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Activism, politics, and beer from PA-based Raging Chicken Press
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Monday Apr 19, 2021
Monday Apr 19, 2021
On today’s show, I welcome back to the program, Karen Feridun. Karen is the Founder of Berks Gas Truth, a grassroots community organization fighting to ban fracking and all shale gas infrastructure. She is co-founder of the statewide Better Path Coalition. For the past 11 years, she worked with organizations in PA, NY, NJ, and DE to get the ban on fracking in the Delaware River Basin that was imposed in February. She is currently part of an international coalition working to stop Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exports and a national coalition working with members of Congress to reform the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
We'll be talking about The Better Path Coalition's "We Are the Ones" campaign. The coalition hopes to build on the recent decision to ban fracking in the Delaware River Basin and the release of Kristina Marusic’s bombshell report for Environmental Health News, “Fractured: The Body Burden of Living Near Fracking” - and pressure the Wolf administration to end his support of fracking and the fossil fuel industry once and for all.
Resources:
- Berks Gas Truth: https://gastruth.org/
- Better Path Coalition: https://www.betterpathcoalition.org/
- We Are the Ones: https://www.betterpathcoalition.org/we-are-the-ones
- We Are the Ones Sign-On letter: bit.ly/wearetheoneswolf
A special shout out to Jonathan Mann who wrote our intro song, “There Are No People in the Future.” Check out all is great stuff on his YouTube page and follow him on Twitter @songadaymann
Friday Apr 16, 2021
Friday Apr 16, 2021
Kimberly Potter, the officer that shot and killed Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old black man, has been fired and will face second-degree manslaughter charges. Potter, a 26 year veteran of the Brooklyn Center, MN police force and president of the police union. She claims she meant to use a taser, but pulled her weapon instead.
In more arguments for why we need to defund the police, Chicago police released body cam footage of an officer killing 13-year-old young black man, Adam Toledo, as he raised his hands up.
Minnesota protests continued and have been met with militarized police response.
Meanwhile, in Virginia a cop drew a weapon and pepper-sprayed a uniformed soldier at a traffic stop. The Windsor Police Department officer apparently thought the car had no plates, despite the new car temporary tags clearly displayed in the rear-window. When Army lieutenant Caron Nazario asked the officer what was going, officer Joe Jutierrez responde, “What’s going on is you’re fixing to ride the lightning, son.”
And lawyers for Derek Chauvin, the cop that slowly killed George Floyd, rested their case after trying to smear Floyd and falsely attribute his death to drugs. Chauvin refused to take the stand, invoking the 5th Amendment.
President Biden has been dragging his feet on relaxing Trump’s inhumane restrictions on refugees, leading to a lot of head-scratching and anger from Democrats and immigrant and refugee rights groups. According to new reporting by CNN, the reason for the delay is that Biden is fretting over the “political optics” of allowing more refugees into the country. The delay has left thousands of people seeking refuge in a state of limbo after an already lengthy waiting process.
The Guardian reports that police officers and public officials from around the country have been donating to Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal defense fund. An executive internal affairs officer from Norfolk Virginia gave a donation that said “keep your head up, you’ve done nothing wrong.”
The Florida Senate passed an “anti-riot bill” that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has been drooling over. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the bill will “grant civil immunity to people who drive through protestors blocking a road; prevent people arrested for rioting or offenses committed during a riot from bailing out of jail until their first court appearance; and impose a six-month mandatory sentence for battery on a police officer during a riot.”
In addition, “A new crime of “mob intimidation,” defined as three or more people “acting with a common intent” forcing or threatening to force another person from taking a viewpoint against their will, is created by the bill. It is punishable as a first-degree misdemeanor, and bail is denied until first court appearance for anyone charged with the crime.”
More alarming news on the climate front. In a new study by the Key Biodiversity Areas Secretariat in Cambridge, UK, scientists found that “just 3% of the world’s land remains ecologically intact with healthy populations of all its original animals and undisturbed habitat,” according to The Guardian. Previous analyses put the number between 20- and 40%. However, those studies relied heavily on satellite images, which can give the false impression that the ecosystems are intact.
The numbers are in. Workers hoping to unionize the Amazon plant in Bessemer, AL lost their election in a blowout. The vote was 738 in favor to 1,798 against.. Writing in the The Nation, Jane McAlevey argues that the effort does not mean that unionizing Amazon plants are doomed; rather, there were warning signs all over that the campaign had some serious problems - some due to Amazon’s union-busting efforts, but also due to some “fatal flaws” in the organizing campaign itself.
- Inaccurate lists of workers
- Poor handling of discussions about union dues
- Focus on plant gates, no house calls
- No sign of majority support
Seth Grove and the House State Government Committee ended their dog and pony show relitigating the 2020 election. The meetings spanned 2 months, took up a total of 48 hours and continued to spread disinformation surrounding the 2020 election. In the waning days, Grove invited members from multiple Heritage Foundation fronts, the Foundation for Government Accountability, the Public Interest Legal Foundation and other Koch Brother backed organizations to continue Trump’s big lie.
The next phase of the PA House Republican’s plan to cancel voting rights in Pennsylvania moves forward. It may take months for legislation to take shape, but Pennsylvania will be a focal point as Republicans look to push a smorgasbord of voter suppression tactics, like signature matching and voter ID’s.
The Philadelphia Police Department launched a short-lived initiative to combat gun violence in the city this week. Commissioner Outlaw announced that the police department was going to team up with the Department of Parks and Recreation and teach children about gun safety. The problem? The Commissioner stated that they were going to use the NRA’s Eddie Eagle program without stating it was an NRA backed program. The initiative lasted less than a day after gun safety advocates and residents pounced on this idea.
Philadelphia Councilmember Kendra Brooks, introduced two bills this week that would end practice of landlords denying turning away prospective tenants based upon eviction records. Brooks explained her rationale to WHYY: “Structural barriers and biases in the renting process disproportionately impact low-income renters, especially Black women. And as we know, these same renters have been hit the hardest by the pandemic. We must work toward a pandemic recovery that leaves no one behind and protecting renters’ rights to access affordable rental properties is a key part of that.”
PASSHE Chancellor Dan Greenstein, made his case for his plan to fundamentally redesign the 14 state-owned university system to the Board of Governors on Thursday. Board of Governors Chair, Cynthia Shapira, called Greenstein’s remarks “inspirational” as she threw her support behind his plans to merge 6 of the universities into 2; fire hundreds of faculty and staff; and force students into more online classes. A piece of good news from the meeting that is getting much more coverage is the Board agree to freeze tuition for a third straight year.
Kutztown University student, Natalie Santos running for Allentown City Council.
NASA’s InSight Mars lander is going into emergency hibernation due to a build up of dust on the lander’s solar panels. Since landing in Elysium Planitia in 2018, InSight has been busy - detecting more than 500 Mars quakes and beginning to measure Mars’s core. Scientists say the lack of the powerful gusts of wind that are common in other parts of the planet have led to the build up.
Still no flight for Ingenuity. An expected test flight for the little Mars helicopter was called off earlier this week due to a software issue related to its flight control. A fix has been identified and the NASA team say that Ingenuity may be ready to give it another go as early as next week.
Acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk announced that not only will the Artemis mission put the first woman on the moon, it will also send the first person of color as well.
I will be seeking out Human Robot beer this coming week.
Monday Apr 12, 2021
Monday Apr 12, 2021
On tonight’s show, I welcome Chad Nicholson, Community Organizer with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). Chad has been engaged in community rights work since 2009, initially working with Envision Spokane on a Bill of Rights protecting neighborhoods, workers, and the environment. He then moved on to assist in New England, working with communities in Maine and New Hampshire to protect their environment. He now lives and organizes in Pennsylvania, assisting communities to engage in rights-based organizing on issues ranging from environmental protection to prisoners’ rights.
Chad has been involved with the fight in Pennsylvania townships to pass Home Rule powers to resist the decimation of their communities by the fracking industry. Most notably, Chad’s work in Grant Township, PA has been part of an on-going fight to assert the rights of a community to protect its environment and to extend legal rights to the natural environment. The story of Grant Township is a David and Goliath story - a battle that began more than seven years ago and is scheduled to go before the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court this summer. The Grant Township battle has only emboldened other PA towns/. Just last month, residents of Clara Township in Potter County, PA voted in support to consider Home Rule powers after Routlette Oil and Gas tried to get a permit for a fracking waste well there.
Chad and the CELDF have been on the cutting edge of making a case for the legal rights of the natural world. The fight in Grant Township, PA featured heavily in the recent documentary by Melissa Troutman and Joshua Pribanic, Invisible Hand: The Rights of Nature. Mark Ruffalo was the executive producer for the film.
Resources:
- Contact Chad Nicholson:
- chad@celdf.org, keybase.io/ctnicholson (encrypted) or 207-541-3649 (encrypted through signal.org)
- Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund: https://celdf.org/
- Pennsylvania Community Rights Network: https://www.pacommunityrights.org/
- East Run Hellbenders Society FB page: https://www.facebook.com/eastrunhellbenders
- Grant Township, Indiana County, PA: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Grant%20Township,%20Indiana%20County,%20Pennsylvania/104053069631300/
A special shout out to Jonathan Mann who wrote our intro song, “There Are No People in the Future.” Check out all is great stuff on his YouTube page and follow him on Twitter @songadaymann
Friday Apr 09, 2021
Friday Apr 09, 2021
U.S. Intelligence officials released their “Global Trends” report and its pretty bleak. As the Washington Post headline reads: “Intelligence forecast sees a post-coronavirus world upended by climate change and splintering societies.”
Biden’s infrastructure bill is pretty awesome.
A new study by the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, found that most of the January insurrectionists came from counties with the most significant declines in the non-Hispanic White population. That is, most didn’t come from deep read counties; they came from places like Bucks County, PA that is experiencing a significant shift in demographics. The study also found that those involved in the insurrection are older and more professional than right-wing groups studies in the past; they were all, however, 95% white and 85% male. The lead researcher, political scientist Robert Pape, suggests that 90% of the insurrectionists are still in the process of congealing into a mass movement that is willing to put “violence at its core.”
The Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, helped pave the way for Democrats to use budget reconciliation again this fiscal year to pass Biden’s proposed $2 trillion infrastructure plan. She stated that the Section 304 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 allows for the Senate to use reconciliation more than once a fiscal year, because it says "the two Houses may adopt a concurrent resolution on the budget which revises or reaffirms the concurrent resolution on the budget for such fiscal year most recently agreed to."
Just to balance the equation apparently, Joe Manchin flip-flops, saying that there is no way he would vote to get rid of or weaken the filibuster.
Biden’s new Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, calls for a single minimum global corporate tax.
Biden announced on Thursday moves to end gun-maker liability protections as part of a series of executive actions in response to gun violence.
Things just get worse and worse for Trump-loving, and all-around creepy, Florida congressman Matt Gaetz. The New York Times reported that Gaetz went pardon shopping in the final weeks of Trump’s term. Apparently he asked Trump for an unconditional pardon for any crimes he may or may not have committed.
One out of every three UK teachers plans to quit in the next 5 years because of rapidly increasing workload and growing disrespect for teachers. That’s according to the results of a survey that the National Education Union asked of 10,000 members.
Congratulations to Kadida Kenner from the Pennsylvania Budget Policy Center & We The People for accepting her new role as Executive Director at The New Pennsylvania Project. Kadida will be fighting to protect voting rights right here in Pennsylvania as Republicans continue to push Trump’s Big Lie in 2020 and ramp up their nationwide attacks on voting rights.
Speaking of the attacks on voting rights by Pennsylvania Republicans, Republicans Daryl Metcalfe, Seth Grove, Cris Dush and dozens of other conservative republicans were spotted having dinner with Chris Kobach Tuesday evening. Kobach was the Secretary of State in Kansas and helped weaponize Trump’s unfounded election fraud claims in 2016.
If that’s not bad enough, Seth Grove is wrapping up his show hearings on the 2020 elections and has started inviting Koch aligned front groups to push their anti-voter agenda at the latest House State Government Committee hearings. Grove had members from the Foundation for Government Accountability and the Heritage Foundation’s Honest Elections Project speak at his most recent hearings.
In their 2021 Gerrymandering Threat Index, Represent.us has moved Pennsylvania into the moderate risk category as PA Republicans gear up their voting repression machine.
Get ready Pennsylvania, because the push to restrict rights at the ballot box is coming our way.
Rep. Scott Perry struggles with using Venn diagrams.
Did you know that if you offer people a discount to shop at your store you just might be part of the plan of microchipped lizard-men to eat your liberties? It could happen. Well, and it kind of did happen to Donna Gouldery, a owner of Allora Gifts & Home Decor in Doylestown, PA. The crazy story is highlighted in Cyril Mychalejko’s latest column, “Hysterical social media mob targets Doylestown business woman.” We’ll get into it.
COVID cases and hospitalizations continue to rise in PA and NJ even as vaccines roll out.
The University of Pittsburgh is has ordered students to shelter in place as coronavirus cases spike again.
70% of PASSHE faculty oppose mergers.
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter survived its first several days detached from the Perseverance rover. Yesterday, the little helicopter unlocked its rotors and will go through a series of tests before attempting the first-ever powered flight on the Red Planet sometime after Sunday, April 11. .
It’s official, I am signed up for the 2021 Mars Society Virtual Convention. Yes, Raging Chicken will be attending this year’s Mars Society Convention from October 14-17. brings together prominent scientists, policymakers, entrepreneurs and space advocates to discuss the significance of the latest scientific discoveries, technological advances and political-economic-social developments that could affect plans for the human exploration and settlement of Mars. The Mars Society was founded in 1998 by Robert Zubrin, who Motherboard writer Abraham Riesman calls, the “Right-Wing Mars Guru.” Down the rabbit hole I go.
Monday Apr 05, 2021
Monday Apr 05, 2021
On tonight’s program, I am thrilled to welcome Cyril Mychalejko to the show. Cyril is a new progressive columnist for the Bucks County Courier Times & The Intelligencer. His column brings a sorely needed left/progressive voice to the pages of the papers that serve one of the most hotly contested Congressional districts in the state: PA-1.
To give you a window into Cyril’s background, let me simply paraphrase from his introductory column for the Courier Times. Cyril is a son of Bucks County. He grew up in Holland, went to St. Bede Elementary School, graduated from Council Rock High School, and went to Bucks County Community College where he edited the student newspaper. He finished college on the West Coast and just kept going after that. His writing, activism, and teaching has taken him all over the country — and the world. He’s organized anti-Iraq war protests in upstate New York, knocked on doors in Bucks County for former Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy, and campaigned against free trade deals like the FTAA and CAFTA in Florida. He’s also worked as a human rights observer and accompanier in Ecuador monitoring a violent mining conflict, participated in human rights and solidarity delegations in Central America, and taught at an international school in the Kurdish region of Iraq. His writing has also appeared in progressive publications such as Truthout, Upside Down World, The Indypendent, Toward Freedom and Common Dreams.
Cyril certainly wasted no time jumping into the political fray. On March 24, Cyril turned his lens to an on-going issue in the Pennridge School district - something you have heard me talk about in the past. His article, “Turning Point USA a Trojan horse of right-wing extremism for Pennridge students?,” focuses on a growing concern by local parents and students about the far-right group - Turning Point USA - gaining access to the halls of the high school. Turning Point USA has been flagged by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center for their documented cases of racism, bigotry, and white nationalism. He also raises questions about the behavior of some members of the Pennridge School Board who have fanned the flames of extremism. I am hoping this is the first of many occasions to have Cyril join us here on Out d’ Coup.
- Cyril's newsletter: https://cyrilmychalejko.substack.com/
- Follow Cyril on Twitter: @cmychalejko
A special shout out to Jonathan Mann who wrote our intro song, “There Are No People in the Future.” Check out all is great stuff on his YouTube page and follow him on Twitter @songadaymann
Friday Mar 26, 2021
Friday Mar 26, 2021
Georgia Republicans pass a slew of voter-supression measures. As reported in The Guardian, the new legislation “requires voters to submit ID information with both an absentee ballot request and the ballot itself. It limits the use of absentee ballot drop boxes, allows for unlimited challenges to a voter’s qualifications, cuts the runoff election period from nine to four weeks, and significantly shortens the amount of time voters have to request an absentee ballot.”
According to an explosive new article in The Intercept, Ken Klippenstein obtained internal documents showing that Amazon managers and executives have been fully aware that drivers often resort to peeing in bottles and even pooping in plastic bags due to the pressure to meet package quotas and an intense schedule.The report drops as Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama enter the last week of voting on unionization.
In a failed attempt at witty snark, Amazon Executive Dave Clark also took to Twitter to respond to news that Bernie Sanders would be travelling to Bessemer to join workers on the picket line. The tweets landed like a brick.
Oh, and we should mention that Amazon workers in Italy went on strike over labor conditions this week.
Speaking of strikes, Columbia University graduate workers continue their strike for a second week. Key demands in the more than two-year negotiations for their first contract include a neutral arbitrator in harassment cases, union coverage for more student workers and a pay increase.
And, graduate student workers at NYU began voting on their own strike authorization on Tuesday. The strike authorization vote was called after more than 9 months of negotiations in which the graduate student union made significant concessions.
Rutgers University says that all students must be vaccinated to return to in-person classes in fall 2021. Rutgers is one of the first universities in the nation to begin to roll out vaccination and prevention protocols for the next academic year.
It’s time to take a deep dive into the shit-show that is the Harrisburg Mayoral race. Republican Charter School grifter turned Democrat, Otto Banks, had his residency challenged in court this week and is allowed - for now - to stay on the ballot. Banks bought a house in Harrisburg in August 2020 to run for mayor, but never used his utilities, which raised questions if he was actually living in the city. The judge presiding over the case sided with Banks.
Dr. Rachel Levine was confirmed as the Assistant Secretary of Health by the United States Senate this week and made history by being the highest ranking transgender official in United States history.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases have begun to surge again in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as both states move quickly to open up businesses and return kids to in-person classes. The surge is being attributed in part to the spread of the more contagious variants of COVID-19
Cyril Mychalejko, the new progressive columnist for the Bucks County Courier Times & The Intelligencer, shines a spotlight on how the white supremacist-adjacent Turning Point USA has made inroads it the Pennrigdge School district. Cyril Michalejko will be out Out d’Coup LIVE on Monday, April 5. We’ll dig in.
PASSHE Chancellor Dan Greenstein feels the heat.
Sean gets snubbed on State Street. We’ll talk about that later on.
DO NOT WAIT to head on over to Twitter and follow Sisters of the Night Caucus, “bewitching political talk from your favorite PA witches!”
NASA gets ready to launch its Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, in early April. Ingenuity is attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover. The Rover dropped the debris shield covering the little helicopter. NASA has identified a 33 x 33 foot patch of the red planet for Ingenuity’s airfield. This will be the first attempt at powered flight on Mars.
Ingenuity is carrying a postage sized piece of fabric from the Wright Brothers’ aircraft that made its historic flight at Kitty Hawk, NC.
Lego announces its biggest and most detailed Space Shuttle set, yet.
I got my first vaccine shot.
Free Will Brewing releases
Monday Mar 22, 2021
Monday Mar 22, 2021
The Chancellor of the PA State System of Higher Education, Dan Greenstein, has dropped a few bombshells this week about the future of the 14 state owned university system. Public higher education in PA is facing an uncertain future now. We'll be taking your calls about PASSHE and the future of public higher ed.
Sound from this week's PA State Senate higher ed appropriation hearings, unpacking the rhetorical strategy of PASSHE Chancellor, and so much more.
A special shout out to Jonathan Mann who wrote our intro song, “There Are No People in the Future.” Check out all is great stuff on his YouTube page and follow him on Twitter @songadaymann
Friday Mar 19, 2021
Friday Mar 19, 2021
On Tuesday, 8 people were killed in an anti-Asian, misogynist attack on three spas in Atlanta. Six of the eight people killed were Asian women. The killer was arrested. Cherokee County Sheriff’s Officer Capt. Jay Baker held a news conference on Wednesday and said that the shooter had a “sex addiction” and was just “having a bad day.” It was later revealed that Capt. Baker had been pushing anti-Asian t-shirts with the slogan: “COVID-19 imported virus from CHY-NA.”
Philadelphia Councilmember Helen Gym called the shootings “the latest escalation in the nation’s history of systemic racism and violence against Asian immigrants, fostered by a culture of white supremacy and misogyny that has long devalued the lives of immigrants, Black women, and women of color.” See Helen Gym’s Twitter thread on history of AAPI organizing in Philly.
Proud Boys leaders in four states were arrested this week. One of the four leaders arrested was Philadelphia native Zach Rehl. Rehl became a figurehead in the organization over the last three years. He was photographed at the insurrection leading the Proud Boys to the capitol and smoking a cigarette inside Senator Merkley’s office while wearing a Temple Owls schoolbag the whole time.
This comes on the heels of a report of how federal, state and local agencies ignored the Proud Boys over the last four years while they were committing acts of political violence at Trump events and far right rallies.
Deb Haaland was confirmed as the first Native American cabinet secretary. Haaland will lead the Department of the Interior - the department with a long and strained history with indigenous communities. The agency manages over 500 million acres of public land, much of it stolen from indigenous people. The agency also houses the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The filibuster appears to be on life-support as President Biden and key Democratic senators come out in reforming it. This prompted Mitch McConnell to throw a temper tantrum on the Senate Floor where he promised to go “scorched Earth,” and Democrats responded by saying that McConnell already went “scorched Earth.”
Spain may become the first country to move to a four-day workweek. That follows the launch of a pilot project for companies in the country interested in the concept. Spain has a long history of leading on shorter working hours. Following a 44 day strike in Barcelona in 1919, for example, Spain became one of the first countries in Europe to move to an eight-hour day. As reported in the Guardian, “From New Zealand to Germany, the idea has been steadily gaining ground globally. Hailed by its proponents as a means to increase productivity, improve the mental health of workers and fight climate change, the proposal has taken on new significance as the pandemic sharpens issues around wellbeing, burnout and work-life balance.” The pilot program will see a reduction of working hours with no loss of salary or jobs.
This won’t come as a surprise, but the Guardian reports that “The oil industry knew at least 50 years ago that air pollution from burning fossil fuels posed serious risks to human health, only to spend decades aggressively lobbying against clean air regulations.” Their report is based upon a pile of internal document obtained by the Guardian, including internal memos and reports.
The CDC is exploring whether 3 feet of social distancing - instead of 6 feet - is safe for schools. The distancing guidelines are a key part of determining the most effective way to reopen schools while keeping students, faculty, staff, and the community safe.
21 states with Republican Attorneys General are suing the Biden administration for putting the kibosh on the Keystone XL pipelines.
Moderna begins to study the safety and effectiveness of its vaccine for kids between the age of 6 months to 12 years old. The study will enroll about 6.750 children in the U.S. and Canada.
Graduate Student Workers at Columbia University are on strike after failing to achieve their first contract after over two years of negotiations with the administration.
Bucks County Assistant District Attorney Matt Weintraub was caught moonlighting as a Door Dash driver while working out of the District Attorney’s office. The Bucks County District Attorney only demoted from his position while the DA called it “an incredibly poor decision.”
The Pennsylvania Capitol is scheduled to reopen to the public this Monday. It will be open to the public for the first time since the fall. Guests must wear masks unless you are Republican legislators who still don’t believe in the pandemic.
The Commonwealth Foundation went in front of the House Commerce Committee last week and defended their positions on why there shouldn’t be a minimum wage. Representative’s Malcolm Kenyatta and John Galloway shut that nonsense down and forced the Commonwealth Foundation’s representative to explain that they support a zero dollar minimum wage.
Two men were arrested this week for taking part in the assault on Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick during the January 6 insurrection. Sicknick later died from his injuries. And, once again, a Pennsylvanian was one of those arrested. Julian Khater, a 32 year old many from State College, was seen spraying bear spray directly into the face of Officer Sicknick during the assault.
Yes, of course, Sen. Pat Toomey blocked a bill that would have prevented debt collectors from taking stimulus checks. When asked why he voted for the bill he blamed Democrats for not including it in the original bill and compromised with Republicans to pass a bill with 60 votes. He defended debt collectors and said it’s too late anyway as 90 million checks have already been sent to Americans. Way to stick up for working families.
At the State Senate budget hearings yesterday, PASSHE Chancellor Dan Greenstein issued a threat. If his plans for reorganizing the 14 state-owned university system are not followed - including the mergers of three universities in the Northeast and three universities in the West - he told lawmakers: “I will be recommending to the board that we come back to the Senate next year with a legislative package to dissolve the state system.” Senator Joe Pittman of Indiana County, the home of IUP, said he would be happy to introduce the legislation. APSCUF President Jamie Martin said she was flooded with texts and emails from faculty who were watching the hearings. “It was reckless, at the very least it was reckless,” Martin told PennLive.
NASA finally had a successful test of the Space Launch System or SLS rocket on Thursday. The SLS rocket is the one planned to be NASA’s workhorse for Artemis Moon missions.
SpaceX’s launch of 60 Starlink Internet Satellites was seen over large areas of the Eastern U.S. including Central, PA and Bucks County.
Some scientists now think that the large amount of water that flowed on Mars billions of years ago, may have become trapped in the planets outer crust. The findings published in the the journal Science, suggest that between 30% and 99% of the water on Mars may have been incorporated into minerals and buried in the planets crust.
Elon Musk fulfills a childhood dream and changed his official title to “TechnoKing of Tesla. Tesla’s chief financial officer, Zach Kirkhorn, will also get a new title. He’ll be Tesla’s “Master of Coin.”
Kevin has his vaccine appointment!
Free Will releases Personified - DDH Double IPA 8.4% ABV. This Sunday is Free Will’s annual release of their Barrel Aged Flowers series, featuring six different bottles and for the first time ever, draft pours of each.
Wednesday Mar 17, 2021
Wednesday Mar 17, 2021
I welcome Kristina Marusic to the show to talk about her new devastating, investigative series for Environmental Health News, “Fractured: The Body Burden of Living Near Fracking.” Fractured lays bear their scientific findings from a 9-week pilot study in Southwestern Pennsylvania where families are exposed to harmful chemicals and the failure of local, state, and federal officials to protect communities’ physical, mental, and social health. The series focuses on five families, three in Washington County, PA and two in Westmoreland County, PA. The study finds not only high levels of toxic chemicals in the air and water - but inside the bodies of these families, with children frequently showing the highest levels of toxins. The study also explores how the explosion of fracking in Southwestern PA has also led to significant costs on the mental health of residents and a breakdown in the social well-being of communities.
Kristina Marusic covers environmental health and justice issues in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. She has received recognition or awards from the Society of Environmental Journalists, the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Institute of Health Care Management, the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania, the Carnegie Science Center, and the Pittsburgh-based Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP) for her reporting on these topics.
Prior to joining EHN, Kristina covered issues related to environmental and social justice as a freelancer for a wide range of digital media outlets including Slate, Vice, Women's Health, MTV News, The Advocate, CNN, and Bustle. She is also the co-president and co-founder of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Association of LGBTQ Journalists. She is also working on a new book called, The New War on Cancer, about the doctors, researchers, and activists leading a nationwide movement to rethink cancer prevention strategies through the lens of toxic exposures, to be published by Island Press in 2022.
She lives in Pittsburgh, where she spends much of her free time kayaking the city's iconic three rivers, consuming coffee and eating adventurously. Reach her at kmarusic@ehn.org. And, make sure to check out all the awesome reporting over at Environmental Health News, https://www.ehn.org/.
- Read the series: “Fractured: The Body Burden of Living Near Fracking.”
- Follow Kristina Marusic on Twitter: @KristinaSaurusR
- Follow Environmental Health News: @EnvirHealthNews
Monday Mar 15, 2021
Monday Mar 15, 2021
We’re talking about the PA State System of Higher Education Chancellor Dan Greenstein’s plans to merge three state universities - Bloomsburg University, Mansfield University, and Lock Haven University - the university at which tonight’s guests teach and work. As you might recall, Chancellor Greenstein is also forcing mergers on three additional campus in Western PA - California, Clarion, and Edinboro.
Just at Lock Haven, the Chancellor wants to cut 30% of the faculty; slash 56 custodial and grounds keeping jobs; end 12 academic programs; and, send a small PA town into economic uncertainty.
On tonight's show I welcome:
Peter Campbell: is the president of the Lock Haven chapter of the faculty union APSCUF. Campbell is a professor in the Sport Administration program at Lock Haven. He teaches courses in the undergraduate and graduate programs including: Contemporary Issues and Problems in Sport Administration, Sport Law and Ethics, Governance of Sport, Sport Facility Management and Operation, Sport Administration Professional Field Experience, and Legal and Policy Issues in Sport.
Shawn O’Dell: President of AFSCME Council 13, Local 2360 which includes many employees at Lock Haven University including custodians, grounds keepers, maintenance, mechanics, carpenters, plumbers, painters, HVAC, electricians, secretaries, and support staff. As she puts it, AFSCME members are the backbone of the LHU community, without them, LHU could not exist. O’Dell is also a graduate LHU with a BA in English. She was a nontraditional student and graduated at age 41 and then was given an opportunity to work with the Upward Bound program. That opportunity opened the way to move to the Center for Global Engagement and the Global Honors Program where I work as their secretary.
Matt Girton: Professor and Chair in the Department of Communication at Lock Haven University. He is also a former president of the Lock Haven chapter of APSCUF. On the State APSCUF Exec Council. The State System Universities have been part of his entire life. He grew up 10 miles from Bloomsburg where, swam in the old Centennial Gym pool and went to Celebrity Artist Series productions in Haas Auditorium. His high school band director took Matt and other students to Mansfield for weekly music lessons. He returned to BU in the mid-90’s for his MA in Communication, and while finishing his doctorate at Florida State University, he worked as an adjunct for a year at Shippensburg.
How to stay involved and help with the fight:
- Follow Lock Haven APSCUF on Facebook
- Follow Lock Haven APSCUF on Twitter
- Follow Save Our State Schools on Twitter and click the "Get Involved" button on the Save Our State Schools website
- If you are in the Lock Haven area, join the Rally to Save Lock Haven University Jobs, this Saturday, March 20 @ 10:00 am
- Find your state legislator and write and/or call them. Let them know you do not want to see Lock Haven merged
- Call the PASSHE Board of Governors @ 717-720-4010 or fax them @ 717-720-4011 and tell them to "Save the Haven"
- Share this interview on all your social media
A special shout out to Jonathan Mann who wrote our intro song, “There Are No People in the Future.” Check out all is great stuff on his YouTube page and follow him on Twitter @songadaymann