8 O'Clock Buzz

WORT 89.9FM Madison · Martin Griffin & Amanda Wegner On The Surveillance Process Of Our Wastewater

While wastewater treatment is something most try not to think about, it is fundamental to the protection of a multitude of ecosystems. Friday Buzz host, Ankur Malhotra, is joined by Martin Griffin, the Director of Ecosystem Services, and Amanda Wegner, the spokesperson for the Madison Metropolitan Sewer District (MMSD) to talk more about the surveillance process of our wastewater.

 

 

(Image courtesy of Ivan Bandura on Unsplash) 

The Right, acting in concert and organized in the U. S. and internationally, are latching onto anything to stoke the fear of white nationalists, according to Howard University Professor and American University Professor Emeritus Clarence Lusane. By grabbing onto the conceptual idea of “critical race theory”, the 1619 Project, and other intellectual ideas and bring it to a concept for conservative supporters to fear, they are attempting to galvanize their followers into creating laws which restrict freedom of speech of teachers and educators.

Matthew Rothschild, Executive Director of Wisconsin Democracy Campaign — a Community Shares non-profit organization, talks about that groups continuing efforts to “follow the money” in Wisconsin political campaigns: to find out why politicians are voting how they do and report who’s pulling their strings. But, their scope has expanded to other parts of fair elections in Wisconsin, including fair redistricting, fighting to overturn the “Citizens United” ruling, voting rights for felons, and more.

Real-life costumed avengers patrol the streets in Mexico, Honduras, Chile and Colombia.  Vinodh Venkatesh tells us the story of Latin America’s real-life superheroes.

In the United States today, if you want to find a masked hero opposing injustice, you’ll have to go to the movie theater to catch one of the latest epics from Marvel or DC studios.  You’d probably have to go back to the days of Bass Reeves, the real-life African-American U.S. Marshall who inspired the fictional Lone Ranger, to find well known, nonfictional masked crimefighters.  In Latin America, however, self-proclaimed, real-life superheroes are everywhere.  Vinodh Venkatesh is a Professor of Spanish at Virginia Tech University and he has studied the real-life costumed avengers that have become a part of everyday life in Latin America.

Photo of Superbarrio:

The Influencers festival, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Well, it took 10 years — but finally the Wisconsin DNR is permitted to create reasonable regulations for waste discharge and management of factory farms to help provide the state’s residents with clean water — so says the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a July 8th ruling. According to Tony Gilbart and Andrea Gelatt from the Midwest Environmental Advocates, over 200 people each year are sickened by drinking water contamination from waste from large farms leaking into the wells of residents. Ten years ago, five Kewaunee County residents started a decade-long battle with a concentrated animal feeding operation milking 7,500 cows and finally achieved a victory against big farm interests to secure the right for clean water.

In 2013, former NSA analyst Daniel Hale blew the whistle on the civilian consequences of drone warfare, releasing to the Jeremy Scahill of the Intercept, 17 documents describing the death of hundreds of innocent men, women, and children killed during drone attacks by the U. S. Government.

Co-founder of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Kathy Kelly, talks about the charges and upcoming sentencing on July 27th, and what you can do to intercede on his behalf, and stop the war on whistleblowers.

Releasing 4100 pages of “Top Secret” military reports into the public record might ruffle a few feathers in the U. S. government. No, not talking about WikiLeaks release of army intelligence in 2010 — this was June 29, 1971, when freshman U.S. Senator Mike Gravel from Alaska entered the so-called “Pentagon Papers“, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s comprehensive study of the United States involvement in the Vietnam War, into public record.

Gravel co-authored a memoir about his experiences: “A Political Odyssey: The Rise of American Militarism and One Man’s Fight to Stop It“, and his daughter, Lynne Mosier, talks to Jan Miyasaki about the activist’s history following Gravel’s recent death at the age of 91.

Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Marcus Slaton sitting in for Dr. Damita Brown…

Milwaukee Bucks are in the NBA Finals for the first time in 47 years, and hoping for their first championship in 50.  Ben Brust and Jim Rutledge from ESPN Madison join us to talk about it!

Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/benbrust

Follow Jim on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jimrutledge

Photos from ESPN Madison

Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Marcus Slaton sitting in for Dr. Damita Brown…

Amber Duddy is the Executive Director of Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin, and joins us to talk about a new reality for many people in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic: food insecurity, as use of their food pantries has doubled in the last 18 months.

More information on Community Action Coalition: https://www.cacscw.org/

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Martinez White On His Upcoming Perfomances

Martinez White is a founding member of the Wisconsin Association of Black Men and the CEO of Intuition Productions LLC. He is a motivational speaker, a DJ and a writer of the book Think Like a DJ, Martinez makes sure that Madison folk are tapped into entertainment and wealth building. Martinez joins Friday Buzz host, Dana Pellebon.

 

 

(Image courtesy of Martinez White)