Podcasts about free speech radio news

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Other credits: Matt Murphy – Augusta rally Coverage of the April 5th, 2025 “Hands Off” rallies in Augusta and Belfast, Maine FMI: www.handsoff2025.com 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. The post Maine Currents 4/9/25: Coverage of “Hands Off” rallies in Augusta and Belfast, Maine on 4/5/25 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Part I. French Elections 2024: The Left, Center, and Rejection of the Far-Right  Guest: Tony Cross is a journalist who used to work for Radio France Internationale and sometimes reported for Free Speech Radio News. He occasionally blogs on theravingreporter.com Part II. Geniuses at War David A. Price is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is the author of the book Geniuses at War: Bletchley Park, Colossus, and the Dawn of the Digital Age.   Photo Credit: Wikimedia Common.  The post French Elections 2024: The Left, Center, and Rejection of the Far-Right appeared first on KPFA.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Other credits: Audio segment contributed by John and Katie Greenman. This part of Maine has strong connections with El Salvador dating back several decades.  Bangor has a sister city there, Carasque; MOFGA has a sister farming community organization, CCR; and WERU has a sister station, Radio Sumpul in El Salvador. Many people from this area have traveled to El Salvador on delegations coordinated by Sister Cities, PICA and MOFGA over the years, including today’s guests (and the host). Members of the most recent delegation talk about what they witnessed earlier this year, and the shift in the country under an authoritarian president. Guests: Karen and Paul Volkhausen, Katie Greenman and Willie Marquart FMI: Sister Cities: www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org/ PICA:  www.pica.ws/  or www.facebook.com/PICAinMaine Maine Organic Farmers and Gardener’s Sister Organizations:  Association of Communities for the Development of Chalatenango (CCR), and the Foundation for Cooperation and Development (CORDES). These organizations foster a unique relationship, exchanging information and methods of farming, in addition to facilitating conversations about agricultural globalization and fair trade: www.mofga.org/mofgas-el-salvador-sistering-committee/ WERU’s Sister Station Radio Sumpul: www.facebook.com/asociacion.Acopsumpul radiosumpul.org/ weru.org/about/radio-sumpul-werus-sister-station-in-el-salvador/ Organizations working in/with El Salvador: www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org/cripdes/ www.equipomaiz.org.sv/ Legal support organization, human rights violations including arbitrary arrests, inhumane treatment in detention centers: www.tutelalegalmariajh.org.sv/ Museo de La Palabra y Imagen (Museum of the Word and Image)  for the preservation of historic memory: www.museo.com.sv Online Resources News Media   (Latin America): www.wola.org/ elfaro.net/en/202405/el_salvador/27420/us-tries-not-to-offend-bukele-in-annual-human-rights-report reportfortheworld.org/ gatoencerrado.news/ Books recommended by today’s guests: robertolovato.com/unforgetting/ uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5754.htm#pk   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. The post Maine Currents 5/29/24: Checking in with our sisters in El Salvador first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne A discussion between reps from local environmental groups that are often on the same side on issues.  On the topic of industrializing Sears Island, a 940-acre undeveloped island in Searsport, the groups are split. Today they sit down together and explain their positions, and learn where they agree — and where they don’t. Guests: Francis Eanes, Maine Labor Climate Council Steve Miller, Islesboro Islands Trust Jack Shapiro, NRCM Rolf Olsen, Friends of Sears Island Links and events that were mentioned by guests or callers: https://allianceforsearsisland.org/about/ friendsofsearsisland.org www.searsport.maine.gov www.mcht.org/story/a-community-embraces-sears-island/ www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/display_ps.asp?ld=1895&PID=1456&snum=131 FB page: Protect Wahsumkik Email: protectwahsumkik@protonmail.com maineaflcio.org/news/legislature-advances-compromise-strengthen-labor-wage-standards-offshore-wind 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. The post Maine Currents Special 3/29/24: Sears Island, Part 2 of 2 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne A discussion of Governor Mills’ recent announcement that undeveloped Sears Island in Searsport  is the state’s preferred location to build an offshore wind terminal. What do people who have worked to protect the island from threats in the past think about this proposal? For the guests who were part of the planning process, what are your feelings about that? If not Sears Island, where? Guests: Steve Miller, Islesboro Islands Trust Jack Shapiro, NRCM Francis Eanes, Maine Labor Climate Council Becky Bartovics, Maine Chapter of the Sierra Club Rolf Olsen, Friends of Sears Island Chris Buchanan, Searsport resident Links and events that were mentioned by guests or callers: www.islesboroislandstrust.org/ www.nrcm.org/ www.mainelaborclimate.org/ friendsofsearsisland.org www.sierraclub.org/maine https://allianceforsearsisland.org/about/ www.mcht.org/story/a-community-embraces-sears-island/ www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/display_ps.asp?ld=1895&PID=1456&snum=131 FB page: Protect Wahsumkik Email: protectwahsumkik@protonmail.com maineaflcio.org/news/legislature-advances-compromise-strengthen-labor-wage-standards-offshore-wind 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. The post Maine Currents Special 3/28/24: Sears Island, Part 1 of 2 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Amy Browne Engineers: Pepin Mittelhauser, John Greenman, Matt Murphy This month: We speak with three local residents– 2 of whom are Jewish and 1 who is Palestinian — about their goals, anti-Semitism vs criticizing the actions of the Israeli government, and what they think about the mainstream media coverage and messaging. Guests: Abdullah Al-Fdeilat, a Muslim Palestinian refugee who grew up in Jordan and immigrated to the US over 30 years ago. Jamila Levasseur is of Jewish descent and lost most of her family in the Holocaust. She is a long time supporter of Palestinian rights and was arrested in November for occupying Jared Golden’s office demanding he support a ceasefire and stop military aid to Israel. Larry Dansinger from Bangor is Jewish and has family in living in Israel. Larry identifies as both pro-Jewish and pro-Palestinian, pro peace and anti-violence of all kinds.  Links and events that were mentioned by guests or callers: Weekly rally in Blue Hill to support Justice for Palestinians every Saturday from 12:30 to 1:00, along the street in front of the town hall. “We try to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and urging a permanent ceasefire in Gaza”. Rally in Ellsworth, on the bridge, every Sunday from 12-1. People can sign up for notices at bangorforpalestine@googlegroups.com to get announcements of upcoming events. Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights mvprights.org Boycott, Sanction, Divest bdsmovement.net electronicintifada.net mondoweiss.net Standing Together www.standing-together.org/en is a grassroots movement mobilizing Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel in pursuit of peace, equality, and social and climate justice. While the minority who benefit from the status quo of occupation and economic inequality seek to keep us divided, we know that we — the majority — have far more in common than that which sets us apart. When we stand together, we are strong enough to fundamentally alter the existing socio-political reality. The future that we want — peace and independence for Israelis and Palestinians, full equality for all citizens, and true social, economic, and environmental justice — is possible. Because where there is struggle, there is hope. Combatants for Peace cfpeace.org/ We are a group of Palestinians and Israelis who have taken an active part in the cycle of violence in our region: Israeli soldiers serving in the IDF and Palestinians as combatants fighting to free their country, Palestine, from the Israeli occupation. We – serving our peoples, raised weapons which we aimed at each other and saw each other only through gun sights – have established Combatants for Peace on the basis of non-violence principles. CFP's mission is to build the social infrastructure necessary for ending the conflict and the occupation: communities of Palestinians and Israelis working together through nonviolent means to promote peace. We believe that such communities can serve as a role model for both people, demonstrating through action that there is a real alternative to the cycle of violence. We believe that disseminating such activities widely can and will affect attitudinal change at the societal level and policy change at the political level. We envision Combatants for Peace as a strong, significant, influential bi-national community – a community that exemplifies viable cooperation and coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis. It is a movement based upon nonviolent activism designed to advance the termination of the occupation and to provide a foundation for relations between the two peoples subsequent to a peace agreement. Our Ultimate Goal is to end the occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders; two states living side by side in peace and cooperation or any other just solution agreed upon in negotiations. Combatants for Peace, founded in 2006, is a non-profit, volunteer organization of ex-combatant Israelis and Palestinians, men and women, who have laid down their weapons and rejected all means of violence. We are working together to end the occupation of Palestine, bring just peace to the land, and demonstrate that Israelis and Palestinians can work and live together. The Parents Circle – Families Forum  www.theparentscircle.org/en/pcff-home-page-en/ is a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization of over 600 families, all of whom have lost an immediate family member to the ongoing conflict. Moreover, the PCFF has concluded that the process of reconciliation between nations is a prerequisite to achieving a sustainable peace. The organization thus utilizes all resources available in education, public meetings and the media, to spread these ideas.  Our vision: To work towards an end to violence and towards achieving an accepted political agreement. 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. The post Maine Currents 12/5/23: Mainers Calling for Peace in Gaza first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Audio recorded by Matt Murphy This month:  “A.O. Scott in conversation with Alicia Anstead”, recorded by Matt Murphy on October 21st. at the annual Word Literary Arts Festival in Blue Hill.  WERU is a media sponsor of the annual festival. Guest: A.O. Scott,  critic at large for the New York Times Book Review. FMI: www.wordfestival.org/ www.nytimes.com/by/a-o–scott Sponsored by the Word Festival and Blue Hill Books 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. The post Maine Currents 11/7/23: Word Literary Arts Festival 2023: “A.O. Scott in conversation with Alicia Anstead” first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This month: Donna Loring on the Maine tribe’s support of Question 6 on the ballot this November.  Recorded on September 30th at an Issues Forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Maine. FMI: www.lwvme.org/ Wabanaki Windows archives (new shows air on the 4th Tuesday of each month, 4-5pm) Democracy Forum archives   (new shows air on the 3rd Friday of each month, 4-5pm) 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. The post Maine Currents Special 10/31/23: Background on Question 6 from a Tribal Perspective first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Audio recorded by Matt Murphy This month: A lively and often humorous discussion with Ann Patchett, celebrated author of “Bel Canto” and eight other novels, and Lynn Boulger, executive director of The Authors Guild Foundation recorded August 4, 2023 in Blue Hill. Sponsored by the Word Festival and Blue Hill Books 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. The post Maine Currents 10/3/23: Author Ann Patchett speaking in Blue Hill first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This month: Segment 1: Moratorium on “glampgrounds” in Lamoine — and lessons for other towns, with organizer Amy Morley of “Growing Lamoine Responsibly” Segment 2:  Meet the new director of the Shaw Institute in Blue Hill,  Charles Rolsky, PhD Segment 3: A profile of WERU’s Healthy Options show and producers Rhonda Feiman and Petra Hall Segment 4: Don White, one of the Bucksport residents fighting the reopening of a problematic landfill, joins us with an update 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. The post Maine Currents 9/5/23: Glampgrounds, Shaw Institute, Healthy Options, and Bucksport Landfill first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This month: As we continue to profile some of WERU's public affairs and spoken work hosts, we talk with Donna Loring of Wabanaki Windows & Tom Yaroschuk the Cosmic Curator about their lives, what brought them to WERU and what goes into putting their shows together. FMI Wabanaki Windows archives Cosmic Curator archives 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. The post Maine Currents 8/1/23: Behind the Scenes – Donna Loring of Wabanaki Windows & Tom Yaroschuk of Cosmic Curator first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This month: An interview with the late Jim Campbell, one of the station’s founders and long- time on-air presence, recorded days before his recent death.   Jim talks about the early days at the station, what went into producing Notes from the Electronic Cottage, and his recent series on AI. FMI Notes from the Electronic Cottage Maine: The Way Life Could Be 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. The post Maine Currents 7/4/23: Interview with Jim Campbell first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: WERU’s General Manager Matt Murphy joins us today with the highlights from our recent listener survey 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. The post Around Town 2/2/23: WERU Listener Survey Results first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: The Challenger Learning Center of Maine and Maine Maritime Academy are partnering together to celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science, February 11, 2023 with Maine Girls of STEM Kirsten Hibbard, Executive Director, Challenger Learning Center of Maine joins us with all the details FMI: www.astronaut.org/maine-girls-of-stem/ contact@astronaut.org, 207-990-2900 ext.1 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. The post Around Town 1/26/23: Maine Girls of STEM first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: Last week we heard about the Blue Hill Coop’s plans to raise funds for a Hancock county food bank. This week we’re following up to hear how those funds will help the community, with Charlie Dayhoff, Executive Director of Loaves and Fishes in Ellsworth. FMI: Blue Hill Coop Change for Good program Loaves and Fishes Ellsworth, 137 Downeast Highway (Route 1-N, next to Darling’s Chevrolet), Ellsworth, 207-667-4363 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. The post Around Town 1/19/23: Loaves and Fishes Ellsworth first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: This week we’re in Hancock County where the Blue Hill Coop and their customers are working together to address food insecurity. Jennifer Coolidge, Ownership & Outreach Coordinator at the co-op, is here with all the details about their Change For Good and Soup-er Bowl programs. 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. The post Around Town 1/12/23: Blue Hill Co-op & Patrons Help Address Food Insecurity in Hancock County first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: With so much happening in the world right now, a coalition of local groups want to make sure Mainers don’t forget about prisoners still being held at Guantanamo. Mary Kate Small, one of the organizers, fills us in on what they have planned, which includes a protest at Augusta Armory on January 14th. FMI re the event: Mainers Join Call To Close Guantánamo FMI re the organizers: Frank Panopoulos, Witness Against Torture, Detainee AttorneyPeace Action Maine PAX Christi Maine Witness Against Torture 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. The post Around Town 1/5/23: Mainers Join Call to Close Guantánamo, Rally in Augusta January 14th first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This month: We’re kicking off 2023 with a topic that I suspect we may be spending a lot of time on this year, the pending decision on where to build a staging facility for off-shore wind power turbines in this area. Theoretically, 3 different sites are being considered: Eastport, Sears Island or Mack Point in Searsport, but some of those close to the project suspect that developing Sears Island is the real goal of the ME DOT. Guests: Steve Miller, Islesboro Islands Trust Rolf Olsen, Friends of Sears Island Becky Bartovics, Sierra Club Maine FMI Islesboro Islands Trust Maine Chapter of the Sierra ClubFriends of Sears Island Offshore Wind Project Resources page Study of Searsport to Support and Develop Offshore Wind, State of Maine, Governor’s Energy Office Maine DOT Offshore Wind Port Advisory Group (OSWPAG) Governor Mills Announces Assessment of Mack Point Terminal in Searsport to Support Growth of Renewable Energy Industry in Maine, Office of Governor Janet Mills, March 2020 SEARS ISLAND WETLAND ENFORCEMENT CASE SETTLED, EPA, 11/13/1996 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. The post Maine Currents Returns! 1/3/23: Will Maine Industrialize Sears Island for “Clean” Energy? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: The Winter Harbor Music Festival has a unique offering this New Year’s eve. Executive Director Deiran Manning is here to let you know how you can be part of an interactive opera experience. 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. The post Around Town 12/29/22: New Year's Eve Opera Downeast! first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: One of the things people are talking about around town this holiday season is the controversy around a nativity scene in Bucksport. A Penobscot resident made a report to the Freedom from Religion Foundation‘s Maine Chapter about the town sponsored religious display, and the chapter responded by asking to add a small sign nearby, celebrating the solstice and the Bill of Rights. Tom Waddell, columnist for the Kennebec Journal, and the President of Maine Chapter of the Freedom from Religion Foundation explains why they got involved. 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. The post Around Town 12/22/22: Atheist Group Reacts to Bucksport's Nativity Scene first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: Earlier this month Governor Mills announced that her administration is dedicating $5.4 million dollars to address climate change and create clean energy jobs here in Maine— and a chunk of that funding is coming to Hancock and Washington Counties. If you or someone you know is looking for a paid internship for a career in an energy efficiency job, here are some of the details from Sharon Catus at Downeast Community Partners For more information, call Derek at (207) 610-5917 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. The post Around Town 12/15/22: Energy Efficiency Career Opportunities Downeast first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: Sears Island is an uninhabited 940 acre island off the coast of Searsport that has been eyed by developers for various projects over the years. The latest threat, to at least part of the island, is the potential that a facility for building and launching offshore wind turbines may be built there. Friends of Sears Island, Islesboro Islands Trust, and the Maine Chapter of the Sierra club have all spoken out against the site location, instead urging that the facility be built on nearby Mack Point, which is already extensively developed. Theoretically, Mack Point and also Eastport are being considered as possible locations along with Sears Island, but many worry that Sears Island is what the state is really focusing on. Next Monday morning there will be a meeting of the state’s task force that will be making recommendations about the site location, and advocates for protecting the island are urging the public to listen in. You can read the agenda and register for the zoom meeting here Earlier this week we checked in with Rolf Olsen, Vice President of the Board for Friends of Sears Island for 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. The post Around Town 12/8/22: Develop Sears Island or Mack Point? Public Meeting Next Week first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producers/Hosts: Jim Campbell and Amy Browne This series is made possible in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission Maine: The Way Life Could Be, a series in which we look at challenges and opportunities facing Maine in the lifetimes of people alive today. This episode: What are the most important issues Mainers will be facing in the lifetimes of those of us alive today? That is the question Amy Browne and Jim Campbell, cohosts of Maine: The Way Life Could Be, posed to listeners nearly a year ago. The year-long series that followed has focused on the issues you raised in your responses. In this episode we wrap up the series with a look back — and a look ahead. Guests: Donna Loring, Penobscot Indian Nation Tribal elder and former council member. She represented the Penobscot Nation in the State Legislature for over a decade, and is a former Senior Advisor on Tribal Affairs to Governor Mills. Donna is the author of “In The Shadow of The Eagle A Tribal Representative In Maine”. You can catch up on her Wabanaki Windows series on tribal sovereignty on the WERU archives here, and hear her new shows on the 4th Tuesday of every month at 4. Amy Fried, Professor of Political Science at the University of Maine. Fried's most recent book is At War With Government: How Conservatives Weaponized Distrust from Goldwater to Trump, published in 2021. She is in the process of finishing a new book on New England politic, slated for publication next year. Professor Fried also writes a biweekly column in the Bangor Daily News Dr. Phil Caper of Maine AllCare. From his bio on Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), “Dr. Phil Caper received his BA, MS and MD degrees at UCLA, and trained in internal medicine on the Harvard Medical Unit at Boston City Hospital. He has held professorships at Dartmouth Medical School and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he was also Vice-Chancellor for Health Affairs, chief of the medical staff, and hospital director. He has been an adjunct lecturer on health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health, a research associate at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and an associate in health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. From 1971 to 1976, he was a professional staff member on the United States Senate Labor and Human Resources subcommittee on health, chaired by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).” Dr. Caper was a charter member of the nation's top health care advisory panel, the National Council on Health Planning and Development from 1977 to 1984, chairing the panel from 1980 to 1984. He was also the founder and chairman of the Codman Group from 1986 to 2001, a health care software and consulting company with an international reputation and clientele. He is a founding member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and is a founding board member of Maine AllCare, the Maine chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program. He is also a former national board member of PNHP. He has published numerous articles in professional journals and written many letters to the editor and op-ed articles advocating for a publicly run universal health care program. About the hosts: Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon's words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station's sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage. 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. The post Maine: The Way Life Could Be 12/6/22: Series Finale – A Look Back, and a Look Ahead first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: Amanda Cunningham, Executive Director of Our Town Belfast brings us highlights of festivities this year in downtown Belfast 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. The post Around Town 12/1/22: “Our Town Belfast” Invites You For the Holidays! first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

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. The post Around Town 11/17/22: Democracy Forum Election Reflections: What Just Happened Here? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

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 mainethewaylifecouldbe@weru.org, 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. The post Around Town 11/10/22: “Maine: The Way Life Could Be” Wants to Hear from YOU! first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

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. The post Around Town 11/3/22: PICA's Annual Auction – This Weekend in Bangor first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producers/Hosts: Jim Campbell and Amy Browne This series is made possible in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission Maine: The Way Life Could Be, a series in which we look at challenges and opportunities facing Maine in the lifetimes of people alive today. This episode: As this series winds down, we circle back to some of the younger members of our community. In this program, we'll hear from four people under 40 who live in our broadcast area. They are working or looking for work, maybe thinking about starting families, and facing challenges today and in the near future as they fully take their places in Maine life. They talk about how they see some of the challenges identified at the beginning of this series, and identify others that are important in their lives. Guests: Derek Cole, Sophie Davis, Pepin Mittelhauser, Eileen Moscoso About the hosts: Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon's words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station's sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage. 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. The post Maine: The Way Life Could Be 11/1/22: Mainers Under 40 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

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: rosc.maine@gmail.com 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. The post Around Town 10/27/22: Building Local Anti-Racist Community first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

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. The post Around Town 10/20/22: 3 Day Artivism Conference Coming to Belfast first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

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. The post Around Town 10/13/22: Big Step Forward for Penobscot River Mercury Clean Up first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Matt Murphy, filling in for Amy Browne This week: We are back in Searsport, talking with Rolf Olsen, VP of the Board for Friends of Sears Island, and member of Maine’s Offshore Wind Port Advisory Group, which will advise the Governor and others as they consider location options for a new offshore wind construction and deployment facility. Friends of Sears Island, Islesboro Islands Trust and Sierra Club, Maine support offshore wind, but prefer that the facility be built on nearby Mack Point, which is already industrialized. The Offshore Wind Port Advisory Committee is meeting today, September 29th, 2022, 9am – 4:30pm at MaineDOT Headquarters. The public is welcome and may attend by zoom. More information, the agenda, and registration for the zoom link can be found 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. The post Around Town 10/6/22: Update on Missing Person Graham Lacher first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producers/Hosts: Jim Campbell and Amy Browne This series is made possible in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission Maine: The Way Life Could Be, a series in which we look at challenges and opportunities facing Maine in the lifetimes of people alive today. This episode: At the outset of this series, we invited anyone interested to participate in a Zoom call to help us gather information on what folks saw as major challenges facing Maine people during the lifetime of those alive today. One of those challenges involves how we'll be able to make our livings in the Maine of the near future as traditional industries wane, and as our population grows older. On today's program, we'll be talking with three experts who have studied these questions from a variety of perspectives. Guests: Charles Colgan, Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and Management in the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine, and senior fellow at the Center for the Blue Economy in Monterey, California. Colgan served as Chair of the State of Maine Consensus Economic Forecasting Commission from 1992-2010. Prior to his work at USM, he served in the Maine State Planning Office under three governors. James Myall, an Economic Policy Analyst at the Maine Center for Economic Policy. and author of the Center's State of Working Maine 2021 report. We began by asking him to describe the purpose of the report and how it was put together. Andy O'Brien, a longtime Maine journalist who currently serves as Communications Director of the Maine AFL-CIO. About the hosts: Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon's words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station's sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage. 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. The post Maine: The Way Life Could Be 10/4/22: Jobs first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: We are back in Searsport, talking with Rolf Olsen, VP of the Board for Friends of Sears Island, and member of Maine’s Offshore Wind Port Advisory Group, which will advise the Governor and others as they consider location options for a new offshore wind construction and deployment facility. Friends of Sears Island, Islesboro Islands Trust and Sierra Club, Maine support offshore wind, but prefer that the facility be built on nearby Mack Point, which is already industrialized. The Offshore Wind Port Advisory Committee is meeting today, September 29th, 2022, 9am – 4:30pm at MaineDOT Headquarters. The public is welcome and may attend by zoom. More information, the agenda, and registration for the zoom link can be found 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. The post Around Town 9/29/22: Developing Sears Island for a “Green” Project? Meeting Taking Place Today. first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: 100 Maine “Clean Water Champions” will be honored at an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act on September 29th on the banks of the Androscoggin River in Lewiston— including one person whose voice you’ll recognize from WERU! Anya Fetcher, Federal Policy Advocate for the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), one of the event organizers, joins us with 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. The post Around Town 9/22/22: Maine “Clean Water Champions” Honored at Clean Water Act 50th Anniversary event first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: We talk with Nancy Hathaway, President of Dark Sky Maine, and “Defending the Dark: The Story of Preserving the Dark Skies in Maine” film maker Tara Roberts Zabriskie about their upcoming film tour. Also, this weekend Dark Sky Maine will host their annual “Stars Over Katahdin” in Staceyville, near the entrance to Katahdin Woods & Waters, featuring astromony educators, a campfire, and telescopes – on what is predicted to be a clear weekend. More information about that, and the Defending the Dark film tour, are available at darkskymaine.com, or by emailing darkskymaine@gmail.com 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. The post Around Town 9/15/22: Defending Maine's Dark Skies first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: We’re on Mount Desert Island talking with Jasmine Smith, Founding Director of The Community School of Mount Desert Island about a partnership with Maine Coast Heritage Trust that successfully preserved a “learning forest” for students and the wider community. 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. The post Around Town 9/8/22: Learning Forest on MDI Preserved by Community School & Maine Coast Heritage Trust first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producers/Hosts: Jim Campbell and Amy Browne This series is made possible in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission Maine: The Way Life Could Be, a series in which we look at challenges and opportunities facing Maine in the lifetimes of people alive today. This episode: At the outset of this series, we invited anyone interested to participate in a Zoom call to help us gather information on what folks saw as major challenges facing Maine people during the lifetime of those alive today. One of those challenges mentioned by several of the participants on that call was affordable and accessible health care. It's important to note right at the beginning of today's program that health care and health insurance are two different things that are sometimes conflated. Health care refers to the care that providers such as doctors, nurses, therapists, and others provide to people with health issues. How to pay for that care is a separate challenge, often provided in part by either for-profit insurance companies or government programs such as Medicaid, for those with very low incomes; or Medicare, for those age 65 and over. On today's program, we will speak with two retired physicians who, over long careers, took somewhat different paths but wound up at the same conclusion about how to provide Maine people, and all Americans, with affordable, accessible health care. Guests: Dr. Geoff Gratwick practiced medicine with a specialty in rheumatology in the Bangor area, and in clinics across Maine for over 40 years. He eventually became so concerned about what he saw as problems with Mainers getting access to quality health care that he ran for the Maine Senate after serving 9 years on the Bangor City Council. He served four terms in the Maine Senate before leaving because of term limits, and while there served on the Opioid Task Force, as well as on several legislative committees. He was a key player in establishing the state's Health Care Task Force which has been charged with determining how to make health care in Maine universal, affordable, accessible and of high quality. Dr. Phil Caper, in addition to practicing as a physician, spent a good part of his career in policy areas related to health care. From 1971 to 1976, he was a professional staff member on the United States Senate Labor and Public Welfare's subcommittee on Health. He served on the National Council on Health Planning and Development from 1977 to 1984, chairing the panel from 1980 to 1984. He has also taught at Dartmouth Medical School, the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, and worked in private industry trying to improve the technology of hospital medical records. Both guests are active with Maine AllCare FMI: Maine AllCare From the National Bankruptcy Forum, 10/22/21: 10 Statistics about US Medical Debt that Will Shock You Health care executive pay soars during pandemic, Bob Herman, AXIOS, Jun 14, 2021 Universal health care could have saved more than 338,000 lives from COVID-19 alone, Rachel Nuwer, Scientific American, June 13, 2022 Sudden resolution of Anthem and Maine Med dispute leaves more questions than answers, Caitlin Andrews, Bangor Daily News, 8/20/22 2022 Maine Shared Community Health Needs Assessment Report Hidden charges, denied claims: Medical bills leave patients confused, frustrated, helpless, Joe Lawlor, Portland Press Herald, 8/21/22 About the hosts: Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon's words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station's sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage. 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. The post Maine: The Way Life Could Be 9/6/22: Health- Care & Insurance first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: We’re back in Belfast for an update on the search for missing person Graham Lacher from his mother, Tammy Lacher Scully. Correction: The facebook page is Missing Graham Lacher, not “Finding Graham Lacher”. Photos and more information about the search can be found 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. The post Around Town 9/2/22: Update on Missing Person Graham Lacher first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: we’re in Rockland, where a project involving a Camden art gallery, local artists and prisoners in Warren will benefit an innovative local food pantry. Joe Ryan is the Executive Director of Area Interfaith Outreach Food & Energy Assistance (AIO) 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. The post Around Town 8/25/22: AIO & Artists-in-Action Against Food Insecurity, first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: We’re headed to Penobscot, where Chrissy Allen, Development Director of the Blue Hill Heritage Trust has some good news to share 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. The post Around Town 8/18/22: Local Land Trusts Preserve Wallamatogus Mountain first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne This week: New info on the search for Graham Lacher; tree cutting on Sears Island begins this week, ahead of soil testing – as part of determining whether the island is suitable for an offshore wind production facility. Groups including Friends of Sears Island want the facility built on adjacent Mack Point, which is already developed. 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. The post Around Town 8/11/22 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producers/Hosts: Jim Campbell and Amy Browne This series is made possible in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission Welcome to this edition of Maine: The Way Life Could Be, a series in which we look at challenges and opportunities facing Maine in the lifetimes of people alive today. Affordable housing is a big issue here in Maine, with current residents being priced out of certain areas by people moving here from out of state, purchase prices beyond the reach of average wage earners in all but one county, rents skyrocketing, and short term vacation rentals displacing long term rentals. Today we again hear from area town managers and planners that we interviewed earlier this year, a young person dealing with the issue, and a local real estate agent who fills us in on the trends. With inflation and interest rates complicating things, it’s hard to predict what things will look like in a few years, much less beyond that. Guests: Lane Sturtevant, Participant in January MTWLCB forum Kathleen Billings, Town Manager, Stonington, Maine Mike Cunning, Realtor, Worth Real Estate, Belfast, Maine Jim Fisher, Town Manager, Deer Isle, Maine, and former senior planner with the Hancock County Planning Commission Anne Krieg, Bangor Planning Officer FMI: Trends and Outlooks for the Maine Economy, Maine Association of Mortgage Professionals (presentation), by Amanda Rector, Maine State Economist, June 8, 2022 2021 Homeownership Housing Facts and Affordability Index for Maine, Maine State Housing Authority LD 290, An Act to Stabilize Property Taxes for Individuals 65 Years of Age or Older Who Own a Homestead for at Least 10 Years Airbnb bookings in rural Maine surge to $95M in 2021, Lori Valigra, Bangor Daily News, June 29, 2022 Portland isn't the only place out-of-staters are buying pricey homes, David Marino Jr., Bangor Daily News, June 23, 2022 About the hosts: Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon's words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station's sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage. 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. The post Maine: The Way Life Could Be 8/2/22: Housing in Maine -Affordable to Mainers? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Sears Island, located near Searsport, is a 940 acre island connected to the mainland since the late 80s by a causeway. Though it is near industrialized areas, it is mostly undeveloped and currently uninhabited by humans. Many people use the island recreationally, year ’round. Over the decades, people who care about the island have protected it from one proposed development after another- and the island may be under threat again. Today we’ll hear about the latest development proposed for the island- from some of the folks who have been involved over the years. Guests: Steve Miller of Islesboro Islands Trust Susan White & Rolf Olsen of Friends of Sears Island Becky Bartovics & Matthew Cannon of Sierra Club Maine FMI (including reports referenced on the show) Friends of Sears Island Offshore Wind Project Resources page 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. The post Maine Currents Special 7/20/22- Sears Island: The Latest Threat first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producers/Hosts: Jim Campbell and Amy Browne This series is made possible in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission Welcome to this edition of Maine: The Way Life Could Be, a series in which we look at challenges and opportunities facing Maine in the lifetimes of people alive today. The population of Maine has been the oldest and “whitest” in the state, but even before the real estate boom during the pandemic, some of state’s demographics were starting to shift. Today we look at the 2018-2028 demographics forecast for the state, with Maine’s State Economist, Amanda Rector, author of the report. We also talk with Jim Fisher, Deer Isle Town Manager and Hancock County planner, about how some of the trends play out in real life in our communities. Guests: Amanda Rector is the State Economist for Maine. In this capacity, she conducts ongoing analysis of Maine’s economic and demographic conditions to help inform policy decisions. Amanda is a member of the State of Maine's Revenue Forecasting Committee and serves as the Governor's liaison to the U. S. Census Bureau. She started working for the state in 2004 and has been State Economist since 2011. She earned a BA in Economics from Wellesley College and her Master’s in Public Policy and Management from the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine. Jim Fisher is the Town Manager for Deer Isle and former senior planner with the Hancock County Planning Commission. He earned a doctorate in urban regional planning from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and was a Fulbright scholar. He also hosted “Common Health” here on WERU for several years. FMI: Maine Population Outlook, 2018-2018, Office of the State Economist State Economist Amanda Rector presents Trends and Outlook for Maine’s Economy to the Maine Association of Mortgage Professionals, June 8, 2022 Pandemic Migration Spurs Maine’s Biggest Population Growth in Two Decades, Jessica Piper, Bangor Daily News, December 27, 2021 About the hosts: Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon's words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station's sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage. 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. The post Maine: The Way Life Could Be 7/5/22: Shifting Demographics in Maine first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producers/Hosts: Jim Campbell and Amy Browne This series is made possible in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission Welcome to this edition of Maine: The Way Life Could Be, a series in which we look at challenges and opportunities facing Maine in the lifetimes of people alive today. Today, we focus on water. Water is a very big topic, especially for a coastal state like Maine. As we look ahead, we need to take into account possible changes to seawater, surface freshwater, and groundwater and their effects on life in the state. That is a lot to cover and we can't go into great detail but we can provide an overview of things we may all need to think about as we look forward to our lives here in Maine. We do that by reporting on existing research about water issues that are already becoming visible – and that will certainly be even bigger issues in our future. Later in the program, we will also be talking with people who are, in different ways, on the front lines of some major current water issues that may be even bigger in our common future. Guests: Nickie Sekera lives in Fryeburg, Maine and hears tractor trailers loaded with water extracted from wells in her town passing her house as they haul that water out of state. That experience has motivated her to become knowledgeable about Maine's laws and about corporate large scale extraction from Maine's groundwater. She is the cofounder of Community Water Justice She also works with the Sunlight Media Collective, reporting on related topics, especially those that impact indigenous communities. Former State Representative Ralph Chapman is a materials scientist who has studied the effects of mineral mining in Maine historically, and some of the mineral mining activities being proposed today and tomorrow here in Maine. He worked on legislation that would have to addressed some of the shortcomings he identifies in Maine’s mining rules revision while he was in the legislature. For more information: WERU’s Dawnland Signals, hosted by Maria Girouard and Esther Ann of Wabanaki Reach, report on Safe Drinking Water for the People of Sipayik, 4/21/22 Scientific Assessment of Climate Change and Its Effects in Maine, Maine Climate Council Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, August 2020 Maine’s Climate Future, 2020 Update, Ivan Fernandez, Sean Birkel, Catherine Schmitt, Julia Simonson, Brad Lyon, Andrew Pershing, Esperanza Stancioff, George Jacobson, and Paul Mayewski. University of Maine Maine Won’t Wait: A Four Year Plan for Climate Action, Maine Climate Council, December 2020 Maine Principles of Ownership Along Water Bodies, Maine Law Review, Knud E. Hermansen & Donald R. Richards, Maine Principles of Ownership Along Water Bodies, 47 Me. L. Rev. 35 (2018). Notes for Talk on Groundwater Law, Peggy Bensinger, May 1, 2020 meeting of Maine’s Water Resources Planning Committee The non-partisan Gulf of Maine Research Center The University of Maine’s [Senator George J.] Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions About the hosts: Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon's words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station's sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage. 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. The post Maine: The Way Life Could Be 6/7/22: The “Water, Water Everywhere, But…” edition first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producers/Hosts: Jim Campbell and Amy Browne This series is made possible in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission Welcome to this edition of Maine: The Way Life Could Be, a series in which we look at challenges and opportunities facing Maine in the lifetimes of people alive today. In previous programs in this series, we looked at some of the possible effects of climate change on the way life could be in Maine in the not too distant future. Today, we look at some forces already at work today – climate change as well as the recent rediscovery of so-called “forever chemicals” in Maine soil and water – and what these forces may mean for people who grow food, both as professional farmers and as backyard gardeners. We asked Sarah Alexander, the Executive Director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) and John Jemison Professor of Soil and Water Quality with the Cooperative Extension at the University of Maine what impacts Maine farmers and gardeners might expect to see in their lifetimes from “forever chemicals” and climate change. To learn more about the health risks associated with PFAS chemicals, be sure to check the WERU archives for the Healthy Options show from April 6th entitled: “The serious problems of PFAS ‘forever chemicals’”. Host Rhonda Feiman's guest was Patrick MacRoy, Deputy Director of DEFEND OUR HEALTH, a public health organization based in Portland, that has been working on the issue. There are also good resources for learning more about PFAS chemicals on the University of Maine Cooperative Extension web site and on the website of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. About the hosts: Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon's words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station's sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage. 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. The post Maine: The Way Life Could Be 5/3/22: “Forever Chemicals”, Climate Change, and Maine Farmers & Gardeners first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producers/Hosts: Jim Campbell and Amy Browne With assistance from Ann Luther and Matt Murphy This series is made possible in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission: In a previous program, we began looking at the effects of Climate Change on life in Maine, now and in the future, a topic that almost everyone mentioned who participated in our interest gathering efforts. Maine is the oldest state in the country, both in median age and in percentage of those over 55, but the people who are going to be dealing with the effects of Climate Change the longest are younger people. And climate change seems to be affecting many of them already. In December of 2021, The Lancet Planetary Health journal published the results of a survey of 10,000 people ages 16 to 25 year in ten countries. The authors found that “Respondents across all countries were worried about climate change (59% were very or extremely worried and 84% were at least moderately worried). More than 50% reported each of the following emotions: sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty. More than 45% of respondents said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning, and many reported a high number of negative thoughts about climate change (eg, 75% said that they think the future is frightening and 83% said that they think people have failed to take care of the planet). Respondents rated governmental responses to climate change negatively and reported greater feelings of betrayal than of reassurance.” On today's program, we talk with several younger people in Maine about their attitudes and expectations of the effects of climate change on their future. We spoke with two pairs of high school students. We will hear first from Joey and Edge, who are from two different schools in Washington County. We'll follow that conversation with one with Grace and Sophia, who are from the Mount Desert Island area of Hancock County. Finally, we hear from Hazel Stark, a Millennial, Registered Maine Guide, naturalist educator and cofounder of the Maine Outdoor School. She also hosts the Saturday morning short feature, The Nature of Phenology, here on WERU, co-produced with Joe Horn. The resources Hazel mentions include: iNaturalist , eBird , and Budburst She also recommends UMaine’s Signs of the Seasons: A New England Phenology Program and the USA National Phenology Network FMI: Maine’s Climate Future 2020 – a University of Maine report authored by Ivan Fernandez, Sean Birkel, Catherine Schmitt, Julia Simonson, Brad Lyon, Andrew Pershing, Esperanza Stancioff, George Jacobson, and Paul Mayewski. Scientific Assessment of Climate Change and Its Effects in Maine, by the Maine Climate Council Scientific and Technical Subcommittee Inaction on Climate Change is Taking a Toll on Young People's Mental Health, Brennan Center for Justice Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey, The Lancet, Caroline Hickman, MSc, Elizabeth Marks, ClinPsyD, Panu Pihkala, PhD, Prof Susan Clayton, PhD, R Eric Lewandowski, PhD,Elouise E Mayall, BSc et al. About the hosts: Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon's words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station's sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage. 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. The post Maine: The Way Life Could Be 4/5/22: Climate Change in Our Lifetime, Part 2 of 2 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producers/Hosts: Jim Campbell and Amy Browne With assistance from Ann Luther and Matt Murphy This series is made possible in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission: When we asked Mainers to weigh in on the most important issues facing the state in their lifetimes, climate change was at the top of the list for many. Our March and April shows will feature the voices of Mainers – from town planners to academics to community activists of all ages who are working on the issue. Today we hear from Dr. Ivan Fernandez, Distinguished Professor at the University of Maine in the School of Forest Services, part of the University's Climate Change Institute, and a member of the state government's Maine Climate Council ; Kathleen Billings, Stonington Town Manager; Anne Krieg, Bangor Planning Officer; Jim Fisher, Deer Isle Town Manager; Sherri Mitchell, member of the Penobscot Nation, an attorney with a focus on Indigenous Issues, an author and international speaker. Sherri is also the Founding Director of the Land Peace Foundation, an organization dedicated to the global protection of Indigenous land and water rights and the preservation of the Indigenous way of life. Sherri has been a frequent guest on WERU over the years, and was the host of the Love (and Revolution) podcast that was aired by the station; and a brief comment from Grace, a high school student that we’ll hear more from in April. What do YOU think the impact of climate change will be on Maine in your lifetime? Record a brief comment at www.weru.org or send us an email at thewaylifecouldbe@weru.org and we may use your comment on an upcoming show. FMI: Maine’s Climate Future 2020 – a University of Maine report authored by Ivan Fernandez, Sean Birkel, Catherine Schmitt, Julia Simonson, Brad Lyon, Andrew Pershing, Esperanza Stancioff, George Jacobson, and Paul Mayewski. Scientific Assessment of Climate Change and Its Effects in Maine, by the Maine Climate Council Scientific and Technical Subcommittee Inaction on Climate Change is Taking a Toll on Young People's Mental Health, Brennan Center for Justice Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey, The Lancet, Caroline Hickman, MSc, Elizabeth Marks, ClinPsyD, Panu Pihkala, PhD, Prof Susan Clayton, PhD, R Eric Lewandowski, PhD,Elouise E Mayall, BSc et al. About the hosts: Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon's words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station's sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage. 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. The post Maine: The Way Life Could Be 3/1/22: Climate Change in Our Lifetime, Part 1 of 2 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

0:08 – Femicide in Mexico is pervasive, and reaching a tipping point. On Monday, March 9 women are planning a national strike to protest rising gender-based violence. Shannon Young is a former editor of Free Speech Radio News and Journalist currently residing in Mexico. 0:34 – Women's History Month Profile: Ida B Wells. Ida B. Wells was an African-American investigative journalist, abolitionist and suffragist who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s, founding groups striving for African-American justice, being one of the founders of the NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). Today, as part of our Women's History Month profiles in excellence, we discuss the life of Ida B. Wells. For more on this civil rights icon we speak with Dr. Gregory Carr, Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. The post Mexican women plan for historic strike on March 9 to protest femicides; Plus: The extraordinary life and legacy of Ida B Wells appeared first on KPFA.