8 O'Clock Buzz

Back in 2021, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, started the process to design workplace safety rules to protect workers from extreme heat conditions. Four years later, those standards have yet to make it through the rulemaking process. Meanwhile, according to the State Climatology Office, southern Wisconsin has experienced 38 days of extreme heat and 24 days of poor air quality so far in 2025. With climatologists predicting even further temperature and air quality hazards in the years to come, some labor unions are tired of waiting for federal rules and are taking matters into their own hands. Alex Dudek is a public health nurse for Dane County, President of AFSCME Local 895 and Chair of the Dane County Safety and Working Conditions Study Committee. Alex joined the Monday Buzz on Labor Day, September 1, 2025.

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Tony’s guest on the Thursday Buzz is UW Public Affairs Professor Greg Nemet, who sees Trump’s rollback of clean energy policies as a strategic misstep, likely leading to higher energy prices for consumers and imperiling US competitiveness-without any real justification.

Nemet portrays Trump’s energy approach as short-sighted: prioritizing fossil fuels, undercutting renewables and jeopardizing US leadership in clean energy innovation.

Nemet authored “How Solar Became Cheap: A Model for Low-Carbon Innovation“, in June 2019. The book has been translated into Chinese and a second edition, “Pathway to a Solar-Centric Economy“, was released in July.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Images.

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Joining Tony on the Thursday Buzz this morning is Christine Neumann-Ortiz, who explains how the acquisition of W&W Dairy by Dairy Farmers of America has led to an employee strike.

In mid-August, 43 long-time, mostly Hispanic immigrant employees at W&W Dairy in Monroe walked off the job to protest the enforcement of a new E-Verify requirement for all staff. They demanded severance pay-specifically three weeks of pay per year of service plus accrued PTO-before being compelled to verify their immigration status by August 30. When the new owners refused, workers launched the strike, arguing that the policy effectively forces some workers out.

Neumann-Ortiz is the founding Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera and Voces de la Frontera Action. She encourages listeners eager to help to donate to Voces who will get the funds directly to the affected dairy workers at W&W Dairy, which specializes in award-winning Hispanic cheeses.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Images.

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Mursel Sabir, Executive Director of Afghans Empowered talks about the goals of their organization: support Afghan refugees’ social, economic, and human rights worldwide. Over 800,000 Afghans currently living in Pakistan, some all their lives, are being forced out to a country they have never lived…just as thousands of Afghans who aided the U.S. during the twenty years of occupation and were given Temporary Protected Status as refugees in the U.S. have seen their protection revoked by the Trump administration. Afghans Empowered works with other aid groups in advocacy and service to Afghan refugees.

The post As TPS is Removed From Afghans, Afghans Empowered Works to Help appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

“At a time when many American workers are struggling with high costs for groceries and housing, the nation’s largest low-wage employers are fixated on making their overpaid CEOs even richer.” That’s the bottom line of the 31st “Executive Excess Report“– authored by Sarah Anderson from the Global Economy Project of the Institute for Policy Studies of the 100 S&P companies with the greatest pay differences. Anderson cites the example of the Starbucks CEO earning 6,666 times the salary of the front-line worker, and stock buy-backs create inequality injurious to both the workers and the long-term success of the companies.

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Today on the too Turnt Up Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Tara Wilhelmi and Antoine McNeail, no-show guests mean it’s a free-for-all.  Talking about school leads to serious talk about clothes and sexualizing young girls and fostering change in the way we treat each other.

Apply by September 3rd for the Urban League’s Healthcare Administration Training Program: https://www.facebook.com/events/1967007027467513 more information at ulgm.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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Over the years, performance artist Nicole Gruter has entertained and in some cases puzzled, Madison audiences with works featuring slices of pie served by a cheerful waitress tethered to a table, video poetry about netti pots and an exploration of the artist’s psyche through the literal cleaning out of her closet. Her current project involves travelling on U.S. Highway 14, one of the original numbered U.S. Highways created in 1926, which runs from Chicago to Yellowstone National Park.  Nicole Gruter joined the Monday Buzz on August 25 to present the first installment of “Finding Home on Highway 14” is Nicole Gruter, reporting from Tower Hill State Park in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

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It may surprise many people living in the Madison area to learn that they actually inhabit the Barony of Jararvellir, in the Woodlands Region of the Kingdom of Northshield.  The Barony is ruled not by an elected Mayor or county executive, but by Baron James the Elder and Baroness Morah Joya bint Arwa.  Both have pledged allegiance to the hopefully benevolent Northshield King Skio and Queen Aelina.  That’s the local governance structure of the Society for Creative Anachronism, which recreates medieval culture, dances, and yes, even warfare around the globe.  Baron James the Elder (also known as Jim Polewski) and Jararvellir Chronicler Svala Leifsdóttir (also known as Lauren Perry) joined the Monday Buzz on August 25, 2025.

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The fallout from the City of Madison Clerk’s failure to count 193 votes in last November’s election continued to pile up this week.  On August 15, the Wisconsin Election Commission voted 5-1 to issue extraordinarily specific correction orders to the City Clerk’s office, over the objections of interim clerk and city attorney Mike Haas.  Then, on August 20, Mayor Satya Rhoades-Conway announced the appointment of Hennepin County, Minnesota Voter Engagement Director Lydia McComas as the new Madison City Clerk.  McComas takes office on September 29, permanently replacing dismissed former clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl.  Joining us once again to help us sort all this out is Votebeat Wisconsin Alexander Shur.

The post New Madison Clerk Ordered to Fix Election Process appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Biblical prophecies in the Book of Revelations of the Christian Bible describes a Heaven on Earth where God will dwell with his people.  Well, if you live in Gaza, you can forget all that with Israel’s genocidal war now approaching the two-year mark.  Playing the role of Beelzebub, Israel’s current strongman Netanyahu, seems to have a goal of exterminating the Palestinians in the area.  Jennifer Loewenstein, Middle East commentator, speaks with host Tony Castañeda about the current situation in Palestine and what lies ahead for the people of Gaza who have been abandoned in their current plight.

Photo by Art Institute of Chicago on Unsplash

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