Mar. 24 - Repealing the Death Penalty in Kansas
Community Bridge opens with an interview featuring Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ. Prejean's work on death row was showcased in her book, Death Man Walking and the film of the same title. Her second book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, tells the story of two innocent men she accompanied to their deaths. Then we hear some commentary on what's been happening in the Kansas legislature from the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty and close out with two syndicated clips: Chris Hayes's program, The Breakdown, takes on corporate personhood and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting’s CounterSpin takes on the issue of taxes with Chuck Collins of US Uncut.
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Mar. 17 - The State of Media in Kansas
Community Bridges takes up the issue of the media in Kansas by exploring the media landscape, the conservative bias in reporting, consolidation of media ownership, lack of diversity on opinion pages of newspapers, and the role of new media (blogs, e-newspapers, online radio) in informing the public debate and challenging what corporate media isn't telling Kansans. Guests include: Michael Caddell, host of Radio Free Kansas and the blog Fightin’ Cock Flyer; R. J. Dickens, host of the long-running talk show "The River City Forum" on KCTU-TV Wichita and Acting Executive Director of the American Low-Power Television Association; Jim Herrman, a data base consultant and co-chair of the Kansas Progressive Caucus of the Kansas Democratic Party; and veteran journalist Carl Williams, a media consultant for a non-profit organization with responsibilities that include producing video training programs.
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Mar. 10 - City Commission Candidate Rich Jankovich
Community Bridge opens this week with Rich Jankovich, candidate for the Manhattan City Commission. In the second half of our first hour we hear from Naomi Klein on the union busting efforts that are taking place across the US and the frontal attach on our democracy by corporate-owned state governors. MP3 File
Mar. 10 - International Women's Day
Following this week's Media Minutes, we turn our attention to International Women's Day and it's centennial celebration. Host Christopher E. Renner provides some historical background before we hear a clip from Democracy Now! featuring Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Amy Goodman, and Kavita Ramdas. Then Renner takes on Kris Koback's racist anti-immigration legislation before we close out with some commentary from Jim Hightower addressing the on-going protests in Wisconsin.
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March 3 - An Interview with Tim Wise
This week's Community Bridge opens with Ruth Douglas Miller giving an overview of the next Science Cafe that will take place on Tuesday, March 8th at 7:00 pm at Radina's. Then we hear a previously-recorded interview Christopher Renner conducted with Tim Wise when he was at K-State earlier in February. Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and educators in the United States. Recently named one of “25 Visionaries Who are Changing Your World,” by Utne Reader.
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Mar. 3 - City Commission Candidates
In our second hour, we welcome Phil Anderson and Stan Hoerman, candidates for Manhattan City Council, for a discussion of their qualifications and to respond to questions submitted by Community Bridge listeners. We talk about taxpayer dollars going to the Chamber of Commerce, rental inspections, separation of church and state, and much more. Rich Jankovich will join us on March 10th at 5:00 for a similar interview. At this time John Matta and Wynn Butler have not responded to my invitation to be on Community Bridge.
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Podcast Special - Kansas Rallies to Save the American Dream
On Saturday February 27th, approximately 1500 Kansans joined with hundreds of thousands of others across the United States to protest the war on the middle class that is being waged by the Republican Party and their corporate billionaire backers.
Joining with voices echoing the need to return government to the people, working class Kansans from teachers to correctional officers spoke out against the extremism of Sam Brownback and the Koch Brothers. We hear from Aaron Fowler of Wichita, a member of the American Federation of Musicians union, who emceed the rally. Then, Teresa Molina, a Wichita teacher, Greg Winfield a correctional office at the Lansing State Prison, followed by Jane Carter, executive director of the Kansas Organization of State Employees, Emilio Ramirez of the United Steel Workers; Rep. Paul Davis, House Democratic Leader, and Senator Anthony Hensley concludes. Then we hear from a couple of people in the audience, Tracee Collins, Sen. Marci Francisco of Lawrence, and Janice Norlin of Salina.
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Feb. 24 - National Spay Day
We open this week with commentary by Christopher Renner on HR 2260 and other legislation being worked in the Kansas House. Then we hear from Law and Disorder Radio, for a discussion of a new report from Political Research Associates that exposes an influential anti-Islam and anti-Muslim segment of the counter-terrorism training Industry. Since September 11, 2001, the “war on terror” has give rise to private companies that offer training by so-called “experts” on Islam and terrorism. These experts label Islam as a terrorist religion, routinely branding Muslims as vengeful and duplicitous people who oppress Westerners. For more information, visit PRA at: http://www.publiceye.org/islamophobia/cincotta-2010/index.html. We close out our first hour with Lynn Schumacher and Gary Sears from the T. Russell Reitz Animal Shelter. National Spay/Neuter Day is celebrated the last Tuesday of February each year. The Humane Society of the United States reports that four million cats and dogs - about one every eight seconds - are euthanized in animal shelters in the U.S. each year. We explore what people can do to help reduce this number as well as other services the shelter offers to Manhattan and Riley County.
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Feb. 24 - Anti-immigration Legislation in the KS House
In our second hour, we take up the issue of anti-immigrant legislation in the Kansas House. This week the House voted to repeal in-state tuition for Kansas high school graduates who are undocumented. This law provides in-state tuition for some 400 Kansans who in many cases have only known our state as their home. Now Kris Kobach and his xenophobic supporters are trying to deny these Kansas graduates their right to a university education. In addition, Kobach is trying to make Kansas a second Arizona by introducing in the Kansas House a Kansas version of AZ SB 1070 that legalizes racial profiling and denying "suspected" undocumented immigrants basic services. Lalo Muñoz, director of the Latino Information Network of Kansas, Alaide Vilchis, a 2008 graduate of the University of Kansas who benefited from the in-state tuition law, and Angie Williams, immigration lawyer and an expert on Kobach's draconian laws, will join us by telephone for a discussion of the legislation being proposed.
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Feb. 17 - Sesquicentennial Tour
Community Bridge opens this week with Richard Pitts, executive director of Wonder Workshop, discussing the upcoming Sesquicentennial tour of underground railroad sites around Manhattan. Then we hear The Breakdown with Chris Hayes discussing the federal budget and the excessive money spent on the military complex and asks why, in all the wailing and mashing of teeth about the need to cut the federal deficit, this isn’t being the first place to look for cuts. Finally, Christopher Renner takes up Kansas House Bill 2260, the “Religious Preservation Act” that allows people to discriminate against homosexuals based on religious ideology but also other the door for people to do all sorts of things, forced marriages, female circumcision, and possibly even the stoning of those guilt of adultery and murdering doctors who provide abortions, if those acts are done based of religious conviction.
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Feb. 17 - Mountain Top Removal
In our second hour we hear from Washburn University instructor Kellis Bayless on the environmental destruction cause by mountain top removal coal mining and what our coal addiction is costing us. Mountaintop removal/valley fill coal mining (MTR) has been called strip mining on steroids. One author says the process should be more accurately named: mountain range removal. Mountaintop removal /valley fill mining annihilates ecosystems, transforming some of the most biologically diverse temperate forests in the world into biologically barren moonscapes.
Resources:
ILoveMountains.org - Local, state, and regional organizations across Appalachia are working together to end mountaintop removal and create a prosperous future for the region. Through ILoveMountains.org, members of the Alliance for Appalachia have come together to use cutting edge technology to inform and involve Americans in their efforts to save mountain and communities.
Mountain Justice - Mountain Justice seeks to add to the growing anti-MTR citizens movement. Specifically Mountain Justice demands an abolition of MTR, steep slope strip mining and all other forms of surface mining for coal. We work to protect the cultural and natural heritage of the Appalachia coal fields. We work to contribute with grassroots organizing, public education, nonviolent civil disobedience and other forms of citizen action.
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Feb. 10 - Kobach's Boondoggle Vote ID Law
Community Bridge opens this week with a look at the "Voter ID" legislation nativist extremist Kris Kobach wants to force on Kansas. Inspired by "race laws" of a by-gone era, Kobach has thrown the sound bite of "voter fraud" around to cover up his xenophobic fears of brown and black people. In ten years, there have been 80 incidents which could be labeled "voter fraud." Just to give some perspective, Kansas has 1.7 million registered voters. That means there is a .00004 percent chance of a register voter being fraudulent. More people are misdiagnosed in hospitals in a month (research reports 155 misdiagnosed cases per 1,000 hospitalized patients) than there are cases of voter fraud in Kansas in 10 years. Now it looks like Kobach's xenophobic fears are going to cost Kansas tax payers over a million dollars, when the state doesn't have money to take care of it current commitments. So why is the legislature even considering this law? We hear from Ernestine Kriehbel, League of Women Voters of Kansas, and Kari Ann Rinker, Kansas National Organization of Women representatives of the Kansas Voter Coalition who discuss the proposed law, the testimony that was delivered on February 9th against it, what Kansans can do to oppose this effort to limit who can vote in our state, and a discussion of Kobach and his links to white supremacist groups.
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Feb. 10 - Robert Scheer on the Great America Stickup
In our second hour we take up the issue of the 2088 economic crisis with veteran journalist and author, Robert Scheer in a discussion of his recent book: The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street.
In "The Great American Stickup," Scheer begins with Ronald Reagan' s obsession with the radical deregulation of financial markets and it glorification under the Clinton administration to Obama' s reform efforts that oddly enough, rely on Clinton cronies to clean up and profit from the mess they made. Scheer proves that, when it comes to the ruling sway of money power, Democrats and Republicans are no different. He provides readers with the characters who set up the American economy for its own demise - Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, Alan Greenspan, while at the same time telling us about those who sounded the alarm and underscoring the foreseeable results of putting Wall Street in the driver' s seat. Scheer demonstrates how a economy once designed to help Americans become members of the middle class was turned into a global casino - a confoundingly enormous and esoteric system of gambling on new financial products worth hundreds of trillions of dollars. By the time the house of cards began collapsing in 2007, only Wall Street understood what it had created while its government partners remained clueless and the American people were taken to the cleaners.
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Feb. 3 - A Conversation with Roger Hodge
On this week's Community Bridge we first hear about Sigma Xi's Science Cafes with Mike Herman and Sam Wisely. Wisely will speak on Tuesday February 8th at 7:00 pm at Radina's. Then Roger D. Hodge joins us my telephone to discuss his book: "The Mendacity of Hope: Barack Obama and the Betrayal of American Liberalism." Hodge enumerates the failings of the Obama presidency - the prison in Guantanamo Bay is still open, extraordinary rendition continues, the government invokes state secrets to thwart investigations of torture continue as do two wars that the Democratic base wanted an end to, Americans personal communications are routinely tapped by the FBI and freedom of speech continues to be curtailed. With a cataloging of his major donors, an assiduous review of his actions before and during his presidency and a foray into early American history, Hodge builds a case that Obama has betrayed his liberal base.
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Frb. 3 - Funding Kansas Schools
In our second hour, Mark Desetti, Kansas NEA, Kathy Cook, Kansas Families for Education, and Mark Tallman, Kansas Association of School Boards join us by telephone for a discussion of public education under the Brownback administration, what is happening in the legislature regarding the state budget, and what it means for local schools and the possibility that your property taxes will be once again going up as the state fails to meet the funding needs of our school system.
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January 27 - The Watchman's Rattle
Community Bridge opens this week with a live interview of author and sociobiologist Rebecca Costa in a discussion of her thought-provoking new book: The Watchman's Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction.
Community Bridge opens this week with a live interview of author and sociobiologist Rebecca Costa in a discussion of her thought-provoking new book: The Watchman's Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction.
The Watchman's Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction, connects the dots between crime, oil prices, Wall Street, global warming, nuclear waste and childhood violence. Costa reveals the four telltale patterns which paralyze innovative thinking, and with it, a civilization's ability to solve complex problems. Using both historic and modern day examples, The Watchman's Rattle describes what happens when complexity races ahead of the brain's ability to manage it, the underlying reason why experts and governments can no longer fix global crisis and conflict.
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January 27 - Engaging the Muslim World
For our second hour we will broadcast Carolyn Benton Cockefair Chair in Continuing Education lecture given by Juan Cole on Nov. 15, 2010, at the University of Missouri - Kansas City entitled “Engaging the Muslim World."
Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. For three decades, he has sought to put the relationship of the West and the Muslim world in historical context. His most recent book is Engaging the Muslim World (Palgrave Macmillan, March, 2009). As a commentator on Middle Eastern affairs, he has appeared in print and on television, and testified before the United States Senate. He has published several peer-reviewed books on the modern Middle East and is a translator of both Arabic and Persian. Since 2002, he has written a weblog, Informed Comment.
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Jan. 20 - The Sunflower Energy Soap Opera
Community Bridge begins a new season with an old topic - the Sunflower Energy power plant slated for construction in Holcomb. Blocked numerous times and opposed by a majority of Kansans, Gov. Parkinson’s parting gift to Sunflower was a construction permit, after it had previously been denied. Scott Allegrucci, Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy, and Stephanie Cole, Sierra Club of Kansas, join us for a discussion of recent developments including the firing of KDHE Secretary Bremby, the issuing of a permit for Sunflower, and the Sierra Club’s lawsuit against it.Community Bridge apologies for the sound quality of this recording, we had some technical difficulties.
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Jan. 20 Pt 2 - Cutting Funding for the Arts in Kansas
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is proposing to phase out state tax funding for the arts and that the Kansas Arts Commission become a privately funded nonprofit organization. If these budget cuts are approved, Kansas will be the ONLY state in the country without a State funded arts agency. Llewellyn Crain, Executive Director of the Kansas Arts Commission, and Penny Senften, director of the Manhattan Arts Center join host Christopher Renner in studio to discuss Sam Brownback's proposal to defund the arts in Kansas.
Join the fight to save the arts by joining the Facebook group “Keep Funding for Kansas Arts!” at http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=100725473337844.
We close out by rebroadcasting an interview with Wendel Potter, author of Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans, conducted by The Nation magazine. Potter explains how insurance companies are manipulating the conversation surrounding healthcare legislation. We hear the first half of The Nation's interview with Potter. To hear the complete interview (one hour in length) click here.
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