Tough Times with Lou Young

Ending New York’s Political “Hide-and-Seek”

A bill headed to Governor Kathy Hochul’s desk will end New York’s practice of electing county and town officials in low-turnout off-year elections and move voting for ALL those jurisdictions to even numbered years, the so-called “federal schedule.” Our guest NY State Senator James Skoufis of Orange county is primary co-sponsor of the bill and our primary guest on Tough Times with Lou Young this week. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Investigations and government Operations explains that many politicians and party bosses depend on low- turnout, often uncontested elections to hang on to power. This bill has been introduced for years BUT THIS YEAR IT PASSED and now it is up to the Governor to sign. Lou and Will Hennessey examine this basic election reform with Senator Skoufis as well upcoming environmental initiatives and the decommissioning of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant. The show also features a stirring “sermon” from Reverend Billy about “opening up a discussion with the Earth,” a special edition of News From The Natural World and a cool recording from “Sway” recording at the Corning Glass Festival a couple of years back…. Lou is the lead singer on this cover of AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds.” In the last half hour we also listen to songs Lou is learning the lyrics to as the band prepares to play at New Rochelle’s Summer Concert series. Fun stuff mixed in the with serious. 2 hours zip by. Join us!

NUCLEAR CLEAN-UP, SMOKE IN THE SKY, AND AM UNDER SEIGE

Radioactive remnants of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant continue to haunt us as Holtec International’s Director of Government Affairs and Communications answers questions about the ongoing decommissioning of the 58 year-old energy center. There’s the question of what to do with a million gallons of Tritium contaminated water and 90-thousand tons of “spent” radioactive fuel. Callers from Rockland & Westchester Counties, NYC, and Binghamton NY weigh in on the ongoing controversies in some spirited exchanges.

Then there’s AM radio. Major car companies have started building vehicles without AM receivers and proponents of the classic radio form insist that’s a threat to public safety and an insult to basic American culture. President of the NY Association of Broadcasters David Donovan says there’s hope in a bi-partisan bill to save AM radio in Congress.

Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping weight in with an Earth Church episode called “Ghost Wind.” Great new music from the Stop Shopping Choir and News From the Natural World. Music from Everclear, Queen, and Bruce Springsteen. Two hours that crackle.

Dealing with the downside: This two hour episode features a discussion about the NRC’s licensing of an interim storage site for nuclear waste in Lea County, New Mexico for Holtec International, the firm that is decommissioning the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant at Buchanan, NY.

Since all the fuel ever used at the site since the 1970’s is still stored on site we wanted to know what the prospects are for moving it out. Patrick Brennan from Southwest Public Policy Institute, a major proponent of the New Mexico storage site, explained how it would work and how the matter is being debated in NM. Local Callers weighed in, at least one suggesting we should keep the spent fuel on site in NY. Others wondered if it could be moved safely. We also heard from Susan Fulgaris from Stoney Point Action Committee for the Environment about the Champlain Hudson Power Express, a huge power cable that will connect Queens NY with massive hydroelectric projects in Canada. She is concerned that plans to run the cable through Rockland County could be disruptive. We had a panel of listeners react to an eclectic and fascinating series of items in News From the Natural World with Savitri D.

The show includes a full episode from Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping (Eco- Riot Radio) and a recent recanting of a report that homeless veterans were displaced by arriving asylum seekers at a local hotel: a fake news blip we honored with a rendition of “Whatever it is I’m Against it” From Groucho Marx recorded in 1932. Fake news, it turns out, isn’t new.

Tough Times #49    5/13/23

Problems that won’t go away…..Indian Point, Migration, and Trump.  Host Lou Young and Producer Will Hennessey welcome Michele Lee, Assemblyman Chris Eachus, and a procession of listener callers for two hours of discussion about radioactive water, spent nuclear fuel, nearby schools in danger, and the seductive allure of technology.  Rev Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping conduct Earth Church services from Manhattan’s Lower East Side. We also examine the migration influx from our southern border, through NYC and into its norther suburbs. And Lou asks the question if Donald Trump smelled politically dead during his recent town hall on CNN.   Additional Music from Donald Fagan and The Byrds.  The time flies!

Earth Day – Then & Now

On today’s show, our host George Potanovic is sitting in for Lou Young who is on vacation. George began the show with a tribute to the 53rd Anniversary of Earth Day – April 22, 2023 by reading about how history has evolved since the first Earth Day in 1970 that inspired 20 million Americans, including thousands of colleges and universities, to organize protests against serious human health and deterioration from environmental impacts by taking to the streets, parks and auditoriums where massive rallies were held in cities, towns and small communities coast-to-coast.

During the program, callers shared both their personal memories of past Earth Days and also the ways they are working today to help raise awareness, education and are taking action to fight Climate Change ­– making our planet more sustainable, and protecting our environment and the people, plants and animals that live in it. Thank you to our studio engineer/producer Will Hennessey, music by Pete Seeger, R.E.M., One Republic and Will.I.Am. We appreciate the phone calls from all of our listeners – including Marcy Denker, NYS Assemblyman Chris Eachus, Suzanne Barclay, Executive Director of Rockland Cornell Cooperative Extension, Nancy, Laurrie, Allison and Lou Young from Florida! We also value the online resources provided by EarthDay.org.

Tough Times with Lou Young airs each Saturday from 1pm to 3pm on WRCR AM 1700 and WRCR.com. Past episodes are available for your listening pleasure on Spotify, Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts.

“Earth Observatory to Earth, come in Earth….”  On this show, two scientists from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York check in to “Tough Times with Lou Young” to weigh in on the advancing climate crisis and its effect on our local environment.  Dr. Dorothy Peteet is Director of the Paleoecology Division of the observatory’s New Core Lab; Dr. Roisin Commane is Atmospheric Chemist at the observatory’s Carbon Dioxide and methane in New York City.  Both teach at Columbia University and have been affiliated with NASA in various environmental studies.  The two hours fly by as we get the big picture about what’s happening to our wetlands and atmosphere and some clear ideas about where the problems are and what we can do about it.  How about using dredged silt to strengthen marshes, or re-engineering our existing buildings to burn less energy?  Check in and you might be surprised by the real state of the natural environment in and around America’s largest city. Lou Young hosts, with George Potanovic and Will Hennessey.

The Trouble with Trash:

Greasy Pizza boxes and single-use plastics plague the people who move our mountains of trash and try to make sure what we put in the recycle bin is actually reused. Now we’re also beginning to separate our food scraps and isolate a varied array of hazardous items like complex electronics and potentially flammable batteries and the task gets ever more complex, just as the stakes get higher: Climate change is real and our options are narrowing but trash keeps coming. Our guests this week on “Tough Times with Lou Young” are Howard Phillips and Gerry Damiani, the Chairman and Executive Director respectively of Rockland Green, the solid waste management operation in Rockland County, NY.  The men take through the sprawling operation they oversee, including nine physical plants, and provide unique insight into this front line in the current climate battle.

Activist George Potanovic, and Producer Will Hennessey join Lou in this surprisingly breezy two-hour podcast that provides a real-life picture of what happens to the junk we generate daily, with a special “Eco-Riot” interlude by Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir, including News from the Natural World with Savitri D. And more….always so much more….

PRICE HIKES ON TAP:

The cost of water is on the rise and reason is twofold: infrastructure and supply. This week “Tough Times with Lou Young” welcomes Bill Madden, spokesman for Veolia Water, and Tom Murphy, Mamaroneck Mayor and Board member at the Westchester Joint Water Works to discuss why rates are rising and who should pay. Also joining the conversation is Sam Rulli, Director of the Rockland County Department of Environmental Health as we discover that new federal rules for handling PFAS (so-called “forever chemicals”) in our drinking water is going to add additional costs. Both Westchester and Rockland Counties are experiencing intense development pressure that promises to tax available water supplies as well. Also on the program Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping with audio from Angela Davis’s visit to Rockland County, Music from the choir, the Fiery Eagle of Justice and News from the Natural World featuring Savitri D. Listen also for music from Marty Robbins, Black 47, The Beach Boys, Nina Simone, America, and Pat Benatar and the wisdom of co-host George Potanovic, and producer Will Hennessey. Not enough? We only have two hours!

Who’s starting the fire?

On today’s show, our host George Potanovic is sitting in for Lou Young who is on vacation. George’s conversation with in studio guests Gordon Wren, the retired Director of Rockland Fire & Emergency Services and President of C.U.P.O.N. (Citizens United to Protect Our Neighborhoods) and Michael Miller, CUPON founder and current Vice-President begins by asking both men why they have been such outspoken critics of what they see as the lack of government enforcement of building codes, especially in the Village of Spring Valley, that have resulted in serious injury and have endangered the lives of both residents and the firefighters who frequently face unpredictable obstructions due to construction defects during fire emergencies. We also discuss legal actions CUPON has taken concerning the misapplication of RLUIPA – a federal law that can overrule local planning and zoning laws when considering applications to construct religious schools and homes within the Town of Ramapo and other communities within Rockland, Orange and Bergen counties that are often at odds with the environmental regulations meant to protect our health, welfare, land, air, water and economy – and prevent the resulting adverse affects of climate change.  Thank you to our studio engineer/producer Will Hennessey, our brief visit from Reverend Billy, music by Buffalo Springfield and Hozier – and we appreciate all the phone calls from our listeners! Tough Times with Lou Young airs Saturdays from 1pm to 3pm on WRCR AM 1700 and WRCR.com. Past episodes are available for your listening pleasure on Spotify, Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts.

A SERIES OF UNATURAL NATURAL DISASTERS: CALIFORNIA AS CANARY-IN-A-COAL-MINE

We begin our broadcast in a snowed-in cabin up in northern California. Geologist Dr. Jeff Tolhurst opines on all he’s experienced: the wildfires, the punishing drought, the atmospheric rivers of rain, and the epic blizzards. California has seen each of these events before, but never all at once, at least not in human memory. Tolhurst wonders about the future and how much worse it can get before the west coast becomes more of a repellant than attraction. He’s joined by TV executive Michael Horowitcz from his home in Sherman Oaks, a suburb of Los Angeles where the climate-change disasters take on a slightly different texture, equally ominous: a desert under deluge. Is that the LA River or a Disney flume ride on steroids? Once again this week the two hours fly by and include musical interludes from Warren Zevon, Fantastic Negrito, Joni Mitchell, Neal Young, and Randy Newman. We hear from Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping and some fascinating news items that cover, protest, extinction and penis size (Yes, you read that correctly!). Host Lou Young, Co-host George Potanovic, and producer Will Hennessey invite you to this advance glimpse of a possible apocalypse. Enjoy!