8 O'Clock Buzz

In 2023, Broom Street Theater put out its first call for new works written by playwrights about their home states.  For their first installment, Broom Street focused on states close to home, in the upper Midwest.

This year, they’re ranging a bit further afield with a set of nine short plays set in the northeast.  The nonet, entitled “Our Home States, Volume 2” opens on July 26 and runs through August 17 at Broom Street’s theater on Williamson Street.

Director Melissa Minkoff, actor Joel Davidson, and Maria Dahman, Artistic Director for Broom Street Theater all spoke with Monday Buzz host Brian Standing to talk about the show.

Photo courtesy of Broom Street Theater website

Web posting by Nicholas Wootton

The post Broom Street Theater Presents Our Home States Vol. 2 appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

As of July 8, 2024, the National Weather Service had issued heat warnings for nearly all of the east and west coasts of the continental United States.  As many as 36 million people live in areas characterized as “extreme risk,” when the heat index exceeds 105 degrees Fahrenheit.  Areas of Northern California exceeded 119 degrees over the weekend. 

For those who work outside, or in warehouses, factories or kitchens that lack air conditioning, such temperatures pose serious health and safety risks.  Yet most workplaces lack safeguards to protect workers exposed to extreme heat conditions.  Some unions are spearheading efforts to get heat exposure standards included in their collective bargaining agreements. 

Kai Ortiz works for Homegrown, a wholesale kitchen in Seattle, and is a member of the union UNITED 8.  Keith Brower Brown is a labor-climate organizer and written about air temperature issues in the workplace for Labor Notes. Kai and Keith called in to the Monday Buzz to tell listeners about the problem.

Photo: Maris Zivarts, Labor Notes website

Web posting by Nicholas Wootton

The post Keith Brower Brown Updates Monday Buzz on Heat as Labor Safety Issue appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

The practice of banning books isn’t just for the South anymore. 

A recent investigation by Wisconsin Watch found that over 100 Wisconsin School Districts had to respond to challenges seeking to ban particular titles from the library shelves. 

Reporter Rachel Hale conducted the investigation as an intern for Wisconsin Watch, and joined the Monday Buzz in the studio to tell us more.  

Featured photo by Shane Fitzsimmons for Wisconsin Watch

Web posting by Nicholas Wootton

The post Journalist Rachel Hale Describes Efforts to Ban Books in Wisconsin appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

In the year 1801, Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, John Marshall, established the principle of judicial review which made the Court the official arbiter of what laws and regulations were constitutional.  As one Justice later remarked, “the Constitution is what we say it is.”  This power was never officially granted to the judicial branch of government but has been periodically used to invalidate laws and executive orders made by Congress and the President.

With the Supreme Court’s decision to grant immunity to the President for any official act, it would seem the Court is once again flaunting its usurped power to establish an all-powerful executive, the very notion that the Constitution was designed to prevent with the concept of checks and balances.  Norm Stockwell, editor of The Progressive Magazine, joins the 8 O’Clock Buzz to discuss the implications of this new ruling with host Tony Castañeda.  All Hail the Court!

Photo by Payton Tuttle on Unsplash

The post The Making of a King appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Under EPA’s “bubble policy,” determined in 1979, a plant complex with several facilities can decrease pollution from some facilities while increasing it from others, so long as total results are equal to or better than previous limits.  However, determination when this policy could be used was left to the discretion of the EPA in a 1984 ruling involving the oil giant, Chevron.  Last week the US Supreme Court overruled that earlier decision in a victory for conservatives and unbridled free enterprise.  UW Law School Professor Steph Tie joins the 8 O’Clock Buzz to discuss the implications of this decision on the environment.

Photo by Letizia Bordoni on Unsplash

The post US Supreme Court Forever Blowing Bubbles appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Did you know that Kewaunee County has five times more cows that people? A recent article by Molly Armus, Agriculture Policy Program Manager with Friends of the Earth entitled “Dramatic Growth of Manure Digesters on Wisconsin Mega Dairies Brings More Cows, More Pollution” demonstrates that mega-farms in the state are growing — but not for more milk but instead for rebates and incentives of collecting the methane from the manure.

The post Incentives of Methane from Manure Brings Huge Influx of Cows appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

In his recent article “Lessons from Europe: The Left Can’t Win by Running to the Right“, Chris Mills Rodrigo discusses the losses of the Left in Europe’s recent elections, and warns that the U. S. progressives need to hold to their principles and not adopt conservative policies in an effort to gain some middle-ground voters.

The post Mills Rodrigo: U. S. Left Needs to Learn from Elections in Europe appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Despite passing the U. S. Senate by a bipartisan vote, and in the face of support from both sides in the House, Mike Johnson has refused to bring the “Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Update” up for a vote, according to Tina Cordova from the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. This Act would expand the compensation to the generations of families affected by radiation spread following the Trinity atomic bomb test in New Mexico.

The post Johnson: No Vote for Radiation Exposure Compensation Act in the House appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

On July 1, Madison’s Mystery to Me bookstore will host an online panel discussion entitled The Lineup from Soho Crime: Queer International Crime Fiction.  The discussion features the authors Kwei Quartey and Sam Bett and will be moderated by author Katharine Beutner. Quartey and Beutner called in to WORT studios to talk Monday Buzz host Brian Standing about their work and the genre of Queer International Crime Fiction.

Katharine Beutner teaches English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is the author of the award-winning Killingly, a fictional account of a student who disappeared from Mount Holyoke College in 1897. (Images courtesy of Katharine Beutner)

Kwei Quartey was born in Ghana, worked as a physician and now lives in Pasadena, California.  His latest book, The Whitewashed Tombs, takes place in the Ghanaian capital of Accra, and follows Emma Djan’s investigation into anti-gay hate crimes. (Image of book cover courtesy Mystery to Me Bookstore. Author portrait courtesy of Kwei Quartay.)

Featured photo from Mystery to Me Bookstore website.

Web posting by Monday Buzz producer, Nicholas Wootton.

The post Authors Discuss Queer International Crime Fiction appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

The City of Madison does not have a Maxwell Street, but once a year, State Street does its best impersonation of Chicago’s 150-year old Maxwell Street Market. Striving for the multicultural eclecticism of its Windy City forbear, Madison’s Maxwell Street Days provides small vendors an opportunity to showcase their wares in an outdoor setting.

Among the businesses pitching a tent from July 19th through the 31st is Four Star Video Cooperative, one of the longest running businesses on State Street.

Four Star Video’s Lewis Peterson joined 8 O’Clock Buzz host Brian Standing to talk about Maxwell Street Days and the brick and mortar video store in the streaming age.

Photos Courtesy Lewis Peterson

Web posting by Nicholas Wootton

The post Four Star Video Carries On the Video Rental Tradition appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.