LWV on KGNU - League of Women Voters® of Boulder County

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LWV on KGNU-FM Independent Community Radio (Archived)

88.5FM • 1390AM Boulder & Denver

KGNU partners with us to educate listeners on the workings of state and local governments and let them know how they can get involved at different stages of the political process.

Living Wage Longmont
LWVBC president Peggy Leech and Darcy Juday of the American Association of University Women talk to KGNU news director Maeve Conran. Recorded in early April 2019.
Read a summary and listen to the seven-minute discussion here.

NOTE: After the broadcast the Living Wage or Self-Sufficiency Standard for Boulder County increased to $17.42 per hour from the $15.67 of past years.
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Making Democracy Work for All: The National Popular Vote (26 February 2019) - Peggy Leech
Our LWVBC talks about the National Popular Vote (NPV) and why the League supports it.

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In 2017–2018 KGNU partnered with us on a monthly series of updates called
Making Democracy Work for All!

Our thanks to Maeve Conran at KGNU who is working with Jeannette Hillery, our voice on the airwaves, to plan these spots.
To listen and read, click on the title . . .

Caucuses and Assemblies and Primaries, Oh My! (15 February 2018) - Susan Saunders

LWVBC director of Voter Services, explains primaries, caucuses, and assemblies. Primary election date is June 26th,
the deadline for return of ballots to the County Clerk's office. Use the mail, vote early, use a drop box, or walk in to a
polling center, but get that ballot in before 7:00 PM on June 26. The League urges you to exercise your right to vote and
participate in the caucus and assembly process, if you are qualified. Vote like your life depends on it!

2018 State Legislative Session (29 January 2018) - Jeannette Hillery
The 71^st Colorado General Assembly convened on January 10^th. The Assembly convenes for 120 days beginning

in January and ending in May of each year. The Colorado League has a volunteer lobby core that follows proposed

legislation in areas such as voter service, campaign finance, health care, transportation, and education. The Boulder

County League advocates for our positions with our local elected representatives.

Reauthorizing CHIP (15 December 2017) - Jeannette Hillery

The LWVBC asks your support in urging Congress to reauthorize funding for the Children’s Health Insurance
Program (CHIP,) a highly effective federal program that provides high-quality, low-cost health insurance to l
ow-income American children and pregnant women, which is administered in Colorado as the Child Health
Plan Plus (CHP+).

Food Insecurity in Boulder County (6 November 2017) - Jeannette Hillery
Without access to nutritious, affordable food, how does anyone have the time and energy to exercise the
right to vote? In Boulder County about 40,500 individuals, including 10,630 children, lack food security.
(The Colorado average is 12.9%.) This month the LWVBC is holding two Community Conversations
on local policies that affect hunger and democracy.

Standing Firm in the Face of Voter Fraud Claims (10 August 2017) - Jeanine Pow
In a May 11, 2017 Executive Order, the Election Fraud Commission was formed on the heels of President Trump’s

repeated unsupported claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2016 election. The League of Women Voters recommends

that Coloradans stand firm, stay enrolled and encourage others to register to vote at www.GoVoteColorado.com.

Don’t let anyone stop you from exercising your Constitutional right to vote!

Making Democracy Work for All ! Mental Health ! (19 June 2017) - Mary Anna Dunn
One in five of us will suffer some type of behavioral health episode this year. Lots of people don’t talk about

mental sufferings, because of stigma—that is, feeling ashamed or not wanting the world to know about this “

weakness.” That is old time thinking! Help is available.

2017 State Legislative Review (25 May 2017) - Jeannette Hillery
The 2017 legislative session ended on May 10th with more bipartisanship than initially expected. A few strongly partisan bills

introduced by both parties were killed during the session. Remember that the Colorado Senate is Republican controlled and

the Colorado House is Democratic controlled.

Immigration Reform (19 April 2017) - Louisa Young
We looked for the answer to the question: "Just what rights do non-citizens have?" We considered the arenas of: employment,

public benefits, voting, education and mobility (such as driver licenses). Some of our findings might surprise you. While we

looked into certain rights, we know it doesn’t always work the way the law says it should.

Money in Politics (30 March 2017) - Shirley Jin and Peggy Leech

Our campaign finance laws date from 1971. Supreme Court decisions have eroded them since 1976. Now outside spending

by corporations, unions, and unnamed sources dwarfs the spending by candidates in many races. Our democracy is in grave danger.

How A Bill Becomes Law (8 February 2017) - Jeannette Hillery
We all know the saying “there outta be a law”, but how does it come about?

The 71st Colorado General Assembly (19 January 2017) - Jeannette Hillery
The Colorado General Assembly convenes for 120 days from January to May. Boulder County has five Representatives in the House and three Senators

The LWVCO volunteer lobby core follows proposed legislation in areas such as voter service, health care, transportation, education and air quality.

Interview series — Making Democracy Work: KGNU & LWVBC

KGNU and LWVBC are co-sponsoring an intern in 2017-2018, Rossana Longo Better.
She is developing a series of radio interviews that are part of our Making Democracy Work effort.

Listen to Victor Galvan, with the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, who told KGNU’s Rossana Longo Better that immigrants’ rights groups are gearing up for a fight in Colorado over the state’s driver’s license program for undocumented immigrants.

Listen to Rich Andrews, environmental engineer scientist and organic farmer, who spoke with KGNU’s Rossana Longo Better after a screening of the movie “A Place at the Table” hosted by LWVBC as part of our series Hunger and Democracy in Boulder County.

Listen to Liz Black, of the LWVBC Social Policy Team, who told Rossana Longo Better that the food security series is in keeping with the League of Women Voters’ history of expanding people’s understanding of how to make democracy more receptive and responsive to the needs of all Americans.

On 4 December 2017, the LWVBC's Health Care Team partnered with People to People for a screening of the film Big Pharma: A Market Failure at Frasier Meadows Manor in Boulder.

Listen to retired pharmacist Virginia Gebhart, one of the organizers of the event, who told Rossana Longo Better that we are at a critical moment right now with the possible repeal of the Affordable Care Act. “I believe single-payer universal health care is the economic and social justice issue of our time,” she said.

Listen to Audrey Johnson, Director of Programs at Emergency Family Assistance Association, who said that people do not understand how prevalent hunger is in an affluent community like Boulder. Audrey Johnson spoke with Elizabeth Crowe, LWVBC Voter editor, after a screening of the movie “A Place at the Table” hosted by LWVBC as part of their series Hunger and Democracy in Boulder County.

Listen to Linda Sorauf co-founder of Colorado National Popular Vote and a member of the League of Women Voters of Jefferson County, discuss the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. She spoke at a LWVBC Community Conversation on 26 February 2018.

Listen to Laura Wides-Muñoz tell stories of Dreamers and their fight to remain in the US. Ms Wides-Munoz writes about the history of DACA and tells the story of some of those immigrants in her new book: The Making of a Dream: How a group of young undocumented immigrants helped change what it means to be American. She spoke with KGNU’s Rossana Longo Better.

Listen to Lee Fang, award winning reporter with The Intercept, who has focused much of his work on examining how public policy is influenced by organized interest groups and money. He was the first to uncover and detail the role of the billionaire Koch brothers in financing the Tea Party movement. At a recent conference on race and the media that took place at CU Boulder, Fang reflected on his research during the last 9 years into hate groups and their efforts to promote racism & sexism.

Listen to Young Voices on Gun Control. On March 14th, thousands of students around the Front Range walked out of school as part of a national movement calling for gun control, in the wake of the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Peggy Leech of the League of Women Voters of Boulder County, spoke to two students in the St. Vrain Valley School District prior to the event, at the Doing Democracy Day in Longmont. The students expressed different opinions about the walk out.

Listen to Elisabeth MacNamara, former LWV National President, speak with Maeve Conran about the unique role of the League in this political climate, and our best opportunities to advocate in our local communities.