News & Public Affairs
Tom James provides economic recovery outlook listen
04/28/09 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Who is to blame for the current global recession? CEO and chair of Raymond James Financial Tom James spread the responsibility around this afternoon at the Feather Sound Country Club in a meeting of the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club.
James laid responsibility for the recession on banks that issued sub-prime loans, individuals who took the loans, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan among others.
In October, the federal gove...
Be the first to commentA look at the situation in Colombia
04/28/09 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Tuesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Colombia, human rights, Chiquita, cocaine, coca, drug war, paramilitary, Uribe
Tonight WMNF presents the film Plan Colombia at two locations: The Tampa Pitcher Show and Nova 535. Both films start at 7 p.m.
We'll hear some excerpts from the film and then we'll speak with Mario Murillo an associate professor of Communication at Hofstra University in New York and the author of Colombia and the United States: War, Unrest and Destabilization. He is currently finishing a book about the indigenous movement in Colombia and its uses of community media. Murillo writes a ...
Be the first to commentFlorida to forfeit $444M in unemployment stimulus money listen
04/28/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Legislature, unemployment, politics
With just days before the legislative session ends, it is becoming likely the state of Florida will reject $444 million dollars in federal stimulus aid.
GOP lawmakers say they do not want to increase the burden on the state’s unemployment trust fund when its running out of money.
Gov. Charlie Crist has said he supports a law to draw the extra federal money, but a bill sponsored by Jacksonville Sen. Tony Hill that would do so appears to be all but dead in the Legislature.
This morni...
Be the first to commentHealth care advocates push for reform listen
04/28/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Health care, politics, reform
As Congress prepares to begin work on one of President Barack Obama’s signatures core issues, health care reform, an advocacy group today said that more than four million people in Florida now spend more than 10 percent of their pre-tax income on insurance.
And according to that group, Families USA, more than three-quarters of those people actually have health insurance.
Tampa area Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor says the report highlights the exoribitant costs for families who ac...
Be the first to commentMarch in St. Pete to stop gun violence listen
04/27/09 Andrea LypkaWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: NAACP, violence, Paris Whitehead-Hamilton
Eight-year-old Paris Whitehead-Hamilton’s death was a wakeup call for the community in Bartlett Park to mobilize against the crimes committed in their neighborhood. About 400 concerned citizens marched to end gun violence in South St. Petersburg on April 25.
The St. Petersburg Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), other community organizations, and City Council members marched from Bartlett Park to Campbell Park in honor of the victim killed dur...
Be the first to commentImproving Latino parent participation in schools listen
04/27/09 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Florida PIRC, Latino issues, education
As more immigrant students enter public schools in the United States, some parents feel disconnected from participation in their schools. A symposium in Tampa today brought together educators, parents, and community organizations from more than 20 Florida counties to increase the involvement by Latino parents in public schools.
The Third Annual Parent Involvement Research to Practice Symposium was sponsored by [Florida PIRC](h...
Be the first to commentConfederate Flag raised again in Tampa listen
04/27/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Confederate flag
On Saturday in Tampa, omore than 1,000 people attended the raising of one of the largest Confederate flags in the world.
Confederate Memorial Park is on U.S. 92, south of the intersection of Interstates 75 and 4; it made headlines initially last June when the Sons of Confederate Veterans raised a 30-by-50-foot Confederate Flag there. Then in October, the group then raised a 30-by-60-foot flag.
Despite initial criticism from some quarters, particularly in the black community, organizer ...
Be the first to commentNobel Laureate discusses her new book
04/25/09 Mary GlenneyFrom A Woman's Point of View
Wangari Maathai discussed her new book, The Challenge for Africa. She illuminates the complex and dynamic nature of Africa, and offers “hardheaded hope” and “realistic options” for change and improvement. She discussed her three decades as an environmental activist and campaigner for democracy. The first African woman and environmentalist to win the world's top humanitarian award, she not only spurred her homeland to plant 40 million trees, but also talked about the lessons she learned t...
Be the first to commentHealth insurance is not synonymous with health care
04/25/09 Mary GlenneyFrom A Woman's Point of View
Tags: Health care, politics, reform
Dr. Rachel Nardin is president of the Massachusetts Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Care Program. Dr. Nardin is a neurologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and assistant professor of neurology at Harvard.
She talked about the Massachusetts health care reform and the importance of looking very critically at what has and has not worked. She will talk about the problems with the Massachusetts reform and the letter from nearly 500 Massachusetts physicians to...
Be the first to commentA long journey from Poland to New York and Sarasota
04/25/09 Mary Glenney and Arlene EngelhardtFrom A Woman's Point of View
Sophia Horbacz is author of Sophia – My Life’s Journey.
Sophia described the hardships and happiness in a life that she began in Poland during World War II. Her father was killed when she was 3 and her mother was left to raise five children. At age 16, Sophia moved to New Jersey and she now lives in Sarasota.
Sophia loves music and is an ardent Polkateer. Click here for information on her book.
Be the first to commentTBARTA makes master plan public listen
04/24/09 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
The Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority, or TBARTA, has made public its mid-term and long-term master plan. The board unanimously decided to move forward with the plan, which will be adopted next month.
Board chair Shelton Quarles, who played pro football with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when they won the Super Bowl in 2003, compared the excitement of that run with TBARTA’s announcement this morning.
“I equate this to – not necessarily the Super Bowl – b...
Be the first to commentACLU willing to sue if election bill passes listen
04/24/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, Legislature, election laws, voter registration, ACLU
In Tallahassee today, the House of Representatives debated a scaled down Elections Reform bill today that had received harsh criticism from activists and even Gov. Charlie Crist.
The new version removes a provision to eliminate as acceptable two forms of ID used mainly by older voters; requirements that paid petition circulators must register with the state; a requirement that voters who change their address close to an election must cast provisional ballots; and rules that would have made...
Be the first to commentFlorida House debates controversial offshore drilling bill listen
04/24/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, Legislature, offshore drilling ban
A proposal that would lift the state ban on offshore oil drilling was debated before the entire House of Representatives in Tallahassee this afternoon.
The issue of offshore drilling has always been contentious in Florida – it was suddenly brought up for discussion late last week, without any warning.
The Miami Herald reported this week that the shift in policy was being aggressively pushed by Associated Industries of Florida, whose members include oil companies that the group refuses...
Be the first to commentFlorida House rejects proposal to freeze Citizens rates listen
04/23/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
This afternoon the Florida House debated a bill sponsored by Apopka Representative Bryan Nelson that would allow Citizens Insurance to start raising its rates by as much as 20 percent on individual policies, once the current freeze expires.
But an amendment that would freeze Citizens insurance rates for another 3 years went down to defeat.
Citizens says without extending their freeze or passing a legislative fix this session, rates for its policyholders could climb 70 percent or higher...
Be the first to commentTampa City Council workshop on Green Jobs thin on specifics listen
04/23/09 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
This morning the Tampa City Council held a workshop on how the city can use funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to create green jobs. Some Council members were unsatisfied with the level of specifics that City administrators could provide about stimulus funding coming to the city.
Council member Mary Mulhern placed the green jobs item on the workshop agenda. She says creating green jobs helps to solve environmental and econo...
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