Leaked: The Internet must go!

Hey! Are you on the internet right now? Of course you are! Then you should definitely check out this amazing video about what the internet companies are planning. This move could hurt both consumers and content creators--but of course would be a huge windfall for internet providers.

How weathly are Americans?

The disparity in wealth between the richest one percent of Americans and the bottom 80 percent has grown exponentially over the last thirty years — but the video, posted by user politizane and relying on data from a popular Mother Jones post, focuses on the difference between the ideal disparity that Americans would like to see and the reality.

Tax the Rich

So long! It's been fun.

Dear listeners,

In July 2011 I started a new job teaching Italian at Kansas State University. In some ways this was a return to my roots, as I taught English as a Foreign Language for 17 years in Italy. Now I am teaching English speakers Italian. I've come full circle.

This coming full circle also means the end of an attempt on my part to start a new career in my 50s. Sadly, as much as I tried to bring community radio to Manhattan, I was not successful. So I have decided to dedicate my energy and time to my first love, being an educator.

The archive of my shows will remain active - there's a lot of great content in the shows. So I hope you continue to listen and enjoy them.

Once again thank you for your support and encouragement over the five years the show was on the air. I know many feel that my program needs to be on the air and I agree with you that a diversity of voices is sorely lacking in the local media. But alas, it is not I who will bring that diversity. It will have to be someone else.

Christopher E. Renner

2008 Show Archive

18 December 2008 - Sustainability Conference - What's next for NBAF?
On this week's show, we open with Ben Champion and Barbara Anderson who discuss the up-coming "Leading Kansas in Sustainability Conference" which will take place at K-State on January 23rd. For more information about the conference visit: http://sustainability.k-state.edu/conferences/leadingkansas/ During the second half, Dale Askey of No NBAF Kansas joins us to discuss what options exist now that it has been announced that the new lab will be coming to Kansas.



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11 December 2008 - Shepherd's Crossing
During the first half of this week's show we welcome Jan Connizzo, Executive Director of Shepherd's Crossing, to discuss the services offered and how listener's can support their mission to fight poverty in Manhattan.

During the second half, we hear two recent clips from CounterSpin. In the first clip we hear an analysis of why the media supports Obama's cabinet appointments. In the second we learn some important information about the Fairness Doctrine


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4 December 2008 - Manhattan Boys and Girls Club; UDHR at 60 and the work of Amnesty International
During the first half of this week's the show, Community Bridge welcomes Joyce Glasscock, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Manhattan to talk about their new building and programs. In the second half we discuss the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the work of Amnesty International with Frank St. George and Rob Dunn from the K-State Chapter.


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20 November 2008 - Economic Bailout and World AIDS Day
Community Bridge opens the show featuring Amy Goodman interviewing Naomi Klein, author of Shock Doctrine. Klein discusses the economic crisis and efforts by the administration and congress to give enormous sums of money to people Klein refers to as "bailout profiteers" and the multi-trillion dollar crime scene that is unfolding in the last days of the Bush administration as they once again raid the US Treasury to give money to their rich friends.

During the second half of the show we welcome Dusty Garner from the Regional AIDS Project to talk about the activities what will be happening around World AIDS Day on December 1.


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13 November 2008 - Fair Trade Marketplace and International Education Week
During the first half of this week's Community Bridge, we welcome Prof. Torry Dickinson and Linda Teener, Executive Director of UFM Community Learning Center to talk about fair trade and the up-coming Fair Trade Marketplace to be held next week, Nov. 18 and 19 from 10 am to 6 pm at the K-State Student Union. In the second half we explore International Education week with Prof. Barry Mitchie.


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6 November 2008 - Election Wrap-up
As a result of the election, the political landscape has changed in the US, or has it? This week Community Bridge will take an objective look at this week's election results and discusses what the future may bring. Join our guests, Prof. Joseph Aistrup (photo at right) from K- State's Political Science Department, who will give an analysis for both national and state results, along with community activist Jan Garton and K-State Young Democrat Bryan Cox for a discussion of what it all means.


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23 October 2008 - An Interview with Ray McGovern
This week Community Bridge welcomes Ray McGovern as our guest. McGovern served as a CIA officer for 27 years under seven presidents and nine CIA directors. For the past seven years McGovern has been a prominent and outspoken commentator on intelligence-related issues, and a very vocal critic of President George W. Bush's use of government intelligence to justify the Iraq War.


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CCHW 2008 - Muslims in the Media

The A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications' Media Professional Day was held as part of the 2008 CCHW and featured Mahnaz Shabbir presenting "Muslims in the Media," - an analysis of of the stereotypes used by mainstream media to depict Muslims and the Islamic faith. This lecture provides basic information on Islam; challenges the stereotypes the media uses; and, challenges the listener use critical thinking when decoding the messages the media transmits.

Mahnaz Shabbir is president of Shabbir Advisors. Ms. Mahnaz was awarded the Kansas City Press Club Journalist of the Year for 2003 and received another Journalism award in 2005. In March 2004, she received the YWCA award for the Gold Honoree in the category of Racial Justice at their annual luncheon banquet. In November 2005, Shabbir received a special recognition award from the Crescent Peace Society for her contributions in community service. On September 11, 2006, Shabbir received the Human Rights award from Church Women United.


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2 October 2008 - Domestic Violence Awareness Month
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Community Bridge opens its October line-up with Tychelle Jones from the Domestic Violence Task Force to discuss and educate on this issue during the first half of the show.

In the second half we welcome Representative Sydney Carlin, who will discuss why she is running for office, her accomplishments during her past six years of service, and what are some of the issues facing the Kansas Legislature this session.


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18 September 2008 - Community Cultural Harmony Week
Community Cultural Harmony celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Doug Benson, Candi Hironaka, and founder, Barbara Baker, discuss its impact on the K-State and Manhattan communities as they review this year's calendar of events.


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11 September 2008 - A discussion with Stan Cox about the effects of 9-11

On the seventh anniversary of the events of 9-11 Community Bridge welcomes back to the show Stan Cox for a discussion of how this event has affected civil liberties and the rule of law in the post-9-11 era. We have posted several articles on our blog that related to the topics Cox discusses. We recommend these articles to our listeners as background to the topic of this show.

During the second half of the show, we tune into CounterSpin for the September 8th show and a discussion of the police-state like actions taken against the press and protesters at the Republican National Convention.


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4 September 2008 - An Interview with Charles McVey
Community Bridge welcomes Kansas singer/songwriter Charles McVey for a discussion of his music. McVey's music reflects a heavy '80s new wave influence, mixed with subtleties of the piano and soothing harmonies. McVey has added himself to the growing ranks of "out" musicians and makes no apologies for who he is. His approach is non-confrontational and open which allows his music to transcend gender and sexual identity.


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21 August 2008 - Water Policy for Kansas
Community Bridge welcomes representatives from the Manhattan/Riley County League of Women Voters who discuss the recent study on water policy for Kansas conducted by the state organization. In an age of changing climate and more demand for water from agri-business and ethanol production, will Kansas have water to drink in the future? Karen Mayse and Hilary Esry discuss what the League has discovered and what they are proposing as state water policy for the future.

Please see the links to water, water policy and its history in Kansas in the postings under at http://communitybridge.blogspot.com/2008/08/resources-on-topic-of-water.html.


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14 August 2008 - Opposition to NBAF
Since our 17 July show about the proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), opposition about locating the facility in Manhattan has increased as more area citizens have become informed about the pathogens which will be studied at the location. Community Bridge welcomes Stephen Anderson, Debbie Nuss and Paul Irvine to discuss the opposition's take on the issue of locating the NBAF in Kansas. For more information, visit their blog at: http://nonbaf.wordpress.com In the final 15 minutes of the show we connect with Carol Barta, chair of the Manhattan Alliance for Peace and Justice who briefly discusses the panel on energy which will take place Monday at 7:00 pm at the Public Library Auditorium.


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7 August 2008 - Poverty in the Little Apple
This week Community Bridge welcomes Mandy Chapman Semple, Executive Director of the Manhattan Emergency Shelter as we take a look at reality of poverty in Manhattan. The 2000 census placed 24% of Manhattanites living in poverty. Most dismiss this figure as "caused by the student population," but as Mandy will discuss, poverty in Manhattan is very real and not limited to "a bunch of college kids throwing off the statistics."


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31 July 2008 - The Child Care Crisis
This week, Community Bridge looks at the growing child care crisis in Manhattan and the surrounding community. Affordable, quality child care is becoming harder and harder to find, with many programs having waiting list of hundreds of children. Join City Commissioner Bruce Snead, Susie Kufahl, assistant administrator of the Riley County Health Department, and Jayme Morris-Hardeman, Executive Director of Sunflower CASA, in a discussion of the topic, the work the area Child Care Task Force has conducted and what the future holds for child care.


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17 July 2008 - NBAF in Manhattan
The proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), which K-State and Manhattan are under among the final five possible locations under consideration for this new facility, is the topic of this edition of Community Bridge. Opening the show is Ron Trewyn, Vice President for Research and Jerry Jaax, Associate Vice President for Research Compliance at K-State. They give an overview of the facility and respond to questions concerning safety issues at the facility. Responding to their presentation will be Sylvia Beeman.

The proposed facility will occupy 48 acres. The estimated construction cost is $563 million with an annual payroll of $27 million. Additional infrastructure requirements include new power lines and a sewage treatment plant.

To read an op-ed by Paul Irvine, a contributing writer to the Manhattan Mercury, opposing the placement of the NBAF in Manhattan, click here.


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10 July 2008 - A conversation with Kevin Willmott
This week Community Bridge engages Kevin Willmott, assistant professor in the Film Studies Department of Kansas University about his recently released film, Bunker Hill, in a discussion of what democracy means in the post 9-11 United States.

Willmott's Bunker Hill looks into the American psyche in the post 9-11 era. A former Wall Street executive comes to Bunker Hill, KS, to reconnect with his ex-wife and daughters. Soon after he arrives, all power is lost as well as communication with the outside world. At a lost to explain what happen, militant forces coalesce to protect the citizens from an unseen enemy. As unfounded fears run wild, torture, illegal searches and murder becomes become part of the new reality. Visit the film's website at: http://www.bunkerhillthemovie.com/


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26 June 2008 - Flint Hills Pride/MSCDR Petition Ordinances
During the first half of the show members of Manhattan's LGBT community talk about the Pride events scheduled for the weekend. During the second half, Debbie Nuss and Kathy Dzewaltowski from Manhattan Citizens for Sustainable Downtown Redevelopment discuss the organization, discoveries made during their recent law suit against the city and their efforts at petition ordinances designed to bring citizen control back to the redevelopment project.


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19 June 2008 - Voter ID Laws
This week Community Bridge takes up the topic of the Republican-led efforts to pass laws that require proof of identity in order to vote. Republicans leaders claim that the laws are needed because voter fraud is a reality. Numerous studies by Secretaries of State and independent researchers show that voter fraud is a myth. Recently the US Supreme Court upheld an Indiana law, which lead to 12 Roman Catholic nuns, all of whom were registered voters, being barred from voting in the Indiana presidential primary. If voter fraud is a myth, why are the Republicans pushing for this legislation and why should you be concerned about it? Tune in to find out. Guests included Diane Kuhn, President of the Kansas League of Women Voters, and Debbie Nuss, local community activist and League member. Together they will discuss what happens when voter ID laws are passed.


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5 June 2008 - Community WiFi
Community wireless networks are being built using WiFi, or "Wireless Fidelity", a standard technology that provides wireless Internet connection using unlicensed spectrum. These networks are being built by a variety of organizations including volunteer cooperatives, non-profit organizations, local governments, business development associations and educational institutions — many in partnership with each other. The networks are helping to deliver Internet access to residential neighborhoods, downtown business districts, low income and transitional housing projects, city parks and Native American Tribal reservations. Our guests, Joshua Montgonery, founding member for the Lawrence Freenet Project, and Prof. David MacFarland, recently retired professor of journalism and mass communications here at K-State, discuss community WiFi.


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29 May 2008 - Energy Policy
Community Bridge welcomes back Chris Cardinal of the Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy for this week's show. We will discuss GPACE's take on the 2008 legislative session, what the future holds for clean energy, a comprehensive energy plan for the state, net metering, and more. Due to a technical problem we join this show already in progress.

As a special feature, this summer we will take a tour of syndicated progressive talk shows which are available on the Internet. This week we will listen to a segment from New Internationalist Radio's "Pathways to Peace," featuring Kathy Black - a convener of the US Labor Against the War, who explains how military intelligence, fundamentalist religion, education, and the American psyche have helped build and maintain US war-mongering.


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15 May 2008 - The ACLU
On this week's Community Bridge we welcome Dan Winter, Executive Director, The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri.

In an age where fear has dominated national and international politics, the ACLU has stood against the Bush administration's efforts to curtail the rights and freedoms granted by the US Constitution to each person based on their humanity, fought efforts to allow domestic spying on US citizens and challenged the immorality of torture, secret tribunals, and extraditions. As such, they have been vilified by the Radical Right as unpatriotic, when in fact they are fighting to defend the very principles on which our nation was founded.

Mr Winter discusses the ACLU, its goals and projects. Topics include the Patriot Act, LGBT rights, reproductive rights and sex education, as well as other topics.


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1 May 2008 - The Rising Cost of Food
This week we take a local look at the rising cost of food. We begin with a short piece from New Internationalist Radio featuring Rachel Smolker from the Global Justice Ecology Project and author of a report called The Real Cost of Agrofuels: Food, Forest and the Climate. She gives a global assessment of the impact of pouring the world’s grain supplies into our cars’ gas tanks. Then we will tune in locally with Prof. Rhonda Jhanke, sustainable agriculture expert at K-State and author of a new book: Farming in the Dark: A Discussion about the Future of Sustainable Agriculture. Dr. Jhanke discusses the impact of agrofuels on Kansas farmland and the role subsidies play in support corporate agriculture.


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17 April 2008 - The work of the Wheels of Justice Campaign
During the first half of the show Mariya Vaughan and Shireen Roshanravan from K-State's Ordinary Women discuss the organization and the annual "Take Back the Night" march and rally.

The second half features a recorded interview with Kathy Kelley and Nora Barrows-Friedman from the Wheels of Justice campaign discussing the war in Iraq and the situation in the Palestine-Israel conflict.


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27 March 2008 - The War in Iraq at Year Five
This week's show opens with Chad Fitzloff from the K-State French Club discussing the up-coming French Film Festival. Then Prof. John Exdell (philosophy) and Prof. Robert Schaeffer (sociology) will explore the impact five years of War in Iraq, has had on our nation and what the price tag - $522 billion with another $70 billion allocated for 2008 on the war has meant to our economy. Every $1 billion spent by the government on education, healthcare, energy conservation and infrastructure creates between 50 and 100 percent more jobs than when that same amount is sent to Iraq. Is George Bush bankrupting our nation?


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13 March 2008 - Audubon of Kansas
David Westfall of K-State ONE opens the show with a discussion about their rally on March 25th. Then, Ron Klataske, Executive Director of Audubon of Kansas joins host Christopher Renner to discuss Audubon's activities and work for the environment. Topics include the reintroduction program of black-footed ferrets; bird populations and birding; impact of ethanol on the prairies and habitat; and, Audubon's efforts at establishing biding and nature trails in Kansas.


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28 February 2008 - Manhattan's Jewish Community
We open the show with a brief interview with Elise Young, Bread for the World’s Mid-Atlantic and Central campus organizer. Then we will learn about the history and activities of the Manhattan Jewish Congregation with guests Janis Clare Galitzer and Charlotte Edelman.


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21 February 2008 - The Kansas Health Policy Authority
Community Bridge looks at the Kansas Health Policy Authority with Barbara Langner, KHPA Director of Policy, along with Jeff Levine, who serves on KHPA's Purchaser Advisory Council, and other members of the KHPA structure, who will discuss the new agency and its role in providing health care to all Kansans.


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31 January 2008 - An discussion with Chris Hedges
Chris Hedge’s will discuss his 2007 book: American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, published by Free Press.

Hedges is a Nation Institute Senior Fellow and has spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He was part of The New York Times team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for the paper's coverage of global terrorism and received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. His next book, Collateral Damage, co-authored with Laila Al-Arian and published by Nation Books, came out in June 2008.


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