Governor Kate Brown and State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton defended Oregon’s marijuana industry in letters to US Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions has been hinting at a crackdown on states such as Oregon that have legalized pot in defiance of federal law, and in a letter to Brown had referenced a draft report from the Oregon State Police that concluded a significant amount of Oregon's marijuana was being diverted to other states. Both Brown and Hampton said the report was based on information collected before the state began regulating recreational marijuana and didn’t reflect the current situation. A new Oregon law requires tracking all pot grown for legal sale from seed to store, reducing diversion into illegal markets. The governors of Alaska and Washington also recently pushed back against the Trump administration and defended their efforts to regulate the marijuana industry.
It appears that former Sherriff Joe Arpaio [ar-PAY-oh] might be getting a pardon after all, letting him off the hook from the infamous racial profiling case. The Independent is reporting that President Trump’s staff has prepared the necessary paperwork, in addition to writing talking points intended for major news cable networks. Arpaio was accused of many crimes against ethnic communities, including detaining immigrants who had not committed any crimes. Arpaio would force these immigrants to sleep outside in a detention facility, during temperatures that could reach as high as one-hundred and twenty degrees, in addition to wearing pink underwear as a form of demarcation. Arpaio was also found to have systematically violated the rights of Latinos; all programs that a Federal Judge presiding over the case referred to as, quote, “ludicrous” and “crap”. Arpaio would have faced up to six months in prison for contempt of court, after his refusal to comply with orders to cease his unlawful detention programs. President Trump made a statement concerning this case after his speech Arizona, where he said Arpaio would, quote, “be ok”.
A Canadian town released a statement refusing to remove swastikas in a public park stating that they have QUOTE “historical significance.” END OF QUOTE. The town in question is Pointe-des-Cascades located in the province of Quebec. The statement comes after Mayor Gilles Santerre had police remove a man who was trying to paint over the swastikas that cover 2 anchors in the city park. Situated below the anchors, reads a plaque that identifies the artifact as a QUOTE “souvenir of Nazism.” END OF QUOTE. The plaque further reads that it was used in Europe at the end of the war and found in 1980. However on the town’s official website, Mayor Santerre states that the anchor predates World War Two and was uncovered by local divers 25 years ago. He also says that the village of Pointe-des-Cascades does not in any way endorse Nazism.
Transcription of Today's Evening News:
>>...Becca Staley, Julie Crosby, Hugh Gran, David Prude, Arrow Boone, Bestica Dars. Our camera crew John Randolf, Carren Meadows, Anna Osbeck, Ben Heale. I'm Amy Goodman, thanks so much for joining us.
>>You're listening to KBOO Portland.
>>KBOO Community Radio is a proud sponsor of Springtime Carnivore. Thursday, August 31st at McManemins Crystal Ballroom in Portland. Springtime Carnivore is a one-woman project led by Gredda Morgan that plays a fusion of sunshine pop, psychadelica and folk rock filtered through the lens of indie rock. Again, that's Springtime Carnivore. Thursday, August 31st at 8pm at McManemin's Crystal Ballroom. 1332 West Burnside Street in Portland. More information can be found at kboo.fm on the right side of the home page under Community Events.
>>Did you know that KBOO's daily Evening Newscast is produced by a team of volunteers right here in our Portland studios? If you've got some extra time, and would like to get free training in radio news production, come on down to the studio and get involved. You can learn interviewing, writing, editing and production skills. All for free. [unintelligible] in support of the environment. Call KBOO's volunteer coordinator Ani Haines at 503-231-8032 to get involved. That number again is 503-231-8032 to volunteer with KBOO Evening News.
>>It is 5pm and coming up next we have KBOO Evening News. This program has been made possible by KBOO members and support from Portland's Gay Directory. Providing a resource guide of openly gay friendly businesses, organizations and services since 1996. New smart phone app available for all iPhones and Androids. For more information, you can visit gaypdx.com.
>>And now your daily volunteer-produced community newscast, the KBOO Evening News.
>>Coming up on the KBOO Evening News, veterans of parasecretary Doctor David Shulchen discussed parking lot suicides at an address at Georgetown University.
>>A fish farm on Cyprus Island near the San Juans had several thousand fish escape and Washington State Fish and Wildlife officials are encouraging everyone to come and catch them.
>>And a Canadian town released a statement refusing to remove swastikas from a public park.
>>Good evening. This is the KBOO Evening News for Wednesday, August 23rd 2017. I'm Erin Jade Bernard.
>>And I'm Bryan Pritchett. KBOO news poet Dan Raphael wants to thank the eclipse.
>>For a couple of days we weren't talking about Trump or global politics. We were talking about how nature would affect us, not the other way around. We made plans, changed plans, had visitors, chuckled at the actions of others and media as usual tried to panic us predicting gridlock, gas shortages, system breakdown. On Monday, we were united in amazement. Moonstruck, whether in totality of Portland's 99.6%. Some deep primitive parts in us sense the strangeness, the sun going down at the wrong time and in the wrong place. We marveled through our safety glasses at the shrinking sun around inverted shadows that seemed to rise 3D from the streets, on the sides of buildings and ripples of illusions swirling around us as if even the air was transformed. Liberated. We'll remember that more than where were you when 9/11 or JFK. And now we return to August drought and smoke to our lacks of resources and opportunities to the daily joys of another smile and something yummy. Trying to not think of the darkness flooding out of Washington, our greedy would-be masters. We've put away our eclipse glasses and wish we couldn't see so much unfiltered. For Poetic Justice, this is Dan Raphael.
>>Governor Kate Brown and state police superintendent Travis Hampton defended Oregon's marijuana industry in letters to US attorney general Jeff Sessions. Sessions has been hinting at a crackdown on states such as Oregon that have legalized pot in defiance of federal law. And in a letter to Brown, had referenced a draft report from the Oregon State Police that included a significant amount of Oregon's marijuana was being diverted to other states. Both Brown and Hampton said that the draft report was invalid and contained incorrect data and conclusions. They said the report was based on information collected before the state began regulating recreational marijuana and didn't reflect the current situation. A new Oregon law requires tracking all pot grown for legal sale from seed to store, reducing diversion into illegal markets. The governors of Alaska and Washington also recently pushed back against the Trump administration and defended their efforts to regulate the marijuana industry.
>>Oregon state taxpayers will get a refund because of the Oregon kicker law but that refund no longer has the kick it used to have. When the state collects two percent more than was predicted two years ago because of income growth higher than expected, the kicker is triggered and the state must refund all the extra money. However, the state no longer issues kicker checks but instead saving the costs of processing and mailing those checks, credits the amount to your state income tax in the following tax year. The average credit is expected to be around two hundred and twenty-five dollars with the median credit being ninety dollars.
>>A fish farm on Cyprus Island near the San Juans had several thousand fish escape and Washington State Fish and Wildlife officials are encouraging everyone to come and catch them. The escaped fish are Atlantic salmon which could increase survival problems for native salmon through cross-breeding as well as by feeding on baby Pacific salmon. Fishing for the escapees is limited to areas currently open for catching Pacific salmon and trout, but there are no size or catch limits on the Atlantic salmon which are fine to eat. The Atlantic salmon have large black spots on their gill covers which native salmon and steelhead do not. More detailed information on identifying Atlantic salmon is on Washington Fish and Wildlife's website.
>>In the military community they call them parking lot suicides. The term refers to the decision of some military veterans to take their own lives on the grounds of Veterans Affair facilities. VA secretary Doctor David Shulchen noted the disturbing trend last week in an address at Georgetown University. Suicides at VA facilities are especially troubling. Shulchen could not identify any single cause but noted that veterans who've killed themselves on VA don't want their families to have to discover them. Other reasons in actual cases have included denial of treatment. Shulchen has made veteran suicide his top clinical priority. He stressed the need for the Department of Veterans Affairs to do more to curb veteran suicides, estimated at 20 each day nationwide. That is correct, 20 suicides by veterans every day. Senator Ron Wyden was in Portland this morning to join a seminar conducted by a group called 'Lines for Life'. This organizations runs a national veterans crisis line from a bank of phones in an office building on Southwest Macadam. Here's senator Widen speaking with Dwight Holten of Lines for Life on their ambassador program.
>>[audio recording]: This program in my view is the future of how we make sure we care for veterans, particularly older veterans in a compassionate way. As I asked my senses that opioid has hit Oregon like a wrecking ball. We saw statistics recently that we have a very high percentage of those individuals, older people and what the staff confirmed today is that they think a lot of those folk, older veterans often living in rural areas, they may have one or two chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes. And Lines for Life is clearly a program that is there for those older veterans when the alarm bell rings. And I'm proud to have been able to play a modest role in working with Dwight Holten and his team in giving Oregon a chance to be a national model. Particularly for caring for the older veteran. It means that not only are we going to be able to serve veterans here, and I was struck by some of the callers asking for example, uh a vet, 'has your son talked to you recently?' So it was clear that that was a vet who was lonely and the ambassador program basically lets us show that this is a model that others can pick up on. In other words, there are going to be an awful lot of veterans helped inside these walls and with the ambassador program, they're going to be able to be helped elsewhere.
>>[audio recording]: With the ambassador program we're going to be able to continue the work we do reaching veterans in crisis 24/7 365. Every day of the year. We are here every hour of the year. We are the day; we are here ready to serve vets. With the ambassador program, the Veterans Administration has chosen Lines for Life to be its primary partner to work with thereto veterans crisis centers to meet with and help people through phone, text or otherwise who are in crisis. Not just in Oregon but around the nation, and in fact around the globe. So we're really thrilled with the trust they've placed in us with the capacity we will be building here adding 26 call counselors, it means we'll be able to talk to thousands more people to help thousands more people to help thousands more vets.
>>[audio recording]: And it's important to note that uh, this recognition for Lines for Life didn't happen by osmosis. When the new head of the VA Doctor David Shulchen came to see me in the Spring, of course the administrations were changing, the Trump administration coming in. They didn't have all of the details on the wonderful work being done at Lines for Life and so we had a chance to be in effect a go-between between this program and a new administration and they were aware that my background has been working with healthcare. But make no mistake about it, this program convinced the new administration that they otta be able, through the ambassador program, to play a larger role and I see my job is to keep building on it. Particularly with innovative programs to take care of that older veteran who we all heard this morning is really the person who often falls between the cracks.
>>[audio recording]: There can be no doubt Senator Widen has a long-time champion for veterans and for veteran healthcare. His forceful and thoughtful help at the Veterans Administration explaining the needs of veteran’s health and the needs of veterans in crisis was essential to this ambassador center project. It was essential to the work we will be doing at Lines for Life to the-to our-adding our capacity to all the jobs who are coming to Oregon to help us meet the need of veterans in crisis.
>>That was Senator Ron Widen speaking about Lines for Life, a national hotline for veterans in crisis.
>>At a rally in Phoenix last night the president dished out more of the same vitriol and victimhood to a crowd of supporters. The main difference is from his campaign rallies last year where the current events he was reacting to and the way observers are reacting to him. One new trend observed by the Washington Post was the gradual lapse of attention from the audience, many of whom had waited for hours in one hundred plus degree heat only to have their water bottles confiscated at the door. This was also the president's first rally since his comments after the murder of Heather Hair by a white supremacist in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12th. He lashed out at quote, 'the media' for supposedly misrepresenting his multiple statements blaming quote, 'both sides' for the violence. The president did make a statement calling out white supremacist groups by name, but it was widely seen as insincere and as much it was sandwiched in between statements blaming counter-protestors and downplaying the seriousness of white supremacist gatherings. Indeed, he doubled-down on blaming both sides of the rally in Phoenix last night. Among other statements the President also threatened to allow a government shutdown if Congress does not set aside funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border. He issued barely-veiled putdowns of Arizona's two Republican senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake for voting against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
>>The President still enjoys the support of about 20 to 25% of the populous. The rest of the nation though seems being increasingly against him, and last night's rally did not help. Today, seven members of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council resigned in protest of the administration. The council is part of the Department of Homeland Security and advises the President on the safety and security of the nation's transportation and energy infrastructure. In a collective resignation letter, the former council members wrote quote, 'the moral infrastructure of our nation is the foundation on which the physical infrastructure is built, the administration's actions undermine that foundation.' On the streets of Phoenix, thousands showed up last night to protest the rally, which itself was attended by around fifteen thousand supporters of the President. While there aren't any notable viol-was not any notable violence outside during the rally, tensions escalated towards the end. Police say that some protestors threw bottles and rocks at officers while others claimed the protestors threw gas canisters, though nobody outside the Phoenix PD has confirmed this. Police responded with tear gas, flash-bang grenades, pepper spray and pepper balls, similar to the weaponry used on the June 4th protest to clear anti-fascist protestors out of Chapman's Square in downtown Portland. Four protestors were arrested.
>>It appears that former Sheriff Joe Arpaio might be getting a pardon after all. Letting him off the hook from the infamous racial profiling case. The independent is reporting that President Trump's staff has prepared the necessary paperwork in addition to writing talking points intended for major news cable networks. Arpaio was accused of many crimes against ethnic communities including detaining immigrants who had not committed and crimes. Arpaio would force these immigrants to sleep outside in a detention facility during temperatures that could reach as high as one hundred and twenty degrees. In addition to wearing pink underwear as a form of demarcation. Arpaio was also found to have systematically violated the rights of Latinos. All programs that a federal judge presenting over the case referred to as quote, 'ludicrous and crap'. Arpaio would have faced up to six months in prison for contempt of court after his refusal to comply with orders, to cease his unlawful detention programs. President Trump made a statement concerning this case after his speech in Arizona in which he said Arpaio would quote, 'be okay'.
>>Now, here's the National Native News from our colleagues at Native Voice One.
>>This is National Native News. I'm Antonia Gonzalez. Indigenous people were among crowds outside the Phoenix Convention Center Tuesday protesting President Trump's visit to Arizona. Nolan Tyke was with the group included people from different tribes. She says they gathered together to show opposition of the Trump administration and advocate for indigenous issues.
>>[audio recording]: We come in unity because we feel that these political leaders in this country right now are not right for the people. And we as indigenous people are the first that should be uhm, having our voice heard. And uh, we're here in spiritual prayers and as one people for non-violent, but to come together for unity and to make sure that this country goes in good hands for the future of our generation.
>>Tyke was there representing the Apache Stronghold, a group which works to protect sacred sites, including Oak Flat, from development.
>>[audio recording]: This leader right now that's here in our country, he will not protect our future generations and that's where I want my voice to be heard.
>>Some native people in the state are also concerned with the ending Indian mascots and logos and oppose the administration’s plan to build a wall on the US-Mexico border. Shara Thomas is with the group 'Arizona Stands' which helped organize the march.
>>[audio recording]: There are certain rides in dignity that are currently being denied and that especially goes back to our traditional plan. There's a lot of issues in Arizona regarding land and some of these things are impacted directly by the policies of the administration and also by certain executive orders that being groomed over our head as some kind of weird threat.
>>Meanwhile, inside the convention center, Trump rallied supporters and commented on a number of areas including the enforcement of immigration laws. Border issues and blasted journalists calling the press, 'dishonest'. The company which built the Dakota Access Pipeline filed suit against Greenpeace and other environmental groups Tuesday. Alleging they disseminated false information and interfered with construction. Reporter Bree Ripley has more.
>>Texas based energy transfer partners alleges that the group's actions opposing the pipeline interfered with business, incited violence, and facilitated crimes and acts of terrorism. The company says activists targeted financial institutions that backed the project and violated racketeering and defamation laws. The pipeline was delayed for months due to illegal wrangling and on-the-ground protests by tribes and groups that fear environmental harm. The lawsuit filed in federal court in North Dakota seeks damages that could approach one billion dollars. Greenpeace attorney Tom Wederwere said in the recorded statement that the lawsuit is meritless and alleges this is the second consecutive year that President Trump's attorneys have singled out the organization. Energy transfer partners is represented by Kasowitz Benson Torrez LLP, a law firm who's managing partner, Mark Kasowitz is President Donald Trump's long-time personal attorney.
>>[audio recording]: It's yet another classic, strategic lawsuit against public participation or a slap.
>>A slap intended to censor groups of people by hampering their efforts or well, Wederwer refers to as 'Greenpeace's legitimate advocacy work'. With expensive and time consuming litigation.
>>[audio recording]: What this has become was a pattern of harassment by corporate bullies with Trump's attorneys leading the way.
>>The twelve hundred-mile pipeline began moving North Dakota oil through South Dakota and Iowa. To a distribution point in Illinois in June 1st. For National Native News, I'm Bree Ripley in Billings, Montana.
>>The Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma is hosting a series of legal classes in the next weeks and in September for class members in the Indian Trust Cobell settlement. The clinics will assist Chickasaw citizens and other Native Americans with information and deadlines for payment in November. The historic lawsuit settles individual claims in the billions over the mis-management of Indian trust by the US government. I'm Antonia Gonzalez.
>>And now we hear the latest in worker related news from our friends at Workers Independent News.
>>You're listening to W.I.N., Workers Independent News. A diversified media enterprises production. I'm Doug Cunningham.
>>The class struggle in Venezuela between workers and the poor on one side and the oligarchy right wing on the other is being reported by corporate media as a struggle between dictatorship and democracy. But three New York City area trade unionists who visited Venezuela during the constituant assembly elections say, 'you should believe that dictatorship versus democracy media narrative.' Astela Vasquez is executive vice president of 1199 SEIU Healthcare Workers East.
>>[audio recording]: You cannot rely on CNN or any of the other international communication or papers like the New York Times or the Washington Post because they're only refecting the story of the ruling class as the oligarchy of this country that wants to perserve their interest.
>>When Hugo Chavez was elected president in 1998 he launched reforms that significantly improved the lives of working and poor Venezuelans. The oligarchy, the 1 percent-ers resented and were threatened by the reforms so they began working hard to destabilize Venezuela, to destroy those reforms. They a 2002 coup but it failed. Judie Gonzalez is on our end and president of the New York State Nurses Association. She says healthcare is free in Venezuela, even complex heart surgery is free. And she says, 'far from dictatorship the constituant assembly elections were peaceful and open democratic elections.' The violent episodes she said against these elections were, 'were coming from the right wing oligarchy.'
>>[audio recording]: The violence was being committed by the right wing, by the wealthy classes and people that they were either paying or influencing in a particular way to commit these acts of violence. Some of which were horrendous and uh, the purpose was to terrorize into not voting. I there serious problems in the country right now but these problems are fermented by a right wing, a wealthy that's not happy with the changes that are necessary and needed to create a better quality of life.
>>J.P. Patafio is with the Transit Workers Union Local 100 in New York. He toured Caraca's Venezuela with the Venezuelan Transport Workers Union. What he saw were workers determined to control their own fates and tangible evidence of Hugo Chavez's efforts to invest in housing for the homeless and public and infrastructure for the people.
>>[audio recording]: I saw 30 apartment buildings that he built for people to live in. And the guy estimated at least a million people were given homes that did not have a home. And these are new buildings. I saw huge investments in infrastructure that cost pennies for people to travel from one part of the city to the other. Brand new you know? And uh, I saw workers doing their thing and they were ready. And I think they're ready to take on the challenge.
>>Let's get America working. We must build, mantain and repair our nation's crumbling infrastructure. Teamsters supported by a partisan approach to creating good jobs for American workers. Learn more at letsgetamericaworking.com. Teamsters' strong, America's stronger.
>>You've been listening to W.I.N., Workers Independent News. For more information, visit workersindependentnews.com.
>>Now let's look at this day in Labor History.
>>I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History [inaudible].
>>This day in Labor History, the year was 1900. That was the day that folk singer, Malvina Reynolds, was born to a Jewish family in San Francisco. Her parents were socialists and operated a tailors shop. Malvina learned the price of speaking out for what you believe in at a young age. Her parents opposed U.S. entry into World War One. Because of this, Malvina's high school would not issue her a diploma. She was able to still go to college at Burkley where she eventually earned her PhD. She married carpenter and labor organizer William Bud Reynolds. She became a prolific folk singer, playing around the Los Angeles area. During the 1960s, she wrote about songs supporting civil rights and labor rights. Her song 'Free Enterprise' offers the lyrics, 'the air you breathe is poison, the food you eat is worse, the dollars in your paycheck are pennies in your purse. There's nothing free about it, you pay it every turn, except the guys in Wall Street who have the stuff to burn. They had to make new brain machines to count their profits rise, but since there's always room for more, they can still make their profits soar. A little war does wonders for free enterprise.' Perhaps her most well-known is 'Little Boxes'. The song was inspired by driving by hillside houses in Daily City, California. It talks about the conformation of middle class suburbia.
'...they are putting in boxes.'
'And they come out all the same.'
'And the boys go into business
and marry and raise a family in boxes
made of ticky-tacky and they all look just the same.'
>>Like whatcha hear? Check out more at laborhistory[inaudible].com
'..and the blue one and the yellow one
and they're all made out of ticky-tacky
and they all look just the same.'
>>You are listening to the KBOO Evening News. Stay tuned after this newscast for News from the Boo at-[cut off?]. And then at 6 it's the Underground, followed at 7 by Hard Knock Radio News and Views from a Hip-Hop Perspective. Tonight's weather is a low 61 with a slight chance of showers. Tomorrow's high expected to be 75. Today in history, in 1970, Lou Reed played his last concert with the Velvet Underground. Our recording of the concert live at Max's Kansas City was released in 1972. Quote of the day is also from Lou Reed, 'There's a bit of magic in everything, and a little loss to even things out.'
>>The President's reponse to white supremacist violence in Chartesville has been met with wide-spread criticism, including several protest rallies around the United States and many cancellations for charity events at his Mar Largo resort. And now it appears that the Jewish community is adding their own voice. It's an annual that the top ravis in the United States organized and hold an annual conference called with the President before the Jewish high holidays. This tradition was upheld each year that President Barack Obama was in office but now these ravis are stating that they will not be organizing this event at all citing Trump's late lackluster and seemingly bigottive response. A joined statement issued by the ravis said quote, 'we've concluded that the president's statements after the tragic events of Charlottesville are so lacking in moral leadership and empathy for the victims of racial and religious hatred, that we cannot organize such a call this year.' The ravis went on to state that the fault for the death of Heather Hayes lies squarely on the shoulders of the Nazis, the alt-right and white supremacists saying quote, 'they must be roundly condemned at all events.'
>>Earlier today the Navy announced that Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin has been dismissed from his position as Commander of the 7th fleet. Aucoin was relieved by Admiral Scoutswift, Commander of the US Pacific fleet due to quote, 'a loss of confidence in his ability to command'. Rear Admiral Phil Sawyer will take over in assuming command of the 7th fleet based in Yokosuka, Japan. The commander's removal comes after a series of ship collisions in the Pacific Arena. There have been four accidents involving US Navy ships so far this year. The most recent on Monday involving the U.S.S. John, S. McCain and a Liberian tanker off the coast of Singapore. Ten sailors were reported to be missing. Since the accident remains of some of the missing sailors have been found. The White House released a statement on Tuesday stating quote, 'as the Navy begins the process of recovering our fallen sailors, our thoughts and prayers go out to their families and friends.' The Department of Defense will conduct a thorough and complete investigation of the incident. The Naval forces have since announced that officials are investigating how factors of training, manning and other internal operations may have had a role in the collisions.
>>Four associates of the Bundy clan got good news yesterday in their second trial after their first trial resulted in a hung jury. These trials arose from a 2014 standoff in Nevada between armed militia and federal agents attempting to round up cattle belonging to Cliven Bundy. Steven Stewart and Ricky Lovelane were aquited of all ten charges they faced while the cases against Scott Drexler and Eric Parker resulted in mis-trials because the jury could not reach unanimous decisions. Ammon and Ryan Bundy, who led the takeover of the Malheur Wildlife Preserve in eastern Oregon were scheduled for trial in late September with their father Climon Bundy, but that date may now change.
>>And now, here's the latest in drug laws and regulation with the 420 Drug War News.
>>It's the 420 Drug War News. Eric Sterling, the director of Criminal Justice Policy Foundation was my guest on last week's Cultural Baggage program.
>>[audio recording]: Oh Eric, I-I wanna uh, interject the thought that it is in California or certainly in Oakland where they are making arrangements for those who were previously arrested and incarcerated for marijuana sales or growth to actually become part of that industry. Which is a step in that direction right?
>>[audio recording]: I think that's a very positive corrective step. Uhm, it seems absurd to me to say that people who worked in the-you know who are selling drugs illegally now can't get involved in this industry when it's legal. Uhm, as long as they follow the rules in this new industry, they have a passion for it. Uhm, they shouldn't be disqualified because they have a drug conviction in my opinion.
>>[audio recording]: No I would agree. There's uh, I don't know, a similar scenario up in Canada where all of the people who helped change the laws, helped change perspectives uh, and so far as cannabis are now being denied the ability to participate in the industry. It's uh, it's just not right.
>>[audio recording]: Well many states you know have drug law-have uh, cannabis laws right? In [unintelligible] and the medical cannabis laws forbids people that have a felony drug conviction from working in the legal, medical cannabis industry in Mariland.
>>[audio recording]: Uh, I don't understand the logic, but again there's not much logic in uh, drug war laws in the first place. Uhm, well, Eric I know you have worked with the US Congress. Uh, Congressman Peter Rodino was that it? The year was '86 about, was it sir?
>>[audio recording]: So in '86, in 1986, uhm, a Mariland gas[inaudiable] that was very, very well-known inside the beltway. [unintelligible sentence] who won the Energy Age Championship. Uhm, and the night that he signed the [unintellible] he came back home and he was partying and he died from a cocaine seizure in his dormatory in University of Maryland. This really shocked the country and it shocked members of Congress and the speaker of the house who was from Boston, Tip O'neill figured out that perhaps the Democrats could take advantage of the drug issue instead of the Republicans. This huge democratic inspired drug-goers put together. [unintelligible sentence] so I started-I was drafted into these meetings and I was involved in writing the-what became the variance for this mandatory minimum drug sentences in 1986.
>>Toon in tomorrow to hear the rest of this thought from Eric Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. I am Dean Becker. drugtruth.net.
>>Now here's today's edition of Climate Connections.
>>I'm Doctor Anthony Leiserwitz and this is Climate Connections.
>>Wake up and smell the climate change. A new study shows that American sleep less on unusually warm nights. And we're seeing more of them as the climate warms. Nick Obradovich is with the Science Technology and Public Policy program at the Harvard Kennedy school. He began researching the topic after experiencing a few of his own rough nights.
>>[audio recording]: There was a heat wave when I was living in San Diego and finishing up my PhD, and it was the hottest October that San Diego had ever experienced. The nighttime temperatures were particularly warm and so I had a lot of time lying in bed not being able to sleep very well.
>>It inspired him to study the potential links between climate change, nighttime temperature and sleep. He and his team combed through a decade's worth of sleep surveys and weather data from across the US. They found that abnormally high temperatures match up with reports of a bad night's sleep. Elderly and low income communities are the most effected.
>>[audio recording]: This is just one study among many, many studies that is starting to uncover the degree to which humans are effected by the climate and the degree to which we are very likely to be effected that climate changing in the future.
>>How's that for a wake-up call?
>>Climate Connections is produced by the Yale Center for Environmental Communication. Learn more at yaleclimateconnections.org.
>>Now we'll hear some of the latest edition of the Green News Report.
>>Across the US Midwest farmers are blaming widespread crop damage to millions of acres of farmland on a new version of an old pesticide.
>>Mon Santo pesticide approved by seeker process is decimating crops. Trump disbands federal advisory committee on climate change. Court lets Exon off the hook for Arkansas pipeline spill that destroyed a neighborhood. Plus, a National Park Service ends the ban on plastic disposable water bottles.
>>Because of course they do, all of those stories and more straight ahead. From bradblog.com, I'm Brad Freedman.
>>And I'm Desse Dowian.
>>Standby for 6 minutes of Independent Green News. Politics, analyses and snarky comment.
>>Water's examination has found that the crisis has its roots weak [unintelligible] oversight and corporate secrecy.
>>Because they all do. This is your Green News Report.
>>Okay Desse Dowian there has been much talk about Donald Trump and his various business advisory groups disbanding. Well now, he has disbanded a climate advisory group but they're not going away that easily.
>>[laugh] No they are definitely not. And just days after President Donald Trump rescinded a federal requirement that infrastructure be built with sea level rise projections in mind. Now the administration has disbanded a federal advisory committee on climate change that makes concrete recommendations for long-term planning on a wide range of issues from building codes, to water infrastructure, to road projects to even managing energy supplies.
>>So the people who would've told him, 'hey it's a bad idea to not require federal infrastructure to be able to withstand flooding', Donald Trump just got rid of those people.
>>Yes, it was supposed to help communities plan ahead for the impacts of global warming, but in an interview with the Washington Post, the committee's chairman, University of Mariland geology professor, Richard Moss said the group intends to finish their report anyway saying quote, 'we're going to be running huge risks here and possibly end up hurting the next generation's economic prospects.'
>>So good for them, they're not going away that easy.
>>No they're not. Meanwhile, Midwest farmers have asked the EPA to investigation serious crop damage that the farmers say was caused by a new formulation of an old pesticide, Dicamba that drifted onto fields with crops unable to withstand it. An investigation by reuters has now found that the manufacturer of Dicamba, biochemical giant Monsanto, blocked independent testing during the approval process. Monsanto explicitly prohibited university researchers from testing the new formulations tendency to vaporize and drift across to other fields. The Obama administration EPA approved it anyway according to reuters.
>>[audio recording]: Monsanto provided its own study of the advanced weed-killing chemical to the EPA which determined that based on the information it had, the product was safe to use.
>>The EPA simply took Monsanto's word for it?
>>Yes, that's how pesticides pretty much get approved in the United States.
>>And that's how our federal government worked before Donald Trump came in to do away with the quote on quote, 'regulators'.
>>Also the Trump National Park Service has ended a ban on the sale of plastic disposable water bottles in the nation's national parks. After aggressive law being by the bottled water industry. The ban was instituted in 2011 after park service data showed discarded plastic bottles were the biggest source of litter in the nation's parks killing animals that mistook the plastic pieces for food and straining the National Park Service's already inadequate budget to clean it up. Despite data showing that the ban reduced the burden and cost of plastic bottle pollution, the bottled water industry got the final say.
>>They always do!
>>In Arkansas, the fifth circuit Court of Appeals has let Exon Mobile off the hook in the 2013 pipeline spill in Mayflower, Arkansas that ruined an entire residential neighborhood. The court overturned nearly all of a two and a half million dollar fine imposed by the US Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration for failing to adequate monitor the seventy year-old pipeline. Exon argued in court that the pipeline spill wasn't its fault because the regulations didn't specifically warn them that they needed to more closely monitor that type of old pipeline. The court agreed with Exon, in other words, if you lobby to weaken regulations and then there's a problem, you can blame the weak regulations for not stopping you.
>>Wow.
>>And a new report calculates that overall, fines for pollutors in general with the Trump administration have dropped 60% under its first 6 months. That's compared to the same period of time for previous presidents, according to a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project. An environmental watchdog non-profit group.
>>Incredible. Game the regulators and then blame the regulators. They gotcha coming and going don't they?
>>They certainly do.
>>For much more on all of these stories and the ones we couldn't get to today, and there are a lot of them, check out our website at greennews.bradblog.com. Don't forget you can download our reports anytime via stitcher, tunein, or itunes. Find us, follow us and share us worldwide on the Facebooks and the Twitters @GreenNewsReport. I'm Brad Freedman.
>>And I'm Desse Dowian.
>>And this has been your Green News Report.
>>A Canadian town released a statement refusing to remove swastikas in a public park stating that they have quote, 'historical significance.' The town in question is Pointe-des-Cascades located in the province of Quebec. The statement comes after mayor Gilles Santerre had police a man who was trying to paint over the swastikas that covered two anchors in the city park. Situated below the anchors reads a plaque that identifies the artifacts as a 'souvenir of Nazism'. The plaque further reads that it was used in Europe at the end of the war and found in 1980. However, on the town's official website, Mayor Santerre states that the anchor 'predates World War Two' and was unocovered by local divers 25 years ago. He also says that the village of Pointe-des-Cascades does not in any way endorse Nazism.
>>You are listening to the KBOO Evening News. This is a volunteer produced newscast and we encourage your participation. Call us with your Breaking News stories at 503-231-8032. Our production for tonight's newscast is Kunsel Dolma, Sam Bowman and Dan Raphael. The producer is Kyle Kerezsi. Our engineer is David Kester, the KBOO Evening News and public affairs director is Zeloszelos Marchandt. A podcast of this newscast is available on our website at kboo.fm/eveningnews. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter @kboonews. You're listening to KBOO Portland on 90.7 FM, K282BH Philomouth on 104.3 FM. And K220HR Hood River on 91.9 FM. I'm Erin Jade Bernard.
>>And I'm Brian Pritchett. Stay tuned immediately after this newscast for News from the Boo coming up in just a few seconds. At 6 o'clock we'll have the Underground with KBOO's Youth Collective, and at 7 o'clock it'll be Hard Knock Radio. Have a great evening.
>>And now it's time from News from the Boo. The weekly segment from people inside of and around KBOO. With news from your community radio station.
>>Hello and welcome to News from the Boo. Your weekly update about what is happening in and around KBOO. I'm Delphine Criscenzo, and today I'm super happy to be joined by one of our volunteers, Colan Stevens. And we're going to learn about uh, Colan's involvement with KBOO and also about a radio station he just got it in his backyard. Hi Colan, welcome to News from the Boo!
>>Hello, it's nice to be here on this afternoon. Uhm, yeah.
>>Start by telling us maybe a little bit about you and how you became involved with KBOO.
>>Okay. So, let's see. About a while ago I was thinking about you know, joining KBOO and I was like, 'hey, I should do this.' And the problem was-is I went into junior year of high school and if anybody out there is listening and they're you know, if you're junior in high school a few years ago, just take everything from that year and you know, make it a little more uhm, complex. They've definitely changed a lot of things and it puts a lot more like, stress on people and in that way I literally had no time for about 9 months to do anything. So I had to set it aside and when I went to the Blues Festival in July and I saw the booth I'm like, 'oh yeah, I was supposed to maybe volunteer'. So I ended up going to the orientation meeting and you know, literally the next day I was helping out which is great because it is important to you know, volunteer for what you believe in regardless of your lifestyle and at the time I had problems with time management, so. It's definitely better now with being a senior, a lot of the stuff is now out of the way.
>>Yeah. That's cool. So why radio? What is it about radio that attracted you? You say like, the Blues Festival, you'd heard about KBOO before. Like what is it that motivated you to want to learn this medium?
>>Hmm. I think wha-I'm on the school newspaper at Cleveland High School which is The Clarion and I-I took a journalism class freshman year and I found the medium interesting just ni newspaper alone, not to mention you know, journalism as a whole. And I thought you know, 'this is kinda fun, I enjoy this' and I enjoyed writing commentaries about technology and drawing art and images and being an editor now, I mean I take a great stride on being an editor I'm very gracious that I even have the posibility of being an editor for a newspaper, especially one school newspapers are definitely a thing that is not in very many high schools anymore. And I always been-ever since I was a kid I was always interested with technology and any sort of like, electronic stuff and I remember you know, taking things apart that I shouldn't have when I was a kid. Like, old radios and stuff and looking inside of them and old keyboards and I'm like, 'wow, how does this work?' And over time it kinda got settled into more like, areas instead-more instead of just general stuff I started getting interested in the older things cause there was so much more variety and style in them. And I ended up uhm, finding this special place for like, old telephone equipment and old like, radio equipment and I always found it very cool to transmit any sort of thing miles away. And everybody takes this stuff for granted it's actually really neat from the perspective of knowing how it works. And over the years I started picking up old like, radios and telephones at yard sales since I started collecting them and you know. I don't know if that's good or bad considering my room looks like it's from 1969 now. But, it's alright. And uhm, so I-over the years I've kinda gained this opinion on radio in the Portland area where there really isn't much that partains to me. You know, everybody's different in a way. But I always found that a few radio sta-
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