Wildlife in Egypt - Types of Egyptian Animals

Eastern Standard

Eastern Standard : NPR

Eastern Standard WEKU's weekly public affairs program focusing on Central and Eastern Kentucky issues.

May 2, 2024 Eastern Standard - May 2nd, 2024

May 2, 2024 • The focus of Episode 4 of Democracy Optimist, an Eastern Standard special election year series: 4.6 million Americans have lost their right to vote because of a felony conviction due to a policy known as felon disenfranchisement. The policy has a disproportionate impact on people of color given our criminal legal system. Our guests for this episode are Debra Graner who had been convicted of a felony in Kentucky and recently regained her voting rights, as well as Claire Sandberg, the law student who helped Graner through the process to have her criminal conviction expunged. We're also joined by Desmond Meade, founder of the Florida Rights Restoration Clinic, formed to re-enfranchise 1.4 million returning citizens in the Sunshine State.

Eastern Standard - May 2nd, 2024 April 25, 2024 Eastern Standard - April 25th, 2024

April 25, 2024 • Door with Cracking Paint. (Shutterstock / Shutterstock) Historian Clayborne Carson, keeper of the papers of Martin Luther King, Jr: One person's wokeism is another's democracy A safe method to remove toxic lead paint from pre-1978 homes A new book about the nation's oldest non-ticketed Shakespeare Festival. It's here in Kentucky. Crystal Jones investigates the ways we listen to music and how technology has changed both listening to and creating music.

Eastern Standard - April 25th, 2024 April 18, 2024 Eastern Standard April 18th, 2024

April 18, 2024 • The President has unilateral authority to order the launch of nuclear weapons(Shutterstock) America's nuclear monarchy: the president's sole, absolute authority to order the launch of nuclear weapons. Education contributor Gill Hunter gets the story of the Decode Project, created to support and promote literacy among young Kentuckians. Kentucky Authors contributor Tom Eblen gets details of a working legacy of the James Baker Hall. Lexington poet Dorian Hairston takes us into the pages of his new book, "Pretend the Ball is Named Jim Crow." Eastern Standard contributor Chris Begley describes an evening of civil discussion about a contentious subject.

Eastern Standard April 18th, 2024 April 11, 2024 Eastern Standard April 11, 2024

April 11, 2024 • Lamar Zala Gran, speaking at recent ZIVA Voices conference in Lexington(ZIVA Voices) Follow Lamar Zala Gran's journey from the harsh rule of the Taliban of Afghanistan to the campus of Berea College in Kentucky. Check your county's education report card with this comprehensive guide. It's from the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. We get details from Prichard's CEO, Brigitte Blom. Hear about the expectations of high school students from Minhul Nazeer and Raima Dutt of the KY Student Voice Team. Lexington's new Youth Poet Laureate hopes to find poetry in law. Yana Gorokhovskaia, research director for strategy and design at Freedom House, discusses her report, "Foreign Governments Silencing International Students and Educators in the United States."

Eastern Standard April 11, 2024 April 4, 2024 Eastern Standard April 4th, 2024

April 4, 2024 • In Episode Three of the special Eastern Standard series Democracy Optimist: 2020 saw unprecedented attacks on the results of the presidential election, even though there was no evidence to question its results. Host Joshua Douglas, an election law and voting research professor at the University of Kentucky, asks Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig, co-author of "How to Steal a Presidential Election," if this could happen again in 2024. Also in this episode: The Constitution does not explicitly confer the right to vote. Professor Rick Hasen of the UCLA Law School wants to change that.

Eastern Standard April 4th, 2024 March 28, 2024 Eastern Standard March 28, 2024

March 28, 2024 • On this week's edition of Eastern Standard: "It feels unusual in that the pro-authoritarian forces are not disguising their authoritarianism" - Robert Farley, a professor in the University of Kentucky's Patterson School for Diplomacy on segments of the U.S. Population who openly welcome autocratic rule in the White House. Can "Red and Blue" folks gather in one place and hold a civil conversation? That's the aim of workshops coming to Lexington, hosted by Braver Angels, a national organization devoted to facilitating such discussions. Our guest: Braver Angels Kentucky State Coordinator, Carolyn Dupont. Moonshinin' was not just an Eastern Kentucky thing. Our latest Ten Minute Radio Play is the true story of a Depression-era moonshine still bust in Fayette County.

Eastern Standard March 28, 2024 March 21, 2024 Eastern Standard March 21st, 2024

March 21, 2024 • Gerry Roll, recently retired as CEO of the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky with her successor, Kristin Walker Collins(Chris Begley) Truth and honesty are those values that give us that "North Star" that we can rely on as we navigate our way in the world. But William Damon, one of the world's leading scholars of human development, observes that these days we seem to be going through a dysfunctional period of social change, when "an essential commitment to truthfulness no longer seems to be assumed." Our guest is former U.S. Attorney, University of Michigan law professor and NBC/MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade. Her new book is titled: "Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America." The Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky has pumped tens of millions of dollars into the communities of Eastern Kentucky and serves as an umbrella organization for more than 100 community groups spread across the region. There has been a succession of leadership at the foundation. We talk with now-retired founding CEO Gerry Roll and her successor, Kristin Walker Collins. Robby Cosenza was beloved in Lexington for his art, music and good humor. His close friend and colleague Duane Lundy remembers Robby in conversation with Tom Martin.

Eastern Standard March 21st, 2024 March 14, 2024 Eastern Standard March 14th, 2024

March 14, 2024 • Childcare underfunding is a crisis for working families and employers( Shutterstock) Part Two of a financial crisis for the vital service of childcare looms as a second "fiscal cliff", a legacy of emergency pandemic aid, approaches. Kentucky Youth Advocates' Sarah Vanover, a living encyclopedia on the subject, discusses a proposed major state response now in process in the General Assembly. Brigitte Blom looks into a strategy to recover from the learning loss that occurred during the pandemic. Her guest: Dr. Donny Hale, regional deputy director at the Institute for Educational Leadership, a proponent of the Community Schools concept. Tom Eblen chats with author Fenton Johnson, among the 2024 inductees into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame Lee Carroll provides details on the next Green Room Exchange featuring a return performance by Argentine jazz pianist Leo Genovese.

Eastern Standard March 14th, 2024 March 7, 2024 Eastern Standard March 7th, 2024

March 7, 2024 • Episode Two of the Eastern Standard series "Democracy Optimist" connects the importance of local elections which also will appear on the November ballot to the daily lives of voters. Hosted by University of Kentucky election law and voting research professor and author Joshua Douglas, this edition features conversations with Richard Young, founding director of CivicLex, and Jennifer Huseman, editorial director of the non-profit newsroom VoteBeat.Org.

Eastern Standard March 7th, 2024 February 29, 2024 Eastern Standard Feb. 29th, 2024

February 29, 2024 •  Members of the Kentucky Student Voice Team(KSVT) This week on Eastern Standard: The latest in our ongoing series about America's flirtation with autocracy. Our guest is Matthew Howell, Associate Professor of Government at Eastern Kentucky University. Believing the structure of American democracy to be sound, time-tested, and resilient, Dr. Howell is confident the country can weather the 2024 presidential election. Zachary Clifton, a senior at Corbin High School, is the Legislative Policy Coordinator for the Kentucky Student Voice Team. Zachary's role is to press state legislators to listen to the needs and concerns of those who understand them best: students. Tom Eblen, host of Eastern Standard's series on Kentucky writers, has a conversation with former Kentucky Poet Laureate and author Richard Taylor about his non-fiction book, "Fathers." And Crystal Jones checks up on those New Year's Resolutions we made.

Eastern Standard Feb. 29th, 2024

Pittsburgh's Beautiful Eastern Redbud Trees Are In Bloom

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- It's finally beginning to feel and look like spring. Washington D.C. Is known for its cherry blossoms but Pittsburgh is showing off her eastern redbud trees.

You may have noticed the bright fuchsia trees in Point State Park, Downtown or along the riverfront.

"It kind of reminds me of D.C., the cherry blossom season in D.C., but it's also just a good springtime color," said Jake Van Loon.

This is the result of the Pittsburgh Redbud Project, an initiative of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy to reforest the city with native trees like the eastern redbud tree.

(Photo: Western Pennsylvania Conservancy)

"The redbud tree is a wonderful tree. Before the Redbud Project, we planted them as street trees because they're pretty, but they're pretty tough too," said Jeff Bergman, the senior director of community forestry of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. 

Since 2016, they have planted over 3,000 trees all over Pittsburgh. Bergman says they chose a tree that is great for the environment. 

"Almost every part of the tree has some part of ecological function, whether food or habitat for pollinators or wildlife. People can even eat the flowers," Bergman said. "I don't recommend people going out and eating off of our trees," he added with a laugh. 

Barbara Cheney couldn't help but admire the trees on her walk through Point State Park.

"The shape of the buds and the color that's so vibrant, and it's just a beautiful way to welcome spring and the warm weather. They are spectacular, they look like little fireworks," Cheney said.

The Pittsburgh Redbud Project has partnered with VisitPittsburgh hoping to make the city a springtime destination to seek out the beautiful trees.

"Pittsburgh could celebrate the redbuds akin to how Washington D.C. Celebrates the cherry blossoms," Bergman said.

The redbud blooms should stay through next week. Here's a map of where you can find them.

More from CBS News

Planning Commission approves plan to tear down 4 condemned buildings in Downtown Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh firefighters union gets service dog

AAA hosting license plate replacement events across Pittsburgh area

Several homes damaged in West Virginia after likely tornado moves through Pittsburgh area

4th egg in Pittsburgh peregrine falcon nest has failed to hatch

'We're Back!': On Marathon Monday, Regulars Returned To A New Eastern Standard

Food News Eastern Standard on Marathon Monday in its new location on Beacon Street. Katelyn Umholtz/Boston.Com

For most restaurants and bars, the hundreds of thousands of people that swell Boston on Patriots Day should be a recipe for success.

Except that the last few years have been anything but successful due to COVID-19 shutdowns, resulting in closures of beloved institutions that served spectators and contestants for years — Lir, the Pour House, and Eastern Standard, to name a few. 

But the latter is back — albeit 0.3 miles from its original location at Hotel Commonwealth and slightly farther from the finish line. And for Garrett Harker, the restaurant's owner, the 2024 Boston Marathon would put his new spot and team to the test. 

"We're learning a lot," Harker said. "Going into it, we weren't even sure if the runners were directly outside of our space or on the other side of Beacon Street."

The best signs spotted along the 128th Boston Marathon route

Photos: Scenes from the 2024 Boston Marathon

What to know about the 2025 Boston Marathon

The beloved institution opened at 8 a.M., earlier than usual to greet an influx of morning risers there for a Fenway-Kenmore double header: first a Red Sox game at 11 a.M., then catching some of the 30,000-plus runners in the marathon.

"We're very excited to be here in this place," said Kimberly Kossick, who had a seat at the bar with her daughter, Bridget Gordon, before the Red Sox game. "The vibe is different, but it's much closer to the Park. Honestly this space is better."

Kossick ordered an Absinthe and Old Lace, a cocktail from the old menu, and shared memories of Eastern Standard, like the time she and her daughter met former Red Sox player Kevin Youkilis — Gordon's favorite player — and Alex Cora before he became the team's manager. When it's been open, Eastern Standard was where Kossick and Gordon started their Marathon Monday every year. 

"We're back!" shouted Michelle Ahern, who made a reservation for her and three friends. 

She said it was her favorite restaurant in Boston before it closed, and now that it's right next to the Lansdowne MBTA station, it's even better. 

The day had an emotional start for Harker because of the showing of some of their former regulars.

"Marathon Monday at Eastern Standard was a day full of almost ritual behavior from a lot of our regulars," Harker said. "When we closed, that was obviously taken away and sort of up in the air. From the morning on, it's been so many familiar faces and regulars giving me a hug and saying 'this is our tradition.'"

Harker said the morning was a decent showing of regulars and first-timers getting back to their Marathon Monday ritual at the brasserie — sisters-in-law at the bar enjoying bloody Mary cocktails, bigger groups of five or more ordering celebratory seafood towers, and Equal Measure was rented out to a private party.

But Harker stressed that this year would be a trial run for future Marathon Mondays, given that it's their first in the new spot, and with a new staff. 

The development of the neighborhood is a positive sign of things to come, but the completion date is still a couple of years out, Harker said, which has resulted in construction, closed sidewalks, and a difficult drive through the neighborhood. Then there's the new location, an anticipated growing pain and not exactly its prime spot along the route in Kenmore Square.

"Once you know how easy it is to get to Fenway from here, I guess you know how to get here," said Jackson Cannon, bar manager of Eastern Standard and adjacent cocktail bar Equal Measure. 

Eastern Standard is finally back. Here's what you can expect.

Mighty Squirrel Brewing Co. Is opening a Fenway location this week

A second Kowloon concept is coming to a New Hampshire casino this summer

And since COVID-19, gone are the days that turn into late nights in Boston, with most customers opting to dine out earlier than before. 

"The 11 p.M. Crowd is gone, and the 9 p.M. Crowd is the 7 p.M. Crowd," said Billy Moran, the general manager of Cornwall's. "The late-night aspect of the city isn't all the way back."

But there were plusses. Harker said they had no idea if the race would run directly in front of their expansive patio until he got in early Monday morning. The space for spectators was tighter than in years past, but it gave some customers the flexibility to leave their seats and join the crowd when they heard the roaring cheers from Beacon Street. 

Speaking of that patio, it was the first day Eastern Standard got to use it — and on such a warm, sunny Marathon Monday. 

And though the morning appeared to be a slower start for Eastern Standard and businesses surrounding the park, fans poured out the stadium and into businesses once the losing game let out.

Guests patronizing some of the new faces to Fenway-Kenmore — like Loco Taqueria & Oyster Bar and Mighty Squirrel Brewing Co., Eastern Standard's neighbor — crowded at bars and hung out of open windows. A new event from an old neighborhood favorite, Cornwall's, was a block party midday, something Moran hopes can become an annual event.

Eastern Standard was equally buzzing with a standing-room-only crowd later in the afternoon, and Harker said they were still expecting a typical Marathon Monday dinner service of runners and their families celebrating the day's major accomplishment.

"It's a good omen," Harker said about the day. "The weather's turned out unbelievable. It's the first time we've used the patio all spring. It just feels like there are a lot of good vibes in the air."

Sign up for The Dish

Stay up to date on the latest food and drink news from Boston.Com.

Conversation This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.Com

---