News & Public Affairs
Fitzgerald Town Hall listen
05/21/08 Virginia HoffmanWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Legislature, Democrats, budget cuts, education
State Rep. Keith Fitzgerald for Legislative District 69 spoke to constituents at a Post-Session Town Hall Meeting last night.
Fitzgerald started his Town Hall with a happy tone due to excitement over a face to face meeting with presidential candidate Barack Obama. As the subject changed to the Post-Session theme, he became serious. Claiming the downturn in Florida is not just because of the economy but because of poor revenue policies in general. He is disappointed and angry that the Legis...
Be the first to commentBoard of Governors vice chair at Tiger Bay listen
05/20/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: higher education, education, budget cuts, Board of Governors, Tiger Bay Club, Legislature
Since voters approved a constitutional amendment creating the body in 2002, the Board of Governors has directed Florida’s eleven public universities. Today at the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club in St. Petersburg, the vice chair of Florida’s Board of Governors, Sheila McDevitt discussed the ways that politics play a role in higher education.
Florida’s state universities are loosing good professors and administrators and are poorly considered by the most respected publication in the field, the Chr...
Be the first to commentEconomic Development Conference held in Tampa listen
05/19/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Legislature, 2008 election, CSX, TBARTA, Transportation, budget cuts, commuter rail, marriage amendment
The Florida Economic Development Conference is taking place in Tampa this week. The focus of this gathering of business leaders is “Driving Transformation: Innovations fueling economic development.”
The conference, sponsored by the Florida Economic Development Council, featured a lunchtime panel Monday with current and former Florida lawmakers discussing the legislative session that ended this month. There was optimism about the state’s economy from Sen. Mike Fasano, despite the fact that...
Be the first to commentHouse Committee passes health care bill listen
04/22/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Legislature, Budget, Health Care
In Tallahassee, a plan to provide health insurance for children with autism and other development disabilities was passed by a committee in the state House.
A new program to increase insurance availability and other services for children with autism and other developmental disabilities passed through its first House committee . The plan would also expand to cover speech, behavioral and other therapies for children with developmental disabilities like autism, mental retardation and cerebr...
Be the first to commentRally against CSX rail deal in Lakeland listen
04/21/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: CSX, Legislature, Transportation, commuter rail, labor, taxes, Lakeland
Lakeland business and labor leaders rallied today against plans for a deal between CSX and the state of Florida for a commuter rail line in the Orlando area.
About 170 people held signs and chanted in downtown Lakeland’s Munn Park, next to the rail line shared by CSX and Amtrak. Julie Townsend, executive director of the Downtown Lakeland Partnership, said that the cost to Florida’s taxpayers of the CSX deal had “gotten out of control.”
Townsend thanked Sen. Paula Dockery and Rep. Denni...
Be the first to commentHouse Minority Leader blasts Republican budget plans listen
03/28/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Legislature, Budget
As the Florida Legislature copes with a $2½-billion deficit, lawmakers have proposed slashing $1-billion out of the Human Services budget.
Among the programs on the cutting list include $170-million from the Medically Needy program, which pays medical bills for people in need of transplants or who have catastrophic illness and cannot qualify for Mediciaid.
Also on the chopping block would be plans to end vision, hearing and dental care for 46,000 seniors covered by Medicaid, and elimin...
Be the first to commentFlorida Senate apologizes for slavery listen
03/26/08 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Legislature
The Florida Senate has formally apologized for its long support of slavery in a resolution calling for reconciliation.
Senators this morning quickly approved the resolution after hearing some of the history detailing the savage treatment endured by slaves in the 19th century and the reluctance of politicians in the last century to recognize the intolerance and mistreatment of blacks.
Gov. Charlie Crist called it significant that the Senate formally apologized for its long support of sla...
Be the first to commentNAACP honcho discusses baggy pants bill listen
03/21/08 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Legislature
A bill being considered by the Florida Legislature that attempts to crack down on droopy pants in schools has lost some momentum.
Gov. Charlie Crist appears to oppose SB 302, saying “What’s important is what you learn, not what you wear.”
The state’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP also opposes the bill. WMNF spoke with Norman Brown, president of the St. Petersburg chapter of the NAACP.
If SB 302 passes, students who wear low-riding pants to schoo...
Be the first to comment