In their 2022 annual report, The American Booksellers Association said the year was one of “incredible growth” for independent bookstores. However bookstores are still facing big threats–from soaring rents to politically motivated attacks both online and in person. They are fighting against book bans and Amazon’s low prices. A book store’s resilience, adaptability and customer loyalty are just as important now than they have ever been. 

To explain the plight of bookstores and uplift the successes, Danny Caine joins host Jade Iseri-Ramos on today’s A Public Affair. Danny is the author of the recently published book How to Protect Bookstores and Why: The Present and Future of Bookselling. WORT’s Diego Alegría also joins to show to ask for listener sponsors.

Danny will be speaking at A Room of One’s Own (which is featured in the book) next Wednesday, October 4th at 6pm.

Danny Caine is the author of the poetry collections Continental Breakfast, El Dorado Freddy’s, ​Flavortown, and Picture Window, as well as the book How to Resist Amazon and Why. The Midwest Independent Booksellers Association awarded him the 2019 Midwest Bookseller of the Year award. He’s a co-owner of the Raven Book Store, Publishers Weekly‘s 2022 bookstore of the year. .

Image by Colleen ODell from Pixabay

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Earlier this month, the CDC announced that new COVID-19 boosters are recommended for all everyone 6 months and older. The federal government is also offering four free COVID tests to every household this fall. The virus is certainly still prevalent, but days of mask mandates, social distancing, and isolation are must less prevalent. Which leaves us to ask, “is COVID over?”

Wisconsin State Health Officer Paula Tran says that we have more tools and information than we did at the beginning of the pandemic. “We weren’t able to test for COVID, and we didn’t have a vaccine, and we didn’t have therapeutics,” she explains to A Public Affair host Ali Muldrow. Paula, who was recently named to de Beaumont Foundation’s ‘40 under 40 in Public Health’, joins the show to explain how the COVID response has changed and what public health officials have learned from the pandemic.

Paula Tran is the Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ State Health Officer and Administrator for the Division of Public Health. She leads the vision for statewide public health and health equity strategies. She oversees aging and disability resources, communicable diseases, community health promotion, environmental and occupational health, health informatics, policy and practice alignment, and preparedness.

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Workers at Leinenkugel’s main location in Chippewa Falls spent nearly 2 months this summer on strike.  Molson Coors (Leinenkugel’s parent company) and the 40 workers (represented by Teamsters local 662) reached an agreement just before Labor Day. Today’s host, Sara Gabler, reported on the resolution for WORT. She was surprised to learn that despite the “micro-brew” aesthetic of Summer Shandy and Juicy Peach, Leinenkugel is a cooperate brew.  As it turns out, macro-breweries have a long history with unionizing.

VinePair’s Dave Infante joins Sara to break down the union efforts within the industry and what workers in the micro-brewery space can learn from organizing at places like Leinenkugel.

Dave Infante is VinePair contributing editor and columnist and podcast host of Taplines. His work has been featured in the The New York Times, Fast Company, Splinter News, HuffPost, The Guardian. His independent newsletter on drinking culture is called Fingers.

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The Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park is a 60,000-acre of wilderness, waterfalls, and lake shores in the Upper Peninsula. The wetlands, wildlife, and water of the Porcupine Mountains (which are fondly referred to as the Porkies by many) are at risk of pollution due to the plans of a Canadian company.  Highland Copper has began building a copper mine that they are calling Copperwood Mine. Their plans include drilling under the Presque Isle River to seize minerals from directly beneath the Porkies. In their preparation, Highland Copper have already violated permits and degraded wetlands.

They are now facing push back from The Save The Porkies movement. In their first media appearance regarding the Copperwood Mine, Chris Vaughn, Johnson Bridgwater, and Marty Erspamer join Esty Dinur on A Public Affiar.

You can sign their petition and learn more about the movement at protecttheporkies.com

Chris Vaughn moved a few years ago from Omaha, Nebraska to the Wakefield area. After falling in love with the Porcupine Mountains, Lake Superior, and surrounding areas, he was appalled to learn about the plan to open a copper mine in the middle of so much majesty. In response, he launched ProtectThePorkies.com and the accompanying petition.

Johnson Bridgwater is Water Advocates Organizer with River Alliance of Wisconsin. Johnson has more than 20 years of advocacy and non-profit experience, working on local, statewide, and international environmental issues. He grew up in central Minnesota, relocated to Oklahoma where he served as Director of the Oklahoma Chapter of Sierra Club, and is now settled “Up North” on the Montreal River working for River Alliance of Wisconsin with a special focus on mining issues.

Marty Erspamer is a musician & activist from Ironwood. He works in the hospitality business and hosts many tourists every year coming in search of beautiful nature. He manages the social media for the Protect The Porkies campaign.

Image by: Yinan Chen, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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In the early 1900s, child-savers, who were mostly white and wealthy, set out to “protect” the children of immigrants who were living in overcrowded homes and were facing disease, poverty, and violence. Their efforts were the seeds from which the family court as we know it grew. 120 years after its creation, and 100 years of reform, the court is doing more harm than good. 

In her recently published book, Jane Spinak lays out a history of the court and those who worked to reformed it, and she concludes that it must be abolished. The former juvenile right attorney joins host Jade Iseri-Ramos to discuss The End of Family Court: How Abolishing the Court Brings Justice to Children and Families.

Jane M. Spinak is the Edward Ross Air-ah-Now Clinical Professor of Law Emerita at Columbia Law School. There she directed clinical programs in family regulation for 40 years. She also served as the attorney-in-charge of the Juvenile Rights Division of the Legal Aid Society of New York, was the founding chair of the board of the Center for Family Representation, and co-chaired the Task Force on Family Court created by the New York County Lawyers Association.

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In February, after 3 years as Madison Metro School District superintendent, Dr. Carlton Jenkins announced that he would be leaving the district. Lisa Kvistad is serving as interim superintendent while the school board searches for for a new superintendent. 

Today, A Public Affair host Ali Muldrow, who is also a member of the school board, talks with two folks who are assisting in the search. Long time (now retired) MMSD administrator Mike Hertting and Alma Advisory Group representative Sylvia Flowers join the show to discuss the importance of diversity in the hiring pool, the unique aspects of leading in Madison, and how the public can get involved. 

A survey gauge what the public wants from a superintendent can be taken here. Public, in person, feed back sessions will take place the first week of October and will include child care. Spanish, Hmong and ASL interpretation will be provided.

* October 2, 2023 – 6 p.m., Holtzman Building, 333 Holtzman Road

* October 3, 2023 – 6 p.m., La Follette High School, 702 Pflaum Road

* October 4, 2023 – 6 p.m., Vel Phillips Memorial High School, 201 South Gammon

 

Photo: MMSD Doyle administration building. (Attribution: Chali Pittman / WORT FM)

 

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As Wisconsin kids are back in school, we take the chance to talk with some folks behind the nutrition in the school lunches. Dr. Jennifer Gaddis is one of the authors of the report Hungry for Good Jobs: The State of the School Nutrition Workforce in Wisconsin. She joins A Public Affair along side Michael Gasper who also contributed to the report. They talk with Douglas Haynes about the issues facing school nutrition workers and what all goes into creating nutritious school meals.

Dr. Jennifer Gaddis is an Associate Professor of Civil Society and Community Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert on school food politics and systems change. She is the author of  The Labor of Lunch: Why We Need Real Food and Real Jobs in American Public Schools, and  serves on the advisory board of the National Farm to School Network and is an active member of the Healthy School Meals for All (HSM4A) Wisconsin coalition.

Michael Gasper is the Director of School Nutrition for Holmen School District. He served as School Nutrition Association Wisconsin (SNA-WI) President for the 2018-2019 school year and again for 2020-2021. He is currently a national SNA board member.

Featured image by CDC on Unsplash. Soundcloud image by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

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On August 20th, 2023, leftist political outsiders in both Ecuador and Guatemala came out on top. In Ecuador, Luisa González took first place in the presidential election and will face Daniel Noboa in October. The August 20th election was held shortly after Ecuador’s presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot and killed–González ran in his place. Just days before the election, leader of the left-wing Citizen Revolution Party in Esmeraldas, Pedro Briones was also murdered.

Jake Johnston writes on the spiraling violence and renewed political instability in a report he coauthored for Center for Economic and Policy Research. Jake joins Esty Dinur to discuss the recent events, how Ecuador got here, and what we can expect next.

The election in Guatemala in August resulted in the presidential election of leftist Bernardo Arevalo. His election has resulted in significant political unrest. Professor emeritus of history and Latin American studies Miguel Tinker Salas joins us to explain the corruption and coop activity in Guatemala. We also briefly discuss the 2024 Mexican presidential campaign, where both front runners are women.

Jake Johnston is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He is the lead author for CEPR’s Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction Watch blog.

Miguel Tinker Salas is professor emeritus of history and Latin American studies at Pomona College. He is author of Venezuela: What Everyone Needs to Know and The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture, and Society in Venezuela.

Photo by Clovis Castaneda on Unsplash

 

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Earlier this week, Wisconsin republicans announced a bill that would create a what they say is a “nonpartisan” redistricting. Governor Evers swiftly announced that he would veto the plan if it arrived on his desk. This all comes as the Wisconsin Supreme Court considers requests to throw out the current maps.

Philip Rocco joins Nate Carlin to help us understand the issues at hand and how the republican proposal would leave a Wisconsin sized loop hole.

Philip Rocco is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science. He is also the co-editor of Publius: The Journal of Federalism. Rocco’s research examines the intersection between federalism, the policymaking process, and the political economy of policy expertise.

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How do we help students and their families be healthy and successful? How do we address the social, emotional, and mental issues within our schools? It seems that school social workers are often tasked with these big questions, but limited staffing can leave school social workers overworked and student needs unmet.

“Often we don’t really talk about schools as social service agencies, but yet we honestly function as one in that we’re providing emotional support, and we’re also helping families navigate the different systems to get their needs met,” Sara Lennertz tells A Public Affair. She says when you look at the ration of students to  school social workers, school psychologists, and school counselors, “it’s not nearly adequate to the need that we have and the need that we see in our students.”

Sara Lennertz is president elect of  Wisconsin School Social Workers Association and is a school social worker at a Madison high school. She joins us on her lunch break to break down what social workers offer to our schools and students and the issues facing the profession.

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