Tag: Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting

WERU News Report 1/17/12

Issue: Alternative Local News
Broadcast Date: 1/17/12
Broadcast Time: 4pm

Program Topics:

Segment 1: Naomi Schalit and John Christie, Senior Reporters for the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting have just published the results of their investigation into how a loophole in state law has allowed $235 million dollars to flow from the state to private organizations run by legislative leaders or the spouses of high-level state officials—without any requirement that it be reported to the public.

Segment 2: Dr. Denise Patmon, the Keynote Speaker at yesterday’s 16th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Breakfast Celebration at the University of Maine.

Key Discussion Points:

a) State Law Loophole explained

b) How has the loophole been used?

c) MLK Jr’s vision for education

Guests by name and affiliation:

A) Naomi Schalit, Senior Reporter for the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting (www.pinetreewatchdog.org)

B) Dr. Denise Patmon. 2011-2012 Libra Professor at the University of Maine, Director of the undergraduate teacher licensure program at U Mass Boston where she teaches courses in writing and literature and supervises field experiences in urban schools. Her professional writing has been heavily influenced by her experiences as a black person involved in the National Writing Project.

Call In Program: No
Political Broadcast: No

Host: Amy Browne
Engineer: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by: Matt Murphy

WERU News Report 12/27/11

Issue: Alternative Local News
Broadcast Time: 4pm

Program Topic: Short-comings in Maine’s bail system impact domestic violence cases-

An interview with John Christie, Senior Reporter for the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, and author of a newly published series of articles on the topic

Key Discussion Points (list at least 3):
a) How does Maine’s bail system operate and how does it differ from the systems used in other states?
b) The impact on domestic violence cases, in particular
c) The bipartisan coalition forming to address the issue, and pending bills

Guests by name and affiliation:
A) John Christie, Senior Reporter for the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, www.pinetreewatchdog.org

Call In Program: No

Host: Amy Browne
Engineer: Amy Browne

WERU News Report 12/14/11

Broadcast Time: 4pm

Program Topic: The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting’s new report on corruption in small town Maine governments

Key Discussion Points (list at least 3):

a) What types of corruption?

b) What is the cost, financially and otherwise?

c) What can be done to address the problem?

Guests by name and affiliation: Kate McCormick, Contributing Writer for the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, and the author of the report

FMI: www.pinetreewatchdog.org

Call In Program: No

Host: Amy Browne
Engineer: Amy Browne

WERU News Report 2/1/11

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Audio contributed by: Meaghan LaSala

Segment 1:
Naomi Schalit, executive director and senior reporter for the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, a nonprofit, nonpartisan journalism organization, is reporting this week on the controversial background of a program called the “Maine Green Energy Alliance”. It was funded by a federal grant, over objections from state staff working in other similar programs, at the request of former Governor Baldacci. The program was run by Baldacci’s former attorney, and shortly after Schalit began her investigation, the program was shut down. FMI: http://www.pinetreewatchdog.org

Segment 2:
(audio recorded by Meaghan LaSala, edited by Amy Browne)
Last week was “National No-Name-Calling Week”, an event that began in 2004, inspired by the book “The Misfits” by James Howe– a novel for young adults, about a group of students who work together to abolish name-calling in their school. Ellsworth High School marked the event with an assembly that featured presentations by students, faculty and community members. Carol-Anne McEtchern -Murphy is a Clinical Social Worker at Ellsworth HS. She talked about the impacts of bullying. Alissa Wells told the assembly that at a student at Ellsworth HS, she has been treated well. She said she does sometimes feels uncomfortable w/ how she thinks members of the greater community see her. Andy Coate of the Trevor Project Youth Advisory Council talked about the impact of bullying on GLBTQ students, and some of the resources available for them.The presenters encouraged anyone who feels like they are being bullied to speak with an adult, and to know that they are not alone. More information is available at: http://www.nonamecallingweek.org

Voices 12/28/10

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

John Christie of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting on his recent article “Shaded solar panels, disconnected wind turbines: tales of a $1.1 million state energy program” (http://pinetreewatchdog.org/) and Maine People’s Alliance (http://mainepeoplesalliance.org/) and Governor-elect Paul LePage’s transition team (www.lepagetransition.com) — attempts to find common ground are mired in accusations.

Voices 9/14/10

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

An interview with John Christie, publisher and senior reporter for the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, a non-partisan and nonprofit journalism organization based in Hallowell. The mission of The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting is to “ful?ll the responsibility of a free press in the American democracy by providing independent reporting to Maine citizens about their government and elections” and they aim to “fill the gap between the diminished in-depth reporting from the existing Maine media and the need of the state?s citizens to be fully informed about the actions of its government and public servants.” Their work appears in various media outlets across the state, as well as their own website, pinetreewatchdog.org

WERU is working with The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, to bring their stories to our listeners, in a partnership that we kicked off last month with Naomi Schalit’s report on Wind Power Legislation in Maine.
John Christie joins us on Voices today to talk about his in-depth report called: PENSIONS: THE NEXT BUDGET CRISIS which looks at the looming threat to Maine’s economy that is posed by decades of an underfunded– and over politicized– state pension system.

FMI: www.pinetreewatchdog.org

Weekend Voices 8/21/10

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Segment 1:

Maine’s Board of Environmental Protection held a public hearing regarding the designation of  bisphenol A as a priority chemical and it’s regulation in children’s products on Thursday.

Guests:

Mike Belliveau, Executive Director, Environmental Health Strategy Center
John Peterson Myers is founder, CEO and Chief Scientist of Environmental Health Sciences, co-author of Our Stolen Future (1996) and the website OurStolenFuture.org (synthesizing hundreds of scientific articles about endocrine disruption to make them accessible to the media and the lay public)

http://ourstolenfuture.org/ and

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/

Laura Vandenberg, PhD, Post Doctoral Fellow, Tufts University. Her major research focus is on understanding human exposure to the endocrine disruptor bisphenol A.
Jennifer Sass is a senior scientist in Natural Resources Defense Council’s health and environment program, Jennifer received her doctorate degree from the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, and a postdoctoral fellowship in toxicology from the University of Maryland. http://www.nrdc.org/
Segment 2:
WERU is kicking off a new partnership with the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, in which we hope to bring some of their in-depth reporting to the WERU airwaves.

Award-winning journalist Naomi Schalit, formerly of MPBN, the Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel is Executive Director and Senior Reporter for the Center. She joined us here at the WERU studios to tell us more about the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, and their recent series of reports on the Wind Energy Act of 2008—which fast tracked industrial wind power development in Maine.  http://pinetreewatchdog.org/