New Links

Hi everyone,

Please note the new header tab above with the words “Protest Links”.  If you go there, you’ll find links to the following sites:

Blade Runner

In case you missed it, Diane Rehm just revealed that her favorite movie is Blade Runner.

I thought that was important to share.

10/16/07 Congressional Representatives

Today at noon we are talking with 1/2 of Maryland’s representation in the House.  We’ll hear from Chris Van Hollen, Elijah Cummings, Wayne Gilchrist, and John Sarbanes.  Topics?  Iraq, SCHIP, Iran, veterans issues, and whatever you choose to bring to the table!

-Jessica

cute kitten, as promised

Not long ago, I mentioned there would be some forthcoming pictures of a cute kitten.  We had BARCS on, and they brought this great puppy, and hopefully it inspired some people to do something nice for an animal, like maybe adopt one from the shelter.  We got this kitten from our neighbors, who obviously didn’t have their cat fixed.  Maybe they’re pro-life.

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And now, a serious question, which picture is the cutest?  Cast your vote here.

-Justin

Feet

A challenge for our listeners.  If anyone can figure out why the following search terms are sending people to our blog, I will send you a free copy of any show you like.

According to the blog stats that our blog provider shows us, people have typed the following phrases into search engines and then surfed to our blog.

Feet (today)

Girl feet (yesterday)

Feet girls (two days ago)

Girl foot love (two days ago)

  I think I just figured out why this is occuring.  But I keep the challenge open!

-Jessica

America’s Approval Rating

Let me recommend the website www.watchingamerica.com once again.  It’s a great website that translates into English articles about the United States from all over the world.

 I found a recent article from a Swiss paper of interest.  It’s called Can America ‘Find Love’ Again?  It’s basically advice from a Swiss columnist on how America could improve its popularity around the world.  A recent Pew Poll that talked to 45,000 people in 46 countries found that this is how people feel about us:

image borrowed from www.watchingamerica.com

Yikes. What do you think of that?  I’m sort of surprised that people on Venezuela are so split.  We seem to be pretty popular in Africa; must be all those aid dollars?

How important is it that other countries have a favorable impression of the United States?  Does it matter?  Should we try and improve it?  How could we improve it?

Poll: Is it important for America to have a positive approval rating?

We don’t have a show planned on this topic, but I’d just be interested to hear what you have to say.

-Jessica

A chance to meet an author about to be on the show!

 

I made a post below asking our female audience to submit their financial questions for Manisha Thakor and Sharon Kedar, authors of the book On My Own Two Feet: A Modern Girls Guide to Personal Finance.  We are doing a pre-recorded interview with them this afternoon, and I am happy to say that lots of you submitted questions. 

You have a great opportunity to go meet one of the authors, Sharon Kedar, MBA, CFA tonight at the Light Street Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library at 6:30.  She will be speaking and copies of the book are available for purchase and signing.  Call 410.396.1096 for more information.

-Jessica

“‘Ready to Blog’”

A week and a half ago when Jessica told us she had our long-awaited blog up and running, I thought, “Great, I’m ready to blog.”  Then I kept forgetting to get on it, as it’s not part of the daily routine, yet.

Today, I took a look at this page for the first time since it went up.  I had no idea Jessica had been so busy blogging away in the next room.  Good work.

I’m curious to know what listeners would like to see here.  Obviously, it seems like a good place to continue discussions that begin on the show.  We could do the same in reverse, as well, that is, start a discussion here that will continue on an upcoming show.  Thoughts about the BGE rate hike?  We’ll be discussing it again at noon on Wednesday; get us your ideas ahead of time right here.

Other ideas?  Predictions for The Ravens upcoming season?  Funny youtube videos?  Stories about our engineer Jon Ehrens?  I promised him I’d mention him on the blog.

Back to work,

-Justin

United Workers Association

This morning, our News Department did a report on the efforts of the United Workers Association to organize day laborers who are employed by temp agencies to be cleaners at Camden Yards.  

Those temp agencies are hired by a company called Knight Facilities Management that is based in Michigan.  KFM was hired by the Maryland Stadium Authority to handle all staffing of cleaning crew at Camden Yards.

The United Workers Association argues that the Maryland Stadium Authority is using public money to create poverty level jobs while ensuring the profits of two private temp agencies. They also have directed many of their organizing efforts at trying to reform the temp agency system itself.

Just Words has been reporting on the human toll of this issue since December.  We began with a three part series about a stadium cleaner named Jaquetta Lyles that you can listen to here, here, and here.  Then, in March, for a special report on The Marc Steiner Show, we spoke with the owner of one of the temp agencies, a worker, and an organizer for a special report we aired when Tom Perez, the Secretary of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation came for an interview. You can listen to that report here.

 This particular issue really is just a small part of the larger issue of temp agencies and whether they need to undergo extensive reform and government regulation.   I hope you find these reports interesting.

-Jessica Phillips