Category: WERU News Report

WERU News Report 10/16/13

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by John Greenman

Nicholas Carnes is an assistant professor of public policy at Duke University. His research focuses on U.S. politics, legislative decision making, representation, social class, economic inequality, and state and local politics. Carnes’ upcoming book “White-Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making” examines how the shortage of people from the working class in American legislatures skews the policy-making process toward outcomes that are more in line with the upper class’s economic interests. He is a member of the Scholars Strategy Network, an organization that brings America’s leading scholars together to address public challenges on national, state and local levels.

Nicholas Carnes spoke at the University of Maine earlier this month

WERU News Report 10/15/13

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by Matt Murphy

Last week the ACLU of Maine presented Ann Luther (of the League of Women Voters of Maine) with their annual Baldwin Award, citing her “outstanding commitment to defending and expanding voting rights in Maine”. In her acceptance speech, Ann Luther drew parallels between the work of the ACLU and the League of Women Voters, and between present day efforts to protect voters rights and past struggles to secure them:

WERU News Report 10/9/13

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Segment 1:
Activists from Maine and elsewhere will begin a trek across the state tomorrow, to call attention to their opposition of the use of drones in surveillance and warfare. Earlier this year, legislation that would have regulated spy drones in Maine was vetoed by Governor LePage, but some of the testimony at the public hearing for the bill illustrates the reasons for concern. First to testify was Shenna Bellows, former Maine ACLU Director, now Senate candidate:
Also speaking before the Judiciary Committee was one of the organizers of the upcoming peace walk in protest of drones, Bruce Gagnon:
Starr Gilmartin (who – full disclosure- is a WERU board member) will be taking part in the “Maine Drone Peace Walk” that starts tomorrow:

Segment 2: Later this month a “Trans and Womyn’s Action Camp” – or TWAC- will be held here in Maine, modeled after similar camps that have taken place in other states. A weekend of workshops and organizing will be followed by a direct action planned and carried out by the group. Organizer Meg Gilmartin:

Segment 3: The local worker solidarity group “Food AND Medicine” is partnering with farmer’s markets to help furloughed federal workers get affordable food. Erin Sweeney is their Agriculture Organizer:

WERU News Report 10/8/13

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Thursday night in Southwest Harbor, there will be a showing of the film “9/11 Explosive Evidence: Experts Speak Out”, produced by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, an organization that disputes official accounts of what happened on 9/11, based on their areas of technical expertise. The event is being organized by Dick Atlee. He has been researching, teaching courses and showing films on the topic for several years. We talked with him earlier today, about the film, the theories, and the backlash whenever anyone raises this subject.

FMI: http://www.dickatlee.com/issues/911/resources

WERU News Report 10/2/13

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Segment 1: Voters in Ellsworth, Hancock and Lamoine in November, will have a chance to decide if those towns should withdraw from RSU 24. The vote will be the final step in a long process in which all 3 towns have given initial approval to the plan—but voter turnout could play a big role in the outcome. Gordon Donaldson has been organizing efforts to withdraw Lamoine from RSU 24:

Segment 2: HOME Coop in Orland is collecting clothing for people in the local area, and for residents of their sister community in Guatemala. We spoke with HOME’s Lawrence Reichard to find out what they need, and how listeners can help—or get some help, if needed:

WERU News Report 10/1/13

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Maine is one of the states that has opted out of running its own marketplace for the Affordable Care Act, which went into effect today. Mainers who qualify for health insurance through the ACA will need to use the federal marketplace. But there are organizations here in Maine that can help anyone with questions about the process. To get some idea of who qualifies, and what they should do, we talked with Mitchell Stein, Policy Director for Consumers for Affordable Health Care

WERU News Report 9/25/13

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Maine’s lakes are endangered by policies put in place by the LePage administration, according to a report released yesterday by the Natural Resources Council of Maine. We spoke with NRCM’s Advocacy Director Pete Didisheim–the author of “Troubled Waters: Damage to Maine’s Lake Protection Program Under the LePage Administration”, and Jessamine Logan, Spokesperson for Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection.

You can read the full report at www.nrcm.org

WERU News Report 9/24/13

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

A “peace walk” across the state, from Limestone to Bath, will be held next month to draw attention to issue of drone surveillance at home and drone killing overseas. The issue of US drone attacks on civilians in other countries has been widely reported on by “Democracy Now” and other news sources. And as we reported here on the WERU News Report earlier this year, there have been efforts here in Maine to regulate the use of drones in the state. Two of the leaders of that effort spoke on the topic of “Domestic Surveillance and Drones in Maine and the Nation” at the University of Maine last week. Bruce Gagnon is the Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, and Shenna Bellows is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine