Speak Up! Speak Out!

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Dave, jim, Ginny

A half hour weekly radio show committed to community, peace, justice, and non-violence issues.

The show aires on Community Radio stations:
KSVR 91.7 FM (Skagit Valley College) Wednesdays 5:00 PM PT, rebroadcast Sundays 8:00 PM PT
KSVU 90.1 FM, Hamilton, Sundays 8:00 PM and Thursdays 8:00 AM PT
KMRE 102.3 FM, Bellingham, Sundays 11:00 AM and Wednesdays 7:30 AM PT
KAOS 89.3 FM, Olympia, Thursdays 5:30 PM PT

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Skagit COVID-19 and MV Farmers Market update - August 5, 2020

This week on Speak Up! Speak Out! host jim justice opens by speaking with Skagit County Communications Coordinator, Laura Gelwick to provide an update on COVID-19 in Skagit. Much has changed in our local world and beyond since we last reported. When we last reported, the county was on the verge of moving to Stage 3, but some black men, in particular, were killed around the country and protests occurred. Skagit County COVID updates via http://www.skagitcounty.net/coronavirus. Part 2 of SUSO this week host Dave McConnell talks with Tia Entrikin, the Mount Vernon Farmers Market director, about what it had to do to open this spring and how it has evolved since it opened in mid-May.

https://mountvernonfarmersmarket.org

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Ranked Choice Voting - July 8, 2020

Ranked Choice Voting with Lisa Ayrault, Director of FairVote Washington, Mohit Nair, and Kit Muehlman. This presentation was by the Fidalgo Democrats via Zoom on June 9. Lisa has been the director of the Washington State chapter for 2 years. Some people may see this as a threat to the current system in Washington State, but it has been used in San Francisco, CA since 2004 with 85-90% positive approval ratings. It seems to increase choices as demonstrated by Minneapolis where women & men of color are running and Rank Choice Voting has seemed to assist them. Listen in to hear how it works. The second link shows where it is in use.

FairVote website
https://www.fairvote.org
https://www.fairvote.org/where_is_ranked_choice_voting_used

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Update on DACA - July 1, 2020

This week we join Jorge Baron, the Executive Director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (nwirp.org) in Seattle, as he and Malou Chavez, Deputy Director provide an update on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) status after the recent Supreme Court ruling. Due to COVID-19, it was an online session and hence there are some audio discrepancies.

President Trump attempted to terminate the DACA program in the Fall of 2017, but was taken to court on that attempt. From the date of his proposed termination, new applications were NOT accepted, but those who already had DACA were allowed to continue to renew their status every two years. On June 18, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the DACA program, rejecting the Trump administration's 2017 attempt to terminate the program. This decision restores the program completely, and both initial and renewal applications should be accepted by USCIS. However, per the NWIRP update, it is NOT recommended for new people to apply as it is uncertain what will happen in the near future. Jorge Baron also commented on the fact that USCIS - the government department that oversees these applications - is running short on funding due to money being used by the President elsewhere ..."border security fencing" perhaps. There is a bill from Congress that was introduced and passed in the house in 2019 to update & replace DACA with - HR 6 - American Dream and Promise Act. It would need to be re-introduced for it to go forward, but likely won't be until after the November election, therefore it likely will not be introduced until January of 2021, hoping to move forward in 2021. Another resource mentioned was http://www.waisn.org (Washington Immigrant Soidarity Network). Do check out their website.

The Skagit Immigrant Rights Council - http://skagitirc.org - has some updates on the home page with links for renewing DACA & DACA loans for recipients in Skagit and Whatcom. There is also a Know Your Right presentation posted. There is more detail listed under the information link. The site is in both English and Spanish.

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Addressing Healthy Food - June 24, 2020

Katherine Pryor, children's author and food advocate, talks about writing children's books addressing good food, working with hospitals and other institutions advocating the value of sustainable and healthy food.

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MV Oasis Teen Center - June 17, 2020

New SUSO host, Andrea Doll, speaks with Justin Krupa, the director of the Oasis Teen Center. Justin explains the purpose and hoped for future of the Oasis Teen Center in Mount Vernon. The teen center was established several years ago to provide overnight housing & meals for homeless youth. It eventually came under the auspices of the Skagit YMCA.

This show was recorded prior to the closure of SVC due to COVID-19. KSVR studios were closed so this show was recently located virtually. It may be a bit outdated for that reason. There is a group which has recently taken on the tasks of updating furnishings, painting, and otherwise updating the building per a recent SVHerald article. We are not sure what services are currently being offered or how.

https://www.skagitymca.org/ymca-oasis

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Contact us or subscribe to our news letter: susoenews@gmail.com