It takes the average Latina, 12 extra months to earn what the average White, non-Hispanic man earns. That is because Latinas are only paid .55 cents to the dollar of […]

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The Spring Primary election is next Tuesday and on today’s show, Sara Gabler is in conversation with Madison Metropolitan School District School Board Seat 7 Candidates, incumbent Nicki Vander Meulen and challenger Dana Colussi-Lynde. They speak about their priorities for the school district, how they would address opportunity gaps, safe learning environments, literacy rates, student enrollment in the district, and more.

School Board Seat 7 Candidate: Nicki Vander Meulen

Nicki Vander Meulen is seeking a fourth term on the school board. She says that Madison is a “property rich but tax poor district” and that the current state funding formula has created two separate school systems for public schools and charter schools. She would like greater transparency when it comes to funding and at the same time better compensation for veteran teachers so that their talents stay in the district.

Serving students with disabilities is a top priority for Vander Meulen, who says that having the opportunity to attend public schools changed her life. She wants to see K-3rd grade classrooms capped at 23 students and more partnerships with community organizations who could provide tutoring to MMSD students. Equitable staff compensation, tutoring, keeping police out of schools, and addressing the culture of bullying would all contribute to reducing the opportunity gaps and declining enrollment in the district, Vander Muelen says.

Nicki Vander Meulen is a juvenile attorney and member of the Madison Board of Education. When Nicki was elected in 2017, she became the first openly autistic school board member in the United States.

Featured image of Nicki Vander Meulen.

School Board Seat 7 Candidate: Dana Colussi-Lynde

Dana Colussi-Lynde comes from a family of educators, and she’s running for school board because she’s concerned about the state of our democracy. She says her background in information technology has prepared her to address process improvement and assess the effectiveness of student technology use. She points to the unfavorable data on student technology use and test scores and supports the “bell to bell” cell phone ban in the district.

She is also concerned about the educational opportunity gap and would like to see partnerships with the Goodman Center, NAMI, and other organizations to support students’ wellbeing. She wants to see students graduating at their reading level and an increase in apprenticeship programs so students can be future-ready when they leave the school system.

Dana Colussi-Lynde was born in Madison and raised in the Madison area by two teachers before graduating from Madison West High School. She then went on to Madison College for a degree in Information Technology, leading to a 25-year career in IT leadership, analysis and process improvement. She was a board member of New Leaders Council, a progressive leadership organization, for two years following their institute in 2019. She has also volunteered for Courage Plus and Planned Parenthood along with canvassing for local and national political campaigns. She was recently endorsed by the Wisconsin State Journal, Dane Dems and Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance and designated as a Mental Health Now Candidate. The school board would be her first, but hopefully not her last, public service role.

Featured image of Dana Colussi-Lynde.

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Earlier this week, the Atlanta City Council approved an addition $31 million dollars for the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. This was after more than 16 hours […]

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On today’s show, host Esty Dinur is in conversation with four guests–Joe Bates, Matthew Borke, Rob Lee, and Gracie Waukechon–who are fighting against the reroute of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline around the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa reservation in northern Wisconsin. Enbridge has begun construction on the reroute though the legal battle has not been fully resolved.

Joe Bates discusses how he uses his drone to observe the construction. He’s captured footage of the new easement where Enbridge plans to use horizontal directional drilling to install the new pipeline. Matthew Borke says that what we’re hearing from the Trump administration is a forked-tongue message. He encourages folks to stay informed about the legal proceedings.

Gracie Waukechon says that this issue is personal. In light of the threat that the pipeline poses to the lands and waters of the region she says, “I feel as if my future has been taken away from me.” She’s also worried about the future of resistance in light of a contract that Ashland County officials signed last month for policing protests.

Rob Lee talks about how Enbridge is starting to break ground on construction of the reroute, but it’s not a foregone conclusion that they will get final approval. He reminds listeners that the oil that passes through Line 5 passes from Canada and back to Canada, which should concern people across the political spectrum.

Joe Bates is a Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa tribal elder and water protector.

Matthew Borke was raised in southern Michigan and graduated as a Chef from Northern Michigan University’s Culinary Arts program. Matthew has been organizing for the complete shutdown of Enbridge Line 5 since 2017 locally, nationally, and internationally.

Rob Lee is a Senior Staff Attorney at Midwest Environmental Advocates. His work spans a wide range of environmental and public health issues. His areas of focus include PFAS contamination, oil pipelines, Clean Water Act compliance, wetlands and waterways, the Great Lakes, Wisconsin’s Public Trust Doctrine, hazardous substances, mining, and open government.

Gracie Waukechon/Meyāwāēw (May-yow-way) is a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and a Menominee Descendant. She resides near the Menominee Reservation with her family. Gracie is a student at the College of Menominee Nation and interns at the Sustainable Development Institute.

Featured image of the proposed Line 5 reroute via the Wisconsin DNR.

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“The Philippines is under a new administration, but still the government’s case against de Lima hobbles along, a symbol of the country’s degradation from the Duterte years of violent populism […]

The post Timothy McLaughlin on Leila de Lima and the cost of criticism in The P... appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

On today’s show, guest host Bert Zipperer is in conversation with scholar Gianni Cicali about the famous children’s play Pinocchio and how it speaks to the vital importance of the arts during times of national crisis, from the 1930s to today. Next month marks the 200th birthday of Pinocchio’s creator, Carlo Collodi.

They discuss the 1930s Federal Theater Project production of Pinocchio. The play was produced by Yasha Frank with the children theater division of the WPA. The program employed people who were unemployed during the Great Depression and offered low-cost tickets so more people could access the theater. The FTP production of Pinocchio played nationwide for two years and on Broadway until June 1939 when Congress and the House Unamerican Activities Committee killed the production.

Gianni Cicali is a specialist in the history of Italian theater (Renaissance, Baroque and 18th-century). He holds an Italian “laurea vecchio ordinamento” (M.A. equivalent) and doctoral degrees from both Italy (Università di Firenze) and Canada (University of Toronto). His interests focus on Italian theater, opera and culture from the 15th to the 18th century; Renaissance and Baroque religious theater; cinema; migrations to the Americas of Italian theater professionals (19th-century New Orleans).

Featured image: of a photo from the Federal Theatre Project’s production of Pinocchio via Library of Congress.

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Sold in headshops and on the grey market, “spice” or K2 is a way to get high while avoiding showing up on a drug test. Whether or not they’re legal […]

The post Synthetic Cannabinoids, the Analogue Act, and an Unprecedented Prosecu... appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

There was once a time in the US when public banks were the norm; but now the financial landscape is dominated by large retail and commercial for-profit banks. On today’s show, guest host Zoe Sullivan is in conversation with Don Morgan and Oscar Perry Abello about the benefits of public banking for local communities and small and medium-sized businesses, especially when it comes to supporting communities that have historically been discriminated against and that may not have much collateral or credit history.

Morgan describes the services that the Bank of North Dakota provides, including novel ways of responding to natural disasters and other crises. For instance, they have a Farm Financial Stability Program for row-crop farmers who have been struggling due to extreme flooding, high input costs, and low commodity prices.

Abello discusses how public banks support housing initiatives. He says that so much of construction lending is done by local and regional banks who are the institutions that people turn to when they want to build affordable housing or build on vacant lots. However, access to community banks is limited. Abello says there are 4,000 community banks out there, but only 3% of those banks are run by Black, Latinx, or Native American owners.

They also talk about how public banks would respond to a national banking crisis, crypto currency, address community needs quickly and nimbly, how they’re different from postal banking. Morgan says that “behind strong communities are strong community banks.” And Abello adds that “banking is too important to leave to the bankers.”

Don Morgan is the CEO of the Bank of North Dakota.

Oscar Perry Abello is a journalist covering alternative economic models and policies across the United States and the author of The Banks We Deserve. He is currently the senior economic justice correspondent for Next City, an independent, not-for-profit, online publication covering cities from the lens of social, racial, and environmental justice.

Featured image of a piggy bank.

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