Maine Currents | WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Studio Engineer: Joel Mann Our multi-partisan panel of area residents returns to debate Question 1 on Maine’s ballot this November (“Do you want to allow the possession and use of marijuana under state law by persons who are at least 21 years of age, and allow the cultivation, manufacture, distribution, testing, and sale of marijuana and marijuana products sub...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Studio Engineer: John Greenman Hal Crowther and Robert Shetterly debate “voting for the lesser of two evils” and listeners weigh in on that, and on recent news about Gov. LePage’s behavior. Guest bios: Rob Shetterly graduated in 1969 from Harvard, with a degree in English Literature. He was active at that time in the Civil Rights and the Anti-Vietnam War...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Studio Engineer: John Greenman Our multi-partisan group of area residents once again join us to continue our discussion of the upcoming elections. Guests: Renee Trust (Libertarian), Dave Gulya (Republican/Trump supporter), Ken Gleason (Democrat/Clinton supporter) and Betsy Garrold (Green/Stein supporter). The post Maine Currents 8/24/16 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Audio recorded by: Matt Murphy Grab a cold drink and a comfortable seat – we’ve got another hour of great local storytelling for you this week! First you’ll hear 2 stories that were told at our Maine Summertime stories event at the Alamo Theatre in Bucksport last month by local storytellers Naomi Graychase and Amy Roeder. In the 2nd half of the show Roger Spra...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Engineer: John Greenman Today our multipartisan panel of guests returns to Maine Currents. We’ve been meeting once or twice a month since last spring to talk about the upcoming elections and some of the issues that will be on the ballot here in Maine in November. This is the first time we’ve met since the Republican, Democratic and Green Party conventions, so we start off...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Audio recorded by Matt Murphy Some of the stories from the “Maine Summertime Stories” event held at the Alamo Theatre in Bucksport last week, cosponsored by WERU-FM, Wednesdays on Main and Northeast Historic Films/Alamo Theatre. Local storytellers featured today: Arielle Greenberg, Jonathan Fulford, Nolan Ellsworth, Sandra Dillon and Cara Oleksyk. Amy Browne e...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Engineer: John Greenman The latest edition of our multipartisan political roundtable discussions of the upcoming elections, with a focus today on Question 5 on Maine’s ballot this fall, a citizen’s initiative that reads: “Do you want to allow voters to rank their choices of candidates in elections for U.S. Senate, Congress, Governor, State Senate, and St...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Engineer: John Greenman Candidate scandals and lies- it’s hard to keep up, but today we do some fact checking following Trump’s rally in Bangor last week, his recent controversial tweets and the FBI’s findings re Hillary Clinton’s email servers. Features audio clips from the FBI press conference and Trump’s rally. Guest commentator, cultural...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Engineer: John Greenman Today we continue with our ongoing series of multi-partisan roundtable discussions / call-in shows re the upcoming presidential elections. Today’s guests represent a range of political backgrounds, but we are committed to keeping this discussion civil, keeping in mind that no matter who becomes president, we will all still be neighbors. Guest...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Engineer: John Greenman Local communities respond to the recent mass shooting in Orlando. We bring you to vigils held this week in Bangor and Belfast, Maine and then we talk with long time activist and former “Ism Prism” host Valentine King and open the phone lines for your calls. Valentine King is a cultural maven and independent thinker who has been based in...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Production Assistance: Bill Solomon Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and her brother/co-author David Goodman, speaking at the UU Church in Bangor on May 14, 2016 at a fundraiser for WERU — part of their book tour for “Democracy Now! 20 Years Covering the Movements Changing America”. Part 2 of 2. Part 1 aired last week and is available on our archives. The...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Production Assistance: John Greenman Today we have a special report on the proposal to remove the Orland Dam – a decision that regardless of which way it goes, will likely have impacts not only on that town, but on surrounding areas as well. Orland took over ownership of the dam from Verso in 2011. The dam has been found to have serious structural issues, has failed in th...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Production Assistance: Bill Solomon Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and her brother/co-author David Goodman, speaking at the UU Church in Bangor on May 14, 2016 at a fundraiser for WERU — part of their book tour for “Democracy Now! 20 Years Covering the Movements Changing America”. Part 2 will air in this time slot next week. (Wednesday, June 8th at 4pm)...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Engineer: John Greenman The next installment in our series of round table discussions / call-in shows about the upcoming presidential elections. Guests: Republicans Renee Trust and Billy Bob Faulkingham, Democrats Bernie Sanders supporter Tim Wilson, and Hillary Clinton supporter Margaret Hannah, and Betsy Garrold of the Green Party. The post Maine Currents 5/25/16 first...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Engineer: John Greenman Nearly 1400 people packed the Collins Center at the University of Maine Monday evening to let Senator Angus King and Jonathan Jarvis, Director of the United States National Park Service, know how they feel about a proposal to designate land east of Baxter State Park as a national monument. A national monument can be designated by the President, whe...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Engineer: John Greenman Audio contributed by Maxine Janerka A “tri-partisan” discussion of the upcoming presidential election with guests Betsy Garrold of the Green Party, Republicans Renee Trust and Representative Rich Malaby, Bernie Sanders supporter Tim Wilson, and Hillary Clinton supporter Steve Godsoe. Call in show. The post Maine Currents 5/11/16 first a...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Democracy Now! host and author Amy Goodman’s 2004 speech in Belfast. She will be returning to area with a fundraising event for WERU in Bangor on May 14th at 7pm. FMI/tickets: www.weru.org The post Maine Currents 5/4/16 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives .

Producer/Editor/Host: Amy Browne Engineer: Joel Mann Topic: Governor LePage’s recent behavior and efforts to address it. Last night he stormed out of an event at UMaine Farmington, calling 2 protesters “idiots”. The previous day he held a meeting that legally should have been public, but access was denied to legislators, media and the public. He has declared the Natural Resources...

Producer/Editor/Host: Amy Browne Engineer: Denis Howard Audio recorded by Matt Murphy In celebration of Earth week, today we talk with Peter Neill of the World Ocean Observatory about his new book, The Once and Future Ocean: Notes Toward a New Hydraulic Society . Neill is the host of the weekly short feature “World Ocean Radio” which has aired here on WERU every Wednesday morning at 7:30 for sever...

Producer/Editor/Host: Amy Browne Audio recorded by Natalie Springuel Hundreds of people gathered in Northport last weekend for the Penobscot Watershed Conference which focused on heritage, challenges and the future of the watershed. WERU volunteer Natalie Springuel , host of Coastal Conversations, works for Maine Sea Grant, one of the conference sponsors. For those of you who were unable to attend...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Topic: LePage’s controversial BEP nominee confirmed In a nearly unanimous vote this morning, the Senate confirmed Kathleen Chase, Governor LePage’s nominee for the Board of Environmental Protection– an appointee so controversial that environmental groups that say they have never opposed a nominee, spoke in opposition at a public hearing yesterday. The on...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Engineer: John Greenman Today we return to our on-going community discussion of the upcoming presidential election. We have a returning guest in the studio today with us today, Bernie Sanders supporter Tim Wilson, of Belfast. Tim has a bachelor’s degree in political science and an MBA. In the 90s, he was a campaign volunteer for Ross Perot. In 2004 he and his fiancé walke...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Contributing Producer: Carolyn Coe Engineer: Matt Murphy Segment 1: Produced by Carolyn Coe. we hear from members of Veterans for Peace from this area who recently toured US military bases under construction in Japan and South Korea. FMI: www.vfpmaine.org Segment 2: Interview and call in segment with local farmer and food rights activist Heather Retberg, about a proposed...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Engineer: John Greenman Today we’re opening the phone lines and asking “which candidate(s) do you support, and why?”. Our guests are local supporters of the Democratic and Green party candidates. (Numerous attempts were made to reach local supporters of the Republican candidates, by we received no response.) Guests: Betsy Garrold –past state party...

Producer/Host: Amy Browne Indigenous rights attorney Sherri Mitchell of the Penobscot Nation, has been a regular guest here on WERU, and if you were tuned in this morning at 10, you heard the new Pacifica network show she cohosts called “Love (and Revolution). Today on Maine Currents we’re bringing you to a talk Sherri Mitchell gave at the University of Maine last week called “Ending Conques...