News & Public Affairs
Book describes conservative effect on Supreme Court listen
02/07/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Supreme Court, Jan Crawford Greenburg
One of the most important decisions that a president can make is selecting a supreme court justice; and the next president could very well make several selections, which will have profound significance on the country’s future.
The battle over the most recent selections on the Court – John Roberts and Samuel Alito – are documented by Supreme Court reporter Jan Crawford Greenburg in her book, Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle of the United States Supreme Court, just issu...
Be the first to commentPinellas DEC holds Super Tuesday returns event
02/06/08 Jamie KidderWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: primaries, obama, hillary, mccain, 2008 election
The Pinellas County Democratic Executive Committee held a Super Tuesday returns party at the Beach Theater in St. Pete Beach.
Be the first to commentHillsborough discusses consolidating services
02/06/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Hillsborough County Commission, Tampa
Hillsborough County Commissioners today discussed how to bridge longstanding differences with the city of Tampa. It was part of dealing with reduced property tax collections coming to local governments in the wake of Amendment 1’s passage.
Commissioner Al Higgenbotham said he wanted to have county staff develop plans to merge the county’s Parks and Recreation department with the city’s.
Higgenbotham and Commissioner Rose Ferlita both told the Tampa Tribune last week that they wanted ...
Be the first to commentSheriff gets support for Ybor barrier
02/06/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Ever since Sept., 11, 2001, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Ybor City has erected barricades between Palm and 8th Avenue along 20th Street.
In addition to interruption the flow of traffic over the past six years, the Barrio Latino Commission is objecting to the Sheriff's Office now wanting to building a wall along 20th Street.
Col. Carl Hawkins from the Sheriff’s Office came before the Hillsborough County Commission today to lobby for support as the request moves to the Tamp...
Be the first to commentSmith and March talk politics at Tiger Bay listen
02/06/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election
St. Petersburg Times Political Editor Adam C. Smith and Tampa Tribune Political Reporter William March spoke today at the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club in St. Petersburg. Both discussed the race for the presidency and yesterday’s Super Tuesday results.
Republican Sen. John McCain emerged as the clear front-runner. Adam Smith said that might not bode well for Florida Democrats because McCain is popular with independents and swing voters.
Smith pointed out that some prominent conservatives ...
Be the first to commentWhy Obama won big in North Dakota
02/06/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: election
While Hillary Clinton was taking some of the biggest states in the country last night, Barack Obama was quietly racking up caucuses throughout the country, some by large margins. In North Dakota, he beat the New York senator by a 61 to 35 percent margin.
During a talk show on WMNF today, one listener asked what led to such disproportionate victories in these caucuses? So this afternoon, WMNF spoke with Kathi Osteen, the office manager of the North Dakota Democratic Party in Bismarck, No...
Be the first to commentPinellas commissioners grapple with budget cuts listen
02/05/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Pinellas Board of County Commissioners, Amendment 1
Today the Pinellas Board of County Commissioners discussed how to deal with an anticipated $50-million in budget cuts that will occur because Florida voters approved Amendment 1 a week ago.
Pinellas County Budget Director John Woodruff proposed two tiers of budget cuts. One level of cuts would be for programs that are considered mandatory or essential. Programs that are non-mandatory or administrative would face higher cuts. Woodruff suggested that the entire budgets of all constitutional ...
Be the first to commentReport urges changes to juvenile justice system listen
02/05/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Florida Juvenile Justice
The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice and the Blueprint Commission today presented a report of recommendations to reform Florida's juvenile justice system. Following a series of six statewide public hearings, the Blueprint Commission created the report to drive future decisions on systematic improvements to the juvenile justice system.
WMNF talked to one of the members of the Blueprint Commission, Irene Sullivan, a juvenile judge in the Unified Family Court in Clearwater.
Gead the ...
Be the first to commentFlorida joins lawsuit over auto emission standards listen
02/05/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Greenhouse Emissions
Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Sole has announced that the DEP has joined the lawsuit filed earlier this year by California seeking to overturn the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s waiver denial.
In December, the EPA denied California’s request for a waiver from federal rules in order to enforce state regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars.
California officials argue that the agency had no legal or technical justification for blo...
Be the first to commentThe Bush 2009 budget proposal
02/05/08 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Tuesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2009 budget
President Bush issued a proposed $3.1 trillion budget yesterday that expands funding for the military while cutting projected spending for Medicare and Medicaid.
After years of running budget deficits, Bush's 2009 budget outlines a path to a surplus by 2012, although that assumes higher taxes on the upper middle class and does not include funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan beyond 2009.
Bush's proposal cuts funding to Medicaid, the joint state-federal program that provides hea...
Be the first to commentPublic Access Channel goes on without county funds listen
02/05/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Hillsborough County Commission, budget cuts
After attempting to cut funding for years, the Hillsborough County Commission last fall pulled the plug on financing the county’s Public Access Channel.
Forced to reduce the budget dues to mandates from the state Legislature last year, the board also cut in half funding of the county’s Education Channel, and warned station operators that there may not be any funding at all next year. The third channel, the county’s Government channel, also saw its budget cut by more than $200,000 – but it...
Be the first to commentCampaign encourages people to seek tax credit listen
02/04/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: earned income tax credit
Millions of low- and middle-income people are eligible for the earned income tax credit of up to $4,700.
A group called the Prosperity Campaign held a press conference and luncheon in Tampa today to draw attention to programs that encourage more people to apply for the tax rebates owed to them by the government.
Anika Coney is program coordinator for the Prosperity Campaign of Hillsborough County, an outreach and education awareness program.
“To ensure that individuals and families ...
Be the first to commentJournalist: Clarence Thomas not afraid to differ
02/04/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Supreme Court, Jan Crawford Greenburg
Since he came on the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas has been considered one of the most reliably conservative voices on the court, a voice that generally blindly follows his mentor, Justice Antonin Scalia.
But court observer Jan Crawford Greenburg writes in her book, Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the U.S. Supreme Court it’s the other way around.
Greenberg, who covers the court for ABC News, writes that "far from being a Scalia lackey, ...
Be the first to commentCorps of Engineers halts Cypress Creek construction
02/04/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: environment, Cypress Creek
The Army Corps of Engineers today visited the work area near the Cypress Creek Town Center in Pasco County, three days after the Corps ordered the developer of the mall to stop work after a second incident involving the discharge of muddy.
Cypress Creek, which flows along the mall site’s west and south sides, is major tributary of the Hillsborough River, which provides Tampa’s drinking water.
The Southwest Florida Water Management District (Swiftmud) announced last week that the agenc...
Be the first to comment'Ground-breaking' health care report
02/04/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Florida Supreme Court, mental health care, justice system
Florida’s problems dealing with the mentally ill hit a low in November 2006 when a Judge threatened to jail the head of the state Department of Children & Families if the agency could not explain why it consistently has failed to get mentally ill jail inmates into psychiatric treatment. That led to a report from the Florida Supreme Court last year that said the needs of people in the justice system who have mental disorders are not being met by the state.
On Saturday, nearly 100 members ...
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