News & Public Affairs
Lieberman: Clinton would make tougher race against McCain listen
08/07/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman is now an Independent after losing the Democratic primary in 2006, and he’s a strong supporter of John McCain for president.
Lieberman was in Tampa today for a McCain fundraiser. WMNF asked him about his longtime friendship with Bill and Hillary Clinton and if Hillary were the nominee, would he still be crossing party lines to support the Republican this year?
WMNF asked him about his unstinting support for the invasion of Iraq in a segment we will broadc...
Be the first to commentTampa streetcar manager ousted listen
08/07/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: HART, light rail, mass transit, transportation
Tampa City Councilwoman Mary Mulhern had harsh words today regarding the firing of Tampa’s Streetcar Manager by Hillsborough County’s transit system agency, HART.
Tim Borchers was hired to manage the streetcar line in 2002. His firing was said to be intended to save money and improve service.
Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena also expressed reservations about the firing.
The streetcar has been derided by some as a boondoggle, but HART Executive Director David Armijo says currently 36,000...
Be the first to commentFishery management plan under fire listen
08/07/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Fishery management
A federal proposal to simplify fishery management has been hailed by some as a long-overdue reprieve from excessive paperwork. But fishermen and conservation groups say it goes too far in gutting requirements for public comment and environmental analysis.
Under orders from Congress, the National Marine Fisheries Service is revising the National Environmental Policy Act requirements that apply to fishery managers. The goal was to put those NEPA requirements into national fishery laws in th...
Be the first to commentHackworth seeks nomination for 10th District seat
08/07/08 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Thursday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Iraq war, single payer health care, Bill Young
Yesterday during this time slot we featured a debate between Max Linn and Samm Simpson, two of the three candidates for the Democratic Party nomination in the 10th Congressional District.
The third candidate in that race joins us now. Because he had a scheduled meeting during the first half of yesterday's debate we had invited him to call in at 1:30 yesterday. However, due to an equipment error on WMNF's part yesterday, he was unable to get through. So today, we are offering Bob Hackworth...
Be the first to commentTampa mayor unveils budget plan listen
08/07/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Tampa City Council, Mayor Pam Iorio, 2009 budget
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio presented her fiscal year 2009 budget before the City Council today.
The mayor said she went about preparing the budget by focusing on five guiding principals. Along with protecting key services for constituents and looking at better ways of doing business, a goal is to "strategically shrinking the size of government."
Next month all local governments throughout Florida will be conducing final public hearings on their fiscal year budgets. With decreased revenues ...
2 commentsIorio's words fire up Fire Union Chief listen
08/07/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Tampa City Council, Mayor Pam Iorio, 2009 budget, fire union
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio went before the City Council this morning to present her fiscal year 2009 budget.
In the middle of her near half-hour report, the mayor broke off of the laundry list of programs the city will be working on in the next year to discuss upcoming contract negotiations with the city’s firefighters.
Iorio said the city has offered a 3 percent cost of living increase, and a merit increase averaging 3½ percent a year.
Negotiations between the city and the Firefighte...
Be the first to commentLobbyists work for Moffitt and big tobacco listen
08/06/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Lobbyists, Moffitt Cancer Center, tobacco
Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa has a reputation as one of the best in the country. U.S. News & World Report recently ranked the facility as the 16th best in the country.
But the treatment center and research institute is also paying thousands of dollars to lobbyists in Tallahassee, that are also registered lobbyist for tobacco companies.
Mark Ferullo is with the group Progress Florida, which reported on this seeming conflict of interest on its website today.
We also attempted to sp...
Be the first to commentSoderberg on America's foreign policy listen
08/06/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: American foreign policy, Iraq
A United Nations official said today that violence has decreased and security has improved across most of Iraq in the past three months but much progress is needed on the political front.
He made his comments after Iraqi lawmakers in Baghdad postponed a vote on the new election law by at least a month, delaying local elections originally scheduled for October 1st.
The U.S. views the elections as a way of reconciling Iraq's rival ethnic and religious communities by redistributing power a...
Be the first to commentForum held on TBARTA master plan listen
08/06/08 Mark AndersonWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: TBARTA, Mass Transit, Transportation
Last night, the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transit Authority (TBARTA) held an open forum in Tampa to solicit citizen’s input on development of a rapid transit master plan to be completed by the end of 2008.
TBARTA was created as a state agency in July 2007. It’s charter is to plan, construct and operate rapid transit in Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee and Sarasota counties. TBARTA aims to improve mobility and expand multimodal transportation throughout the region, a...
Be the first to commentHART fare increase draws criticism listen
08/06/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: HART, Hillsborough County Commission, millage rate, property taxes
On Monday, board members of Hillsborough County’s Transit Agency voted to raise bus fares and gave initial support for a property tax increase to pay for more buses and a long-range transit study.
The 5-4 vote to support a property tax increase didn’t settle well with Hillsborough County Commission Brian Blair today, who said the Commission has provided millions of dollars in financial support to HART already.
But Mark Sharpe, one of three county commissioners who sit on the transit Bo...
Be the first to commentBay Pines treatment program is a model in Florida listen
08/05/08 Dawn MorganWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, Bay Pines, veterans
According the Alzheimer’s Association, 5 million people in the country have some form of dementia, and that number will only grow as the population ages. Though there is no cure for cognitive impairments, research has shown mental stimulation offered at dementia day treatment centers prolongs the time a patient can live functionally outside of a long term care facility. Pinellas County’s Bay Pines VA center offers such a program, and may be a model for the state - and nation - to follow. ...
Be the first to commentPinellas land preservation amendment closer to ballot listen
08/05/08 Emily ReddyWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Pinellas County Commission, environmental lands, Margeson, Latvala, conservation
Pinellas County Commissioners moved one step closer today to putting a charter amendment on the November ballot to require public approval of the sale of any of the county’s environmental lands.
After years of debate, a compromise amendment focused on conserving county-owned environmental lands in Pinellas County is now all-but-certain to go to voters in November. Final tweaking is being done to the amendment before what looks to be a finalizing of the language by the commission on Aug. ...
Be the first to commentPinellas rejects dock on Crystal Beach listen
08/05/08 Emily ReddyWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Bergoffen, Welch, Latvala, dock, Pinellas County Commission, Crystal Beach
A Crystal Beach man who wants to build a dock behind his waterfront house was told “no” today by the Pinellas County Commission. Dozens of Crystal Beach residents spoke out against allowing the dock to be built before commissioners voted.
Glenn Bergoffen says he wants the dock behind his house so that he can go fishing with his grandkids. When he bought his house five years ago, he says he assumed he could build a dock because there had been one there in the past. But, the beachfront ...
Be the first to commentEx-Clinton advocate says Democrats can come together listen
08/05/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Barack Obama, Economy, Town Hall, John McCain, 2008 election
Over the weekend, Barack Obama called on the Democratic National Committee to count the full votes of disputed convention delegates from Florida and Michigan.
The issue has been the source of a yearlong controversy that was settled in May when the DNC’s Rules and By-Laws Committee said the delegates would be counted, and could go to the Denver Convention, but with only half a vote.
Obama’s move is considered a signal to Hillary Clinton supporters that he wants to bring the Florida Dem...
Be the first to commentProgressive populist Scott Kelly profiled
08/05/08 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Tuesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: pork chop gang, lawton chiles
Good afternoon, welcome to WMNF's Radioactivity…I’m Rob Lorei… in a moment we’ll hear about a pioneer progressive Florida politician from Lakeland … but first some listener comments about last Thursday’s program with members of the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transit Authority- TBARTA who were discussing the upcoming public meetings about the future of mass transit here in the bay area.
First up today – local author Dorothy Smiljanich has written a biography of one of Florida’s most colorful p...
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