It's About Florida: Recent Episodes
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It's About Florida is a half-hour discussion program focusing on topical issues in the state, from roundtable discussions with news trackers to one-on-one discussions with leading newsmakers. It's About Florida captures the headlines and goes behind the issues with in-depth discussions on diverse topics such as immigration, the environment, and the economy, just to name a few.
Florida is used to hurricanes. Names like Francis, Charlie, Ivan, Wilma, Hermine, Andrew aren’t just for kids. But earlier this month, the state was confronted with a different type of storm named Irma. At her peak, she was a dangerous Category Five storm that threatened the entire state, from the Keys to the Panhandle. And it triggered the evacuation of more than a third of Floridians from their homes. Florida Public Radio stations from across the state came together to cover the impacts to their local community and tonight on It’s About Florida, we hear from Floridians across the state on how they weathered Hurricane Irma.
Students across Florida are heading back to school this month and parents are once again confronting a contentious issue in some households: what should their child wear. There’s no set dress policy for kids, and schools and districts often have disparate sets of rules. Tonight on It’s About Florida, we take a look at some of these policies and hear from young girls—a group impacted the most.
Welcome to It’s About Florida. A weekly discussion program tackling the key topics of interest to our state. I’m Lynn Hatter. Members of the Florida House of Representatives are pushing ahead with an effort to kill Governor Rick Scott’s favorite agencies, Enterprise Florida and Visit Florida. The two agencies have been underfire by House Speaker Richard Corcoran and his leadership team. They say the tourism and business recruitment arms aren’t doing a very good job and recruiting jobs. But Scott is fighting to keep them intact. Today on It’s About Florida, we take a closer look at one of those agencies, Visit Florida, and the tug of war over whether it should stay or go.
For months, state lawmakers have been pouring over proposals ahead of the 2017 legislative session and already there’s plenty of conflict to go around. At the center of it is House Speaker Richard Corcoran, who has focused his efforts on making government more transparent. Corcoran likens the state’s economic development agencies, Enterprise Florida and Visit Florida to “cockroaches” and is blasting what he sees as the cozy relationship between lawmakers and lobbyists.. Corcoran laid out his
Florida lawmakers will take another shot at getting a gambling infrastructure in place. Parts of the original deal with the Seminole Tribe of Florida have expired. That, coupled with several pending lawsuits over local gaming referendums, has created a bit of a quagmire that the legislature has to find its way out of. But that’s proving to be a hard task. And for the third year in a row, the state’s gambling interests will face off in the annual lawmaking session. That’s ahead on It’s About Florida.
2016 was a big year in news: a new President was elected, and the black lives matter movement gained steam due to an increased focus on police shootings. There were protests: political and environmental, and then there were the mass shootings which claimed the lives of thousands. Tonight, we take a look back at the news that shaped Florida in 2016, recapping our top three stories of the year. That’s ahead on It’s About Florida.
It's been about week since Americans chose a new leader. President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January. That's got a lot of people on the left and the right trying to guess at how he'll govern and what he'll do on important issues like the economy and healthcare. What would a Trump administration mean for the Sunshine State? That's ahead on It's About Florida.
During the Primary, Florida Voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment for tax breaks on solar amendment. Solar is popular in the Sunshine State. So much so, there’s a second amendment question on the November ballot. But environmentalists and clean energy advocates are urging voters to say NO on this one. They call it a deception on behalf of utilities, and argue that just because it sounds good, doesn’t mean it is. Amendment One: what it is, what it means, and the latest controversy clouding its future. That’s coming up on It’s About Florida.
A big shakeup in Florida’s public university system as Florida A&M University parts ways with its president, and reintroduces an old name. That comes with a political upset for a powerful former state Senate President was passed over for the top job at the University of West Florida. And State Attorney General Pam Bondi continues to weather a political storm over a campaign donation from Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump that just won’t go away. It’s been a raucous few weeks in Florida politics. These stories coming up on It’s About Florida.
Five people are vying for a shot at incumbent Senator Marco Rubio’s job. The race at first appeared to be wide open when Rubio was running for President—but after he failed to make a showing the Republican Presidential primary, the junior Senator from Florida decided to stay in his current job. True to fashion, most of Rubio’s Republican challengers dropped out—except for one. But Democrats see Rubio’s chair as one that needs a new host: And they’ve got their own roster, including two sitting congressmen, vying to fill it. We’ll take a look at the candidates running for U.S. Senator. That’s ahead on It’s About Florida.
What makes a good poll? In the past few weeks, there’s been conflicting information put out on the state of the Presidential Race in Florida. Some surveys have Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump ahead by several points, while others have Democratic Presidential Nominee Hilary Clinton up in the state. Even the same polling companies are releasing conflicting surveys one after the other. So can these polls be trusted? And what do they really tell us about how the American electorate is feeling? That’s ahead on It’s About Florida.
Terrorism came to Florida this week in the form of a massacre at an Orlando area gay nightclub. At least 49 people are dead, some are still fighting for their lives in hospitals. More than 50 others were wounded, and we’ll hear some of their stories this evening. We’ll also hear about some of the reaction to the shooting. That conversation ahead on It’s About Florida.
The Florida Education Association has spearheaded a years-long fight against the state’s corporate tax scholarship program. The system lets businesses earn a tax credit in exchange for donating money to send low and middle income kids to private schools. The teacher’s union argues that is an unconstitutional diversion of would-be public dollars to private entities. Last year, a judge tossed out the suit—ruling the union didn’t have standing. But recently, the union was back in court. A judge is now deliberating on whether the union’s lawsuit can go forward. The program does have powerful backers—including most of the Republican-led legislature, families who rely on the program, and the businessman who started it all, John Kirtley. Today, we speak with Kirtley about the tax credit scholarship and why he thinks the future of education is choice.
The mosquito-born Zika virus has been in the news lately. Scientists now say there’s a definitive link between the virus and birth defects in children. South America has become the epicenter of the outbreak,
Florida’s 2016 legislative session has come to a close. Lawmakers adjourned Sine Die last week after passing an $82-billion budget. Last year the House left the session early and lawmakers were forced to return to Tallahassee for a special session to complete the budget. In contrast, many would say this year’s session went off without a hitch—though probably not the governor. While House and Senate leaders saw some of their priorities pass early in the session, many of Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s priorities, including $250-million in economic incentives, didn’t pass the legislature. Lawmakers also failed to ratify a gambling agreement the governor negotiated with the Seminole Indian Tribe. We’ll talk about which bills passed and which bills died, Scott’s reaction to the session, and what comes next.
The Florida legislature is officially back in Tallahassee though for many watchers, it’s as if they never left. Last year the annual legislative session imploded due to a fight over whether to expand Medicaid under the affordable care act. That hurt relationships between the House and Senate as they returned to hammer out a state budget, and had to do two special sessions to redraw Senate and Congressional district maps. Now House Speaker Steve Crisafulli and Senate President Andy Gardiner are working to make peace and pass policy. And they’ve already moved ahead on several key priority bills dealing with water and making life better for Floridians with disabilities. But that’s only the start of the 2016 legislative agenda. That’s ahead on It’s About Florida.
Gambling is illegal in Florida. Or, is it? Florida is one of the largest states for gaming in the nation. But its patchwork regulatory structure has left many lawmakers, lobbyists, and government officials frustrated. Attempts to bring order to the gambling industry have failed time and time again. And that’s led new and dubious types of gaming to set up shop in the state. Meanwhile, Governor Rick Scott has signed a $3 billion dollar extension of a gambling compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida. But state lawmakers aren’t impressed. So what will the legislature do about it in the upcoming legislative session?
Florida lawmakers will head back to the drawing board when they return to the Capital in January. They’ll have to address ongoing problems with the state’s standardized testing system, and growing backlash against the use of the exams when it comes to students and teachers. They’ll also revive a massive charter school reform bill, and further plans to grow the state’s school choice system.
Six years ago, a group of friends in Massachusetts had an idea. According to the Boston Globe, they used the MacArthur foundation as a model for it. The MacArthur Genius Grant gives $500,000 to individuals to use however they choose—but, for a group of folks just starting out—that’s money they didn’t have. So they took the MacArthur Genius award and shrunk it down, to the micro level. And that’s how the Awesome Foundation got started. Today, there are hundreds of chapters across the county, and the globe—giving a thousand dollars a month to worthy ideas aimed at bettering local communities. There are four local chapters in Florida, including Tallahassee. Today we’re asking the question, how do you Define Awesome?
Welcome to It’s About Florida. A monthly discussion program tackling the key topics of interest to our state. I’m Lynn Hatter. The Florida Supreme Court recently ruled against state lawmakers in the Congressional map, ordering the legislature to redraw 8 districts which they say favor a political party or the incumbent. Lawmakers are doing so, but they’re not doing it quietly. The proposals include splitting up old districts and overhauling one North Florida district that’s long been considered gerrymandered. And Florida lawmakers erase and redraw lines, current Congressmen and women are making big decisions about their political futures. That’s ahead on It’s About Florida.