News & Public Affairs
Hillsborough County Commissioners Delay Vote on Fertilizer Ordinance listen
06/10/10 Matthew CimitileWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: environment, water quality, fertilizer ban
Hillsborough County Commissioners voted to delay a decision on an ordinance that would ban the use and sale of fertilizer during the summer rainy season. They delayed their decision despite a packed public hearing earlier today.
Scientists, lawn care specialists, environmentalists and citizens crammed into a public Environmental Protection Commission hearing to listen and provide arguments for and against a proposed ordinance that would ban residential use of fertilizer between June 1 a...
Be the first to commentNelson thinks Pentagon should step in on cleanup of BP oil disaster listen
06/10/10 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Bill Nelson, BP, BP oil spill, Gulf Oil Spill
Florida’s senior Senator Bill Nelson is calling for the command and control structure of the Pentagon to help coordinate the cleanup of the Gulf
“Just know that you’ve got some folks in Florida who are mad as wet hens right now. We’ve got to get this command and control straightened out where communication is going to everybody at the local level.”
Nelson made those remarks this morning during the Senate’s Homeland Security and Government Oversight Subcommittee, which is determining th...
Be the first to commentDemonstrators urge Sen. LeMieux to support the DREAM Act listen
06/09/10 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Dream Act, immigration reform, immigration, George LeMieux
Today demonstrators in three Florida cities urged US Senator George LeMieux to cosponsor the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM Act. Tampa was one of these. The act would give conditional residency to some undocumented students who were brought to the US as minors if they go to college or join the military. Currently, many are subject to deportation. Jessica Sanchez with Students Working for Equal Rights organized the Tampa event.
The bill was first proposed in 20...
Be the first to commentThe Future Of The US Space Program
06/09/10 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Wednesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: space shuttle, NASA, privatization of city jobs, Pat Duggins
Our next guest is Pat Duggins who has covered NASA for years for NPR. He'll be speaking this Sunday at the Tampa Bay History Center.
From the TBHC's press office: The 2009-2010 Florida Conversations Lecture Series concludes with National Public Radio’s “Space Expert” Pat Duggins on Sunday, June 13th, at 3:00 p.m. in TECO Hall. Duggins will discuss his book, Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program.
The Space Shuttle was once the cornerstone of the U.S. space pro...
Be the first to commentDaine Ravitch Discusses Education Reform
06/09/10 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Wednesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: standardized tests, NCLB, Diane Ravitch, vouchers, charter schools, SAT
Our guest on the first part of today's program is NYU education historian Diane Ravitch who has written a new book about high-stakes standardized tests and school choice: "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education." In the 1960's she was part of the Left side of the political spectrum. But she grew more conservative over time- joining the Education Department under George H. W. Bush. She backed the new generation of conservative r...
Be the first to commentUSF, NOAA reseachers confirm oil plume listen
06/08/10 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: BP oil spill, Deepwater Horizon, NOAA, USF, BP
Today, scientists from the University of South Florida and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reaffirmed a widespread suspicion: that there’s oil suspended beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. But they won’t say much else about it.
Dr. William Hogarth, dean of USF Marine Science, was plain about the significance of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Be the first to comment*This i...
Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign in Cleveland listen
06/07/10 Kelly BenjaminWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, poverty, US Social Forum, Bruce Wright
The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign is in the midst of a march across the United States culminating at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit later this month. WMNF's Kelly Benjamin is embedded with the march and brings us this report from Cleveland, Ohio.
Poverty has got to go! Hey, hey! Ho, ho!
This weekend, Rev. Bruce Wright crammed two cars full ...
Be the first to commentCrist renews call for special session on drilling ban listen
06/07/10 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Charlie Crist, BP oil spill, Deepwater Horizon
Governor Charlie Crist said he hopes there will be a special legislative session on on a proposed constitutional amendment banning drilling for oil in state waters.
Be the first to comment*It's pretty definite; I mean, you know, I've wanted to do it for quite some time. And as I've stated previously, some in the leadership in the House have been reluctant to do so. The Senate has seemed a lot more amicable about having a session...
Crist attempts to distance himself from Jim Greer who says Crist knew of secret deal listen
06/07/10 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Charlie Crist, Jim Greer, GOP
This past weekend, the lawyer for disgraced former state GOP head Jim Greer said Governor Charlie Crist knew about Greer’s use of a shell company to divert party money, and never called for an audit. When asked about it earlier today, Crist said that such accusations fly in desparate situations. Pressed further, the governor said it was time to move forward from what he called a sad chapter.
When asked why he didn’t call for an audit, Crist said he did have people looking into it at one p...
Be the first to commentCrist tours Pinellas beaches, hears local oil concerns listen
06/07/10 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: BP oil spill, Deepwater Horizon, Halliburton, Charlie Crist, Janet Long, st. pete beach, Madeira Beach, Pinellas County, tourism
Oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster might not be washing up on Tampa Bay’s shores, but local leaders are saying they want to be ready if it does. Today, Governor Charlie Crist visited the Pinellas beaches and got an earful about the sweeping impacts oil would have, as well as the havoc oil fears have already wrought on the local economy.
Governor Crist’s first stop...
Be the first to commentAzalea neighbors irate about response from Raytheon, Crist, Foster, and DEP listen
06/07/10 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Raytheon, St. Petersburg, Rick Kriseman, Charlie Justice, Charlie Crist, DEP, BP, BP oil spill, Gulf Oil Spill
The BP oil blowout isn’t the only environmental catastrophe some Pinellas residents have to worry about. People in the Azalea neighborhood of northwest St. Petersburg have been dealing with an underground plume of toxins coming from a nearby Raytheon plant. On Saturday morning, about 60 residents gathered with state legislators such as state [Senator Charlie Justice](http://ww...
8 commentsFlorida Rep Rick Kriseman still wants special Legislative session on drilling and energy listen
06/07/10 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Rick Kriseman, BP, BP oil spill, Gulf Oil Spill, Florida Legislature, special session, oil drilling
Beginning last month there was a push by state Representative Rick Kriseman and others to hold a special legislative session on drilling and energy fueled by the ongoing BP oil leak disaster.
On Saturday Kriseman, a Democrat from St. Petersburg, reiterated his calls for a special session that co...
Be the first to commentIn Tampa people rally in solidarity with Gaza Freedom Flotilla listen
06/04/10 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Gaza, Freedom Flotilla, flotilla, Israel, Rachel Corrie
The Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner on an aid ship heading to Gaza says the activists on board will not resist Israeli soldiers if they board the Rachel Corrie.
This afternoon, Mairead Corrigan said the vessel is expected to soon reach Israel's 20-mile exclusion zone.
Corrigan said the members of the Freedom Flotilla are prepared to be arrested and taken to Israel if Israeli soldiers board the boat.
She said they will deliver humanitarian aid to...
Be the first to commentSt. Pete passes panhandling ban listen
06/04/10 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: panhandling, homeless, St. Petersburg, St pete city council, Wengay Newton
Residents flooded city hall in St. Pete last night to weigh in on a contentious ordinance that bans exchanging money curbside on major thoroughfares. The move, which the city council passed, was meant to curb roadside panhandling, but many were outraged about the new law’s collateral damage.
You see them on many of St. Pete’s I-275 on-ramps. They vary by age and background. Some have dogs; others come in a pair. But they a...
1 commentsThe Israeli-Palestinian conflict through photography listen
06/04/10 Andrea LypkaWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Shai Kremer, Infected Landscape, Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Tampa, Rob Lorei, Andrea Lypka
Amid all of the developments in the Middle East, Shai Kremer hopes to help people understand the region through his photographs. His exhibition “Infected Landscape” opened at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts in Tampa on May 29.
The New York and Tel-Aviv based Kremer documents the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a conflict he has breathed and lived in for many years.
Be the first to comment*You don’t feel the war when you live in Tel Aviv, you just live a normal life like you li...
