8 O'Clock Buzz

Damita Brown talks with Eugenia Highland, Restorative Justice Director from YWCA of Madison about Latinx issues in our community, how they relate to the issues faced by other minorities, and what we can all do to work together toward justice.

Remembering Miss Milele Chikasa Anana, founder of Umoja Magazine and beautiful and beloved elder of our community with an archive recording of her conversation with former 8:00 Buzz host Aaron Perry.

Photo and Poster by Peter Durand and Daniel Reisell — Restorative Justice: flic.kr/p/hz6ZEh

On May 4, we spoke with University of Memphis law professor Steven Mulroy about the history and background of voting-by-mail systems.  Today, we at the Buzz thought we’d talk with some of the activists working to make voting by mail universal.  Vote 2020 By Mail is a nonpartisan organization lobbying Congress to require that all federal, state and local elections allow for voting by mail, by default, to all its citizens.  Avi Stopper founded Vote 2020 By Mail, and he joined the Monday Buzz on May 11, 2020.

On May 3, U.S. Secretary of State George Pompeo, speaking on ABC’s “This Week” program, repeated claims that the COVID-19 virus originated in a Chinese laboratory, despite intelligence officials’ repeated statements that no such link had been established.  In April, poison control centers around the country saw an uptick in bleach poisoning incidents after President Trump suggested that ingesting bleach could combat the COVID-19 virus.  When baseless conjecture is repeated as fact with the trappings and authority of government, it becomes hard to resist.  Mike Wagner is a professor of Journalism at the University of Wisconsin, and he has studied conspiracy theories and political communication.

How has voting changed? Elizabeth Howard, Counsel for The Brennan Center for Justice has studied that question in her “Ensuring Safe Elections Report”. Five times more people in Wisconsin voted by absentee ballot than the 2016 primary — which results in much additional cost the local and state government — funding which is not supported by Republican leadership.

The Republican-controlled Nuclear Regulatory Commission has announced that it will move forward with temporary high-level nuclear waste storage in New Mexico, despite hazards of transportation and failure to have a long-term solution. Kevin Kamps from Beyond Nuclear discusses the issues.

Amanda Starbuck, Senior Food Researcher and Policy Analyst at Food and Water Watch talks about how the COVID crisis has shown how broken the U.S. food supply chain is. Corporate farms, consolidation of meat production into only a few companies, and using COVID as an excuse for more deregulation is showing the weak underbelly of food production and distribution.

On April 7, 2020, Wisconsin held its spring elections for State Supreme Court, local government offices and the U.S. Presidential Preference Primary.  Under the threat of coronavirus contagion, thousands of Wisconsinites left their homes and waited in long lines with their fellow voters, by necessity often closer than six feet apart.  A shortage of poll workers — many of whom quit rather than risk viral exposure — led to a number of polling places shutting down.  Under those conditions, one would expect that turnout would suffer, but, in fact, overall turnout came in at 34%, not bad for a spring primary, and comparable to the turnout in 2008.  What did change, however, was HOW people voted.  For the first time ever in the state, the vast majority of voters, 71% voted with an absentee or mail-in ballot.  With the coronavirus crisis likely to continue through the fall, many are asking why don’t we all vote by mail this November?  Why, indeed.  Steven Mulroy, Professor of Law at the University of Memphis joined the Buzz on May 4th, 2020.

On March 24, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wisconsin Department of Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm ordered people to stay in their homes, prohibited gatherings and closed all “non-essential businesses,” which includes bars, restaurants and theaters.  You know the situation is serious when Wisconsin shuts down the bars.  Now here we are, in May, and the original DHS orders have been extended through Memorial Day.  It’s hard to imagine any group of people more directly affected by Wisconsin’s Safer at Home orders than those who make a living specifically by attracting crowds of people together.  Yet, despite the economic hardship the lockdown has caused them, you did not see many performing artists joining the ranks of the anti-lockdown protestors at the Capitol last week.  Here at the Monday 8 O’Clock Buzz, we thought we’d check in with some Madison-area performing artists and see how they’re getting by.  Buzz listeners know Kia Karlen from her frequent guest host appearances here on WORT, and from her musical performances with Yid Vicious and a host of other musical acts. Kia is also a member of the Madison Area Arts Commission.  Luv Joy Seamon is an aerialist with Swing States Aerial, Madison Circus Space and Cycropia Aerial Dance.  Welcome, Luv.  And also joining us is Tom Kastle, a touring musician, Great Lakes boat captain and actor with the Madison Shakespeare Company.  They joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on May 4th, 2020.

Thirty five million people get their drinking water from one of the Great Lakes.  For years, these glacial reservoirs have been a reliable, safe source of water.  But in 2017, the City of Toledo, Ohio had to tell its residents not to drink or even boil water coming from the city taps.  The culprit: an enormous algae bloom in Lake Erie that overwhelmed Toledo’s water intake.  Even worse news is that, with rising temperatures, more rainfall and more nutrients running into the water, conditions become perfect for algae growth.  So, what’s the prognosis for drinking water near the Great Lakes? Gabriel Filippelli is the Director of the Center for Urban Health and Professor of Earth Sciences at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and Joseph Ortiz is the Assistant Chair of the Geology Department at Kent State University. Both joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on Monday, May 4th, 2020.

Jerome Dillard from Ex-Incarcerated Persons Organizing interviews Dr. Rev. Alex Gee and Dr. Karen Reece-Pfifer about their work with the Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development, including work in the community to strive for equity and fairness, and assist those leaving jails or prisons reenter the community with housing, mentorship, employment, and advocacy.