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'Abolish ICE,' Says Mamdani After Agent Kills Houston Man Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
Salgado "called Houston home for 35 years," said New York's democratic socialist mayor. "On Tuesday, an ICE agent shot and killed him."
Jul 09, 2026
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday renewed his call to "abolish ICE" after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a man in Texas earlier this week.
"Lorenzo Salgado Araujo called Houston home for 35 years. On Tuesday, an ICE agent shot and killed him," Mamdani said on social media. "His family learned of his death from a video before anyone bothered to knock on their door."
"New York City stands with the Salgado family in demanding a full, independent investigation and real accountability," the mayor added. "To the Salgado family and any immigrant family in this city living in fear: We grieve with you, and we will continue to stand beside you in the pursuit of justice."
More than 1,000 people gathered in Houston's East End on Wednesday evening to denounce ICE and remember Salgado, a 52-year-old married father of three originally from Mexico who, according to relatives, was in the process of legalizing his status in the United States.
Salgado's son, school teacher Ronaldo Salgado, said that his father had "dedicated his life to giving his family the American dream."
Salgado was driving in the Magnolia Park neighborhood to pick up his construction crew on Tuesday morning when an unidentified ICE agent fatally shot him during an enforcement operation. ICE claimed that Salgado tried to evade arrest and threatened agents with his vehicle, but his family, civil rights advocates, and community leaders strongly dispute that account, pointing to surveillance footage and eyewitness accounts that they argue undermine the agency's narrative.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told The New York Times late on Thursday that neither Salgado nor any of his three passengers were the targets of ICE enforcement, but that they drew agents' attention because one of them resembled a wanted man from Guatemala.
Democratic lawmakers and civil rights groups have joined Salgado's relatives in demanding an independent investigation of his killing.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced Thursday that her government plans to file criminal complaints in the United States in connection with 14 Mexican nationals who died in ICE custody. Sheinbaum added that Salgado's killing "is not only sad and regrettable, but also appears to have been targeted."
On-duty officers from ICE and other Department of Homeland Security agencies have fatally shot at least four other people during President Donald Trump's deadly second-term crackdown on undocumented immigrants: Silverio Villegas González of Mexico and US citizens Ruben Ray Martinez, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti.
At least dozens of people have also died in ICE custody or shortly after being released during Trump's second term. Last month, ICE announced that it was rescinding a 2021 Biden administration policy requiring congressional notification and an investigation whenever a detainee died within 30 days of their release.
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If Trump Really Wants to Honor Cancer Survivors, He Should Stop Gutting Regulations
When Donald Trump says his administration is going to rid the environment of toxins, you can bet that the exact opposite is going to happen.
Mar 18, 2025
There was at least one heartwarming moment during President Donald Trump’s long-winded speech to Congress on March 4. Just before he announced that his administration is going to prioritize reducing childhood cancer (a plan that I debunked last week), Trump introduced Devarjaye “DJ” Daniel, a Black 13-year-old cancer survivor sitting with his father in the balcony. DJ, who dreams of becoming a police officer, was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2018 and given only five months to live. Since then, he has undergone 13 brain surgeries.
“A young man who truly loves our police,” said Trump. “…DJ has been sworn in as an honorary law-enforcement officer actually a number of times.” Trump then took DJ by complete surprise by making him an honorary member of the U.S. Secret Service.
On its face, it was a magnanimous gesture. One could only feel for DJ, who has gone through so much. A closer look, however, reveals that the tribute Trump paid to DJ masks at least two hypocritical realities.
Just how serious is Trump about getting toxins out of the environment? If his first administration is any indication, not at all.
First—and most obvious—Trump betrayed the police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. As soon as he was sworn in on January 20 he pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly all of the 1,600 convicted insurrectionists who violently stormed the U.S. Capitol, including hundreds who were guilty of assaulting police. He also ordered the Justice Department to dismiss all pending cases.
Second, Trump’s new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator just closed the agency’s environmental justice offices, wants to slash its budget by at least 65%, and has targeted more than two dozen rules and policies for elimination, putting people like DJ at greater risk.
Houston Area Residents Are Exposed to Multiple Carcinogens
How did DJ get cancer? “DJ’s doctors believe DJ’s cancer likely came from a chemical he was exposed to when he was younger,” Trump explained. He then linked DJ’s plight to the increase in childhood cancer rates over the last 50 years and pledged to make reversing that trend “one of the top priorities” of his administration’s “make America healthy again” initiative. “Our goal is to get toxins out of our environment,” he said, “poisons out of our food supply, and keep our children healthy and strong.”
If so, the Trump administration could start with cleaning up DJ’s home town of Houston, which ranks sixth on the list of the top 10 U.S. hotspots with the worst fine-particle air pollution, according to a March 2023 analysis by The Guardian. Like the other nine places on the list, Houston metro neighborhoods with a high percentage of Black and Latino residents have the most contaminated air because they are “fenceline communities” next door to polluting facilities. As one of the researchers who conducted the analysis told The Guardian, “What we’re seeing here is segregation. You have segregation of people and segregation of pollution.”
DJ lives in Pearland, a suburb that sits on the border of Harris and Brazoria counties, 14 miles south of downtown Houston. Although Pearland is not a fenceline community, it is only 10 to 20 miles from some of the dirtiest petrochemical plants in the metro area, and air pollution does not stop at political boundaries.
Based on federal data from 2011 to 2015, The Guardian analysis did not identify the companies most responsible for Houston’s foul air, but subsequent studies based on more recent data did.
Ten Houston-area facilities wound up on a list of the top 100 worst air polluters in the country compiled in 2020 by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit. Using 2018 data from the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory, EIP’s report weighted pollutants based on how hazardous they are when inhaled and calculated that only 10 Houston area facilities were responsible for nearly 38% of the 288 million tons of “toxicity-weighted” air pollution the 410 petrochemical facilities in the metro area emitted.
Five of those 10 facilities, including Dixie Chemical, ExxonMobil Chemical, ExxonMobil’s Baytown Refinery, and LyondellBasell Channelview, are located in Harris County. Two others, INEOS USA Chocolate Bayou Works chemical plant and Dow Chemical—at 7,000 acres the largest chemical manufacturing facility in the Western hemisphere—are in Brazoria County. Pearland is only 10 miles from Pasadena, where Dixie Chemical is located; 22 miles from Baytown, home to the two ExxonMobil facilities; and 18 miles from Channelview, home to LyondellBasell’s 4,000-acre chemical manufacturing complex.
EIP tracked the top three chemicals each of the 10 facilities released. It found that the seven plants in Brazoria and Harris counties collectively emit at least five that cause cancer in humans—1.3 butadiene, benzene, formaldehyde, ethylene oxide, and nickel—and another four that are “probable” human carcinogens, including cobalt and naphthalene. LyondellBasell Channelview is the biggest source for ethylene oxide, which poses one of the metro area’s highest health risks.
More recently, a July 2024 report by Air Alliance Houston identified the top “dirty dozen” air polluters in the area based on 2018 to 2022 data from the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The 12 facilities include three cited in the EIP report—Dixie Chemical, ExxonMobil’s Baytown complex (including the refinery and chemical plant), and LyondellBasell Channelview—and nine others, including Calpine’s Deer Park Energy Center, Chevron Phillips Baytown, and Shell Deer Park Chemical. Deer Park, in Harris County, is only 14 miles from Pearland.
Like EIP, Air Alliance Houston found that the majority of the worst polluters are located near low-income and Black and Latino neighborhoods, causing health problems ranging from respiratory irritation in the short term to cancer over the long term.
The Trump Administration Wants to Destroy the EPA
Just how serious is Trump about getting toxins out of the environment? If his first administration is any indication, not at all.
Just after he was elected president in 2016, Trump gave The New York Times his first on-the-record news media interview and proclaimed that “clean air is vitally important” and “crystal clean water is vitally important.” By the time he left office, his administration had rolled back or eliminated nearly 100 environmental safeguards.
This time around, Trump has wasted no time undermining the government’s ability to protect the public from environmental hazards. Back in 2017, Trump proposed cutting the EPA budget by 31%. Last month, his new EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, said he wants to cut the budget by at least 65%, which would severely cripple the agency.
Over the past 20 years, 82% of oil and gas industry donations and 90% of coal industry donations went to Republicans, so well before Trump first ran for office, the party has functioned as an arm of the fossil fuel industry.
Just last week, Zeldin announced his agency will kill 31 key environmental safeguards. “Today is the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen,” he said in a statement on March 12. “We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S., and more.”
Three former EPA administrators—William K. Reilly, who served under George H.W. Bush; Christine Todd Whitman, who served under George W. Bush; and Gina McCarthy, who served under Barack Obama—warned that Zeldin’s plan would endanger the lives of millions of Americans. Dismantling longstanding regulations would be a “catastrophe,” said Reilly, “and represents the abandonment of a long history” of EPA actions protecting public health and the environment.
That same day Zeldin issued his “historic” announcement, it was reported that he is also planning to eliminate EPA offices responsible for addressing the disproportionately high levels of pollution in minority and low-income communities as a part of Trump’s war on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). An internal EPA memo obtained by a number of news outlets revealed that Zeldin is going to shut down all of the agency’s Environmental Justice Divisions at its 10 regional offices “immediately.” Zeldin already closed the agency’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights in Washington, D.C., which was established in 1992 during the George H.W. Bush administration.
In the memo, dated March 11, Zeldin said closing the environmental justice offices is in part a response to a Trump executive order calling for “ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferences.” When CBS News asked him to elaborate, Zeldin said in a statement: “President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American people. Part of this mandate includes the elimination of forced discrimination programs.” Never mind that Black, Brown, and low-income communities suffer the most discrimination, environmental and otherwise.
A Government for Sale
Why are Trump and the Republican Party so intent on weakening and eliminating health and environmental protections? Follow the money. Over the past 20 years, 82% of oil and gas industry donations and 90% of coal industry donations went to Republicans, so well before Trump first ran for office, the party has functioned as an arm of the fossil fuel industry.
Last April, Trump promised roughly two dozen oil executives at a private meeting at his Mar-a-Lago resort that he would roll back Biden-era environmental rules if they donated $1 billion to his presidential campaign. Although the attendees, who included officials from Chevron, Continental Resources, ExxonMobil, and Occidental Petroleum, did not honor Trump’s request, fossil fuel interests poured $96 million directly into Trump’s campaign coffers during the 2023-24 election cycle, according to an analysis by the environmental group Climate Power. Meanwhile, 83% of the oil and gas industry’s contributions to congressional candidates—$15.7 million—went to Republicans, according to Open Secrets.
The oil and gas industry also dug deep to help pay for Trump’s inaugural bash. His inaugural committee received $2 million from Chevron, $1 million from ExxonMobil, and $1 million from Occidental Petroleum.
So when Donald Trump says his administration is going to rid the environment of toxins, you can bet that the exact opposite is going to happen. More kids like DJ Daniel—as well as more adults—in Houston and other highly polluted places will suffer from respiratory diseases, cancer, and other serious health problems. It’s no wonder why the Republican Party’s nickname, GOP, now stands for Gas and Oil Party.
This column was originally posted on Money Trail, a new Substack site co-founded by Elliott Negin.
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Probe Demanded as Second Houston-Area Petrochemical Disaster in a Month Kills 2
"This facility has a long track record of pollution, accidents, and violations of the law," said one advocate.
Oct 11, 2024
For the second time in less than four weeks on Thursday, residents of the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the United States were notified of an emergency and ordered to shelter in place due to an accident at one of the region's many oil facilities.
A plant operated by PEMEX, Mexico's state-owned oil company, was the site of a deadly hydrogen sulfide leak in the suburb of Deer Park, with at least two workers found dead at the scene.
At least 35 others were hospitalized due to their exposure or treated at the scene, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told reporters.
Gonzalez said the leak occurred while PEMEX employees were working on a flange at the plant.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the colorless gas hydrogen sulfide—known for its strong "rotten egg" smell at low levels and commonly used in oil and gas refining—is extremely toxic at high concentrations, and can cause headaches, eye irritation, or serious effects including unconsciousness and death.
City officials in Deer Park and the neighboring city of Pasadena called on residents to stay indoors, keep all windows and doors closed, and turn off their air conditioners—on a day when the temperature was as high as 88°F—before assessing the air quality and determining the public was not at risk.
In mid-September, a fire at a liquefied natural gas pipeline owned by fossil fuel giant Energy Transfer went on for four days, damaged nearby homes and a playground, melted vehicles, and forced about 100 households to evacuate Deer Park and another nearby town, La Porte.
"This facility has a long track record of pollution, accidents, and violations of the law. Unfortunately Texas has a poor track record of forcing this and other petrochemical facilities to take safety and compliance seriously."
Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas Research and Policy Center, called for a "comprehensive investigation of what happened in Deer Park" and said officials must "make sure people and the companies are held accountable for letting this happen."
Environment Texas noted that it joined Sierra Club in 2008 in filing a lawsuit against the PEMEX plant for Clean Air Act violations. The suit was settled the following year, with PEMEX committing to make upgrades, pay a penalty, and reduce its air pollution, but the group found in a 2021 analysis that state regulators have failed to crack down on toxic industrial emissions.
Earlier this week, Oil and Gas Watch at the Environmental Integrity Project found that the PEMEX plant is "the worst source of benzene air pollution among U.S. refineries, as measured by the amount of the carcinogen measured by air monitors around the perimeter of the facility."
Prolonged exposure to benzene can cause blood disorders, threaten the immune system, and increase the risk of leukemia.
"My thoughts are with those who have lost their lives or are injured, and their loved ones, following this chemical leak," said Metzger. "It's just terrible. This facility has a long track record of pollution, accidents, and violations of the law. Unfortunately Texas has a poor track record of forcing this and other petrochemical facilities to take safety and compliance seriously. It makes me wonder if this awful incident could have been prevented."
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Forced Out by Right-Wing Official, Tulsa Superintendent Warns of Looming School Takeover
"This is about Ryan Walters using Tulsa and me as a political football and furthering his personal and political agenda," said outgoing Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Deborah Gist.
Aug 25, 2023
Warning that Oklahoma's top school official has shown in his seven months in office that he is willing to use the state's schools and young students to advance his personal and political priorities, Tulsa's outgoing school superintendent said the right-wing state official could stage a school takeover like the one that took place earlier this year in Houston, Texas.
Deborah Gist resigned as Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) superintendent on Tuesday in hope that the Oklahoma superintendent of public instruction, Ryan Walters, would abandon his threat to take control of the district.
The Oklahoma Board of Education on Thursday evening voted to allow TPS to keep its accreditation "with deficiencies" that it was ordered to fix and to work with a new interim school superintendent to maintain control of the district, but at the meeting, Walters warned school officials, "Do not test me."
Gist expressed concern to NBC News that the district has been offered only a temporary reprieve from Walters' ongoing attacks on the school district, where more than three-quarters of students are economically disadvantaged and a majority are Black and Latino.
"This is about Ryan Walters using Tulsa and me as a political football and furthering his personal and political agenda," Gist told the outlet.
Walters has been focused on Tulsa, where just 13% of students met grade-level standards in 2022, since he took the state's top education position earlier this year, but at Thursday's meeting of the Board of Education, which he chairs, he made clear that his priorities lie not only in helping children who are struggling in school.
The superintendent railed against "gender fluidity" and called on schools to report their policies related to LGBTQ+ issues to the state to ensure they are not "indoctrinating" students.
He also accused the district of "funding some programs through the Chinese Communist government"—an allegation that stemmed, journalist David Heath said, from one Chinese-language teacher's attendance at an off-site program that was partially funded by China.
Walters has also previously called to restrict students' access to books with "sexual references" and to display the Ten Commandments in public schools.
Ryan Daly, the father of Tulsa Public School students, said at Thursday's meeting that Gist had been forced out "to save our district from what would surely be a bungled and disastrous takeover by someone who shows zero interest in our kids other than as a pawn for his political career."
Gist told NBC, "Unlike Ryan Walters, I'm not willing to put my own interest above the needs of the children of Tulsa."
By retaining its accreditation "with deficiencies," TPS was ordered to implement a professional development plan and a corrective plan for schools that have been graded "F" by the state, and to provide the board with monthly updates for the next four months.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said Walters' threatened takeover was part of an "anti-public school" agenda similar to the "extremist attack on local control" that took place in Houston earlier this year.
As Common Dreams reported in March, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's administration took over Houston's school district despite recent improvements in schools' performances. State-appointed managers can now control the district budget, curriculum and library book policies, collaborations with charter school networks, and other decisions.
Ahead of the school board meeting in Oklahoma on Thursday, Tulsa students staged a walkout to stand with the district and with Gist, who during her tenure has aligned with teachers' unions and called for more school funding and higher pay.
The Oklahoma Education Association (OEA), which represents teachers across the state, called the meeting "unnecessarily chaotic" and expressed solidarity with the district's teachers and students.
"Rhetoric and demands will not change the lives of students," said the OEA. "Those who do not spend time inside our schools may have a superficial understanding of what it actually means to educate and support a community."
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Texas GOP Passes Bills Allowing Abbott Appointee to Take Over Democratic County's Elections
"These bills are not about election reform," said one Harris County official. "They are entirely about suppressing voters' voices."
May 29, 2023
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Sunday warned that Republican state legislators had made a "shameless power grab" by passing a pair of bills aimed at allowing the state government to take control of elections in the Democratic stronghold, which includes Houston.
Senate Bill 1933 passed on Sunday as the state's legislative session came to a close, with lawmakers sending to GOP Gov. Greg Abbott's desk a bill that could give Secretary of State Jane Nelson—who was nominated by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate—the authority to run elections under circumstances in any county with more than 3.5 million residents.
The legislation was passed two days after Senate Bill 1750, which also applies to counties above that population threshold and would abolish the nonpartisan county elections administrator position.
Harris County, which President Joe Biden won by 13 points in 2020, is the only county is Texas with a population above 3.5 million, making both bills apply only to its elections.
Hidalgo denounced the legislation as two "election subversion bills" and warned that they will set a "dangerous precedent" for Republican governors who wish to take control of voting in heavily Democratic counties.
"These bills are not about election reform," said Hidalgo at a press conference last week, as the legislation was advancing. "They're not about improving voters' experience. They are entirely about suppressing voters' voices. The reasoning behind these bills is nothing but a cynical charade."
Hidalgo and other officials said at that event that they plan to file a lawsuit against Abbott's administration if the governor signs the bills into law. The Texas Constitution bars state lawmakers from passing laws that apply only to specific jurisdictions, but Republicans' use of a population threshold instead of naming Harris County itself in the legislation may be used at their defense if the lawsuit moves forward.
S.B. 1750 requires Harris County to change how its elections are overseen starting September 1, when Houston will be two months away from voting for its next mayor. Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth and County Assessor Ann Harris Bennett will oversee elections in the county starting in September.
If, after Hudspeth and Bennett take over, Nelson finds "good cause to believe that a recurring pattern of problems with election administration or voter registration exists in the county," the secretary of state would be permitted to take legal action to remove the two women from office and to install members of her staff in the county's election offices.
Republicans have said Harris County didn't have enough poll workers in the March 2022 primary and that polling locations opened late and ran out of ballots during the November 2022 general election.
"The fact of the matter is, there has not been a single successful lawsuit that proves that there were any kind of problems," said Hidalgo on Sunday. "And I hope that anybody talking about this understands that you are amplifying exaggerations and rumors when you repeat the excuses that these folks are using."
The legislation was passed two-and-a-half months after Abbott's administration announced its takeover of the Houston Independent School District, which has made recent improvements in academic performance that were achieved despite chronic underfunding.
"Houstonians," Emily Eby French, a staff voting rights attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, said last week, "will soon live in a different Texas than the rest of us."
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'Shameful Power Play': Texas Officials Move to Take Over Houston Schools
"This hostile takeover threatens to close schools, drive out teachers, and take away the power of local communities to elect their own leaders," said the ACLU of Texas.
Mar 16, 2023
Public education advocates on Wednesday were outraged as Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's administration announced the state would take over the Houston Independent School District despite recent improvements in school performance that were achieved as the district remains chronically underfunded.
State education commissioner Mike Morath announced the takeover by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) in a letter to district officials, saying the decision had been made largely due to several years of low "accountability ratings" for a single high school—one of 50 high schools and 276 public schools in the city.
Phillis Wheatley High School, where 96% of students financially qualify for a free lunch program and the student body is made up almost entirely of people of color, was cited as a primary reason for the TEA's original attempt to take control of the district in 2019.
In 2015, the Republican-controlled state legislature passed a law mandating a state takeover of any school district where at least one campus was given a failing grade for student performance by the TEA for five consecutive years—a threshold Wheatley met in 2019.
HISD sued the state to block the 2019 takeover attempt, and has made strides in improving test scores since then. Wheatley earned a C grade from TEA in 2022, and the school district reduced the number of schools that earned a D or F—50 in 2019 compared to just 10 last year. According to the Texas Tribune, 94% of schools in the state's largest school district were given an A, B, or C grade last year, while HISD earned a B.
"The test scores have risen, but they're still trying to take over after we have worked so hard to accomplish that," Nyla McCullum, who is set to graduate from Wheatley this spring, told the Tribune.
The improvements have been achieved even as the state of Texas has spent more than $3,000 less per pupil on public school funding, according to the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University. HISD teachers earn nearly $1,000 less on average than other educators in Texas, teaching in a district where more than 78% of students are economically disadvantaged. More than 61% of HISD students are Latino and 22% are Black.
Despite the improvements in academic performance, the Republican-led state legislature passed education laws in recent years clearing the way for the takeover to move forward.
"The state takeover of HISD is not about public education—it's about political control of a 90% Black and brown student body in one of the country's most diverse cities," said the ACLU of Texas. "And it's not what our students and teachers need."
Under the takeover, which will officially take effect in June, the TEA will replace Superintendent Millard House II, who joined the district in 2021, and will appoint a "board of managers" in place of the district's elected board of trustees. The board will be in control of the district for at least two years, according to the Associated Press.
"The state-appointed managers will hold immense power," reported Houston Public Media. "They can control the budget, school closures, collaborations with charter networks, policies around curriculum and library books, as well as hiring or firing the superintendent, among other important decisions."
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten called the takeover "a shameful power play" with the ultimate aim of weakening public schools.
The takeover comes as Republicans in Missouri are pushing a proposal to place St. Louis police under the control of the governor and right-wing lawmakers in Mississippi are advocating for state control of the police, courts, and the water system in Jackson, which has a higher percentage of Black residents than any other major U.S. city.
The Houston-based advocacy group Community Voice for Public Education called the takeover "an irresponsible experiment that will disenfranchise Houston voters, lead to skyrocketing teacher turnover, school closures, and endless [standardized testing] prep."
A national study in 2021 found that state takeovers of schools—which have also happened in cities including Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Detroit—did not improve academic performance. The 35 school districts the researchers examined "generally saw dips in English test scores," reported Chalkbeat, while "in math, there were no clear effects at all."
Schools in New Orleans and Camden, New Jersey also saw the number of teachers of color decline after state takeovers.
"This hostile takeover threatens to close schools, drive out teachers, and take away the power of local communities to elect their own leaders," said the ACLU of Texas.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a statement that the TEA and Abbott's government "deserves an F on how they have handled this process up to this point."
"No community engagement, no engagement with the parents, no information being provided to the students, dropping this in the middle of spring break," Turner said.
"What other resources are you bringing to the school district that's going to have a different outcome?" he added. "What the state is saying [is], 'We are going to commit to you that there will be no failing schools in HISD.' What additional resources will you be bringing to HISD?"
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'No F*cking Excuse': Outrage in Houston Over Officials' Late Notice of Boil Water Alert
"Would have been nice to know BEFORE my little girl showered, drank water from the tap, and brushed her teeth this evening," said one mother after authorities took at least six hours to notify more than 2 million residents of the advisory.
Nov 28, 2022
Houstonians voiced outrage Monday after authorities took six hours to issue a boil water advisory to more than 2.2 million residents of Texas' largest city--and the nation's fourth-biggest--in the wake of a power outage at a purification plant.
"I learned about the boil water notice in Houston from a monkey."
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said that a power outage occurred at East Water Purification Plant in Galena Park at 10:30 am on Sunday, causing water pressure to drop below the minimum required pressure of 20 PSI.
Six hours later, the city issued the advisory and posted on social media: "A boil water notice has been issued for the city of Houston. Everyone should boil the water before drinking, cooking, bathing, and brushing their teeth."
Many residents did not receive the city's notice until Sunday night. Responding to the late warning, journalist Jose de Jesus Ortiz wondered, "How and why in the hell did Houston officials wait until around 8 pm tell citizens that there was a power outage at a water plant in the morning?"
Clint Barnette, a geologist, tweeted: "The city of Houston has everyone's email address that has a water bill. We all pay it online. It's beyond unacceptable that we don't have an email from them saying there's a boil notice. No fucking excuse."
Meteorologist Casey Curry posted: "Seriously! Low water pressure THIS MORNING and you are just now letting us know to boil our water because it is unsafe. Would have been nice to know BEFORE my little girl showered, drank water from the tap, and brushed her teeth this evening."
Houston Public Works Director Carol Haddock explained that city officials needed to consult with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and review data about the water before notifying the public. Haddock also said there is no evidence of any contamination.
"The reason we're doing the water boil notice is it's a regulatory requirement," Houston Water Director Yvonne Williams Forrest said in an interview with KHOU, adding that the warning was issued "out of an abundance of caution."
Speaking during a Monday morning press conference, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, a Democrat, said that the advisory may remain in effect until Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Houston Independent School District canceled classes for Monday.
Some took aim at the Republicans who run Texas, with one Twitter user quipping, "Houston, where the federal government can provide space travel, but the local Republicans can't provide drinking water."
Calling out Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, Texas' Republican U.S. senators, the advocacy group Center for American Progress Action said that "the entire city of Houston is under a boil water notice after a power outage at a water treatment plant, 2.3 million people don't have access to clean water. Resilient infrastructure matters--so why did @tedcruz and @JohnCornyn vote no on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act?"
The Houston area has suffered from multiple water crises in recent years, including deadly brain-eating amoebas in Lake Jackson's drinking supply and millions of pounds of toxins spilled from petrochemical and other industrial sites during Hurricane Harvey.
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DOJ Opens Environmental Racism Probe Into Illegal Dumping of Trash and 'Dead Bodies' in Houston
The city's Black Democratic mayor vowed to cooperate but said that "this investigation is absurd, baseless, and without merit."
Jul 22, 2022
The Biden administration on Friday announced an investigation into how the city of Houston, Texas responds to reports of illegal dumping of everything from trash to human remains in communities of color.
"Illegal dumping is a long-standing environmental justice issue. And... it often disproportionately burdens Black and Latino communities."
Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), said in a Friday speech that the probe will determine whether the city complies with the Title VI nondiscrimination requirements of the Civil Rights Acts.
"The investigation is prompted by a complaint sent to the Justice Department from Lone Star Legal Aid," she explained. "The complaint alleges that the city of Houston engages in race and national origin discrimination against a predominately Black and Latino area in Northeast Houston."
Clarke said that the complaint claims residents of the area "frequently make calls complaining about the illegal dumping of household furniture, mattresses, tires, medical waste, trash, dead bodies, and vandalized ATM machines and other items dumped and abandoned in their community."
"The complaint alleges that the city's denial of services, failure to enforce municipal codes and permit restrictions, and failure to adequately and equitably respond to illegal dumpsite concerns and service requests threaten the health and safety of Black and Latino people in Houston," she added. "These alleged acts also devalue the real property of Black and Latino Houstonians in violation of Title VI."
The probe will focus on the Houston Police Department as well as the city's 311 system and neighborhoods and solid waste management departments, which all receive federal financial assistance. Houston residents can call 311 "for information on city services and to report nonemergency concerns."
"Earlier today we sent the mayor's office a request for information and documents," Clarke said, noting that the probe will also include community interviews and a review of the 311 system to "determine whether there are racial disparities in response times to complaints made from Black and Latino communities vis-a-vis white communities."
Clarke also put the probe into a broader context:
Illegal dumping is a long-standing environmental justice issue. And like many other environmental justice issues, it often disproportionately burdens Black and Latino communities. Illegal dumpsites not only attract rodents, mosquitoes, and other vermin that pose health risks, but they can also contaminate surface water and impact proper drainage, making areas more susceptible to flooding... No one in the United States should be exposed to risk of illness and other serious harm because of ineffective solid waste management or inadequate enforcement programs.
For decades, environmental justice advocates have brought attention to the disproportionate burden faced specifically by communities of color in Houston from illegal dumping. Through this investigation, we will follow the facts and if necessary, work to institute the reforms necessary to address these long-standing concerns.
Democratic Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a lengthy statement that the city "was stunned and disappointed" to learn about the probe and "despite the DOJ's pronouncements, my office received no advanced notice."
"This investigation is absurd, baseless, and without merit," Turner declared, while vowing that the city "will cooperate with DOJ."
Turner, who is Black, asserted that "from day one, the city of Houston under my administration has prioritized the needs of communities of color that are historically under-resourced and underserved." He highlighted a recent doubling of the fine for illegal dumping and the installation of surveillance cameras, and said that "the city follows up on 311 complaints about illegal dumping and aggressively pursues those responsible."
"This DOJ investigation is a slap in the face to the city and the many people who diligently work to address illegal dumping daily and prevent environmental injustice," he added.
The mayor also slammed the DOJ for inaction on other environmental justice issues in the region and expressed gratitude for Congressman Al Green (D-Texas), whose office said Friday that it fully supports Turner's "efforts to ensure all Houstonians live in a safe and healthy environment, as well as their cooperation with the rush-to-judgment announcement of an investigation that does the city of Houston a disservice."
The Houston investigation is part of a broader effort at the DOJ to expand its work on environmental injustice through a new enforcement strategy and the first-ever Office of Environmental Justice, both announced in May.
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Biden DOJ Applauded for 'Long Overdue' Environmental Justice Plan
Todd Kim, assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division, said Friday that President Joe Biden "has made achieving environmental justice for all Americans a priority of his administration, and the Justice Department is answering the call."
After noting the new strategy and office, Kim said the Houston probe "exemplifies the department's commitment to alleviating disproportionate environmental burdens borne all too often by communities of color, low-income communities, and tribal communities."
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'Enough Is Enough!': Thousands Protest Outside NRA Convention in Texas
"I'm just tired of the NRA subordinating children's rights for gun rights," said one gun lobby opponent just three days after the school massacre in Uvalde.
May 27, 2022
In the wake of Tuesday's massacre of 21 students and staff at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, thousands of people protested angrily in Houston Friday to protest outside the National Rifle Association's annual convention to condemn the gun lobby's deep complicity in the nation's mass shooting epidemic.
"We're building space to hold the families of Uvalde, to let them know that we are there for them, that we will stand up for them and we will be fighting for them."
With signs asking "how many more?" and chants proclaiming "enough is enough," demonstrators protested in 95-degree heat outside the George R. Brown Convention Center as NRA officials--who banned guns in the venue due to a scheduled address by former President Donald Trump Friday afternoon--welcomed conference speakers and attendees, who are expected to number around 80,000.
"I'm just tired of the NRA subordinating children's rights for gun rights," Ken Council, a 65-year-old protester, told the Houston Chronicle.
Members of the League of Unified Latin American Citizens, Moms Demand Action, Black Lives Matter, Indivisible, the Houston Federation of Teachers, and other groups took part in the protest.
"When you go and shoot up a school full of kids and teachers... you've taken someone's right to life away," said Ashton Woods, founder and lead organizer of Black Lives Matter Houston. "We're building space to hold the families of Uvalde, to let them know that we are there for them, that we will stand up for them and we will be fighting for them--even when this is over--to make sure we get common-sense gun reform."
Political leaders including Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (D), U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), and Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke--who interrupted a press conference in Uvalde on Wednesday--were all scheduled to speak.
"The time to stop Uvalde was after a Columbine...and after Sandy Hook," O'Rourke told the large crowd to loud applause. "The time to stop another mass shooting is now."
Lee lamented that "400 million guns, 45% of the guns in the world are in the United States... Will we continue to live in the house of shame?"
Demonstrators took aim at weapons makers, the gun lobby, and the mostly Republican elected officials who collectively receive millions of dollars in campaign contributions from firearms interests while failing to take meaningful action in the face of over 1.5 million U.S. gun deaths--more than the total number of American troops killed in the nation's many wars--over the past half century.
Trump is expected to be joined on stage by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who, according to OpenSecrets.org, is the top congressional beneficiary of the gun lobby's largesse.
Despite misleading headlines reporting that Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott would skip the NRA convention and instead appear in Uvalde, the governor--a five-figure recipient of NRA campaign cash--will still participate via a prerecorded video message to attendees.
Other Republicans not attending the convention but who receive hundreds of thousands of dollars or more in gun lobby funding also came under fire, including Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who blamed "wokeness" and critical race theory for the Uvalde massacre and asserted that "the solution is renewed faith."
The NRA protests follow a Thursday demonstration by faith leaders outside the convention center as well as a walkout by students at scores of elementary, middle, and high schools across the country.
On Wednesday, the organizers of March for Our Lives--the nationwide student-led gun control protests first held in the wake of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Florida--announced they were organizing a second such event for June 11.
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Sunrise Ends 400-Mile Climate March With Arrests at Ted Cruz's House
The Gulf South marchers demand that Congress and the Biden White House pass bold climate jobs legislation, including a bill to create a Civilian Climate Corps.
Jun 21, 2021
After six weeks of marching 400 miles from New Orleans to Texas amid fruitless federal infrastructure negotiations, Sunrise Movement activists concluded their march on Monday with arrests outside the Houston home of renowned Republican climate villain Sen. Ted Cruz.
Eight demonstrators with the movement's "Generation on Fire" campaign were arrested on the Texas Republican's lawn while delivering a message to President Joe Biden.
"We protested outside of Ted Cruz's house to clearly lay out the choice Biden was making. We need Biden to work for us, not Cruz, the insurrectionist climate denier," Roshni Khosla, one of the Gulf South marchers, told Common Dreams.
Biden has many progressive lawmakers and activists concerned he may endorse a bipartisan infrastructure package that has been watered down from the White House's initial two-part proposal--which Sunrise and various experts already dubbed inadequate.
"We are a bit worried, but we know that we can make Biden bend," Khosla said. "Our powerful California march just ended last week. Our Gulf South march ended today. Our Philadelphia march is ending next Monday."
Noting plans for a rally in Washington, D.C. next week to pressure the president to support the Civilian Climate Corps (CCC) for Jobs and Justice Act, she added that "we are far more powerful than the insurrectionist climate deniers Biden is choosing to negotiate with over us, Gulf South Youth marchers."
Sunrise campaigners on Monday held signs that said, "Our Homes Flood, Our People Freeze, Cruz Abandons Us"--referencing when Cruz vacationed in Mexico while Texans endured power outages earlier this year--as well as "Pass a Bold Civilian Climate Corps" and "Which Side Are You On, Biden?"
Critics of Cruz's trip to Cancun and Texas' decision to create its own power grid to buck federal regulations, including Sunrise, used the state's February crises to make a case for the Green New Deal, a resolution that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) reintroduced in April.
That same day, the lawmakers also unveiled the CCC legislation. As Markey explained in the Boston Globe, they envision "a new, modern, equitable climate corps that puts Americans to work reducing carbon emissions, building our clean energy backbone, implementing conservation projects, and creating healthier and more resilient communities means we will build back better and we will build back greener."
Passing a bill to establish the New Deal era-inspired CCC--which supporters say would create 1.5 million jobs--is a key demand of the Sunrise marchers, along with their call for Biden to "stop negotiating with moderates and the GOP on climate jobs legislation and fight for what the people need."
"Biden, I voted for you because I thought I was securing my future, but every day since inauguration I've woken up with the same fears," said 19-year-old marcher Ishan Gupta in a statement.
"Your decision to work with the same people who won't upgrade Texas' power network to save us from blackouts this summer is a slap in the face," Gupta added. "Deliver on your promises so I can have a future doing meaningful work like fixing our power grid."
The "Generation on Fire" youth are further calling on Biden to block Formosa Plastics Group from constructing a large petrochemical complex in an area of Louisiana called "Cancer Alley." The site of the proposed complex in St. James Parish was a stop on the 400-mile march.
"This specific route was chosen because it is the path of many climate refugees who are escaping damage from hurricanes in New Orleans," Khosla told Common Dreams. "Our 17-year-old marcher Chante Davis' family made that move after Katrina."
After Davis' family fled to Houston, the Texas city was hit by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, before enduring power outages along with food and water shortages due to winter weather and infrastructure issues earlier this year.
"I am only 17 years old, and I have lived through the kind of climate disasters that I know are not going to stop," Davis wrote for Teen Vogue this month. "I often wonder what the next 17 years will bring. Who's going to help us? Will I have to relocate again?"
According to Davis:
We're angry that Biden and Congress have not done more to combat the imminent threat of climate change. We are angry that we are being neglected at a time when many of us are under- or unemployed. We are marching because right now, we have an economy that places profits over the well-being of Black and brown communities. We are marching through the sweltering summer heat because we need good jobs and real solutions to save our planet. We are rising up like the individual flames of a generation on fire.
Along with the march, Sunrise has recently held actions outside the White House and the San Francisco home of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The rally in the nation's capital is scheduled for June 28.
"We want everyone feeling empowered by our action to join us in D.C. on the 28th," said Khosla, "or take action wherever you are! We don't have time to sit around."
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