On Thursday afternoon USF students will rally in support of students at the University of Missouri who have faced threats of violence after the school’s president and provost resigned in response to student protests; black students organized the Mizzou demonstrations because they felt the administration was not doing enough to fight racism on campus. Nia Knighton… Read more »
Students for a Democratic Society in Tampa is continuing its campaign to get the University of South Florida to remove the name of a former member of Congress from the ROTC building on campus because of his role in a legislative group that persecuted gays and lesbians in the 1960s; the students will protest this… Read more »
By Rob Lorei A video depicting a South Carolina school resource officer slamming a female student to the ground last week has triggered a national conversation on how educators should handled troubled students. Joining in the conversation with us today are Joe Rutherford and Roaya Tyson from Grace Point, a mental health clinic in Tampa… Read more »
The Hillsborough County public school district is updating an aging school bus fleet by purchasing new vehicles; and part of that push is testing buses that run on an alternative fuel: propane. Recently WMNF News spoke about this with School Board Member April Griffin. “We’re going to be looking at multiple manufacturers of buses. We’re also looking… Read more »
Last Friday afternoon U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visited Campbell Park Elementary, one of the South Saint Petersburg schools singled out in a Tampa Bay Times investigation noting severely underperforming schools. Outgoing US secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, emphasized the educational disparity in Pinellas schools is man made. Duncan opines that probable causes were… Read more »
Some University of South Florida students are circulating a petition online to change the name of a building on campus that’s named after a former member of Congress who was also part of the Johns Committee, which persecuted gay and lesbian students and faculty in the 1950s and 60s. The ROTC building on campus is… Read more »
This year signs have popped up in front of schools in Hillsborough County by a large temporary work agency seeking teachers; does this mean there’s a major teacher shortage? This week WMNF News put that question to School Board member April Griffin, who said the district is always looking to hire new teachers but they’ve… Read more »
By Rob Lorei On today’s Radioactivity, Host Rob Lorei interviews Congressman (D-Orlando) Alan Grayson, who is running for the democratic nomination for the US senate. Grayson speaks on a variety of topics such as the ongoing Planned Parenthood controversy, the Iran deal and 9/11 comission, illegal immigration, the declining middle class and supports expansion for social security and… Read more »
Hillsborough County is looking at ways to cut down on violent crime by engaging communities. One way the Safe & Sound Hillsborough group has done that is by taking teens from the Grant Park Neighborhood east of Tampa and having them participate in a mock trial on a Friday evening. Dr. Kathleen Heide is a… Read more »
The Hillsborough School Board is having a budget workshop Tuesday and it’s trying to figure out how to fill some budget gaps. One issue is that county schools will get much less from a major grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation than expected. WMNF News spoke with School Board member April Griffin during a break in… Read more »
Today we look at the latest research in early childhood development with Dr. Dana Suskind, founder and director of the Thirty Million Words Initiative at the University of Chicago. ‘Thirty Million Words’ to a 1995 study that found that children from affluent backgrounds are exposed to over 30 million more words than low-income children by… Read more »
Last night local elected officials and minimum wage advocates met at the Seminole Heights Library in Tampa for a dialogue on the poverty-level wages of childcare workers. The town hall meeting was held by the local fight for 15 chapter, which is part of a national movement for a 15 an hour minimum wage. The… Read more »
By Rob Lorei Today we listen back on the latest Florida this week from local PBS station WEDU, a political discussion show moderated by Radioactivity host Rob Lorei. This week’s panelist ( 70th district rep. Darryl Rouson, Political Consultant Adam Goodman, Former TV Reporter and Documentary filmmaker Lynn Marvin Dingfelder, New College Professor Frank Alcock) look… Read more »
Proponents demand child nutrition programs in Hillsborough County schools are extended and expanded. Earlier this week, several activists gathered near Miles Elementary in East Tampa on the first day of school. They were drawing attention to the need for school children to be fed before their learning day starts. Hillsborough lags behind much of Florida… Read more »
Today we listen to the latest edition of WEDU’s Florida this Week, a political talk show moderated by Radioactivity host Rob Lorei. This week’s panel of political experts offer up analysis and insight on the biggest stories from Tallahassee and around the state: another deadlock between the state legislative chambers over the redrawing of the congressional map,… Read more »
Tampa-area Congress member Kathy Castor has written to the U.S. Department of Education asking them to look at how the Pinellas County School District is spending federal money that is supposed to go to schools in high-poverty areas; it’s in response to an investigation by the Tampa Bay Times finding that five south St. Petersburg… Read more »
On Today’s Radioactivity, Host Rob Lorei speaks with Lisa Gartner and Michael LaForgia, two reporters who worked on the Tampa Bay Times investigative series “Failure Factories”, which chronicles the fallout from a 2007 decision by the Pinellas School Board to end school integration efforts. This led to the steady decline of 5 elementary schools in South Pinellas. They are… Read more »
This week the Tampa Bay Times began publishing results of an investigation into several low-performing elementary schools called “Why Pinellas County is the worst place in Florida to be black and go to public school.” In 2007 Pinellas schools turned back racial integration policies and started to become more segregated. Since then the investigation found… Read more »
Today on Radioactivity, Host Rob Lorei talks with Patrick Mantaiga, publisher of trilingual newspaper La Gaceta. In a column published last week, Mantaiga addressed five contentious issues affecting Hillsborough County and Tampa: the formula for increased stormwater tax which he says unfairly affects the poor and nonprofits, the spending of more than half of the Hillsborough… Read more »
This week the Hillsborough County School Board approved a new principal of Sligh Middle School in Tampa’s northeast Seminole Heights. It’s the fourth principal of the F-rated school in five years. To find out why some schools can’t shake the failure label and what more could be done, WMNF interviewed Stephanie Baxter-Jenkins. She’s executive director… Read more »
WMNF is non-commercial community conscious radio – we survive only due to the generosity of listeners like you. Please consider a sustaining monthly contribution and receive annual coupons for swag when you Join the WMNF Circle of Friends.
