8 O'Clock Buzz

If you are wondering how green your legislator is, Wisconsin Conservation Voters has you covered.  Each year, the advocacy organization ranks all state legislators and the governor based on how they voted on key pieces of environmentally friendly and unfriendly legislation.

Heroic champions of the natural world get named to a conservation Honor Roll, while public officials who oppose legislation and policies meant to preserve the natural environment may find themselves on the Dishonor Roll.

Wisconsin Conservation Voters Deputy Director Seth Hoffmeister joined the Monday 8 o’Clock Buzz to comment on how his organization grades the 2023-2024 legislative session.

Photos courtesy of Wisconsin Conservation Voters

Web posting by Nicholas Wootton

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Elections in Wisconsin are conducted by more than 1,800 local clerks at the town, village, city, and county levels, some of whom only work a minimum number of hours a week and don’t have the resources to respond to frivolous lawsuits.  Scott McDonell, Dane County Clerk, joins the 8 O’Clock Buzz to talk about the recent attempt by a 2020 election-denialist to make it much more difficult to vote by absentee ballot in the State of Wisconsin.  Josh Kaul, Wisconsin’t Attorney General, has issued a letter clarifying the clerk’s responsibilities.  Scott is also in contact with many of the clerks to address their concerns and make sure they are informed to what they are able to do to ensure free and fair elections in their districts.

Photo by Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash

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There’s an adage, “making the billy goat the gardener” that may apply to a member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), the organization entrusted with making sure the State’s elections are fairly run.  Bob Spindell, a Republican-Party appointment to the Commission, and one of the fake electors who attempted to overturn the 2020 Presidential election, remains a member of the Commission even after his involvement in throwing out the popular vote of the people of Wisconsin.  Nicholas Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign joins the Thursday edition of the 8 O’Clock Buzz, to talk about a rally at the State Capitol in conjunction with the first in-person meeting of the WEC.    Nicholas would like to see Bob removed from the commission and the rally will focus on saving democracy for the voters of Wisconsin.  Seems like the billy goat wants to stick around for the next harvest.

Photo by Constant Loubier on Unsplash

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As freight railroads continue to consolidate and propose single-operator trains, two unions — one for the engineers and another for conductors — are at each others’ throats to see which will be the last man standing. Nick Wurst, General Secretary for Railroad Workers United, is attempting to unify the two unions to give workers stronger bargaining power to control work schedules, promote safety, and bring innovation to rail in the U.S.

The post Wurst: Bringing Two Unions into One — It’s Hard But Import... appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

In his June 18, 2024 article “Four Years After George Floyd’s Murder, Congress Has Unfinished Work to Bring Needed Change“, Director of Justice Reform at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, Jose Santos Moreno talks about how national legislature “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act” regarding the use by police of choke holds, racial profiling, and creation of a national registry for abusive police has stalled in Congress. He expands on those issues in his conversation with Jan Miyasaki.

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Today on the Too Turnt Up Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Tara Wilhelmi and RR Moore featuring Miss Herb, checking in on what’s going on, talking about the event safety failure and stampede at Vegandale Fest this weekend in Chicago, and, as a bonus, talking about love and music with Tara Wilhelmi III.

Music from today’s show: https://spinitron.com/WORT/pl/19156124/Tuesday-8-O-Clock-Buzz 

Listen in Madison at 89.9FM or online anywhere at wortfm.org.  Support your community radio with a donation online at wortfm.org!

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For the past 21 years, the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project has sought to foster person-to-person relationships with residents of the southern Palestine city of Rafah. Previous humanitarian projects for the people of Rafah, including water purification systems, mental health resources, a playground, a children’s library, a house reconstruction, and more.

Now, as the Israeli-Hamas war enters its tenth month, the need for humanitarian aid has never been greater.  The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project will host Art for Gaza 2024, a silent art auction, with all proceeds going to the Middle East Children’s Alliance.

Cassandra Dixon works as a carpenter in Madison, volunteers for the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, and has made several aid trips to Palestine. Cassandra spoke with Monday Eight o’Clock Buzz host Brian Standing to talk about the art auction and about the how war in Gaza is affecting the civilian population.

All photos courtesy Cassandra Dixon

Web posting by Nicholas Wootton

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On June 13, the United States Supreme Court ruled to continue to allow widespread access to the abortion drug mifepristone in the United States.  The unanimous ruling, authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, threw out a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s 2016 and 2021 rules on the medication, saying that the plaintiffs could not demonstrate harm, and therefore had no standing to sue.

Because the ruling did not address the merits of the plaintiff’s arguments, abortion advocates warn that future challenges are likely.

Meanwhile, even more restrictive laws regarding reproductive health in other parts of the world have forced women innovate, enabling access to self-managed abortions.

Naomi Braine is a professor of sociology at the City University of New York, Brooklyn Campus, where she focuses on harm reduction, women’s health and community action and has just completed a global study of women’s self-managed abortions. She described the legal landscape of reproductive health to WORT listeners on the Monday Eight o’Clock Buzz.

Featured image courtesy of Democracy Docket 

Web posting: Nicholas Wootton

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All elections need voters, and municipal clerks around the state maintain lists of Wisconsinites who are eligible – or ineligible – to vote. Maintaining these lists of who can and cannot vote is a year-round job, and is intended to prevent those with a criminal history from voting until their debt to society is paid.

But who has liability if a name is mistakenly removed from the list?

Journalist Alex Shur, who covers Wisconsin election news for the website VoteBeat, and is a regular guest on the Monday Buzz, has written about Wisconsin citizens put in legal jeopardy when they are given inaccurate information about their voting status, compounding their efforts to put their legal problems behind them. Alex spoke with Monday Buzz host Brian Standing about his reporting.

Featured image credit: Amena Saleh / Wisconsin Watch

Web posting: Nicholas Wootton

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In honor of Juneteenth, Howard University Professor and author of numerous books, including “The Black History of the White House”, talks about the history of Juneteenth, and following, his latest writing from The Nation: “Black MAGA Is Still MAGA to the Core: Trump’s strategy for the Black vote has been high on empty symbolism and low on specific policy benefits for the Black community” where he discusses the staged photo ops of “Black supporters” created by the Trump campaign in an attempt to lure Black voters.

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