The Florida Roundup - 2023: Florida’s year in review

Episode Date: December 29, 2023

This week on The Florida Roundup, we look back at some of the biggest Sunshine State stories of 2023, including: Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign (01:44) and other political news (10:27); changes in public education (19:11); record heat (37:10); Hurricane Idalia and rising home insurance rates (40:46).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being along with us this week. 2023 sounded a little bit like this in Florida. We are kind of melting the servers. Well, I am running for president of the United States. In Miami, former President Donald Trump is now officially a criminal defendant. Chaos is Speaker McCarthy. Our standards do not teach that slavery was beneficial. The disgusting, obscene pornography that is in some of the books that are being read.

There is irony in banning books when so many of the greatest works of literature warn us of the repercussions of doing so. We are going to make the decisions not to be judging people on the basis of group identity, but on their individual merit. Heat index values could reach as high as 115 degrees places like Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, and Santa Rosa Island. It's the most water I've ever seen here. It's like a river in the road. For the first time in a long time, we're seeing zero percent rate increase requests. A governor running for president, a former president indicted in Florida on criminal charges, a Florida man leading the way to kick out the U.S. House speaker, book banning in African-American history, crowding the debate over public education,

a sweltering summer. Yes, one hurricane housing affordability challenges insurance through the roof and a banner year in sports, mostly just some of what we will tackle in the coming hour with Mary Ellen class with Bloomberg opinion, Kimberly Leonard with Politico and Scott Maxwell columnist with the Orlando Sentinel. Let's start on social media because after all, that's where Governor Ron DeSantis started his presidential campaign in May on what was then still called Twitter. All right. Sorry about that. We we've got so many people here that I think we are we are kind of melting the servers, which is a good sign. Well, maybe not such a great sign. It was a let's call it a glitchy start. Well, I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback.

The governor's campaign has been about as smooth since then as it was at its beginning. Mary Ellen, let's start with the governor deciding to run for president. Why did he make that decision after a resounding reelection a couple of years ago? Well, I think that ever since the governor came off of the COVID pandemic, he had gotten lots of national attention for his sort of opposition approach to the vaccines and to masking and to school closures. And so he had this great momentum. And so his team had said, if the governor wins reelection by a substantial margin, he is likely to run for president. And at the time, the governor was pretty confident that Donald Trump's numbers were in decline and that he would be a better have a

better chance of ascending to the GOP nomination. As we have watched, all of that has changed. And his calculus was not only wrong, but his instincts were bad. And and here we are with him running and Donald Trump running and both of them on a collision course with Ron DeSantis, the likely victim. Yeah. Is that crash? Scott, there's an Internet meme with two visuals. One is how it started. And the second one is how is it going? It has not been going very well for the governor, has it? It has not been going very well for the governor, has it? No. In fact, yeah, as you mentioned, the debut made Donald Trump's escalator ride look classy and flawless. And it's only been downhill then. And I got to tell you, it's he's done worse than I expected. As Mary Ellen mentioned, he had such a commanding victory.

I think his team, which is largely sort of a troll group of folks, thought they were going to be able to take their anti-woke, anti-CRT mindset on a national level and enjoy the same success. But what they have run into is that most Americans don't understand what the hell they're talking about. And they start to go, why is this guy constantly fighting with Mickey Mouse? And why when he's asked about insurance premiums or education, does he start talking about wokeism and critical race theory? I think a lot of Americans are saying it doesn't really make sense to them. And keep in mind, we're talking about Republicans. But if they are Republican who really want a lot of culture

warring, they already have their guy. It's Donald Trump and he they haven't shown much of a willingness to abandon him for dissing. Yeah, Kimberly, it hasn't been so much a battle about Florida ideology encompassed by Governor DeSantis in his first term in office as opposed to just a clash of personalities in the Republican Party. Well, that's some of it. But I also think that the Trump campaign has been surprisingly very organized, very straightforward with the way that they've gone after DeSantis. I mean, when he waited to run for office, they were running ads about him opposing Medicare and Social Security. And I was seeing that show up in focus groups that Republicans were then turning around and saying, hang on, he's the guy who's against these programs. were then turning around and saying, hang on, he's the guy who's against these programs. And so they have, you know, been sort of meticulous about how they have cast the governor. And so even before he got into the race, you know, I think, I think certainly he has had a flawed strategy by trying to wrestle Trump's base from him. But also, the fact that the Trump campaign has really been able to draw their

contrast and paint a picture of DeSantis has worked for them. Mary Ellen, it's been said that it's impossible to out-Trump Trump. And that seems to have been the governor's kind of strategy going into his presidential campaign back in May. Yeah, exactly. I mean, that is why I think his instincts were so flawed. He thought that the way to win the Republican nomination was to be just a mini Trump. And his argument was, I can do everything that he promised, except that I have evidence

that we've accomplished it in Florida. That argument is flawed for many reasons because Florida is not the rest of the nation. The governor has a complicit legislature. He implemented things in a way that wasn't good. You know, they've been challenged. They've been thrown. Many of his ideas have been thrown out. And so he thought that this would be the argument that would take him over the, you know, into into the into Milwaukee when they have their their convention next year. It hasn't worked out that way.

No, it hasn't. He's he has a tough enough time getting out of Des Moines, Iowa, let alone making it all the way to Milwaukee in some time in the summer of 2024. The governor, of course, and the rest of the GOP presidential contenders have been trailing the former president, who's avoided all direct encounters with his rivals, at least on the campaign trail. President Trump has skipped all of the Republican debates, including the one that was held this year in South Florida. But he was in Miami in June for a historic appearance. but he was in Miami in June for a historic appearance. Here in Miami, the president, presumably now in the building, released the garage where he will face this arraignment.

I'm checking my watch. About nine minutes of now is the scheduled time. It is just after 3.30 p.m. in the east, and we are here in Miami witnessing history unfold in this federal courthouse behind me. Former President Donald Trump is now officially a criminal defendant. A Florida grand jury indicted the former president on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Palm Beach home. Kimberly, four indictments now against the former president, one of them here in Florida. They've not hurt his popularity with Florida

Republicans, however. No, they've helped him. And I think that, you know, not I think the polling shows that there's this rally around effect that Trump is benefiting from. And so I think the big question heading into 2024 is, is he going to see that same surge if, you know, he is found guilty of a lot of these charges. And we'll see, right? I mean, we know that the January 6 hearings on Capitol Hill did harm Trump's popularity. So it'll be interesting to see what happens as a result of the upcoming cases, some of which are scheduled to be heard here in Florida. Yeah, Scott, the former president led the charge, of course, on the big lie that the election was stolen. It was not. It helped lead to changes to Florida voting laws, including an elections police force. Ironically or not, some of the voting charges that have come out of the 2020 campaign in Florida have been coming from central Florida with Republicans.

campaign in Florida have been coming from central Florida with Republicans. Yeah, that is right. There has been a, I think there were 20 arrests that the governor announced the first time when he had his state elections force. Most of those were in Democratic areas, more urban areas. A lot of them were darker skinned folks. Some of those cases have fallen apart. However, ones that did not fall apart where there's been five now in the villages. And these were people who've already admitted guilt to voting twice versus another one who was convicted of sealing in a ballot for his father. The governor doesn't talk about those very often. They've mostly gotten off with slaps on the wrist, including community service, which in one case, they were even able

to buy out their community service hours for $10 an hour, which I didn't know. That's for sale. I didn't realize that was for sale, too. Yeah. So land by the gallon and community service by the dollar. Yeah. So I think I don't think there's any objective what you can't agree with those who say this was more about trying to intimidate certain people from voting, probably for Democratic, poorer and minority voters, because the widespread fraud certainly hasn't panned out in accusation wise. And the handful of cases we have seen have been a lot of them been white Republicans who've gotten their hands slapped and then gone about their merry way. Mary Ellen, despite the indictments or perhaps because of them, Florida's congressional Republican delegation, many of them have chosen a side already in this presidential election with the former president.

How how is his influence with the Florida congressional delegation? Well, it was interesting because he has invited many of them over to Mar-a-Lago. There was an infamous picture earlier this fall where he had most of the Republican congressional delegation at his table. And these are the same people that the DeSantis campaign has been, you know, courting for months. And their arrival at Mar-a-Lago was the evidence that they had sided, they had taken sides with Donald Trump. And that's not, that should not have come as a big surprise to anybody. But the dynamic has made Florida this intensive battleground that really reflects the internal division within the Republican Party itself. Yeah, it's interesting, right? It's no longer a blue versus red battleground, but it's a red versus deep red battleground. the massive influence of the continuing Trump campaign. So what we're seeing playing out in Florida is really happening on a national scale. And it doesn't look like it's going to be easily

resolved. Even if Trump wins the nomination, I think we're going to continue to see some fallout from this internal bickering. Marilyn Klaus writes for Bloomberg Opinion. She is along with us as we look back at the year that was here in 2023 in Florida. Kimberly Leonard writes for Politico. And Scott Maxwell is a columnist with the Orlando Sentinel. In Washington, a Florida congressman led the way this year for a different historic moment. This one was kicking out a sitting U.S. speaker. Republican Matt Gaetz ushered this effort along to remove Kevin McCarthy from that leadership

position. I don't think voting against Kevin McCarthy is chaos. I think $33 trillion in debt is chaos. I think that facing a $2.2 trillion annual deficit is chaos. I think that not passing single-subject spending bills is chaos. I think the fact that we have been governed in this country since the mid 90s by continuing resolution and omnibus is chaos. Well, Gates got chaos for days as House Republicans struggled to agree on a new speaker in Washington. And when they did, they still got Mary Ellen continuing resolution on spending, which expires in January. None of what Matt Gaetz said led to his leading the ouster of Kevin McCarthy has come to fruition. Right. And as we watch, there just continues to be

more chaos within Congress. And that has caused potential problems, especially as the international crises evolve. In this time, we've had the horror that's been happening in Gaza and Israel. And and that really made it difficult for. For, I think, Congress to respond quickly when needed. And it's been hamstringing governing, essentially. Yeah. Scott, the maneuver certainly helped raise the national profile of Florida's first congressional representative, Matt Gaetz. Yeah. And I think anybody who's watched him for any period of time, as I know, Mary Lynn, and I think Kimberly have even back to his days in the legislature, knows that with Matt Gaetz, it is all about Matt Gaetz. And that is what came out of this.

It was not a better governing governor, governor, excuse me, government. It was not a leaner or meaner or more conservative, but it was a process in which Matt Gaetz was at the center. in so many situations, it's because of these individual districts. And Matt Gaetz could probably, you know, do whatever he wanted in the center of Main Street and be elected by a landslide in that House district. He is extremely safe. He enjoys the chaos. If anybody's watched him, he sort of thrives in it. And there's not really going to be any payback for him. He got his moment and his heightened recognition. Kimberly, how has all of this affected the influence of the Florida delegation of Republicans, which is a pretty big voting block on Capitol Hill and their influence in the House?

Yeah, well, I mean, they had that one instance, but, you know, they still don't have any leadership on any of these committees. And we had a story in Politico that was about that, how they still you you know, how they're so big, how, yes, there was the Gates situation. But then, you know, there's still nobody chairing any of these committees. So it does wane that influence. But I think one of the things that the Gates kerfuffle, I guess you could say, did was really get chatter going about the governor's race, actually, for 2026. And whether or not Gates is interested in that. Well, and not only that, but then we started asking other people who are sort of on the short list and they started saying, yes, I'm interested. I'm interested, you know, just to keep their names in the in the conversation.

Yeah. All the whispering for let's get through 2024 before we get to 2026. Let's get through 2024 before we get to 2026. So the only in Florida story next year, a beloved American icon, an economic engine entangled with a governor, accusations of corporate cronyism, insider dealmaking, the top ethics regulator breaking its own rules, and then an oversight board member married to the state GOP chairman involved in a consensual three way adult sexual affair. All of this is the Disney and Governor DeSantis saga. Being joined at the hip with this one California-based company was not something that was justifiable or sustainable. And so we said we're going to do something about it. And so now Disney is going to be treated like SeaWorld is treated or like any of these others.

All right, Scott Maxwell, this is in your backyard. What an eventful year. Where to start with all of this? Yeah, that's a great question. Where to start? And one thing I would say you start with is that there were a lot of people who never thought Disney should have had their own private government. And I would be one of them. There are people here in Orlando who thought that. Let me tell you who did think Disney should have their own private government. Ron DeSantis and virtually every single Republican in the Florida legislature. These guys were bosom buddies. They funded each other's campaigns. They did special favors. I mean, it's been well documented that DeSantis' staff helped work with Disney to exempt them from the social media crap that was going on Facebook and Twitter, going so far as to say that all companies that had media platforms would have to abide by these

new draconian laws unless you happen to own a theme park. Even the Republican judge in the case of what that doesn't make any sense. So they used to do lots of favors for each other. But then Disney had the audacity to sort of be pressured by us and some others into speaking against the don't say gay. And most importantly, in my mind, announced they were cutting off these politicians financially. And I think that's really what ticked off the governor and a lot of the Republicans. It is making its way through court still and will be a legal and political issue in 2024, as Governor DeSantis has used it on the campaign trail with his presidential ambitions. Speaking of next year, what are you

looking forward to in the new year? Email us the story you're eager to tell or the story you want to hear. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Elections, education, the environment, home insurance, affordability, inflation, interest rates, radio at TheFloridaRoundup.org. While 2023 has been quite the year, still to come on this program as we continue to take a look back, books, black history, and a new, new college. You're listening to The Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Welcome back to the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. We're looking back at some of the big stories this year in Florida. Thanks for being along with us and Happy New Year. back at some of the big stories this year in Florida. Thanks for being along with us and happy new year. Florida leads the country in removing books from school libraries, according to the free expression advocacy group, Pan America. School boards across the state heard from parents, students, teachers, and residents all year long about what is and what is not appropriate.

Tony Morrison's book, The Bluest Eye, was taken off the shelves in Pinellas County schools early this year. Student Hannah Ippolito spoke at a February school board meeting. There is irony in banning books when so many of the greatest works of literature warn us of the repercussions of doing so. The book was back and available for high school students by the spring. In June, the Leon County School Board was debating a much different book after a parent complained. As I was reading the book, I had no issue with the book at all

until it got to the one page in question. This is Leon County School Board member Lori Lawson Cox. The page in question was in the book I Am Billie Jean King by Brad Meltzer. We all know that she was gay and don't have a problem with that. Don't even have a problem with it saying that.

But then when I read that it goes on to describe what gay is, that if you're a girl, that you love and have romantic feelings for another girl. And if you're a boy, that you love and have romantic feelings for another boy. The board ultimately voted to keep the book in the library since it was not used in classroom instruction. Almost 80 books have been removed from Charlotte County schools. Christine Carlomeni of Gulf Cove was one of those attending an October meeting. LGBTQ plus is a very small minority and you can support them, but the rest of the children do not need to hear the disgusting, obscene pornography that is in some of the books that are being read. School districts

have been under greater scrutiny by parents, regulators, and others because of the parental rights and education law. It bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity for students. So this is where we have arrived as our review of 2023 continues here on the Florida Roundup with Bloomberg Opinion. Mary Ellen Kloss is still with us. Scott Maxwell with the Orlando Sentinel and Kimberly Leonard writes for Politico. Scott, why do you think there's still confusion about how schools implement this parental rights and education law and this debate over whether or not a book is appropriate, age

appropriate in a school library? I think that is a wonderful question. And the reason is because that is absolutely the intention of this law. It is a chaos creation law. The State Department of Education, the governor's office very specifically have not said specifically what should be banned. And I mean that like there's been challenges of books like a children's book and Tango makes three. It's a it's a illustrated book about penguins. And you go to FDOE and you say, does this violate the state statutes?

Should should kids be able to allow to read this book? They will not answer that question because that is the intent in my estimation anyway. Because if you wanted to have clear guidelines, you would answer them. You would tell people. But the idea is to make media people and teachers pull things from the shelves. And they do so by these anecdotes, sort of like what you just heard from some of the sound clips just a moment ago. They're pretty misrepresentative. I talked with Orlando author John Green, who's had a number of his books challenged. You know, there are verses of the Bible that talk very specifically about a prostitute who lusted after men with donkey sized genitals. If you were only to read that phrase, you would probably say ban the book.

But most thinking people would say there's something more. But most thinking people would say there's something more. Excuse me, if you were in favor of being books, which I'm not. You would say there's more to the totality of the work. But it's just sort of banning by chaos right now. And that seems to be the intention. And I would say one final point to bring it back to Governor DeSantis. This is another thing that doesn't resonate with the rest of America, that there's a lot of sort of these moms for liberty warriors who are having big fun here in Florida, but it's not playing well throughout the country. At one point, there was a school district that spoke publicly about the possibility that

Shakespeare may have to be banned. And there the Department of Education stepped in and was explicit and said, no, Shakespeare actually is OK, is age appropriate. Mary Ellen, you've watched this debate over public education for a good long time. It's been a brew of policy, politics, and personality for decades. Has this chapter been any different, do you think? This chapter has been different. And I think the primary reason is that it is not about, you know, before there used to be, how are we going to influence schools? It is now an effort to control how people think and what is acceptable thinking. And, you know,

we have often watched as we've had debates over how we divide up the money and support public education. We have not seen this kind of, you know, legislating and codifying mind control in many ways. It began with the push on AP, African American History course. It has now, you know, and morphed into the gender discussion. The fact is that most of these gender discussions were not even happening in K through third grade when they passed the initial parental rights and education law. But it was just the threat of that. And it was used by, I think, an extremist component of the Republican Party, and they wanted to control and use this as a way to gain strength and power. And, you know,

we have people using, you know, the education commissioner, Manny Diaz, said, we do not accept woke indoctrination as education. Well, what does that mean? Of course, parents would disagree with woke indoctrination as education. Of any indoctrination. Of any indoctrination. But as Scott said, they intentionally choose to make it vague. And that's had a chilling effect all throughout the school system from kindergarten through our higher education programs. The Prager, the one who founded these videos, he has actually said these videos are about indoctrination. Yeah, that that that is his that is his direct quote, what they are for.

And I think if parents were to look at some of these cartoons that have been now sort of greenlit by Florida to go into public classrooms where Christopher Columbus has asked questions like, hey, why did you put black people making them be slaves? And Christopher Columbus says, at least we didn't kill them. I don't think that is the kind of thing that most parents would say. No, that you're killing it with my kids history lesson. Yeah, the PragerU videos have been approved by the Department of Education for some instructional purposes. Kimberly, I do want to ask you about the money in education, because it is substantial in Florida when it's K through 12 public education. A big change this year has led to the expansion of the school voucher program. It had been incremental, but an enormous change in the last 12 months, allowing the parent of a public school child in Florida to take the public tax dollars and move into the private education

environment. Right. And so they can use these vouchers then to, you know, go to a different school. And so it's been a big fight that the, you know, that teachers and teachers unions have been trying to push back on. You know, this is something that Florida Republicans have wanted to do for a long time. But it also fits into this mold, which a lot of these other topics that we're talking about were really policies that the governor is using to run for president. And so he has also, even recently, he said he wanted to implement, quote, universal school choice across the U.S. And so it's just all these different

pieces really, you know, he's trying to use to pave the way, but it's obviously not resonating. you know, he's trying to use to pave the way, but it's obviously not resonating. Let's talk about the curriculum around teaching African-American history. In July, the Department of Education approved new standards. One of those benchmarks states that students will be taught, quote, how slaves develop skills which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit. A lot of controversy around that statement. The chancellor of K-12 public schools, Paul Burns in Florida, rejected the criticism that the new standard suggests enslaved people benefited from slavery. Our standards do not teach that slavery was beneficial. Our standards don't do that. Our standards are factual, objective standards

that really teach the good, the bad, and the ugly. Teachers say the new benchmarks don't go deep enough and wanted the state board to put the standards on hold. Thomas Bugos teaches social studies in Seminole County. Our students deserve to be equipped with comprehensive understanding of our nation's past, even if the history is unpleasant. Now this decision prompted a vice presidential visit to the Sunshine State. Kamala Harris came to Jacksonville. So it is not only misleading, it is false, and it is pushing propaganda. Scott, this rewrite of standards for African-American history in Florida public schools came as the state has a law that bans

teaching history that would make someone feel anguish. Can you connect those two things? I think you absolutely can. And that's the most important aspect of this, in my estimation. I mean, first, the quote, I think, from the chancellor, where he said, do you want to hear about the slavery? He said, the good, bad and the ugly. I mean, take a second to think to think about that. The good that that's you want to make sure that you've got the good of slavery. I think that that that sort of mindset would surprise a lot of people. But when coupled with what you just mentioned, all these restrictions on what you can tell children, including anything that might make them feel guilty about their ancestry or their ethnic heritage.

There's a reason that basically lessons about racism cannot be taught or at least put teachers on caution for teaching about provable things like why more people of color might be arrested or sentenced harshly because it might end up causing guilt or feelings of shame. On one hand, you have the state saying you can't talk about how the lessons of racial imbalance are still permeating our society today. On the other side, you have to say we're going to talk about the good sides of slavery or the beneficial aspects. I think it paints a pretty clear and frankly ugly picture. The debate over education in Florida, not confined to K through 12, Florida's state colleges and universities weren't spared from any of this. One of the biggest stories happened at the state's smallest public universities, New College. Governor DeSantis replaced almost half of the school's trustees back in January. They quickly began following through on a promise to what they called transform the school into a conservative campus. Critics say it was a hostile takeover.

Conservative activist Christopher Ruffo was one of those appointed to the board of trustees. And in late February, the board abolished the school's diversity, equity and inclusion programs. We are going to make the decisions not to be judging people on the basis of group identity, but on their individual merit. In May, then, the governor used the school as a backdrop to sign legislation that eliminates state money for college campus and universities' DEI initiatives. Some of these niche subjects like critical race theory, other types of DEI-infused courses and majors, Florida's getting out of that game. If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to Berkeley. That would be a reference to the University of California at Berkeley. Kimberly Leonard from Politico, how did this happen at New College?

Why New College? Well, he seems to look for opportunities, you know, to be able to make a lot of headlines and to, you know, generate attention and things like that. And for a while, that seemed to be something that really worked well for DeSantis. It's why he was polling so high in, you know, these hypothetical presidential campaign polls, in which he would sort of, quote, you know, troll the libs. And this was just another example of that. But, you know, as he sort of doubled down over time on all of these different pieces, we've seen him lose support from Floridians. Polls show that the coalition

that supported him in 2022, independents, women, Hispanics, we've seen a fall in the last year of their support. You are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. I'm Tom Hudson. We're taking a look back at the news that was in Florida in 2023 with Kimberly Leonard from Politico, Scott Maxwell with Orlando Sentinel, Mary Ellen Klaas with Bloomberg Opinion. Florida's two abortion laws remain in legal limbo as we come to the end of this calendar year. The state Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of a 15-week ban that was approved by lawmakers a couple of years ago. This spring, lawmakers okayed a much more restrictive six-week ban with no exceptions for rape or incest. Republican Jenna Persons Mullica from Fort Myers sponsored this bill. from Fort Myers sponsored this bill. It's a bill that recognizes the importance and value of the life of innocent unborn human beings. Marily Ann Klaas, efforts to put an abortion

question to Florida voters are underway. How have those efforts been influenced by what lawmakers have been doing? Well, I think the effort began as soon as Roe v. Wade was turned over to the states. And they, you know, initially decided that after Ron DeSantis had signed the 15-week abortion ban, that Florida needed to put it in its constitution. So that effort began after the governor ran for reelection, at which time he never said that he never committed to signing a six-week abortion ban. After he'd already made it across the threshold and won reelection, that is when they initiated the six-week abortion ban. And that is, the 15-week ban is still being challenged. The six week ban will be is is being challenged as well.

Everything is sort of waiting on Florida Supreme Court ruling on this. But the the ballot initiative is something that that Florida is probably one of the largest states making this effort. It's happened across the country with some success. this effort. It's happened across the country with some success. And the problem is Florida has a higher 60% threshold. The time to get the petitions in and validated is very, very short. It looks like they're making headway, but we're not sure if it's going to make it. And then the Supreme Court may completely invalidate the language and not even make it an option in this election cycle. Yeah, Kimberly, the political dimension nationally that Mary Ellen alludes to in terms of other state voting, Ohio, which has traditionally

been a battleground state between Republican Democrats, had a successful, abortion supporters will call it a successful vote. Kansas also similar. How is Florida kind of shaping up in this national political dimension around abortion? Well, if it were to make it before voters, it would probably pass just because that's what we've seen, you know, across the country. It seems that Americans overwhelmingly support a certain level of abortion rights. You know, they might not want full-scale California, New Jersey, New York, but they do support a certain level of that. And I think that Republicans are learning sort of the hard way, be careful what you wish for, because they push for the Roe v. Wade to be overturned. And yet, when the question is put before voters, which they were saying, let's make this a democratic process, they are losing that and they are losing elections based on this issue. I mean, Democrats are going to be running on this issue in 2024. Biden will be

running on this issue. State lawmakers, you know, everyone running for Congress, and it does seem to sway voters, even even, you know, in 2022, the red wave that was anticipated across the U.S. didn't happen in large part because Americans came out and said that they wanted to preserve abortion rights. Scott, just 30 seconds. But Kimberly's point there to remember, the Supreme Court put this back to the states and states are deciding now. The Supreme Court put this back to the states and states are deciding now. Yeah, I agree with Kimberly. The Republicans were a little bit like the dog that caught the car on this case because now it has made it an issue. And you mentioned correctly, Kansas. Kansas is really the state that I think freak Florida Republicans out. Kansas is redder than Florida has been. Traditionally, 60 percent of their residents said they wanted to keep it legal. has been traditionally 60% of their residents said they wanted to keep it legal. That freaked out Florida Republicans so much to the extent that they are now trying to push to increase the constitutional amendment threshold to 67%.

That passed in the House. So I think you're going to see those efforts continue. Scott, Kimberly, Mary Ellen, stick with us. Still to come on our roundup of 2023, a record hot summer in Florida. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. We're back on the Florida Roundup. Thanks again for listening and for supporting public radio in your community. I'm Tom Hudson. We are taking a look back at 2023 and it is set to be the warmest year on record. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration says this past November was the hottest in the organization's 174-year global climate record. And ask anybody who lives in Florida how the summer was, it was sweltering. It may have been warmer than usual this season, an intensely hot summer that all of us are going to remember. Last June, in fact, many parts of the state were placed under historic heat alerts. Heat index values could reach as high as 115 degrees through early this evening in the excessive heat warning, which includes places like Pensacola, Gulf Breeze and Santa Rosa Island. 115 in the panhandle. Holy smokes, I'm just sweating thinking about that. That's meteorologist Justin Ballard warning of those life-threatening conditions. Heat warnings

were pretty common in South Florida, Central Florida, all across the peninsula in the Panhandle in those summer months. Mary Ellen Kloss with Bloomberg Opinion is still with us. Scott Maxwell with Orlando Sentinel. Kimberly Leonard with Politico. Mary Ellen, I mean, it was just an enormously hot and oppressive summer. Any response from the state regarding the heat? Not the hurricane, but the heat. Well, you know, there were some nuncalized responses and, you know, the governor didn't exactly call out the National Guard as he does for heat indexes.

Yeah. With other things. It just didn't have that same kind of political cachet. We had people, we had, you know, playgrounds that were off limits because, you know, the Miami Herald did it when it got one of those infrared thermometers and tested the surface of those rubberized playgrounds. And at one point found one of them at 177.9 degrees, just enormously painful. And, you know, this is the kind of thing that there is not much the state can do. You can't even, except to maybe, you know, ratchet up the talk of climate change, which did not happen. Yeah, yeah. There was not a lot of, which strikes me as we're just setting up another conflict between local governments and state governments with state government potentially taking action to stop local governments from from taking any action. Yeah, I think I'm probably on a similar page with Mary Ellen and that I love blaming politicians for all sorts of things.

But I don't know how political we can get with this one. This was just a horrible summer to be in Florida. I think Mary Ellen's been here longer than I have. I've been here about a quarter century, but it was simply miserable. The only thing we did not see is sort of a discussion about sort of the long term effects. And if you want to start to think about things like that have pocketbook issues, insurance. This is this is one of the impacts that I think it's sort of the elephant in the room. But the Florida, our climate is only getting more intense. We're only having more worse storms. These things are going to have to be addressed. But as far as summer, it was just miserable. And that's no party's fault. Indeed. You talked about the storm season, excessive heat, certainly not the only extreme. We did have one hurricane, Hurricane Adelia, made landfall near Keaton Beach early August 30th. It was a Category 3 hurricane, rapid intensification in those incredibly warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. And the storm brought

catastrophic flooding to the Big Bend region. Straight up water, all covered in water pretty much everywhere in town, has debris everywhere. Kind of tragic. It's the most water I've ever seen here. It's like a river in the road. It was a story, Kimberly, of, you know, wind, rain, and certainly storm surge. How about the state response this year? Well, it pulled Governor DeSantis back to Florida and off the campaign trail in Iowa and, you know, probably allowed him some sort of, you know, leverage, I would say, in terms of being able to get coverage for his actual, you know, leadership in Florida versus, you know, some of the stuff going on on the campaign trail and so forth. So he did come back for about a week and was dealing with that. And, you know, in general, he seems to get pretty positive feedback, I would say, from voters when he deals with these kinds

of things, mostly because he's showing up and he's explaining things really carefully. And so, you know, there was that, but at the same time, there is this looming problem that he didn't deal with regarding property insurance. And he turned around and said, well, I wanted to do something earlier, but there's no evidence that that was true. And it's something that, I mean, this is the number one thing I hear about from people who own homes, you know, these $800 a month bills and people from out of state don't realize how bad it is here. Yeah. They don't believe me.

Perhaps there's no income tax in Florida, but the state income tax winds up being the home property insurance that you have to pay for if you are a homeowner. Because this storm, Adelia, did hit southwest Florida. It continues. It hit as southwest Florida continues recovering from Hurricane Ian. All of this in that brew of home insurance through the roof. The new insurance commissioner, Michael Urwowski, told us that there are some early signs of stability for the first time in a long time. We're seeing zero percent rate increase requests. Well, we'll see if that comes through in 2024, because, Scott, it is just no longer a challenge of affording home insurance for those living on the coast. It is a statewide problem, as Kimberly mentioned.

like after getting punched in the face 75 times and saying, I'm not going to punch you today. Well, that that's great. But it already hurt. And we have a insurance prices that people are paying right now. That's more than most people paid for rent when they moved here or for their own mortgage payment. Interestingly enough, it was really Donald Trump who got Ron DeSantis and the state to focus on this stuff. He'd been legislators and the governor had been nibbling around the edges, but mostly not doing much. And it wasn't until Donald Trump started fussing at the DeSantis about this that they started to do something. We still haven't done much significant. I'm convinced that there would have to be pretty wholesale overwhelming charges, almost like you'd have to have insurance sort of Medicare for all

kind of thing if people want to stay here, because this is a state that is frankly pretty rough, a big investment or better regulation, a lot more than what we've seen so far. You are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. We're taking a look back at the stories that happened in 2023, shaping the Sunshine State throughout the year. Sports betting came to Florida this year after a few years of legal wrangling. The Seminole Tribe of Florida officially launched its sports betting operations, allowing fans to bet without ever setting foot in a Florida casino. Hello there, Florida Roundup. My name is Brian. I'm calling you guys from Auburndale,

Florida. That's in between Lakeland and Orlando. I'm just letting you guys know about the Hard Rock Bet app. I've been using it since it came back out. I had a really good Friday, and I had a really not-so-good Saturday. And Sunday was pretty even, so so far I'm up about $200. So sports betting coming to the Sunshine State. Mary Ellen Klaas with Bloomberg Opinion. The stakes are pretty high for the state of Florida and the state

government, aren't they? Yes. And I love that clip because it just shows the level of enthusiasm with this sport. It's fascinating because Florida will be the largest sports betting, or is the largest sports betting market. And all of it goes to the Seminole Tribe. They have a requirement that they do some partnering with the parimutuals around the state. But there's been some bickering about whether that's working out so well. But the Seminole Tribe has been just very, very patient. The legislature and the governor signed this agreement that allowed them to develop the sports betting app and allow anybody from the confines of their home to bet on any of these sports games. But it was challenging court, and they just kept it low. And now the courts have

turned around and validated it. There still remains a challenge for the U.S. Supreme Court. The Florida Supreme Court has chosen not to get involved in it. And so we will wait and see if it remains. But so far, it's really going to be a huge, huge boon and potential revenue, you know, a very reliable revenue stream for the state. For the state, hundreds of millions of dollars a year, in fact, should that continue. It was an awfully good year to be a sports fan in Florida in 2023. You've got the FAMU football winning the Black College National Championship just within the past week or so. The FSU women's soccer team winning its fourth national championship. FAU and the University of Miami men's basketball teams made it to the final four.

Nova Southeastern men's basketball winning its Division II title. And you know, guys, even the losers that we had here in Florida were pretty exciting. Panthers lost in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Miami Heat lost in the NBA Finals, and the GOAT moved to Florida. I would like to introduce to you your number 10, inter-Miami's number 10, America's number 10, the best number 10 in the world, Lionel Andres Messi. Messi coming to South Florida to play Major League Soccer.

In the meantime, the Florida State Seminoles left out of the college football playoffs. Scott Maxwell with the Orlando Sentinel. Only in Florida would being left out of the playoffs potentially be a litigious type of event for Florida. Yeah, that's it. We can make anything political. I liked your roundup. I thought the one that had a special place in my heart was FAU, which I think got overlooked. My son's a senior down there. Now, there you go. And that's and that's cool. Making it to the final four. I mean, that's that's rocky type stories. They've never been anywhere in the picture. So that was that was kind of exciting.

And even Orlando Magic are finally looking decent for the first time in about a decade. But, yes, a lot of people have asked me, why is the legislature or the governor setting aside a million dollars to maybe sue over FSU? And that is purely for political pandering. There is no other reason for that. They're not going to get any kind of relief. And by the way, some team is ticked off every year. Just ask UCF fans when they claim they were the national champs a few years ago or any team that doesn't make March Madness.

That is purely pandering, but it is being done so with your Texas. Scott Maxwell with the Orlando Sentinel, Mary Ellen Klaas with Bloomberg Opinion, and Kimberly Leonard with Politico. To all three of you, thank you so much for sharing your reporting through the year with us here on the Florida Roundup, and have a happy new year. That's it for our program. It is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF Public Media in Tampa. Bridget O'Brien produced the program.

WLRN's Vice President of Radio and our Technical Director is Peter Mertz. Engineering help from Doug Peterson and Charles Michaels. Theme music provided by Miami jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at aaronleibos.com. Thanks for calling, listening, supporting public radio through the year. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a happy new year.