News & Public Affairs
Santa takes on Wal-Mart labor issues: VIDEO listen
11/26/12 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Wal-Mart, labor, wages, benefits, workers rights, unions, Black Friday
Groups from across the country protested Wal-Mart over the weekend as a show of solidarity with striking workers. Activists from the Tampa Bay area took their action to Pinellas Park on Friday at one of the big box retailer’s busiest stores. One man, Tyler Mitchell dressed as Santa Clause and stood in front of the store’s main entrance asking shoppers to stand in solidarity with Wal-Mart employees, but was quickly asked to leave the property.
Mitchell joined a larger protesting on the sid...
Be the first to commentTrash Talk opens in Hillsborough County to change waste management service listen
11/26/12 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: waste management, Hillsborough County Commission, John Lyons, trash collection
Trash services for Hillsborough County residents will get an update next October. Now county staff working on the changes are asking ratepayers for their input. Right now workers collect trash and recyclables by hand, but some new options could mean a machine does most of the work. John Lyons, director of the county’s public utilities says there are four options on the table including keeping service just the way it is.
Be the first to comment“One of the second options we’re offering is to go to an automated...
Integrity Florida's Dan Krassner looks at Ethics in State Government
11/21/12 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Wednesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Dan Krassner, Integrity Florida, Citizen's, conflict of interest, ethics
Good morning, welcome to WMNF. I'm Rob Lorei. Coming up we'll speak with Dan Krassner who is executive director of the government watchdog group Integrity Florida. We'll take a look at recent problems at Citizen's Property Insurance, Enterprise Florida and the state's tourism department. We'll also talk about the incoming leader's of the state house and senate and what they are saying about ethics, campaign contributions and reform.
Be the first to commentTampa Bay activists plan Black Friday protests at WalMarts in solidarity with striking workers
11/21/12 Seán KinaneLast Call Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: WalMart, labor, strikes, Black Friday, Buy Nothing Day, Occupy Wall Street
On Last Call we took calls about the strikes by WalMart workers this Friday across the country and the local actions in support of the laborers. The day after Thanksgiving is typically the busiest shopping day of the year -- called Black Friday by shoppers and Buy Nothing Day by people protesting the hyperconsu...
Be the first to commentChambers of Commerce say either Hillsborough or Pinellas could afford new tax-funded baseball stadium listen
11/20/12 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Tampa Bay Rays, baseball stadium, corporate welfare, chamber of commerce, Chuck Sykes, Tropicana Field
Both Hillsborough and Pinellas counties can afford to build a new baseball stadium according to a coalition of Tampa Bay area chamber of commerce groups. Based on a study released Monday by the group, a stadium build would need hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and cooperation from the Tampa Bay Rays owners. Chuck Black, chair of the Tampa Chamber, said right now the money question is more important than where.
Be the first to comment“We decided it would be a good tool in the tool bag of the community f...
New PBS Frontline Documentary POOR KIDS
11/20/12 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Tuesday) Listen to this entire show:
Good morning, welcome to Radioactivity. I'm Rob Lorei. Coming up today we'll talk about a new PBS/Frontline documentary entitled POOR KIDS. The film which airs tonight on PBS travels to the Quad Cities, a great American crossroads along the border of Iowa and Illinois, to explore the lives of children living in the suburbs of the nation's heartland and growing up poor. Told from the point of view of the children themselves, this one-hour documentary offers a unique perspective on the nation's...
Be the first to commentOccupy Tampa member arrested for writing in chalk on sidewalk challenges the charges listen
11/20/12 Lisa KauffmanWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Nathan Schwartz, Occupy Tampa, Tristan Lear, First Amendment, Tampa, Tampa Police, RNC, Event Zone, Clean Zone, Republican convention, Bank of America
In May an Occupy Tampa member was arrested for writing in chalk on the sidewalk outside the Bank of America building in downtown. Nathan Schwartz had a pretrial hearing at the Hillsborough County Courthouse Monday afternoon.
Schwartz is challenging his arrest because he thinks chalking is just exercising First Amendment rights.
Be the first to comment“There was the clean zone ordinance that was getting passed, the event zone ordinance that got passed by city council,...
Tampa activists stand with Palestinians at USF, Temple Terrace and downtown listen
11/19/12 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Palestine, Israel, Gaza, peace, USF, Occupy Tampa
The death toll in Gaza has reached at least 100 after a weekend of continued violence. More than 20 USF students protested the conflict in Palestine silently today at the Marshall Center on the school's Tampa campus following a weekend of other demonstrations across the city.
The Israeli military, or IDF, has increased bombing in Gaza claiming they are defending themselves against rocket fire from the Gaza strip and targeting Hamas militants. One reason is rocket fire into Israel has tak...
Be the first to commentTampa peace activists honor lost lives in Israeli attack on Gaza listen
11/17/12 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Monday
Tags: Palestine, Israel, peace, Hamas
The death toll in Gaza has reached more than 20 after three days of continued violence. A group of peace activists held a candlelight vigil Friday in solidarity with Palestinians struggling through the conflict with Israel at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park in downtown Tampa.
Israel began firing missiles into the Gaza Strip Wednesday and Hamas immediately retaliated with rocket fire. Israel, the U.S.’s biggest ally in the region, has launched strikes from the air and from the sea in heavily...
Be the first to commentViolence in Gaza and Israel escalates despite calls for peace listen
11/16/12 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Palestine, Israel, Gaza, Hamas, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas, peace
The death toll has risen to 23 Palestinians as Israeli military continues attacks on the Gaza Strip. Among the dead are at least 6 children and a pregnant woman. Peace activists sympathetic to both sides want officials to find a non-violent end to the conflict.
Rockets fired from Gaza targeted the city of Jerusalem Friday for the first time. The increased offensive by Hamas may pave the way for Israeli forces to unleash a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military has alr...
Be the first to commentRemarks by Florida Gov. Rick Scott to the Federalist Society
11/16/12 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Rick Scott, Federalist Society
Florida Governor Rick Scott's press office released prepared remarks that he gave Friday in Washington, D.C. to the Federalist Society. Here are the remarks, unedited, as provided by the Governor's office:
Thank you, Dean, for that kind and generous introduction. It is a great honor and pleasure to be here today.
Ten days after a long and contentious presidential election, it seems that our whole political system is becoming a sort of “constant campaign”… one election bare...
Be the first to commentBob Kuttner on the Fiscal Cliff; and David Harris on the Conflict Between Israel and Gaza
11/16/12 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Friday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: fiscal cliff, Bob Kuttner, American Prospect, WMNF, David Harris, American Jewish Committee, Gaza, Israel, rockets, civilians, open air prison
Good morning, welcome to Radioactivity. I'm Rob Lorei. First up the so called "fiscal cliff". The New York Times says of the term: "The term refers to more than $500 billion in tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts scheduled to take effect after Jan. 1 — for fiscal year 2013 alone — unless Mr. Obama and Republicans reach an alternative deficit-reduction deal. Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, who is not known for catchy phrases, coined the metaphor “fiscal cliff” l...
Be the first to commentStudent-activist Laila Abdelaziz on youth voting, and on the latest conflict in the Middle East
11/15/12 Mitch PerryLast Call Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Laila Abdelaziz, Israel, Hamas, Gaza, Emerge USA
Laila Abdelaziz is the Florida Field Director for Emerge USA, a group involved with boosting the civic culture of Muslim, South Asian and Arab American communities. They were very involved in participating in the recent 2012 election.
As a student at USF, Leila talked about youth's involvement in political life as well. And as a Palestinian-American (she is also Russian), she provided her perspective on the events in the Middle East t...
Be the first to commentHillsborough County Commission approves financial aid to companies to create jobs listen
11/15/12 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: incentives, welfare, Hillsborough County Commission
Today Hillsborough County Commission approved a series of government incentives to private businesses if they create new jobs in the county. One company is called Digital Risk. They’re expected to create 1000 new jobs in Florida and 100 to 600 of them could be in Hillsborough. Ron Barton, Hillsborough’s director of economic development, said the county agreed to pay Digital Risk a base of $1000 per job plus what are called local bonuses.
Commissioners unanimously approved the compensation ...
Be the first to commentAllison Kilkenny talks about "the people's bailout"
11/15/12 Mary GlenneyFrom A Woman's Point of View Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Rolling Jubille, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy, the people's bailout
Allison Kilkenny is the co-host of the progressive political podcast Citizen Radio and is an independent journalist who writes for the Nation, The American Prospect, and the L.A. Times among other media outlets. She also blogs at allisonkilkenny.com. Allison talks about the upcoming Rolling Jubilee and discusses the coalition of Occupy Wall Street groups to build a popular resistance to debt. The groups hope to raise money to p...
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