News & Public Affairs
Public Interest Groups Says Florida Legislature Is Moving To Curtail Voting Rights
04/22/11 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Friday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: voting, Florida legislature, Brad Ashwell, FPIRG
Good morning, welcome to Radioactivity. The state legislature is considering moves to make it harder to vote. Legislation being considered in Tallahassee would shorten the number of days for early voting, put restrictions on groups that sign people up to vote, and would make it less easy for people who change addresses to vote. Our guest is Brad Ashwell with the Florida Public Interest Research Group. FPIRG and other consumer, civic, human rights and civil libert...
Be the first to commentLeague of Women Voters president calls FL election bill an assault on voters listen
04/22/11 Lisa MarzilliWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: HB 1355, SB 2086, League of Women Voters, Deirdre Macnab, Rep. Dennis Baxley, voter suppression, elections, 2011 Legislative session
Thursday night the Republican controlled Florida House overwhelmingly approved a sweeping and controversial elections bill, sponsored by GOP Representative Dennis Baxley. Among other things, HB 1355 and it’s Senate companion SB 2086 will prohibit updating personal information, like name or address...
1 commentsFlorida environmentalists bittersweet over renewable energy proposal listen
04/22/11 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Florida House, renewable energy, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Florida Alliance for Renewable Energy, Mike Fasano, Florida Power and Light, 2011 Legislative session
A state senate committee is taking up a bill that would give Florida’s major power companies more incentive to go solar. Skeptics say it would line the pockets of Tallahassee’s biggest campaign donors at the expense of small businesses, and are trying to amend the bill to make room for the little guy.
As is, Senate Bill 2078 is bittersweet for clean energy advocates. On one hand it would mean more of Florida’s energy would come from clean sources like solar and wind. On the other, it could...
1 commentsUS predator drones in combat patrols over Libya listen
04/22/11 wire reports including APWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: drones, Libya, John McCain, Mike Mullen
U.S. unmanned Predator drones are now providing 24-hour combat air patrols over Libya.
President Barack Obama approved the use of armed drones on ground forces for the first time since America turned over control of the operation to NATO on April 4th.
At a news conference in Iraq, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen says it remains to be seen whether Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi will remain in power.
1 comments"From a strategic perspective, I think the clearer the long te...
US Representative Kathy Castor says GOP budget would hurt everyone listen
04/22/11 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Kathy Castor, Medicare, Paul Ryan, health care, John Boehner
Last Week, the US House of Representatives passed a budget containing stark cuts, practically across the board. Opponents of the bill say there are better ways to tackle the federal debt and deficit.
US Representative Kathy Castor, a Democrat from Tampa, said she’s not happy with the budget passed by the GOP-led House. Speaking during a recent visit to St. Pete Beach, she said it would severely impact Floridians, since the bill would effectively privatize Medicare. She said medical coverag...
1 commentsLast Call with Wayne Garcia
04/21/11 Mitch PerryLast Call Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Wayne Garcia, Media, politics, Creative Loafing
Former Creative Loafing columnist and political consultant Wayne Garcia talks about media and politics.
Be the first to commentTransgender activist says she's been denied chance to talk with St Pete College students listen
04/21/11 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: transgender, LGBT, St. Petersburg College, ethics, feminism
Gianna Chao is an advocate and activist for transgender issues and is a transwoman. She and her creative partner, Alexandria Brown, have created web videos under a partnership called Techno Feminist Utopia. They were invited to speak to an applied ethics class at St. Petersburg College, but Chao says they found out the invitation had been rescinded, but not by the professor or the students.
2 comments"From what I know, the class is an applied ethics class at St. Petersburg College and they were goi...
Hillsborough EPC wary of state bills that would dismantle environmental regs listen
04/21/11 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission, EPC, Victor Crist, Mark Sharpe, Hillsborough County, Sandy Murman
Some Tampa residents may have noticed a rank scent in the air after a ruptured sewer pipe leaked almost six million gallons of wastewater into area wetlands. The outcome wasn’t a worst-case scenario, but some bills in the state legislature could make such messes harder to manage in the future.
The spill, which happened in mid-March, put officials on alert after millions of gallons of raw sewage crept toward the Hillsborough River. Much of the mess bled into surrounding wetlands near I-75 a...
1 commentsWikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning being moved out of Quantico listen
04/20/11 wire reports including APWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Bradley Manning, torture, WikiLeaks, State Department, Barack Obama, PJ Crowley
Bradley Manning is being moved to a new prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. The Army private is suspected of giving classified data to WikiLeaks. Pentagon general counsel Jay Johnson says more extensive mental, emotional and physical health care will be available for Manning.
Be the first to comment"This facility is appropriate to meet Private Manning's health and welfare needs. Given the possibility that he will remain in pre-trial confinement for an additional time, we have the sense that this is in Private...
Immigrant and youth issues propel USF student body president to claim political speech record listen
04/20/11 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Cesar Hernandez, University of South Florida, filibuster, speech, USF, Florida Legislature, Barack Obama, immigration, youth, education, students
Late this morning, University of South Florida student body president Cesar Hernandez wrapped up a record-breaking speech that lasted twenty-four hours. The aspiring doctor and politician hopes to catch the eye of lawmakers in Tallahassee and Washington.
"What struck me most forcibly about the NLF was the totality as a social revolution first and as a war second..."
It was a Mr. Smith Goes to Washington-style filibuster, but unlike the film, spectators wore flip-flops and carried iPo...
Be the first to commentThe BP disaster and rising gasoline prices: Tyson Slocum says oil companies should not be trusted
04/20/11 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Wednesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: BP, Gulf of Mexico, oil companies, regulation, Tyson Slocum, Public Citizen
Good morning, one year ago the BP oil disaster began. Joining us now is Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program. Yesterday he said:
Be the first to comment"On Wednesday, 365 days will have passed since an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig triggered the worst environmental disaster our country has ever seen.
"For 87 of those days, we watched helplessly as the government, BP and countless contractors failed to stop the oil from gushing into the Gulf of Me...
Geologist: fossil fuels likely to remain dominant energy source for US listen
04/20/11 Matthew CimitileWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Fossil fuels, renewables, nuclear energy, oil, energy
Despite last year’s BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, global energy demand will continue to make fossil fuels the essential energy source for the coming decades. That’s the conclusion of a geologist who spoke last week at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science.
Nearly 19 million barrels of oil is consumed in the United States each day. According to the Institute of Energy Research, this staggering number meets 37 percent of the nation’s energy demand. Peter Rose ...
Be the first to commentGulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force gets citizen input in Sarasota listen
04/19/11 Lenka DavisWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: BP, oil spill, Gulf oil disaster, Sarasota, Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force
The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force is gathering input about how the Gulf of Mexico should be restored after last year’s oil disaster. Last night in Sarasota, the task force organized a listening session to hear concerns and recommendations from citizens.
More than 44 million people live in states along the Gulf of Mexico and many of them depend on the Gulf for their income. Even before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the coastal marsh in the Gulf region was disappearing at an...
Be the first to commentRep. Castor gets update on Gulf oil spill's economic, environmental impacts listen
04/19/11 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Kathy Castor, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf oil disaster, BP, oil spill
Tomorrow marks one year since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank into the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven and causing untold economic and environmental havoc. Today, Democratic US Representative Kathy Castor convened a panel of stakeholders to assess the disaster’s impacts one year on. The group of hoteliers, seafood industry leaders and environmentalists said there’ve been some ups and downs. One key problem, they said, is perception – even though Pinellas County Beaches never go...
Be the first to commentIn Tampa, Progressive organizations tell Bank of America to pay their taxes listen
04/19/11 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Bank of America, taxes, tax loopholes, MoveOn
Protesters from various progressive organizations gathered yesterday in front of a Tampa Bank of America to protest tax practices that benefit large corporations. About 75 people with signs urged corporations to pay their taxes.
Yesterday was tax day which meant a lot people paid a lot of money to a financially struggling government. But protesters say Bank of America and other corporate giants weren’t among those that had to pay up. They gathered along Kennedy Blvd. in front of Bank of A...
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