Maine Currents

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Studio Engineer: Joel Mann

This is the Elections 2020 edition of Maine Currents, so we start off with a discussion of how the coronavirus is impacting the campaigns and how it might affect the general election in November. We’ll also look at what Professor Amy Fried calls the “delegate math” following the Maine primaries. Later in the program station manager Matt Murphy pops to talk about the measures we’re taking here at the station to keep everyone safe and the station on the air. We also talk with Cass Clem, founder of a facebook group that’s helping community members help each other, and we open the phone lines to hear how listeners are coping with the crisis.

Guests:

Professor Amy Fried is the Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Maine. She also oversees the Maine Policy Scholar Program at UMaine, and has researched and written extensively about public opinion.

Ralph Chapman served 4 terms as the State Representative for Blue Hill and several surrounding towns in Hancock County. He served first as a Democrat, then as an Independent and finally as a Green party member.

WERU Station Mgr Matt Murphy

Cass Clem, founder of the Maine Coronavirus Community Support group that has popped up on facebook, and took off overnight with community members offering help to others, or coming to the page looking for assistance.

Maine People’s Alliance coronavirus response website (that was mentioned on the show).

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 and Maine Currents, she 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 the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

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Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Studio Engineer: John Greenman

Part 1: (Approx 6 minutes) “Reducing Jail Populations in Maine”, a workshop to be held in Bangor on 3/28/20. We talk with Doug Dunbar, one of the organizers. FMI: www.nopenobscotjailexpansion.com

Part 2: Station Manager Matt Murphy and Studio Engineer join me, and we open the phone lines for a Super Tuesday call in- and start an informal radio “exit poll”

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 and Maine Currents, she 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 the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

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Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by: Matt Murphy
Production assistance: Zoe Sifnakis

“Immigration Law in These Challenging Times”, a talk sponsored by the MDI Racial Equity Working Group, recorded at the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor on February 12th. The panelists were Anna Welch, Sam L Cohen Refugee and Human Rights Clinical Professor at the University of Maine School of Law, and Felix Hagenimana, Asylum Outreach Attorney with the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project. The moderator was Dave Feldman, of the MDI Racial Equity Working Group, and faculty member at the College of the Atlantic.

There are 2 more upcoming events in the MDI Racial Equity Working Group’s Winter Speakers Series: On March 18th, Myron Beasley, Associate Professor of American Studies at Bates College will give a presentation on “Dreamers, Dreams and Tall Tales: Malaga and Maine’s ‘Unspoken’ History”. And on April 15th, Abdi Nor Iftin, will speak about his memoir “Call Me American”, based on his childhood in war-torn Mogadishu and his eventual escape. Both events will be held at the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor at 7pm. Click here for more information

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 and Maine Currents, she 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 the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

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Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Studio Engineer: John Greenman

Our monthly discussion of Elections 2020 related issues. Today we also discuss the League of Women Voters – celebrating their 100th anniversary this year- with Ann Luther.

Guests:

Professor Amy Fried is the Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Maine. She also oversees the Maine Policy Scholar Program at UMaine, and has researched and written extensively about public opinion.

Ralph Chapman served 4 terms as the State Representative for Blue Hill and several surrounding towns in Hancock County. He served first as a Democrat, then as an Independent and finally as a Green party member.

Ann Luther, Treasurer (and past-President) of the League of Women Voters of Maine, leader of the their Advocacy Team, and host of Democracy Forum, which airs here on WERU at 4pm on the 3rd Friday of every month, and is produced in collaboration with the league.

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 and Maine Currents, she 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 the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

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Producer/Host: Amy Browne

On January 28th, the Penobscot County Commissioners (PCC) unanimously passed a resolution in support of refugee resettlement in the county. The vote comes at a time when there are no plans to resettle refugees in the area, and likely would have not taken place had State Rep Larry Lockman (R-Bradley) not raised the issue at the commission’s previous meeting- where he encouraged them to take the opposite action.

At the PCC’s January 14th meeting, Lockman asked the commission to oppose refugee resettlement. At that meeting the commission took no action on his request, which came at a time when Trump’s 2019 Executive Order , which would have allowed local governments to reject refugees, was being reviewed by the federal court. The day after Lockman appeared before the PCC, the US District Court blocked Trump’s order.

Area residents who attended the PCC’s January 28th meeting said they heard about Lockman’s proposal, and felt the PCC’s decision to not take action did not go far enough. They asked the commissioners to consider a resolution in support of refugee resettlement, should there be plans for that in the future.

Today we have some background on Lockman’s attempts to pass anti-immigration legislation in the state. We talk to Crash Barry, an investigative journalist for Mainer (formerly The Bollard), who went undercover in 2018 to expose Lockman’s Maine First Project, and we listen in on the testimony and deliberations at the PCC’s January 28th meeting.

Rep. Lockman did not respond to our request for a comment.

FMI:

The Bollard: First Maine Mania, Crash Berry

The Tipping Point: Maine Rep. Lawrence Lockman’s decades-long history of extremism, Mike Tipping

The Marshall Project: Is There a Connection Between Undocumented Immigrants and Crime?

Maine Currents, 4/26/17: Anti-immigration bills introduced in Maine, Amy Browne

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 and Maine Currents, she 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 the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

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