Category: Maine Currents

Maine Currents 5/18/16

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Engineer: John Greenman

Nearly 1400 people packed the Collins Center at the University of Maine Monday evening to let Senator Angus King and Jonathan Jarvis, Director of the United States National Park Service, know how they feel about a proposal to designate land east of Baxter State Park as a national monument. A national monument can be designated by the President, whereas a national park requires the approval of Congress. Roxanne Quimby’s family foundation is offering 87,500 acres of land for a “Katahdin Woods and Waters” national monument or park –and millions of dollars to support it.
While a much smaller meeting in East Millinocket earlier in the day drew mostly opponents to the proposal, the audience at the Collins Center was overwhelmingly in support, as evidenced by a sea of pro-monument t-shirts. Today’s show features Lucas St. Clair presenting the proposal, some of the public comments pro and con, and Director Jarvis’ responses to questions.

The full, unedited (3 hr, 16 min) meeting can be heard here: https://soundcloud.com/amy-browne-1/public-weighs-in-on-natl-monument-proposal

Maine Currents 5/11/16

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Engineer: John Greenman
Audio contributed by Maxine Janerka

A “tri-partisan” discussion of the upcoming presidential election with guests Betsy Garrold of the Green Party, Republicans Renee Trust and Representative Rich Malaby, Bernie Sanders supporter Tim Wilson, and Hillary Clinton supporter Steve Godsoe. Call in show.

Maine Currents 4/27/16

Producer/Editor/Host: Amy Browne
Engineer: Joel Mann

Topic: Governor LePage’s recent behavior and efforts to address it. Last night he stormed out of an event at UMaine Farmington, calling 2 protesters “idiots”. The previous day he held a meeting that legally should have been public, but access was denied to legislators, media and the public. He has declared the Natural Resources Council of Maine and the Maine People’s Alliance– 2 of the state’s largest environmental and social justice groups– “enemies”. Efforts to impeach him were defeated earlier this year, but his controversial behavior keeps those efforts alive. Meanwhile his supporters praise his “plain talking” style. On today’s call in show we’re asking “What do YOU think?”

Guests:
Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives Mark Eves FMI: http://www.speakereves.com/
Rebecca Halbrook, retired attorney working on impeachment efforts and a new group called “Mainers for Government Accountability”. FMI: https://www.facebook.com/ImpeachGovLePage/?fref=ts
Mike Tipping, Communications Director for the Maine People’s Alliance, cohost of “The Beacon” podcast which airs on WERU Tuesday afternoons at 4 and author of As Maine Went: Paul LePage and the Tea Party Takeover FMI: https://www.mainepeoplesalliance.org/

Maine Currents 4/20/16

Producer/Editor/Host: Amy Browne
Engineer: Denis Howard
Audio recorded by Matt Murphy

In celebration of Earth week, today we talk with Peter Neill of the World Ocean Observatory about his new book, The Once and Future Ocean: Notes Toward a New Hydraulic Society . Neill is the host of the weekly short feature “World Ocean Radio” which has aired here on WERU every Wednesday morning at 7:30 for several years. He is also the founder and director of the World Ocean Observatory
FMI: http://worldoceanobservatory.org/

But first we kick things off with a short montage of poetry from the “Poets Respond to Climate Change” event, at the Reversing Falls Sanctuary in Brooksville last month (recorded by Matt Murphy). In order we’ll hear from: Margaret Brooks, Maira Vandiver, MacKenzie Tapley, Henry Finch, Hattie Fitzpatrick, Emily Eisenhauer, Ed Conte, Brooke Wentworth and Anne Ferrara

Maine Currents 4/13/16

Producer/Editor/Host: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by Natalie Springuel

Hundreds of people gathered in Northport last weekend for the Penobscot Watershed Conference which focused on heritage, challenges and the future of the watershed. WERU volunteer Natalie Springuel , host of Coastal Conversations, works for Maine Sea Grant, one of the conference sponsors. For those of you who were unable to attend the conference, she recorded the welcoming remarks by Chief Kirk Francis of the Penobscot Nation; Curt Spaulding, a regional EPA administrator; and US Representative Chellie Pingree, and the keynote presentation by UMaine Marine Sciences Professor Bob Steneck. Paul Anderson was the emcee.

Maine Currents 4/6/16

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Topic: LePage’s controversial BEP nominee confirmed

In a nearly unanimous vote this morning, the Senate confirmed Kathleen Chase, Governor LePage’s nominee for the Board of Environmental Protection– an appointee so controversial that environmental groups that say they have never opposed a nominee, spoke in opposition at a public hearing yesterday. The only vote in against the confirmation came from Senator Dave Miramant, a Democrat from Camden. The Senate’s vote took less than 2 minutes, and was done with no discussion or debate. They devoted significantly more time this morning to honoring a middle school band and recognizing various visitors, than they did to making this decision.
Today on Maine Currents we’re going to take a look at how this nomination was approved, starting with the confirmation hearing yesterday before the legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee.

Maine Currents 3/30/16

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Engineer: John Greenman

Today we return to our on-going community discussion of the upcoming presidential election.
We have a returning guest in the studio today with us today, Bernie Sanders supporter Tim Wilson, of Belfast. Tim has a bachelor’s degree in political science and an MBA. In the 90s, he was a campaign volunteer for Ross Perot. In 2004 he and his fiancé walked from Concord, Mass to the Jefferson Memorial in DC for a “Healthy World of Sustainable Peace and Prosperity”. And joining us for the first time today is Blue Hill resident Margaret Hannah, a Hillary Clinton supporter. Margaret says she has memories of intensely watching national political campaigns on TV starting in 1956. She campaigned in New Hampshire in 1968 for Gene McCarthy; participated in civil rights marches in DC and NYC and throughout the country in marches against the Iraq war.

Our Green Party representative who joined us last time was not available today. We reached out the Republican party and the Hancock County GOP group will hopefully be sending someone next time, but we were not able to have someone join us here in the studio today.

Earlier this month on “Maine Currents” we asked the question we’ll be asking again today, and more as the election season continues: “which presidential candidate do you support, and why?”.