Intercontinental Terminals Company (ITC), the organization responsible for the major chemical fire in Deer Park in 2019, is currently seeking to renew its operating permit under Title V as determined by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Environmental organizations showed up to pushback on May 4, 2022, at the Deer Park High School’s North Campus. Organizations Air Alliance Houston, Fenceline Watch, Caring for Pasadena Communities with Lonestar Legal Aid, and Channelview Health and Improvement Coalition showed up and gave powerful comments during the hearing. Some residents from surrounding cities like Baytown, Galena Park, and Pasadena, showed up, and even fewer Deer Park residents.

There were three Deer Park residents that showed up to speak on the permit. Two residents were against the operating permit renewal, citing health reasons, as one mother spoke up about how the fire exacerbated her child’s side effects from cancer and another mother spoke up about her experience with her family evacuating.

Read more here.

Anna and Fouad with Rice Students for Justice Palestine and Palestinian Youth Movement, respectively, join me to discuss how Rice University plans to platform Israeli war criminals at the upcoming event, Israel at 75. They are asking community members to show up and protest the event, and to also sign their petition.

"The “Israel at 75” conference, which marks the 75th anniversary of Israel’s colonization of Palestine, glorifies al-Nakba, or The Catastrophe, in which 400 Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed and over 1,000,000 Palestinians forcibly displaced from their homeland in order to create the state of Israel. For over 75 years, the Palestinian people have resisted the most barbaric forms of Israel’s violence — from daily home demolitions, to mass arrest of Palestinian youth, to illegal military blockades that deny Palestinians freedom of movement on their own land." - Info from the petition

For more education about Palestinians resisting Israel, please watch Abby Martin's The Empire Files. To learn more about how the movement in Palestine connects to the oppression in the United States, please read Angela Davis' Freedom is a Constant Struggle.

There is a national movement to privatize public education, and in Texas, the threat is in our backyard. Privatizing schools will prioritize profit over kids and education. Ruth from Houston CVPE joins me to discuss this threat further, and to discuss community movement to fight back.

Learn how to opt out of STAAR testing.

Read Houston CVPE's blog on busting common myths.

Sign the petition.

Historical context to get you caught up on the issue:

Brandon from Jailhouse Justice joins me to discuss the movement against the inhuman treatment and racist abuse of those who are incarcerated at Harris County Jail. Since last January, there have been 31 deaths in the jail, making it the most deaths in a jail across the United States.

Follow Jailhouse Justice on Instagram.

Arturo Dominguez, a local freelance journalist, joins me to talk about how he rejected a bribe during his investigation into the county jail deaths.

Read his investigation, here. 

Listen to an extended interview with Belly of the Beast journalist Demetrius Goines, here. 

With climate change getting worse and the government barely in sight to help, it's important that neighbors know they can band together.

Read the article here. 

Review the interactive map here.

The police training facility in Atlanta is set to destroy 381 acres of the Weelaunee Forest, and Blackhall Studios plans to destroy another 40 acres for a sound stage. Cop City will be the largest police training facility in the United States and is slated to include a mock city where police will train with firearms, tear gas, helicopters, and explosive devices to repress protest and mass unrest, much as they did during the 2020 George Floyd protests.

There are ties to donors and Atlanta Police Foundation board members in Houston that are helping fund this facility.

Perri McCary's (Mama PK's) artistic practice spans over the last 30 years focusing on using storytelling, mentorship, and activism to promote peace and challenge systemic oppression. This special interview highlights her work in the community. 

I met Mama PK at KPFT, and during my time there she taught me the importance of intergenerational friendships and collaboration. Her work as a writer has influenced my work as an advocacy journalist to this day. 

Lewis Raven Wallace (he/they/ze) joins me to discuss why journalists use “allegedly” in the face of video evidence.

Lewis is the Abolition Journalism Fellow at Interrupting Criminalization, and author of The View from Somewhere: Undoing the Myth of Journalistic Objectivity.

Chivas Watson, founder of WorkingGroup512, alleges that he was beaten and arrested by Harris County Police during a traffic stop. The police officer filed a criminal complaint against Chivas, claiming Chivas sought controversy while the police officer's back was turned. However, there is video evidence that shows otherwise. Chivas is asking the community for help by signing a petition and donating to his legal fees.

Trigger Warning (2:20 - 34:00): During the first part of the interview, Chivas details his experience from being arrested, to being searched, and his time in jail and the process of being in court. This first part includes police brutality as he recounts his story. If you do not wish to be triggered, please forward to the 34:00 minute mark to hear the rest of the interview. 

I have reached out to Harris County Constable Precinct 4 for comment. When they provide the comment, this summary section will be updated to include it.