8 O'Clock Buzz

Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with 1neofmani (Breyon Sommerville), Odyssey Project graduate, staff coach and former Madison Alder Brian Benford joins us to talk about what’s happening in Madison, Odyssey Project and their upcoming work, including their 2023 graduation happening tomorrow, May 3, 2023 at 6PM in the Great Hall at Memorial Union.

Before that, straight talk about racism at UW-Madison and problems in Madison.

More about Odyssey Project at https://odyssey.wisc.edu/ and information about attending their graduation tomorrow (May 3, 2023) at 6 in Great Hall: https://odyssey.wisc.edu/graduation/ 

More about the racist incident and video at UW-Madiosn from The Daily Cardinal: https://www.dailycardinal.com/article/2023/05/uw-madison-responds-to-social-media-video-containing-racial-slurs 

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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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Arts Lit Lab Hosts Native Art Market

On May 5 and 6, the Arts and Literature Lab will host its first ever Native Art Market, featuring the works of artists from the Diné, Ho Chunk, Oneida, Monomonee, Cherokee and Taos Pueblo nations.  The market is curated and organized by interdisciplinary artist Dakota Mace of the Diné nation, who maintains a studio at the Arts and Literature Laboratory.

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Railroad Workers United Calls For Nationalization Of Rail System

Today is May Day, international workers’ day. Much of the early history of labor rights in America focused on what was then the most powerful industry of the time, the railroad companies.  From the Great Upheaval of 1877 to the Pullman Strike of 1894 to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, many of the great struggles and victories of the labor movement centered on railroads.  Today, railroads are again in labor news.  Just a few months after the rail industry used its political clout to get Congress to bust a potential strike and force a contract on its workers, derailments highlighted the very safety concerns overworked railroad employees had warned us about.  Now, members of Railroad Workers United, are reviving a proposal to do away with corporate railroads entirely and nationalize U.S. rail lines.  Mark Burrows is a former co-chair of railroad Workers United, and has worked as a brakeman and engineer for the Chicago and Northwestern and the Soo Line railroads.  He currently is the editor for Railroad Workers United’s newsletter, the Highball.

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Wisconsin Legislature’s Secretive Process To Block Spending

Imagine a system where powerful individuals can, secretly and anonymously, single-handedly block government projects, with no explanation or rationale.  That doesn’t sound very democratic, does it?  Yet, that’s how the “anonymous objection” of the Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee process works.  Even though money is allocated and approved in the state budget, state projects ranging from trail access to the Pelican River to restoration of a historic building on the UW Campus find themselves mysteriously blocked at the last minute.  Wisconsin Watch’s Jacob Resneck broke this story a while back, and he joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on May 1, 2023.

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Yup, April 23-29, 2023, is National Library Week. Did you know that, as of 2020, the Madison Public Library no longer charges “late fees” for books returned after the due date? Did you know that there have been 1269 attempts to ban or restrict reading materials nationwide in 2022? Or that the library has a “Dream Bus” that goes out into the community to serve people who can’t easily get to the library. Tana Elias, Digital Services & Marketing Manager talks about this and other activities of the library this week and throughout the year.

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Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Tara Wilhelmi and 1neofmani (Breyon Sommerville), Executive Director of RCC Sexual Violence Resource Center Dana Pellebon joins us to talk about trafficking and assault of Black women and girls happening everywhere, even here; in the second half, financial coach and founder of The Melanin Project, Afra Smith joins us to talk financial literacy and the Wealth Literacy Conference coming up this weekend at Goodman Community Center.

Join RCC in celebrating its 50th anniversary and show your support to stopping sexual violence on Sunday, April 30th 4-6PM at the State Street corner of the Capitol Square.

More about RCC Sexual Violence Resource Center at https://www.thercc.org/ and 24/7 help available at 608-251-7273.

More about The Melanin Project at https://www.themelaninproject2053.com/ and Wealth Literacy Conference on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wealth-literacy-conference-tickets-549605283197 

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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WORT 89.9FM Madison · We Will Not Be Silent: Sophie Scholl And The White Rose

In 1942, at the height of World War II, students and a professor of Munich University banded together to form a nonviolent anti-Nazi resistance group they called “Weisse Rose,” or “White Rose.”  White Rose circulated mimeographed pamphlets calling for the overthrow of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime.  In 1943, a janitor reported White Rose members Sophie and Hans Scholl to the Gestapo.  After a show trial, the Nazis sent the Scholls, and eventually the other White Rose members to the guillotine.  Never one to shy away from dark or politically radical subject matter, Fermat’s Last Theater Company stages a reading of their production “We Will Not Be Silenced: Sophie Scholl and the White Rose” on Thursday, April 27th in front of the Wisconsin Historical Society at the University Library Mall.  Maggie Schenk, who narrates the work and reads the voice of Sophie Scholl and University of Wisconsin history professor Ulrich Rosenhagen joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing.

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Lake Mendota Invasives Set Off Ecological Chain Reaction

In late April, the waters of Madison’s Lake Mendota still look fairly pristine – clear enough in spots to see the bottom of the glacial lake.  Those conditions, as anyone who has been here in midsummer can attest, will soon change.  As the weather heats up and sunlight increases, algae blooms will soon cover swaths of the lake in green slime– or even worse, toxic blue-green mats.  Swimmers brave enough to duck the algae blooms also have to worry about stepping on razor sharp zebra mussel shells, while fisherfolk lament the decline in desirable sport fish.  A new study looks at the linkages between these many woes of the world’s most studied lake.  Robin Rohwer is a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the Baker Microbial Ecology Lab of the University of Texas at Austin.

Family of ducks on Lake Mendota: photo by Jeff Miller.

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Senator Agard Thinks GOP Is Just Blowing Smoke On Cannabis Bill

On April 20 – ironically enough – Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos announced that he and his Republican cohorts were crafting a bill that would legalize medical cannabis.  Wisconsin has become an island of complete cannabis prohibition in the upper midwest.  Vos, however, vowed that any Republican proposal would not clear the way for legal recreational marijuana use.  “We are not Illinois.  We are not California.  We are not Colorado,” the Speaker told the Associated Press. Nevertheless, advisory cannabis legalization referenda continue to pass across the state, and a recent Marquette University poll showed that 64% of all Wisconsinites support the complete legalization of marijuana.  Wisconsin Senate Minority Leader Melissa Agard has made cannabis legalization a centerpiece of her legislative agenda.

Cannabis leaf graphic: Oren neu dag, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Yesterday was 4/20. For many the annual celebration of all things cannabis is a “high” point of the year, pun most definitely intended. But if you celebrated the holiday in Wisconsin, you did it illegally. Democratic State Senator Melissa Agard wants to do something about that. She’s prioritized legalizing cannabis in the Badger State since her days in the state assembly and, since 2021, in her work in the Wisconsin State Senate where she now serves as Minority Leader. Agard celebrated 4/20 yesterday by kicking off her “Grass Routes Tour” at the Capital. It’s a cleverly-named campaign to make cannabis legal, safe and profitable in Wisconsin. She joins Friday Buzz host Andy Moore to talk about her plan and vision for legalizing marijuana, and what needs to happen politically for it to be accomplished.

Melissa Agard is the District 16 State Senator and the Senate Minority Leader in Wisconsin. Dates and locations for “The Grass Routes Tour” can be found at www.facebook.com/SenatorAgard/eve…694116&sk=events

Photo courtesy of Sergei Tokmakov via Pixabay

pixabay.com/photos/cannabis-leg…vel-scales-7515988/

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