April 22, 2025 • 33 mins
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
So Michael Verie Show is on the air.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Tell me one bad thing that you've done, and it
better be evil, hell evil, really evil, like so evil
that you would say it was evil, like it's the
fruits of the devil evil.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Two separate judges of firm Garcia was a member of
MS thirteen, which is a gang that may be even
worse than trend Dear Rock one and may be worse.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
They kill people with.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Knives because it's more painful, very famous for the knifing
and killing of two young sixteen year old girls walking
to school one day and they slice them up into
little pieces and kill them. That's MS thirteen.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
My middle name, where evo? So you.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Two separate judges affirmed Garcia was a member of MS thirteen.
When Garcia was originally arrested, he was wearing a sweatshirt
with rolls of money pouring out in an MS thirteen
gang symbol that he was driving with two other known
violent MS thirteen gang members, two of the most violent
members that we know of in the MS thirteen Gang
(01:40):
of thirty.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Where if you wanted to destroy a powerful, wealthy, stable country,
you would do exactly what they're doing now. It's not
(02:14):
by accidents accident. You heard the story about the MS
thirteen member. Yesterday, there was another person killed by an
MS thirteen member in the state of Maryland. While the
senator is playing foot seats with the MS thirteen gangbanger
(02:35):
down in El Salvador, the MS thirteen member in Maryland
killed another person. And you know it's aggravating, and get
me wrong, it is aggravating. But imagine that's your family member.
Imagine that's your family. I can tell you the day
(02:59):
my mother died. I can tell you the final week.
I can tell you eight days before when she said
she wanted to come off the machine.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
She was done.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
The pain was unbearable, she couldn't do this anymore. I
can tell you the call I got from my brother's
police chief when he died, and my mother was shrieking
in the background, and it was a sound I hadn't
heard so much, so my brother being a jokester, that
I thought my brother's police chief, who's friends of ours,
(03:33):
was friends with my brother and with me, that I
thought my brother was in the back playing a joke.
Because my mother's shriek was so high and she was saying,
Chris is dead. I can remember those details, and there's
not a day that goes by I don't think about them.
But in both of those cases, I am angry over
(03:53):
my brother's death because I'm certain it was the COVID shot. Yes,
there is some uncounseled and never will be counseling, but
there is some uncounseled anger mixed with grief.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
To be sure.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
But he lived fifty four years and he chose even
though I begged him not to, and he really didn't
want to to take the shot. There's anger at Big
Farma there. But in these cases of these murders, these
shootings by people who just keep shooting people and shooting
people and shooting people and shooting people.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
There is such.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Anger in our country at this sort of thing. It's
a case yesterday at the Family Law Center in downtown Houston,
which as of yet hasn't been named for. They just
named the administration building for Sheila Jackson Lee. And maybe
they'll name this one for Sylvester Turner or maybe get
(04:51):
a good wife beater, because that's kind of the sort
of thing they do. And this fellow Parnell Bland, he's
walking around the building. He has not one felony conviction,
not two, not three. That's a lot, not four, not five,
six felony convictions. He was released on bond last week.
(05:19):
This is a bad, bad, bad guy. He's carrying two
separate pistols. I don't know why they're only charging him
with aggravated assault on a peace officer as well as
felon in possession of a firearm. It won't matter the
fellon in possession of firearm. They just put him back
out on the street. The gun laws only matter to
only apply to you and me. But what's amazing about
(05:41):
this is what's disturbing about it. To me, This is
attempted murder. But he shoots this woman, Sheila Jones, who's
a thirty year law enforcement veteran, Army veteran, and but
for her bullet proofst he would have killed her. And
he was just released on bond last week. KPRC TV
(06:03):
with the story.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
A law enforcement source has confirmed the identity of the
suspect today. He's a convicted felon who just got arrested
and released on bond last week. This eruption of gunfire
captured on cell phone video during the lunch hour downtown
Houston Monday.
Speaker 6 (06:23):
Bill here a post fake a vail.
Speaker 5 (06:26):
A shooter carrying two guns, and a longtime law enforcement officer,
both injured by bullets outside the Harris County Family Law Center.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
Dabasso is being transported.
Speaker 5 (06:35):
Responding to the men with guns and cut in a shootout.
Former Harris County Sheriff's Office major and current Precinct one
Deputy Constable Sheila Jones had to be flown to Memorial
Herman after being shot. One time.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
The bullet actually came in contact with her bullet proof vest.
Speaker 6 (06:49):
She felt heat.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
There Constable Alan Rosen outside the hospital.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
She cares about protecting the public, which is why she
was where she was.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
Jones is an Army veteran with more than thirty years
in law enforcement, usually assigned to the Harris County Attorney's
Office and Law Library building. The suspect is thirty four
year old Parnell Bland, A law enforcement source tells KPRC
two News. His criminal record dates back to two thousand
and nine. He's been convicted six times and beaytime. Police
arrested him just last week for criminal trespassing after he
(07:19):
was found in a vacant apartment He got released on
bond the next day in custody at the hospital. Now
he's being charged with felon in possession of a weapon
and aggravated assault of a peace officer.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
She is the consummate hero.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
She saw a situation that could have been catastrophic. District
Attorney Shawn Tier says, Deputy Jones comes from a law
enforcement family, running toward what others would run away from.
Because of her, we don't have a mass casualty of
thee because of her.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So she's a hero.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
You're being told six felony convictions in Harris County and
released on bond last week. He also has a series
of cases in Liberty County criminal trespass, possession of a
control substance, criminal trespass, assault, DWI, criminal trespass, possession of
a control substance in twenty sixteen, possession of marijuana. This guy,
this is a bad dude. So remember the story about
(08:15):
Coliny Ridge. The reporter who wrote it breaking a lot
of details on Greg Abbott is our guests coming up?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
There is.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
In yours Yesterday I read to you from an article
by Spencer Lindquist at The Daily Wire. The headline was
Colony Ridge gave Greg Abbott one point five million dollars.
Here's what Greg Abbot gave Colony Ridge. The outrage over
this story is no longer the colonia just outside of Houston,
(08:54):
is no longer the business practices of Colony Ridge. It
is that the Republican governor and state Senator Brandon Creighton,
we're seemingly doing favors for these people and receiving cash
in exchange. Not the sort of thing we voted for.
Isn't it odd that no local newspaper seemed to be
(09:19):
picking up this detail. I think Spencer Linquist is based
in Nashville. Spencer, Welcome to the program, sir, Thank you
very much.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Glad to be with you.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
When you and I first spoke, I seem to have
lost a sense of time. I don't know if it
was a year or two years ago, and I don't
know if you remember, but you were relatively new onto
this beat. But you were hot and heavy, and you
have stayed on it. I don't know what else you've
done in the meantime, but everything you do on this
I get flagged. And you stayed on this story pretty heavily,
which is what it takes to uncover this sort of detail.
(09:48):
How long have you been working on this story?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 7 (09:52):
We first visited this development, we drove through, we flew
over it in the helicopter in what I believe was
early August of twenty twenty three. About a month later,
in mid September, we released our first investigation on Colony Ridge,
and that was really a table setter.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
It gave us. It gave the country a picture of
what Colony Ridge is.
Speaker 7 (10:10):
It's scale, it covers thirty four thousand acres, roughly sixty
square miles, and we documented the business practices that are
specifically engineered to attract the legal aliens. But one of
the questions that we had after that investigation, and a
question that I think everybody's had since that investigation, is
why did the developer, Trey Harris give one point five
(10:32):
million dollars collectively with his wife to the governor of Texas,
Governor Greg Abbott. And the story that we have now
I think paints a very good picture of why he
may have given that money, and what he may and
what he received from the governor from the Governor's office,
and how it helped boost the development and its growth.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
And let's talk about those details. Spencer Lindquist the Daily Wire,
the pieces entitled Colonie Ridge gave Greg Abbot one point
five million dollars. Here's what Greg Abbott gave Colonie Ridge.
I read some of the piece yesterday. But Trey Harris
has a meeting with the governor and Trey Harris's wife.
See to me, that raises more flags than Trey Harris
just writing the check. Who's going to pretend that his
wife giving the check is not him giving the check?
(11:10):
And why did you need to do that? You already
know the optics are bad. Or Abbot's people know the
optics are bad, and then they have a meeting with
the governor, and the governor senys not one, not two,
but three letters to the federal government seemingly advocating for
this opportunity zone for Trey Harris. That seems out of line.
But what are the advantages of having this opportunity zone?
Speaker 7 (11:34):
Spencer, Well, the opportunity zone status this is monumental when
you're trying to grow an area. You know, people who
followed the Cali Ridge story will know that this area
before it was developed by Trey Harris and his brother
John Harris.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
This was wetlands. This was hunting land. This was you know,
it wasn't.
Speaker 7 (11:51):
Developed really in any way, shape or form. And the
entire Opportunity Zone program is meant to speed up, It's
meant to accelerate development. This Coli Ridge, it's a place.
It's been called the fastest growing development in Texas. It's
referred to itself as the fastest growing development in the
entire country. And the hopes to have a population of
a quarter million people, two hundred and fifty thousand people.
That would that would be larger than various mid sized
(12:13):
cities across the country. I pointed out Knoxville, Tennessee, or Boise, Idaho,
just for reference. But an opportunity zone status what it
does is it allows investors to take their capital gains
from various other ventures and to put them invest them
in an opportunity zone to shield those capital gains from taxes.
If they hold those capital gains in an Opportunity zone
(12:33):
fund for five years, they get a ten percent exclusion
from capital gains tax on those gains. If they hold
it for seven years, they get a fifteen percent. If
they hold it for a decade, they don't have to
pay capital gains on that money whatsoever. So this is
a way to just streamline capital into a development. It
gives a special tax break. I think it's really important
to understand this tax break wasn't for people who had
(12:55):
already invested in Colony Ridge. This was a tax break
for people who had yet to invest in Colony Ridge.
This means that it was designed to streamline the flow
of capital into Colony.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Ridge to accelerate its growth. And that's exactly what we've seen.
Speaker 7 (13:08):
If you look at a map of the development from
twenty seventeen or twenty eighteen up until the present, this
thing has grown incredibly fast and it's no wonder that
it advertises itself as the fastest going development in the
entire country.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
They also advertise themselves, as you noted with the red
block around it, as being part of an opportunity zone
exclamation mark. Was that a pitch deck or a prospectus
to investors or was that to the general public. I
wasn't clear on that.
Speaker 7 (13:38):
So those listings were there's two different listings. There's one
for commercial land and there was another for industrial land.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
So this isn't just.
Speaker 7 (13:44):
An individual who wants to buy a home for their
own just just to live in.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
You know, this isn't for somebody buying a personal residence.
This is for large.
Speaker 7 (13:51):
Companies that are looking to move into the area. So
this is a way to lure outside investment. And we
know that one of the companies that appears to have
invested in it, invested.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
After, critically invested after the.
Speaker 7 (14:03):
Opportunity zone is that real estate company that employs Senator
Brandon Creighton, the Signarell the Signarelli Company.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
They announced that they'd.
Speaker 7 (14:10):
Be building homes inside the development, and that was roughly
a year, maybe a year and a half after that
opportunity Zone designation was made official. So of course that
raises some questions, particularly given that Brandon Creyton was at
that Governor's Mansion meeting in early twenty eighteen with the
Governor of Texas and with Coliny Ridge developer Tray Harris.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
And you find that of note, not just because he's
a prominent state senator, well liked by Dan Patrick, pretty
popular amongst the Senate, expected to be a statewide elected official.
Many people have said that Dan Patrick has chosen him
to be his replacement as a lieutenant governor when eventually
dan Patrick moves on and that's not tomorrow, but that
(14:53):
the rumor I've heard is that he has said this
is the guy I want to replace me and should
replace me. And Creyton is built quite a power base
for himself. And you note he's at this meeting and
he's the vice president of the home builder that then
begins building homes in Colony Ridge after the meeting, right.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Exactly, That's exactly right.
Speaker 7 (15:17):
And not only that, he does have some financial ties
that are interesting as well. He received five thousand dollars
in twenty fourteen from Trey Harris, he received seventeen thousand
dollars from Coats and Rose that the lobbying group, the
legal firm that actually runs some of the political districts
on behalf of Colony Ridge. And his biggest donor is
the CEO of the Signarelli company, Daniel Signarelli, who gave
(15:40):
him sixty seven thousand dollars. So he's got financial ties
to all of these entities, and it very clearly looks
like they stood to gain, that company stood to gain
from this opportunity zone status. What's really rich is he's
the only one out of the three that responded when
I asked specifically what happened at this meeting. We've got
the meeting logs. These meeting logs came straight from the
(16:01):
Governor's office, so we know that everything here is completely
in one hundred percent accurate. What happened at this meeting?
What did you guys talk about? You guys?
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Spencer Lindquist with the Daily Wire, who broke this story
and has been on this story for quite some time,
the Colony Ridge story coming up. Listen, Tomway. Spencer Linquist
(16:32):
with the Daily Wire has really owned the Colony Ridge story.
Colony Ridge being the colonia east of Houston in Liberty
County that has reached national fame with all the deportations
when they began under the second Trump administration. Spencer has
done real thorough quality, groundbreaking journalism on this subject. He's
(16:59):
ours his latest piece, creating quite a ripple with the
headline Colony Ridge gave Greg Abbott one point five million dollars.
Here's what Greg Abbott gave Colony Ridge. So Spencer, let's
fast forward. Trey Harris of Coliney Ridge has dinner with
(17:20):
the governor his wife, not him, his wife. Oh it's
so clever, gives one hundred thousand dollars to Greg Abbott.
Then Greg Abbott immediately sends not one, not two, but three.
I mean, last time I've seen anybody act like this,
they were a high school kid trying to get their
girlfriend on a landline. I mean, leave us alone, Governor Abbott,
(17:43):
this is it.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Is a bad look.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
He's going on and on and on to get this
opportunity zone for Coliny Ridge, which they did. Some folks
will say, well, how did Greg and I have had
listeners say how does Greg Abbott know what's going on there?
Maybe he didn't know it was a colonia. Do you
get a sense in any part of all this? I mean,
at some point he jumps up and says, uh, you
(18:06):
know this is bad, we got to stop it, and
Trey Harris feels betrayed.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
But do you get a.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
Sense anywhere along the way that there's any reference to
what's going on here?
Speaker 7 (18:17):
Well, it's really impossible to know exactly what Abbott knew
about calling your ridge at the time.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
What I will say is.
Speaker 7 (18:23):
That you know, govern Rabbit looks over the state of taxes,
Senator create between it and Trey Harris mansion.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
Spencer, hold on, are you not even around because we
lost you when you said, Senator Creyton.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
It went quiet Spencer area that you know or from
Creighton's district.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
I'm sorry we lost you when you first said Senator Creyton.
You said, Senator Creyton. And then your your phone. I
don't know if you're moving around or not, but your
phone went out for a few seconds.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Here. Well.
Speaker 7 (19:03):
So Senator Creighton, what happened with him is he was
also at this Governor's Mansion meeting between Greg Abbott and
Trey Harris and his district it neighbors Colony Ridge. So
we've asked Creighton what happened at this meeting. We asked
him if he was aware of the status of Coloney Ridge,
(19:23):
and he really told us that he didn't have a
business meeting at that lunch. And he says that they
discussed the history of the grounds, the.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
History of the Governor's mansion.
Speaker 7 (19:34):
This is a little bit hard to believe, given that
it was an hour and a half long meeting and
that it was in the middle of being nominated as
an opportunity zone, which of course is something that the
company that he works for seized on roughly a year
later when it began building homes in Coloney Ridge.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
And he was specially invited as the Senator to sit
in on a meeting and he's a vice president at
that company.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Exactly.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Wow. Okay, then you make reference to the Siesta kickoff party.
Is that the same meeting or is that a later meeting.
Speaker 7 (20:11):
No, So Trey Harris actually made four different appearances at
the Governor's mansion and he gave a total of one
point four million one point five million if you include
one hundred thousand dollars that his wife gave. And by
the way, both his wife and him personally, they lift
their occupation as the Colony Ridge development, so we can
say that this money came through Coloney Ridge into Governor
(20:34):
at its hands. So this what we saw is that
that was a There was one first meeting between the
governor and Trey Harris and Senator Creighton, and that was
in late mark excuse me, that was.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
An early April of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 7 (20:47):
But there was three other times when when Trey Harris
made an appearance at the Governor's mansion. There was the
Summer Kickoff Fiesta, which was on May tenth of twenty eighteen,
and there was two other occasions, the most recently which
was an intimate six person dinner that was in December
of twenty twenty. So we've seen that he appeared a
number of times and gave a string of donations, not
(21:10):
just in one lump sum, but he kind of carried
out his donation the one hundred thousand dollars here, three
hundred thousand dollars here, And that relationship does seem to
have soured. Trey Harris told The New York Times that
Greg Abbitt wasn't getting a million dollars next year because
that was just in the wake of our first investigation,
which prompted Greg abb to take some action against the development.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Also worth noting, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick was creating quite
a stir over this. He flew over the top of it,
he visited, He was making a big deal about how
awful Colony Ridge was. And there's Abbott sitting over there
on a stockpile of one point five million dollars from
the developer, probably thinking wins the next shoe going to drop.
(21:54):
And so at some point he comes out and as
he does and issues a little press release that Coliny
Ridge is real bad, which must have been quite the
punch in the gut to Trey Harris. But to be clear,
there were a series of things swirling. We were talking
about it. Your story hits Dan Patrick, the other high
ranking statewide elected official, lieutenant governor, is creating a star
(22:19):
over it, and then Abbot's kind of in a pickle,
and that's the point at which he found Jesus.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Absolutely.
Speaker 7 (22:28):
You know, I didn't see any from the public comments
from Greg Abbott on Colney Ridge until we released our
investigation in mid September of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
After that, it was national news.
Speaker 7 (22:38):
It was covered not only on the Daily Wire and
on the Morning Wire podcast.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
That we have, it was also in Fox News.
Speaker 7 (22:44):
It was in outlets across the country, The New York Times,
the Associated Press, the Washington Post, really outlets across the
political spectrum began covering Coliney Ridge. And that is when
Abbot first started taking action. So you can read his
comment in our article and our investigation that we published
this yesterday at the Daily Wire, and he says that
(23:05):
he took all these actions against Colony Ridge. You know,
recently there is one hundred and eighteen people arrested who
are expected to be deported from Colony Ridge. But it
is worth noting that these actions only came in the
wake of the investigations and the media pressure, it didn't
come before them. And we see this relationship, and I
think we have an understanding of why that might be.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Have you looked further into what's going on at Colony
Ridge today. I know the deportations hit them hard. I
know that things are not well. Trey Harris was arrested
and jailed in Waller County, northwest of Town for a DWI.
It seems to have spiraled out of control. But do
you get a sense of what's going on there now?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Well?
Speaker 7 (23:45):
I do know that there are currently federal investigations in
the Colony Ridge. I know that there is still the
ongoing Department of Justice lawsuit against Colony Ridge, and there's
talk that there might be investigations from the IRS and
the EPA and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. So
there's a ton of scrutiny. It goes beyond media scrutiny
at this point. There are very different federal agencies looking
(24:08):
into the environmental aspects of the development. There is the
IRS looking into the development. There's also this political body
that was awarded to.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Colony Ridge, the MMD or the mud. These are two
different political jurisdictions that.
Speaker 7 (24:23):
Were awarded to Colony Ridge, and we actually found back
in twenty twenty three that there was a multimillion dollar
more than a ten million dollar contract that was doled
out to people with connections to the.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Developer and his family.
Speaker 7 (24:38):
So there is no shortage of threats to pull on
when it comes to Colony Ridge. It really is a
story that has everything. It's got political donations, it's got
allegations of corruption, it's got environmental concerns, and of course
more than anything, it's got a massive amount of illegal
immigrants in this area of crime and cartel members as well.
So there's no shortage for journalists or even federal agents
(25:01):
to no shortage of topics or threats to pull out
for journalists or federal agents.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Trying to put some distance between himself and this scandal,
Greg Abbott during the last special session, as you noted,
got forty million dollars for state troopers to patrol the
development no matter how bad things are, and three hundred
and fifty pounds of meth were found there. Spencer Lindquist,
great job. This is what real journalists do. Bravo.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
By Michael.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Listen as your day unfold, challenge what very important elections
happen without most folks even noticing we are in just
such a moment. This is May of an odd numbered year,
twenty twenty five, and many local political subdivisions that could
(25:59):
be cities, school districts, water districts have their regular general
elections for members of their governing bodies or special elections
to fill vacancies. That's your school boards, that's your mud boards.
This is the election where local political subdivisions pass measures
(26:22):
that raise your property taxes. Sitting where I'm sitting, I
get emails throughout the course of the year from people
who are angry and what a school board has done,
whether an action taken, books in the library, drag Queen
story hour, building a new stadium, floating a new bond
(26:46):
that taxpayers have to pay for, and people are upset.
And the important thing to remember is the people who
are making those decisions are voted on by you. But
those elections are in intentionally held at a time when
most voters don't show up, So the voters who do
(27:07):
show up tend to be voters with more of a
vested interest. Example, in a school district if you are
building new buildings because you've decided that the buildings we
have are just not good enough, and it's a judgment call.
I guess depends on whose ox is being goreed.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Right.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
If you have kids who are in kindergarten or preschool
who are going to be going to that school, then
perhaps you think, yeah, it's worth another one hundred two
hundred dollars a year on my property tax bill for
the school to build new schools for my kid to
go to and enjoy. If you're getting up in age
(27:49):
or you don't have kids, you may say, no, we
don't renovate at every turn, nor should they, And that's
an honest disagreement. That's an honest disagreement that should be had.
The problem becomes, these elections are held in May rather
than November of a presidential year. Why are we holding
(28:12):
votes now? Why are we going to the cost of
extra elections now when we just had an election in November. Well,
i'll tell you because quadrinial elections every four years. Presidential
elections draw a massive crowd of people who don't otherwise vote,
and those people show up and vote against tax increases.
(28:39):
They vote against activist city councilmen or activist Board of
directors members. They vote against bonds, and so the schools
are very careful to keep those in May. There is
a bond in Spring Branch right now, and it's a
(28:59):
big one, and as I said earlier, I think it's
perfectly acceptable to have a disagreement. I was very supportive
of Chris Ernest, who's the chairman of the board, and
I will give some deference to the fact that I
don't think he's a tax and spend guy. He's not
making any money off this. He's got a passle of
(29:19):
kids that go to that go to those Spring Branch schools.
I think that the Spring Branch Independent School District has
buy and large done a very good job. It doesn't
mean I agree with everything. Tom Ramsey, who I do
like and respect, who's the county commissioner there, has come
out and supported this bond and donated to the pack
that was created to promote this. That doesn't mean I
(29:41):
necessarily agree that the bond should be passed. Now, the
Harris County Republican Party did endorse against the bond, and
a lot of taxpayers think that this is money that's
not needed I had put in a call a text
to Chris Ernest earlier that if he could come on
and talk about this, and we have him now. He's
the chairman of the board at Spring Branch Independent School District. Chris,
(30:03):
thanks for being with.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Us, buddy.
Speaker 6 (30:05):
Hi, Michael, how are you?
Speaker 4 (30:06):
I have you sound thrilled to be here.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I have a review. Hey, the text.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
It's a very thorough text you sent about your support
of the bond. Let's do the nuts and bolts first
of what the bond looks like? How much is it
for six hundred million and how much does that cost
the individual taxpayer in Spring Branch Independent School District?
Speaker 6 (30:30):
Well, I guess first to back up, I mean six
hundred million carved up into four different propositions. So if
all four passed, then it would be a six hundred
million dollar bond, and it would cost about one hundred
and forty dollars a year for every half a million
dollar home that you own.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Okay, so a million dollar home would pay two eighty
two million, five to sixty yep.
Speaker 6 (30:52):
Okay, all right, yeah, which which I understand. I mean
I went back and listened to what you had to
say the other day, and look I know that it's
not necessarily a popular thing, but at some point, it's like, man,
we're paying so much property tax already, and when you
look around this region and you look around the state,
and you've got kids that are participating in extracurriculars, and
(31:13):
every single facility in Spring Branch is sixty years old, Like,
at some point it's like, man, Okay, I'm paying thirty
thousand dollars a year for what for crap? And what's
another three hundred bucks so that I can my kids
in the community can participate in first class facilities. At
some point you're just like, man, we're paying so much,
Like what's another few hundred dollars to have what everybody
(31:35):
else has?
Speaker 4 (31:37):
Well, I guess the argument would be, and there was
an allusion to that, is that if there is a
voucher and if there is increasing choice, which I think
is the future. And I know y'all are against that,
but I do think that forms of that are the future.
Speaker 6 (31:51):
I'm not against that. I'm not against that, Michael. I
just think we need to be able to stay competitive then,
because I mean, look around, who are we going.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
To be peting with.
Speaker 6 (32:00):
We're going to be Spring Branch, specifically Second Baptist, Kinkaid,
Houston Christian Saint John's. Look at the athletic facilities of
those places. I mean, find me one one of those
schools that doesn't have a turf baseball field. I mean,
Second Baptist is putting in a jumbo tron on the
church campus this summer. I mean, so you know, we've
(32:22):
got a we've got a school board at Tolley Stadium
that looks like it walked right out of the astronom.
And you know, I mean porta potties. So I mean,
at some point, like whether your kids go to those
schools or they go to our schools or wherever they go,
at some point like the community at large, I mean
the properties in Spring Branch are propped up by Spring
Branch isd.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
I mean.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
You know, I mean, you know, so we want to
take pride in our facilities, and to me, quite frankly,
it's embarrassing for Spring Branch that we've got a sixty
year old football stadium where there's concrete steps that literally
literally collapsed and disintegrated this year, that we have to
bring in twenty to thirty porta potties. Whenever Memorial and
Stratford play in Tolley Stadium because the plumbing doesn't work.
(33:09):
You know, we literally had sewage and I could use
another S word, but I won't on air, literally coming
down the berm after Memorial's homecoming game because the sewage
backed up. And you know it's at some point, like
I know it's you're liking Rod to say we need
a new football stadium.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
But you can say sludge on the air, Chris.
Speaker 6 (33:29):
Sludge, Yeah, I know, I know. Hold yeah, I mean,
just do.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
Something quick break. Chris Ernest is the president of the
school board at SBISD. I supported him proudly to be
in that position, and I think they've done a very
good job. It was it was a taking back by
parents of that school district, and I think by and
large you've seen great strides made there. Today begins early
(33:53):
voting in these in these elections. We'll talk about it
coming up.
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
So Michael Verie Show is on the air.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Tell me one bad thing that you've done, and it
better be evil, hell evil, really evil, like so evil
that you would say it was evil, like it's the
fruits of the devil evil.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Two separate judges of firm Garcia was a member of
MS thirteen, which is a gang that may be even
worse than trend Dear Rock one and may be worse.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
They kill people with.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Knives because it's more painful, very famous for the knifing
and killing of two young sixteen year old girls walking
to school one day and they slice them up into
little pieces and kill them. That's MS thirteen.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
My middle name, where evo? So you.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Two separate judges affirmed Garcia was a member of MS thirteen.
When Garcia was originally arrested, he was wearing a sweatshirt
with rolls of money pouring out in an MS thirteen
gang symbol that he was driving with two other known
violent MS thirteen gang members, two of the most violent
members that we know of in the MS thirteen Gang
(01:40):
of thirty.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Where if you wanted to destroy a powerful, wealthy, stable country,
you would do exactly what they're doing now. It's not
(02:14):
by accidents accident. You heard the story about the MS
thirteen member. Yesterday, there was another person killed by an
MS thirteen member in the state of Maryland. While the
senator is playing foot seats with the MS thirteen gangbanger
(02:35):
down in El Salvador, the MS thirteen member in Maryland
killed another person. And you know it's aggravating, and get
me wrong, it is aggravating. But imagine that's your family member.
Imagine that's your family. I can tell you the day
(02:59):
my mother died. I can tell you the final week.
I can tell you eight days before when she said
she wanted to come off the machine.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
She was done.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
The pain was unbearable, she couldn't do this anymore. I
can tell you the call I got from my brother's
police chief when he died, and my mother was shrieking
in the background, and it was a sound I hadn't
heard so much, so my brother being a jokester, that
I thought my brother's police chief, who's friends of ours,
(03:33):
was friends with my brother and with me, that I
thought my brother was in the back playing a joke.
Because my mother's shriek was so high and she was saying,
Chris is dead. I can remember those details, and there's
not a day that goes by I don't think about them.
But in both of those cases, I am angry over
(03:53):
my brother's death because I'm certain it was the COVID shot. Yes,
there is some uncounseled and never will be counseling, but
there is some uncounseled anger mixed with grief.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
To be sure.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
But he lived fifty four years and he chose even
though I begged him not to, and he really didn't
want to to take the shot. There's anger at Big
Farma there. But in these cases of these murders, these
shootings by people who just keep shooting people and shooting
people and shooting people and shooting people.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
There is such.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Anger in our country at this sort of thing. It's
a case yesterday at the Family Law Center in downtown Houston,
which as of yet hasn't been named for. They just
named the administration building for Sheila Jackson Lee. And maybe
they'll name this one for Sylvester Turner or maybe get
(04:51):
a good wife beater, because that's kind of the sort
of thing they do. And this fellow Parnell Bland, he's
walking around the building. He has not one felony conviction,
not two, not three. That's a lot, not four, not five,
six felony convictions. He was released on bond last week.
(05:19):
This is a bad, bad, bad guy. He's carrying two
separate pistols. I don't know why they're only charging him
with aggravated assault on a peace officer as well as
felon in possession of a firearm. It won't matter the
fellon in possession of firearm. They just put him back
out on the street. The gun laws only matter to
only apply to you and me. But what's amazing about
(05:41):
this is what's disturbing about it. To me, This is
attempted murder. But he shoots this woman, Sheila Jones, who's
a thirty year law enforcement veteran, Army veteran, and but
for her bullet proofst he would have killed her. And
he was just released on bond last week. KPRC TV
(06:03):
with the story.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
A law enforcement source has confirmed the identity of the
suspect today. He's a convicted felon who just got arrested
and released on bond last week. This eruption of gunfire
captured on cell phone video during the lunch hour downtown
Houston Monday.
Speaker 6 (06:23):
Bill here a post fake a vail.
Speaker 5 (06:26):
A shooter carrying two guns, and a longtime law enforcement officer,
both injured by bullets outside the Harris County Family Law Center.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
Dabasso is being transported.
Speaker 5 (06:35):
Responding to the men with guns and cut in a shootout.
Former Harris County Sheriff's Office major and current Precinct one
Deputy Constable Sheila Jones had to be flown to Memorial
Herman after being shot. One time.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
The bullet actually came in contact with her bullet proof vest.
Speaker 6 (06:49):
She felt heat.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
There Constable Alan Rosen outside the hospital.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
She cares about protecting the public, which is why she
was where she was.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
Jones is an Army veteran with more than thirty years
in law enforcement, usually assigned to the Harris County Attorney's
Office and Law Library building. The suspect is thirty four
year old Parnell Bland, A law enforcement source tells KPRC
two News. His criminal record dates back to two thousand
and nine. He's been convicted six times and beaytime. Police
arrested him just last week for criminal trespassing after he
(07:19):
was found in a vacant apartment He got released on
bond the next day in custody at the hospital. Now
he's being charged with felon in possession of a weapon
and aggravated assault of a peace officer.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
She is the consummate hero.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
She saw a situation that could have been catastrophic. District
Attorney Shawn Tier says, Deputy Jones comes from a law
enforcement family, running toward what others would run away from.
Because of her, we don't have a mass casualty of
thee because of her.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So she's a hero.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
You're being told six felony convictions in Harris County and
released on bond last week. He also has a series
of cases in Liberty County criminal trespass, possession of a
control substance, criminal trespass, assault, DWI, criminal trespass, possession of
a control substance in twenty sixteen, possession of marijuana. This guy,
this is a bad dude. So remember the story about
(08:15):
Coliny Ridge. The reporter who wrote it breaking a lot
of details on Greg Abbott is our guests coming up?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
There is.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
In yours Yesterday I read to you from an article
by Spencer Lindquist at The Daily Wire. The headline was
Colony Ridge gave Greg Abbott one point five million dollars.
Here's what Greg Abbot gave Colony Ridge. The outrage over
this story is no longer the colonia just outside of Houston,
(08:54):
is no longer the business practices of Colony Ridge. It
is that the Republican governor and state Senator Brandon Creighton,
we're seemingly doing favors for these people and receiving cash
in exchange. Not the sort of thing we voted for.
Isn't it odd that no local newspaper seemed to be
(09:19):
picking up this detail. I think Spencer Linquist is based
in Nashville. Spencer, Welcome to the program, sir, Thank you
very much.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Glad to be with you.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
When you and I first spoke, I seem to have
lost a sense of time. I don't know if it
was a year or two years ago, and I don't
know if you remember, but you were relatively new onto
this beat. But you were hot and heavy, and you
have stayed on it. I don't know what else you've
done in the meantime, but everything you do on this
I get flagged. And you stayed on this story pretty heavily,
which is what it takes to uncover this sort of detail.
(09:48):
How long have you been working on this story?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 7 (09:52):
We first visited this development, we drove through, we flew
over it in the helicopter in what I believe was
early August of twenty twenty three. About a month later,
in mid September, we released our first investigation on Colony Ridge,
and that was really a table setter.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
It gave us. It gave the country a picture of
what Colony Ridge is.
Speaker 7 (10:10):
It's scale, it covers thirty four thousand acres, roughly sixty
square miles, and we documented the business practices that are
specifically engineered to attract the legal aliens. But one of
the questions that we had after that investigation, and a
question that I think everybody's had since that investigation, is
why did the developer, Trey Harris give one point five
(10:32):
million dollars collectively with his wife to the governor of Texas,
Governor Greg Abbott. And the story that we have now
I think paints a very good picture of why he
may have given that money, and what he may and
what he received from the governor from the Governor's office,
and how it helped boost the development and its growth.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
And let's talk about those details. Spencer Lindquist the Daily Wire,
the pieces entitled Colonie Ridge gave Greg Abbot one point
five million dollars. Here's what Greg Abbott gave Colonie Ridge.
I read some of the piece yesterday. But Trey Harris
has a meeting with the governor and Trey Harris's wife.
See to me, that raises more flags than Trey Harris
just writing the check. Who's going to pretend that his
wife giving the check is not him giving the check?
(11:10):
And why did you need to do that? You already
know the optics are bad. Or Abbot's people know the
optics are bad, and then they have a meeting with
the governor, and the governor senys not one, not two,
but three letters to the federal government seemingly advocating for
this opportunity zone for Trey Harris. That seems out of line.
But what are the advantages of having this opportunity zone?
Speaker 7 (11:34):
Spencer, Well, the opportunity zone status this is monumental when
you're trying to grow an area. You know, people who
followed the Cali Ridge story will know that this area
before it was developed by Trey Harris and his brother
John Harris.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
This was wetlands. This was hunting land. This was you know,
it wasn't.
Speaker 7 (11:51):
Developed really in any way, shape or form. And the
entire Opportunity Zone program is meant to speed up, It's
meant to accelerate development. This Coli Ridge, it's a place.
It's been called the fastest growing development in Texas. It's
referred to itself as the fastest growing development in the
entire country. And the hopes to have a population of
a quarter million people, two hundred and fifty thousand people.
That would that would be larger than various mid sized
(12:13):
cities across the country. I pointed out Knoxville, Tennessee, or Boise, Idaho,
just for reference. But an opportunity zone status what it
does is it allows investors to take their capital gains
from various other ventures and to put them invest them
in an opportunity zone to shield those capital gains from taxes.
If they hold those capital gains in an Opportunity zone
(12:33):
fund for five years, they get a ten percent exclusion
from capital gains tax on those gains. If they hold
it for seven years, they get a fifteen percent. If
they hold it for a decade, they don't have to
pay capital gains on that money whatsoever. So this is
a way to just streamline capital into a development. It
gives a special tax break. I think it's really important
to understand this tax break wasn't for people who had
(12:55):
already invested in Colony Ridge. This was a tax break
for people who had yet to invest in Colony Ridge.
This means that it was designed to streamline the flow
of capital into Colony.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Ridge to accelerate its growth. And that's exactly what we've seen.
Speaker 7 (13:08):
If you look at a map of the development from
twenty seventeen or twenty eighteen up until the present, this
thing has grown incredibly fast and it's no wonder that
it advertises itself as the fastest going development in the
entire country.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
They also advertise themselves, as you noted with the red
block around it, as being part of an opportunity zone
exclamation mark. Was that a pitch deck or a prospectus
to investors or was that to the general public. I
wasn't clear on that.
Speaker 7 (13:38):
So those listings were there's two different listings. There's one
for commercial land and there was another for industrial land.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
So this isn't just.
Speaker 7 (13:44):
An individual who wants to buy a home for their
own just just to live in.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
You know, this isn't for somebody buying a personal residence.
This is for large.
Speaker 7 (13:51):
Companies that are looking to move into the area. So
this is a way to lure outside investment. And we
know that one of the companies that appears to have
invested in it, invested.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
After, critically invested after the.
Speaker 7 (14:03):
Opportunity zone is that real estate company that employs Senator
Brandon Creighton, the Signarell the Signarelli Company.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
They announced that they'd.
Speaker 7 (14:10):
Be building homes inside the development, and that was roughly
a year, maybe a year and a half after that
opportunity Zone designation was made official. So of course that
raises some questions, particularly given that Brandon Creyton was at
that Governor's Mansion meeting in early twenty eighteen with the
Governor of Texas and with Coliny Ridge developer Tray Harris.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
And you find that of note, not just because he's
a prominent state senator, well liked by Dan Patrick, pretty
popular amongst the Senate, expected to be a statewide elected official.
Many people have said that Dan Patrick has chosen him
to be his replacement as a lieutenant governor when eventually
dan Patrick moves on and that's not tomorrow, but that
(14:53):
the rumor I've heard is that he has said this
is the guy I want to replace me and should
replace me. And Creyton is built quite a power base
for himself. And you note he's at this meeting and
he's the vice president of the home builder that then
begins building homes in Colony Ridge after the meeting, right.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Exactly, That's exactly right.
Speaker 7 (15:17):
And not only that, he does have some financial ties
that are interesting as well. He received five thousand dollars
in twenty fourteen from Trey Harris, he received seventeen thousand
dollars from Coats and Rose that the lobbying group, the
legal firm that actually runs some of the political districts
on behalf of Colony Ridge. And his biggest donor is
the CEO of the Signarelli company, Daniel Signarelli, who gave
(15:40):
him sixty seven thousand dollars. So he's got financial ties
to all of these entities, and it very clearly looks
like they stood to gain, that company stood to gain
from this opportunity zone status. What's really rich is he's
the only one out of the three that responded when
I asked specifically what happened at this meeting. We've got
the meeting logs. These meeting logs came straight from the
(16:01):
Governor's office, so we know that everything here is completely
in one hundred percent accurate. What happened at this meeting?
What did you guys talk about? You guys?
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Spencer Lindquist with the Daily Wire, who broke this story
and has been on this story for quite some time,
the Colony Ridge story coming up. Listen, Tomway. Spencer Linquist
(16:32):
with the Daily Wire has really owned the Colony Ridge story.
Colony Ridge being the colonia east of Houston in Liberty
County that has reached national fame with all the deportations
when they began under the second Trump administration. Spencer has
done real thorough quality, groundbreaking journalism on this subject. He's
(16:59):
ours his latest piece, creating quite a ripple with the
headline Colony Ridge gave Greg Abbott one point five million dollars.
Here's what Greg Abbott gave Colony Ridge. So Spencer, let's
fast forward. Trey Harris of Coliney Ridge has dinner with
(17:20):
the governor his wife, not him, his wife. Oh it's
so clever, gives one hundred thousand dollars to Greg Abbott.
Then Greg Abbott immediately sends not one, not two, but three.
I mean, last time I've seen anybody act like this,
they were a high school kid trying to get their
girlfriend on a landline. I mean, leave us alone, Governor Abbott,
(17:43):
this is it.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Is a bad look.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
He's going on and on and on to get this
opportunity zone for Coliny Ridge, which they did. Some folks
will say, well, how did Greg and I have had
listeners say how does Greg Abbott know what's going on there?
Maybe he didn't know it was a colonia. Do you
get a sense in any part of all this? I mean,
at some point he jumps up and says, uh, you
(18:06):
know this is bad, we got to stop it, and
Trey Harris feels betrayed.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
But do you get a.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
Sense anywhere along the way that there's any reference to
what's going on here?
Speaker 7 (18:17):
Well, it's really impossible to know exactly what Abbott knew
about calling your ridge at the time.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
What I will say is.
Speaker 7 (18:23):
That you know, govern Rabbit looks over the state of taxes,
Senator create between it and Trey Harris mansion.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
Spencer, hold on, are you not even around because we
lost you when you said, Senator Creyton.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
It went quiet Spencer area that you know or from
Creighton's district.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
I'm sorry we lost you when you first said Senator Creyton.
You said, Senator Creyton. And then your your phone. I
don't know if you're moving around or not, but your
phone went out for a few seconds.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Here. Well.
Speaker 7 (19:03):
So Senator Creighton, what happened with him is he was
also at this Governor's Mansion meeting between Greg Abbott and
Trey Harris and his district it neighbors Colony Ridge. So
we've asked Creighton what happened at this meeting. We asked
him if he was aware of the status of Coloney Ridge,
(19:23):
and he really told us that he didn't have a
business meeting at that lunch. And he says that they
discussed the history of the grounds, the.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
History of the Governor's mansion.
Speaker 7 (19:34):
This is a little bit hard to believe, given that
it was an hour and a half long meeting and
that it was in the middle of being nominated as
an opportunity zone, which of course is something that the
company that he works for seized on roughly a year
later when it began building homes in Coloney Ridge.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
And he was specially invited as the Senator to sit
in on a meeting and he's a vice president at
that company.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Exactly.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Wow. Okay, then you make reference to the Siesta kickoff party.
Is that the same meeting or is that a later meeting.
Speaker 7 (20:11):
No, So Trey Harris actually made four different appearances at
the Governor's mansion and he gave a total of one
point four million one point five million if you include
one hundred thousand dollars that his wife gave. And by
the way, both his wife and him personally, they lift
their occupation as the Colony Ridge development, so we can
say that this money came through Coloney Ridge into Governor
(20:34):
at its hands. So this what we saw is that
that was a There was one first meeting between the
governor and Trey Harris and Senator Creighton, and that was
in late mark excuse me, that was.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
An early April of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 7 (20:47):
But there was three other times when when Trey Harris
made an appearance at the Governor's mansion. There was the
Summer Kickoff Fiesta, which was on May tenth of twenty eighteen,
and there was two other occasions, the most recently which
was an intimate six person dinner that was in December
of twenty twenty. So we've seen that he appeared a
number of times and gave a string of donations, not
(21:10):
just in one lump sum, but he kind of carried
out his donation the one hundred thousand dollars here, three
hundred thousand dollars here, And that relationship does seem to
have soured. Trey Harris told The New York Times that
Greg Abbitt wasn't getting a million dollars next year because
that was just in the wake of our first investigation,
which prompted Greg abb to take some action against the development.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Also worth noting, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick was creating quite
a stir over this. He flew over the top of it,
he visited, He was making a big deal about how
awful Colony Ridge was. And there's Abbott sitting over there
on a stockpile of one point five million dollars from
the developer, probably thinking wins the next shoe going to drop.
(21:54):
And so at some point he comes out and as
he does and issues a little press release that Coliny
Ridge is real bad, which must have been quite the
punch in the gut to Trey Harris. But to be clear,
there were a series of things swirling. We were talking
about it. Your story hits Dan Patrick, the other high
ranking statewide elected official, lieutenant governor, is creating a star
(22:19):
over it, and then Abbot's kind of in a pickle,
and that's the point at which he found Jesus.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Absolutely.
Speaker 7 (22:28):
You know, I didn't see any from the public comments
from Greg Abbott on Colney Ridge until we released our
investigation in mid September of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
After that, it was national news.
Speaker 7 (22:38):
It was covered not only on the Daily Wire and
on the Morning Wire podcast.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
That we have, it was also in Fox News.
Speaker 7 (22:44):
It was in outlets across the country, The New York Times,
the Associated Press, the Washington Post, really outlets across the
political spectrum began covering Coliney Ridge. And that is when
Abbot first started taking action. So you can read his
comment in our article and our investigation that we published
this yesterday at the Daily Wire, and he says that
(23:05):
he took all these actions against Colony Ridge. You know,
recently there is one hundred and eighteen people arrested who
are expected to be deported from Colony Ridge. But it
is worth noting that these actions only came in the
wake of the investigations and the media pressure, it didn't
come before them. And we see this relationship, and I
think we have an understanding of why that might be.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Have you looked further into what's going on at Colony
Ridge today. I know the deportations hit them hard. I
know that things are not well. Trey Harris was arrested
and jailed in Waller County, northwest of Town for a DWI.
It seems to have spiraled out of control. But do
you get a sense of what's going on there now?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Well?
Speaker 7 (23:45):
I do know that there are currently federal investigations in
the Colony Ridge. I know that there is still the
ongoing Department of Justice lawsuit against Colony Ridge, and there's
talk that there might be investigations from the IRS and
the EPA and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. So
there's a ton of scrutiny. It goes beyond media scrutiny
at this point. There are very different federal agencies looking
(24:08):
into the environmental aspects of the development. There is the
IRS looking into the development. There's also this political body
that was awarded to.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Colony Ridge, the MMD or the mud. These are two
different political jurisdictions that.
Speaker 7 (24:23):
Were awarded to Colony Ridge, and we actually found back
in twenty twenty three that there was a multimillion dollar
more than a ten million dollar contract that was doled
out to people with connections to the.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Developer and his family.
Speaker 7 (24:38):
So there is no shortage of threats to pull on
when it comes to Colony Ridge. It really is a
story that has everything. It's got political donations, it's got
allegations of corruption, it's got environmental concerns, and of course
more than anything, it's got a massive amount of illegal
immigrants in this area of crime and cartel members as well.
So there's no shortage for journalists or even federal agents
(25:01):
to no shortage of topics or threats to pull out
for journalists or federal agents.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Trying to put some distance between himself and this scandal,
Greg Abbott during the last special session, as you noted,
got forty million dollars for state troopers to patrol the
development no matter how bad things are, and three hundred
and fifty pounds of meth were found there. Spencer Lindquist,
great job. This is what real journalists do. Bravo.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
By Michael.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Listen as your day unfold, challenge what very important elections
happen without most folks even noticing we are in just
such a moment. This is May of an odd numbered year,
twenty twenty five, and many local political subdivisions that could
(25:59):
be cities, school districts, water districts have their regular general
elections for members of their governing bodies or special elections
to fill vacancies. That's your school boards, that's your mud boards.
This is the election where local political subdivisions pass measures
(26:22):
that raise your property taxes. Sitting where I'm sitting, I
get emails throughout the course of the year from people
who are angry and what a school board has done,
whether an action taken, books in the library, drag Queen
story hour, building a new stadium, floating a new bond
(26:46):
that taxpayers have to pay for, and people are upset.
And the important thing to remember is the people who
are making those decisions are voted on by you. But
those elections are in intentionally held at a time when
most voters don't show up, So the voters who do
(27:07):
show up tend to be voters with more of a
vested interest. Example, in a school district if you are
building new buildings because you've decided that the buildings we
have are just not good enough, and it's a judgment call.
I guess depends on whose ox is being goreed.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Right.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
If you have kids who are in kindergarten or preschool
who are going to be going to that school, then
perhaps you think, yeah, it's worth another one hundred two
hundred dollars a year on my property tax bill for
the school to build new schools for my kid to
go to and enjoy. If you're getting up in age
(27:49):
or you don't have kids, you may say, no, we
don't renovate at every turn, nor should they, And that's
an honest disagreement. That's an honest disagreement that should be had.
The problem becomes, these elections are held in May rather
than November of a presidential year. Why are we holding
(28:12):
votes now? Why are we going to the cost of
extra elections now when we just had an election in November. Well,
i'll tell you because quadrinial elections every four years. Presidential
elections draw a massive crowd of people who don't otherwise vote,
and those people show up and vote against tax increases.
(28:39):
They vote against activist city councilmen or activist Board of
directors members. They vote against bonds, and so the schools
are very careful to keep those in May. There is
a bond in Spring Branch right now, and it's a
(28:59):
big one, and as I said earlier, I think it's
perfectly acceptable to have a disagreement. I was very supportive
of Chris Ernest, who's the chairman of the board, and
I will give some deference to the fact that I
don't think he's a tax and spend guy. He's not
making any money off this. He's got a passle of
(29:19):
kids that go to that go to those Spring Branch schools.
I think that the Spring Branch Independent School District has
buy and large done a very good job. It doesn't
mean I agree with everything. Tom Ramsey, who I do
like and respect, who's the county commissioner there, has come
out and supported this bond and donated to the pack
that was created to promote this. That doesn't mean I
(29:41):
necessarily agree that the bond should be passed. Now, the
Harris County Republican Party did endorse against the bond, and
a lot of taxpayers think that this is money that's
not needed I had put in a call a text
to Chris Ernest earlier that if he could come on
and talk about this, and we have him now. He's
the chairman of the board at Spring Branch Independent School District. Chris,
(30:03):
thanks for being with.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Us, buddy.
Speaker 6 (30:05):
Hi, Michael, how are you?
Speaker 4 (30:06):
I have you sound thrilled to be here.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I have a review. Hey, the text.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
It's a very thorough text you sent about your support
of the bond. Let's do the nuts and bolts first
of what the bond looks like? How much is it
for six hundred million and how much does that cost
the individual taxpayer in Spring Branch Independent School District?
Speaker 6 (30:30):
Well, I guess first to back up, I mean six
hundred million carved up into four different propositions. So if
all four passed, then it would be a six hundred
million dollar bond, and it would cost about one hundred
and forty dollars a year for every half a million
dollar home that you own.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Okay, so a million dollar home would pay two eighty
two million, five to sixty yep.
Speaker 6 (30:52):
Okay, all right, yeah, which which I understand. I mean
I went back and listened to what you had to
say the other day, and look I know that it's
not necessarily a popular thing, but at some point, it's like, man,
we're paying so much property tax already, and when you
look around this region and you look around the state,
and you've got kids that are participating in extracurriculars, and
(31:13):
every single facility in Spring Branch is sixty years old, Like,
at some point it's like, man, Okay, I'm paying thirty
thousand dollars a year for what for crap? And what's
another three hundred bucks so that I can my kids
in the community can participate in first class facilities. At
some point you're just like, man, we're paying so much,
Like what's another few hundred dollars to have what everybody
(31:35):
else has?
Speaker 4 (31:37):
Well, I guess the argument would be, and there was
an allusion to that, is that if there is a
voucher and if there is increasing choice, which I think
is the future. And I know y'all are against that,
but I do think that forms of that are the future.
Speaker 6 (31:51):
I'm not against that. I'm not against that, Michael. I
just think we need to be able to stay competitive then,
because I mean, look around, who are we going.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
To be peting with.
Speaker 6 (32:00):
We're going to be Spring Branch, specifically Second Baptist, Kinkaid,
Houston Christian Saint John's. Look at the athletic facilities of
those places. I mean, find me one one of those
schools that doesn't have a turf baseball field. I mean,
Second Baptist is putting in a jumbo tron on the
church campus this summer. I mean, so you know, we've
(32:22):
got a we've got a school board at Tolley Stadium
that looks like it walked right out of the astronom.
And you know, I mean porta potties. So I mean,
at some point, like whether your kids go to those
schools or they go to our schools or wherever they go,
at some point like the community at large, I mean
the properties in Spring Branch are propped up by Spring
Branch isd.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
I mean.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
You know, I mean, you know, so we want to
take pride in our facilities, and to me, quite frankly,
it's embarrassing for Spring Branch that we've got a sixty
year old football stadium where there's concrete steps that literally
literally collapsed and disintegrated this year, that we have to
bring in twenty to thirty porta potties. Whenever Memorial and
Stratford play in Tolley Stadium because the plumbing doesn't work.
(33:09):
You know, we literally had sewage and I could use
another S word, but I won't on air, literally coming
down the berm after Memorial's homecoming game because the sewage
backed up. And you know it's at some point, like
I know it's you're liking Rod to say we need
a new football stadium.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
But you can say sludge on the air, Chris.
Speaker 6 (33:29):
Sludge, Yeah, I know, I know. Hold yeah, I mean,
just do.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
Something quick break. Chris Ernest is the president of the
school board at SBISD. I supported him proudly to be
in that position, and I think they've done a very
good job. It was it was a taking back by
parents of that school district, and I think by and
large you've seen great strides made there. Today begins early
(33:53):
voting in these in these elections. We'll talk about it
coming up.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!