8 O'Clock Buzz

The environmental grass roots group “Don’t Waste Michigan” is joining others to fight the consolidated high-level radioactive waste storage site in New Mexico on the grounds that the plan will require long-distance transportation of radioactive materials through much of the country. Jan talks with Michael J. Keegan from that group.

Damita Brown talks with Stephanie Spehar and Justin Novotny from Extinction Rebellion about the intersection of climate justice and social justice and how we can save the world and ourselves too.

Photo by Tipocracia on Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/2j8gmre

Should historical statues be removed or destroyed, if the history of the subject is offensive by today’s standards? Adam Hochschild, Author and Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley School of Journalism, talks about the recent “epidemic” of statue destruction worldwide.

Breaking the cycle of domestic violence and sexual assault for almost 24 years — that’s the history of UNIDOS Against Domestic Violence according to Community Engagement and Volunteer Coordinator, Manuel Cerda. He talks with Jan about their services.

Hope Owens-Wilson, Youth Organizer of the ACLU of Wisconsin, talks about their Virtual Summer Justice Institute for High School Students, this year going full digital. The program focuses on teaching and training high school students in the working of the criminal justice system, social justice, and combining these lessons with a side focus on art.

On June 18, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner when it unilaterally ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).  The 5-4 decision effectively saves the DACA program, but leaves the door open for the Trump Administration to take another shot at it with a better rationale.  Shabnam Lotfi is an immigration attorney working in the Madison area.  She joined the Monday 8 O’Clock Buzz on June 22, 2020.

 

On June 15, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on three cases involving employer discrimination against LGBTQ workers.  In a 6-3 decision, the Court ruled that employers could not legally fire employees because they were homosexual or transgender.  The decision has been hailed as a landmark case, but there may still be some caveats.  Here to explain the implications is Julie Novkov, Professor of Political Science and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the State University of New York at Albany.

The proposed “Growing Climate Solutions Act” should actually be named “False Climate Solutions Act” according to Jason Davidson from Friends of the Earth. A proposed carbon trading proposal, decades of carbon trading has demonstrated that carbon trading actually increases carbon pollution.

Jan talks with Dr. Ricardo Salvador, Senior Scientist and Director of the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, about the history of worker exploitation in the U.S. from slavery to current practices of economically depressing agriculture workers.

Professor of International relations at Colby college and co-author of “19 Years Later: How to Wind Down the War on Terror“, Steven Simon’s report proposes policy changes, in light of the reduced threat of terrorism in the U.S., to reduce the scope and intensity of counter-terrorism operations and increase congressional oversight.