Donate to WERU Today!Host/Producer: Amy Browne
Meet Nick Bear and Nolan Altvater from Wabanaki REACH – the new hosts of Dawnland Signals, a monthly public affairs show that returns on Tuesday, February 2nd at 4pm and will continue on the 1st Tuesday of every month.
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-
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RadioActive 1/30/26: ICE in Maine: Organizing and Rally in Lewiston; LD 2106 to Protect
Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco
A grassroots environmental and social justice news journal, collaboration of WERU and Sunlight Media Collective. Learn more at sunlightmediacollective.org.
Today we speak with Somali American community organizer Safiya Khalid with Community Organizing Alliance in Lewiston on the ICE surge and the community’s reaction. We hear some of the speeches by Somali American community leaders at a rally against ICE in Lewiston January 24th. And we hear some of the public testimony before the judiciary committee on LD 2106, a bill that would prohibit immigration agents from entering healthcare facilities, schools, libraries and daycare facilities or accessing records from those institutions without a judicial warrant – a protection that had been in place nationally prior to the Trump administration’s rollback last January.
Guests:
Safiya Khalid, founder and director of Community Organizing Alliance in Lewiston.
Speakers at January 24th Rally in Lewiston:
Amran Osman, founder and director of Generational Noor.
Shukri Abdirahman, Androscoggin County Commissioner.
Ifraax Saciid-Ciise, founder and director of IFKA Community Services.
Testimony given on LD 2016, including:
Sponsor Rep. Ellie Sato, Gorham.
Ashley Ward, Maine Nurses Association.
Alysia Melnick (Attorney with Bernstien Shur) reading for the Maine Nurse Practitioners Association.
Taylor Trease, RN Augusta.
Jane Makela, Unitarian Universalist, Falmouth.
Susan Kiralis, Vassleboro.
FMI:
www.communityorganizingalliance.org
www.Ilapmaine.org
www.maineimmigrantrights.org/mirc-resource-hub/
www.aclumaine.org
www.Presentemaine.org
www.ifkacommunity.org
www.generationalnoor.com
To contribute to the Maine Solidarity Fund offering financial aid for legal and family support:
www.mainesolidarity.org
Ilap and Maine ACLU now have a form to apply for detention attorneys:
www.ilapmaine.org/detention
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Around Town 1/30/26: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
Pete Nichols, Executive Director of Penobscot Bay Waterkeeper, with an update on the Little River site (on the Belfast/Northport line) that was saved from industrialization- and an invitation to come hike or ski there.
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-
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Around Town 1/29/26: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
The No Kings! Coalition has announced March 28th as the next national day of action.
Nurses United Against Violence invites the public to join them Friday evening for a candlelight vigil for Alex Pretti at 5pm in front of the Federal Building on Harlow Street in Bangor
From from Indivisible Bangor: 3 short whistle blasts means ICE is nearby and one long blast means they are detaining someone. They say “Stay non-violent, but don’t stay silent”
Maine Immigrant Rights Hotline 207-544-9989
Maine Immigrant Rights Resource Hub
Immigration Legal Advocacy Project Maine update on ICE in Maine
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 1/28/26: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
Immigration Legal Advocacy Project Maine update on ICE in Maine
The Digital Security Discussion Group at the Witherle Memorial Library in Castine meets from 5 to 6 pm today and all are welcome.
To register ffor the zoom link contact [email protected]
On Saturday, Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust, Native Gardens of Blue Hill and 5 Star Orchard will present a screening of “The Buzz on Native Plants”, followed by a discussion and seed sowing – at the Alamo Theatre in Bucksport at 1pm Tickets and more information
Maine Immigrant Rights Hotline 207-544-9989
Maine Immigrant Rights Resource Hub
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
Outside the Box 1/27/26: “History of Ending Poverty”
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 1/27/26: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey has announced that his office now has an email address dedicated specifically to reports of federal government actions in Maine, along with the following statement:
AUGUSTA – “Across our nation, we are seeing numerous reports of apparent civil rights violations and improper use of force by federal agents who have been sent into areas targeted for immigration enforcement by the federal government. With the federal government now surging federal agents into Maine under the banner of immigration enforcement, evidence of constitutionally-deficient, excessive, and intimidating enforcement tactics is quickly emerging in our own state.
In order to better assess the impacts of these questionable immigration enforcement activities on Mainers, as well as evaluate what action this office may take in response, the Office of the Maine Attorney General has established a dedicated email address for Mainers to share such information with the office for potential investigation.
The email address will be monitored for documentation of potential violations of the Maine and federal Constitutions, as well as Maine laws such as the Maine Civil Rights Act.
We invite the public to submit any descriptions of observed intimidating or excessive behavior used by federal agents. Information that would be helpful to provide includes: date, location of incident, names of any individuals involved as actors or witnesses, if known, and contact information. We will not be accepting photographs and videos through this email address. However, please let us know if photographs or videos are available and provide contact information so the office can arrange to obtain copies if deemed necessary.
Emailers should be advised that any content sent may be subject to public dissemination under Maine’s Freedom of Access Laws.
Finally, please also be advised that this email address is not for seeking legal advice, legal representation, or for requesting feedback.”
The email address is [email protected]
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows issued the following statement in response to US Attorney General Pam Bondi’s offer to withdraw federal immigration officials from Minnesota if the state gave in to demands including handing over their voter records to the federal government. Maine is one of the other states refusing to give the administration that information (see USA vs Shenna Bellows)
“Attorney General Bondi’s letter to Minnesota made explicit what has long been clear: ICE is invading our states and inflicting violence in order to create chaos and control our states and elections. These sinister actions are Donald Trump’s attempt to assume absolute power.
Let me say this clearly for President Trump: Maine will never turn over our voter rolls as a ransom payment to get ICE to end its unconstitutional assault on our state. Our founders designed a system where states and local governments, not the federal government, oversee elections to safeguard us from exactly this — a tyrannical, power-hungry president trampling on our constitutional rights. As Maine’s top election official, I stand with Minnesota Secretary of State Simon as we fight back against this dangerous assault together.”
Maine Immigrant Rights Hotline 207-544-9989
Maine Immigrant Rights Resource Hub
Immigration Legal Advocacy Project Maine
Indivisible Bangor and others hold a weekly vigil every Tuesday at 11 in front of the federal building on Harlow St, near the Bangor Public Library.
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 1/26/26: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
Dr. Charles Rolsky from the Shaw Institute in Blue Hill is here with news of their upcoming events – including a Valentine’s Day event inspired by the success of last year’s event. Adults only. And seahorses!
Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project – Maine “As Maine’s only state-wide immigration legal services organization, ILAP advances justice and equity for immigrants and their families through direct legal services, community education, and systemic advocacy” Statement from the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP) on the First Few Days of ICE’s Operation in Maine
Maine Immigrant Resource Hub & Hotline 207-544-9989
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
