Category: RadioActive

RadioActive is a grassroots environmental and social justice news radio journal hosted by Amy Browne and Meredith DeFrancesco and heard Thursdays from 4:00 – 4:30 pm on WERU FM 89.9 Blue Hill and 102.9 Bangor, Maine in the United States.

RadioActive 5/31/18

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Puerto Rico Deaths After Hurricane Maria and LePage refuses to Expand MaineCare after Referendum

Key Discussion Points:

This week the New England Journal of Medicine published a Harvard study which places the death toll in Puerto Rico, as a result of Hurricane Maria, at 4,645, as opposed to the federal government’s official claim of 64. We speak with a nurse from Bangor, Maine who traveled to Puerto Rico twice as part of the RN Response Network following Hurricane Maria, and witnessed the conditions of an unaddressed medical crisis that indicated a much higher rate of deaths would result.

Last month, Maine Equal Justice Partners filed a lawsuit against the LePage Administration for its failures to implement the expansion or Medicaid, or Maine Care, as directed by the passage of last November’s referendum.

The LePage Administration has not met deadlines to expand Medicaid access to Maine residents in preparation for the set goal of July 2nd for new enrollment. 70,000 Mainers would be eligible to receive health care coverage under the expansion.

Guests:
Amy Tidd, Bangor RN, National Nurses United, RN Response Network
Robyn Merrill, executive director, Maine Equal Justice Partners

RadioActive 5/17/18

Producer: Meredith DeFrancesco

Environmental and Social Justice: Maine Climate Protectors Demand Maine DEP Adhere to Law Cutting Greenhouse Gases

Today we look at an effort requesting the Maine Department of Environmental Protection adhere to a 15 year old law in which Maine committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions “sufficient to eliminate any dangerous threat to the climate”.

A campaign called Maine Climate Protectors, made up students, organizations and others through out the state, testified on Tuesday before the Department of Environmental Protection, demanding lawmakers take action on climate change, as they are committed to by law.
c) Written comments for the Greenhouse Gas Petition Rule making are being accepted by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection until June 29th. Email: jeff.s.crawford@maine.gov. Mail: GHG Petition Rule making, Attn Jeff Crawford, Maine Department of Environmental Protection,17 State House, Augusta , ME. 04333August ME 04333

Guests:
Charles Spanger, Maine Climate Protectors, Scarborough Climate Action, 350 Maine, Scarborough Conservation Committee
Beth Fuller Valentine, attorney, Maine Climate Protectors
maine-climate-protectors.org/
maine-climate-protectors.org/uploads/Petition%201-23-18%20FINAL.pdf

RadioActive 5/10/18

Producer: Meredith DeFrancesco

Rob Shetterly Speaks with Rob McCall, Latest Portrait in American Who Tells the Truth

On May 12th, Robert Shetterly’s portrait and education project Americans Who Tell the Truth will unveil a portrait of Rob McCall. Rob McCall is the recently retired pastor of the First Congregational Church in Blue Hill, and for the past 25 years he’s shared his poetic insights on nature, politics, spirituality and humanity in his Awanadjo Almanak, broadcasting on WERU FM, publishing in local newspapers and in book form, Small Misty Mountain.

We sat down in the studio last week with both Rob Shetterly and Rob McCall. We share some of that conversation today.

On Saturday, May 12th, Americans Who Tell the Truth, the Blue Hill Heritage Trust and WERU FM are hosting an event for McCall’s portrait unveiling at the Blue Hill Public Library from 530-7pm.

Guests:
Rob McCall, Awanadjo Alamanak www.awanadjo.com/?page_id=24. Listen: archives.weru.org/category/awanadjo-almanack/
Robert Shetterly, Americans Who Tell The Truth www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/

RadioActive 5/3/18

Producer: Meredith DeFrancesco

Call for Removal of EPA’s Administrator Scott Pruitt and Rob Shetterly Speaks with Rob McCall, Latest Portrait in American Who Tells the Truth

This morning, the Natural Resources Council of Maine held a press conference with healthcare providers and others calling for the removal of Environmental Protection Administrator Scott Pruitt and the need for urgent action to address clean water, air, climate change and keep or install environmental protections to protect public health.

On May 12th, Robert Shetterly’s portrait and education project Americans Who Tell the Truth will unveil a portrait of Rob McCall. Rob McCall is the recently retired pastor of the First Congregational Church in Blue Hill, and for the past 25 years he’s shared his poetic insights on nature, politics, spirituality and humanity in his Awanadjo Almanak, broadcasting on WERU FM, publishing in local newspapers and in book form, Small Misty Mountain.

We sat down in the studio last week with both Rob Shetterly and Rob McCall. We share some of that conversation today.
On Saturday, May 12th, Americans Who Tell the Truth, the Blue Hill Heritage Trust and WERU FM are hosting an event for McCall’s portrait unveiling at the Blue Hill Public Library from 530-7pm.

Guests:
Emmie Theberge, Natural Resources Council of Maine, Federal Project Director www.nrcm.org
Bob Duchesne, Maine Representative(Hudson), Chair of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee. member of Environment and Natural Resources Committee
Dr Noah Nesin, Bangor.
Jim Glavine, Oli’s Trolley’s tour guide, Acadia National Park
Dr Bob Holmberg, Brooksville
Rob McCall, Awanajo Alamanak http://www.awanadjo.com/?page_id=24
Robert Shetterly, Americans Who Tell The Truth https://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/

RadioActive 2/22/18

Producer: Meredith DeFrancesco

Casella Waste Systems Applies for Expanded Waste Acceptance at Juniper Ridge Landfill

On Wednesday February 28th, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection will hold a public meeting in Bangor to examine Casella Waste Systems request to continue receiving Municipal Solid Waste from Southern Maine at the Juniper Ridge Landfill in Old Town.
This fall, the state owned, privately run, Juniper Ridge Landfill was approved for a major expansion, despite a long and exhaustive citizen effort to stop it.
Area residents, including members of the Penobscot Tribe, have protested the continuing dumping of leachate liquids into the Penobscot River, with minimal testing and treatment. They also continue to underscore the acceptance of out of state waste to a state owned facility, a practice disallowed by Maine law, but circumvented by minor processing, which allows trash to be re-classified as in-state waste.

Guest: Ed Spencer, Old Town resident, stakeholder and intervenor in Juniper Ridge Landfill expansion process

RadioActive 1/25/18

Producer: Meredith DeFrancesco

Nestle/Poland Spring Manager Appointed to Maine Board of Environmental Protection and Trump Moves to Open Offshore Drilling

-Today, we look at the appointment and confirmation of Nestle/Poland Springs natural resources manager Mark Dubois to Maine’s Board of Environmental Protection (BEP), and the close relationship between industry and regulators in the state.

-Poland Springs, a subsidiary of Nestle, has been pursuing aggressive expansion of their wells in Maine. Dubois oversees the selection of new spring sites.

-In April, President Trump signed an executive order instructing the Dept of Interior to write new rules for offshore oil and gas drilling, as part of “America First Offshore Energy Strategy”. The Trump Administration’s new plan aims to open close to 90% of the US outer continental shelf for drilling, including off the coast of Maine. The Dept of Interior is accepting public comments on the plan until March 9th.

Guests:
Nickie Sekera, Community Water Justice https://www.facebook.com/communitywaterjustice/
Lisa Pohlmann, Natural Resources Council of Maine www.nrcm.org

RadioActive 1/11/18 (rebroadcast 1/18/18)

Producer: Meredith DeFrancesco

Trump Administration’s Rescinding of TPS for El Salvador and other Immigration Policies

-Today we look at a number of the Trump Administration’s hostile immigration stances and policies.

-This week, the Trump Administration’s Department of Homeland Security announced it would end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 200,000 Salvadorans in the United States, adding to the list of countries already struck from the humanitarian program, including Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan.

-We look at the rescinding of TPS and the impacts it would have on Salvadorans in the US and in El Salvador. And we look at the realities of so-called “chain migration” and other programs the Trump administration has vilified.

Guests:
Rachel Reyes, Center for Migration Studies in New York City http://cmsny.org/
cmsny.org/publications/jmhs-tps-elsalvador-honduras-haiti/
Dennis Chinoy, US El Salvador Sister Cities and PICA (Power in Community Alliances), in Bangor, ME
www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org/
www.pica.ws/

RadioActive 10/26/17

Producer: Meredith DeFrancesco

Environmental and Social Justice: Nurse’s Delegation to Puerto Rico and Nestle’s Commodification of Maine Water

a) Today we speak with Amy Lee Tidd, a registered nurse from Bangor, who has just returned from two weeks in Puerto Rico as part of a Registered Nurse Response Network delegation.
b) We talk with her about the continuing health crisis in Puerto Rico, with lack of potable water, food, safe housing and the electricity needed to power life saving medical equipment.
c) We also hear from water rights activist, Nickie Sekera, on Nestle/Poland Spring’s commodification of Maine water.

Guests by name and affiliation:
Amy Lee Tidd, Bangor nurse with National Nurses Unites, Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN)
Nickie Sekera, Community Water Justice