News & Public Affairs
Sustainable Living: Greener Cities
02/25/08Alan Watts
Tags: green building
Our guests on the program were John Dingfelder, a Tampa City Councilman, and Paul Radauskas, the Sarasota County Building Manager.
We talked about how Sarasota fast-tracks building permits for greener building, and some of the other greener city activties in place there. Mr. Dingfelder wants Tampa to take a similar direction, and he presented some of his ideas for the greening of Tampa.
Be the first to commentClass size task force meets in Tampa listen
02/25/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Monday
Tags: class size, education, Hillsborough County School District
This fall, school classrooms across the state must meet strict class-size limits mandated by a constitutional amendment that Florida voters passed in 2002. But several groups, including the state Legislature are looking at ways to usurp the constitutional mandate and make the class size rules more flexible.
A Class Caps Community Task Force meeting was conducted by Hillsborough County Schools this morning in Tampa.
The class-size reduction amendment sets a limit of no more than 18 stud...
Be the first to commentDingfelder wants campaign finance reforms listen
02/25/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Monday
Tags: Campaign finance
After undergoing a bruising re-election campaign a year ago that saw both candidates spend more than $300,000 for a local elected race, Tampa City Councilman John Dingfelder wants to bring campaign finance reform to the city of Tampa.
To get the community involved and behind his effort, Dingfelder will be hosting a meeting this Wednesday night in Hyde Park on the issue.
Be the first to commentEx-CIA vet: America not serious about stopping terrorism listen
02/25/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Monday
Tags: terrorism
Michael Scheuer served in the CIA for 26 years.
From 1996 to 1999, he served as the chief of the unit tracking Osama bin Laden. He then worked as special adviser to the chief of the bin Laden unit from September 2001 to November 2004.
Scheuer’s new book, Marching Toward Hell: American and Islam After Iraq, essentially says that America’s leaders, Republican and Democratic alike, aren’t serious in trying to quell terrorism aimed at Americans.
WMNF spoke with Michael Scheuer recen...
Be the first to commentLee Siegel on Wikipedia and the Internet listen
02/25/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Monday
Tags: Internet
The website encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the most popular sites on the Internet, but it has many critics, because it allows volunteer writers and editors, including high school students, to work on the system.
In the second part of our interview with cultural critic Lee Siegel, the Brooklyn-based writer expounds on this and other trends on the Internet that’s he’s not a fan of, in his new book, Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob.
Siegel has written f...
Be the first to commentFolks sound off about new stadium proposal
02/22/08 Reif Russell AndersonWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Rays, stadium, Al Lang Field, Tropicana Field
The St. Petersburg City Council held a marathon listening session last night to hear public reaction to a proposed new waterfront stadium for the Rays baseball team.
It was the red shirts versus the white shirts at City Hall in St. Pete last evening. Hundreds of local citizens turned out to be seen and heard, with 109 of them speaking to the Council for three minutes apiece.
Wearing red were those against the proposal to tear down Tropicana Stadium and build a new home for the Rays alon...
Be the first to commentEx-corrections chief blasted prison food service
02/22/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Florida, prisons, Aramark
Last week, WMNF reported on a rally held in Miami by labor and community leaders calling for an investigation of Aramark’s food service contract with Florida’s Department of Corrections.
The activists referenced an audit by a Florida Inspector General which found that Aramark was collecting “windfall profits” from its contract with the state, and that by doing the work for itself, the state could save approximately $7-million a year.
But instead of firing the company, the state gave A...
Be the first to commentBill Nelson speaks at Tiger Bay listen
02/22/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Bill Nelson, Tiger Bay Club, 2008 election, Iraq, Pakistan
Florida’s Democratic senator, Bill Nelson, spoke at the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club in St. Petersburg this afternoon.
Nelson said that because the race for the Democratic nomination for president is so close, there are two potential train wrecks because of the way the party selects its nominee. One involves superdelegates, also known as unpledged delegates, people who can vote at the convention for any candidate, regardless of who the people of their state supported in the primary or caucus....
Be the first to commentCultural critic Lee Siegel blasts "The Machine"
02/22/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Internet, Culture, Journalism
Cultural Critic Lee Siegel has been called by the New York Times Magazine as one of the most "eloquent and acid-tongued critics in the country."
But in 2006, Siegel was suspended by the New Republic magazine for using a pseudonym to respond to critics on the magazine’s website.
After being denounced by the mainstream media, he was given the opportunity write a book on Web culture, a subject he says he always wanted to write about.
In the first of a two-part interview, WMNF sp...
Be the first to commentJob Corps breaks ground on new center listen
02/21/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Job Corps, jobs, youth, Rick Baker, Elaine Chao, Bill Young
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao was in St. Petersburg’s Midtown neighborhood this afternoon to break ground on the Pinellas County Job Corps Center.
Job Corps is a “no-cost education and vocational training program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor,” according to its website.
Chao said the Job Corps Center, which will open in the summer of 2009 at the corner of Fifth Avenue South and Twenty-Second Street South, will cost $40-million to construct. According to Chao, it w...
Be the first to commentTampa code enforcement toughens up listen
02/21/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Tampa City Council, trash ordinance
The Tampa City Council today approved an ordinance that will enforce stricter penalties for property owners who trash their neighborhoods.
Those who commit serious “irreversible violations" would be immediately ticketed and fined, according to the ordinance.
Assistant City Attorney Ernest Mueller said such offenses would be broken into four classes.
People with less serious violations, such as trash in their yards and overgrown grass, would be given a chance to clean things up. Repea...
Be the first to commentCitizens to TECO: Bury power lines listen
02/21/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: TECO
The city of Tampa is negotiating a new franchising agreement with the local power company, Tampa Electric. But the Sierra Club and other parts of the community want to delay approving a new 25-year agreement until TECO can adopt measures such as providing more progressive energy sources and installing underground power lines.
Tampa resident Darren Booth is upset with the current franchise agreement between the city and TECO. He said he has helped develop transmission lines in both the U.S....
Be the first to commentTerrorism expert Jessica Stern speaks at Eckerd
02/20/08 Jamie KidderWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Jessica Stern, author of Terror in the Name of God, spoke at Eckerd College about the causes and effects of international terrorism.
Be the first to commentMartinez on plight of Cuba after Castro listen
02/20/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Cuba, Mel Martinez, Fidel Castro
A day after Fidel Castro resigned as President of Cuba, dozens of Cuban-Americans are waiting in the Miami airport to greet relatives from the island nation. Cuban-born Republican Sen. Mel Martinez said that yesterday’s change just formalized what has already taken place.
WMNF asked Martinez whether he would continue to support the U.S. government policy to restrict the freedom of Americans to travel to Cuba.
“Not until such time as the Cuban people are treated better by their own gover...
Be the first to commentMartinez speaks on health care at Moffitt listen
02/20/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: health care, Mel Martinez, Barack Obama
Republican Sen. Mel Martinez discussed federal health care issues today at the Moffitt Cancer Center on the Tampa campus of the University of South Florida. Martinez said the issue of Floridians without access to health care hit home when he was mayor of Orange County.
He helped open neighborhood health clinics in there. Martinez said health care is an important issue for the future of the country.
The United States spends more money on health care per capita than any other country, but...
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