Beyond the News WFLA Interviews

Port Tampa Bay is holding its annual hurricane preparedness exercise Monday, May 1st. We speak with Vice President of Operations Matt Thompson about what goes on in such an exercise and how the port prepares for big storms. Port Tampa Bay accounts for 45 percent of gasoline brought into Florida.

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The Gasparilla Music Festival returns along downtown Tampa's riverfront this weekend (April 29-30). We speak with Kelly Bustin, a member of the board that runs the festival.

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A "procedural error" is blamed for an emergency test that woke up millions of Floridians before 5 a.m. Thursday morning. The state has fired the contractor and both have apologized. Many of us are vowing to turn off phone alerts. We speak with Austin Flannery of the National Weather Service office in Ruskin (Tampa) on why that may be a life-changing mistake.

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Each year the American Lung Association releases its State of the Air report, which uses federal EPA data to show ozone and particle pollution in areas across the nation. We speak with ALA's Ashley Byerly about the 2023 report.

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April 18th (beginning 17th at sunset) is Holocaust Remembrance Day. We speak with Michael Igel, chair of the board of the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, about the museum's observance of this day.

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It's a big change for the skyline at the south end of Tampa Bay. Two of the three smokestacks at the Big Bend power station, which have been in service for decades, are about to come down. The power station is retiring two of its coal-fired units and making modifications. We speak with Cherie Jacobs of Tampa Electric about those changes.

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Tens of thousands of fans are due in Tampa for Taylor Swift's sold-out concerts Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Dr Eric Anthony Shamas, an emergency physician at Bayfront Health, has some tips for Swifties that may keep them out of an emergency room..

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It's college graduation season, and at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, pets in dorms also get their own ceremony Tuesday (April 11th). We speak with Mackenzie Siddon, who oversees what's called Pet Life at Eckerd.

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The Hillsborough NAACP Branch has opened what it calls a "Freedom Library" at a Tampa church. The library aimed at school-age children, would include books by minority authors, and some works that have been challenged in Florida schools. We speak with Fedrick Ingram of the American Federation of Teachers union, which is supplying about a thousand books as part of a nationwide campaign.

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The Frozen Four, aka the NCAA Men's Division 1 Hockey Championship, is in Tampa Thursday through Saturday. We find out about the event, the teams, and college hockey with Jayson Hajdu of College Hockey, Inc.

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