WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives
Audio archives of spoken word broadcasts from Community Radio WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill (weru.org)
Producer/Host: Jim Campbell
The great promise of possibilities offered by the web are increasingly constrained by governments, including our own. Congress is now considering several bills which have the potential to affect our use of the web – and beyond – in terms of privacy and civil liberties. Here’s where the Protecting Cyber Networks Act and renewal of Section 215 of the Patriot Act stand at the moment.
Producer/Host: Jim Campbell
Section 215 of the Patriot Act will expire on June 1 unless it is renewed. In the wake of Edward Snowden’s revelations about the historically unparalleled level of surveillance of Americans that this part of the Patriot Act has authorized, a lot of people don’t think it should be renewed, at least in its present form. Perhaps that is why Mitch McConnell quietly submitted, with no public announcement, a reauthorization bill that would extend the act as it is for five more years, and then invoked Senate rule 14 to bypass public committee hearings on the bill. Those who have an opinion on S.1035 might want to let their elected representatives know – and pronto!
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by John Greenman
Segment 1: With parts of the University of Maine system facing cuts, it might seem that they are having some financial problems- but it turns out that they have quite a nest egg stashed away that they could be tapping into to avoid cutting programs, according to a new report by John Christie of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting (www.pinetreewatchdog.org)
Segment 2: Michael Figura, Legal Fellow with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, was in Maine Friday, speaking at a forum on the “National Defense Authorization Act’s “indefinite detention” provision, the PATRIOT Act, and related threats to civil liberties“. Friday’s forum at the Peace & Justice Center in Bangor, was one in a series of forums held in Maine towns. Organizer Jon Olson also spoke at the event.
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
9/11 retrospective, WERU-style
Featuring archived audio from September 2001 and the months that followed, including a speech given by performance artist Reverend Billy Talen at the New Chautauqua in Unity, Maine in September 2001; Person-in-street interviews re: the PATRIOT Act and what rights people were “willing to give up for security”; and clips from massive rallies for peace that drew hundreds of thousands of people – but were ignored by the corporate media