The Lone Star Conservative
Join Michael Wilson as The Lone Star Conservative every morning from 6am - 8am on Patriot Talk 920 AM in Houston, TX. Michael will bring you the latest political news from the Greater Houston Area and around the country while providing commentary from a Christian conservative perspective.
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The Lone Star Conservative
Banking Controversies, Education Scandals, and Environmental Challenges: A Call for Reform and Justice
Discover the intersection of banking, free speech, and justice as we engage with Mike Ring, CEO of Old Glory Bank, who shares his unique experience testifying before the US Senate Committee on Banking. Dive into the pressing issues of debanking and deregulation, while exploring the critical role Old Glory Bank plays in fostering the "freedom economy." Our episode also brings a voice from the National Religious Broadcasters Association, discussing their mission to preserve free speech and their upcoming conference, highlighting the fight to keep AM radio alive amidst new technological shifts.
Local transparency and accountability take center stage as we reveal new developments in the Houston water corruption scandal and the resignation of the Houston Housing Authority CEO. The educational sector is not spared, with scandals rocking teacher certification and a tragic case involving a teacher linked to a sex trafficking ring, raising serious concerns about the safety and integrity of our schools. These stories underscore the urgent need for reform and ethical leadership in local governance, urging listeners to demand more from those in power.
Environmental responsibility and the fight for justice continue as we scrutinize pollution issues at the Roving Meadows Utilities Inc facility and mismanagement in flood control projects. Hear about the significant challenges facing Houston, including the financial mishaps in public projects and troubling conditions at the Harris County Jail. We emphasize the importance of balancing conservative values with responsible environmental practices and highlight the ongoing legislative efforts to protect public health and uphold free speech. Join us for compelling discussions and a call to action that resonates beyond the airwaves.
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Listen every day to our strong conservative programs on Patriot Talk 920 AM. Tune-in on your radio in Houston to KYST 920 AM or download our app by visiting 920app.com or search for "Patriot Talk 920" from your app store!
From deep in the heart of Texas comes Houston's God-loving patriot and the voice of reason. This is the Lone Star conservative Michael Wilson.
Speaker 2:I'm offended, you're offended, let's all get offended. Tonight I'll order us a beer. We can sit down right here and scream and yell and cuss and fuss.
Speaker 3:Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, michael Wilson. So my voice is still if you can't tell a little bit gone. It seems to be talking a little bit better today. It's not cracking as much but at the same time I can't talk loud anymore. So when I get very passionate, you'll just have to imagine that I'm talking louder when I get very upset. If I do a story on something going on with public school, or I do a story, if I do a story where generally you'd assume that I get pretty passionate about it, I think you can just assume that I'm probably passionate, despite the fact that my tone assume that I'm probably passionate, despite the fact that my tone, my pitch and my inflection do not illustrate it. I'm probably passionate about whatever I'm talking about. That being said, a little disclaimer about my voice.
Speaker 3:We got a couple different interviews on the docket today. We got Mike Ring, ceo of Old Glory Bank, coming on at 7.30 to go overa couple of really cool things some updates with Old Glory Bank, some updates with what he's been going on, especially when it comes to the US Senate Committee on Banking and a hearing they had yesterday that he was a part of. He got to actually testify in that, hearing Very exciting stuff going over debanking, the importance of deregulation. We'll jump into all of that At 8 o'clock. We also have one of our good friends from NRB, the National Religious Broadcasters Association, coming on to talk about their organization a conference they got coming up. That'll be very exciting. You won't want to miss that interview either. And Lord Will will have Charles Blaine on at 8.30, coming on to go over the weekly local recap. So all those interviews jam-packed show today.
Speaker 3:But in the meantime let's go ahead and jump into the weather. Let's take a look at what we're dealing with today. So it's currently right around 69 degrees and, in other words, if you want a good explanation of today, if you want me to describe the way today likely will go, based on weather, I can tell you that it's basically going to be the exact same as every other day that we've had this week, exactly like they predicted that it would be. Nothing's changed. I can give you the weather update. But right now it's about 69 degrees, which is the exact same temperature I said it was yesterday morning here at the station and in addition to that, we're getting up into the low 80s, I will say. I will say, starting Sunday some of us will be in cooler air as the cold front is crawling down into southeast Texas. They're not sure yet quite where the line is on how cool it's going to get on Sunday, but that cool front is coming down.
Speaker 3:Today we are looking at a dense fog along the coast and down. Today we are looking at a dense fog along the coast. I talked a little bit yesterday about how we had this sea fog in the coastal areas. There's not much fog in actual houston some. For most of us there's not too. It's not too bad, but if you get down into the coastal areas there's quite a bit of fog. So be aware of that.
Speaker 3:Apparently, yesterday had a record-breaking high of 83 degrees. I neither knew nor cared that that happened, but if you're on the climate change bus, I'm sure that was affirming your scariest predictions. We're probably not going to break a record today. The record to beat for today is 86 degrees, set back in 2017. And right now the weather people are showing a high between 81 and 83. So more than likely not going to break a record today, which I don't know how that's possible If we're getting hotter every single day. I can't imagine we're not breaking records all the time, especially from a year ago. It's not like you have to break yesterday's record to get warmer, you just have to break last year's record and we can't even break a record from you know eight years ago. Shocking right Temperatures will warm from the low 70s to the mid 80s. Today, sunday's going to be similar, but a cold front will slip in on Sunday Again. They're trying to kind of tell you where that line is going to be, of how cool it's going to get, at what time. But that's just hard to do when you have a cool front coming in, because you just never know how the moisture is going to hit and where it'll hit. But be aware, going into early next week, at some point it will be severely cooling off, which will be a nice reprieve from the temperature that we've had.
Speaker 3:With that being said, I want to jump into an update. So yesterday we went over an update on the water corruption scandal here in houston and we discussed how six people had officially pleaded guilty. We had six charge. We had seven charged. Six of the seven had pleaded guilty. The only only one person got prison time. The the mastermind, patrice Lee, got 10 years in jail. Several others got some deferred adjudication, some hours of community service. Only one woman was forced to back pay any amount. She had to pay $50,000 in restitution. And one guy not only didn't have to pay any restitution, the dude had his court fees and probation costs waived because he didn't make enough in retirement which is funny, because he used a corruption scandal to enrich himself. So you know that that seems just like a skill issue to me.
Speaker 3:Nonetheless, the last person has now reached a plea deal. Court records show that contractor Frank Perkins he was the last one, the seventh out of the seven told investigators that Lee proposed to him that he pay 10% of any deal he gets with the city of Houston to her charity public servant, acceptance of gifts, and his plea deal details include two years of deferred adjudication and 80 hours of community service. Well, that's it. That was the last chance for any real justice and it was not achieved. It was not achieved For reference.
Speaker 3:This guy received $349,000 from the city. He paid Lee $28,000 and then paid Danielle Hertz, who was the lady that had to pay restitution. She was basically the nobody. She didn't really do anything. She was there, she participated. She has long held, that she feels innocent in the sense that she just did what she was told um.
Speaker 3:But you know, I don't really think that's a good defense. Even if it were true and I believed it, which I don't necessarily believe not a good defense, not a good defense at all. Nonetheless, last guy has been charged, so good riddance, we can move on. Good defense at all. Nonetheless, last guy has been charged, so good riddance, we can move on. Not the sort of justice I wanted to see. I wanted to see a lot more restitution paid, a lot more community service, but we got some community service. We got some restitution, some got prison. So you know, we'll take, I guess, what we can get. That's all we can really do with.
Speaker 3:That being said, I I have another story, and this one is wild. So everyone on the show is well aware I don't think I've ever hidden any opinions that I have. I just don't do that. I'm not. It's not even just that I've chosen not to. I'm really not good at it.
Speaker 3:I've had various issues in workplaces because I'm not good at not revealing my opinions. It is quite true that I needed a job like this one. When I say that I'm very blessed to be here. It's not just because I like what I do or because I feel like I'm good at what I do, or whatever. It's also because I didn't do good at other things.
Speaker 3:Because I was doing stuff like this, I would start talking about my opinions on public school, my opinions on politics, the presidency, what administration was doing what I'm not very good at, and it's not just politics. Whatever the conversation is, I'm not good at just kind of sitting down and just listening. I'm very good at talking about it. I'm very good at sitting back and listening so that I can learn about it if I don't already know. But I'm not good, if I have an established opinion, at not revealing it. It's not in my wheelhouse of skills.
Speaker 3:So everyone on this show is well aware that I am not a big advocate of public schools. You are probably also aware that I am not a big advocate of private schools, education-wise. If you're talking about academics, of course I believe that they are more successful, that they're better, because test scores don't lie. Test scores don't lie. It's pretty obvious that if you go in order of operations from worst education to best education, you're going public school and then you've got like a space of like 10 feet between public school and private school and then a face space of like six inches between private school and home school. So private school is in second place for best education and it's not close to third.
Speaker 3:I mean, public school is bad, but the reason that I oppose public school in general is not primarily the education, and a lot of people that confuses because they assume that the reason I oppose public school is how bad the education has gotten or how expensive it's gotten, and those are definitely reasons to oppose public schools, and I do oppose public schools because of that reason, but that's not the only reason. In fact, the main reason that I oppose education in general in these regards is that I genuinely believe that part of education, part of a child's development, is learning alongside their mother, is learning alongside their mother. I believe that that nurturing that comes from a biological mother or from an adoptive mother who loves like her own child, is essential in a child's development. I really do believe that and that's why you know, in addition to the culture, in addition to the education, there's a whole laundry list of reasons, but that's the biggest one. And so here's one of the instances where you never really know who's teaching your child. You never really know who's in charge of your child when you send them to school, even if it seems like an expensive, top of the line premier private school.
Speaker 3:So a Montessori school in Cyprus is now under scrutiny after a racial slur was included in a newsletter sent to over 150 families. The school leader has issued an apology, but you know how far do apologies go when you read this. How far do apologies really go to parents? I mean, I don't know, but parents feel that more needs to be done to address the issue, though, again, I'm not sure what more can be done.
Speaker 3:The newsletter from Lycee Montessori School initially appeared normal when it was delivered to inboxes on Sunday. However, upon receiving an apology email, parents went back and took a closer look to discover the offensive language. So this was one of the newsletters that has numerous pages in it. They've been sending these out for like eight years. Never had any problems. This time, located on page three, there's some pretty wild stuff. One parent, jeanette Dove, said it's one of those things that you're trying to make sense of, but then you realize okay, this is not something that's going to make sense. The newsletter, which began with a Valentine's Day greeting, because you know it's. This week's newsletter took a turn with the inclusion of a slur, so let's read the sentence and I'm going to even the articles are bleeping out the slur, so I'm going to even the articles are bleeping out the slur, so I'm also going to just bleep it out. This is a quote from the newsletter.
Speaker 3:Sometimes just spending that quality academic time with your child, one-on-one, in the comfort of your home can be equal to, if not greater than, the academic authorization of a real inward B word Inward as in a racial slur, and B word as in an offensive term for women or a non-offensive term that no one actually uses for a female dog. A real inward B word and it was describing the context of that was describing reading with your child at home. Again, sometimes it's important to read with your child at home. Again, sometimes it's important to read with your child at home. Um, it can be greater than the academic authorization of a real n-word, b-word that that parent, jeanette dove, said this is egregious from my child's school, of all places. I mean, I want my child's school to be a safe place.
Speaker 3:The director, of course, of the school assured that the offensive language is not condoned and expressed uncertainty about how it was even included in the publications at the families in the first place. The director also said that password security measures have been tightened around the accounts used to create and send the newsletter. The parent replied the bigger issue here is that there's someone on your staff because this was not a random hacker who got in. This was someone who sent out the newsletter, someone on your staff who deemed it appropriate to access the document, put in that language and then send it out to your constituents. The idea that I'm supposed to send my child to the school again with someone who has this type of language on their hearts and in their minds, I can't do that. With someone who has this type of language on their hearts and in their minds, I can't do that. Of course, it wouldn't be a good day if they didn't really add the racism in there. So parents are also saying oh, it's the start of Black History Month. I don't think that's the real problem with what they put in the newsletter, but you know we'll go there. The school director mentioned that the newsletter has been distributed monthly again for eight years without any previous issues. They added that if the person responsible for the incident is identified and caught, they will be immediately terminated.
Speaker 3:So here's the school's statement Quote. We are deeply saddened and disheartened by the recent newsletter that was sent out containing inappropriate verbiage. As our school is built on the values of diversity, inclusivity and respect for all, immediately upon awareness of this disrespectful phrase being distributed, a sincere acknowledgement and apology letter was sent to all recipients. At this time we do not know how or why this occurred, but we are taking this matter very seriously. It is deeply upsetting to think that someone would seek to undermine the principles for which our school stands. We are beyond sincerely apologetic for any harm or discomfort this may have caused our students, families and staff. Our commitment to fostering a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment remains unwavering.
Speaker 3:So look, here's my real take on this One. I really I don't know. I'm a white straight guy so I don't understand, and I really personally. Your children that are attending a kids's Montessori school are not reading the newsletter. The parents are and, frankly, based on the fact that they didn't notice until they got the apology, they also are not reading the newsletter. So that doesn't really seem like that big of a deal to me in the first place. But the real point I'm trying to make. It's a logical point, an extension of this, if you take this thought out to its conclusion.
Speaker 3:Here's the real point here. I'm at a state-of-the-art one of the fancy Montessori-style schools and even there there's someone no idea who someone sending this stuff out. You really do have no idea who's teaching your kids. You just don't. I'm not anti-teacher. In the same way I'm not anti doctor, but we can't sit around and pretend like you.
Speaker 3:Sending your child to school is like giving them a parent who loves them there. You don't know that. You don't know who is in their school, you don't know what the teacher actually thinks, and that's why the only person I trust to raise my children, to raise them, are me and my wife. Of course, if I need babysitters, I can go to my parents or my wife's parents or some very close friends from church that we've gotten to know very well. That's about it. I'm not going to send my kids off to somebody I don't know, because there's people and really I'm not upset about people that are using a little bit of language in a newsletter is kind of what seems to be a joke, but the point of it is you don't know people, you don't know them and stuff like this happens and far worse stuff happens. So please be aware of that, be aware that you never really know people, especially people that you're sending your kids off to, when they're your responsibility.
Speaker 3:Let me get back from the break. I'm going to jump on over to a story about the Texas Education Agency's scandal when it comes to the teaching certification scheme, because there's been an update pretty major update, especially if you're here in Houston a pretty major update for who's been involved in that teaching certificate scandal. We'll talk about that when we get back. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, michael Wilson. I'll be right back.
Speaker 4:Faith, family and freedom. I'm Todd Starnes and that's what I talk about every day at 2 on Patriot Talk, 920 am Houston.
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Speaker 10:Instead of asking what's in your wallet, maybe your bank should be asking what's in your heart, because when big banks decide they don't like your politics or what you do for a living and they cancel your account out of the blue, or when they violate your rights and share your private transaction data with the government, it doesn't matter what's in your wallet. Old Glory Bank is different. We're the pro-America online bank that will always stand firm with your privacy, security and liberty. Started by Dr Ben Carson, larry Elder, john Rich and America's top bankers, old Glory Bank's mission statement is the United States Constitution. No wonder we've grown from a few hundred customers to tens of thousands of customers in all 50 states in just 18 months. We're a full-service, fdic-insured online bank offering everything the big banks offer, plus one thing they don't values you can believe in. You used to select the bank closest to your home. Now select the bank closest to your heart at oldglorybankcom. Member FDIC Equal Housing Lender.
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Speaker 3:Man, y'all will not believe the things that I just did with water in my throat. If you were in the studio, you would have left the noises that were coming out of my throat trying to get that water to rinse off my vocal cords. I think my voice sounds better. Maybe it's placebo, but I spent I kid you not at least two minutes just. I was even texting people on my phone while I was just like destroying my throat with water trying, especially because we have interviews coming on. If it was just you guys you guys listen every day You're going to give me a little grace. We got interviews coming on. I got to sound my best. I'm going to be talking to people. They got to be able to hear me and not think that something's very wrong on this side of the microphone. So I will clear it yet again for another couple minutes when I go on the break, but first let's jump over to this. A new list from the Texas Education Agency contains the names of 60 new Texas educators who are currently under investigation in a teacher certification cheating scheme. And we talked about this before because you had the mastermind. You had these people that would take the test for the teachers, the proctors that knew that it was cheating, but let it go. So you had like a whole group of people, and then you had the teachers. Now, of course, the teachers are not going to be prosecuted in the way that the actual cheaters are, though they did cheat, so I don't really understand why not. Nonetheless, I guess they didn't make money off of it, but they sort of did, because they're getting a salary from the taxpayers. So I mean that might actually be worse, because the other people scammed the teachers. The teachers scammed us. So I mean, look, take your votes on it, but nonetheless, there's a new list, and I could go through the back story again, but I think you guys probably remember how they cheated, what that looked like people that were already charged. So let me just go through the new list. According to the TEA, the district associated with these educators do not mean that it's their current place of employment, but based at the end of the 2023-2024 school year, so they could have moved, especially if they found their names and they tried to get out of here. I don't know, but this was the case as of the end of the 2024 school year.
Speaker 3:Aldine ISD, Alvin ISD. I'm going to go ahead and tell you the number too. The first had three. Alvin ISD had five teachers in this scheme. Connor ISD had one teacher. Cypress Fairbanks had nine Four. Bend ISD had seven teachers in this scheme. Galena Park ISD had one, Goose Creek ISD had one. Harris County Department of Education had one. Houston ISD had 24. Humble ISD had one, houston isd had 24, umble isd had one, katie isd had two, pearland isd had one, spring isd had four and spring branch isd had one. Plus, of course those were just the houston area. Of course dallas area and san antonio was all over the state of texas. So I was just giving you guys the ones that may have affected you or your students, you know area. So all over the place, lots of teachers caught up in this.
Speaker 3:This was not, as it turns out, a tiny little operation where a couple of teachers had cheated, proctored. It seems like it was a pretty big deal, so good to see it's being prosecuted. I don't know exactly the Texas Education Agency in general. I don't have a lot of faith in as an organization. I don't have a lot of faith in as an organization. I don't know what it's going to look like. Going forward to see where they'll actually prosecute. What that will look like for the teachers if they'll lose not only their certification but the possibility of getting one for cheating, if it will be career-winning I don't know what any of that will look like, but we do know that there are a solid number of teachers here in the greater Houston area that are caught up in this scandal. It's crazy, it's insane and it's very I mean, it's almost shocking. If I didn't know how bad the education scores were here in Texas, here in Houston, I'd almost be very shocked, but it's hard to be shocked anymore. It's not going on in public school.
Speaker 3:Now, when we get back from the break, as I told you all before, Mike Ring, our good friend, CEO of Old Glory Bank, is coming on. He's talking not only about Old Glory Bank, their mission, everything that they're about the importance of joining with them, but going over some of the stuff that they're fighting for, the importance of joining with them, but going over some of the stuff that they're fighting for Right now. Mike Ring actually specifically was testifying yesterday to the Senate Banking Committee and we're going to talk about how that went, why that's important, what that'll look like going forward and how everyone else can get involved and the importance of doing so All when we get back. You won't want to miss that interview. It's going to be a great time You're listening to Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, I'll be right back.
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Speaker 3:Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, michael Wilson, and, as I promised, on the line we have our good friend Mike Ring from Old Glory Bank coming on with a major update from Old Glory Bank. Welcome to the show, mike.
Speaker 17:Hey, thanks for having me again, Michael.
Speaker 3:Of course. Of course, and pardon my voice, it is slowly seeping off the deep end. I'm hoping it'll make it to the end of the show so I can get through the weekend. But yeah, it's good to have you on man.
Speaker 17:Women love you even more when you sound like this trust me.
Speaker 3:I got that nice little masculine, deep, faded voice going on. It's a good time, so let's go ahead and jump right in. So yesterday you were testifying up in front of the Senate. What was the background for that? What drew Old Glory Bank to this fight? So what's going on?
Speaker 17:Yeah, great Thanks for that. It was actually on Wednesday, so two days ago, two days ago. Two days ago, a while ago, yeah, thank you. So a while ago, you know Chairman Scott, tim Scott, from the great state of South Carolina, when the senator, when the Republicans took the Senate, he became the chairman of the Banking Oversight Committee and he had been seeing, like a lot of us saw, the banks, you know, back in 2013, started shutting down firearms because of what we called from Biden, the Operation Chokepoint I'm sorry, from Obama's Operation Chokepoint 1.0. And then in 2022, Biden had the regulators prevent banks from being the banks for crypto and enough was enough.
Speaker 17:So Chairman Scott came in earlier this year and said I'm going to have a Senate hearing about the debanking of crypto and firearms.
Speaker 17:And then, as you know, we've been talking about for years that there is industry debanking of firearms and crypto.
Speaker 17:But even worse, in my humble view, is there's political debanking, where the big banks absolutely cancel and debank people who they don't agree with, and it happens in tech, it happens in banking cancel and debank people who they don't agree with, and it happens in tech, it happens in banking. And then when President Trump at Davos kind of called out Bank of America and Moynihan had that clown answer in response, called out Bank of America for canceling conservative causes. That is when Chairman Scott said well, we need to have some information about that as well. And so I just sent him a blind email to a whistleblower line and said I at Old Glory Bank was created as a, along with my great co-founders, john Ritz, secretary Carson, larry Elder and others created Old Glory Bank as a market response to debanking and would love to talk to you and be a part of this testimony. And Michael and I assumed like this would just get lost in File 13. Of course, and sure enough, within a day they reached out to me and invited me, and it was a phenomenal experience.
Speaker 3:And you went, which is exciting.
Speaker 17:Yeah, and listen, I'm a pretty confident guy. I've been a lawyer for 30 years. There is some intimidation, walking into that room and testifying in front of the Senate and all people you've seen on TV for years Elizabeth Warren and others that I had no idea what direction it would go or how they would treat me. But I tell you, overall it was a great experience.
Speaker 3:I'm glad to hear that. Yeah, I can imagine. I'm like you know. I talk to a lot of people, go to a lot of events. I'm speaking on air every day, but part of me is like if I had to go anywhere near the power there in history, that would just, it would be daunting for sure.
Speaker 17:Yeah, and then, like everything we do in life, you look back and I look back and watch my testimony now and I see like there's oh, I wish I would have said that differently or done that differently, but overall I think we got the message out. And what's crazy about this, michael, is I'm probably not, and no one's, more conservative and libertarian than I am, except maybe you and others, and more conservative and libertarian than I am, well, except maybe you and others. But I probably didn't align perfectly with some of the Republicans because they were trying to push through a Fair Banking Act and my thought is no, no more regulations, no, please. I don't want, every time a relationship not to work out, have to write some form as to why it didn't work out, to prove that we weren't debanking someone for political Just let. My simple answer was let there be more banks, let there be more market opportunities, and if a bank wants to be pro-life bank, let them. If a bank wants to be pro-abortion bank, let them.
Speaker 3:If there's plenty of banks, there will be no debanking, right, and I've. I'm on the conservative side of things, where I frequently will find myself saying you know, I love good legislation, I think a government exists to enforce good morals. I think there's no point in government if they don't. But at the same time, there's lots of times and places, and when you start arbitrarily requiring all these forms and legislation materials for you know, be a customer where the problem that you almost always find is is you don't know a place to draw the line, and a good example of this are are companies that say they're like trans, aligned right, the big trans flag in the window you know what the solution is If you don't want that agenda to keep going, don't buy clothes there.
Speaker 3:And so, in the same way, I think I think you're, I think you're on the same exact path of thinking here with what we're talking about with banking that the issue is not even just the debanking alone though that is an issue, but the solution is to have a conversation about well, what can we do then to fix these sorts of problems? A good example of this that I love is in the media industry, because people have for years been like how do we cancel Disney? And I go, you know how you cancel Disney, stop watching Disney movies and start making your own really good movies. That's the answer, and I think this is exactly where you're at.
Speaker 17:I love it and that's why we came together. We were tired of just complaining about the debanking because, you know, the other thing that really came out of this hearing is that for years, the democrats and still if you go online the comments for years the democrats said no, there's no debanking going on. You all are crazy. And now, if you watch that hearing, everyone acknowledges their deed. There's debanking.
Speaker 17:There's just debate about whether it's because of the big banks making the decision which was mostly my view versus the you know, the professional uh witnesses up there who said no, no, no, it can't be the big bank, especially one guy, nice guy, but he represents the big banks.
Speaker 17:He categorically said no, no, no, it can't be the big banks, especially one guy, nice guy, but he represents the big banks. He categorically said no, the big banks didn't make the decision. They were told this from the regulators. But my thought is there is no way I know lots of regulators have been this for a while now. There is no way a regulator called up Bank of America and told them to cancel this Jay Sixer or this Trump person or cancel Melania. It would never happen. It's the big banks wanting to do favor and pick winners and losers and the other thing you said about kind of a free market solution. Let's say, the problem with the federal government at least not the state is that there could be a simple legislature which happens all the time, good intention even and then the damn fourth branch of government, the administrative state or the deep state whatever term you like takes that, twists it up and adds 50,000 pages to it, and then that's how we get whipsawed.
Speaker 3:Every single time too. It's common practice now to fill these sort of bills up with things that don't represent the views of the American people, or to take previous legislation that set a sort of precedent and then argue that it created such a precedent that you're now in this position where they're imposing all new sorts of legislation that nobody wanted. And so, again, I think that of course, there are times and places for good legislation, and there are times and places to say look in the future, maybe this could be twisted, but we need good legislation. But the reality is that in a situation like we're talking about right here, mike, there's an easy solution we don't need the legislation, there's no point to. It's basically pointless if you actually try to achieve a solution with with free market principles.
Speaker 3:So let's talk a little bit about that. Of course, we can talk a little bit about Old Glory Bank and its founding, especially, I think, the importance of when it was founded, what was going on. Some of our listeners have heard that before, but I think it's crucial to talk about because it paints a really important picture and sets a precedent for what conservatives can do in a variety of ways in a variety of industries. So let's talk a little bit about that. What is that solution to fixing this problem?
Speaker 17:Yeah, thanks, michael. We call it the freedom economy. Some people call it the parallel economy. That I think we're superior to. So I don't like parallel, I like the freedom economy.
Speaker 6:That sounds better.
Speaker 17:Yeah, thank you, and Old Glory Bank is leading the charge. In fact, I think we're the only openly FDIC 50 state FDIC insured 50 state bank out there. That's part of the freedom economy. But we all saw what happened after Summer of Love of 2020. And then 2021, we all saw what really got bad is when the big banks got together, worked with FBI and FinCEN and shared customer data related to January 6th not under subpoena, it was a voluntary sharing. They did the search terms, all the things we've now talked about a hundred times and that's when we kind of came together and I reached out to some great teachers Dr Ben Carson, john Rich, larry Elder and said you know, this sucks and we talk about that. It sucks, but let's actually do something, he said we're in.
Speaker 17:And then we got a bunch of great bankers together and so we started putting together in 2021 to do a Freedom Economy Bank, and we knew we had to be an FDIC-insured bank, not just what we call a fintech, because a fintech needs a bank behind it. So we always wanted to be a real bank. We found a bank we like 2022, and this is what I talked about also in my testimony. We found a beautiful bank in Elmore City, oklahoma, about an hour north of the Texas border into Oklahoma. It was only $10 million in deposits, $3 million in loans, so one of the smallest banks literally on the planet, and it took us with a lot of smart folks and a lot of money. It still took us six months to get regulatory approval, three rounds of additional information requests all of which was complete BS and 300 pages of submission, plus an all-hands call with a bunch of bureaucrats literally 20 bureaucrats on the phone who had never in their life done anything in business, never in their life had ever signed the front side of a check, been responsible for a P&L or the brand, acting like they are on Shark Tank picking winners and losers and I literally had one of these clowns tell me in this meeting.
Speaker 17:Well, mr Ring, if Old Glory Bank's such a good idea, why has no one done it before? And I'm like that's the whole point. This is why it is a good idea. No one's done it, because no one's done it before and thankfully it point. This is why it is a good idea. No one's done it because no one's done it before, and thankfully it's worked out.
Speaker 17:And so we kind of a simple mantra we have all the products and services of a bank bank and I would suggest even some better products, but yet we have our customer service team in America. We've got a big group right in Durant, oklahoma, and so when you call and talk to us, you're talking to people who believe in the country, believe in the flag, believe in the flag, believe in God and putting others ahead of themselves. So you get the values of your community bank that you love, but the technology of a big bank and it's been pretty successful, thankfully that people like you share in the word. We went from 300 customers in Elmore City to now 50,000 customers across all 50 states. We went from that original deposit base of $10 million to now over $175 million. We now have 2,000-plus small businesses. We are the small business bank for America, for sure, around the country. So we grind and work hard every day, but it seems to be working and we're really blessed.
Speaker 3:Of course, of course, and I think again, it paints a really important picture, almost like a formula for other people in almost any industry the conversation needs from conservatives, especially from people who care about the Constitution, even if you just care about America. The conversation needs to be geared towards solution-oriented ideas. Right, and the best solution I've seen thus far to combat these sorts of issues are creating our own things. Right, not not abandoning everything and saying, oh you know what? Don't buy clothes, grow your own food, don't do groceries. Why don't we create things in these industries if we need to? And the real issue and you painted it very clearly in your testimony, you painted it very clearly on air the real issue is not actually just the debanking. The real issue is the way that the government bureaucratic group of people has not criminalized but almost penalized the ability for you to even start your own thing in a lot of these industries, to the point where for most people that aren't all getting together and having a huge project beforehand, it's almost undoable and that's the problem.
Speaker 17:It really is, which is why, even on the fringes of new regulation, I'm really against it. I know that we have been targeted and it's okay and I don't complain You've never heard me complain about it but the regulators have definitely targeted us. The Federal Reserve has been really irrational in their behavior with me and it was funny in that hearing one of the great senators I forget her last name now actually showed an internal memo that she found from a whistleblower about how the Federal Reserve was supposed to look at statements about bank executives and then how you should treat those banks, and it kind of all came crashing down on me. It was the first time I'd seen that. I even said out loud like I think that was written for me with all my statements about pro-America and the flag and God, and it really is crazy and I like to think and I'm not Donald Trump, but I say what he says I really feel like I am the only bank executive who has the strength and the courage to stand between the regulators and government and free America in their bank, which is why I will not, you know, randomly hand over your data. You know we only have PSL at Old Glory Bank Privacy, security and Liberty, never DEI, never ESG, and so they. They are trying to stop us you, and so they are trying to stop us. They are trying to stop us.
Speaker 17:And what I really got amusement over is now the big banks. Everyone thinks, oh, the big banks have been called out, they're going to start behaving better now. And I say just the opposite. Those hard left big government middle managers and even senior managers are going to burrow in and hide out for a few months. Let us take our guard down, and then they're going to come right back around. And so I say you we know who their colors are. Do not trust these big banks. Move your money and do your banking at Old Glory Bank, because you know who we are. We were patriotic and we were fighting the fight in 2021 and 2022, when it was really hard, and you know where we're going to be 10 years from now.
Speaker 3:And you know, it's kind of sad on the one hand, that there's no other real bank executives, no other real banks that are willing to stand up in the same way, and it's kind of sad on the one hand, but on the other hand, that also means that there is one right which is a very big positive. So, speaking of that one, that would of course be Old Glory Bank. Can you tell everybody how they can sign up? Because I think that the real memo here is and it's not a sales pitch, but it's the importance of and it's cliche but voting with your dollars and making it clear look, if we want to fight the debanking, if we want to fight all these, you know, very, very frankly, ludicrous regulations, the solution is going to be by putting our money where it matters and with people that value the same things that we value. So how can people switch on over to Old Glory Bank? How easy is it. How does that work?
Speaker 17:Well, thank you for that softball, michael. Of course it takes eight minutes to open an account. Go to oldglorybankcom. You'll see all of our great products and features. It literally takes eight minutes. You put in your data, take a picture of the front side of your driver's license and you're banking with us For a business. It takes a little bit longer, maybe a day or two, because we've got to get some of your charter and your EIN and some of your traditional documents, but we make it very easy and then you have all the products and features.
Speaker 17:And you know, I can't do any interview with you if I don't yet again remind people that we have Old Glory Cash-In. So anyone who thinks they can't bank with a digital first bank with a great app and the bank is always in your pocket because you can't deposit cash, we have Old Glory Cash-In where you can walk into 88,000 locations, which is more than any bank on the planet has walk into 88,000 locations in the pot of cash. So there is no reason not to be with the great online bank, digital First Bank that aligns with your values.
Speaker 3:Well, awesome. And, mike, thanks so much, not only for coming on the show but for doing everything you're doing fighting the fight. Not only just having the bank, but willing to go testify, speak up and make a difference. It really means a lot for middle America. It only works because folks like you help us get the word out.
Speaker 17:So thank you for what you do, michael. Of course, I hope you feel better very soon.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you, I do as well, mike. We'll get you on again soon. Of course, there will always be things going on and I'm sure you guys will be in the fight and in the know. So we'll get you on again soon when things are moving. Thank you, my brother. Of course, of course, and we'll talk to you soon, mike. See you, what a great guy. He's not even just the bank. Mike Ring is a phenomenal guy. I've talked to him on air, off air. That's part of why I believe so strongly the mission of Ogilvy Bank is the mission of Mike Ring. I mean, the guy will fly anywhere, do anything. He's truly a patriot who loves America and that's important to me when we're choosing sponsors, when we're choosing people we want to be with. That's important. It's crucial Now, when we get back from the break to wrap up the first hour, jump on over to the HHA, the Houston Housing Authority.
Speaker 3:Been a pretty big update over at the Houston Housing Authority. You guys remember David Northern moved up to Flint, michigan, to be on the Michigan Housing Authority, whatever. Well, there's another update to the HHA. We'll talk about it when we get back. You're listening to Lone Star, conservative, don't go anywhere.
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Speaker 10:An interesting thing happens when you create a bank based on the values Americans believe in, like freedom, faith, family and the flag, you create a bank Americans want. That's what happened when Dr Ben Carson, larry Elder, john Rich and some of America's top bankers got together to create Old Glory Bank, the pro-America online bank whose mission statement is the Constitution. When we bought a full-service FDIC-insured bank in Elmore City, oklahoma renamed it Old Glory Bank, infusing American values into it, americans all over the country flocked to us. In just 18 months, we went from a few hundred accounts to tens of thousands of accounts, with customers in all 50 states, freedom-loving Americans who are tired of woke banks violating their rights to privacy by sharing their transaction data with the government. You used to select the bank closest to your home. Now you can select the bank closest to your heart. Join the movement at OldGloryBankcom. Member FDIC Equal Housing Lender.
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Speaker 3:Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, michael Wilson. So it's now been months since the former Houston Housing Authority CEO, david Northern, resigned after some pretty hefty investigations revealed and uncovered questionable contract dealings. 50 investigations revealed and uncovered questionable contract dealings people he knew situations where contracts weren't being completed on time and were severely over budget, these sorts of problems, problems that are obviously but allegedly nefarious. Situations where they were spending tens of thousands of dollars on flights, hotels, high-end restaurants, these sorts of problems. Well, the department has now announced a new president and CEO.
Speaker 3:Jamie Bryant was voted in yesterday by the HHA Board of Commissioners. Mayor John Whitmire said I commend the board for hiring Jamie Bryant, whom I am confident will bring strong and visionary leadership to the Houston Housing Authority. Last year my administration overhauled the HHA board and today the public is witnessing the positive impact of that change. The hha now operates with transparency and accountability, while working to eliminate corruption and waste. I thank chairman proler and the hha board of commissioners for their dedication to the mission of increasing the availability of affordable housing for houstonians.
Speaker 3:Of course, david northern moved up to flint, michigan to do lord knows what up there. Hopefully, hopefully, he does a better job. I really do. Meanwhile, joseph Proler, known as Jody Proler, chairman of the HHA's Board of Commissioners, said Jamie is the kind of leader Houston needs moving forward. His proven ability to lead, couple with commitment to our mission and values, will significantly enhance our efforts to serve our residents and stakeholders, and we are thrilled to welcome him to the team. His first day as HHA president and CEO is set to begin the week of February 10th, so that would be next week. Now, look, we can all talk about the actual mission of the Houston Housing Authority, of this affordable housing mission in general. We could all have discussions about the morality and ethicality there, how much it makes sense, but here's the real kicker. The real reality is that if they're going to do it, at least hire someone who's not going to take advantage of the American people. When we get back from the break.
Speaker 3:As I promised, we're going to have the NRB the National Religious Broadcaster Association coming on live to talk all about their mission, what they're going on, a conference coming up. You won't want to miss it, so stick around.
Speaker 1:From deep in the heart of Texas, from Houston's God-loving Patriot and the voice of reason.
Speaker 2:This is the Lone Star Conservative, michael Wilson. I'm offended, you're offended, let's all get offended tonight. I'll order us a beer.
Speaker 3:We can sit down right here and scream and yell and cuss and cuss and fight. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen of the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and, as I promised before the break, coming on with us will be Troy Miller from the NRB to talk all about their organization, the importance of what they do and some exciting stuff they've got in the works. Welcome to the show, Troy. Hey, good to be with you today. How are you doing today?
Speaker 20:buddy, we're doing great up here in Tennessee. It looks like it's going to be a great day, so just excited for everything that's going on and for the news cycle today, it seems like the White House is at warp speed.
Speaker 3:All the time, dude, all the time. I mean. These have been some of the most eventful few weeks I've pretty much ever seen at the beginning of an administration. Speaking of Tennessee, how's the weather, dude?
Speaker 20:You know we're in the spring now. I mean it's Tennessee, so I think we're going to be in the 50s today and tomorrow we could be in the 70s and back in the 40s. So that's Tennessee weather right now.
Speaker 3:We get it. We get it. We're sitting in the 80s today and next. Next, we're going to be out of the 50s. You just never know what's going on, man so speaking of speaking of what, what, what is nrb? What do you guys do? The national religious uh broadcaster association? What is y'all's mission? What? What is your group all about?
Speaker 20:so we're the largest uh association of christian communicators and uh, we've been around for 80 years, started back in 1944 when radio was the top medium and a group of pastors wanted to get on radio to do what God's called them to do. And even back then there was a group of gatekeepers that wanted to decide who couldn't be in the public sector. So NRB was formed to advocate on behalf of, started off as Christian broadcasters and today we say Christian communicators because we have broadcasters, we have podcasters, we have program producers, we have Hollywood film guys, we have publishing houses, pretty much anybody that's out there and wants to be in the public sector in any form of medium. We're advocating on their behalf to be able to do that. We watch all the legislation that's going on in Washington DC, the regulatory environment, things that go through the courts, and we fight hard so those people can do what, in our opinion, god's called them to do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course, and that's part of, by the way, what I love working at this station. I started working here about a year ago and it's been such a blessing. I always make the joke I said you know, I don't know if there's many other places I could work. My opinions have frequently gotten me in trouble, but I've always felt a calling to speak them. No-transcript for his will and his glory. So what do y'all got going on right now? I know y'all have some pretty exciting things coming up later this month. Can we dive into that a little bit and go over what you guys got going on?
Speaker 20:Sure A. You know what you guys got going on. Sure A couple of big things that we have going on areas that we're advocating and fighting for right now. We have a bill going on called the AM Radio and Every Dash. So, as you know, am Radio car companies came out a couple of years a year ago, said hey, we're going to pull AM Radio out. About 80 million listeners across this country depend on AM Radio. I grew up in rural Nebraska.
Speaker 20:We depended on it, we depended on it for the emergency alert system, but also the top genres on AM radio are conservative talk and religious talk and teach, and so we have been working hard advocating that AM radio should stay. Congress just introduced in both the House and the Senate the AM radio, reintroduced the bill, so we're fighting hard to get that passed this year. You know that bill is not about technology, interference or anything. It's about who's going to control the content in the car. The auto manufacturers. They want the free over-the-air radio out. So if AM's out, fm's right behind it, so that they control everything through app subscriptions and what they call a connected dash. And so that's the real fight is are we going to have free over-the-air content or is everything going to have to go through a subscription today? So that's one of the big fights we have going on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I always said and it applies in multiple areas I've always said it's not which god, it's not if there will be a god in charge, but which. I talk about this a lot in government. It's not about whether or not you have morality, because you will, it's whose morality gets enforced, and so the same thing is true here. It's not about whether or not we're going to have content creators available. It's who gets to decide which ones are allowed to.
Speaker 20:Yeah, that's right, another one we have going is we're taking the Internal Revenue Service to court on a piece that's called the Johnson Amendment. It should be close to you guys. In Texas, back when Senator Johnson was running, there were several organizations that were opposing his candidacy for Senate. So he slipped into a bill in 1954 that limited the free speech of 501c3s, which is every church and religious organization across this country, and he pulled a freedom they had for 175 years country, which was to talk about political issues and specifically candidates, and so we decided this has gone on long enough and we're taking the IRS to court to get this thrown out.
Speaker 3:Which is incredibly exciting. I, for years, have said that I actually not only do I think that that's ridiculous in general, but I actually think that a lot of times, pastors especially, have an obligation to speak on things like politics, because those things are directly impacted by our worldview when it comes to Christianity, and so I hated that they basically it was a First Amendment violation to say that you actually can't exercise your religion, which is telling the people that listen to you as the shepherd you know the truth about what's going on in our world. I always think that's been ridiculous, so that's very exciting for me to hear. I didn't even know that was going on.
Speaker 20:Yeah, and it's also been, you know, unequally applied. That's the biggest issue. You know this last election cycle. You know both President Biden, when he was a candidate, and Vice President Harris. They spoke at multiple churches and were endorsed from the pulpits by, you know, left progressive pastors. But, you know, when pastors simply talked about issues, they got letters. You know conservative issues, as you said, our worldview. They got letters from the IRS saying, you know, cease and desist or we're going to take your tax exemption away.
Speaker 3:Well, and the really funny thing that we're finding out just over the past few days has been that we have I'm not going to name any names, we have some people that are in this movement that are rather progressive liberal when it comes to church, who not only were not getting the letters, but actually got funding from the government, so it's been a whirlwind in that regard. That's been crazy to see. I just I can't even. Yeah.
Speaker 20:No, exactly right. That has just been crazy to have the curtains pulled off of that and to see what's really been going on behind the scenes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's been absolutely wild. So, with that being said, how can everyone join? This clearly is a very important fight. Y'all are on that fight on multiple fronts. How?
Speaker 20:can people support what y'all got going on? Keep up to date with what you guys got going on, get involved in whatever way that y'all let yeah, several ways. Is that you can track all that we're doing up to help Christian communicators and conservative communicators at nrborg so you can go there and you can track all the things that were going on and we give you some action points. Like we'd love for everybody to call their congressman and say, hey, I support AM radio in the dash so we can get that pushed through.
Speaker 20:But we have a large conference coming up. We have an annual convention. Every year it's the largest gathering of Christian communicators and in all the different areas that I talked about, we'll be right there in Texas, february 24th through the 27th in Grapevine, just a little bit north of Dallas, and we expect over 5,000 people there. We have an exhibit floor of over 270 exhibitors over 60,000 square feet. So if you're interested in getting into this and that means if you're going to be a podcaster, even a blogger or even for your own social media we have panels, we have hands-on workshops going on and all things, and then we'll be talking about with the experts on all of these issues other cultural issues going on. So it's a great place to get informed and a great place to get involved and to increase your skills in communications and getting the gospel out and getting the truth out.
Speaker 3:Awesome. And what's the? Once again, what's the best place people can find that information If they want to learn more about the conference, find out the exact location and the dates. How can they check back on that when you're not here?
Speaker 20:Yeah, go to nrborg and right at the top there you'll see NRB conference. You can click on that and it'll take you to the site. It'll tell you all the speakers, all the sessions going on, the dates. All of that is right there. So NRBorg is the place to be, and you can follow me on X at NRB CEO.
Speaker 3:Wow, you guys have made it. I guess NRB getting that little three letters was nifty, because that makes it really easy. Nrb getting that little three letters was nifty, because that makes it really easy. Nrborg for the conference, right at the top. Nrb CEO, if you want to follow him over on social media. Very exciting stuff, troy. It was great having you on man. We'll have to keep in touch. I think it's really important what you guys are doing. It aligns perfectly with everything we've got going on over here. I'm, of course, a conservative talk show host, but my entire slant is from a Christian perspective.
Speaker 20:So I really love what you guys are all about. Well, thank you. Thanks for having me today. Keep up all the good work you're doing.
Speaker 3:Of course, of course. Again, thank you so much for coming on. We'll talk to you soon, troy. All right, god bless. God bless you as well, sir.
Speaker 3:Yeah, again, these are instances where we have these incredibly important missions that are actively going on right behind the scenes that a lot of people are not aware of. I did not know that there was currently an actual, legitimate, possibly successful fight going on against what has, frankly, been a complete kneecapping of pastors, a complete kneecapping of Christian communicators in their inability to speak to things of political nature. I've for years said that it's ridiculous that politics is directly interconnected to Christianity, because what you believe about Christ and what you believe about his work in this world and the word of God directly and completely impacts what you believe about politics, government, the job of government, what law should look like. So I think everything they're doing is incredibly important. Again, you can go to NRBorg to go see all that information and find out more. You can follow Troy and everything he's doing right there at NRBCEO on X.
Speaker 3:Now, when we get back from the break, I'm going to jump on over to a story coming out of a Houston area sex trafficking ring, allegedly out of a school. Oh, big, big surprise. This is crazy. This is one of those stories that's not just one instance of possible alleged sexual abuse, which is awful, but this story Possible alleged sexual abuse which is awful. But this story particularly is absolutely jaw-droppingly insane. And on the one hand, that's true. On the other hand, yes, it is a little bit of a tease, because you are going to have to stick around if you want to hear the jaw-dropping allegations regarding this teacher and what's going on at this particular school. We'll talk about it all when we get back. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, michael Wilson. I'll be right back. Faith, family and freedom.
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Speaker 3:Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen of the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, michael Wilson. Guys, my voice is not good, but it works Kind of like a Democrat administration a little bit, if you think about it. Nonetheless, I'm here, I am talking. Hopefully you can understand clearly the words that I'm saying, because this next story you need to be able to, because this is it's going to rock your world a little bit. It did mine.
Speaker 3:So attorneys representing a new victim of the Houston area sex trafficking ring, allegedly organized by a Klein Cain high school teacher, are set at 10 am in front of the Klein Intermittent School District Central Office above Spring Cypress Road in Klein. The victim, known as Jane Doe, because they're protecting the identity, is being represented by civil rights attorneys Bakari Sellers, harry Daniels and Jonathan Jackson. The case first started back in April when Kedria Grisby, which is a cosmetology teacher at Cline Kane High School, was arrested. She faces charges of compelling prostitution of a minor and child sex trafficking. So these are not even just you know, I don't want to say the regular charges, because that makes it sound like it's become incredibly common, but the reality is it's become all too common that regular. I don't like saying that, but just I don't want to say run of the mill, I don't even know what word to use that purely child sexual abuse arising out of a relationship between just a teacher and just a student. It's not even that. This is legitimate trafficking. The teacher's son his name is roger mcgee. He was arrested earlier back in november of 2022, but concerns have been raised about the teacher as early as february of 2023, when a whistleblower alerted both the school district and the harris county sheriff's office about grisby's alleged activities. Crazy enough, you probably noticed, nothing happened till April. It's a couple months since a whistleblower said this is happening. Nothing, which, of course, has led to a lot of questions, especially from parents, about why Klein ISD did not take action sooner, even so far as saying look, we're just going to, we're going to, we have to put you on administrative leave or something. We're conducting an investigation, something Especially allowing her to remain in a position where she had access to potential victims, given the severity of the allegations. So the news conference is going to feature remarks from the attorneys representing this new victim.
Speaker 3:The case involves shocking allegations that Grisby, along with her son, managed a prostitution ring that included students from the school where she was employed. The investigation began back on November 8th when the Harris County Sheriff's Office Human Trafficking Unit responded to a call at a hotel in spring, a runaway juvenile reported being trafficked by someone known as Rico, later identified as this guy, roger McGee. The victim found an hotel room, stated that McGee had left with two other young women in a gray Lexus. So this is an ongoing serious problem. Right, this is not just some new possible allegations. I mean, we have the guy, the son, in a hotel room, we have the connection to the mother, the teacher, and so now we're at this point where we have more victims coming forward, where we have more victims coming forward and we don't know the case is.
Speaker 3:One infuriating thing that I've tried to speak on more times than I can remember is the total joke of urgency that has become the criminal justice system. What I mean by that is, if any of you have kids, you've probably seen the movie Zootopia. There's a running joke in Zootopia where you go to the DMV and they're all the animals at the DMV, because this is a movie where everyone's an animal. The workers of the DMV are sloths. It feels like that's exactly what's happened with our criminal justice system, because it should not. We should not have charges dating back to 2023 about child sex trafficking, where victims are not getting any closure at all, ongoing two years later. This is not cool at all. So, yeah, we're at a point now where I guess the one bright side of it lasts as long as now we have a new victim willing to speak up. But the reality is that this is not just one teacher that should have been put on administrative leave because they touched a kid. This is much bigger and much darker than that and unfortunately, it's taking forever to get through. The press conference is not until 10. So we got about an hour and a half until that press conference happens.
Speaker 3:I'm hoping there'll be some video content that we can check out, but this allegedly happened right here, right near us, and the reality is that it is far past time that people are held accountable, and I don't just mean the people doing the crimes, and I've tried to be as clear as I can. But inaction is action. Choosing to do nothing is doing something. If you choose to sit idly by while your fellow Americans are slaughtered, you are not guiltless that when you have a sort of situation where you had a whistleblower having legitimate complaints, especially connected to a known sex trafficking incident of children, who's a teacher and that teacher gets to keep working for months. This is not just that there were allegations but they couldn't arrest her yet and so they had to just wait, watch her get more evidence. And she was working for a pipeline, or she was working in some blue-collar position, or she was working as a radio host. She was working around kids and was being accused by a whistleblower of sex-trafficking kids and her son was caught sex trafficking kids, and so this is insane.
Speaker 3:This is not merely a total lack of any sort of mental cognizance on the result of law enforcement. This is broken. I know we could say well, it was just two months, february and April. No, no, no. A teacher who had been accused of sex trafficking, directly connected to her son who was a sex trafficker, was allowed to stay working around kids without supervision for two months. That alone should be enough to start holding some people seriously accountable for stuff going on. That's beyond insane to me.
Speaker 3:And had I been, because I'm looking at the dates here and I wasn't really in the local radio space at the time and I was much more focused on my podcast, looking at national news, keeping up with everything going on with the Biden-Harris administration at the time. But this is a miscarriage of justice. The amount of time in addition to that that it's taking to get to the trial is a total miscarriage of justice. And it would be one thing if the miscarriage of justice was for possession of drugs or escaping this or evading arrest, but this is a miscarriage of justice for children who were trafficked, for a teacher who completely abused a position of authority, for administrators who didn't take action nearly soon enough. This is a much larger deal than I think it's being made out to be, and I don't know what the press conference will entail. I don't know what we're going to hear at 10 am, but I imagine, if this laid into the case, if we're having a press conference, it's not going to be good. So we'll keep an eye on that.
Speaker 3:I'll be back on Monday, of course, hopefully with some news to report. In regards to the press conference, what was revealed, what's going on there, we'll have to see. But, man, I can tell you, if my voice were working better, my voice would be louder right now, because my voice gets loud enough when I'm talking about people, about those schools that are teachers who touched a kid, and when you start talking about administrators who, frankly, had to basically look the other way for months A teacher who used her son and kids and I just it breaks my heart to read this story and end up to talk about it. And again, if my voice were working better, my tone would be very different. I sound calm I'm not but it is heart-wrenching, especially the way it was handled. Now, with that being said, we'll keep an eye on that update, of course, and when we get back from the break, coming up in the next segment. You guys already know we all love him, we all know him.
Speaker 3:We got Charles Blaine from Urban Reform coming on with the weekly local recap, giving us some big stories from across the city this week, uh, giving us his insight, having some conversation. You won't want to miss that interview, coming every friday. So stick around. You're listening to lone star conservative. I'm your host, michael wilson. I'll talk to you guys in just a minute houston.
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Speaker 3:Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and it is Friday, which means we have our good friend Charles Blaine here from Urban Reform to go over with us the weekly local recap. Welcome to the show, Charles.
Speaker 21:Oh, I couldn't really understand what you were saying. I can't stand you. Did you say that again?
Speaker 3:I can't stand you, sometimes Great, to be with you.
Speaker 20:Yeah, you know what dude.
Speaker 3:And the really unfortunate part about my voice is that I actually feel fine. I don't have like a sore throat, I feel fine. So I can't even milk it like I'm sick. I just have to sit here sounding like I'm sick and it's terrible, but hopefully after all the screaming during the Super Bowl.
Speaker 21:That will obviously clear my throat a lot. It'll exercise some of those muscles, but but yeah, maybe you'll come back stronger next week, I tell you what I?
Speaker 3:I went to the first segment. I was like this is not happening and I went to the water fountain outside and I was like we're gonna have to do some things here, because there's no way my vocal cords are doing this.
Speaker 3:There's something in there and I'm getting it out I did not, I did not officially get it out, but I've kind of excised it a little piece at a time on every break, so hopefully you can hear me when I talk. So, with that being said, let's jump into some of this stuff. First of all, the really big story that I'm really invested in right now is the situation between Ken Paxton and Lena Hidalgo Staffers. So give us a little bit of background you can even go back if you want to and give us a little background on what's going on there, and then we can jump into what's going on now.
Speaker 21:Yeah, so this is a long running one, so I'll give a quick overview of the background. So, 2022, three of Lena Hidalgo's staffers were charged by the Harris County DA at the time it was Kim Ogg with two counts of public corruption. One of them was tampering with a government document and one was misuse of public information, and these stemmed from a $11 million COVID outreach contract that was steered towards a one-person vendor, which also happened to be owned by a Democratic political operative. And so, fast forward to last year, harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg loses her bid for reelection in the primary, and so she decides to take these cases and give them to the attorney general's office, because she's afraid that the person she lost to, sean Teer, would actually just dismiss the cases because he was supported by Lena Hidalgo and he was very friendly with that whole group. With that whole group. Shantier had consistently said he would not do that, but she didn't believe it, so she transferred it to the Attorney General's office In somewhat of a poetic justice sense for the three defendants, the Attorney General then decided to suspend and dismiss the cases, the exact thing that she was trying to avoid.
Speaker 21:And so that's where we are now For two of the staffers. Both charges were dismissed For her chief of staff, alex Trantafillis. One charge was dismissed, the other one he gets like a pretrial diversion, which just means you've got to do some volunteerism and then if you do that and stay out of trouble for six months, that charge will be dropped as well.
Speaker 3:So he's in trouble, but not really.
Speaker 21:Yeah, I mean he's in trouble for right now. As long as he keeps himself clean for six months, then yeah, not really. Keeps himself clean for six months, then yeah, not really in taxpayers. Listen.
Speaker 3:Charles, you and I both know it's really hard to be good for six months.
Speaker 21:Right. I mean, there's so much temptation, I know, falling out left or right, but the other part of this is that taxpayers, not only did we have to pay for the prosecution and the investigation and all that, but we're also now going to have to pay to return or refund the attorney fees for these three individuals. Wow, refund the attorney fees for these three individuals.
Speaker 3:Wow, unfortunately, yeah, unfortunately, which is crazy because we have enough problems when it comes to funding here in Houston in general and here in Texas. The reality is also, some things are cropping up here that are a little bit weird to me. The first is it has not been that long, especially given the length of a lot of trials these days and how long it takes to get to trial and what that looks like. It's not been that long since the Attorney General got the charges in the first place. And my other major concern is we're not getting a lot of updates when it comes to why the charges were dropped.
Speaker 3:We're not, and so it hasn't been that long at all.
Speaker 21:I think it was like April 24th of last year, so not even a full year since the attorney general's office accepted those charges and, yeah, we got nothing. So what happened last week was the first two defendants their charges were dropped and everybody's like what's going on? We need some information from the AG's office. Nothing. I submitted requests for statement and for comment nothing no one got anything. Then this week the third defendant has hit, charges dropped and the attorney general came out with a statement that said something along the lines of well, we looked at the evidence and there were some things that weren't submitted during the grand jury process that made it difficult for us to prosecute. That's not really telling us anything, that's just. It's just kind of a very vague statement.
Speaker 3:It's the same thing. You can make any time you drop charges.
Speaker 21:Right. I mean it's not even saying like OK, we looked at it and there's no evidence there to pursue it, or it's nothing. It's just very vague, and so it leads people to have a lot of theories about what's actually going on.
Speaker 3:Right and which is problematic because, like I love Paxton, like I pretty much almost every day I talk about a new lawsuit he's doing for conservatives here and for Texas there, how he joined this amicus brief, and so it's always good to hear those things. But this is mildly concerning, maybe a little more than mildly concerning to me, especially because and again I try to say I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I also don't fear being a conspiracy theorist so hard that I ignore things. And the reality is I'm hearing and you can verify to me maybe if this is true, but I'm hearing that one of Kemp Axton's impeachment, one of the lawyers that helped him during his impeachment trial, that he got pretty close with, is also one of the staffer's lawyers.
Speaker 21:Yeah, and that's the thing. So this came out last week, I mean, and it was kind of known but it wasn't really acknowledged. But it's getting some more play this week and the former district attorney, kim Og, is really leaning into this. And so Dan Cogdell, a very high-profile attorney here in Houston, was represented Kim Paxton for the impeachment trial. Dan Cogdell, also, at his law firm, employed Sean Teer after Sean Teer left the district attorney's office up until when he started running, and Dan Cogdell is also one of the attorneys for Alex Phillips, and so he's got this three pronged connection here. And it's hard to not look at conspiracies and say, well, what's going on here? I mean there's, it's just too interconnected to ignore it. I mean, whether that is what it ends up being or not it, we would be naive to just ignore that connection.
Speaker 3:Right and in addition to the fact that we're getting vague, non-answers Like maybe, if they like, solidified an answer and gave us the reality and the facts to back it up, but in addition to not getting those things, now we have these sorts of problems, it just doesn't look good.
Speaker 21:Well, exactly, and that's what I said to someone when they brought this theory up to me. I was like listen, I'm not going to say it's not true, because it's a crazy world and anything can be true, but I do have a hard time believing that the reason that the most conservative attorney general in the country dropped charges that could take down a Democratic progressive rising star and her whole cabal is purely based on a friendship or this connection. Now, could that happen? It could. I'm sure it's happened plenty of times in the past before with other people. But I'm looking for other things, and that's why I was hoping the Attorney General's Office would come out with a little more detail about why they did this.
Speaker 21:What did they find or not find that led them to feel that these cases were not something that they could pursue? Because it's not as though, you know, say, they took it to trial and they lost Big deal. It wasn't their case. They didn't bring these charges forward. They were handed these over from a local district attorney. It's not like they have to take ownership over this whole investigation. So, you know, I just am looking for more answers from the AG's office to why exactly this happened, because, at the end of the day, if these people are innocent, guess what? They've had their names plastered all over the news for three years, and they deserve clarity as well. They did you google their names. That's all you're going to see. This is irreparable damage to them, both personally and career-wise, and so if they are free, then we need to know that, because that's it, because they deserve that as well yeah, there truly was never anything and it was just all a big sham.
Speaker 3:I think it really needs to be very clear. That's the case, and the fact that it already isn't, given the fact that ken paxton is very clear at making things clear in a lot of cases, it's again.
Speaker 3:It's very concerning to me, um, that that that we don't know so now you mentioned also that not only are we having to deal with, of course, the investigative fees and the attorney fees, but now we're having to back pay the attorney fees for the, for the, for the accused who have now been uh, the charges have been dropped against them. In addition to that, because, of course, we have all the money in the world, I had a story here coming out about how the city is $330 million short. What's that about?
Speaker 21:Yeah, so this is always fun.
Speaker 21:So the city was facing a $220 million deficit this year that the mayor intended to close, and what that just simply means is that when they were looking at the upcoming budget, they are spending more $220 million more than what they anticipated collected.
Speaker 21:But then, excuse me, last week the Supreme Court sided with the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the city of Houston. That said that the city of Houston needs to pay $100 million more into its drainage account, and so once they sided with the plaintiffs on that, the city exhausted their appeals, and so now the city needs to come up with an additional $100 million by June 30th, and so right now they're facing a $320 to $330 million deficit by the end of the year that they're going to have to figure out how to close, and this is a massive impact. I mean, I think the thing is we often hear about these big deficits and deaths at the federal level, and it's not really a big deal, but when you're talking at the local level, what that means is that to find that money, they're going to have to cut trash pickups, they're going to have to stop paving roads, they're going to have to cut cops or not hire more cops or cut shifts.
Speaker 3:They're going to steal these things, which is funny because everything you just listed, like all, because you just listed three really big things. You listed problems with hiring police officers. You mentioned issues with road paving and issues with trash. What's really funny is I've specifically written stories on all three of those already being seriously major underfunded problems. Trash pickups right now are like the number one reported problem for the city waste department because they just don't happen. Roads, I mean, come on the sidewalks, we know. And police officers we have the lowest salary for police officers almost in the entire surrounding areas. Like our salary is like $20,000 to $30,000 000 cheaper than like parallel I mean it's it's crazy to me. And so now we add in we got to pull stuff from those areas.
Speaker 21:It's like we don't have anything to pull right, right, there's nothing left to pull and it and things are just very tight and unfortunately, you know, the city, this administration previous, have not prepared for that. I mean for the ongoing deficit, that's something they need to address and it's a longer-term problem. But this specific $100 million that came from this drainage fee thing, they kind of knew it was coming. This lawsuit was filed in like 2017, 2018. The city lost and appealed and appealed and appealed.
Speaker 3:And so they knew that at some point there was a likelihood they'd have to pay 100 million dollars, and no one really decided to set any money aside, of course, because why in the world would government officials that have your money want to budget your money? Right, it did. That doesn't make any sense. We couldn't possibly imagine that. Speaking of how about we talk about a little bit more money problems when it comes to the county, with some flood funding? What's going on there?
Speaker 21:yeah. So it was a surprise admission yesterday at Commissioner's Court where the Flood Control Department said that they are $130 million short of completing flood projects that were anticipated. And the commissioners were just kind of like stunned to hear this because it was the first time they were hearing it. And it was like a bipartisan confusion because usually it's Commissioner Ramsey who's getting the information last because they don't like to share things with him, but everybody's kind of finding out at the table. And this is a problem because obviously we're in Houston and we flood and we just passed a flood bond a few years ago, we just increased our flood taxes for the flood control district this past November and yet we're sitting here talking about how they're $130 million short from completing projects and and their excuse is that there were cost overruns and inflation and all these other things, things that other entities and economists and just the general public can predict, but I guess not the flood control district that we pay a lot of money to do these things for.
Speaker 3:Apparently not the people that get to have and keep our money. Those people couldn't possibly be bothered to make sure that we're actually on track to meet our goals and make sure that everything's going according to plan. I just, I'm so fed up with people who will take large swaths of our money and then not run it correctly, which results in unfortunately, because most of them, you can't say, well, we just won't fix the flooding problems. The reality is that more than likely, they're going to have to take more money from us. That's the grim reality here and that's far worse.
Speaker 21:Right? No, it is. That is exactly the reality and that's why they operate the way that they do, because they know they're going to always come back and just ask for more money, or not even ask, just take more money. And it's ridiculous because you know they do these projects, not all of them are started the same day. They do them as they kind of complete them. So you would think that as they're doing projects, they see one coming in, you know, 6% over budget, the next one, 7% over budget. They start to think, okay, well, these are inflation playing a role. You know, maybe labor cost material, let's adjust the project scope or whatever it is, so that at the end of the day, we're not surprising people with $130 million short. But this is the problem when they know they can always take more money from us, they don't do the pre-planning necessary.
Speaker 3:Of course, of course. Now for the last one I want to jump into is rewrap up the segment. We all know that the Harris County Jail has not been great in a variety of ways for a while. What's going on with the Attorney general now getting involved in that regard?
Speaker 21:So last week or it might have been the week before that the Harris County Jail got another citation from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, saying that they are not in compliance. And largely the reason that they are not in compliance is they are understaffed and they are overcrowded, and so you always hear stories about people sneaking out of the jail and going on the run. That's because we don't have enough people working there for the population. So they keep getting hit by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, and now the commission says that enough is enough. The attorney general needs to step in and help.
Speaker 21:Now what that looks like, we don't know. Is that a takeover in the same sense that we saw with HIC? Is this just more resources? We don't know what that looks like. I think it's a wide open door. But this goes to show the problem that we have Again. They keep taking more money from us and not addressing the actual needs that we have. Why are we not hiring more jailers? Why are we not looking at building a bigger jail to have more capacity? And these are the problems that we continue to face here in Harris County.
Speaker 3:And, in addition to that, why are we not working in the criminal justice system to make sure that cases are going by faster, so we don't have as many people in the jail waiting for their trial? I mean, there's so many angles to this that are all problematic on their own.
Speaker 21:Well, exactly One of the things the sheriff said. He's like you know, we've got these backlogs, We've got all these people just sitting here waiting. If we dispose of these cases, they will get shipped off into a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison, so that we are not keeping them in jail. And yet here we are. We're either keeping them in jail or we're outsourcing them to other jails in other states, which is costing taxpayers a ridiculous amount of money as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's just. It's all a bunch of crazy stuff. So the theme of the day is our money is being spent worthlessly, and that's not a shock to anybody, charles. How can everybody keep up with everything you're doing when you're not on air? Everything you guys got going on over at Urban Reform.
Speaker 21:They can just check us out at UrbanReformorg. All over social media You'll see the videos we're posting. We have an interesting one from Lena Hidalgo's press conference yesterday, so you can go check us out at UrbanReformorg on social media.
Speaker 3:You say that as if everything that comes out from Lena Hidalgo is not, in one way or another, described as interesting. It'll keep you on your show, usually in an unfortunate sense of that phrase. Yes, thanks so much for coming on, charles, and we will talk to you again very soon, next week.
Speaker 21:Talk to you next week.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me, Of course, of course. And when we get back from the break we're going to jump on over to a story out of Crosby where a lawsuit's been filed against a wastewater treatment facility after some serious violations were found that could threaten the public's health. We'll talk about that when we get back. You're listening to Little Star Conservative. Don't go anywhere.
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Speaker 3:Well, guys, it looks like my voice was able to maybe not efficiently, but clearly communicate for the entirety of this episode. So can we get a round of applause for myself for being able to do that? I am depressed. I thought my voice would be fine this morning and then after the first couple segments I was like nah. And then I had the interview with Mike Green, I was like ah. And then I got to the interview at 8 o'clock with Troy Miller from the NRB and I was like dude. I don't even know if people can understand me, but we've made it. We've made it to the end, we've made it to Crosby.
Speaker 3:So a news release shared by Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee revealed that its pollution control services went out to Roving Meadows Utilities Inc a facility about seven times between March 2021 and January 2025. So over the course of about three and a half years almost four years the Harris County Pollution Control Services went out to this particular utilities company for inspections and several violations were found, including, and I quote, extremely high levels of E coli bacteria and raw sewage leaking directly onto the ground. The facility is located over in East Harris County. It releases wastewater, the news release explained, into local county ditches that feed into Trinity's San Jacinto coastal basin. Attorney Menefee says there have been several warnings made to Roving Meadows but has yet to fix the problem. That's why they've secured a court order to temporarily stop the facility.
Speaker 3:Quote clean water is a basic necessity. Families shouldn't have to worry about bacteria or sewage in their water. When we find bacteria levels more than a thousand times the legal limit, we have to act fast to protect Harris County residents. The lawsuit, of course, aims to have the court force the company to fix its treatment process, improve monitoring as well as report any future violations. He added, what makes this case particularly concerning is the potential threat to public health and the environment and the unwillingness to correct these violations. Enough is enough. If you break the law and put people at risk, we will hold you accountable. So piece of advice probably don't just dump disgusting Ecoli bacteria filled water. That's probably not a good thing to do in.
Speaker 3:You guys know I fall on the side of health and sometimes that falls on like a. You're a lib, but no, I'm not at all. You guys know I'm very conservative. The reality is we should be taking care of our environment, we should be taking care of our bodies, and I'm all on board with limiting the amount of bacteria and disgusting stuff we can have in our water. Toxins and this is one of those cases where that was not the case. Water toxins and this is one of those cases where that was not the case. We're talking a thousand times the legal limit and I think the legal limit should be even stricter because I don't trust the government. We're talking pretty bad stuff. But that'll do it for the show today and for this week. Thanks guys, so much for tuning in. I know my voice was not top tier today.
Speaker 2:Hopefully it will be better on Monday when I'll see you guys bright and early at 7 am. You've been listening to Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. Have a good weekend. I'll see you guys soon.