 23: one of the most climate vulnerable areas in the entire country.
51:48
Speaker 23: We score higher on the climate vulnerability scale than Miami Dade.
51:52
Speaker 3: County does in Florida. So we have things that could go.
51:55
Speaker 23: You know, we have direchos, we have tornadoes, we have
51:58
Speaker 23: ice storms, we have no storms. But our big concern
52:02
Speaker 23: is really hurricanes. Right making sure that we're prepared center point.
52:06
Speaker 23: You know, we heard the calls were changed after Barrel.
52:08
Speaker 23: We've been making incredible progress. We've been sold sixty five
52:11
Speaker 23: thousand new polls. We've trimmed over ten thousand miles of vegetation.
52:15
Speaker 23: That's kind of like going across Texas ten times. That's
52:18
Speaker 23: how many miles of trees that we've trimmed. There's more
52:21
Speaker 23: going on this year, and we're very focused on that.
52:24
Speaker 23: We're getting ready to have our hurricanes drill here in.
52:26
Speaker 3: A couple of weeks.
52:27
Speaker 23: So the message today here out of Ready three six
52:29
Speaker 23: five is we want you to know we're getting ready.
52:32
Speaker 23: We encourage everybody, you know, the individual or the family
52:34
Speaker 23: to get ready to that's everything from having a conversation
52:37
Speaker 23: with your family.
52:38
Speaker 3: To check on your go pack.
52:40
Speaker 23: You're kind of three days of things you would need
52:42
Speaker 23: if you needed to evacuate. And to make sure that
52:44
Speaker 23: those in our communities that maybe might need a little
52:46
Speaker 23: bit more help, some of our elderlier special needs that
52:50
Speaker 23: we're checking on them and making sure that they're okay too.
52:52
Speaker 3: In advance of storm season.
52:54
Speaker 5: A lot of people don't think about that.
52:55
Speaker 6: It's why I've been prepared.
52:56
Speaker 7: For three days.
52:57
Speaker 23: Well, absolutely, listen, it's always a good idea of plan ahead.
53:00
Speaker 23: What you don't want to have to do is when
53:02
Speaker 23: the moment is there, have to start thinking about it
53:04
Speaker 23: for the first time. So we really encourage people visit
53:07
Speaker 23: a lot of the moos from you know, Harris County
53:10
Speaker 23: as well as the City of Houston.
53:11
Speaker 3: All of a sudden emergency management.
53:13
Speaker 23: Everybody should have a plan so they can react to
53:15
Speaker 23: the moment. Centerpoint has a plan. We want you to
53:17
Speaker 23: know that we're working our plan and anytime you see
53:20
Speaker 23: us talking about weather or storms, know that we're tracking it.
53:23
Speaker 23: We've insalved a system of one hundred and fifty weather
53:25
Speaker 23: stations so that we can tell what's going on across
53:28
Speaker 23: the twelve counties. But yeah, we're We're dedicated every day
53:31
Speaker 23: to making sure that our infrastructure is ready and resilient,
53:35
Speaker 23: and we want other people to be ready or resilient
53:36
Speaker 23: as well well.
53:37
Speaker 17: The importance of Earth Day, Like, originally it was a
53:40
Speaker 17: protest about all the horrible pollution, industrial pollution in our country,
53:43
Speaker 17: and actually i'd this really strong feeling we've moved away
53:46
Speaker 17: from that, and I think it's great that we're like
53:48
Speaker 17: getting kids out and celebrating nature, planning, seeds, whatever. But
53:51
Speaker 17: we're trying to turn it back into like more of
53:53
Speaker 17: a let's take some action to solve some of these
53:55
Speaker 17: horrible products like climate change. We're one of the organizers
53:58
Speaker 17: of this event, so that's why I'm from Citizens Environmental Coalition.
54:02
Speaker 17: I'm I'm a board member at c c CZ Hairston
54:05
Speaker 17: and we're doing like a plastic theme thing over here.
54:07
Speaker 17: We have plastic detoks, family feud. We're trying to educate
54:10
Speaker 17: people and give them action items. This is what you
54:12
Speaker 17: can do to make a difference instead of just coming
54:15
Speaker 17: out and going, oh, is this is beautiful? Because it's
54:16
Speaker 17: not gonna beautiful much longer unless we all take action.
54:19
Speaker 4: And one of the.
54:19
Speaker 5: Important things of being in Houston we have so many.
54:22
Speaker 3: Different we got We've got to fight with.
54:24
Speaker 5: The petric chemical companies, we got to.
54:26
Speaker 3: Fight with you men companies and all this.
54:29
Speaker 5: Yes, you know, so how important is it to try
54:31
Speaker 5: to get that word out for your organization?
54:33
Speaker 17: Extremely important because like there are people that definitely in
54:37
Speaker 17: fence line communities who are being poisoned.
54:39
Speaker 3: As we speak.
54:40
Speaker 17: Not to mention that all of us are right, but
54:42
Speaker 17: like if you're right on top of these petro chemical companies,
54:45
Speaker 17: if you're right on top of some of these cement
54:46
Speaker 17: batch plants, you are breathing horribly toxic air. You know,
54:50
Speaker 17: when you're buy the petrick chemical industry, Like you know,
54:52
Speaker 17: who knows your house might explode tomorrow because you know,
54:54
Speaker 17: thing goes up in flames. So you know, it's really
54:56
Speaker 17: important to get the word out like it's poisoning all
54:58
Speaker 17: of us, Like microplastics are poisoning all of us. So
55:01
Speaker 17: we need to change something.
55:03
Speaker 3: And that takes collective action.
55:05
Speaker 4: That takes joining your organization.
55:08
Speaker 17: It could take joining our organization, or I will just
55:10
Speaker 17: say we are a big umbrella organization with many other
55:13
Speaker 17: environmental organizations here, Air Alliance, Houston Environment Texas SYR who
55:19
Speaker 17: does environmental justice kinds of issues. Who else do we
55:22
Speaker 17: have Texas Campaign for the Environment, So you know, we
55:25
Speaker 17: highly recommend your whole thing is all of our members.
55:27
Speaker 17: They handled different areas of pollution or the environment, and
55:31
Speaker 17: we recommend people find their passion, find what they want
55:34
Speaker 17: to take action on and like help that organization do it.
55:38
Speaker 19: My name is Monica.
55:39
Speaker 9: You know I am here with That's a second MAC
55:42
Speaker 9: and I'm also here with Socialpidly Collective. We just opened
55:45
Speaker 9: up the event with a blessing this morning. We offered
55:50
Speaker 9: up the fire dance UH for directions to open up,
55:53
Speaker 9: and then we closed off with earth Dance and a
55:57
Speaker 9: coour direction.
55:58
Speaker 5: What's the important of Earthdakes organization?
56:01
Speaker 9: Well, I just I just feel like Earth days every day.
56:06
Speaker 3: I feel like we need.
56:07
Speaker 9: To realize the impact that we're causing on this planet
56:11
Speaker 9: and how important the planet is for us, and like
56:15
Speaker 9: it's our mother. It gave us birthday, it's giving us nourishments,
56:17
Speaker 9: it gives us water, Like everything that we need is
56:20
Speaker 9: on this earth and Earth. I don't think we need
56:23
Speaker 9: a day to observe that, but if we need to,
56:27
Speaker 9: this is the day. And I just feel like every
56:30
Speaker 9: day is an important day to acknowledge that she's important
56:32
Speaker 9: to us.
56:33
Speaker 5: And one thing about her Earth Day now is.
56:35
Speaker 3: This time, this time.
56:38
Speaker 5: People forget about things like this, simple things like recycling.
56:42
Speaker 18: Yes, you know, and I'll try to get people.
56:45
Speaker 9: To If it's hard to do that, then you know,
56:49
Speaker 9: it's harder to just change your lifestyle to make sure
56:51
Speaker 9: we're not prioritizing convenience, but we're prioritizing our next generation.
56:57
Speaker 1: That was the Sounds of Earth Day in Houston Sell
57:00
Speaker 1: this past Saturday. The People's News is a production of
57:05
Speaker 1: Steve Gallington and Richard Hannah and is protected by copyright laws.
57:10
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57:13
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57:54
Speaker 1: atgallington dot com. Thank you,