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For Immediate Release
December, 17 2010, 10:54am EDT
Contact:
Timothy Karr: 201-533-8838,,tkarr@freepress.net
LPFM One Step Closer to the Finish Line
WASHINGTON
Friday morning, the House of Representatives passed a revised version
of the Local Community Radio Act, a bill that would expand local radio
to more communities across the nation. The revisions have addressed the
concerns of the National Association of Broadcasters, who have released a
statement in support of the legislation. The bill, which has
overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress, now awaits action in the
Senate.
Candace Clement, outreach manager for Free Press, made the following statement:
"We are pleased that the National Association of Broadcasters has
expressed its support for the Local Community Radio Act. Now, if the
Senate can carry the bill across the finish line, it will go a long way
toward putting local voices back on the airwaves.
"The Local Community Radio Act would remove restrictions on the
licensing of Low Power FM radio stations. These noncommercial stations
will help to diversify the airwaves, support local music and culture,
and assist communities during emergencies. The bill's passage would be a
huge victory in the fight for better media."
Free Press was created to give people a voice in the crucial decisions that shape our media. We believe that positive social change, racial justice and meaningful engagement in public life require equitable access to technology, diverse and independent ownership of media platforms, and journalism that holds leaders accountable and tells people what's actually happening in their communities.
(202) 265-1490LATEST NEWS
Three-Time Trump Voter Calls C-SPAN to Apologize for 'Supporting This Rotten, Rotten Man'
"This is not a decent man. This is not an honest man. He openly takes bribes. He's pathetic as a president."
Feb 06, 2026
As polling shows Americans are increasingly unhappy with President Donald Trump's authoritarianism, economy, and overall performance during his first year back in power, some of his voters are speaking out about feeling "swindled" and having buyer's remorse, including one who called into C-SPAN on Friday.
A man identified only as "John in New Mexico, Republican," called in to "Washington Journal" after President Donald Trump posted a video on his Truth Social account with the heads of former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama edited onto the bodies of apes—which was widely condemned, including by some congressional Republicans, before it was taken down.
"I voted for the president—supported him—but I really want to apologize," the caller told anchor Greta Brawner. "I mean, I'm looking at this awful picture of the Obamas. What an embarrassment to our country. All this man does is tell lies. He is not worthy of the presidency."
During Trump's first term, the Washington Post tallied at least 30,573 "false or misleading claims." The trend has continued since his 2020 loss—about which he's often lied—and into his second term. Last year, Glenn Kessler, who was editor and chief writer of the Post's "Fact Checker," found inaccuracies in 32 claims Trump made in just one interview marking 100 days back in office.
The C-SPAN caller on Friday also ripped Trump's relationships with corporate leaders and deadly immigration operations, saying: "He takes bribes, blatantly, and now he's being a racist, blatantly. They were supposed to deport the dangerous criminals. They were not supposed to go after small children, storm schools, bring terror upon the little kids and the women and children. Not just the immigrants in the school, all the children are scared."
"This is not a decent man. This is not an honest man. He openly takes bribes. He's pathetic as a president. And I just want to apologize to everybody in the country for supporting this rotten, rotten man," the caller said, confirming that he voted for Trump in all three of the most recent presidential elections. He also discussed the difficulty of finding jobs and primary care physicians in New Mexico.
Common Dreams has not independently verified the caller's personal details. C-SPAN's call-in feature dates back to 1980, and "Washington Journal" has been the network's flagship program for such calls since 1995. This particular call quickly caught the attention of political observers, as Trump and others in his administration contend with growing outrage over US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions and mounting allegations of corruption and conflicts of interest.
"Wow, it's finally happening!" wrote political commentator Ed Krassenstein on X. "Republicans are waking up to the con that Donald Trump is. Listen to this Trump voter who called into C-SPAN to apologize to the American people for voting for Trump. He tears Trump apart for his racist meme about the Obamas, as well as his inhumane ICE raids and his corruption."
The post about the Obamas was later removed. As Reuters reported:
"A White House staffer erroneously made the post," a White House official said. "It has been taken down."
A Trump adviser said the president had not seen the video before it was posted late on Thursday and ordered it taken down once he had.
Both officials declined to be named. The White House did not respond to a question about the staffer's identity. Only a few senior aides have direct access to Trump's social media account, according to the Trump adviser.
MS NOW anchor Katy Tur played a recording of the C-SPAN caller on her network Friday and noted that "this man isn't the only one who appears to be over it. That frustration is being borne out in poll after poll after poll. The numbers all say the same thing. There are no outliers here."
"The president is too focused on foreign policy, too focused on his 2020 conspiracy theory that he won the election when he did not. Too cruel to migrants and children. Too focused on enriching himself. Not focused enough, by the way, on the economy. Not successful in his big promise of lowering prices. Unethical," she summarized.
Tur also pointed to the recent upset in a special election for a deep-red Texas Senate district—Democrat Taylor Rehmet defeated Trump-endorsed Leigh Wambsganss—and new Axios reporting that Republicans are worried about losing both chambers of Congress, which they currently control by narro in the midterm elections this November.
In the face of such fears, Trump has bullied some Republican-controlled states to gerrymander their political maps and declared Monday that the Republican Party should "nationalize the voting" in the United States, in defiance of the Constitution. The US Department of Justice is also fighting to acquire voter data from states, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is summoning state election officials for a February 25 conference to discuss "preparations" for the midterms.
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As Amazon Sees Record Profits, Customers Say 'Start Delivering Climate Action'
“Amazon has an extraordinary opportunity and an obligation to act more swiftly on climate change,” one member of Prime Members for a Cleaner Amazon said.
Feb 06, 2026
Friday, the day after Amazon revealed record 2025 profits, 10 members of Prime Members for a Cleaner Amazon staged a pedicab protest in front of its Seattle headquarters, calling on the company to raise its climate ambition to the level of its earnings.
In its fourth quarter report, released Thursday, the tech giant announced that its 2025 income had soared to $77.7 billion, up from $59.2 billion in 2024.
“Amazon has an extraordinary opportunity and an obligation to act more swiftly on climate change,” participant Michael Lazarus told Common Dreams. “It’s a leading provider of consumer goods to consumers who want climate action. It has made broad pledges to take action on climate change, it has made some small steps, but it needs to deliver on immediate action.”
Concerned customers are demanding the company put some of those profits toward speeding up the electrification of its delivery fleet, powering its data centers with renewable energy, and improving working conditions for its employees while respecting their collective bargaining rights. A Morning Consult poll found that 80% of Prime members surveyed wanted the company to reduce its transport and delivery emissions, and 75% would accept slower delivery times in exchange for less climate pollution.
“Profits are up. So is pollution. Prime members say: Deliver more climate action.”
“Amazon’s success is built on us, its customers. Now, we’re asking the company to stop celebrating profits and start delivering climate action,” said Dr. Chris Covert-Bowlds, a Seattle-based member of Prime Members for a Cleaner Amazon and Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility.
The protest took place outside Amazon’s Day 1 building, where CEO Andy Jassy has his office, from around 8:00 am to 10:30 am Pacific time. Participants rode four pedicabs as a subtle suggestion to the company of how to move goods without fossil fuels. The cabs were decorated with billboards with messages such as, “Deliver packages. Not pollution,” and “Profits are up. So is pollution. Prime members say: Deliver more climate action.”
Participants also handed out hundreds of stickers and flyers to Seattle residents and Amazon employees.
Amazon has a history of making sustainability promises it does not keep and retaliating against employees who call it to account. While it has pledged to reach carbon neutrality across its operations by 2040, it is increasingly unclear how it will achieve this given its buildout of energy-intensive data centers and artificial intelligence.
“We’ve been calling attention to Amazon’s failure to align its emissions reductions with the latest climate science for years,” Stand.earth campaigner Joshua Archer told Common Dreams.
However, he said what “makes this moment really unique” is that Amazon is now failing three distinct groups of people: consumers like those at the protest who want it to do better on climate, investors who are concerned about returns from the AI buildout, and the 30,000 employees it laid off since October despite its record profits.
“The company is not respecting the employees on whose backs the company has built its success” just as it’s “not respecting the latest climate science,” Archer said.
Lazarus said that many employees expressed interest in the protesters’ demands. While some zipped past in headphones, others “lit up and were clearly engaged and simpatico.”
He noted that Amazon employees have been organizing for years to pressure the company to increase its climate ambitions through Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, and hoped the addition of consumer advocacy would help “Amazon realize that there’s a groundswell of support for taking more aggressive measures to reduce their climate impact... which is becoming quite monumental given the growth in data cents and the influence that they carry.”
Lazarus told Common Dreams it was also important to him that Amazon ramp up its climate ambitions given President Donald Trump’s determination to double down on fossil fuels and inhibit renewable energy.
“We know that we’re not going to see much climate action at the federal level,” he said. “It becomes all the more important for corporate actors like Amazon to demonstrate that it remains committed to and acts upon its need to reduce emissions.”
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'Strongest-in-the-Nation' Data Center Moratorium Proposed in NY
"New Yorkers are suffering from an affordability crisis and a climate crisis, and data centers are going to make both of those much harder to deal with," said state Sen. Liz Krueger, one of the bill's sponsors.
Feb 06, 2026
In response to rising concerns about the extreme energy demands of artificial intelligence data centers, Democratic legislators in New York are proposing a three-year pause on their creation in the state.
The environmental group Food & Water Watch called the proposal, introduced Friday by state Sen. Liz Krueger (D-28) and Assemblymember Anna Kelles (D-125), the "strongest data center moratorium bill in the country," the sort that is in increasing demand as the public becomes aware of the staggering energy costs required to power the centers.
Last month, a study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that US electricity demand could increase by 60% to 80% over the next quarter century, with data centers accounting for more than half the increase by 2030—costing anywhere from $886 billion to $978 billion and pumping anywhere from 19% to 29% more planet-heating carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
In large part due to data centers, New York's power grid may fall as much as 1.6 gigawatts short of reliability requirements, according to a projection from the New York Independent System Operator last year.
“Massive data centers are gunning for New York, and right now we are completely unprepared," Krueger said. When one of these energy-guzzling facilities comes to town, they drive up utility prices and have significant negative impacts on the environment and the community—and they have little to no positive impact on the local economy.
"New Yorkers are suffering from an affordability crisis and a climate crisis, and data centers are going to make both of those much harder to deal with," she added.
The bill would halt new data center projects exceeding 20 megawatts for three years and require the state to conduct environmental reviews and propose new regulations to address any identified impacts.
"Data centers are being built rapidly and with little meaningful oversight, despite the serious strain they place on our energy system, water resources, and local communities," explained Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas (D-34), another supporter of the legislation.
"These facilities increase pollution, drive up electricity costs, and threaten farmland and natural land, while disproportionately impacting low-income communities and Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities that have long faced environmental injustice," she said.
According to Politico, pushes to curb data center growth are gaining steam around the country:
New York is the largest state where lawmakers have proposed a moratorium on data centers. But concerns about the growing issue are bipartisan, with Republicans and Democrats backing moratoriums in various states.
Similar measures have been introduced in Maryland, Georgia, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Vermont. A Republican legislator in Michigan—where dozens of local governments have already passed moratoriums—has said she’ll introduce a statewide measure there, as well. In Wisconsin, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate has also called for a moratorium.
Eric Weltman, senior New York organizer at Food & Water Watch, said the bill was necessary to curb "one of the biggest environmental and social threats of our generation."
"This expansion is rapidly increasing demand for dirty energy, straining water resources, and raising electricity rates for families and small businesses," Weltman said. "New Yorkers are paying the price while Big Tech rakes in the riches. This strongest-in-the-nation moratorium bill is logical, it’s timely, and it will deliver the results we need."
Yvonne Taylor, vice president of Seneca Lake Guardian, said the bill "not only safeguards our shared future here in New York, but sets a powerful precedent for states across the nation."
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