June 13 in history: Byrd buried in Jasper

.....In addition to reporting, and broadcasting the latest news to our audience, KPFT may sometimes provide a retrospect on events that happened on a given day in history. Today's historical recollection took place in Texas, and affected the world. Five years ago, on June 13th, James Byrd Jr. was buried in his hometown of Jasper, Texas, which was also the site of his murder when he was attacked by white supremacists, chained to the back of a pick-up truck, and dragged to his brutal death. More.

Birth control bill on Perry's desk

.....The Texas Legislature recently passed a bill that would exempt health insurance plans from covering birth control and AIDS medication, among other health services. Governor Rick Perry will most likely sign SB 541 by June 22. [Karem Said has more:]
.....The Texas Business Association sponsored Senate Bill 541 to make health insurance more affordable for small businesses. According to the Department of Insurance, 75 percent of small businesses do not provide coverage, and they cite expense as their number one reason. One in four Texans have no health insurance.
.....Yet, some question the wisdom of cutting birth control coverage in order to make insurance plans affordable. Spokesperson Sara Wheat, of the Texas Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, says many legislators feel they were tricked into passing the bill:
....."You know this bill, you know it was pitched as such a friendly bill. I mean, who doesn't want more people to have access to health insurance. And so a lot of the members - when it passed the senate - they didn't even realize what that bill was actually doing. It wasn't until it got to the House floor when members saw - oh wow - it undermines contraceptive equity, osteoporosis screening, I mean all these - you know - very popular health care services. And it's interesting because I've talked to a couple of legislators since then who were shocked, I mean, that was a bill they supported last session and there was so much happening in those last couple of weeks and some of them didn't even realize that they had actually voted for this bill that is now going to gut the bill that they thought was so valuable." More.

Former Conroe mayor indicted in open meeting case

.....On Wednesday, a Montgomery County grand jury handed down indictments to two hospital board members accused of trying to circumvent the Texas Open Meetings Act. Named in the indictments were former Conroe mayor Scarlette Curry and former Hospital board chairperson Nicole Huff. This incident marks the second time this year that Huff will have been indicted on such charges.
.....In a December 20, 2002 meeting, the board had voted to fire Don Disbennet, who was district CEO at that time. But according to fellow hospital board member Bill Leigh, the vote was rushed, with many on the board having finalized their decisions prior to the scheduled meeting. More.

Bayport Nova chemicals fire kept residents inside

.....A Wednesday night fire at the Bayport plant operated by Nova chemicals kept residents of the nearby El Jardin neighborhood behind closed doors under directive from the city of Pasadena.
.....City officials were concerned the fire could have emitted ethylbenzene, a dangerous pollutant that can cause long term damage to the liver, kidneys and central nervous system. Federal investigators and a private pollution control company on Nova1Ž4s payroll found no traces of the chemical in air samples taken from the scene. More.

Human smuggling is dangerous, lucrative

.....With the recent multiple deaths of 19 immigrants in an abandoned trailer in Victoria, and a string of house raids exposing human trafficking operations in Houston's East End, the topic of smuggling has been in the news with greater frequency. While few people can deny the horrid conditions in which immigrant workers are transported and housed, media outlets rarely go beyond pointing fingers at the traffickers themselves. Rarely is the questions asked about WHY so many Latin American migrants put themselves at such risk, oftentimes only to acquire physically taxing jobs with low pay. Tonight, KPFT News takes a closer look at the practice of smuggling humans across the U.S./Mexico border. Shannon Young files this report:
.....As poverty soars south of the border, the numbers of people migrating to find work in the United States job market is on the rise. At the same time, as restrictions on movement back and forth across the border tightens, the level of difficulty and danger associated with clandestine crossing increases. As a result, human smuggling has become a very lucrative business.
.....Nestor Rodriguez , the director of the Center for Immigration Studies at the University of Houston describes the trends in migration over the past decade:
....."Well we've seen the border in the past 10 years, is that the U.S. government in the form of the border patrol has closed down more sectors, made it a lot harder for immigrants to cross the border, who are coming without papers. It started in the early 1990s in El Paso, through Operation Hold the Line. And then the second operation was in the San Diego area was Operation Gatekeeper. And this means a concentration of border agents, it means more surveillance technology, more fences, more barriers to keep immigrants out who are trying to enter without authorization. It is like a cat and mouse game where the migrants are left with fewer and fewer safe places to cross, so this affects the probability of death and the risk goes up for the migrants."
.....Jesus Rios, from Michoacan, Mexico paid $1,000 to cross the border in 1986. He describes his experience:
....."We had to walk for two nights and out in the day with no water and no food. And once we got into a main road, they put us in a trunk of a car, which was really uncomfortable. It was really hard to breathe. It was just like a sardine, you know everybody just pile up on top of each other. And it was really hot. Really hot." More.

New Austin law bans public smoking

.....Cities throughout the country are passing smoking ordinances. Last Saturday. Austin Texas followed suit. Karem Said has more:
.....Austin City Council passed a smoking ban last Saturday. The ban would prohibit smoking in nearly all public places and within 15 feet of all public entrances. Although Mayor Gus Garcia put forth the ordinance, the Tobacco-free Austin Coalition spearheaded its passing. The Austin Coalition overlaps considerably with the larger Trust for a Smoke-Free Texas, whose stated goal is to eliminate smoking fro all public places in the state. The coalition's major players include the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association, The American Cancer Society and the Sierra Club. Coalition spokesperson Julie Winkler says for every seventh smoker who dies from the habit, one non-smoker dies from second-hand smoke.
....."Second-hand smoke contains chemicals like formaldehyde and acetone and asbestos and carbon monoxide, chemicals that are known to cause cancer in humans. It's known to be hazardous to people with respiratory illness, it can help the onset and the exacerbation of asthma. It irritates allergies, it's linked to heart disease and it's especially harmful for people who have a pre-existing condition. It can trigger a heart attack, respiratory illness. Overwhelmingly health organizations agree from the World Health organization to the EPA, the Surgeon General to organizations all over the world agree that second-hand smoke is linked to various illness as well as death." More.

Houston lags behind others in clean tap water

.....Deteriorating public works, pollution and out-of-date technology all add up to a municipal water supply that could endanger Houstonians' health. A report issued Wednesday by the National Resources Defense Council found that Houston lags behind other U.S. cities when it comes to providing clean drinking water. Texas Clean Water Action's Sparky Anderson was in Houston this week to advocate for stronger protections and accountability from city water planners.
....."And that's what we want to see these reports do, to encourage these systems to keep moving forward. And to go beyond just the politics and do the minimum of what the law requires. That is our role as public health advocates, to ask for that, we may not always get it, but that's why we're here."
.....Anderson said previous reports had resulted in local improvements. For example, criticism from the Defense Council last year prompted the city to change the language used to report water contaminants to the public. The new reports follow federal guidelines for explaining the dangers of certain contaminants. The reports are further available in Spanish translation and on the Internet. Yet despite these improvements, the city still has a long way to go when it comes to protecting drinking water at its source. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the San Jacinto and Trinity Rivers, both major sources of drinking water for the Houston area, suffer serious contamination problems. Clean Water Action's Sparky Anderson said Bush administration rollbacks to federal water laws exacerbate municipal problems.
....."Well, again, we want nature to have as clean of water as possible. Of course that's hard today with the size of our society and our communities. Once we have contaminated water, it becomes a burden on our utilities to have to go through filtration and disinfection processes. The more that we have to do of that, the more expensive it is at the tap for us to pay for drinking water. So an ounce of prevention is a pound of cure. If we can keep the raw water, our lakes, rivers and streams clean in the first place, we're a lot better off as ratepayers, and of course, public health." More.