Democracy Forum 2/21/20: Super Tuesday Comes to Maine March 3

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine
Engineer: Amy Browne

-How is the presidential primary going to work,
-How will delegates to national conventions be apportioned and selected,
-What role will municipal caucuses continue to play,
-What will be the differences among the parties.

Guests:
Kenneth Palmer, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Maine
Lisa Roberts, Executive Director of the Maine Democratic Party
Richard Rosen,, former Republican State Legislator and former Commissioner of the Maine State Department of Administrative and Financial Services

To learn more about this topic:
“The Primary Versus the Caucus,” PBS Newshour, 2003
“Primaries v caucuses: a handy primer,” Harry J Enten in The Guardian, 2012.
League of Women Voters of Maine, “Study Guide on Primary Elections,” 2018.
“Maine switched to a presidential primary in 2020. Here’s why parties are still caucusing,” Bangor Daily News, February 9, 2020.
“The U.S. Presidential Nominating Process,” The Council on Foreign Relations, January, 2020.
What to Know About the Iowa Caucuses, Pew Research Center, January, 2020
Primary Politics: Everything You Need to Know about How America Nominates Its Presidential Candidates 4th Edition, Elaine C. Kamarck, Brookings Institution Press, November, 2018

The all-volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn

FMI re League of Women Voters of Maine: www.lwvme.org

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 2/20/20: AI Today & Tomorrow

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

The McKinsey consulting firm predicts that by 2030, fully a third of American workers will have lost a job due to Artificial Intelligence and automation. What kind of effects will that enormous change have on our society? And, just as importantly, why aren’t our political leaders and candidates running for office talking about how we should prepare for such a huge change? That change is not only ten years away – AI is having a serious impact on our lives today. Let’s start to think about AI and how this burgeoning technology affects our lives today, and will, to an even greater extent, tomorrow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

All About Aging 2/19/20: Death with Dignity

Producer/Host: Peg Cruikshank
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Key Discussion Points:
-Maine law passed Sept 2019
-Many safeguards and only an individual may hasten her death
-Although a majority of Mainers favor Death with Dignity, some groups such as Hospice oppose it
-Other hospice groups support the concept
-Guest interviewed just back from first national Medical Aid in Dying conference in Berkeley

Guests:
Valerie Lovelace, Director of Maine Death with Dignity
Patricia Hymanson, D-York, chair of legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee and sponsor of the Maine law

About the host:
Peg Cruikshank received an MA in gerontology from San Francisco State University. After moving to Maine she taught courses on women’s aging at the University of Maine and the University of Southern Maine. Her book Learning to be Old: gender, culture and aging was named one of the best books on human rights in 2004 by the Myers Center for Human Rights in Boston. Cruikshank also edited an anthology of literary works on aging titled Fierce with Reality. She lives in Corea.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Maine Currents 2/18/20: Elections 2020 Edition

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download