News & Public Affairs
ACLU petitions Supreme Court on taser case listen
02/05/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Tasers, ACLU, U.S. Supreme Court
The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner says that a Plant City man who was tasered by sheriff’s deputies last year died from "delirium with agitation due to schizoaffective disorder.”
Dr. Leszek Chrostowski said the cause of death of 46-year-old Roney Wilson last September was homicide.
Chrostowski would not go on tape discussing his findings with WMNF, but he did tell us that generally medical examiners choose between homicide and accident when listing cause of death after an inciden...
Be the first to commentSeminole Heights plants seeds for community garden listen
02/05/09 March AndersonWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Community Garden, Tampa City Council
Last night a workshop was held on establishing a Community Garden in Tampa’s Seminole Heights district. About 50 people attended the meeting organized by local resident Robin Miocowitz. This follows City Council discussions on the topic in December, where demand for such initiatives was doubted by several Council members.
There was a high level of support and enthusiasm from local residents for creating a Seminole Heights Community Garden. Representatives from more established local gar...
Be the first to commentTampa tables billboard ordinance again listen
02/05/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Billboard ordinance, Tampa City Council, Clear Channel, CBS Outdoors
The Tampa City Council today delayed for two weeks a possible billboard agreement with two major billboard companies about a new ordinance.
Negotiations between the city and CBS Outdoors and Clear Channel have been ongoing for years, and city attorneys hoped that an agreement could finally be signed today.
The proposal would allow the continued removal of dozens of traditional billboards from certain sectors of the city, but in exchange, would allow those companies to erect digital bi...
Be the first to commentDaniel Ruth discusses decline of newspaper business listen
02/04/09 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Daniel Ruth, newspapers, Tiger Bay
Long-time Tampa Tribune columnist Daniel Ruth was laid off by the financially troubled newspaper last November.
Ruth spoke this afternoon at the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club in St. Petersburg.
Within a month, of being laid off by the Trib, Ruth was hired by the St. Petersburg Times to write a column every Friday. But that has not completely taken away the sting from when Ruth learned early on the morning of Nov. 10 that he was no longer employed.
“My mind was rolling the tape backwa...
Be the first to commentHillsborough County cuts more jobs listen
02/04/09 Mitch E. PerrryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Hillsborough County, economy, job cuts
For the third time in a year and a half, there have been staffing cuts at Hillsborough County’s Building Services Division.
Peter Aluotto with the County’s Planning and Growth Management Department said 36 people have to lose their jobs because the office is currently running at a deficit of nearly $2 million.
The jobs cuts are a reflection of the housing crisis which is battering the nation. He said it would require raising fees 21 percent on permit applications, but said that wasn’t ...
Be the first to commentSt Pete residents weigh in on mayor's race listen
02/04/09 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: St. Petersburg mayor's race
St. Petersburg won’t choose its new mayor until November, but already the race has five serious contenders.
City Council member Jamie Bennett, former Council members Kathleen Ford and Bill Foster, businessman Scott Wagman, and Amscot executive Deveron Gibbons have all announced...
Be the first to commentBook examines 'JFK and the Unspeakable'
02/04/09 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Wednesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: JFK, assassination, conspiracy, Oswald, military industrial complex, Thomas Vallee, Abraham Bolden
Today on WMNF Rob Lorei interviewed peace activist Jim Douglass who is coming to St. Petersburg this weekend to speak about his new book on the JFK assassination. His talk is sponsored by Pax Cristi. According to Pax Cristi:
"JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters is an examination of John F. Kennedy’s assassination from a spiritual perspective. Author James W. Douglass will speak at the February meeting of Pax Christi Tampa Bay beginning at 3:30 PM on Sunday, February ...
Be the first to commentSt. Pete mayoral race: Who's in, who's out listen
02/04/09 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: St. Petersburg mayor's race
This week, the crowded race for mayor of St. Petersburg lost two potential big-name candidates. Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch and state Representative Rick Kriseman, both Democrats, announced on Monday that they would not run for the nonpartisan position of St. Pete mayor.
City Council ...
Be the first to commentHillsborough to further investigate Buddy Johnson's tenure listen
02/04/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections, Buddy Johnson, Phyllis Busansky, mismanagement charges, audit
Hillsborough County Commissioners today voted to forward the results of an audit that details financial mismanagement by former County Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson to legal authorities.
The motion was proposed by Commissioner Rose Ferlita. The move arose after Johnson’s successor, Phyllis Busansky, came before the Board today to ask for money to settle an outstanding bill that Johnson left for her. She said the county still owes Premiere Election Solutions, the company who has pr...
Be the first to commentAngry parents get reprieve from on cell phone tower issue listen
02/04/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Hillsborough County, cell phone towers, schools
Hillsborough County Commissioners today requested that the Hillsborough School Board stay a land use law just enacted that would allow some schools to build cell phone towers without input from the public.
The construction of such towers has drawn the outrage of parents in recent months – first at Coleman Middle School in South Tampa, and later at schools in New Tampa and Brandon.
Carrie Grimail is with the group People Against Cell Towers at Schools. She says that many of the people in...
Be the first to commentPinellas penalizes false alarms, funds beach renourishment listen
02/03/09 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: False alarm, beach erosion, beach renourishment
In an effort to reduce the costs of sheriff deputies responding to false burglar alarms, this morning the Pinellas County Commission created a false alarm ordinance that would impose a fee on residents or businesses when deputies have to respond to a false alarm.
Robert Gualtieri is the Sheriff’s Chief Deputy. “I can tell you the average cost of a deputy sheriff with benefits. Average cost is about $85,000 a year. It takes two deputi...
Be the first to commentActivists jailed for protesting Palm Beach County fossil fuel plant listen
02/03/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Florida Power and Light, protests, demonstrations, arrests, environment
In West Palm Beach yesterday, two environmentalists were jailed and five others received probation for protesting the construction of a planned new natural gas fired power plant last February.
The protest had involved the activists linking themselves with chicken wire and PVC pipe to protest the negative effects they say the plant will have the environment.
Originally, 27 activists werearrested after the protests at the site Florida Power and Light’s West County Energy Center, but af...
Be the first to commentFlorida senator wants to hurt wayward insurance companies listen
02/03/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Property insurance, State Farm, hurricanes
Last week, the largest private property insurer in Florida, State Farm Insurance, announced it is pulling out of the market, saying the company cannot raise premiums high enough to offset the risks from hurricane.
The final blow was the rejection of a 47 percent homeowners insurance rate increase last month by the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation.
In response, Sen. Mike Fasano of New Port Richey is proposing two specific pieces of legislation. One bill would be to prevent State Fa...
Be the first to commentThe legacy of President Ronald Reagan
02/03/09 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Tuesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Ronald Reagan, cold war, Will Bunch, tax cuts, Gorbachev, Iran-Contra, Sandinistas, Star Wars, The Day After
Good afternoon, Welcome to WMNF 's Radioactivity. This week marks the birthday of former President Ronald Reagan, it would have been his 98th. Today we’ll look back at Ronald Reagan’s legacy with Will Bunch who’s written a new book about the 40th president.
But first some listener comments about last Thursday’s program. It was a discussion of the best ways to spend federal money to get the nation out of recession.
Former President Ronald Reagan’s birthday is Friday. He served two term...
Be the first to commentKen Welch won't run for St. Petersburg mayor listen
02/03/09 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, St. Petersburg mayor's race, Ken Welch
Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch was considering a run for St. Petersburg mayor. But Welch announced in an email late last night that he will not run for mayor, instead he will continue on the County Commission.
“Very difficult decision. … I think for right now the place I need to be is right here (on the Pinellas County Commission),” Welch said this morning.
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