I’m home after 10 days on the road to cover the American Federation of Teachers convention in Los Angeles and Netroots Nation ’14 in Detroit. It was actually anything but a vacation, but I do thrive on the action, and there was plenty of that.
To recap the trip, all you need do is listen to the shows from the past week or so. (Find them here, here, here, here and my interview with the amazing Rev. Dr. William Barber is posted as a standalone interview here) Now that I’m back home, I have the luxury of sitting back and playing some of the interviews I taped but didn’t yet have the chance to air.
Today, we heard from Dennis Black of the Detroit Peoples Water Board. On Friday afternoon, hundreds of Netroots Nation attendees, Detroit-based activists and others marched and rallied to protest the mass water shut-offs of over 15,000 households. The UN declared it’s a human rights violation, which it is!
And this morning, an indication that our loud voices had an impact:
Detroit suspending water shut-offs for 15 days
Members of The People's Water Board Coalition protest Detroit's water shut-offs in Detroit on Friday. The shut-offs have sparked massive outrage in the community. (David Coates / The Detroit News)Detroit — The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department is suspending water shut-offs for 15 days starting Monday.
The department is facing criticism worldwide for mass shutoffs that have turned off water to 15,200 customers since March, but department spokesman Bill Johnson said the move is not a concession in the high-profile political fight.
Read more at: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140721/METRO01/307210057#ixzz387Y8UKSI
Tomorrow, I’ll talk a bit about the controversy over the location for NN15- Phoenix, AZ, and the announced boycott by Daily Kos. Stay tuned.
I had a lot of interviews scheduled for the live broadcasts. (When I get the time, I’ll try to post some of them as standalones.) But sometimes the best opportunities come up by surprise, as when I looked up from my editing to see Sandra Fluke walking by. I asked her to sit down to chat for a few minutes, and she did. And I took a selfie!
As we discussed, Sandra Fluke is running for the California State Senate seat vacated by Ted Lieu, who’s running to fill Henry Waxman’s congressional seat. Visit StandWithSandra.org to find out more!
The final interview I shared today was an in-depth conversation with John Nichols, Washington correspondent for The Nation. The interview was better than my lousy selfie result!
Tomorrow, more highlights from my summer vacation, plus @GottaLaff too! See you then, radio or not!