Latest / The People's News / Get the Flock Out of Houston; Slowing Data Center Growth; No Kings, GOTV Edition - TPN 10/18/26

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Get the Flock Out of Houston; Slowing Data Center Growth; No Kings, GOTV Edition - TPN 10/18/26 · The People's News

0:03
Speaker 1: It's the week of October 18, 2026, and this is
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Speaker 1: what's on the People's News. Get the flock out, says Houstonians.
0:13
Speaker 1: Harris County fights for more control of data centers. Harris
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Speaker 1: County comes out in force to say, no kings and
0:22
Speaker 1: get out the vote. Changes to the Endangered Species Act
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Speaker 1: put Texas animals at risk. Opioid grant will save more
0:32
Speaker 1: lives in Harris County. Texas teachers wanted to volunteer for
0:37
Speaker 1: election monitors.
0:40
Speaker 2: Cha-ching!
0:41
Speaker 1: Brian Ching Day as the Houston Dynamo star is honored.
0:46
Speaker 1: All that and more on the People's News. I'm Steve Gallington.
0:50
Speaker 1: This is the People's News. And the People's News starts now.
0:58
Speaker 1: Cities around Texas have been getting rid of or in
1:01
Speaker 1: talks to cancel contracts using flock cameras. Flock cameras have
1:06
Speaker 1: been used by law enforcement to stop crime, but they
1:10
Speaker 1: have also been used on numerous occasions illegally by Immigration
1:14
Speaker 1: and Customs Enforcement to stop and detain people of suspected
1:18
Speaker 1: immigration violations. Here on the People's News, we reported about
1:23
Speaker 1: flock cameras at a Home Depot, which caused a key
1:27
Speaker 1: witness in a shooting at a Home Depot parking lot
1:31
Speaker 1: to be detained by ICE before HPD was able to arrive.
1:37
Speaker 1: League City is the latest city to leave it up
1:40
Speaker 1: to the voters whether or not to remove the cameras.
1:43
Speaker 1: In Houston, Harris County Commissioner's Court voted to form a
1:47
Speaker 1: committee to see what to do with the flock cameras.
1:51
Speaker 1: Many have cited safety and using it as a tool,
1:54
Speaker 1: but there are looming privacy issues. on who has control
1:58
Speaker 1: and access to the cameras. County Commissioner Leslie Briones says
2:03
Speaker 1: she has had enough and was getting rid of the
2:05
Speaker 1: remaining cameras in Precinct 4.
2:08
Speaker 3: So the bottom line for me is we have heard
2:10
Speaker 3: serious concerns from the community. We have read and seen
2:15
Speaker 3: serious concerns, and they keep rising, not only in our
2:20
Speaker 3: region but across the country. And we have listened. We
2:24
Speaker 3: have taken executive action. We have decommissioned the Precinct 4
2:28
Speaker 3: cameras that are in Precinct 4 facilities and parks. And
2:32
Speaker 3: Precinct 4 is pulling out of the contract. Now, public
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Speaker 3: safety is my number one priority, not only as a
2:40
Speaker 3: mom of three, as someone who's been the victim, but
2:42
Speaker 3: public safety, part of public safety is privacy protection. And
2:47
Speaker 3: so how do we maximize the benefit of this tool?
2:50
Speaker 3: Because it is a useful tool. We have seen numerous
2:52
Speaker 3: incidents where it's helped. How do we maximize the public
2:55
Speaker 3: safety benefit while mitigating and minimizing the risk to our communities?
3:00
Speaker 3: And that is what I want to achieve. And the more,
3:04
Speaker 3: and this is now the lawyer former judge hat, the
3:07
Speaker 3: more I delve into the provisions of the contract, the
3:10
Speaker 3: more uncomfortable I am. because there's a lot of loopholes
3:15
Speaker 3: and broad language that I don't feel comfortable with on
3:18
Speaker 3: behalf of my precinct four constituents, which we are actively
3:21
Speaker 3: listening to and actively partnering with. So I think they
3:25
Speaker 3: are and can be a useful tool. And we need
3:29
Speaker 3: to always have checks and balances, transparency and accountability. And
3:33
Speaker 3: that is what we need to balance. So there's to
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Speaker 3: me two key levers. And again, we've already taken action,
3:39
Speaker 3: decommissioned the cameras, pulling out of the contract. But on
3:43
Speaker 3: a go forward, what I think would be most protective
3:45
Speaker 3: and helpful for the public safety broadly defined of our community,
3:49
Speaker 3: one is we need clear, consistent policies and procedures. Who, what, when, where, why?
3:55
Speaker 3: Who has access? To what degree?
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Speaker 4: When?
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Speaker 3: For how long?
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Speaker 5: And for what?
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Speaker 3: So I know our sheriff, my team and I, we
4:02
Speaker 3: have been in active communication with Sheriff Gonzalez and with
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Speaker 3: the constables that we work with closely, Constable Herman, Constable Allbritton,
4:11
Speaker 3: who help protect our parks and community centers. They want
4:16
Speaker 3: a unified policy. They want to be able to have
4:19
Speaker 3: these checks and balances and they're working on it, but
4:21
Speaker 3: we don't have that yet. And then there's the contract,
4:25
Speaker 3: which the provisions need tightening even further. And I want
4:29
Speaker 3: to thank the county attorney's office because they did spend
4:32
Speaker 3: months tightening it, right? This is a better contract than
4:35
Speaker 3: back in 2022, 2023 in the past, but there's still,
4:36
Speaker 3: and I will not bore you with each of the
4:40
Speaker 3: provisions in the language that I find troubling. But the
4:43
Speaker 3: bottom line is we have to maximize the benefits while
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Speaker 3: mitigating the harms. And I don't feel comfortable based on
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Speaker 3: where we are with the information that we have been
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Speaker 3: digging and digging and digging. And I want to thank
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Speaker 3: my team, because they have reached out to Flock. They
4:55
Speaker 3: have been in direct communication to try to bird dog
4:58
Speaker 3: and get answers. They have been actively in communication with
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Speaker 3: our constable partners and our sheriff partners. And I especially
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Speaker 3: want to thank Sheriff Gonzalez, Constable Herman, Constable Albritton, because
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Speaker 3: they want to work together Because I agree with you, Judge,
5:11
Speaker 3: we want to be best in class. Harris County needs
5:13
Speaker 3: to be leading for all the right reasons and lead
5:15
Speaker 3: by example. But in the meantime, and I know my
5:18
Speaker 3: colleagues who have cameras, they may be responding to their
5:21
Speaker 3: constituents who may feel differently. But for Precinct 4, I've
5:24
Speaker 3: heard you loud and clear. I share your serious concerns
5:28
Speaker 3: and we are taking action and will continue to take
5:30
Speaker 3: action until we together find this appropriate balance. But I
5:33
Speaker 3: see those two levers are the policies and procedures and
5:37
Speaker 3: And then part of that is an independent audit. And
5:40
Speaker 3: then the other part is tightening the contract. And together
5:44
Speaker 3: as a community, we need it because the ALPRs are
5:46
Speaker 3: one piece. But when we think of technology generally and
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Speaker 3: AI and where we're going with it, this brings up
5:54
Speaker 3: much broader questions for all of us to be wrestling
5:57
Speaker 3: with and digging into together. But the bottom line is,
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Speaker 3: is we need to continue making Harris County as safe
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Speaker 3: as possible. But part of safety is making sure that
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Speaker 3: all people from all communities and all backgrounds feel safe.
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Speaker 3: And I've been very troubled by the incidents we've seen,
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Speaker 3: everyone from KDPD to Texas City to our own sheriff's office,
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Speaker 3: and we need to have accountability and we need to
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Speaker 3: find a way to do the both and. But until then,
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Speaker 3: we've taken action, decommissioned the cameras, precinct.
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Speaker 6: Four is out.
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Speaker 1: Artificial intelligence is a computer algorithm which has changed very
6:31
Speaker 1: little over the past 30 years that mimics human thought.
6:37
Speaker 1: They can compute, give the appearance of learning, and solve
6:40
Speaker 1: problems in an imitation of human thought. The backbone of
6:46
Speaker 1: artificial intelligence is data. The more data you expose to
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Speaker 1: artificial intelligence, the more it will learn. This is driving
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Speaker 1: the need for data centers. Data centers have massive numbers
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Speaker 1: of high-end computers and networks, and data storage that operate 24-7,
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Speaker 1: without any need for employees to maintain. The gigantic buildings
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Speaker 1: that house data centers are windowless buildings with climate control.
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Speaker 1: They are spreading all over the U.S. and spreading fast.
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Speaker 1: The problem with data centers is they use an immense
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Speaker 1: amount of electricity, land, and water, and there is little
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Speaker 1: to no oversight of these centers. Local leaders, Commissioners Leslie Briones,
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Speaker 1: Adrian Garcia, and Harris County Attorney Abby Kamen, held a
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Speaker 1: press conference to address the uncontrolled and rapid spread of
7:45
Speaker 1: these energy-gobbling data centers.
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Speaker 7: Okay, we're going to go ahead and get started. Again,
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Speaker 7: good afternoon. I'm Abby Kamen, your Harris County Attorney. Honored
7:55
Speaker 7: to be standing alongside Commissioner Briones and Commissioner Garcia today.
8:00
Speaker 7: on an important topic that we're gonna be taking up,
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Speaker 7: our commissioners are taking up in court today, item 343
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Speaker 7: relating to data centers, the existing authority that the county
8:10
Speaker 7: does have and what oversight we may or may not
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Speaker 7: have on this.
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Speaker 8: We do know that.
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Speaker 7: Data centers are a significant public interest and concern as
8:19
Speaker 7: they continue to develop across our county, the state and
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Speaker 7: the nation. To give some context, currently in Harris County,
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Speaker 7: we have 46 data centers operating in the area with
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Speaker 7: at least six more in various stages of development. So
8:34
Speaker 7: we are not talking about hypotheticals. It's already happening. And
8:38
Speaker 7: we need to be prepared. We need to understand their
8:42
Speaker 7: impact on our communities. Growth is only accelerating. CenterPoint Energy
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Speaker 7: expects to connect eight gigawatts of new data center load
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Speaker 7: in the Houston area by 2029 with about four additional
8:55
Speaker 7: gigawatts to follow. That would raise peak demand in our
9:00
Speaker 7: service area, our region, by about half. I'll say that
9:04
Speaker 7: one more time. That will raise peak demand in our
9:07
Speaker 7: area by about half, and this reflects a statewide trend.
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Speaker 7: We know data centers place a significant demand on our
9:15
Speaker 7: electrical grid, our water supply, air quality, and impact the
9:19
Speaker 7: neighborhoods around them. Whether a project is a net benefit
9:23
Speaker 7: depends largely on where it's located, how it's designed, and
9:26
Speaker 7: the terms. under which they're approved. The question is, what
9:31
Speaker 7: can Harris County do about this? There are a lot
9:34
Speaker 7: of open legal questions about what local government can do.
9:38
Speaker 8: So I want to be clear.
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Speaker 7: My office's role is to advise the legality of policies
9:45
Speaker 7: that this court may want to discuss and put in place.
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Speaker 7: I know our commissioners are committed to leading on this,
9:50
Speaker 7: and they'll be speaking in just a moment about that.
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Speaker 8: But I want to be upfront.
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Speaker 7: When it comes to data centers specifically, Our jurisdiction is limited.
10:00
Speaker 7: Harris County is not permitted to regulate where they're located
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Speaker 7: through zoning. Remember, the county does not do zoning, and
10:07
Speaker 7: Houston itself does not have zoning. Inside the county's 34 cities,
10:13
Speaker 7: land use regulation falls to the municipalities, not the county.
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Speaker 7: There's also an important question that the state has failed
10:22
Speaker 7: to answer. Ken Paxton continues to dodge a ruling as
10:27
Speaker 7: to whether or not counties do have the authority to
10:30
Speaker 7: impose something like a moratorium. We will be watching and
10:34
Speaker 7: continuing to watch for that rule and decision very closely. However,
10:39
Speaker 7: limited jurisdiction does not mean limited responsibility. The bigger issues
10:45
Speaker 7: are community safety, in a time of rapidly changing technology,
10:48
Speaker 7: and we have the responsibility to meet that moment, and
10:51
Speaker 7: that is what our commissioners are committed to doing. Data
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Speaker 7: centers are part of a much larger conversation. New technology
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Speaker 7: is arriving in our communities faster than our laws and
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Speaker 7: institutions can keep up with. So whether that's data centers, AI,
11:11
Speaker 7: and even drones, and I highlight drones because we recently
11:14
Speaker 7: filed a petition with the support of our commissioners, along
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Speaker 7: with other states, against the FAA and the Department of
11:21
Speaker 7: Transportation for the Trump administration's nationwide assessment that drone deliveries,
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Speaker 7: they say, they claim, have no significant impact and therefore
11:32
Speaker 7: don't require environmental impact statements. But they don't, the FAA
11:36
Speaker 7: is not taking into account noise impacts, mitigating the risk
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Speaker 7: of lithium ion batteries, or assessing risk associated with hazardous
11:45
Speaker 7: material deliveries. Think about with drones, hazardous materials being flown
11:50
Speaker 7: over our neighborhoods. So we want to make sure we
11:53
Speaker 7: are meeting this moment of technological innovation while keeping our
11:57
Speaker 7: communities safe. No industry should get to monopolize or run
12:02
Speaker 7: roughshod over residents, public safety, and our critical infrastructure.
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Speaker 8: Natural resources.
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Speaker 7: So with that, Commissioner Briones, I want to thank you
12:09
Speaker 7: for placing this item on our agenda, and I'll hand
12:11
Speaker 7: it off to you.
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Speaker 3: First, County Attorney Kamen and Commissioner Garcia, thank you for
12:21
Speaker 3: your partnership and leadership. This is something we're taking incredibly seriously,
12:26
Speaker 3: and we know that the community's eyes are on data centers,
12:30
Speaker 3: Texans' eyes are on data centers, and Americans' eyes are
12:33
Speaker 3: on data centers. This is something that is here and
12:37
Speaker 3: the county today wants to make sure that we are
12:41
Speaker 3: taking action to protect our communities, protect our environment, and
12:48
Speaker 3: make sure that we're leaning in. So today what we
12:51
Speaker 3: will be discussing is one, bringing the community together to
12:56
Speaker 3: continue listening to your concerns, your ideas, your questions. making
13:03
Speaker 3: sure that the commissioners are being informed when a data
13:10
Speaker 3: center is seeking permitting. We need notice as soon as
13:14
Speaker 3: possible from the county engineer, the fire marshal's office, and others.
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Speaker 3: We need to be informed so that we can be
13:20
Speaker 3: leaning in to do everything we can to protect our
13:23
Speaker 3: community and environment. We will also, in partnership with our
13:30
Speaker 3: amazing county attorney, Cayman, seeing this legal regime. What can
13:36
Speaker 3: we do? What can't we do? And why? Because the
13:41
Speaker 3: fourth thing that I'm laser focused on is the legislative plan.
13:46
Speaker 3: As we get closer to the legislative session, which begins
13:49
Speaker 3: in January and bills will be filed very soon, what
13:54
Speaker 3: are we doing from the county's ability to authorize and regulate?
13:59
Speaker 3: Because this county attorney came and said currently that is
14:03
Speaker 3: unclear and incredibly curtailed. It's more in the cities versus
14:08
Speaker 3: the counties. And so we are partnering with other counties
14:11
Speaker 3: from across the state of Texas so that we can
14:14
Speaker 3: lean in, so that we have the authority to best
14:17
Speaker 3: make decisions to protect our environment and our community. Now,
14:22
Speaker 3: the way I see the world is both and. These
14:26
Speaker 3: centers are coming. There's already dozens here. How can we
14:32
Speaker 3: both protect the community and environment while bringing the economic impact,
14:38
Speaker 3: good paying jobs, local hiring policies, building the community benefits
14:42
Speaker 3: package around protecting the environment, around infrastructure investments, parks, trails,
14:49
Speaker 3: around the distance from communities, right? If this is coming
14:54
Speaker 3: and depending what the state may or may not do,
14:56
Speaker 3: we wanna be sure we're prepared and we're clear so
15:01
Speaker 3: that we can do the most to protect Harris County.
15:04
Speaker 3: And so that is what we are bringing forward today.
15:08
Speaker 2: Data centers. There's already dozens in Harris County. And the
15:14
Speaker 2: other point is that already the governor, Governor Abbott, has
15:19
Speaker 2: already rolled out a welcome carpet to these data centers,
15:23
Speaker 2: giving them incredible tax abatements, tax breaks that Other businesses
15:29
Speaker 2: may not have the benefit to receive. And although he
15:32
Speaker 2: has said that he's calling for all kinds of things,
15:36
Speaker 2: he's calling for audits, he's established a moratorium, but the
15:40
Speaker 2: reality of it is it's all politics because that ends
15:44
Speaker 2: after the election. So we need real authority and the
15:50
Speaker 2: opportunity to have a real voice. And that's why I'm
15:54
Speaker 2: proud to be a board member of the Texas Council
15:58
Speaker 2: of Urban Counties, Conference of Urban Counties, where we are
16:02
Speaker 2: working with the largest counties across Texas to bring meaningful
16:06
Speaker 2: legislation to the next session to obtain that local control
16:10
Speaker 2: and make sure that we are protecting the quality of
16:13
Speaker 2: life of our neighbors. You have always heard me say,
16:17
Speaker 2: whether it's to the petrochemical industry or to others, I'm
16:22
Speaker 2: always looking for good neighbors. That's my policy in my office.
16:26
Speaker 2: looking for how we can both work together, support the community,
16:31
Speaker 2: build an economy, but that is never a compromise to
16:36
Speaker 2: protecting the residents who will ultimately live.
16:39
Speaker 8: Closest to this.
16:41
Speaker 1: That was local leaders, commissioners Leslie Briones, Adrian Garcia, and
16:46
Speaker 1: Harris County Attorney Abby Kamen at a press conference to
16:49
Speaker 1: address the issue of data centers.
16:52
Speaker 9: So this is what I've gathered.
16:54
Speaker 10: Our senior citizens cannot afford their expensive monthly prescription drugs
17:01
Speaker 10: and the increasing cost of utilities while on a fixed income.
17:07
Speaker 9: We have families all.
17:09
Speaker 10: Over Houston falling behind because the minimum wage hasn't gone
17:14
Speaker 10: up in 17 years. Parents are stressed out of their
17:19
Speaker 10: minds when it comes to the disaster that Mike Miles
17:23
Speaker 10: has brought to HIFD. Many conservatives are flipping.
17:30
Speaker 8: To Democrat in this upcoming election.
17:34
Speaker 10: We have underprivileged communities that are on the verge of
17:38
Speaker 10: disarray in desperate need of better infrastructure and clean third spaces.
17:45
Speaker 10: But instead, We have neighbors that are being terrorized and
17:50
Speaker 10: refuse to open their doors as they fear that ICE
17:54
Speaker 10: will rip them from their homes, torture them, and deport
17:59
Speaker 10: them without due process.
18:02
Speaker 1: That was one of the speakers from the No Kings
18:04
Speaker 1: Day protest in downtown Houston this past Saturday. This was
18:08
Speaker 1: just one of many around Harris County and around the country.
18:13
Speaker 1: Organizers of this No Kings rally wanted to show the
18:17
Speaker 1: discontent of the American people with the current administration, and
18:20
Speaker 1: to get people out to vote, in particular during early voting.
18:25
Speaker 1: The thousands of people and organizers at the event had
18:28
Speaker 1: their own reasons to be there.
18:30
Speaker 8: What's going on?
18:31
Speaker 9: James Alexander Curry. What brings you down here? I came
18:34
Speaker 9: down for our first No Kings rally.
18:38
Speaker 11: What got you motivated to come down here?
18:43
Speaker 12: Well, I've always been an activist since I was a teenager,
18:45
Speaker 12: so it was just a matter of when I was
18:49
Speaker 12: going to attend a rally. with this one being the
18:53
Speaker 12: last one before the election, I said, screw it, rearrange
18:58
Speaker 12: my schedule, took off work today, so I could make
19:00
Speaker 12: sure that I could attend.
19:01
Speaker 9: What issues affect you the most?
19:03
Speaker 3: Everything.
19:06
Speaker 9: I mean, it really does.
19:07
Speaker 12: I mean, it, you know, injustice, whenever injustice exists, it
19:13
Speaker 12: affects everybody. You know, so, it doesn't have to, it's
19:20
Speaker 12: not something that You know, I don't have any friends
19:22
Speaker 12: that are being deported or being, you know, but it's happening.
19:26
Speaker 9: And so that still concerns me.
19:30
Speaker 11: In the OS, but I see some of.
19:34
Speaker 13: The faces here, there's not many people of color.
19:36
Speaker 9: Does that bother you at all? No.
19:40
Speaker 12: I mean, again, this is, you know, we've had several
19:44
Speaker 12: of these rallies. I mean, there are some, you know,
19:48
Speaker 12: people here. I mean, and plus, we have rallies throughout
19:50
Speaker 12: the city today. So I don't know what the representation
19:54
Speaker 12: was like at the other, you know, at the other rallies.
19:59
Speaker 12: My thing is that as long as people show up,
20:00
Speaker 12: you know, at the end of the day, you know,
20:03
Speaker 12: that's what's most important. You know, would I like to see,
20:06
Speaker 12: you know, a lot more people of color?
20:08
Speaker 5: Of course.
20:09
Speaker 9: But, You know, at the end of the day, you know.
20:11
Speaker 12: We just need to create the change that we deserve,
20:14
Speaker 12: you know.
20:16
Speaker 11: And the aspect of the way the governor is trying
20:20
Speaker 11: to change things as far as voting in Houston, Harris County.
20:24
Speaker 12: I have seen the number of early voting days diminish
20:28
Speaker 12: since I moved here.
20:31
Speaker 9: So, you know, I was talking to somebody earlier.
20:34
Speaker 12: The thing that's so unfortunate about Texas is Texas is
20:37
Speaker 12: not so much, you know, a red state as it
20:39
Speaker 12: is a non-voting state.
20:40
Speaker 9: And it doesn't help that this state doesn't make it
20:45
Speaker 9: easier to vote.
20:47
Speaker 12: You know, I really, really went during the pandemic when
20:50
Speaker 12: we had 24 hour voting and stuff.
20:53
Speaker 9: It's like this.
20:54
Speaker 12: Why don't we have this all together? And that happened.
20:59
Speaker 12: It showed us that it could happen. So there's no
21:02
Speaker 12: reason why it can't be like that.
21:03
Speaker 8: All the time. I just want to know, what brings
21:06
Speaker 8: you out here?
21:08
Speaker 14: Well, I think it's important to bring your body down
21:11
Speaker 14: to show the amount of people who are for a
21:14
Speaker 14: cause or.
21:15
Speaker 9: Against something in this case sometimes.
21:18
Speaker 14: And, you know, even if you don't show up with signs,
21:21
Speaker 14: you want to present an extra human to show that,
21:25
Speaker 14: You know, we stand for something.
21:27
Speaker 9: What do you stand for? What motivated you?
21:32
Speaker 14: There's so many things, of course, that motivated me. But
21:34
Speaker 14: I've been motivated well before this particular election. I am
21:39
Speaker 14: a very strong proponent of the fact that this presidency,
21:45
Speaker 14: this four-year term of Trump, is a direct result of...
21:50
Speaker 14: Sorry to say, are Democrats not standing firm and punishing
21:55
Speaker 14: the previous bad behavior? And I'm hoping, I kind of
22:00
Speaker 14: have a feeling that this time they understand that they
22:03
Speaker 14: can't just let things go. And I'm hoping these people
22:09
Speaker 14: all here in all the cities all over the country
22:12
Speaker 14: are showing the Democrats that they have to be held accountable.
22:18
Speaker 14: That the people doing wrong have to be held accountable
22:21
Speaker 14: or this is going to continue to happen. Because we
22:24
Speaker 14: had a huge celebration when Trump was voted out the
22:27
Speaker 14: first time. And we thought it would never happen again.
22:31
Speaker 14: But then we said, you know what, it's over. Well,
22:35
Speaker 14: no problem.
22:36
Speaker 9: Well, here we are again.
22:37
Speaker 14: And it's ten times worse than the first time. So
22:42
Speaker 14: now we're going to show them that these people here
22:45
Speaker 14: are specifically here for the Democrats to learn. If you
22:49
Speaker 14: don't hold them accountable, you will then be held accountable.
22:53
Speaker 4: That's what I feel.
22:54
Speaker 15: So my name is Gian Christopher Thomas. I'm the CEO
22:57
Speaker 15: and founder of POP, Protest, Organize, Participate.
23:00
Speaker 9: We focus on.
23:01
Speaker 15: Getting young people between the ages of 18 to 35
23:03
Speaker 15: registered to vote and civically engaged. And we are out
23:06
Speaker 15: here to engage with our community. We're asking people what
23:10
Speaker 15: issues are important to them. How can we best address
23:14
Speaker 15: the barriers that they might be facing in voting? And
23:17
Speaker 15: so that's why we're out here. We're out here to
23:19
Speaker 15: also give out nonpartisan voter guides and.
23:22
Speaker 9: Just, you know, be a resource for the community. How
23:25
Speaker 9: are you getting into the black and brown community?
23:27
Speaker 15: So we go to the black and brown community. We
23:29
Speaker 15: knock on doors in the black and brown community.
23:31
Speaker 9: We make phone calls to the community. We are active.
23:37
Speaker 15: We do events in the community. We're also at clubs, bars.
23:42
Speaker 15: We organize and go straight directly to where the people
23:45
Speaker 15: are at.
23:46
Speaker 9: How long have you been around?
23:47
Speaker 15: We've been around for six years, and we've been actively
23:57
Speaker 15: getting people to the polls. Last year, we reached out
24:01
Speaker 15: to over 350,000 people and getting over 50,000 of those
24:04
Speaker 15: people to the polls.
24:05
Speaker 11: How can people find out about your organization?
24:06
Speaker 15: You can find us on all social medias, Pop Impact. Also,
24:10
Speaker 15: you can find us at popimpact.org. That's our website. That's
24:14
Speaker 15: where you can learn more about us.
24:15
Speaker 1: That was from this past weekend's No Kings Day protest
24:18
Speaker 1: in downtown Houston. Numerous groups organized to turn out the vote,
24:23
Speaker 1: as early voting starts on Monday, October 19th. Wildlife in
24:29
Speaker 1: Texas are at danger if the Endangered Species Act is changed.
24:34
Speaker 1: We hear more from Frida Ross and the Texas News Service.
24:38
Speaker 4: According to wildlife conservationists, proposed changes to the definition of
24:43
Speaker 4: legal terms outlined by the Endangered Species Act could increase
24:48
Speaker 4: the risk of extinction for the golden-cheeked warbler, ridley sea turtles,
24:53
Speaker 4: and other Texas animals. An internal Fish and Wildlife Service
24:57
Speaker 4: memo shows the agency plans to change the definition of
25:00
Speaker 4: the word take in the legislation to cover only intentional
25:04
Speaker 4: acts that kill endangered animals. Graham Jones with the Texas
25:08
Speaker 4: Conservation Alliance says the changes could mean developers won't be
25:13
Speaker 4: as cautious about around animal habitats.
25:16
Speaker 16: But these guardrails are there for a reason, to protect
25:19
Speaker 16: the most vulnerable species and the most vulnerable animals and
25:23
Speaker 16: their habitat that are out there. And so what this
25:26
Speaker 16: would do is it really takes those guardrails away.
25:29
Speaker 4: The Wildlife Service also narrowed the definition of the word
25:32
Speaker 4: harm in the ESA earlier this year. The change removed
25:37
Speaker 4: safeguards against habitat modification and degradation that kills or injures
25:42
Speaker 4: protected wildlife. The Wildlife Service argues several core protections remain
25:47
Speaker 4: in place. Multiple lawsuits have been filed to try and
25:51
Speaker 4: turn back the changes. Jim Murphy with the National Wildlife
25:54
Speaker 4: Federation says if the changes aren't rescinded, he's hopeful companies
25:59
Speaker 4: will continue to work to preserve endangered animals.
26:03
Speaker 17: I think there are a lot of industries actually that
26:05
Speaker 17: pride in their measures to protect species and have done
26:10
Speaker 17: a very successful and commendable job doing industrial and commercial
26:14
Speaker 17: activities on the landscape while protecting species.
26:18
Speaker 4: Jones says if the decisions are not reversed, they will
26:21
Speaker 4: cause the extinction of certain species, and he urges Texans
26:25
Speaker 4: to reach out to lawmakers.
26:27
Speaker 16: If I were to make one suggestion, it would be
26:29
Speaker 16: to call, email your members of Congress and your U.S.
26:32
Speaker 16: Senators and tell them how you feel and why, because
26:35
Speaker 16: it's very important to the future of conservation and for
26:38
Speaker 16: future generations.
26:39
Speaker 4: I'm Freda Ross, Texas News Service. Find our trust indicators
26:44
Speaker 4: at publicnewsservice.org.
26:48
Speaker 1: Hi, this is Steve Gallington, producer and host of The
26:51
Speaker 1: People's News. If you have a story that needs to
26:54
Speaker 1: be told, come to us. We accept fully produced audio,
26:58
Speaker 1: written material, or just give us the idea and we
27:01
Speaker 1: will run with it. Shiny new one-hour episodes of The
27:05
Speaker 1: People's News drop each Sunday at on the People's News Podcast,
27:10
Speaker 1: hosted by Spreaker.com and linked to my website, gallington.com. According
27:17
Speaker 1: to the Texas Department of State Health Services, nearly 450
27:21
Speaker 1: Harris County residents died from opioid overdoses in 2024, with
27:26
Speaker 1: fentanyl involved in nearly three-quarters of those deaths. Training is
27:30
Speaker 1: important when this happens, and you will have minutes to
27:33
Speaker 1: save a life. The University of Houston has received a
27:37
Speaker 1: $ 3 million federal grant that will expand the Houston Health
27:40
Speaker 1: Department's Frontlines program, training first responders across Harris and Fort
27:45
Speaker 1: Bend counties to recognize opioid overdoses and administer naloxone.
27:51
Speaker 6: Dr.
27:51
Speaker 1: James Bray, chair of the Department of Behavioral and Social
27:55
Speaker 1: Sciences at the University of Houston's Tillman J. Fertitta Family
27:59
Speaker 1: College of Medicine and co-founder of Frontlines, says the expansion
28:03
Speaker 1: will help reach communities where opioid overdoses extend beyond Houston
28:07
Speaker 1: city limits. He spoke on what the federal funds will
28:11
Speaker 1: do to help the people of Harris County.
28:15
Speaker 5: Previously, we worked with the Houston Fire Department and all
28:18
Speaker 5: first responders were trained how to recognize opioid overdoses and
28:24
Speaker 5: administer naloxone and then help the people who had overdosed
28:29
Speaker 5: get connected to treatment through the Houston Recovery Center. In
28:32
Speaker 5: this project, we're expanding that out to all of Harris
28:36
Speaker 5: County and also Fort Bend County so that we can
28:40
Speaker 5: extend the reach of these lifesaving measures when people have
28:46
Speaker 5: an unfortunate opioid overdose.
28:49
Speaker 13: Some things I saw was, it was even, you can
28:52
Speaker 13: find it in grocery stores at times.
28:55
Speaker 6: To try to get other key people in neighborhoods that
29:00
Speaker 6: might have that problem. Is that still being done?
29:05
Speaker 5: It is in some places because these are life-saving medications.
29:10
Speaker 5: They're safe to administer. And if you happen to be
29:16
Speaker 5: unconscious because you didn't have an opioid overdose, they're not
29:18
Speaker 5: likely to harm you. So that's why you see them.
29:22
Speaker 5: And one of the things that... The previous project did
29:26
Speaker 5: was to try and identify hot spots around Houston where
29:30
Speaker 5: there were more opioid overdoses, and that's where you'd likely
29:34
Speaker 5: find them more available just to the general community.
29:38
Speaker 6: Exactly. mean, I know it's 450 Harris County residents that
29:44
Speaker 6: have died from opioid abuse since 2024.
29:47
Speaker 5: Yes. Yes.
29:50
Speaker 6: And is there any reason why just Harris County or
29:53
Speaker 6: is it just the epidemic is that extreme?
29:59
Speaker 5: Well, it's a couple of things. So number one, opioids, Houston,
30:05
Speaker 5: because of it's a big city and a port, is
30:07
Speaker 5: an entry point for them coming through from their original spots,
30:12
Speaker 5: which is primarily Mexico. And so it's one of the
30:16
Speaker 5: places that, you know, it's moving its way through the
30:19
Speaker 5: United States. It's also a big city. And when you
30:23
Speaker 5: have big cities, unfortunately, you have people who are using
30:27
Speaker 5: these substances What we learned from our work is that
30:34
Speaker 5: there were two kinds of people who had opioid overdoses.
30:37
Speaker 5: One were people where people were patients and they were
30:40
Speaker 5: prescribed opioids and they got addicted to them and they
30:43
Speaker 5: started using them in unprescribed ways. And then there's other
30:49
Speaker 5: people who were using it to basically get high. Unfortunately,
30:54
Speaker 5: anytime you use an opioid that you don't have prescribed
30:57
Speaker 5: to you, you don't know what you're actually getting. And
31:00
Speaker 5: that's where the fentanyl problem came in, because people who
31:04
Speaker 5: are illegally distributing this would use fentanyl as a way
31:07
Speaker 5: to kind of expand the amount that they had. And
31:11
Speaker 5: it's not controlled in a laboratory, so they don't really know.
31:16
Speaker 5: And so the people who are buying it off the
31:18
Speaker 5: street don't really know what they're getting.
31:19
Speaker 13: I also heard that it's easy for for fentanyl and
31:25
Speaker 13: opioids to be put into other types of drugs. They
31:28
Speaker 13: might be smoking something like marijuana and they have been
31:32
Speaker 13: taking that.
31:34
Speaker 5: It's true. The police department. So one of the things
31:37
Speaker 5: that we also do with this project is we have
31:41
Speaker 5: a community organization of people who are impacted by this
31:46
Speaker 5: in terms of not only first responders, but political figures involved.
31:51
Speaker 5: the police, even the FBI. And when we talked about it,
31:54
Speaker 5: they were saying that they had found situations where fentanyl
31:59
Speaker 5: was in marijuana and people were being harmed by that
32:03
Speaker 5: because they didn't know what they were smoking. And, you know, again,
32:07
Speaker 5: anytime you buy something off the street, you have no idea.
32:10
Speaker 13: What's in it. And so the grant money that you're getting,
32:17
Speaker 13: it's going to expand all through Harris County.
32:20
Speaker 6: Am I correct on that?
32:22
Speaker 5: That's right. So we're going to be training Harris County
32:27
Speaker 5: sheriffs who are first responders. So they often get called
32:30
Speaker 5: out when people have overdoses in addition to medical first responders.
32:36
Speaker 5: They also encounter this when they are enforcing laws and
32:43
Speaker 5: They may be out to make an arrest, and they're
32:45
Speaker 5: finding some people, and people have overdosed with it. So
32:50
Speaker 5: that's expanding it throughout Harris County. And then Fort Bend
32:54
Speaker 5: County also wants their first responders to be trained as well.
32:59
Speaker 5: And we will be working with them to do the
33:02
Speaker 5: same kind of training over there and also provide some
33:06
Speaker 5: naloxone for them.
33:07
Speaker 6: Is it going to go into the schools as far
33:10
Speaker 6: as– I mean, university and high schools, because the situation
33:17
Speaker 6: can extend in that community also.
33:20
Speaker 5: So I work at the University of Houston, and we
33:24
Speaker 5: have awareness about the fact that opioids are used sometimes
33:27
Speaker 5: on campus, and so there's naloxone available, and we train
33:31
Speaker 5: people here to recognize and administer naloxone. We don't have
33:36
Speaker 5: any plans specifically to go into high schools or But
33:40
Speaker 5: if anybody, one of the aspects of the program is
33:44
Speaker 5: that if anybody in the community wants to be trained
33:47
Speaker 5: how to recognize this and administer naloxone, we'll provide a
33:51
Speaker 5: training for them. So we have a website that the
33:54
Speaker 5: city runs, and people can make a request for training,
33:58
Speaker 5: and we'll send out some of our grant personnel who
34:01
Speaker 5: are experts in this area to do the training.
34:03
Speaker 6: I would have to ask, how much is the training?
34:06
Speaker 5: Is it a fee for the training? No, it's free.
34:09
Speaker 5: It's provided by your tax dollars through this grant. All right.
34:14
Speaker 13: And I say that, can you just give an example
34:18
Speaker 13: of signs that people might, even if they haven't taken
34:22
Speaker 13: the training, that they might identify that it's a problem?
34:26
Speaker 5: So usually when people overdose on opioids, what it does
34:29
Speaker 5: is one of two things. Basically, they're going to pass
34:33
Speaker 5: out and their breathing is going to, you know, stop.
34:38
Speaker 5: And when their breathing stops, their heart will stop. So
34:41
Speaker 5: depending on what they've taken, that'll be the only sign
34:44
Speaker 5: that they basically passed out suddenly. And when people have
34:48
Speaker 5: passed out and their heart stopped, they have just a
34:51
Speaker 5: couple of minutes to be resuscitated or they'll die. So
34:56
Speaker 5: anytime somebody is, you have a suspect that they may
35:01
Speaker 5: be using and they're passed out, that's the time to
35:05
Speaker 5: consider whether or not it's due to an opioid.
35:09
Speaker 6: So doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, is that something that can be
35:13
Speaker 6: done also? That's not going to work.
35:18
Speaker 5: Mouth-to-mouth won't, but continuing to do pressure where their heart
35:23
Speaker 5: continues to beat, that will help them keep alive until
35:27
Speaker 5: something like naloxone can be administered, and then it will
35:31
Speaker 5: reverse the effects of the opioid.
35:34
Speaker 13: How long, what time do we have to do that?
35:36
Speaker 13: I mean, how much time do we have?
35:39
Speaker 5: You know, it's complicated because it partly depends on the
35:42
Speaker 5: dose of opioids they're using. But anywhere from, you know,
35:47
Speaker 5: two minutes up to 10 minutes is depending on the
35:53
Speaker 5: amount that they've ingested.
35:55
Speaker 1: That was Dr. James Bray, chair of the Department of
35:58
Speaker 1: Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Houston's Tillman J.
36:02
Speaker 1: Fertitta Family College of Medicine and co-founder of Frontlines. To
36:06
Speaker 1: find out more information about the program, you can go
36:09
Speaker 1: to HoustonHealth.org. That's HoustonHealth.org, Houston Health all put together, forward
36:16
Speaker 1: slash services, forward slash front lines. Texas teachers are wanted
36:22
Speaker 1: for the upcoming election as election monitors. We hear more
36:26
Speaker 1: from Frida Ross and the Texas News Service.
36:29
Speaker 4: Members of the American Federation of Teachers are participating in
36:33
Speaker 4: the political process by helping voters in the upcoming midterm elections.
36:38
Speaker 4: Volunteers are being recruited to be democracy defenders in Texas
36:42
Speaker 4: and across the country. Samantha Vogel is a middle school
36:46
Speaker 4: social studies teacher in San Antonio. She says volunteers will
36:50
Speaker 4: work in their communities to ensure voters have the information
36:54
Speaker 4: they need leading up to and on Election Day.
36:57
Speaker 18: Support and protect ways that they can cast their ballots
37:00
Speaker 18: and ensure that every ballot is counted. One of the
37:03
Speaker 18: things we're encouraging people throughout our community to do is
37:06
Speaker 18: to vote early. It's harder to contest early votes.
37:09
Speaker 4: AFT members interested in participating should contact their local leaders
37:14
Speaker 4: to sign up. The Teachers Union is partnering with the
37:17
Speaker 4: AFL-CIO for the initiative. The organizations hope to assist 2
37:22
Speaker 4: million voters during this election cycle. AFT is one of
37:26
Speaker 4: many organizations suing the Trump administration for plans to have
37:31
Speaker 4: police and ICE agents at polling places. Vogel says San
37:35
Speaker 4: Antonio residents are already on edge because of increased arrest
37:39
Speaker 4: outside federal immigration courts.
37:42
Speaker 18: We very much are seeing the fear from our students
37:45
Speaker 18: and from our community members, and we have experienced neighbors
37:48
Speaker 18: and family members being detained already. So we're making sure
37:52
Speaker 18: that people know what their rights are, where and when
37:54
Speaker 18: they can cast a ballot.
37:55
Speaker 4: She says volunteers will be at polling locations on Election
37:59
Speaker 4: Day to monitor the entire process.
38:02
Speaker 18: Greet people at the polls and share information, make sure
38:05
Speaker 18: everyone knows what rights they have as voters.
38:08
Speaker 16: Some of our.
38:08
Speaker 18: Members will be at polling sites as poll monitors and
38:12
Speaker 18: poll greeters. That's a nonpartisan way to ensure that everyone's
38:15
Speaker 18: voting rights are protected.
38:16
Speaker 4: I'm Freda Ross, Texas News Service. Find our trust indicators
38:21
Speaker 4: at publicnewsservice.org.
38:24
Speaker 1: This past Wednesday was Brian Ching Day in Houston. He
38:28
Speaker 1: was the Houston Dynamo's all-time leading goal scorer. and a
38:32
Speaker 1: three-time MLS Cup champion. He was inducted into the Houston
38:36
Speaker 1: Sports Hall of Fame this past Tuesday and became the
38:40
Speaker 1: inaugural inductee to the Houston Dynamo Ring of Honor during
38:44
Speaker 1: a special ceremony at the halftime of the Texas Derby
38:48
Speaker 1: match versus FC Dallas. Ching talked about coming from the
38:52
Speaker 1: state of Hawaii and making it.
38:54
Speaker 11: From Hawaii, I mean, it's a long way to go,
38:55
Speaker 11: you know, all the way where you're at now. Let's
38:58
Speaker 11: talk about it for people that don't know it. You know,
39:00
Speaker 11: being a Hawaiian boy, you know, coming here to the
39:03
Speaker 11: park and playing a sport that a lot of Hawaiians
39:06
Speaker 11: are kind of new to.
39:08
Speaker 19: Yeah, so I was never supposed to really be here. Yeah,
39:13
Speaker 19: I said it over and over. I wanted to be
39:16
Speaker 19: a professional surfer growing up. But, you know, I think
39:20
Speaker 19: some of the traits that my mom instilled in me,
39:23
Speaker 19: the work ethic, the focus on winning and being successful,
39:29
Speaker 19: kind of drove me to be here today in a
39:34
Speaker 19: sport that I've grown to love. There was no professional.
39:39
Speaker 9: League when I was growing up.
39:41
Speaker 19: I didn't know anything about how do I get to
39:43
Speaker 19: college and once I got to college I was fortunate
39:47
Speaker 19: enough to have the MLS pop up and was able
39:50
Speaker 19: to make a foothold in the sport. And so it's
39:56
Speaker 19: been a pretty special journey, a long journey, and one
40:00
Speaker 19: that I'm.
40:02
Speaker 9: Extremely proud of.
40:04
Speaker 1: Former Dynamo captain Wade Barrett talked about how special he was.
40:09
Speaker 20: I mean, I think Brian kind of touched on some
40:10
Speaker 20: of the things that were qualities from that group. Belief
40:13
Speaker 20: in each other is number one. Playing together towards a
40:16
Speaker 20: common goal. the hard work, the grit, the determination. I mean,
40:20
Speaker 20: all the things that Brian represents, you know, reflect what
40:24
Speaker 20: that team was all about.
40:25
Speaker 11: Because at that same time, you had teams that were
40:28
Speaker 11: putting tons of money into these star players from around
40:30
Speaker 11: the world, and you had a group of players here that,
40:33
Speaker 11: you know.
40:34
Speaker 9: It just came from the guts to win.
40:38
Speaker 20: I would say I think the move also helped us.
40:40
Speaker 20: The move really brought the group closer together. Kind of
40:43
Speaker 20: just this shared goal of, hey, we're in a new place.
40:45
Speaker 20: We've got to kind of fight for our identity. not
40:48
Speaker 20: only in Major League Soccer at that time, but also
40:50
Speaker 20: just here in Houston. So, yeah, I mean, all those
40:53
Speaker 20: things Brian represented were built into the fabric of the team.
40:58
Speaker 20: And what's so much fun is, like, the current team
41:00
Speaker 20: has got that. The fabric is there also. And it's
41:03
Speaker 20: in the two stars that they're wearing every time they
41:05
Speaker 20: step on the pitch. So, yeah, there's some responsibility to
41:08
Speaker 20: kind of carry that forward. And it's, like, so much
41:10
Speaker 20: fun to watch those qualities in the group that we
41:12
Speaker 20: have now because we always want to be able to
41:15
Speaker 20: honor our past while we're also– focusing on the next thing.
41:19
Speaker 11: Yeah and one thing i thought was special was that
41:21
Speaker 11: the numerators you made football fans out of people that
41:24
Speaker 11: never really followed the.
41:24
Speaker 20: Sport that got spoken about last night and i don't
41:28
Speaker 20: think it can be i i love recognizing that brian
41:34
Speaker 20: and in that group but brian in particular really helped
41:37
Speaker 20: provide a role model and someone for kids in the
41:39
Speaker 20: area to look up to um They didn't have soccer heroes.
41:43
Speaker 20: I talked about that when I was a kid. I
41:44
Speaker 20: didn't have soccer heroes other than the kids that played
41:46
Speaker 20: at First Colonial High School because those were the players
41:49
Speaker 20: that I knew. Then Brian comes, scores four goals in
41:52
Speaker 20: the opening night. Kids in the area can look and say, hey,
41:55
Speaker 20: look at what's happening in my backyard. That's someone that
41:58
Speaker 20: I want to try to be when I grow up.
42:00
Speaker 20: I don't know that we've talked enough about that, but
42:02
Speaker 20: what a cool thing to provide that opportunity and inspiration
42:05
Speaker 20: to the kids that are.
42:06
Speaker 9: Playing soccer here.
42:07
Speaker 1: Brian Ching represented Houston on the international stage. earning 45
42:12
Speaker 1: caps and scoring 11 goals for the U.S. men's national
42:15
Speaker 1: team during an international career that spanned from 2003 to 2010.
42:20
Speaker 1: The Ford represented the United States at the 2006 FIFA
42:24
Speaker 1: World Cup in Germany and helped the team capture the
42:27
Speaker 1: 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup, playing a key role in the
42:32
Speaker 1: championship victory over Mexico. Known for his strength, aerial ability,
42:37
Speaker 1: and unselfish play, Ching also contributed during the 2020-10 FIFA
42:42
Speaker 1: World Cup qualifying campaign and became one of the most
42:46
Speaker 1: accomplished Hawaiian-born players in U.S. soccer history. The state says
42:52
Speaker 1: that their takeover of Houston Independent School District is going fine,
42:57
Speaker 1: but the Commission on Houston ISD Takeover released its final report, diminished, degraded,
43:03
Speaker 1: and destroyed. In it, the Commission's findings do not support
43:07
Speaker 1: the state's claim that the takeover has been a total success. Instead,
43:12
Speaker 1: the report finds that improved test scores and campus accountability
43:15
Speaker 1: scores came at a very high cost. Rigorous and engaging
43:20
Speaker 1: curriculum was replaced by repetitive, scripted lessons that focused on
43:24
Speaker 1: test preparation. Certified teachers with years of experience were fired
43:28
Speaker 1: for refusing to implement policies they knew were harmful to children.
43:33
Speaker 1: And democratic processes were destroyed. leaving no means for citizens
43:37
Speaker 1: to hold the appointed, not elected, district leadership accountable for
43:41
Speaker 1: squandering tax dollars, unchecked conflicts of interest, and unprecedented rates
43:47
Speaker 1: of teacher and employee turnover. It concludes that the takeover
43:52
Speaker 1: has resulted in widespread harm to students, parents, teachers, staff,
43:57
Speaker 1: and the greater Houston community. We talked to Jasmine Lee,
44:01
Speaker 1: a member of the HISD Takeover Commission.
44:05
Speaker 16: Yes.
44:05
Speaker 8: So the commission was, it's a citizens commission, a group
44:08
Speaker 8: of folks who were in Houston who came to realize
44:12
Speaker 8: that some of what they were hearing about the district
44:15
Speaker 8: wasn't matching the day-to-day experiences of either themselves as like educators, parents,
44:22
Speaker 8: or as well as concern about concerns we've been hearing
44:28
Speaker 8: for the last couple of years that seem to go
44:30
Speaker 8: unacknowledged by current state appointed leadership. And so we were
44:34
Speaker 8: gathered as well as some elected representatives. We're a group
44:37
Speaker 8: of elected representatives, community leaders, as well as academics, both
44:41
Speaker 8: locally and nationally who study state takeovers, as well as
44:45
Speaker 8: a couple community member representatives who are families, parents, partner
44:53
Speaker 8: with the district and students. We also have student representatives
44:56
Speaker 8: as well. So we're a 14 member commission who, and
45:01
Speaker 8: our goal was to try to, understand the lived experiences,
45:06
Speaker 8: people's personal experiences, and the human cost of the takeover.
45:10
Speaker 13: Do you have any type of power as far as.
45:18
Speaker 6: The board itself or meals?
45:22
Speaker 8: No. So we are completely independent of HISC, of PEA.
45:28
Speaker 8: We're a group of consistent citizens. And I think our
45:31
Speaker 8: power comes from trying to elevate the voices of the
45:33
Speaker 8: people who so generously shared their testimonies with us.
45:38
Speaker 13: So what have you found so far?
45:41
Speaker 8: Yes. So we just released our report earlier this morning.
45:46
Speaker 8: We have five key findings based on multiple listening sessions
45:52
Speaker 8: we did as well as focus groups and an analysis
45:55
Speaker 8: of primary documents. So our first finding is that the
45:58
Speaker 8: takeover diminished the curriculum. So now under the takeover, what
46:03
Speaker 8: was introduced was a centralized, scripted lesson plan that's provided
46:07
Speaker 8: by the district, which are people who spoke to us
46:10
Speaker 8: described as being too rigid and narrow. This eliminated opportunities
46:14
Speaker 8: for rich learning experiences that address students' unique interests and
46:18
Speaker 8: learning needs. We were especially concerned to hear about the
46:21
Speaker 8: impact we've had for students who received federally mandated accommodations,
46:28
Speaker 8: specifically special education students and emergent bilingual students. And obviously,
46:32
Speaker 8: and this is probably something that many people who've been
46:35
Speaker 8: following HISD know, people expressed concern about the closure of libraries.
46:40
Speaker 8: and lack of access to certified librarians and digital media specialists.
46:45
Speaker 8: Our second finding pertains to the dismantling of relationships. So
46:49
Speaker 8: with this stringent learning model, what we've heard from both educators, students,
46:57
Speaker 8: and families is that there often isn't enough time for
47:00
Speaker 8: students and teachers to develop those relationships that are super
47:04
Speaker 8: important for the learning experience. We've also seen much higher
47:09
Speaker 8: teacher turnover, whether that be voluntary or involuntary in terms
47:14
Speaker 8: of educators being removed or reassigned. And that has a
47:18
Speaker 8: real impact on students' families and the educators themselves. The
47:22
Speaker 8: corrosion of these relationships was often, you know, often provoked
47:27
Speaker 8: grief and mourning amongst people who we talked to. And
47:30
Speaker 8: I think when talking about these experiences and listening sessions,
47:35
Speaker 8: You know, our people who are providing these testimonies often
47:39
Speaker 8: got very emotional in talking about what they felt like
47:44
Speaker 8: were changes that made their schools unrecognizable as the institutions
47:48
Speaker 8: they once knew and loved. Our third finding was around
47:50
Speaker 8: the demeaning of educators. So specifically, multiple community testimonies told
47:56
Speaker 8: us about how educators' professional autonomy was being devalued and dismissed,
48:00
Speaker 8: with educators not only being disrespected, but feeling disposable. They
48:05
Speaker 8: spoke of arbitrary surveillance and punitive enforcement tactics that were
48:11
Speaker 8: part of the new evaluation policy, which was also constantly changing.
48:15
Speaker 8: So it created for them a hostile organizational environment that
48:20
Speaker 8: they characterized as being one of fear and bullying. Our
48:24
Speaker 8: fourth finding is about the... what is it, degraded financial
48:31
Speaker 8: status or state of the district. We've heard, we heard
48:34
Speaker 8: consistent concerns about the financial state of the district. So
48:37
Speaker 8: this is where we actually did our own analysis of
48:39
Speaker 8: board meetings and local news. So what we found here
48:42
Speaker 8: was a pattern of increasing the superintendent's discretion and power,
48:47
Speaker 8: such as raising the spending threshold without approval, while rolling
48:50
Speaker 8: back financial checks and balances that are there to try to,
48:54
Speaker 8: you know, ensure the integrity of the district's financial state
48:57
Speaker 8: and fiduciary responsibilities. This allowed for wasteful spending, heavier reliance
49:01
Speaker 8: on unsustainable revenue sources, and unaddressed conflicts of interest. And
49:06
Speaker 8: all together, we have these concerns. I think what stood
49:09
Speaker 8: out to us most is community members told us over
49:13
Speaker 8: and over again how they felt helpless and powerless. Since
49:16
Speaker 8: they had no avenues for recourse, they would try to
49:18
Speaker 8: voice their concerns, but they would go not and listen
49:20
Speaker 8: to under the new governance structure that was imposed by
49:25
Speaker 8: the takeover because these appointed leaders had no actual responsibility
49:29
Speaker 8: to respond to the concerns of these constituents. And so
49:33
Speaker 8: those are kind of the high-level findings of the report,
49:35
Speaker 8: which I know is a lot, but the five key
49:37
Speaker 8: are of Diminished curriculum, dismantled relationships, demeaned educators, destroyed democracy,
49:45
Speaker 8: and degraded finances. So those are the five Ds is
49:48
Speaker 8: what we like to call them.
49:50
Speaker 6: One thing that has been seen is that teachers and
49:54
Speaker 6: administrators also.
49:55
Speaker 8: Have been moved or have.
49:58
Speaker 13: Left the field altogether.
50:00
Speaker 8: Since this takeover. Yes, we've been seeing elevated teacher turnover,
50:06
Speaker 8: and there's been a lot of good reporting on this,
50:08
Speaker 8: especially from local sources like the Houston Chronicle and Houston
50:10
Speaker 8: Public Media. I believe one of the most recent figures
50:14
Speaker 8: I saw was that the turnover rate in HISD is 2.7
50:19
Speaker 8: times that.
50:20
Speaker 6: Of the state.
50:21
Speaker 8: So, and again, that's not to say, like, this is
50:26
Speaker 8: all attributed to the turnover or to the takeover, because
50:28
Speaker 8: I think, as a researcher personally, I... there are some
50:32
Speaker 8: complex statistical methods you have to figure out because there
50:35
Speaker 8: has been an ongoing teacher shortage that we've really seen
50:40
Speaker 8: the last week since the pandemic, right? But we have
50:43
Speaker 8: seen a faster deceleration for HISD compared to some neighboring
50:46
Speaker 8: school districts. There's a really good report by the University
50:51
Speaker 8: of Houston's Education Research Center that was looking at teacher mobility.
50:56
Speaker 8: So yes, and with that, I think the human tool
50:58
Speaker 8: then is dismantled relationships. I remember one student in particular,
51:03
Speaker 8: in tears telling us about all the goodbye cards she
51:05
Speaker 8: had to sign. She's a high schooler. She thought these
51:09
Speaker 8: were people who would be there to watch her graduate,
51:11
Speaker 8: but now they aren't there. And this also means for
51:14
Speaker 8: some students, especially one special ed family, told us that
51:19
Speaker 8: there was a lack of continuity of services for this
51:22
Speaker 8: special education student, which I'm sure you know as being,
51:26
Speaker 8: having been a special education practitioner yourself, it, you know,
51:31
Speaker 8: even as autism, like both two kids might have autism
51:34
Speaker 8: or something, it manifests in very different ways. And that
51:37
Speaker 8: kind of knowledge that people have about specific students, it
51:40
Speaker 8: takes time to develop. So when those people leave, it's
51:43
Speaker 8: a loss of that knowledge and it's kind of having
51:45
Speaker 8: to start over again with these services. Sorry, that was
51:48
Speaker 8: a really long answer.
51:50
Speaker 13: Well, it also goes into what is, it seems like
51:56
Speaker 13: the superintendent, is the main source of what comes and goes.
52:02
Speaker 13: And it's no.
52:02
Speaker 6: Type of leeway there. Even people that's on his board
52:07
Speaker 6: has been left. So it seems like there's nobody safe,
52:13
Speaker 6: so to speak, within HISD, except his.
52:19
Speaker 8: So yeah, under the takeover governance structure, Now, we still
52:24
Speaker 8: have locally elected trustees and elections happen, but they have
52:27
Speaker 8: no formal decision-making power, right? All of the top-level decision-makers
52:32
Speaker 8: are appointed by TEA Commissioner Mike Morath, both the Superintendent
52:38
Speaker 8: Miles as well as the nine members of the Board
52:40
Speaker 8: of Managers. And TEA Commissioner Morath has exercised his authority
52:46
Speaker 8: to remove some of the Board of Managers and appoint
52:48
Speaker 8: new ones as well. So, yes, it's very different in
52:52
Speaker 8: who holds the accountability levers, right? Because now you've gotten
52:59
Speaker 8: rid of local elections for people who actually make the
53:01
Speaker 8: decisions for this district, the largest district in the state.
53:07
Speaker 6: I was out because, you know, you got vouchers in
53:10
Speaker 6: the charter schools, which is taking away students from public school,
53:15
Speaker 6: which also the voucher money, they have not received the
53:20
Speaker 6: amount of people that pick a voucher money that they
53:22
Speaker 6: thought they would get. And people are kind of finding
53:26
Speaker 6: out that they were better off at their public school.
53:29
Speaker 6: So how is that going to affect what you got,
53:33
Speaker 6: what your commission is doing?
53:36
Speaker 8: Yeah, I don't know if it'll affect the commission's work
53:40
Speaker 8: because our work specifically was around documenting these experiences and
53:44
Speaker 8: generating this report. But I will say in terms of
53:51
Speaker 8: implications for HISD, there was another report recently on the
53:55
Speaker 8: Center for Voucher Transparency. I might be getting that name wrong,
53:59
Speaker 8: but they had estimated that I think around 1,200 students
54:02
Speaker 8: have left HISD to participate in this voucher program. Even recently,
54:06
Speaker 8: the Houston Chronicles reported that the number of, the scale of,
54:12
Speaker 8: or the magnitude of disenrollment is twice what was projected
54:15
Speaker 8: in the budget. And that means, you know, very real
54:17
Speaker 8: dollars that are going to schools that we had expected
54:20
Speaker 8: to go into schools that are no longer there. And
54:22
Speaker 8: we've seen, even before this October snapshot, reports of schools
54:28
Speaker 8: having to lay off teachers and consolidate classrooms because they're
54:32
Speaker 8: facing new budget constraints, right? And so I think it
54:34
Speaker 8: all plays into then, like, what are the resources that
54:37
Speaker 8: are available for our public schools, which we know, like,
54:40
Speaker 8: the research is clear that school funding matters a lot
54:42
Speaker 8: for the quality of education and ultimately student outcomes. And
54:47
Speaker 8: so when you're, you know, when you're having these enrollment
54:49
Speaker 8: declines that may potentially be expedited, especially with some of
54:54
Speaker 8: the experiences people are having within their schools where they
54:57
Speaker 8: choose either not to go to their neighborhood school or
54:59
Speaker 8: to opt out of public education altogether, which some of
55:02
Speaker 8: our students community testimonies did talk about. Like, I think
55:06
Speaker 8: that has very real ramifications for the day-to-day of how
55:08
Speaker 8: schools are able to support students when they don't have
55:11
Speaker 8: the funds that they need to do so.
55:12
Speaker 6: Right. Right.
55:14
Speaker 13: And what happens to these schools that have been closed?
55:18
Speaker 8: Yeah. So the school closures, yes. So there were the
55:21
Speaker 8: 12 school closures, I believe back in February earlier this year.
55:25
Speaker 8: And those are 12 that the board voted on. There
55:28
Speaker 8: were two other schools that were closed that didn't face, um,
55:31
Speaker 8: that didn't have the same votes. I believe that was
55:33
Speaker 8: Las Americas Middle School and Harper, DAP. And so I
55:37
Speaker 8: think that's another big question, and especially like concerns about
55:40
Speaker 8: the financial degradation, as well as the dismantling of democracy, right?
55:45
Speaker 8: We were told that these schools were being closed. And
55:48
Speaker 8: part of the reason was to make up for the
55:50
Speaker 8: budget shortfalls, because some of these reforms are quite costly, right?
55:55
Speaker 8: And what we talk about in the report is how these,
55:57
Speaker 8: you know, once you sell these buildings, that is an
55:59
Speaker 8: asset that is that is no longer in the district.
56:01
Speaker 8: That is a community institution that no longer exists anymore.
56:06
Speaker 8: And people, I was at that board meeting, people fought
56:09
Speaker 8: very fiercely to advocate to keep their schools open. And
56:12
Speaker 8: they were only given a two weeks notice before these
56:14
Speaker 8: school closure votes happened, right? And so one, there are
56:20
Speaker 8: like financial ramifications of that. What does it mean when
56:22
Speaker 8: you're selling district land, especially by an appointed board who
56:26
Speaker 8: was only here temporarily, who has the staff power to
56:28
Speaker 8: do so? But then also for these particular communities, what
56:32
Speaker 8: does it mean when you lose a very important community institution?
56:36
Speaker 8: And that's also part of the mourning, right, that people
56:39
Speaker 8: have for our schools.
56:42
Speaker 1: That was Jasmine Lee, a member of the HISD Takeover Commission,
56:45
Speaker 1: that filed their report on school takeovers in Texas. The
56:50
Speaker 1: commission has no power to make changes or are in
56:53
Speaker 1: charge of anything dealing with school districts. It is an
56:57
Speaker 1: independent group that have studied the situation and suggest changes.
57:03
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57:06
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