Will 2018 be the year a statewide ban on fracking finally passes the Florida Legislature? That’s the hope of environmentalists rallying Tuesday afternoon in Ft. Myers. WMNF News interviewed one organizer, Michelle Allen with Food and Water Watch. There will also be a ban fracking rally in Tampa in December. Listen:
On MidPoint our guests talk about public schools, the pay and working conditions of teachers, and students who walked out of class to support teachers. Hillsborough County public school teachers and their supporters plan to speak out at Tuesday’s school board meeting about the school district’s decision to deny scheduled pay raises this year. And… Read more »
A Sarasota-area state Senator has introduced a bill to the Florida Legislature that would forbid cities and counties from passing rules protecting trees; Republican Greg Steube’s bill would stop local governments from regulating “trimming, removal, or harvesting of tree and timber on private property.” But SB 574 is opposed by many environmentalists, including Jono Miller,… Read more »
Clearwater state Senator Jack Latvala was removed Monday as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee after reports that he may have groped or made demeaning comments toward women; a long-time lobbyist in Tallahassee tells WMNF News that sexual harassment “just runs rampant through the Capitol.” Barbara DeVane is a lobbyist for the Florida chapter of… Read more »
Donald Trump won the Electoral College despite the fact that three million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton; a Democratic member of the Florida House calls the Electoral College an “obsolete, archaic, and anti-democratic system” and has filed a bill in the state Legislature (HB 367) that would require Florida to join something called the… Read more »
South Florida Democratic state Senator Jeff Clemens came on the show to talk about the upcoming 2018 legislative session, and the prospect for Democrats to pick up seats in the Senate in Nov. of 2018. Also on the show was Kyle Parks with B2 Communications, a St. Petersburg based public relations firm who was on… Read more »
Several school districts in Florida have joined a legal challenge against a new law that would siphon money away from public schools and send it to charter schools and other alternatives; one of the counties opposing HB 7069 is Polk. WMNF News spoke with Kay Fields, chair of Polk County Public Schools board. Listen: “Well,… Read more »
On today’s program, we spoke with Joanne McCall, president of the Florida Education Association, about a recent lawsuit the union filed against the state dept. of Education and its 67 school boards. The FEA is challenging as discriminatory part of a 2015 law that ties teacher bonuses to their college entrance exam scores. We spoke with… Read more »
Radioactivity Wednesday 8 30 17 Why are Florida’s Public Schools Having Budget Problems? Good morning, welcome to Radioactivity. I’m Rob Lorei. Facing budget problems the Hillsborough School District is in the process of eliminating about 3500 positions in the district. This is in response to the district’s ongoing budget problems. Also this month it was… Read more »
Radioactivity 8 17 17 Good morning, Welcome to Radioactivity. I’m Rob Lorei. Coming up- Clearwater Senator Jack Latvala announces he’s running for the Republican nomination for governor. He says he thinks eight year term limits for Florida office holders have not been a positive thing in Tallahassee. He’s open to extending term limits to twelve… Read more »
Every year the Florida Legislature considers several gun bills; to explore the state’s gun laws in depth, the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club held a forum Wednesday afternoon in St. Petersburg. A University of Virginia graduate asked the two participants whether at demonstrations like the one over the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, participants’ First Amendment rights… Read more »
Human rights workers arrested for investigating labor conditions in Ivanka Trump’s factories Three labor rights investigators were arrested in China in May while they were looking into working conditions at factories that make shoes for Ivanka trump — the president’s daughter. After a month in custody they have been released, but now they face trial… Read more »
Nancy MacLean on her new book “Democracy in Chains” A lot of books have tried to explain the rise of conservative power that poses a direct challenge to the reforms that came about under the New Deal, the labor movement, the Civil Rights movement, and the Great Society. In her new book, a Duke University… Read more »
Independence Day??? The fireworks have ended (at least I hope so). The parades, the music, the picnics and barbecues, all the fun trappings of the 4th are past. The president goes abroad – on Friday he meets with Putin. Oh to be a patriotic fly on that wall! And the North Koreans set off quite… Read more »
Senate Republicans are quietly moving forward with plans to pass a health care bill In the U.S. right now, the number of people without health insurance has been falling since the passing of Obamacare, but that trend could be reversed now that Republicans want to repeal it. The new plan could take away health insurance… 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 »
Trump Administration Continues to Neglect Human Rights Abuses President Trump met with the Turkish president on Tuesday, and later this week he’ll travel to Saudi Arabia. Human rights activists say that both countries have troubling records on torture, press freedom, and respect for individual liberty. Host Rob Lorei interviewed Andrea Prasow, deputy Washington Director at Human Rights… Read more »
St. Petersburg backed political analyst Barry Edwards was our guest. The local St. Petersburg Mayoral race was one of many topics we discussed; Donald Trump’s latest issues. Robert Mueller, Darryl Rouson, Mike Huckabee and the Constitutional Revision Committee was also on the agenda.
In the closing days of its session, the Florida Legislature passed a sweeping $419 million education bill; but in a press conference Tuesday morning, parents, school board members, a Democratic state representative and the superintendent of Hillsborough public schools joined Congress member Kathy Castor to urge Governor Rick Scott to veto the bill. Standing in… 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 »
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