News & Public Affairs
Enhancing bike lanes on Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa listen
08/22/11 Olivia KabatWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: bicycling, pedestrians, roads, Bayshore Boulevard, bike lanes
One important part of the transportation network for any city is safe and easy access for bicyclists. Tampa has begun enhancing bike lanes on Bayshore Boulevard between Rome Avenue and the Davis Island Bridge.
There are many more phases to go, but this large construction project is working to establish a safe traffic system and new bicycle lanes on Bayshore Boulevard. According to Alan Snel, Director of Southwest Bicycle United Dealers, or swift-bud, the Bayshore Bike Lane Enhancements Pro...
1 commentsAllen West wants to rescue blacks from the Democrats' "plantation"
08/19/11 Lisa Marzilli & Beth BellLast Call Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Maxine Waters, Allen West
On today’s Last Call we heard an audio clip from Fox's O'Reilly Factor from GOP Representative Allen West (FL), who’s dubbed himself the “modern day Harriet Tubman” trying to lead black voters off the Democrats' "21st-century plantation."
We also heard Rep. Maxine Waters’ response to West's assessment that she and other black leaders are nothing more than "overseers" on that plantation. Waters was ...
Be the first to commentSt. Pete City Council rejects digital billboards listen
08/19/11 Josh HoltonWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: St. Petersburg City Council, Clear Channel Communications, Council of Neighborhood Associations, digital billboards
After several years of negotiations, St. Pete City Council voted after midnight Friday to reject an ordinance that would have allowed construction of digital billboards. Clear Channel Communications had offered to take down 80 billboards in exchange for building 8 new digital signs.
At the meeting, about 20 people representing communities throughout St. Petersburg opposed the ordinance. Only about 5, most from Clear Channel...
1 commentsSt. Pete to hold workshop to examine Tampa Bay Rays' Trop lease listen
08/19/11 Josh HoltonWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: St. Petersburg, Tampa Bay Rays, Tropicana Field, Bill Foster, Leslie Curran, Rays stadium, St. Pete City Council
St. Petersburg’s major league baseball team has threatened to leave the area. WMNF’s Josh Holton reports, yesterday the St. Pete City Council decided to schedule a workshop to overview the existing lease with the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rays are under contract to play at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg until 2027. As of 2008, the Rays had received an annual11 milli...
Be the first to commentAl Fox talks to Tampa Tiger Bay Club about benefits of lifting Cuba trade embargo listen
08/19/11 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Al Fox, Cuba, Tiger Bay Club, Alex Sink
Many people want Florida to be allowed to trade with Cuba. They say the benefits to both Cuban and American economies would be substantial if the current trade embargo was lifted.
Tampa International Airport could begin commercial flights to and from Cuba as soon as September. That news was announced in July after at least one Miami-based charter company was granted landing rights. But trade with the country still isn’t allowed. Al Fox, president of the Alliance for Responsible Cuba P...
3 commentsWhy does the conservative media ignore Ron Paul?
08/19/11 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Monday)
Tags: Ron Paul, Fox News, Iowa Straw Poll, Libertarian Party, Wes Benedict
When Ron Paul came in second this week in the Ames Iowa Presidential Straw Poll his accomplishment was almost completely ignored by the FOX TV Network. We’ll talk about that on the first part of today’s program. First two listener comments about yesterday’s public affairs program. The first about the interview with Susan Taylor Martin of the St. Petersburg Times about her reporting on Pakistan. Then a comment about yesterday’s Alternative Radio.
Earlier this week the Republican Party in ...
Be the first to commentHow will Florida's battle with EPA over nutrient regulations affect Hillsborough? listen
08/18/11 Matthew CimitileWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: environment, nitrogen fertilizer, phosphorus, EPC, EPA, EPA water standards, pollution
The state of Florida is in a battle with thefeds over water quality. Hillsborough County is affected by the ongoing dispute over regulating nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in Florida.
In 2008, a Florida Department of Environmental Protection report determine that half the rivers and lakes in Florida were impaired because of nutrients. After getting no response from the state for a plan to clean up its waterways, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, imposed numeric limits...
Be the first to commentHillsborough Commissioners learn environmental effects of jet fuel spill listen
08/18/11 Matthew CimitileWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Fuel spill, environment, Hillsborough County Commission, EPC
It has been almost a month since a pipeline carrying jet fuel from Orlando to Tampa ruptured, spilling thousands of gallons of fuel into a creek in Mango, fifteen miles east of Tampa.
Alain Watson is emergency response coordinator for the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County. This morning he told County Commissioners, in their role as the EPC board, about the extent of the spill and damages to the environment.
Be the first to comment“The final numbers on the amount of jet fuel that ...
Pakistan: A nuclear power on the brink?
08/18/11 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Thursday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Susan Taylor Martin, Pakistan, nuclear weapons, war on terrorism, drones
We spoke with St. Petersburg Times reporter Susan Taylor Martin who recently returned from a reporting trip to Pakistan. A country that has nuclear weapons, is a US ally but which has huge internal problems. What’s the future of Pakistan? We’ll talk about that in a moment.
But first one listener comment about yesterday’s program on which we talked about the Governor taking advantage of the state’s cut rate health insurance program for some top state workers and ...
2 commentsFlorida cities partner for new green energy collaborative program listen
08/18/11 Olivia KabatWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: new energy program, Lantana, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth, energy efficiency, Energy conservation
Some local governments in Florida are forming partnerships to help businesses save money by lowering energy costs. These collaborative energy programs will also create new jobs.
The Greater Lake Worth and Greater Boynton Beach Chambers of Commerce along with the Town of Lantana have created the new GreenBiz Energy Collaborative Program. It gives funds to local businesses to complete eco-friendly energy projects and practice energy efficiency. Michael Wallander, the program’s project manage...
Be the first to commentTampa man says PricewaterhouseCoopers discriminated against him for his Arab/Muslim background
08/17/11 Sean KinaneLast Call Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Arab, Muslim, PricewaterhouseCoopers, discrimination, civil rights
Our guest today was Issam Azziz. He is suing the auditing company PricewaterhouseCoopers for employment discrimination. He was fired in July 2009 from his position as senior audit manager in their Tampa office. Azziz says he was let go because he is an Arab, a Muslim, and was critical of PricewaterhouseCooper’s diversity hiring practices. He sued last week in U.S. District Court and wants his job back, plus back pay, and compensation for emotional suffering and humiliation. Our other guest wa...
Be the first to commentCity Council candidates hoping to represent west St. Pete answer questions from residents listen
08/17/11 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Bob Kersteen, Charlie Gerdes, Joshua Shulman, St. Petersburg City Council, St. Petersburg, elections
The three candidates for the district one seat in St. Petersburg city council participated in a forum last night hosted by the League of Women Voters.
With the added shelter space provided by the Pinellas Safe Harbor facility that opened in January, people taking to the streets to sleep now have the option to go to a shelter, or get arrested. It’s a topic that will weigh heavily on the mix of opinions at the polls. That makes it a topic three city council candidates will certainly talk...
Be the first to commentTampa Bay homeowners outraged over Citizens sinkhole insurance rate hikes
08/17/11 Josh HoltonWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Citizens Property Insurance, sinkholes, sinkhole, sb 408, insurance rates, insurance, insurance industry, mortgages, fraud, Mike Fasano
More than a hundred furious protestors shouted and waved signs outside Pasco County government offices yesterday. They rallied to protest massive rate hikes proposed for sinkhole insurance coverage.
Last year there were far more sinkhole rate claims in the Tampa Bay area than in previous years. While many say the drought is to blame, some politicians in Tallahassee think fraud is at work. So State Senate Bill 408 was written to address the fraud, but also did away with a 10% annual rate h...
1 commentsGovernor Rick Scott and top state employees receive huge health insurance subsidy
08/17/11 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Wednesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Rick Scott, health insurance, subsidized, State of Florida, insurance, public workers
Our guest Adam Weinstein, a reporter with Mother Jones Magazine, wrote this last week about Florida Governor Rick Scott: "Last year, political neophyte Rick Scott spent $73 million of his own money to bring the tea party's anti-government, pro-privatization agenda to the Florida governor's office. Today, the former executive pays just $30 a month for health care—and lets taxpayers cover the rest.
"Th...
Be the first to commentAmerica's infrastructure investment is trailing behind rest of world
08/17/11 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Wednesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Marcia Hale, infrastructure spending, Build America's Future, wmnf, Rob Lorei
First up today a new report is raising alarms about infrastructure spending in the us. A new report from Build America's Future says the consequences of continuing to ignore long-term infrastructure needs could have huge consequences for America's future. In a new report released Aug. 8 by Building America's Future -- an advocacy group founded by former Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, former Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and independent New York Mayor Michael Bloom...
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