Equal Time with Anthony Pollina, Carl Etnier, & Traven

September 6, 2010: Labor Day Edition

The Labor Day theme show combines a reprise of an interview relevant to labor movements' work for greater equality and a new interview about ways to save energy and money commuting to work.

Kate Pickett is co-author of The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger, and the book asks, Which is more important for a strong society--high overall levels of wealth, or equal distribution of wealth? The authors argue that more equal countries and US states have greater longevity, fewer homicides, more trust, and other better outcomes, but average wealth doesn't matter much. The interview is edited from her appearance on the show on February 1, 2010.

Ross MacDonald, manager of the Go Vermont carpool and vanpool service for the Agency of Transportation, talks about the many tools they have to help people find a carpool or vanpool partner.

Carl Etnier hosts.

Donny Osman discusses why he's running for Washington County State Senate, and what he means by fighting for the things that matter most to Washington County’s working families, meeting Vermont’s challenges in this Great Recession

300 workers at the Methuen, Mass. Shaw’s Warehouse were forced out on strike since March 7th to protect their families' affordable health care. We hear from a striker as workers and community Members are on a 5 day, 60 mile march to the Massachusetts state house to call for justice.

Vermont State Labor Council Acting President, Jill Charbonneau, and Political Director, Dennis Labounty, give labor’s balance sheet of this legislative session: cuts to unemployment benefits, the cost of the Douglas Administration's refusal to consider a project labor agreement for the Champlain bridge, and moving healthcare reform forward.

April 5, 2010

Corrections cost Vermont 10% of the state general fund budget, and Vermont has one of the highest incarceration rates in a nation that imprisons a higher proportion of people than the Soviet Union did under the gulag system. The legislature is looking at reducing these costs with less incarceration for non-violent offenders. How do our drug laws contribute to high incarceration costs? What would happen if we legalized drugs and then taxed and regulated them? We also consider S.292, the bill working through the legislature to release many nonviolent offenders.

Guests: Tom Powell, who for 18 years was clinical director at the Department of Corrections, and Thom Lauzon, mayor of Barre.

Carl Etnier hosts.

Peak Oil Check-In: Legalize Marijuana As The Economy Shrinks .

March 22, 2010 [UPDATED to remove commercials 20100406]

Mischul Brownstone of Charlotte, Vermont practices an unusual form of body work that he says takes care of individual health and the community simultaneously. He is a guild-certified practitioner of the Feldenkreis method of body work, and he has developed his own "language of touch." He can be contacted at 802-425-3355 or mischul@accessvt.com.

Carl Etnier hosts.

Peak Oil Check-In: 2045: A Story of Our Future

Mike Morelli, Iron Workers Local 7, sets the facts straight about a project labor agreement and the Champlain Bridge.
Darren Allen, Vermont-National Education Association, explores why Vermonters invest in our local public schools, recognizing the importance of hiring the best to teach our children, so that Vermont’s students achieve at high levels.
Jen Henry, President of United Professions-AFT, announces a new contract for 300 Technical Professionals at Fletcher Allen; and explains her union's work to Ban Mandatory Overtime, for a Whistleblower Protection law for health care workers, their continuing work in Haiti, why they support quality, affordable health care for all, investing in higher education, and ensuring quality early education for our children by organizing child care providers and early educators to form a union.

Dr. Andrew Coates of Physicians for a National Health Program explains that the administration has saddled us with an expensive package of onerous individual mandates, new taxes on workers’ health plans, countless sweetheart deals with the insurers and Big Pharma, and a perpetuation of the fragmented, dysfunctional, and unsustainable system that is taking a heavy toll on our health and economy today. Whatever salutary measures are contained in this bill, e.g. additional funding for community health centers, could have been enacted on a stand-alone basis. Vermont healthcare activists say that Vermont must lead the way.

March 15, 2010
Architect and environmentalist Peter Seidel has written a modern Rip Van Winkle novel, 2045: A Story of Our Future. The main character is a Wisconsin lumberyard owner who has a bad reaction to a flu shot in 2010 and goes into suspended animation until 2045. He wakes up to a very different world--one that we may arrive in after 35 more years of climate chaos, population growth, pollution, and increasingly corporate power.

Carl Etnier hosts.

Peak Oil Check-In: 40% of US Electricity From Wind by 2030?

Anja Rudiger, Human Right to Health Program Director of the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative/National Health Law Program & David Kreindler of the Vermont Workers Center articulate a human rights approach to protecting health and ensuring access to adequate health care for all people in the United States. Human rights offer a framework for promoting health policies rooted in a commitment to prioritizing the well-being of people over profits.