News & Public Affairs
Tampa Democrats come out to support Obama listen
01/28/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, Barack Obama
Although Barack Obama has not made any campaign appearances in Florida since his pledge with the other Democratic candidate not to appear in the Sunshine state, several local Tampa politicians came out today to show their support for his candidacy.
About 35 Obama supporters appeared in Tampa’s Lykes Park for a news conference this morning, a day before Floridians go to the polls.
On the same day that the liberal lion in the U.S. Senate, Edward Kennedy, endorsed Obama, Tampa Democratic ...
Be the first to commentFilm shows Guilani's controversial tenure as NYC mayor listen
01/28/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Rudy Giuliani, welfare
One of the accomplishments that Rudy Guiliani boasts of on the campaign trail is how he was able to move so many people off the welfare rolls in New York as mayor in the 1990s. But as the 2006 documentary, Guiliani Time depicts, it came at a huge cost to many of those people who were on welfare.
Kevin Keating was the director of that film, and tells WMNF why he devotes so much time in his film to that part of Guiliani's tenure in New York.
Be the first to commentGOP candidates trade negative barbs listen
01/28/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, Florida, primary
New Polls released today on the GOP side show the race for in Florida is literally too close to call. A Quinnipiac poll has John McCain up by a point over Mitt Romney, 33 to 32 percent.
But another poll released this afternoon by a small polling organization out of North Carolina, Public Policy Polling, has Mitt Romney up by 7 points on the eve of the race.
Tom Jensen is the communications director for Public Policy Polling. He says voters are starting to choose Romney in big numbers....
Be the first to commentMcCain holds national security roundtable at UT listen
01/25/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, John McCain
This afternoon, Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain held what he called a National Security Roundtable at the University of Tampa.
WMNF’s Seán Kinane reports that government and military leaders discussed the major security issues that McCain is emphasizing during the run-up to Tuesday’s presidential primary in Florida.
McCain is a leading supporter of President George W. Bush’s strategy to escalate the number of troops in Iraq. McCain said the Democratic candidates for p...
Be the first to commentSt. Pete okays two homeless ordinances listen
01/25/08 Reif Russell AndersonWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: St. Petersburg City Council, homeless
Last night at St. Petersburg’s City Hall, City Council members voted unanimously to approve two new laws that will strongly impact the daily existence of the hundreds of homeless citizens who live in the downtown area.
The ordinances, which take effect on Feb. 1, make it unlawful to sleep on downtown sidewalks during the day or leave personal items such as clothing and bedding along the public right of way.
Melissa Mohr was among the two dozen concerned citizens who spoke for three min...
Be the first to commentColumnist discusses economic stimulus plan listen
01/25/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: economic stimulus
The White House is warning the Senate not to tinker with a bipartisan economic stimulus plan designed to pump about $150-billion into the economy this year. The White House is pressing for quick action and leaders in the House fear that if the Senate attempts to rework the legislation, the deal could come apart.
The measure -- announced yesterday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Republican leader John Boehner and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson -- would provide rebate checks to 117 million ...
Be the first to commentGlobal warming might decrease hurricane frequency listen
01/24/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: global warming, hurricanes
A new study concludes that the warming of the world’s oceans due to global climate change may actually decrease the number of hurricanes that make landfall in the United States.
In a paper published yesterday in the Journal of Geophysical Research Letters, Miami-based scientists Chunzai Wang and Sang-Ki Lee write that warming seas are associated with an increase in vertical wind shear in the region where Atlantic hurricanes develop.
According to the report, the increased wind shear a...
Be the first to commentUSF, police union agree on new contract listen
01/24/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: USF, University Police Department
After months of negotiations, the University of South Florida reached an agreement Tuesday with the Police Benevolent Association on a contract for the University Police Department. Yesterday, the police ratified the contract by a vote of 24-4.
The University Police had suggested that they were understaffed, in part because their low salary scale; officials said they could not compete with nearby police departments, leading to a high turnover of officers.
Sandy Lovins is associate vice ...
Be the first to commentTampa Council uphappy with Green Ordinance timetable listen
01/24/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Tampa, green building
Currently, the city of Tampa has no LEED certified "green" buildings. Nor does it have a green building ordinance, or any incentives for developers to be environmentally sustainable.
That’s led City Councilman John Dingfelder to put together his own task force to create a Green Building Ordinance. Prompted by his actions, an official with the Pam Iorio administration came before the Council today to report on the status of the administration’s own green building ordinance.
Council memb...
Be the first to comment"Guiliani Time" available on DVD listen
01/24/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, New York Times
In today’s editions of The New York Times, the paper endorsed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic race, and John McCain in the GOP contest.
In giving their support to McCain, which might actually hurt the Arizona Senator in the Primaries, given the low regard that some conservatives hold the Times in, the editorial said, “the choice was an easy one, with Mccain being the only Republican who promises to end the George Bush style of governing from and on behalf of a small, angry fringe”.
Bu...
Be the first to commentFilmmaker: Guiliani won't step aside easily listen
01/24/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, Rudy Giuliani
Documentary filmmaker Kevin Keating produced and directed a powerful film in 2006 about Rudy Guiliani’s tenure as mayor in New York, called Guiliani Time.
A Brooklyn resident, Keating says don’t expect Guiliani to drop out of the GOP race for president if he does not win in Florida next week.
Be the first to commentGOP candidates rated on global warming issues listen
01/24/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: global warming
Global warming activists and other concerned citizens planned on rallying in front of the parking lot of Barry Kaye Auditorium, the building on the Florida Atlantic University Campus where the Republicans will be holding their nationally televised debate tonight.
They’ll be led by Nikki Benoit, the Florida organizer for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. Benoit has been present at nearly all the events involving the candidates campaigning in Florida the past couple months. She says he...
Be the first to commentDo or die for Guiliani tonight listen
01/24/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, primaries
Two new polls show the Florida GOP presidential primary Tuesday is too close to call, and tonight’s nationally televised debate from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton could have a decisive impact on next week’s winner.
A Strategic Visions Poll released this morning shows John McCain leading with 25 percent of the vote, Rudy Guiliani is second with 22 percent, Mitt Romney at 20 percent and Mike Huckabee at 18 percent. That contrasts with a St. Pete Times/Miami Herald poll releas...
Be the first to commentRomney tours Moffitt Cancer Center listen
01/23/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, Mitt Romney
With less than a week to go before Floridians vote on who they want to be the presidential nominees in the two major political parties, Republican candidates are campaigning heavily in the state.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was on the University of South Florida campus today touring the Moffitt Cancer Center and speaking to Moffitt employees. Romney said he stands a good a chance of becoming president because he appeals to all types of conservatives.
One direct benefit Romney ...
Be the first to commentDemocrats urge candidates to campaign here listen
01/23/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, Florida, primaries
A group of elected Democrats held a news conference today to formally ask the Democratic Party chairs in the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, to release the candidates for president from their no-campaign pledge in Florida.
The major candidates all signed such a pledge after the Democratic National Committee declared that no delegates would be awarded in the Jan. 29 primary because the state went against DNC rules in pushing the primary up to January....
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