Beyond the News WFLA Interviews

Americans agree that social media platforms are doing more harm than good to our politics, but they disagree on how to fix the problem. We speak with Dr Joshua Scacco, USF Communications Professor and lead student researcher Sam Rechek on a recent poll of one thousand social media users.

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There's a slight decline in the number of people observing Christmas. Is that a function of increasing secularization or a short-term response to the pandemic? We speak with Dr. Marc Pugliese, associate professor of religion at St. Leo University, a Catholic institution based in the Tampa Bay area.

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New numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that prices in the Tampa Bay area rose

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Police say a man threw a fellow sailboater off his Catalina into the Intrascoastal off Clearwater, then decided to take off without trying to rescue him. The victim's body was found off Sand Key the next day. That man is now charged with manslaughter. More from Clearwater police spokesman Rob Shaw.

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A poll from Saint Leo University in the Tampa Bay area finds that 80 percent of us look forward to Christmas and the other year-end holidays but about two-thirds of us are glad when they're over. The reason: stress. We speak with St. Leo psychology professor Christopher Wolfe about dealing with Christmas stress.

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This coming Sunday (12th), residents of two historic African-American neighborhoods in St. Petersburg are holding a reunion at the facility that replaced them -- Tropicana Field. We speak with Gwendolyn Reese of the African American Heritage Association of St. Petersburg on the event and about a recent report to city council on structural racism.

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Florida Polytechnic University has acquired a "drive by wire" car that becomes part of a system that could be used to test and vet the coming generation of fully autonomous, self-driving vehicles, particularly the software that runs them. We speak with asst professor of mathematics A.J. Alnaser, PhD.

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The supply chain backlog is one of the big economic issues of 2021, and one big problem is a shortage of truck drivers.

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The St. Petersburg Biff-Burger is closed and its physical remnants are to be auctioned off "to the bare walls" Tuesday, December 7th. We speak with Greg Farner, owner of Bay Area Auction Services, about what's for sale, and we touch on the Biff-Burger's history as the last location in a formerly widespread burger chain that was born in the Tampa Bay area.

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After a series of issues with previous contract holder Eckerd Connects, including foster children sleeping and being left overnight in offices, Family Support Services is the new lead agency for child support and services in Pinellas and Pasco counties, effective Jan. 1, 2022. We speak with FSS President and CEO Jenn Petion about how she sees her mission.

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