Archives for mercury

Around Town 11/17/22: Democracy Forum Election Reflections: What Just Happened Here?

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

This week: Democracy Forum host Ann Luther of the League of Women Voters of Maine, joins us to invite listeners to tune in to Friday’s show (4pm). Friday’s show “will be less about how the parties and the candidates performed; more about how democracy performed. How did the election machinery hold up? How have our citizens embraced or rejected the legitimacy of the outcomes? Did women voters play a pivotal role in Maine or in other states? What about young voters? What does it all mean in the context of a bigger conversation about the future of western democracy?”

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.

Around Town 11/10/22: “Maine: The Way Life Could Be” Wants to Hear from YOU!

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

This week: The year-long WERU series “Maine: The Way Life Could Be” is winding down. For the final show, cohosts Jim Campbell and Amy Browne are inviting the community to join them for a discussion of the topics the series has explored. The conversation will take place via Zoom on Monday, 11/14 at 6:30pm, and will be recorded for possible broadcast on the final show in the series, which will air in December. We discuss the details on today’s Around Town.

FMI or to sign up, email [email protected], Zoom links will be send out Monday afternoon.

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.

Around Town 11/3/22: PICA’s Annual Auction – This Weekend in Bangor

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

This week: If you’re making plans for the weekend, the folks at PICA (Power in Community Alliances) would like to invite you to their annual auction, which will be held at the UU Church in Bangor this coming Saturday from 3-6pm. PICA’s Ed Rudnicki has all the details

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.

Around Town 10/27/22: Building Local Anti-Racist Community

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

This week: The groups Resources for Organizing and Social Change and Community Change, Inc. have partnered for an online series of workshops, with the goal of building an anti-racist organizing community in New England. We got the details from one of the organizers, Sass Linneken, Executive Director of ROSC – Resources for Organizing and Social Change

FMI: [email protected]

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.

Around Town 10/20/22: 3 Day Artivism Conference Coming to Belfast

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

This week: We’re in Belfast, checking in with Larraine Brown, one of the organizers of a 3-day Arts in Action Conference, coming up on November 4th, 5th and 6th.

The event is intended to be “A hope filled, solution focused, three day conference addressing substance use and mental health disorders, along with the effects of the COVID pandemic”.

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.

Around Town 10/13/22: Big Step Forward for Penobscot River Mercury Clean Up

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

This week: After decades of work on the issue, the Maine People’s Alliance (MPA)and the Natural Resources Defense Council have a big announcement this week. Jesse Graham, Co-Director of MPA fills us in..

Read more here and here

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.

WERU Special 8/25/14

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Studio Engineer: Joel Mann

The US Army Corps of Engineers and Maine DOT are proposing a dredging project in Searsport Harbor that would result in nearly a million cubic yards of materials being dumped in Penobscot Bay near Islesboro. The project would deepen and widen the shipping channel. Supporters say that would improve commerce in the port, but opponents say the economic and environmental risks far outweigh any potential benefits.

Joining me in the studio today are Joel Pitcher of the Maine Lobstering Union, and attorney Kim Tucker. She represents the Maine Lobstering Union, Pemaquid Muscle Farm, and the Sierra Club of Maine as well as some individual members of the Zone D lobster council. The program also features excerpts from an interview with Dr. Kevin Yeager- an independent scientist who previously worked on the Holtrachem/Mallinkrodt mercury case in the federal court system. He is the author of a new report that raises serious concerns about the plan– among them the possibility that inert mercury in the sediment may be converted to a more toxic form and make its way into the food chain in Penobscot Bay. He also criticizes the methology the Army Corps used in their sediment sampling.