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Hale: There was corruption at the local level and certain political people who were taking advantage of their constituents. And there were other local elected officials who were trying to expose corruption. And there was also extreme poverty on the border. And these neighborhoods called colonias which developers would entice unsuspecting or just uneducated and often poor people to buy into these subdivisions that had no running water or sewer. Sigman: Mm. Hale: And they would also sell them contract of deeds, which were certain types of contractual deeds where they could take advantage or revoke their property if they missed a payment. And in addition, they didn't have running water or sewer. So it was creating really poor neighborhoods without adequate water and sewer all along the Texas-Mexico border. And there were nuns that I met that were really dedicating their lives to these people and helping them truck water and just a variety of things that would go on, on the border. And that was when I really started investigating this colonia developer who was creating all these problems. And that was really the first story I realized I wanted to be an investigative reporter and do things that were more in- depth that truly made a difference, and helped people --people that didn't have a voice otherwise - unless a journalist or an advocate of some kind stood up for them. Sigman: Did you speak Spanish or did you learn to speak Spanish in Laredo? Hale: I didn't speak Spanish, but I learned and picked up on how to communicate and I studied Spanish but never was fluent, but I could understand it pretty well. But the great thing about the team you have in television news, my photographers down along the border and in many markets after, spoke fluent Spanish. And some of them had grown up in Laredo so they spoke Spanish. So even though I didn't, they did. So together we were a team that could communicate in either language with people who were trying to tell their story, whether or not they spoke Spanish or English. Sigman: Okay, so that was one of the questions I was going to ask, was if you had a photographer. Do you remember what kind of camera you had or how you guys edited in Laredo? Hale: Yeah, I mean, that was back in the olden days of TV. [laughing] Sigman: [laughing] Hale: I mean, we don't go back to film, that's before my time.
