Maine Currents 4/20/16

Producer/Editor/Host: Amy Browne
Engineer: Denis Howard
Audio recorded by Matt Murphy

In celebration of Earth week, today we talk with Peter Neill of the World Ocean Observatory about his new book, The Once and Future Ocean: Notes Toward a New Hydraulic Society . Neill is the host of the weekly short feature “World Ocean Radio” which has aired here on WERU every Wednesday morning at 7:30 for several years. He is also the founder and director of the World Ocean Observatory
FMI: worldoceanobservatory.org/

But first we kick things off with a short montage of poetry from the “Poets Respond to Climate Change” event, at the Reversing Falls Sanctuary in Brooksville last month (recorded by Matt Murphy). In order we’ll hear from: Margaret Brooks, Maira Vandiver, MacKenzie Tapley, Henry Finch, Hattie Fitzpatrick, Emily Eisenhauer, Ed Conte, Brooke Wentworth and Anne Ferrara

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Maine Currents 4/13/16

Producer/Editor/Host: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by Natalie Springuel

Hundreds of people gathered in Northport last weekend for the Penobscot Watershed Conference which focused on heritage, challenges and the future of the watershed. WERU volunteer Natalie Springuel , host of Coastal Conversations, works for Maine Sea Grant, one of the conference sponsors. For those of you who were unable to attend the conference, she recorded the welcoming remarks by Chief Kirk Francis of the Penobscot Nation; Curt Spaulding, a regional EPA administrator; and US Representative Chellie Pingree, and the keynote presentation by UMaine Marine Sciences Professor Bob Steneck. Paul Anderson was the emcee.

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Maine Currents 4/6/16

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Topic: LePage’s controversial BEP nominee confirmed

In a nearly unanimous vote this morning, the Senate confirmed Kathleen Chase, Governor LePage’s nominee for the Board of Environmental Protection– an appointee so controversial that environmental groups that say they have never opposed a nominee, spoke in opposition at a public hearing yesterday. The only vote in against the confirmation came from Senator Dave Miramant, a Democrat from Camden. The Senate’s vote took less than 2 minutes, and was done with no discussion or debate. They devoted significantly more time this morning to honoring a middle school band and recognizing various visitors, than they did to making this decision.
Today on Maine Currents we’re going to take a look at how this nomination was approved, starting with the confirmation hearing yesterday before the legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee.

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Maine Currents 3/30/16

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Engineer: John Greenman

Today we return to our on-going community discussion of the upcoming presidential election.
We have a returning guest in the studio today with us today, Bernie Sanders supporter Tim Wilson, of Belfast. Tim has a bachelor’s degree in political science and an MBA. In the 90s, he was a campaign volunteer for Ross Perot. In 2004 he and his fiancé walked from Concord, Mass to the Jefferson Memorial in DC for a “Healthy World of Sustainable Peace and Prosperity”. And joining us for the first time today is Blue Hill resident Margaret Hannah, a Hillary Clinton supporter. Margaret says she has memories of intensely watching national political campaigns on TV starting in 1956. She campaigned in New Hampshire in 1968 for Gene McCarthy; participated in civil rights marches in DC and NYC and throughout the country in marches against the Iraq war.

Our Green Party representative who joined us last time was not available today. We reached out the Republican party and the Hancock County GOP group will hopefully be sending someone next time, but we were not able to have someone join us here in the studio today.

Earlier this month on “Maine Currents” we asked the question we’ll be asking again today, and more as the election season continues: “which presidential candidate do you support, and why?”.

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Maine Currents 3/9/16

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Contributing Producer: Carolyn Coe
Engineer: Matt Murphy

Segment 1: Produced by Carolyn Coe. we hear from members of Veterans for Peace from this area who recently toured US military bases under construction in Japan and South Korea. FMI: www.vfpmaine.org

Segment 2: Interview and call in segment with local farmer and food rights activist Heather Retberg, about a proposed “right to food” amendment to Maine’s Constitution that will likely be taken up by the legislature next week. FMI: www.facebook.com/Food-for-Maines-Future-55928098548/

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Maine Currents 3/2/16

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Engineer: John Greenman

Today we’re opening the phone lines and asking “which candidate(s) do you support, and why?”. Our guests are local supporters of the Democratic and Green party candidates. (Numerous attempts were made to reach local supporters of the Republican candidates, by we received no response.)

Guests:
Betsy Garrold –past state party co-chair of the Maine Green Independent Party and currently serves as a Waldo County coordinator for the party.
Steve Godsoe — campaigning for Hillary Clinton.
Tim Wilson — volunteer supporting the Bernie Sanders Presidential Campaign.

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Maine Currents 2/24/16

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Indigenous rights attorney Sherri Mitchell of the Penobscot Nation, has been a regular guest here on WERU, and if you were tuned in this morning at 10, you heard the new Pacifica network show she cohosts called “Love (and Revolution). Today on Maine Currents we’re bringing you to a talk Sherri Mitchell gave at the University of Maine last week called “Ending Conquest Activism”.

FMI re “Love (and Revolution) radio”: us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=52edd9c637ac7dc6228813e39&id=842fbb908f

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Maine Currents 2/17/16

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Engineer: John Greenman

Each year we kick off our live, overnight special coverage of the national Homelessness Marathon by checking in with folks from some of the local shelters to get an update on homelessness in this area. Today we’ll be talking what resources exist, how to access them, what is needed and what the community can do to help, with representatives from HOME in Orland and the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter

Guests:
Tracey Hair, Assistant Director and Gerald Botta, Shelter Dept., HOME Inc in Orland
Rowena Griffen, Executive Director and Dennis Pegues, Overnight Worker, Veteran and former guest at Bangor Area Homeless Shelter

FMI:
www.homemmausa.org/ www.bangorareashelter.org/

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