News & Public Affairs
Florida Chamber of Commerce honors legislators listen
06/26/08 Concetta DeLuco and Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Chamber of Commerce, 2008 election, taxes, oil drilling, tax-swap amendment
The Florida Chamber of Commerce gathered at the Pepin Hospitality Centre in East Tampa today to discuss victories during the 2008 Legislative session and issues the Chamber will focus on during the upcoming elections.
Brad Swanson is the West Central regional advocate for the Florida Chamber of Commerce. He said pro-business groups need to go “on the offensive” to counter other activist groups who have become well-organized and well-funded.
“It is a war that we’re engaged in currently. ...
Be the first to commentTampa gives final approval for Joe microbrewery listen
06/26/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Tampa City Council
Over continuing objections from several members of the community, the Tampa City Council today gave final approval today for a brewpub owned by entrepreneur Joe Redner.
Redner’s microbrewery will open in the same building that he manages his businesses in West Tampa. Redner says his intention is to have beer tastings every Friday from 6 to 10 p.m. and to sell package beer to go throughout the week.
But several members of the predominantly black neighborhood continued to urge the Counci...
Be the first to commentMore on "The Art of Watching and Being Watched" listen
06/26/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Arts, Entertainment
Paul Woodruff is a professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, and the author of The Necessity of Theater: The Art of Watching and Being Watched, where he argues that theater is essential to the development of healthy individuals and healthy societies.
In the second part of an interview conducted last week, WMNF asked Woodruff about playwright Bertolt Brecht. Woodruff writes that Brecht wrote his plays to provoke, and not to obstruct critical thought. Woodruff writes t...
Be the first to commentRays' ballpark plan benched listen
06/25/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Tampa Bay Rays, stadium, Al Lang Field, Tropicana Field
The Tampa Bay Rays this afternoon withdrew a proposal to build a new ballpark on the waterfront this year.
The St. Petersburg City Council has been holding meetings for months in trying to understand the issue. They had to decide by Aug. 7 whether to put a measure on the November ballot to allow citizens decide whether they wanted the park.
The announcement was made this afternoon by team President Matt Silverman. Silverman did not say when the Rays will ask for another stadium, or whe...
Be the first to commentBusiness alliance asserts its independence listen
06/25/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: TIBA, Tampa Downtown Partnership, independent businesses
This morning at Hyde Park’s Mise en Place restaurant, the Tampa Downtown Partnership hosted a panel discussion focusing on the city’s independent businesses. All four panelists are members of the Tampa Independent Business Alliance (TIBA).
Carla Jimenez owns Inkwood Books and is on the board of TIBA; she is also on the national board of the American Independent Business Alliance. Jimenez said shopping at locally-owned businesses keeps money in the community. “When you spend a dollar locall...
Be the first to commentBi-partisan group calls for torture ban listen
06/25/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Today a bi-partisan group of former national security and defense officials and religious leaders released a statement calling on President Bush to issue an executive order to ban torture.
Gen. Paul Kern, who led the internal Army investigation of abuses at Abu Ghraib, says that in his near 40 year Army career he always followed the Geneva Convention and taught soldiers to do likewise. He’s disappointed that the U.S. has lost its way in recent years.
Alberto Mora was the General Counse...
1 commentsTampa budget workshop – fewer cuts in 2009 than last year listen
06/24/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Tampa City Council, Mary Mulhern, budget, budget cuts, gas prices, sustainable, water
This morning the Tampa City Council held their second workshop on the city’s fiscal year 2009 budget. They received proposed budgets from several departments, including Police, Fire, Neighborhood Services, and Growth Management. Tampa’s Police Chief Steve Hogue said his department would need 132 million dollars next year and would slightly reduce personnel to 1318 employees. “I have submitted a reduction of about 16 positions this year.”
Hogue said fuel costs are leading Tampa’s Police to ...
Be the first to commentFirefighters boycott Clearwater listen
06/23/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: labor
This month the Florida Professional Firefighters association voted to boycott the City of Clearwater for what Clearwater firefighters are calling “unethical and illegal treatment.”
Firefighters from Clearwater have set up a website called Save Clearwater Fire to publicize their reasons for boycotting the city. John Lee is president of Clearwater Firefighters local 1158.
“Well, we’re just asking our union members statewide to boycott the city of Clearwater due to the unfair treatment and...
Be the first to commentUhurus hold conference on economic development
06/23/08 Jamie KidderWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: African American, Development, Race, Rays stadium, St. Petersburg Police, Tropicana Field, Uhurus, economy
Yesterday in St. Petersburg, the Uhurus met in St. Petersburg to talk about the city’s economic development plans and the Rays ballpark proposal.
The Uhuru Movement in St. Petersburg is a group dedicated to the unity of Africans internationally. They met yesterday at the Uhuru House in South St. Petersburg, where they hosted a conference about the economic development projects in St. Petersburg, the primary one being the construction of a new waterfront stadium.
Local business owners s...
Be the first to commentVic DiMaio on Obama's chances in Florida listen
06/20/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday
Tags: Democrats, Politics, Barack Obama
Earlier this year, DiMaio sued the Democratic National Committee for stripping the state of its delegates to its National Convention.
Although he insisted he was neutral in the Democratic Primary, it was mainly Hillary Clinton supporters who seized on the delegate problem, and insisted that that the DNC recognize all of Florida’s delegates.
Last month, the DNC’s Rules and By-Laws Committee settled for a compromise, restoring all of the delegates, but giving them only half a vote, which ...
1 commentsReaction to Obama's rejection of public financing listen
06/20/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, election, campaign finance, Barack Obama, John McCain
Barack Obama was attacked in many of the nation’s newspapers today for his apparent flip-flop on the issue of receiving public funding for his general election campaign.
Yesterday Obama announced that he will become the first presidential nominee not to accept public financing for the general election – which is expected to cost around $84 million beginning the day he receives the nomination, Aug. 28.
As the Obama campaign today hit back at John McCain for his alleged flip-flopping, Cam...
Be the first to commentCrop workers more susceptible to heat death listen
06/20/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the chances of dying due to extreme heat are greatest in this country if you are a crop worker.
Last month, an undocumented Mexican immigrant, 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, collapsed and died while pruning grave vines in 100 degree heat. Her death led more than 500 farmworkers and their advocates to protest in California’s state capital, demanding safer conditions on thousands of vineyards and orchards.
Dawn Castillo, with the Di...
Be the first to commentAuthor speaks on "The Necessity of Theatre" listen
06/20/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Arts, Entertainment
Paul Woodruff is a professor of Philosophy and Classics at the University of Texas at Austin. He’s just written a book called, The Necessity of Theatre: The Art of Watching and Being Watched.
In the book, he writes that he wants to demonstrate that theatre is not a dying art form.
WMNF spoke with him earlier this week. We’ll hear more from him on next week’s Evening News.
1 commentsWorld Refugee Day celebrated at USF listen
06/20/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Today is United Nations World Refugee Day 2008. WMNF reports from two celebrations of refugees at the University of South Florida’s Tampa campus.
USF’s African Students Association (ASA) was one of the student groups that organized a session in the Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza around lunchtime. In addition to speakers and tables with information about refugees, several ASA members set up a makeshift refugee camp with carpets to sit on and swept it using a handmade broom.
Another studen...
Be the first to commentTiger Bay Debate on Whether Hillsborough should have elected county mayor listen
06/20/08 Arielle StevensonWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Mary Figg, Jan Platt, Mary Mulhern, Mary Ann Stiles
Today the Hillsborough League of Women voters and the Hillsborough tiger bay club held a debate in Tampa. Former county commissioner Jan Platt and former state representative Mary Figg spoke to those in attendance about the charter on the ballot to alter how county government is conducted. The amendments, if passed would create an elected county mayor, whereas now the Hillsborough county commission appoints a county administrator. Figg, a proponent of the amendments, says these changes are n...
