News & Public Affairs
Tarpon Springs rules against Wal-Mart listen
01/17/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Tarpon Springs, Walmart
Critics of a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter in Tarpon Springs are cheering a decision last night by the city’s Board of Adjustment.
The board voted 3-2 to accept an appeal by several concerned citizens to treat changes to the approved site plan for the store as “major" rather than "minor."
Colin Fisk is an organizer with the group Wal-Mart Alliance for Reform Now and one of those protesting the proposal.
If Wal-Mart continues with the project, the changes to the site plan must be c...
Be the first to commentHometown Democracy likely won't make the ballot listen
01/17/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Hometown Democracy Amendment, same sex marriage
Earlier this week we reported on how a problem with the Secretary of State’s office has now put in jeopardy at least one potential constitutional amendment that Floridians were to vote on this November.
The Florida Secretary of State’s office learned late last week that some signatures had been counted twice, and therefore the proposal to ban same sex marriage still needs 22,000 more signatures to make it on the ballot.
The Florida Hometown Democracy Movement also needs more signatures...
Be the first to commentCrist stumps for Amendment One in Tampa listen
01/16/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Amendment 1, taxes
Gov. Charlie Crist arrived by bus at a South Tampa home this afternoon to tout the Yes On 1 campaign. Floridians vote in less than two weeks on Amendment 1, which could lower the property taxes of most Floridians by an average of about $240 per year.
One argument against Amendment 1 is that local governments will have to lay off even more police officers and firefighters because of revenue shortfalls. But Crist doesn’t buy that.
Florida’s public schools will lose an estimated $1.6-billi...
Be the first to commentObama, Clinton trade accusations listen
01/16/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, Barack Obama, Florida, Hillary Clinton, primaries, Michigan
The Democratic candidates for president showed little interest in last night’s Michigan primary, instead participating in Las Vegas in a nationally televised debate, four days before the important Nevada Caucuses.
That’s because the Democratic National Committee had already declared that the delegates won in Michigan would not count, because of penalties the DNC imposed on Michigan Democrats for violating party rules by holding a primary in January.
It’s the exact same penalty imposed...
Be the first to commentCandidates urged to focus on health care, finances
01/16/08 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Thursday)
Tags: health care, Divided We Fail
A new coalition has formed that is calling on the presidential candidates to focus on the issues of health care and finacial security. The group is called Divided We Fail and our guest was Jeff Johnson, Florida campaign manager. The coalition includes the SEIU, the Business Roundtable and the AARP.
From the group's publicity information says: "Skyrocketing health care affects everyone from the family without insurance to those who find themselves paying higher and higher rates and deduct...
Be the first to commentAmendment One on agenda at Largo meeting listen
01/16/08 Reif Russell AndersonWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Amendment 1
Last night in Largo, citizens listened and learned as Amendment One information was shared in a town hall meeting at the local library.
The crowd of about 100 concerned citizens settled quietly in their seats and listened patiently to five guest speakers. The voters heard persuasive rationales for either accepting or rejecting the proposed Florida Constitutional amendment to cut property taxes for homesteaders and make Save Our Homes tax caps portable.
Both sides of the issue sparked e...
Be the first to commentTraffic offenders caught on tape? listen
01/16/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Hillsborough County Commission, red-light cameras
Hillsborough County Commissioners took the first step today toward approving placement of video cameras at certain traffic intersections to nab motorists who run red lights.
A motion by Commission Chair Ken Hagen will have the county’s legal department review a proposed ordinance that supporters say will not cost taxpayers any money.
Two officials from the Hillsborough County Sherriff’s Department then made a presentation to the Commissioners. A corporal recited statistics from New York...
Be the first to commentHillsborough reconsiders use of school impact fee issue listen
01/16/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Hillsborough County Commission, impact fees
The Hillsborough County Commission deferred ruling on the use of school impact fees to be used for transportation improvements.
Commission Chairman Ken Hagen said he had concerns about how it would actually work out and he says the county should try to work out an amicable solution with the School Board. This was after Hillsborough Superintendent Mary Ellen Elia wrote to the commission saying that using impact fees to build new roads was wrong and possibly illegal.
Commissioner Jim Norm...
Be the first to commentHillsborough Planning Commissioner denied funds listen
01/16/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Hillsborough Planning Commission
Hillsborough Planning Commissioner Robert Hunter today failed to get $100,000 appropriated to his agency for a new study for the year 2050.
Commissioner Brian Blair asked if it was possible to fully assess what the county will need in four decades?
Hunter said that his concern now is that road builders are trying to reserve rights of way without a lot of land use input.
Commissioner Jim Norman said with the budget woes the county is facing, and could face if Amendment One passes lat...
Be the first to commentReport: Minorities most affected by mortgage crisis
01/15/08 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Tuesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Foreclosure, Subprime mortgages
In the past eight years, U.S. mortgage companies targeted African Americans, Latinos and low-income people as the "best candidates" for subprime home loans, according to a new report from United For A Fair Economy.
The report, released today, says that subprime mortgages, home loans issued to Americans with questionable finances, were "ruthlessly hawked" and that a "solid majority of subprime loan recipients were people of color."
Hundreds of thousands of families lost their homes to f...
Be the first to commentHistorian looks back at McGovern campaign listen
01/15/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, Bruce Miroff
Some see the battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as a fight not just for the nomination of the Democratic Party, but also the heart and soul of the Democratic Party.
A new book looks at the transformation of American liberalism and 60s idealism from the political crash in 1972, to what he calls the "muddled centrism" of the 21st century.
Bruce Miroff is author of The Liberals Moment: The McGovern Insurgency and the Identity Crises of the Democratic Party. WMNF asked him ...
Be the first to commentSome initiatives may not make it onto ballot listen
01/15/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: same sex marriage, Florida Hometown Democracy Campaign
Two of the better known potential Constitutional Amendments that were supposed to be on this November’s ballot are now in jeopardy of not making it there.
The Florida Department of State released revised counts of signatures gathered for half a dozen citizen initiatives hoping to go before voters.
One of them, the proposed ban on same sex marriage, had already qualified for the ballot; now it needs to gather 22,000 more signatures.
Likewise, the Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment ...
Be the first to commentAn Interview With One Of The Country's Leading Critics Of Nuclear Power
01/14/08 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Friday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: nuclear power, Karl Grossman
Karl Grossman is a professor of journalism at SUNY at Old Westbury. On his blog he's recently written:
"The Move to "Revive" Nuclear Power There’s again a move on to “revive” nuclear power. Every decade or so those with a vested interest in this deadly dangerous technology have sought to get the public to swallow the nuclear pill—and that’s happening again.
The promotion has consistently been based on falsehoods. For example, in a heavy push years back—during a gasoline shortage that ...
Be the first to commentMedea Benjamin on anti-Posada demonstration in Miami listen
01/14/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Luis Posada Carriles, CodePink
Anti-Castro terrorist Luis Posada Carriles lives free in the United States, despite being wanted by the Cuban and Venezuelan governments on charges that he plotted the deadly bombing of a Cuban jetliner in 1976.
Last Saturday, protesters demanding the arrest of Posada Carriles called off a demonstration in a Miami neighborhood after his supporters attacked them.
A group of about 15 women from the peace group CodePink had planned a news conference outside a restaurant in Little Havana bu...
Be the first to commentBush doesn't believe Iran nuke report
01/14/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Iran, Israel, nuclear weapons, National Intelligence Estimate (NIE)
Newsweek magazine is reporting that President George Bush in discussions last week with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert all but disowned the National Intelligence Estimate released last month that says that Iran halted its nuclear program back in 2003.
An anonymous "senior administration official" tells Newsweek that Bush told the Israelis that he "can’t control what the intelligence community says, but that the conclusions in the NIE don’t reflect his own views.”
The magazine r...
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