She Was a Hero Nurse During the Pandemic. Five Years Later, Her Business Unraveled in a Sonoma County Scandal

She Was a Hero Nurse During the Pandemic. Five Years Later, Her Business Unraveled in a Sonoma County Scandal

On sweltering days, of which there are plenty in these parts, the interior of Mongos Ice House in Montgomery, Texas, stays dark and cool behind big, reflective glass windows. Video gambling machines line the walls, cigarette smoke hovers in the air, and the crowd at this strip-mall dive 50 miles north of Houston leans local but friendly, in a Texas way. Mounted on a post by the bar is a bell with a handwritten sign: “Ring the bell, buy a round f…