8 O'Clock Buzz

Since 1980, the incarceration of women in Wisconsin has increased by 897%, according to Marianne Oleson, organizer of the Fox Valley area chapter of ExPO, Ex-incarcerated Persons Organizing. Oleson is one of many fighting the attempts in the Wisconsin legislature to try to make it easier to terminate parental rights of incarcerated individuals and fighting the “Jim Crow era” Wisconsin laws taking away voting rights of felons, even after they have served their prison time. Having served her sentence, Oleson herself cannot vote until 2040.

Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Dr. Damita Brown, ​Progressive Magazine Editor Bill Leuders and Publisher Norm Stockwell join us to talk about the latest issue, focusing on climate change, and the continuing threats to our democracy.

More from The Progressive and to subscribe: https://progressive.org  

Listen in Madison at 89.9FM or online anywhere at wortfm.org.  Support your community radio with a donation online at wortfm.org!

Provided Photos

Bill Lueders is editor of The Progressive. He is author of An Enemy of the State, the biography of the late editor of The Progressive, Erwin Knoll. Lueders was news editor at Isthmus, Madison’s alternative weekly, for twenty-five years, and won dozens of state and national awards. In 2011 he moved to the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, where he became one of Wisconsin’s leading investigative reporters. He joined the staff of The Progressive in 2015 and was named editor in September 2018. In September 2021 he was inducted into the National Freedom of Information Coalition’s State Open Government Hall of Fame. 

Norman Stockwell is publisher of The Progressive magazine, a one-hundred-thirteen-year-old Madison-based progressive bi-monthly. Prior to that, he served for more than two decades as WORT’s Operations Coordinator. He worked at the station in music and news programming since 1983. In addition to working as a journalist in the U.S., Cuba, Nicaragua & Mexico, Norm has been involved in the collective management of two Madison institutions – Lakeside Press and Mifflin Street Co-op. He is also former Director of the Old Town School of Folk Music-Madison, and served in the 1970’s as Facilities Manager for the Northwestern University Archeological Program. 

Stockwell has been hosting programs of “A Public Affair” since 1989, covering such issues as the murder of the Jesuits in El Salvador, the Gulf War and its aftermath, the pro-democracy movement in Nepal, and the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico.

His reports and interviews have appeared on Pacifica Radio, Free Speech Radio News, DemocracyNow! & AirAmerica, and in print in Z Magazine, the Capital Times, AlterNet, the Tico Times, Toward Freedom, and elsewhere. He is co-editor of the book REBEL REPORTING: John Ross Speaks to Independent Journalists. Hamilton Books/Rowman-Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7618-6660-2. 

Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Dr. Damita Brown, Dan Fitch from Derail the Jail and Dane County District 2 Supervisor Heidi Wegleitner join us to talk about their opposition to the new Dane County Jail, shifting our thinking about jailing, and jail reform!

Derail the Jail: https://derailthejail.com/

More on Dan at his website: https://danielgfitch.com/

Heidi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/heidimayree 

Listen in Madison at 89.9FM or online anywhere at wortfm.org.  Support your community radio with a donation online at wortfm.org!

Provided Photos

Dan Fitch is a Madison activist, noisemaker, and citizen journalist.

Heidi is a Dane County supervisor, a legal aid lawyer specializing in eviction defense, and an active member of her union.  On the County Board, she’s been a leader for housing justice and organized opposition to a new county jail.

Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

In this episode, Sikowis picks up from an episode she did in August 2021 concerning a new greenwashed, fossil fuel industry tactic called carbon capture and sequestration, also known as CO2 pipelines. Sikowis meets up with Mahmud Fitil from Great Plains Action Society, Joye Braun from Indigenous Environmental Network, and Scott Skokos from Dakota Resource Council to talk about the new greenwashed, carbon capture tactic to address the climate crisis. 

There is a huge mess of interconnecting CO2 pipelines slated to be built in Iowa by Summit, Navigator, and Wolf which will also reach into Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota. This greenwashing tactic is not so much a solution to curbing the climate crisis but more of a ploy by the fossil fuel industry to keep drilling, fracking, and extracting rather than truly reducing emission levels. The process of retrieving CO2 out of ethanol, fertilizer, or coal plants actually requires 20-30% more energy to carry out the task and it then the liquified CO2 needs to be pumped underground into geologically appropriate spaces–which is a huge problem in and of itself. But, there is also the health consequence of CO2 pipelines–and that is, what happens when they leak? Currently, there are no first responders in the midwest that have been interviewed about this that have a plan. Also, what is going on in Indian Country? Are tribes being consulted yet and if so, how? And, what is it like for Indigenous organizers to stand for white landowners in order to protect the land?

If you missed it, you can go back to the original CO2 Pipeline Episode from August 31, 2021.

Guests

Joye Braun:

Eagle Feather Woman is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Joye’s history of community activism includes the long fought campaign against the Keystone XL the project resurrected at the same time DAPL was renewed and continues to threaten her homelands. She is also making stands to protect the Sacred Black Hills, her Ancestral sacred lands against Fracking, Uranium and Gold mining. Joye travels extensively and speaks throughout the northern plains and participates in Indigenous gatherings in the U.S. and Canada speaking about the negative impacts the extractive economy has on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, the abuses taking place in the oil patch, pipeline work, and communities where man-camps bring drugs, human trafficking, and increase crime rates wherever they are located. 

Scott Skokos:

Scott has over 15 years of experience working in public policy, politics, and community organizing. Scott has served as the Executive Director of Dakota Resource Council since 2018. Dakota Resource Council (DRC) is a statewide conservation and family farm group that works with farmers, ranchers, and frontline communities to address community issues, climate change, and promote family farm agriculture. Prior to becoming DRC’s Executive Director, Scott worked as a Regional Organizer for the Western Organization of Resource Councils where he was responsible for WORC’s regional oil and gas campaign. Scott also spent four years working as a community organizer at Dakota Resource Council focusing on clean energy and oil and gas. Scott is a board member for North Dakota Voters First (an organization founded to combat gerrymandering and voter disenfranchisement) , the REAMP Network Agriculture Hub (working to uncover climate solutions in the agriculture sector throughout the midwest),...

WORT 89.9FM Madison · nipinet landsem named Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District Artist in Residence

On February 10, the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District selected Anishinaabe / Michif tattoo artist, illustrator and community educator nipinet landsem as the district’s first-ever artist in residence. 

Why would a sewer district, traditionally focused on pipes and treatment plants, want or need an artist-in-residence, you ask? 

Well, it’s all part of the Sewerage District’s OneWater campaign to educate Madison-area residents about water.  nipinet landsem joins to explain.

Image Courtesy: Cleo Tse / Unsplash

Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

WORT 89.9FM Madison · Shark Antibody-Like Proteins Neutralize COVID-19 Virus

A recent study from the University of Wisconsin, the University of Minnesota and the Scottish biomedical company Elasmogen suggests that antibodies created by sharks hold promise for preventing new coronavirus infections. 

The small proteins, known as Variable New Antigen Receptors, or VNARs, appear to successfully neutralize coronavirus cells where larger human antibodies cannot. 

Caroline Barelle, CEO of Elasmogen, joins to discuss this study. 

Image Courtesy: Gerald Schombs / UNSPLASH

Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

WORT 89.9FM Madison · Tribal Economies and the Future of Casinos

The global COVID-19 pandemic strained businesses everywhere, but came as a particular shock to Native American casinos. 

Wisconsin tribes saw gaming revenues decline by over thirty percent, forcing the Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk and Oneida Nations laid off 80% of their gaming related workforce. 

With gaming revenues making up three quarters or more of tribal income, that volatility has some tribal leaders wondering if gambling is still a safe bet. 

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism’s Mario Koran joins to discuss what’s next. 

Image Courtesy: Martin Sanchez / UNSPLASH

Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

WORT 89.9FM Madison · COMING HOME: A Fundraising Concert for UW MIA Recovery and Identification Project

A project at UW – Madison is working to recover, identify, and repatriate U.S. service members who have been missing in action since World War II. It’s called the UW Missing in Action Recovery and Identification Project. Since 2014, they’ve had a hand in returning two U.S. Army Air Force pilots and one army soldier—and they’re using biotechnology to do so. And now, they’re at work preparing for another case. While the project is in partnership with the Department of Defense, the UW MIA Project must raise a significant portion of costs associated with preliminary work on cases involving Wisconsin soldiers. And so they’re putting together a fundraising concert, COMING HOME, this Sunday at 2pm.

Joining Friday Buzz host, Chali Pittman, is Charles Konsitzke, Associate Director of the UW Biotechnology Center and the team lead of this project, and Jeff Leibow is the Development Program Manager.

 

 

(Image courtesy of UW MIA Recovery and Identification Project)

 

Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

What happens to healthcare when the COVID health emergency expires? Libby Watson, founder of Sick Note, a weekly on-line newsletter with the goal to “be a chronicle of everything sh*tty about American healthcare”, talks about the millions of people who will potentially lose Medicaid support, and the financial incentive of states and their consulting groups to remove as many people from the Medicaid lifeline as possible.

Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

With demands of fighting systemic racism, poverty and inequality, unjust incarceration, ecological devastation, war and militarism, and anti-poor legislation, the call is out from the Poor People’s Campaign and other social reform organizations to ORGANIZE and FIGHT! Ciara Fox from the National Fast Food Workers Union and Sunny Kurhajetz, the Dane County Co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, talk about the upcoming rallies — first in Madison on March 28, 2022 and the national rally in Washington D.C. on June 18, 2022. Join in person or on-line! See the links for more information.

Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here