8 O'Clock Buzz

WORT 89.9FM Madison · LIFT Wisconsin Introduces Driver’s License Reinstatement Tool

If you are living in poverty, losing your driver’s license can send you down a financial spiral.

Legal Information for Transforming Wisconsin, or LIFT Wisconsin, now has a new online legal tune up service to get you back in the DMV’s good graces.

Director of LIFT Marsha Mansfield joins to discuss this new service.

 

Photo Courtesy: Alexander Popov / UNSPLASH

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A scorecard report by Friends of the Earth, Avaaz, and Greenpeace USA entitled “In the Dark: How Social Media Companies’ Climate Disinformation Problem is Hidden from the Public” was recently released. It scores social media on their transparency and policing of climate disinformation (powered by Big Oil) on their applications. Senior strategist at Greenpeace USA, Charlie Cray, talks about this report and a related bill in the works in Congress “H.R.6796 – Digital Services Oversight and Safety Act of 2022“

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The Peregrine Forum, since 2004, has been promoting radical, green transformation for the world with community forums, film screenings, and sharing of educational literature. Founder David Williams talks about an upcoming discussion meeting about the Ukraine War and Other Conflicts” on Tuesday May 10th 6:30-8:30pm at the Madison Central Library 201 W. Mifflin in Room 104.

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C. M. (Connor) Lewis, Editor and Chair of the board of Strikewave, talks about the lack of funding of the U.S. National Labor Relations Board in his latest article “The NLRB needs funding – and Congress needs to deliver it“. Biden’s proposed budget, released on March 28th, has buried in it a funding increase from the current $274 million — unchanged in the past decade — to $319 million. The NLRB has lost more than 30% of its staff since 2010, and underfunding and understaffing results in delays in case handling – which, in the case of elections, gives employers additional time to campaign against the union.

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Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Dr. Damita Brown, Kia Karlen, Co-chair of Friends of the Madison Arts Commission and long-term member of the Madison Arts Commission joins us to talk about the Madison arts community surviving and thriving in the COVID-19 Pandemic, using arts to bring the community together, and the upcoming Silver Lining Awards, honoring those who found artistic silver linings in the hardship of the last few years.

For more information Silver Lining Awards and how to attend: https://www.friendsofmadisonarts.org/silverlining.html 

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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Kia Karlen served for ten years as a volunteer commissioner on the Madison Arts Commission, and now co-chairs the Friends of Madison Arts Commission, a non-profit organization established in 2020 to support MAC’s efforts to encourage artistic activities and initiate cultural programs that integrate, support and advance arts and culture as an essential part of life in Madison. Kia is coordinating the inaugural Silver Lining Awards on May 12, to honor the creativity, dedication, and perseverance that brought silver linings to our city during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

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Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Dr. Damita Brown, Annie Tucker, Director of Mediation Services of Eastern Iowa, joins us to talk about the value of mediation and its role in bringing peaceful resolution to problems, violence reduction and helping reduce interactions with the legal system.

More information on Mediation Services of Eastern Iowa: https://mediateiowa.org/ 

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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Annie Tucker is the Director of the 501(c)3 nonprofit Mediation Services of Eastern Iowa. 

She helped develop the Introduction to Mediation and Domestic Violence curriculum with Kirsten Faisal, the State Trainer for the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence 

She has volunteered in prisons since 2005 as a co-facilitator of AVP – the Alternatives to Violence Project – an interactive, not didactic, curriculum with other trained facilitators, both community members and ‘insiders.’ 

She helped film and edit the video “White Privilege 101: Getting in on the Conversation” with Eddie Moore, Jr. 

She and two other community members have begun meeting with Native Americans in Iowa to work together on the issue of circles and appropriation and, as one of them said, to create Iowa circles for all Iowans. 

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Kassa Overall Says Jazz Isnt Dead

Kassa Overall learned his chops from legendary jazz drummers Elvin Jones and Billy Hart.  Since then, he’s worked as a sideman and producer for the likes of Yoko Ono, Geri Allen, Das Racist and Terry Lynne Carrington.  Over the past two years, Overall has broken out on his own in a big way, with no less than four albums, “I Think I’m Good,” “Shades of Flu Parts 1 & 2, “ and “Go Get Ice Cream and Listen to Jazz.”  Those pandemic-inspired albums showcased Overall’s experimental side, mixing jazz, West Coast G-Funk and New York underground hiphop.  Kassa Overall will play Madison’s Arts and Literature Laboratory on Saturday, May 7th, where he’ll be joined by Madison’s own Rob Dz.

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Days Without Latinxs Hits Wisconsin Capital

For several years now, Voces de La Frontera has organized “Days without Latinxs” including a general strike and march on Wisconsin’s capitol. This year, the Strike, rally and lobby day stretches over two days, Sunday, May 1st and Monday, May 2nd. Armando Ibarra is a board member of Voces de La Frontera.  Armando spoke with Brian Standing on May 2, 2022.

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The topic this month is on a newly formed Green New Deal coalition in Iowa called Buffalo Rebellion formed to protect the planet by demanding change from politicians and convincing the public that climate should be a priority. Buffalo Rebellion, is a coalition of grassroots, labor, and climate justice organizations growing a movement to pass local, state, and national policies that create millions of family-sustaining union jobs—ensuring racial and gender equity and taking action on climate at the scale and scope the crisis demands. It was formed in November 2021 and consists of: 

Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice

Sierra Club Beyond Coal

Great Plains Action Society

DSM Black Liberation Movement

Cedar Rapids Sunrise Movement

Iowa CCI

Sikowis speaks with two organizers from Buffalo Rebellion who helped organize an Iowa-wide climate summit for 100 grassroots folks this past weekend in observance of Earth Day. She also interviews Moselle Singh, an activist artist that created original artwork for the event.

Emma Colman is a Sierra Club-Iowa Beyond Coal Organizer who studied anthropology and art at Knox College in Galesburg. She is originally from and currently based in Des Moines, but works statewide. ‘Beyond Coal’ has worked to retire nearly 400 dirty coal plants across the country and seeks justice for the affected people and environment. In Iowa, the campaign specifically targets MidAmerican Energy for its greenwashing and lack of retirement plans for its coal fleet. Emma represents Sierra Club in the Buffalo Rebellion Coalition.

Born and raised in Sioux City, IA, Alejandro Murguia-Ortiz is the son of immigrant meatpacking workers. Ale has been politically active for nearly their entire life. They are now a community organizer at Iowa Movement for Migrant Justice and an Iowa Senate candidate for District 17. Iowa MMJ is a member of the Buffalo Rebellion, which Alejandro represents.

Moselle Singh is a Punjabi-American artist currently based in Madison, WI. Her relationship with the land where she grew up in rural Iowa sparked a lifelong exploration of how human-nonhuman relationships are written in landscapes around the world. Moselle currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin. Moselle created the beautiful art that was used to represent the Buffalo Rebellion Climate Justice Summit. 

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Secretive attempts to De-List Whooping Crane From Federal Endangered Species Act

Standing at 5 feet tall, the distinctive black and white Whooping Crane is the tallest bird in North America. 

At one time, their range extended throughout the Midwest, from Canada to Mexico.  By 1941, hunting and habitat destruction had reduced the crane’s global population to 21 wild birds. 

Decades of painstaking restoration efforts, including such techniques as biologists dressed in crane costumes and pilots leading cranes to wintering grounds in ultralight aircraft, have boosted populations to about 800 individuals worldwide. 

Their existence remains perilous, as climate change threatens coastal wintering grounds on the Gulf of Mexico.  Now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking to remove the Whooping Crane, along with the Florida Panther and the Key Deer, from the Endangered Species List. 

Richard Beilfuss is the President and CEO of the International Crane Foundation, based in Baraboo, Wisconsin.  Richard Beilfuss joins to discuss efforts in saving the Whooping Crane. 

Image Courtesy: Miguel Pinto / UNSPLASH

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