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Puerto Rico’s financial oversight board has voted to extend a contract with LUMA Energy — the private U.S.-Canadian corporation that took over the island’s power grid and is widely denounced by residents on the island for its inconsistent service and high prices. The privatization of Puerto Rico’s power grid, supported by an unelected board appointed by the U.S. government, represents the “everyday consequences of colonialism,” says independent reporter Bianca Graulau, whose latest documentary is called “País de Apagones,” or “Country of Blackouts.”

The largest higher education strike in U.S. history has entered its third week in an effort to secure livable wages, more child care benefits, expanded family leave and other demands. Some 48,000 academic workers at all 10 University of California campuses are on strike, including teaching assistants, postdoctoral scholars, graduate student researchers, tutors and fellows. We speak with a professor and graduate students at three campuses in the UC system, as a tentative deal with postdoctoral scholars and academic researchers was announced Tuesday by the University of California that does not cover graduate student employees who make up the vast majority of those on strike. “We are the ones who are producing the work. We’re teaching the classrooms. And yet, most of these student workers qualify for food stamps,” says UCLA doctoral student and local union head Enrique Olivares Pesante. UC Davis student researcher Aarthi Sekar describes how international graduate students have also been impacted. We also speak with Nelson Lichtenstein, director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy at UC Santa Barbara.

It's another crazy day in MAGA Land on today's BradCast, as Accountability Season gets a very good start even before the 2022's Election Season fully wraps up. [Audio link to full show is posted below this summary.] Among our stories today from Accountability Season... BREAKING at the top of today's program: Stewart Rhodes, founder of the far-right [...]

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: While we were out... Rich nations finally agreed to pay climate damages to poor nations at U.N. COP27 climate summit; A quarter of Americans at risk of winter power blackouts; Buffalo, NY buried under historic, global warming-juiced blizzard; PLUS: Entire city of Houston placed under boil water notice after power failure... [...]

Fascism is at this nation’s doorstep and to fight it, we need an antifascist movement, which, according to expert Shane Burley, must “confront violence, both structurally and ideologically, in an effort to unseat its very foundations.”

After more than 3 and a half decades in prison, Dr. Mutulu Shakur has been granted freedom by the U.S. Parole Board.