Latest / The People's News / Houston to Require Landlords to Provide AC; Flock and ICE - A Bad Combo; Pathogens in The Bayou - TPN 8/23/26

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Houston to Require Landlords to Provide AC; Flock and ICE - A Bad Combo; Pathogens in The Bayou - TPN 8/23/26 · The People's News

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Speaker 1: It's the week of August twenty third, twenty twenty six,
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Speaker 1: and this is what's on the People's News. Houston City
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Speaker 1: Council votes for citizens' rights for air conditionings, a renewed
0:16
Speaker 1: call for flock cameras and ice to leave the city.
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Speaker 1: Contamination in Houston Bayous and Texas Waterways. Texas researchers look
0:27
Speaker 1: at the relationship between social media and mental health. Last
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Speaker 1: week's Pride parade went on without fear. All that and
0:36
Speaker 1: more on the People's News. I'm Steve Gallington. This is
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Speaker 1: the People's News, and the People's News starts now. With
0:51
Speaker 1: temperatures approaching one hundred degrees on a daily basis, there
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Speaker 1: are thousands of Houstonians living without air conditioners. Some live
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Speaker 1: in apartments that don't don't provide AC units, and there
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Speaker 1: are some that charge for AC. Regardless, there are thousands
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Speaker 1: of renters living in houses and apartments without AC. Twenty
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Speaker 1: twenty three US Census data indicates that thousands of renters
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Speaker 1: in the Houston area live in homes without any air conditioning.
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Speaker 1: Between twenty nineteen and twenty twenty three, Harris County Public
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Speaker 1: Health reported more than seven thy six hundred cases of
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Speaker 1: heat related illness, while local health data show that indoor
1:29
Speaker 1: areas without air conditioning significantly increase health risks during extreme heat.
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Speaker 1: On Wednesday, Houston City Council passed council Member Alejandra Salinas
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Speaker 1: Right to Air Conditioning Ordnance, requiring rental properties to provide
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Speaker 1: and maintain operable air conditioning in habitable spaces and eliminating
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Speaker 1: a long standing loophole in Houston's building standards code that
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Speaker 1: allowed windows screens to substitute for air conditioning. Council Member
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Speaker 1: Alejandra Selenas spoke on how much this benefits Houstonians well.
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Speaker 2: Now that the ordinances passed in one hundred and twenty days,
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Speaker 2: all landlords in the City of Houston will be required
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Speaker 2: to provide some mechanism by which to cool their space.
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Speaker 2: It brings us in line with many other cities across
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Speaker 2: the state, including Austin, Dallas, and Baso and Dentin, and
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Speaker 2: so it is a basic health and safety requirement that
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Speaker 2: it has broad support from the Houston Apartment Association of
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Speaker 2: the Houston Food Bank, to health and advocacy, tenants groups,
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Speaker 2: e fiction groups all agree that all Houstonians deserve a
2:31
Speaker 2: right to rest from heat and that's what this ordinance
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Speaker 2: is going to do, and we're going to work hard
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Speaker 2: with the Health Department and other agencies to make sure
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Speaker 2: it's effectively and equitably applied.
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Speaker 3: And again how enforcement was brought up.
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Speaker 2: So the way enforcement will work is just like any
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Speaker 2: other code in any other provision in our code, which
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Speaker 2: means if they do are not in compliance in one
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Speaker 2: hundred and twenty days, they need to call three one
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Speaker 2: one and then the inspectors will go out and.
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Speaker 4: Pursued with the Enforcement partment.
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Speaker 2: Well, I think we have to legislate from a place
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Speaker 2: of fax and data. And at the committee hearing, where
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Speaker 2: it was about two hours, where I went out and
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Speaker 2: laid the case for the ordinance, we explained again and
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Speaker 2: again that there is no documented evidence of any of
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Speaker 2: the concerns that they were raising. What we actually see
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Speaker 2: is the opposite. The City of Austin conducted an affordability
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Speaker 2: study before they implemented the same measure in Austin, and
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Speaker 2: they found that there would be no impact on housing affordability.
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Speaker 2: Following the passage of the measure, and Dallas implemented this
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Speaker 2: almost a decade ago, there is no recorded increase in
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Speaker 2: rent at the way that they are describing there. I
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Speaker 2: think what we are going to see in Houston is
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Speaker 2: what we saw in those other cities, which is landlords
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Speaker 2: are going to work with their tenants to find economical solutions.
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Speaker 4: I've already heard.
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Speaker 5: Some of them.
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Speaker 2: When I was at a civic club, a landlord explained
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Speaker 2: to me that he was going planning to pass on
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Speaker 2: half of the cost to the tenants of one hundred
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Speaker 2: dollars wall unit, which would be about a couple dollars
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Speaker 2: every month. But that couple dollars means that that family
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Speaker 2: is going to have the ability to turn on the
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Speaker 2: ac potentially the lives and themselves and their families. As
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Speaker 2: counselmber Pollard said, we cannot be a world class city
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Speaker 2: unless we are taking care of all of us. No
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Speaker 2: matter what your income level is. There are basic health
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Speaker 2: and safety standards, and I'm so proud of the City
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Speaker 2: of Houston for making air conditioning one of those.
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Speaker 1: Today, council Member Edward Pollard says this is a good
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Speaker 1: ordinance and he did not hear much opposition.
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Speaker 6: So I was shocked to learn that Houston was one
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Speaker 6: of the only cities that did not require for landlords
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Speaker 6: or homes to have AC units in the city this
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Speaker 6: hot That is something that I think we had to address.
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Speaker 7: I think it was to be criminal to live in
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Speaker 7: a unit.
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Speaker 6: In Houston, Texas without air condition When you think about
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Speaker 6: the health concerns that come with that, it's just not
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Speaker 6: humane to have those circumstances for any Houstonian thought, well,
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Speaker 6: I thought it should I thought we wouldn't have any
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Speaker 6: issue enforcement.
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Speaker 3: I got a elderly couple right now, eighty five years
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Speaker 3: old in a house, in a house where there's eighty
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Speaker 3: some degrees inside the house. The landlord says they don't
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Speaker 3: want to do anything about the property and they're living.
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Speaker 3: One of them is paralyzed on one side. So how
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Speaker 3: do you How do you enforce that? That was one
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Speaker 3: of the questions that was asked.
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Speaker 7: My enforcement is all on the account of the city.
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Speaker 6: We're the ones that have to send out those inspectors
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Speaker 6: to enforce all the.
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Speaker 7: Codes that are within the city. This is like no other.
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Speaker 6: We need more inspectors, We need more people from the
5:37
Speaker 6: departments to go out there and enforce not only from
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Speaker 6: public safety standpoint, from a health standpoint, from a housing,
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Speaker 6: from a public works It's always going to come down
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Speaker 6: to enforcement. So the first thing is to do is
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Speaker 6: to pass the ordinance. Can't enforce anything that's not on
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Speaker 6: the books now that we've passed. Now that we've passed
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Speaker 6: this ordinance, we can ensure that we put things in
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Speaker 6: place to enforce it.
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Speaker 3: What about the Housing Authority? What's the involvement within?
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Speaker 6: So the City of Houston does not you know, we're
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Speaker 6: not correlated with the Housing Authority. They're their own separate entity.
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Speaker 6: We have our own housing department that we funnel things.
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Speaker 3: Through, but they're the ones that's going to have to
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Speaker 3: know when you have a problem with landlords. They're the
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Speaker 3: ones that's going to have to enforce a lot of
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Speaker 3: that too.
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Speaker 6: We're going to be sending out our own health department.
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Speaker 6: The inspectors within our own health department would be the
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Speaker 6: one that we'll look into this specific ac ordinance.
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Speaker 3: Do you think a lot of these lots of these
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Speaker 3: circumstances would go into the course with landlords signing.
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Speaker 7: At the course. I don't think so.
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Speaker 6: We haven't seen that in other cities, and I don't
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Speaker 6: think we will see it here. I have not received
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Speaker 6: any correspondence from any landlord that spoke out against this.
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Speaker 6: I represent the Gulften area, which is the hottest area
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Speaker 6: in the entire city, extremely dense with a lot of
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Speaker 6: apartment complexes, and not one landlord out to my office
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Speaker 6: and opposition.
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Speaker 3: You think it's because not that they don't care, but
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Speaker 3: they feel that it's not going to give force.
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Speaker 6: I don't feel that they've reached out on many other
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Speaker 6: issues when they thought it would be a burden to them.
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Speaker 6: And so my hope is that we all look at
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Speaker 6: the intent of this. The intent is to ensure that
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Speaker 6: Houstonians live in humane conditions. The intent is to ensure
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Speaker 6: that Houstonians live in safe, in healthy conditions, and that's
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Speaker 6: what this ordinance proposes to do.
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Speaker 7: Thank you, Thank you.
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Speaker 1: One in opposition was Houston councilman Fred Flickinger from District E.
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Speaker 1: He had some concerns and things that will bring up
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Speaker 1: rent and increase homelessness.
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Speaker 8: I feel that was Willie that was talking about that.
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Speaker 8: My concerns is, first of all, it's the tenants that
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Speaker 8: are actually going to have to pay for this. The
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Speaker 8: city's not paying for this, The landlords are not going
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Speaker 8: to pay for it. These costs are going to be
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Speaker 8: passed on to the tenants. The people who are already renting.
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Speaker 8: These apartments are the ones that can probably least forward
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Speaker 8: anything else. Because of that, some of them are gonna
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Speaker 8: end up homeless. This is going to add to a homelessness.
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Speaker 8: That's what I didn't want to happen. So again, it's
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Speaker 8: terrible for to live without air conditioning. You know, I've
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Speaker 8: had it for a couple of days and been miserable.
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Speaker 8: You know, I haven't had to have it for you know,
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Speaker 8: all the time. It's awful. But my big concern is
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Speaker 8: it's going to end up adding to homelessness because some
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Speaker 8: of these people are not going to be able to
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Speaker 8: afford the extra utility bills, not going to be able
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Speaker 8: to afford the extra rent, and they're gonna end up
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Speaker 8: without a place to live. And it's a question of
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Speaker 8: is it better to not have air conditioning and a
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Speaker 8: roof over your head or to be homeless.
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Speaker 3: You said you went to some of the places.
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Speaker 8: That, yeah, I went and visited one yesterday in fact,
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Speaker 8: and the area is being gentrified. There's brand new homes
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Speaker 8: to the property immediately adjacent to the east and immediately
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Speaker 8: adjacent to the north. This property has not been updated
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Speaker 8: since it was in nineteen sixty eight. So if the
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Speaker 8: additional electric demand requires electrical work that ends up being
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Speaker 8: more than fifty percent of the praise value, and it's
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Speaker 8: probably got a pretty low praise value, then they're going
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Speaker 8: to have to go in and comply with every updated
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Speaker 8: building code for the last sixty years. My guess is
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Speaker 8: if that happens, he probably sells a developer and those
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Speaker 8: units will no longer be available to anyone. So again,
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Speaker 8: my issue is creating more homelessness.
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Speaker 3: And it's a problem too with rewiring a whole house.
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Speaker 8: Yeah, yes, yes, I mean, and you think about what
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Speaker 8: was done in the sixties versus what's done twenty twenty six.
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Speaker 8: There's been a lot of changes, so you know, maybe
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Speaker 8: it'll handle the additional load, maybe it won't.
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Speaker 1: But council members Selena's addressed those concerns.
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Speaker 2: Well, I heard council member, I guess flickens your bring
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Speaker 2: up gentrification, but I honestly did not understand what that
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Speaker 2: had to do with the ordinance.
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Speaker 4: Whether or not a landlord.
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Speaker 2: Decides to sell their building is not going to be
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Speaker 2: decided on whether they have to spend a cup one
10:00
Speaker 2: hundred dollars on buying these units. I will note that
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Speaker 2: for the building that we identified and he visited. There
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Speaker 2: are some tenants that have to provide their own and
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Speaker 2: so him buying a handful of units is going to
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Speaker 2: put him out of business. Then I'm not sure he
10:14
Speaker 2: was in the right business. But there is no proof
10:17
Speaker 2: of the hypothetical concerns that were raised by council Member
10:22
Speaker 2: flncolnjur and council Member Carter, And we had this debate
10:25
Speaker 2: several weeks ago. If there was proof, they could have
10:28
Speaker 2: brought that proof to counsel today, they could have brought
10:30
Speaker 2: it to my office, but we never saw it. All
10:32
Speaker 2: we have is the data, and the data shows overwhelmingly
10:35
Speaker 2: that this is good policy and it's going to save lives.
10:39
Speaker 2: We've had doctors and health groups come, the Houston Food
10:41
Speaker 2: Bank come again and again and say how this measure
10:44
Speaker 2: is going to save lives. We did something good for
10:46
Speaker 2: the city of Houston today. Make sure all of us
10:48
Speaker 2: are protected from the heat. Yes, so, A Texas Housers,
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Speaker 2: which is one of the pre eminent organizations that advocates
10:54
Speaker 2: for low income tenants, undertook a study and studied the
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Speaker 2: census data that measured where people exist live right now
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Speaker 2: without ac and all of that showed overwhelmingly and unfortunately
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Speaker 2: that black and brown neighborhoods are the hardest hit. That
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Speaker 2: is where we are seeing the predominant amount of people
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Speaker 2: that do not have AC. And my office just separately
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Speaker 2: announced that air conditioner giveaway and what we are seeing
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Speaker 2: it is those same neighborhoods that are reaching out to.
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Speaker 4: Us to apply for it.
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Speaker 2: So there is a clear need in this part of
11:22
Speaker 2: our community. It is not limited to that part, but
11:25
Speaker 2: we need to make sure that all Houstonians are protected
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Speaker 2: and no one gets left behind.
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Speaker 1: Joe Metra Hawk and Sneed stated that her organization, the
11:33
Speaker 1: African American Health Coalition, has a program for air conditioners.
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Speaker 9: So there are a couple of different ways. It depends
11:40
Speaker 9: on where they live and they see a Houston. Our organization,
11:44
Speaker 9: the African American vol Coalition, actually has a program called
11:47
Speaker 9: CAP Community Assistance Program. So if they're looking to make
11:51
Speaker 9: a home improvement needing an AC air conditioner unit, they
11:56
Speaker 9: can actually come through us to get one, but they
11:59
Speaker 9: can also go to their local commissioner. So Harris County
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Speaker 9: Public I mean Harris County Precinct two, Harris County Precinct four,
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Speaker 9: they both have programs that help the near residents to
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Speaker 9: get the AC that they need. It is for elderly people.
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Speaker 9: There's a special program for elderly folks fifty piping up.
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Speaker 9: They just apply, so there's a criteria that you have
12:25
Speaker 9: to meet, but there's always an application right when you're
12:28
Speaker 9: dealing with the government, So fill out the application and
12:30
Speaker 9: they'll let you know. Especially Precinct two and actually Precing
12:35
Speaker 9: one as well, they both do this program and you
12:37
Speaker 9: can go to them and fill out that application and
12:40
Speaker 9: receive an AC unit.
12:41
Speaker 10: A do they pick up the AC and try.
12:45
Speaker 7: To install it themselves.
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Speaker 9: So it's normally one of those portable AC units where
12:49
Speaker 9: you can roll it, so they'll be able to roll
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Speaker 9: it to the home. A lot of times there are
12:54
Speaker 9: special programs for those that are disabled that they'll deliver
12:57
Speaker 9: it to them. The majority of the time, it is
13:00
Speaker 9: something that they are able to pick up from the
13:02
Speaker 9: local community center.
13:04
Speaker 11: Helping people follow about your organization.
13:07
Speaker 9: You can follow us on all social media platforms Africanamerican
13:11
Speaker 9: Health Coalition. You can also look us up on the
13:13
Speaker 9: wab Afahchuston dot org.
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Speaker 1: The Africanamerican Health Coalition program is called CAP. You can
13:23
Speaker 1: email them for inquiries a FA HC Houston All put
13:27
Speaker 1: Together at gmail dot com. Their phone is three four
13:31
Speaker 1: six two nine one three four one two. You can
13:34
Speaker 1: also contact Councilwoman Alejandra Salina's office at Houston, tex dot
13:40
Speaker 1: gov forward slash Council forward slash four.
13:46
Speaker 10: Hi.
13:46
Speaker 1: This is Steve Gallington, producer and host for The People's News.
13:51
Speaker 1: You have rights when dealing with the police or ICE,
13:56
Speaker 1: no matter or immigration status number one. If they do
14:01
Speaker 1: not have a warrant, an arrest warrant or a search warrant,
14:05
Speaker 1: you do not have to open the door for the
14:07
Speaker 1: police or ICE. You do not have to answer any
14:12
Speaker 1: questions about status or country of origin. The right to
14:16
Speaker 1: remain silent is protected under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.
14:21
Speaker 1: You have the right to ask to see a lawyer.
14:25
Speaker 1: You have the right to refuse searches of your person
14:29
Speaker 1: and your car if the police do not suspect a crime.
14:34
Speaker 1: This is the fourth Amendment of the Constitution. Never sign
14:38
Speaker 1: anything without knowing what it says, and you have a
14:44
Speaker 1: right to record what happens. Last week, we reported on
14:50
Speaker 1: this story about the presence of ICE, Immigration and Customs
14:53
Speaker 1: enforcement in Houston and the involvement of Houston police in
14:57
Speaker 1: detaining Houstonians for periods of time, and the use of
15:01
Speaker 1: flock cameras by ICE. Those cameras have gained national attention,
15:05
Speaker 1: especially after a man was apprehended and taken by ICE
15:09
Speaker 1: at a home depot. He witnessed a shooting and called
15:13
Speaker 1: local police, but ICE agents arrived first and took him away.
15:18
Speaker 1: Activists are calling for an end of the use of
15:20
Speaker 1: flock cameras by the city and specifically ICE.
15:25
Speaker 12: My name is Randall Callanan and I'm here today with
15:30
Speaker 12: various community groups because we have a deep concern that
15:37
Speaker 12: ICE is picking up witnesses and victims to crimes in Houston.
15:43
Speaker 12: People who have called for help from HPD and sometimes
15:49
Speaker 12: EMS and HFD the Fire Department, are sometimes being taken
15:54
Speaker 12: after they call for help. We have the instance where
15:59
Speaker 12: mister Monroy had called HPD because there were shots fired
16:05
Speaker 12: at a home depot. He was scared for his life.
16:08
Speaker 12: The person shooting had a laundry list of infractions and
16:14
Speaker 12: when HPD came, he gave him the information he was
16:17
Speaker 12: a witness to this serious crime with a dangerous person
16:21
Speaker 12: on the loose, and then he was taken by ICE
16:28
Speaker 12: and we don't even know where he is. The district
16:30
Speaker 12: attorney was very concerned about it because he said, when
16:33
Speaker 12: you take away these victims or the witnesses, how can
16:36
Speaker 12: you prosecute. It's very difficult to prosecute without witnesses. Sometimes
16:41
Speaker 12: you can't, So either your plea bargain the case down,
16:44
Speaker 12: or you have to let them go and let the
16:46
Speaker 12: criminals or the accused back in to society without being
16:54
Speaker 12: punished or having a trial. We should not punish goods
17:00
Speaker 12: Samaritans for reporting crimes. Witnesses and victims are frightened. And
17:10
Speaker 12: that's a broad fear too. It's just not people are
17:12
Speaker 12: here illegally. It's people are here legally. Because we have
17:16
Speaker 12: seen many instances of people with work visas and legal
17:21
Speaker 12: paperwork also get taken by Ice. So you will have
17:27
Speaker 12: the undocumented workers, the people with visas.
17:31
Speaker 13: They'll be frightened to show up.
17:34
Speaker 12: And now the same thing is happening with the Haitians
17:38
Speaker 12: because their protected status has been removed.
17:43
Speaker 10: So they're not going to.
17:43
Speaker 12: Want to come forward to report crimes if they're victims,
17:48
Speaker 12: and they don't care if they witness somebody getting shot
17:51
Speaker 12: in River Oaks or anywhere else in Houston. Why would
17:56
Speaker 12: they come forward when ICE is picking them up. An HPD,
18:01
Speaker 12: of course, has been cooperating with Ice. They've been calling
18:05
Speaker 12: Ice over and over again when immigrants are stopped by
18:11
Speaker 12: the police or even when they're investigated by the way.
18:15
Speaker 12: Mister Monroy, the witness to this shooting. I researched it.
18:20
Speaker 12: He has no criminal record except for traffic tickets. That's
18:25
Speaker 12: all he has. Yet Ice tried to say he had
18:29
Speaker 12: some violation regarding public safety.
18:31
Speaker 13: What he meant was a traffic ticket because I looked it.
18:35
Speaker 12: Up where lawyers look up, you know, things like this,
18:39
Speaker 12: And so they're being misleading. Another working man with no
18:44
Speaker 12: criminal record, without a warm for his arrest, picked up
18:49
Speaker 12: in this case when he was being a good samaritan.
18:52
Speaker 12: And we're here today with members of Care, members of LULAC,
18:59
Speaker 12: and members of the community and elsewhere to tell the
19:03
Speaker 12: City of Houston, do not let Ice take away the
19:06
Speaker 12: witnesses to these crimes.
19:09
Speaker 13: Keep Houston safe.
19:12
Speaker 7: Next we'll hear from Its Rodriguez.
19:15
Speaker 14: My name's Mark Rodriguz. I'm the president of Oakland for
19:18
Speaker 14: Pacific Association. Also owned two businesses and Second World. I
19:22
Speaker 14: am very alarmed by what's happening with our city. The
19:25
Speaker 14: Houston Police Department should not be turning people that are
19:28
Speaker 14: victims into ICE. Imagine what that's going to happen if
19:32
Speaker 14: if I'm going to ask the mayor along with the
19:34
Speaker 14: city council members and imagine one of y'all got raped,
19:37
Speaker 14: robbed or assaulted and the only witness was an immigrant
19:42
Speaker 14: fixing their papers through court and they're afraid to give
19:45
Speaker 14: a testimony because of the cooperation with the Houston Police
19:48
Speaker 14: Department with ICE. I think the City of Houston we
19:51
Speaker 14: need to hold them a little more accountable and they
19:53
Speaker 14: need to stop this. What is here or the espanold
19:58
Speaker 14: look at them, did his head rita estoyaki apia uda,
20:03
Speaker 14: the La Calle los gonz Hero's, the loco cama Houston
20:09
Speaker 14: police and start collporando co ice on the aliens, m
20:13
Speaker 14: victim robosolto or on ray insta Villa Houston Police Department.
20:19
Speaker 14: And then the tragando est hen ala pola quatro versus
20:24
Speaker 14: on the Nada polosia, the USA ICE, yes mandando malvina
20:34
Speaker 14: communida sonetar puech maente loan said. Bana said, victims the
20:41
Speaker 14: crimes in Portablo and then start La Manasara sand La
20:47
Speaker 14: Marzano your sister, and Colla called corn Esso, we need
20:54
Speaker 14: the Houston Police apportent with and Conda no, I that
21:00
Speaker 14: I'm the ice, and I says thank you.
21:03
Speaker 13: Jeff Would you like to hear, Lisa wants to I'm Jefferye.
21:10
Speaker 15: I'm with the Greater Houston Coalers of Justice with Johnny Matta,
21:14
Speaker 15: and we're here because something's extremely.
21:18
Speaker 13: Wrong in America.
21:19
Speaker 15: All you got to do is go into the Statue
21:22
Speaker 15: of Liberty and read the poem that the young lady
21:24
Speaker 15: wrote Emma Lazard, she's they asked for the poor people.
21:28
Speaker 13: They didn't ask the rich people. She said, give us
21:30
Speaker 13: your tempest toss.
21:32
Speaker 14: You know.
21:33
Speaker 15: They wanted the poor people here. They wanted the immigrants.
21:36
Speaker 15: Our country is made of immigrants.
21:37
Speaker 13: All of us are immigrants. So when did it change
21:40
Speaker 13: where immigration became a crime.
21:42
Speaker 15: If you were taken and your family was taken somewhere else,
21:46
Speaker 15: I guarantee you to be scrambling to get back here.
21:48
Speaker 13: I know I would.
21:49
Speaker 16: You know.
21:50
Speaker 13: It's just it's natural. It's the best place in the world.
21:52
Speaker 13: Who wouldn't want to be here?
21:53
Speaker 15: So why are we taking a section of our population
21:57
Speaker 15: a piece of our society are family members, and we've
22:02
Speaker 15: ostracized them because they speak two languages and we only
22:05
Speaker 15: speak one. I don't know, but there's something extremely wrong
22:09
Speaker 15: with America. It's a sickness and we need to get
22:12
Speaker 15: over it. And it's going to take all of us
22:14
Speaker 15: to come together to stand up. But for somebody to
22:17
Speaker 15: be arrested when they call nine one one, it doesn't matter.
22:22
Speaker 13: I'm a former cop. We took a note to the constitution.
22:25
Speaker 15: The Constitution doesn't change because of who you are, whether
22:29
Speaker 15: you're a citizen or non citizen. Once you touch American soil,
22:33
Speaker 15: the Constitution covers you, or it doesn't work at all.
22:36
Speaker 15: It either works for everyone or it works for no one,
22:38
Speaker 15: and right now it's not working for very few people
22:41
Speaker 15: except the privilege few. So I'm sorry, I've already said
22:45
Speaker 15: too much. At least you want to say anything else.
22:46
Speaker 15: Johnny Motter regrets he could not be here, but he
22:49
Speaker 15: would be otherwise.
22:51
Speaker 17: I just want to remind everyone we're facing a human
22:54
Speaker 17: rights crisis right now. And if we cannot bear arms
22:59
Speaker 17: together and protect each other, protect our neighbors, protect our family,
23:03
Speaker 17: what is going to happen if you yourself face a
23:06
Speaker 17: crime and your witness is not there, your witness is
23:10
Speaker 17: no longer available for the DA, you will not have
23:13
Speaker 17: a case being able to be having any type of
23:17
Speaker 17: justice or moving forward. So we have to bear arms.
23:20
Speaker 17: I'm asking everyone to join together as a community because
23:23
Speaker 17: this is a human rights crisis.
23:25
Speaker 10: Thank you.
23:29
Speaker 16: Hi.
23:29
Speaker 18: My name is sal Sata Spinoza and I'm executive director
23:31
Speaker 18: of phil We know Spinosi so dire.
23:35
Speaker 16: So.
23:36
Speaker 18: In the past couple of days, we have spoken to
23:38
Speaker 18: mister Monroy Trui's family.
23:41
Speaker 13: They're unfortunately not in the country.
23:43
Speaker 18: They're in Guatemala facing a variety of issues in Guatemala.
23:47
Speaker 18: Mister Monroe was the only sole breadwinner for his family
23:52
Speaker 18: in Whatatemala.
23:54
Speaker 13: That being said, it is.
23:56
Speaker 18: Important that mister Monroy remain here in the United States.
24:01
Speaker 18: The least the Mayor with Mayra and the City Council
24:05
Speaker 18: can do is to continue is to start the push
24:08
Speaker 18: from mister Monroy to to get a U visa. Why
24:11
Speaker 18: because he was the witness of a crime, of a
24:14
Speaker 18: violent crime committed in our streets. So the least that
24:17
Speaker 18: city Council and mister Mayor Widmeyer can do is to
24:21
Speaker 18: push HPD their own department to ask for a US
24:25
Speaker 18: certification for him so he may.
24:28
Speaker 10: Be here and may help to resolve this case.
24:32
Speaker 18: Simple asks standing contact Monroe to Royal and so familias
24:50
Speaker 18: pieno sk aos for media le bartament Houston a certificate
24:59
Speaker 18: li visa, yes ces te caaso. This sends the wrong
25:07
Speaker 18: message to the community when these things happen. It only
25:10
Speaker 18: makes community feel less safe. It only makes people more
25:14
Speaker 18: wary of calling the police if they are witnesses or
25:17
Speaker 18: victims of a crime.
25:18
Speaker 10: And that's why every.
25:20
Speaker 18: Single one of us is standing here to remind the
25:24
Speaker 18: city council and Mayor Widmyer that in the name of
25:27
Speaker 18: public safety, immigrant safety also matters. So and then noblic
25:36
Speaker 18: cade yellow consilio agrantes and.
25:44
Speaker 13: Calls us.
25:52
Speaker 7: Mass problems.
26:02
Speaker 1: The department.
26:06
Speaker 19: In these cases.
26:08
Speaker 10: Case, Uh, that's that's correct.
26:19
Speaker 12: Under the UV process, a law enforcement agency or the
26:22
Speaker 12: district attorney's office can help to get a U visa
26:26
Speaker 12: from the proper court so that he can stay in
26:29
Speaker 12: the United States while the prosecution of the case pends,
26:33
Speaker 12: and that includes appeals.
26:34
Speaker 10: So yes, that's correct.
26:39
Speaker 12: Well, let me address that I have filed a lawsuit
26:44
Speaker 12: class action lawsuit for anybody who was held by HPD
26:49
Speaker 12: four ice, because the Supreme Court of the United States
26:54
Speaker 12: trumps everybody else, and they said in the case of
26:57
Speaker 12: Rodriguez versus the United States that once the purpose of
27:01
Speaker 12: the stop is over, you have to let them go.
27:05
Speaker 10: Not thirty minutes, not one minute, you let them go.
27:10
Speaker 10: So anybody who is held by HPD four ice, and.
27:14
Speaker 12: That's regardless of whether ICE takes them into their custody.
27:18
Speaker 12: If they just hold them and ICE comes there and
27:19
Speaker 12: lets them go, that's still a violation against the against
27:24
Speaker 12: the city and the police officers who held them under
27:27
Speaker 12: the Fourth Amendment.
27:31
Speaker 13: You got one more speaker?
27:32
Speaker 12: Wait, okay, well we have one named individual. However, we
27:38
Speaker 12: have a bunch of other individuals who I'm speaking with. Okay,
27:45
Speaker 12: can we have our last person speak first?
27:47
Speaker 10: For care?
27:51
Speaker 4: Hi everyone, good afternoon.
27:53
Speaker 20: My name is Simy Harris V and I'm with the
27:55
Speaker 20: Council on American Islamic Relations Texas.
27:59
Speaker 4: I serve as the government of Bears, a legisative manager.
28:02
Speaker 20: So we are here because of a question no crime
28:05
Speaker 20: victim should ever have to ask, is it safe to
28:08
Speaker 20: call for help? Weeks ago, Eric Ruiz Lopez was pulled
28:11
Speaker 20: over for a stop sign he had no criminal record.
28:14
Speaker 20: HBT held him for two hours, not for the stop,
28:17
Speaker 20: but so ICE could take him.
28:19
Speaker 4: Ten days later, he was deported, torn from his family.
28:23
Speaker 20: Attorney Randall killing In has filed a case class action lawsuit,
28:28
Speaker 20: and hbd's own numbers show why one hundred and three
28:31
Speaker 20: people referred to ICE in the first quarter of this
28:33
Speaker 20: year alone.
28:34
Speaker 4: Now consider Juan Francisco Munroy Troy.
28:38
Speaker 20: He reported a shooting at a home depot to Houston Police,
28:41
Speaker 20: following the protocol we're all told to follow. Days later,
28:45
Speaker 20: ICE detained him. We still don't have real answers. Why
28:49
Speaker 20: did ICE respond so quickly? Why was he taken into
28:53
Speaker 20: custody at all? Home depot claims it played no role
28:56
Speaker 20: and denies working with ICE, but it also confirms it
28:59
Speaker 20: does not lack federal agents from its parking lots where
29:02
Speaker 20: its surveillance cameras also known as flock operate.
29:06
Speaker 4: That is not good enough.
29:07
Speaker 20: Alongside Fiel, Houston and our partners, we demand real transparency
29:11
Speaker 20: and we demand his release so we can keep cooperating
29:14
Speaker 20: with the investigation that he came forward for. City council
29:18
Speaker 20: already took a step forward the spring, affirming that Ice
29:21
Speaker 20: warrants alone don't justify holding someone. But unfortunately Governor Abbott
29:26
Speaker 20: threatened to pull one hundred and fourteen million dollars in funding,
29:30
Speaker 20: and that promise quietly faded.
29:32
Speaker 4: That is bullying, that is intimidation, and it should not
29:36
Speaker 4: have worked.
29:37
Speaker 20: So today, alongside our partners, we asked at the city
29:40
Speaker 20: finish what it started, full transparency, real enforcement of the
29:45
Speaker 20: protections already on the books, and a clear commitment that
29:49
Speaker 20: a nine to one to one call in Houston is
29:51
Speaker 20: never a first step towards deportation.
29:54
Speaker 4: Our families deserve to feel safe.
29:55
Speaker 10: Thank you.
29:59
Speaker 18: It was very complic Caden, because you're you're talking about
30:01
Speaker 18: a family who is relying on dad to take care
30:05
Speaker 18: of mom, who had a who had a stroke ten
30:08
Speaker 18: years ago, who was.
30:09
Speaker 13: Now bedridden, unable to talk, and.
30:11
Speaker 18: You're having to We're having to explain to them how
30:13
Speaker 18: all of this works, what happens next, what can happen next,
30:17
Speaker 18: what shouldn't happen next, And so it was a really
30:19
Speaker 18: difficult conversation to have. And at the end of the day,
30:22
Speaker 18: you know, we have to have these conversations with hundreds
30:25
Speaker 18: of people in the city who get caught up by
30:27
Speaker 18: ice every day, and I want to reiterate that to day,
30:31
Speaker 18: right now, in this very moment, HPD and Mayor Widmyer
30:36
Speaker 18: can certify a you visa for mister Monro and he
30:39
Speaker 18: should be released immediately. And when we asked earlier, when
30:42
Speaker 18: you when they asked about how long is too enough
30:46
Speaker 18: for me? One second is too much to be held
30:49
Speaker 18: for Ice, So that that's left to be said. Godless.
30:56
Speaker 12: But but I.
30:59
Speaker 18: Houston el Alcalde de la esper certificate as us signor
31:05
Speaker 18: monroy aita sa libertado. Unfortunately in Trumps, in San and
31:21
Speaker 18: and America, the Trump pero existed, this SPUs la quest certificate,
31:29
Speaker 18: la Visa cardol, the Houston auritaado correct personal processor, the
31:41
Speaker 18: la Visa al cad certifica.
31:47
Speaker 1: Men.
31:47
Speaker 18: So it is true that I that being a win
31:50
Speaker 18: Instagram doesn't defend your doesn't deterre from being taken my eyes.
31:54
Speaker 18: But what can happen later is you can get a
31:56
Speaker 18: ub C certification, which which the mayor the City of
32:00
Speaker 18: Houston and the Chief of Police could do right now
32:02
Speaker 18: and potentially our lead to the liberation of.
32:06
Speaker 13: Home.
32:07
Speaker 18: Depot is complicit in this because not only do they
32:11
Speaker 18: allow or not prevent Ice, agents from mentoring their parking lots,
32:15
Speaker 18: but they have contracts with the Flogged camera system. Every
32:18
Speaker 18: single home depot and we have proof of this. Every
32:22
Speaker 18: single home depot in Houston has the Flog camera system
32:26
Speaker 18: at all other entrances and in the middle of their
32:28
Speaker 18: parking lot.
32:30
Speaker 1: The Houston Police Department, namely Police Chief j no ideas
32:35
Speaker 1: will be called to account by Houston City Council in
32:38
Speaker 1: the coming weeks.
32:41
Speaker 11: Hi.
32:41
Speaker 1: This is Steve Gallington, producer and host of the People's News.
32:45
Speaker 1: The People's News is people powered news. We are free
32:49
Speaker 1: to report the unvarnished and unspun truth and challenge the
32:53
Speaker 1: status quo of corporate propaganda and social media advertising disguised
32:58
Speaker 1: as real news. Shiny new one hour episodes of The
33:02
Speaker 1: People's News drop each Sunday on The People's News podcast.
33:08
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Our waterways in the Houston area Safe
33:14
Speaker 1: Environment Texas Research and Policy Center will release our Texas
33:18
Speaker 1: Rivers and Lakes Safe for Swimming, a new online report
33:22
Speaker 1: and mapping tool that highlights the presence of harmful bacteria
33:26
Speaker 1: such as E. Coli in Houston bayous and waterways across Texas.
33:31
Speaker 1: Though Houstonians don't normally swim in Buffalo Bayou. They do kayak, paddle,
33:37
Speaker 1: and fish. The report shows that all too often, potentially
33:41
Speaker 1: unsafe levels of E. Coli can taminate waterways like Buffalo Bayou,
33:46
Speaker 1: putting the public at risk of water borne illness. The
33:49
Speaker 1: map highlights results from water quality samples taken from across
33:53
Speaker 1: Texas and show which waterways regularly tested positive for pathogens.
33:58
Speaker 1: We talk to Beth Martin with Environment Texas Research and
34:02
Speaker 1: Policy Center and a local Houston advocate about the problem.
34:07
Speaker 16: What our report shows. We analyzed twenty twenty four and
34:11
Speaker 16: twenty twenty five water quality data from three hundred and
34:14
Speaker 16: sixty seven different monitoring locations across Texas fresh waterways so rivers, lake, extremes, bayous.
34:23
Speaker 16: What we found is that fifty nine percent had potentially
34:26
Speaker 16: unsafe sequle bacteria levels on at least one testing day
34:31
Speaker 16: over that time period, and that fifty three percent had
34:35
Speaker 16: potentially unsafe level on at least a quarter of the
34:38
Speaker 16: days that they were tested. We looked at some Houston
34:43
Speaker 16: area waterways, namely Buffalo Bayou, White Oak Bayou, and Carpenter's Buyo,
34:49
Speaker 16: and unfortunately they had potentially unsafe unsafe levels one hundred
34:54
Speaker 16: percent of the time on the days they were tested.
34:57
Speaker 16: Another popular swimming and waiting area in the Houston areas
35:03
Speaker 16: up in Montgomery County Peach Creek. It's in Lake Houston
35:07
Speaker 16: Wilderness Park, which is a beautiful area. That area on
35:11
Speaker 16: fifty percent of the days it was tested in twenty
35:14
Speaker 16: twenty four and twenty twenty five showed those unsafe people
35:17
Speaker 16: bacteria levels.
35:19
Speaker 11: Well, some of these places, especially the Bayo, people aren't
35:22
Speaker 11: swimming in the bayou. I know, they fish.
35:25
Speaker 5: No, I've seen people fish in the bayos. Does that
35:30
Speaker 5: make for them from tracking contaminants the fishes they get
35:37
Speaker 5: out of the water.
35:39
Speaker 16: Yeah, so you know these are water born, you know, illnesses.
35:42
Speaker 16: This is the biggest risk is really ingesting the water.
35:46
Speaker 16: And you're right, you know, like people aren't actually swimming
35:49
Speaker 16: in the bayous, but they are paddling. As you know,
35:53
Speaker 16: a lot of our most popular open spaces are beautifully
35:58
Speaker 16: transformed along the Bayou and Houston has really done a
36:02
Speaker 16: lot to improve those connections with our buyers through the
36:06
Speaker 16: parks trails, and yeah, we do see a lot of
36:09
Speaker 16: people kayaking, you know, so luckily, you know, people aren't swimming,
36:16
Speaker 16: but that's kind of part of the point right, we
36:19
Speaker 16: would love to imagine the next step, how can we
36:22
Speaker 16: make these waterways clean enough that someday Houstonians can safely
36:26
Speaker 16: swim in them?
36:28
Speaker 5: And this is this is across Chex because I know
36:31
Speaker 5: we can talk about Barton Springs, the places Lone, then
36:34
Speaker 5: other springs around the Autoin area of San Antonio area,
36:39
Speaker 5: all those places also are also contaminated, so to speak.
36:45
Speaker 16: Yeah, so when you if you we have a mapping
36:48
Speaker 16: tool on our website where you can see all of
36:52
Speaker 16: the different testing locations. We highlight two other really three
37:00
Speaker 16: Texas waterways that see a lot of recreational activity, a
37:03
Speaker 16: lot of people swimming in them. Blanco River in Hayes
37:06
Speaker 16: County and Blanco County is highlighted there, and the Niches
37:10
Speaker 16: River is highlighted there. But if you go on our
37:15
Speaker 16: website at Environment Texas Research and Policy Center, you'll see
37:20
Speaker 16: the mapping tool where you can hone in on all
37:23
Speaker 16: of the docks across Texas where we gathered the data from.
37:27
Speaker 5: And I know you don't, I know, you can't do
37:29
Speaker 5: any data as far as far as Dallasian Freeport area,
37:34
Speaker 5: even down the.
37:35
Speaker 11: Line going to Badway. I've heard that those those swimming
37:40
Speaker 11: and those buses gangs was also.
37:44
Speaker 16: Yeah, we released a report on just on beaches water
37:48
Speaker 16: quality on our beaches last year. I believe the figure
37:51
Speaker 16: there was sixty three percent of kind of days that
37:55
Speaker 16: were tested we tested positive for a pollution. And this
38:00
Speaker 16: report that we put out is focused on our fresh waterways.
38:05
Speaker 16: But you know, as you know, everything flows downstream, so
38:08
Speaker 16: to speak, right, and so as we get closer to
38:10
Speaker 16: the Gulf, you're definitely gonna still find those you know,
38:15
Speaker 16: contaminated waterways as we get closer to them emptying into
38:19
Speaker 16: the gulf.
38:21
Speaker 11: How can people make how can people protect themselves?
38:28
Speaker 16: Well, it's important that they not swallow you know, they
38:31
Speaker 16: try to avoid swallowing any water the uh you know,
38:38
Speaker 16: and this is this is outlined in our in our report.
38:42
Speaker 15: You know.
38:42
Speaker 16: Unfortunately, there are a lot of gas or intestil illnesses
38:47
Speaker 16: that can come about from contaminated water. In fact, approximately
38:52
Speaker 16: eighty seven million cases of illness each year are associated
38:55
Speaker 16: with recreational youth swimming, fishing, boating, paddeling, according to public
39:01
Speaker 16: health experts. So yeah, just making sure that we are
39:06
Speaker 16: you know, letting the public know that it is a
39:08
Speaker 16: concern and to be careful out there and if you
39:10
Speaker 16: know they have an open wound or a cut that
39:14
Speaker 16: they're avoiding swimming. You know, there are ear, eye, skin,
39:20
Speaker 16: you know, issues that can come about from contaminated waterways.
39:24
Speaker 16: So yeah, when when there's no official warning issues, those
39:29
Speaker 16: elevated levels of contamination can diminish our ability to safely
39:33
Speaker 16: enjoy these these waterways. So that's why we're bringing attention
39:36
Speaker 16: to this issue.
39:38
Speaker 5: And you know, cleaning up, cleaning up all of this
39:42
Speaker 5: is a is a hard thing too. What is the
39:44
Speaker 5: state actually doing to try to trying to clean up
39:48
Speaker 5: some of the spots.
39:50
Speaker 16: Yeah, so what we're really calling for is better investment
39:54
Speaker 16: on on just repairing, upgrading, and maintaining the wastewater infrastructure
39:59
Speaker 16: really cross Texas. As with many things, this is a federal, state,
40:06
Speaker 16: and local issue. So just here locally just to kind
40:10
Speaker 16: of call out a couple funding areas that that go
40:15
Speaker 16: toward how we maintain these water supply projects. You know,
40:20
Speaker 16: Texans passed Proposition four last year, which invests billions of
40:27
Speaker 16: dollars into our uh state Water fund that the Texas
40:31
Speaker 16: Water Development Board manages. You know, we want to make
40:34
Speaker 16: sure that you know, water quantity and water quality. Our
40:38
Speaker 16: projects are both being taken care of here in Houston.
40:43
Speaker 16: We're also about five years into a federal consent decree
40:48
Speaker 16: where Houston has to put up, you know, two billion
40:51
Speaker 16: dollars toward these projects to fall in line with the
40:56
Speaker 16: federal mandate. And there's concerns from a lot of local
41:00
Speaker 16: advocates environmental scientists here that these projects are delayed and
41:04
Speaker 16: falling behind, and we need more transparency on kind of
41:07
Speaker 16: where we're at toward the implementation of those projects towards
41:12
Speaker 16: that work, and costs have been rising for residents. You know,
41:18
Speaker 16: we are seeing higher water bills tied to this, So yeah,
41:23
Speaker 16: there's concerns there on are we covering the cost of
41:26
Speaker 16: maintaining and expanding the system. So yeah, there's a local, state,
41:30
Speaker 16: and federal part to all of us.
41:34
Speaker 1: That was Beth Martin with environment Texas Research and Policy
41:38
Speaker 1: Center and a local Houston advocate. Social media and mental
41:44
Speaker 1: health have a relationship that is not good. Researchers have
41:49
Speaker 1: studied the relationship. As we hear more from freed to
41:52
Speaker 1: Ross with the Texas News.
41:53
Speaker 21: Service, excessive social media use could be harmful for people
41:58
Speaker 21: in their late teens and early twenties. A report from
42:01
Speaker 21: A team at the UT Health Houston School of Behavioral
42:05
Speaker 21: Health Sciences found that higher social media use is associated
42:11
Speaker 21: with increased levels of anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts among
42:15
Speaker 21: young adults. Psychologist Jeff Temple says this is the first
42:20
Speaker 21: time this particular age group has been studied.
42:23
Speaker 19: College students as well as those in the workforce, trade school, military,
42:28
Speaker 19: not working. And it's a contemporary sample, so the newer
42:32
Speaker 19: type of things like TikTok, the sort of endless scroll
42:35
Speaker 19: that we see with smartphones and social media.
42:38
Speaker 21: Study participants who use social media for more than six
42:42
Speaker 21: hours a day reported the most symptoms. Temple ads the
42:46
Speaker 21: research couldn't determine if social media used contributed to the
42:50
Speaker 21: mental health problems or if people with mental health issues
42:53
Speaker 21: spent more time on social media. More than one thousand
42:57
Speaker 21: participants self reported their social media use between twenty eighteen
43:02
Speaker 21: and twenty twenty five, forming the foundation for the study.
43:06
Speaker 21: Women use social media more than men and report it
43:09
Speaker 21: heightened feelings of anxiety. Temple says he helps the research
43:14
Speaker 21: helps create healthy boundaries for social media use.
43:18
Speaker 19: I don't want it to be used as is, sort
43:20
Speaker 19: of like saying that social media is the Boogeyman. It
43:23
Speaker 19: helps people stay connected, maintain relationships, find communities. For instance,
43:28
Speaker 19: during COVID it was a literal lifesaver.
43:31
Speaker 21: He says. Social media is here to stay, and as
43:35
Speaker 21: a society we need to learn how to regulate it.
43:39
Speaker 19: The conversation really shouldn't be whether social media is good
43:43
Speaker 19: or bad. It should be how do we help young
43:46
Speaker 19: people and really all people use it in ways that
43:49
Speaker 19: support rather than undermine our mental health.
43:53
Speaker 21: I'm freda Ross Texas News Service. Find our trust indicators
43:57
Speaker 21: at Publicnewsservice dot org.
44:01
Speaker 1: August seventh was the anniversary of the death of Houstonian
44:05
Speaker 1: and Congressman Mickey Leland. He was a strong advocate for Houston.
44:11
Speaker 1: His public service career began with his election to the
44:13
Speaker 1: Texas House of Representatives in nineteen seventy two. In nineteen
44:18
Speaker 1: seventy nine, he succeeded Barbara Jordan in the U s
44:22
Speaker 1: House of Representatives. Mickey graduated in the top ten per
44:26
Speaker 1: cent of his class in nineteen sixty four from Phyllis
44:29
Speaker 1: Wheatley High School in Houston. Mickey attended Texas Southern University
44:34
Speaker 1: in the late sixties, was a vocal leader of the
44:37
Speaker 1: local civil rights movement and brought national civil rights leaders
44:41
Speaker 1: to Houston. He graduated from TSU School of Pharmacy in
44:45
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy with a Bachelor of Science and Pharmacy and
44:49
Speaker 1: served as an instructor of clinical pharmacy at his alma
44:52
Speaker 1: mater from nineteen seventy to nineteen seventy one. For more
44:58
Speaker 1: on this legend's background, we talked talked to the Hall
45:00
Speaker 1: of Fame radio host Ralph Cooper.
45:04
Speaker 22: Well, he was grassroots. I mean he he was cliff
45:08
Speaker 22: Ward Wheatley or at Texas Southern University. And when he
45:13
Speaker 22: went when he went to Congress, he never forgot his district.
45:18
Speaker 22: He did some other things also, of course, looking out
45:20
Speaker 22: for people in other parts of the world. That's what
45:22
Speaker 22: cost him his life doing that. But a great humanitarian,
45:27
Speaker 22: a great person, a fun person. Also, he loved life
45:31
Speaker 22: and he enhanced a number of people. And he would
45:37
Speaker 22: probably if he was living now.
45:39
Speaker 7: He would be in the bigger things.
45:41
Speaker 11: I think you think he might have made it. He
45:45
Speaker 11: think he went ran for president and made it.
45:47
Speaker 22: One day years ago after he did an interview with
45:51
Speaker 22: Michael Harris at k co oh long before I knew Obama,
45:54
Speaker 22: knew of Obama I ran into Mickey Leland leaving out
45:58
Speaker 22: of there, and I had been watching what he was
46:00
Speaker 22: doing and in in Washington, and I indicated to him
46:04
Speaker 22: what you just said that I thought that he I
46:07
Speaker 22: had a chance to be president one day, and I
46:10
Speaker 22: you know, and I really did. And that was a
46:12
Speaker 22: sincere thing that I told him about running for president
46:15
Speaker 22: one day, and he was he was elated, of course,
46:19
Speaker 22: and he told me really appreciated that coming from me.
46:23
Speaker 11: And he was he was a people person too.
46:25
Speaker 5: I mean even when he was on you know, even
46:29
Speaker 5: he even when running for office, he always had time
46:31
Speaker 5: to take a take a break and go and talk
46:33
Speaker 5: to the people in the neighborhood at the schools.
46:37
Speaker 14: Well.
46:37
Speaker 11: It was one of the things that made him strong.
46:39
Speaker 22: He had input not only about what was happening in
46:42
Speaker 22: his in his district UH and in Houston, but around
46:46
Speaker 22: the world. He was in another part of the country
46:48
Speaker 22: trying to do something for another group of people. UH
46:51
Speaker 22: when he unfortunately, unfortunately lost his life in an airplane crash.
46:57
Speaker 5: Yeah, and talk about his you know, how he grew
47:01
Speaker 5: up is is moving on TSU, getting involved with the
47:03
Speaker 5: politics on on TSU campus.
47:06
Speaker 22: Right, And he was he was well respected on the
47:08
Speaker 22: TSU campus, not only by the uh uh, the the administrators,
47:14
Speaker 22: the president's office, et cetera. Uh, but also by the
47:17
Speaker 22: alumni and also by the student body.
47:21
Speaker 16: Uh.
47:21
Speaker 22: The students really respect for them. The coaches also, the
47:24
Speaker 22: coaches of various sports and their teams had a great deal.
47:27
Speaker 7: Of respect for Mickey.
47:28
Speaker 11: Also, what do you think he would think about what's
47:31
Speaker 11: going on in politics now?
47:33
Speaker 5: How do you think he would he would he would
47:36
Speaker 5: work on how you think he would he would you
47:39
Speaker 5: feel about what's.
47:39
Speaker 11: Going on now and and how the politics work now?
47:42
Speaker 22: He would probably be disappointed, like a number of other people. Uh,
47:46
Speaker 22: he would probably be disappointed, And but he would still
47:50
Speaker 22: be in the battle.
47:52
Speaker 11: Uh.
47:52
Speaker 22: He wouldn't be giving up in He wouldn't be giving
47:54
Speaker 22: up in in.
47:55
Speaker 11: In that particular battle.
47:56
Speaker 22: He still would be in that battle right in the
47:59
Speaker 22: midst of it, and with all of his energy and input.
48:04
Speaker 1: He also talked about yesterday's announcement of the new athletic
48:08
Speaker 1: director at Texas Southern University.
48:11
Speaker 5: And while I have you on the phone, I know,
48:13
Speaker 5: you know, I just wanted just mentioned Texas Southern's you know,
48:16
Speaker 5: just announced the new athletic director coming from Jackson State, Right,
48:23
Speaker 5: do you want to make any comments on that or
48:26
Speaker 5: you know, I know, I know TSU's kind of games over.
48:29
Speaker 7: In al Deans, right right.
48:32
Speaker 22: I wish Texas Southern University the best of luck. They
48:35
Speaker 22: have a new athletic director Asthlete Robinson, who's been at
48:38
Speaker 22: perri View before. He comes from Jackson State. He was
48:41
Speaker 22: responsible for Deon Sanders getting named the job at football
48:44
Speaker 22: coach at Jackson State.
48:46
Speaker 11: So he did some great things there.
48:47
Speaker 22: They bring him to Texas Southern now hoping he can
48:50
Speaker 22: do the same thing. And they've got a new basketball coach.
48:53
Speaker 22: Many of us felt that the interim basketball coach, Sharon Chapman,
48:57
Speaker 22: should have been appointed the head basketball coach, but that happen.
49:01
Speaker 22: You have to look out for what's best for the students.
49:03
Speaker 22: And now with this new era in regards to athletics
49:06
Speaker 22: at Texas Southern under President J. W. Crawford, hopefully the
49:11
Speaker 22: students will be uplifted. Also, the pay is a record.
49:18
Speaker 22: There is a record number for the athletic director and
49:21
Speaker 22: the men's basketball coach, and hopefully that will linger over
49:26
Speaker 22: into what's happening with the student athletes.
49:28
Speaker 1: They will be.
49:31
Speaker 22: As a result, they will be on another level also
49:33
Speaker 22: in regards to how they're treated on the campus and
49:36
Speaker 22: how they're enhanced.
49:38
Speaker 11: And also the building is the new plan is to
49:40
Speaker 11: build a stadium on campus.
49:42
Speaker 22: Right, hopefully that will work out. Also, many of us
49:47
Speaker 22: felt that that should have already happened.
49:48
Speaker 1: Years ago.
49:50
Speaker 22: When they rearrange things on the campus, they should have
49:53
Speaker 22: built a new stadium, but it didn't happen. But as
49:57
Speaker 22: they say, better late than never.
50:00
Speaker 11: Okay, Yral, It's always a pleasure talking to you.
50:05
Speaker 22: Okay, same here, mister Hannah. Keep up the great work,
50:09
Speaker 22: stay out of stay in the stay in the fight,
50:12
Speaker 22: and stay strong.
50:13
Speaker 11: Okay, thank you. Okay, You're gonna be at Al Green's
50:19
Speaker 11: memorial over the he gets. I don't want to call
50:21
Speaker 11: it a slave memorial. He just have a dinner, he
50:24
Speaker 11: has a breakfast, lunch in tomorrow. He's inviting everybody too. Well.
50:28
Speaker 22: I'm glad to inform me of that. I didn't get
50:31
Speaker 22: an invitation. But I respect Congressman Al Green, who was
50:35
Speaker 22: a judge at one time in this area and did
50:36
Speaker 22: a lot of great things and still does a lot
50:39
Speaker 22: of great things, and I have nothing.
50:41
Speaker 11: But respect for him.
50:42
Speaker 22: I hope everything works out well tomorrow.
50:45
Speaker 1: That was legendary Hall of Fame radio announcer Ralph Cooper
50:48
Speaker 1: speaking on Congressman Mickey Leland, who died in nineteen eighty
50:52
Speaker 1: four in a plane crash. The rescheduled Pride parade went
50:56
Speaker 1: off last week without a hitch. People straight and i'll
51:00
Speaker 1: or wise paraded through the streets of downtown Houston.
51:03
Speaker 18: We're here on the Latina group all LTT and uh,
51:08
Speaker 18: we're marching on Pride.
51:09
Speaker 3: How important is pride to the Latino community and in
51:13
Speaker 3: the importance right now?
51:14
Speaker 10: Oh, it's pretty important right now, Chris, at the moment
51:16
Speaker 10: we're living. I mean, we've gotta make our boys counts
51:20
Speaker 10: and that's how we do it.
51:21
Speaker 15: Is it?
51:22
Speaker 3: Is it a fear in the Latino community right now
51:24
Speaker 3: for people for the people as far as ice and
51:27
Speaker 3: you've been coming down mostly on people there from the LGBTQ.
51:31
Speaker 18: Oh yeah, yeah, we have more vulnerable than all the populations.
51:35
Speaker 3: Are they target Are they targeted that community?
51:37
Speaker 18: Yes, all the legislations that have been proposed throughout the country.
51:42
Speaker 23: I mean they're targeting our group, transgender community.
51:47
Speaker 13: Basically.
51:49
Speaker 3: All right, thank you so much, thank you? How important?
51:52
Speaker 3: How important you guys are out here and you've seen,
51:56
Speaker 3: We've seen how the writers attacking the trans community and
51:58
Speaker 3: the LGBTQ community. I import his pride today.
52:03
Speaker 24: Pride reveals that we've always cared about is equality and
52:06
Speaker 24: love and we should always display it. It just reminds
52:10
Speaker 24: people in Texas that don't want us here that we're
52:12
Speaker 24: not going away and we don't intend to.
52:15
Speaker 3: Phil When you see even the governor campaigning on the
52:19
Speaker 3: fact that he that he's so called banned his bathroom
52:22
Speaker 3: bill and he's an Italian lieutenant governor, is always the
52:26
Speaker 3: same thing.
52:27
Speaker 24: Well, I will say that one of his events had
52:30
Speaker 24: an elephant p on the floor. I think that is
52:32
Speaker 24: the evidence of everyone needs bathrooms and that OVID did
52:35
Speaker 24: not want to be there. So I raised that sentiment
52:38
Speaker 24: and say we want to be able to go to
52:39
Speaker 24: the bathrooms and actually the bathrooms that represent us. No
52:43
Speaker 24: woman is going to want to see another man in
52:45
Speaker 24: the bathroom because they are a trans man. Same deal
52:48
Speaker 24: with trans women. They don't have to go in the
52:49
Speaker 24: men's restroom. No one ever thinks about that. They are
52:52
Speaker 24: fully men and they are fully women there anybody.
52:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the whole aspect of the women a man
52:59
Speaker 3: in sports, it's been penned on which only represents minus
53:02
Speaker 3: one percent of the population in the United States.
53:05
Speaker 24: Yes, it is overblown and right when we had to
53:09
Speaker 24: fight for people to be able to go into the
53:12
Speaker 24: boys only events, I think that it should be more
53:16
Speaker 24: equal when it comes down to sports too. And the
53:19
Speaker 24: recent events were the women's.
53:22
Speaker 10: Debacle. Right now, it proves that there.
53:25
Speaker 24: Are underrepresented minorities. It doesn't have to be the trans community.
53:28
Speaker 24: It's still very sexist and misogynistic. It's not about us,
53:33
Speaker 24: it's about the bad policy and the bad government brings
53:35
Speaker 24: the idea.
53:36
Speaker 23: I'm Ricky, I'm one of the coaches of the Houston
53:38
Speaker 23: Democratic Socialists of America and we're here in a property
53:42
Speaker 23: because we support queer liberation and we just here also
53:45
Speaker 23: to show out and have a good time.
53:47
Speaker 3: And you see it around the country that we have
53:49
Speaker 3: around the country, just around the world. We had a
53:52
Speaker 3: tragedy in Germany with a property was terrorized, and it's
53:57
Speaker 3: happening across the country and here to the United States.
54:00
Speaker 3: What's your thoughts on how important pride is.
54:03
Speaker 23: I mean, as we know, the first Pride was a riot,
54:06
Speaker 23: the Stonewall riots. Like the amount of rights that the
54:10
Speaker 23: quick community has been able to secure for themselves is
54:12
Speaker 23: not been given to them.
54:13
Speaker 7: It's been fought for.
54:15
Speaker 23: And you have, you know, elements of society who don't
54:18
Speaker 23: like that and want to, you know, push back against that,
54:21
Speaker 23: and sometimes they turn violent because they can't stands to
54:25
Speaker 23: see people happy and be themselves. But regardless, we're gonna.
54:29
Speaker 23: That's why pride is so important, because it's a public
54:31
Speaker 23: show of our identities, our sexualities, and show that we
54:35
Speaker 23: are not afraid we are you know, we have pride
54:37
Speaker 23: and who we are, and that in and of itself
54:40
Speaker 23: is a is a statement. And you know, people can
54:41
Speaker 23: be mad and they can stay mad.
54:44
Speaker 1: That was the sound of last week's Pride parade in
54:46
Speaker 1: downtown Houston. Renewable energy could ease the voracious energy consumption
54:53
Speaker 1: of data centers in Texas. We hear more from Free
54:57
Speaker 1: to Ross and the Texas News Service.
55:00
Speaker 21: All new proposed data centers in Texas must pass an
55:04
Speaker 21: audit by the Public Utility Commission and the Electric Reliability
55:08
Speaker 21: Council of Texas before the projects can move forward. Governor
55:13
Speaker 21: Greg Abbott gave the order at the beginning of the month,
55:16
Speaker 21: saying it's designed to protect the power grid. Texas has
55:20
Speaker 21: the second highest number of data centers in the country.
55:23
Speaker 21: As the debate over the center's use of energy continues,
55:27
Speaker 21: a recent report from the nonpartisan nonprofit Energy Innovation found
55:32
Speaker 21: that renewable energy can power the facilities cheaper than fossil fuels.
55:37
Speaker 21: The organization's Brendan Pierpont says renewables would reduce cost nationwide
55:43
Speaker 21: by about seventeen percent.
55:45
Speaker 25: The fossil fuel pathway would add around thirty billion dollars
55:49
Speaker 25: per year to overall national electricity costs. Doing this with
55:54
Speaker 25: clean energy is about five billion dollars cheaper.
55:58
Speaker 21: Urkott is currently considering requests to add about five hundred
56:02
Speaker 21: gigawatts of power to the Texas grid, approximately ninety percent
56:07
Speaker 21: of the new power request or from data centers. Officials
56:10
Speaker 21: say the load could endanger the reliability and stability of
56:14
Speaker 21: the grid. There are currently two hundred and ninety six
56:18
Speaker 21: data centers operating across the Lone Star state, and there
56:21
Speaker 21: are plans to open one hundred seventy more. Peer Pont
56:25
Speaker 21: urges policymakers to fast track renewables on the grid.
56:30
Speaker 25: More effective pathway involves building solar, energy, storage, and wind
56:35
Speaker 25: and deploying those quicker. Having more efficient local fighting and
56:39
Speaker 25: permitting processes.
56:40
Speaker 21: The Trump administration argues that fossil fuels are more reliable
56:45
Speaker 21: and have work to undermine renewable projects, even paying companies
56:49
Speaker 21: to abandon when energy projects. I'm freeda Ross Texas news service.
56:55
Speaker 21: Find our trust indicators at Publicnewservice dot org.
57:02
Speaker 1: The People's News is a production of Steve Gallington and
57:05
Speaker 1: Richard Hannah and is protected by copyright laws. All the
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57:55
Speaker 7: Thank you