Category: WERU News Report

WERU News Report 11/12/14

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Engineer: John Greenman

In our first segment today we have an announcement about cod fisheries closures that NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) staff are calling historic. John Bullard, the Regional Administrator of NOAA’s Fisheries Service, made the announcement on a press conference call Monday. We’ll listen in on that announcement and then open the phone lines to callers

Segment 2: Support animals for vets

WERU News Report 10/29/14

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Segment 1: Documents recently discovered by the Friends of Penobscot Bay describe disturbing details of a 1960s site visit of the chemical company on Kidder Point on the shore in Searsport — we discuss the findings with FoPB Director Ron Huber

Segment 2: What question would YOU ask the candidates running in this year’s elections?

FMI: www.penbay.net

WERU News Report 10/28/14

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Sarah Bigney, Mobilizer with the AFL-CIO and UMaine Political Science Professor Amy Fried’s presentation, “Election 2014: How It Matters for Maine and the Nation” at the University of Maine last week.

Today’s show includes excerpts from the presentation. The full program, including the question and answer session that followed, is also archived here.

This lecture was part of the Marxist & Socialist Studies Lecture Series at the University of Maine, which is also sponsored by Maine Peace Action Committee, the Division of Student Affairs, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. These lectures have been held every semester since 1987.

WERU News Report 10/22/14

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Last year Governor LePage promised that he would be “the next Scott Walker in this country” because, he said, he was “challenging the status quo”. He did find himself alongside Walker on the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington list of “The Worst Governors in America” that year.

With both Governor’s re-election campaigns now in full swing, a presentation at UMaine last week took us back to Wisconsin in 2011 – 2 years before LePage predicted he’d be the next Scott Walker.

The presenter was Professor Don Taylor of the School for Workers at the University of Wisconsin. Professor Taylor has worked in labor organizing for more than 15 years and has been published in labor journals. His talk was called “This Is What Democracy Looks Like: The Wisconsin Labor Uprising”

(**NOTE: In addition to the archived WERU News Report program, we have also archived the full version of the presentation, which is approx 1hr 15mins in length)

This lecture was part of the Marxist & Socialist Studies Lecture Series at the University of Maine, which is also sponsored by Maine Peace Action Committee, the Division of Student Affairs, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. These lectures have been held every semester since 1987.

WERU News Report 10/15/14

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Segment 1: A rally in Skowhegan Monday kicked off efforts here in Maine to follow the lead of cities like Seattle and Minneapolis, and replace “Columbus Day” with a holiday called “Indigenous People’s Day”. Former Penobscot Chief Barry Dana organized the event:

Segment 2: Students in Bangor are raising money to help provide access to clean drinking water in the West African country of Burkina Faso. We spoke with 2 of the organizers of this year’s annual
benefit race, which will be taking place on the Bangor waterfront this weekend:

Segment 3: A few other events happening this weekend: Saturday evening at 7 at the UU Church in Bangor, Sister Cities coordinator Cori Ring-Martinez, and Edith Portillo of the Association for the Development of El Salvador will be speaking on the topic of “Crossing Borders: Organizing in El Salvador and the U.S.: How US policy created the immigration humanitarian crisis, how the Salvadoran government and social movements are responding, and what international solidarity can do to help”. Also on Saturday, from 2-8pm, there will be a concert and fundraiser to benefit the Penobscot Nation’s defense of their ancestral River. There will be an opportunity to learn more about the Penobscot’s battle with the State of Maine in Penobscot Nation v. Mills, and hear about threats to the watershed. That will be held at the Sockalexis Arena on Indian Island. More information is available at the Justice for the River! facebook page.

Segment 4: While all these events are happening, there is also a group of people walking across the state to draw attention to what they say is Maine’s “growing dependence on military production”. One of the organizers is Bruce Gagnon, of Maine Veterans for Peace and the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space: