News & Public Affairs
Dan Gelber introduces himself in Ybor City listen
03/10/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, District 10, Dan Gelber, Kendrick Meek, Marco Rubio, Kevin Burns, Mel Martinez
There are relatively few declared candidates for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Mel Martinez next year.
Former House Speaker Marco Rubio had filed papers for the office on the GOP side.
Three Democrats - all from the Miami area– have declared: Congressman Kendrick Meek, North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns, and Sen. Dan Gelber from Miami Beach.
Gelber served the last few years as the leader of the House Democrats in Tallahassee, and made a name for himself for his poi...
Be the first to commentActivists promote bill to include gays in Florida's civil rights laws listen
03/09/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: LGBT rights, adoption, politics
Next week in Tallahassee, gay rights group on rallying in support of four separate bills in the Legislature that would end the anti-gay adoption ban and add the words "sexual orientation and gender identity” to the state’s existing civil rights laws.
The two bills filed by Democratic Sen. Nan Rich would allow gays to adopt, the other would leave it to judges to determine where to place children when both parents are dead.
Another bill is sponsored by Delray Beach Sen. Ted Deutch. His bi...
Be the first to commentEx-Tampa Congressman revisits his vote on Iraq listen
03/09/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, foreign policy, Iraq, Afghanistan, troop withdrawal
U.S. military officials said yesterday that the U.S. will reduce its military presence in Iraq by 12,000 troops over the next six months as part of the first major drawdown since President Barack Obama announced his plan to end combat operations in the country next year.
A week from next Thursday will mark the sixth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by U.S. and coalition forces.
When President Obama made his announcement of troop withdrawals from Iraq 10 days ago, WMNF contacted for...
Be the first to commentMichael Lind on Obama listen
03/06/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Michael Lind, politics, economy
As the stock market continues its downward spiral, some conservative critics are blaming President Obama, not yet in office 6 weeks yet.
In an opinion piece in today’s Wall Street Journal called “Obama’s radicalism is Killing the Dow,” Stanford University Economics Professor Michael J. Boskin writes that the Wall Street sell-off is a product in part of the realization that our new president’s policies are designed to radically re-engineer the market-based U.S. economy, not just mitigate ...
Be the first to commentCharlie Justice on the upcoming Legislative Session listen
03/02/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, Charlie Justice, Legislature
In assessing what will happen in the Legislature this year, as the state finds itself several billions of dollars in a deficit, Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, said recently that the final budget this year will be looked at as a "disaster."
Charlie Justice represents parts of Hillsborough and Pinellas County in the Florida Senate. The St. Petersburg Democrat arrived in Tallahassee today to begin the legislative session. He said he shares some of Wise’s pessimism.
Be the first to commentPolitical analyst dissects Legislature's challenges this year listen
03/02/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, Charlie Crist, economy, stimulus package
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist says he wants to use as much as $8 billion in federal stimulus money to plug holes in the state budget over the next couple of years. But some Republicans don’t think that’s the way to go.
Wayne Garcia is the political editor of Creative Loafing, the Tampa Bay area’s alternative newspaper. He spoke about this issue and others on the eve of the legislative session.
That’s Wayne Garcia with Creative Loafing. On his political blog, called Political Whore, yo...
Be the first to commentConservatives blast stimulus and other federal expenditures listen
02/27/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, economic stimulus
Ten days after President Barack Obama signed the massive $787 billion economic stimulus bill, more than 80 people demonstrated in front of the federal courthouse in Tampa today, registering their displeasure with that and other spending expenditures of the young administration.
The rally was organized by John Hendrix, formerly associated with the Tampa Bay Minutemen, the anti-illegal immigration group. He said protests had been planned, but credited the rant by CNBC anchor Rick Santelli a...
Be the first to commentSome critical of plans for troop withdrawal from Iraq listen
02/27/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, foreign policy, Iraq, Afghanistan, troop withdrawal
President Barack Obama announced plans today to withdraw the bulk of U.S. forces from Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010, and to pull out all remaining troops by the end of 2011, ending the war in Iraq and launching what he called an "era of American leadership and engagement in the Middle East."
Speaking to Marines at Camp Lejeune, N.C., Obama said he wanted to talk about how the war in Iraq would end.
The president’s plan calls for withdrawing most of the 142,000 service members now in Iraq by the...
Be the first to commentColumnist discusses where to cut fat from Medicare listen
02/26/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, universal health care
Barack Obama's administration announced today a $634 billion down payment on achieving universal health care coverage.
Obama plans to pay for a portion of the funding by cutting payments to insurers that provide Medicare Advantage plans that are determined by a formula. Currently, those payments have been 14 percent higher than what the government typically spends per beneficiary. Under the Obama proposal, insurers would be required to competitively bid to offer plans beginning in 2012....
Be the first to commentInside the Pentagon’s black budget
02/26/09 Rob LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Thursday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, government spending, military, Adam Putnam, Cypress Creek Town Center, Denise Layne, Save Cypress Creek
Good afternoon, welcome to WMNF’s Radioactivity. I’m Rob Lorei. Coming up: we’ll hear from the third most powerful Republican congressman in Washington, D.C., who is stepping down from office and planning to return to Florida. And we’ll hear about efforts to protect drinking water supplies from the Cypress Town Center Mall.
But first we’ll hear about a new book that lifts some of the secrecy surrounding the Pentagon’s secret budget. Our first guest is Trevor Paglen who holds a PhD in geogr...
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