Between The Lines - Michael Bagdes-Canning: Community Pulls Together to Offer Clean Water to Families Affected by Natural Gas Fracking Pollution (Week Ending Oct. 3, 2014)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Subscribe to Counterpoint bulletins via our subscriptions page.

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Pennsylvania Groups Mobilize to Stop Fracking Near Schools

Posted Sept. 24, 2014

Interview with Michael Bagdes-Canning, a member of Marcellus Outreach Butler, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

$fracking$

Pennsylvania is “Ground Zero” for the fracking boom in the Marcellus Shale region, which extends from parts of New York state through the Appalachian mountains into Virginia. In western Pennsylvania, drillers are especially interested in what's called "wet" gas, which can be broken down into its component parts of mainly methane, but also produces other petroleum products which can be sold separately.

A group called Marcellus Outreach Butler is opposed to any fracking in Butler County, an area of Pennsylvania's green rolling hills and bucolic countryside two hours from Pittsburgh that is now criss-crossed with fracking infrastructure. They have provided organizing support to a group called Protect Our Children, which includes parent organizations in Pennsylvania and several other states that is calling for a one-mile buffer between school properties and all drilling operations. The Mars Parent Group, a member of Protect Our Children, is demanding a two-mile buffer zone and has succeeded thus far in preventing drilling operations at schools in their district. However several school districts in other parts of Pennsylvania have already leased their property to gas companies that are doing subsurface drilling and considering building pipelines across school property.

Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus visited Butler County in early September and spoke with parents and members of Marcellus Outreach Butler, including Michael Bagdes-Canning. Here he describes the work being done by Protect Our Children and the danger of fracking near schools.

MICHAEL BAGDES-CANNING: Protect Our Children is a coalition of many, many groups working to keep drilling away from schools. It's something I think that a lot of people can agree on. Some people may think drilling is all right in certain places, but not next to schools. The reason MOB is involved is we think that once people see that drilling near schools is not good for their children, they might start thinking that drilling near anybody's children isn't a good thing, and may come to the realization that we need to stop this thing before it hurts anyone, not just their own children.

BETWEEN THE LINES: You know, the industry says it's safe and it's been declared safe, I guess, by the state authorities who are in charge of these things. So what do you think could happen if children were exposed to drilling operations close to their schools?

MICHAEL BAGDES-CANNING: It's not what we think could happen, it's what we know happens. I mean, there's particulate matter, there's all kinds of stuff that's released at the sites of some of this drilling infrastructure – at the well pads, the compressor stations, at processing plants. These things are released, and those kind of things make breathing difficult for them. We don't have any actual cases where it actually happened, but we know, for example, in Greene County, Pennsylvania, last spring I think it was, there was a well pad there was an explosion on. They evacuated one mile from that well pad. What if there was a school there instead of farmland? What would have happened to those children? There was a pipeline in West Virginia that exploded and it ruined a large stretch of one of the interstates. What if that pipeline was on the property of a school? We just don't think that's something that makes any sense at all. Why the heck would you put something that dangerous next to places where lots of vulnerable people are? And I'm not just talking about kids here. I'm talking about anybody who has health issues shouldn't be around it – anybody's that's healthy shouldn't be around this stuff – but especially people that have health issues, they shouldn't be around this stuff.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Protect Our Children is asking for no drilling operations of any kind within a mile of any school?

MICHAEL BAGDES-CANNING: No gas infrastructure within a mile. I guess that's the compromise position that the coalition partners came up with. I guess the least daring members of the coalition thought one mile was supported by the science, so yeah, that was it. And it's not just from the school, either; it's actually from the school property, so playgrounds are included too. We don't want kids' playgrounds to be within a mile, either.

BETWEEN THE LINES: The Mars Parent Group, they want a two-mile radius. I guess they're maybe less sanguine about the impacts. And they're actually taking some legal steps to enforce that, right?

MICHAEL BAGDES-CANNING: Correct. And the Mars Parent Group came into existence after Protect Our Children. They work with us, but they found some research – again, erring on the side of caution – they found some research that suggested that two miles was in fact a better number than one mile. They've gotten letters from national medical groups confirming that it's not a good idea.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Who can set that up? Is this something that the DEP needs to do? Or who are you focusing your demands on?

MICHAEL BAGDES-CANNING: We're focusing on everybody. For instance, the Mars Parent Group, they first targeted their local school board, and they got some satisfaction there, and then they targeted their township supervisors. But Protect Our Children, we are targeting all the stakeholders: we're targeting parents, to get them activated so they have information so they can approach their decision-makers. We're working with school nurses; we're working with local government; we're working with state government; we're working with green groups. We're trying to educate people so that they can make informed decisions. Legislators, we want them to be informed; we want them to hear more than the crap that comes from the industry and the industry apologists.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Are there any successes you can claim at this point?

MICHAEL BAGDES-CANNING: I guess it depends on how you define success. If you define it as stopping infrastructure, I'd say the Mars School District is probably our best and maybe the only real success we have with Protect Our Children. But if you define success a little more broadly, and what I mean by success there is you have people activated – they attempted to make something happen and the government body – whichever government body it was – ignored them, and now they are realizing that the government is set up in such a way that they are ... that it's not their government; that the government is not working for them, the government is working for these big corporations. If you measure success that way, right now we have a lot of good things happening in Butler County.

For more information on groups concerned about health and safety issues related to natural gas fracking, visit MarcellusOutreachButler.org.