Latest / The People's News / No Kings 3: 8,000,000 Stand Against Criminal Trump; DHS Shutdown Conrinues; Plant Fire in Pasedena - TPN 3/29/26

Transcript

No Kings 3: 8,000,000 Stand Against Criminal Trump; DHS Shutdown Conrinues; Plant Fire in Pasedena - TPN 3/29/26 · The People's News

0:03
Speaker 1: It's the week of March twenty ninth, twenty twenty six,
0:06
Speaker 1: and this is what's on the People's News. No Kings
0:10
Speaker 1: III draws over eight million and over twenty two thousand
0:14
Speaker 1: in Houston, the largest yet. TSA will finally get paid,
0:20
Speaker 1: but the lines at the airport remain and the agents
0:23
Speaker 1: ask when allegations against the late labor leader, says our Chabas.
0:31
Speaker 1: Two weeks of petroleum fires at one plant and the
0:34
Speaker 1: community is concerned. A documentary about free Solo skyscraper climber
0:40
Speaker 1: photographer Isaac Wright called Drift All that and more on
0:45
Speaker 1: the People's News. I'm Steve Gallington. This is the people's News,
0:50
Speaker 1: and the People's News starts now. The third No King's
0:59
Speaker 1: Day protest was held on Saturday and drew a total
1:03
Speaker 1: attendance of over eight million protesters. This is the third
1:07
Speaker 1: No King's protest. The first one was held on Flag Day,
1:11
Speaker 1: June fourteenth. It drew five million protesters. The second one
1:16
Speaker 1: was in October. It drew seven million protesters. From Trump's
1:20
Speaker 1: war of Choice in the Gulf, to the economy, and
1:23
Speaker 1: to ice, people came out for various reasons. Protests were
1:29
Speaker 1: also held all over Texas in the Houston area, including Kingwood, Cyprus, Friendswood,
1:35
Speaker 1: and Sugarland. Organizers of the protest stated that they had
1:40
Speaker 1: over thirty thousand people in attendance at Houston City Hall
1:44
Speaker 1: and that far exceeds the first two No King's protests.
1:49
Speaker 1: Emmy Linley spoke with The People's News about the event.
1:53
Speaker 2: So, my name is Emmy Lenley.
1:55
Speaker 3: I am one of the community activists and active organizers
1:58
Speaker 3: for fifty to fifty one Houston unities at work.
2:01
Speaker 4: We are the people who put on.
2:03
Speaker 3: The No King's protests as well as like things like
2:05
Speaker 3: Hands Off earlier in twenty twenty five, and we put
2:09
Speaker 3: together this massive protest that you see of everyone walking around.
2:12
Speaker 3: I'm just ballparking here, and I'm saying that this is
2:15
Speaker 3: at least thirty thousand, based off of our thirty thousand,
2:18
Speaker 3: based off of our lasts to everything, yes, so, and
2:22
Speaker 3: based off of our projections, we're looking between thirty and
2:24
Speaker 3: fifty to be here for the whole day. We will
2:27
Speaker 3: know for sure for sure at the end of the march.
2:28
Speaker 3: But in the meantime it's it's certainly a little congested.
2:33
Speaker 3: It's almost like one of the highways at Rush hour.
2:36
Speaker 5: But yeah, yeah, what brought you to have it in
2:40
Speaker 5: downtown and what brought you to say hey enough this protest?
2:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's a fascism outside. There's a lot going
2:48
Speaker 3: on and a lot of people are just overwhelmed with
2:51
Speaker 3: the news that's coming through every day. So we feel
2:54
Speaker 3: that our job is to help people get up to
2:56
Speaker 3: speed and off their couch. That's what the No King's
2:58
Speaker 3: protests are versipe to like doing, is getting people activated
3:03
Speaker 3: enough to get into community, and then we help them
3:06
Speaker 3: build that community because that is what has gotten us
3:08
Speaker 3: through everything before this. Every tyrant, despot and dictator before
3:12
Speaker 3: now has been defeated over time by community. And that's
3:15
Speaker 3: what we do with nonviolent protest.
3:17
Speaker 5: And when you see that other protests or are expressing
3:22
Speaker 5: people for the protesting the stay, you have.
3:23
Speaker 6: To act to him.
3:24
Speaker 5: They now the government put out antisemitism type of laws
3:29
Speaker 5: and all types of laws against people that want to protest.
3:33
Speaker 5: Is that something that affects you.
3:35
Speaker 3: It's something that affects me in that I worry about
3:37
Speaker 3: my safety sometimes in regards to like state police, but
3:41
Speaker 3: it does not frighten me in a way that makes
3:44
Speaker 3: me stop thinking that what we need what we are
3:46
Speaker 3: doing is what we need to do. It is our
3:48
Speaker 3: First Amendment right to protest. We have the right to assemble.
3:52
Speaker 3: It is something that we have to do in order
3:55
Speaker 3: to have our voices heard. And when the people are
3:58
Speaker 3: not being heard, the people will rise up and speak out.
4:02
Speaker 5: You definitely want people to come here and get their
4:06
Speaker 5: feelings known that you wanted to go home and actually give.
4:09
Speaker 2: Them up exactly.
4:10
Speaker 3: And that's part of the reason why we have these
4:11
Speaker 3: community booths out here, like Indivisible and the NAACP, and
4:16
Speaker 3: different union organizations, a different five O one C threes
4:21
Speaker 3: during five and one C threes, everything like that, is
4:24
Speaker 3: because we know that everyone is passionate about something. We
4:28
Speaker 3: want to help you find your passion so that you
4:30
Speaker 3: can be active where you feel most aligned.
4:34
Speaker 1: Sounds of protest as various people and groups gathered at
4:37
Speaker 1: City Hall before the march.
4:40
Speaker 7: Most Americans want a system that provides and a life
4:45
Speaker 7: of dignity for all, So now is the time that
4:48
Speaker 7: we must command it.
4:53
Speaker 2: Look along today.
4:55
Speaker 7: Mastenations happen all across states, timulpaniously, from you old city
5:00
Speaker 7: to the smaller towns of West texts.
5:03
Speaker 2: This is proved to the topic of the station and the.
5:06
Speaker 7: Entire system is incredibly unpopular. There is no other proof
5:10
Speaker 7: that the people are ready to find that in one
5:14
Speaker 7: month we will be out of the city again. Neighbors
5:17
Speaker 7: a Neighbors Union co UNI group doesn't organizations of all
5:22
Speaker 7: times begin for another powerful day of protest, a nation
5:26
Speaker 7: wide general flood.
5:33
Speaker 8: All right, tell me your name, man, tell me what brings.
5:35
Speaker 9: You down here, Martin Ninetifando with Alis Latin International, Well,
5:39
Speaker 9: let me here because we need to come together and
5:42
Speaker 9: we need to do this. Man protests because we're tired
5:45
Speaker 9: with this government doesn't know we cannot handle anymore.
5:50
Speaker 2: So we need to stop up and.
5:51
Speaker 5: Pick up what what things as far as as far
5:54
Speaker 5: as immigration goes, and what's been going on with the
5:56
Speaker 5: attack on brown people. When you dismiss SI do that with.
6:00
Speaker 9: A passion, Well, this is the more racist things we've
6:06
Speaker 9: seen since a very long time. So I think this
6:10
Speaker 9: has to be changed right away because the way they
6:13
Speaker 9: treat us only because our color, that is now acceptable
6:17
Speaker 9: for nothing either working for hard working peoples been attacked
6:21
Speaker 9: for these governments and it needs to stop because it's
6:24
Speaker 9: going worse and worse.
6:25
Speaker 2: Seventy times.
6:26
Speaker 10: Yes, sir, so Moneame is akas More. I'm a national
6:28
Speaker 10: director with Common Defense. Common Defense is the largest veterans
6:31
Speaker 10: led move grassroots movement in the country, and I'm joined
6:35
Speaker 10: here today with other members and other veterans of Common
6:38
Speaker 10: Defense to stand in solid area understanding that we serve
6:43
Speaker 10: to protect everything that.
6:46
Speaker 3: We are now losing.
6:48
Speaker 10: We swore an OH to protect this country in principal
6:51
Speaker 10: foreign and domestic, heavy on domestic right. That oath did
6:56
Speaker 10: not end just because we're no longer go afferent, because
6:59
Speaker 10: we the piece of paper saying that that we're not
7:03
Speaker 10: in service anymore. We scored OH to be a service
7:05
Speaker 10: our communities and fight against these threats that we are
7:07
Speaker 10: seeing in our communities, that we're seeing in our state
7:09
Speaker 10: and we're seeing in our country, and saying that we're
7:12
Speaker 10: not gonna happen. Right when you're sitting here looking at
7:15
Speaker 10: all these folks that are out here today, the energy
7:18
Speaker 10: bills are going up, the gas prices are going up.
7:21
Speaker 10: People are having decided whether or not they're gonna pay
7:23
Speaker 10: for their light deals or put food on the table
7:25
Speaker 10: right now.
7:25
Speaker 11: And how are they gonna put food on the table.
7:29
Speaker 10: Right right? But we got money for walk, We got
7:32
Speaker 10: money to put ice in our seats.
7:34
Speaker 2: Right, we got all this.
7:35
Speaker 10: Money with the people that pay taxes every single year, blood, sweat,
7:41
Speaker 10: and tears to make ends meet for their family.
7:44
Speaker 6: And this is what we are sitting here having.
7:45
Speaker 12: To deal with.
7:49
Speaker 8: Look at the head of exense.
7:51
Speaker 3: So they changed the name.
7:53
Speaker 5: You know, what do you think the leadership is doing yet?
7:57
Speaker 5: Now what's your thoughts on that? Change that and change
8:01
Speaker 5: that with men?
8:03
Speaker 10: Well, I mean to be completely honest as trying to
8:05
Speaker 10: create an authoritarian state. Right, this is a Department of
8:09
Speaker 10: Defense and defensive country.
8:11
Speaker 8: We are not a country of war.
8:13
Speaker 10: This country has seen time after time after time.
8:17
Speaker 2: What war is in the concerts?
8:20
Speaker 10: You know, I'm the United States Army. Better, I served
8:23
Speaker 10: from two thousand ten. Right, I was sitting in Korea
8:29
Speaker 10: at nineteen years old. Listen to the radio transitions. We
8:33
Speaker 10: went into our rat having to sit there and watch
8:35
Speaker 10: my brothers and sisters every single day lose their lives.
8:38
Speaker 6: This is not for play, This isn't this isn't war games.
8:42
Speaker 13: Right, It's not a game.
8:44
Speaker 10: These are people's lives and we feel that cost back
8:46
Speaker 10: here at home. And there are generations that remember Iraq,
8:50
Speaker 10: don't remember Afghanistan. They remember having to open up the
8:53
Speaker 10: news and pop up CNN on Funk's news to see
8:56
Speaker 10: that tek off of all those lives lost, and we
8:59
Speaker 10: was I was gonna tective happen that up? Like we
9:02
Speaker 10: remember that we're not a country of rule. So yeah,
9:07
Speaker 10: that's what the drama.
9:09
Speaker 14: Yeah, bas and this is my name is Michelle.
9:12
Speaker 5: You're at their new King's rally. What brought down here.
9:16
Speaker 14: Years of not being able to understand how they propaganda
9:20
Speaker 14: successful and to effective in this country.
9:23
Speaker 3: I came down here because I gave birth to a
9:25
Speaker 3: girl about eleven years ago, and I think that she
9:27
Speaker 3: deserves a great future.
9:29
Speaker 5: And no, we know what's going on now in the Ukraine.
9:34
Speaker 5: What's your thoughts on what the world should be doing
9:36
Speaker 5: and what you thoughts on what should be done?
9:40
Speaker 14: Brown, It's obvious that Russia is the aggressor, and so
9:43
Speaker 14: you have to establish the truth first and you have
9:47
Speaker 14: to honor your commitments. We took the Ukraine, We disarmed
9:50
Speaker 14: the Ukrainians based on the fact we will protect them,
9:52
Speaker 14: and you know, you just go from there. We're not
9:54
Speaker 14: being honest her, uh, following our word and see the consequences.
9:58
Speaker 5: Of ussons, he claims right now? Or is out getting
10:03
Speaker 5: at the weapons that they need.
10:05
Speaker 2: Europe's trying to.
10:06
Speaker 5: Step up and trying to protect his home.
10:09
Speaker 14: But what what is something that the tolerance in Vladimir
10:13
Speaker 14: Putins is anything less than the tyrant and the representation
10:16
Speaker 14: of him is anything other than an evasive, malignant tumor
10:20
Speaker 14: in the Western and Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe needs to
10:24
Speaker 14: be known by people instead. The United States is now
10:27
Speaker 14: making business deals with Russia. And if you think that's okay, lashaw.
10:30
Speaker 14: Russia teaches their own people. They've killed so many of
10:33
Speaker 14: their own people that forty of the government's gonna feature
10:35
Speaker 14: like that.
10:37
Speaker 5: And also US right now has opened up oil sales
10:41
Speaker 5: to Russia.
10:42
Speaker 2: That's the bottom line.
10:43
Speaker 14: Yeah, it's it's it's a mixed war. You have this
10:47
Speaker 14: huge country that has a lot of power and is
10:49
Speaker 14: controlled by a man interested only in himself and befriending
10:52
Speaker 14: another dictator. Every movie makes is a friend of dictator.
10:55
Speaker 14: And if you want to be treated like that, continue
10:57
Speaker 14: to support Trump.
11:00
Speaker 11: What's that?
11:01
Speaker 5: I would say, lies?
11:02
Speaker 8: And the things that the US has come out with
11:05
Speaker 8: are always brained.
11:08
Speaker 5: The Ukraine's government for the laws.
11:10
Speaker 14: It is so childish that I'm embarrassed to have to
11:12
Speaker 14: answer that it doesn't make any sense, and if you
11:14
Speaker 14: choose to believe it, you're not critically thinking and needs
11:16
Speaker 14: to be taken.
11:17
Speaker 1: Care of by someone on Marches and protests were held
11:20
Speaker 1: in every major city in the US and big cities
11:23
Speaker 1: in Canada and all over the world.
11:26
Speaker 13: Let me tell you what third or nine days looked
11:27
Speaker 13: like for the people who protect this country.
11:31
Speaker 2: More than four hundred TISA officers have quit.
11:34
Speaker 13: Thousands more are calling out because they cannot get gas
11:38
Speaker 13: for the automobile, cannot get to work because they cannot
11:41
Speaker 13: afford they care because they cannot keep the lights on
11:44
Speaker 13: at home while they keep the lights on at our airports.
11:48
Speaker 13: Sunday brought some of the longest TSA line travelers have
11:51
Speaker 13: ever seen in years in Houston, Atlanta, the New York
11:56
Speaker 13: Travelers reported lines filling deep into terminals.
12:00
Speaker 2: This is what happens when the system is strained and
12:02
Speaker 2: staffing is stretched too thin.
12:05
Speaker 13: But instead of solving the problem in paying tears o's
12:08
Speaker 13: the administrations and ice agents to airports as replacement workers.
12:12
Speaker 13: That's like giving a person dying of pneumonia a tea
12:15
Speaker 13: spoon or call syrup. It doesn't address the problem and
12:18
Speaker 13: it's not gonna work. I'm gonna address the report coming
12:21
Speaker 13: out of the Senate overnight.
12:24
Speaker 2: Now we're hearing that there may be a deal.
12:26
Speaker 13: To fund most of DHS and get their workers paid.
12:30
Speaker 13: Let me be clear about where Alge stands. If there's
12:33
Speaker 13: a real deal on the table, with real legitimate texts,
12:38
Speaker 13: legislate the texts. Then let's get paychecks into the member's hand.
12:42
Speaker 13: We want to see it move, not tomorrow, not Friday,
12:46
Speaker 13: but today, Not Easter, but today. Because here's what I know.
12:51
Speaker 13: We've been hearing about progress and optimism for weeks. Our
12:55
Speaker 13: members cannot eat optimism. They cannot pay rent with progress.
12:59
Speaker 13: They need a paycheck. Tiars officers have now missed their
13:04
Speaker 13: third paycheck. Coastguard men and women are conducted searches and
13:09
Speaker 13: rescue operations without knowing what they will eat or if
13:13
Speaker 13: they'll ever see a dime. Female workers are supposed to
13:17
Speaker 13: be ready when disaster strikes, but right now the disaster
13:21
Speaker 13: is their own bank account. This is a national embarrassment
13:25
Speaker 13: and it's a disgrace. So here's what I want to
13:29
Speaker 13: say to every political politicians that's working on this issue.
13:34
Speaker 2: Get the text written, get it.
13:37
Speaker 13: To the floor, vote on it and get it to
13:39
Speaker 13: the President's desk for singing to it. And don't even
13:42
Speaker 13: think about going home for Easter recess while tens of
13:45
Speaker 13: thousands of American families are going without paychecks.
13:48
Speaker 2: Do not get on a plane that are tears the
13:51
Speaker 2: officer screen for free.
13:53
Speaker 13: And fly home for Easter dinner and tell these people
13:56
Speaker 13: that you're working on it. These are parents, these are veterans.
14:00
Speaker 13: These are people with mortgages and car payments and kids
14:03
Speaker 13: who need to eat, and they're carrying a weight of
14:05
Speaker 13: this government on their back.
14:07
Speaker 2: Right now.
14:07
Speaker 13: These workers need a vote, a signator, and a paycheck.
14:12
Speaker 13: So in this and that against today, finish the deal
14:15
Speaker 13: and get these workers paid. That's what I want to
14:18
Speaker 13: say to this entire America.
14:20
Speaker 8: Thank you.
14:23
Speaker 15: All right, Thank you, President Kelly. Next up, we'll hear
14:26
Speaker 15: from Hydrich Thomas, the president of AFGTSA Council one hundred.
14:30
Speaker 16: Aven ladies and gentlemen. My name is Heydrich Thomas. I've
14:33
Speaker 16: been employed at TSA Approxmate twenty four years. I came
14:37
Speaker 16: in because of the nine to eleven. I want no
14:38
Speaker 16: one that ever forget that. That's why this agency was created.
14:42
Speaker 16: And I'm apparently Congress and anyone else to fail and
14:46
Speaker 16: forget even though they get on the plane every day,
14:48
Speaker 16: every day, twice a day, sometimes sometimes five, three times
14:52
Speaker 16: a day from state to state.
14:54
Speaker 8: We're coming at to the end of the month. And
14:57
Speaker 8: what happens at the end of the month?
14:58
Speaker 16: Rent due bill, dude, your moy's dude, the comic pay dude,
15:02
Speaker 16: the child kids dude, the shopping supermarkets open, duce to
15:08
Speaker 16: go shopping. The child looking to get certain things on
15:10
Speaker 16: my birthdays. A lot of children birthdays are coming up.
15:13
Speaker 16: Imagine your child's looking for that because they know every
15:14
Speaker 16: year it comes now of a sudden. This year, you're
15:17
Speaker 16: telling them, listen, unforteen, you can't now gonna have a
15:19
Speaker 16: party just we made we can do it next month.
15:21
Speaker 8: It's the dad and mom, But my birthday is tomorrow.
15:24
Speaker 16: How do you tell a child you're looking at the
15:25
Speaker 16: faithy telling us saying, oh, we can't buy those cookies.
15:27
Speaker 8: We can't get that candy.
15:29
Speaker 16: So, guys, why are we making TSA employees the pawn
15:32
Speaker 16: on the chest board, the sacrifice the lives of the
15:35
Speaker 16: TSA employees.
15:37
Speaker 8: We just came out of a shutdown.
15:38
Speaker 16: I told November forty three days, but we didn't get
15:41
Speaker 16: paid until the fifty third day, so that was already
15:43
Speaker 16: going in December.
15:44
Speaker 8: Now we back into another shutdown.
15:47
Speaker 16: And they telling us, oh, even after union want to
15:50
Speaker 16: do something, how much you're paying for the food.
15:52
Speaker 8: I'm Southern born.
15:53
Speaker 16: When I invite you into the kitchen, I don't tell
15:55
Speaker 16: you how much's the course they feed you. Apparently that's
15:58
Speaker 16: what we're in crisis right now, where we have explain
16:00
Speaker 16: to the agency, what are we spending that's coming out
16:03
Speaker 16: of our own popularly fortunate after the polo get money
16:06
Speaker 16: together for the workers.
16:07
Speaker 8: Ourselves are co workers.
16:08
Speaker 16: We come together say okay, maybe we can't have a
16:09
Speaker 16: lunch in this day, but what about the going home
16:12
Speaker 16: when there's no meal to eat at home. I'm sure
16:15
Speaker 16: if these Congress leaders, presidents, everybody's involved in this decision
16:19
Speaker 16: will not have to pay TSA. Imagine if it was
16:22
Speaker 16: you not getting paid. You have to put yourself another
16:26
Speaker 16: person's shoot that's suffering.
16:28
Speaker 8: I do this because I care, not that I have to.
16:31
Speaker 8: I've always been a union representative prior to coming to TSA.
16:34
Speaker 8: I always be.
16:34
Speaker 16: I'm a dedicated employee. I also make sure I enforce
16:37
Speaker 16: the rules on employees to do their job to the
16:39
Speaker 16: best ability.
16:40
Speaker 8: Because we took an oath. I'm a foreign marine, I'm
16:42
Speaker 8: a military person.
16:43
Speaker 16: Also, we took an oath to protect life and property
16:46
Speaker 16: and we take it very seriously. We became professionals at
16:49
Speaker 16: what we do. If they want to bring other agencies
16:52
Speaker 16: in there, that's another question for another day. And you're
16:56
Speaker 16: gonna see what's gonna happen here. So I'm not gonna
16:58
Speaker 16: speak on this agency. They got walking around and I
17:00
Speaker 16: mean they don't even look at their uniforms they wear.
17:04
Speaker 16: They're not even they're ain't presentable to the public. So,
17:07
Speaker 16: like I said, they want to bring a tactical force
17:09
Speaker 16: into an environment where it required to have customer service
17:12
Speaker 16: and the skill set of mindset where you know what
17:15
Speaker 16: you're doing, how to identify something might be suspicious.
17:18
Speaker 8: They don't have that training.
17:19
Speaker 16: Whether TEARS are gonna try to quick train them replace
17:22
Speaker 16: Tsair employees, folks.
17:24
Speaker 8: It's not gonna happen.
17:26
Speaker 16: So when you when you're making a decision on what
17:28
Speaker 16: you think she'll be done with TSA, make the right decision.
17:31
Speaker 16: Think about if you go home tonight and you can't eat,
17:34
Speaker 16: Like you said, what bothers me a lot of them.
17:36
Speaker 16: Speak for me myself. Ex for remember, stop asking me
17:39
Speaker 16: about the loan lines. Ask me if somebody's gonna eat
17:42
Speaker 16: it down, what we can do to help them feed
17:43
Speaker 16: them in their children. Actually, ask me about if that
17:46
Speaker 16: person you get, I got people getting evicted, got to
17:49
Speaker 16: go to court because they can't afford to pay the
17:51
Speaker 16: rent because they got backed up.
17:52
Speaker 8: Then you get to, oh, we get the more interest loans.
17:55
Speaker 16: You still trying to pay back the loans from the
17:56
Speaker 16: last shut down, so now they want to offer you
17:58
Speaker 16: some other type of loan loans, longtime loans, so you'll
18:02
Speaker 16: be paying that us.
18:02
Speaker 8: For the rest of your life based on this agency here.
18:05
Speaker 16: So guys, just think about what we're doing and while
18:08
Speaker 16: we're doing it, and have some love for the employees
18:10
Speaker 16: that could not lie on the line. Every day when
18:12
Speaker 16: we go to work, we natually whether or not we're
18:14
Speaker 16: going to go home at the end of the day,
18:16
Speaker 16: but we don't think about it that. We think about
18:18
Speaker 16: the safety of the passengers to make sure they feel comfortable,
18:21
Speaker 16: make sure they're safe, make sure there's.
18:23
Speaker 8: No problem, nothing gonna get on that plane that can
18:25
Speaker 8: hurt anyone. That's what we specialize in.
18:27
Speaker 15: Hydrick All right next, we'll hear from Matt Johnson, who
18:30
Speaker 15: is the executive vice president of the AFGTSA Council and
18:33
Speaker 15: also the president of Local four four nine, which covers
18:36
Speaker 15: airports in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, and North Carolina.
18:39
Speaker 2: Mac going to.
18:42
Speaker 17: The members of the press and my colleagues as well.
18:44
Speaker 17: Thank you guys for joining this press conferences this afternoon,
18:48
Speaker 17: as Bert stated, the executive vice president for the TSA
18:52
Speaker 17: Council one hundred and my local jurisdiction covers four states,
18:57
Speaker 17: North Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, and and I'm also a
19:01
Speaker 17: veteran of the United States Army. I just want to
19:04
Speaker 17: give it a background briefly. I was a full time
19:09
Speaker 17: college student when the events Harborough events of nine to
19:12
Speaker 17: eleven happened. I was now a semester hours short of graduating,
19:17
Speaker 17: but in an effort to continue my service to this country,
19:20
Speaker 17: I quit college and I joined TSA and Raleigh Durham
19:24
Speaker 17: International Airport located in Morrisville, North Carolina. I've been on
19:29
Speaker 17: this council as various positions since twenty twelve, and what
19:33
Speaker 17: I'm hearing from our members in the four states that
19:36
Speaker 17: I directly in our jurisdiction is it's not that these
19:41
Speaker 17: employees and their families are hungry. They're beginning to starve, starve,
19:46
Speaker 17: literally starve because they did not have the funds to
19:50
Speaker 17: provide the financial means to provide foods for their families.
19:55
Speaker 17: And that just absolute, absolutely abserved. The employee in the
20:00
Speaker 17: United States of America should be starving or of having
20:04
Speaker 17: any difficulty paying the rent, the mortgage, UH, auto.
20:09
Speaker 8: Insurance, life insurance, et cetera.
20:12
Speaker 17: So, like everyone else, we not only strongly encouraged, we
20:17
Speaker 17: demand that the Congress and this administration sit down like
20:21
Speaker 17: adults and resolve this matter so these employees won't be
20:26
Speaker 17: placed themselves between a rock and a hard place. And again,
20:30
Speaker 17: one last thing that I find very disturbing, or two
20:33
Speaker 17: things actually, the first being there's some employees around this
20:37
Speaker 17: country who are selling plasma so that they can buy
20:40
Speaker 17: food to feed their families selling plasma.
20:43
Speaker 8: UH.
20:44
Speaker 17: Additionally, there are maaginal officials throughout this country to add
20:49
Speaker 17: and so to injury. They're charging folks with absent without leave,
20:53
Speaker 17: which is a wall, so that when this shut down
20:56
Speaker 17: does end someday, they will not be paid for those
20:59
Speaker 17: times that time that they're not reporting the work due
21:03
Speaker 17: to no fault. Their own is due directly to the
21:06
Speaker 17: fault of the Congress of the United States of America
21:09
Speaker 17: as well as this current administration. Thank you, and I
21:13
Speaker 17: look forward to answering your questions.
21:15
Speaker 1: Long lines at airports across the country continue. At Houston
21:19
Speaker 1: Intercontinental Airport, the average wait time is over three hours.
21:24
Speaker 1: The Transportation Security Administration workers continue to go without pay
21:29
Speaker 1: because of a stalemate in Congress over the Homeland Security
21:32
Speaker 1: Agency funding of ICE. On Friday, the convicted felon Donald
21:38
Speaker 1: Trump sign an executive order directing Homeland Security to start
21:43
Speaker 1: paying TSA workers after Congress failed to agree on a
21:47
Speaker 1: path to end the partial government shut down and fund
21:51
Speaker 1: the Department of Homeland Security. AFGE national President Everett Kelly,
21:57
Speaker 1: alongside national and local TSA union leaders from across the country,
22:02
Speaker 1: held a press call to call out the ongoing government
22:05
Speaker 1: shutdown that is once again forcing TSA workers to show
22:09
Speaker 1: up to work without pay. Cesar Chavez he was a
22:14
Speaker 1: union organizer and fought for the rights of farm workers,
22:17
Speaker 1: especially in California. He, along with Delores Werta and Gilbert Padia,
22:22
Speaker 1: he co founded the National farm Workers Association which later
22:26
Speaker 1: merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to become United
22:31
Speaker 1: farm Workers in nineteen sixty two. He organized strikes and
22:35
Speaker 1: pickets using non violence that he aligned with Martin Luther
22:39
Speaker 1: King Junior and others to fight for the rights of workers.
22:43
Speaker 1: The union expanded, and he was looked at as an
22:46
Speaker 1: icon in the community, so much that his birthday was
22:48
Speaker 1: recognized as a national holiday and also celebrated in various states.
22:53
Speaker 1: Chavez died in nineteen ninety eight. Recently, Delores Werta and
22:58
Speaker 1: others have come out to say that he abused and
23:00
Speaker 1: raped them. Two of the women said he started abusing
23:03
Speaker 1: them when they were twelve and thirteen. Whereta said he
23:07
Speaker 1: fathered two babies with her, but she gave up the
23:09
Speaker 1: kids to other families as she thought it would hurt
23:12
Speaker 1: the movement if it was found out. Should people be
23:15
Speaker 1: judged on their history, positive and negative? We talked to J.
23:20
Speaker 1: Michael Solar, who wrote an op ed piece about the
23:23
Speaker 1: situation and what Chavez meant to him growing up and
23:27
Speaker 1: what it was like meeting him.
23:28
Speaker 12: Well. I think that Seth Chavez is clearly a historical
23:33
Speaker 12: figure that despite the recent allegations his legacy, and more importantly,
23:38
Speaker 12: that if farm workers will endure. He wasn't just an
23:42
Speaker 12: idea or symbol. He was a real presence. And this
23:46
Speaker 12: man was disciplined, He was purposeful. He was deeply dedicated
23:50
Speaker 12: to improving the lives of farm workers who had long
23:52
Speaker 12: remained unseen by the nation. His work mattered then and
23:57
Speaker 12: it matters now.
24:00
Speaker 18: Is it heartening that people now are jump on a
24:03
Speaker 18: bandwagon to try to demonize and demonize.
24:07
Speaker 1: The work that was done well?
24:10
Speaker 12: I think there are three aspects of that at least,
24:14
Speaker 12: and one is the immediate politicization of this story. We
24:22
Speaker 12: have state leaders who are ready to cancel his legacy
24:29
Speaker 12: based on a newspaper report, and I dare say one
24:35
Speaker 12: has to be suspicious of what the underlying motivations are.
24:38
Speaker 12: I think they're pretty evident. But it's not lost on
24:41
Speaker 12: me that there are other people in power in this
24:45
Speaker 12: country who have done as bad or worse than it
24:52
Speaker 12: was what is alleged against Travis, who remain unscathed by
24:58
Speaker 12: those allegations. One has to consider that. I'm very concerned
25:03
Speaker 12: about the fact that so many Latino organizations and so
25:08
Speaker 12: called leaders are also quick to pounce on this. I
25:12
Speaker 12: believe that this reaction is very flawed, reactionary, and that
25:20
Speaker 12: if we are truly a mature civic community, it's not
25:24
Speaker 12: about erasing uh such that shows, but to facing him
25:29
Speaker 12: his legacy and examining it in a historical context and
25:35
Speaker 12: putting out putting it all out there, the good, the bad,
25:37
Speaker 12: the ugly.
25:38
Speaker 18: Is it frighten you that we have a situation now
25:42
Speaker 18: that education wise, we don't look at what the work
25:47
Speaker 18: that was done and don't look at what was going
25:49
Speaker 18: on at the time with Jesus shop is.
25:51
Speaker 12: Of course, it does across the spectrum. Too often the
25:57
Speaker 12: history of people of color has been excluded from the classroom.
26:02
Speaker 12: There are so few heroes that people of color can
26:06
Speaker 12: point to. I think that is certainly true within the
26:08
Speaker 12: Latino community in the United States set that Shavist clearly
26:14
Speaker 12: was amongst the most prominent, most recognized figures, and to
26:20
Speaker 12: erase him for these allegations would be a terrific blow
26:29
Speaker 12: to people across the board, certainly children and young people
26:35
Speaker 12: who have embraced his non violent approach to civil disobedience
26:42
Speaker 12: and organization. It would be and is a terrible thing
26:47
Speaker 12: in terms of what has happened now.
26:50
Speaker 18: Growing up yourself.
26:51
Speaker 6: How how do you see the drivers.
26:53
Speaker 12: You Well, I grew up in Pasadena, Texas, and I
26:59
Speaker 12: grew up at a time a place where I had
27:02
Speaker 12: one Latino teacher. In all of my public education experience,
27:08
Speaker 12: I didn't know Latino support tithes and certainly didn't know
27:12
Speaker 12: anyone that held physicians of responsibility. And Professor Chavis was
27:21
Speaker 12: a very very inspiring persona and that is you know,
27:27
Speaker 12: beginning with the Great Boycott and the fact that he
27:32
Speaker 12: was able to organize, mobilize, and direct protest that resulted
27:38
Speaker 12: in these sea changes in the quality of life of
27:42
Speaker 12: people that were working in the fields, by and large,
27:46
Speaker 12: to this day are invisible to mainstream America and not
27:51
Speaker 12: fully appreciated.
27:53
Speaker 18: The one thing that I know you were you might remember,
27:58
Speaker 18: but was lost in this the fact that you know,
28:01
Speaker 18: the word Latino was you know, or even Chicano was
28:04
Speaker 18: not even used for Latinos they were It was only
28:08
Speaker 18: considered white for a long period of time up until
28:11
Speaker 18: I think the seventies. And what's lost is the history
28:15
Speaker 18: of Latino culture.
28:18
Speaker 12: Well, I think that really goes back further in that
28:22
Speaker 12: you know, you had a landmark case in nineteen fifty
28:26
Speaker 12: four which was a Supreme Court case that decided that
28:34
Speaker 12: Mexican Americans were a class unto themselves. I just to
28:37
Speaker 12: say they weren't white, they weren't African Americans, and consequently
28:43
Speaker 12: they had to be treated individually as an individual, separate
28:47
Speaker 12: group for purposes of desegregation, et cetera. This had it
28:52
Speaker 12: resulted in a seat change in terms of how Latinos
28:56
Speaker 12: were seen. Clearly in the battle days, you know, kind
29:01
Speaker 12: of the choice used in characterizing people who spoke Spanish,
29:10
Speaker 12: but that they were Spanish if you were being polite,
29:12
Speaker 12: they were Mexicans if you were trying to objectify them.
29:16
Speaker 12: And over time people struggled with carving out their identity
29:21
Speaker 12: and that people of Mexican descent, if you will, in
29:26
Speaker 12: the United States were neither really Mexican or American. They
29:31
Speaker 12: were citizens of neither and refugees from both.
29:37
Speaker 18: And you did an op ed piece about the old
29:40
Speaker 18: situation right now, How can people find that op ed
29:43
Speaker 18: piece that you wrote?
29:45
Speaker 12: Well, the op ed piece I wrote was in response
29:48
Speaker 12: to his story published and the Austin American Statesman, and
29:52
Speaker 12: I believe it's available online, if not, if you delighted
29:55
Speaker 12: to share it with you and you can put it
29:57
Speaker 12: on your web page. Suffice to say that I think
30:03
Speaker 12: or a message that I was attempting to communicate was
30:08
Speaker 12: that if indeed these allegations are proven to be true,
30:13
Speaker 12: they mark a significant moral failure, and one that can't
30:16
Speaker 12: be dismissed simply because since our childish achieved great things,
30:21
Speaker 12: but his contributions shouldn't be erased either. We have people
30:26
Speaker 12: in history, beginning with George Washington, who ironically was allegedly
30:31
Speaker 12: struggling to liberate Americans while enslaving others, being a slaveholder himself.
30:38
Speaker 12: You have Thomas Jefferson, who spoke out of both sides
30:43
Speaker 12: of his mouth, condemning slavery on the one hand, and
30:49
Speaker 12: being a slaveholder himself. Thomas Jefferson, who is immortalized in
30:55
Speaker 12: a gorgeous monument in Washington, d c. And appears on
31:00
Speaker 12: five cent pieces in American currency, became involved with a
31:09
Speaker 12: young woman who accompanied his daughter to Paris and at
31:15
Speaker 12: fourteen began a relationship with Thomas Jefferson. She had six
31:20
Speaker 12: children by him, who incredibly were enslaved by him continuously
31:28
Speaker 12: until his passing. American history is complicated. Human beings are complicated.
31:35
Speaker 12: I think it's important for us to try to speak
31:39
Speaker 12: truthfully about the human species and how we're all flawed,
31:44
Speaker 12: and not throw out the good because of the bad.
31:49
Speaker 1: That was local attorney J. Michael Solar, who wrote an
31:53
Speaker 1: op ed piece in the Austin American Statesman newspaper on
31:56
Speaker 1: the legendary Leader. This is Steve Gallington, producer and host
32:02
Speaker 1: of the People's News. If you have a story that
32:05
Speaker 1: needs to be told, come to us. We accept fully
32:08
Speaker 1: produced audio written material, or just give us the idea
32:12
Speaker 1: and we will run with it. Shiny new one hour
32:14
Speaker 1: episodes of The People's News drop each Sunday on The
32:18
Speaker 1: People's News podcast, hosted by spreaker dot com and linked
32:23
Speaker 1: to my website Gallington dot com. A fire broke out
32:27
Speaker 1: at the Bayport Choke Chemical Plant in Pasadena, Texas, which
32:31
Speaker 1: is part of the liondel Basal Refinery. Though there were
32:34
Speaker 1: no deaths, seven tons of toxic substances, including n butane, isobutane,
32:40
Speaker 1: and carbon monoxide were released into the air. The company,
32:44
Speaker 1: which has been cited for violations in the past, said
32:47
Speaker 1: that everyone was accounted for and there were no safety
32:50
Speaker 1: concerns to community. This was echoed by officials including the
32:54
Speaker 1: Mayor Pasadena. This is the second time this month that
32:59
Speaker 1: there was a fire at this particular facility. On March twelfth,
33:03
Speaker 1: a fire broke out at the same facility, which is
33:06
Speaker 1: the Bayport Choke Facility, which is right on the boundary
33:08
Speaker 1: between Pasadena and Laporte. The local municipal and community officials
33:13
Speaker 1: stated there were no air quality issues of concern during
33:16
Speaker 1: or after the incident. An analysis of overnight wind patterns,
33:20
Speaker 1: community air monitoring, and the company's own emissions report provides
33:23
Speaker 1: more holistic details. The airborne pollution from the fire was
33:27
Speaker 1: also being distributed away from the plant into the eastern
33:30
Speaker 1: area of Baytown. In fact, Air Alliance Houston's own community
33:34
Speaker 1: air monitors in Baytown picked up indications of particulate matter
33:38
Speaker 1: pollution spikes during the same period as the fire. We
33:41
Speaker 1: talked to Jennifer Hadaiah, executive director of Air Alliance Houston.
33:46
Speaker 4: That's correct. It's not the first time that this plant
33:49
Speaker 4: has had emergency response events, and it's not the first
33:52
Speaker 4: time that our community has seen a plant disruption of
33:56
Speaker 4: this nature. We see, unfortunate, a pretty regular series of
34:03
Speaker 4: disruptions at petrochemical facilities, refineries, all of the plants up
34:07
Speaker 4: and down the Houston Ship Channel. We see leaks, we
34:10
Speaker 4: see fires in the worst case scenarios, we see massive explosions,
34:15
Speaker 4: and I think we can all reflect back to some
34:18
Speaker 4: of those big examples over the last five ten years. ITC.
34:22
Speaker 4: Deer Park is one that comes to mind quite often.
34:24
Speaker 4: Exonmobil comes to mind. But the lion Dell Bayport Chokes
34:29
Speaker 4: Facility itself has had about thirty emergency response events over
34:35
Speaker 4: its documented history. That's publicly available information, and that occurred
34:41
Speaker 4: even before the events that happened about two weeks ago
34:44
Speaker 4: now most recently in twenty twenty two, so less than
34:48
Speaker 4: five years ago they had an emergency response event and
34:51
Speaker 4: now we're seeing another one just a few weeks ago.
34:56
Speaker 4: Not only do they have emergency events like this, but
34:59
Speaker 4: they are also in violation of their permitting. They are
35:06
Speaker 4: gosh in non compliance with the Clean Air Act, there's
35:08
Speaker 4: no other way to say it. And they're one of
35:10
Speaker 4: the top twenty highest air pollution emitters in the entire county.
35:16
Speaker 4: So this is a problematic facility on a number of levels.
35:20
Speaker 6: What's being done because for the most part, the government
35:23
Speaker 6: of Texas government.
35:24
Speaker 18: Gave them kind of a kind of a free pass
35:26
Speaker 18: on regulation of these.
35:29
Speaker 6: Plants, so that.
35:33
Speaker 4: Has been a challenge. We are in, for lack of
35:37
Speaker 4: a better term, a de regulatory era when it comes
35:40
Speaker 4: to environmental protections from top to bottom, starting all the
35:44
Speaker 4: way up at the Environmental Protection Agency and all the
35:47
Speaker 4: way down to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which
35:50
Speaker 4: permits each of these individual facilities. Almost about a year ago,
35:55
Speaker 4: I would say, in March of twenty twenty five, the
35:58
Speaker 4: EPA announced that its planning to weaken or eliminate about
36:04
Speaker 4: thirty different Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act regulatory protections,
36:10
Speaker 4: and in the past year have been systematically following through
36:13
Speaker 4: on that promise. Unfortunately, and in just the last few months,
36:17
Speaker 4: the first few months of twenty twenty six, we have
36:20
Speaker 4: seen a series of published regulatory rollbacks. I think by
36:25
Speaker 4: my last count, we have seen ten published rollbacks in
36:29
Speaker 4: the Federal Register. That's the point at which the weakening
36:33
Speaker 4: and the elimination of the protection has become official at
36:37
Speaker 4: the level of the EPA. Some of those are still
36:39
Speaker 4: under public comment opportunities. Some of those have already passed
36:43
Speaker 4: their public comment opportunity and are actively in place, but
36:47
Speaker 4: one of them being a permission to perllute, which was
36:51
Speaker 4: a very simple action that facilities could take to email
36:55
Speaker 4: the Environmental Protection Agency last year and simply requests that
36:59
Speaker 4: they no longer be required to follow some of these regulations.
37:03
Speaker 4: I have not checked the most recent number of local
37:06
Speaker 4: facilities that made that request, but there were many local
37:09
Speaker 4: facilities who sent in that email and made a request
37:12
Speaker 4: to simply be exempt from those regulations while the EPA
37:15
Speaker 4: was formally working to reduce or eliminate or weaken those
37:20
Speaker 4: protections more formally and more systematically. But even in this
37:24
Speaker 4: first year, first few months of the new year, we
37:26
Speaker 4: have seen about ten of those regulations go to formal
37:29
Speaker 4: notice in the federal register, including one that is directly
37:33
Speaker 4: related to the Liondel Bayport facility incident last week. And
37:38
Speaker 4: that rule is called colloquially known as the risk Management
37:42
Speaker 4: Plan rule. The risk Management plan rule is the rule
37:45
Speaker 4: that sets out the expectations for how plants have to
37:48
Speaker 4: prevent incidents like a fire, like a spill, like a league,
37:52
Speaker 4: like an explosion. That rule has been in place for
37:56
Speaker 4: a number of years. It was the same rule that
37:58
Speaker 4: was in place during the ice he sees your park
38:00
Speaker 4: disaster during the Hurricane Harvey disasters, and it had not
38:04
Speaker 4: been updated until twenty twenty four when the new plan
38:08
Speaker 4: was put out, and it was going to be stronger.
38:10
Speaker 4: It would have been so strong that if it had
38:12
Speaker 4: been in place in twenty nineteen, it would have prevented
38:15
Speaker 4: itc your park. But lo and behold, the new EPA
38:19
Speaker 4: has come in and said, no, I'm sorry, we don't
38:21
Speaker 4: want to strengthen that chemical disaster prevention rule after all,
38:24
Speaker 4: and we're just going to leave it as is, which
38:26
Speaker 4: we already knew was not protective enough to prevent disasters
38:29
Speaker 4: like it sed your Park, or like the fire at
38:33
Speaker 4: the lion Del Bayport plant two weeks ago. So unfortunately,
38:36
Speaker 4: we've already seen that worst management plan Rural rollback go
38:39
Speaker 4: post to the Federal Register. It is open for public
38:42
Speaker 4: comment right now. It will be open until April tenth
38:45
Speaker 4: for people to respond. But to be very frank, the
38:48
Speaker 4: actions that have been taken at a regulatory level this
38:51
Speaker 4: year are solely and fully in support of whatever makes
38:55
Speaker 4: life and profit easier for industry. I wish that weren't
38:59
Speaker 4: the case. We have the fight for that to change,
39:01
Speaker 4: but right now that's what we've been seeing.
39:03
Speaker 6: What do you you said two things. That was what
39:07
Speaker 6: was the outcome of this last fire? Sure Harris County
39:13
Speaker 6: County Judge Dalgos did. If he sent out, she sent
39:16
Speaker 6: She sent out the emergency crews of the scene. What
39:19
Speaker 6: about the air testing that goes.
39:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a great question. So there when an event
39:25
Speaker 4: like that happens, there are multiple sources of community air
39:29
Speaker 4: monitoring and testing of pollutants that come from the event itself.
39:34
Speaker 4: The local municipalities often send out emergency response air quality
39:40
Speaker 4: monitoring and testing mobile vans, and in this case, the
39:44
Speaker 4: Harris County because this was outside the city. If you said,
39:47
Speaker 4: this was a Harris County response, So Harris County pollution
39:50
Speaker 4: erle did go out and they monitor its sites around
39:53
Speaker 4: the plant itself and their results are available publicly on
39:58
Speaker 4: their website. And I've looked than myself and they did
40:01
Speaker 4: not find any levels of concern during the immediate incident
40:08
Speaker 4: fence line to the plant, which is very important. Those residents, schools,
40:14
Speaker 4: community centers, churches, etc. That are fence line to a
40:17
Speaker 4: facility are always going to be in the greatest path
40:20
Speaker 4: of harm. And the work that Harris County and Pollution
40:23
Speaker 4: Control Services did to monitor that fence line harm is
40:25
Speaker 4: incredibly important, and I believe, though I don't represent the
40:30
Speaker 4: County Judge's office, but I believe that is the data
40:34
Speaker 4: on which our county judge based those remarks. There are
40:38
Speaker 4: other sources of data that are important to look at
40:41
Speaker 4: for a more holistic picture of what was emitted during
40:45
Speaker 4: that event. One of them is the plant's own reporting.
40:49
Speaker 4: So every time there is an incident like this, the facility,
40:52
Speaker 4: in this case Lion Deell, has to submit a report
40:55
Speaker 4: to the TCQ, which required they have to submit it
40:58
Speaker 4: within twenty four hours of the end of the event.
41:01
Speaker 4: And according to that preliminary report, we know that the
41:04
Speaker 4: fire emitted air pollution. There's no doubt even if the
41:09
Speaker 4: readings on the ground, the reading spense line did not
41:12
Speaker 4: show concerning levels of air pollution. We know pollution was
41:15
Speaker 4: emitted because the plant itself has told us that they
41:18
Speaker 4: did it. And according to that preliminary report submitted about
41:22
Speaker 4: twenty four hours after the fire happened, we know that
41:26
Speaker 4: the fire released roughly twenty three thousand pounds of air
41:30
Speaker 4: pollution over the course of twenty four hours. That pollution
41:34
Speaker 4: was comprised primarily of what the facility itself manufactures and uses,
41:39
Speaker 4: so whatever they make at the facility, that's certainly what
41:42
Speaker 4: gets emitted into the air, but also the particulate matter
41:46
Speaker 4: that happens during a fire of any kind, and in
41:49
Speaker 4: this case, this was a fire that burned for several hours,
41:53
Speaker 4: not just a short period of time, that burned pretty
41:56
Speaker 4: much overnight and was not contained into the following morning.
41:59
Speaker 4: So in addition to the chemicals that the plant produces
42:02
Speaker 4: that were emitted during the fire, the fire itself produces
42:05
Speaker 4: air pollution and that's what we call that particulate matter
42:08
Speaker 4: or PM two point five pollution. That's very concerning for
42:11
Speaker 4: people with respiratory or cardiac conditions. The last piece of
42:15
Speaker 4: data I'd like to share is another element to a
42:19
Speaker 4: holistic picture of air pollution impacts, and that is community
42:23
Speaker 4: air monitoring data. There is community monitoring throughout Harris County.
42:28
Speaker 4: We run a community air monitoring program here at Air
42:31
Speaker 4: Alliance Houston, but we're not the only ones. There are
42:33
Speaker 4: other organizations that run their own community air monitoring in
42:36
Speaker 4: certain neighborhoods, Environmental Defense Funds for example, even some more
42:40
Speaker 4: local organizations in the Fifth Ward area, the Sunnyside area,
42:44
Speaker 4: and others so that they can get their own data
42:46
Speaker 4: at a very local, hyper local level using low cost
42:51
Speaker 4: air sensors. And then when you add that to the picture,
42:55
Speaker 4: it just gives you more information. And so every time
42:57
Speaker 4: there's an event like this plant fire, we act and
43:01
Speaker 4: we look at our community, our monitoring data. We look
43:04
Speaker 4: across our county. We have about sixty plus low cost
43:08
Speaker 4: air sensors located throughout Harris County, including in Pasadena, where
43:12
Speaker 4: this fire happened. But that's not where we sold, that's
43:15
Speaker 4: not where we looked.
43:16
Speaker 12: Only.
43:17
Speaker 4: The first thing we looked at with air patterns wind
43:19
Speaker 4: patterns during the fire, because whatever the wind is doing
43:23
Speaker 4: is going to tell you where some of that pollution
43:25
Speaker 4: is going to blow or that particulate matter is going
43:27
Speaker 4: to go into neighborhoods. And sometimes based on the wind pattern,
43:31
Speaker 4: it doesn't just stay at the local level. It can
43:34
Speaker 4: blow into other places. And that's the first thing we
43:37
Speaker 4: noticed about this incident. We noticed that overnight during the
43:40
Speaker 4: time of this fire, that the wind was blowing to
43:43
Speaker 4: the northeast of Pasadena, and looking at a map, you'll
43:48
Speaker 4: know that what's northeast of Pasadena, going up and above
43:51
Speaker 4: the ship Channel is the community of Daytown already a
43:55
Speaker 4: community with quite a number of pollution sources and quite
43:58
Speaker 4: a bit of pollution concern So when we noticed that
44:01
Speaker 4: the wind was blowing into Baytown, we went and looked
44:04
Speaker 4: at our Baytown monitors, not just the Pasadena monitors, but
44:08
Speaker 4: we looked at the Baytown monitors to see what was
44:10
Speaker 4: happening to that community based on the wind pattern, and
44:13
Speaker 4: we did find some concerning levels of particulate matter getting
44:17
Speaker 4: picked up by our community monitors in the city of Baytown.
44:21
Speaker 4: So we were able to track over time from when
44:24
Speaker 4: the fire started at eight PM that evening to when
44:28
Speaker 4: we were told that the fire has been contained the
44:30
Speaker 4: following morning at nine point thirty, a series of PM
44:34
Speaker 4: two point five spikes, some of them extremely high, that
44:39
Speaker 4: were picked up by our community monitors during that time.
44:42
Speaker 4: So I think all of those sources of data come
44:45
Speaker 4: together to give us a more holistic picture of the
44:48
Speaker 4: pollution impacts of an event like this, and so it
44:51
Speaker 4: is our conclusion that there were some pollution events. Obviously,
44:55
Speaker 4: the plant is telling us that there was pollution emitted,
45:00
Speaker 4: that's their own admission, their own self report, and our
45:03
Speaker 4: community monitoring shows that in certain places over a certain
45:06
Speaker 4: period of time, there were concerning spikes of particulate matter.
45:10
Speaker 4: That is a concern for community members, especially those who
45:13
Speaker 4: live in the path of that position. I will say
45:17
Speaker 4: one if there is a silver lining in all of
45:19
Speaker 4: these data. The silver lining is that at sense line,
45:24
Speaker 4: our municipal pollution control did not detect any concerning levels.
45:29
Speaker 4: That is a good thing. That's a good thing. We
45:30
Speaker 4: would not want the opposite to be the case. And
45:32
Speaker 4: I think the other silver lining is that the particulate
45:35
Speaker 4: matter spikes that we're seen on community air monitoring in
45:38
Speaker 4: Baytown did happen overnight. So for the most part, most
45:42
Speaker 4: of us are not outdoors in the middle of the night.
45:46
Speaker 4: We are home, we are with windows and doors closed.
45:50
Speaker 4: That's a good thing too. It would have been far
45:52
Speaker 4: more concerning to see these levels of PM two point
45:56
Speaker 4: five if they had happened during the school day or
45:59
Speaker 4: as people were perhaps walking to school, or during a time,
46:03
Speaker 4: you know, goodness, on a weekend when maybe there were
46:05
Speaker 4: sporting events outside where people would be out and about
46:08
Speaker 4: and breathing in that particular matter pollution. So I will
46:11
Speaker 4: say there's a silver lining. Pollution events like this can
46:16
Speaker 4: always get worse I think the facility itself could have
46:19
Speaker 4: had more of an incident, and that always is enough
46:22
Speaker 4: to make us all panic. I think in the Hou scenario,
46:24
Speaker 4: realizing how much worse an event like a fire could be,
46:27
Speaker 4: it could have escalated. There was no loss of life.
46:30
Speaker 4: That is a very good thing. There were no injuries reported,
46:35
Speaker 4: that is a very good thing. I think what worries
46:37
Speaker 4: us bigger picture is that there are not strong enough
46:42
Speaker 4: safeguards around these facilities that will prevent the next fire,
46:47
Speaker 4: or that would prevent the next fire escalating into something
46:50
Speaker 4: that would be far worse for our community. And the
46:53
Speaker 4: reason for that is what I've already described is our
46:56
Speaker 4: lack of strong regulatory oversight from the top of the
46:59
Speaker 4: EP all the way to the state level at the TCQ.
47:03
Speaker 1: That was Jennifer Hadaiah, executive director of Airlines Houston. They
47:08
Speaker 1: can be contacted at Airlines Houston. All put together dot org.
47:13
Speaker 1: Plant fires and releases of pollutants into the air affect
47:18
Speaker 1: people in the communities around the Houston Ship Channel. People
47:22
Speaker 1: in these communities suffer from a higher rate of cancer
47:24
Speaker 1: and other ailments. We talked to Randy Trevino, executive director
47:29
Speaker 1: of the REISA collab what that stink.
47:32
Speaker 11: Is already pretty like I would say there are high
47:35
Speaker 11: stakes on the line because we already have seen for
47:40
Speaker 11: the last few years that communities that are closest to
47:44
Speaker 11: these facilities live shorter lives on average, anywhere from ten
47:49
Speaker 11: fourteen years shorter lives than on the other side of town,
47:53
Speaker 11: all the way up to twenty years shorter than on
47:55
Speaker 11: the other side of town, just depends on how close
47:58
Speaker 11: they are closely exposed they are to these chemical facilities.
48:03
Speaker 11: And so it's not just that people are dying sooner.
48:05
Speaker 11: People are also living lives filled with disease, where you're
48:08
Speaker 11: seeing people having much higher rates of cancer, higher rates
48:13
Speaker 11: of autoimmune diseases, reproductive issues, and the list goes on
48:18
Speaker 11: really ASTHMA, COPD. It used to be really easy to
48:22
Speaker 11: look up that information on a website that the EPA
48:25
Speaker 11: used to have, but this administration took it offline, and
48:30
Speaker 11: so but we were able to look at that before
48:33
Speaker 11: then to see what those numbers look like, and it's
48:36
Speaker 11: pretty it was already pretty stark before even removing any
48:40
Speaker 11: type of oversight or you know, consequences, and so you know,
48:49
Speaker 11: enforcement has already been pretty bad in Texas like historically
48:53
Speaker 11: for the last couple decades at least, it's been pretty bad, abysmal.
48:57
Speaker 11: But getting rid of them and even moving more of
49:00
Speaker 11: those pressures to follow the law, it can't be good
49:04
Speaker 11: in my opinion.
49:06
Speaker 6: What's that what I've seen happen. I've seen whole areas,
49:10
Speaker 6: especially in the Freeport area, where whole communities, especially back
49:14
Speaker 6: and brown communities, they are in the poor communities that
49:16
Speaker 6: are affected. They'll have the power to do anything about
49:21
Speaker 6: these types of incidents that happen, and there's a lass
49:23
Speaker 6: to know about them. Yeah, is that what you've seen too?
49:28
Speaker 11: Yeah, A lot of information is with help from communities,
49:31
Speaker 11: and then when when accidents are reported on, it is
49:36
Speaker 11: almost always without sale, accompanied by a message that says
49:41
Speaker 11: something along the lines of air quality has not been affected.
49:46
Speaker 11: You know, communities around nearby will not be affected by
49:50
Speaker 11: this incident. But if you see it, if you smell it,
49:53
Speaker 11: if it's moving being you know, shifted by the wind,
49:58
Speaker 11: those of us who have been you know, in the
50:01
Speaker 11: know about these accidents know that there is an effect
50:04
Speaker 11: the community. But because communities are being lied to by
50:07
Speaker 11: the companies and a lot of times even by elected
50:10
Speaker 11: officials or by news or media. Then yeah, they're not
50:14
Speaker 11: going to know enough. They're not going to find out
50:17
Speaker 11: everything that they need they need to know to keep
50:19
Speaker 11: their families safe.
50:21
Speaker 6: What area do you know of it that's been affected,
50:23
Speaker 6: because I know it's been reports that especially in a
50:26
Speaker 6: ship Channel area of Brown communities being affected, and with
50:33
Speaker 6: the with the Ininspurit administration and the enforcement the the
50:38
Speaker 6: immigration enforcement, brown communities are at least likely to come
50:42
Speaker 6: out and say anything about this.
50:45
Speaker 11: Yeah, that's that's There are different reasons for that. One
50:49
Speaker 11: reason is that the news isn't always shared in Spanish
50:53
Speaker 11: the same way at the same rate, or it is
50:55
Speaker 11: most often not shared at the same rate in Spanish
50:58
Speaker 11: as it is in English. So there's always be a
51:00
Speaker 11: lack of information that's being shared with communities that receive
51:03
Speaker 11: most of their information from Spanish media, even if they
51:06
Speaker 11: speak English, a lot of them feel more comfortable receiving
51:09
Speaker 11: the information and digesting it in Spanish, but the amount
51:14
Speaker 11: of news that's being shared in their language is limited.
51:17
Speaker 11: So that's the first one is that they're just not
51:20
Speaker 11: it's not available. That information is just not available in Spanish.
51:24
Speaker 11: The other thing is, you know, frankly, there are cultural
51:27
Speaker 11: aspects of you know, just don't complain, don't say anything
51:32
Speaker 11: if you can't if you can't address it, if you
51:34
Speaker 11: can't change change it, or if there's an impression that
51:37
Speaker 11: we can't change it, don't say anything, which is quite
51:39
Speaker 11: frankly unfortunate. I say that as someone from the community,
51:43
Speaker 11: because this is what I've seen around.
51:45
Speaker 12: Me a lot of times.
51:46
Speaker 11: But then there's also that third aspect of fear that
51:49
Speaker 11: people in the community have been afraid to speak up,
51:53
Speaker 11: whether it's because they come from a community in another
51:56
Speaker 11: country where speaking up can be very dangerous to their lives,
52:00
Speaker 11: or because they've seen threats even in Texas, even in
52:03
Speaker 11: their community, they've seen threats to people's jobs, to their
52:07
Speaker 11: lives here, because those threats don't just exist in other countries,
52:10
Speaker 11: they exist in Texas too, And so they're either afraid
52:14
Speaker 11: for their work, for their likelihood, or for their lives,
52:17
Speaker 11: or if they're undocumented, they're afraid that if they speak
52:20
Speaker 11: up that consequences will follow. And so right now, more
52:24
Speaker 11: than ever, that's a concern people are not going to
52:27
Speaker 11: want to risk, you know, pointing at themselves or like
52:31
Speaker 11: pointing attention at themselves at a time when ice is
52:34
Speaker 11: you know all over our city.
52:37
Speaker 6: Yes, ERKOD is the one that's responsible for enforcing some
52:40
Speaker 6: of these fines and trying to make sure that some
52:45
Speaker 6: of these companies are accountable for these events. But like
52:50
Speaker 6: the one here in the Houston area, it's incited numerous
52:55
Speaker 6: times for violations, and yeah, the little of net thing
53:00
Speaker 6: was done about it as far as fines. And I
53:03
Speaker 6: don't know about the one that happened this week. But
53:06
Speaker 6: if it's the same pattern, it's the same thing. It's not,
53:09
Speaker 6: it's not it's no, there's no type of enforcement. Have
53:12
Speaker 6: you seen the same thing?
53:14
Speaker 12: Yes.
53:15
Speaker 11: For years, the agency that is typically irresponsible for enforcing
53:20
Speaker 11: these on these types of accidents is the TCQ, the
53:24
Speaker 11: Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and for years it has
53:28
Speaker 11: consistently come out that their enforcement rate is anywhere between
53:32
Speaker 11: one and three percent. That means that ninety seven percent
53:37
Speaker 11: of the time, at least the companies just get away
53:40
Speaker 11: with it. And it's either because they've made up an
53:44
Speaker 11: excuse that was accepted, because it's always accepted as long
53:47
Speaker 11: as you fill out the paperwork correctly and said, you know,
53:50
Speaker 11: we couldn't prevent it because.
53:51
Speaker 12: Of X, Y or Z, or.
53:56
Speaker 11: You know, sometimes there are loopholes like if workers doing
54:02
Speaker 11: you know, if the workers are on that project at
54:04
Speaker 11: the time were contractors, then they can evade consequences that
54:09
Speaker 11: way too, by saying they're not an employee, they were
54:12
Speaker 11: a contractor and it doesn't count toward count quote unquote
54:16
Speaker 11: toward how many you know, like their enforcement rates.
54:21
Speaker 6: Wait a minute, but they're still if even even if
54:23
Speaker 6: it's a contractor, that contractor is still responsible to the
54:30
Speaker 6: company and the company still should be responsible. He'll responsible
54:33
Speaker 6: for for whatever they're doing.
54:36
Speaker 11: Right here, that's how it's gonna work, correct, It's just
54:40
Speaker 11: not in practice. In practice, that's not how it works,
54:43
Speaker 11: not not in Texas.
54:45
Speaker 6: And yeah, and you're saying it's all around Texas, right
54:48
Speaker 6: all over Texas.
54:49
Speaker 11: The enforcement rate is that low one to three percent.
54:54
Speaker 6: What do you what do you feel that I know
54:56
Speaker 6: you know, I know you want more enforcement, But how
54:58
Speaker 6: do you how do you how do you how do
55:01
Speaker 6: you separate what's.
55:02
Speaker 5: Going on now?
55:02
Speaker 6: Because the governor and his allies say that more enforcement
55:07
Speaker 6: means it's a it's a drain on people's employment and
55:14
Speaker 6: companies to be to companies that that residing is used
55:19
Speaker 6: in Texas, and we lead with we are in need
55:23
Speaker 6: of those those those petrochemical jobs, even though someonem are closing.
55:29
Speaker 11: So I very much disagree on that it puts pressure
55:33
Speaker 11: on the jobs. I think if anything, the fears that
55:36
Speaker 11: it's going to cost the executives, the people who are
55:39
Speaker 11: we are earning the biggest paychecks, that's what it's going
55:41
Speaker 11: to cost. Because if a company does more enforcement and
55:46
Speaker 11: does more inspections and more work to make sure that
55:51
Speaker 11: their facilities are safe, so that's actually more jobs because
55:55
Speaker 11: it takes more people to do that. It takes more time,
55:57
Speaker 11: more hours you have to hire someone to come inspect
56:01
Speaker 11: a third party. Those are more jobs that are available
56:04
Speaker 11: just privately. Those those are just private jobs. Then for
56:08
Speaker 11: enforcement itself, if there are companies that are being fined
56:12
Speaker 11: for something, those fines then go to either the TCQ
56:16
Speaker 11: or they go to the Railroad Commission. They go to
56:18
Speaker 11: an agency that then has to hire people to enforce
56:21
Speaker 11: those laws. So either way, because it does take more effort,
56:26
Speaker 11: that means more jobs, that means more time. What it
56:29
Speaker 11: does also mean is again less profit for the people
56:32
Speaker 11: all the way at the top, the executives.
56:36
Speaker 6: Tell me, how can people find out more about your
56:38
Speaker 6: organization and what you do and how can they be involved?
56:43
Speaker 11: Yeah, so they can either find us on our website.
56:48
Speaker 11: You can look us up as the Races r ai
56:51
Speaker 11: CES which stands for Ruth in Spanish, the Risis Collab Project,
56:57
Speaker 11: and we're also on Instagram and on Facebook.
57:00
Speaker 1: That was Randy Trevino of the Raisa Collab. The People's
57:07
Speaker 1: News is a production of Steve Gallington and Richard Hannah
57:10
Speaker 1: and is protected by copyright laws. All the information broadcast
57:13
Speaker 1: on air and online, as well as published in both
57:16
Speaker 1: print and or online, including articles, audio, clips, illustrations, graphics, photographs,
57:21
Speaker 1: and videos, are protected by these copyright and other state
57:24
Speaker 1: and federal intellectual property laws. Therefore, you may not use
57:28
Speaker 1: our content in any prohibited way, including reproducing, publishing, transmitting, selling, rewriting, broadcasting,
57:34
Speaker 1: or posting on the Internet without the expressed written permission
57:38
Speaker 1: of the People's News. Prohibited use also includes publication of
57:41
Speaker 1: our material in printed or electronic brochures, newsletters, or flyers,
57:46
Speaker 1: as well as all website or email distribution. To obtain
57:49
Speaker 1: permission to use copyrighted material, email Steve Gallington at Steve
57:54
Speaker 1: at gallington dot com.
57:56
Speaker 8: Thank you