Community Voices For Change

Community Voices for Change - 30 mins - First Aired July 13, 2026
WMPG-FM. Univ of So. Maine - Weekly - Mondays - 1:00 PM
Producer & Host:  Richard Rudolph, PhD.


An interview of Tom Blackburn,  the president of the Bayside Neighborhood Association in Portland Maine.  He first briefly talked about the history of the neighborhood which served as a vibrant immigrant gateway.  As industries were developed it  became a melting pot of new Americans - where  Italians, Polish, Jewish, Irish  and Armenians established vibrant neighborhoods around Franklin Street and throughout Bayside.  The "little italy" neighborhood south of Franklin Ave  was particularly cohesive, despite being home to some of the peninsula's poorest residents.  This rich diversity and tradition of welcoming newcomers continues today, with more recent African and other immigrant communities contributing to Bayside’s unique cultural fabric. Over 60 different languages are spoken in this area of the city.  Tom also talked about two ongoing initiatives that the association is undertaking to establish a small 1/2 acre park in this neighborhood and it effort to establish the Bayside Opportunity Center (BOC) which will offer a range of service including language classes, job placement assistance, cultural orientation sessions, events, with a HUB that will offer referral services to appropriate organization sharing their mission with BOC.

Community Voices for Change - 30 mins - First Aired July 6, 2026
WMPG-FM. Univ of So. Maine - Weekly - Mondays - 1:00 PM
Producer & Host:  Richard Rudolph, PhD.

This installment is an interview of Ethan Strimling who is a former mayor of Portland, Maine.  He talked about the recent primary election in Maine and how he failed to recognize that the three progressive candidates who were running for Governor were solidly ahead and that progressives would be splitting their vote on the first ballot between Troy Jackson, Hanna Pingree and Shenna Bellows.  He mentioned that once he figured it out,  it was clear that one of them was likely to emerge as the winner  because of rank choice voting.  The only question was  whether these candidates would have the courage to join arms to cross-endorse and actively encourage their supporters to vote for the other two as their second and third choice while also pledging not to attack each other.   Fortunately within two weeks of the election these three candidates cross-endorsed, and actively encouraged their supporters to vote for the other two as their second and third choice while also pledging not to attack each other.   Fully 32,000 of Bellows second place votes went to Jackson and Pingree with less than 10,000 going to Nirav Shah catapulting Pingree into first place even before the final round.  When Jackson and Bellow's votes were then distributed,  Hannah Pingree got another 26.000 votes giving her a double digit win over Shaw.

Community Voices for Change - 30 mins - First Aired June 22, 2026
WMPG-FM. Univ of So. Maine - Weekly - Mondays - 1:00 PM
Producer & Host:  Richard Rudolph, PhD.


The program is an interview with former Portland  Mayor Ethan Strimling who is an opinion columnist at The Maine Beacon.   The show focused on a recent piece: "A Tenant Bill of Rights" which was published in May 2026.  Ethan talked about why a tenant bill of rights is needed  and what it would include. He pointed that over 300,000 people in the state are renters who live in Maine's 155,000 units.  Most pay more than they can afford.  Rent increases are in double digit numbers well above inflation and raises in pay.  Tenants can be evicted for no reason and most housing affordability solutions in Maine have focused on property tax relief.  The tenant bill of rights would include - Prohibiting no-cause evictions, putting a cap on all rent increases to the rate of inflation, requiring landlords to negotiate with organized tenant unions, and requiring a 90-day notice for all rent increases.  It would also limit security deposits to one month's rent and ban broker application fees to apply for an apartment.  It would also allow tenants to recover legal fees/damages for illegal evictions and require significant civil penalties against landlords for violations.  It would also create a cabinet level office at the state level to protect tenants.

Community Voices for Change - 30 mins - First Aired June 15, 2026
WMPG-FM. Univ of So. Maine - Weekly - Mondays - 1:00 PM
Producer & Host:  Richard Rudolph, PhD.

The Program is an interview with Gia Drew, Executive Director of Equality Maine who talked about ongoing attacks against LGBTQ Youth, particularly transgender students in Maine.   Even  though Maine has a history of supporting LGBTQ rights with a 2005 civil rights law, recent political attacks have increased,  targeting transgender youth in schools. She also talked about a ballot initiative that would prohibit transgender students from  competing on teams that did not match their birth sex unless a school offers a co-ed team. It has been challenged and  removed from the November ballot due to invalid signatures and fraudulent collection practices, though the legal process is still ongoing. Gia also emphasized the importance of allies speaking up when they hear discriminatory comments and encouraged young people to report incidents of bias in schools. She also highlighted upcoming Pride events and available support programs for transgender youth in Maine.

Producer & Host: Richard Rudolph, PhD.

The podcast is an interview of Shenna Bellows, Maine's Secretary of State who talked about the ongoing struggle with the Trump Administration over its request  for Maine's sensitive Voter Data and why the request has been denied. She is now engaged in another fight with the Trump  administration over her refusal to hand out covert license  plates to ICE agents who work at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. During the surge that took place last month, ICE agents detained 190 people; slightly  more than half of those arrests were detained as collateral rather than as targets. Many were  performing  routine daily activities  when agents targeted them. Maine's Attorney General has also  rejected the Department of Justice  demands stating that  Bellow's policy reflects a legitimate and constitutional policy choice not to allow state resources  to be  commandeered by the federal government  for use in civil immigration enforcement activities  that  have resulted in multiple incidents of abusive and unconstitutional  conduct by DHS officials.

The program is an interview of Maine Senator Henry Ingwerson who chairs the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee. He talked about several bills he sponsored that are now law.  LD1728 improves affordability, stability and access in the Child Care Program. It limits the amount families pay for childcare.  He also talked  about his work on the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee. LD2004 provides support for local nutritional incentive programs which protects Maine’s local nutrition assistance from federal budget cuts. He has also created a working group to develop policy recommendations to address mental health needs of Maine's farmers, fishermen and loggers.

The show is an interview of Bradley Davis and Selene Geigester.  They are members of  the Portland, Maine Tenants Union (PTU).   Bradley is a founding and steering committee member.  He gained local prominence after becoming the first tenant to win a retaliation and overcharged rent settlement under Portland's rent control ordinance,   Selene has been actively involved in the auditing effort to review rental listings posted on Zillow two months ago.  The show focused on how the tenant union represents renters and advocates for the strong enforcement of the city's housing laws.  They talked about the rent control ordinance which was first approved by voters in November 2020.  It established a base rent for most rental units in the city to the rent charged in June 2020 , and caps the amount by which landlords may increase that rent annually..  The ordinance is applicable to both long term rental units and short-term rental units.   The ordinance also provides protections to tenants, including notice of rent increases, additional notice of payments before eviction of tenants, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of funding (Section 8), and notice of tenants' rights to new tenants.  The ordinance also established the Rent Board to conduct hearings in response to tenant complaints, mediate disputes between tenants and landlords and consider landlord request for rent increases outside the scope of this ordinance.   The latest audit just completed showed that 51% of the listings had some kind of registration error, 8% were advertised above the maximum allowable rent and 7% of the units were not registered.  Given this, the Tenant Union is launching a new Tenants' Agenda which is a policy platform built around three demands: lower the rent, guarantee safe and stable housing, and end landlord corruption.

The podcast is an interview of Dr. Henk Goorhues who is a member of the Board of Directors of the Maine Medical Association and the Executive Committee and Grayson Lookner, who is a member of the Maine House of Representatives who lives in Portland and represents the 113th House District and serves on the Criminal justice and Housing Committees.  The discussion first focused on why there is a need for publicly funded health care in Maine.  The current insurance  based system leaves thousands of Maine residents uninsured or under-insured and does not provide consistent, high quality care to all, leading to poor health outcomes.  Dr. Goorhues, who is a Maine AllCare advocate, talked about how the new system would treat healthcare as a right and a public good, rather than a for-profit-service. The new system would be more efficient potentially saving money while ensuring all residents have access to necessary medical services.  While the idea of Maine AllCare has been discussed in the state legislature for many years no positive action has been taken on this matter.  Thanks to Grayson who publicly called for putting a referendum question on the ballot this past year,  Maine AllCare supporters are now currently collecting the 68 000 signatures needed to put it on the Maine Ballot in 2027 as a citizen initiative.  If passed, as a resolution, it directs the legislature to come up with legislation to create a universal health care plan that will reduce costs, preserve choice, and pay providers expeditiously. It's very specific in terms of these values and it also states the legislation must, "Ensure that all residents of the State possess comprehensive, funded health care coverage."

Community Voices for Change - 30 mins - First Aired May 11, 2026
WMPG-FM. Univ of So. Maine - Weekly - Mondays - 1:00 PM
Producer & Host:  Richard Rudolph, PhD.


The program is an interview of Bruce King, the Executive Director of Maine Boys to Men.  Bruce first talked about the problems that boys encounter as they grow up to be men.  Boys are often pressured to conform to traditional masculine ideas.   Many young men feel pressured to suppress emotions and avoid showing vulnerability which can negatively impact mental and emotional well-being.  Bruce also talked about the programming that is offered  at both middle and high school levels that his agency offers to help boys become more empowered to challenge unsafe attitudes and behavior to limit the occurrence of harassment, violence and sexual assault in their schools.  Listeners wanting to know more about the work of the organization are encouraged to attend one of the periodic introductory workshops that the organization holds.  The next one taking place is a virtual panel discussion featuring Shay Steward-Bouley which explores the impact of the online "manosphere" content on boys and young men on the Netflix documentary  "Inside the Manosphere" on May 14 from 6 to 8 pm, ET.  Register:  bit.ly/MBTMpanel3

Community Voices for Change - 30 mins - First Aired April 27, 2026
WMPG-FM. Univ of So. Maine - Weekly - Mondays - 1:00 PM
Producer & Host:  Richard Rudolph, PhD.

The program is an interview of Andrea Steward who is a Policy Analyst at Maine Equal Justice (MEJ).  She talked about the Eviction Prevention Pilot program which was first launched in 2024. The $18 million provided assistance to 1,280 households in Maine with an average income of just $17,000. The people who applied were mainly working and reported going without medical care and food to make ends meet.  They said their  rent/utilities  were going up (46%), they  lost their job (41%)  or had a change in their health status (41%).  Despite the success of the initial pilot program which MEJ believes is a smart targeted investment in housing affordability,  the Maine Legislature recently only voted to  provide $11 million in additional funding to continue this program.   Andrea also briefly talked about Maine's property tax fairness program, who is eligible and how one can apply for the refundable credit.