Downeast

Saturday, Feb 11, 2023     12:00 PM to 1:30 PM

LWV-Downeast: League Meeting

MOORE COMMUNITY CENTER, 125 State St, Ellsworth

Featuring Susan Lessard, Bucksport Town Manager, talking about the importance and practical experience of comprehensive planning.

Zoom participation also available.

Friday, Feb 17, 2023     4:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Democracy Forum — Small-state Bias in the Federal Government: Is This Democracy?

"Today the voting power of a citizen in Wyoming, the smallest state in terms of population, is about 67 times that of a citizen in the largest state of California, and the disparities among the states are only increasing." –Eric Orts, law professor


WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill
Streaming at weru.org.

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2023     5:00 PM to 6:30 PM

Downeast Book Group

Hosted On Zoom

Join us for our monthly book group -- Uniting America (How FDR and Henry Stimson Brought Democrats and Republicans together to win World War ll) by Peter Shinkle.

Friday, Mar 17, 2023     4:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Democracy Forum

Featuring topics in participatory democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics.


WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill
Streaming at weru.org.

The Democracy Forum

Beginning in 2004 and every four years since, the League of Women Voters - Downeast in cooperation with WERU FM has produced and sponsored a series of radio programs on topics in participatory democracy called the Democracy Forum.

Beginning in 2017, just because there's so much to talk about, we continued the conversations for the first time into a non-election year, and we've been doing it every since.

In September, 2018, the Democracy Forum won top honors from the Maine Association of Broadcasting for public affairs radio.

Broadcasts may be heard from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. on the third Friday of the month. Listen live at WERU Community Radio, 89.9 FM, streaming on the web at WERU.org.

Here is information about current programs. Programs from the 2016, 2012, and 2008 archives are also available online.

We welcome volunteers who are interested in planning and producing the programs. This great project has taught us so much and made friends of our colleagues. For more information, contact us at downeast@lwvme.org

Reflections on Local Journalism from Earl Brechlin

Earl Brechlin was our guest for the LWV-Downeast meeting on July 9, 2002, at the Moore Center in Ellsworth. Earl first spoke to the League about 20 years ago about the state of local journalism. It was pretty eye-opening way back then. We invited him back this year to revisit the topic and reflect on the status of local reporting and local newspapers. Earl is former editor of the Mount Desert Islander, which he co-founded with The Ellsworth American publisher, Alan Baker.  Earl's journalism career began as a reporter for the Bar Harbor Times. Now retired, Earl's distinguished lifetime contribution to local journalism will be honored in October when he will be inducted into the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame. Click here to listen to the interview.

Conspiracy Theories in American Politics with Jamie McKown

Jamie McKown was our guest for the LWV-Downeast meeting on November 12, 2022. Jamie is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and James Russell Wiggins Chair in Government and Polity at COA. He has an long-standing interest in conspiracy theories in American politics, and he'll reflect on how these have shaped our civil discourse in the past and in this particularly fraught moment post-election 2022. Click here to listen to the interview.

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