News & Public Affairs
Pro soccer coming to Tampa in 2010 listen
06/19/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Tampa Bay Rowdies, Professional Soccer, Sports
This afternoon at Raymond James Stadium, team owners announced that Tampa Bay will soon have a new soccer team with a familiar name.
"There will be a new professional soccer team that will compete in United Soccer Leagues Division One starting in the 2010 season and the name of that team will be the Tampa Bay Rowdies," said Andrew Nestor, president, CEO and part owner of the group.
Nestor said the team has not decided on a new logo, but the colors will remain green and yellow, just li...
2 commentsReport on Hillsborough environment sees red listen
06/19/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: EPC, air pollution, budget cuts, environment, water
This morning, the Environmental Protection Commission, or EPC, of Hillsborough County received the annual State of the Environment Report and heard how the commission will trim $820,000 from its budget.
EPC Executive Director Rick Garrity presented the 2007 State of the Environment Report to EPC board members, who are also Hillsborough County commissioners. Garrity said many of the county’s waters have been declared impaired by the state or federal government, which are indicated by red in...
Be the first to commentEthanol plant won't be built in Tampa listen
06/19/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
A plan to build an ethanol site in Tampa is now off the table.
Bradley Krohn, the man behind the proposed facility which would be housed at the Port of Tampa, says delays due to litigation is the primary reason he will not go further with the proposal.
There had also been complaints from citizens in Davis Islands and Harbor Island about the potential odor from the plant. The Tampa City Council was concerned about how much water would be used in producing the corn-based ethanol.
WMNF ...
Be the first to commentObama volunteers welcomed in Tampa
06/18/08 Jamie KidderWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: 2008 election, Obama
Specially trained Obama volunteers were welcomed to the Tampa Bay Area last Tuesday. WMNF's Jamie Kidder has the story.
Be the first to commentEffect of oil drilling in the gulf
06/18/08 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Wednesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Energy, oil drilling, pollution, environment
As John McCain and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist change positions and call for expanded offshore oil and gas drilling, we look at the environmental consequences.
Anthony Amos is an instructor at the Marine Science Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, Port Aransas. For 30 years, he has observed the effect of deep-sea oil drilling along the Texas coast. In this interview he described the range of pollution he's observed.
Be the first to commentDonating Blood: The gift of life
06/18/08 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Wednesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: community service
Today WMNF is partnering with Florida Blood Services to sponsor a three-county blood drive. Summer is a time when donations are down and there is a critical need for blood.
Here to discuss all aspects of donating blood are Dan Eberts and Gene Young from Florida Blood Services.
For more information, visit Florida Blood Services.
Be the first to commentDowntown Partnership focuses on transportation listen
06/18/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Mass Transit, Light Rail, Commuting
The Tampa Downtown Partnership held its 22nd annual meeting today at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel. Transportation issues were a recurring theme.
The incoming chair of the Tampa Downtown Partnership is Chuck Davis of Met Life. He outlined some of the initiatives the partnership hopes to accomplish under his leadership.
Tampa City Council member Rev. Thomas Scott performed the invocation, which included an unconventional prayer. "Today we pray for mass transit. We pray for light rai...
Be the first to commentPublix named worst place to buy seafood listen
06/18/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Greenpeace, Seafood, Grocers
The environmental group Greenpeace has just released a report on its evaluations of the seafood departments at 20 leading U.S. supermarkets. The results are mostly failing, with Florida based stores performing extremely low.
Kash N Karry ranked 14th, Sweetbay 15th, and dead last at 20th was Publix.
Leading the charts were Whole Foods, with Sam’s Club in third place, Wal-Mart fourth, and SuperTarget fifth.
Mark Flogel, a researcher with Greenpeace.org, said the key statistics Greenpea...
1 commentsPoll shows Obama up in Florida
06/18/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, John McCain, Barack Obama, Polls
New polling numbers indicate that Barack Obama has received a "bounce" from his ascendency to becoming the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party for president.
Three new polls conducted by Quinnipiac University show Obama leading for the first time in the three key battleground states, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida.
Quinnipiac shows Obama leading McCain 47 to 43 percent.
The Ohio poll shows Obama leading McCain 48 to 42 percent, and in Pennyslvania, another state considered...
Be the first to commentCity of Tampa gets new legal eagle listen
06/18/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio held a news conference this morning to announce that the city’s attorney, David Smith, was stepping down to go back into the private sector.
Smith will be replaced by Chip Fletcher, an environmental and administrative law attorney, who served a short stint on the Tampa City Council last year.
Fletcher also worked with Democratic Congressional candidate Christine Jennings in her challenge to the election results in the disputed election in the 13th District in Flo...
Be the first to commentShould there be oil drilling along Florida coast? listen
06/18/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Offshore Drilling, Oil, Pam Iorio, John McCain, Mary Mulhern, Charlie Crist
At a Tampa Downtown Partnership meeting today, WMNF spoke with business people and elected officials about the possibility of drilling for oil off the coast of Florida.
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio told WMNF she opposes drilling off the state’s coast. Iorio questioned the wisdom of constructing oil rigs there, especially considering how dependent the state is on tourism.
Hillsborough County Commissioner Rose Ferlita said she was open to the idea floated by Sen. John McCain and supported by Go...
7 commentsBush: Lift ban on offshore oil drilling listen
06/18/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, John McCain, Charlie Crist, oil drilling, environment
President Bush called on Congress today to lift a 26-year-old ban on oil drilling off the shores of the United States, arguing that the country needs more domestic energy production to alter the circumstances that are driving up oil prices.
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Bush said if Congress removes the ban it first imposed in 1982, he would lift an executive order that also prohibits drilling for oil and gas on the U.S. outer continental shelf. That executive order was issued i...
Be the first to commentCitizens for Sox hold a pep rally listen
06/17/08 Virginia HoffmanWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Baseball, Sarasota, Sarasota County, stadium
A group calling themselves called the Citizens for Sox has formed in Sarasota. They hosted a public forum and pep rally last week to energize support for bringing the Boston Red Sox to their community.
Citizens for Sox organizers packed the room Thursday night to launch a grassroots effort comparable to a political campaign. The goal of this effort is to convince the Boston Red Sox to locate the team's spring training in Sarasota. The team has trained in Fort Meyers and played home spring...
Be the first to commentForum addresses quality of life for seniors listen
06/17/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: senior citizens
The Florida Department of Elder Affairs and the AARP held a forum today in Tampa about the Communities for a Lifetime program, which is a statewide initiative assisting Florida cities and counties to plan and implement improvements to benefit both youth and elder residents.
Nicole Hargraves is director of Volunteer and Intergenerational Programs with the Florida Department of Elder Affairs. “Communities for a Lifetime is just that: an opportunity for everyone to age in place, in their com...
Be the first to commentHillsborough garbage dispute resurfaces listen
06/17/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Last year, a battle between three large trash hauling companies and smaller mom-and-pop operations as to who could pick up garbage in the unincorporated parts of Hillsborough County ultimately led to courtrooms.
Some of the raw feelings around the issue resurfaced today when the County Commission heard of a new ordinance that would mandate that those smaller trash companies come into the same compliance as the three larger waste management companies.
Commissioner Al Higgenbotham, who w...
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