8 O'Clock Buzz

Madison’s Starkweather Creek may hold the dubious distinction as the most polluted waterbody in Wisconsin.  On the Wisconsin DNR’s impaired waterbody list since 1998, the urban creek has suffered the loss of wetlands and springs, runoff from surrounding pavement, unsafe levels of sediment, toxic metals, chloride, e coli bacteria and lately, the forever chemical PFAS.

The City of Madison, Dane County and the State of Wisconsin have spent millions restoring Starkweather’s riparian areas, but water pollution, low oxygen and toxic algae blooms continue to plague the creek.  Now, the nonprofit Myco Rising is trying a new approach:  growing mushrooms to clean the water.  Joining us now in the studio is Aaron Cutler from Myco Rising.

Image by Mike Goad from Pixabay

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In 2022 the U.S. trade deficit increased for goods and services, but with regards to hate and extremism there was a significant surplus in exported racist and anti-immigration resources.  Heidi Beirich, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder, of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism joins the Thursday edition of the 8 O’Clock Buzz to talk about the growth of xenophobic developments in other countries and the support they are receiving from white supremist groups in the US.  Spreading false rumors such as The Great Replacement Theory resonates with movements in other countries as white Europeans feel their power and culture are under attack by immigrants.

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

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Bri LeRose, comedy writer and director, joins the 8 O’Clock Buzz and host Tony Castañeda and Eli Wilz to discuss the status of the work stoppage by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).  There hasn’t been much progress during the past weeks, but that could change after the dispute between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the AMPTP reaches a climax on their contract deadline of June 30. One of the main issues for the writers and actors’ guilds are the growing influence of streaming platforms like Netflix, and their business model which has left many writers and actors struggling to make a living.

Image by Lucas Bieri from pixabay

 

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Melissa Smith, Founder and Executive Director of Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife, joined the 8 O’Clock Buzz to let everyone know there is a Rally for Wolves planned for this Saturday, July 1 at the Capitol from 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM.  They will meet with Senator Tammy Baldwin to discuss legislation to de-list the wolf from the endangered species designation.

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Allison Sesso, President and CEO of RIP Medical Debt, talks about the activities of her organization, funded by crowd funding, individual contributions, church donations, and now money from the American Rescue Plan, to erase medical debt from low-income individuals (at 400% of the poverty level or below). The systemic failure of healthcare in the U. S. puts a tremendous burden of medical care on the poor, and RIP Medical Debt can erase that debt at a price of $1 for every $100 of medical debt, and have already erased more than $9 billion of medical debt in the country.

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Between 1819 and 1969, over 400 Indian boarding schools, many of them Christian, held forced Indian children — away from their families, culture, language, and traditions in order to Americanize them and convert from their pagan ways. Cindy Darcy, consultant on Native American Policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, talks about the introduction of a bi-partisan bill in the U. S. Senate to form a federal commission to investigate and make recommendations on how to make amends to the individuals and their families.

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In 2023, once again, the Poor People’s Campaign, Kairos Center, Repairers of the Breach, and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) are taking stock with the release of new, updated fact sheets that examine the state of poverty and inequality at the national level in the United States, as well as extensive data for each of the 50 states and D.C. Ashik Siddique from the IPS talks with Jan Miyasaki about the report, including some national statistics of the poor as well as information specific to Wisconsin, where more than 31% of the population are categorized as “poor”, 30% of individuals make less than $15/hour, and 77% of the workforce do not have access to paid sick leave. The fact sheet describes how re-allocation of some of the military spending can reduce the inequities.

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Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with 1neofmani (Breyon Sommerville), it’s a birthday call-in and talk about what’s going on.  Breyon and friends reflect on birthdays and the world.

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It’s a sound no bird lover wants to hear.  A sudden “thunk” against a window pane, that dreaded noise of  a songbird colliding with a sheet of glass.  A 2014 study from the Smithsonian Institution found that window collisions accounted for anywhere from 365 million to 1 billion songbird deaths a year.  With songbird populations declining worldwide, any source of unnecessary lethal consequences is too many.  The Madison Audubon Society and SOS Save Our Songbirds are teaming up to help homeowners reduce these impacts.  We’re joined now by Lisa Gaumnitz of SOS Save Our Songbirds. Also joining us is Brenna Marsicek of the Madison Audubon Society.

 

Image Courtesy modi74 for Pixabay

 

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Back in November of 2022, former Democratic Senator from Missouri Claire McCaskill declared that the Democratic Party had an age problem.  Citing the age of leaders like Joe Biden and Dianne Feinstein, McCaskill mourned the lack of young leaders among Democrats.  Those young, diverse progressive leaders are there, but many of them espouse a politics substantially different than the neoliberalism once popular among aging Democrats.  In her new book, “The Rise of a New Left,” author Raina Lipsitz details the hard work and organization behind the emergence of politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Talib.  Raina Lipsitz joins us by phone.

 

Image Courtesy LiamNea for Pixabay

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