NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week By AMANDA SEITZ and BEATRICE DUPUY Associated Press A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these is legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked these… Read more »
He is a lawyer working on death row inmate appeals. Earlier in his career, he admits to being firmly in favor of capital punishment. His exposure to “the degrading of human life” on death row, made him question the ultimate punishment. He is, David R. Dow is the founder and director of the Texas Innocence… Read more »
The Florida Legislature is considering bills to outlaw certain types of fracking in Florida; but advocates for clean water warn that the ban excludes one oil and gas extraction technique that could harm the environment because of Florida’s limestone geology. Jorge Aguilar, the southern region director with Food and Water Watch, wants the method called… Read more »
On Monday’s Sustainable Living Program we spent the hour talking about shade and front yard gardening topics with several guests from Polk and Hillsborough Counties’ UF Cooperative Extension Offices. Also joining us was Jim Kovaleski, urban market gardener and YouTube gardening star; and Elise Picket, The Urban Harvest Gardener LLC St. Petersburg. We started the… Read more »
UPDATE: Thursday April 11, 2019: The U.S. Senate confirmed former oil and gas lobbyist David Bernhardt as the secretary of the Interior Department. Environmentalists are concerned that oil and gas drilling off Florida could become a reality if a new Interior Department Secretary is confirmed by the Senate as soon as this week. The moratorium… Read more »
AP FACT CHECK: Trump tries to pin child separations on Obama By CALVIN WOODWARD and NOMAAN MERCHANT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is wholly mispresenting the immigration detention policy he introduced that forced migrant children from their parents at the border. “President Obama had child separation,” Trump said Tuesday. “I’m the one… Read more »
In February, the board of Hillsborough County’s transit agency unanimously selected its next CEO, Ben Limmer. He began work at the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority late last month. He had been the assistant general manager at MARTA, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. Limmer was a guest on WMNF’s MidPoint. Last November, Hillsborough County… Read more »
AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s Mexico mirage By CALVIN WOODWARD and MARK STEVENSON Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Giving himself credit for tough diplomacy, President Donald Trump is describing a burst of activity by Mexican authorities to keep Central American migrants from getting to the U.S. border. That’s an apparent mirage as Trump retreats from his… Read more »
“The election of Donald Trump could be a good thing for America.” Said the scholarly, Binoy Kampmark in his usual, well-moderated tone. This was November 2016, just a few days after the US general election. Many a voice was being raised not only about the election result but more to the point, the presumed unlikely… Read more »
The NHL announced in an email Thursday that it will kick off the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs with a free concert in Tampa by Cage The Elephant. It will be at downtown’s Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park on Wednesday, April 10 at 5:15 p.m. The press release from the NHL is below: The National Hockey League… Read more »
Democrats continue to pressure the Justice Department to release the entire Mueller report without redactions; on Wednesday the House Judiciary Committee approved subpoenas for special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. On Thursday in St. Petersburg there’s a demonstration planned demanding the release of the full Mueller report. WMNF… Read more »
President Donald Trump has backed off his threats to close the U.S.-Mexico border; but he’s still going full steam ahead on plans for a massive wall along the border. There’s a protest against that wall this afternoon on the University of South Florida Tampa campus. WMNF interviewed David Jones, a first year student at USF… Read more »
Custodians in Hillsborough County Schools are fighting back against a proposal to privatize cleaning services. They are rallying Tuesday afternoon outside the school board meeting in downtown Tampa and speaking out during the meeting itself. In a separate demonstration Tuesday morning about fifty custodians and their allies rallied in a light rain shower. Organizers say… Read more »
According to the most recent National Climate Assessment, global sea level rise over the past century has averaged about eight inches; it could rise by much more than that over the next several decades and impact home values and infrastructure in coastal counties like in the Tampa Bay region. This week at St. Petersburg College,… Read more »
Frequent contributor to Life Elsewhere, Robert Hunziker says global warming is a fact of life that haunts society with consequences that hit hard, exponentially, but where nobody lives. It is happening hyper fast, and it’s downright scary as major ecosystems of the planet turn upside down in nasty fashion. He goes on to say that… Read more »
A coalition of faith-based groups will gather on Monday to ask Hillsborough County leaders to solve problems of affordable housing and criminal justice in the county. The Hillsborough Organization for Progress & Equality, or HOPE, is hosting what it calls its ‘Nehemiah Action.’ About 1400 participants are expected. To find out more, WMNF spoke with… Read more »
This weekend is the Tampa Pride festival; most events are centered in Ybor City on Saturday. To find out what people can expect, WMNF spoke with Nancy Desmond from Tampa Pride. “Tampa Pride is the Pride event that celebrates the Tampa LGBTQ community. This year our theme is Milestones. We’re celebrating our fifth year. And… Read more »
The largest pro-Israel lobbying group held its annual conference this week. Several Democratic candidates for president promised to skip the meeting of AIPAC, or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, because of its support for the policies of Israel and its current hard-right government. The local Progressive Democrats of America chapter is screening a documentary… Read more »
The Florida Department of Transportation has proposed a major regional overhaul called Tampa Bay Next; it involves widening interstate highways, but also includes transit, facilities for bicycles and pedestrians, “complete streets,” and freight mobility. Tuesday in Seminole Heights there’s a chance for the public to find out more and to weigh in on a segment… Read more »
More aging Americans are using pot to soothe what ails them. By JOHN ROGERS Associated Press LAGUNA WOODS, Calif. (AP) — The group of white-haired folks — some pushing walkers, others using canes — arrive right on time at the gates of Laguna Woods Village, an upscale retirement community in the picturesque hills that frame… Read more »
On Friday special counselor Robert Mueller submitted to the Attorney General a report of his team’s two-year investigation of possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia and whether Donald Trump obstructed justice. Then on Sunday Attorney General Bill Barr issued a four-page summary of the report; in it, he said nobody in the Trump… Read more »
A devastating coral disease that started in the Miami area has spread to nearly all of the Florida reef tract and the infection known as stony coral tissue loss disease can now even be found as far away in the Caribbean as Mexico, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, the U.S. Virgin Islands and St. Maarten. In… Read more »
The 2019 Florida Legislative Session is in full swing; so we got an update on the progress of a range of bills from Susan Smith, the former president of the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida. The first bill signed into law this session was for smokeable medical marijuana. It was a priority of Republican Governor… Read more »
“I remember you had just received a strange 12” record, directly from London. Let’s put it on and find out what it’s all about, you said. It was Bauhaus. That’s my first memory of meeting you.” Says Bruce Pavitt at the beginning of a long, intimate conversation with Norman B. At that time, back in… Read more »
Tampa Food Not Bombs posted on its Facebook page that it was concerned that benches had been removed from Gaslight Square Park in downtown Tampa. The post also tells about how the belongings of some people without homes had gone missing. Joining us on WMNF Wednesday were Scott Rock, who is experiencing homelessness and Dezeray… Read more »
