Category: WERU News Report

WERU News Report 6/15/11

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Contributing Producer: Carolyn Coe with assistance from Lindsey Saunders

Segment 1: An interview with Lisa Savage, CODEPINK Maine Local Coordinator, about the upcoming annual mayor’s conference where a resolution will be considered that calls for Congress to “bring our war dollars home” to be spent on local community needs. Lisa will attend and report back to WERU next week. She will also be the contact person for a Mainer who will be on the next humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza at the end of June. “The Audacity of Hope” flotilla sets sail 13 months after the Israelis stormed a similar flotilla and killed several activists. Lisa Savage will also follow up with us over the next few weeks re: their progress. FMI: http://www.codepink4peace.org/section.php?id=429

Segment 2: When transnational mining companies discovered coal and moved into the department of Cesar, Colombia, paramilitaries also arrived. Local rivers have become contaminated, people and animals are getting sick, and social problems have worsened in the city of La Jagua and neighboring communities. Area leaders discuss the impacts of the coal mining on their communities.
Speakers:
Dioselina Carvajal Saravia, victim of paramilitary violence
Adanies Quintero, representative from agriculture sector
Ricardo Machado, union member, welder for Carbones de la Jagua (a Glencore mine)
Ana Marquez Martinez, police inspector, Boqueron
Oswaldo Aguilar Mejia, former univ. professor and member of local AfroColombian association, La Jagua
Jaime Giraldo Duque, president of the displaced persons association, La Jagua
Of note: According to US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, the US-based Drummond Company paid paramilitaries for protection of its Colombian mining operations. http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/14935-us-coal-firm-drummond-paid-paramilitaries-wikileaks.html
Glencore, another transnational operating in the area, is about to sell publicly on the London exchange.

WERU News Special Report 6/13/11

Producer/Editor: Amy Browne
Interviewer: Robert Shetterly

Award-winning artist and activist Robert Shetterly continues his series of conversations with the subjects of his portrait series “Americans Who Tell the Truth” in this conversation with Jessalyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project, a whistle-blower protection agency. Radack talks about her own experiences as a government employee and whistle-blower, and about the upcoming espionage trial for former NSA staffer Thomas Drake.

FMI: http://www.whistleblower.org/ , www.americanswhotellthetruth.org

WERU News Report 6/7/11

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Today the state House of Representatives considered a possible funding option for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, one of the many cash-strapped agencies within the state government.
LD 563, a “RESOLUTION, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of Maine To Use a Portion of the Sales and Use Tax for the Protection of Maine’s Fish and Wildlife” would allocate 0.125% of revenues raised by means of the Sales and Use Tax Law to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife for the sole purpose of protecting the State’s fish and wildlife resources.
Here’s how the vote went today in Augusta:

WERU News Report 6/1/11

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

As we go to air today, the Maine House of Representatives is debating a cell phone warning label bill. It came out of committee with a “ought not to pass” vote, but so far testimony has been leaning AGAINST accepting that majority report. We join the floor debate in progress:

WERU News Report 5/31/11

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

The House of Representatives voted today in support of legislation that would convert the Maine Legislature to a unicameral– or “one house” system, in order to cut state government and spending.
LD804, sponsored by Representative Linda Valentine, a democrat of Saco, would amend the state constitution and so it requires support of 2/3 of the House and Senate, then it would be put to the voters. Today we listen in on excerpts of this morning’s legislative debate over the bill:

WERU News Special Report 5/26/11

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Continuing our coverage of yesterday’s work session on LD 1534, “An Act To Reform the Land Use and Planning Authority in the Unorganized Territories” which eliminates the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission, effective July 15, 2012. This bill as it is currently worded also establishes a “Land Use Planning in the Unorganized Territory Transition Advisory Board” to advise the Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry on matters relating to the transfer of authority over land use planning in the unorganized territory to the counties in which the land is located. The board is required to render its advice to the Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry by December 2, 2011. The board is dissolved July 15, 2012. At that point the counties would presumably take over the responsibilities now handled by LURC, though many at the public hearing expressed serious concerns about their ability to do so.
The Maine Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC or the Commission) was created by the Maine Legislature in 1971 to serve as the planning and zoning authority for the state’s townships, plantations and unorganized areas. LURC’s jurisdiction stretches over half the state, encompassing more than 10.4 million acres and the largest contiguous undeveloped area in the Northeast.

WERU News Report 5/25/11

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

In Augusta this afternoon the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee held a work session on a bill calling for the elimination of Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission
As we reported last week, when we listened in on the public hearing on the bill, LD 1534, “An Act To Reform the Land Use and Planning Authority in the Unorganized Territories” eliminates the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission, effective July 15, 2012. This bill as it is currently worded also establishes a “Land Use Planning in the Unorganized Territory Transition Advisory Board” to advise the Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry on matters relating to the transfer of authority over land use planning in the unorganized territory to the counties in which the land is located. The board is required to render its advice to the Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry by December 2, 2011. The board is dissolved July 15, 2012. At that point the counties would presumably take over the responsibilities now handled by LURC, though many at the public hearing expressed serious concerns about their ability to do so.
The Maine Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC or the Commission) was created by the Maine Legislature in 1971 to serve as the planning and zoning authority for the state’s townships, plantations and unorganized areas. LURC’s jurisdiction stretches over half the state, encompassing more than 10.4 million acres and the largest contiguous undeveloped area in the Northeast.
Today we’re going to listen in on this afternoon’s work session on the bill, which got quite confusing as there were 2 different versions circulating through the committee, and the committee members themselves were unsure which they were debating:

WERU News Report 5/24/11

Producer/Host: John Greenman & Amy Browne

In the summer of 1984 Charlie Howard was murdered in Bangor by a group of high school students. They accosted him and a friend as they walked downtown one evening, shouting homophobic slurs and throwing Charlie — who couldn’t swim and who had asthma– off the State Street bridge into the Kenduskeag Stream. As his friend ran for help, Charlie drowned.
Charlie Howard was openly and proudly gay and he was harrassed constantly in the Bangor community. He proudly refused to hide who he was, even after someone killed his beloved kitten, apparently as a threat.
In the months following his death, the GLBT community in Maine held marches in his memory, and had things thrown at them as they marched. Only a very few local religious leaders spoke in their support. There was vocal support for the murderers among some greater Bangor residents. When reporting on the anniversary of Charlie Howards death a few years back, I was told by several people that they were driven “back into the closet”, not only by what happened to Charlie, but by how the community responded.
2 years ago a small, stone memorial was placed at the site where Charlie was killed. The inscription reads: “May we, the citizens of Bangor, continue to change the world around us until hatred becomes peacemaking and ignorance becomes understanding.”
2 weeks ago, vandals painted the words “die fag” on the memorial.
Saturday morning a vigil was held, organized by Dignity For All Campaign, to “re-affirm that hatred and intolerance have no place in our community.”
WERU’s John Greenman recorded the event. Tom Grogan, PICA Director and Dignity For All campaign, Co-coordinator was the emcee:

FMI: www.pica.ws , www.equalitymaine.org , www.glsen.org