Published by SWLing.com contributor Paul Walker
From Politico:
A federal judge agreed Tuesday to block the Trump administration from dismantling Voice of America, the 83-year-old international news service created by Congress.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the administration illegally required Voice of America to cease operations for the first time since its World War II-era inception.
(Their article is here: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/22/voice-of-america-donald-trump-00303983)
From The Washington Post:
Staffers at the government-funded Voice of America news service can go back to work, a federal judge in Washington ruled on Tuesday.
Another article is here: https://democracyforward.org/updates/voa-pi-granted/
Associated Press Story: https://apnews.com/article/voice-of-america-trump-f30c48df0c16de622ec5fd99ee6c627c
Just curious as to how many swling readers have listened to VOA “behind enemy lines” ?
I once turned on a Sony 7600A am/fm/sw radio to VOA and heard that an earthquake had occurred in Western KY in a region where there were coal mines. I was in Communist Mainland China and that very day had sat through a long boring lecture on how the Chinese tried to prevent deaths in their coal mines when strong earth quakes happened.
In 1979 the U of KY Mining Engineering Dept telephoned me and asked if I would give a tour of a coal cleaning plant and a few coal mines to a “visiting delegation of Communist Chinese Mining Engineers on a goodwill tour of the USA.” { I routinely did this once a year for 15 to 25 college students in U-KY Mining Engineering Degree classes}
I got special permission to do this. It went off mostly un-noticed, except for 3 of our mining employees who were veterans of the Korean War. My own father reminded me of the story of his childhood friend Paul Blazer Jr, son of the founder of Ashland Oil Company, who died in just a few days of combat inside the “Pusan Perimeter”. There is a memorial to Lt Paul Blazer Jr at U of KY.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Pusan_Perimeter
Later the Chinese invited USA citizens to visit their mines, including me and 9 others. Another USA citizen invited was Dr Tony Robbins, MD who was then head of US NIOSH ( National Institute of of Occupational Science & Health). One unforgettable moment was when Dr Robbins, myself, translators and Chinese engineers were standing next to a large open topped tank filled with diesel fuel but where vast numbers of bubbles were rising to the surface of the oil. This was at an old “Oil Shale Rock to Petroleum Conversion Plant” built in 1940 that the Mainland Chinese were still operating.
Dr Robbins asked “What are the bubbles?
The translator asked the local plant Engineer, then said to us in English: “The bubbles are carbon oxide gas.”
Dr Robbins said: Oh, you mean carbon dioxide gas?
The local Plant Engineer apparently understood some English, began shaking his head “No” and pulled out a notebook and wrote the two english letters “C-O” on paper and showed it to us. CARBON MONOXIDE GAS.
Dr Robbins and I quickly stepped away from that open topped tank.
Later Dr Robbins and several other USA visitors went to a Chinese Hospital and witnessed an surgical operation done with no anesthesia gases whatsoever, and only acupuncture for pain relief. I did not see this.
Another moment: We were being driven to an iron mine in a minibus and passed a factory where the Chinese were obviously building brand new coal fired steam locomotives. Several members of our group were train enthusiasts and began shouting:
Stop the minibus!
We want to take pictures!
We want you to give us a tour of that loco factory!
Our two “Chinese Translator/Guides” both suddenly alarmed but said:
We cannot do that.
We have no permission.
It is impossible.
We can only call in tonight and ask permission. ( no permission was granted)
I later visited Communist Poland’s coal and copper mines, again with 2 U-KY Mining Engineering Professors originally born in Poland. This during 1983 communist times under Polish General Wojciech Jaruzelski
Not as eventful as China. Did listen to VOA English for news on the Sony 7600A. Did totally make a fool of myself when asked by female Polish college students: “show us the newest USA rock music dancing moves.”
The Sony 7600A met “a sad gooey end.”
I gifted it to a newly graduated woman minister going to Bolivia to do missionary work for a Methodist Church group. I showed her how to take the batteries out and put the batteries in a sealed plastic bag while traveling. She did this.
However, on one trip she had multiple extra bottles of shampoo and laundry detergent in her suitcase with the Sony 7600A. Rough baggage handlers “did a number” on that suitcase…. need I say more?
I am very happy to learn this. I’ve been a listener of VOA since the early 1980s and I owe a great deal to learning English and also what public radio should be. Thanks Paul for such great news!
Another link from AP news: https://apnews.com/article/voice-of-america-trump-f30c48df0c16de622ec5fd99ee6c627c
Good news as far as I and my wife are concerned , we used to listen to VOA,RFE and AFR overseas both in Guam and Japan and Lamod.ITaly! May of us on the military did as did the civilians !
Keep the going!!!!