News & Public Affairs
Microbrewery approved to sell alcohol in West Tampa listen
12/17/09 Joshua Lee HoltonWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Joe Redner, NAACP, microbrewery
Today Tampa City Council approved alcohol sales for a microbrewery in West Tampa. Cigar City Brewing is owned by the son of Perennial City Council Candidate and Adult Club owner Joe Redner. About a dozen residents of the Carver City and Lincoln Gardens neighborhoods protested the approval of alcohol sales in their neighborhood.
In a 4-2 vote, Tampa City Council allowed a Tampa microbrewery to continue to sell alcohol at the site on Spruce Street. Joe Redner is the owner of the Cigar City ...
Be the first to commentRalph Nader, consumer advocate and candidate
12/17/09 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Thursday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Ralph Nader, power of corporations, wmnf, troop sure in Afghanistan
Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate who has run for president several times, has written a new book called Only the Super Rich Can Save Us! (Seven Stories).
Nader talked with host Rob Lorei about the current health care debate in Washington, the bank bailout, the mortgage crisis, the troop surge in Afghanistan, the power of special interests in Washington and the prospects for grassroots reform trumping corporate power.
Be the first to commentUnion members support collective bargaining for TSA workers listen
12/17/09 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: unions
The employees responsible for security at airports do not currently have the right to collectively bargain with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
At Tampa International Airport yesterday, local union members, including president of West Central Florida Federation of Labor Central Labor Council Robert Ray, expressed their support for the Transportation Security Officers.
Aaron Wazlavek, a national organizer with the [American Federation of Governme...
Be the first to commentCounty to Follow Cone Ranch Recommendations listen
12/16/09 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Cone Ranch, ELAPP, Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program, Kevin Beckner, Mariella Smith
Today the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners approved a motion to accept the recommendations of a Cone Ranch advisory board. It would allow the County’s Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program to purchase the nearly 13,000 acres of land that constitute Cone Ranch.
The land, which the county water utility currently owns, is a vital part of the Hillsborough River watershed.
Some, like Mariella Smith of the ELAPP committee had concern that the land would fall into ...
Be the first to commentHillsborough Commissioners Grill Administrator Pat Bean listen
12/16/09 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Pat Bean, Hillsborough County Commission, Mark Sharpe, Rose Ferlita, Kevin Beckner
This morning was probably one of the toughest Hillsborough County Administrator Pat Bean has faced. With County Commissioner Mark Sharpe calling for her resignation and other commissioners delivering lengthy and pointed criticisms of her job performance the handful of TV news cameras probably didn’t make it any easier. In the end, the commission voted to keep her on until her contract expires in two years. Commissioner Sharpe, who cast the only ‘no’ vote, said that it was time for new leaders...
Be the first to commentForces of Political Nature to Wipeout Florida's Executive Branch listen
12/16/09 Caroline CzieslaWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Dan Gelber, Florida Attorney General, Elections
The whirlwind began last August when Florida Senator Mel Martinez resigned from his Senate position before his term expired. As a result, elected officials in Florida’s top offices are seeking other political ambitions. In eleven months, the current leaders who administer and enforce Florida law will all be replaced.
The office of Attorney General is one of the executive openings. Six people are interested. Last night one potential candidate, Dan Gelber, and his supporters had the op...
Be the first to commentGovernor Crist signs rail bill into law listen
12/16/09 Joshua Lee HoltonWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: TBARTA, high speed rail, Connect Us, rail
Today Governor Charlie Crist signed historic legislation for state and local rail systems. The bill passed in a Special Session of the Florida Legislature last week, which many say is the first step in also bringing high speed rail to Florida.
Protesters, politicians, and proponents of local rail systems gathered at the HART bus station in downtown Tampa. Governor Charlie Crist signed House Bill 1B today, which passed during...
Be the first to commentEnvironmentalists Fight Effort To Allow Oil Drilling Closer To Florida's Coastline
12/16/09 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Wednesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: oil drilling, Florida's coastline, Sen. Jeff Atwater, oil spills, south Texas beaches, tar balls
There's a move by a group in Tallahassee to get the legislature to allow oil and gas drilling in state waters, 3-10 miles off Florida's coast. An economist hired by Florida Energy Associates- a major backer of expanded drilling rights- predicted last year that the state could reap $2.3 Billion dollars a year in direct revenue from oil and gas drilling. Environmentalists are concerned because they are being out-spent in Tallahassee and they say there are reasons to believe that expanded drilli...
1 commentsFlorida Representative Bill Heller on why he opposed the rail bill listen
12/16/09 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: transit, special session, rail, TBARTA, high-speed rail, Sunrail
State Representative Bill Heller voted against the rail bill that Governor Crist signed today. The Democrat from St. Petersburg says he supports mass transit, but opposes the multi-million dollar handout to the rail company CSX.
1 commentsDelegates and activists protest climate talks in Copenhagen listen
12/16/09 Kelly Benjamin and Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Copenhagen, Climate Conference, climate justice, climate change
Amidst snow flurries in Copenhagen, massive peaceful demonstrations took place today outside the Bella Center where UN Climate talks are being held.
Protesters from around the world descended on the conference in attempts to expose what they feel is an undemocratic and inadequate response to the urgency of the climate change crisis. The goal of the action was to take over the conference, and transform it into a Peoples Assembly on Climate Change just as some UN delegates and NGOs staged a...
Be the first to commentSuncoast Tiger Bay Club
12/15/09 Glenn pendergrassWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Florida Legislature, State budget
Suncoast Tiger Bay Club
Today surrounded by 66 beautifully decorated Christmas trees, at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club… the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club was busy carving up a couple of politicians for their last luncheon of 2009. WMNFs Glenn Pendergrass reports that Florida House of Representatives Ed Hooper, Republican and Democrat Rick Kriseman were the main course.
At the last meeting of the year of the Suncoaast Tiger bay club Rep. Ed Hooper described how… like you and I the Florida le...
Be the first to commentStetson panel discusses wrongful convictions
12/15/09 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: James Bain, Alan Crotzer, Stetson College of Law, social justice, criminal justice, wrongful convictions, false conviction, wrongly accused, DNA, exoneration, Innocence Project, Judith
If it wasn’t for the New York Chapter of The Innocence Project, a nonprofit that works to overturn wrongful convictions, St. Petersburg native Alan Crotzer would currently be rounding out his third decade in prison. Crotzer spent nearly 25 years in prison for a robbery, kidnapping and double rape that DNA evidence shows he did not commit; however, he kept his sense of humor as he spoke during a social justice round table.
Last night, Stetson University College of Law convened a panel to di...
Be the first to commentObama optimistic about health care reform listen
12/15/09 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: health care reform, Barack Obama
Today President Barack Obama spoke at the White House after meeting for more than an hour with Senate Democrats about health care reform.
Obama says there are still disagreements that have to be ironed out but “we’re on the precipice” of a breakthrough.
Obama says despite claims to the contrary, the reform bill will not add to the deficit.
The President says he told the gathering of senators that the Democratic Party cannot let its differences over portions of the bill destroy attemp...
Be the first to commentDoctors who support the congressional democrats plan to overhaul health insurance
12/15/09 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Tuesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Senator Joe Lieberman, pre-existing conditions, assistance for low income people, health insurance reform
Good afternoon, welcome to Radioactivity. I'm Rob Lorei. Today we'll hear from two doctors who generally support the health care reform legislation making its way through Congress.
The AP is reporting that Independent Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman says he expects to support the Democrats' health care legislation as long as any government-run insurance plan stays out of the bill. To ensure Lieberman's support, Senate leaders said yesterday they were backing away from a medicare expansio...
Be the first to commentNaomi Klein on class war nonviolence and climate justice in Copenhagen listen
12/15/09 Kelly Benjamin and Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Naomi Klein, Copenhagen, Climate Conference, climate change, climate justice
Activists are gearing up to shut down the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen tomorrow. Last night, WMNF reporter Kelly Benjamin recorded Canadian author and activist Naomi Klein speaking in the Freetown Christiana, an autonomously-governed squatted neighborhood in Copenhagen.
Much of the discussion in Christiania last night revolved around planning for the massive protests intent on shutting down the climate talks tomorrow. This is German activist Tadzio Mueller.
Afterwards, Nao...
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