8 O'Clock Buzz

WORT 89.9FM Madison · Underfunded Conservation Programs Fall Short

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that agriculture contributes nearly 11% of the United States total greenhouse gas emissions, and will be one of the most vulnerable industrial sectors to the effects of climate change.  A recent study from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst suggests that midwestern farms have lost a staggering 57.6 billion metric tons of topsoil since the advent of modern agriculture 160 years ago.  In a 1999 lawsuit settlement, the U.S. Department of Agriculture admitted historic loan discrimination against black farmers, and agreed to pay out some two billion dollars in payments.  Given all that, you might think that conservation programs proven to reduce carbon emissions and retain topsoil would be made available to the current generation of farmers, especially those who suffered from historic discrimination.  Not so, says a new investigative report from Investigate Midwest.  Madeline Heim, an environment reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who contributed to the report joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on 11/27/2023.

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Front-line worker at Maximus, a Federal Medicare Call Center contractor, Christina Jimenez says that the staff at the Hattiesburg Mississippi location are not as happy as their website, full of smiling workers, makes out. She talks with Jan Miyasaki about the working conditions and low wages which created the situation.

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Afreen Minai, Militarism and Human Rights Program Assistant at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, talks about a recent AUMF (Authorized Use of Military Force) directed against Iran-based militias recently proposed by Texas Representative Michael McCaul. AUMFs permit military action without declaration of war, and the AUMF on Iraq and the War on Terror is still in effect — after more than 20 years. Minai says that these AUMFs need sunset dates, a specific named target, and robust reporting, and that this new AUMF could undermine progress in Middle East relations.

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The U.S. constitution is quite difficult to change — however, state constitutions are relatively easy…to the extent that 70 state constitution amendments were passed in 2022. Emily Lau, Staff Attorney fort he University of Wisconsin’s State Democracy Research Initiative talks about these “living” documents and the efforts that this non-partisan group is making to make the fifty state constitutions available, and searchable at 50constitutions.org

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · For The Love Of Native Plants

One hundred and fifty years ago, tallgrass prairie and oak savanna covered much of southern Wisconsin.  Agriculture and urban development has wiped most of these intricate ecological communities off the landscape.  On Sunday, November 19, WORT’s Brian Standing joined a small group of folks learning how to start rebuilding some of that ecosystem.  Here’s Jeff Steele from the Friends of Urban Nature outing.

Photo of yellow coneflower seedhead by Frank Mayfield from Chicago area, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · WICOR Seeks Extraterrestrial Life

Ask anyone familiar with science fiction tropes what an extraterrestrial lifeform looks like, and you’ll get a stock answer: a bipedal, upright, bilaterally symmetrical being that may sprout unusual appendages or have an abnormally large, bald head, but takes a generally humanoid form.  Think for a moment, though, about the dizzying variety life takes on this planet, from oak trees to octopi to fungi to deep-sea tube worms.  Now imagine a lifeform evolving on a completely different planet, with a completely different natural history.  Would we even recognize such a being as “alive?”  A new interdisciplinary research center at the University of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Center for Origins seeks to answer the question of what both extraterrestrial and early terrestrial life might look like, and to help in the search for such life elsewhere in the solar system and the universe.  Susanna Widicus Weaver is the Vozza Professor of Chemistry and Astronomy and one of the founding members at the Wisconsin Center for Origins.  Thomas Beatty is an Assistant Professor of Astronomy.  Widicus Weaver and Beatty both joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on November 20, 2023.

Illustration of exoplanet Trappist-1 b (based on James Webb infrared telescope data) by NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmsted (STScI).

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Legislating Humane Treatment In Wisconsin Prisons

Three of Wisconsin’s largest prisons, Waupun, Green Bay and Stanley correctional institutions have been in what the Department of Corrections euphemistically calls “a state of modified movement,” but most would call “lockdown.”  In October, inmates at Waupun filed a lawsuit in federal court, claiming that deteriorating conditions amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment.”  The suit describes prisoners denied health care, infestations of roaches and rats, and prohibitions against prisoner movement. These conditions have resulted in at least two deaths at the prison, including one suicide.  Ryan Clancy represents Wisconsin Assembly District 19, which includes much of eastern Milwaukee.  On November 2, Clancy and other legislative Democrats introduced a package of “Conditions of Confinement” bills to seek to restore humane treatment at Wisconsin’s prisons.

 

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How well do average citizens understand inflation? Host Tony Castañeda and his economically-curious sidekick Eli Wilz get answers to this question and many others on this Thursday’s “Inflation 101” edition of the 8 O’Clock Buzz.

David Fuller of the UW-Oshkosh Department of Economics defines inflation and its 3 major causes, and explains why pointing fingers at politicians in general and the Biden Administration in particular is misguided. There’s currently a lot of “buzz” about inflation in the news and while it’s politically convenient to blame the sitting president, the reality is that it’s the Federal Reserve (the U.S. central banking system) that controls money supply and interest rates, both of which influence the labor market and consumer prices.

Photo courtesy of geralt on Pixabay.

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Thursday Buzz host Tony Castañeda welcomes Kirk Bangstad, a northwoods brewer known best for his progressive politics and aptly named beer offerings, to talk about his latest David vs Goliath venture, funding a suit filed with the Wisconsin Supreme Court which challenges the constitutionality of taxpayer-funded private schools. Bangstad, whose SuperPAC has also funded efforts in support of marriage equality, abortion rights and fair election maps, calls the anti-voucher lawsuit “the most important legal challenge to Wisconsin’s education financing system in decades.” Lead plaintiff in the case, which has the support of the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) is Julie Underwood, former dean of the University of Wisconsin School of Education.

Photo courtesy of Brett Jordan on Unsplash.

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Since March of this year, two of Wisconsin’s prisons have been in lockdown — which severely limits inmates physical exercise, access to good medical care, and social interaction — all of which are necessary for humane treatment of inmates, many of which are incarcerated for non-criminal “rule breaking”. President of MOSES, Rachel Kincade, and Community Organizer, James Morgan, talk about the issues involved with the lockdowns.

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