8 O'Clock Buzz

The late David Wiganowski, who owned “Wiggie’s” tavern on Madison’s north side, was a stalwart conservative on the Dane County Board of Supervisors and a frequent thorn in the side of Madison-area liberals.  When the Occupy Madison movement established a homeless encampment on county-owned land, however, they found in “Wiggy” an unexpected champion and friend.  Now, Occupy Madison is building a second tiny home cooperative village on the site of Wiganowski’s former bar.  In December of 2020, Monday Buzz host Brian Standing caught up with some of the Occupy folks building new tiny homes for the homeless.

This fall, researchers in Utah began surveying wildlife populations after a breakout of the COVID-19 SARS-2 virus in domestic mink farms.  They found one wild mink who had contracted the virus, apparently from contact with farmed mink.  Interspecies infection has been a hallmark of the SARS-2 Cov2 virus from the start.  Nevertheless, the new finding raises questions about what impact the pandemic might have on wildlife populations.  Tony Goldberg is a Professor of Pathobiological Sciences at the UW School of Veterinary Medicine and Associate Director for Research at the UW Global Health Institute.

Mink in the Park photo:

qmnonic

Creative Commons license

 

On December 14th, the Wisconsin State Supreme Court issued a 4-3 decision that rejected a bid by the Trump campaign to throw out over 200,000 absentee ballots. But how close was the court to invalidating 200,000 votes? Because the conservative justices haven’t said or written as much about what remedy they would approve so much as their dissatisfaction with specific ways voting was handled.

To answer that question–and also talk about a few other relevant Wisconsin Supreme Court cases–we turned to friend of the show Joe Creitz. Joe is a Madison native and UW graduate who now lives in San Francisco where he runs a law firm, teaches law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, and blogs and podcasts about legal issues.

Photo by Connor Betts on Unsplash

In the aftermath of the November election—amidst all the attempts to reverse it—the charge of “sedition” has been hurled often from both sides. A few months ago we interviewed Carlton Larson, who is a professor at UC Davis Law school, about his book On Treason: A Citizen’s Guide to the Law. Since sedition is a close cousin to treason, we brought professor Larson back to try to sort out what is and isn’t legally seditious

Image courtesy Sang Hyun Cho from Pixabay

Clarence Lusane, Professor of Political History at Howard University and author of numerous books including “Black History of White Change”, “$20 and Change: Harriet Tubman, Andrew Jackson, on the Struggle for a Radical Democracy”, gives his take on the recent Jericho March with stabbings and beatings by Proud Boys, and also talks about Trump’s recent attacks on the Post Office and mail-in voting as another attempt to suppress the Black vote.

Reverend Graylan Hagler, Pastor at the Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ (Washington D.C.) considers the recent Jericho March/Trump Rally “a Theology of White Supremacy” and a “rally of hatred.” D. C. churches were attacked by Proud Boys at night, supported by inaction of the D.C. police as “giving aid and comfort to the protesters”, according to Hagler.

Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz (in exile): The old dog is back! Stan Woodard guest hosts and talks with..

Chuck Billings about life in Madison, the presidential election, and where we’ve been and where we’re going.

Actress, Producer, Writer and more Lyn Sisson-Talbert joins to talk about her life, films, books, and more. Her latest production on is Netflix “Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey” and books “Jingle Jangle: The Invention of Jeronicus Jangle” and “The Square Root of Possible: A Jingle Jangle Story” are available in stores everywhere.

Photo by Jonathan J Miner

Are you an infrastructure nerd?  Or maybe you just want a better understanding of where your tax dollars go?  Or, if you are a listener to this program, you may just be interested in hearing from people who are passionate and dedicated about the work they do.  If you fit any of those criteria, the City of Madison Engineering Division’s new podcast “Everyday Engineering” may be for you.  Hannah Mohelnitzky is the Public Information Officer for the City of Madison’s Engineering Division.

In the waning days of his Presidency, President Trump has made withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan a priority — even against the advice of senior Pentagon officials.  But the President’s renewed efforts to make good on his campaign promise of bringing the troops home masks how much deadlier the Afghanistan War — the longest foreign conflict in U.S. history — has become under President Trump’s watch.  After Trump revised the rules of engagement after assuming office in 2017, Afghani civilian death tolls have steadily climbed.  In 2019 alone, U.S. and allied Air Force strikes killed at least 700 civilians — more civilians than in any other year since the beginning of the war in 2001 and 2002.  Neta C. Crawford is the Chair of the Political Science Department at Boston University and Co-Director of the Eisenhower Institute’s Cost of War project.  Crawford recently authored a detailed study of Afghani civilian casualties under the Trump Administration.

On Wednesday, December 9th, Governor Evers’ Climate Change Task Force released its recommendations to meet the challenges of a rapidly warming planet.  The report contains 55 recommendations, ranging from environmental justice initiatives to de-carbonizing the state’s electrical grid to incentives for energy efficiency.  The Task Force included representatives from the environmentalist, industry, power generation and agricultural sectors, and was chaired by Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes.  Mandela Barnes joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on December 14, 2020.