90.7 WMFE: Recent Episodes
90.7 WMFE
Ukraine is still recovering from the latest Russian airstrikes. Ukraine's air defenses have proved more resilient than expected. But can it cope this winter with an onslaught on the electricity grid?
What can polls tell us? (Not a lot.) Why did ballot measures favor abortion rights while abortion rights opponents won handily? (It's complicated.) And more lessons from the midterms...
SunRail is extending its southbound service every Friday and Saturday night this holiday season.
FusionFest, a yearly celebration of all the cultures that make up Central Florida, is back this weekend in downtown Orlando.
Central Floridians have until January to apply for FEMA assistance related to Hurricane Ian.
In 1897, the explorer and amateur scientist Hugh de Laussat Willoughby climbed into a canoe and embarked on a coast-to-coast expedition of the Florida Everglades, a wilderness then nearly as vast as the peninsula itself and as unknown, he wrote, as the “heart of Africa.”
While an original plan was presented in 2020, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now wants to designate approximately 1.2 million acres as critical habitat across 13 counties – this marks a 21% reduction from the previous proposal. Federal wildlife officials are collecting public comments over changes to a proposed critical habitat designation for endangered bonneted bats, which are native to central and south Florida. Because they reproduce slowly and in small litters, bonneted bats are especially vulnerable to loss of habitat from development, sea level rise and agriculture. The insectivorous, nonmigratory tropical bats are found in forests, wetlands, and even residential and urban areas. The species was protected under the Endangered Species Act in 2013 and has one of ...
Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez have been drawing and writing their comic book series Love and Rockets since 1982.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announced Tuesday it is seeking a $250,000 fine against a ride operator after its investigation of the death of 14-year-old Tyre Sampson, who fell from the Orlando FreeFall ride in March.
NASA's Artemis I mission has made it to the moon. We check in with the mission and preview what's ahead. Plus, the new documentary "Goodnight Oppy" chronicles a planned 90 day mission on Mars that lasted 15 years.
Family and friends will gather around the Thanksgiving table this Thursday, but the spread may look a bit different. Inflation has caused the price of food to rise, and two major storms this hurricane season may bring extra people to the table this year. WMFE’s Talia Blake talked with Greg Higgerson, Chief Development Officer at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, about the cost of the holiday dinner and where to get food if you’re in need. Listen to the full conversation in the player above. Holiday Costs As Central Floridians get ready for Thanksgiving this Thursday, they may be prepping more food for the dinner table after two major storms brought damage to parts of the state. Greg Higgerson of ...
Former Vice President Mike Pence tells Morning Edition that he and former President Donald Trump have gone "our separate ways." Pence looks back on pivotal moments and ahead to what he might do next.
Chases on the Beach, a staple restaurant of New Smyrna Beach, was one of the many businesses to suffer huge damages as Hurricane Nicole made landfall. At around 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nicole’s storm surge began assailing sand dunes supporting the deck of Chases on the Beach — a restaurant that has been in the community under different hands for over 35 years. The next morning, the deck, which used to seat about 100 guests, was gone. The restaurant is owned by Michele Zahn, a native Central Floridian, who purchased the store in 2019, according to Florida business records. Her husband, Richard, helps manage the location. The couple had just closed the restaurant last week for repairs necessary after Hurricane Ian and ...
There’s more flooding along the St. Johns River, after Tropical Storm Nicole dumped more rain across an already saturated watershed.
Several bridges and roads on the Space Coast and First Coast are closed Thursday following flooding and erosion from Tropical Storm Nicole.
Osceola County was mostly spared by Tropical Storm Nicole. Officials are still encouraging residents to stay off the roads.
The City of St. Cloud is currently under a boil water notice after Tropical Storm Nicole.
The center of the storm is expected to move quickly across Central Florida, bringing high winds and heavy rain.
With Thanksgiving just two weeks away, food and family are on many people's minds. But turkey and travel will carry a hefty price tag this year, in another sign of high inflation.
Tropical Storm Nicole is on track to make landfall later Wednesday in Florida as a rare November hurricane.
WMFE environmental reporter Amy Green talked with University of Central Florida hurricane expert Kelly Stevens about how unusual a hurricane in November is for Florida.
President Biden will hold a press conference on the heels of a better-than-expected performance by Democrats in the 2022 midterms.
A new lawsuit is pressing Florida’s top environmental leader to address wastewater problems contributing to an unprecedented manatee die-off in the Indian River Lagoon.
Seminole County Emergency Manager Alan Harris says residents should prepare for flooding during and after Nicole.
Central Florida counties, cities, airports, schools and more make last-minute preparations for the storm.
The storm is expected to make landfall late Thursday in Florida. The state just started to recover from Hurricane Ian.
These midterm elections show why it's always important to never assume you know exactly what's going to happen in advance – and to keep an open mind for potential surprises.
As of 7 am this morning, Tropical Storm Nicole is located east of the Bahamas moving westward at 13 mph. Tropical Storm force winds are expected to increase along the Florida Atlantic coast this morning and will continue spread across the Peninsula this afternoon and evening. Nicole is forecast to make landfall late this evening in SE Florida as a hurricane with winds up to 75 mph.
Tropical Storm Nicole is just shy of hurricane strength late Tuesday night, but hurricane warnings are in place along the east coast ahead of a midweek landfall.
Democratic Congresswoman Val Demings has lost her bid to unseat incumbent Republican Marco Rubio in the US Senate.
Central Floridians are heading to the polls today and issues like inflation are at the top of many voters’ minds. WMFE’s Talia Blake caught up with Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Forecasting at the University of Central Florida, to talk about the role the economy plays as voters cast their ballots. Listen to the full conversation in the player above. Economy and Election As Central Floridians head to the polls today, many have the current state of the economy at the forefront of their minds. University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Forecasting Director Sean Snaith says that’s held true for past elections. ” In 1992, that election, James Carville was an advisor to candidate Bill Clinton,” said Snaith. “And ...
This live story is being updated throughout the day. It was updated most recently at 4:20 p.m. with new information on shelters in Orange County and evacuations and a curfew in Volusia. Volusia County has issued an evacuation order for certain areas along the coast and announced a curfew for Wednesday night as Tropical Storm Nicole gains strength and approaches the east coast of Florida. Brevard County is recommending that residents in low-lying areas or in mobile homes seek refuge elsewhere. Several counties have announced school closures and some are opening shelters. Nicole is expected to become a hurricane and then make landfall early Thursday morning in southeast Florida. Forecasts say it will move quickly across the state. Its windfield ...
LBGTQ activist groups are concerned for Florida’s trans-youth after two Florida medical boards' decision last week in Buena Vista to ban gender-affirming therapies for minors.
Governor Ron DeSantis has issued a State of Emergency for 34 counties ahead of Subtropical Storm Nicole.
The declaration of a state of emergency includes Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia counties in Central Florida.
In Seminole County, officials are bracing for more flooding as Subtropical Storm Nicole nears.
Hurricane watches and tropical storm watches have been issued for much of the east coast of Florida ahead of Nicole's midweek arrival.
In Central Florida counties, turnout from early voting and mail-in ballots hovers around 30 percent. Sumter County is out-performing the others with 58 percent turnout going into Election Day.
Anyone who's online and shares information plays some role in shaping whether falsehoods gain traction. Here's some advice on how to share responsibly.
We go Bolder Backstage with the legendary Lindsey Buckingham. He talks about his new music, his life after a heart attack and if he’ll ever play with Fleetwood Mac again.
Scientists wanted to learn whether bees, like humans and other mammals, had any interest in playing for fun's sake. They say they have evidence that bees do, and that could change how we view insects.
The Osceola site is closed Saturday but open again on Sunday. The Seminole site runs through Sunday at the Oviedo Mall. In Volusia County, its' Saturday through Monday at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach.
As Election Day draws near in Central Florida, voters are looking for candidates who align with their views on abortion.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Workers in central Florida’s tourism industry are pushing to raise their minimum wage to at least $18 an hour, arguing that rising rents and inflation have cut into their ability to make ends meet. Unite Here Local 737 released a report Thursday saying that an adult worker with no dependents would need to earn $18.19 an hour to make a living wage, while a family with two children would need both parents earning $23.91 an hour for a living wage. Local 737 is part of a coalition of other unions currently negotiating a new, five-year contract for service workers at Walt Disney World, central Florida’s largest employer. Local 737 also is in the middle of contract ...
Democratic State Rep. Geraldine Thompson of Orlando has already won her race for state Senate. She spoke with WMFE's Joe Byrnes about redistricting.
Despite Hurricane Ian, Orange County’s tourism industry saw an increase in tax revenue in September.
In a prepared statement, Orange County Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles said he'll follow the order but that voters should “continue to vote on all election contests on their ballot.”
A new report says that 96% of power plants nationwide -- including Stanton Energy Center in Orlando -- are violating federal regulations aimed at addressing the toxic legacy of coal ash.
A large non-tropical area of low pressure will likely develop in the southwestern Atlantic this weekend and track toward Florida or the southeast U.S. It is expected to be very broad and disorganized at first, but if certain conditions are present, development into a sub-tropical or tropical system is possible early to mid-next week.
The latest uprising in Iran is about much more than mandatory hijab. We've complied a list of books that offer insight into the lives of Iranian women and what is happening in their country.
The U.S. produces billions of pumpkins each year, most of which end up in the trash when Halloween ends. From composting them to putting them out for wildlife to eat, here are some recycling ideas.
Orange County is buzzing with higher levels of mosquito activity. County experts say the booming population came after Hurricane Ian.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management is offering assistance in debris cleanup following Hurricane Ian. Applications for the Hurricane Ian Debris Removal program are now open for those needing help removing debris from their property or for those needing to report missing property.
After a jury recommended the sentence, the judge could not change it. But she did allow victims and families to speak directly to Nikolas Cruz for the first time to express their anger and grief.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Pablo Picasso painted these portraits more than 75 years apart. But there's a clear connection between the two — and you can now see them on display together.
Osceola County residents affected by Hurricane Ian can complete their application for D-SNAP benefits in-person starting Thursday at Heritage Park.
Doctors say they are seeing an unprecedented number of cases. How concerned should parents be? Why are young children so vulnerable? What's causing this year's outbreak? We offer some answers.
Supervisors of elections also want people to know that their vote is secure and that they should consider voting early.
The last NPR survey before all votes have to be cast shows inflation continues to be the top concern for voters, and Republicans are trusted more than Democrats on the issue by 20 points.
The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by another 0.75 percentage points Wednesday, as part of its ongoing effort to fight inflation. The big question is, what happens next.
BetterHelp is offering free therapy to Floridians who are struggling with their mental health after Hurricane Ian.
Conservation groups are pressing for new protections for the endangered North Atlantic right whale - the whales' birthing territory stretches the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to Cape Canaveral.
Hurricanes — whether big or small — manage to damage or destroy most things in their path. But palm trees, for some reason, tend to escape a hurricane's fury. That was definitely true after Ian.
A theory about online candle reviews and COVID cases was put under the microscope, and has taken on new relevance amid concern at the lack of official data heading into another winter.
James Hicks, Ph.D., is a professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California in Irvine. He’s developed a new class called Exercise as Medicine that examines how and why physical activity can actually work better for us than pills.
At his Tiny Desk concert, the rapper Farruko adapts his signature flow for a far more intimate setting.
All SunRail trains in Florida will resume regular services starting on Monday. Trains have been operating on a limited schedule after the Central Florida Rail Corridor was damaged during Hurricane Ian. Now that repairs are complete, SunRail will begin operating again on its normal schedule at all stops along its 16 station route between DeBary and Poinciana. For a complete schedule, visit SunRail.com or follow SunRail on Twitter @RideSunRail. If you have questions about your card, fares or schedules, you can also call 1-855-RAIL-411.
The Scottish actor played gentle half-giant Hagrid, a mentor to the boy wizard, in all eight Harry Potter films, released between 2001 and 2011. Coltrane died Friday at a hospital in Scotland.
First Lady Jill Biden is returning to the Sunshine State on Saturday. She’ll be in Orlando for the “Fight for our Rights” voter registration event outside City Hall at 3 pm. Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Charlie Crist and Democratic Congresswoman Val Demings will also be in attendance. Then Biden will join the festivities in downtown Orlando around Come out with Pride. October celebrates National LGBT + History month. For more of WMFE’s election coverage, click here. And to fill out our election survey, click here.
Heads up Central Florida drivers: tolls will resume on most roads throughout the state on Saturday after a hiatus due to Hurricane Ian.
"What they can expect is service with care, with compassion and with a lot of knowledge," said Senior Resoucre Alliance President and CEO Karla Radka.
Agriculture is a major industry in Florida and Hurricane Ian destroyed farms, killed livestock and toppled citrus trees. Farmers have faced challenges before and vow to come out stronger.
The House Jan. 6 committee just wrapped up what could be its final hearing about the attack on the Capitol. The panel unanimously voted to subpoena former President Donald Trump.
Some women skipped their mammograms during the pandemic. Three years later, Central Florida doctors are reporting a surge in early detection for breast cancer.
It’s risky and bold for a theatrical organization to produce only brand-new original plays. But Orlando’s Playwrights’ Round Table – or PRT – has been doing it for 25 years now. And the group shows no signs of slowing down.
The Orange County Department of Health is increasing its efforts to get more people vaccinated against monkeypox.
Biketoberfest starts today in Daytona Beach and runs through the weekend. The four day event comes just two weeks after Hurricane Ian dumped some 19 inches of rain in parts of Volusia County. WMFE’s Talia Blake caught up with Lori Campbell Baker, Daytona Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau Executive Director, to talk about what to expect during the first major event in the city after the storm. Is the city ready for visitors after the storm? Motorcyclists are piling into Daytona Beach for the 30th annual Biketoberfest. The event comes just two weeks after Hurricane Ian drenched the region. Lori Campbell Baker, Daytona Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau Executive Director, said although many areas are still recovering, the main areas for the ...
Harbor House of Central Florida, which provides shelter and other resources to people experiencing domestic violence, received more calls than normal after Hurricane Ian.
KISSIMMEE, Fla.—Jason Diaz awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of trickling water.
Outside his first-floor apartment where he had slept, Hurricane Ian moved violently and slowly over the Florida interior, dropping monumental amounts of rain on the low-slung landscape pockmarked everywhere with lakes and rivers, ponds and canals.
The House committee probing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol will present new testimony and evidence at the hearing, according to select committee aides.
The Biden administration is said to be considering a similar option for Venezuelans as more and more of them cross the southern border and seek asylum.
The Artemis I mission is now targeting a launch from Kennedy Space Center Monday, November 14. The 69-minute launch window opens at 12:07 a.m.
Sick kids are crowding emergency rooms in parts of the country and some pediatric hospitals say they're running out of beds.
Central Floridians are turning to Second Harvest for food in record numbers after Hurricane Ian damaged homes and businesses in the area.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday that Florida’s gopher tortoise population does not meet the criteria for protections under the Endangered Species Act.
FEMA has set up ten Disaster Recovery Centers throughout the state since Hurricane Ian to provide resources and information to survivors of the storm.
People in the path of Hurricane Ian are still dealing with its aftermath. Before and during the storm, residents rely on forecasts from meteorologists to track the storm and plan to prepare. Many of the tools these forecasters use come from space.
The National Weather Service reported that New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater saw more than 19 inches of rain when Hurricane Ian hit Volusia County. In East Central Florida, Volusia saw the most rainfall from the storm. WMFE’s Talia Blake spoke with Stephanie Ford, Southeast Volusia Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, about how businesses are doing now after the storm. Reopening After the Storm Businesses in Southeast Volusia County are slowly reopening after Hurricane Ian dumped more than 19 inches of rain in the area. Stephanie Ford said that businesses in New Smyrna Beach, Edgewater, a Oak Hill, are reopened. “I feel like about 85% are back up and normal operating,” she said. The remaining 15% of businesses that are still closed are citing staffing issues ...
The Drug Enforcement Administration is warning that drug dealers are marketing rainbow-colored fentanyl to kids. Many drug experts say that's likely not happening.
FEMA has already awarded more than $190 million to help 127,000 households affected by the hurricane in Florida.
Food assistance is coming for those affected by Hurricane Ian. Residents can apply for those benefits starting this week.
Bethune-Cookman University students will start returning to their residence halls this week.
Everything from your vocal cord vibrations to breathing patterns when you speak offers potential information about your health. Researchers are collecting voice data to one day use in an app.
Ken Dychtwald, the world’s No. 1 thought leader and influencer when it comes to the cultural, social, and business implications of aging, joins Growing Bolder’s Marc Middleton for a candid conversation on the state of aging today. Dychtwald shares his thoughts on how life today is different than ever before and offers his predictions on how things will be in 10, 20, and 30 years. You’ll learn what you need to do to be prepared.
Most deaths were in Lee County, where local officials delayed hurricane evacuations until the day before the storm hit. Leaders in other nearby counties ordered evacuations a day earlier.
Across Southwest Florida, the long road to recovery is coming into focus as people try to pick up the pieces after Hurricane Ian. Many will rebuild, others will leave and some don't know what's next.
Hurricane Ian brought the deadliest destruction Florida has seen in years, and with it, likely billions of dollars in damages. Florida officials and property insurers are warning people left vulnerable after the storm to not become victims twice and fall prey to common scams.
Volusia County officials are estimating so far that Hurricane Ian caused some $263 million in damage throughout the county.
Christine Barrett and her family had to climb on top of their kitchen cabinets because of flooding that surged into their house during Hurricane Ian. They put water wings on their 1-year-old, and were rescued by boat the next day. Their community of North Port is about 5 miles inland. And the Barretts _ like many neighbors _ live in areas where flood insurance isn’t required. And therefore they don’t have it. Now many wonder how they’ll afford much-needed repairs. There are concerns that not enough people nationally have flood insurance at a time when climate change is believed to be making storms wetter. The Insurance Information Institute says only about 4% of homeowners nationwide have flood insurance although 90% of catastrophes in the U.S. involve flooding.
Here we go again. The virus is starting to surge in many European countries and there are early signs a wave may be starting in the U.S. too.
Forecasters expect a new jobs report will show a modest slowdown in hiring last month, which could help fight inflation. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at a low 3.7%.
President Biden is touting new semiconductor investments in New York today. Back at the White House, a new team is meeting with cabinet members to work out how to spend $52 billion from Congress.
Hundreds of thousands of people in southwest Florida still don't have electricity or water. But Babcock Ranch, north of Fort Myers, was designed and built to withstand the most powerful storms.
The president's approval rating is up to 44%, but 7-in-10 people say the country is going in the wrong direction, and young and Black voters are among the least likely to vote this fall.
The Biden administration is increasing efforts to protect borrowers from student loan forgiveness scams, while still not offering further details about the application itself.
A crew of four is on the way to the International Space Station after launching Wednesday afternoon from Kennedy Space Center.
If handled well, storms like Hurricane Ian can cement politicians' images as community leaders — competent and trusted to help constituents get what they need. If mishandled, they can mar legacies.
The Indian River Lagoon was stressed before Hurricane Ian swept through Florida. The storm caused widespread flooding here, and a lot of that water will flow into the lagoon.
Sheriff Grady Judd said the other deputies are "absolutely devastated." They are on administrative leave, pending an internal review.
Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, held the first state agency head press conference Monday morning following Hurricane Ian’s destructive path through Florida. Guthrie said he brought agency heads to the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee to “ensure that impacted businesses and residents have the resources they need to begin their recovery and rebuild.” Agency heads shared news regarding FEMA assistance, food distribution, power restoration, unemployment benefits, school closures and more.
Dr. Robert Karch, health officer for the Health Department in Orange County, points to the dangers of floodwater as a drowning hazard and a source of infection.
Hurricane Ian brought flooding to Central Florida that many people haven’t experienced before, which damaged many homes. But, flood insurance is something you have to get before a storm. Tasha Carter is Florida’s Insurance Consumer Advocate at the state Department of Financial Services. WMFE’s Talia Blake spoke with her about how Ian may affect an already volatile property insurance market. Getting Assistance Hurricane Ian brought flooding to Central Florida that many residents have not previously experienced. Flood insurance must be purchased before a storm hits, but Tasha Carter, Florida’s Insurance Consumer Advocate, said there are still options out there for those in need. “They may be eligible to obtain assistance through FEMA,” she said. “FEMA provides grants for temporary ...
Hurricane Ian has flooded homes all along the St. Johns River. High waters after the hurricane also are stressing the river itself.
The law is once again on the chopping block — this time on the question of how state legislatures may draw congressional district lines when the state's voters are racially polarized.
Using text messages, video and recorded calls, the DOJ is arguing that the defendants set out to overturn the 2020 election results by storming the Capitol and interrupting the electoral vote count.
In Orange County, Union Park east of Orlando had the most, with more than 17 inches of rain. And the totals for Orlando range from 9 to 15 inches.
All Osceola County public schools will reopen Tuesday. Volusia County schools are set to open on Wednesday.
Residents living in parts of central Florida donned fishing waders, boots and bug spray and canoed or kayaked their way to their homes on streets where floodwaters continued rising Sunday despite it being four days since Hurricane Ian tore through the state. The waters flooded homes and streets that had been passable just a day or two earlier. Ben Bertat found 4 inches of water in his house by Lake Harney off North Jungle street in a rural part of Seminole County north of Orlando after kayaking to it Sunday morning. Only a day earlier, there had been no water.
In Seminole County, officials say they're seeing historic flooding after Hurricane Ian.
The county commission chairman has issued an executive order for a mandatory evacuation at the Good Samaritan retirement village.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said that Thursday night firefighters and members of the National Guard evacuated a flooded assisted living facility on Rouse Road.
Class will be back in session next week throughout Central Florida as schools reopen after Hurricane Ian.
The blood and platelets are needed during rescue missions post-Ian, as well as to continue to serve patients with longstanding medical conditions like cancer.
Many Publix stores in Central Florida have reopened today after the Lakeland-based supermarket chain closed locations during Hurricane Ian.
Central Floridians who haven’t been able to make contact with loved ones since Hurricane Ian can get help finding them.
Hundreds of thousands of Central Floridians remain without power in the wake of Hurricane Ian. The area’s largest power companies report they are continuing to work to restore service, but exact restoration times seem difficult to predict because of Ian’s lingering effects.
Hope Partnership in Osceola County is asking residents who can safely move around to act quickly and provide help for flood evacuees in Kissimmee.
Orlando International Airport announced Friday that, as of noon, it is resuming passenger flights.
Lots of people are now looking at cleanup and damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. The storm led to historic flooding throughout Central Florida. Cathie Rock lives in Volusia County, an area not spared. She shares her story with WMFE.
Images of the aftermath show a glimpse of the destruction caused by the powerful Category 4 hurricane: homes washed out, boats yanked from their moorings, and decimated neighborhoods.
Flooding has been a big worry with Hurricane Ian, and many marginalized communities and communities of color live in low-lying areas in multi-generational homes.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is calling rising waters in central Florida after Hurricane Ian a 500-year flood event.
Abnormally hot water in the Gulf of Mexico helped Hurricane Ian gain strength. Rapidly intensifying major hurricanes are more likely as the Earth gets hotter.
Hurricane Ian brought record rain and flooding to central Florida. More than 2 million Floridians are without power and many more are surveying damage to their homes or businesses.
Rescues due to flooding after Hurricane Ian are ongoing Thursday, according to Orange County Public Safety Director Danny Banks.
More than a foot of rain fell across portions of Florida Wednesday into Thursday as Ian moved across the state.
The hurricane, located 70 miles south of Orlando as of 11 p.m. ET, was losing strength as it makes its way across Florida. It was carrying maximum sustained winds of 90 mph.
Florida’s property insurance market was already in peril. Now comes Hurricane Ian. The massive storm, barreling into Florida with 150 mph winds, double digit storm surge and drenching rains, is almost certain to further damage the state’s market, which has strained under billion dollar losses, insurer insolvencies and skyrocketing premiums. The scale and scope of the storm’s damage will become more clear in the coming days. But its impact could potentially exacerbate existing problems and burden a state-run insurer that has already seen a sharp increase in policies as homeowners struggle to find coverage in the private market.
For a check in on conditions in Brevard County, WMFE's Amy Green talked with county Public Information Officer Don Walker.
Hurricane Ian has made landfall in southwestern Florida as a massive Category 4 storm. About 2.5 million people had been ordered to evacuate the area before the storm hit the coast on Wednesday with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (241 kph). The storm was heading inland, where it was expected to weaken, but residents in central Florida could still experience hurricane-force winds. Before making its way through the Gulf of Mexico to hit Florida, Hurricane Ian tore into western Cuba as a major hurricane Tuesday, killing two people and bringing down the country’s electrical grid.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings updated residents early Wednesday about the projected track of Hurricane Ian and possible impacts to the area.
Shelters in most Central Florida counties are now open. Make sure to bring bedding, food, water, medications and any important paperwork with you.
Seminole County residents should prepare for possible historic flooding in their area as a result of Hurricane Ian.
Publix closed its stores in Tampa Bay a day earlier, as the storm is expected to make landfall nearby.
In Central Florida, the storm will impact Polk County first. Emergency managers there say the National Weather Service predicts one to two feet of rain over the next 36 hours.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is advising Floridians to hunker down as Hurricane Ian could make landfall Wednesday in South Florida as a major Category 5 storm.
Mayor Jerry Demings says Orange County will open all five of its hurricane shelters starting Wednesday.
The National Weather Service's Joel Cline wants residents to know when danger is coming. But he adds, "If people think of a hurricane as a dot and a city as a dot, I think they've missed the point."
The company says it's currently monitoring the weather in order to determine when it's safe for guests and cast members to return.
The City of Orlando and the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida are working together to make sure that people without permanent housing are safe during Ian.
On Thursday evening, the eye of Ian -- by then a tropical storm -- could be strandling the Lake and Orange county line, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Central Florida is bracing for an influx of evacuees, as the Gulf Coast prepares for a direct hit from Hurricane Ian.
First responders are gearing up to help during Hurricane Ian. Here's what they want you to know.
Ian had top winds of 125 mph and storm surge up to 14 feet as it moved over the western end of Cuba. It could head for Tampa and St. Petersburg next, the first direct hit on those cities in a century.
The last flights out of Orlando International Airport will depart at 10:30 am on Wednesday.
As Florida prepares for Hurricane Ian, NASA is hoping to deflect another natural disaster -- an asteroid.
Central Florida attractions are preparing for Hurricane Ian, by closing early in some cases. Others are simply putting plans in place.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and state emergency personnel say Hurricane Ian could land in South Florida and then rip across the state before exiting into the Atlantic.
Ian remains forecasted to parallel the Gulf Coast before making landfall with the Sun Coast Thursday. Tornado risk increases from I-4 south today.
The AARP survey shows that just 67% of Florida residents 45 and older have an emergency plan this year, compared to 75% three years ago.
Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Transportation have suspended tolls until further notice on select roadways ahead of Hurricane Ian. The governor announced the toll suspension during a press conference at the State Emergency Operations Center on Monday.
Recommended preparations include reviewing your hurricane plan, including your evacuation zone; checking your hurricane kit; and stocking up on supplies, such as food, fuel and batteries, water, and medicine.
A large stretch of Florida's coast is now under a hurricane watch. Ian is only the fourth hurricane of the Atlantic season, but experts warn that even one storm can upend many people's lives.
Ian is expected to continue rapidly strengthening. Landfall possible from the Big Bend to Sun Coast during the middle to end of the week.
Mark Bittman shares key guidelines — and recipe ideas — from his revised edition of How to Cook Everything Fast.
The singer, who declined to perform in 2019 out of solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, will headline February's show.
Angelina is a determined little mouse in a pink tutu who dreams of becoming a ballerina. Katharine Holabird and Helen Craig revisit their beloved character, the star of more than 25 picture books.
Throwing thousands of baby puffins off a cliff is a yearly tradition for the people of Iceland's Westman Islands. It's part of what's known as "puffling season" and is a crucial life-saving endeavor.
Hollywood likes to blow up incoming asteroids with nukes, but NASA's first test of whether it can change the trajectory of a space rock will try just giving one a little nudge.
This week marks five years since the first Puerto Ricans sought refuge in central Florida after Hurricane Maria. It’s estimated that the storm took the lives of nearly 3,000 people and forced many, many more to flee.
Tens of thousands would arrive here in the coming weeks. Father Jose Rodriguez is a local Episcopal priest. He spoke with WMFE’s Amy Green about greeting displaced Puerto Ricans as they arrived in Orlando and the lessons he hopes we soon learn.
Iran's Foreign Ministry said Sunday it summoned Britain's ambassador to protest what it described as a hostile atmosphere created by London-based Farsi language media outlets.
Authorities and residents in Florida were keeping a cautious eye on Tropical Storm Ian in the Caribbean on Sunday, expected to continue gaining strength and become a major hurricane.
Can old dogs learn new tricks? Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich, PH.D. says cognitive decline is not inevitable as we get older. His groundbreaking research has changed the way scientists and researchers think about the brain. He joins Growing Bolder for a fascinating conversation about what he’s learned.
The NHC's cone of uncertainty covers most of Florida's west coast and the entire Florida Panhandle.
Most of the state is within the cone of uncertainty. Interests along Florida's entire Gulf Coast should prepare.
NASA is calling off a launch attempt Tuesday of its new moon rocket SLS from Kennedy Space Center as it watches the development of Tropical Storm Ian.
After virtually disappearing for the last two years, there are troubling clues that the flu could come roaring back this year, to cause trouble alongside COVID.
Though its exact trajectory may change between now and then, emergency managers and first responders are reminding residents to stay vigilant.
The Health Department is urging residents to eliminate standing water, cover their skin when outdoors and use mosquito repellant.
Voting for the midterms has started in some states. With more people voting early and mailing in ballots, elections are increasingly less about Election Day and more about what happens weeks earlier.
The vote comes weeks after a threat temporarily closed down Mainland High School in Daytona Beach.
Orlando Ballet’s Jorden Morris is about to open his first full official season as Artistic Director. Hear what Morris has in store for the upcoming year, starting with what he calls "a Halloween treat."
Healthy Start of Central and North Central Florida are considering launching a free doula program for expectant moms in the area.
Now is the time to get a flu shot in Central Florida with health experts expecting flu season to start within the next few weeks.
The super-heated housing market is cooling off. Home prices have fallen about 6% since their peak in June. The pace of sales also fell for the 7th straight month.
The bill would amend the Electoral Count Act, which legal experts have called vague and confusing. The legislation is similar to a somewhat narrowerbill from a bipartisan group of senators.
In March, experts who advise the FDA questioned the efficacy of an experimental new drug for ALS. In September, they voted to approve it anyway.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine will be at the center of President Biden's address to the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, as the U.S. warns Russia is trying to annex more Ukrainian land.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Wednesday a partial mobilization in Russia as the war in Ukraine reaches nearly seven months and Moscow loses ground on the battlefield.
A wide range of Latino communities in the United States are affected by climate-driven storms, floods, droughts and heat waves, and are leading the charge to address global warming.
The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by another 0.75 percentage points today, as it tries to control runaway prices.
In the first of our six-part series, NPR's Bob Mondello explains how the theater that most Americans see is being transformed.
How will NASA's lunar missions help get humans to Mars? And a look at an intriguing finding by NASA's newest Martian explorer in the search for signs of ancient life on Mars.
The U.S. response to Maria was widely seen as wholly inadequate. As the island marks the anniversary of the Category 4 storm, the destruction caused by Fiona has emerged as a test of lessons learned.
Florida drivers will soon save a bit at the pump. Earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law the Florida Motor Fuel Tax Relief Act, which does away with the gas tax for the entire month of October. WMFE’ s talked with University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Forecasting Director Sean Snaith about the program. Savings At The Pump In May 2022, Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Florida Motor Fuel Tax Relief Act to save drivers on gas. It will lower the price of motor fuel by 25.3 cents per gallon. The amount drivers save will depend on their daily commute, said Sean Snaith, which could range between $100 and $200. “It should lower gas prices,” he said.” ...
Critics say a legal maneuver by one of the world's wealthiest corporations could set a precedent, allowing non-bankrupt companies and rich individuals to avoid liability for wrongdoing.
The peak of rabies season is winding down, but the Florida Department of Health is urging residents to remain alert as cases continue to pop up.
Research finds five to 10 minutes daily of a type of strength training for muscles used in breathing can help anyone reduce or prevent high blood pressure. The training can also help elite athletes.
Children who are regularly exposed to gun violence can struggle with feelings of hopelessness and anxiety. There's a lot communities and after-school programs can do to help.
Syed was 18 when he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. Lee was murdered in 1999 when she was also 18.
Biden's comments — made as officials try to convince Americans to get a new booster shot and the White House seeks $22 billion in new COVID funding — were "unfortunate," several epidemiologists said.
The Bexar County Sheriff's Office has opened an investigation into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' flight that took 50 migrants to Martha's Vineyard, Mass.
Someone had spray-painted a call for the end of both parties and the term "fascists" on the windows, put glue in the door and hung a 10-foot-wide Republican Party banner with the words "Free Palestine" and "Nazis" on it.
The new collaboration comes nearly five years after Hurricane Maria forced hundreds of thousands to flee the U.S. territory.
While cases have decreased dramatically, there are still thousands of cases being reported across the world.
OUC customers will be paying more for electricity beginning next month.
The municipal utility approved a rate increase that for most customers will amount to about $5 to $15 more a month. It’s the third increase this year and the company is possibly eyeing another come January.
The storm is wreaking havoc on the island's already fragile power grid. Heavy rainfall and catastrophic flooding is continuing across the island.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who is running for reelection, said the flights from Texas were voluntary. But if migrants were lured, some argue they could now be victims of a crime.
World leaders and members of the public, including national health workers, are invited to pay tribute to the United Kingdom's longest-reigning monarch.
Bradley Schurman is one of the world’s preeminent demographic futurists and author of The Super Age: Decoding Our Demographic Destiny. He explains how our lives are about to be radically impacted as, for the first time in human history, there will soon be more people over the age of 65 than under the age of 18.
Tropical Storm Fiona is threatening to dump up to 16 inches (41 centimeters) of rain in parts of Puerto Rico. Forecasters warned Fiona could be near hurricane strength when it passes through Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Current tracking takes it north and away from the U.S. East Coast.
They argue the threat posed by COVID has lessened because of preexisting immunity and access to treatment. Plus, some deaths may be incorrectly blamed on COVID. Others caution it's too soon to tell.
A group of conservative Puerto Rican business owners and leaders held a roundtable Thursday to discuss issues that are important to them ahead of the November election.
A collection of photos taken after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico will be on display starting this weekend in downtown Orlando.
Voters will decide in November if they want to cap rent increases based on inflation for one year at multi-family complexes.
The City of Orlando’s slate of events for Hispanic Heritage Month includes a City Hall art exhibit featuring Hispanic artists from the area. This week, participating creator Louis Nieves is in the Spotlight.
The FDA authorized over-the-counter hearing aids last month -- establising the new category of devices -- and they could be in stores as soon as next month.
Tropical Storm Fiona formed in the Atlantic late Wednesday evening and is expected to bring heavy rain and strong winds to the Leeward Islands late week.
It's been nearly a year since tens of thousands of Haitian migrants converged on Del Rio, Texas. Some of those migrants are still looking for safety — and accountability for how they were treated.
Thousands of people have now been vaccinated against monkeypox in Orange County, with vaccine appointments available most days at the county health department.
Three years ago the Florida grasshopper sparrow was on the brink of extinction.
Now the sparrow is rebounding, thanks to an emergency effort to breed the birds in captivity and release them on the central Florida prairie, the only place on Earth where they are found in the wild.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has introduced a bill to create a federal ban on abortions at 15 weeks in an attempt to force Republicans to adopt a partywide consensus on the issue.
The Orange County Commission approved a plan to invest over $50 million into a countywide housing trust fund for the next three years.
The Livable Orlando Age‐Friendly Action Plan follows a 2019 decision to join the AARP's Network of Age-Friendly Communities and States. Forty-five cities and counties in Florida are in the nationwide network.
OUC customers will soon be paying more, after a rate increase was approved by commissioners Tuesday.
A new study from the DeSantis administration examines how low- and moderate-income Floridians are spending more of their household budget on energy.
Two attempts to launch NASA’s new moon rocket SLS and deep space capsule Orion have been waived off -- facing a handful of issues including a hydrogen leak. Now, engineers are working on fixing the issues for an attempt as soon as the end of this month as NASA faces pressure to get this long-delayed and over-budget rocket to the moon.
In a letter to Biden, Republican governors say they support "making higher education more affordable" but don't want to "force American taxpayers to pay off the student loan debt of an elite few."
A new study suggests that. yes, there are superdodgers. But explaining why they've been able to avoid the virus is a bit complicated.
Osceola County recently received more than $50 million toward the development of semiconductors. That money was awarded as part of the federal government’s Build Back Better Challenge. Tim Giuliani, CEO of the Orlando Economic Partnership, said that money will allow expansion of a semiconductor manufacturing hub — NeoCity. Neo City Neo City is a 500-acre technology district in Osceola County that also serves as a hub for Central Florida’s semiconductor manufacturing industry. It consists of a 109,000 square-foot office building, a stem-focused high school — NeoCity Academy, and a fab lab. The fab lab, or fabrication laboratory, is a clean room and Tim Giuliani, CEO of OEP, said you wouldn’t be very excited if you walked inside. “Everyone’s wearing complete gowns, ...
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and TikTok are bringing back familiar strategies from 2020 to fight the spread of disinformation in the 2022 midterm elections.
When residents purchase “waterfront properties,” many don’t realize the function of their nearby stormwater ponds and actually cause them harm by removing plants and mowing the grass too close to the edge. Florida researchers are tasked with identifying the benefits of stormwater ponds, and how homeowners are interacting with them. More than 70,000 of these waterbodies exist across Florida. They capture stormwater runoff, which brings in a lot of street debris and pollution. Plus, they prevent flooding and erosion. They’re engineered to overflow into a chain of consecutive ponds, theoretically cleaning the water more and more before ending up in a preserve or the Gulf of Mexico. But residents have a complicated relationship with stormwater ponds. Some purchase what are ...
Mayor Buddy Dyer said the city will extend its contract with Aspire Health Partners by 18 months/
Jeff Bezos’ private space company Blue Origin is investigating an anomaly of its New Shepard rocket after launching Monday from West Texas. There were no people on board.
Florida has surpassed 80,000 deaths from COVID-19. In the U.S. more than one million have died. And around the world, the death toll so far is 6.5 million, according to Johns Hopkins University. The Florida Department of Health reported Friday that at least 80,386 Floridians have died from COVID-19, with nearly 6,000 of those deaths added since early June. Nationwide and in Florida, documented cases, hospitalizations and deaths are far below those of last summer. But in two Central Florida counties — Polk and Marion — the CDC says the COVID-19 Community Level is high. At that level, the CDC recommends wearing a high quality mask indoors in public. The remainder of Central Florida ...
The US organ donation system has successfully completed over 1 million transplants, with tens of thousands of organs donated by Central Floridians.
As the host of several travel shows including her latest on Public TV, “Samantha Brown’s Places to Love”, Samantha Brown has visited more than 60 countries, 250 cities and 40 U.S. states. She explains how much we can learn by traveling and meeting people from all walks of life and offers three tips for people interested in seeing the world at a fraction of the cost.
Singer CeCe Teneal has reached her 20th anniversary as a soul and blues performer – and to celebrate, she’s spotlighting other Orlando residents who support the performing arts.
Rising seas will shift tidal boundaries, leading to the loss of taxable properties, according to a new study. This is expected to impact the tax base of hundreds of U.S. coastal counties, with Florida being the state most affected. A new analysis released Thursday highlights how sea level rise will change private property boundaries along coastal areas. Using the latest climate models and current emissions data, researchers with Climate Central, a nonprofit news organization that analyzes and reports on climate science, have determined that private property owners across the U.S. will lose an area the size of New Jersey by the year 2050. “By mid-century, more than 648,000 individual tax parcels, totaling as many as 4.4 million ...
During a press conference on Thursday, space agency officials said they were eyeing Sept. 23 or Sept. 27 as possible dates for the launch.
In his new book, journalist Max Fisher unpacks how social media companies have engineered our feeds to keep us angry, and keep us online.
British residents of Central Florida are grieving the death of Queen Elizabeth II, a beloved monarch for more than 70 years.
Fans gathered outside of Orlando City Hall on Thursday to celebrate local soccer team Orlando City winning their first ever US Open Cup.
Queen Elizabeth, who reigned for 70 years as Britain's monarch, died Thursday at her castle in the Scottish Highlands with family members by her side — including her son Charles, heir to the throne.
The Queen is under medical supervision at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, and royal family members are reportedly traveling there to be by her bedside.
Orlando City beat Sacramento Republic 3-0 to claim the U.S. Open Cup title Wednesday night at Exploria Stadium. Facundo Torres broke through with a goal in the 75th minute, then converted on a penalty to give the Lions their first-ever trophy. Torres’ penalty kick in the 80th sealed it for the Lions, who had not won a title since joining Major League Soccer in 2015. Orlando native Benji Michel added a stoppage-time goal. Sac Republic plays in the lower-tier USL, was looking to become just the second lower-division club to win the Open Cup championship in a quarter-century.
After establishing a six-month program to save certain commuters about $10 a month on tolls, Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to expand the program next year. As he campaigns for re-election, DeSantis on Wednesday said he will ask the Legislature in 2023 to give frequent SunPass and E-Pass users a 50 percent monthly credit for a full year. “We’re very fortunate that when you lead the nation in tourism, you know those folks pay taxes and that’s part of the reason we can have such a low tax burden statewide and do a lot of this,” DeSantis said while at the Florida Department of Transportation District 6 headquarters in Miami. DeSantis said the proposal could affect about 750,000 Floridians who frequently ...
One plaintiff said the state's Medicaid program pre-approved him in August for a chest surgery scheduled for later this year. Then the state enacted a new rule excluding such treatments from the plan.
The survey shows the paramount importance of economic issues -- including Social Security and Medicare -- for voters 50 and older.
Usually when you hear about living and learning communities, they mention college dorm life. But at Bethune Cookman’s School of Business and Entrepreneurship they’re looking into living and learning communities that engage the entire family, not just the student. WMFE’s Talia Blake talked with Lawrence Drake, interim president and dean of the College of Business and Entrepreneurship at BCU, about what this type of community looks like and how it could impact the economy. University and Community According to Drake, some data suggests that people that live in communities that have a university in the center, particularly predominantly white institutions, earn 8% to 10% more than adjacent communities where the university is not located. “In the African American community, particularly among ...
Some election officials are sending the call out to high school students, veterans and lawyers to help staff the elections. But COVID and the political climate are making it harder to recruit.
Federal prosecutors say Johanna Garcia's company wasn't a funding miracle for small businesses but a lucrative Ponzi scheme whose co-conspirators spent millions of dollars on luxury items.
A new study finds numbers far higher than previously thought. India has the greatest number of kids affected. The U.S. has 250,000 kids in this category but lags behind in aid for bereaved families.
Car dealerships deploy tricks and traps to make as much money as they can from you. Here's what I learned when trying to buy a new car.
A Yale professor of finance read through 50 popular finance books to see how they square with traditional economic theory.
The Israeli army said there was a "high possibility" that a soldier killed Shireen Abu Akleh in May, as it announced the results of its internal investigation. But it said the shooting was accidental.
Brendan Fraser returns to the big screen in The Whale, a new Darren Aronofsky film about a reclusive English teacher as he struggles with his health and tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Truss, who currently serves as foreign minister, will be the U.K.'s new prime minister, after the Conservative Party named her as its next leader on Monday, replacing the outgoing Boris Johnson.
The constitution would have put a focus on social issues and gender parity, enshrine rights for Chile's Indigenous population and put the environment and climate change center stage.
The data — which included individual names and business contact information — was public on the IRS.gov website for about a year until an employee noticed the mistake recently.
Though the CDC said the specific source of the outbreak hasn't been confirmed, many of the people who got sick reported eating sandwiches with romaine lettuce at the fast food chain.
The stabbings took place across 13 locations inthe James Smith Cree Nation and in the village of Weldon in Canada's Saskatchewan province. Police are searching for two suspects.
In early August the White House invited an all-white group of historians to talk about threats to American democracy.
Heat waves, drought, massive storms. The bad news just keeps coming and there's no denying these issues are anxiety-provoking. If you feel that way, you're not alone.
Dr. Frank Lipman is one of the pioneers of integrative medicine and he says there is a whole new set of rules to follow when it comes to healthy aging. He’ll share the changes you should make in your diet that can make a big difference in your health.
A recurring leak of liquid hydrogen fuel forced NASA to postpone the launch for the second time this week.
HUD's Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the Orlando area will increase to $1,616 beginning next month.
Argentina's president says an attempt to kill the vice president fails when a handgun misfires
Unprecedented, deadly floods in Pakistan have submerged an area bigger than Colorado. Morning Edition spoke with the country's climate minister and a civilian volunteer about ongoing relief efforts.
For Spotlight's first episode after going on hiatus, WMFE's Nicole Darden Creston speaks to one of Orlando's most prolific artists, Asaan Brooks aka Swamburger. The City Beautiful is bidding him a fond farewell as he leaves for Seattle after twenty years of creating and mentorship in Central Florida.
Researchers at AdventHealth Central Florida have developed a test that can detect brain-eating amoebas in a patient’s body in about five hours.
The Biden administration is characterizing its new climate package as the largest federal investment ever in fighting climate change.
Peltola narrowly won a special election that was determined by a ranked-choice voting tabulation. She will become the first Alaska Native in Congress.
Michigan's Board of Canvassers rejected an abortion rights initiative on Wednesday after its Republican board members voted against putting the proposed constitutional amendment on November's ballot.
The county health department has doubled vaccination appointments to 200 per day, Monday through Friday.
The trial of Seminole County GOP Chairman Benjamin Paris is underway in Sanford. Paris is facing allegations related to a vote-siphoning scheme in the 2020 selection.
Florida had one of its worst years of the opioid epidemic last year, due to a number of factors including isolation caused by the COVID pandemic.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is seeking public comment on draft revisions to protections for the gopher tortoise.
Zombie ice, or doomed ice that is no longer getting replenished by parent glaciers will raise global sea level by at least 10.6 inches, according to a new study.
John Wall has spent more than a decade in NBA and has been named an All-Star. But he says a series of injuries and personal hardships took a toll on his mental state.
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel tweeted that the vandalism echoes "Biden's 'fascist' slander."
Orange County commissioners have approved a nearly $16 million dollar rental assistance program for local tenants.
NASA is heading back to the moon and some of our youngest listeners have some really important questions about the future of exploration.
A statement that likely everyone can agree with, “having health care insurance is important.” Hearing stories about people taking on serious medical debt due to illness who aren’t able to pay is common across the country and in Central Florida. WMFE’s Talia Blake spoke with Sadaf Knight, CEO of the Florida Policy Institute, about the cost of healthcare in Central Florida. Cost to you and your neighbor The Health Insurance Marketplace is operated by the federal government under the Affordable Care Act and is available to Florida residents through healthcare.gov. Depending on your parameters, Sadaf Knight said it can get expensive. “So just as an example, I put in ‘family of four, two kids under the age of four ...
Emergency Rental Assistance Program 2 -- ERAP2 for short -- is expected to start next month.
Doctors in Florida say patients are already facing significant barriers to healthcare because of a 15-week abortion ban, and they’re worried things will only get worse if a total ban passes in the state.
It’s the final countdown for NASA’s next moon mission Artemis I, launching from the Kennedy Space Center as early as 8:33 a.m. ET. Weather is 80 percent favorable for launch at the start of the two-hour window.
A former substitute teacher is expected to testify in court Monday that she was recruited for a vote-siphoning scheme by the Seminole County GOP Chairman.
The state of Florida forfeited $23.6 billion dollars in tax breaks over the last twelve months, according to a new Florida Policy Institute report released on Monday.
An exhibition of theater lobby cards at New York's Poster House celebrates women's contributions to silent movies both in front and behind the camera.
Here's what we learned from a hectic spate of financial report cards shared by top U.S. retailers.
President Biden's plan will forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt for qualifying borrowers. Here are three things you need to know.
The lawsuit also claims Whole Foods financially exploited its customers by charging significantly more for its meat products compared to competitors, under the guise that their products are healthier.
Astronaut Doug Hurley commanded the first human mission of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule in 2020. Before that, he piloted the final Space Shuttle mission in 2011 among others, clocking more than 92 days in space. Now, he's working at Northrop Grumman, helping give NASA's next spacecraft a big lift off the launch pad.
The Biden administration is facing litigation over a loophole that environmental and advocacy groups say leaves at least a half-billion tons of toxic coal ash unregulated.
Federal prosecutors have charged more than 860 people for the Capitol breach. That includes at least 83 arrested in Florida.
Governor Ron DeSantis has announced a new toll savings program for Floridians who frequently drive back and forth to work.
A new study shows that a previous effort to rescue the Florida panther from extinction had some harmful side effects.
Families of the 21 victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary had been demanding Arredondo be fired since details became clear of the law enforcement failures that day.
Health officials in Osceola County are warning people about an uptick in monkeypox cases. So far, there are three confirmed cases and 14 probable cases of the viral infection.
President Biden announced a sweeping effort to forgive up to $20,000 of federal student loan debt for Pell Grant recipients, and up to $10,000 for other qualifying borrowers.
Aramis Ayala was fired up on election night after winning the Democratic Party’s nomination to run against Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody in November. Ayala, a former prosecutor, defeated lawyers Daniel Uhlfelder and Jim Lewis, with almost 45% of the vote. If elected, Ayala says she plans to do a better job than Moody when it comes to advocating for the people. Specifically, she says she would work to protect Floridians’ rights against laws that a court finds unconstitutional, such as the state’s 15-week abortion ban. “There’s no way that I would appeal a judge’s order that has found the 15-week abortion ban unconstitutional. I would immediately withdraw the appeal, any injunctions and let the people have their voice heard. ...
Charlie Crist has won Florida’s Democratic primary for governor and will challenge GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis in Nov. DeSantis has an edge when it comes to fundraising, incumbency and registered voters. Democrat and longtime politician Charlie Crist has won the primary for governor in Florida and will face Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in November, according to a race call by The Associated Press. Crist served as Florida’s Republican governor more than a decade ago and is now a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives. The primary for governor has highlighted a split within the Democratic Party in the state. Crist’s challenger, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, hammered him over his record as governor and for switching his stance on ...
Democratic Representative Val Demings will challenge Republican Senator Marco Rubio for his seat in Congress come November.
Floridians voted in the state’s primary election Tuesday, including the nomination of Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist. WMFE’s Brendan Byrne spoke with Dick Batchelor, former state lawmaker and Democratic analyst and Chris Carmody, Republican strategist and shareholder at Grey-Robinson about the results and what's ahead for the general election in November.
Florida's Maxwell Frost is the first member of Generation Z to win a primary for the U.S. House. He won the Democratic primary in Florida's 10th District, according to The Associated Press.
Democrats will determine nominees to take on Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and GOP Sen. Marco Rubio. Several congressional seats are also open in Florida.
A historian discusses how NASA's new moon missions differ from the Apollo flights of the 1960s and 70s. Plus, a look at the criticism of the Artemis program and why it's worth the cost.
The word ‘recession’ is being thrown around by many economists as we continue to face high inflation and supply chain issues. WMFE’s Talia Blake spoke with University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Forecasting Director Sean Snaith about the current state of our economy and whether or not we’re already in a recession. Pasta Bowl Recession Pasta bowls and gravy boats are more than just kitchen items, they’re also the shape our economy can take through a recession. Economist Sean Snaith says the Great Recession that ended in 2009 was also called the gravy boat recession due to the shape and path the economy followed through recession and into recovery. He says now we’re either in or on the brink of ...
If you’re headed to the polls to vote today in Orange County you’ll find on your ballot a question about whether or not you’d like to extend a tax referendum for Orange County Schools.
Pfizer has submitted data on its bivalent COVID-19 booster shot that specifically targets the latest omicron subvariants. If authorized, the company says the shots could be ready as soon as September.
A hospital's cost calculator said her procedure would be $1,400 for patients without insurance. Instead, the bill was almost $18,000 and, her part was more than $5,000 — the balance of her deductible.
Mohammed Amer has spoken about his family's experience as Palestinian refugees in standup comedy. He spent nearly a decade turning it into a television series, which is arriving on Netflix this week.
Dr. Anthony Fauci helped guide the U.S. through the COVID crisis, and earlier in his career played a key role in the response to AIDS. He has served under seven presidents.
"I think it's a scary proposition when the governor is arresting people for trying to vote," Sen. Randolph Bracy said during a press conference Monday.
Astrophotographers Andrew McCarthy and Connor Matherne shot over 200,000 photos of the moon over the course of a single evening to create one incredible image.
The Biden administration's climate and health care bill revamps the available tax credits for buyers of electric cars. Here's what to know about how they work.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, school boards across the country and here in Central Florida have become increasingly more political.
"Where is the fairness?" One mother was sent back after a single failed drug test, and her family's life has now been turned upside down for more than a year.
Animal services director Whitney Boylston said it all started a week ago when a family brought the sick kittens in for treatment.
A combination of new election laws and congressional redistricting has made it harder for Black communities in Florida to organize and vote, activists say.
Elderly homeowners in Florida are suing the billion dollar company that owns their mobile home park. Big companies are buying up parks around the country, but critics say residents pay the price.
Timothy Shriver is a philanthropist, disability rights advocate, CEO of UNITE and author of the book, Call to Unite: Voices of Hope and Awakening. He reminds us we all have to find a way to end the divisiveness and come together because we are all part of the same community.
Missteps and delays have hampered the U.S. effort to vaccinate people against monkeypox. Now state health officials and community members are trying to adapt to a controversial "dose sparing" plan.
Quiet quitting is taking over TikTok as a new workplace trend popular with Gen Z. However, it may be a misnomer for setting healthy boundaries in the workplace.
Voters in a key swing county in Florida are grappling with some of the highest inflation rates in the country. But it's not necessarily the deciding factor for some voters.
A new policy banning the use of Medicaid to pay for gender-affirming care in Florida goes into effect Sunday.
"We'll just bleep this interview to death," says Morning Edition host Leila Fadel ahead of her conversation with Demi Lovato about a harder-edged new album, HOLY F***.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says a major project on Lake Okeechobee will go a long way toward addressing widespread toxic algae blooms.
The Justice Department announced the indictments against Fotios "Freddy" Geas, 55; Paul J. DeCologero, 48; and Sean McKinnon, 36, on Thursday.
Another lawsuit filed Thursday addresses how the Stop WOKE Act, which took effect on July 1, restricts what teachers can say about sexism and racism. They cannot, for instance, endorse theories about systemic racism or make students feel guilty about it.
The Florida Association of Realtors and Florida Apartment Association filed suit this week against Orange County in state court.
A new statue of Mary McLeod Bethune was unveiled Thursday in Daytona Beach, just weeks after an identical sculpture was displayed in the U.S. Capitol.
A new NPR/Ipsos poll shows that half of Americans say there's an "invasion" at the southern border. And that false and misleading claims about migrants are taking hold, particularly with Republicans.
Central Florida Democrats held a press conference Wednesday calling on Gov. Ron DeSantis to make his plans for abortion rights in the state of Florida plain.
The Orange County Department of Health is making more monkeypox vaccine appointments available Thursday starting at 8:30 am.
The Biden administration says it expects more than a million Florida households will add rooftop solar panels under a major new climate, tax and healthcare law.
It took nearly 10 hours for the 322-foot rocket to make the four-mile trip from Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39B. The next time it moves, it will be traveling farther -- and faster -- on a test flight to the moon.
The legislation has been a year in the making, with tense negotiations leading to a narrower spending package that focuses on climate investments and health care costs.
The National Basketball Association announced Tuesday that there are no games scheduled for November 8 in an effort to encourage fans to vote in the 2022 midterms.
Florida has reported its first monkeypox case in a child under the age of four, but state department of health officials say they don’t expect the virus to spread in schools this year.
The new record label La Boîte à Pépites is dedicated to raising the profile of female composers whose works have been neglected.
DeSantis Tuesday teased legislation aimed at recruiting to teaching jobs retired law-enforcement officers, emergency-medical technicians, paramedics and firefighters who have bachelor’s degrees. Gov. Ron DeSantis will propose a slate of bills for the 2023 legislative session designed to bolster school districts’ efforts to recruit teachers, after students returned to classes last week amid a scarcity of educators. During a stop at a New Port Richey high school, DeSantis on Tuesday teased legislation aimed at recruiting to teaching jobs retired law-enforcement officers, emergency-medical technicians, paramedics and firefighters who have bachelor’s degrees. The proposal, DeSantis said, would make people who have worked in those professions eligible for $4,000 bonuses and would waive fees for the state teacher-certification exam. “We believe that the ...
Teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center are preparing to roll the SLS rocket to its pad ahead of a planned launch later this month.
Nonprofit RIP Medical Debt buys up unpaid hospital bills plaguing low-income patients and frees them from having to pay.
Orange County Public Schools has put out a call for mental health counselors as schools nationwide struggle with a shortage of mental health professionals.
A major project to shore up the dike around Lake Okeechobee and revamp the rules for managing the state’s largest lake is nearing completion.
Here are some early-voting and vote-by-mail tips with help from Lake County Supervisor of Elections Alan Hays.
Emily Meggett has spent decades caring for her community and family with her delicious, traditional Gullah Geechee food from South Carolina. Now, she's sharing that cuisine with the world.
Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to officially run in the Boston Marathon. In an instant, she was thrust into a social movement in America and beyond. Since then she's founded a global running initiative that has created events for women all over the world. She's a true trailblazer in women's sports history and her story is remarkable, heartfelt, frustrating, and empowering.
The FDA issued revised guidance about how often to test after exposure to someone with COVID or after symptoms occur. It's not exactly the same as what the CDC says. What's the best way to proceed?
Companies are bracing for potential trouble ahead by lowering their advertising budgets, cutting costs and adapting to their customers' changing spending habits.
The highly infectious viral disease can lead to permanent paralysis of the arms and legs and even death in some cases. Health officials are urging people to get vaccinated if they haven't been.
Lake County opened its early voting locations Thursday, and WMFE's Joe Byrnes stopped by The Venetian Center -- the Leesburg location -- to talk with voters about what drove them to the polls ahead of the Aug. 23rd primary.
The state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has surpassed 1 million policies for the first time since 2014. Created as an insurer of last resort, Citizens has been absorbing a flood of policies as private insurers drop customers and push for large rate increases because of financial losses. The Citizens website on Thursday showed it had 1,000,624 policies as of Aug. 5, up from 937,835 policies on July 8. Citizens President and CEO Barry Gilway said the insurer could reach 1.2 million policies by the end of the year as many private companies are not writing coverage. “The market is probably 75 percent shut down,” Gilway told the Citizens Board of Governors on July 13. “(There are) very, very few companies ...
School is back in session but several Central Florida districts are down bus drivers. The staffing issues are leaving remaining drivers with more routes to run.
The Arctic is very sensitive to climate change. In the last 40 years, the region has warmed much more rapidly than the Earth as a whole, a new study finds.
Republican Rep. Randy Fine is calling on the Florida commissioner of education to investigate an alleged student on student sexual assault at a Brevard County middle school. The only problem? The district says the incident never happened.
Mental health advocates celebrated the launch of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, but some people voiced concerns that using the service could lead to police involvement or forced hospitalization.
Healthcare leaders are calling on Congress to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which would, among other things, help lower the cost of healthcare.
TITUSVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A third candidate for public office has come to forward to say a sheriff on Florida’s Space Coast offered help in getting a job in exchange for leaving a race and backing his favored candidate. Kimberly Musselman, a prosecutor in Brevard County, told Florida Today she was asked by Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey to bow out of her race for county judge and endorse a candidate backed by him. She says the sheriff told her he could use his influence to help her become the district’s top prosecutor. A sheriff’s office spokesman declined comment on Wednesday. Two other candidates for public office have made similar allegations.
The agencies serving Florida’s two largest metropolitan areas report that more seniors are seeking housing assistance, citing circumstances like rent increases at an address they’ve lived at for years. Aging Floridians on a fixed income are having a hard time keeping up with cost of living increases. “If you’re on Social Security, honestly, I don’t know how you can afford to live in Florida because the housing costs are high,” said program director Kathleen Sarmiento at the Miami-based Alliance for Aging. It’s one of 11 regional offices designated by the Florida Department of Elder Affairs to provide information and benefits assistance to aging residents and caregivers. Over the past year, Sarmiento said her office received ...
The U.S. and Russia are trying to work out a prisoner exchange that involves basketball star Brittney Griner. While they've done deals for decades, the trading usually involves spies for spies.
The family of a teenage boy on the autism spectrum is suing a local charter school alleging their child was physically abused by a teacher and behavioral therapist.
Falling gasoline prices are expected to put a dent in the July inflation rate due out this morning. But other costs such as housing continue to climb, putting a strain on many family budgets.
Gov. Ron DeSantis says a plate featuring the Revolutionary War-era Gadsden flag sends a "clear message to out-of-state cars." Others say the flag symbolizes a dangerous far-right extremist ideology.
If approved, rent stabilization would start in late November and last for one year. It would apply only to multi-family properties with at least four units. And there are other exemptions, too.
A federal search warrant like the kind carried out at the home of former President Donald Trump would require detailed evidence and sign-off at the highest levels of the DOJ, legal experts said.
Wednesday is the first day of school for most Central Florida students, and AAA is reminding drivers to be on the lookout for kids on bikes, at bus stops and walking to school.
This week we’ve been talking to teachers about their hopes, fears and dreams ahead of the new school year.
Florida has a new plan for moving toward cleaner energy. As we’ve been reporting this week, that’s thanks to some 200 young people who pushed state leaders and especially Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried to take action.
Wednesday, Aug. 10 will mark the maiden voyage of a new large-scale drone that Florida Power & Light plans to use to better assess damage and restore power more quickly after a hurricane. At first glance, the $1.2 million FPLAir One more closely resembles a small airplane than a typical drone. The unmanned fixed-wing aircraft has a wingspan slightly longer than that of a Cessna, can weigh up to 1,800 pounds and can fly 1,000 miles for more than 20 hours in a single deployment – That’s more than flying the entire length of Florida twice. FPL’s Technology and Innovation Manager Eric Schwartz, who leads the company’s drone program, said the FPLAir One will help to more quickly ...
As more countries and companies leave the planet, governing space is getting increasingly more complicated.
Some object to paying for health insurance plans that cover preventive services that they say violate their religious beliefs, which could cause millions to lose access to care if the courts agree.
The NFL begins pre-season games on Thursday. The hope is that Central Floridians will be just as excited about the XFL, a new minor football league, set to begin in February. WMFE’s Talia Blake spoke with Mark Johnston, marketing professor at the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College, about how sports leagues impact the economy and you. Price There are more than 10 professional sports franchises in the state, including the Orlando Magic and Orlando City in Central Florida. According to the Florida Sports Foundation, professional sports has an economic footprint of $5.3 billion and accounts for more than 50,000 jobs in the state. “If you add in the ticket sales, the merchandise sales and all of that,” Johnston said. ...
WMFE’s Danielle Prieur speaks with Volusia County English as a Second Language teacher Irma Lima.
As a new school year gets underway, Orange County Public School officials and local police and sheriff’s departments say they’re keeping kids safe in the wake of Uvalde.
Former President Trump said FBI agents executed an "unannounced raid" at his home in South Florida Monday. His son said it was related to documents taken from the White House when Trump left office.
When the Taliban reclaimed Kabul last August, the U.S.-backed government collapsed and hundreds of thousands of Afghans fled the country. Former president Hamid Karzai was not one of them.
The first day of school for some Central Florida students is Wednesday. This week, we’re preparing by talking to teachers from around the area about how they’re feeling heading into the new school year.
More Florida kids are struggling with their mental health according to a new Annie E. Casey Foundation report released Monday.
In a video message Sunday, Warren said DeSantis is “trying to overthrow democracy in Florida” and added he is “not going down without a fight” following his suspension as Hillsborough state attorney. Andrew Warren says he will pursue legal action after Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended him last week as Hillsborough County State Attorney. In a strongly worded video posted on his Facebook page, Warren said DeSantis is “trying to overthrow democracy” and is “trying to overturn the results of a fair and free election.” Warren also accused DeSantis of “abusing his power to serve his own political ambition.” “I’m not going down without a fight,” Warren says in the video. “I’m a former federal prosecutor, the duly elected State Attorney, ...
MELBOURNE, Fla.—For most of his 15 years, Levi Draheim led a beachy life on a barrier island on Florida’s east coast, swimming, surfing and sailing in the near-shore waves. He dreamed of someday becoming a marine biologist. But Levi’s world is changing.
One of pop music's main advocates of normalizing mental health issues, Lauv released a new album on Friday; it's called All 4 Nothing.
Senate Democrats spent the weekend advancing what they call a historic piece of legislation, but it's still a much smaller version of what they — and President Biden — originally called for.
A trend of GOP candidates ignoring or actively avoiding legacy media — particularly national outlets — is building this year. That can hamper voters' ability to make informed choices.
The average price of gasoline nationwide is expected to drop below $4 a gallon in the coming days as prices continue to fall from the record highs hit in June.
Eugenia Zuckerman was a correspondent on “CBS Sunday Morning” for over 25 years and is a world class Flutist and Author. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, she’s written a courageous and heartfelt book that gives insight as to what it’s like to live with dementia.
Is it a sexually transmitted disease? Can you get it on a crowded bus? Trying on clothes? We talk to specialists about how this virus is transmitted and what kinds of precautions are warranted.
U.S. employers added 528,000 jobs in July, showing the labor market remains strong, despite high inflation and softening economic growth. The unemployment rate fell to 3.5%.
The work of older artists is on display this month in an exhibit at Brick City Center for the Arts in Ocala.
On the day a U.S. drone strike killed the leader of al-Qaida in Afghanistan, NPR sat down for an interview with the man in charge of the country's defense.
Saturday is the last day that Orange County Public School kids will be able to get required immunizations for free at rotating clinics in the district.
Fewer people are booking trips to Orlando in August, but tourism experts say right now, that isn’t cause for concern.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the suspension at the Hillborough County Sheriff’s Office, saying Warren has indicated he would not enforce any current or potential state laws regarding abortion or transgender health care. Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday he is suspending State Attorney Andrew Warren for refusing to enforce Florida laws. DeSantis was surrounded by law enforcement officials during a news conference at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office when he made the announcement. He pointed to Warren’s statement that he would not enforce any current or potential state laws regarding abortion or transgender health care, as one of the reasons for the suspension. Warren, a Democrat, was one of dozens of state attorneys around the country who signed a letter vowing ...
The decision follows overwhelming public opposition to the toll road from environmentalists and from local governments and rural neighborhoods in its path, like the historic African-American community of Royal.
Some 120 environmental and advocacy groups nationwide are calling for more action from the Biden administration on the toxic legacy of coal ash.
With the midterms approaching and lots of chatter about whether Biden will run in 2024, Donald Trump is a useful foil for the president once again.
Appointments to get the monkeypox vaccine at the Orange County Department of Health filled up in a matter of hours earlier this week. But Gov. Ron DeSantis won’t be declaring a state of emergency over the viral infection any time soon.
A duo of rocket missions could could blast off into space Thursday in back-to-back launches from Cape Canaveral.
Climate change means more rain and higher seas, which adds up to more flooded homes. Even a small amount of water indoors can cost a lot.
This year's back-to-school shopping season lands in the middle of the highest inflation in four decades — how will this affect spending?
Feel sick this week from the heat? You’re not alone. Doctors at AdventHealth say they’re treating a record number of patients for heat-related illnesses.
The justice has played a key role on the court, often leading the charge not just on abortion, but for expanded religious rights, against LGBTQ rights, against expanded voting rights, and more
Both the U.S. and China stepped up military activity in the region ahead of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit. Here's what is different now from crises in the Taiwan Strait decades ago.
Ostin signed deals with major pop and rock talent over the decades, including Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac and R.E.M. He said the industry didn't have to prioritize sales over artistic freedom.
Musician Jeremiah Lockwood hopes to introduce the world to a new music scene bubbling in Brooklyn.
State Sen. Randolph Bracy laid out a plan Tuesday aimed at addressing sky-rocketing housing costs in central Florida.
How can the James Webb Space Telescope help us spot other Earth-like worlds? Plus, a conversation with Planetary Radio's Mat Kaplan about his two decades hosting the show.
Florida, like a number of other states, is facing a pretty bad teacher and school staff shortage. According to the Florida Education Association, there are nearly 4,500 teacher vacancies in school districts across the state. Lawrence Drake is interim president and dean of the College of Business and Entrepreneurship at Bethune Cookman University. WMFE’s Talia Blake spoke with Drake about how the current economy is affecting education. Education Degrees Bethune Cookman University’s interim president Lawrence Drake says they’ve seen a steady decline in the number of students pursuing a teaching degree. “We think that there is been a continual flow of people not as interested as before,” he said. “And when I say before, I mean, in the 1980s, 90s, and ...
Theme park workers met in Orange County on Monday to discuss how inflation and an affordable housing crisis are making it harder for them to live and work in Florida.
The safety measures follow a shooting in which seven people were injured early Sunday morning.
The campaign's photos on Twitter show wives, children and parents posing and smiling with inmates in blue prison uniforms.
People in the arts community are still reeling from the FBI investigation into the alleged fake Basquiat exhibition, raid and fallout at the Orlando Museum of Art. Questions over the authenticity of the paintings were brought to OMA’s attention eight months before the museum opened the exhibit. Dr. Ena Heller is Bruce A. Beal Director of the Rollins Museum of Art. She says the public trust of museums has been damaged, and it will take significant effort to repair.
Orange County residents who have been exposed to the monkeypox will be able to make appointments to get the vaccine starting this week at the department of health.
GROWING BOLDER: REV. MARY DOWNEY, HELPING HOMELESS FAMILIES; CLASSIC CARS COLLECTOR SCOTT BRANDT; GET MOVING WITH THE CALENDAR GIRLS Growing Bolder
Jul 18 2021 • 51 mins
Rev. Mary Downey has devoted her adult life to helping homeless families. The lessons she's learned about humanity can benefit us all. She offers her unique insights and inspiration for making a difference in the community around you.
When 14-year-old Hudson Rowan drew his spider-robot-humanoid character for an "I Voted" sticker competition, he didn't realize just how far the illustration would travel.
Robert Hebeler teaches business at Rollins College. He spoke with WMFE about why some businesses take social stances.
A plume of dry Saharan dust has arrived to Florida, and is briefly mitigating rain chances throughout the state.
Orlando International Airport welcomed more international passengers in the first five months of this year than it did in all of 2021. By May of this year, more than 1.9 million international travelers had flown through the Orlando International Airport. That’s more international passengers than in all of 2021 combined with COVID restrictions still in place. May also marked the first time since the pandemic started, that air traffic at MCO surpassed 2019 levels. International travel at the airport is only expected to increase throughout the rest of 2022. Overall, air traffic is up by 17 percent at Florida’s busiest airport.
Democratic leaders are calling on Orange County to use taxes it collects on rental properties to fund more affordable housing units.
From celebrities to regular users, many people are complaining that Instagram doesn't know what users want. Here's what you can do to clean up your feed and get rid of suggested posts.
Central Florida families will have to apply for free and reduced lunch benefits this school year, for the first time since the start of the pandemic. The last two years, meals were free for every child in public schools across the country regardless of household income.
The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it will increase its benchmark interest rate by 0.75%, matching the largest increase in decades.Here's what that means for everyday Americans.
The Biden administration may scrap plans to expand eligibility for second boosters to younger adults. Instead, it's trying to speed up the next generation of boosters targeting the omicron variant.
U.S. Federal Reserve raises rates for fourth time in 2022, this time by another three-quarters of a percentage point to battle inflation. It's at a size and pace we haven't seen since the 1980s.
Residents say the Florida Department of Transportation should widen Interstate 75 instead of creating a new toll road from Wildwood to U.S. 19 with all its impacts on the environment and rural communities.
Facebook is overhauling its flagship app and Instagram to be more like the video platform that's so popular with Gen Z. Some people, like Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, say it's trying too hard.
Landlords will have to give a 60-day written notice ahead of a rent increase of more than 5%, under a new ordinance approved by Orange County commissioners Tuesday evening.
It’s no secret that Central Florida does NOT have a great mass transit system. In November, Orange County residents will vote to raise the sales tax from 6.5% to 7.5%. That penny sales tax initiative is expected to help fix the areas transportation issues. WMFE’s Talia Blake spoke with Orlando Economic Partnership’s CEO Tim Giuliani about the current state of transportation in our area and whether or not a higher sales tax could help drive away our problems. Transportation Funding There is no dedicated source for funding for transit in the Central Florida region, according to Giuliani. He said that makes things complicated real fast. “Because you have federal dollars, state dollars, and local dollars within different municipalities and counties,” said ...
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's space chief says the country will opt out of the International Space Station after 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost.
New, untested abortion bans have made doctors unsure about treating some pregnancy complications. That's led to life-threatening delays, and trapped families in a limbo of grief and helplessness.
AAA reports the average price of gas in Florida dropped 17 cents in a week to $4.08 a gallon as of Monday.
An NPR investigation found stalled confirmatory trials and lax enforcement are plaguing the FDA's accelerated approval of drugs for urgent medical needs.
Cases in the U.S. are 10 times higher than they were a month ago. Researchers advise that the coming days and weeks will be crucial as to whether the outbreak can be contained.
While the James Webb telescope flies through space, it's done more for us here on Earth than show images of distant galaxies. The tech has also helped improve the vision of eye surgery patients.
They are beta-testing the device after witnessing tragedies caused by drownings and near-drownings. The Florida Department of Children and Families says more children under 5 die by drowning in Florida than in any other state. This is something pediatrician Dr. Phillip Matar knows firsthand. Back when he was a medical resident, he was part of a team that worked to revive a little girl who had drowned in the family pool. The girl didn’t survive and when her mom heard she had died, the mother had a seizure and had to be taken away to Bayfront Hospital, across the street. Matar said that incident changed his life. “And I kind of made a promise to myself at that point that ...
Online pricing algorithms can game the system and ultimately end up costing the consumer more. And the impact of these program can go beyond just a few extra dollars at checkout.
The deadline to register a child in time for them to attend the first day of class in Orange County Public Schools is fast approaching.
Health experts in Orange County are urging residents to get vaccinated against hepatitis A, a viral infection that is experiencing a local outbreak.
Two of Jens Lekman's early albums were taken off streaming services due to sample clearance issues. During the pandemic, the singer recrafted and revisited his old work.
Social scientist Arthur Brooks teaches happiness classes at Harvard University. He just completed a seven-year study and discovered one important ingredient that we all need in life to allow us to become happier as we get older.
A very typical summer weekend is expected across the Sunshine State. No tropical systems or other significant weather features will enhance our usual afternoon-evening t-storm activity.
Whether you're looking for exciting dishes to serve at a summer cookout, or something to help you get out of a cooking rut, NPR's Books We Love project has suggestions for you.
An outbreak in Big Olaf ice cream products that has sickened nearly two dozen people in 10 states forced the brand to recall all of its flavors and products, the Food and Drug Administration says.
Tracey Gendron is a nationally recognized gerontologist who believes everything you think you know about aging is wrong! She says the most important indicator as to whether your future will be one of opportunity or one of loss is your attitude. She explains the changes you can make in your outlook on life that will result in your best chance at good health and happiness in the coming years.
The BA.5 strain represented 65% of cases from July 3 to 9, according to data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 4,700 pounds of cargo launched Thursday evening from Kennedy Space Center on a resupply mission to the International Space Station.
Mental health advocates hope the new hotline will make it much easier to get support if you're in crisis or helping someone who is. Here's how it works and what could stand in its way.
A Secret Service spokesman disputes the Department of Homeland Security inspector general's account, saying its request came after a mobile phone migration had started, but no messages were lost.
Her complex legacy after 500 years as a survivor and, to some, a traitor is explored in festivals and a major museum exhibition.
The study probed Floridians about their thoughts on inflation, abortion, gun reform and the midterm elections. University of South Florida and Florida International University researchers released their latest statewide public opinion survey findings this week. The study asked 600 Floridians to share their thoughts on abortion, gun reform and the midterm elections. But while participants were split on a number of these issues, their primary concern remains the economy and inflation. Stephen Kneely, USF professor and survey co-author, said 74% of participants said their vote in November’s midterm elections would be influenced by these “pocketbook issues.” “Everything sort of gets trumped by the economy,” he said. “Inflation is a really driving factor right now. That was identified ...
On Wednesday, the first and only statue of an African American was unveiled in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol.
As the James Webb Space Telescope opens the door to a new era of understanding the cosmos, the world watches in awe as images from this technological marvel begin to reinvigorate the public’s excitement and interest in space. The first images from JWST were released this week offering a look further back into the history of the universe than ever before. Scientists, educators and the public alike are all digesting arguably the biggest space news of this century, which comes as a huge advancement in astronomical research. “This is like unwrapping a new gift with every image, and every image is going to be more amazing than the last,” said Eric Perlman, an observational astrophysicist at the Florida Institute of ...
Local leaders and health advocates are encouraging Orange County residents to get vaccinated against meningitis as the area continues to be the epicenter of the outbreak.
The University of Central Florida is hoping that a new facility at the Lake Nona campus will help solve a statewide nursing shortage.
Orange County commissioners are beginning deliberations Wednesday on a proposed $6 billion budget.
Bethune-Cookman University is celebrating the installation today of a statue of Mary McLeod Bethune at the U.S. Capitol.
Russia had a more powerful army. It didn't think the West would intervene. The invasion was poorly planned. We're not talking about Russia's current war, but about Russia's Crimean War in the 1850s.
Forecasters say inflation likely hit a new, four-decade high last month, fueled in part by record high gasoline prices. Gas prices have since fallen, but overall inflation is still elevated.
They’re here. The first images from the James Webb Space Telescope are out, revealing thousands of ancient galaxies, nebulae, and a close-up look at a planet outside our own solar system.
Tuesday's 1 p.m. ET hearing looks at the role of groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys on the Jan. 6 Capitol attack — and the groups' possible connection to former President Donald Trump.
We’re in the midst of summer, which means people are flocking to Central Florida with family and friends to visit the theme parks and our beaches. Many people are looking to house larger groups or get a more home-like setting, so they turn to websites such as AirBnB rather than hotels. WMFE’s Talia Blake spoke with Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Forecasting at the University of Central Florida, about how short term rentals are impacting our economy and the people living near them. Short Term Rentals and The Affordable Housing Crisis According to AirDNA, which provides data and analytics on the short term rentals across the country, there are more than 9,000 available rental properties in Orlando alone. If those properties were ...
Father Pinder led efforts to end segregation in society and the church, pursue equality and inclusion, and help people on the streets of Orlando.
Orlando is no longer the most dangerous city in the US for pedestrians according to the latest Dangerous by Design report that ranks areas based on walkability.
Doctors say they're seeing a surge in the number of women who want their "tubes tied." But hospital capacity, paperwork, religion and personal opinion are just some of the reasons requests get denied.
When law enforcement requests it, Google usually hands over location and search data collected through its smartphone apps. Will that now be used against people seeking abortions in some states?
A new exhibition at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts offers a rare glimpse into the archives of the late songwriter Lou Reed.
NASA's $10 billion new telescope will show the world something remarkable today: an image of some of the first galaxies to form in the universe.
Two national organizations have gained a reputation for taking the lead on model legislation to restrict and block abortions. Now, states are needing to grapple with the laws they passed.
More Florida schools earned Fs on this year’s state report cards compared with in 2019.
Joe Biden has jettisoned most of his predecessor's foreign policy. But not the Abraham Accords. Those agreements between Israel and its neighbors are in the spotlight as Biden heads to the Mideast.
Governor Ron DeSantis announced a new executive order, July 8, aimed at adding transparency to the role of pharmacy benefit managers in administering prescription drug programs, that he says may be contributing to increasing medication costs. At a press conference in Cape Coral, DeSantis also said the state could wind up in a legal battle with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over the federal government’s delay in approving Florida’s Canadian drug importation program. DeSantis says Executive Order 22-164 will hold pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) more accountable. PBMs act as a third party between insurance companies and beneficiaries to manage prescription drug benefits. The order requires state agencies to review their contracts with PBMs to ensure that their ...
Dr. Daniel Amen is one of the most influential psychiatrists in the country. A respected thought leader on brain health, he talks to Growing Bolder about the near-epidemic levels of depression and anxiety in this country and offers strategies we can all use to deal with these common issues.
The influential prime minister worked to revive the economy with his trademark "Abenomics" and rebuild Japan's role on the global stage. His assassination stunned a nation where gun violence is rare.
Because people with Down syndrome are very likely to develop Alzheimer's, they are ideal candidates for experimental drugs meant to halt the disease.
Attorneys for the family of a 16-year-old Black teen who was attacked while driving through a Sanford neighborhood are calling for harsher charges for the perpetrators. But they wouldn’t say what those charges should be.
Three former Disney employees who were fired over the company’s face mask and COVID vaccine policy are suing the company alleging religious discrimination.
Overwhelming majorities want to see universal background checks, raising the age to buy any kind of gun to 21 and red flag laws. But just a quarter trust the government to look out for them.
In her latest poetry collection Girls That Never Die, Safia Elhillo writes about the shame and violence that often comes with being a woman.
Authorities warn people not to touch the mollusks if one is found. Instead, contact the Florida Department of Agriculture’s Division of Plant Industry Helpline at 1-888-397-1517. Florida is again pitted in a battle with the invasive giant African land snail. The first time was in the late 1960s, where 17,000 of the pests were collected in Miami-Dade County over seven years at a cost of $1 million. Then, the state spent about $23 million, completing a 10-year eradication program for 170,000 giant African land snails, last year in Miami-Dade. But now they’ve turned up about 300 miles to the northwest in Pasco County. Officials with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said Thursday ...
A judge has struck down an Orange County charter amendment overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2020 that was aimed at protecting the rights of nature.
Caan's memorable screen appearances included Brian's Song, The Godfather, Misery and Elf.
Many people traded in slacks for sweatpants during the worst of the pandemic and are now figuring out what to wear back to the office. Here's what that looks like, from Wall Street to Capitol Hill.
Marion County Schools are looking for retirees and other seniors who might want to try their hand at teaching ahead of the next school year.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has chosen a former prosecutor and county elections supervisor to lead a new statewide office created to investigate voter fraud and implement elections security measures. DeSantis announced on Wednesday that he’s appointed Peter Antonacci to lead the state’s new Office of Election Crimes and Security. Antonacci has a decades-long career in public service. He’s served as a statewide prosecutor under both Republican and Democratic administrations. In 2018, Antonacci was appointed by former Gov. Rick Scott to serve as the Broward County Supervisor of Elections after Scott removed the county’s former elections supervisor from office. Reaction from Democrats has been mixed. In a statement, state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who’s also a Democratic gubernatorial primary candidate, described the ...
HUD has charged the owner and manager of a Central Florida RV park with discriminating against a tenant who is transgender.
The next hearing will be July 12 at 10 a.m. ET, according to a notice posted by the committee. It will focus on the rioters and mob who stormed the Capitol.
NASA has re-established communication with a moon-bound spacecraft that launched last week after losing contact with the vehicle.
In a turbulent economy, here's how to weather the inflation storm. Experts offer ways to make better financial decisions as the government struggles to control inflation and head off a recession.
Thursday marks World Asteroid Day, a U.N.-sanctioned campaign to raise awareness of the scientific opportunities, and planetary threats, posed by asteroids. So we’re taking this week’s episode to explore asteroids.
The Orange County School district is recommending its teachers take several precautions before the Parental Rights in Education or so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law takes effect Friday.
Cassidy Hutchinson, the Mark Meadows aide who appeared in videotaped testimony before the Jan. 6 committee last week, is the panel's surprise witness today.
Florida has gained more than 460,000 jobs over the past year, according to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. As we’re more than halfway through 2022, WMFE’s Talia Blake spoke with Tim Giuliani, CEO of the Orlando Economic Partnership, about the state of the job market now in Central Florida and what you can do if you’re looking for a career change. The Central Florida Job Market Across the state, the unemployment rate was 3% in Florida in May 2022. In Central Florida, Giuliani says the rate is just below that at 2.6%. “In reference to where where we were, we were at a workforce around 1.3, almost 1.4 million people,” said Giuliani. “We are just about back to ...
Even with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v Wade on Friday, the country remains divided over whether the right to an abortion should be left to individual states. But the reasons behind the decision to have an abortion are deeply personal and often full of nuance. This week, WMFE is bringing you the stories of two women whose experiences with abortion influenced their lives and perspectives in very different ways. Today, we hear from Stephanie Loraine Pineiro of Florida Access Network.
Hundreds of people took to the streets of downtown Orlando last night to demand Florida enshrine certain reproductive rights.
After a monthslong search, the Orange County School Board will announce later today, the district’s next superintendent.
Colombian army officers kidnapped and executed over 6,400 civilians from 2002 to 2008 and falsely reported them as Marxist guerrillas killed in combat to boost body counts, a special tribunal found.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer tells NPR that abortion-rights supporters are fighting on all fronts to keep a 1931 ban from going back into effect.
A new Florida law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks is set to go into effect at the end of this week unless a judge approves an injunction to temporarily put the law on hold. One of the few exemptions under the new law allows abortions when the life of the pregnant person is in danger, but Doctor Shelly Tien says that could create more risk. She uses the example of bleeding, which can be common and resolve on its own, or can become severe. In that case, Tien says the standard of care is to end the pregnancy. “It is the standard of care to be proactive on acting on bleeding. We know that pathology is a spectrum ...
HB 461 allows 100 hours of paid work experience to replace community service hours required for Bright Futures. Gov. Ron DeSantis paid a visit to the Hillsborough Community College campus in Ybor City on Monday to sign a bill that expands eligibility requirements for the state’s Bright Futures scholarship. The scholarship covers either 100% or 75% of tuition for high-achieving, Florida students. Bright Futures has been awarded to more than 725,000 students since 1997. DeSantis said the state has recently seen a decline in the number of eligible high school seniors. He added that part of the reason is the volunteer hours requirement. “We have students who come from lower income families who need to work to be able to ...
Pro-choice Central Floridians will rally tonight for statewide protections for reproductive rights following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Research is more limited, but shows that men who become parents younger than planned are less likely to go to college and have lower earnings.
Roman Catholic abortion rights opponents say they’ll push now to get a complete ban in Florida. But U.S. polls indicate pro-choice Catholics still outnumber them. Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning the constitutional right to abortion resonated especially strongly among Roman Catholics — but the response to it among Catholics in South Florida is an especially complicated one. The Catholic church opposes abortion under any circumstance. So, many Catholics here are celebrating the Supreme Court decision. But abortion is still legal in Florida; although starting Friday, it’ll be limited to the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. And many Catholics say they’ll work hard now to push state legislators to pass a complete ban. “We’re extremely grateful for this decision, because ...
Even with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v Wade on Friday, the country remains divided over whether the right to an abortion should be left to individual states. But the reasons behind the decision to have an abortion are deeply personal and often full of nuance. This week, WMFE is bringing you the stories of two women whose experiences with abortion influenced their lives and perspectives in very different ways. Today, we hear from Michele Herzog of Pro-Life Action Ministries.
The Everglades are getting record spending from the Biden administration.
That includes a more than $1 billion allocation that the administration characterizes as the single largest investment ever in Everglades restoration.
Maintaining strong friendships is surprisingly important and can have a significant impact on our overall well-being, especially as we age. Journalist and author Lydia Denworth explains why a healthy social life is just as important as our physical and mental health.
After the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, we asked for your questions about the future of abortion care in the U.S. Here's what our health experts said.
Central Florida lawmakers are speaking out after a Supreme Court decision released Friday ends constitutional protections for abortions that had been in place for nearly 50 years.
President Joe Biden noted that this is the first time the court has revoked a constitutional right. Now that Roe has been overturned, "the health and life of women in this nation are now at risk."
The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, reversing Roe v. Wade, the court's five-decade-old decision that guaranteed a woman's right to obtain an abortion.
The contemporary worship music collective performs behind the Tiny Desk, featuring a special appearance by gospel legend Kirk Franklin.
The film on the former Arizona congresswoman and her recovery from the 2011 shooting explains how she navigated gun control campaigns and later a Senate campaign.
After seven gay and bisexual men have died in the state in the past six months. As LGBTQ pride events continue throughout the month, the CDC is urging people to get vaccinated against meningococcal disease. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating what it calls one of the worst outbreaks of meningococcal disease among gay and bisexual men in U.S. history, and urging vaccinations after at least seven people have died in Florida so far this year. Meningococcal disease is caused by bacteria that is spread by sharing saliva, or being in prolonged close contact with someone who is coughing. Symptoms may include headache, fever, vomiting and stiff neck. Speaking on Thursday’s “Here ...
A new report shows that utilities across the Southeast -- including in Florida -- are not on track to meet goals for transitioning to cleaner energy by midcentury.
New research suggests flows of sea water could help rescue the ailing Indian River Lagoon.
Just like in the U.S., airlines and airports that slashed jobs during the depths of the COVID-19 crisis are now struggling to keep up with exploding travel demand.
PFLAG was started almost 50 years ago when gay people and their families were isolated and stigmatized. Now, the organization is finding new families to support and new legal battles to fight.
Lunar research is not only taking one giant leap—but two—as a team sends a spacecraft to a geological mystery and another grows plants in lunar soil brought back to Earth.
Orange County leaders are meeting Thursday morning to discuss housing affordability in the county. The Board of County Commissioners is meeting to discuss possible solutions to the region's growing housing affordability crisis.
Former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum is facing 21 federal charges related to a scheme to seek donations and funnel a portion of them back to him through third parties.
With soaring temperatures comes high heat that could prove a danger to vulnerable people like young children, the elderly and those exposed to the outdoors for long periods of the day.
The FDA has authorized Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for children ages 6 months to 4 years old. The CDC is recommending those vaccines.
The Orange County School Board is interviewing the remaining two candidates for the district’s open superintendent position Tuesday afternoon.
From filling the gap left by a retiring International Space Station to a possible solution to a unique supply chain issue, commercial space leaders weigh in on the future of the industry.
NASA has fueled its huge moon rocket for the first time and completed a countdown test despite a fuel line leak.
Allyson Felix is the most decorated US track and field athlete in history. As she wraps up her last season, she focuses on supporting other athletes moms.
Florida TaxWatch released a report earlier this month looking at the economic and fiscal impacts of education and training beyond high school. Lawrence Drake is interim President and Dean of the College of Business and Entrepreneurship at Bethune Cookman University . WMFE’s Talia Blake spoke with Drake about some of the ways higher education and training benefit the economy and residents in Central Florida. Sail to 60 Initiative In 2019, Florida passed the ‘SAIL to 60’ initiative, with the goal of getting 60% of working-age Floridians to hold a workforce specialization, whether from a certificate, credential, training, or degree. But 3 years later, Florida is about 791,000 people short of that goal. BCU’s Lawrence Drake said we’re falling behind neighboring states, like ...
State Rep. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, said she will file the Tyre Sampson bill requiring regulators to take into account the safety record of companies that want to open new amusement rides.
In an interview with Morning Edition's Leila Fadel, the fast-rising artist talks about a life path as winding and varied as his music.
Purple Alerts are for adults with an intellectual or developmental disability or another kind of disability who police believe are in immediate danger.
Studies show that having a sense of purpose is linked to better health and greater well-being. Richard Leider is one of the leading experts in motivation and a pioneer in the global purpose movement. He talks about how we can unlock our own power of purpose.
Seminole County Schools are raising the price of school breakfasts and lunches for some families next school year.
In honor of Father's Day, WMFE’s Joe Byrnes spoke with two dads, who also happen to be standup comedians in Orlando, A. Ali Flores and Ken Miller.
Disney's Ms. Marvel has upended all the stereotypes about being Muslim or a South Asian.
Vince McMahon's daughter, Stephanie, will lead the wrestling company during the inquiry. McMahon, accused of paying $3 million to cover up an affair, still will control WWE's creative output.
Some scientists estimate that cases of long COVID from omicron will still rise, however, because of high transmissibility and the misconception that people don't have to worry about catching it.
A new initiative in Orlando seeks to overcome long-standing issues and challenges facing Black business owners and non-profits.
The discovery of the ship on an Alabama river bottom has fostered a renewed hope for descendants of the Clotilda's captives, and the community they founded called Africatown.
If DACA is overturned, some 24,000 Dreamers in Florida and more than 600,000 across the country could be deported.
Ryann Stevenson's debut collection Human Resources won the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize. It looks at how technology both connects and separates us.
Nonprofits that work with the Latinx LGBTQ community are getting a one million dollar boost from the Hispanic Federation.
A team of researchers received approval for a $35 million dollar mission to the moon. The group will explore an uncharted portion of the moon, which scientists say was formed by magma below the surface.
It’s been two years since businesses had to shut down because of the pandemic, and that hit many black businesses pretty hard. WMFE’s Talia Blake spoke with Glen Gilzean, the president and CEO of the Central Florida Urban League, about how black businesses are doing now. Black business and the pandemic Black business are still in challenging times, according to Glen Gilzean. “UC Santa Barbara put out a report at the beginning of the pandemic that showed that 40% of African American businesses closed,” said Gilzean. “And when you look at the disparities of the number of African American businesses that received the PPP loans, that number was very small.” Gilzean said not having key relationships also made the pandemic hard ...
A consultant recommends that Seminole County take a "hybrid" approach, retaining some of the buildings and building a new community center at the vacant Rosenwald School property east of Altamonte Springs.
One expert expects the state to hit a peak, and then start to see lower hospitalizations and cases. While many Floridians are living their lives without COVID-19 precautions, the number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in the state is on the rise. More Florida residents are now living in what are called “high-risk counties” than anywhere else in the country. The state has 86 percent of people living in high-risk counties, compared to the national average of 22 percent. High-risk level counties are largely determined by the number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations. Jason Salemi is an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida. He said this news is not shocking. 1. Well, the new @CDCgov levels have ...
Cord Byrd, who was tapped by Gov. Ron DeSantis, has refused to say Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election and will be in charge of Florida's new election crimes unit.
Greg Higgerson of Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida says searches on its website from people looking for food have doubled in the past six weeks or so.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr said Donald Trump had no interest in what the facts were after the election, and debunked claims Dominion Voting Systems machines had been tampered with.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection is holding seven public hearings this month on what it has learned so far. The next one is Monday at 10:30 a.m. ET.
Five witnesses will testify Monday, including Bill Stepien, former President Donald Trump's campaign manager, and Ben Ginsberg, a GOP election lawyer and outspoken critic of Trump's election lies.
The first storm of the 2022 Hurricane Season came with a name the public may not easily recognize. While “Alex” was the first name on this year’s list, the storm didn’t earn its name until after passed over the state of Florida and entered the Atlantic Ocean. Instead, Florida residents were warned of Potential Tropical Cyclone (PTC) One.
UF's School of Architecture has agreed to guide the restoration work and construction of the new center over the next two years.
Federal health officials could authorize COVID-19 vaccines for children younger than five later this week. If they do, health experts say families should act quickly. Doctors and public health experts suggest families with young children should make plans to get them vaccinated against the coronavirus. A committee of independent experts with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to decide whether to recommend authorizing vaccines for kids six months to five years-old. Infants and toddlers could potentially receive three low doses from Pfizer or two from Moderna. The latest data from Pfizer shows its three dose regimen is 80% effective at preventing illness from omicron, higher than Moderna. But both are safe and good at ...
Republican voters — even those who maintain Donald Trump was a great president — are not marching in lockstep with him. Many are instead bucking his preferred GOP candidates.
Orange County Animal Services is full again as more residents give up their pets amidst an affordable housing crisis.
Todd Kashdan is a psychology professor at George Mason University who believes sometimes it’s good to be bad. His book, The Art of Insubordination, reveals how changing your perspective and asking questions can lead to greater understanding and creativity.
Gasoline has become more expensive given that oil prices have surged as the world recovers from the pandemic. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has also made things worse. Here are four things to know.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings is celebrating the end of a COVID-19 test requirement for people flying into the United States.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is lifting its COVID-19 testing requirement for airline travelers coming into the country. It's a major change for the travel industry.
The committee transported the audience back to Jan. 6 with video of what happened that day. It also made a strong case that former President Trump was responsible for what happened.
A pair of milk-jug sized satellites are set to launch into space this weekend on a mission to observe tropical storms from above. The two satellites will make up a larger constellation of half a dozen spacecraft called TROPICS which will peer down on the Earth and observe the development and behavior of tropical cyclones like hurricanes.
Fifty-seven-year-old Maryann Gonzalez has been a competitor over many years in several events. She’s working as a bocce official at these games.
Sunday marks six years since 49 people were killed and dozens more injured at the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.
Consumers are watching their pennies at the gas station and grocery store as prices soar, but they continue to spend freely in other areas, even if they have to tap savings or credit cards.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection is holding about a half a dozen public hearings this month on what it has learned so far.
March for Our Lives protests are planned for Orlando and other big cities throughout the country this weekend after a string of mass shootings.
Florida Supreme Court justices expressed skepticism Thursday about a challenge by cities and counties to a 2011 state law that threatens stiff penalties if local officials pass gun-related regulations. During arguments in the closely watched case, justices asked questions and made comments that indicated they did not agree with city and county contentions that the law is unconstitutional. “You make a very plausible kind of policy argument,” Justice Carlos Muniz said at one point to Edward Guedes, an attorney for the local governments. “But it just doesn’t seem like there’s any sort of constitutional foundation for what you’re talking about.” At another point, Chief Justice Charles Canady pointed to part of the state Constitution that involves the relationship between the ...
Cheney, vice chair of the House select committee, will make a statement at Thursday's primetime hearing and lead the questioning of witnesses. Breaking with her party may cost Cheney her House seat.
A group of activists who have taken on some of the biggest right-wing personalities online have now launched a campaign to try to defund Fox News' online operation.
A two-year-old boy fatally shot his father. A 10-year-old girl fatally shot a woman involved in a physical altercation with her mother. These are local headlines from the last week in Orlando.
Orange County Sheriff John Mina is joining a Department of Justice task force, investigating the police response to the Uvalde school shooting.
NPR announced today that Juana Summers has been selected as the host of All Things Considered, NPR's flagship evening news magazine and the daily news podcast Consider This.
Numerous representatives of the rental housing industry along with people struggling with skyrocketing rents spoke during public comments.
The "bivalent" vaccine — meaning it targets two different antigens — is Moderna's leading candidate to have an effective booster ready for fall of 2022, the company said.
While chicken prices nationwide have increased, retailers such as Costco and BJ's are still selling rotisserie chickens for under $5. That's part of a broader strategy.
Some 5,500 athletes are competing in the Special Olympics in Orlando this week. Among them, a soccer team made up of Special Olympians and UCF athletes.
The measure that opponents dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law goes into effect July 1. But one of the most controversial parts of the Parental Rights in Education law won’t go into effect right away, according to a state memo shared with WLRN. House Bill 1557 bans classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through 3rd grade or if it’s not deemed age or developmentally appropriate. Guidance issued this week by the Florida Department of Education says the classroom instruction clause won’t go into effect in higher grades until the department defines what’s appropriate. “This provision [on classroom instruction] takes effect on July 1, 2022, only for kindergarten through grade three. For other grades, ...
Two weeks after a deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, reignited debates about gun violence and securing schools, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Tuesday that will require mental-health “crisis intervention” training for on-campus officers. The measure also will make other school-safety changes, including giving the State Board of Education rulemaking authority over emergency drills. The Legislature formally sent the bill (HB 1421) to DeSantis a day after the May 24 shooting in Uvalde that left 19 children and two adults dead. DeSantis’ office announced the signing Tuesday in a news release without a public appearance. He also signed four other bills from the 2022 legislative session. Among other things, the school-safety measure will require that law-enforcement officers stationed at ...
Florida Democrats are continuing a push for a special session on gun reform measures. Lawmakers have until 3:00 p.m. Friday to respond to a poll from the Florida Department of State. 60 percent of lawmakers in each chamber would need to support the idea for a special session to move forward. During a press call Tuesday, House Democratic Leader Evan Jenne called the move a “hail marry.” “Even in the face of insurmountable numbers, we still have to try. I’m less concerned with 42 House Dems and 16 Senate Dems. I’m more concerned with 49 dead folks at Pulse. I’m more concerned with dead children at Stoneman and Uvalde,” Jenne said. As of Tuesday afternoon, no Republicans had yet signed ...
Orange County families can get kindergartners and 7th graders their required immunizations at nine county-wide vaccine clinics starting Monday.
The Orange County School Board has chosen two finalists in its search for outgoing Superintendent Barbara Jenkins’ replacement.
Kate Bush's song Running Up That Hill peaked at No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 four decades ago. This week it became her first-ever U.S. Top 10 hit.
The 29-year-old announced joining the Carolina Panthers TopCats earlier this year. Lindsay says she will continue to "inspire and help my African American beautiful trans sisters."
NASA needs new space suits. The agency wants to put people back on the moon in the 2020s, and to do it safely, it needs brand new space suits for use on the lunar surface. NASA is working with two private companies to design, develop and build the new suits -- at a price of up to $3.5 billion.
Residents are urged to wear a mask indoors in public, stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, and get tested if they have symptoms.
Central Florida kids are officially on summer vacation, which leaves lots of parents looking for affordable childcare. Inflation has made everyday living even more expensive. According to the Florida Office of Early Learning, parents are paying an average of $160 to $230 per week for childcare. WMFE’s Talia Blake spoke with Sadaf Knight, CEO of the Florida Policy Institute, about the state of affordable childcare and what help is available, if any. The Cost Of Childcare According to the United Way ALICE report, the cost of average childcare for infants and toddlers was more than average rent in every single county in Florida, even before the pandemic. Sadaf Knight said that child care in the state is even more expensive than tuition and ...
Hospitals are running out of medicines. Staff members are leaving. And some parents will even leave a newborn stranded in the intensive care unit if they can't afford the fees for additional care.
Student absences were up throughout Central Florida last school year, and experts say it’s not just COVID that’s to blame.
Composers Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels have brought a true story to the opera stage: the life of Omar Ibn Said, a Senegalese Muslim scholar who was enslaved and brought to the Carolinas.
Best-selling author and journalist Craig Pittman is a highly respected environmental reporter, but recently, he’s gained a following for highlighting the unusual, fascinating and bizarre events that make Florida, well, Florida. He explains what motivated him to write his hilarious book, “Oh, Florida! How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country.” He also chats with Growing Bolder about his latest book, “Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther.”
Advocacy groups are calling on Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to support new steps by the Biden administration to address the toxic legacy of coal ash.
Today, we bring you this audio postcard from Edith Gendron with the Alzheimer's & Dementia Resource Center.
ORLANDO, Fla.—The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must update and improve habitat protections for the state’s ailing manatees over the next two years, under a legal agreement announced this week.
The agreement comes as the gentle sea cows face extraordinary habitat challenges in Florida, most notably widespread water quality problems and seagrass losses in the 156-mile Indian River Lagoon, crucial manatee habitat on the east coast.
There are 19 areas of competition, ranging from cheerleading to triathlon, at several locations across the city. Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex is the main site.
Jack Bishop of the PBS television show, America's Test Kitchen, explains to NPR's A Martínez how to cook a plant-based burger.
The federal government plans to build several hydrogen hubs around the country. The goal is to find a cleaner replacement for fossil fuels. But there are challenges in how hydrogen is produced.
The Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services rolled out a new initiative today aimed at helping farmworkers connect with mental health resources.
The address follows recent mass shootings in New York, Texas, and Oklahoma. He's expected to call on Congress to pass "commonsense laws to combat the epidemic of gun violence."
Gender-affirming care including gender-affirming surgery, hormones and puberty blockers will no longer be covered by Medicaid plans in Florida.
NASA plans to buy more rides to the International Space Station for its astronauts from SpaceX, part of NASA long-term goal of staffing the station until 2030.
India's all-female task force of community health-care workers won the World Health Organization's Global Health Leaders Awards. But instead of recognition, some want a better salary and benefits.
A project that will expand Brightline between Tampa and Orlando has been awarded a several million dollar grant from the federal government.
At the beginning of lockdown, the legendary funk bassist began posting uplifting messages to Instagram, where they found a receptive audience in drummer Adam Deitch of the band Lettuce.
Three restaurants are already on board: this one, Patio Grill in Sanford, and The Meatball Stoppe in Orlando.
Conservation groups announced Wednesday they have reached an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in a lawsuit over Florida’s ailing manatees.
This year's Tiny Desk Contest winner performed the first Tiny Desk concert with an audience in over 800 days. It was a joyful, moving set from a captivating artist.
Judith Viorst's best-selling kids' book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day was published 50 years ago. At 91, Viorst reflects on the book's legacy with the real Alexander.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the Orlando Police Department completed training yesterday on how to interact with members of the LGBTQ community.
In and around Panama City, Florida, Judy Dickey is the “weather lady,” a credential she earned working for three decades as a meteorologist at local television stations.
So when Dickey decided to ride out what was at the time a Category 3 Hurricane named Michael in October 2018, she said her adult son and a group of friends who had come together figured all would be well. As they went to bed that night, Michael churned northward over the Gulf of Mexico.
Hurricane season officially starts June 1st and with inflation hitting the pockets of many residents, it can be difficult to think of preparing for the storm. WMFE’s Talia Blake spoke with Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Forecasting at the University of Central Florida, about how hurricane season can bring a storm to your finances. The Price of Prep Preparing for a disaster can be pricey, but Snaith said it can be worse the closer you get to a storm. “If you’re like me, and you wait till five hours before the hurricane is about to hit, and you have to pick over what’s left on the shelves, ‘ Snaith said. “And so I can remember, I think it was Irma, I ...
As part of teacher appreciation month, Morning Edition asked NPR's audience to write a poem about teachers who have had an impact on their lives.
Orange County Schools will offer free breakfasts and lunches for students throughout the summer.
As parents scramble to find scarce baby formula and the government races to boost production and imports, some advocates say the U.S. should do more to encourage breastfeeding.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Republican Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee is resigning her post as the state’s top election official. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office made the announcement Thursday. In a resignation letter, Lee said she would step down Monday and thanked the governor, who appointed her in 2019. Her letter did not specify a reason for leaving but news outlets have reported that she’s considering a run for Congress. DeSantis’ office said it would soon have an announcement on Lee’s replacement. Prior to becoming secretary of state, Lee was a judge in Hillsborough County, a former federal prosecutor and federal public defender.
Central Floridians are in for a celestial show this weekend with a lunar eclipse happening Sunday night. The Earth will slip between the sun and the moon, casting a shadow on the lunar surface.
CFX board member and Seminole County Commissioner Lee Constantine presented the resolution, which passed without opposition.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis has announced 5 legislative proposals to combat insurance fraud ahead of the upcoming special session on property insurance. We are under attack by fraudsters who are gaming the system, increasing insurance rates. To win, we need the troops, the weapons, and a full commitment to the mission. This special session, I’ll put forward initiatives to crack down on fraud. READ HERE: https://t.co/VMX7m2BWJy — Jimmy Patronis (@JimmyPatronis) May 12, 2022 CFO Patronis is looking to crack down on insurance fraud by creating three additional Anti-fraud Homeowner Squads to work and prosecute cases, create a $3 million anti-fraud and public education campaign, and make changes to the Assignment of Benefits law. Additionally, Patronis wants ...
Some people have had trouble getting Paxlovid pills quickly, despite the administration's effort to ease access after a COVID test confirms infection.
"We finally have the first look at our Milky Way black hole, Sagittarius A*," an international team of astrophysicists and researchers from the Event Horizon Telescope team said.
The state Department of Children and Families announced Tuesday it is poised to stop taking applications for a federally funded rental- and utility-assistance program for low-income and unemployed residents. The department launched the OUR Florida program, or Opportunities for Utilities and Rental Assistance, last year to help people who were behind on rent or utility payments. Applications will be accepted through Thursday. “As we prepare to close the OUR Florida portal, I encourage families who may be interested in receiving relief or who have a need to submit their application prior to May 12. There’s still time to get the relief you need,” Department of Children and Families Secretary Shevaun Harris said in a statement. Money for the program came ...
During the past two years, home prices nationally have soared more than 30%. Rising mortgage rates make affording a home even harder. That has many people wondering if we're in another housing bubble.
A state judge has sided with civil rights groups seeking a redrawing of North Florida’s congressional districts ahead of the midterm elections. Judge Layne Smith of the state’s 2nd Judicial Circuit in Leon County ruled after a nearly four-hour hearing on Wednesday that the map is unconstitutional because it eliminates a district where African American voters can elect their candidate of choice. The map carved Democratic Rep. Al Lawson’s district into four separate districts with white majorities that wouldn’t typically elect Black voters’ preferred candidate. Smith agreed with plaintiffs that the new map violated the Fair Districts Amendment, which prohibits the diminishment of racial and language minority groups’ ability to elect a candidate of their choice. The Florida Supreme Court ...
Gov. Ron DeSantis has vetoed legislation that opponents said was poised to wield a major blow to Florida’s rooftop solar industry.
The legislation involved net metering, a billing arrangement aimed at compensating rooftop solar customers for excess energy they send back to the grid.
DeSantis says he vetoed the measure because of the potential cost for energy consumers, who already are experiencing inflation and increased prices for gas and groceries.
Utilities had backed the legislation, arguing net metering means that non-solar customers pay more for electricity.
The measure would have phased in new net metering rates beginning in 2024.
Clean energy advocates say the measure would have reduced financial incentives for rooftop solar, discouraging new customers and decimating the industry in the Sunshine State.
Disney says the Reedy Creek Improvement District can’t be disbanded by the Florida legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis until all the district’s debt is paid off. A local lawyer says Disney’s right and that the move is illegal.
Here’s my brief write-up on why the Florida legislature can’t dissolve Reedy Creek due to basic protections for sovereign debts.
The day I wrote this I asked some municipal finance people a hypothetical based on Reedy Creek and they thought the issue would never happen. https://t.co/q1uULD6doD
— Jacob Schumer (@JacobJSchumer) April 26, 2022
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the legislation disbanding the Reedy Creek Improvement District late Friday.
But in a statement, Disney says unless the district’s debts are paid off, the dissolution can’t move forward. The district carries about $1 billion dollars in debt.
Jacob Schumer, an attorney at Shepard, Smith, Kohlmyer & Hand, in Maitland says the company is right.
“Under the constitution, a state can’t basically promise to bond holders that they’re going to respect the debt. And then eliminate the district that took out that debt.”
Schumer says he doesn’t think the state’s case would hold up in the event of a lawsuit.
“Disney I believe is correct that they can’t do that without having all the bonds be paid in full. There are many ways options that Florida has to kind of address this and maybe make the case not so clear cut. But as the law stands, I can’t see any way it holds up against a challenge. Though somebody will have to challenge it.”
Right now, the district is scheduled to be dissolved by June 2023. Disney says it will continue to operate as normal.
Four astronauts are making their way to the International Space Station after launching from Kennedy Space Center early Wednesday morning, launching on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
Three astronauts from NASA and one from the European space agency are making the 16-hour trip to the station in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. The crew will dock to the station at 8:15 p.m. EDT.
This mission flew a new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that the crew named ‘Freedom’ to honor the ‘human spirit of exploration’ and also the first U.S. human spaceflight in 1961 when Alan Shepard flew a Mercury capsule called Freedom 7. This is the fourth and likely last reusable capsule SpaceX plans to produce.
Once they arrive at the station, they’ll spend close to half a year aboard the station, conducting science experiments and performing maintenance on the orbiting lab.
For one of the astronauts, Jessica Watkins, it’s a history-making mission, becoming the first Black female astronaut assigned to a long-duration mission on the station.
There are currently seven astronauts on the I.S.S. now – including four from NASA’s last mission. They are due to return to Earth next week.
This is SpaceX’s fifth astronaut mission for NASA and comes just days after the company returned a crew of all private passengers who spent about two weeks on the I.S.S.
NPR’s Russell Lewis contributed to this report.
The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted 4 to 3 to put a 20-year, one-cent sales tax for transportation on the November ballot.
The vote came after more than 30 members of the public — from business and nonprofit leaders to union representatives and cyclists — spoke in support of the transportation tax.
Gaby Ortigoni, president and CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Orlando, was one of many speakers to focus on mass transit needs.
“[O]ne of the most important needs that employers need in order for their employees to have access to work, to be able to be reliable and effective at what they do, which is to have reliable transportation, easy transportation, convenient and safe transportation — they don’t have it,” she said.
Mayor Jerry Demings has been working on the initiative since before the pandemic. The tax would raise an estimated $600 million a year to address traffic congestion, pedestrian and bike safety, and major improvements to mass transit.
Demings argued for his plan Tuesday evening.
“People want transit to be easily accessible, convenient, flexible, modern and readily connected to other mobility options,” he said, citing an expert. “We heard that today. Our plan does that.”
Concerned about transparency and the public’s trust, Commissioner Mayra Uribe got the commission to revise an 11-member oversight board.
It would meet at least twice a year to review spending and advise the commission. A technical committee would work to promote collaboration among the agencies and local governments.
Ten percent of the funds raised would go to municipal needs. The rest would be split between the county and mass transit, including LYNX and SunRail.
It would increase the minimum county sales tax to 7.5 percent.
Commissioners Nicole Wilson and Emily Bonilla raised concerns about the plan. Both sought to put more focus on mass transit and away from new roads.
The Fierro family of Yuma, Ariz., had a string of bad medical luck that started in December 2020.
That’s when Jesús Fierro Sr. was admitted to the hospital with a serious case of COVID-19. He spent 18 days at Yuma Regional Medical Center, where he lost 60 pounds. He came home weak and dependent on an oxygen tank.
Then, in June 2021, his wife, Claudia Fierro, fainted while waiting for a table at the local Olive Garden restaurant. She felt dizzy one minute and was in an ambulance on her way to the same medical center the next. She was told her magnesium levels were low and was sent home within 24 hours.
The family has health insurance through Jesús Sr.’s job, but it didn’t protect the Fierros from owing thousands of dollars. So when their son Jesús Fierro Jr. dislocated his shoulder, the Fierros — who hadn’t yet paid the bills for their own care — opted out of U.S. health care and headed south to the U.S.-Mexico border.
And no other bills came for at least one member of the family.
The patients: Jesús Fierro Sr., 48; Claudia Fierro, 51; and Jesús Fierro Jr., 17. The family has Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas health insurance through Jesús Sr.’s employment with NOV, formerly National Oilwell Varco, an American multinational oil company based in Houston.
Medical services: For Jesús Sr., 18 days of inpatient care for a severe case of COVID-19. For Claudia, fewer than 24 hours of emergency care after fainting. For Jesús Jr., a walk-in appointment for a dislocated shoulder.
Total bills: Jesús Sr. was charged $3,894.86. The total bill was $107,905.80 for COVID-19 treatment. Claudia was charged $3,252.74, including $202.36 for treatment from an out-of-network physician. The total bill was $13,429.50 for less than one day of treatment. Jesús Jr. was charged $5 (70 pesos) for an outpatient visit that the family paid in cash.
Service providers: Yuma Regional Medical Center, a 406-bed nonprofit hospital in Yuma, Ariz. It’s in the Fierros’ insurance network. And a private doctor’s office in Mexicali, Mexico, which is not.
What gives: The Fierros were trapped in a situation in which more and more Americans find themselves. They are what some experts term “functionally uninsured.” They have insurance — in this case, through Jesús Sr.’s job, which pays $72,000 a year. But their health plan is expensive, and they don’t have the liquid savings to pay their share of the bill. The Fierros’ plan says their out-of-pocket maximum is $8,500 a year for the family. And in a country where even a short stay in an emergency room is billed at a staggering sum, that means minor encounters with the medical system can take virtually all the family’s disposable savings, year after year. And that’s why the Fierros opted out of U.S. health care for their son.
According to the terms of the insurance plan, which has a $2,000 family deductible and 20% coinsurance, Jesús Sr. owed $3,894.86 out of a total bill of nearly $110,000 for his COVID-19 care in late 2020.
The Fierros are paying off that bill — $140 a month — and still owe more than $2,500. In 2020, most insurers agreed to waive cost-sharing payments for COVID-19 treatment after the passage of federal coronavirus relief packages that provided emergency funding to hospitals. But waiving treatment costs was optional under the law. And although Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas has a posted policy saying it would waive cost-sharing through the end of 2020, the insurer didn’t do that for Jesús Sr.’s bill. Carrie Kraft, a spokesperson for the insurer, wouldn’t discuss why his bill was not waived.
(More than two years into the coronavirus pandemic and with vaccines now widely available to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death, most insurers again charge patients their cost-sharing portion.)
On Jan. 1, 2021, the Fierros’ deductible and out-of-pocket maximum reset. So when Claudia fainted — a fairly common occurrence and rarely indicative of a serious problem — she was sent by ambulance to the emergency room, leaving the Fierros with another bill of more than $3,000. That kind of bill is a huge stress on many American families; fewer than half of U.S. adults have enough savings to cover a surprise $1,000 expense. In recent polling by the Kaiser Family Foundation, “unexpected medical bills” ranked second among family budget worries, behind gas prices and other transportation costs.
The new bill for the fainting spell destabilized the Fierros’ household budget. “We thought about taking a second loan on our house,” said Jesús Sr., a Los Angeles native. When he called the hospital to ask for financial assistance, he said, people he spoke with strongly discouraged him from applying. “They told me that I could apply but that it would only lower Claudia’s bill by $100,” he said.
So when Jesús Jr. dislocated his shoulder when boxing with his brother, the family headed south.
Jesús Sr. asked his son, “Can you bear the pain for an hour?” The teen replied, “Yes.”
Father and son took the hourlong trip to Mexicali, Mexico, to Dr. Alfredo Acosta’s office.
The Fierros don’t consider themselves “health tourists.” Jesús Sr. crosses the border into Mexicali every day for his work, and Mexicali is Claudia’s hometown. They’ve been traveling to the neighborhood known as La Chinesca (Chinatown) for years to see Acosta, a general practitioner, who treats the asthma of their youngest son, Fernando, 15. Treatment for Jesús Jr.’s dislocated shoulder was the first time they had sought emergency care from the physician. The price was right, and the treatment effective.
A visit to a U.S. emergency room likely would have involved a facility fee, expensive X-rays and perhaps a specialist’s evaluation — which would have generated thousands of dollars in bills. Acosta adjusted Jesús Jr.’s shoulder so that the bones aligned in the socket and prescribed him ibuprofen for soreness. The family paid cash on the spot.
Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’t endorse traveling to another country for medical care, the Fierros are among millions of Americans each year who do. Many of them are fleeing expensive care in the U.S., even with health insurance.
Acosta, who is from the Mexican state of Sinaloa and is a graduate of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, moved to Mexicali 20 years ago. He witnessed firsthand the growth of the medical tourism industry.
He sees about 14 patients a day (no appointment necessary), and 30% to 40% of them are from the United States. He charges $8 for typical visits.
In Mexicali, a mile from La Chinesca, where the family doctors have their modest offices, there are medical facilities that rival those in the United States. The facilities have international certification and are considered expensive, but they are still cheaper than hospitals in the United States.
Resolution: Both Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas and Yuma Regional Medical Center declined to discuss the Fierros’ bills with KHN, even though Jesús Sr. and Claudia gave written permission for them to do so.
In a statement, Yuma Regional Medical Center spokesperson Machele Headington said, “Applying for financial support starts with an application — a service we extended, and still extend, to these patients.”
In an email, Kraft, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas spokesperson, said: “We understand the frustration our members experience when they receive a bill containing COVID-19 charges that they do not understand, or feel may be inappropriate.”
The Fierros are planning to apply to the hospital for financial support for their outstanding debts. But Claudia said never again: “I told Jesús, ‘If I faint again, please drive me home,’ ” rather than call an ambulance.
“We pay $1,000 premium monthly for our employment-based insurance,” added Jesús. “We should not have to live with this stress.”
The takeaway: Be aware that your deductible “meter” starts over every year and that virtually any emergency care can generate a bill in the thousands of dollars and may leave you owing your deductible and most of your out-of-pocket maximum.
Also be aware that even if you seem not to qualify for financial assistance based on a hospital’s policy, you can apply and explain your circumstances. Because of the high cost of care in the U.S., even many middle-income people qualify. And many hospitals give their finance departments leeway to adjust bills. Some patients discover that if they offer to pay cash on the spot, the bill can be reduced dramatically.
All nonprofit hospitals have a legal obligation to help patients: They pay no tax in exchange for providing “community benefit.” Make a case for yourself, and ask for a supervisor if you get an initial no.
For elective procedures, patients can follow the Fierros’ example, becoming savvy health care shoppers. Recently, Claudia needed an endoscopy to evaluate an ulcer. The family called different facilities and discovered a $500 difference in the cost of an endoscopy. They will soon drive to a medical center in Central Valley, California, two hours from home, for the procedure.
The Fierros didn’t even consider going back to their local hospital. “I don’t want to say, ‘Hello’ and receive a $3,000 bill,” joked Jesús Sr.
Stephanie O’Neill contributed the audio portrait with this story.
Bill of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by KHN and NPR that dissects and explains medical bills. Do you have an interesting medical bill you want to share with us? Tell us about it!
Copyright 2022 Kaiser Health News. To see more, visit Kaiser Health News.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has officially called for state lawmakers to return to Tallahassee next month to address the rising cost of homeowners’ insurance.
Lawmakers failed to pass measures to reduce property insurance costs during this year’s regular 60-day legislative session. They also didn’t address the issue last week when they met to pass the governor’s congressional map.
This year’s second special lawmaking session is scheduled to begin on May 23 and could last through May 27. That’s days before the Atlantic hurricane season begins on June 1.
In a proclamation DeSantis issued on Tuesday, he attributed the rising cost of property insurance to “thousands of frivolous lawsuits” filed against insurance companies.
He also wrote that lawmakers would consider changes to the state’s building codes to reduce insurance costs.
As Florida continues to grapple with deadly opioids such as fentanyl, Attorney General Ashley Moody on Tuesday issued an emergency rule to outlaw eight synthetic drugs. The order targeted drugs known as nitazenes, which Moody’s office said have been linked to at least 15 deaths in Florida since 2020.
The order makes it a felony to possess, sell, manufacture or deliver the drugs, which do not have a medical use and can be 10 times more potent than fentanyl. Moody said she also will work with lawmakers during next year’s legislative session to permanently outlaw the drugs.
“These synthetic opioids are evolving, becoming more deadly, and they are often being laced in with traditional drugs,” Moody told The News Service of Florida.
Moody said nitazenes were first found in Florida in 2020, with 13 reported cases. That increased to 171 cases last year and 84 so far this year. Moody said the prevalence is likely higher than what is being reported.
“As more and more synthetic opioids are making their way into the United States, folks need to be cautious and understand that more people are dropping dead from overdose than we have ever seen before,” she said.
The emergency rule said nitazenes are commonly available online, along with through illicit drug markets. It said they are often found in combination with drugs such as cocaine and fentanyl.
The emergency rule said nitazenes are believed to be primarily produced in China and shipped to the United States. The rule added the eight drugs to a list of what are known as Schedule I controlled substances.
A 28-year-old playwright is making her debut on Broadway tonight with a play set in the White House. Called POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, the farce is complete with slamming doors, profanity and a cast of seven comic actresses, including Vanessa Williams and Rachel Dratch.
“The thing I love about farce is that it is tragedy that you laugh at,” said playwright Selina Fillinger. “And there is so much tragedy around. And yet we still need to laugh in order to keep moving through it.”
Here’s the set-up: The President of the United States is a man who the audience never meets. And he’s said a word, a slur against women, in front of a Chinese diplomatic delegation and the press corps, causing a variety of crises which spiral out of control. Seven women, from his chief of staff to his press secretary to the First Lady, try desperately to save him.
“When they hear the first word, people are shocked and, you know, gasp a little bit,” says Vanessa Williams, who plays the First Lady, “and then they know that they’re in for an unconventional ride.”
“When you think about it, often the things that we consider the most derogatory about women are curse words that are just referring directly to genitalia,” said playwright Selina Fillinger. Her fall-down funny play asks a lot of questions.
“[I’m] trying to unpack the misogyny and assumptions that are just even in our vocabulary. And why is this word derogatory? Why is that an inherently bad thing? Why is it bad to call a woman this? Who decided that this is a bad word and made this into an oppressive thing? And can that be reclaimed?” she asked.
Director Susan Stroman described the play as taking place in an alt universe where the president – his political party is never mentioned – abuses his power. “There are many people who are complicit with it, and it is about that too,” Stroman said. “It is about a group of women who do what they can to save him. And then at one point, it’s too much. And it asks that question about what happens if at one point no one does help him.”
Playwright Fillinger said she wanted to subvert the classic forms of farce in POTUS. For one thing, the ensemble is entirely comprised of women. For another example, instead of having a woman running around in her underwear, which happens in many male-dominated farces, a member of the press corps runs around with a breast pump. “The characters in the play are like all versions of women that I have seen or versions of women I have been,” she said, “at various points of crisis or like high stakes. And then just taking that and blowing that up.”
The play had initially been scheduled to open during the 2020 election, but COVID scuttled those plans. Yet Julie White, who plays the President’s chief of staff, said she’s pleased about the timing. “People need to really laugh. And in some ways, to laugh about the states of politics and political discourse, but not in a specific way. I don’t want any more Trump jokes.”
Stroman said yes, the play is funny – but in some ways, it’s also a call to action. “Well, certainly the future is there, but it’s going to be a fight,” Stroman said. “And I think that’s what Selina is saying, too. It’s hopeful, but it’s not hopeful without a fight.”
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
The Florida Prepaid College Board is urging families to lock in the future cost of college with a Florida 529 Prepaid Plan. The program is the largest and the longest-running prepaid college program in the nation, and for the first time ever it is offering families an incentive for enrollment.
Families that enroll in a Prepaid Plan prior to April 30, 2022, will earn a bonus that can be used toward additional college expenses. For each year of college or university Prepaid Plan purchased, Florida Prepaid will put $125 into a Florida 529 Savings Plan, up to $500.
“We really value the investment that families are making in their children, and we want to be part of that journey,” Shannon Colavecchio, Florida Prepaid College Board spokesperson, said. “And it’s really our way of saying thank you, and that we just absolutely encourage this saving early and doing this for our children.”
All Prepaid Plans are guaranteed by the State of Florida, so families will never lose their investment. If a child attends an out-of-state or private college, Florida Prepaid will pay the same amount as it would pay at a public college or university in Florida. Families can choose from five prepaid tuition plans, as well as the optional prepaid dormitory plan, and a child has up to 10 years after high school graduation to use the plan.
“I often say that one of the most important and yet intangible benefits of Florida Prepaid and saving for college early is the message that you are sending to a child,” Colavecchio said. “Research shows that children with even a small amount of college savings are two and a half times more likely to attend and graduate from college.”
Nick Pugliese started Florida Prepaid Plans for both of his daughters just a few months after they were born. He said he encourages people to do their own research, but he does not hesitate to promote the plan to parents.
“To me, it’s a no brainer, you basically lock in your children as soon as they’re born, and you pay a very small amount,” he said. “For me, I don’t see any negatives. I think it’s a good program, it’s really helped our daughters out.”
Pugliese’s eldest daughter, Tori, is a sophomore at Florida Gulf Coast University. She received several college scholarships, but she was able to dedicate those funds to things like textbooks and housing costs. She said that having the plan has been a relief.
“I am very grateful, it really didn’t hit me how grateful and like how great of an idea it was until senior year when I was starting to apply for schools,” she said. “Two years in, it’s kind of like, yeah, that that was a really great opportunity that my parents took. And I’m very glad that they did go with the program.”
Open Enrollment for Florida Prepaid ends on April 30, and it is the only annual window when families can lock in future tuition costs at today’s plan prices.
“The big key here is the tuition,” Pugliese said. “The tuition Tory is paying was the tuition that the state university was charging back in 2002, the year she was born.”
This year, families can purchase a 4-Year Florida University Plan for a newborn for as low as $181 a month or a 2-Year Florida College Plan for just $54 a month. In addition to other Plan options, the Board offers a 1-Year Florida University Plan which starts as low as $45 per month and covers 30 university credit hours. Multiple family members can purchase a 1-Year Florida University Plan for the same child, sharing in the cost of saving for college.
“We have an open enrollment window each year, and during that window, we set the pricing for each of our five different plans and a dorm plan,” Colavecchio said. “So, when you set up that plan, your pricing will never go up each month.”
Colavecchio said that even if the state finds that tuition has suddenly skyrocketed, families have the guarantee that no matter what, Florida Prepaid will cover the cost of tuition when it’s time for their children to go to college.
“This really is a way for families to essentially make themselves immune to inflation, when it comes to college and university tuition in Florida,” she said.
Families can use the online Prepaid Plan pricing tool to determine what the various plans cost based on a child’s age, as well as explore the different payment options available and learn more about the incentives. To learn more, visit myfloridaprepaid.com.
The father of a teen who died after falling from the Orlando FreeFall drop tower at ICON Park says he is aiming for accountability with a wrongful death lawsuit.
The family of Tyre Sampson sued the ride’s owner, manufacturer and landlord, claiming they were negligent and failed to provide a safe amusement ride.
Attorneys representing the teen’s family say the multi-million-dollar lawsuit is aimed at bringing change to amusement rides in Orlando and beyond.
The teen’s father Yarnell Sampson says he learned of the death from the Internet.
“When I found out it was my child it took the breath out of me. It took some of the life out of me as well. It just made me numb and helpless, because I wasn’t there to protect my son.”
State Rep. Geraldine Thompson, a Democrat, says she plans to introduce legislation that would improve training and call for more frequent inspections, among other things.
A supplemental feeding program that served up more than 193,000 pounds of lettuce to hungry manatees in the Indian River Lagoon is expected to end on Friday.
A record 1,101 manatees died in Florida last year, many from starvation in the sprawling lagoon. In winter, they gather near power plants. But excess nutrients from homes and farms have clouded the water with algae and killed much of the sea grass they eat.
State and federal wildlife officials are working together to address the unusual die-off of manatees. Already this year more than 440 have died. That’s high, but not as bad as in 2021.
Ron Mezich, a branch chief with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, says it’s unclear how many were saved with supplemental feeding.
“When we had our coldest weather this winter, we had upwards of 800 animals at the supplemental feeding site,” he said on a press call. “That occurred for a few days. It was much more common to see numbers between 150 and 350 during January and mid-February.”
The supplemental feeding program is ending as the manatees disperse, water temperatures rise and warm weather lies ahead.
Far fewer are showing up.
FWC Regional Director Tom Reinert says it’s time for those manatees to move on from the feeding site near Cape Canaveral.
“One of the major tenets of that program was not to alter manatee behavior,” he sad. “Those manatees do need to move out to their typical spring and summer areas and we want to encourage that. We don’t want to artificially keep them in a spot that really doesn’t have very much in terms of natural forage for them.”
The Biden administration has given the go-ahead for another COVID vaccine booster for people aged 50 and older and certain people who are immunocompromised. They can now get another Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech booster at least four months after their last dose.
But just because you can get an additional booster, does that mean you need to?
Health officials argue that the protection provided by the COVID vaccine booster shots wanes over time. And they are concerned about people considered to be at highest risk of getting severe COVID.
But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn’t make it clear how urgently people should be lining up for second boosters. The agency says these groups are “eligible” for the shots but it stopped short of saying they should get them. And some infectious disease experts say not everyone in this age group needs another shot now.
So, if you’re wondering whether to get a second booster, here are a few key factors to consider.
Risk of serious illness increases with age Risk tracks with age, and older people have the highest risk.
A recent study among people 60 and older in Israel found that rates of COVID-19 infection and serious illness were lower in people who had a fourth dose of the Pfizer vaccine compared to three shots.
“We’re talking about extra protection from the most serious outcome of COVID,” says Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute.
Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, says he personally plans to sign up for a second booster.
“I’m 64 and pretty healthy,” he says. “But the evidence is clear that six months out from my first booster shot, the effectiveness of that booster has waned considerably.”
He says another dose will boost his immunity and decrease the probability of infection. “The benefits are very real,” Wachter says.
But for people under 60 it’s less clear a second booster is necessary.
“I don’t think we have the data for younger people, 50 to even 60,” says Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. The study out of Israel didn’t include this younger age group.
She points out that other countries are targeting additional boosters for older people. Germany has authorized a fourth shot for people over 70. The U.K. is targeting people over the age of 75 and Sweden is giving fourth shots to people over 80. Gandhi says the U.S. “is jumping the gun” by forging ahead with shots for everyone over 50 without the relevant data.
Still the trendline is clear, says Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF.
“The older you are, the bigger the benefit,” he says. Although the majority of deaths from COVID have been people older than 65, “there’s a clear association with age and mortality with COVID,” Chin-Hong says. “It’s really, really striking and it starts at age 50.”
His advice? “Walk to get the second booster if you’re eligible.” Then he says “walk a little faster the older you get.” His mom is in her 80s and he wants to protect her as much as possible. “I’m telling her to walk quickly,” he says.
Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease researcher at Emory University thinks it’s reasonable for people under 60 to wait. “The vaccines are holding up pretty well against severe disease and death,” he says.
It’s also worth noting that even for people over 60, the added protection of an additional booster shot, is small in absolute terms. People who got the first booster already have a very low risk of dying from COVID. Chin-Hong points out that in the Israeli study less than .1% of people with a third shot died, a risk so low he calls it “remarkable.”
Among people who got the fourth shot in this study just .03% died.
“Three shots is the magic number, we think, so far,” he says.
Underlying conditions put you at higher risk Certain medical conditions also increase the risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19 and that’s the reason the FDA decided to authorize the additional boosters starting at age 50.
“We know that people in the age range from about 50 to 65 – about a third of them have significant comorbidities,” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, at a press conference Tuesday. People with heart disease, lung disease, obesity and diabetes are at higher risk for serious illness and death and people over 50 – particularly people of color – are more likely to have an additional risk factor.
“So by choosing age 50 and up, to consider those at high risk or higher risk,” Marks said. “We felt like we would capture the population that might most benefit from this fourth dose.”
When it comes to age, “there’s no bright cut off of risk,” agrees Wachter.
There are likely incremental increases in risk, year after year, as a person ages. A 50-year-old typically has lower risk than a 65-year-old, but health status matters, too.
“An unhealthy 55-year-old is probably at the same risk as a healthier 65-year-old,” Wachter says.
Bottom line, risk goes up with age and underlying conditions, and Wachter says many people over 50 may benefit from another dose.
“Anyone who has a serious medical condition, I would certainly suggest thinking about getting a booster,” says Dr. Preeti Malani, an infectious disease professor at University of Michigan Health. “For my own family, for my parents and my in-laws, this is something that I will recommend,” she says. “Because that extra layer of protection does help ensure that if they get COVID, it’s going to be milder.”
Immunocompromised people may need an extra boost Health officials are particularly concerned about people who are immunocompromised because their immune responses to the vaccine tends to wane faster and they are at higher risk of getting severely ill or dying from COVID-19.
That’s why anyone 12 or older with certain immunocompromised conditions can now get an additional shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, four months after their last dose. A second booster of the Moderna vaccine can be given to people 18 years of age and older.
This includes people who have undergone solid organ transplants, or who are living with conditions that have a similar level of immunocompromise.
Timing from last dose or infection is important There is mounting evidence of waning vaccine protection against serious illness from COVID-19 in older and immunocompromised people, who are at least four to six months past their first booster.
Evidence of waning immunity comes from a recent CDC analysis of COVID-19 emergency room visits and hospitalizations visits during the omicron-predominant period. Two months after a third dose, people were 91% protected against hospitalization. But by four months, that protection dropped down to about 78%.
“It means that people who were boosted three, four, five, six months ago probably have limited protection against current infection,” Malani says.
This means a second booster can help shore up that protection, “but it’s not going to be long lasting.” So the timing of the additional shot can be tricky.
Right now the rate of viral infections has come down significantly since the peaks in January, but there are signs that infections are rising in some areas. The even more contagious omicron variant BA.2 is now the dominant variant in the U.S., and hospitalizations are also creeping up in some places.
Peter Chin-Hong says some people might want to wait to get a booster until a time when cases start to rise in their community and they need the added protection more urgently.
He also notes there may be more effective vaccines on the horizon. As vaccine makers test omicron-specific vaccines and continue research on vaccines that could fend off multiple variants, it may make more sense for people at lower risk to wait.
Still, if you’re high-risk, you may not want to wait too long. Polls show many vaccinated people held off on a first booster dose when they became available last year. But waiting until you see another outbreak in your community could be risky.
“It reminds me a little bit of trying to time the stock market. It turns out nobody’s actually good at it,” Wachter says. If there’s another outbreak on the horizon, it’s best to maximize your protection in advance of it.
There’s one more factor to consider when deciding on the timing of a fourth dose: Have you had a recent COVID-19 infection? If you’ve had three shots and you’ve had an omicron infection sometime between December and now, “I think it’s reasonable to wait.” Wachter says. He says a recent infection likely puts a person in a similar immunologic state as a second booster.
Rob Stein contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
Florida’s director of Veterans’ Affairs announced Tuesday that the new state veterans home near Lake Baldwin in northeast Orlando will be named for Army Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn C. Cashe.
Medal of Honor recipient Cashe grew up in Oviedo and entered the U.S. Army in 1989. He served in the Gulf War, took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and was deployed there again in 2005, according to the U.S. Army.
In October of that year, the 35-year-old sergeant 1st class was fatally injured after an I-E-D attack on his vehicle. Though soaked in fuel and on fire himself, Cashe returned repeatedly to the burning vehicle to rescue his comrades.
In announcing the naming decision, retired Maj. Gen. James Hartsell, executive director of the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs, said: “This heroic Florida warrior succumbed to his catastrophic wounds 23 days after he willingly and knowingly sacrificed himself in order to save the lives of seven of his fellow warriors. ”
The renovated 112-bed facility is the former U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Community Living Center on the VA’s Lake Baldwin campus, according the FDVA website.
Hartsell says the new state veterans home will have a grand opening on May 27th.
The Orange County School Board is in favor of tossing out the district’s face mask policy, as COVID cases continue to decline in the area.
The current policy allows for the district to require face masks on teachers and volunteers. It also gives parents a choice to mask up their students.
But District 3 Member Linda Kobert says since the superintendent has the right to pass any number of orders during the next health emergency under school statute, the policy is now outdated.
Kobert says if anything a line allowing parents to send their child to school in a facial covering could be added to the student handbook, to protect that right.
“And I like the idea of putting it in the code of student conduct, the permissibility because we look at that every year often more than once a year.”
District 1 member Angie Gallo says the policy is moot, especially as COVID cases continue to decline in the area.
“We’re already allowed to put another emergency policy in place if needed. So I think at this time it’s outdated and moot and I would be fine with removing it.”
The board will vote on this policy change on April 12th at the next board meeting, after listening to public comment.
Gov.Ron DeSantis on Tuesday vetoed the congressional redistricting map drawn by the Florida Legislature.
A special session is set for April the 19th through 22nd to draw a new map.
DeSantis had promised to veto the congressional map, which retained a majority Black district in North Florida.
The Florida Constitution says districts cannot be drawn to favor a party or deny minorities equal opportunity to elect representatives. Critics say DeSantis is trying to do both.
Lawsuits have already been filed challenging congressional redistricting in Florida and asking judges to intervene.
DeSantis argues that, in preserving Black representation, lawmakers violated the U.S. Constitution.
“In their, I guess, understandable zeal to try to, to try to comply with what they believe the Florida Constitution required,” DeSantis said at a press conference, “they forgot to make sure what they were doing complied with the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”
U.S Rep. Al Lawson Jr., whose 5th Congressional District would be eliminated, says it’s “absurd” for the governor to cite a post-Civil War amendment aimed at remedying racial disparities in an effort to CREATE them.
DeSantis says lawmakers could also include other issues, like the property insurance crisis, as part of the special session.
SpaceX is set to launch another crew of private astronauts from Kennedy Space Center — this time on a ten-day mission to the International Space Station.
A former NASA astronaut will command the mission, chartered by private company Axiom, and will fly to space with three other space tourists — an American, Canadian and Israli.
Each of those seats for the space tourist crew cost tens of millions of dollars each — and despite the out of pocket cost, those crewmembers will still have to work in space.
Researchers are taking advantage of the increased access to space — and human subjects — thanks to these private space missions. The crew have worked with various researchers and organizations before their flight and plan to conduct science while on board.
Understanding how the human body is affected by space travel is difficult to understand — so few people have actually gone to space, and those in orbit have packed schedules.
That’s why organizations like the Translational Research Institute for Space Health, or TRISH, based out of Baylor College of Medicine, are jumping on the chance to conduct human research on private space participants.
We’ll speak with Dr. Jenn Fogarty, TRISH’s Chief Scientific Officer, about this new dawn of space research and how these studies might help get astronauts to places like Mars while also helping us stay healthy down here on Earth.
More to the story:
- TRISH worked with the Inspiration4 crew for human space science research last year. Read more about those experiments and listen back to a previous episode with researcher Dr. Emmanuel Urquieta.
Florida is suing the Biden administration over a federal mask mandate on airplanes and other modes of public transportation.
Gov. DeSantis announces a lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s continuation of the transportation mask mandate. https://t.co/tiu5F1NaGA
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) March 29, 2022
Just a few weeks ago, the TSA extended its mask mandate through April 18th.
Now Florida, along with 20 other states, is suing the Biden administration to overturn the mask requirement on public transportation and in transportation hubs.
Gov. Ron DeSantis says the problem with the mandate is that it is unequally applied and it’s left up to employees like flight attendants to enforce.
“If you have somebody sitting in the window seat and they’re nibbling on peanuts for two and a half hours. They can have their mask down. You have the person in the middle seat that is not eating, if they just wanted to read a magazine without a mask then somehow that would be a big problem.”
DeSantis says it’s time to turnback these restrictions as more public places including schools throughout the country no longer require facial coverings.
“I think most people thought this would go the way of the buffalo. But you have an extension. Then you have Fauci coming out saying they may need to impose additional restrictions in the future. And we need to let people live their life.”
The current mask mandate was extended just weeks ago based on CDC guidance. It will end April 18th as long as COVID cases continue to trend downward in the US.
Today is National Vietnam War Veterans Day. It marks 49 years since the last U.S. troops left South Vietnam.
The Department of Veterans Affairs says there are 523,000 Florida veterans who served during that period. One of them, Fred Robinson, was a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Now he helps lead the Orange County Veterans Advisory Council. He spoke about the experience of those veterans.
‘Welcome home’ Robinson wants to send a message.
My name is Fred Robinson, and I’m the co-chair of Mayor Jerry Demings’ Orange County Veterans Advisory Council. Today is national Vietnam (War) Veterans Day. I want to welcome home all my Vietnam veteran brothers and sisters. May God bless you. And God bless and peace.
‘They fought two wars’ He looks back on the poor welcome they received in the U.S. after service in Vietnam.
Looking back, I look at how so many of our troops that served, how they got treated when they came home. They fought two wars. They fought a war in Vietnam, and they came home and actually it was a war against our own country and their service to our country. They got spat upon. A lot of them got beaten up.
A lot of them didn’t get the resources and services and benefits that they were eligible for. So there’s a lot of things that have happened to the Vietnam veterans that had never happened to any other soldiers that ever defended our country. …
Over the years, things have changed and due to the advocacy of Vietnam veterans by standing up for our rights and challenging the VA every possible opportunity we could. … Let’s bury how our nation treated us when we came home and not let it ever again rear its ugly head to ostracize our all volunteer military now, all the young men and women who have volunteered to serve this nation.
Let them speak Robinson has worked in hospice care. He brings that perspective to his understanding of fellow veterans.
I come from a hospice background. And there are a lot of things that are challenges for Vietnam veterans. There’s a lot of veterans who have never spoken about what they did. And their family doesn’t even know what they’ve done.
That’s why I strongly tell anyone. if a veteran opens up to you and tells you what he did, to not interrupt them. No matter how bad it may sound — you may even cry — because he may be embarrassed or she may be embarrassed to tell their family what they did, because they may look at them differently. But in war, it’s about survival.
So we don’t want them to have to keep that in. If they do take the opportunity to tell someone, we want them to release that so they don’t carry that to the grave with them.
They’d do it again I hear a lot of Vietnam veterans say that even though the outcome of when they came home was unfavorable, that they would still do it over again. They would still serve their country.
And it’s just a shame that my generation had to suffer that, but we still stood strong and we defended our country.
Updated March 28, 2022 at 6:04 PM ET President Biden is defending controversial remarks he made over the weekend in which he appeared to call for regime change in Russia — off-script comments that were quickly walked back by his administration.
“I am not walking anything back,” he told reporters at the White House Monday, after speaking about the release of his budget proposal. “I was expressing the moral outrage that I feel, and I make no apologies for it.”
On Saturday, Biden capped a trip to Europe, where he met with fellow NATO leaders and delivered a forceful address in Poland about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the unity of Western democracies.
But headlines from the speech focused on an ad-libbed closing line about Russian President Vladimir Putin: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
His administration quickly downplayed the remark, telling reporters that the president’s comments did not signal a policy change.
Biden’s “point,” a White House official stressed to NPR, “was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”
Biden said Monday: “I just was expressing my outrage. He shouldn’t remain in power — just like, you know, bad people shouldn’t continue to do bad things.”
Political fallout for Biden The closing line was chalked up to another gaffe by a politician prone to them, an ad-libbed moment, but one with the potential to cause consternation with Western powers. The speech was about NATO unity and NATO leaders had been speaking from the same script — until Biden’s remark.
The comment came as recent polls have found most U.S. voters doubting Biden’s ability to handle the Ukraine crisis.
“It was a mistake, clearly,” former Democratic Montana Sen. Max Baucus, a onetime U.S. ambassador to China, said on Fox News over the weekend. “He may think that personally — I think a lot of Americans think that personally — but he is the president of the United States, so he cannot say that publicly.
“The more the United States says things like that publicly,” Baucus added, “the more it closes our potential negotiations between all the parties who are involved here, the more it corners Putin, the more Putin might get more dangerous.”
Other Democratic strategists, however, say the criticism is overwrought. After all, majorities have also been telling pollsters that Biden needs to be stronger.
“Politically, I actually think the president is where most of the American people are,” said Joel Payne, a Democratic strategist and veteran of the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign. “And I think in a moment where the president is struggling to kind of stay above water or get above water with his popularity, I think the president may be saying something off the cuff that’s going to register well with most of the country.”
But Payne cautioned that Biden has to be careful not to cut into his appeal of competence — an attribute that took a big hit with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan last year.
And he echoed Baucus in noting that Biden’s comment put him in a diplomatic box.
“Politically, it short term may help the president,” Payne said, “but I think long term, I think it complicates how the administration has to approach the crisis.”
Paul Begala, a veteran Democratic strategist and former senior adviser in the Clinton White House, cheered Biden’s off-the-cuff remark.
He called Biden’s Warsaw speech “historic” and believes it “will rank right up there” with other iconic Cold War moments from presidential addresses, like when John F. Kennedy in 1963 gave his Ich bin ein Berliner speech in West Berlin, and Ronald Reagan’s call to Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” between West and East Germany in 1987.
“As for so-called gaffes,” Begala said, “I think this will go down in history, like when Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union the ‘Evil Empire’ — and the legend is his staff didn’t want him to do it. He fought and he fought, and he just said it, because he thought it. And I think that’s what Biden did. And I think he’s probably speaking for the vast majority of people, certainly in our country, but probably around the world.”
For U.S. voters, economic issues are No. 1 Still, even if it’s received that way, domestic issues, particularly inflation, are weighing Biden down.
“Biden is a little more all over the map domestically,” Begala said. “And I support him, of course; I’m a Democrat. But I believe just as a communications matter, he has lost the thread of the threat domestically.”
He pointed out that Republicans have been able to take hold of the narrative domestically despite voting against popular items like the expanded Child Tax Credit, or standing in the way of the government being able to negotiate lower prescription drug prices.
“Republicans have voted against some of the most popular domestic proposals I have ever seen,” Begala said, “and they’re paying no price for it. Why? The Democrats are not making them pay a price.”
But when it comes to how Biden is handling Putin and Ukraine, Begala thinks Biden has done a good job standing up to him.
“He knows Putin is evil, and he knows that weakness invites aggression, and he’s going to meet that evil man with steel,” he said. “And I think he’s been terrific on that. … Walt Disney used to say, ‘My movies are only as good as my villains are evil.’ And I think that’s true in political messaging.”
When asked if he was ready to meet his Russian counterpart, Biden said Monday: “It depends on what he wants to talk about.”
The two men met last met face-to-face in Geneva in June 2021.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
The death of George Floyd nearly two years ago triggered mass protests across the US and around the world after a video was shared online showing a white police officer, since convicted of murder, holding his knee on the Black man’s neck until he stopped breathing.
Composer Adolphus Hailstork and librettist Herbert Martin, both in their 80s, joined forces to create an orchestral work meant for a large chorus and three soloists that would pay tribute to Floyd. It premieres Saturday, March 26, at the Music Center at Strathmore just outside Washington, D.C.
The piece, titled “A Knee on the Neck,” begins with a “commandment” Black parents give to their children: always be on their best behavior to avoid getting hurt, thrown in prison or even killed. To come home in one piece. Martin and Hailstork both recall these kinds of stern orders from their own childhoods – it’s part of the reason why they have collaborated for three decades to create lyrical pieces inspired by ordinary African-Americans and historical figures.
“Every Black family in America must have had this kind of talk,” Martin remembers. “My mother simply said, ‘If you go downtown to do something for us, you must do this, this and this and this. Because I don’t know what will happen’ … so all of that seemed to be welling up inside of my mind.”
Reflecting that experience called for something grandiose, given the magnitude of racially motivated violence that has taken innumerable lives in America — Floyd, Emmett Till, Daunte Wright, Breonna Taylor. Countless more.
“It’s the size of the subject that Herb gave me. It’s a big theme,” Hailstork says. We’re talking about the taking of a life, the taking of many lives, and the general cultural attitudes we have. There’s a little spot in the text, Herb says there’s a virus going around that’s killing people and it’s very well done. Of course, everybody’s going to be thinking about omicron or something like that. But no, the virus is the virus of hate and murder in our culture. This is a big theme … It’s a very dramatic score because he gave me a dramatic piece of writing.”
There’s a raucous opening sequence that evokes bustling Minneapolis, vignettes of African drumming, the Black spiritual “O Freedom,” cascading vocal passages of Floyd’s last words “I can’t breathe,” the stillness of death and, finally, a hopeful hymn.
In addition to its own chorale, the National Philharmonic will be joined by the Washington Chorus, the Howard University Chorale, plus Black soloists J’Nai Bridges, Norman Shankle and Kenneth Overton.
“It’s important that you hang on to the memory of those things,” Martin says, “so you don’t repeat these incidents over and over and over again. I think that that is one of the major things that I would like people to remember and to pass on this memory as they have experienced it to their relatives, to their family, to their friends.”
The piece ends on a hopeful note, a vision of a more perfect union where Americans of all backgrounds and creeds live in harmony.
“There is a moment of universal hand-clenching, you might say, not fist-clenching, hand outreached in hope that there will be a greater sense of peace and respect among all the people of America.”
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
The coronavirus pandemic is now in its third year- and while life is in many ways returning to normal- COVID-19 is still with us. For parents facing burnout from two years of pandemic living and figuring out how to navigate the next phase- stress levels are still high.
On this episode of Intersection we talk with three parents about the challenges of raising kids in the pandemic- what they’ve learned and how they’ve overcome those challenges.
As gas prices soar- commuters may be doing some thinking about how they get around and how they could do it cheaper.
Rollins College Environmental studies professor Bruce Stephenson has been researching how cities are made and what makes them good- or bad- places to live– for decades. He talks about his book on living car-free in Portland, and lessons that could be applied to Orlando.
And Limbitless Solutions- the non-profit that makes prosthetic limbs for kids- plans to scale up production. We take a tour of the Limbitless design and manufacturing plant near UCF with CEO Albert Manero.
As gas prices soar, commuters may be doing some thinking about how they get around and how they could do it cheaper.
Rollins College Environmental studies professor Bruce Stephenson has been researching how cities are made and what makes them good- or bad- places to live– for decades. We talk to him about his book on living car-free in Portland: ‘Portland’s Good Life: Sustainability and Hope in an American City’, and lessons that could be applied to Orlando.
Stephenson says soaring gas prices are a good opportunity to rethink how we get around and how cities are designed.
“Planning by nature is based on long term investment, and we’re finally at the point where, obviously, oil is not a renewable resource, and we have options,” says Stephenson.
“So it’s going to be financial, but perhaps the current crisis will push us in that direction. And you have to remember, in 1973, when we had our first energy crisis, that resulted in 55 mile an hour speed limits, and gas efficient cars. So this is a long term issue, but I think the window is closing.”
Stephenson says he spent five years researching Portland’s urban design and transportation, including two years living there.
“I served on Mayor Dyer’s sustainability Task Force, and he literally marched into the first meeting and said he wanted Orlando to become the Portland of the southeast in regard to sustainability,” says Stephenson.
“So I decided to become a laboratory rat, so to speak, and move to Portland and live the experience Orlando was envisioning.”
Stephenson says Portland is a model of how mass transit- in this case the streetcar- can enhance a city. But Portland, like Orlando, is still grappling with homelessness.
“What I did not expect to happen was encountering homelessness and the housing crisis, which is the flip side of the story,” says Stephenson.
He says Portland has tried to address the issue through requiring a percentage of affordable housing.
“In the neighborhood I live, in the Pearl district, it’s a model urban renewal project where 30% of all the housing has to be affordable.”
Stephenson says urban design and environmental challenges are increasingly important issues for cities like Orlando.
“Long term, the only way we’re going to survive, given climate change, loss of biodiversity, etc, is by living more efficiently and more sustainably. And you cannot do that if you expect to put every American in a quarter acre suburban home. So you have to begin developing in a pattern that’s sustainable.”
Limbitless Solutions, the Central Florida non-profit that makes prosthetic arms for kids, moved into a new facility last August.
CEO Albert Manero says the move has allowed him to scale up production, producing more prosthetic limbs at a faster rate.
Manero showed Intersection around the new facility in Research Park, near UCF.
Albert Manero demonstrates the vacuum form machine used to make parts for the prosthetic arms. Photo: Matthew Peddie, WMFE
“They started out purely 3d printed,” says Manero of the arms, which are designed to look like hardware from video games and movies.
“Now we have a bit of a hybrid system where there’s metallic parts, there’s vacuum form parts, and there’s a full automotive paint finish on the arms. And so it has really become part of that full system, we’ve been working towards the long term scalability of our program.”
Alex Grindle, who’s studying emerging media graphic design at UCF, is working on a prosthetic arm at one of the spray booths.
He says the role is “where art and engineering meet.”
“We’re given sheets that a child fills out that says, I want these colors in these places. But we have to take that 2d object and turn it into a 3d object that has shadow and depth and things like that. And so you get to put a little bit of your of yourself into the work as well.”
Alex Grindle works on a prosthetic arm at LImbitless. Photo: Matthew Peddie / WMFE
“The team here at limitless has really advanced the design past where I ever thought it could be,” says Manero.
“It’s definitely much more complicated than we were when we started seven years ago.”
He says the latest models are Bluetooth capable and can be synced with a parent’s smartphone so they can monitor charging and other aspects of the arm.
“And then the actual electronics here now allow for that multi gesture control, where relatively easily a child can learn how to use the opening close, a pinch and a point mode as well with the hand just using the muscles on their organic limb and being able to control that with the electronics.”
Manero says Limbitless will launch a clinical trial with Orlando Health in the spring, recruiting about 20 patients to test out the arms.
“Our ultimate goal is to get FDA approval so we can provide any child that has an interest in a device and a prescription from their doctor, would be able to get a device.”
Albert Manero holds two of Limbitless’s prosthetic hands. Photo: Matthew Peddie / WMFE
Limbitless has also just completed a pilot program with the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville to develop a face gesture controlled wheelchair.
“And so using the temporalis muscles above your forehead, you were able to, like, have a person flex their jaw muscles, and then control the wheelchair to drive anywhere they want to go,” says Manero.
He says he’s tested the technology out himself, and while there is still work to be done, he thinks it holds promise for patients such as those with ALS.
“I think that there’s like a key moment when you’re driving the chair using your face muscles, where it starts to like click in and then all sudden, it gets a lot easier as you start to like, map how to do that.”
Limbitless is testing a face-gesture controlled wheelchair. Photo: Matthew Peddie / WMFE
The coronavirus pandemic is now into its 3rd year, and while the Omicron variant appears to be receding and life in many ways has returned to normal- COVID-19 is still with us.
People are still negotiating the challenges of returning to work, going out to eat, and other aspects of daily routines, and for parents, making sure their kids are safe as they navigate the new normal.
According to a report from the American Psychological Association, parents weren’t able to recover from pandemic burnout before the Delta variant of COVID-19 hit the US in 2021.
For more on the impact of the pandemic on parenting, we spoke to three Orlando area moms: Erika Ransom, Bree Watson, and Judith Zissman. We also talked with Sharon Carnahan, professor of psychology at Rollins College and executive director of the Hume house Child Development Center.
“The first thing to remember is that we were all in the same storm, but we were not all in the same boat,” says Carnahan.
Some parents were able to switch to remote work and had access to childcare, says Carnahan.
“I would call those the people in yachts. But you also had lots of people in canoes and rafts, they had to leave their children at home with older siblings in order to go to work. They watched as their favorite childcare centers closed.”
Carnahan says those parents faced enormous stress.
“There’s a recent meta analysis that indicates that 47% of the 8000 parents surveyed were experiencing clinically elevated levels of anxiety or depression. At the end of the worst of the pandemic, too, some of the lasting effects, the childcare workforce has changed for good.”
Carnahan says it’s important for parents not to neglect their own needs as they figure out the increased demands of parenting in the pandemic.
“Everyone is doing the very best they can and the kinder we are to each other, the less we flare up in front of our kids, the calmer they’re going to be and the better they’re going to be able to cope.”
Zissman says the boat metaphor is apt, “because it’s so isolated it, we’re all in our own little boats. And I’m a single parent, so having just me and my kid in the boat has been lonely for the past two years.”
“I, like many of my peers had had some homeschool fantasies that have since evaporated,” adds Zissman.
“So I think I now have even more empathy for educators and how challenging that is. And a lot of gratitude for what they were able to pull together during this break.”
Ransom says adjusting to having her kids home from school in those first months was tough.
“What it what it ultimately looked like was lots of late nights, and I just wasn’t nearly as good at my job like this for a very long time,” she says.
“But fortunately, my employer just gave a lot of grace, and really kind of understood the reality of what it meant to be home with two elementary aged children.”
Watson says her oldest son was a year and a half old at the start of the pandemic, and her second was born six weeks into the lockdown.
“So that was pretty challenging to go to a hospital and have a kid and also bring home a newborn and really not have the support that we had had the first time around. Because it was just, you know, you kind of had to keep to yourself.”
Watson says her children were too young to realize what they were missing out on. In March last year she took her oldest son to the grocery store for the first time.
“And it was like Willy Wonka for him, you know, it was like the kids seeing the candy factory. And he was like, wow, look at all this stuff. That was kind of cool, but also really sad, because like he just didn’t know.”
Ransom says the pandemic has made her reconsider the idea of “mom guilt” that moms can feel if they aren’t present for their children 24/7.
“That’s not healthy for me. It’s not healthy for the child. We’ve all had a social experiment of what does it mean to be with your child 24 hours a day. And I think I really got some peace, some clarity about being able to refute some of that mom guilt that society tries to put on me for what they think I should or should not be doing. I feel more confident about that.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced $289 million additional dollars for schools to help them close achievement gaps incurred during the COVID pandemic.
The money will support a number of initiatives that are meant to help close learning gaps caused by two years of the COVID pandemic.
Gov. Ron DeSantis says that includes funding for reading coaches, STEM and math acceleration programs, parent mentorship training, and mental health resources.
DeSantis says the bulk of the funding will go toward after-school, weekend and summer learning camps.
“Any type of achievement gap you know we want to work on addressing. I think what we’ve seen in the data is that the math proficiency kind of suffered the most with with COVID and and so we want to make sure districts are able to remedy that.”
Outgoing Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran says these programs will be aimed at the most struggling students.
“Despite all that’s happening, we’re going to find a way to move forward. We’re going to find a way to have after-school programs, year-round, summer, intensive learning camps, supports for parents. Now parents are going to actually be able to partner and work with their teachers and, and doing those things necessary to get their children to be not back to where they were, but to go beyond where they were.”
The Florida legislature has already approved $200 million in “special school recognition funds” for 55 school districts in Florida that didn’t enforce face masks for students.
Notably missing from that list? Central Florida school districts like Orange, Volusia and Brevard County Schools who required masks.
The camp for displaced persons sits in a dusty limbo in northern Iraq, in between security checkpoints that separate Iraq’s Kurdistan region from the rest of the country.
Most of the residents of the Hassan Sham camp are the wives and children of ISIS fighters. And they sit in limbo, too.
“If this camp closes, where would we go?” Noora Majeed, a mother of 4 originally from the city of Mosul, asks. Her voice is just a few decibels short of a yell. “Nobody wants us,” she says.
Majeed and the other residents say they are outcasts. They say they’re no longer welcome in their hometowns. Police, militias and former neighbors harass them, they say.
“Nobody welcomes us,” Majeed says. “Nobody takes us in. They don’t like us. Even my family. None of them.”
Standing outside her canvas tent surrounded by a group of children, including four of her own, Majeed says she can’t return to her old neighborhood in Mosul.
“We are afraid to go back there,” she says. “They say you are the wives of ISIS. They harass us.”
Her husband, she says, was an ISIS fighter who now is dead. And the stigma of his ISIS association is so great that even her own family — the bedrock social safety net in Iraq — refuse to have anything to do with Majeed or her children. So instead they live in one of the white, canvas tents provided by the U.N. and USAID.
Majeed and her kids have been in the Hassan Sham camp for five years. With nowhere to go, she has no idea when she’ll be able to leave. And she and her family, like all the residents of the camp, face mounting health and education issues.
Left behind after the war to oust ISIS To understand why the camps exist, you have to look back to 2014, when ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi stood in a mosque in Mosul and declared the creation of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The so-called caliphate would come to control nearly a third of Iraq and much of northeastern Syria. The militant group and its extremist interpretation of Islam attracted followers from all over the world, including many disillusioned Sunni Muslims from Iraq.
Three years later, after a brutal war to oust ISIS, Iraq declared victory over the group. Many of its fighters fled to Syria. Others ended up dead or in Iraqi prisoners. The wives and children of ISIS were left behind. Hundreds of thousands of them ended up essentially in refugee camps in the country where they’d been born.
In 2020, Iraq shut down all of the camps for so-called “internally displaced persons” in portions of the country controlled by Baghdad. But authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan have said they won’t force any of the camp residents to leave if they don’t want to.
Currently there are 26 camps in northern Iraq, housing nearly 200,000 people. Hassan Sham holds nearly 6,000.
While some of the camp residents like Majeed and her children have lived there for years, others arrived just this year from the massive al-Hol camp in Syria. Al-Hol holds about 60,000 people who’d been affiliated with ISIS. Early in 2022, it saw deadly attacks by ISIS sleeper cells, targeting workers and those in the camp they have disputes with.
Obstacles to getting food, health care – and an education Life is difficult in all of these camps.
At the Hassan Sham camp the only consistent assistance to the residents is a monthly stipend of $12 each month from the World Food Programme. Majeed and her neighbors say this isn’t enough to live on. One of Majeed’s sons digs up wild roots from the surrounding plains to sell for food as a way to earn extra cash.
“These kids are innocent,” Majeed says of the children gathered around her. “They didn’t choose to join ISIS.”
The deputy manager of the camp, Haniya Baka Othman, says conditions in the camp are growing worse as funding for food, education and health care dries up.
“Health, it’s too, too bad,” Othman says. “We have just one center for health. They receive approximately 500 patients each week.” But the donor that was funding the health clinic just announced that it’s terminating its contract.
The high school doesn’t have money for teachers so roughly 200 teenagers in Hassan Sham walk down the road each day to another camp to study.
There’s a school for younger kids but it’s funded by the Iraqi government and only children with government identification can enroll. Many of the kids at Hassan Sham were born in territory under the control of Islamic State and don’t have IDs.
Othman says roughly 40% of the camp residents — adults and children — have no identification. That means the kids can’t go to school and the adults can’t pass the security checkpoints on the roads leading in and out of Hassan Sham to visit a doctor, go to work, go to university.
A Swedish aid group tried to launch a campaign to get residents IDs a couple of years ago, Othman says, “But the Iraqi government didn’t accept that because they are the families of ISIS.”
This camp was founded by UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, and is now administered by a local charity. But the Iraqi government in Baghdad has made it clear that it wants these camps too close and for the residents to find someplace else to go.
Even as Iraq transfers additional ISIS families here from camps in Syria, it’s the government has declared that anyone who arrived after November of 2020 isn’t eligible for food stipends.
“So when they bring assistance for the residents, they exclude those family that came after this date,” she says.
A young man waits and dreams Many Iraqis view the residents of these camps with suspicion.
The violence that ISIS unleashed in 2014 is still fresh in most Iraqis’ minds. The conflict drove millions of people from their homes and left thousands dead. And ISIS continues to launch sporadic attacks in Iraq and in January staged a brazen jail break across the border in Syria.
But Iraq’s deputy minister of migration, Karim Hussein Ali Al-Nuri, says Iraq defeated the Islamic State, the camp residents don’t pose a threat and it’s simply time for them to go home.
“They have no affiliation with ISIS,” the deputy minister told NPR. “They have been checked by the security forces and they have no problem.”
Residents of the Hassan Sham camp say the lasting stigma of ISIS and other problems prevent them from leaving the facility.
Othman says some of the women have warrants for their arrest — there are lots of different charges, including supporting a terrorist organization. So they can’t even leave the camp for medical care.
Two sections of the camp house young men who were child soldiers with ISIS. They’ve served sentences in juvenile detention, some of them on terrorism charges. Given the disjointed Iraqi justice and security system and the multiple forces that report to different administrations, the young men could face additional charges if they attempt to go home. So Hassan Sham serves as a landing spot for them after juvenile hall.
With nothing else to do, 23-year-old Jowhar Adel says he and other young men sleep late, scroll on their phones, play soccer in the afternoons.
Adel, who was sent to juvenile detention on terrorism charges for being an ISIS fighter, says he has no desire to rejoin the group. “We want peace,” he says. “We don’t want to interfere in anyone else’s life and we don’t want anyone to interfere in ours.”
If he does get out of the camp, he hopes to find employment as a construction worker or a mechanic.
He blames the U.S. for his predicament, pointing to the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and, he believes, led to the humiliation of Sunni Muslims in Iraq and the rise of ISIS.
Meanwhile, Adel has no idea if or when he’ll be able to leave.
“This is just a different kind of prison,” he says.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
Law enforcement agencies in Ocala and Volusia County are warning people against shooting others with toy water beads called Orbeez as part of a TikTok challenge.
And Ocala police are asking parents to talk with their kids about the dangers of the challenge.
If you put Spin Master’s Orbeez in water, they become plump, squishy beads. And the company invites kids to do all sorts of fun things with them.
But the challenge takes a bad turn when people load them into toy guns and start shooting at strangers.
Ocala Police Department Capt. Michael Sommer says they’ve had at least four incidents recently.
“And the concern is — obviously, first and foremost — is injuries,” he said. “And secondly, there can be criminal nature to this, depending on the circumstances, and people could get arrested. “
That’s the case in Volusia County, where three teens have been charged after random shootings.
Ocala police say somtimes the toy guns resemble real firearms.
“The fear is they will encounter either the wrong person who, say, possesses a legal gun, a concealed weapons carrier or something like that, or even law enforcement in a situation and something goes tragically wrong for what they think is a joke,” Sommer said.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office says the shooting incidents with toy guns and gel beads have occurred elsewhere in the country and around Florida. They include a drive-by Orbeez shooting in Orange Park of a woman pushing a child in a stroller.
Children’s product safety is paramount, Spin Master said in an email. “Spin Master does not manufacture or sell gel guns. Orbeez are designed for educational, creative, and sensory play and are not intended to be used as projectiles or inserted in mechanisms.”
NASA’s next moon rocket is on the move, leaving the Vehicle Assembly Building Thursday afternoon and heading to a launch pad at Kennedy Space Center for a critical test before launching later this year.
Kennedy Space Center’s Crawler-Transporter 2 will move the more than 300 foot tall SLS rocket at a speed of 0.8 miles per hour. It will take about 12 hours to make the 4 mile journey to Launch Complex 39B, which launched Apollo 10 and more than 50 space shuttle missions.
SLS, Space Launch System, is the rocket that will launch NASA’s Artemis missions the first missions to the moon since the Apollo days.
“Teams here at Kennedy and really across the country have been working diligently leading up to this milestone known as rollout and preparing for what dress which is to come,” says Artemis launch director Charlie Blackwell Thompson.
“It’s going to be just a wonderful, wonderful sight when we see that amazing Artemis vehicle cross the threshold of the VAB. And we see it outside of that building for the very first time. I think it’s going to be breathtaking”
At the pad, Blackwell Thompson and her team will practice the launch — from fueling the tanks to counting down, stopping just before launch.
After the test, teams will move the rocket back to the VAB one last time before launching the rocket and uncrewed Orion spacecraft this summer on a trip around the moon and back.
Updated March 16, 2022 at 12:00 PM ET Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered an impassioned plea to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday morning for additional aid and for President Biden to spearhead the world’s defense of Ukraine.
While Zelenskyy delivered the majority of his speech in Ukrainian with an English translator, he ended his remarks speaking in English, addressing Biden directly.
“You are the leader of the nation, of your great nation,” Zelenskyy said, “I wish you to be the leader of the world. Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.”
Biden is expected to deliver a response to the speech later Wednesday.
In pleading for the U.S. to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, Zelenskyy showed a video of the violence happening throughout his country; it featured graphic footage of injured and dead civilians, weeping and screaming people of all ages, hospital patients, and destroyed buildings. It ended showing the words: “close the sky over Ukraine.”
The U.S. has dismissed this as an option, arguing it could further escalate international tensions between NATO members and Russia.
Zelenskyy did acknowledge the White House’s hesitancy on imposing a no-fly zone and asked for additional aircraft military assistance instead.
“We offer an alternative,” Zelensky said, “You know what kind of defense systems we need, S-300 and other similar systems, you know how much depends on the battlefield — on the ability to use aircraft, powerful, strong air aviation to protect our people, our freedom, our land.”
Zelenskyy cited key moments in American history in his plea to Congress Throughout the speech, Zelenskyy referred to pivotal moments in American history where the country was attacked, including Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11, 2001. He characterized the Sept. 11 attacks as events where “evil tried to turn your cities, independent territories, in[to] battlefields.”
“In your great history, you have pages that would allow you to understand Ukrainians, understand us now,” Zelenskyy said through an interpreter.
He also invoked similar rhetoric heard by the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in his I Have a Dream speech.
“I have a dream. These words are known to each of you. Today I can say I have a need. I need to protect our sky,” Zelenskyy said. “I need your decision, your help, which means exactly the same, the same you feel when you hear the words ‘I have a dream.’ ”
The speech comes as the Ukrainian death toll climbs and the Russian bombing, now in its third week, spreads farther west across Ukraine. According to the United Nations, almost 700 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion.
“Now I’m almost 45 years old,” Zelenskyy said in English. “Today my age stopped when the heart of more than 100 children stop beating. I see no sense in life if it cannot stop the deaths.”
The most recent numbers from the U.N. indicate indicate that closer to 50 children have been confirmed dead as of March 14, though total counts can be “considerably higher.” It also notes that according to a report from the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, as of Tuesday, 97 children had been killed.
Zelenskyy proposed a new global alliance Throughout the war, Russian forces have launched deadly attacks across the country, concentrating efforts in eastern and southern flanks of the country which are closer to the Russian border. Just Tuesday, Russian missiles struck two apartment buildings within the capital city of Kyiv.
Over the weekend, Russian attacks moved farther west, including within the city of Lviv, which sits close to Poland, a NATO ally.
In his speech Wednesday, Zelenskyy proposed a new global alliance between the United States and European allies.
“We propose to create an association, U24, ‘United for Peace,’ a union of responsible countries that have the strength and consciousness to stop conflict immediately,” he said.
Zelenskyy explained the group would “provide all the necessary assistance in 24 hours. If necessary, even weapons, if necessary sanctions, humanitarian support, political support, finances, everything you need to keep the peace and quickly the save the world to save lives.”
The White House is still hoping to maintain diplomacy with Russia but in a conversation with Russian General Nikolay Patrushev on Tuesday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan reaffirmed the White House’s pledge to back Ukraine and the eastern portion of NATO if fighting continues.
Sullivan also told Patrushev, who is secretary of the Russian security council, that any use of chemical or biological weapons on Ukrainians would escalate U.S. responses against Russia.
Last week, Congress approved a bill that provided $13.6 billion for military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. President Biden also announced that the U.S. would ban Russian oil imports and attempt to take away Russia’s trade relations status with the U.S.
Zelenskyy’s address Wednesday follows one to Canada’s Parliament on Tuesday and the British House of Commons on March 8 where he made similar asks for global assistance.
Before the speech began Wednesday, Zelenskyy’s video appearance was met with a standing ovation from the crowded room of U.S. lawmakers.
He went on to receive an introduction from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“Slava Ukraini,” Pelosi said, which translates to “glory to Ukraine.”
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
Updated March 15, 2022 at 4:14 PM ET Next week, the White House says it will start to wind down a COVID-19 program that pays to test, treat and vaccinate people who don’t have health insurance.
It’s one of several immediate impacts after Congress declined to add $22.5 billion in funding to a broad government spending bill passed last week. President Biden signed the bill into law on Tuesday, hailing it as a bipartisan achievement without mentioning the lack of COVID-19 funding.
The COVID-19 funding request met with political pushback from Republicans and concern among some lawmakers that the White House has not fully explained how trillions in COVID money has been spent so far and what funding remains. Republicans in particular have been unwilling to agree to new spending.
The White House warned in a letter to lawmakers on Tuesday that the country risks being “blindsided” by future coronavirus variants.
“What we’re asking for is a modest investment to not squander the gains we’ve made over the last year,” said Natalie Quillian, deputy coordinator for the White House COVID-19 response team.
“We need to remember the dark days and how quickly a variant can come,” Quillian told NPR.
Why Congress left out the funding Leaders from both parties had initially agreed to include roughly $15 billion in COVID-related funding as part of the more than $1.5 trillion government spending package that Congress passed last week.
Republican leaders agreed to support the emergency spending because Democrats chose to cover some of the cost by reallocating money Congress had already approved but has not yet been spent.
A number of House Democrats objected to that plan because as many as 30 states would lose access to money that was promised but had not yet been spent, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was forced to removed that funding from the broader package.
Democrats say they will try to pass a standalone COVID-19 funding bill in the coming days, but Republicans broadly oppose the plan, meaning there is little chance the measure can overcome a GOP filibuster in the Senate.
The White House will cancel a new order for monoclonal antibodies The White House said it will have to cut back shipments of monoclonal antibody treatments to states by 30% next week because of the funding snafu, and said the nation’s supply of those treatments could run out as soon as May.
The Biden administration is canceling plans to buy more of the treatment next week because of the lack of funding. The government also cannot buy more oral antiviral treatments like Paxlovid beyond the 20 million treatments already secured, and needs to scale back planned purchases of preventive treatments for immunocompromised people, the White House said.
And while officials say they do have enough vaccine doses available for immunocompromised people to get a fourth dose, if the rest of the population ends up needing an additional dose, they may not have the funds needed to meet the nation’s needs. The gap in funding would be particularly severe if a vaccine-evading variant comes along and a new formulation is needed.
The White House also said it will not be able to provide help to domestic manufacturers of at-home coronavirus tests beyond June, which it said will lead to diminished testing capacity.
Research into next-generation COVID-19 vaccines will be curbed, and some surveillance for new variants will also be stopped, the White House said. The administration also will need to limit its push to help poorer countries vaccinate people.
Republicans want the White House to account for past COVID aid spending Republicans want the White House to provide a more detailed accounting of exactly how the government has spent the roughly $6 trillion in COVID-19 funding that Congress has already approved. Lawmakers and staff say they have not been given any clear accounting of the funds.
Earlier this month Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, sent Biden a letter with specific questions including how much money has been spent on each testing and vaccine program, specific figures on how much of the previously allocated money is unspent, unobligated or undisbursed, and how much has been obligated but not sent out for more than six months.
So far, Romney and at least half a dozen other top Senate Republicans said they have not received full responses to their questions.
“I fully agree we need additional funding for therapeutics, for being ready for what’s coming down the road with regards to testing and so forth, but the Democrats passed, by themselves, $1.9 trillion in March,” Romney said. “And not all of that money has been spent.”
Others, like Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said Congress has a responsibility to conduct oversight on the money that has already been spent.
“Tracing back and making sure that COVID dollars were spent in a responsible way — in a way that was truly directed toward dealing with the effects of the pandemic — is absolutely something we need to do as part of our oversight responsibility,” Thune said.
Romney and several other Republicans said there was an agreement to pass the funds during the spending negotiations and Democrats walked away, not Republicans.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
Updated February 9, 2022 at 5:58 PM ET The Democratic-led House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has subpoenaed former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, after he documented his own attempts to delay the certification of the 2020 election results in a memoir about this time in the Trump administration.
Navarro marks the 80th subpoena for the committee, which has now conducted interviews with more than 500 witnesses who have voluntarily cooperated to help the committee track the subplots that fueled the deadly siege.
“Mr. Navarro appears to have information directly relevant to the Select Committee’s investigation into the causes of the January 6th attack on the Capitol,” select panel Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement. “He hasn’t been shy about his role in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and has even discussed the former President’s support for those plans.”
Like Trump allies subpoenaed before him, Navarro in a statement called the panel’s investigation a “witch hunt.” Navarro also attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, several Republicans, including former Vice President Mike Pence, and the committee, calling them “terrorists.”
Navarro leaned on former President Trump’s previous executive privilege claims, signaling his lack of interest to cooperate. “President Trump has invoked Executive Privilege; and it is not my privilege to waive,” he said in his statement. However, Trump lost a related case on that effort before the Supreme Court earlier this year.
The committee said public reports and Navarro’s own book details how he was involved in efforts to delay Congress’s certification of President Biden’s win, as well as overturn the results.
Navarro also reportedly worked with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and others to develop efforts to delay that certification process, the panel said. In Navarro’s book, he described it as the “Green Bay Sweep” as the “last, best chance to snatch a stolen election from the Democrats’ jaws of deceit.”
Thompson, in his letter to Navarro, quoted from Navarro’s In Trump Time: My Journal of America’s Plague Year released last year. He also noted that Navarro said in an interview that Trump was “on board” with the effort, along with “more than 100” members of Congress.
The committee also said Navarro released a three-part report called the “Navarro Report” on his website that shared misinformation and ties to false claims of election fraud.
“And, because you discussed these and other relevant issues in your recently published book, in interviews with reporters, and, among other places, on a podcast, we look forward to discussing them with you,” Thompson said.
The panel is asking Navarro to turn over documents in two weeks, by Feb. 23, and testify three weeks from today on March 2.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
For the third consecutive year, Democratic Rep. Kamia Brown has introduced the Crown Act. The legislation, which has been signed into law in 14 states, prohibits race-based hair discrimination. Florida is not one of those states.
Brown believes the measure keeps failing because of Florida’s Republican controlled legislature, who she said doesn’t have an appetite to learn more about the importance of this sort of legislation. But, Brown is making a third attempt at getting it passed this year by trying to break it up. “Typically, when we have brought it before the house in the Senate, it has dealt with prohibiting discrimination, in education, in our housing market, as well as in our workplace,” said Brown. “So this year, the bill looks a tad bit different with only focusing education.”
HB 1253 prohibits discrimination based on protected hairstyle in Florida K through 20 in public education systems. As a black woman raising a black son, Rep. Brown feels it’s important embrace one’s natural state. “We know the importance and the health component of us wearing our hair in our natural state. It’s a part of our culture. And I think it’s important that we look to reduce many of the misnomers, the lack of education, and even the biases and discrimination that comes along with hair. It is majority the other culture, and primarily white culture, that looks to judge us based off of a hair type or a hair shape,” Brown said.
As a working mom, sometimes my priorities shift. It’s always so wonderful meeting with people from across the state, but I am so eternally grateful for the time I get with my little guy. #housetot #legislativebaby pic.twitter.com/9z2KmgHps9
— Kamia Brown (@kamiabrownfl45) February 9, 2022
According to the 2021 Dove Crown Study by the National Crown Coalition, 86% of Black teens who experience discrimination say they’ve experienced discrimination based on their hair by the age of 12.
“A student in Orlando, some years ago, a young lady who wore her hair in its natural state, a curly afro, and she was told that her hair was too big, and that she would be getting expelled from school until her and her parents changed the style of her hair,” Brown said. ” So, we are having a lot of problems within our K through 20 schools, and more so in our K through 12. And so myself, along with Senator Bracy, have looked to work here from a state perspective to change those outcomes.”
Although the legislation Brown introduced this year only focuses on schools, if it passes, she hopes to then get protections for natural hair in the workplace. “With breaking up the bill. It helps us to focus on one section of law to really talk about and change, ” Brown explained. “I know in the past a lot of the hesitation from our leadership dealt specifically with the workforce component and being a business owner or private business owner. Do we violate certain rights of that business or bring in additional or unnecessary lawsuits to that particular business.”
Brown said there’s still hope for the bill even though it has yet to be heard. Brown urges supporters of this legislation to reach out to the committee and request a hearing.
Wildlife agencies said Wednesday a new effort to provide starving manatees in the Indian River Lagoon with supplemental lettuce likely will be a long-term one.
The agencies say the feedings likely will continue next winter, as the water quality problems and seagrass losses ailing manatees in the Indian River Lagoon will not be resolved anytime soon.
Sarah Barrett of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says the agencies are providing some 20,000 pounds of produce a week for the cold-sensitive manatees.
“We did have cabbage a couple weeks ago, and we found that the animals were not as enticed by it as the romaine and butterleaf. So we’ve continued with those two varieties, and they seem to be eating those very well.”
The agencies say they have spent some $18,000 on the produce. They say most of the cost is supported by donations to the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida.
The agencies say it’s too soon to tell whether the supplement lettuce is preventing more deaths.
Hundreds of the cold-sensitive manatees have gathered recently at a Cape Canaveral power plant, where the agencies are providing the lettuce.
Tom Reinert of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says because the effort is unprecedented, the agencies aren’t sure how to define success.
“We may never know because there are a lot of confounding factors. Climatic conditions are not the same from year to year, so it will be difficult to tell how much of an effect, if it’s measurable.”
A record 1,100 manatees died last year in Florida.
Dollywood employees looking to further their education will soon be eligible for free tuition, books and fees for select programs.
The initiative, announced Tuesday, will fund educational costs for all full-time, part-time and seasonal employees of the Dolly Parton resort in Tennessee and other subsidiaries of parent company Herschend Enterprises, which include the Harlem Globetrotters and the Newport Aquarium in Kentucky.
The program, open to the company’s 11,000 employees, will officially launch on Feb. 24, the company says.
“Whether it’s to pursue a new dream or advance their career with us, we care about our employees’ personal and professional growth,” said Herschend Enterprises CEO Andrew Wexler. ” … We believe that their futures should be grown with love, not loans.”
The initiative, dubbed “Herschend’s Grow U.,” offers eligible employees free access to more than 100 fully funded diploma, degree and certificate programs offered through Guild’s Learning Marketplace. Business administration, finance, technology and marketing are among the programs offered.
The company will provide employees up to $5,250 per year for additional programs in fields including engineering, hospitality, art design and human resources.
“With this program, Herschend is preparing its workforce for the jobs of the future with new skills and mobility opportunities, said Natalie McCullough, president and chief commercial officer of Guild Education.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
A walk in the park may be just what the doctor ordered.
A new program launched last month in Canada gives some doctors the option of providing patients with a free annual pass to the country’s national parks as part of an effort to increase access to nature and the health benefits to be found outside.
ParkRx, a health initiative launched by the BC Parks Foundation in 2019, partnered with Parks Canada to provide doctors across four provinces with an initial run of 100 passes that can be prescribed, The Washington Post reported. The typical park prescription program allows doctors to write more general prescriptions for time spent out in nature; two hours a week, at least 20 minutes at a time, is what PaRx director Dr. Melissa Lem suggests, according to the Post.
This is the first time that year-long passes to national parks have been available under the program, the outlet reported.
“Given the growing body of evidence that indicates nature time can improve all kinds of different physical and mental health conditions, we’re hoping that our PaRx program not only improves patient health, but reduces costs to the healthcare system, and helps to grow the number of people who are more engaged environmental advocates,” Prama Rahman, a coordinator for the BC Parks Foundation’s Healthy By Nature Program, told NPR in an email.
It’s a unique concept, one that’s been taking off locally as well as abroad. In the U.S., a group of parks professionals, health care providers, and community leaders worked together to form the National ParkRx Initiative around 10 years ago. The movement still lives on via ParkRx, its website and online resource for information on park prescriptions and the health benefits of nature.
Research has long pointed to the mental and physical health benefits of spending time outdoors. A 2019 study concluded that those who spent between 120 minutes or more outside per week reported positive effects on their general health and well-being when compared to those who didn’t get outside at all.
Doctors have been catching on; more and more providers have been instructing their patients to turn to nature to improve their health and they’re getting creative in how they do it.
Dr. Robert Zarr, a pediatrician based in Washington, D.C., began prescribing accessible outdoor activities for his young patients and even created a searchable online database of local parks to make it easier, NPR reported in 2014.
But getting outside isn’t always as easy as it might sound. Income can affect one’s access to nature, an issue that PaRx is trying to address in Canada. Doctors utilizing the new national parks pass program are urged to prioritize patients who might not otherwise be able to afford these passes, The Post reported.
While only 100 adult discovery passes – which gives holders access to more than 80 national parks, historic sites and nature reserves – have initially been made available, organizers plan to routinely reassess this number as the program grows, the BC Parks Foundation told NPR.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
Actor Troy Kotsur is drawing a new wave of praise for his work in the film CODA, after he was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar on Tuesday. Kotsur joins co-star Marlee Matlin as the only deaf actors ever to be nominated for an Oscar.
“So proud of my co-star/friend!” Matlin said via Twitter, after the nominees were announced. Matlin won an Oscar for Children of a Lesser God in 1986.
“HOLY S***,” director Sian Heder tweeted, as she described the excitement at her house. “And this is such a dream!”
Kotsur’s nomination is the latest step on CODA‘s charmed journey. Last year, the film vaulted from a successful premiere at the Sundance Film Festival to land a distribution deal with Apple.
The Oscar nod is Kotsur’s second major honor in recent days. After the British Academy Film Awards announced his supporting-actor nomination last week, an exultant Kotsur fell out of his chair celebrating.
CODA’s title stands for Child of Deaf Adults. And while that could be seen as a thumbnail sketch of its plot, it doesn’t account for the subtlety and emotional power that has drawn audiences in.
Kotsur plays Frank Rossi, whose daughter, Ruby (Emilia Jones), is the lone non-deaf member of their immediate family. The film depicts Ruby’s growing love for music — and the possibility that her passion for singing will take her far from her family’s life, which revolves around a fishing business in Gloucester, Mass.
“He’s kinda like a papa bear,” Kotsur told NPR in an interview last year.
The actor also said that one of the scenes in CODA resembles something that happened with his own daughter.
“A long time ago when she was in kindergarten, she sang for a class performance” he said. “I asked, ‘Can I just kind of feel your neck?’ And it was very cute. And then all those years later, the movie CODA was a real flashback where I did the same thing.”
Kotsur, 53, was born deaf and grew up in Mesa, Ariz. He attended Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., before launching into an acting career on the stage, on TV and in films. His previous credits include a Broadway turn in “Big River: The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn.”
Kotsur told NPR’s Mandalit del Barco that his love for acting was sparked at a young age, when he watched the first Star Wars movie in the 1970s.
“It was so visual, the costumes, it just blew me away,” he said. “I watched it again and again. And it got me hoping that someday I could make a movie.”
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
The Florida Department of Education says Seniors can continue to use a combination of SAT and ACT scores to graduate.
Not all of this year’s Senior class got to take the statewide 10th grade English language arts standardized test as it was canceled the first time due to COVID.
The Florida Department of Education has voted once again to allow students to use other scores to determine whether a student can graduate.
Department Commissioner Juan Copa says that includes SAT and ACT results.
“So again, this one year delay is targeted specifically towards those students that were directly impacted by the cancellation of those assessments in spring of 2020, and is consistent with the compassion and grace that’s been extended to Florida students over the last two years.”
The board also voted to allow other assessments to be used in place of the statewide English as a Second Language standardized test.
“In the absence of a state of emergency, the State Board does not have the authority to waive completely assessment requirements for graduation. Those are statutorily required. However, the State Board does have the authority to use concordant scores and the implementation of those new scores. So again, this one year delay is targeted specifically towards those students that were directly impacted by the cancellation of those assessments in spring of 2020. And is consistent with the compassion and grace that’s been extended to Florida students over the last two years.”
A combination of progress reports, quizzes and tests, student portfolios and summer language programs are all acceptable alternatives.
Fourty of 49 SpaceX Starlink satellites launched last week were impacted by what’s called a geomagnetic storm on their way to an orbit about 130 miles above Earth, preventing them from reaching their intended orbital altitude.
The phenomenon is caused by solar winds — charged particles expelled by our Sun — which increases the temperature and density of the atmosphere, making it difficult for the satellites “fly” through the atmosphere and reach their intended orbit.
The group of satellites launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket last week form Kennedy Space Center. The company deploys these satellites into a lower orbit to perform diagnostics on the Starlink satellites shortly after launch. Once given the green light, they fire thrusters to raise their altitudes to their final orbit.
But the atmospheric conditions of the storm in Earth’s magnetosphere “significantly impacted” the satellites. Despite efforts to shield the vehicles from the effects of the storm, most of the satellites launched last week were unable able to reach their final destination. Atmospheric drag will lower their altitudes and the satellites will burn up in the atmosphere on their way back to Earth.
SpaceX says there’s no risk these falling satellites will impact other payloads in orbit and the company doesn’t expect any debris to hit Earth.
Starlink is a planned constellation of thousands of satellites to blanket the globe with high-speed internet access.
Just before Christmas, a right-wing journalist named Ben Bergquam became seriously ill with COVID-19.
“My Christmas gift was losing my [sense of] taste and smell and having a 105 degree fever, and just feeling like garbage,” Bergquam said in a Facebook video that he shot as he lay in a California hospital.
“It’s scary. When you can’t breathe, it’s not a fun place to be,” he said.
Bergquam told his audience he wasn’t vaccinated, despite having had childhood asthma, a potentially dangerous underlying condition. Instead, he held up a bottle of the drug ivermectin. Almost all doctors do not recommend taking ivermectin for COVID, but many individuals on the political right believe that it works.
The details revealed in Bergquam’s video provide a rare view into the prescription of an unproven COVID-19 therapy. Data shows that prescriptions for drugs like ivermectin have surged in the pandemic, but patient-doctor confidentiality often obscures exactly who is handing out the drugs.
Bergquam’s testimonial provides new and troubling details about a small group of physicians who are willing to eschew the best COVID-19 treatments and provide alternative therapies made popular by disinformation — for a price.
Ivermectin is usually prescribed to treat parasitic worms, and best medical evidence to date shows that it doesn’t work against COVID-19. The Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, American Medical Association and two pharmaceutical societies all discourage prescribing ivermectin for COVID-19, and many doctors and hospitals will not give it to patients who are seeking treatment.
But fueled by conspiracy theories about vaccine safety and alternative treatments, many on the political right incorrectly believe ivermectin is a secret cure-all for COVID. As millions of Americans fell ill with COVID last summer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported ivermectin prescriptions were at 24 times pre-pandemic levels. The agency says prescriptions again rose during the latest omicron surge.
A significant number of these prescriptions come from a small minority of doctors who are willing to write them, often using telemedicine to do so, according to Kolina Koltai, a misinformation researcher at the University of Washington. The same doctors frequently promote anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.
“They’re profiting off misinformation, using their medical expertise as currency,” she says.
A look into the world of unproven COVID treatments Bergquam told his audience he got his ivermectin from a group known as America’s Frontline Doctors. Their leader, Doctor Simone Gold, is currently facing multiple charges related to her role in the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. She is well known for spreading anti-vaccine propaganda, and she also tells audiences across the country to give her a call for prescriptions of unproven drugs like ivermectin. Her group charges $90 for the call, and Koltai believes the prescriptions are among its primary sources of income.
“I would reckon that telehealth and telemedicine is one of the major income-generating streams for America’s Frontline Doctors,” she says.
Last year, online publication The Intercept published a story based on hacked documents, which showed the group was potentially making millions by selling thousands of prescriptions (Gold denies that story in public speeches, saying that the hack did not in fact occur).
In his video Bergquam thanked the frontline doctors repeatedly for prescribing him ivermectin. In doing so, he revealed the name of the licensed doctor writing the prescription: Kathleen Ann Cullen.
Cullen, 54, is based out of Florida and has a troubling history of medical practice. She spent most of last year under investigation by the State of Alabama, which eventually revoked her medical license in November, two months before Berquam entered the hospital. The cause was her involvement in a separate telemedicine company, according to E. Wilson Hunter, general counsel at the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners.
“She was working with a telemedicine company and was utilizing her medical license to further their ability to generate billable events, without actually providing healthcare to the patients,” he says.
In other words, Cullen was ordering a battery of expensive genetic tests remotely, without ever seeing or even speaking to the patients she was testing. It was so bad, Hunter says, that she was ordering prostate cancer screenings for female patients, who do not have prostates.
The company Dr. Cullen was working for at the time was called Bronson Medical LLC. It no longer has a functioning website, and its owner pleaded guilty in 2020 to federal healthcare fraud charges.
When the Alabama board confronted Cullen, she failed to produce the patient records.
“At the hearing she knew nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing, understood nothing and did not take responsibility for her actions,” Hunter says.
These are not the only blemishes on her record. Cullen’s medical license in Kansas was suspended for failure to pay fees. And her American Board of Internal Medicine certification has lapsed (the board declined to say when the lapse occurred).
In pandemic, dubious prescriptions continue Despite these problems, Cullen still has active medical licenses in North Carolina and Florida. It appears she is now using those medical licenses to prescribe ivermectin on behalf of America’s Frontline Doctors.
“Where’s the accountability in all of that?,” says Ashley Bartholomew, a nurse who’s with the organization No License For Disinformation, a group of medical professionals who are trying to force medical boards to take action in cases like these.
Bartholomew was the first to notice Cullen’s name on the bottle. She said the entire video made her nervous, because Ben Bergquam appeared to be bringing in his own outside medication to a hospital setting:
“Is the nurse aware he’s also taking these prescribed medications from this doctor in Florida while he’s a hospitalized patient? And is his team of doctors aware? And is the pharmacy aware?” she asks.
Even if they were, she worries the video — which has 23,000 views on Facebook — will encourage others to bring in outside meds, increasing their risk for complications.
NPR contacted Bergquam, Cullen and America’s Frontline Doctors, and none provided comment for this article.
As for the states where she still holds a license, public records show the Florida Department of Health has filed two administrative complaints, but her licence is listed as clear and active on their website. They did not respond to repeated requests for comment. The North Carolina Medical Board meanwhile would not confirm whether an investigation was underway, but Brian Blankenship, the board’s deputy general counsel, says that investigations take time: “State Agencies have to give people due process rights based on evidence,” he says.
“How many patients have to suffer?” Cullen’s case is somewhat unusual. The Federation of State Medical Boards says its data show that 94% of doctors have licenses in just one or two states. The federation runs a database that helps notify states when disciplinary action is taken.
“Within a day after cataloging and categorizing the disciplinary order, we’ll share with other states and territories,” says Humayun Chaudhry, the federation’s president.
But often states must conduct their own, sometimes lengthy investigations. To streamline that process, Chaudhry says that his organization is also encouraging states to adopt a new “Interstate Medical Licensure Compact,” that when signed into law allows states to see when investigations are started against a physician, although only for physicians who seek licensure through the compact.
For Ashley Bartholomew, the nurse fighting disinformation, this case shows just how broken America’s medical licensing apparatus is. Cullen has already lost her license for poor telehealth practices, and yet a tangle of state medical boards, laws, and procedures continues to allow her to write prescriptions for questionable treatments.
“How many patients have to suffer from disinformation,” Bartholomew asks, “until we actually have action?”
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This month’s bomb threats against more than a dozen HBCUs, including 2 in Florida, are being blamed on minors who have connections to a violent Neo-Nazi group. Edward Waters University’s president says political discourse around critical race theory is radicalizing people.
This week, representatives of #FBI #Jacksonville, @JSOPIO, @CISAgov, @USAO_MDFL and @ewctigers worked to identify ways to expand our partnerships and enhance measures to keep students and staff safe. This kind of ongoing communication is key to protecting the community. pic.twitter.com/Fs8RzJP85A
— FBI Jacksonville (@FBIJacksonville) February 8, 2022
Early reports from the FBI suggest six minors carried out the bomb threats at HBCUs across the country, including Florida’s Bethune-Cookman University and Edward Waters University.
Edward Waters University President A. Zachary Faison Jr. blames rhetoric around critical race theory for the radicalization of these young people.
“This is rooted in many respects out of ignorance. And ignorance not necessarily in a pejorative sense. But in the literal sense. That our young people are not being exposed to the history, and not being exposed to truth when it comes to these matters of race.”
He says attacks like these are just another reason why American history should be taught in all its truth.
“As ironic as it might seem, the fact that we’re having that discussion around how we should teach our young people and what we should teach our young people and the connection and proximity to that with the fact that this heinous, heinous act is being committed by reported young persons was particularly alarming for me, and I’m sure for many of us.”
Faison says he’s hopeful the perpetrators’ ages won’t soften the response to the crime.
Critical race theory has been banned in seven states so far including Florida.