Talk of the Towns 10/14/16

Host: Ron Beard, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Issue: Community concerns and opportunities

Program Topic: Land Trusts Working With Communities

Key Discussion Points:
Land Trusts have always built public use into its mission, including hunting and trapping… how did you arrive at this policy and how have area residents received it?
Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust engaged a number of area citizens in some interviews as part of updating your plans… what did you learn in those conversations? What directions are you exploring to increase your involvement with the communities in which you have land and shared interests?
What is the mission and history of Maine Coast Heritage Trust How did your most recent strategic plan come to have a focus on rivers? What is your work work Down East and collaboration with Downeast Fisheries Partnership
How do land trusts typically engage with communities (beyond the early mission of protecting land and other natural resources)… how do you work with schools, for instance?
What are your hopes for your own community and how land trusts will continue to evolve to serve both the natural resources they protect and the community members who live and work here?

Guests:
Cheri Domina, Executive Director, Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust
Jennifer Reifler, volunteer, Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust
Chrissy Allen, Blue Hill Heritage Trust
Jacob van de Sande, Maine Coast Heritage Trust by phone

RadioActive 10/13/16

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Issue: Environmental and Social Justice

Program Topic: Food Security and the Minimum Wage; Juniper Ridge Landfill Expansion

Key Discussion Points:
1) Today we speak with community and labor organizer Jack McKay about a forum on Food Security and the Minimum Wage taking place Wed. October 19th from 930-1130 at the Bangor Public Library.
2)McKay say, in the past decade, the Maine’s state food insecurity rating has risen from 33rd to 3rd, attributable to a number of administrative changes by Governor LePage restricting access to food stamps/ Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. On November 8th, Mainers will vote on a referendum to increase the state minimum wage.
3) And we speak with Hillary Lister about the proposed Juniper Ridge Landfill in Old Town. On Tuesday, October 18th, Maine’s Board of Environmental Protection will conduct a public hearing on the expansion. It will take place at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. Starting at 9am applicants and intervenors will present. At 6pm the public may comment. Written comments are accepted until October 19th. There has been long opposition to the expansion of the landfill, including for it’s impact on water and the state operational policy to avoid restrictions to take out of state waste by minimal processing that re-classifies it as in state waste.

Guests:
Jack McKay, Director of Food AND Medicine, President of the Eastern Maine Labor Council
Hillary Lister, waste/landfill/incinerator activist

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 10/13/16

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

For hundreds of years in America, we have believed in the “Marketplace of Ideas” as the best way to confront differing opinions and sort out the truth. And then came the web. There, we can find almost any opinion on any subject, and those opinions as assertions of truth are often pre-sorted by search engines and social media sites before they ever reach us. How can we evaluate the veracity of what we find on the web? Here are a few starter suggestions.

Maine Currents 10/12/16

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Studio Engineer: John Greenman

Our multi-partisan panel joins us again to discuss the upcoming elections, and Emily Cain, Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress for Maine’s 2nd District joins us for the first half hour to answers questions from the panel and callers. (Opponent Bruce Poliquin was invited but declined and did not respond to requests to send a campaign aide in his place). We also discuss referendum questions on Maine’s ballot and recent candidate scandals.

Guests:
Emily Cain, Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress for Maine’s 2nd District Congressional. (Opponent Bruce Poliquin was invited but declined and did not respond to requests to send a campaign aide in his place).
Betsy Garrold, Green Party, Dr. Jill Stein supporter
Tim Wilson, former Bernie Sanders supporter now supporting Stein
Ken Gleason, Democrat, Hillary Clinton supporter
Renee Trust, Libertarian, Gary Johnson supporter
Republican Dave Gulya was absent this week.