News & Public Affairs
More than a hundred turn out to support homeless on Human Rights Day listen
12/13/10 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: homelessness, St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, Bruce Wright, Bill Foster, poverty
December 10 is known internationally as Human Rights Day. In St. Petersburg Friday, more than 100 people rallied in front of City Hall to urge those inside to rethink the way they treat the city’s homeless. Homeless advocates say it’s a matter of basic human rights.
"What do we want? Housing! When do we want it? Now!"
At around 4 on a frigid Friday afternoon, the crowd, diverse in age and background, assembles at 4th Avenue and 14th Street North. They walk nine blocks east and regroup ...
Be the first to commentAuthor highlights Factory Girls in China listen
12/13/10 Dawn Morgan ElliottWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: China, consumerism
Leslie T. Chang is a former Wall Street Journal correspondent who lived in and wrote about China for a decade. In her 2008 book Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China, she tells the story about how nearly 130 million young people leave their rural homes for the city, or going out, in hopes of a brighter future. WMNF’s Dawn Morgan Elliott spoke with Chang last week about the reasons she wrote her book.
Be the first to comment"I wanted to write the book because I felt like there was a lot o...
Civil Society throws lifeline to climate negotiators at COP 16 in Cancun listen
12/10/10 Kelly BenjaminWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: COP16, Greenpeace, tcktcktck, John Quigley, Kelly Rigg, climate change
Today is the last day of negotiations at the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Cancun, Mexico. WMNF’s Kelly Benjamin reports that Civil Society activist organizations are hoping to throw a lifeline to negotiators so they can pass a deal…
At the beach in Cancun this morning, members of Greenpeace and TCKTCKTCK, an alliance of environmental organizations working toward an ambitious and binding climate change agreement, used a giant inflatable life preserver to throw a lifeline to deleg...
2 commentsMarch for housing, jobs, and human rights in St. Petersburg listen
12/10/10 Seán Kinane & Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: poverty, homelessness, St. Petersburg, Bruce Wright
Today in celebration of International Human Rights Day there is a march for housing, jobs, and human rights in St. Petersburg.
We spoke with WMNF’s Kate Bradshaw, during the march late this afternoon.
Be the first to comment"I am on 5th Ave North [approaching] City Hall and there must be about 100 people here marching. They started at 4th Avenue North and 14th Street and this is part of International Human Rights Day. Reverend Bruce Wright is leading the march and he's doing so primarily because he objects t...
Rick Scott: Maybe some day, vouchers for all Florida students listen
12/09/10 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Rick Scott, school vouchers, Florida Politics, SB 6, education, Kim Black
Today at a large church in St. Petersburg, Governor-elect Rick Scott shared the stage with three corporate executives. They were touting Step Up for Students, a tax credit scholarship that funds Florida’s school voucher program, but it didn’t take long for politics to creep in.
It’s one of those events where people in tailored suits hand off gigantic checks to nonprofit heads whilst surrounded by less fortunate beneficiaries. The nonprofit in question is Step Up for Students, which manages...
4 commentsFreedom Fighters' criminal records expunged by Florida cabinet listen
12/09/10 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Charlie Crist, Freedom Fighters, Civil Rights, Clemency
This morning in Tallahassee, the Florida Board of Executive Clemency gave freedom back to activists known as the “Freedom Fighters”. The unanimous decision to expunge their criminal records was met with excited applause.
Presiding over his last Clemency meeting, Governor Charlie Crist moved to expunge criminal charges and arrest records of the “Freedom Fighters” from St. Augustine in 1963 and 1964.
Be the first to comment"Be it resolved by the Governor and Cabinet, sitting as the Florida Board of Executi...
At climate talks, the US has issues and Evo Morales calls inaction "Ecocide" listen
12/09/10 Kelly BenjaminWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: COP 16, Cancun, Climate Summit, Climate Change, Evo Morales, green energy
The United Nations Climate Change Negotiations are in their final 48 hours in Cancun, Mexico. WMNF’s Kelly Benjamin is there and reports that tracking down and speaking to the US delegation at the 192 country summit has been a bit of a challenge.
I’m in a building called Cancun Messe, here at the United Nations Climate Summit, a large convention room that acts as a security gateway to the place the actual negotiations on how to deal with climate change are taking place. That's at an exclus...
Be the first to commentBill Nelson: Florida will get $342 million more for high-speed rail listen
12/09/10 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: high-speed rail, transit, transportation, Lakeland, Orlando, Tampa, FDOT, Bill Nelson
Florida may be getting more money for its proposed high-speed train. And it’s thanks to some states rejecting the federal funds. Federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has told Florida’s Democratic U.S. Senator Bill Nelson that Florida will get some of the money rejected by Wisconsin and Ohio. Recently elected Republican governors in those states have said they did not want high-speed rail projects.
1 comments"Florida is getting an early Christmas present. We just got $342 million more for ou...
Vigil For Immigration Reform Tonight, March For Housing And Jobs Tomorrow
12/09/10 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Thursday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Dream Act, Cheri Honkala, human rights, jobs, homelessness, GOP Conventions, Rev. Bruce Wright, Ernesto Sendic Vargas
Good afternoon, welcome to WMNF's Radioactivity. I'm Rob Lorei. Coming up today we'll talk about a vigil for immigration reform which takes place tonight and a march for jobs and housing which takes place tomorrow evening in St. Petersburg.
Our first guest Ernesto Sendic Vargas who is one of the organizers of an event tonight- a vigil for immigration reform which takes place at 7:30 PM at St. Paul's Catholic Church on North Dale Mabry in Tampa. Among the organizations sponsoring the event...
Be the first to commentHouse passes Dream Act, Senate delays its vote listen
12/09/10 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Dream Act, immigration, Kathy Castor
Last night the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Dream Act, but a vote was delayed in the Senate this morning. The act would give conditional green cards to undocumented immigrants if they graduate from high school and pursue college or a job in the military. They could eventually apply for citizenship if they meet all requirements. Opponents, like Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter, don’t want these undocumented immigrants to have a path to citizenship.
6 comments"The Dream Act is a ...
Civil Rights Groups Petition Governor to Make Good on Promise to Florida's Disenfranchised listen
12/09/10 Lisa MarzilliWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Florida ACLU, Muslima Lewis, Office of Executive Clemency
Today outgoing Gov. Charlie Crist made his last appearance before the state Clemency Board in Tallahassee. Topping his agenda was a posthumous pardon for deceased rock icon Jim Morrison who was convicted of indecent exposure in 1969.
The amount of local and national media attention surrounding the issue raised the ire of a host of civil rights groups, including the Florida ACLU and the [Brennan Center for J...
3 commentsGrenada Prime Minister at climate talks: cut carbon emissions now! Darryl Hannah: enough talk! Act! listen
12/08/10 Kelly BenjaminWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: UNORCA, Indigenous Rights, COP 16, Cancun, Darryl Hannah, Tillman Thomas, climate change
The United Nations climate negotiations continued in Cancun today but hopes of coming to a strong deal on limiting global greenhouse emissions are looking more and more like a pipe dream.
WMNF's Kelly Benjamin has been attending the talks and reports that Grenada’s Prime Minister Tillman Thomas, representing the Alliance of Small Island States, many of whom are feeling immediate effects of climate change, gave a scathing critique of the UN talks.
Be the first to comment"There's an urgent need to address the...
Report: Florida will reap economic benefits by not drilling listen
12/08/10 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Sierra Club, offshore drilling, BP, Environment Florida, Gulf oil spill
Last week the Obama Administration announced it will not lift its ban in offshore oil drilling in the Eastern Gulf.
Tomorrow the Sierra Club and Environment Florida will discuss the results of a study they say reaffirms the administration’s decision. They will be joined by representatives from the seafood, tourism, and real estate industries at John’s Pass in Madeira Beach.
Phil Compton is regional head of Sierra Club Florida. He says the concern now is what a Republican supermajority...
Be the first to commentDemocrats Angry At Obama/GOP Tax Deal
12/08/10 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Wednesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: tax cuts, Barack Obama, compromise, Social Security, military spending
Our next guest is Ari Berman who wrote a story this morning on The Nation.com regarding the largely negative reaction by Democrats to the tax compromise announced earlier this week by President Obama.
1 commentsIn Defense Of Thomas Jefferson
12/08/10 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Wednesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, William Hyland
Good afternoon, welcome to Radioactivity. I'm Rob Lorei. Our guest on this first segment is William Hyland, a local attorney and adjunct professor at Stetson Law School, author of the book "In Defense Of Thomas Jefferson" published by St. Martins Press and nominated for the Virginia Literary Award for 2010.
The book investigates the historical controversy surrounding Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings. According to the author "In Defense" definitively destroys the myth that Jefferson ...
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