News & Public Affairs
New software gives Tampa police real time crime stats - compliments of RNC security funding listen
09/07/12 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Tampa Police, Jane Castor, law enforcement, John Bennett, Occupy Tampa, RNC, Republican National Convention
Tampa police unveiled new software today they say helped reduce crime during the Republican National Convention last week. The system lets officers see where crime is happening as it happens.
It used to take seven days to see a map of where crimes occurred in Tampa. Now it only takes minutes. Before his shift even started, Corporal Kert Rojka found out there were shots fired in the area he regularly patrols and a suspect hadn’t been identified yet.
Be the first to comment“I start checking emails, I’ll che...
Activist says Charlotte much more welcoming to visitors than Tampa during political conventions listen
09/07/12 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Tampa, Charlotte, RNC, Republican National Convention, Pepe Kovanis
The Democratic National Convention ended late Thursday night, and with it the protests.
Tampa Bay area protesters who had traveled to Charlotte began arriving home Friday morning.
Be the first to comment“Very much a night and day difference between Tampa and Charlotte. Tampa seemed to be a definite police state. They didn’t want anybody in there. It was not a friendly place to be, it was not a welcoming place to be. Charlotte was all inclusive. It was welcoming and inviting. You could interact with the del...
Protester at Tampa park closed by RNC holds sign: “This fence = democracy” listen
09/05/12 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: RNC, Republican National Convention, Curtis Hixon Park, Occupy Tampa
There has been talk this week about how the security changes to Charlotte have been less drastic and more welcoming during the Democratic convention than they were for the Republican National Convention last week in Tampa. For example, Charlotte’s downtown hosted a major public celebration of Labor Day, whereas parts of Tampa were nearly a ghost town except for police, protesters and barricades.
The change that came over the city before the convention was well illustrated at Curtis Hixon ...
Be the first to commentRomney-bashing poster removed by Tampa code enforcement listen
09/05/12 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Cafe Hey, RNC, Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney, politically charged poster show
The owner of a restaurant just outside Tampa’s Republican convention event zone is wondering why government workers tore artwork off of his building one day before the convention was set to begin. Café Hey owner Cheong Choi said one of the posters showcased a smiling Mitt Romney behind the words “I like firing people”.
1 comments“We’ve had posters on the front here and it’s never really been an issue. We’ve had banners and we have all kinds of other things that we haven’t been bothered about up...
Activists think Republican convention security was overkill listen
09/04/12 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Romneyville, Occupy Tampa, Tampa Police, RNC, Republican National Convention, Event Zone
The Tampa Police Department hired thousands of extra officers to help with security for the Republican National Convention last week; some activists who were protesting the event including Occupy Tampa’s Andrew Speirs think it was overkill.
Be the first to comment“The police have been showing up with overwhelming force for peaceful protesters mainly using, not so much fear tactics, but just using overwhelming numbers to try to keep us in their sense of calm when we are doing nothing but being peaceful anyways.”...
Grover Norquist spoke in St Petersburg during Republican convention listen
09/04/12 Samuel JohnsonWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: taxes, libertarian, Grover Norquist, the pledge, RNC, Republican National Convention
Last Wednesday at the USF St. Petersburg campus, the conservative lobbyist and author of the “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” Grover Norquist delivered a 40 minute speech about the current American political process. The low turn out of roughly 50 people received a lesson in the ideology of the Republican Party from arguably one of the most powerful men in Washington.
Norquist’s advocacy group, Americans for Tax Reform, is best known for the taxpayer protection pledge whi...
Be the first to commentNew Book By Paul Guzzo Covers Castro, Bolita, Organized Crime and Mass Murder in Tampa
09/04/12 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Tuesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Paul Guzzo, Darkside of Sunshine, Fidel Castro, Tampa, July 26th Movement, Robert Anderson, Centro Asturiano fire, Santo Trafficante, Ybor City, bolita, DNC security, Tampa Bay Times, Michael Van Sickler, RNC
Good morning, welcome to Radioactivity. I'm Rob Lorei. Coming up today we'll talk with Paul Guzzo who has written a new book about Tampa called THE DARKSIDE OF SUNSHINE:Murder, Mayhem,Militias,Marijuana, Mafia and the Mons: A Century of Infamy in the City of Tampa.
Later we'll talk with Michael Van Sickler a staff writer at the Tampa Bay Times about [his article in today's TBT](http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/national/atmosphere-in-charlotte-more-free-fun-th...
Be the first to commentRNC was a business bust for some owners in downtown Tampa listen
09/04/12 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: small business, RNC, Republican National Convention, Event Zone, Clean Zone
Some small businesses in downtown Tampa didn’t rake in the money city officials said they would during the Republican convention last week. Instead, some restaurant owners over-ordered to accommodate the crowds they were promised. Crystal Davis owns The Luxury Box directly across the street from the Tampa Bay Times Forum and said she lost a lot of money.
Be the first to comment“I spent tens of thousands of dollars on this venue and now I’m going to spend the next week or so just to return it all because they ...
Outside Republican convention, Jeb Bush and Michelle Rhee use film to push parent trigger education policy listen
08/31/12 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Jeb Bush, Michelle Rhee, education reform, education, RNC, Republican National Convention, parent trigger
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush used the Republican National Convention as a platform to garner support for so-called parent trigger legislation. During a panel discussion at the Straz Center for the Arts Tuesday, Bush said states need massive overhauls to their education systems.
Be the first to comment“We have a third of our kids that are college or career ready despite spending more per student than any country in the world. We can say, ‘U.S.A. number one’, we can be proud that we won all these medals and...
Journalists and suspected activists denied entrance to 'public' Citizens United film screening listen
08/31/12 Liz McKibbonWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: RNC, Citizens United, Liberty Plaza, Code Pink, Medea Benjamin, Occupy Unmasked, Occupy movement
Several people, including journalists, were denied access to a film screening about the Occupy movement Thursday. The film sponsored by Citizens United was described as being free and open to the public on the last day of the Republican National Convention. WMNF’s Liz McKibbon was one of the people denied access. This is her story:
I arrived at downtown Tampa’s Liberty Plaza with tickets a...
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