News & Public Affairs
Residents: Tampa Housing Authority policy verges on harassment listen
11/06/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Tampa Housing Authority, Tampa City Council
Last month, Tampa City Council Chairman Thomas Scott called for a formal inquiry into reports by residents of public housing in Tampa, who have complained about some people being harassed by Tampa Police officers.
No word on the mayor taking up that call – but residents say they have been subjected to random stops while walking or driving, visitors have been threatened with trespass warnings, and officers have broken up small gatherings outside people's homes.
Joyce Wiggs said she didn...
Be the first to commentPublic reacts to spending plan for foreclosed property listen
11/06/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Neighborhood Stabilization Program, Hillsborough County, foreclosure, mortgage default
The Hillsborough County Commission today took public comments on how to spend more than $19 million to buy and redevelop foreclosed properties.
The funds are from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, part of the massive housing bill passed by Congress and signed by President Bush earlier this year.
The county thinks it will receive the money from the Department of Housing and Urban Development by next January.
Valerie Turner is from the County’s Affordable Housing Office. She to...
Be the first to commentHillsborough says every vote will be counted listen
11/06/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, Hillsborough County, Supervisor of Elections, voter problems
As the counting of ballots continues in Hillsborough County, two days after the election, two Florida Democrats are calling for Gov. Charlie Crist to intervene.
Senators Charlie Justice and Arthenia Joyner wrote a letter to the governor today, saying that they are concerned that if the situation "continues on its current path, many votes will be unaccounted for.”
The senators say the fact that Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson is on the ballot raises conflict of interest issues as ...
Be the first to commentHudson woman fired after wearing Obama T-shirt to work listen
11/06/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, Barack Obama, civil rights
A Spring Hill woman was fired from her nursing home job in Hernando County today, a day after wearing a homemade Barack Obama T-Shirt the day after the election.
Tracy Thomas has worked at the Windsor Woods Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center for nearly 10 years. She said she was wearing her usual white T-Shirt to work on Wednesday, where she had written in Obama’s name on one side of the shirt with a magic marker, and the phrase “We need a change” on the other side. She said as she was...
Be the first to commentElection problems continue in Hillsborough
11/05/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, Supervisor of Elections, voting problems
Several Hillsborough County races, including Supervisor of Elections, are too close to call based on the number of ballots still to be tallied. Six thousand absentee ballots are being counted today, but as many as 80,000 early votes won’t be tallied until tomorrow.
Hillsborough County had 13 early voting locations and each one of those had two optical scan machines that read and recorded votes. But the results from half of those machines have still not been tallied. That process will begin...
Be the first to commentObama supporters celebrate in Tampa listen
11/05/08 Emily ReddyWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, Barack Obama, Democrats
The Florida O-Train made its final stop last night in Tampa. Volunteers, staff and local leaders in President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign gathered at the Tampa Waterside Marriott to await election results.
An early surge for Obama in electoral votes, including a win in the coveted state of Pennsylvania put the crowd into an expectant but reserved mood. Then Ohio went blue, and most of the crowd seemed convinced he had won.
Alice Montalvo was overjoyed to hear that Hillsborough, w...
Be the first to commentSome Hillsborough races still not determined listen
11/05/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Several Hillsborough County races, including Supervisor of Elections, are too close to call based on the number of ballots still to be tallied. About 6,000 absentee ballots are being counted today, but as many as 80,000 early votes won’t be tallied until tomorrow.
Hillsborough County had 13 early voting locations and each one of those had two optical scan machines that read and recorded votes. But the results from half of those machines have still not been tallied. That process will begin ...
Be the first to commentA Post-Election Call In Show
11/05/08 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Wednesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Oral History, Story Corps, Barack Obama2008 Presidential Election
Welcome to Radioactivity. We’ll open the phone lines in a few minutes and get your comments about yesterday’s election results- including the selection of Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States. We’ll also hear about the ongoing problems with the vote count in Hillsborough County. And we’ll hear from David Isay, the founder of Story Corps, the Oral History project that is coming to Tampa in a few weeks to gather stories of ordinary Americans and put those stories in the Li...
Be the first to commentTechnical difficulties delay Hillsborough vote totals
11/05/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, Hillsborough County, Supervisor of Elections, Phyllis Busansky, Buddy Johnson
So why are the results from Hillsborough County still not in?
Technical difficulties stopped the counting of votes early this morning with tens of thousands of ballots cast during early voting still not tabulated.
Tampa Political Consultant Vic DiMaio was at the Supervisor of Elections office until 3:30 this morning.
One race that is still undecided as of late this afternoon is the battle between Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson, and Democratic challenger Phy...
Be the first to commentDiMaio on why Hillsborough Democrats continue to flounder listen
11/05/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, Kevin Beckner, Brian Blair, Hillsborough County Commission
The big story in Florida and the Tampa Bay area is the lack of coattails for Barack Obama.
The Illinois senator took Hillsborough, Pinellas and nearly won Sarasota, counties that have all gone Republican in recent elections. He also swamped John McCain in Orange County, on the eastern side of the critical I-4 Corridor.
Despite that success, down ballot candidates with an R attached to their name did much better than Democrats in a variety of state and local races. In Pinellas County, R...
Be the first to commentFlorida Secretary of State addresses voting problems listen
11/05/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, voting, Hillsborough County, Premiere Election Solutions, optical scan voting
Florida Secretary State Kurt Browning boasted today that Florida’s relatively successful general election yesterday should exorcise the ghosts of the 2000 disputed contest.
Voter participation actually was lower in Florida than in 2004. In Hillsborough County, vote tabulation issues prompted the county's canvassing board chairman to shut down the vote counting process shortly before 3:30 a.m. Problems with 13 early voting machines and problems with accessing data at two precincts are cite...
Be the first to commentKevin Beckner on possible commission victory listen
11/05/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, Kevin Beckner, Brian Blair, Hillsborough County Commission District 6
In Hillsborough County, the two most interesting races remained undecided as of late this afternoon were the races for County Commission and Supervisor of Elections.
Financial planner Kevin Beckner was poised to upset Republican incumbent Brian Blair in District 6.
Beckner, 37, was an unknown who put together a grassroots effort to win the Democratic Primary in late August, and then as an underfinanced candidate against Blair.
As the results started trickling in last night in his fav...
Be the first to commentVoting problems surface in Florida
11/05/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday
Tags: 2008 election, voting
Voting Rights Advocates reported a number of problems at the polls. Perhaps the biggest problems statewide is optical scan ballots getting jammed and not being counted.
In some cases, blame was being cast on poll workers for folding the ballots too tightly.
Marcia Johnson-Blanco is with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. She said a problem in Hillsborough County in at least two polling places – at the Westchase Swim and Tennis Center and the American Legion Post on Sh...
Be the first to commentHackworth holds his head high in loss to Bill Young listen
11/05/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Bill, 2008 election, Vern Buchanan, Christine Jennings, Jan Schneider, District 13, Bob Hackworth, C.W. Young, District 10
There were no suprises in any of the Tampa Bay congressional races.
GOP incumbents Ginny Brown-Waite, Gus Bilirakis, Adam Putnam, Bill Young and Vern Buchanan all won re-election, as did Tampa area Democrat Kathy Castor.
Two years ago, Buchanan defeated Democrat Christine Jennings in a disputed race by just 369 votes, in an election that had more than 18,000 undervotes. That was not the case last night. Buchanan crushed Jennings by a 55 to 38 percent margin.
In District 10 in Pinella...
Be the first to commentAlex Sink predicts Obama victory in Florida listen
11/04/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Around midday, WMNF asked some Hillsborough County voters if they ran into any troubles while voting.
WMNF spoke with Alex Sink, Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, outside a polling location at the Seminole Heights Baptist Church.
Sink, a Democrat and Obama supporter, predicted he would win the state.
“I feel like Obama’s going to carry Florida.”
In central and West Tampa, WMNF encountered mostly Obama supporters, including two women who waved signs as traffic on Columbus Drive pa...
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