On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho San Antonio is a fast growing, fast moving city with something new happening every day.

That's why each week we go on the record with Randy Beamer and the newsmakers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the reporters roundtable to talk about the latest news stories with the journalist behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on the record with Randy Beamer.

Hi, everybody.

Thank you for joining us for on the record, I'm Randy Beamer, and this week.

Raids by Ice officers have been in the news nationally, of course with what is going on in Minneapolis.

But here in San Antonio, the city council is going to take up cooperation with Ice in this area.

And joining us to talk about that is Councilman from district ten, Mark white.

Thank you very much for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

So the council is is going to do what on Immigration and Customs Enforcement here.

Yeah.

On the 22nd of this month, we'll be having a special meeting where council is going to discuss, ICE's operations here, here in our city.

And how our SaPD, is cooperating with them.

And so looking forward to that discussion.

And how is the SaPD cooperating?

And I guess, first of all, even before that, the numbers of people detained by Ice, it's been in the news.

Some here, of course, not as much as in LA in New York, other places.

Because of the crackdown there.

How many are we talking about?

Do we know numbers?

I've heard from dozens to hundreds a week.

Is that right?

That's right, that's right.

Anywhere from dozens to to a couple hundred a week, are being taken in.

And listen, the federal government is conducting these operations, and, 90, 95% of the time that they occur here in San Antonio, SaPD really isn't involved.

But there are times where they need logistical support, from our officers.

And as chief McManus has said, we're there to support them however we can.

And so it's been a good working relationship so far.

And what do they tell you about the kind?

I don't want to say the kind of people, but what people are being targeted here.

Yeah.

So I've had the opportunity to sit down with the federal folks on at least, two other two occasions.

And they say very, very clearly they're looking for one people that are not here illegally that have committed crimes and may be a threat to the community and to folks that have already been through the legal process.

And there's an order existing, that's requiring them to leave the country.

Those are the folks that, they're looking for.

When you say committed crimes, what kind of crimes we're talking about across the country, while they have said they are going after the worst of the worst, they're also getting people who haven't committed crimes, period.

And other others collateral people, they would call that.

Are we seeing that here?

No, not to my knowledge.

And listen, there's a lot of anecdotal, stories out there, right, that you hear from people and sometimes get reported in the media that, frankly, just are not accurate.

Again, they're focused on people that are a threat to the community or, again, that have already been through the legal process and asked to leave.

That's what they're doing.

I think the operations here in San Antonio, for the most part, have all been, pretty smooth.

Again, this is a federal initiative.

We have to comply.

And look, this is for our public safety.

I think it's very, very clear that, the operations that are taking place will make us safer.

As a community, SaPD is is acting as they should.

And so we're going to keep moving forward.

There are critics who are going to say at this meeting, this is not the case.

They are getting I guess I've heard some people here locally out of control that they are taking people who shouldn't be, taken away from their families that have done nothing wrong, that have been here for years.

There is a large population here of undocumented people.

Do you see this, meeting changing that in any way?

Officially?

I don't think the meeting is going to change anything.

I think it's, You know, do we need the meeting?

I'm not sure about that, but we are going to have it.

And it'll be great for council to get to discuss it, to get to hear from the public.

I hope it didn't turn into a spectacle as some of these things can.

Right?

I think there will be a a public comment portion where people can come and voice their opinions on the matter, and it's good to listen to everybody, especially the public, on on their thoughts on what's going on.

But at the end of the day, we have to comply with the law.

We have to comply with, the federal government and their efforts here.

And that's what we're going to do.

What about, on the other hand, we have heard people, employers across Texas have said they are having more trouble finding workers, especially in different industries like construction.

It is costing them more, especially in South Texas.

They've had meetings on this.

Do you worry about that here that as people are are deported or detained, that we have fewer people for jobs that we need filled?

Yeah.

Well, certainly I worry about things like that because the health of our economy in Texas, and particularly here in San Antonio, is of utmost importance to me.

And I know other local officials.

But listen, we can't allow the laws to be broken, in the name of helping, you know, companies with their employee base.

So we can't do that.

We have to.

I mean, we have laws for a reason, right?

We've got to have them followed.

And so that's, that's my intent.

Do you expect that there would be any kind of advanced or, intensified crackdown in San Antonio or within Texas because we're in a red state?

So far, the crackdowns, my eyes have been in blue states.

Yeah.

I don't see any generally.

Yeah.

I don't see any advanced crackdowns.

On the horizon.

Again, I think the what the federal government has told us is that they're looking, nationwide, with their activities, that they want to make the country safer.

The president's been very, very clear on that.

And again, that's what's taking place here.

What about in terms of areas you represent a conservative area, North side district ten other areas may I don't know.

You know, there's a cliche or stereotype about the makeup of San Antonio.

What do you tell your constituents?

Have you had people come to you and say, I'm worried this is going to happen to me, or do you think you would ever hear that?

I have had that, and what we tell our constituents and folks, frankly, that have called us from other districts is that, listen, the federal government's here, to do a job.

Here's the folks that they're looking at.

We actually had, the Ice folks come to a district ten community meeting last year and answer some of these questions, which I thought was very, very helpful.

And so we tell everybody, be calm, comply with what you're asked.

Show the documentation you're asked for, if you have it.

And again, this should move along as smoothly as possible.

I understand that it hasn't in some areas of the country, but hopefully here in San Antonio, we're not going to see the unrest we've seen in other cities.

What about if we do see not unrest, but at least, more talk about this, more protest against it.

Some have said, well, we don't want to get our head above, you know, too much publicity because then we would get the attention of the federal government.

Do you think that's a possibility?

Well, this is America.

And so everybody has has the right to peacefully protest.

And so that I hope that if there are more protests here in San Antonio, they are peaceful.

Whether or not that's going to, raise a red flag in Washington, DC with respect to what's going on here, I don't know.

Again, everybody has the right to have their own opinion on this, but where it has to stop is there, with the opinions, with the voices.

We cannot have the violence that we've seen in other parts of the country.

How about the policy?

Because if there is a meeting and there is a policy some might interpret, say, in Washington, they would interpret it as sanctuary city crackdown.

That could invite a crackdown.

Yeah.

Listen, any time local law enforcement is not going to cooperate with federal law enforcement, that's going to get you labeled a sanctuary city.

Right then and there.

We cannot have that here in San Antonio.

Our local law enforcement needs to comply with federal law enforcement, every step of the way.

But a majority Hispanic area, as we are, those sweeps or crackdowns or targeted raids are going to also, as people have been concerned about across the country, maybe have eyes people look at you as a brown person and say, you know, stop.

I'm are you with them?

Are you legal or not?

That's been the complaint across the country.

Listen again.

You hear these stories, that are out there, I can only tell you, what I've been told directly from federal folks is mouse, right?

We've had to sit down meetings and they've told us how they're conducting these operations.

I'm here to to, not take their word for that, but it's take their word and then verify it.

And I think the operations here in San Antonio, are moving along as smoothly as possible.

Not everybody's going to like it.

I get that.

And next Thursday, you're going to hear from my colleagues.

And many of them are going to say they do not approve of these operations here in San Antonio, and they do not want our SaPD, to collaborate with the federal authorities at all.

I think they're wrong.

We need to cooperate.

We do not want to be a sanctuary city.

And all of this is being done for the safety of our San Antonio population.

Another thing you're working on, sports and entertainment district.

Are you talking about that?

And, where are we in that right now?

Yeah, well, today we're going to have a session where city staff is going to lay out what the next year is going to look like with regard to the sports and entertainment district, and also with regard to the minor league baseball stadium that's going to be on the other side of town.

As you know, city council has now approved, these term sheets related to the baseball stadium related to the Spurs arena.

And so now it's a matter of, getting the details of the contract in place, and staff's going to lay out what's to come.

First we're going to be looking at the arena and the expansion of the convention center, right off the top, as well as, again, making sure, that the area around the new Mission Stadium, is going to be developed appropriately.

We have an opportunity here, right?

If done right, to create an economic development engine for our city that's going to bring revenue into San Antonio that we can then use on all the basics that I've talked to you about.

City government is about public safety.

It's about infrastructure.

It's about economic development.

The revenue created by this project can benefit all of San Antonio.

What about a possible bond issue to support that entertainment district this May?

And how much would that be?

Or you talked about $200 million.

Yeah.

My guess is it's not going to be this May.

It's going to be a part of a larger bond perhaps next year.

7 or 800 million, maybe more.

We'll see.

And the bond will include, in addition to other projects around the city, where we need bond dollars, it's also going to include a couple hundred million dollars for the infrastructure around where, the new Spurs arena would sit.

Listen, we need that already, right?

If you've been to any event down at the Alamodome, in the last few weeks, it is a nightmare getting in and out and around that area.

So the infrastructure was needed already.

And it'll certainly be needed if the new arena is there.

San Antonio water system talking about a rate increase.

And you're talking about that as well?

Yeah.

Listen, I am tired of the citizens of San Antonio continually being asked to pay more.

CPS raised their energy rates a couple years ago.

Now, sources coming and saying, we want to raise your rates this year, next year and the year after, I believe.

Right.

Why is it that the citizens are always being asked to pay more?

So what I'm asking for and a couple of my colleagues, the councilwoman in district nine and the councilwoman in district seven, we put a memo together.

We sent it to our city manager, Eric Walsh, and we said before, we have to vote on this rate hike for sores.

We want sores to go through an independent third party, really review, if you will, an operational review to see how they're spending their money now.

Are they spending it efficiently and why do they need more of our citizens money?

As we sit here right now, I'm a hard no, on raising rates on our citizens.

Let's see what source comes back with.

All right.

Well, thanks very much, Marc White.

I appreciate all your time.

Councilman district ten.

Thanks.

Thank you.

We've had a rough flu season so far in this area, and the number of flu cases is still on the rise right now.

Here to talk about that is doctor Jason Bowling is professor in the division of infectious diseases at UT Health San Antonio.

Also chief epidemiologist at University Health.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thank you.

You said last season I remember I was talking about it, last year, I guess 24, 25 was a rough flu season and it's just as bad or worse this year.

It is just as bad this year and it may end up being worse.

Obviously, we're still watching the numbers to see where that's going to end up.

We usually don't have two terrible flu seasons back to back.

We normally get lucky and have a lighter flu season after a really bad flu season.

Last flu season, we had 289 deaths in children related to influenza.

So far, there's been 17 deaths in children, lots of hospitalizations, lots of people sick with the flu this year.

And you said last year the record at that was the highest number you've seen in deaths in children in some time.

It's the highest number of fatalities and deaths in children we've seen in quite some time in about ten, 15, maybe even 20 years.

What about recently in the number of cases and what kind of flu?

So the main flu that strain when we talk about the flu season, there's a number of different strains that are circulating at one time.

But the big driver this year is this strain of a strain called H3n2.

And it's a particular variant called subgrade K. That's driving a lot of the cases that we're seeing.

The bulk of the cases that we're seeing.

And this is across the country as well as in the San Antonio area.

This is around San Antonio area, across the country and even globally.

And what do you tell people about that if they have similar what are the symptoms first of all.

So the symptoms that people most common symptoms that people have or fever, they suddenly feel pretty ill worn out.

They may have some muscle aches, cough and sore throat are the most common symptoms that people noticed.

And the numbers that you have reported are those that go in to see a doctor and have it confirmed.

But, you know, there's more, much more out there.

Right?

We have a virology report from our virology labs.

They tell us the ones that are confirmed for people that were sick enough, that chose to go to an urgent care or the ER, some health care setting where they get a PCR test, but that's just representative.

It's that number of people that have gotten lots of other people in the community have had flu.

They don't feel sick enough, don't have to go in to see somebody.

What do you tell somebody who has or thinks they have the flu.

If they think they have the flu right now, with numbers as high as they are, they probably do have the flu.

So the key thing really is one for them to stay monitor for any warning signs that they need to seek health care.

So if they're having shortness of breath, confusion, chest pain, those are all the red flags that they need to go see a doctor.

But they should also try and prevent spread to other people, particularly people in their household.

They might be around people that are at higher risk for complications.

So wearing a mask, good hand hygiene and staying home from work or school until your symptoms start to improve are good ways to prevent and treat.

What about what should you take there?

Are you sure?

For people that are at high risk for complications of 65 and older chronic medical conditions, there are flu antivirals that will decrease the severity of disease if you take it early enough, and can help prevent you from having to go to the hospital.

Those are prescription medicines.

What about non-prescription?

Do you tell people that and not aspirin, Advil, Tylenol or aspirin?

Sure.

People can't take those for symptomatic relief.

They're not going to necessarily change the duration of symptoms that they have or their risk of transmitting to other people, but certainly taking lots of fluids, getting plenty of rest are important.

And you mentioned what people should do with, say, with masks.

But if I live with somebody who is having the flu, should I go out in the community or should I worry about that and possibly spreading it even though I don't show symptoms?

If you don't have symptoms yourself, you should be okay.

I do think that in the household it can be challenging, but you can find ways to try and separate from somebody that does have flu in your house, so you can reduce your risk of getting sick yourself and also reduce your risk of spreading in the community.

And it's not too late to get the vaccine.

I was surprised by that because we think of flu season maybe in the fall, kind of tailing off in the new year.

Right?

The general recommendation is that as long as flu is circulating and particularly circulating high numbers now, there's still benefits to getting the flu vaccine.

It takes about 1 to 2 weeks for your body to gear up those antibodies for protection.

But even as it comes down from that peak, there's still flu circulating.

And so you may not have had it yet, but it doesn't mean that you may not be exposed to it and potentially get flu later on in the flu season.

And as to where to get a vaccine, you can get that at the usual place and still drugstore or doctor whatever, right?

Doctor's office, community based pharmacies.

And the number of vaccines we're talking about, has changed those recommended, I guess, by the CDC.

Talk about that and what you think of that.

There's been significant revisions just recently, as you mentioned, from the number of for the childhood vaccine schedule, where there was about 17 recommended vaccines and it's moved to about 11 recommended, and then the other six that are missing there are under shared clinical decision making with the idea being that you should talk to your physician, your child's physician and make a joint decision if a vaccine makes the most sense.

And what do you think of that?

I, as people ask you as a doctor and they say to ask your own doctor.

There are concerns with that.

I think the biggest concern is always trying to get people vaccinated, even with them all recommended has always been a challenge.

When you add in shared clinical decision making, it adds some confusion.

People don't understand why that would be.

It would be helpful to have evidence to explain why we've moved to that, to that model.

The concern that a lot of professional societies and states have is that it might further lead to decrease.

There's already a decline in vaccines in kids right now.

And this is worrisome that this could further lead to increased numbers of people choosing not to get their vaccines.

All right.

Well, thank you very much for the information coming in.

And we hope people take good advice out there and don't spread the flu further.

Doctor Jason Boling, Professor, in the Division of Infectious Diseases at UT Health San Antonio and Chief epidemiologist, University Health.

Thanks very much.

Thank you.

On reporters roundtable this week, Space-X Elon Musk's company down in South Texas has been in the news for a number of reasons, most recently just this week, Pete Hegseth, defense secretary, was down there speaking about a number of things, joining us to talk about everything Starbase and Space X is Branden Lingo, technology reporter of the Express-News.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Hi, Renee.

Tell us about the.

Well, first of all, for people who don't know much about Starbase, the City or SpaceX, the company, you've covered this for some time now.

How big is SpaceX down there?

Has it grown to, we'll say in South Texas.

Sure.

Yeah.

Elon Musk's SpaceX is essentially building a rocket factory test facility and almost a base down there in South Texas, about 20 miles east of Brownsville.

Since about 2012, they've been interested in, in that area.

And in 2014 broke ground.

And since then it has rapidly expanded.

And people who haven't been down there, even if you have, you can't see a lot.

Although now, Starbase, tell us about Starbase the city and how that has evolved.

Yeah.

So, over the last few years, they, they've wanted to create a stadium in your municipality and, and last year, voters approved that.

And so there is a city of Starbase, led primarily by SpaceX employees.

And, And, and that has caused some issues, recently in terms of the information that, people want or don't want released.

How do you how you've been affected.

As a, as a giant, SpaceX company that they tend to be pretty private.

So what's happening is, is, it's with the community of Starbase under Texas laws.

It's, transparency laws.

It's it's the company is sometimes getting rolled into these, public information requests and that's resulted in some lawsuits from the city of Starbase against the attorney general.

So the city officials are like, people want information about, say, their records that would involve their communications with Space-X.

And they say that's protected.

Sure.

Yeah.

It's, it's a variety of things.

So the mayor's a space employee, one of the commissioners.

And, so, so people have requested some of their communications and whatnot, and and that's created some.

What about the issue of, beach, Boca Chica beach and what they want to do with that?

Sure.

So, this, this facility, relatively small facility, about 350 acres where they're building the world's most powerful and largest rocket, is adjacent to, a public beach, Boca Chica beach.

And, there's been some concerns over the closure of the beach for the testing and launches and a lawsuit.

And that's now with the Texas Supreme Court.

And, they're going to hear oral arguments on that in May or I mean, in March.

But also who oversees Boca Chica Beach that could change.

It's, it's changing.

I think so.

For years, the county has been responsible for beach closures, for different safety reasons when there's high tide or, or different things.

And over the last few years, the county has been closing the beach for space launches and other tests, periodically.

And the environmental, impact of this, a lot of people have been concerned about that, especially with the debris falling from one of the rockets that exploded.

Yeah.

I mean, over the years, there have been multiple explosions and, and, debris and, and the EPA and Fish and Wildlife Service have been looking at it and, and, continuing to, to work with SpaceX.

And there's been talk of a land swap that would involve part of, wildlife sanctuary.

Is that right?

Sure.

There's a, pretty large wildlife refuge surrounding this space six operation.

And and there's been talk of some land swaps, several times.

The latest one, the details haven't really come out on that yet.

But there would be a legal challenge, presumably, over that.

I could be, I would think so.

And you've also written about, just how big it is, how SpaceX is also competing with other rocket companies.

What how how big are they?

First of all, just in terms of that area, how many people are down there and how what kind of competition are they going to be looking at?

Yeah, they have about 4000 employees working at that complex now.

They've said that it's going to go up to 8000 this year.

Huge economic impact, $13 billion.

And right now, SpaceX dominates the the space launch market.

I mean, every few days they're launching Falcon nine rockets from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California or in, Florida and, and Starship, the big rocket that's in development at Starbase is moving at we'll have operations in Florida and probably other places to come.

And talk about the differences in the rockets, because most people don't know and what they would do with the rockets that they are building down there.

Yeah, I mean, the, the they want to create basically a giant rocket.

They can go to space, put stuff in space and land and, be reused quickly.

And, and they're developing that technology and that and they've done that in there with their smaller rockets.

The Falcon nine that, that flies regularly.

What don't you think is going to happen next?

Are you talking about 4008 thousand in a year?

The defense secretary, Pete Hex, I was just down there talking about the importance of AI, as well as, technology companies.

Are they going to be tasked with more, defense, building?

I think that's likely.

Yeah.

The the, the the big visit was talking about energizing the defense industrial base and, and, and making it quicker, knocking down barriers and, and whatnot for, for these companies.

So I suspect that that, business will continue to boom for space.

And they just got a $740 million contract last week for more space launches.

And.

All right, well thank you.

Fascinating.

Again.

It's one of those things we hear a little bit about.

But you know everything there is to know about space X. Thank you very much for coming in Brandon legal and technology Reporter you can read all his stuff in the San Antonio Express-News and actual paper.

Thanks.

And thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can see the show again.

You can watch any previous shows.

You can also download as a podcast at KLRN.org I'm Randy Palmer and we'll see you next time.

On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho.