Around Town 8/12/25: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

Grace Johnston-Fennell from Out in the Open is here with an invitation for LGBTQ+ folks to join them at an “Arrt!”(Artist Rapid Response Team) event on Saturday, 8/16, 12-4pm in Unity.

For more information and to register:
email [email protected] or call 207-808-0623

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

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Around Town 8/11/25: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

Andy O’Brien, Maine AFL-CIO, on the Trump administration’s termination of the collective bargaining agreement between the Veteran’s Administration and the council that represents many of the staff at the VA — and how that’s impacting workers at Togus.

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Around Town 8/7/25: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

Courtney Hayes and John Jurcheck, cofounders of the Belfast-based counter/current:collective are here to invite you to their production of Lungs, a play by Duncan MacMillan – opening this week at a secret location!

FMI & tickets
or call Courtney at (720) 496-3297

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Around Town 8/6/25: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

FMI:
Surry Rural Hall
Surry Garden Club
Surry Historical Society

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Around Town 8/5/25: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

FMI:

Bats
Maine CDC Rabies page
Maine IF&W Bats page
Maine CDC’s disease reporting & consultation line: 1-800-821-5821 (available 24/7)
Maine IF&W Game Warden Dispatch Centers (for bat pick-up and delivery)
Augusta: 1-800-452-4664
Bangor: 1-800-432-7381
Houlton: 1-800-924-2261

Public comment period on Maine’s Draft State Wildlife Action Plan

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Around Town 8/4/25: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

Tomorrow, Tuesday, August 5th at 6:30 p.m. the Bangor Band will hold a special event for families with a free, kid-centric concert at Chapin Park, Bangor.

This Wednesday (8/6) the Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine and Pax Christi Maine will hold an event in observance of the 80th anniversary of the US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagaski. Messages, music and community from 1:30 to 3pm at Davenport Park in Bangor (Corner of Main and Cedar– across from the police station and the homeless shelter)

And radio news in the Maine newspapers 100 years ago today..

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Around Town 8/1/25: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

-Secretary of State Shenna Bellows responds to the Trump DOJ’s request for Maine citizen’s voter records
–Goodlife Center events this weekend
–Urban farm tours in the Bangor/Brewer area tomorrow

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Around Town 7/31/25: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

New York and Maine based award-winning writer/artists Judith Sloan and Warren Lehrer are here with a “save the date” for their return to the Blue Hill Library to present excerpts from three decades of book and performance projects. As co-founders of EarSay, a non-profit dedicated to nurturing and portraying stories of uncelebrated individuals, the couple have been collaborating on multi-media works that embrace stories of immigration, refuge, war and peace, and finding home and sanity in an out of balance world. Join them for a free event of readings, music, visuals, wordcraft, laughter, and pathos.

Tues August 19, 7pm Blue Hill Public Library
5 Parker Point Road, Blue Hill, Maine
FREE and open to all. Blue Hill Books will be on site for book sales
Registration

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

Podcast: Play in new window | Download