News & Public Affairs
Green jobs could stimulate the economy listen
05/16/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
As we have reported this week, television ads featuring Florida business officials advocating climate change are currently airing in several different markets throughout the state, including Florida.
The effort, funded by the Environmental Defense Fund and the Florida Wildlife Federation, is aimed at getting citizens to get behind a bill in the U.S. Senate up for a vote next month. The bill, sponsored by Virginia’s John Warner and Connecticut’s Joe Lieberman, aims to cut carbon emissions i...
Be the first to commentStrategizing to save public TV channels listen
05/15/08 by Dawn MorganWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: FL PIRG, TBCN, PEG Channels
A strategy session was held this morning at Tampa Bay Community Network (TBCN) to discuss ways citizens can rally and amend Florida’s Consumer Choice Act of 2007, which threatens Florida’s public access, education and government TV channels, known as PEG channels.
Mark Hart is a former journalist who in 2008 became the statewide organizer for the Florida Media Coalition, after TBCN and the Florida Public Interest Research Group (FL PIRG) received a joint grant to create the position.
H...
Be the first to commentRays present stadium financial plan listen
05/15/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Rays stadium, Tropicana Field, taxes, St. Petersburg City Council
The Tampa Bay Rays presented their preliminary financial plan for a $450 million waterfront stadium to the St. Petersburg City Council today.
The Rays said the plan would not require any new tax funding until after 2016, when a hotel tax would have to be reauthorized to continue to fund the new stadium. Before his presentation to City Council,
But the idea of including $55 million in parking revenue generated from city parking lots as part of the 61 percent the Rays consider the privat...
1 commentsConsumer activist discusses high oil, gas prices
05/15/08 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Thursday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: gasoline, oil companies, oil drilling, Fuel Prices
First up today: gasoline prices. The national average for a gallon of regular gas hit another record today, coming in at $3.776 per gallon, according to an overnight survey of 85,000 filling stations conducted by the AAA.
The increase is the fourth day this week that gas prices hit an all-time high; it came as prices increased for the seventh consecutive week, with the cumulative increase totaling just over 46-cents, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Some analysts pr...
Be the first to commentWestshore canal residents to vote on dredging listen
05/15/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
The Tampa City Council today approved a proposal to hold a referendum for selected citizens on dredging canals in the Westshore area later this year.
The issue of cleaning up the canals in the Westshore and Davis Islands area has been an ongoing issue for years, but in 2005, city officials began meeting with local residents to come up with a plan. At that time, the conservative estimate to clean up some of those canals was estimated around $6 to $7 million dollars, which would cost residen...
Be the first to commentBusiness leaders fight climate change listen
05/15/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Environment, Global Warming
A new television ad campaign will feature 30-second clips of companies that have made changes to their businesses to reduce their impact on global warming.
The ads are being produced by the Environmental Defense Fund and the Florida Wildlife Federation. Patrick Detcher, a consultant with the Tallahassee Antique Car Museum, said the museum contains one of the largest collections of classic cars in the state. It also is outfitted with the largest solar array in the state, with 50 kilowatts...
3 commentsNuclear workers still looking for compensation listen
05/14/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: nuclear weapons, cancer, Bill Young, Samm Simpson, labor
Beginning in 1957, Pinellas County was home to a plant that built triggers for nuclear weapons. Some of that Largo plant’s former workers claim that they were exposed to toxic substances and are fighting for compensation.
Dave Bossard worked at the General Electric Neutron Devices plant for 34 years and eventually became a supervisor. His duties included supervising the area that contained the chemical storage building. He said the workers were exposed to 473 “deadly toxins … chemicals an...
Be the first to commentTPD to reduce helicopter usage listen
05/14/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
The Tampa Police Department has liberally used helicopters for surveillance over the past few years – particularly in Ybor City and Seminole Heights. But flying and maintaining those helicopters doesn’t come cheap, so copter usage will be reduced to save money as part of the department’s plan to cut its budget by more than $1 million.
Major John Bennett, with the Tampa Police Department, says the city will begin using the five helicopters up to a third less and save more than $300,000 a ye...
Be the first to commentTV ad campaigning on climate change begins listen
05/14/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Environment, Global Warming
A new television ad campaign advocating for combating climate change begins airing today throughout Florida.
The campaign is being sponsored by two environmental groups who have recruited a dozen business and community leaders.
Jay Liles is a policy consultant with the Florida Wildlife Federation. He says that his group can do all the advocating in the world, but it won’t have as much impact as the businesss community embracing climate change.
Gerry Karnas is the Florida climate p...
Be the first to commentTaylor Peace Academy to open in the fall listen
05/13/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
The first elementary school in Florida dedicated to nonviolence, conflict resolution and peace education will open in Tampa this fall. It’s called the Taylor Peace Academy and they will hold an open house this Saturday in Temple Terrace for parents who are interested in finding out more.
The school will be located at 2304 E. Busch Blvd., a few blocks west of Busch Gardens. The Taylor Peace Academy open house is this Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon at the Temple Terrace library.
This mornin...
Be the first to commentAuthor Norman Finkelstein discusses Mideast listen
05/13/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Palestine, Israel, international law, New College of Florida
Norman Finkelstein is an author and former history professor. Last year he was fired from his faculty position at DePaul University following a very public and contentious battle over whether he would receive tenure. Many people from outside the university opposed Finkelstein receiving tenure because of his criticism of some actions of the Israeli government.
Finkelstein will speak tonight at New College in Sarasota at 7 p.m.; his topic: the roots of conflict and the prospects for peace i...
Be the first to commentPaul Hawken interview - Part 2 listen
05/13/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: movements, social justice, environmental justice, empire, indigenous activism
Paul Hawken is an activist and the author of Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice and Beauty to the World. The book was released in paperback in March.
WMNF spoke with Hawken yesterday and began the second half of our interview by asking to describe what he meant by writing that the current economic and social system favors goods over people.
Learn more:
[WiserEarth](http://www.wiserea...
Be the first to commentCleland advises Stetson graduates listen
05/12/08 Doris NorritoWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Stetson
Former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the Stetson University College of Law and gave the commencement address Saturday morning at Stetson University in Gulfport.
A crowd of several hundred hushed to the sound of bagpipes as graduates of the College of Law filed onto the courtyard at Stetson University for the spring graduation ceremony.
Cleland is a veteran who lost both legs and his right arm when serving in Vietnam. Drawing on his own experi...
Be the first to commentForum addresses healthcare gap listen
05/12/08 Jamie KidderWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: race, healthcare
Last week in St. Petersburg, a community forum was held to discuss strategies for eliminating the healthcare gap between blacks and whites. Author and lawyer Vernellia Randall was the keynote speaker.
Randall is a law professor at the Dayton School of Law in Ohio and the author of Dying While Black, a book that examines the healthcare crisis among minorities in America. She spoke on Friday at a community forum at the James P. Sanderlin community center in St. Petersburg about what she ca...
Be the first to commentFinkelstein to speak in Sarasota listen
05/12/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Palestine, Israel, international law, New College of Florida
Professor Norman Finkelstein was fired from his faculty position at DePaul University after a very public and contentious battle over whether he would receive tenure last year. Many people outside the university opposed his tenure because of his insistence that International Law be applied fairly to Palestinians.
Finkelstein will speak on the roots of the Middle East conflict and the Prospects for peace tomorrow night at the Mildred Sainer Pavilion of the Caples Fine Arts Complex in New C...
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