Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's the week of April twentieth, twenty twenty five, and
this is what's on the people's news. Billionaires and Republicans
finally forced through a voucher bill in Texas. What happens next?
Where were the Democrats in this crucial vote. Solar and
(00:24):
wind are bad for the environment, says Republican Texas leaders.
Student visas revoked in Texas. The Texas death Penalty abolishment
movement take their argument to the Texas Capitol. A jazz
duo comes to Houston to show their craft. All that
(00:45):
and more on the People's News. I'm Steve Gallington. This
is the People's News, and the People's News starts now.
On day, the Texas House voted for Governor Abbot's pet
project called Education Savings Accounts, another word for broad voucher
(01:09):
system in Texas. In an eighty three to sixty three vote,
Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott and a few billionaires finally
passed his School Choice Priority bill. This bill, once enacted,
would give about ten thousand dollars in tuition relief for
private school students in other states, seventy five percent of
(01:32):
the funding for voucher bills goes to students who are
already enrolled in our students in private schools, which means
seven hundred and fifty million dollars of the one billion
dollar tax bill for this bill will go to rich
families and their students as a tuition relief program. Seven
(01:53):
hundred and fifty million will go to them. The remaining
two hundred and fifty million dollars will be used for
public school students to go and occupy these seventy thousand
seats that are available in private schools across the state,
mostly in urban areas. There are over twenty seven million
(02:15):
public school students in Texas, so this represents about a
point four percent opportunity for students out there. We talked
to Jaden Edison, education reporter with a Texas Tribune who
is at the Capitol for the vote.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
A major day at the Texas Legislature, particularly in the
Texas House. Right as you mentioned, school of vouchers has
been a top priority for Governor Greg Abbott, and you
know several you know, top Republicans in the legislature and
at the Capitol, and so particularly with these with this,
there are two proposals that have gone through the legislature,
(02:52):
but the particular one that is notable and the one
that that's been passed out of the Texas House Sentate
bill too or the House of verse of that legislation
would essentially, as you stated, allow families to use taxpayer
dollars to fund their children's private school education.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Right.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And so this particular legislation sets a base amount of
some roughly around a little more than ten thousand dollars
based on kind of a somewhat of a complicated formula,
you know, for people who may not be paying attention
to kind of how it works, but generally speaking, a
little more than ten thousand dollars for that, and additional
funding for students with disabilities, and also setting aside some
(03:31):
money for homeschooling families. And so this is significant.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
This is a legislation that particularly failed to pass two
years ago in twenty twenty three, when a coalition of
rural Republicans and Democrats worked together to derail the proposal.
And so what happened after that is that Governor Greg
Abbott invested a lot of money in the Republican primary
(03:55):
elections last year to get rid of the people who
voted again to its top priority. A lot of money
coming in from out of the state, you know, from
from very wealthy people who helped Governor Greg avid in
that whose But nonetheless, you know, this vote that happened
in the Texas House was the first significant test since
(04:15):
the last legislative session to see kind of whether or
not what Governor Greg Abbott did during the election paid off.
And so obviously a long day to get this thing
you know on the you know, off the floor and passed.
It happened. It was a long day, I think. You know,
you saw efforts by by Democrats who try to basically
(04:38):
get through an effort to bring this issue to voters,
right to put the question of whether or not this
this program should be implemented, allowed voters to decide that
was voted down, and ultimately bringing us here and so again,
you know, a historic, historic day in the sense that
you know, this particular proposal has struggled for decades to
(04:59):
really get through the Texas House, and ultimately it happened
here House though too has passed and now you know,
it takes them the House working with the Senate to
iron out some differences. But ultimately it looks like you know,
the governor is prepared to sign a bill into law
if that is to happen.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
What happens to you? I know, like in Florida they
have the same voluntary type of program, but in the
end it just benefited wealthy, wealthy parents that use the
extra money that they save for private school and they
use that to buy vacations or something like that. So
what stops them from doing at here?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
You know, it's really interesting. It's a great question because
it's just something that to me, you know, and kind
of watching this thing and covering this thing, you know
me atarty of this year, right, is like that's been
one of the central questions, Right, It's like, you know,
should the state be creating a program that will you know,
primarily benefit wealthier families?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Right?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
And I mean, look, the data is very clear, right
when you look at other states that have enacted these
large scale voucher programs, in other words, universal programs, which
basically is a term that means that virtually, you know,
any student can apply, right, you know, who's eligible to
attend a public school can apply. You Know, what we've
(06:19):
seen in other states is that these huge, large scale
programs have primarily benefited and serve students who had already
been attending private school before that, right, and we know
that you know, that tends to skew and be you know,
middle to higher income families who ultimately receive the vouchers, right.
(06:40):
And so that's obviously you know, to me, you know,
it's a notable detour from these programs that you know,
when really the first you know, real kind of programs
that people really start to look at and study in
the early nineties, you know, those programs largely centered on individually,
you know, specifically helping students who are low income and
(07:03):
or you know, students with disabilities. And so what you've
seen more of across the country to your point, and
what Texas is trying to do is again these massive
programs that ultimately allow virtually any you know, school age
child to participate. That's that's a concern you know, for lawmakers,
and so you know, Texas has set up ultimately, what
(07:25):
you know, a priority system if demand were to exceed funding,
and so you know the way it's set up in
the bill that passed you know, out of the House,
you know, ultimately you know it would kind of try
to prioritize you know, students with disabilities, and students at
certain percentages of the federal body level that they consider
low income. But I think, you know, the important thing
(07:47):
to remember is that ultimately there are no admission or
enrollment requirements on private schools, and so therefore you could
you could foresee a scenario where private schools, you know,
maybe they don't accept the students who the state wants
to be first in line for these particular programs, and
so therefore, you know, it's definitely been the concern of
(08:08):
people there. You know, there are no income caps, though
there is a twenty percent you know cap on so
basically what the what the bill tries to do is
place you know, only twenty percent of available funds for
the program can go for families you know, making roughly
one hundred and sixty thousand dollars or more, and that's
for a family or four. And so that's their attempt
at trying to, you know, appease the people who are
(08:31):
concerned about wealthy families taking over the program. But again
without those other safeguards in place, you know, there are
concerns also that Texas could be headed in the same
direction as other states.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
So what happens when you know, because private schools aren't
under the same guidelines as public schools because they can
pick and choose who they want to go to that school,
they can say, hey, we don't have the same we
don't have a capability to take in especially in kids,
so they have to go all those kids in of
going back to public school, or they go they go
(09:04):
to the private school for a certain time period and
they have disciplined problems and they send them back to
the public school. So is it so, is it any
type of safeguards about that, you know, as far as
funding those public schools when those kids fail at the
private school level.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Well, yeah, to the extent that you know, a public school,
a public school student who goes to a private school
and then leaves that private school to go back to
a public school, certainly, you know the funding is going
to you know, follow that child. But you know, I
think the you know, the point you know here, and
I think some of the concerns of advocates on this
particular issue, you know, is the concern that you have
(09:44):
you know, public schools right now, who I mean, and
and virtually it feels like every part of the state
are considering, you know, some form of a school closer
or we're seeing budget deficits, we're seeing you know, teacher shortages.
You know, that's the critical you know programs or the
arts or you know, music, I mean, you name it.
(10:05):
There are these really significant struggles. I mean, the state
has you know what, almost a two billion dollars special
education and funding gap, right, which are the states you
know what many consider the most vulnerable children you know,
in the state. And so I think some of the
concern for people who are really you know, advocating against
this particular you know program, is that public schools, you know,
(10:28):
again the hub of communities, you know, public schools, you know,
are also at a point right now where you know,
many of them are struggling to making me and you know,
there are a lot of factors as to why that's
the case. But but but one, one, one sizeable part
of that is stagnant funding, right, And so again, you know,
(10:49):
I think there's general concern from people that you know,
the status you know, initially you know, you know, putting
one billion dollar towards a program when public schools, which
the state is constitutionally obligated to adequately fund, are really
struggling to make meet in many areas, and you can
kind of see and connect the doubts on kind of
why this has been such a big concern for people
(11:12):
who really love and believe in their local public.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Schools, whatever, those rural schools.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I mean, yeah, million million dollar question, right. I mean,
you know, one thing we do know is that you know,
many you know, rural communities do not have a nearby
private school, right, And so I think that's why you've
seen historically in the legislature a lot of rural Republicans. Right,
this isn't this isn't necessarily an issue that is divided
along party lines, right. I mean again, you know the
(11:40):
reason this has not passed the past, you know, more
recently and historically, is because you've seen Democrats and those
rural Republicans kind of work together to derail and a
lot of that. You know, I think that the common
commonality between the two parties is is very much you know,
the understanding that you know, look, our public schools, our
(12:01):
large employers. You know of our community. You know, in
many cases you have generations and family members who attended
the same public school. And so I think that's certainly
part of the concern and why, you know, rural Republicans
and even rural Texans in general, who may be you know,
very conservative and republican, you know, in many other kind
(12:22):
of as it relates to many other issues, when it
comes to this particular issue, you know, find a lot
of problems, you know, because again understanding what their public
schools mean in their community. I think there's a legitimate
concern that you know, if you know, rural schools are
already operating, you know, the lack of resources. I think
they're concerned that ultimately this could exacerbate those struggles that
(12:44):
they currently already face.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
What happened to and I looked at this before, and
because the price of going to private school right now
is gone, and they jacked up the price to go
to those schools. The cheapest private school here was eight
thousand dollars. Let's put it, let's put it right now
at nine and ten thousand dollars. So those kids parents
(13:08):
pay for them to go to private schools. So they
go to the private school and just spending ten thousand dollars,
But that doesn't cover transportation, It doesn't cover food, clothes,
and other necessities that you need to go to those schools.
Is there anybody that even brought that up.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Yeah, I think it's certainly been a talking point. I
think understanding you know right now, it kind of I've
seen a lot of different numbers on the around. I've
seen the average private school tuition and costs range anywhere
from nine thousand to eleven thousand. So I mean, roughly,
I think that's you know, an accurate kind of ballpark,
you know, depending on kind of you know what data
and who you know, who you're where you're getting the
(13:52):
data from, well, the whole element.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
I'm just going by the just looking at the schools
in Houston in general, and right it's only two schools
that are at like ten thousand dollars. All the rest
of them are twenty eight and thirty thousand dollars. And
I actually known the same thing.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, I mean in term of your valid point again,
you know in Houston obviously, you know, you know, there's
a hub really in a lot of cases for for
private schools here in Texas. But yeah, I mean again,
it's it's a it's a it's a legitimate kind of
concern that people have. It's something that has been discussed,
right in terms of you know, in many cases you
(14:34):
may have you know, some families where you know, if
it's ten thousand dollars or even you know, if it's
stooding with disabilities, you know who you know, receive a
little bit more or maybe even a lot more into
the House proposal. But concern generally speaking that you know,
that average kind of you know, ten thousand dollars for
the for the average toilp participating in the program is
(14:56):
not going to suffice you know, for you know, the
lowest income family. And so again it maybe just goes
back to the concern that again it's the program that's
being pushed really in the name of you know, the
state is saying it wants to prioritize the neediest students,
right our students you know, who are low low income
students with disabilities, those who you know, our low income
in you know, have particular disability or disabilities. You know,
(15:19):
it's concerned that you know, the state is saying is
going to prioritize them. But in practice, the way the
bill is structure, you know, also concerned that you know,
people are really finding difficulties seeing how those goals are
going to come to fruition, especially given the evidence that
we've seen in other states as it relates to access
and who are the ultimately the people who benefit, you know,
(15:41):
from these large scale universal access programs.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
The Texas House and Senate will have to work out
a plan before it becomes law and then before it
goes to the Texas governor to sign. So, now that
this highly unpopular voucher bill has passed, will Democrats be
able to capitalize on that to win more seats. We
caught up with some Democrats at the living Room Bar
(16:06):
for an event that brings together Houston Black Democrats for
a talk on where Democrats stand now and where they're
going in Texas. We caught up with State Representative Ron
Reynolds of Houston at the event. He started off first
on the discussion of the day, the destruction of public
education in Texas.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
It's always great to talk to you. I can tell
you that I'm very disappointed. It's a dark day in
Texas history where for the first time in Texas history,
we are subsidizing wealthy families on public tax dollars that
send their kids to private schools, all while the same
(16:48):
time our neighborhood.
Speaker 6 (16:50):
Public schools are underfunded. It is a sad day.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
When we are basically catering to the MAGA Project twenty
twenty twenty five playbook to gut our public schools and
to help private corporations to.
Speaker 6 (17:13):
Siphon off our dollars for.
Speaker 7 (17:17):
Games.
Speaker 6 (17:18):
Basically that's what it is.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
And so this is a.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
Dark day because I know that many black and brown
kids in urban and rural areas.
Speaker 6 (17:28):
Are going to hurt.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
This is going to exacerbate the have and the have nots,
This is going to create more.
Speaker 6 (17:36):
Disparities with achievement.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
And I think that this is a real upfront to
public schools that have to educate every kid no matter
the zip code.
Speaker 6 (17:45):
Private schools can discriminate.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
They can say we don't want a little Johnny or
the LGBTQ student or the Muslim students.
Speaker 6 (17:53):
They can legally kick and choose who they let in.
They don't often have admittance for students with disabilities.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
So this is about your scam that really does nothing
but rob Peter to pay Paul and I and I
really very strongly against it.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
This is aligned with Trump only it and to end
the Department of Education.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (18:20):
This is those with their attacks on diversity.
Speaker 5 (18:23):
Empity and inclusion, ending critical race theory in school. So
this is really a further erosion of public education.
Speaker 6 (18:32):
And we have to use some black democrats.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Where do you see where do you see black democrats
in the Play for the Future.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
I see black democrats hopefully voting in record numbers in
the mid terms, voting out governor. Hopefully governor voted out
Governor Abbott to the governor Patrick and those magni streatments
taking over the House of US House of Representatives UH
and and putting some checks and balances on uh President
(19:00):
Trump because right now he is basically out of control
with his executive orders, and people are hungry for people
that are going to push back against the authoritarian elon
Musk Trump Macca leadership of this country. That we've seen
(19:21):
higher gas prices, We've not seen eggs go down, Inflation
has has has maintained upticks, and so we're seeing many
federal government employees that are jobs are eliminated.
Speaker 6 (19:36):
We've seen more.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Sha khana since Trump got in office. Any of the
Department used Department of Justice, they the Civil Rights Division,
gutting the Eco Employment Opportunity Commission, basically treating Blacks and
Hispanics as second class citizens. With this anti DEI movement,
and so we're what I see is Blacks going to
(20:02):
the polls in twenty twenty six in higher numbers. I
see people saying that our social security is at risk.
Speaker 6 (20:10):
Medicaid and medicare are at risk.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Many safety nets for middle class families and the poor
are at risk. Head eliminated headstart is at risk, free
and reduced lunches are at risk. So I think that
we're gonna see a resurgence of the black vote being
extremely high. And I think that more African American man,
(20:36):
some who left around and found out by.
Speaker 6 (20:40):
Thinking they were gonna Trump it's gonna do something for him.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
I think they're gonna come back home and vote Democrat.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Well, last question, what are you gonna do about We
know that they're trying to give out.
Speaker 6 (20:51):
Ten townsand dollars about you? Yes, for people that want
to go to private school, charged school? Correct?
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Where's ad balances of schools? They're just going to be
popping up.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
I don't know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Well, school, that's a thing, right, that's a problem because
these first of all, these private schools, they don't have
the same accountability and transparency standards that the public school
schools have, so I think that we're going to see
a lot of corruption, a lot of people lying in
their pockets in terms of these private schools. But basically
(21:27):
what they're doing is a subsidy because most of these.
Speaker 6 (21:30):
Private schools the tuition is higher than ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
So very few of the black families or poor communities
are going to be to take advantage of the voucher
because they can't pay the difference. Not only that, you
got to remember that there's no transportation, there's no lunch,
they don't pay for uniforms so that these private schools
require and books. So so basically you're not going to
see many black families taking advantage of this voucher.
Speaker 6 (21:59):
So I think that this is a real scam.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
Is only going to benefit mostly those who are able
to afford to sending their kids to private school right now,
and that is the well off and the well to do,
and disproportionately those are Anglo life folks.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Also at the event was Jerry Zimmer, former Justice on
the Fourteenth Court of Appeals. He gave his thoughts on
the state of justice in America.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Well, I think people can judge for themselves I mean,
I think people are aware of what's going on. We
see it in the news, and I think a lot
of people are really concerned about about the way things
are being done, and I think the best thing we
can do is keep educating them. And so that's how
(22:50):
and we also, you know, what democrats need to speak
about the future. We need to talk about the values
that we have as Democrats and the values and what
that means for the future and what kind of America
we really want. Do we want, you know, a bullying government,
or do we want to have a government that reflects
(23:13):
some of the more family values that we as Democrats have,
you know, social values and respect for humanity, and respect
for autonomy, the right to make decisions for yourself. These
are things that I think hold true all across the
United States, and I think it's true.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
In large part across the world.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
But we are so fortunate. We are so fortunate because
we benefit from our forefathers, and our forefathers knew what
a tyrant was. It's actually in the Declaration of Independence
(23:54):
that a person who is a tyrant doesn't deserve to
be in a position of eads. And that's what the
Declaration of Independence says, our founding fathers decided or built
this government so that we will have this future. It's
still in our hands. Don't be mistaken. There is a
future and there's hope because it's in our hands. And
(24:17):
so maybe that's the message that we need to share
with people that have despaired or worry or about Let
them know that we're empowering them in the ballot box.
They have the right to vote, so you know, in
two years they'll be it. There'll be some changes. That
is my hope. I believe that's the hope of all Democrats.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Hi, this is Steve Gallington, producer and host of The
People's News. The People's News is people powered news. We
are free to report the unvarnished and unspun truth and
challenge the status quo of corporate propaganda and social media
advertising disguised as real news. Shiny new one hour episodes
(24:58):
of The People's News drop each Sunday on The People's
News Podcast. Thanks for listening. University students are having their
student visas revoked across the country, not for any type
of criminal activities, but for speaking out on political issues.
As of Wednesday, authorities had revoked the visas of international
(25:21):
students in at least thirty one states with official sighting
as seldom used nineteen fifty two Foreign Policy Statute to
take aim at their activism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio
has said they have the right to revoke these visas
despite their First Amendment rights or due process. Eighteen students
(25:44):
in the Houston area have had their student visas revoked,
five at Rice University, where the president is vowed to
fight back and stand by his students. Nick Cooper is
a Rice graduate and a local activist.
Speaker 8 (25:57):
Yeah, man, it's going down. You know, the kind of
things that we've been building up towards in both parties
where they're kind of equating anti Semitism with anti Zionism,
criticism of Israel. You know, all of that has just
been amped up, you know, one hundred times, and it's
(26:18):
there's no no, no, you know, there's a protest going
on right now, there's pushback against it, but there's no
channels right now for even challenging that.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Is that what the expected or is this something that's
just going because it's going is across the country now
at University of Houston now is not the university, but
the press is being put on universities to to not
accept people based on based on their politics from other countries.
Speaker 8 (26:50):
Yeah, man, it's uh. You know I saw last year
write Students for Justice in Palestine. You know, they'd have
thousands of peating of people at every meeting, and now like, yes,
it's just a couple of people. And you know all
of the international students that are being censored.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
To Have you seen that if you talked to any
of those students, Yeah.
Speaker 8 (27:12):
I mean Rice just you know, lost five students so far,
I think, so, yeah, it's it's going down right now.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Rice has lost five students. And what do they do
they use?
Speaker 8 (27:22):
As he read, oh, just getting their student visas revoked?
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Do they have any options as far as a recourse
to fight back so to speak?
Speaker 8 (27:35):
Well, I think that you know, say that you're an
international student, you're interested in studying chemistry. All of a
sudden you're kicked out of the country and then the
university is telling you, hey, you know, we're going to
help you complete your degree online from your country or whatever.
So that's an option. You could try to get into
(27:56):
another college somewhere else in the world. That's an option.
But the idea of somebody who's not in the country
bringing a lawsuit for their student visa getting revoked. You
know that that would take an awful lot of resources.
So you know, in general, it's it's up to us
who live here to be able to have any impact
(28:16):
if there will be any impact on changing things as.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
The voice of protests as far especially as far as
the protests against Israel, because that is that dampened and
the turnout dap and anybody getting involved.
Speaker 8 (28:36):
Yeah, I think in general, like you know, if you
kind of go through the history of all of the
different times that Israel has just spawned the hell out
of Gaza, you know, people will protest for a little
while and then you know, things just kind of die off.
And in this case, like you know, Israel's continuing a
(28:56):
genocide and things. You know, people lose enter being, has
to get back to their lives or whatever. So any
kind of protest is always going to go down and
Israel and is kind of counting on that that people
will have to go back to their lives.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Is this something that was pressured by theory to go
And it's the point a point that the Trump administration
has with personal places like Harvard and right to Stiphen
saying that that Jewish Jewish students are being being assaulted
(29:36):
and it's about of anti semitism on campus, and this
is a way of getting rid of that anti semitism
against Jewish students.
Speaker 8 (29:45):
Yeah, I mean, that's a great one. It's like anti semitism.
Let's say, like, you know, in your average Texan, right,
let's say that their anti semitism is just give it
some percentage. Let's say that they're on average twenty percent
anti semitic. Right, So let's just say if you were
to just take one hundred Texans completely at random and
(30:08):
see how many of them are really anti semitic. Maybe,
you know, one in five would be really antisemitic. Maybe
I'm wrong, maybe it's one in ten. You know, it's like,
I don't know the number. And then if you were
to go to the groups that are students there justice
in Palestine on our campus, Columbia's campus, on Harvard's campus,
(30:30):
or whatever, the chance that one of those people would
actually be anti Semitic is less than one percent, I
would say, So there's significantly less antisemitic than the culture
around them. They're you know, kind of there's this idea
(30:50):
of oh, well, Jewish people don't feel safe, Well, that's
you know, clearly nonsense, right. I mean, every one of
these chapters of Students for Justice Healesteina has Jewish members
in them. Maybe not everyone. Maybe there's some school that
only has two members of THEIRS do for Justice in Palestine,
But there's Jewish people in all these groups, you know, Colombia,
(31:11):
it's in New York City. So of course, like a
lot of the Students for Justice in Palestine were Jewish,
the idea that Jewish people didn't feel safe is absurd. Now,
if you wanted to make an argument and say, well,
Zionist students.
Speaker 9 (31:25):
Don't feel safe, right, if you wanted to be honest
and say that these criticisms are not of Judaism, they're
of Zionism, you have a discussion about whether Zionist students
feel safe.
Speaker 8 (31:38):
But I mean that would be kind of a ridiculous
conversation to have in a vacuum, right, So you would
want to discuss something like that in the context of, well,
do Muslim students feel safe? Do people who are grow
some other foreign government, if it's a brutal government, feel safe?
Speaker 10 (31:57):
Right, Like it could be that.
Speaker 8 (32:01):
You know that all kinds of students have all kinds
of reasons not to feel safe. Right. But what's ironic
about it is that the right, you know, for a
long time, was saying, oh, you know, these women, like
they're pretending that they don't feel safe on campus, These
black people are pretending that they don't feel safe on campus,
like they're just a bunch of woke cry babies or whatever. Like,
(32:24):
you know, our free speech trumps your right to you know,
feel safe about our speech.
Speaker 6 (32:30):
Right.
Speaker 8 (32:30):
Freedom of speech is sacriscaying. So that's what they've been saying.
And then all of a sudden, now criticizing Israel becomes,
you know, an attack on the student. I mean, that's
just absurd. Now that's not to say that there couldn't
be a case of violence between a Zionist student and
an anti Zionist student, right, there could be that, But
the idea that it's based on racism is absurd. Then
(32:53):
another aspect of this is that in this country and
in most places in the world, it's not even slightly
illegal to be racist. Right, Racism is not a crime. Like,
there's racist people around me all the time, and they're
not getting deported and they're not getting charged, and they're
not you know, they're having there's no effect on them.
So racism is totally legal. So the idea that you
(33:15):
can say, well, on the one hand, you know Israel,
you know, yes, they seem to be doing ethnic cleansing
and genocide. But on the other hand, you know, there's
a lot of racism towards Jews. And then it's like,
so you're saying that the crime of crimes genocide, like
(33:37):
is somehow balanced out by this thing that's not even
a crime, racism. Like, you know, it's totally illegal to
be racist, and if people wanted to make it illegal
to be racist, like, I don't know how they would
do that in the US, but you know, if they
wanted to do that, there's all kinds of racism in
the US, and like, you know, one out of you know,
(33:58):
three Americans would suddenly find themselves in legal trouble for
being racist. But being racist is legal. So if these
students were antisemitic, and I don't think that you can
make any sensible argument that they are antisemitic, I think
that's totally nonsense. I think they're significantly less antisemitic than
other Texans. If you were to try to make that argument, well, okay,
(34:19):
but you know, you just basically are saying that it's
okay to ban people for being racist or to kick
them out or whatever like, you know, and that would
be a very different world. But what they imagine is
there's this world in which you can ban one specific
type of racism, which is anti Jewish racism, and even
(34:42):
that racism is like, you know, I think in my experience,
and I've been in these Students for Justice in Palestine
groups for decades, like, I don't see any anti semitism.
So the idea that somebody's saying, oh, well, anti semitism
justifies this. It's like, Okay, they're like significantly less antisemitic
than their average Texans, so it's not a concern. It's
(35:02):
almost the same thing if somebody were to say, oh, well,
these undocumented immigrants are causing a spike in the crime rate,
It's like, no, Actually, you know, the chance that an
undocumented immigrant is committing any kind of you know, violent
crime or any crime other than passing the border is
significantly lower than the native born population, so they're actually
(35:24):
reducing the crime rate per capita. So you know, it's
like we can make these backward arguments and pretend that
we're in some alternate reality where there's you know, anti
Semitism on campuses is increasing because there's students for justice
in Palestine, But in reality, anti Semitism is increasing because
of Israel, and that's always going to be the case.
(35:45):
Like people really don't like the idea of Israel getting
special treatment and it gives power to all the racist
kinds of means and ideas that like, oh, there's Jews
controlling the world.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
That was local activist Nick Cooper. The death penalty in
Texas continues. Texas puts to death the highest number of
people in the United States. The Texas Death Penalty Abolition
Movement has been fighting to end the death penalty. They
say it's racist in its practice and should end. Every
Texas legislative session, they travel to Austin to lobby against
(36:19):
the death penalty and speak to lawmakers. Longtime activist and
organizer Gloria Rubik is a member of the group and
spoke on their recent visit and what the organization is planning.
Speaker 7 (36:33):
We went to the state legislature to lobby. There's actually
a number of bills that could positively affect people on
death row. The first bill is to abolish the death penalty,
which we know isn't going to go anywhere, but we
did talk to people about it, and there is more
(36:55):
support for ending the death penalty than there ever has been.
But in the House there was House Built two, two,
three seven by Harold Dutton, Housepill four five four by
Reps Busy and my Rep. Christina Morales, and House Bill
(37:16):
sixty one by Rep. Joe Moody, and then in the
Senate there was Senate Bill three four to three. Those
were all for abolition. One really exciting bill was a
State Rep. From somewhere near the Dallas area. Her name
is Terry Masa, and she has House Bill fourteen oh
(37:39):
nine that limits the use of administrative segregation or solitary
confinement or whatever they're calling isolation today, and she wants
to limit it to three days and if the infraction
involved vilence than ten days. Well, men on death row
(38:03):
have been in solitary for twenty five years and this
has caused severe mental illness, an increase, an increase in suicides,
and an increase in man just giving up their appeals.
So that's a new bill, and we were very excited
(38:23):
about that. Another bill that we're excited about is Representative
Joe Moody has House built twenty fifty five that would
not allow the death penalty for anybody under the age
of twenty one. Now, in two thousand and five, the
Supreme Court said nobody under eighteen could be sent to
(38:49):
death row, and all the juveniles that were on death
row at that time in two thousand and five got commuted.
And now they're talking about raising it to twenty one,
which is another step in the right direction. Now a
lot of people have heard about Robert Robertson's case. He
(39:13):
was accused of killing his two year old little girl, Nikki. Well,
there was no crime and the science supposed scientific evidence
used against him was the shaken baby syndrome. But this
(39:34):
is now a debunked scientific thing. So Representative Moody has
House filled four four four that would allow relevant scientific
evidence not available at trial to be used later in
habeas appeals. And I keep thinking of my friend Todd Willingham,
(39:59):
who was executing in two thousand and four for killing
his two little girls, and he was accused of setting
his house on fire. The arson science that convicted him
was outdated and he was executed. His last words where
(40:20):
I'm an innocent man convicted of a crime I did
not commit. I have been persecuted for twelve years for
something I didn't do, so I think this one. I
was talking with Moody's office and they're pretty optimistic about
getting this passed. The last thing we lobbied for, and
(40:43):
we had five issues that we focused on, was the
law of parties and this controversial law in Texas which
allows the state to execute someone who didn't kill anyone.
They may have been the getaway driver for a robbery
(41:04):
and had no idea anybody was going to be killed,
or in Jeff Woods's case, he was sitting in his
truck and his buddy went in to get a soda
and Jeff heard gunshots and the guy had killed the convenience.
Speaker 10 (41:20):
Store owner and robbed him.
Speaker 7 (41:22):
So Dunton has house built twenty six forty nine, and
then a Republican Jeff Leech, has HOUSELL fifty fifty eight.
And this even goes further, and apparently he has more
faith than I do in the Board of Partons. But
it directs the Board of Partners in pearols to review
(41:45):
cases of everyone now on death row. Sentenced under the
law parties and make recommendations to the governor for clemency.
So wow, that's that's pretty off them. I want to
give a couple of phone numbers, so get your pen
(42:09):
or pencil and paper ready. These bills go to the
House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee or the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
So in the House, the chair is Representative John Smithy
and his phone number is five one two four six
(42:32):
three zero seven zero two Representative smith and then EE
five one two four six three zero seven zero two.
And the head of the Senate committee is Pete Floodeth
and his number is five one two four six three
(42:54):
zero one two four five one two four six three
zero one two. For call these two chairs and tell
them to look at these law Parties bills. Look at
the bill about introducing new scientific evidence, the bill limiting
solitary confinement, and we may get some good news out
(43:20):
of this session, which would be such a delight. Okay,
I'm gonna switch gears next week. Next Wednesday, April twenty third,
Moises Mendoza, who's from Collin County right near Dallas, is
(43:41):
scheduled for execution. He was just denied by the Supreme Court,
I think yesterday, so I don't think there's anything pending.
I hope I'm wrong, But we will be going to
Huntsville next Wednesday protests and this will be the what
(44:02):
five hundred and ninety sixth or seventh execution for Texas.
We are approaching six hundred executions in May. There's one
already scheduled May twentieth for Matthew Johnson from Dallas. So
(44:23):
the machinery of death in Texas is still still working.
And the last thing I want to talk about is
political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal, who was framed up and
sentenced to death in Pennsylvania in nineteen ninety two. After
almost forty years on death row, his sentence was overturned,
(44:47):
but he was re sentenced to life without parole, or
as he calls it, slow death row. So Houston will
join others all over the world on his seventy first
birthday to demand his freedom. Now, and we're going to
(45:07):
have a protest riteouts at Emancipation Park right near the
street of Emancipation Avenue, and our speakers are black panther
Bunshie career minister Abdul Haleem Muhammad Ricky, Niki Lou Allen
(45:32):
spoken Word and our creative member sister Mama Sonya and
the nephew of Joe compos Taurtis. Johnny Toutis has written
a gorgeous poem about MoMA. Powerful poem. So come out
to Emancipation Park two o'clock Sunday, a week from Easter
(45:56):
Sunday the twenty seventh, and bring drums, noisemakers, bring your friends.
We're going to celebrate his birthday, but we're also going
to protest and demand his immediate freedom.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Wednesday, the group will travel to Huntsville, Texas to protest
the planned execution of Moses Mendoza. On Sunday, April twenty seventh,
they will be at Emancipation Park to celebrate the birthday
for Mumia Abu Jamal, who is a former black panther
and political prisoner in Philadelphia. You can find out more
(46:33):
by going to their Facebook page. The Texas Death Penalty
Abolition Movement and they meet at the Shape Community Center
once a month. As part of the Corrupt, Criminal and
Incompetent New Government of convicted felon Donald Trump, Republicans in
the Texas Legislature have abandoned reasoned in facts, and succeeded
(46:54):
in passing House Bill eight nineteen that will put more
restrictions on renewable energy, saying that it is a threat
to the environment, that windmills in particular are a danger
to wildlife. Luke Metzger is with Environment Texas and condemns
this anti renewable energy bill.
Speaker 10 (47:13):
Well, wind and solar energy are booming in Texas. We're
number one in the country for renewable energy, and in
just the last four years, ninety three percent of the
new generation added to the electric grid has been either wind, solar,
or batteries, and that has been tremendously beneficial to our
(47:34):
environments and cutting pollution, saving water, and helping us keep
the lights on, and also saving consumers about a billion
dollars a month on their electric bills. But as renewables
have grown, there have been some people who don't like
that growth and don't like to see the wind turbins
(47:56):
or the solar farms near the homes or knew their properties,
and so they have found an ally and Senator Lewis
col Course who filed SBA nineteen with the stated goal
of protecting the land, water, and wildlife of the state. Unfortunately,
(48:18):
what the bill does is create a really discriminatory and
crippling permitting regime that would ultimately grind development of wind
and solar to a halt in the state, which would
be very bad news for our land, water and wildlife.
You know, we know that our dependence on fossil fuels
is fueling the climate crisis as well as contributing a
(48:43):
very deadly air pollution that is linked to one hundreds
of depths every year in the state. And so you know,
the bill I think is you know, past the Texas
Senate on Monday, and if it does ultimately become law,
(49:03):
you know, wind and solar companies are saying that's it
would be very, very difficult to build any new projects
in the state. And that would mean that you know,
as demand for electricity is you know, going to increase
according to Urka some seventy five percent in the next
five years, there's going to be enormous demand on the grid,
(49:26):
but not as much supply coming on to meet that demand,
and so that really raises the specter of more you know,
grid problems and potential blackouts. It also means that prices
for electricity will surely go up, because wind and solar
are the cheapest forms of energy out there, and if
we're not building those, we're reliant on more expensive forms
(49:49):
of energy, and it means, you know, that we're going
to be running those polluting coal and gas plants more
to meet the demand. And so, you know, we see
this is a real terrible bill for the environment. A
similar bill passed the Senate two years ago but then
died in the House, and so we're hopeful and working
(50:11):
very hard to see the bill need a similar fate
this time.
Speaker 4 (50:15):
It's kind of a misnomer when you talk about saving
the birds and saving the environment when yeah, petrotymical plants
that pollute the air and provide damage to humans and animals.
Speaker 10 (50:32):
Yeah, it is so hypocritical and so frustrating, you know,
to hear these legislators, you know, uh, you know claim
that you know, renealle energy is so harmful to environments
where they're doing nothing to address the you know, profound
harm that fossil fuel production, you know, everything from the
extraction of oil from fracking or the mining of coal
(50:55):
and chopping off mountaintops or polluting our our rivers, and
then you know, exacerbating a climate crisis. You know, they're
doing nothing on that and singling out wind and solar
for for you know, you know, new permits that only
renewables would have to meet. No other form of energy,
coal plants, nuclear plant, gas plant has to get such
(51:17):
a permit from the Public Utility Commission, and the way
it's set up, you know, it's a very arbitrary process
and unclear whether people will be able to get permits
or not, and that means that it could be very
difficult to get the financing to the project in the
first place. And so you know, all of that uncertainty,
you know, is really spooks investors and so it's going
(51:41):
to make it very difficult to build. But yeah, the
fact is that you know, fossil fuels, you know, the
are combustion of them, the extraction of them, are you know,
contributing to you know, deadly air pollution that kills people.
It's linked to climate change that you know, according to
the Audubon Society, could lead to the extinction of two
(52:04):
thirds of North American bird species, and none of that
is being talked about. There's just singling out wind and
solar and there of course are impacts you know, to
to wildlife and to land, you know, from renewable energy,
and we do need and can mitigate those impacts, including
through careful sighting and you know, make adopting kind of
(52:28):
best practices around you know, incorporating agriculture and open space
into renewable projects and many other things that we can
kind of mitigate the impact. But you know, the fact
of the matter is, if you're concerned about the loss
of open space in Texas, the biggest problem right now
is housing sprawl. You know, we're we're losing a thousand
(52:50):
acres a day of land, you know, primarily to you know,
new residential development. But again, the legislators aren't talking about that.
They're not proposing anything to mitigate or limit that impact.
They're they're just attacking the clean, cheap energy that we
rely on.
Speaker 4 (53:10):
I heard that the argument I've heard about against wind
is that it kills birds and the birds are the
birds are are running into the blades, and is that's
one of the argue And that's that's the one of
the arguments I heard against against wind.
Speaker 10 (53:30):
Yeah, and that's that's true, that there are some bird
fatalities from impacts with wind, turbans. You know, it's potentially
between seven hundred thousand and a million a year. But
to put that in perspective, birds collide with built tall buildings.
UH that those collisions of buildings are linked to one
(53:50):
billion deaths per year, so a thousand times more deaths
related to tall buildings than there are from uh from
wind turbans. And then, of course we also know fossil
fuels kill far more birds, you know, again both from
the air pollution but also the climate change that is
the greatest threat to birds. That's why, you know, bird
(54:13):
advocacy organizations like the Audubon Society, the Galveston Ornithological Society,
National Wildlife Federation. You know, these groups recognize that the
biggest threat to birds and other species is climate change,
and as such, you know, the most important thing we
do is to switch away from fossil fuels into renewable energy.
(54:35):
But at the same time, you know, we do need
to develop those solar resources responsibly, citing them correctly, and
taking steps to minimize impacts to wildlife.
Speaker 4 (54:48):
What do you when you say infest the climate, can
you explain that for those who don't know.
Speaker 10 (54:53):
Sure, yeah, so you know, many birds migrate of course, right,
and as the planet heats up, we're starting to see
you know, uh, trees and other plants flower earlier, uh,
and insects kind of hatch and and uh boom earlier
(55:14):
before birds arrive. And so by the time the birds arrive,
they had not they've missed kind of those peak uh
seasons for for food. And so that's one of the
main impacts is just the migrat migration patterns are being
disrupted by the heat and because of their food source.
(55:35):
But in addition to that, it's it's it's all the
other things that impact all of us, including wildfires, extreme heat, droughts.
You know, for example, there's a lot of concern around
whooping cranes here in Texas, a very endangered bird, and
one of the problems is that because of droughts as
well as successive water withdrawals that you know, uh there's
(56:00):
efficient water to support the estuaries of which the whooping
grains rely on in their food. So climate's really just
causing serious harm to you know, the habitat and the
food sources to bird's another wildlife.
Speaker 1 (56:20):
That was Luke Metzger, the executive director of Environment Texas.
They can be reached at Environment Texas, All put Together
dot org. Hi, this is Steve Gallington, producer and host
of the People's News. If you have a story that
needs to be told, come to us. We accept fully
(56:40):
produced audio, written material, or just give us the idea
and we will run with it. Shiny new one hour
episodes of The People's News drop each Sunday on The
People's News podcast, hosted by spreaker dot com and linked
to my website Gallington dot com. The People's News is
(57:03):
a production of Steve Gallington and Richard Hannah and is
protected by copyright laws. All the information broadcast on air
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or online, including articles, audio clips, illustrations, graphics, photographs, and videos,
are protected by these copyright and other state and federal
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(57:26):
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(57:48):
permission to use copyrighted material, email Steve Gallington at Steve
at gallington dot com. Thank you,
It's the week of April twentieth, twenty twenty five, and
this is what's on the people's news. Billionaires and Republicans
finally forced through a voucher bill in Texas. What happens next?
Where were the Democrats in this crucial vote. Solar and
(00:24):
wind are bad for the environment, says Republican Texas leaders.
Student visas revoked in Texas. The Texas death Penalty abolishment
movement take their argument to the Texas Capitol. A jazz
duo comes to Houston to show their craft. All that
(00:45):
and more on the People's News. I'm Steve Gallington. This
is the People's News, and the People's News starts now.
On day, the Texas House voted for Governor Abbot's pet
project called Education Savings Accounts, another word for broad voucher
(01:09):
system in Texas. In an eighty three to sixty three vote,
Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott and a few billionaires finally
passed his School Choice Priority bill. This bill, once enacted,
would give about ten thousand dollars in tuition relief for
private school students in other states, seventy five percent of
(01:32):
the funding for voucher bills goes to students who are
already enrolled in our students in private schools, which means
seven hundred and fifty million dollars of the one billion
dollar tax bill for this bill will go to rich
families and their students as a tuition relief program. Seven
(01:53):
hundred and fifty million will go to them. The remaining
two hundred and fifty million dollars will be used for
public school students to go and occupy these seventy thousand
seats that are available in private schools across the state,
mostly in urban areas. There are over twenty seven million
(02:15):
public school students in Texas, so this represents about a
point four percent opportunity for students out there. We talked
to Jaden Edison, education reporter with a Texas Tribune who
is at the Capitol for the vote.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
A major day at the Texas Legislature, particularly in the
Texas House. Right as you mentioned, school of vouchers has
been a top priority for Governor Greg Abbott, and you
know several you know, top Republicans in the legislature and
at the Capitol, and so particularly with these with this,
there are two proposals that have gone through the legislature,
(02:52):
but the particular one that is notable and the one
that that's been passed out of the Texas House Sentate
bill too or the House of verse of that legislation
would essentially, as you stated, allow families to use taxpayer
dollars to fund their children's private school education.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Right.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And so this particular legislation sets a base amount of
some roughly around a little more than ten thousand dollars
based on kind of a somewhat of a complicated formula,
you know, for people who may not be paying attention
to kind of how it works, but generally speaking, a
little more than ten thousand dollars for that, and additional
funding for students with disabilities, and also setting aside some
(03:31):
money for homeschooling families. And so this is significant.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
This is a legislation that particularly failed to pass two
years ago in twenty twenty three, when a coalition of
rural Republicans and Democrats worked together to derail the proposal.
And so what happened after that is that Governor Greg
Abbott invested a lot of money in the Republican primary
(03:55):
elections last year to get rid of the people who
voted again to its top priority. A lot of money
coming in from out of the state, you know, from
from very wealthy people who helped Governor Greg avid in
that whose But nonetheless, you know, this vote that happened
in the Texas House was the first significant test since
(04:15):
the last legislative session to see kind of whether or
not what Governor Greg Abbott did during the election paid off.
And so obviously a long day to get this thing
you know on the you know, off the floor and passed.
It happened. It was a long day, I think. You know,
you saw efforts by by Democrats who try to basically
(04:38):
get through an effort to bring this issue to voters,
right to put the question of whether or not this
this program should be implemented, allowed voters to decide that
was voted down, and ultimately bringing us here and so again,
you know, a historic, historic day in the sense that
you know, this particular proposal has struggled for decades to
(04:59):
really get through the Texas House, and ultimately it happened
here House though too has passed and now you know,
it takes them the House working with the Senate to
iron out some differences. But ultimately it looks like you know,
the governor is prepared to sign a bill into law
if that is to happen.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
What happens to you? I know, like in Florida they
have the same voluntary type of program, but in the
end it just benefited wealthy, wealthy parents that use the
extra money that they save for private school and they
use that to buy vacations or something like that. So
what stops them from doing at here?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
You know, it's really interesting. It's a great question because
it's just something that to me, you know, and kind
of watching this thing and covering this thing, you know
me atarty of this year, right, is like that's been
one of the central questions, Right, It's like, you know,
should the state be creating a program that will you know,
primarily benefit wealthier families?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Right?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
And I mean, look, the data is very clear, right
when you look at other states that have enacted these
large scale voucher programs, in other words, universal programs, which
basically is a term that means that virtually, you know,
any student can apply, right, you know, who's eligible to
attend a public school can apply. You Know, what we've
(06:19):
seen in other states is that these huge, large scale
programs have primarily benefited and serve students who had already
been attending private school before that, right, and we know
that you know, that tends to skew and be you know,
middle to higher income families who ultimately receive the vouchers, right.
(06:40):
And so that's obviously you know, to me, you know,
it's a notable detour from these programs that you know,
when really the first you know, real kind of programs
that people really start to look at and study in
the early nineties, you know, those programs largely centered on individually,
you know, specifically helping students who are low income and
(07:03):
or you know, students with disabilities. And so what you've
seen more of across the country to your point, and
what Texas is trying to do is again these massive
programs that ultimately allow virtually any you know, school age
child to participate. That's that's a concern you know, for lawmakers,
and so you know, Texas has set up ultimately, what
(07:25):
you know, a priority system if demand were to exceed funding,
and so you know the way it's set up in
the bill that passed you know, out of the House,
you know, ultimately you know it would kind of try
to prioritize you know, students with disabilities, and students at
certain percentages of the federal body level that they consider
low income. But I think, you know, the important thing
(07:47):
to remember is that ultimately there are no admission or
enrollment requirements on private schools, and so therefore you could
you could foresee a scenario where private schools, you know,
maybe they don't accept the students who the state wants
to be first in line for these particular programs, and
so therefore, you know, it's definitely been the concern of
(08:08):
people there. You know, there are no income caps, though
there is a twenty percent you know cap on so
basically what the what the bill tries to do is
place you know, only twenty percent of available funds for
the program can go for families you know, making roughly
one hundred and sixty thousand dollars or more, and that's
for a family or four. And so that's their attempt
at trying to, you know, appease the people who are
(08:31):
concerned about wealthy families taking over the program. But again
without those other safeguards in place, you know, there are
concerns also that Texas could be headed in the same
direction as other states.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
So what happens when you know, because private schools aren't
under the same guidelines as public schools because they can
pick and choose who they want to go to that school,
they can say, hey, we don't have the same we
don't have a capability to take in especially in kids,
so they have to go all those kids in of
going back to public school, or they go they go
(09:04):
to the private school for a certain time period and
they have disciplined problems and they send them back to
the public school. So is it so, is it any
type of safeguards about that, you know, as far as
funding those public schools when those kids fail at the
private school level.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Well, yeah, to the extent that you know, a public school,
a public school student who goes to a private school
and then leaves that private school to go back to
a public school, certainly, you know the funding is going
to you know, follow that child. But you know, I
think the you know, the point you know here, and
I think some of the concerns of advocates on this
particular issue, you know, is the concern that you have
(09:44):
you know, public schools right now, who I mean, and
and virtually it feels like every part of the state
are considering, you know, some form of a school closer
or we're seeing budget deficits, we're seeing you know, teacher shortages.
You know, that's the critical you know programs or the
arts or you know, music, I mean, you name it.
(10:05):
There are these really significant struggles. I mean, the state
has you know what, almost a two billion dollars special
education and funding gap, right, which are the states you
know what many consider the most vulnerable children you know,
in the state. And so I think some of the
concern for people who are really you know, advocating against
this particular you know program, is that public schools, you know,
(10:28):
again the hub of communities, you know, public schools, you know,
are also at a point right now where you know,
many of them are struggling to making me and you know,
there are a lot of factors as to why that's
the case. But but but one, one, one sizeable part
of that is stagnant funding, right, And so again, you know,
(10:49):
I think there's general concern from people that you know,
the status you know, initially you know, you know, putting
one billion dollar towards a program when public schools, which
the state is constitutionally obligated to adequately fund, are really
struggling to make meet in many areas, and you can
kind of see and connect the doubts on kind of
why this has been such a big concern for people
(11:12):
who really love and believe in their local public.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Schools, whatever, those rural schools.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I mean, yeah, million million dollar question, right. I mean,
you know, one thing we do know is that you know,
many you know, rural communities do not have a nearby
private school, right, And so I think that's why you've
seen historically in the legislature a lot of rural Republicans. Right,
this isn't this isn't necessarily an issue that is divided
along party lines, right. I mean again, you know the
(11:40):
reason this has not passed the past, you know, more
recently and historically, is because you've seen Democrats and those
rural Republicans kind of work together to derail and a
lot of that. You know, I think that the common
commonality between the two parties is is very much you know,
the understanding that you know, look, our public schools, our
(12:01):
large employers. You know of our community. You know, in
many cases you have generations and family members who attended
the same public school. And so I think that's certainly
part of the concern and why, you know, rural Republicans
and even rural Texans in general, who may be you know,
very conservative and republican, you know, in many other kind
(12:22):
of as it relates to many other issues, when it
comes to this particular issue, you know, find a lot
of problems, you know, because again understanding what their public
schools mean in their community. I think there's a legitimate
concern that you know, if you know, rural schools are
already operating, you know, the lack of resources. I think
they're concerned that ultimately this could exacerbate those struggles that
(12:44):
they currently already face.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
What happened to and I looked at this before, and
because the price of going to private school right now
is gone, and they jacked up the price to go
to those schools. The cheapest private school here was eight
thousand dollars. Let's put it, let's put it right now
at nine and ten thousand dollars. So those kids parents
(13:08):
pay for them to go to private schools. So they
go to the private school and just spending ten thousand dollars,
But that doesn't cover transportation, It doesn't cover food, clothes,
and other necessities that you need to go to those schools.
Is there anybody that even brought that up.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Yeah, I think it's certainly been a talking point. I
think understanding you know right now, it kind of I've
seen a lot of different numbers on the around. I've
seen the average private school tuition and costs range anywhere
from nine thousand to eleven thousand. So I mean, roughly,
I think that's you know, an accurate kind of ballpark,
you know, depending on kind of you know what data
and who you know, who you're where you're getting the
(13:52):
data from, well, the whole element.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
I'm just going by the just looking at the schools
in Houston in general, and right it's only two schools
that are at like ten thousand dollars. All the rest
of them are twenty eight and thirty thousand dollars. And
I actually known the same thing.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, I mean in term of your valid point again,
you know in Houston obviously, you know, you know, there's
a hub really in a lot of cases for for
private schools here in Texas. But yeah, I mean again,
it's it's a it's a it's a legitimate kind of
concern that people have. It's something that has been discussed,
right in terms of you know, in many cases you
(14:34):
may have you know, some families where you know, if
it's ten thousand dollars or even you know, if it's
stooding with disabilities, you know who you know, receive a
little bit more or maybe even a lot more into
the House proposal. But concern generally speaking that you know,
that average kind of you know, ten thousand dollars for
the for the average toilp participating in the program is
(14:56):
not going to suffice you know, for you know, the
lowest income family. And so again it maybe just goes
back to the concern that again it's the program that's
being pushed really in the name of you know, the
state is saying it wants to prioritize the neediest students,
right our students you know, who are low low income
students with disabilities, those who you know, our low income
in you know, have particular disability or disabilities. You know,
(15:19):
it's concerned that you know, the state is saying is
going to prioritize them. But in practice, the way the
bill is structure, you know, also concerned that you know,
people are really finding difficulties seeing how those goals are
going to come to fruition, especially given the evidence that
we've seen in other states as it relates to access
and who are the ultimately the people who benefit, you know,
(15:41):
from these large scale universal access programs.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
The Texas House and Senate will have to work out
a plan before it becomes law and then before it
goes to the Texas governor to sign. So, now that
this highly unpopular voucher bill has passed, will Democrats be
able to capitalize on that to win more seats. We
caught up with some Democrats at the living Room Bar
(16:06):
for an event that brings together Houston Black Democrats for
a talk on where Democrats stand now and where they're
going in Texas. We caught up with State Representative Ron
Reynolds of Houston at the event. He started off first
on the discussion of the day, the destruction of public
education in Texas.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
It's always great to talk to you. I can tell
you that I'm very disappointed. It's a dark day in
Texas history where for the first time in Texas history,
we are subsidizing wealthy families on public tax dollars that
send their kids to private schools, all while the same
(16:48):
time our neighborhood.
Speaker 6 (16:50):
Public schools are underfunded. It is a sad day.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
When we are basically catering to the MAGA Project twenty
twenty twenty five playbook to gut our public schools and
to help private corporations to.
Speaker 6 (17:13):
Siphon off our dollars for.
Speaker 7 (17:17):
Games.
Speaker 6 (17:18):
Basically that's what it is.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
And so this is a.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
Dark day because I know that many black and brown
kids in urban and rural areas.
Speaker 6 (17:28):
Are going to hurt.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
This is going to exacerbate the have and the have nots,
This is going to create more.
Speaker 6 (17:36):
Disparities with achievement.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
And I think that this is a real upfront to
public schools that have to educate every kid no matter
the zip code.
Speaker 6 (17:45):
Private schools can discriminate.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
They can say we don't want a little Johnny or
the LGBTQ student or the Muslim students.
Speaker 6 (17:53):
They can legally kick and choose who they let in.
They don't often have admittance for students with disabilities.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
So this is about your scam that really does nothing
but rob Peter to pay Paul and I and I
really very strongly against it.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
This is aligned with Trump only it and to end
the Department of Education.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (18:20):
This is those with their attacks on diversity.
Speaker 5 (18:23):
Empity and inclusion, ending critical race theory in school. So
this is really a further erosion of public education.
Speaker 6 (18:32):
And we have to use some black democrats.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Where do you see where do you see black democrats
in the Play for the Future.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
I see black democrats hopefully voting in record numbers in
the mid terms, voting out governor. Hopefully governor voted out
Governor Abbott to the governor Patrick and those magni streatments
taking over the House of US House of Representatives UH
and and putting some checks and balances on uh President
(19:00):
Trump because right now he is basically out of control
with his executive orders, and people are hungry for people
that are going to push back against the authoritarian elon
Musk Trump Macca leadership of this country. That we've seen
(19:21):
higher gas prices, We've not seen eggs go down, Inflation
has has has maintained upticks, and so we're seeing many
federal government employees that are jobs are eliminated.
Speaker 6 (19:36):
We've seen more.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Sha khana since Trump got in office. Any of the
Department used Department of Justice, they the Civil Rights Division,
gutting the Eco Employment Opportunity Commission, basically treating Blacks and
Hispanics as second class citizens. With this anti DEI movement,
and so we're what I see is Blacks going to
(20:02):
the polls in twenty twenty six in higher numbers. I
see people saying that our social security is at risk.
Speaker 6 (20:10):
Medicaid and medicare are at risk.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Many safety nets for middle class families and the poor
are at risk. Head eliminated headstart is at risk, free
and reduced lunches are at risk. So I think that
we're gonna see a resurgence of the black vote being
extremely high. And I think that more African American man,
(20:36):
some who left around and found out by.
Speaker 6 (20:40):
Thinking they were gonna Trump it's gonna do something for him.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
I think they're gonna come back home and vote Democrat.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Well, last question, what are you gonna do about We
know that they're trying to give out.
Speaker 6 (20:51):
Ten townsand dollars about you? Yes, for people that want
to go to private school, charged school? Correct?
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Where's ad balances of schools? They're just going to be
popping up.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
I don't know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Well, school, that's a thing, right, that's a problem because
these first of all, these private schools, they don't have
the same accountability and transparency standards that the public school
schools have, so I think that we're going to see
a lot of corruption, a lot of people lying in
their pockets in terms of these private schools. But basically
(21:27):
what they're doing is a subsidy because most of these.
Speaker 6 (21:30):
Private schools the tuition is higher than ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
So very few of the black families or poor communities
are going to be to take advantage of the voucher
because they can't pay the difference. Not only that, you
got to remember that there's no transportation, there's no lunch,
they don't pay for uniforms so that these private schools
require and books. So so basically you're not going to
see many black families taking advantage of this voucher.
Speaker 6 (21:59):
So I think that this is a real scam.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
Is only going to benefit mostly those who are able
to afford to sending their kids to private school right now,
and that is the well off and the well to do,
and disproportionately those are Anglo life folks.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Also at the event was Jerry Zimmer, former Justice on
the Fourteenth Court of Appeals. He gave his thoughts on
the state of justice in America.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Well, I think people can judge for themselves I mean,
I think people are aware of what's going on. We
see it in the news, and I think a lot
of people are really concerned about about the way things
are being done, and I think the best thing we
can do is keep educating them. And so that's how
(22:50):
and we also, you know, what democrats need to speak
about the future. We need to talk about the values
that we have as Democrats and the values and what
that means for the future and what kind of America
we really want. Do we want, you know, a bullying government,
or do we want to have a government that reflects
(23:13):
some of the more family values that we as Democrats have,
you know, social values and respect for humanity, and respect
for autonomy, the right to make decisions for yourself. These
are things that I think hold true all across the
United States, and I think it's true.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
In large part across the world.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
But we are so fortunate. We are so fortunate because
we benefit from our forefathers, and our forefathers knew what
a tyrant was. It's actually in the Declaration of Independence
(23:54):
that a person who is a tyrant doesn't deserve to
be in a position of eads. And that's what the
Declaration of Independence says, our founding fathers decided or built
this government so that we will have this future. It's
still in our hands. Don't be mistaken. There is a
future and there's hope because it's in our hands. And
(24:17):
so maybe that's the message that we need to share
with people that have despaired or worry or about Let
them know that we're empowering them in the ballot box.
They have the right to vote, so you know, in
two years they'll be it. There'll be some changes. That
is my hope. I believe that's the hope of all Democrats.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Hi, this is Steve Gallington, producer and host of The
People's News. The People's News is people powered news. We
are free to report the unvarnished and unspun truth and
challenge the status quo of corporate propaganda and social media
advertising disguised as real news. Shiny new one hour episodes
(24:58):
of The People's News drop each Sunday on The People's
News Podcast. Thanks for listening. University students are having their
student visas revoked across the country, not for any type
of criminal activities, but for speaking out on political issues.
As of Wednesday, authorities had revoked the visas of international
(25:21):
students in at least thirty one states with official sighting
as seldom used nineteen fifty two Foreign Policy Statute to
take aim at their activism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio
has said they have the right to revoke these visas
despite their First Amendment rights or due process. Eighteen students
(25:44):
in the Houston area have had their student visas revoked,
five at Rice University, where the president is vowed to
fight back and stand by his students. Nick Cooper is
a Rice graduate and a local activist.
Speaker 8 (25:57):
Yeah, man, it's going down. You know, the kind of
things that we've been building up towards in both parties
where they're kind of equating anti Semitism with anti Zionism,
criticism of Israel. You know, all of that has just
been amped up, you know, one hundred times, and it's
(26:18):
there's no no, no, you know, there's a protest going
on right now, there's pushback against it, but there's no
channels right now for even challenging that.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Is that what the expected or is this something that's
just going because it's going is across the country now
at University of Houston now is not the university, but
the press is being put on universities to to not
accept people based on based on their politics from other countries.
Speaker 8 (26:50):
Yeah, man, it's uh. You know I saw last year
write Students for Justice in Palestine. You know, they'd have
thousands of peating of people at every meeting, and now like, yes,
it's just a couple of people. And you know all
of the international students that are being censored.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
To Have you seen that if you talked to any
of those students, Yeah.
Speaker 8 (27:12):
I mean Rice just you know, lost five students so far,
I think, so, yeah, it's it's going down right now.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Rice has lost five students. And what do they do
they use?
Speaker 8 (27:22):
As he read, oh, just getting their student visas revoked?
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Do they have any options as far as a recourse
to fight back so to speak?
Speaker 8 (27:35):
Well, I think that you know, say that you're an
international student, you're interested in studying chemistry. All of a
sudden you're kicked out of the country and then the
university is telling you, hey, you know, we're going to
help you complete your degree online from your country or whatever.
So that's an option. You could try to get into
(27:56):
another college somewhere else in the world. That's an option.
But the idea of somebody who's not in the country
bringing a lawsuit for their student visa getting revoked. You
know that that would take an awful lot of resources.
So you know, in general, it's it's up to us
who live here to be able to have any impact
(28:16):
if there will be any impact on changing things as.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
The voice of protests as far especially as far as
the protests against Israel, because that is that dampened and
the turnout dap and anybody getting involved.
Speaker 8 (28:36):
Yeah, I think in general, like you know, if you
kind of go through the history of all of the
different times that Israel has just spawned the hell out
of Gaza, you know, people will protest for a little
while and then you know, things just kind of die off.
And in this case, like you know, Israel's continuing a
(28:56):
genocide and things. You know, people lose enter being, has
to get back to their lives or whatever. So any
kind of protest is always going to go down and
Israel and is kind of counting on that that people
will have to go back to their lives.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Is this something that was pressured by theory to go
And it's the point a point that the Trump administration
has with personal places like Harvard and right to Stiphen
saying that that Jewish Jewish students are being being assaulted
(29:36):
and it's about of anti semitism on campus, and this
is a way of getting rid of that anti semitism
against Jewish students.
Speaker 8 (29:45):
Yeah, I mean, that's a great one. It's like anti semitism.
Let's say, like, you know, in your average Texan, right,
let's say that their anti semitism is just give it
some percentage. Let's say that they're on average twenty percent
anti semitic. Right, So let's just say if you were
to just take one hundred Texans completely at random and
(30:08):
see how many of them are really anti semitic. Maybe,
you know, one in five would be really antisemitic. Maybe
I'm wrong, maybe it's one in ten. You know, it's like,
I don't know the number. And then if you were
to go to the groups that are students there justice
in Palestine on our campus, Columbia's campus, on Harvard's campus,
(30:30):
or whatever, the chance that one of those people would
actually be anti Semitic is less than one percent, I
would say, So there's significantly less antisemitic than the culture
around them. They're you know, kind of there's this idea
(30:50):
of oh, well, Jewish people don't feel safe, Well, that's
you know, clearly nonsense, right. I mean, every one of
these chapters of Students for Justice Healesteina has Jewish members
in them. Maybe not everyone. Maybe there's some school that
only has two members of THEIRS do for Justice in Palestine,
But there's Jewish people in all these groups, you know, Colombia,
(31:11):
it's in New York City. So of course, like a
lot of the Students for Justice in Palestine were Jewish,
the idea that Jewish people didn't feel safe is absurd. Now,
if you wanted to make an argument and say, well,
Zionist students.
Speaker 9 (31:25):
Don't feel safe, right, if you wanted to be honest
and say that these criticisms are not of Judaism, they're
of Zionism, you have a discussion about whether Zionist students
feel safe.
Speaker 8 (31:38):
But I mean that would be kind of a ridiculous
conversation to have in a vacuum, right, So you would
want to discuss something like that in the context of, well,
do Muslim students feel safe? Do people who are grow
some other foreign government, if it's a brutal government, feel safe?
Speaker 10 (31:57):
Right, Like it could be that.
Speaker 8 (32:01):
You know that all kinds of students have all kinds
of reasons not to feel safe. Right. But what's ironic
about it is that the right, you know, for a
long time, was saying, oh, you know, these women, like
they're pretending that they don't feel safe on campus, These
black people are pretending that they don't feel safe on campus,
like they're just a bunch of woke cry babies or whatever. Like,
(32:24):
you know, our free speech trumps your right to you know,
feel safe about our speech.
Speaker 6 (32:30):
Right.
Speaker 8 (32:30):
Freedom of speech is sacriscaying. So that's what they've been saying.
And then all of a sudden, now criticizing Israel becomes,
you know, an attack on the student. I mean, that's
just absurd. Now that's not to say that there couldn't
be a case of violence between a Zionist student and
an anti Zionist student, right, there could be that, But
the idea that it's based on racism is absurd. Then
(32:53):
another aspect of this is that in this country and
in most places in the world, it's not even slightly
illegal to be racist. Right, Racism is not a crime. Like,
there's racist people around me all the time, and they're
not getting deported and they're not getting charged, and they're
not you know, they're having there's no effect on them.
So racism is totally legal. So the idea that you
(33:15):
can say, well, on the one hand, you know Israel,
you know, yes, they seem to be doing ethnic cleansing
and genocide. But on the other hand, you know, there's
a lot of racism towards Jews. And then it's like,
so you're saying that the crime of crimes genocide, like
(33:37):
is somehow balanced out by this thing that's not even
a crime, racism. Like, you know, it's totally illegal to
be racist, and if people wanted to make it illegal
to be racist, like, I don't know how they would
do that in the US, but you know, if they
wanted to do that, there's all kinds of racism in
the US, and like, you know, one out of you know,
(33:58):
three Americans would suddenly find themselves in legal trouble for
being racist. But being racist is legal. So if these
students were antisemitic, and I don't think that you can
make any sensible argument that they are antisemitic, I think
that's totally nonsense. I think they're significantly less antisemitic than
other Texans. If you were to try to make that argument, well, okay,
(34:19):
but you know, you just basically are saying that it's
okay to ban people for being racist or to kick
them out or whatever like, you know, and that would
be a very different world. But what they imagine is
there's this world in which you can ban one specific
type of racism, which is anti Jewish racism, and even
(34:42):
that racism is like, you know, I think in my experience,
and I've been in these Students for Justice in Palestine
groups for decades, like, I don't see any anti semitism.
So the idea that somebody's saying, oh, well, anti semitism
justifies this. It's like, Okay, they're like significantly less antisemitic
than their average Texans, so it's not a concern. It's
(35:02):
almost the same thing if somebody were to say, oh, well,
these undocumented immigrants are causing a spike in the crime rate,
It's like, no, Actually, you know, the chance that an
undocumented immigrant is committing any kind of you know, violent
crime or any crime other than passing the border is
significantly lower than the native born population, so they're actually
(35:24):
reducing the crime rate per capita. So you know, it's
like we can make these backward arguments and pretend that
we're in some alternate reality where there's you know, anti
Semitism on campuses is increasing because there's students for justice
in Palestine, But in reality, anti Semitism is increasing because
of Israel, and that's always going to be the case.
(35:45):
Like people really don't like the idea of Israel getting
special treatment and it gives power to all the racist
kinds of means and ideas that like, oh, there's Jews
controlling the world.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
That was local activist Nick Cooper. The death penalty in
Texas continues. Texas puts to death the highest number of
people in the United States. The Texas Death Penalty Abolition
Movement has been fighting to end the death penalty. They
say it's racist in its practice and should end. Every
Texas legislative session, they travel to Austin to lobby against
(36:19):
the death penalty and speak to lawmakers. Longtime activist and
organizer Gloria Rubik is a member of the group and
spoke on their recent visit and what the organization is planning.
Speaker 7 (36:33):
We went to the state legislature to lobby. There's actually
a number of bills that could positively affect people on
death row. The first bill is to abolish the death penalty,
which we know isn't going to go anywhere, but we
did talk to people about it, and there is more
(36:55):
support for ending the death penalty than there ever has been.
But in the House there was House Built two, two,
three seven by Harold Dutton, Housepill four five four by
Reps Busy and my Rep. Christina Morales, and House Bill
(37:16):
sixty one by Rep. Joe Moody, and then in the
Senate there was Senate Bill three four to three. Those
were all for abolition. One really exciting bill was a
State Rep. From somewhere near the Dallas area. Her name
is Terry Masa, and she has House Bill fourteen oh
(37:39):
nine that limits the use of administrative segregation or solitary
confinement or whatever they're calling isolation today, and she wants
to limit it to three days and if the infraction
involved vilence than ten days. Well, men on death row
(38:03):
have been in solitary for twenty five years and this
has caused severe mental illness, an increase, an increase in suicides,
and an increase in man just giving up their appeals.
So that's a new bill, and we were very excited
(38:23):
about that. Another bill that we're excited about is Representative
Joe Moody has House built twenty fifty five that would
not allow the death penalty for anybody under the age
of twenty one. Now, in two thousand and five, the
Supreme Court said nobody under eighteen could be sent to
(38:49):
death row, and all the juveniles that were on death
row at that time in two thousand and five got commuted.
And now they're talking about raising it to twenty one,
which is another step in the right direction. Now a
lot of people have heard about Robert Robertson's case. He
(39:13):
was accused of killing his two year old little girl, Nikki. Well,
there was no crime and the science supposed scientific evidence
used against him was the shaken baby syndrome. But this
(39:34):
is now a debunked scientific thing. So Representative Moody has
House filled four four four that would allow relevant scientific
evidence not available at trial to be used later in
habeas appeals. And I keep thinking of my friend Todd Willingham,
(39:59):
who was executing in two thousand and four for killing
his two little girls, and he was accused of setting
his house on fire. The arson science that convicted him
was outdated and he was executed. His last words where
(40:20):
I'm an innocent man convicted of a crime I did
not commit. I have been persecuted for twelve years for
something I didn't do, so I think this one. I
was talking with Moody's office and they're pretty optimistic about
getting this passed. The last thing we lobbied for, and
(40:43):
we had five issues that we focused on, was the
law of parties and this controversial law in Texas which
allows the state to execute someone who didn't kill anyone.
They may have been the getaway driver for a robbery
(41:04):
and had no idea anybody was going to be killed,
or in Jeff Woods's case, he was sitting in his
truck and his buddy went in to get a soda
and Jeff heard gunshots and the guy had killed the convenience.
Speaker 10 (41:20):
Store owner and robbed him.
Speaker 7 (41:22):
So Dunton has house built twenty six forty nine, and
then a Republican Jeff Leech, has HOUSELL fifty fifty eight.
And this even goes further, and apparently he has more
faith than I do in the Board of Partons. But
it directs the Board of Partners in pearols to review
(41:45):
cases of everyone now on death row. Sentenced under the
law parties and make recommendations to the governor for clemency.
So wow, that's that's pretty off them. I want to
give a couple of phone numbers, so get your pen
(42:09):
or pencil and paper ready. These bills go to the
House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee or the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
So in the House, the chair is Representative John Smithy
and his phone number is five one two four six
(42:32):
three zero seven zero two Representative smith and then EE
five one two four six three zero seven zero two.
And the head of the Senate committee is Pete Floodeth
and his number is five one two four six three
(42:54):
zero one two four five one two four six three
zero one two. For call these two chairs and tell
them to look at these law Parties bills. Look at
the bill about introducing new scientific evidence, the bill limiting
solitary confinement, and we may get some good news out
(43:20):
of this session, which would be such a delight. Okay,
I'm gonna switch gears next week. Next Wednesday, April twenty third,
Moises Mendoza, who's from Collin County right near Dallas, is
(43:41):
scheduled for execution. He was just denied by the Supreme Court,
I think yesterday, so I don't think there's anything pending.
I hope I'm wrong, But we will be going to
Huntsville next Wednesday protests and this will be the what
(44:02):
five hundred and ninety sixth or seventh execution for Texas.
We are approaching six hundred executions in May. There's one
already scheduled May twentieth for Matthew Johnson from Dallas. So
(44:23):
the machinery of death in Texas is still still working.
And the last thing I want to talk about is
political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal, who was framed up and
sentenced to death in Pennsylvania in nineteen ninety two. After
almost forty years on death row, his sentence was overturned,
(44:47):
but he was re sentenced to life without parole, or
as he calls it, slow death row. So Houston will
join others all over the world on his seventy first
birthday to demand his freedom. Now, and we're going to
(45:07):
have a protest riteouts at Emancipation Park right near the
street of Emancipation Avenue, and our speakers are black panther
Bunshie career minister Abdul Haleem Muhammad Ricky, Niki Lou Allen
(45:32):
spoken Word and our creative member sister Mama Sonya and
the nephew of Joe compos Taurtis. Johnny Toutis has written
a gorgeous poem about MoMA. Powerful poem. So come out
to Emancipation Park two o'clock Sunday, a week from Easter
(45:56):
Sunday the twenty seventh, and bring drums, noisemakers, bring your friends.
We're going to celebrate his birthday, but we're also going
to protest and demand his immediate freedom.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Wednesday, the group will travel to Huntsville, Texas to protest
the planned execution of Moses Mendoza. On Sunday, April twenty seventh,
they will be at Emancipation Park to celebrate the birthday
for Mumia Abu Jamal, who is a former black panther
and political prisoner in Philadelphia. You can find out more
(46:33):
by going to their Facebook page. The Texas Death Penalty
Abolition Movement and they meet at the Shape Community Center
once a month. As part of the Corrupt, Criminal and
Incompetent New Government of convicted felon Donald Trump, Republicans in
the Texas Legislature have abandoned reasoned in facts, and succeeded
(46:54):
in passing House Bill eight nineteen that will put more
restrictions on renewable energy, saying that it is a threat
to the environment, that windmills in particular are a danger
to wildlife. Luke Metzger is with Environment Texas and condemns
this anti renewable energy bill.
Speaker 10 (47:13):
Well, wind and solar energy are booming in Texas. We're
number one in the country for renewable energy, and in
just the last four years, ninety three percent of the
new generation added to the electric grid has been either wind, solar,
or batteries, and that has been tremendously beneficial to our
(47:34):
environments and cutting pollution, saving water, and helping us keep
the lights on, and also saving consumers about a billion
dollars a month on their electric bills. But as renewables
have grown, there have been some people who don't like
that growth and don't like to see the wind turbins
(47:56):
or the solar farms near the homes or knew their properties,
and so they have found an ally and Senator Lewis
col Course who filed SBA nineteen with the stated goal
of protecting the land, water, and wildlife of the state. Unfortunately,
(48:18):
what the bill does is create a really discriminatory and
crippling permitting regime that would ultimately grind development of wind
and solar to a halt in the state, which would
be very bad news for our land, water and wildlife.
You know, we know that our dependence on fossil fuels
is fueling the climate crisis as well as contributing a
(48:43):
very deadly air pollution that is linked to one hundreds
of depths every year in the state. And so you know,
the bill I think is you know, past the Texas
Senate on Monday, and if it does ultimately become law,
(49:03):
you know, wind and solar companies are saying that's it
would be very, very difficult to build any new projects
in the state. And that would mean that you know,
as demand for electricity is you know, going to increase
according to Urka some seventy five percent in the next
five years, there's going to be enormous demand on the grid,
(49:26):
but not as much supply coming on to meet that demand,
and so that really raises the specter of more you know,
grid problems and potential blackouts. It also means that prices
for electricity will surely go up, because wind and solar
are the cheapest forms of energy out there, and if
we're not building those, we're reliant on more expensive forms
(49:49):
of energy, and it means, you know, that we're going
to be running those polluting coal and gas plants more
to meet the demand. And so, you know, we see
this is a real terrible bill for the environment. A
similar bill passed the Senate two years ago but then
died in the House, and so we're hopeful and working
(50:11):
very hard to see the bill need a similar fate
this time.
Speaker 4 (50:15):
It's kind of a misnomer when you talk about saving
the birds and saving the environment when yeah, petrotymical plants
that pollute the air and provide damage to humans and animals.
Speaker 10 (50:32):
Yeah, it is so hypocritical and so frustrating, you know,
to hear these legislators, you know, uh, you know claim
that you know, renealle energy is so harmful to environments
where they're doing nothing to address the you know, profound
harm that fossil fuel production, you know, everything from the
extraction of oil from fracking or the mining of coal
(50:55):
and chopping off mountaintops or polluting our our rivers, and
then you know, exacerbating a climate crisis. You know, they're
doing nothing on that and singling out wind and solar
for for you know, you know, new permits that only
renewables would have to meet. No other form of energy,
coal plants, nuclear plant, gas plant has to get such
(51:17):
a permit from the Public Utility Commission, and the way
it's set up, you know, it's a very arbitrary process
and unclear whether people will be able to get permits
or not, and that means that it could be very
difficult to get the financing to the project in the
first place. And so you know, all of that uncertainty,
you know, is really spooks investors and so it's going
(51:41):
to make it very difficult to build. But yeah, the
fact is that you know, fossil fuels, you know, the
are combustion of them, the extraction of them, are you know,
contributing to you know, deadly air pollution that kills people.
It's linked to climate change that you know, according to
the Audubon Society, could lead to the extinction of two
(52:04):
thirds of North American bird species, and none of that
is being talked about. There's just singling out wind and
solar and there of course are impacts you know, to
to wildlife and to land, you know, from renewable energy,
and we do need and can mitigate those impacts, including
through careful sighting and you know, make adopting kind of
(52:28):
best practices around you know, incorporating agriculture and open space
into renewable projects and many other things that we can
kind of mitigate the impact. But you know, the fact
of the matter is, if you're concerned about the loss
of open space in Texas, the biggest problem right now
is housing sprawl. You know, we're we're losing a thousand
(52:50):
acres a day of land, you know, primarily to you know,
new residential development. But again, the legislators aren't talking about that.
They're not proposing anything to mitigate or limit that impact.
They're they're just attacking the clean, cheap energy that we
rely on.
Speaker 4 (53:10):
I heard that the argument I've heard about against wind
is that it kills birds and the birds are the
birds are are running into the blades, and is that's
one of the argue And that's that's the one of
the arguments I heard against against wind.
Speaker 10 (53:30):
Yeah, and that's that's true, that there are some bird
fatalities from impacts with wind, turbans. You know, it's potentially
between seven hundred thousand and a million a year. But
to put that in perspective, birds collide with built tall buildings.
UH that those collisions of buildings are linked to one
(53:50):
billion deaths per year, so a thousand times more deaths
related to tall buildings than there are from uh from
wind turbans. And then, of course we also know fossil
fuels kill far more birds, you know, again both from
the air pollution but also the climate change that is
the greatest threat to birds. That's why, you know, bird
(54:13):
advocacy organizations like the Audubon Society, the Galveston Ornithological Society,
National Wildlife Federation. You know, these groups recognize that the
biggest threat to birds and other species is climate change,
and as such, you know, the most important thing we
do is to switch away from fossil fuels into renewable energy.
(54:35):
But at the same time, you know, we do need
to develop those solar resources responsibly, citing them correctly, and
taking steps to minimize impacts to wildlife.
Speaker 4 (54:48):
What do you when you say infest the climate, can
you explain that for those who don't know.
Speaker 10 (54:53):
Sure, yeah, so you know, many birds migrate of course, right,
and as the planet heats up, we're starting to see
you know, uh, trees and other plants flower earlier, uh,
and insects kind of hatch and and uh boom earlier
(55:14):
before birds arrive. And so by the time the birds arrive,
they had not they've missed kind of those peak uh
seasons for for food. And so that's one of the
main impacts is just the migrat migration patterns are being
disrupted by the heat and because of their food source.
(55:35):
But in addition to that, it's it's it's all the
other things that impact all of us, including wildfires, extreme heat, droughts.
You know, for example, there's a lot of concern around
whooping cranes here in Texas, a very endangered bird, and
one of the problems is that because of droughts as
well as successive water withdrawals that you know, uh there's
(56:00):
efficient water to support the estuaries of which the whooping
grains rely on in their food. So climate's really just
causing serious harm to you know, the habitat and the
food sources to bird's another wildlife.
Speaker 1 (56:20):
That was Luke Metzger, the executive director of Environment Texas.
They can be reached at Environment Texas, All put Together
dot org. Hi, this is Steve Gallington, producer and host
of the People's News. If you have a story that
needs to be told, come to us. We accept fully
(56:40):
produced audio, written material, or just give us the idea
and we will run with it. Shiny new one hour
episodes of The People's News drop each Sunday on The
People's News podcast, hosted by spreaker dot com and linked
to my website Gallington dot com. The People's News is
(57:03):
a production of Steve Gallington and Richard Hannah and is
protected by copyright laws. All the information broadcast on air
and online, as well as published in both print and
or online, including articles, audio clips, illustrations, graphics, photographs, and videos,
are protected by these copyright and other state and federal
intellectual property laws. Therefore, you may not use our content
(57:26):
in any prohibited way, including reproducing, publishing, transmitting, selling, rewriting, broadcasting,
or posting on the Internet without the expressed written permission
of the People's News. Prohibited use also includes publication of
our material in printed or electronic brochures, newsletters, or flyers,
as well as all website or email distribution. To obtain
(57:48):
permission to use copyrighted material, email Steve Gallington at Steve
at gallington dot com. Thank you,
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