Weekly Report from Boulder
What a tragic week last week, seeing the consequences of the hurricane unfold. This morning I heard of refugees from the south arriving in Denver. They will be in many of our communities and I hope everyone finds a way to help out, whether it is spending time, offering clothes or jobs, and making donations. Poor George Bush, he had to cut his vacation short by a day for this! How very inconvenient. I'm just happy to note the many people questioning how and why this happened, and why the faces we see that were left are mostly poor and black.

Friday morning I engineered as NPR interviewed Kathleen Tierney of CU's Natural Hazards Research Center. It was very sobering listening as they are one of many organizations to have listed a large-scale hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the top three most likely disasters to hit the US. The Army Corps of Engineers requested funds to shore up the levees and yet the administration cut those funds substantially, with clear links that the money was "needed" in Iraq. As were the National Guard.

So tonight I made my contribution to the Red Cross. Once I found out that the Gay and Lesbian Fund of Colorado were matching, I jumped on the opportunity to help make my money go a little further.

Big shout out to WFMU for hosting the stream for WWOZ in Exile! I'm sure most people on this list are familiar with WWOZ, but as a sister public radio station we are in full support and hope that they will be able to continue the great work that they do.

We'll be broadcasting the confirmation hearings of John Roberts when those happen this week. I know our attention is very divided right now, but we must pay close heed to what is happening on the Supreme Court. The very reason I did not vote for George Bush now faces us ñ he gets to appoint two nominees to the courts. The court has left us with a decent legacy of privacy rights and civil liberties, let's hope that we can continue to maintain those.

Rodney James and the Blueflames are over in the Kabaret room, now doing a sweet rendition of Sleepwalk!

Elaine C. Erb. KGNU Music Director. <º))))><
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