News & Public Affairs

President of St. Pete NAACP speaks at Tiger Bay listen

Listen to this entire show:

Tags: NAACP

Ray Tampa, a former school principal, was elected president of the St. Petersburg chapter of the NAACP in November.

Today in St. Petersburg he spoke to the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club about education, civil rights, and the continuing relevance of the NAACP.

The education achievement gap between African-American students and white students is as wide as 37 percentage points, according to Tampa. He says African-American males are most affected.

“Twenty-one percent of the black boys are gr...

Disability complaint filed against Hillsborough schools listen

Listen to this entire show:

Tags: disabilities, Florida Board of Education, Hillsborough County Schools, NAACP, education, African American

Hillsborough County schools are violating federal requirements by not providing adequate services to students with disabilities, according to a coalition of advocacy groups.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, the Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities and the NAACP held a press conference in downtown Tampa this morning to announce they have filed a class-action administrative complaint against the Hillsborough County School system alleging systemic violations of a federal law.

The...

McCain surrogate: Drug use disqualifies Obama listen

Listen to this entire show:

Tags: John McCain, Barack Obama, 2008 election, NAACP, school vouchers

A campaign surrogate for John McCain told WMNF today that Barack Obama should be "disqualified" to run for president because of his admitted past drug use.

More on that in a moment.

But first, John McCain received a polite reception in front of the NAACP at the group's annual meeting in Cincinati today. Whether that will transfer to any votes coming from those in attendance is a different story.

The GOP nominee spoke to the nation's oldest civil rights organization, spotlighting h...