Latest / The People's News / The Documentary Drift; No Kings 3; DHS Shutdown Conrinues; Plant Fires Near La Porte - TPN 4/5/26

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The Documentary Drift; No Kings 3; DHS Shutdown Conrinues; Plant Fires Near La Porte - TPN 4/5/26 · The People's News

0:03
Speaker 1: It's the week of April fifth, twenty twenty six, and
0:07
Speaker 1: this is what's on the People's News. A documentary about
0:12
Speaker 1: free solo skyscraper climber photographer Isaac Wright called Drift No
0:18
Speaker 1: King's Three draws over eight million and over twenty two
0:23
Speaker 1: thousand in Houston, the largest yet. TSA will finally get paid,
0:29
Speaker 1: but the lines at the airport remain, and the agents
0:32
Speaker 1: ask when allegations against the late labor leader, says our Chavez.
0:41
Speaker 1: Two weeks of petroleum fires at one plan and the
0:44
Speaker 1: community is concerned. All that and more on the People's News.
0:51
Speaker 1: I'm Steve Gallington. This is the People's News, and the
0:55
Speaker 1: People's News starts now. When watching movies, especially documentaries, the
1:06
Speaker 1: personal stories can illuminate everything about life and the people
1:11
Speaker 1: that live in it. Meet Isaac Wright, an Army veteran
1:15
Speaker 1: and self taught photographer that gets over his post traumatic
1:18
Speaker 1: stress disorder by illegally climbing some of the tallest buildings
1:22
Speaker 1: in the world and photographing from the top. His pictures
1:26
Speaker 1: have brought him notoriety and arrest. His story and life
1:30
Speaker 1: caught the eye of independent filmmaker Dion Taylor, who previously
1:34
Speaker 1: had done works like The House next Door and Meet
1:37
Speaker 1: the Blacks two and Fatal. We were on hand for
1:41
Speaker 1: the preview of the documentary film Drift, that is about
1:45
Speaker 1: Right and his journey. Seeing him climb on top of
1:48
Speaker 1: buildings free solo is scary and breathtaking. Dion spoke about
1:53
Speaker 1: how he found out about the story.
2:00
Speaker 2: No, we met through a mutual friend, and I was
2:02
Speaker 2: told the story pretty quickly, and I fell in love
2:04
Speaker 2: with what it was that quickly. Was just like, man,
2:07
Speaker 2: I would love to be able to tell you a
2:08
Speaker 2: story because I think it's one of the best unique
2:11
Speaker 2: stories I've heard of it ever. A man, a Black
2:13
Speaker 2: man climate building. But I'm like, this is crazy. No
2:17
Speaker 2: climb buildings. We don't swim much, you know, so I'm like, Yo,
2:20
Speaker 2: this could be an insane story. Was we got down
2:23
Speaker 2: the road started telling the story, man, I became more
2:25
Speaker 2: and more in love with what it was and how
2:27
Speaker 2: it was and just thought it was phenomenal.
2:29
Speaker 3: Man.
2:30
Speaker 2: We just started working from there the last two years
2:32
Speaker 2: on bringing the story to life, and ultimately I think
2:36
Speaker 2: we got it right. And then we got the acceptance
2:38
Speaker 2: to south By and we were like, man, people were
2:40
Speaker 2: starting to respond to it. Let's get there and see
2:43
Speaker 2: how the audiences think about it.
2:44
Speaker 4: Now.
2:44
Speaker 5: So this is the first time we've ever screamed it.
2:47
Speaker 6: Yeah, talked about what about what about the rest of
2:52
Speaker 6: the climate, because he didn't talk about his mother.
2:55
Speaker 7: Yeah.
2:55
Speaker 2: I think what we try to do is keep it
2:57
Speaker 2: singular about him and the history and stay along the
3:01
Speaker 2: lives of things that affected him and people that were
3:04
Speaker 2: pulling him in and out of these worlds. And it
3:07
Speaker 2: was choice by him to say, I want to not
3:10
Speaker 2: bring everybody into my family into this doc.
3:12
Speaker 5: It needs to be a story about me and.
3:14
Speaker 2: What I'm going through, what I'm overcoming, and what I'm
3:17
Speaker 2: seeing as a person and as an artist.
3:19
Speaker 5: And I agree with that.
3:20
Speaker 2: I thought, man, that's why you're seeing so minimum in
3:22
Speaker 2: terms of the cast. And I was like, how is
3:24
Speaker 2: he getting into how is he getting into China?
3:28
Speaker 8: How you're getting in all these countries? You know, you
3:30
Speaker 8: got you got, you got papers on your head.
3:33
Speaker 9: I mean by the time I went to China, we
3:36
Speaker 9: had finished the court cases, so we had just finished them,
3:40
Speaker 9: and then I went to China about three or.
3:41
Speaker 5: Four months later.
3:43
Speaker 8: Was anybody watching you at all?
3:44
Speaker 10: On you this steal?
3:46
Speaker 7: Actually?
3:46
Speaker 2: Yah?
3:46
Speaker 9: In China, we had close calls.
3:50
Speaker 5: We were we were because we were.
3:51
Speaker 9: Some of the first foreigners to re enjer after COVID.
3:55
Speaker 9: There was there was people watching in China.
3:59
Speaker 8: What about in France because I saw it on the
4:02
Speaker 8: subway in France.
4:04
Speaker 7: That was good.
4:05
Speaker 8: Really, you know, and you seem like you're connected with
4:09
Speaker 8: your father.
4:11
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's here and we have a good relationship.
4:17
Speaker 7: Is good?
4:19
Speaker 3: Would you?
4:24
Speaker 1: That was filmmaker Dion Taylor along with Isaac Wright, the
4:28
Speaker 1: subject of the documentary Drift. The movie is on the
4:32
Speaker 1: film festival circuit now, but hopefully we'll be coming to
4:35
Speaker 1: Houston soon. The third No King's Day protest was held
4:40
Speaker 1: on Saturday and drew a total attendance of over eight
4:44
Speaker 1: million protesters. This is the third No King's protest. The
4:49
Speaker 1: first one was held on Flag Day June fourteenth. It
4:53
Speaker 1: drew five million protesters. The second one was in October.
4:58
Speaker 1: It drew seven million. Protests. From Trump's war of choice
5:02
Speaker 1: in the Gulf, to the economy, and to ice, people
5:07
Speaker 1: came out for various reasons. Protests were also held all
5:12
Speaker 1: over Texas in the Houston area, including Kingwood, Cyprus, Friendswood,
5:18
Speaker 1: and Sugarland. Organizers of the protest stated that they had
5:23
Speaker 1: over thirty thousand people in attendance at Houston City Hall
5:28
Speaker 1: and that far exceeds the first two No King's protests.
5:33
Speaker 1: Emmy Linley spoke with The People's News about the event.
5:38
Speaker 11: So my name is Emmy Linley. I am one of
5:41
Speaker 11: the community activists and active organizers for fifty to fifty
5:44
Speaker 11: one Houston communities at work.
5:47
Speaker 12: We are the people who put on.
5:48
Speaker 11: The No King's protests as well as like things like
5:51
Speaker 11: Hands Off earlier in twenty twenty five, and we put
5:55
Speaker 11: together this massive protest that you see of everyone walking
5:58
Speaker 11: around and just all parking here. And I'm saying that
6:01
Speaker 11: this is at least thirty thousand based off of our
6:05
Speaker 11: thirty thousand, based off of our last to everything, Yes so,
6:09
Speaker 11: and based off of our projections. We're looking between thirty
6:11
Speaker 11: and fifty to be here for the full day. We
6:14
Speaker 11: will know for sure for sure at the end of
6:16
Speaker 11: the march. But uh, in the meantime, it's it's certainly
6:20
Speaker 11: a little congested. It's almost like one of the highways
6:24
Speaker 11: at rush hour.
6:25
Speaker 6: But yeah, yeah, what what brought you to have it
6:29
Speaker 6: in downtown and what brought you to say, hey enough protest?
6:34
Speaker 10: Yeah?
6:34
Speaker 11: So, it's a fascism outside. There's a lot going on
6:38
Speaker 11: and a lot of people are just overwhelmed with the
6:41
Speaker 11: news that's coming through every day. So we feel that
6:45
Speaker 11: our job is to help people get up to speed
6:47
Speaker 11: and off their couch. That's what the No King's protests
6:50
Speaker 11: are bristful to like doing, is getting people activated enough
6:55
Speaker 11: to get into community, and then we help them build
6:58
Speaker 11: that community, because that is what has has gotten us.
7:00
Speaker 12: Through everything before this.
7:02
Speaker 11: Every tyrant, despot and dictator before now has been defeated
7:05
Speaker 11: over time by community. And that's what we do with
7:09
Speaker 11: nonviolent protest.
7:10
Speaker 6: And when you see that other protests are expressing people
7:15
Speaker 6: for the protesting, say you have to act himacy Now
7:19
Speaker 6: the government put out well anti semitism type of laws
7:23
Speaker 6: and all types of laws against people that want to protest.
7:27
Speaker 8: Is that something that affects you.
7:29
Speaker 11: It's something that affects me in that I worry about
7:32
Speaker 11: my safety sometimes in regards to like state police. But
7:36
Speaker 11: it does not frighten me in a way that makes
7:40
Speaker 11: me stop thinking that what we need, what we are
7:42
Speaker 11: doing is what we need to do. It is our
7:44
Speaker 11: First Amendment right to protest. We have the right to assemble.
7:48
Speaker 11: It is something that we have to do in order
7:52
Speaker 11: to have our voices heard. And when the people are
7:55
Speaker 11: not being heard, the people will rise up and speak out.
8:00
Speaker 6: Definitely want people to come here and get their feelings
8:04
Speaker 6: known that you wanted to go home and actually gave
8:07
Speaker 6: them up exactly.
8:08
Speaker 11: And that's part of the reason why we have these
8:09
Speaker 11: community booths out here, like Indivisible and the NAACP, and
8:14
Speaker 11: different union organizations and different five oh one c threes
8:20
Speaker 11: during five o one c threes, everything like that, is
8:23
Speaker 11: because we know that everyone is passionate about something. We
8:27
Speaker 11: want to help you find your passion so that you
8:30
Speaker 11: can be active where you feel most aligned.
8:34
Speaker 1: Sounds of protests as various people and groups gathered at
8:37
Speaker 1: City Hall before the march.
8:39
Speaker 5: We Americans want stem that.
8:45
Speaker 13: A life of dignity ball so now is the time
8:49
Speaker 13: that we must command it.
8:55
Speaker 5: Look along.
8:59
Speaker 13: All to us the United States, simultaneously, from New York
9:02
Speaker 13: City to.
9:03
Speaker 5: The smaller seals of West texts.
9:06
Speaker 13: This is proved to the top of megization and the
9:09
Speaker 13: entire system is incredibly unpopular. There is no other proof
9:14
Speaker 13: that the people are ready to fight that in one
9:18
Speaker 13: month we will be out to sea together. Neighbors our neighbors, union,
9:24
Speaker 13: community groups and organizations of all times given up for
9:28
Speaker 13: another powerful day of process of nationwide general flood.
9:39
Speaker 7: All right, tell me your name, man, tell me what brings.
9:41
Speaker 14: You down here?
9:42
Speaker 15: Marteen ninety Vando with Alian Saladin International. Well, let me
9:46
Speaker 15: here because we need to come together and we need
9:49
Speaker 15: to do this my protest because we're tired with this
9:53
Speaker 15: government that isn't a we cannot handle animal. So we
9:57
Speaker 15: need to stap up and pick.
9:59
Speaker 6: Up what things as far as immigration goes, and what's
10:03
Speaker 6: been going on with the attack on brown people?
10:06
Speaker 16: What do you This station seems to do that.
10:08
Speaker 7: And with a passion.
10:10
Speaker 15: Well, this is the more racist things we've seen since
10:17
Speaker 15: a very long time. So I think this has to
10:20
Speaker 15: be changed right away because the way they treat us
10:24
Speaker 15: only because our color, that is now acceptable for nothing
10:28
Speaker 15: either working for hard working people. It's been attacked for
10:31
Speaker 15: these governments and it needs to stop because it's going
10:35
Speaker 15: worse and worse.
10:36
Speaker 3: Seventy times.
10:37
Speaker 10: Yes, sir, So my name is Location More. I'm a
10:39
Speaker 10: National director with Common Defense. Common Defense is the largest
10:43
Speaker 10: veterans led grassroots movement in the country, and I'm joined
10:47
Speaker 10: here today with other members and other veterans of common
10:50
Speaker 10: defense to stand in the solid area understanding that sir,
10:56
Speaker 10: to protect everything that we are now lose. We scorn
11:02
Speaker 10: oath to protect this country for an and domestic heavy
11:06
Speaker 10: on domestic right, that that oath did not end just
11:11
Speaker 10: because we're no longer in a parent because we got
11:14
Speaker 10: the piece of paper saying that that we're not in
11:17
Speaker 10: service anymore. We scored oh to be in service on
11:20
Speaker 10: our communities and fight against these threats that we are
11:22
Speaker 10: seeing in our communities, that we're seeing in our states,
11:25
Speaker 10: that we're seeing in our country, and saying that we're
11:27
Speaker 10: not gonna happen. Right when you're sitting here looking at
11:31
Speaker 10: all these folks that are out here today, the energy
11:34
Speaker 10: bills are going up, the gas prices are going up.
11:37
Speaker 10: People are having decided whether or not they're gonna pay
11:39
Speaker 10: for their light deals or put food on the table
11:41
Speaker 10: right now.
11:42
Speaker 12: And how are they gonna put food on the table.
11:46
Speaker 10: Right right? But we got money for walk, We got
11:49
Speaker 10: money to put ice in our streets, right We got
11:53
Speaker 10: all this money before the people that pay taxes every
11:58
Speaker 10: single year, blood sweat tears to make against me for
12:01
Speaker 10: their family. And this is what we are sitting here having.
12:04
Speaker 6: To deal with I mean, look at the head of defense.
12:10
Speaker 11: So it changed the name.
12:12
Speaker 1: You know, what do you think the leadership.
12:15
Speaker 2: Is doing right now?
12:17
Speaker 6: What's your thoughts on that? I mean the change that
12:21
Speaker 6: the changed that were made.
12:23
Speaker 10: Well, I mean to be completely honest in trying to
12:26
Speaker 10: create an authoritarian state. Right, this is a department of
12:30
Speaker 10: defense and defensive country. We are not a country of war.
12:34
Speaker 10: This country has seen time after time after time. What
12:39
Speaker 10: war is in the concert? You know, I'm the United
12:43
Speaker 10: States Army better I served from two thousand twenty ten. Right,
12:51
Speaker 10: I was sitting in Korea at nineteen years old. Listen
12:54
Speaker 10: to the radio transitions. We went into my Iraq, having
12:58
Speaker 10: to sit there and watch my brother's and sisters every
13:00
Speaker 10: single day.
13:01
Speaker 11: Lose their lives.
13:02
Speaker 12: This is not for play. This isn't This isn't war games.
13:07
Speaker 10: Right, It's not a game. These are people's lives. And
13:09
Speaker 10: we feel that calls back here at home. And there's
13:12
Speaker 10: generations that remember I Racket, that remember Afghanistans. They remember
13:17
Speaker 10: having to open up the news and pop up CNN
13:21
Speaker 10: or Funk's news to see that Tiko of all those
13:24
Speaker 10: lives lost, that we was losing a tickle helping it up,
13:27
Speaker 10: like we remember that year. We're not a country of war, so.
13:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what the trauma is.
13:35
Speaker 17: Yeah, my names and this is.
13:37
Speaker 3: My name is Michelle.
13:39
Speaker 7: You're Rath the New Keys rally.
13:40
Speaker 6: We're brought down here.
13:44
Speaker 17: Years of not being able to understand how they are
13:47
Speaker 17: propaganda successful and too effected in this country.
13:51
Speaker 11: I came down here because I gave birth to a
13:53
Speaker 11: girl about eleven years ago, and I think that she
13:55
Speaker 11: deserves a great future.
13:58
Speaker 7: And no, we know what's one other now in the Ukraine?
14:03
Speaker 6: What's root thoughts on what the world should be doing
14:06
Speaker 6: and what you thoughts on what should be done?
14:10
Speaker 17: Brown, It's obvious that Russia is the aggressor, and so
14:13
Speaker 17: you have to establish the truth first and you have
14:18
Speaker 17: to honor your commitments. We took the Ukraine, we disarmed
14:20
Speaker 17: the Ukrainians based on the fact we will protect them,
14:23
Speaker 17: and you know, you just go from there. We're not
14:25
Speaker 17: being honest or following our word to see the consequences
14:30
Speaker 17: of it.
14:31
Speaker 6: Discasso the Ukraine's right now or without getting at the
14:36
Speaker 6: weapons that they need. Europe's trying to step up and
14:40
Speaker 6: try to protect use home.
14:41
Speaker 12: But what what what is it?
14:43
Speaker 17: Something that the tolerance in Vladimir Putin is anything less
14:47
Speaker 17: than the tyrant and the representation of him is anything
14:50
Speaker 17: other than an evasive, malignant tumor into Western and Eastern Europe.
14:56
Speaker 17: Eastern Europe is needs to be known by people instead
14:59
Speaker 17: of the United Pikes is now making business deals with Russia.
15:03
Speaker 17: And if you think that's okay Russia, Russian teaches their
15:06
Speaker 17: own people, they've killed so many of their own people
15:08
Speaker 17: that your forty of government's gonna treat you like that.
15:13
Speaker 6: And also the US right now has has opened up
15:16
Speaker 6: oil sales to Russia.
15:18
Speaker 17: That's the bottom line. Yeah, it's it's it's a mixed war.
15:22
Speaker 17: You have this huge country that has a lot of
15:25
Speaker 17: power and is controlled by a man interested only in
15:28
Speaker 17: himself and befriending another dictator every movie made, so it's
15:31
Speaker 17: a friend of the dictator. And if you want to
15:33
Speaker 17: be treated like that, continue to support Trump's.
15:39
Speaker 6: I would say lies. It's things that there's things that.
15:41
Speaker 8: The US has come out with. Always blame the Ukraine
15:47
Speaker 8: government for the laws.
15:49
Speaker 17: It is so child is that I'm embarrassed to have
15:51
Speaker 17: to answer that.
15:51
Speaker 5: It doesn't make any sense.
15:53
Speaker 17: And if you choose to believe it, you're not critically
15:55
Speaker 17: thinking and needs to be taken.
15:56
Speaker 5: Care of by someone.
15:57
Speaker 1: Marches and protests were held in every major city in
16:00
Speaker 1: the US and big cities in Canada and all over
16:04
Speaker 1: the world. Long lines at airports across the country continue.
16:10
Speaker 1: At Houston Intercontinental Airport, the average wait time is over
16:14
Speaker 1: three hours. The Transportation Security Administration workers continued to go
16:19
Speaker 1: without pay because of a stalemate in Congress over the
16:23
Speaker 1: Homeland Security Agency funding of ICE. On Friday, the convicted
16:29
Speaker 1: felon Donald Trump signed an executive order directing Homeland Security
16:35
Speaker 1: to start paying TSA workers after Congress failed to agree
16:40
Speaker 1: on a path to end the partial government shutdown and
16:44
Speaker 1: fund the Department of Homeland Security. AFGE national President Everett Kelly,
16:52
Speaker 1: alongside national and local TSA union leaders from across the country,
16:56
Speaker 1: held a press call to call out the ongoing government
17:00
Speaker 1: shut down that is once again forcing TSA workers to
17:04
Speaker 1: show up to work without pay.
17:07
Speaker 14: Let me tell you what thirdy nine days look like
17:09
Speaker 14: for the people who protect this country. More than four
17:14
Speaker 14: hundred TISA officers have quit, thousands more are calling out
17:18
Speaker 14: because they cannot get gas for the automobile, cannot get
17:22
Speaker 14: to work, because they cannot afford day care because they
17:25
Speaker 14: cannot keep the lights on it home while they keep
17:28
Speaker 14: the lights on at our airports. Sunday brought some of
17:33
Speaker 14: the longest TSA line travelers have ever seen in years
17:36
Speaker 14: in Houston, Atlanta. The New York travelers reported lines filling
17:42
Speaker 14: deep into terminals. This is what happens when the system
17:46
Speaker 14: is strained and staffing is stretched too thin. But instead
17:50
Speaker 14: of solving the problem in paying tsos, the administrations and
17:54
Speaker 14: ice agents to airports as replacement workers, that's like giving
17:58
Speaker 14: a person dying of pneumonia a teaspoon a call syrup.
18:01
Speaker 14: It doesn't address the problem, and it's not gonna work.
18:06
Speaker 14: I'm gonna address the report coming out of Senate overnight.
18:10
Speaker 14: Now we're hearing that there may be a deal to
18:13
Speaker 14: fund most of dhs and get their workers paid.
18:17
Speaker 5: Let me be clear about where afg E stands.
18:20
Speaker 14: If there's a real deal on the table, with real
18:23
Speaker 14: legitimate texts, legislated texts, then let's get paychecks into the
18:29
Speaker 14: member's hands. We want to see it move, not tomorrow,
18:33
Speaker 14: not Friday, but today, not Easter, but today. Because here's
18:38
Speaker 14: what I know. We've been hearing about progress and optimism
18:42
Speaker 14: for weeks. Our members cannot eat optimism, they cannot pay
18:47
Speaker 14: rent with progress.
18:48
Speaker 5: They need a paycheck.
18:51
Speaker 14: Tis old officers have now missed the third paycheck. Coastguard
18:56
Speaker 14: men and women are conducting searches and operations without knowing
19:02
Speaker 14: what they will eat or if they'll ever see a dime.
19:06
Speaker 14: Female workers are supposed to be ready when disaster strikes,
19:10
Speaker 14: but right now the disaster is their own bank account.
19:14
Speaker 14: This is a national embarrassment and it's a disgrace.
19:20
Speaker 5: So here's what I want to say to.
19:22
Speaker 14: Every political or politicians that's working on this issue. Get
19:27
Speaker 14: the text written, get it to the floor, vote on it,
19:31
Speaker 14: and get it to the president's dere's for singing to it.
19:34
Speaker 14: And don't even think about going home for Easter recess
19:37
Speaker 14: while tens of thousands of American families are going without paychecks.
19:42
Speaker 14: Do not get on a plane that are tears they
19:45
Speaker 14: officer screen for free and fly home for Easter dinner.
19:48
Speaker 5: And tell these people that you're working on it.
19:51
Speaker 14: These are parents, these are veterans, These are people with
19:55
Speaker 14: mortgages and car payments and kids who need to eat,
19:58
Speaker 14: and they're carrying away this government own their back. Right now,
20:03
Speaker 14: these workers need a vote, a signatur and a paycheck.
20:07
Speaker 14: So in US and that against today. Finish the deal
20:11
Speaker 14: and get these workers paid. That's what I want to
20:14
Speaker 14: say to this entire America.
20:16
Speaker 5: Thank you.
20:20
Speaker 18: All right, thank you, President Kelly. Next up we'll hear
20:22
Speaker 18: from Hydrich Thomas, the president of AFG TSA Council one
20:26
Speaker 18: hundred even, ladies and gentlemen.
20:28
Speaker 16: My name is Heidrich Thomas. I've been employed at TSA
20:31
Speaker 16: Approxmately twenty four years. I came in because of the
20:35
Speaker 16: nine to eleven. I want no one that ever forget that.
20:37
Speaker 16: That's why this agency was created. And I'm apparently Congress
20:43
Speaker 16: and anyone else is failing forget even though they get
20:45
Speaker 16: on the plane every day, every day, twice a day,
20:48
Speaker 16: sometimes sometimes five, three times a day from state to state.
20:53
Speaker 16: We're coming at the end of the month. And what
20:56
Speaker 16: happens at the end of the month. The rent dude,
20:59
Speaker 16: gas bill dude, you're always dude, your comic paid dude.
21:02
Speaker 16: The child kids, dude. The shopping supermarkets open, duce to
21:08
Speaker 16: go shopping. The child looking to get certain things on
21:11
Speaker 16: my birthdays. A lot of children's birthdays are coming up.
21:13
Speaker 16: Imagine your child's looking for that because they know every
21:15
Speaker 16: year it comes now all a sudden. This year you
21:17
Speaker 16: tell me, listen, unfortunately you can't. We're not gonna have
21:20
Speaker 16: a party. Just we made we could do it next month.
21:22
Speaker 16: It's the dad and mom. But my birthday is tomorrow.
21:25
Speaker 16: How do you tell a child you're looking at their
21:27
Speaker 16: faithy telling us saying, oh, we can't buy those cookies,
21:29
Speaker 16: We can't get that candy. So guys, why are we
21:33
Speaker 16: making TSA employees the pawn on the chest board the
21:36
Speaker 16: sacrifice the lives of the TSA employees. We just came
21:40
Speaker 16: out of a shutdown with October November forty three days,
21:43
Speaker 16: but we didn't get paid until the fifty third day,
21:45
Speaker 16: so that was already going in December. Now were back
21:48
Speaker 16: into another shutdown and they telling us, oh, even after
21:53
Speaker 16: union want to do something. How much you're paying for
21:55
Speaker 16: the food. I'm Southern born. When I invite you into
21:58
Speaker 16: the kitchen, don't tell you the course that feeds you.
22:01
Speaker 16: Apparently that's what we're in crisis right now, where we
22:04
Speaker 16: have to explain to the agency what are we spending
22:07
Speaker 16: that's coming out of our own popularly fortunate after pull
22:10
Speaker 16: get money together for the workers, ourselves, our co workers.
22:13
Speaker 16: We come together say okay, maybe we can have a
22:15
Speaker 16: lunch in this day, but what about the going home
22:17
Speaker 16: when there's no meal to eat at home. I'm sure
22:21
Speaker 16: if these congress leaders, presidents, everybody's involved in this decision,
22:25
Speaker 16: will I have to pay TSA? Imagine if it was
22:28
Speaker 16: you not getting paid, you have to put yourself another
22:32
Speaker 16: person's shoot that's suffering. I do this because I care,
22:36
Speaker 16: not that I have to. I've always been a union
22:39
Speaker 16: representative prior to coming to TSA, always been. I'm a
22:42
Speaker 16: dedicated employee. I also make sure I enforce the rules
22:45
Speaker 16: on employees to do their job to the best ability.
22:47
Speaker 16: Because we took an oath. I'm a foreign marine, I'm
22:50
Speaker 16: a military person. Also, we took an oath to protect
22:53
Speaker 16: life and property and we take it very serious and
22:56
Speaker 16: we became professionals at what we do. If they want
22:59
Speaker 16: to bring other agencies in there, that's another question for
23:04
Speaker 16: another day. And you're gonna see what's gonna happen here.
23:07
Speaker 16: So I'm not gonna speak on this agency. They got
23:08
Speaker 16: walking around and I mean, they don't even look at
23:11
Speaker 16: the uniforms they wear. They're not even they're ain't presentable
23:16
Speaker 16: to the public. So, like I said, you want to
23:18
Speaker 16: bring a tactical force into the environment where it required
23:22
Speaker 16: to have customer service and the skill set of mindset
23:25
Speaker 16: where you know what you're doing, how to identify something
23:28
Speaker 16: might be suspicious. They don't have that training. Whether ts
23:31
Speaker 16: are gonna try to quick train them replace TSA employees, folks,
23:36
Speaker 16: it's not gonna happen. So when you when you're making
23:39
Speaker 16: a decision on what you think to be done with TSA,
23:42
Speaker 16: make the right decision. Think about if you go home
23:44
Speaker 16: tonight and you can't eat. Like you said, what bothers
23:47
Speaker 16: me a lot of I'm gonna speak for me, my
23:49
Speaker 16: myself and for the members. Stop asking me about the
23:52
Speaker 16: loan lines. Ask me if somebody's gonna eat it down,
23:55
Speaker 16: what we can do to help them feed them in
23:57
Speaker 16: their children.
23:58
Speaker 5: Actually, ask me about is that person you get?
24:00
Speaker 16: I got people getting evicted, got to go to court
24:04
Speaker 16: because they can't afford to pay the rent because they
24:05
Speaker 16: got backed up. Then they got to oh we got
24:07
Speaker 16: this more interest loans. You're still trying to pay back
24:10
Speaker 16: the loans for the last shutdown. So now they want
24:12
Speaker 16: to offer you some other type of loans, long term loans,
24:16
Speaker 16: So you be paying that for the rest of your
24:18
Speaker 16: life based on this agency here. So guys, just think
24:22
Speaker 16: about what we're doing and why we're doing it, and
24:25
Speaker 16: have some love for the employees that could not lie
24:27
Speaker 16: on the line. Every day when we go to work,
24:29
Speaker 16: we're not sure whether or not we're going to go
24:30
Speaker 16: home at the end of the day, but we don't
24:32
Speaker 16: think about that. We think about the safety of the passengers.
24:36
Speaker 16: They make sure they feel comfortable, make sure they're safe,
24:39
Speaker 16: make sure there's no problem, nothing to get on that
24:41
Speaker 16: plane that can hurt anyone. That's what we specialize in,
24:45
Speaker 16: all right.
24:45
Speaker 18: Next we'll hear from Matt Johnson, who is the executive
24:48
Speaker 18: vice president of AFGTSA Council and also the president of
24:52
Speaker 18: Local four four nine, which covers airports in Virginia, Maryland,
24:55
Speaker 18: West Virginia, and North Carolina.
24:57
Speaker 4: MAC to the members of the press and my colleagues
25:02
Speaker 4: as well. Thank you guys for joining this press conference
25:05
Speaker 4: this afternoon. As Britain stated, the executive vice president for
25:10
Speaker 4: the TSA Council one hundred and my local jurisdiction. It
25:15
Speaker 4: covers four states, North Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland.
25:20
Speaker 4: I'm also a veteran of the United States Army. I
25:24
Speaker 4: just want to give you a background Briefly. I was
25:28
Speaker 4: a four time college student when the events Harboro events
25:32
Speaker 4: of nine to eleven happened. I was now a semester
25:35
Speaker 4: hours short of graduating, but in an effort to continue
25:40
Speaker 4: my service to this country, I quit college and I
25:43
Speaker 4: joined TSA and Raleigh Durham International Airport located in Morrisville,
25:48
Speaker 4: North Carolina. I've been on this council as various positions
25:54
Speaker 4: since twenty twelve. And what I'm hearing from our members
25:58
Speaker 4: in the four States that I directly UH directly in
26:01
Speaker 4: our jurisdiction is it's not that these employees and their
26:05
Speaker 4: families are hungry. They'll be given to starve, starve, literally
26:10
Speaker 4: starve because they do not have the funds to provide UH,
26:15
Speaker 4: the financial means to provide foods for their families. And
26:20
Speaker 4: they're just absolutely, absolutely absurd. No federal employee in the
26:25
Speaker 4: United States of America should be starving UH or of
26:29
Speaker 4: having any difficulty playing the rent, the mortgage, UH, auto insurance,
26:36
Speaker 4: life insurance, et cetera. So, like everyone else, we not
26:41
Speaker 4: only strongly encouraged, we demand that the Congress and this
26:45
Speaker 4: administration sit down like adults and resolve this matter so
26:51
Speaker 4: these employees won't be placed themselves between a rock and
26:55
Speaker 4: hard place. And again, one last thing that I find
26:59
Speaker 4: very sturbing, or two things actually, the first being there's
27:03
Speaker 4: some employees around this country who are selling plasma so
27:07
Speaker 4: that they can buy food to feed their families selling plasma. Additionally,
27:14
Speaker 4: there are magic officials throughout this country. To add ins
27:18
Speaker 4: to injury, they're charging folks with absent without leave, which
27:22
Speaker 4: is a wall so that when it shut down does
27:26
Speaker 4: end someday, they will not be paid for those time.
27:29
Speaker 4: That time that they're not reporting to work due to
27:33
Speaker 4: no fault their own is due directly to the fault
27:36
Speaker 4: of the Congress of the United States of America as
27:39
Speaker 4: well as this current administration. Thank you, and I look
27:44
Speaker 4: forward to answering your questions.
27:48
Speaker 1: Hi, this is Steve Gallington, producer and host of the
27:51
Speaker 1: People's News. If you have a story that needs to
27:54
Speaker 1: be told, to come to us. We accept fully produced
27:57
Speaker 1: audio written material, or just give us the idea and
28:01
Speaker 1: we will run with it. Shiny new one hour episodes
28:05
Speaker 1: of The People's News drop each Sunday on The People's
28:09
Speaker 1: News podcast. Hosted by spreaker dot com and linked to
28:13
Speaker 1: my website Gallington dot com. A fire broke out at
28:18
Speaker 1: the Bayport Choke Chemical Plan in Pasadena, Texas, which is
28:22
Speaker 1: part of the Liondel Basil refinery. Though there were no deaths,
28:27
Speaker 1: seven tons of toxic substances, including n butane, isobutane, and
28:32
Speaker 1: carbon monoxide were released into the air. The company, which
28:37
Speaker 1: has been cited for violations in the past, said that
28:40
Speaker 1: everyone was accounted for and there were no safety concerns
28:44
Speaker 1: to community. This was echoed by officials, including the mayor Pasadena.
28:50
Speaker 1: This is the second time this month that there was
28:53
Speaker 1: a fire at this particular facility. On March twelfth, a
28:58
Speaker 1: fire broke out at the same facility, which is the
29:01
Speaker 1: Bayport Choke Facility, which is right on the boundary between
29:04
Speaker 1: Pasadena and Laporte. The local municipal and community officials stated
29:09
Speaker 1: there were no air quality issues of concern during or
29:12
Speaker 1: after the incident. An analysis of overnight wind patterns, community
29:16
Speaker 1: air monitoring, and the company's own emissions report provides more
29:20
Speaker 1: holistic details. The airborne pollution from the fire was also
29:24
Speaker 1: being distributed away from the plant into the eastern area
29:27
Speaker 1: of Baytown. In fact, Air Alliance Houston's own community air
29:32
Speaker 1: monitors in Baytown picked up indications of particulate matter pollution
29:36
Speaker 1: spikes during the same period as the fire. We talked
29:40
Speaker 1: to Jennifer Hadaiah, executive director of Air Alliance Houston.
29:45
Speaker 12: That's correct. It's not the first time that this plant
29:48
Speaker 12: has had emergency response events, and it's not the first
29:51
Speaker 12: time that our community has seen a plant disruption of
29:55
Speaker 12: this nature. We see, unfortunate, a pretty regular series of
30:03
Speaker 12: disruptions at petrochemical facilities, refineries, all of the plants up
30:07
Speaker 12: and down the Houston Ship Channel. We see leaks, we
30:11
Speaker 12: see fires in the worst case scenarios, we see massive explosions,
30:16
Speaker 12: and I think we can all reflect back to some
30:20
Speaker 12: of those big examples over the last five ten years. ITC.
30:24
Speaker 12: Deer Park is one that comes to mind quite often.
30:26
Speaker 12: Exxon Mobil comes to mind, but the lion Dell Bayport
30:31
Speaker 12: Choke Facility itself has had about thirty emergency response events
30:38
Speaker 12: over its documented history. That's publicly available information, and that
30:45
Speaker 12: occurred even before the events that happened about two weeks
30:48
Speaker 12: ago now most recently in twenty twenty two, so less
30:53
Speaker 12: than five years ago they had an emergency response event
30:56
Speaker 12: and now we're seeing another one just a few weeks ago.
31:02
Speaker 12: Not only do they have emergency events like this, but
31:05
Speaker 12: they are also in violation of their permitting. They are
31:12
Speaker 12: gosh in non compliance with the Clean Air Act, there's
31:15
Speaker 12: no other way to say it. And they're one of
31:17
Speaker 12: the top twenty highest air pollution emitters in the entire county.
31:23
Speaker 12: So this is a problematic facility on a number of levels.
31:28
Speaker 8: What's being done because for the most part, the government
31:31
Speaker 8: of the Texas government gave them kind of a kind
31:34
Speaker 8: of free pass on regulation of these plants.
31:40
Speaker 12: So that has been a challenge. We are in, for
31:46
Speaker 12: lack of a better term, a do regulatory era when
31:50
Speaker 12: it comes to environmental protections from top to bottom, starting
31:54
Speaker 12: all the way up at the Environmental Protection Agency and
31:57
Speaker 12: all the way down to the Texas Commission on Environment Quality,
32:00
Speaker 12: which permits each of these individual facilities. Almost about a
32:05
Speaker 12: year ago, i would say, in March of twenty twenty five,
32:09
Speaker 12: the EPA announced that it was planning to weaken or
32:14
Speaker 12: eliminate about thirty different Clean Air Act and Clean Water
32:19
Speaker 12: Act regulatory protections, and in the past year have been
32:25
Speaker 12: systematically following through on that promise. Unfortunately, and in just
32:29
Speaker 12: the last few months, the first few months of twenty
32:32
Speaker 12: twenty six, we have seen a series of published regulatory rollbacks.
32:38
Speaker 12: I think by my last count, we have seen ten
32:42
Speaker 12: published rollbacks in the federal register. That's the point at
32:46
Speaker 12: which the weakening and the elimination of the protection has
32:50
Speaker 12: become official at the level of the EPA. Some of
32:54
Speaker 12: those are still under public comment opportunities. Some of those
32:58
Speaker 12: have already passed their public comment opportunity and are actively
33:01
Speaker 12: in place, but one of them being a permission to prollute,
33:07
Speaker 12: which was a very simple action that facilities could take
33:11
Speaker 12: to email the Environmental Protection Agency last year and simply
33:16
Speaker 12: requests that they no longer be required to follow some
33:20
Speaker 12: of these regulations. I have not checked the most recent
33:23
Speaker 12: number of local facilities that made that request, but there
33:26
Speaker 12: were many local facilities who sent in that email and
33:29
Speaker 12: made a request to simply be exempt from those regulations
33:33
Speaker 12: while the EPA was formally working to reduce or eliminate
33:38
Speaker 12: or weaken those protections more formally and more systematically. But
33:43
Speaker 12: even in this first year, first few months of the
33:46
Speaker 12: new year, we have seen about ten of those regulations
33:49
Speaker 12: go to formal notice in the Federal Register, including one
33:53
Speaker 12: that is directly related to the Liondel Bayport facility incident
33:58
Speaker 12: last week, and that rule is called colloquially known as
34:03
Speaker 12: the Risk Management Plan rule. The Risk Management Plan rule
34:06
Speaker 12: is the rule that sets out the expectations for how
34:09
Speaker 12: plants have to prevent incidents like a fire, like a spill,
34:14
Speaker 12: like a leak, like an explosion. That rule has been
34:18
Speaker 12: in place for a number of years. It was the
34:20
Speaker 12: same rule that was in place during the itced Der
34:23
Speaker 12: Park disaster during the Hurricane Harvey disasters, and it had
34:28
Speaker 12: not been updated until twenty twenty four when the new
34:31
Speaker 12: plan was put out, and it was going to be stronger.
34:34
Speaker 12: It would have been so strong that if it had
34:37
Speaker 12: been in place in twenty nineteen, it would have prevented
34:40
Speaker 12: itc Der Park. But lo and behold, the new EPA
34:44
Speaker 12: has come in and said, no, I'm sorry, we don't
34:47
Speaker 12: want to strengthen that chemical disaster prevention rule after all,
34:50
Speaker 12: and we're just going to leave it as is, which
34:52
Speaker 12: we already knew was not protective enough to prevent disasters
34:55
Speaker 12: like itc your Park or like the fire at the
34:59
Speaker 12: lion Port plant two weeks ago. So unfortunately, we've already
35:04
Speaker 12: seen that rest management plan rural rollback go post to
35:07
Speaker 12: the federal register. It is open for public comment right now.
35:11
Speaker 12: It will be open until April tenth for people to respond.
35:14
Speaker 12: But to be very frank, the actions that have been
35:17
Speaker 12: taken at a regulatory level this year are solely and
35:21
Speaker 12: fully in support of whatever makes life and profit easier
35:25
Speaker 12: for industry. I wish that weren't the case. We have
35:29
Speaker 12: to fight for that to change, but right now that's
35:31
Speaker 12: what we've been seeing.
35:33
Speaker 8: What do you You said?
35:34
Speaker 7: Two things though, was what was the outcome of the
35:38
Speaker 7: Lad's fire.
35:40
Speaker 19: Sure Harris Kinds County Judge Daldo has bed is he
35:46
Speaker 19: sent out, she sent she sent out, the emergency crews
35:48
Speaker 19: has seen. What about the air testing that goes?
35:52
Speaker 12: Yeah, that's a great question. So there when an event
35:57
Speaker 12: like that happens, there are multiple sources of community air
36:01
Speaker 12: monitoring and testing of pollutants that come from the event itself.
36:06
Speaker 12: The local municipalities often send out emergency response air quality
36:13
Speaker 12: monitoring and testing mobile vans, and in this case, the
36:17
Speaker 12: Harris County because this was outside the city. If you
36:20
Speaker 12: send this was a Harris County response. So Harris County
36:23
Speaker 12: Pollution Year role did go out and they monitored sites
36:27
Speaker 12: around the plant itself, and their results are available publicly
36:32
Speaker 12: on their website, and I've looked at them myself, and
36:35
Speaker 12: they did not find any levels of concern during the
36:42
Speaker 12: immediate incident fence line to the plant, which is very important.
36:48
Speaker 12: Those residents, schools, community centers, churches, etc. That are fence
36:53
Speaker 12: line to a facility Are always going to be in
36:56
Speaker 12: the greatest path of harm. And the work that Harris
36:59
Speaker 12: County Pollution Control Services did to monitor that fence line
37:02
Speaker 12: harm is incredibly important. And I believe, though I don't
37:07
Speaker 12: represent the County Judge's office, but I believe that is
37:11
Speaker 12: the data on which our county judge based those remarks.
37:16
Speaker 12: There are other sources of data that are important to
37:20
Speaker 12: look at for a more holistic picture of what was
37:23
Speaker 12: emitted during that event. One of them is the plant's
37:27
Speaker 12: own reporting. So every time there is an incident like this,
37:31
Speaker 12: the facility in this case, Lion Dell, has to submit
37:34
Speaker 12: a report to the TCQ, which required they have to
37:38
Speaker 12: submit it within twenty four hours of the end of
37:40
Speaker 12: the event. And according to that preliminary report, we know
37:45
Speaker 12: that the fire emitted air pollution. There's no doubt even
37:48
Speaker 12: if the readings on the ground, the reading sense line
37:53
Speaker 12: did not show concerning levels of air pollution. We know
37:56
Speaker 12: pollution was emitted because the plant itself has told us
38:00
Speaker 12: that they did it, and according to that preliminary report
38:04
Speaker 12: submitted about twenty four hours after the fire happened, we
38:08
Speaker 12: know that the fire released roughly twenty three thousand pounds
38:13
Speaker 12: of air pollution over the course of twenty four hours.
38:17
Speaker 12: That pollution was comprised primarily of what the facility itself
38:22
Speaker 12: manufactures and uses. So whatever they make it the facility,
38:26
Speaker 12: that's certainly what gets emitted into the air, but also
38:29
Speaker 12: the particulate matter that happens during a fire of any kind,
38:34
Speaker 12: and in this case, this was a fire that burned
38:37
Speaker 12: for several hours, not just a short period of time,
38:41
Speaker 12: that burned pretty much overnight and was not contained until
38:44
Speaker 12: the following morning. So in addition to the chemicals that
38:47
Speaker 12: the plant produces that were emitted during the fire, the
38:50
Speaker 12: fire itself produces air pollution, and that's what we call
38:54
Speaker 12: that particulate matter or PM two point five pollution. That's
38:57
Speaker 12: very concerning for people with respiratory or car already a conditions.
39:01
Speaker 12: The last piece of data I'd like to share is
39:05
Speaker 12: another element to a holistic picture of air pollution impacts,
39:10
Speaker 12: and that is community air monitoring data. There is community
39:15
Speaker 12: monitoring throughout Harris County. We run a community air monitoring
39:19
Speaker 12: program here at Air Alliance Houston, but we're not the
39:21
Speaker 12: only ones. There are other organizations that run their own
39:24
Speaker 12: community air monitoring in certain neighborhoods, Environmental Defense funds for example,
39:30
Speaker 12: even some more local organizations in the Fifth Ward area,
39:33
Speaker 12: the Sunnyside area and others, so that they can get
39:36
Speaker 12: their own data at a very local, hyper local level
39:41
Speaker 12: using low cost air censers. And then when you add
39:46
Speaker 12: that to the picture, it just gives you more information.
39:48
Speaker 12: And so every time there's an event like this plant fire,
39:52
Speaker 12: we act and we look at our community air monitoring data.
39:56
Speaker 12: We look across our county. We have about sixty plus
40:00
Speaker 12: low coft air sensors located throughout Harris County, including in
40:04
Speaker 12: Pasadena where this fire happened. But that's not where we sold,
40:09
Speaker 12: that's not where we look.
40:10
Speaker 19: Only.
40:11
Speaker 12: The first thing we looked at was air patterns wind
40:13
Speaker 12: patterns during the fire, because whatever the wind is doing
40:17
Speaker 12: is going to tell you where some of that pollution
40:20
Speaker 12: is going to blow, or that particulate matter is going
40:22
Speaker 12: to go into neighborhoods. And sometimes, based on the wind pattern,
40:26
Speaker 12: it doesn't just stay at the local level. It can
40:30
Speaker 12: blow into other places. And that's the first thing we
40:33
Speaker 12: noticed about this incident. We noticed that overnight, during the
40:36
Speaker 12: time of this fire, that the wind was blowing to
40:40
Speaker 12: the northeast of Pasadena, And looking at a map, you'll
40:45
Speaker 12: know that what's northeast of Pasadena, going up and above
40:48
Speaker 12: the Ship Channel is the community of Daytown, already a
40:52
Speaker 12: community with quite a number of pollution sources and quite
40:56
Speaker 12: a bit of pollution concern So when we noticed that
40:59
Speaker 12: the wind was blowing into Baytown, we went and looked
41:03
Speaker 12: at our Baytown monitors, not just the Pasadena monitors, but
41:07
Speaker 12: we looked at the Baytown monitors to see what was
41:09
Speaker 12: happening to that community based on the wind pattern, and
41:13
Speaker 12: we did find some concerning levels of particulate matter getting
41:17
Speaker 12: picked up by our community monitors in the city of Baytown.
41:21
Speaker 12: So we were able to track over time from when
41:25
Speaker 12: the fire started at eight pm that evening to when
41:28
Speaker 12: we were told that the fire had been contained the
41:31
Speaker 12: following morning at nine point thirty a series of PM
41:35
Speaker 12: two point five spikes, some of them extremely high, that
41:41
Speaker 12: were picked up by our community monitors during that time.
41:44
Speaker 12: So I think all of those sources of data come
41:47
Speaker 12: together to give us a more holistic picture of the
41:51
Speaker 12: pollution impacts of an event like this, and so it
41:55
Speaker 12: is our conclusion that there were some pollution events. Obviously,
41:58
Speaker 12: the plant is telling us that there was pollution emitted,
42:03
Speaker 12: that's their own admission, their own self report, and our
42:08
Speaker 12: community monitoring shows that in certain places, over a certain
42:11
Speaker 12: period of time, there were concerning spikes of particulate matter.
42:14
Speaker 12: That is a concern for community members, especially those who
42:18
Speaker 12: live in the path of that pollution. I will say
42:22
Speaker 12: one if there is a silver lining in all of
42:25
Speaker 12: these data. The silver lining is that at sense line,
42:30
Speaker 12: our municipal pollution control did not detect any concerning levels.
42:35
Speaker 12: That is a good thing. That's a good thing. We
42:37
Speaker 12: would not want the opposite to be the case. And
42:39
Speaker 12: I think the other silver lining is that the particulate
42:42
Speaker 12: matterpikes that we're seen on community air monitoring in Baytown
42:46
Speaker 12: did happen overnight. So for the most part, most of
42:51
Speaker 12: us are not outdoors in the middle of the night.
42:54
Speaker 12: We are home, we are with windows and doors closed.
42:58
Speaker 12: That's a good thing too. It would have it would
43:00
Speaker 12: have been far more concerning to see these levels of
43:04
Speaker 12: PM two point five if they had happened during the
43:07
Speaker 12: school day or as people were perhaps walking to school,
43:12
Speaker 12: or during a time, you know, goodness, on a weekend
43:15
Speaker 12: when maybe there were sporting events outside where people would
43:17
Speaker 12: be out and about and breathing in that particular matter pollution.
43:21
Speaker 12: So I will say there's a silver lining pollution. Events
43:27
Speaker 12: like this can always get worse. I think the facility
43:30
Speaker 12: itself could have had more of an incident, and that
43:33
Speaker 12: always is enough to make us all panic. I think
43:35
Speaker 12: in the new scenario, realizing how much worse an event
43:38
Speaker 12: like a fire could be it could have escalated. There
43:41
Speaker 12: was no loss of life. That is a very good thing.
43:46
Speaker 12: There were no injuries reported, that is a very good thing.
43:49
Speaker 12: I think what worries us bigger picture is that there
43:52
Speaker 12: are not strong enough safeguards around these facilities that could
43:59
Speaker 12: that will prevent the next fire, or that would prevent
44:02
Speaker 12: the next fire escalating into something that would be far
44:05
Speaker 12: worse for our community. And the reason for that is
44:09
Speaker 12: what I've already described is our lack of strong regulatory
44:13
Speaker 12: oversight from the top of the EPA all the way
44:16
Speaker 12: to the state level at the TCQ.
44:19
Speaker 1: That was Jennifer Hadiah, executive director of Airlines Houston. They
44:24
Speaker 1: can be contacted at Airlines Houston. All put together dot org.
44:30
Speaker 1: Plant fires and releases of pollutants into the air affect
44:35
Speaker 1: people in the communities around the Houston Ship Channel. People
44:39
Speaker 1: in these communities suffer from a higher rate of cancer
44:42
Speaker 1: and other ailments. We talked to Randy Trevino, executive director
44:48
Speaker 1: of the REISA Collab what.
44:50
Speaker 3: That think is already pretty like I would say there
44:54
Speaker 3: are high stakes on the line because we already have
44:58
Speaker 3: seen for the last few year years that communities that
45:02
Speaker 3: are closest to these facilities live shorter lives on average,
45:08
Speaker 3: anywhere from you know, ten fourteen years shorter lives than
45:12
Speaker 3: on the other side of town, all the way up
45:14
Speaker 3: to twenty years shorter than on the other side of town.
45:18
Speaker 3: Just depends on how close they are, how closely exposed
45:22
Speaker 3: they are to these chemical facilities, And so it's not
45:25
Speaker 3: just that people are dying sooner. People are also living
45:28
Speaker 3: lives filled with disease where you're seeing people having how
45:32
Speaker 3: much higher rates of cancer, higher rates of autoimmune diseases,
45:37
Speaker 3: reproductive issues, and the list goes on really asthma, COPD.
45:44
Speaker 3: It used to be really easy to look up that
45:46
Speaker 3: information on a website that the EPA used to have,
45:51
Speaker 3: but this administration took it offline and so but we
45:55
Speaker 3: were able to look at that before then to see
45:59
Speaker 3: what those numbers look like, and it's pretty it was
46:01
Speaker 3: already pretty stark before even removing any type of oversight
46:08
Speaker 3: or you know, consequences, and so, you know, enforcement has
46:16
Speaker 3: already been pretty bad in Texas, like historically for the
46:19
Speaker 3: last couple of decades at least, it's been pretty bad, abysmal.
46:24
Speaker 3: But getting rid of them and even removing more of
46:27
Speaker 3: those pressures to follow the law, it can't be good
46:32
Speaker 3: in my opinion.
46:34
Speaker 8: What's that what I've seen happen.
46:36
Speaker 7: I've seen whole areas, especially in the Freeport area, where
46:40
Speaker 7: whole communities, especially back and brown communities, they are in
46:44
Speaker 7: the poorer communities that are affected. They'll have the power
46:49
Speaker 7: to do anything about these types of incidents that happened,
46:52
Speaker 7: and there's lots.
46:53
Speaker 8: To know about them.
46:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, is that what you've seen too? Yeah, a lot
46:59
Speaker 3: of information with help from communities. And then when when
47:03
Speaker 3: accidents are reported on, it is almost always without sale,
47:10
Speaker 3: accompanied by a message that says something along the lines
47:13
Speaker 3: of air quality has not been affected. You know, communities
47:19
Speaker 3: around nearby will not be affected by this incident. But
47:24
Speaker 3: if you see it, if you smell it, if it's
47:26
Speaker 3: moving being you know, gifted by the wind, those of
47:31
Speaker 3: us who have been you know, in the know about
47:35
Speaker 3: these accidents know that there is an affected community. But
47:38
Speaker 3: because communities are being lied to by the companies and
47:42
Speaker 3: a lot of times even by elected officials or by
47:45
Speaker 3: news or media, then yeah, they're not going to know enough.
47:49
Speaker 3: They're not going to find out everything that they need
47:53
Speaker 3: they need to know to keep their families safe.
47:56
Speaker 7: What areas do you know of that's been affected? Because
47:59
Speaker 7: I know it's been reports that especially in a ship
48:02
Speaker 7: channel area of bro our communities being affected. And with
48:09
Speaker 7: the with the Inspirit administration and the enforcement, the the
48:15
Speaker 7: immigration enforcement for our communities are at least likely to
48:19
Speaker 7: come out and say anything about this.
48:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's There are different reasons for that. One
48:27
Speaker 3: reason is that the news isn't always shared in Spanish
48:31
Speaker 3: the same way at the same rate, or is most
48:33
Speaker 3: often not shared at the same rate in Spanish as
48:36
Speaker 3: it is in English. So there's already a lack of
48:39
Speaker 3: information that's being shared with communities that receive most of
48:42
Speaker 3: their information from Spanish media, even if they speak English,
48:46
Speaker 3: a lot of them feel more comfortable receiving the information
48:49
Speaker 3: and digesting it in Spanish, but the amount of news
48:55
Speaker 3: that's being shared in their language is limited. So that's
48:58
Speaker 3: the first one is that are just not it's not available,
49:02
Speaker 3: that information is just not available and Spanish. The other
49:05
Speaker 3: thing is, you know, frankly, there are cultural aspects of
49:10
Speaker 3: you know, just don't complain. Don't say anything if you
49:14
Speaker 3: can't if you can't address it, if you can't change
49:17
Speaker 3: change it, or if there's an impression that we can't
49:20
Speaker 3: change it, don't say anything, which is quite frankly unfortunate.
49:23
Speaker 3: I say that as someone from the community because this
49:26
Speaker 3: is what I've seen around me a lot of times.
49:29
Speaker 3: But then there's also that third aspect of fear that
49:32
Speaker 3: people in the community have been afraid to speak up,
49:37
Speaker 3: whether it's because they come from a community in another
49:40
Speaker 3: country where speaking up can be very dangerous to their lives,
49:45
Speaker 3: or because they've seen threats even in Texas, even in
49:48
Speaker 3: their community. They've seen threats to people's jobs, to their
49:52
Speaker 3: lives here, because those threats don't just exist in other countries,
49:55
Speaker 3: they exist in Texas too, And so they're either afraid
50:00
Speaker 3: for their work, for their likelihood, or for their lives,
50:03
Speaker 3: or if they're undocumented, they're afraid that if they speak
50:06
Speaker 3: up that consequences will follow. And so right now, more
50:10
Speaker 3: than ever, that's a concern. People are not going to
50:14
Speaker 3: want to risk, you know, pointing at themselves or like
50:18
Speaker 3: pointing attention at themselves at a time when ICE is
50:22
Speaker 3: you know, all over our city.
50:25
Speaker 7: ERKOD is the one that's responsible for enforcing some of
50:29
Speaker 7: these fines and trying to make sure that some of
50:34
Speaker 7: these companies are accountable for these events. But like the
50:39
Speaker 7: one here in the Houston area, it's incited numerous times
50:45
Speaker 7: for violations, and yeah, the middle of nothing was done
50:50
Speaker 7: about it as far as fines, And I don't know
50:54
Speaker 7: about that, the one that happened this week. But if
50:57
Speaker 7: it's the same pattern, it's the same thing, is not,
51:00
Speaker 7: it's not it's no, there's no type of enforcement. Have
51:04
Speaker 7: you seen the same thing?
51:06
Speaker 3: Yes, for years the agency that is typically irresponsible for
51:11
Speaker 3: enforcing these on these types of accidents is the TCQ,
51:16
Speaker 3: the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and for years it
51:21
Speaker 3: has consistently come out that their enforcement rate is anywhere
51:25
Speaker 3: between one and three percent. That means that ninety seven
51:30
Speaker 3: percent of the time at least the companies just get
51:34
Speaker 3: away with it, and it's either because they've made up
51:38
Speaker 3: an excuse that was accepted, because it's always accepted as
51:42
Speaker 3: long as you fill out the paperwork correctly and said,
51:45
Speaker 3: you know, we couldn't prevent it because of X, Y.
51:47
Speaker 7: Or Z, or.
51:52
Speaker 3: You know, sometimes there are loopholes like if the workers
51:57
Speaker 3: doing you know, if the workers are on that project
52:00
Speaker 3: at the time were contractors, then they can evade consequences
52:06
Speaker 3: that way too, by saying they're not our employee, they
52:09
Speaker 3: were a contractor and it doesn't count toward count quote
52:13
Speaker 3: unquote toward how many you know, like their enforcement rates.
52:19
Speaker 7: Wait a minute, but they're still even even if it's
52:22
Speaker 7: a contractor, that contractor is still responsible to the company
52:29
Speaker 7: and the company still should be responsiblely, He'll responsible for
52:33
Speaker 7: for whatever they're doing.
52:35
Speaker 3: Right there, that's how it's gonna work, correct, It's just
52:40
Speaker 3: not in practice, in practice, that's not how it works,
52:43
Speaker 3: not in not in Texas.
52:45
Speaker 7: And yeah, and you're saying this all around Texas, right.
52:49
Speaker 3: All over Texas. The enforcement rate is that low one
52:52
Speaker 3: to three.
52:55
Speaker 7: What do you what do you feel? I know you,
52:57
Speaker 7: I know you want more enforcement, But how do you
53:00
Speaker 7: how do you?
53:01
Speaker 16: How do you?
53:02
Speaker 7: How do you separate what's going on now? Because the
53:07
Speaker 7: governor and his allies say that more enforcement means it's
53:11
Speaker 7: a it's a drain on on people's employment and companies
53:18
Speaker 7: to be to companies.
53:20
Speaker 20: That that desiding is used in Texas, and we leave
53:25
Speaker 20: with we are in need of those those those petrochemical jobs,
53:31
Speaker 20: even though some of them are closing.
53:33
Speaker 3: So I very much disagree on that it puts pressure
53:38
Speaker 3: on the jobs. I think it's anything the fears that
53:42
Speaker 3: it's going to cost the executives, the people who are
53:45
Speaker 3: who are earning the biggest paychecks, that's what's going to cost.
53:49
Speaker 3: Because if a company does more enforcement and does more
53:54
Speaker 3: inspections and more work to make sure that their facilities
53:58
Speaker 3: are safe, that's actually more jobs because it takes more
54:03
Speaker 3: people to do that. It takes more time, more hours,
54:06
Speaker 3: you have to hire someone to come inspect a third party.
54:10
Speaker 3: Those are more jobs that are available just privately. Those
54:13
Speaker 3: are just private jobs. Then for enforcement itself, if there
54:18
Speaker 3: are companies that are being fined for something, those fines
54:23
Speaker 3: then go to either the TCQ or they go to
54:26
Speaker 3: the Railroad Commission. They go to an agency that then
54:29
Speaker 3: has to hire people to enforce those laws. So either way,
54:33
Speaker 3: because it does take more effort, that means more jobs,
54:38
Speaker 3: that means more time. What it does also mean is
54:41
Speaker 3: again less profit for the people all.
54:43
Speaker 7: The way at the top, the executives tell me, how
54:48
Speaker 7: can people find out more about your organization and what
54:51
Speaker 7: you do and how can they be involved?
54:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they can either find us on our website.
55:00
Speaker 3: You can look us up as the races r ai
55:03
Speaker 3: Ces which stands for Ruth in Spanish, the Rasis Collab Project,
55:10
Speaker 3: and we're also on Instagram and on Facebook.
55:13
Speaker 1: That was Randy Travino of the Raisa Collab. Hi. This
55:22
Speaker 1: is Steve Gallington, co producer and host of the People's News.
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