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08/31/12 Janelle Irwin

WMNF Drive-Time News Friday | Listen to this entire show

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and education reform activist Michelle Rhee talk about a movie that brings the parent trigger debate to the big screen.

photo by Janelle Irwin

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush used the Republican National Convention as a platform to garner support for so-called parent trigger legislation. During a panel discussion at the Straz Center for the Arts Tuesday, Bush said states need massive overhauls to their education systems.

“We have a third of our kids that are college or career ready despite spending more per student than any country in the world. We can say, ‘U.S.A. number one’, we can be proud that we won all these medals and we can brag about country, but the foundation of our country is not just cracking, it’s coming apart because two thirds of our kids won’t be able to be successful.”

Bush spoke to a crowded auditorium of Republicans after watching a movie called Won’t Back Down It’s about two women who try to take over a failing school to make it better. It echoes the parent trigger legislation that failed in Florida this year. Opponents argue it’s an effort to funnel public money into private hands. Former Washington, D.C., schools head Michelle Rhee dominated the panel discussion. She started a non-profit called Students First that advocates for education reform. Read full story

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08/31/12 Liz McKibbon

WMNF Drive-Time News Friday | Listen to this entire show

CODEPINK's Medea Benjamin protested in her vagina costume a number of times during the week of RNC in Tampa.

photo by Seán Kinane/WMNF

Several people, including journalists, were denied access to a film screening about the Occupy movement Thursday. The film sponsored by Citizens United was described as being free and open to the public on the last day of the Republican National Convention. WMNF’s Liz McKibbon was one of the people denied access. This is her story:

I arrived at downtown Tampa’s Liberty Plaza with tickets and a press badge and passed through the first security checkpoint. During a second security screening at the door to the theater they found CODEPINK press release inside my bag. I told the employee that I was press and that there might be protesters at the event and I was here to document it. But she asked me to leave immediately and I was led out by security. Outside I talked to Andrea Assaf, another woman denied entrance to the event.

“I just arrived here at Liberty Plaza a little bit late, because it was very hard to find parking—to attend a movie that I have a ticket for that I signed up for online and printed out and brought my ID followed all of the instructions. To see the Citizens United movie Occupied Unmasked. And when I presented my ticket and my ID, I was told—I was denied entrance because they have determined that I am on a list as a potential Occupier.”

Read full story

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08/31/12 Janelle Irwin

WMNF Drive-Time News Friday | Listen to this entire show

Activists made tube-shaped locks around their arms that police removed with circular power saws.

photo by Janelle Irwin

Seven environmental activists locked themselves down yesterday during a direct action at the TECO power plant in Apollo Beach. Even though police spent hours cutting the locks that linked protesters no one was arrested.

Earth First! activist Leah Rothchild wanted to use the Republican National Convention as a loudspeaker for the group.

“Because this is the dirtiest coal burning power plant in the state of Florida and TECO whose power plant it is, they’re a contributor to the RNC.”

So the activists secretly planned three lockdowns at the plant with smokestacks as a backdrop. Rothchild said two groups of three attached themselves to each other in the middle of one of the roads trucks use to make deliveries including coal. The demonstrators were connected with homemade tubes. Read full story

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Anti-pollution activists lock themselves together at TECO plant - police use saws to free them

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Anti-pollution activists lock themselves together at TECO plant - police use saws to free them

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Anti-pollution activists lock themselves together at TECO plant - police use saws to free them

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08/31/12 Seán Kinane

WMNF Drive-Time News Friday | Listen to this entire show

The heavy police presence typical of RNC week. This is minutes before the coronation of the 1% ceremony.

photo by Seán Kinane/WMNF

For a fifth straight day protests of the Republican National Convention were peaceful. More than 100 demonstrators, many of whom described themselves as anarchists – marched through the streets of downtown Tampa until after midnight, after the convention was over.

The celebrations ended soon after a steady trickle of convention delegates and alternates made their way north on Ashley. That’s the scene of the only close encounters between protesters and a few dozen convention-goers. A few protesters went beyond the typical chanting and yelled curses at delegates. One of the people coming from the convention told a black protester to go back to his own country.

Like most of the anarchists nervous about being targeted by law enforcement, the protester would not give his name. The only incidence of violence is when protester Mariah McKinney was shoved by a person Getty Images identified as an alternate delegate from the Republican convention.

Several journalists, police and protesters witnessed the shove. Read full story

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Anarchists continue peaceful protests in streets of Tampa on final night of Republican convention 

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Anarchists continue peaceful protests in streets of Tampa on final night of Republican convention

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Anarchists continue peaceful protests in streets of Tampa on final night of Republican convention

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08/30/12 Liz McKibbon

WMNF Drive-Time News Thursday | Listen to this entire show

One protester signs America's Second Bill of Rights.

photo by Liz McKibbon

During some speeches at the Republican convention unions have been a punching bag. In contrast, yesterday labor rights groups in Tampa used theater to demonstrate what the workforce might look like if Mitt Romney is elected as president. Protesters signed what they call America’s Second Bill of Rights.

Two to three hundred protesters rumbled through the sanctioned parade route in downtown Tampa, shouting ‘Stand up, fight back.’ Protestors held signs. One read: ‘If you can read this, thank a teacher.’ A woman wearing a black union of pipe fitters t-shirt held a sign reading ‘We’re your neighbors, not your enemy!’ John Carr works with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations or AFL-CIO. Carr said citizens shouldn’t vote based on a single issue.

“The country wasn’t built on the 2nd Amendment; the country wasn’t built on Roe v Wade. But, truly, for all Americans from the very, very most wealthy to the poorest of the poor, the one thing that they all share in common is the economy. They all buy bread, they all drink milk. And if the economy is not functioning, the people it hurts the most are the people who can afford it the least.”

Carr said the Republican version of ‘trickle down economics’ doesn’t work. Read full story

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Activists use political theater to warn about 'Romney's America' and sign a Second Bill of Rights

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Activists use political theater to warn about 'Romney's America' and sign a Second Bill of Rights

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08/30/12 Janelle Irwin

WMNF Drive-Time News Thursday | Listen to this entire show

Romneyville organizer Bruce Wright hands out lunches to campers. Many don't have homes.

photo by Janelle Irwin

The Romneyville camp in downtown Tampa was set up as a place for both protesters and people without homes to sleep during the Republican National Convention. Now that the event is drawing to a close people are going to have to start finding other places to go.

Shortly after all of the delegates and journalists leave Tampa, Romneyville residents will have to pack up their tents and go somewhere else. The Poor People’s Economic and Human Rights Campaign leased the property where they’re staying for four months, and that time is up early next month. Curtis Hunt Jr. won’t go to a shelter. He said that’s because they won’t let him stay with his wife and it’s not safe.

“There’s been a lot of people’s gear being stolen in that place. And it’s kind of like a place for people to single out who is a part of doing drugs, part of prostitution, a part of that world of the hood or the ghetto – I can’t say that, just crime period. ”

And Hunt said some places, like St. Vincent De Paul, don’t take good enough care of the people going their for help. Read full story

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Romneyville campers may struggle with finding a place to sleep after Republican convention

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8/30/12 Janelle Irwin

WMNF Drive-Time News Thursday | Listen to this entire show

In addition to hundreds of boxed lunches, police also gave people cold water and sports drinks.

photo by Janelle Irwin

Police presence around the Romneyville camp has been tight this week, but today they showed up not for security, but to hand out food. Hundreds of left over boxed lunches were given to people sleeping in tents in downtown Tampa.

Inside the white boxes were massive sandwiches, chips and fresh fruit. Most of the people staying at Romneyville don’t have homes and often wonder where their next meal will come from. The camp had a bus that served as a kitchen, but one camper who called himself Bless said the owner left the camp this morning.

“So, the officers were kind enough to bring us breakfast and for the most part, as you can tell, everyone appreciates it.”

Officers also handed out cold bottled water and sports drinks to a grateful and thirsty crowd. The camp’s organizer, Bruce Wright said after a few days of heavy police presence, the meals were a welcomed act of kindness. Read full story

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Tampa Police give leftover Republican convention lunches to Romneyville homeless camp