News & Public Affairs

KidCare health insurance has 33,000 openings listen

09/06/07 Seán Kinane
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Enrollment in the state's KidCare program is down.

Florida’s health insurance program for low- and middle-income children had 33,000 open spots as recently as the beginning of the school year.

This is quite a change from three years ago when there was a waiting list for families to enroll in KidCare. But the state is engaged in a $1-million campaign to promote enrollment, including sending 2.7 million applications home with schoolchildren.

Rose Naff is executive director of the Flor...

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Law change traps Lakeland children in Israel listen

09/05/07 Seán Kinane
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The Yacoub family of Lakeland has been split apart because of a controversial Israeli travel policy that makes it difficult or impossible for Palestinian Americans to fly through Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport.

On Aug. 18, the family was at the airport attempting to return home to Lakeland after spending the summer with relatives and attending the weddings of two sons in the West Bank.

This afternoon at the Tampa office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), t...

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A SOLDIER AND A JOURNALIST GIVE US AN EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF THE IRAQ OCCUPATION

09/05/07 Robert Lorei
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Coming up today, we'll meet a soldier from the bay area who was stationed in Iraq but became a contientous objector.

We'll also meet a journalist who spent time in Iraq and is working on a website which focuuses on the difficult conditions facing some U.S. military members as they return from Iraq.

Our guest is Aidan Delgado; he was a student at New College of Florida in Sarasota when his Army Reserve unit was activated and sent to Iraq in 2003.

He has written a book about his experi...

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Conservative talk show host: Surge is working in Iraq

09/05/07 Mitch E. Perry
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Next week, in a much anticipated hearing, the top military commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, will addresss Congress on the status of the war.

It is assumed that the two will say the surge is working, but that it will require more time to achieve the desired result.

The hearings and subsequent congressional vote on the troops in Iraq has been supplemented by an ad campaign by the group FreedomsWatch.org, adv...

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Wal-Mart urged to halt sale of cypress mulch

09/05/07 Mitch E. Perry
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The Save Our Cypress Coalition continues to call on Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Lowe’s to stop selling cypress mulch that is not certified as sustainable, no matter where the logging occurs.

While cautiously celebrating Wal-Mart’s move in Louisiana, the coalition has accumulated formal letters signed by more than 160 organizations from across the U.S. and around the world asking that the retailers stop selling cypress mulch.

Supporters include conservation groups, garden clubs, anglers, e...

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McCollum launches cybersafety program

09/05/07 Mitch E. Perry
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Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum visited a school in Tampa today to discuss his statewide educational cybersafety program.

Speaking at Rampello Magnet Downtown Partnership School, McCollum said targeting sexual predators who use the Internet was one of his top priorities since he took office in January.

In other news, McCollum recently joined with more than 30 attorneys general nationwide to urge Congress to crack down on deceptive student loan practices.

For more informat...

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Advocates urge Pinellas to keep public access TV

09/05/07 Arielle Stevenson
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Public access advocates gathered at the Clearwater courthouse Tuesday night to try and save Pinellas access television from the budgetary chopping block.

With the final vote on the budget coming up in two weeks, the downstairs lobby of the Clearwater Courthouse was filled with about 150 people, and more seated upstairs in the commission boardroom for the Pinellas County Board of Commisioner’s public hearing. Many were there on behalf of public access, to try once more to save what many des...

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Democrats try to resolve primary turmoil

09/05/07 Mitch E. Perry
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Florida Democratic leaders intend to meet on Friday in Tampa to try to reach a compromise that would allow presidential contenders to campaign in the state.

According to the Miami Herald, one of the potential compromises being considered is a party meeting after Feb. 5 to allocate a full slate of convention delegates to the presumptive nominee, regardless of how the state votes on Jan. 29.

Another proposal would have Florida cuts its slate of Democratic delegates in half as punishment...

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CONSTITUTIONAL SCHOLAR SAYS U.S. IS LESS SAFE LESS FREE

09/04/07 Robert Lorei
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In "Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror," law professors David Cole and Jules Lobel argue that the U.S. is losing the war on terror because its policy of pre-emptively going after suspected terrorists or countries that are suspected of being connected to terrorism.

David Cole a professor of Law at Georgetown University joins us on the phone. He’ll be speaking in Tampa later this week.

The authors note that the administration "is fond of reminding us that no terrorist ...

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AARP weighs in on Florida primary controversy listen

09/04/07 Mitch E. Perry
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The AARP has become one of the first nonpartisan groups to weigh in on Democratic Party's conflict over the 2008 primary.

The AARP is criticizing the Democratic National Committee's move to make the Jan. 29 primary non-binding, by taking away all its delegates.

Jeff Johnson is the manager of state operations for the Florida AARP.

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Pinellas, Hillsborough TV stations scramble to retain funds listen

09/04/07 Mitch E. Perry
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Tonight in Clearwater, producers and supporters of public access are going before the Pinellas County Commission to urge the Board not to cut funding for the television station.

Tonight is the first of two public budget hearings, but advocates say this may be their only real chance to persuade a majority of Commissioners not to accept the recommendation of the Pinellas County Communications Department to completely eliminate funding for the channel. (Full funding for the Education and Gove...

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S.C. drops charges against USF students

09/04/07 Mitch E. Perry
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A South Carolina prosecutor says that with a federal indictment already in place, state charges will be dismissed against two Egyptian-born USF students who were stopped last month with what authorities said were pipe bombs.

Ahmed Abda Sherf Mohamed, 24, and Yousef Samir Megahed, 21, were arrested on state charges of possession of an explosive device following an Aug. 5 traffic stop in Goose Creek.

The men told police they had fireworks in the car and were driving through the area to va...

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Butterworth presents homeless grant awards listen

09/04/07 Seán Kinane
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This morning at Hillsborough High School in Tampa, the Department of Children and Families presented more than a half-million dollars in grant money to groups helping the homeless. The purpose of these challenge grant awards is to provide shelter, food and assistance to the homeless.

DCF Secretary Bob Butterworth told WMNF about the grant program.

“We’re giving out today 22 grants totaling $2.1 million for use for homelessness in order to help break the cycle of homelessness. Here in Hi...

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Union leader on uniting American workers

09/04/07 Mitch E. Perry
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Labor Day was observed throughout the country, and in Tampa yesterday.

Andy Stern is president of the 1.8 million-member Service Employees International Union, or SEIU.

After launching a national debate about the fundamental change needed to unite the nine out of 10 American workers who have no organization at work, Stern led SEIU out of the AFL-CIO and founded Change to Win, a new 6-million member federation of seven major unions dedicated to giving workers a voice at their jobs....

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