KUCI: Digging Out

Esteemed and Essential Workers

This January 3, 2022 edition, is the final edition of “Digging Out.” This program was launched in October 2020, to offer means for getting us past the general election November 3, 2020. Then we needed to get past 1/6/21. So much debris to clear from what were the last 4 hours, 4 days, 4 weeks, 4 years, 4 centuries. The most vast piles were heaped over several millennia. This program closes out appropriately with the last guest, Terri Gerstein, director of the State and Local Enforcement Project at the Harvard Law School Labor and Worklife Program and a senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute. She writes, researches, and advocates about the “powerful connection between work life and broader public welfare.” The leaping off point is the editorial she penned in the New York Times: "Other People's Rotten Jobs Are Bad For Them. And Bad for You," https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/06/opinion/labor-workers-rights.html. Another article also raised in the interview is penned by Heather Rust: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/12/nurse-shortage-labor-crisis-health-care-workers-hospital-corporations.
Music credits: The Comet is Coming, “New Age,” Channel The Spirits album; Nadine Sierra performs Villa-Lobos’, “Cantilena,” from Bacianas Brasileiras No. 5 W.389, A Place for Us – album.

Personal Safety Roundtable with Three Public Women

Especially selected for this program are three guests whom are serving locally: Huntington Beach Councilwoman Rhonda Bolton, Garden Grove City Mayor Pro-tem Kimberly Nguyen, and UCI Professor and announced candidate for Irvine City Council Kathleen Treseder. They take up the Congressional censure of the AZ Republican Congressional member responsible for his grim gestures threatening Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. His name is not mentioned so as not to further amplify this individual's hazards that he continues to represent and perpetuate. These three women were chose given the the particular challenges which they have been contending with in their professional lives.
Music credits: The Comet is Coming, “New Age,” Channel The Spirits - album; jaimie branch, “theme 001,” FLY or DIE LIVE – album.

OC Board of Supervisors Draws Our Lines AND Sunrise Irvine Speaks Truth to OC Power Authority

In the first segment Orange County Supervisor for the Second District, Katrina Foley, offers important details about the Orange County Board of Supervisors' redistricting process underway, in advance of the OC Board of Supervisor hearing on these maps today 11/22 at 1 p.m. All districts, including the one into which Irvine would be drawn, are affected in this mapping exercise. https://cob.ocgov.com/2021-redistricting.
In the second segment (minute 32:07), UCI Earth System Science undergraduate student Dinorah Hernandez will speak for the local Sunrise activists who will rally at the Irvine City Hall 11/23 meeting about how the Orange County Power Authority figures into the energy mix in the Climate Action municipal projects. More information is available by contacting Contact Kyler Chin 949 469 9476 or kyler@sunriseoc.org.
Music credits: The Comet is Coming, “New Age,” Channel The Spirits album; Bill Beasley, "Three Finger Snap, Letter To Herbie – album; Benjamin Clementine, “The People and I,” At Least for Now – album.

Hanging on the Broadband

Ernesto Falcon, Senior Legislative Counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, brings critical tools during the U.S. Senate confirmation of Federal Communications Commission interim Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to become the permanent chair. This process comes with a deadline soon upon us- January 3rd. Mr. Falcon's work focusing on: intellectual property, open Internet issues, broadband access, and competition policy offers a button-down appraisal of how the US squares with other countries in 2021, and how the nominee could bring the country up to speed. It’s not just you who’s saddled with poor internet at inordinately high fees; we are all feeling it.
Music credits: The Comet is Coming, "New Age," Channel the Spirits - album; Blondie, "Hanging on the Telephone," The Best of Blondie - album.

The Haitian Squeeze Play Continues

Jennifer Lee Koh, law professor at Pepperdine's Caruso School of Law, and formerly at U. C. Irvine, brings nuance to the hazzards plaguing Haitians fleeing one hazard after another. Her contributions at: https://www.law.uci.edu/news/videos/law-policy-series-immigration.html offer additional insight with her UCI Law School colleagues last June, about how institutions are and are not performing.
Music credits: The Comet is Coming, “New Age,” Channel The Spirits - album; Shirlee Skai, "Ou Manke'm," Toutouni - album.

Building Grass Roots Works With Infrastructure Money

Andrea León Grossmann, Climate Action director of AZUL, builds a grassroots manual for the newly engaged activists, resuming activists. She uses current developments, and breaking news; the federal infrastructure reconciliation package, state and local laws and appointments.
Music credits: The Comet is Coming, “New Age,” Channel The Spirits album; Hermanos Guitérrez, “Esperanza”- album.

Israeli Palestinian Confederation Waves The White Flag

Josef Avesar, founder of the Israeli Palestinian Confederation, which advocates for a mutual third government for Israelis and Palestinians, offers nuance which is in short supply in the Arab Israeli conflict. He has been building simulations of the confederation process, with an impressive roster of commentators, in IPC’s virtual meetings this fall. Listeners are welcome to view previous recordings as well as partake in live demonstrations. During this interview Mr. Avesar takes stock of the contributions of the late Ruth Shapin who helped build this process. Submissions for the Ruth Shapin Essay Competition are due 8/30/21. More details about this and the ambitious simulation roster are available at: https://ipconfederation.org.
Music credits: The Comet is Coming, “New Age,” Channel The Spirits album; and Horace Silver, “Peace,” Blowin’ The Blues Away – album.

O C Board of Supervisors; Partying Like It’s 1899.

Norberto Santana, founding publisher and editor in Chief of the Voice of OC trains his penetrating and seasoned journalistic eye on the Orange County Board of Supervisors. With billions of public money being spent, and not being spent, transparency is the watch word and civic engagement is the remedy. The next Board of Supervisor public meeting is this Tuesday, July 27th.
Music credits: The Comet is Coming, “New Age,” Channel The Spirits album; Shabaka and the Ancestors, “Behold the Deceiver” We Are Sent Here by History - album.

”Ordinary Days” as Wayward and All Artists Return

Acclaimed director, performer, and educator Brooke Aston brings “Ordinary Days,” a musical by Adam Gwon, in a filmed-staged production at a special outdoor, drive-in venue in Tustin 7-24 at 8 pm. This is the sign of life as The Wayward Artists return to life, honk honk. Brooke also posts us on how artists are resuming their creative work as the pandemic dims ever so slowly.
Music credits: The Comet is Coming, “New Age,” Channel The Spirits album; The Wayward Artist production “Ordinary Days.”

Pause or Post Voting Rights - Part One

Ion Sancho, after a 38 year career in supervising elections in Leon County, (Tallahassee) and around FL, has the long view of the health of our republic. Mounting suppression and subversion measures from state legislatures and the courts challenge the citizenry to hold the democracy together. The extended portion of this interview is available in Part 2.
Music credits: The Comet is Coming, “New Age,” Channel The Spirits - album.