Early in the year, we talked with ProPublica reporters Melissa Sanchez and Maryam Jameel about the death of young boy on a Dane County dairy farm. We welcomed Melissa back in August to talk about the issue of driving while undocumented, and today we talk with Melissa once again about the ProPublic’s latest pieces in the America’s Dairyland: Risking Workers’ Lives for the Milk We Drink series.

This time, she tells Douglas Haynes about workers who have been injured or even killed on the job and the absence of OSHA in investigating and the lack workman’s comp in aiding with the cost of these incidents.

Melissa tells us that she asks workers, “‘Have you been injured at work?’ And almost always the first answer is ‘no, just the usual.'” She goes on, “What does that mean? Have you been kicked? Have you been squashed? Did you see blood? Have you fallen? And once you ask those questions, then you’ll learn that people have been injured and it’s so routine, it’s like normalize, it’s just like a part of the job to get hurt. Which isn’t the case for my job. It’s not the case for your job.”

 

Melissa Sanchez is a reporter at ProPublica. She is focused on immigrants and low-wage workers. She previously worked for The Chicago Reporter, Catalyst Chicago, el Nuevo Herald in Miami and the Yakima (Wash.) Herald-Republic, and has received numerous local and national awards for her reporting.

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“The West has absolute authority to implement [international criminal law] to everyone, principally and consistently. But they did not do that. They only applied it when it is politically convenient. And I think now, we’re at a critical juncture that the situation in Gaza is not only showing us everything wrong with the politics of the world and the system of the whole UN that emerged after World War II, but also the hypocrisy of Western states that claim to be democratic, claim to be all about international law. But now they don’t care. They’re not really doing the same in Palestine. And this sends a very negative message to our part of the world.”

That is Ahmed Abofoul, an international lawyer from Gaza speaking with Esty Dinur on A Public Affair. Abofoul and Mazin Qumsiyeh join the show to discuss the genocidal reality on the Gaza Strip and West Bank, the involvement of the US government, and the U.N.  Security Council ceasefire resolution.

Mazin Qumsiyeh is Professor, Founder, and Director, Palestine Museum of Natural History and Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability, Bethlehem University

Ahmed Abofoul is the Hague representative for the Ramallah-based legal rights group Al-Haq. He is from Gaza and began his international legal career by doing an internship at the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Public Counsel for Victims.

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“So October 7, happens, and the Israeli government and the US government projected a narrative to the world that this is the beginning of history. That this is akin to a second Holocaust, and that Israel is fighting for its very existence against a new iteration of nothing less than the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler’s forces,” Jeremy Scahill tells Allen Ruff.

“So Israel’s response to the Hamas-led raids on October 7, was to preemptively announce[…] their intent to engage in a scorched earth campaign of collective punishment. From the moment those statements were made, Joe Biden should have said, ‘no US support can be offered for such an affair. We support your right to defend yourself. We support your right to have accountability for what happened on October 7th, particularly at the kibbutzes and the music festival. But we’re not going to get on board with with what already is being framed using,’ what I think clearly can be called, ‘genocidal language.'”

Jeremy Scahill is a Senior Correspondent and Editor-at-Large at The Intercept and he joins A Public Affair to talk about one of his recent pieces ‘This Is Not a War Against Hamas’ and the role of the US in exasperating the violence in Gaza.

 

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2023 has been a busy year at the state capitol. From the election of Supreme Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz and threats to impeach her, to a budget season in a year with a record setting surplus, there is so much to unpack when looking back at the year. Host Carousel Bayrd welcomes Representative Francesca Hong onto A Public Affair to reflect on the year. They discuss the fight for abortion rights, attacks on DEI funding for UW campuses, and much more.

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This past Saturday, December 16th was the 124th annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count in Madison. The Christmas Bird Count is considered the longest-running formal citizen science project in the nation and is held annually throughout North America in December and January. The goal is to understand which bird species are found where during the winter season. (While the count in Madison happened over the weekend, there are more counts in the area through January 1st. Find out more here.)

Monday host Douglas Haynes was out counting birds with his kids on Saturday and decided to welcome a group of Madison birders to the station to tell us about the count and the birds that have been spotted. We talk with Jeff Galligan, Brenna Marsicek, and Sean Radcliffe and hear from a handful of callers.

Dr. Jeff Galligan is co founder of the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin and a member of The Badgerland Bird Alliance board of directors and a steering committee member of Bird City Wisconsin.

Brenna Marsicek is director of communication and outreach for the Badgerland Bird Alliance.

Sean Radcliffe is a Wisconsin Master Naturalist, fledgling birder and Madison area coordinator for the BIPOC birding club of Wisconsin.

Sound cloud image by Cole Marshall on Unsplash

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The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates from November 30th to December 12th. Representatives from the nearly 200 participating countries made history when they agreed to transition away from fossil fuels. This came after COP28 president Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber received backlash for claiming there was “no science” behind the push to phase-out fossil fuels. Senior Policy Analyst Courtney Federico was at COP28, and she joins Esty Dinur to explain what was accomplished and what wasn’t.

Then, 350 Wisconsin co-Executive Director Emily Park joins the show to explain the issue behind an agreement ahead of the Dane County Board of Supervisors. She says that the Dane County Board of Supervisors will be voting on December 18th and 21st on a Joint Use Agreement (JUA) with the National Guard to use Truax Field. The JUA’s terms currently absolve the National Guard, the federal government, and the state government from liability or responsibility for cleaning up future PFAS contamination. Emily urges that the agreement as written could leave Madison residents saddled with contaminated drinking water and the financial burden of clean up.  

You can learn more at Dane County PFAS Fight for Fairness Alliance. A comment form is available for people to quickly email their Dane Supervisor. You can look up your specific Supervisor here.

Courtney Federico is a Senior Policy Analyst on Energy and Environment team at American Progress.

Emily Park is the co-Executive Director of 350 Wisconsin, a grassroots climate justice organization. Emily organizes around issues related to climate justice, fossil fuel resistance, energy equity, water and air quality, and just, sustainable food systems

Photo by Philip Myrtorp on Unsplash

 

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On this special edition of A Public Affair, host Allen Ruff opens the phone lines and welcomes the YOU, the listener, to be the guest.

We hear from protestors outside of Tammy Baldwin’s office. We talk about the war in Israel and Palestine, the opioid epidemic, water pollution at the airport, third-party candidates, student loans, Netanyahu, and more.

Have ideas for a future Thursday edition of A Public Affair? Email [email protected]

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Today’s guest, James Sallis, tallied up the 10 leading causes of death in the US, which includes heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, injuries, and suicides, and of the top ten causes of death, James found that seven of those issues are made worse by driving. While crashes are an obvious risks of driving, the simple act of sitting in the car for the length of your commute can exasperate the leading causes of death.

Dr. James Sallis joins host Carousel Bayrd to talk about the health cost of a commute in our increasingly sedentary lives.

James F. Sallis, Ph.D is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health at University of California San. His primary research interests are promoting physical activity and understanding policy and environmental influences on physical activity, nutrition, and obesity.  His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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Over the weekend the University of Wisconsin’s Board of Regents narrowly rejected a deal with the state legislature that would release funding to the UW systems in exchange for eliminating Diversity and Inclusion staff. With DEI in the headlines, Ali Muldrow welcomes Angela Russell back on the show to talk about the role of diversity education in our community, schools, and work places.

“Sometimes folks think that to be effective in the work of DEI is about changing hearts and minds. And it’s not. I mean, if that comes as a byproduct of what we’re doing, that’s great. And I used to think that until about, honestly, three or four years ago,” Angela explains. “Once I let go of the notion that it is my job to change hearts and minds, that was so freeing. It was so freeing”

Angela Russell is VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at TruStage in Madison and the host of the podcast Black Oxygen.

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As the year comes to end, we catch up once again with Room of One’s Own co-owner Gretchen Treu. They speak with host Douglas Haynes about favorite books from 2023, Room’s best selling books, and gift suggestions.

Books mentioned in the interview include:

* I’m From 

* Solito 

* Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair 

* Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

* Demon Copperhead

* Braiding Sweet Grass

* The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

* Working Girl: On Selling Art and Selling Sex

* Fever House

* The Magicians

* Alex Wise vs. The End of the World

* Beast of the Ancient World

* Something, Someday

* Two Tribes

* Entangled Life

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