News & Public Affairs
Columnist discusses how Obama might pay for health care reform listen
05/14/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Health care, politics, reform
While standing alongside President Obama yesterday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House of Representatives will have a health care reform bill to vote on by the end of July.
Details are few about what that bill will look like, and just as important, how it will be funded.
Yesterday WMNF spoke with New York Times Business Columnist David Leonhardt, who wrote about the issue on Wednesday. In addition to raising taxes, Leonhardt suggests cutting health care spending would also rais...
Be the first to commentThe Libertarian Illusion
05/12/09 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Tuesday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, Libertarians
The Libertarian philosophy is gaining wider public exposure - from the candidacy of Ron Paul to Republican officials in the last four decades who branded themselves as "Libertarian Republicans." The concept they embrace is smaller governmnet, fewer taxes and a belief that private property rights are supreme.
Our guest, Providence College political scientist William E. Hudson argues in his new book, The Libertarian Illusion: Ideology, Public Policy, and the Assault on the Common Good, t...
2 commentsDave Aronberg eyeing attorney general race listen
05/12/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Dave Aronberg, Attorney General, politics
Gov. Charlie Crist's decision to run for the U.S. Senate next year is expected to create a free for all in Florida politics, with five of the six elected statewide seats possibly becoming open in 2010.
South Florida Democratic Sen. Dave Aronberg is rumored to be considering a run for Attorney General. WMNF asked him today if he will do so. Aronberg says he will announce shortly whether he's running for Attorney General next year.
Be the first to commentDoctor calls for health care not warfare
05/09/09 Mary Glenney and Arlene EngelhardtFrom A Woman's Point of View
Tags: Health care, politics, reform
Dr. Margaret Flowers, co-chair of the Maryland Physicians for National Health Program, and Donna Smith, Community Organizer of California Nurses Association and National Co-chair of Progressive Democrats of America “Healthcare Not Warfare Campaign, were our guests.
Did you read about the Maryland Pediatrician who was cuffed like a criminal and pushed out the door at the Senate Finance Committee’s roundtable discussion of healthcare? Dr. Margaret Flowers, a Maryland Pediatrician was that ...
Be the first to commentGelber: Lawmakers didn't have to reject stimulus money listen
05/08/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, unemployment, federal stimulus money
As the Florida legislative session concludes today, one thing that the Republican-led Legislature did that has outraged some Democrats and bothered Gov. Charlie Crist, is the rejection of $444 million in federal stimulus money for the unemployment trust fund.
When it was rejected, GOP lawmakers suggested it would be fraudulent to change the eligibility rules in a few years when the economy improves; they said the money would only cover two months of unemployment and sap the state’s unemplo...
Be the first to commentKing sways some Democrats on budget vote listen
05/08/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, Legislature, state budget
The Florida Senate voted 32-8 for the $66.5 billion budget today, but not all of the Democrats voted against it, as they vowed last night as a protest.
Jacksonville Republican Jim King tried to shame some of them today against voting against the budget, discussing the bipartisan nature of the Senate in passionate terms.
Miami Dade County Democrat Fredericka Wilson bitterly accused Senate leaders of capitulating to the more conservative House in crafting the final budget.
J.D. Alexand...
Be the first to commentCrist urged to veto new growth management law listen
05/06/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, growth management, development
Today Hillsborough County Commissioners voted to send a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist, asking that he veto a new Growth Management Bill that critics say would no longer require developers to add road capacity in nearly half the state’s municipalities, as well as several entire counties. They will instead pay a fee, which the state has yet to decide how to calculate.
Current law requires developers to add roads to accommodate the extra traffic that their developments will generate.
Commis...
1 commentsLibertarians unhappy with new state law on seatbelts listen
05/06/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, seat belt law
Gov. Charlie Crist today signed into law today a bill that will allow police in Florida to pull over and charge motorists who do not wear a seatbelt.
Current law says police can ticket drivers who are not wearing seat belts when they’re stopped for other violations.
The bill is named the Dori Slosberg and Katie Marchetti Safety Belt Law in memory of two young Florida women killed in separate accidents while not wearing safety belts. Slosberg's father, former state Rep. Irv Slosberg ...
Be the first to commentMarco Rubio officially running for Senate seat listen
05/05/09 Mitch E. PerryWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Politics, U.S. Senate, Marco Rubio, Charlie Crist, Mel Martinez
Former House Speaker Marco Rubio became the first major Republican candidate to declare announce his intention to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated next year by Mel Martinez.
Rubio made his announcement via video on his website. Rubio said his campaign would not be negative, but for promoting ideas like tax reform, and not just tax cuts. And he alluded to the expectant entrance in the race of the most popular politician in the state, Gov. Charlie Crist.
Aubrey Jewett is a prof...
Be the first to commentActivists demonstrate for medicinal marijuana initiative listen
05/04/09 Mitch E. PerryAlan Watts
Tags: Medical marijuana, politics
On Saturday. a half dozen supporters of legalizing marijuana demonstrated in front of the Drug Enforcement Agency’s local office in Tampa.
The protest has been an annual event, but this year there’s some momentum for activists- an attempt to get a measure on the 2010 ballot that would allow for medicinal marijuana.
In February, Attorney General Eric Holder said at a press conference that the Justice Department will no longer raid medical marijuana clubs that are established legally un...
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