RadioActive 10/30/08

Producers/Hosts: Meredith DeFrancesco & Amy Browne

Segment 1: Next week community activists from around the state will gather in Augusta for the Maine Association of Interdependent Neighborhoods (MAIN) Annual Meeting.    They’ll be deciding on priorities for the upcoming year—and you are invited to participate.  Earlier today we spoke with Steve Hoad of the MAIN Leadership team.  FMI: www.peacebreadjustice.org or MAIN, P.O. Box 69, Hallowell, ME 04347, 1-866-626-7059 (Ext. 204 for Conference Info)

Segment 2: It was announced this week that a California court has granted the motion of the Maine Civil Liberties Union (MCLU).   Foundation to intervene in a case involving National Security Agency wiretapping of potentially millions of Americans.   22 Mainers have been given formal legal status in a consolidated case against the telephone companies for their role in the NSA warrantless surveillance program.   Zachary Heiden of the Maine Civil Liberties Union will be joining us today to talk about the significance of that — and he’ll also provide some tips for making sure your vote is counted this year.   FMI: www.mclu.org or 207-774-5444.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 10/30/08

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Robots have long been the stuff of science fiction but they are fast becoming parts of our everyday life. While we may be preparing for the presence of robots in a technological sense, we seem less prepared to deal with the moral and legal questions that autonomous robots will bring to our society and legal system. Here’s why…

Talk of the Towns 10/24/08

Producer/Host: Ron Beard, University of Maine Cooperative Extension

Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Topic: Co-housing and local agriculture in Belfast

What is co-housing and where did the concept originate?   How has the proposal for the Belfast Area Ecovillage developed in terms of the people, land and design process?  How does local agriculture intersect with the planned Ecovillage?

Guests: Sanna McKim, Project Manager; Ann Hallee, Equity Member/Farmer; Dyan White, Member of Pioneer Valley Co-housing in Massachusetts; Alan Gibson, Builder

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RadioActive 10/23/08

Producers/Hosts: Meredith DeFrancesco & Amy Browne

Topics:

Segment 1: This past Friday, October the 17th, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, FERC, announced that it had dismissed energy developer Quoddy Bay LNG’s application fro a liquefied natural gas terminal on the Passamaquoddy tribe’s residential land at Pleasant Point.  FERC stated the company had still not provided them with the information they had requested, which had prompted them to suspend review in April. FERC’s letter states the dimissal is without prejudice, if Quoddy Bay LNG re files an application with complete information.  The Save Passamaquoddy bay 3-Nation Alliance , comprised of organized residents of the Passamaquoddy tribe, the US (in Maine) and Canada, have strongly opposed Quoddy bay LNG’s proposed terminal for its’ precarious siting and for safety, environmental and cultural reasons. In Tuesday, the 3 Nation Alliance filed a request to the Maine Board of Environmental Protection asking that the states dismiss Quoddy BayLNG’s pending application with the BEP, as well.
We will follow up on this story in greater detail in the following weeks. We spoke briefly before air time with Robert Godfrey of the Save Passamquoddy Bay 3 Nation Alliance

Segment 2: On October 27th, 2006, New York City based activist and independent journalist Brad Will was shot and killed in Oaxaca City, Mexico. He was covering the popular uprising born out of the suppression of teacher demonstrations in Oaxaca by Governor Ulisis Ruiz.  Two others were shot and killed by paramilitaries the same day; 5 others were wounded, and another disappeared. Despite the documentation of paramilitaries from the local police and municipal government, the Mexican government immediately blamed the death of US resident brad Will on the activists. Now, 2 years later, the Mexican government has not investigated the paramilitaries, and instead, on October 16th, arrested members of the Oaxacan social movement for will’s murder.  This follows on the heels of the US Congress summer passage of the Merida Initiative, also known as Plan Mexico, which will provide at least $1.6 billion to Mexico, for armaments, training and resources for Mexican police and military under the mantle of the War on Drugs.
We spoke yesterday with independent journalist John Gibler, who has been following issues in Oaxaca closely over the past 3 years. He is a Global Exchange Media Fellow. His latest article was published in the New York paper The Indypendent. It’s title-“The Rule of Impunity: Mexican Government Ignores Overwhelming Evidence, Charges Oaxacan Activists with Brad Will’s Murder.”  Later we’ll get an update from Rob Jerewski, a friend of Brad’s who, along with others, is engaged in a fast and protest at Senator Hillary Clinton’s New York office.

For more information on Oaxaca and the Brad Will case, and to read John Gibler’s October 21st article published by The Indypendent, go to www.indypendent.org. Links to a number of John Gibler’s published articles can be found at the Global Exchange website, www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/mexico/dispatches . Gibler’s book Mexico Unconquered : Chronicles of Power and Revolt, will be published by City Light Books in January.
For more information on the movement to bring justice for the murders of Brad Will and Oaxacan activists, you can go to .hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage { FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma } americas.irc-online.org/am/5118  or  www.friendsofbradwill.org