Dr. Mehmet Oz Wants to Privatize Medicare. Trump Just Picked the TV Star to Head Medicare Agency

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped several TV personalities for key posts in his incoming administration, including Dr. Mehmet Oz to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency that oversees health coverage for 150 million people. Oz, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for Senate in Pennsylvania in 2022, supports privatizing Medicare. “His background really has nothing to do with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,” says Dr. Robert Steinbrook, director of the Health Research Group for Public Citizen.

Experience Pink Floyd and Surrealism at The Dalí Museum

The Dalí Museum is bringing something special to St. Pete this season. While its new exhibit The Subversive Eye: Surrealist and Experimental Photography might grab the headlines, the real showstopper for many will be Dome Night: Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon.....MORE

Meanwhile, Trump says, "Drill, Baby, Drill"

Deadline looms for negotiators seeking a deal for cash to curb global warming

With time running down, negotiators at the United Nations annual climate talks on Wednesday remained mired in the maze of a trillion-dollar money problem, turning to host Azerbaijan to lead the way to daylight with a promised map to be released in the dark of night.

Vulnerable nations are seeking $1.3 trillion to deal with damage from climate change and to adapt to that change, including building out their own clean-energy systems. Experts agree that at least $1 trillion is called for, but both figures are far more than the developed world has so far offered.

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Brit Floyd Coming To Ruth Eckerd Hall

Brit Floyd

Friday, May 16

Ruth Eckerd Hall

Clearwater, Fl

Trump has called for dismantling the Education Dept. What would that mean?

Throughout his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump heaped scorn on the federal Department of Education, describing it as being infiltrated by “ radicals, zealots and Marxists.”

He has picked Linda McMahon, a former wrestling executive, to lead the department. But like many conservative politicians before him, Trump has called for dismantling the department altogether — a cumbersome task that likely would require action from Congress.

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Why our brains are wired to ignore the climate crisis

How big industries, politicians and the media have warped public understanding and action on the climate crisis.

Telling the story of climate change psychology can reveal not only the ways in which we grapple with ecological breakdown but also how big industries, politicians and even the media have warped public understanding and action on the greatest crisis humanity faces.

Ken Hagen might be licking his chops....Could the new Ray's stadium end up in Ybor City after all?

Rays stadium deal in jeopardy after team, Pinellas commissioners trade barbs

A deal to build a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays is now teetering after Pinellas County commissioners once again delayed a vote on funding the plan. 

The Rays sent a letter to the commissioners just before the meeting started, stating that the delays meant the current deal was all but dead.

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Will the House ethics panel release report on Gaetz misconduct allegations?

Whether Matt Gaetz serves as US attorney general during President-elect Donald Trump’s second administration depends on several factors, including what senators make of a House committee investigation into alleged sexual misconduct by the former US House Representative from Florida.

The House Ethics Committee is scheduled to meet today, when it could decide whether to release a bipartisan report on the allegations against Gaetz.

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The Senate Just Dropped An UNEXPECTED Bombshell ON TRUMP

Cactus Moon Market in Tampa

INFO

'4B' movement picks up steam in U.S. after election

Tracker: Trump Appointees’ Corporate Conflicts of Interest

Donald Trump’s nominees for cabinet positions and other important political appointments are riddled with conflicts of interest. As was the case with Trump’s first administration, his second administration appears to be handing people with clear corporate conflicts of interest the power to regulate and oversee corporations.....List HERE

Trump taps television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead key Medicare and Medicaid agency

President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he has selected Dr. Mehmet Oz  — a celebrity heart surgeon who hosted a daytime television show — to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.....MORE

The Stogie says “Safe Space, Woke, Lived Experience, White Privilege.”

Few Americans use ‘woke’ terminology: Survey

Few Americans use terminology that is commonly deemed as “woke,” according to a new survey.

In the YouGov survey, under a quarter of Americans polled said they “regularly use” words and phrases such as “safe space,” “woke,” ‘lived experience” and “white privilege.” The phrases are commonly used in progressive, left-leaning and social justice-oriented spaces.

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A GOP lawmaker introduces a Capitol bathroom rule before her trans colleague arrives

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina is defending a measure she recently introduced that would ban transgender women from women's bathrooms in the U.S. Capitol.

It is unclear if the effort will get a vote or if rules in the Capitol will be changed,+ but the move comes just two weeks after Democrat Sarah McBride became the first openly transgender person elected to Congress.

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Gladys Knight to perform at Sarasota’s Van Wezel this spring

Gladys Knight, the seven-time Grammy winner, is coming to Sarasota’s Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall for one night only. The singer will perform on Wednesday, March 5 at 7:30 p.m.....MORE

GOP senators reject replacing FBI background checks for Trump nominees

Senate Republicans are rejecting a proposal floated by some advisers to President-elect Trump to take the job of conducting background checks for high-level nominees away from the FBI and give it to private investigators.....MORE

Looking back at the 2024 elections in Florida and the USA

On WMNF’s Tuesday Café we heard a recap of what happened during the 2024 elections in Florida and across the country with Susan MacManus, Political Analyst and Professor Emerita at the University of South Florida and Ray Roa, Editor in Chief at Creative Loafing. They spoke Friday at Tampa Tiger Bay Club.

Listen HERE

He doesn't need intelligence briefing....after all he aced the cognitive test

President-elect Trump has started receiving intelligence briefings

President-elect Donald Trump is now receiving intelligence briefings after having declined them during his campaign, according to a source with knowledge of the matter and a former U.S. official.....MORE

Judge expected to rule on bullet-proof Trump hush money conviction

Judge Juan Merchan is expected to rule on whether to throw out president-elect Trump's hush money conviction. Prosecutors are set to tell the judge whether they believe the criminal hush money case against incoming president should proceed to sentencing or be dismissed all together.

Understanding Ireland’s solidarity with Palestine

We examine why the Irish are so sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.

There are many in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland who are ardent supporters of the Palestinian cause.  We look at the shared history between the two nations and why many feel that more needs to be done by their respective governments.

Recess appointments: Can Trump bypass Senate to appoint Gaetz, other aides?

Throughout his business, media and political career, Donald Trump has demonstrated a willingness to break the norm.

But the United States president-elect’s latest proposal to do away with the established processes used to appoint cabinet officials to his incoming administration poses grave risks to the rule of law in the country, experts say.

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Trump win fuels discussion of Israel annexing the West Bank. Here's what that means.

In the wake of former President Donald Trump's re-election, Israel's far-right minister of finance suggested the country would look to annex the occupied West Bank in 2025.....MORE

Proposal to allow Bible teachings in Texas public grade schools draws intense fire, praise

Texas public schools could use teachings from the Bible in lessons as an option for students from kindergarten through fifth grade under a proposal that drew hours of testimony Monday and follows Republican-led efforts in other states to incorporate more christian teaching into classrooms.....MORE

Morning Report — How much is the party of Trump willing to spend?

President-elect Trump’s plans for historic migrant roundups and generous tax cuts next year will cost Republicans, perhaps beyond their budgets.

In interviews last year with The New York Times, Trump’s top immigration policy adviser, Stephen Miller — soon to be deputy White House chief of staff for policy in late January — said military funding would be used to build “vast holding facilities that would function as staging centers” (internment campa? concentration camps?) run by the Homeland Security Department to hold immigrants as their cases progressed.

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National Map of Local Entanglement with ICE

The federal government has built its immigration enforcement regime to depend on the time and resources of local law enforcement. As a result, local agencies are shoring up some of the most highly-funded, destructive law enforcement programs in our nation’s history. The Department of Homeland Security has built a massive infrastructure to exploit local resources in the name of detaining and deporting immigrants. And the Trump administration has put that machinery to use in carrying out the most extreme and inhumane anti-immigrant agenda in decades.....MORE

Trump Jr. wants Desantis to pick Lara Trump as next US Senator from Florida

Ember Leaves' Sip & Paint!

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