Sprouts is a weekly collaborative program that showcases local stories produced by community radio stations and grassroots media groups around the world. The program is coordinated and distributed by Pacifica Radio and offered free to all radio stations.

Theme music:  Torpedoes on Tuesday by Poison Control Center

Sprouts

Last week Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed into law a bill that was fast tracked by the GOP dominated legislature. This law will place restrictions on absentee ballots, early voting, and time for voting on election day.

This new Iowa law is at the forefront of a national trend of GOP backed bills. The Washington Post has reported that at least 250 new voter restriction laws have been proposed in 43 states across the country.

This wave of action by the GOP follows in the wake of false claims purported by former President Donald Trump - that the 2020 election was stolen. Many experts say the laws will make it harder for people to vote. The GOP says the laws are about election integrity. Democrats say the laws are about voter suppression.

This is the first part of a two-part series on voting laws with the first being a focus on Iowa, and the second, on Georgia.

Photo by Dwight Burdette
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:I_Voted_Sticker.JPG

Pacifica Radio Network-Sprouts

03.17.21 / A National Push for Voting Restriction: Spotlight on Iowa

Hunger and homelessness plague America's veterans, President Biden is set to sign the infrastructure bill Monday, and Florida's governor considers legal action over migrant flights.

11.11.21 / Hunger and Homelessness Plague America's Veterans

Biden says he'll fight for the filibuster; McConnell seeks an eighth term; and Fauci fires back at GOP senators.

01.12.22 / Biden Says He'll Fight for the Filibuster

Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was resoundingly boo'ed at a Somali singer's concert on July 2nd in Minneapolis, and media outlets are still abuzz about it. 

Many Somali American residents of Congresswoman Omar’s district feel she has pursued an aggressive interventionist policy in Somalia and helped to engineer the defeat of their hugely popular president Mohammed Abdullahi Mohammed, aka Farmaajo.

Ilhan Omar Booed Onstage in Minneapolis

Marcelline Nduwamungu, from the Women's International Network for Democracy and Peace, on how Paul Kagame is Behind M23 Terror in East Congo.

Taylor Report

Kagame must withdraw his M-23 gang from Congo

Taylor Report Facebook

UK nurses go on strike, African refugees accuse Europe of racist immigration policies, and Steven Were Omamo, former World Food Program Director in Ethiopia, reports that the Tigray famine story was a false, politicized narrative during the Ethiopian civil war.

KPFK Non-NATO News

Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza prize for peace and democracy goes to John Williams Ntwali(journalist, deceased) and Kambale Musavuli, who has exposed the crimes of M-23 in East Congo.

Victoire Ingabire Prize for Peace and Democracy

Pacifica reporter and host Ann Garrison spoke to Michelle Witte of Sputnik Radio's "Political Misfits" about the US in Somalia, the drought and famine narrative, and South Africa's dilemma regarding Putin's visit for the BRICS conference while under indictment by the ICC.

Sputnik's "Political Misfits" on the US in Somalia and the Horn, and South Africa's ICC dilemma

Scholar, author, and activist Dr. Cornel West recently announced his 2024 presidential campaign. He discussed his platform and decision to be a candidate for the Green Party nomination.

Cornel West Discusses His Presidential Campaign

Black Agenda Report co-founder Glen Ford transitioned on July 28, 2021. This week I’m reporting from Caracas, Venezuela where I’m part of an International Peoples Tribunal on US Imperialism and fact finding mission which will hold a hearing on the issue of US economic coercive measures, commonly known as sanctions, which have been waged against Venezuela by the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations. In honor of Glen’s memory, I will read from a 2019 article he wrote when Donald Trump began his maximum pressure campaign against Venezuela. He titled this piece, “The Racist, Imperialist War Against Venezuela.”

Glen Ford on the U.S. War Against Venezuela

Despite warnings, the Toronto Eritrean Festival was attacked by thugs.

Police came late, did little, and the media jump all over the victims. 

Eritrean events were attacked by the same organization in US, Germany, and Sweden. 

In Toronto the police decision to cancel the rest of the festival, which has been a traditional and popular even for more that 20 years, has handed the attackers a victory on a platter. Be aware, the neo-colonialists have blood in their eyes.

Attack on Eritrean Festival was a classic pogrom

Encore Presentation

Before becoming Mayor of her hometown of Viroqua, Wisconsin in 2018, Karen Mischel spent 17 years in the Merchant Marines followed by her current occupation as an organic farm inspector.

Mischel shares:

- Lessons learned in communication from working on the ship;
- The challenges of managing a rural community with new and old residents;
- Why hard conversations are important and non-violent communication is the key in her community;
- Her work on banning herbicide spraying on public places in Viroqua and on leased public agricultural land;
- Her focus on prioritizing clean water, healthy soil, organic farming, and community health;
- Why educating people in the community should be a political responsibility. 

Photo by Marco Verch
https://foto.wuestenigel.com/earth-on-fertile-soil-saving-environment-earth-day-conservation-world-concept/

Pacifica Radio Network - Sprouts

04.10.24 / Why Hard Conversations are Important and Making a Stand for Healthy Soil

Women tell a new story about money.

The women of An Economy of Our Own ask a simple question: What would happen if the free and low-paid labor provided by women were actually measured in our economy?

Photo of Rickey Gard Diamond, author of Screwnomics, used with her permission.

04.17.24 / An Economy of Our Own

As Monday, April 22nd, marked the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover, Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley called for the National Guard to be sent to Columbia University.

This was in response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the Columbia campus as well as other campuses around the country, protesting Israel's bombing of Gaza.

Protests on college campuses have a long history in the U.S. As we approach May 4th, the anniversary of the infamous Kent State killings in 1970, when the National Guard was brought in to quell protests on a college campus, we bring you a re-broadcast of Lawrence Reichard's Sprouts show, Kent State Remembered.

CC Photograph of Kent State shootings 
https://nara.getarchive.net/media/photograph-of-campus-scene-during-shootings-at-kent-state-university-24cde4

04.24.24 / Kent State Remembered

What are the factors to consider when young transgender people want to medically transition?

These questions are posed in a climate of uproar about bathrooms and locker rooms and investigations into parents who provide medical care to their trans kids.

There's a lot of misinformation out there about exactly what medical care is for trans kids, so we consider transgender youth who want to start medical transition at a relatively early age.

Of course, parents often worry that their children may be too young to know what they really want and that medical transition may include surgery and other medical treatments that can be difficult or impossible to undo.

To answer some of these questions, OutCaster Lauren talks with Dr. John Steever, a physician, and Dr. Matthew Oransky, a psychologist. Both doctors work at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and help young transgender people with transitioning.

Photo / Ted Eytan / Capital TransPride Washington / flickr / photo is cropped 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/taedc/34635190032/

Pacifica Network - Sprouts

05.01.24 / Medical Transition for Trans Youth - part 1

Each year, hundreds of thousands of adults over the age of 60 are abused, neglected, or financially exploited. This mistreatment is elder abuse and can have serious physical and emotional effects on older adults.

Host Cheryl Beversdorf talks with Michela Monday, LCSW, and Omotayo Daniels, LICSW, LCSW, Human Services Clinicians, Adult Protective Services, Arlington Department of Human Services, about examples of abuse, neglect, and exploitation among older adults and the role of Adult Protective Services in helping victims.

Produced and hosted by Cheryl Beversdorf.  Editing by Steve Lack.

Photo by Gerd Altmann / Pixabay /
https://pixabay.com/photos/woman-old-retirement-home-dementia-65675/

05.08.24 / Elder Abuse - part 1

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03.17.21 / A National Push for Voting Restriction: Spotlight on Iowa

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