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Host/Producer: Amy Browne
Maine CD1 Congresswoman Chellie Pingree speaking to the House Agriculture Committee Tuesday as they debated “The Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026”
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-
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Around Town 3/4/26: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
Healthy Peninsula fundraiser for their health programs, featuring the Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers “The Legend of the Banana Kid” at the Blue Hill Town Hall Theater for two shows on March 7, 2026 (10:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.)
The Singing Journalist (Andrew Revkin) event we covered last week is happening tomorrow (Thursday) evening, 6:30-7:30pm, at the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor.
The public is invited to attend the Second Annual Community Ramadan Iftar and Dinner on Friday evening in Bangor. Guests will gather to break the fast at sunset (5:30 PM) and share in an evening of reflection, fellowship, and connection. Ramadan is a sacred month observed by Muslims worldwide, centered on fasting, prayer, gratitude, and compassion. The Second Annual Community Ramadan Iftar and Dinner is happening on Friday, March 6, from 5:00–9:00 PM at the Cross Insurance Center. Admission is free, but registration is required.
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-
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Around Town 3/3/26: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century, March 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th at 7 p.m. at the Thomas S. Gates, Jr. Community Center, 105 Eden Street, Bar Harbor
Tickets are free but you must register in advance at this link
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-
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Around Town 3/2/26: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
Jud Esty-Kendall from the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine is here with an invitation to join the P&J center and a coalition of social justice groups for “Singing In Solidarity”, Saturday, 3/7/26, 3pm-5(ish) at Saint John’s Episcopal Church on French Street in Bangor
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-
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Around Town 2/27/26: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
LD 1822, An Act to Enact the Maine Online Data Privacy Act
Find Your State Senator (includes contact info)
OUT Maine is hosting the 3rd annual Rainbow Gala & Dance Party tonight in Rockland
On Saturday, the Stonington Opera House invites you to travel back to a galaxy far, far, away with their free screening of The Empire Strikes Back.
Belfast’s Annual Ice Festival is also happening this weekend
On Sunday, Great Pond Conservation Trust will hold their monthly meet up at the Joost Family Preserve on Verona Island, for snowshoeing along the shores of the Penobscot.
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-
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Around Town 2/26/26: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
Following up on yesterday’s report, today organizers of The Consequence of Palestine- (Maine Coalition for Palestine, www.mvprights.org/ -weigh in on the controversy in a press release.
Resources included with the press release:
“[E]stablished case law pertaining to nearly identical conferences and academic events” provided by organizers
“Trump Administration Concedes U.S. Researchers may Talk with Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Despite Sanctions” – “The First Amendment generally forecloses the government from using its sanctions authority to suppress the exchange of ideas—and it certainly prohibits the government from preventing scholars from engaging with one of the foremost experts in their field,” says Xiangnong (George) Wang, staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute. “The Treasury Department’s concession is a significant reprieve to the many American scholars, journalists, and advocates that have been chilled from exercising their rights because they fear liability under U.S. sanctions laws.”
“OFAC SIGNALS POLICY CHANGE ON HOLDING CONFERENCES WITH SANCTIONED SPEAKERS” – “Marking what appears to be a reversal of previous policy, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) determined that US persons can, subject to certain limitations, include sanctioned persons as speakers at overseas conferences without specific authorization.”
“The authority granted to the president of the United States under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize the regulation or prohibition of most types of communication that do not involve the transfer of anything of value (50 USC § 1702(b)(1)). The Berman Amendment, added to IEEPA in 1988, stipulates that the president cannot regulate or ban the import or export of “informational materials” to or from adversarial nations or individuals.”
“By reversing its stance in the GPE case, and by issuing the letter as part of the public record in the court proceedings, OFAC appears content to publicly clarify and refine its position on this issue: allowing sanctioned individuals to speak at events organized by US citizens is not a service so long as no financial transactions or other exchanges of benefits take place”
Letter to Middle East Studies Association from OFAC
Media Advisory – The Consequence of Palestine, February 16
Support for Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories:
“Impunity will end: Francesca Albanese keeps hopeful”, Jewish Voice for Liberation, Wed 28 Jan 2026
Links from Part 1 (aired 2/25/26):
“The Consequence of Palestine” Conference Coming to USM, Munjoy Hill News, Portland, 18 February 2026 (NOTE: CANCELLED)
Press Statement, US Imposing Sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, 9 July 2025
Report: “Gaza Genocide: a collective crime” by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, United Nations
Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories
Global: European states must retract outrageous attacks on UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, Amnesty International, 13 Feb 2026
They tried to silence her – they failed, Jewish Voice for Liberation, 23 Feb 2025
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-
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Around Town 2/25/26: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
“The Consequence of Palestine” Conference Coming to USM, Munjoy Hill News, Portland, 18 February 2026 (NOTE: CANCELLED)
Press Statement, US Imposing Sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, 9 July 2025
Report: “Gaza Genocide: a collective crime” by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, United Nations
Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories
Global: European states must retract outrageous attacks on UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, Amnesty International, 13 Feb 2026
They tried to silence her – they failed, Jewish Voice for Liberation, 23 Feb 2025
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-
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Around Town 2/24/26: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
The Singing Journalist, Andy Revkin, joins us today with an invitation to his upcoming talk at the Jesup Memorial Library, Thursday 3/5 at 6:30pm
“In this evening of storytelling and songs, longtime journalist, author, educator and performing songwriter Andy Revkin will explore the evolution of his dual-path journey aimed at connecting the public with ideas, issues and solutions using any means possible.
For decades, Andy Revkin has split his time between prize-winning environmental journalism, mostly for The New York Times, and songwriting, including music featured on NPR and an inaugural album described by the Jambands music magazine as a “tasty mix of roots goulash.” His reporting has taken him from the burning Amazon rain forest to the melting North Pole sea ice. As a musician, Andy was a frequent accompanist of folk legend Pete Seeger at Hudson Valley events and has quickly built a presence in the Downeast Maine folk scene since moving here in 2022.” (Source: Event announcement from the Jesup)
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-
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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