News & Public Affairs

My Neighbor My Killer

04/10/10 Mary Glenney

Anne Aghion, director-producer of the award winning film, MY NEIGHBOR MY KILLER, discusses her film and the ten years it took to make. The film is being shown at the Sarasota Film Festival on Sunday, April 11 at 6:45 pm and repeated again Monday, April 12 at 7 pm. Both screenings will be at the Hollywood 20 in Sarasota. The movie is about the nation of Rwanda and the nearly impossible task of trying to move forward in peace as a unified nation after the brutal murders decimating the Tutsi ...

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Governor Crist speaks with students at USF St. Pete listen

04/09/10 Arielle Stevenson
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Tags: wmnf, Charlie Crist, SB6, oil drilling near Florida's coast, Seminole Indians, Gambling

Despite a major education vote on Capitol Hill, Gov. Charlie Crist took time to speak with students last night at USF St. Petersburg.

USF St. Petersburg students enrolled in St. Petersburg Times columnist Howard Troxler’s Florida Politics class were treated to a personal discussion with Crist. Crist’s decisions are often the topics of heated debates every Thursda...

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Tea Party and 9-12 Group Host Candidate Forum in Taxpayer-Funded Space listen

04/09/10 Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: kathy castor, Eddie Adams Jr., Tony Buntyn, TimCurtis, Thomas Castellano, tea parties

Last night, the Tampa Tea Party and the Tampa Nine-Twelve Project held a town hall meeting at the same Ybor City site as last year’s now infamous town hall discussion on health care. U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor led that meeting at the taxpayer-funded Children's Board headquarters before it devolved into chaos. But yesterday’s panelists, all of whom want to unseat her, addressed a mellower crowd about wher...

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In Ybor, I-4 Crosstown Connector breaks ground listen

04/09/10 Seán Kinane
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Tags: Stimulus Package, Charlie Crist, kathy castor, Port of Tampa, FDOT, Ybor City

Although construction has already begun, the official groundbreaking ceremony was held this morning for the highway to connect I-4 with the Port of Tampa and the Selmon Crosstown Expressway. Gov. Charlie Crist said the project, funded with $105 million dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will mean more jo...

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Crist won't show his hand on possible SB 6 veto listen

04/09/10 Seán Kinane
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Tags: SB6, Charlie Crist, Jean Clements, Hillsborough County Teachers Association, unions, education, teacher pay, teacher tenure

This morning, Gov. Charlie Crist was in Ybor City. He was greeted by about eight employees of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association. They held signs encouraging him to veto Senate Bill 6.

When the governor arrived, he walked over to the crowd and accepted a box filled with hundreds of postcards and handwritten petitions from teachers and their supporters urging him to veto the bill. Crist said he has still not made a veto decisi...

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Governor Crist on SB 6 listen

04/09/10 Arielle Stevenson
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Tags: Charlie Crist, SB6, john thrasher, wmnf

Florida House members voted in favor of Senate Bill 6 last night. Now the fate of Senate Bill 6 is in the hands of Gov. Charlie Crist. Last night, Crist was in town speaking to students at USF St. Petersburg.

It was a late night in Florida’s capitol as lawmakers debated Senate Bill 6, which would overhaul how teachers are evaluated in the state’s schools. The debate ended with a 64-55 vote in favor of the legisl...

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If they build it, will they stay? New stadium for the Rays? listen

04/08/10 Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: Rays, Rays stadium, Tampa Bay Rays, ABC Coalition, Leslie Curran, Craig Sher

Faced with the possibility that the Tampa Bay Rays may leave town, many think building a new stadium is key to making them stay. Developer Craig Sher, who is with a group that for the past year has been studying the best way to do this, spoke in downtown St. Petersburg today. The audience included five St. Pete City Council members, and they were not pleased wi...

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What's the cause of the tense political dialogue in the country right now?

04/08/10 Robert Lorei
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Tags: Glen Beck, Fox News, hate speech, death threats, Cong. John Lewis, House Speaker Nacy pelosi, Rob Lorei, WMNF

With death threats made to members of Congress and evidence that some people are moved to anger by what they are seeing on television- today we are going to open the phones and talk about the deteriorating political dialogue in this country.

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Hillsborough teachers protest bills in Florida Legislature listen

04/07/10 Seán Kinane
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Tags: SB6, Hillsborough County School Board, Candy Olson, Charlie Crist

This morning, Gov. Charlie Crist was in Ybor City. He was greeted by about eight employees of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association. They held signs encouraging him to veto Senate Bill 6.

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Hillsborough BOCC Tells Tallahassee to Keep its Hands off Children's Board listen

04/07/10 Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: Children's Board, Kevin Beckner, Jim Norman, Florida Legislature, Luanne Panacek

The Hillsborough County Commission resolved to oppose two bills currently in the state legislature that would require several youth service organizations that have taxing authority to be approved by ballot every six years. Hillsborough’s Children’s Board is one of these. Commissioner Kevin Beckner sponsored the resolution, which passed five to one.

Beckner said that asking voters to approve the board’s existence would cause an undue burden on taxpayers, adding that the county already has t...

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Hillsborough BOCC Says Blow Up Friendship Bridge, See if Hollywood Will Supply Dynamite listen

04/07/10 Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: Friendship Trail bridge, friendship bridge, Al Higginbotham, Mark Sharpe, Pinellas Board of County Commissioners, Gandy Bridge

Today the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners asked the County’s Public Works Department to find the cheapest way to demolish the Friendship Trail Bridge. Once a popular pedestrian trail, the former auto bridge connects Pinellas and Hillsborough alongside the Gandy Bridge. It has been closed since 2008. Public Works Director Bob Gordon listed the many factors that make the structure obsolete.

Gordon said that even if nobody sets foot on the bridge, it could collapse into Tampa Bay ...

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Teachers Alarmed By Plans In Tallahassee To Enact Merit Pay

04/07/10 Robert Lorei
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Tags: merit pay, teacher tenure, Hillsborough Classroom Teacher's Association, Nick Whitman, Jean Clements, Jeb Bush

Coming up today we'll talk with members of a local teacher's union who are planning to hold a rally today in opposition to the teacher merit pay legislation making its way through the legislature.

But first some listener comments about yesterday's program. The segment that received the most comments was the one about America's prison system. Yesterday we heard from Robert Perkinson, the author of a new book about the rapid expansion of the nation's prison system in the past 40 years.

...

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FDEP to Fine Pinellas for Wastewater Violations at Landfill listen

04/06/10 Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: Pinellas Board of County Commissioners, wastewater, Tom Crandall, Pinellas Trail, Waste to Energy

Today, Pinellas County agreed to pay the Florida Department of Environmental Protection five thousand dollar fine. The fine is penalty for pumping polluted water from a landfill into nearby surface water bodies. The county is also on the hook for more than twenty-six million dollars in upgrades to prevent this from happening again.

It was the height of the 2009 rainy season. The water level in Pond A at the [Bridgeway Acres Lan...

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Texas Tough: The Rise Of America's Prison Empire

04/06/10 Robert Lorei
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Tags: prisons, convict leasing, chain gangs, Robert Perkinson, crack cocaine, African Americans

Why has the United States built the largest prison system in the world- with more than 2.4 million people behind bars? Why have racial disparities in criminal justice worsened over the past two decades, despite landmark victories in the civil rights movement? Our guest, University of Hawaii history professor Robert Perkinson, has written TEXAS TOUGH which traces the history of the prison system in the US from the era of slavery, through Jim Crow to today. Perkinson writes that Texas has bee...

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Kendrick Meek, Candidate for US Senate

04/06/10 Robert Lorei
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Tags: Unemployment, green jobs, health care reform, tea party, Kendrick Meek, WMNF

Our guest on the first part of today's program is south Florida Congressman Kendrick Meek. He is running for the Democratic nomination for US Senate. He joins us now via cell phone; he's on I-95 driving up to a campaign appearance on Florida's east coast.

FMI http://www.kendrickmeek.com

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