Around Town 3/13/25: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

Excerpts from some of the four hours + of testimony the state legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources committee heard yesterday at the public hearing for 2 bills related to protecting Sears Island from industrial development:
LD 226, “An Act to Protect the Cultural Resources and Historical Heritage of Sears Island in Searsport by Extending Conservation Easement Protections”.
FMI: legislature.maine.gov/billtracker/#Paper/226?legislature=132
LD 735, “An Act to Protect Sand Dunes on Sears Island and to Establish Criteria for Legislation Regarding Land Development”.
FMI: legislature.maine.gov/billtracker/#Paper/735?legislature=132

If you would like to hear more testimony, check the pages for each bill (links above). Written testimony and audio files of verbal testimony will be posted there by the committee

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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Talk of the Towns 3/12/25: Maine’s Rural Aspirations Project

Producer/Hosts: Ron Beard and Liz Graves
Theme music for Talk of the Towns Theme is a medley from Coronach, on a Balnain House Highland Music recording.

Talk of the Towns: Local Community concerns and opportunities

This month:
–What experiences led to the creation of the Rural Aspirations Project
–The Rural Aspirations Project has developed a “theory of change” to describe how it works collaboratively with rural schools, students, teachers community members, and what happens when the work succeeds.
–The Rural Aspirations project has a track record of more than a decade and has a number of case studies that illustrate their approach. Each case study links learning with the natural resources of their rural area, improves graduation rates and gives students the opportunity to create an onward path after graduation
–Staff members from Rural Aspirations Project share their personal stories about why they do this work and why it is so important to the future of rural communities and their people

Guest/s:
Kora Soll – Executive Director & Co-founder
Val Peacock – Director of Program Strategy and Program Development & Co-founder
Todd West – Operations Director & Collaborative Project Coordinator

FMI:
www.ruralaspirations.org

About the hosts:

Ron Beard is producer and host of Talk of the Towns, which first aired on WERU in 1993 as part of his community building work as an Extension professor with University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant. He took all the journalism courses he could fit in while an undergraduate student in wildlife management and served as an intern with Maine Public Television nightly newscast in the early 1970s. Ron is an adjunct faculty member at College of the Atlantic, teaching courses on community development. Ron served on the Bar Harbor Town Council for six years and is currently board chair for the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, where he has lived since 1975. Look for him on the Allagash River in June, and whenever he can get away, in the highlands of Scotland where he was fortunate to spend two sabbaticals.

Liz Graves joined Talk of the Towns as co-producer and co-host in July 2022, having long admired public affairs programming on WERU and dreamed of getting involved in community radio. She works as the Town Clerk for the Town of Bar Harbor, and is a former editor of the Mount Desert Islander weekly newspaper. Liz grew up in California and came to Maine as a schooner sailor.

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WERU Wabanaki Windows 8.27.24

Wabanaki Windows is a monthly community radio public affairs program, hosted by Donna Loring, Penobscot Indian Nation Tribal Elder. In this episode Donna and her guests explore Blood Quantum and the influence it has played in the development of Tribal Communities, membership numbers, and their very identities. This is a highly controversial subject, and this program is but one in a series that thoroughly addresses the subject.

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WERU Maine Monitor Radio Hour 12.5.24

The Maine Monitor Radio Hour is a public affairs program that airs monthly on WERU Community Radio, in collaboration with The Maine Monitor (a publication of the nonprofit Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting). In this episode, Monitor environmental reporter Emmett Gartner joins host Kate Cough (Maine Monitor Editor) to talk about his recent series on dams in Maine and how they will fare in a changing climate.

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World Ocean Radio 3/12/25: A Series for World Water Day

Host: Peter Neill
Producer: Trisha Badger

ABOUT THIS EPISODE
World Water Day is March 22nd. For the next three weeks on World Ocean Radio we will be revisiting some of our favorite episodes dedicated to fresh water and the global water cycle. This week we’re introducing listeners to the Water Ethics Charter: recommendations from a global Water Ethics Steering Committee with draft principles for water sustainability based on the five themes: environment, economics, social, cultural, and governance.

WORLD OCEAN RADIO
5-minute weekly insights dive into ocean science, advocacy and education hosted by Peter Neill, lifelong ocean advocate and maritime expert. A catalog of more than 700 episodes offer perspectives on global ocean issues and viable solutions, and celebrate exemplary projects. Available for RSS feed and for broadcast by college and community radio stations worldwide. You will also find this week’s World Ocean Radio episode at Exchange.prx.org, at Audioport.org, WorldOceanObservatory.org where the full catalog of episodes is searchable by theme, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Around Town 3/12/25: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

This morning, starting around 10, the state legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources committee will hold a combine public hearing for 2 bills related to protecting Sears Island from industrial development:
LD 226, “An Act to Protect the Cultural Resources and Historical Heritage of Sears Island in Searsport by Extending Conservation Easement Protections”.
FMI: legislature.maine.gov/billtracker/#Paper/226?legislature=132
LD 735, “An Act to Protect Sand Dunes on Sears Island and to Establish Criteria for Legislation Regarding Land Development”.

FMI: legislature.maine.gov/billtracker/#Paper/735?legislature=132
To register to testify via zoom: www.mainelegislature.org/testimony

The Digital Security Discussion Group at the Witherle Library will be discussing “Understanding the Dark Web: what it is, where it is, and how to avoid it”, with Moderator Tom Lamontanaro from 5-6pm tonight in person at the Witherle Memorial Library and via zoom.
For more information and the zoom link: witherlelibrary.net/events/digital-security-discussion-group-9/

The public is invited to “United We Stand: Building Community Resilience in Uncertain Times” Organizers say “Join us for a panel discussion where local leaders will share facts and insights to help our community navigate uncertainty, foster resilience, and build supportive networks.”
Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor
March 13th, 6:30pm – 7:30pm
FMI: www.jesuplibrary.org/events/communityresilience

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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Outside the Box 3/11/25: “Peacemaker?”

Producer/Host: Larry Dansinger

About the host:
Larry Dansinger (no pronouns) of Bangor came to Maine in 1974 and has been here ever since. Some of Larry’s activities since then: Done community organizing on numerous issues through INVERT and then Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC), committed civil disobedience several times, grown a garden yearly since 1977, joined various food cooperatives and two men’s groups, refused to pay federal income taxes for war, lived on a community land trust for 23 years, and met a wonderful partner whom Larry has loved for over 40 years. Larry has produced Outside the Box features on WERU since 2007 and continues to look for unique ways of seeing almost any problem or situation.

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Around Town 3/11/25: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

The Maine legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry will hold a public hearing today at 1pm for LD 124, “An Act to Protect the Right to Food”.

FMI:
On LD 124: legislature.maine.gov/billtracker/#Paper/SP0050?legislature=132
On the committee: legislature.maine.gov/committee/#Committees/ACF
To register to testify via zoom: www.mainelegislature.org/testimony

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