Category: WERU News Report

WERU News Report 9/9/14

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Segment 1: A trial will get underway Monday for 2 Mainers who were arrested for sitting on railroad tracks in an attempt to call attention to the dangers of transporting Bakken crude. Doug Bowen and Jessie Dowling, were charged with criminal trespass. Their supporters are planning a rally outside the courthouse and invite others to join them. Read Brugger is with 350Maine, a “a grassroots movement dedicated to solving the planetary climate crisis”:

Segment 2: Another event that’s connecting issues and activists in Maine and across the country in September is “Campaign Nonviolence”. In Bangor there will be an “End Violence Together” rally and march on Saturday, September 27th. Mary Ellen Quinn of Pax Christi is one of the organizers:

WERU News Report 9/2/14

Producer/Host: Carolyn Coe

Topic:
Israeli industrial settlements

Factories, even those forced to stop operating inside Israel because of their poor environmental records, have relocated to the occupied Palestinian Territory (oPT). These illegal factories’ industrial wastewater has polluted Palestinian streams and farmland, and their smokestacks have created dark clouds of dust particles over Palestinian towns. Public health problems associated with this industrial pollution include higher than average cancer rates, skin diseases, and respiratory ailments. Palestinians work in these factories as many other employment options are denied them.
It is through the struggles of a local union that the exploitive and dangerous working conditions in the settlement factories in Tulkarm, but not broadly throughout the oPT, have improved somewhat.

Guests:

Murad Samara, municipal employee and activist in Bruqin
Jamal Juma’, coordinator of the Stop the Wall campaign
Shatha Zayda, health worker in mobile clinic, Palestinian Medical Relief Society, Salfit
Abdelkarim Dalbah, journalist and part of UN team assessing the damages because of the Wall
Fayez Tayeeb, organic farmer and activist, Tulkarm
Salman Sulieman, organizer for Stop the Wall, Tulkarm
Mohammed Blady, president of the New Palestine Federation of Trade Unions, Tulkarm

Information on the Nitzanei Shalom and Barqan industrial zones in the occupied Palestinian Territory as well as specific factories such as Geshuri Industries and the Solor Group can be found at whoprofits.org.

WERU News Report 8/27/14

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

We check in with Ron Huber, Executive Director of Friends of Penobscot Bay, for an update on that group’s efforts to determine what was left behind on the shoreline near GAC chemical in Searsport, by generations of industry there. We also talk with DEP spokesperson Jessamine Logan for a response to Huber’s allegations that a FOAA records request to the agency did not yield requested phone records.

WERU News Report 8/27/14

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

We check in with Ron Huber, Executive Director of Friends of Penobscot Bay, for an update on that group’s efforts to determine what was left behind on the shoreline near GAC chemical in Searsport, by generations of industry there. We also talk with DEP spokesperson Jessamine Logan for a response to Huber’s allegations that a FOAA records request to the agency did not yield requested phone records.

WERU Special 8/25/14

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Studio Engineer: Joel Mann

The US Army Corps of Engineers and Maine DOT are proposing a dredging project in Searsport Harbor that would result in nearly a million cubic yards of materials being dumped in Penobscot Bay near Islesboro. The project would deepen and widen the shipping channel. Supporters say that would improve commerce in the port, but opponents say the economic and environmental risks far outweigh any potential benefits.

Joining me in the studio today are Joel Pitcher of the Maine Lobstering Union, and attorney Kim Tucker. She represents the Maine Lobstering Union, Pemaquid Muscle Farm, and the Sierra Club of Maine as well as some individual members of the Zone D lobster council. The program also features excerpts from an interview with Dr. Kevin Yeager- an independent scientist who previously worked on the Holtrachem/Mallinkrodt mercury case in the federal court system. He is the author of a new report that raises serious concerns about the plan– among them the possibility that inert mercury in the sediment may be converted to a more toxic form and make its way into the food chain in Penobscot Bay. He also criticizes the methology the Army Corps used in their sediment sampling.

WERU News Report 8/20/14

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

With the situation in Palestine being covered by various media outlets on a daily basis in recent weeks, we may feel like we’re saturated with information about the on-going crisis. But most of us have not traveled to the region, and don’t know the people who are reporting or what pressures their media outlets might be putting on them. So to put things in a different context, we’ve invited two of our community members who *have* traveled to Palestine recently to tell us about what they witnessed. Robert Shetterly is the artist behind the “Americans Who Tell the Truth” portrait series, and Carolyn Coe is a local teacher. You’ve heard them both on the WERU airwaves in the past, and a lot of you know them as community members. I invited them to be my guests on this week’s WERU News Report to give us their first hand accounts

WERU News Report 8/19/14

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Segment 1: We have some breaking news today about the highly controversial proposal to dredge in Searsport Harbor and dump nearly a million cubic yards of sludge in the bay near Islesboro. In a report being released this week, an independent scientist who previously worked on the Holtrachem/Mallinkrodt mercury case in the federal court system raises serious concerns about the plan– among them the possibility that inert mercury in the sediment may be converted to a more toxic form and make its way into the food chain in Penobscot Bay. He also criticizes the methology the Army Corps used in the studies they are submitting with the permit applications. The agency was provided with a copy of this new report, but declined offers to discuss the findings with Dr. Kevin Yeager, the author, and instead is moving forward with plans to apply to the Maine DEP for the required Water Quality Certification, possibly as soon as the end of this week. There is still an opportunity for the public to request a hearing on the issue, and later in the program we’ll be talking with Attorney Kim Tucker about that, but first we’re checking in with Dr Yeager

Segment 2: Earlier this year we spoke with Mike Belliveau, Executive Director of the group “Prevent Harm” about their campaign to have formaldehyde listed as a priority chemical under Maine’s Kid Safe Product Act. At the time, he reported that the state was backing away from steps they had already taken, under pressure from the lobbyists, including the powerful Koch Brothers. The rationale that was given was that the state needed further evidence of the dangers of formaldehyde. Now the results are in, a new report confirms the health risks and we checked back in with Mike Belliveau for an update