Congratulations Melon Radio fans, we’ve successfully re-posted the links to our previous shows. So if you’re interested on hearing some of our fantastic Core interviews or are just a bit nostalgic, take a listen.
The Melon presents the The Melon – a talk radio show with more guts than a Swedish meatball factory. Ready for a radio station that’s ripe for controversy, sweet like nectar, and has relatively few seeds? Then glue your audio receptors to your speaker box,because The Melon is dedicated to catching news-flies with spoon-fulls of honey, not piles of bullshit. With live interviews and apt reporting on the modern world, you’ll wake up and taste the melon.
05/03/08 – Season Finale
(not recorded due to idiocy) Guests: Equal Time Radio’s Frank Blair, Tacoma Cartoonist R.R. Anderson, Melonite Joseph La Sac and filmmaker Lila Kataeff
04/26/08 – Special Edition – Veterans Guests: Professor of IPE at the University of Puget Sound David Balaam, Government Relations Director of the Northwest Chapter of Paralyzed Veterans for America Skip Dreps, Congressman representing WA 6th District Norm Dicks, US Senator Patty Murray.
The Melon – Melon 5 (Food Crisis w/Prof. Balaam and International Correspondent Walid Zafar, Zimbabwe, Hamas, Student Loans, Supersonics), Tech Report, Local Yokel.
04/19/08 Georgia, Haiti food crisis, Supreme Court lethal injection decision, discussion on Iraqi War. Guests: Whitney Rhodes from exit133 and Professor of English at the University of Puget Sound Hans Ostrom.
The Melon – Melon 5/Tech Report
Tech Report
The Core – exit133 report/ discussion with Hans Ostrom
04/12/08 Columbia Trade Pact, the Petraeus Paradox, the food crisis in Haiti Guest: Professor of History at the University of Puget Sound Theodore Taranovski
The Melon – Melon 5/World Report
Around the World with Walid Zafar
The Core – Interview with Professor Taranovski
04/05/08 NATO, Blackwater returns, Spit-Seeds. China/Tibet discussion. Guest: Todd Little of Students for a Free Tibet.
The Melon – NATO, Blackwater, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Spit-Seeds.
Tech Report w/ Walker Lindley
The Core – Local Yokel report, Around the World w/Walid Zafar, China/Tibet discussion.
Local Yokel w/Chris “The Wedge” Van Vechten
03/29/08 (recording stifled by internets)
Guests: Professor of Economics at the University of Puget Sound Garrett Milam and Washington State Poet Laureate Sam Green.
The Melon (about 2 minutes recorded):
Tech Report:
Interview with Washington State Poet Laureate Sam Green:
Core (Interview with Calvin Goings and (WO)MEN Speak Out
03/01/08 Topics:Nader, the state of Iraq, Boeing
Guests: Professor emerita at City University of New York Jill Norgren
Melon (Melon 5, Tech Report, World Report)
Core (Interview with Prof. Jill Norgren about Belva Lockwood)
02/23/08
Topics: Castro, Kosovo, FISA and more
Guests: University of Puget Sound Professor of Politics and Government Eric Williams
The Melon (1st hour – Melon 5, Tech Report, World Report)
Tech Report
The Core (2nd hour – Eric Williams, Elections)
02/16/08- (Fuzzy recording!) Chris “the Wedge” returns to take over hosting duties for a out-of-town Electric Elliot. Local politics and world news.
Guests: Correspondents Walid Zafar, Walker Lindley, Phil Munsterman
02/09/08 - (Not recorded due to idiocy). Kenya Conflict, Stimulus Plan, Bush’s Budget, Caucuses/ Candidates. Guests: Walid Zafar, Walker Lindley, Ari Milner, Chris “the Wedge” Van Vechten, and libertarians Andrew Bourdon, and Jeff Ammons.
NOTE: We are currently in the process of migrating this audio over to new servers. We apologize but none of this audio works right now. Please email themelon@themelononline.com if you’re looking for a clip.
12/08/07 – Education Special Guests: President of the University of Puget Sound Ronald Thomas, and Vice President of the Tacoma Education Association Darrick Hartman
12/01/07 – Status of Iraq, Guiliani, Google’s bid for 700MHz spectrum. Guests: Conservative Activist Tim Eyman, Tech Corespondent Walker Lindley, President of the Washington State Stonewall Democrats, Anita Latch. Video interview with Tim Eyman
11/17/07 – (Due to technical difficulties this recording is missing the first portion of the show.) Chiquita Banana, more Pakistan, Georgia Guests: Washington Representative Dennis Flannigan, Student Activist and Trail Newspaper writer – Walid Zafar, Former President of the UPS Young Democrats, and member of the UPS Political Science Association Steven Sparks. Interview with Dennis Flannigan.
11/10/07 – Overturn of Bush Veto, Fighting in Sri Lanka, American Economy. Guests: Student Activist Bart Bodrian, Liz McGourty and Cara Munson, Co-Presidents of the UPS Logger Pep Band, ASUPS President Hart Edmonson, Executive Vice President of the Tacoma Education Association, Darrick Hartman, and Maralise Hood, Executive Director of the Pierce County Center for Dispute Resolution. Interview with Maralise Hood.
11/03/07 – Mukasey’s approval, Hugo Chavez’s Amendments, Israel’s action in Gaza. Guests: Professor of Politics and Government at the University of Puget Sound, Seth Weinberger, Sam Armocido, Rian Johnson from P.I.S.S.A.R., Leana Schwatz and Shannon Wright from Students for a Free Tibet, and Robert “The Traveler” Hill, recent candidate in the Tacoma City Council Primaries. Interview with Robert “The Traveler” Hill.
10/27/07 – California Fires, Russia and Iran, New UN Environment report. Guests: Peter Braun, President of Cocktales. LGAP’s Shira Goldstein, SAC’s Eric Lanigan, Barrack Obama organizer Debby Pattin of Thurston County, and Rebecca Wolfe, State Coordinator for the Dennis Kunicich campaign. Interview with Debby Pattin. Interview with Rebecca Wolfe.
10/20/07 – Bombing in Pakistan and Pre-9/11 Wiretapping. Guests: Walker Lindley – Treasurer of UPS Young Democrats and Marilyn Strickland, candidate for Tacoma City Council Position 8. Interview with Marilyn Strickland.
10/13/07 – The Cleveland School Shooting, Armenia Resolution, ENDA and Gore’s Peace Prize Win. Guests: Carolyn Ham – Treasurer of VOX, Maddy Ryen -UPS student of History and Activist. Walker Lindley and Walid Zafar. Interview with Ellly Claus-McGahan – candidate for the Tacoma School Board. Interview with Elly Claus-McGahan
10/06/07 – S-CHIP, Attacks on AU Peace keepers, Korean Nuke talks. Guests: Professor Nick Kontogeorgopoulos, Torey Holderith, UPS Political Science Association President and Yusif Word, President of UPS Black Student Union. Interview with Professor Kontogeorgopoulos on Burma
09/29/07 – Myanmar Protests, Ahmadinejad visits America. Guests: Former Director of Centro Latino Dr. Julio Quan & Professor of Comparative Sociology Monica Dehart. Interview with Quan and DehartWalid Zafar, UPS Young Dems President Phil Munsterman, with Rio Connelly.
09/22/07 – Jena 6, U of Florida Taser incident. Guests: UPS Young Dems Treasurer Walker Lindley and Darrick Hartman, Vice President of the Tacoma Education Association.
You know, the more I visit the Tacoma School Board, the more I realize how ceremonial it really is.From the perspective of an outsider it’s nearly impossible to determine what indeed is actually going on – video camera or not (the School Board’s website isn’t exactly the most transparent service either.)Nevertheless, this is more or less what I was able to gather from Thursday’s meeting.
Imagine that the economy is in shambles and everyone agrees it’s going to get worse.The lines dividing Wall Street and Main Street are rapidly beginning to blur (artificially or otherwise.)Unemployment nationwide is steadily rising and we in the Pacific Northwest can hardly expect to be immune.In fact, historically national economic downturns have hit this region harder than most do to our inability to diversify our industries.During the most recent recession that followed (and preceded) September 11, 2001 – Oregon led the country with an unemployment rate of over 10% with Washington a close second.As of August unemployment statewide had only climbed to 6%, placing us still below the national average, though current trends suggest that we will breach the 7% marker by the end of the month.
Now imagine you’re on the Tacoma School Board, and you’ve just been informed by Governor/Candidate Gregoire that some cuts to public education are almost inevitable at the state level – leaving local governments with the unenviable task of asking the cash-strapped voters to makeup the difference via bonds and levies to renovate a few middle schools and a couple of high school football stadiums and soccer fields.The District’s analysts project the final bill at being somewhere around $300 million.Since Washington is one of only a few states that doesn’t have an income tax, the burden of paying for this particular upgrade will fall to middle-class homeowners who remain frightened by the economy and upset about a recent auditing scandal that found – among other things – some school board members in other districts of the state indulging on$52 a plate dinners using tax-payer money.
That’s exactly what the Tacoma School Board considered on Thursday, whether or not to raise the total tax rate on assessed property from $4.77/per $1000 to $4.80/per $1000.Or, in other words, while last year the average homeowner in Tacoma paid $1,173.42 in property taxes – should this bond measure pass – they’ll be paying $1,197.21: a difference of $23.79.
Does this plan make sense?Probably yes.
As Superintendent Jarvis pointed out, during times of economic decline Government often becomes the chief provider of jobs. With unemployment on the rise and the construction industry going into a slow decline, the School Board has a golden opportunity to put its tax dollars to work by reinvesting them back into the community from which they were gleaned.Simultaneously, as School Board president Jim Dugan pointed out, the decreasing demand for construction jobs in Pierce County will result in lower bids from willing contractors.
Now the only challenge will be pitching this idea to the voters.And because what the School Board is proposing is a capital bond, it is still bound by the supermajority requirements that 4204 broke on levies last election cycle. That means 60% of the electorate or more must vote the measure up.
Related interview with President of the Tacoma Education Association Darrick Hartman:
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