News & Public Affairs

Rod Stoneman on media role in Venezuela coup listen

09/21/09 Seán Kinane
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The April 2002 coup that temporarily unseated Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is captured in the film The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.

Rod Stoneman is the director of the Huston School of Film & Digital Media at the National University of Ireland. He was an executive producer of the Film, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Stoneman’s new book is [Chavez: The Revolution will not be televised: a case study of politics and the media](http://wallflowerpress.co.uk/product/non-fic...

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Zelaya returns to Honduras listen

09/21/09 Seán Kinane
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Tags: Honduras

Deposed President Manuel Zelaya apparently has returned to Honduaras to reclaim his presidency. He appeared on local television Channel 36 today to rally supporters.

President Zelaya was forced out of Honduras at gunpoint in late June in a military coup d'etat. Leaders of the de facto coup government have threatened to arrest him if he returns.

This afternoon, WMNF spoke with Mark Weisbrot, co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

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Native Alaskans oppose oil and gas drilling in Arctic Ocean listen

09/21/09 Seán Kinane
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Tags: oil drilling

Two hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle, on the northwest coast of Alaska, is the Native Village of Point Hope. Even though the village is more than five thousand miles from Florida, the two regions are struggling with a similar environmental issue: whether to allow offshore oil and gas drilling.

In its final weeks in office, the George W. Bush administration submitted an accelerated draft offshore leasing program to expand development in the Arctic Ocean and Bristol Bay in the Berin...

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Health Care for All

09/19/09 Mary Glenney

We spoke with Donna Smith, California Nurses Association and National Co-chair for the Progressive Democrats, and Steffi Woolhandler, M.D., co-founder Physcians for National Health Program, Professor of Medicine, Harvard, and co-author of a study showing that 45,000 Americans die per year due to lack of health insurance (current issue of American Journal of Public Health). They discussed their reaction to Senator Baucus recently released health care bill and their reasons for feeling that "m...

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St. Pete Budget Hearing

09/18/09 Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: St. Petersburg City Council, St. Petersburg fire department, St. Petersburg politics, budget, Budget Cutbacks, Rick Baker, Wengay Newton, 2010 Budget, Kathleen Ford

After months of wrangling, the St. Petersburg City Council approved its 2010 budget yesterday. The slim budget was met with praise, but not everyone was happy.

After nearly two hours of listening to public comments and ironing out a few remaining details, the St. Petersburg City Council passed its 2010 budget 7-1. It was the last budget over which outgoing Mayor Rick Baker presided, and also one of the tightest, as the mayor noted.

Council members and a handful of commenters commended ...

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Hands Off Health Care tour bus comes to Tampa listen

09/18/09 Seán Kinane
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Tags: health care, Barack Obama

“Hands Off My Health Care” is the message being sent to Congress by about 20 people who gathered this afternoon. The Florida “Patients First” Bus Tour stopped at the American Legion in South Tampa.

Two people phoned the offices of Tampa-area U.S. Representative Kathy Castor, while others chanted “hands off my health care.” Marsha Probst says the person who answered the phone at Castor’s office couldn’t understand what the chanters were saying. Probst, a...

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Florida unemployment stays high listen

09/18/09 Mitch E. Perry
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Tags: Unemployment

Florida’s unemployment rate continues to stay at its highest levels in three decades.

Rebecca Rust is the chief economist with the Agency for Workforce Innovation. She said that all industries in the state remain down in employment, with the exception of private education and health care.

Leading the way in job losses are the professional services, such as employer and temporary worker agencies.

In the Tampa Bay area, the highest level of unemployment remains in Hernando County, ...

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2nd phase of Pinellas Hope breaks ground listen

09/18/09 Mitch E. Perry
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Tags: homeless, Pinellas Hope

In Pinellas County, Catholic Charities officially broke ground Friday this morning on the second phase of a "tent city" for the homeless.

Pinellas Hope originally opened in December 2007 as a unique private-public partnership to create a new facility for the homeless in the County.

Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch was at today’s ceremony, and has been a leading advocate for the homeless on the County Commission.

Frank Murphy, the President of Catholic Charities, has said that a...

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New film depicts price fixing at agribusiness giant ADM listen

09/18/09 Mitch E. Perry
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One of the most anticipated Hollywood films of the fall, director Steven Sodeburgh’s “The Informant!”, is being released nationally today (Friday).

The film, starring Matt Damon, is about the real life FBI investigation into price fixing by agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland, or ADM.

The film is adapted from the book of the same title written by New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald in 2000. WMNF spoke with Eichenwald earlier this week about how he went about putting all the r...

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Cone Ranch purchase recommended by ELAPP panel listen

09/17/09 Seán Kinane
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Tags: Cone Ranch, ELAPP, Denise Layne

Hillsborough County’s Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program, or ELAPP, may be in the market to buy the site north of Plant City known as Cone Ranch. The nearly 13,000 acre property is owned by the county’s water department but has been coveted by a group of investors known as the Florida Conservation and Environmental Group, or FCEG.

In May, Cou...

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Florida ACORN official on allegations of wrong-doing

09/17/09 Robert Lorei
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Tags: acorn

The Associated Press reported today:

The community-organizing group ACORN said Wednesday it is ordering an independent investigation after its employees were caught on camera appearing to advise a couple posing as a prostitute and pimp to lie about the woman's profession to get housing help.

The group, which came under fire from conservatives for alleged voter fraud in 2008, said it is refusing new admissions into its service programs.

The group, which advocates for poor people,...

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The Obama Administration Plans to Continue Indefinite Detentions

09/17/09 Robert Lorei
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Tags: indefinite detentions; secret prisons, Afgahinstan War, Bagram Air Base

The ACLU says: "The Obama administration has filed a brief with a federal appeals court in Washington arguing that the approximately 600 detainees in U.S. custody at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan are not entitled to have their cases heard in U.S. courts. Some of the detainees at Bagram have been held for up to six years with no meaningful opportunity to challenge their detention, and there are some prisoners there who are unconnected to the war in Afghanistan but who have been sent there fro...

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Rick Baker eyes college gig listen

09/17/09 Mitch E. Perry
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St. Petersburg College (SPC) will start its search to replace retiring President Carl Kuttler Jr. with a public forum attended by its board next Monday.

The event will take place at EpiCenter, at 13805 58th Street North in Largo, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM.

Last week, outgoing St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker admitted that one job that does interest him as he transitions out of office would be to head SPC.

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Tempers flare at Tampa City Council Meeting listen

09/17/09 Mitch E. Perry
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The first flare-up occurred when City Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena asked Councilman Charlie Miranda if he would agree to cancel a previously-scheduled workshop next week on converting treated wastewater into drinkable water.

Miranda began discussing the idea back in May, and the City Council later voted to put the issue on the 2010 ballot.

Saul-Sena, not a supporter, said that because Mayor Pam Iorio had recently commented that she did not endorse the idea, the Council should cancel pla...

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Eyewitness recounts 9/12 Rally in DC

09/16/09 Robert Lorei
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Our guest Max Blumenthal is a blogger and videographer. His latest book is Republican Gomorrah: Inside The Movement That Shattered The Party. He attended last weekend's 9/12 rally in DC and has a different view of the event than was portrayed by Fox News.

See the video Max took at the 9/12 rally here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UASS1qFAIQ8&feature=player_embedded

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