Dakota Access Pipeline, 100th Anniversary Of First Broadcast From 9XM-WHA, Immigrants And Electoral Politics

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• Wisconsin Doctor Who Treated Dakota Pipeline Protesters Is Cautiously Optmisitc

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  A Wisconsin physician who served as a volunteer medic at the the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation is cautiously celebrating the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ announcement Sunday that it would not allow the Dakota Access Pipeline to be drilled under a section of the Missouri River.

  “I think like many people, there was a mix of excitement followed shortly by disbelief, and then anxious(ly) waiting while we waited for multiple sources to have the announcement confirmed,” said Dr. Jasmine Wiley, a resident physician and member of Wisconsin Physicians for Social Responsibility.

  Wiley was on site at the Oceti Sakowin Camp in Cannonball, North Dakota, for more than a week in mid-November when there was a clash between police and protesters. She said during her time there, she watched the camp swell in size as temperatures dropped.

  There have been estimates that as many as 20,000 self-described water protectors are at the camp, including a group of U.S. military veterans who arrived this week.

  The Army Corps said it would look for a different route for the $3.7 billion pipeline, which would have been routed a half-mile from the reservation.

  “This is a major victory in a lot of ways,” Wiley said “This is an amazing indigenous movement that has worked tirelessly and selflessly for the victory that happened yesterday.”

  Still, activists aren’t breathing a sigh of relief just yet. The news came in the final days of the Barack Obama presidency, and President-elect Donald Trump has a very different stance on the pipeline.

  Trump has said he supports the pipeline being finished, and the Associated Press reported he holds stock in the company responsible for its construction.

  Wiley said the company behind the project, Energy Transfer Partners, has ignored requests to halt construction in the past, and has not signaled that it will obey the federal orders.

  “And so everyone is kind of preparing for that down the road,” Wiley said. “It’s a victory, and a voice was heard that hasn’t been heard for a long time, or ever. However, everyone kind of sees this fight continuing as the months continue to go ahead.”

• Wisconsin Doctor Provides Aid At Dakota Access Pipeline Protest Site

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  The federal government announced yesterday that it had denied a permit to construct part of the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. A doctor who provided aid at the protest site earlier this month, tells us what she saw at the Oceti Sakowin camp, and why some activists are still skeptical that pipeline construction in the area has stopped for good.

• The 100th Anniversary Of The First Broadcast From 9XM-WHA

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  On December 4th, 1916, the first telegraphic broadcast from the 9XM studio went over the air–it was the weather forecast. It’s cited as the first regular broadcast from the station that would become WHA–the oldest station in the nation and the first version of Wisconsin Public Radio. We talk to a historian about this first broadcast and the early days of WPR.

• Immigrants and Electoral Politics: Nonprofit Organizations in Times of Demographic Change 

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  According to the new book, Immigrants and Electoral Politics: Nonprofit Organizations in Times of Demographic Change there is a relationship between threats to immigrants and the emergence of non-profits that try to get immigrants more politically engaged. The sociologist who wrote the book and a Wisconsin non-profit organizer tell us more.