With tens of thousands still without power under sweltering conditions, we spoke about the recovery efforts ongoing after Hurricane Irma hit the Tampa Bay area Sunday night. Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp, Hillsborough County Hazard Mitigation Manager Gene Henry, and FEMA representatives Dan Needham and Keith St. Claire joined the show to talk about what… Read more »
The Florida Department of Transportation announced Thursday that I-75 will remain open, as Hurricane Irma flood waters have been receding on the Santa Fe River. As of Thursday morning, FDOT says their engineers and state meteorologists do not think that the river will reach a level to make the interstate unsafe. Hernando County Emergency Management… Read more »
On Thursday WMNF News asked U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Tampa) how the Tampa Bay area should be preparing for the type of storm that has devastated Houston. Here is Nelson’s response: “If a Category 5 hurricane came right into Tampa Bay, you are talking about enormous destruction. You’re talking about… Read more »
Words simply cannot convey the desperate havoc that is besieging the people of Houston and the surrounding areas… Climate Change – regardless of your belief in the causation – is very real and simply cannot be ignored and disregarded. Everything about Hurricane Harvey underscores the warnings that meteorologists and scientists have been giving for years. … Read more »
On Monday’s Sustainable Living program we talked about climate change, renewable energy, and plans for action. The St Petersburg Area League of Women Voters is hosting an upcoming Sustainability Summit that will be addressing these issues. Joining us were two members of the League of Woman Voters Sustainability Action Team, Lisa Vanover and Claire Karas. Also… Read more »
Manatee County Commissioners have again delayed a vote on a massive coastal development called Aqua by the Bay; the latest special land use meeting began at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday and lasted into the early evening, when commissioners voted 6-1 to postpone a vote until September 29. The proposed 529-acre project along two miles of Sarasota… Read more »
On Tuesday a federal appeals court struck a blow to the Sabal Trail pipeline that carries natural gas for hundreds of miles through Florida; to find out how the decision could impact controversial pipelines across the country, WMNF News spoke with Frank Jackalone, Florida chapter director of Sierra Club. Listen: “Pipeline fighters all across the country… Read more »
On Monday’s Sustainable Living Program we talked about recycling and other environmental topics. Our guests were the Executive Director for Keeping Tampa Bay Beautiful, Debbie Evenson, and their Development Manager, Emily Schwartz; Travis Barn, the Recycling Coordinator with Hillsborough County Public Works Department; and Jason LeBlanc, General Manager with Conex Recycling also helped with the… Read more »
Fire and Fury…….the hour of reckoning is at hand……. All this is happening on the 72nd anniversary of the U.S. dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “When will they learn? When will they ever learn?” (Pete Seeger) Flowers don’t make it to the graveyards any more, they are already being burned to ash by climate… Read more »
Fifty years ago Mr. McGuire told Benjamin Braddock that the future was one word. Plastics While the screenplay was positing plastics as the absolutely last thing the future was supposed to be, Mr. McGuire was right. According to a just published research article (in Science Advances), intimidatingly titled Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made, by Roland… Read more »
On MidPoint we continue our ongoing discussion of the climate crisis, including sea-level rise, and how Tampa Bay is preparing; or maybe it’s more accurate to say how it’s not doing enough preparing. Listen: In a major news story last month, the Washington Post looked at this exact question. It begins: “Tampa Bay’s coming storm…. Read more »
LGBT, Transgender, Title VII, Trump Russian Connections – what next? The staccato firing of the Twitter/Tweets continue. Put your flack vest on and find cover – you might be next. Transgender – out of the military, out of sight. LGBT – do you think you’re special? Title VII of workplace discrimination does not apply to… Read more »
Radioactivity August 2, 2017 11AM Good morning, welcome to Radioactivity. I’m Rob Lorei. Coming up- we’ll talk later about the new lawsuit filed against FOX News over allegedly issuing a false story about former Democratic staffer Seth rich and the Wikileaks documents that became so prominent in last year’s election. But first there’s a new… Read more »
On Monday’s Sustainable Living program we spent the hour talking with a Senior Editor for Home Power Magazine and a clean energy teacher, Ian Woofenden. We had a great discussion about rocket stoves, ductless mini-split ACs, cordless tools, why ‘off-grid’ sounds cool but costs way more, and the many other clean energy conservation products that… Read more »
On MidPoint, we heard from a woman who has been pressuring Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran to take a stance on a fracking ban; we also talked about what’s at stake in upcoming government meetings on transportation, including Tampa Bay Next. Nathalia Assaad is a volunteer with Food & Water Watch. She grew up in… Read more »
One proposed solution to St. Petersburg’s wastewater treatment capacity problem is to re-open a facility that was closed in 2015; the Tampa Bay Times recently reported on a draft investigation from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission that placed blame for the massive sewage spills of the last two years both on previous administrations… Read more »
On MidPoint Monday we talked about a move by some residents of St. Petersburg, Florida to ban single-use plastic bags; Davey Connor, chair of the Suncoast Rise Above Plastics Coalition, spoke about a St. Petersburg City Council meeting on Thursday (27 July) where a committee will discuss an ordinance to ban single-use plastic bags. They’re calling the… Read more »
On MidPoint we talked about efforts by environmentalists to oppose a waste processing facility on public lands in Sarasota County near land known as the Celery Fields; community activist Adrien Lucas and Luigi Verace with Stand Up Fight Back SRQ are trying to stop the proposed waste processing facility. Listen to the whole show here:… Read more »
Update, Thursday 13 July 2017: The day after announcing its largest wastewater treatment plant was prepared for another major rain event, the City of St. Petersburg had an overflow of about 50,000 gallons of “mostly treated” wastewater during a heavy rain event Wednesday night. The city says no water was lost from the plant property; it… Read more »
Things look limitless when you stand on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico. The horizon dips away, maybe with a lovely sunset alighting it. Water, wind, and sand: the essential beach elements. There have been decades of activism and battles with development about clean water and access to air. What about the sand? Sand is… Read more »
Photo Contest to Document Changing Sea Levels Next weekend, the West Coast of Florida will experience several king tides — the highest tides of the year — which will happen May 26th and 27th in Sarasota and Manatee counties. The Sarasota Bay Estuary Program works with local governments and other agencies to restore and protect the health… Read more »
The proposed Florida State 2018 budget has been sent to the Governor. Educators and citizens are calling on Governor Rick Scott to veto the budget because of the shift of $140 million to private education from struggling public schools, and forcing school districts to share capital funds with charter schools . House Bill 7609 was crafted away… Read more »
We look at two events coming up this weekend; our guests talk about several local actions for March Against Monsanto and for Hands Across the Sand. Christine Wall, is helping to organize March Against Monsanto in Tampa. Here’s a list of several local events: *March Against Monsanto – Tampa – Gaslight Square Park (Downtown Tampa). Festivities start at… Read more »
On Monday’s WMNF Sustainable Living Program we talked about hybrid and electric cars; but first Ted Dillard joined the show to talk about his new book titled “Power-in Flux – the History of Electric Motorcycles”. Tom Krumerich that heads up our local Sierra Club’s ‘Healthy Air Campaign’ joined the remainder of the show to talk… Read more »
A half dozen residents of Forest Hills demonstrated outside Raymond James Stadium Thursday against plans to fumigate a golf course near their homes; next Tuesday the Tampa Sports Authority plans to apply the pesticide Curfew to the Babe Zaharias Golf Course to kill worms called nematodes. But Jillian Harber, who lives on the golf course… Read more »
