The Florida Roundup - 2024 legislative session ends, healthcare cyber attack, Florida takeaways from Biden’s SOTU and more

Episode Date: March 8, 2024

This week on The Florida Roundup, we look at some of the most notable bills that passed during the 2024 legislative session with WMFE’s Danielle Prieur (00:30) and WFSU’s Gina Jordan (05:35). Then, we ask the President of FHA how a major healthcare cyber attack is impacting Florida’s hospital system (09:08). Plus, we are joined by a White House senior advisor to talk about what President Biden’s SOTU means for Florida voters (19:23). Next we preview a Reveal report about navigating post-Roe v Wade abortion laws (30:52). And later, spring break grips the state (37:21) and a roundup of recent sports stories (43:40).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being along with us this week. The handkerchief will fall in Tallahassee. It's the ceremonial end to this year's law-writing session. The final official act will be the passage of the state budget. Education and health care make up the bulk of state spending. Now, while this year's legislative session may not have had the high-stakes cultural issue debates like the past two years, there were plenty of bills that stirred up attention. Danielle Pryor is with our partner station WMFE in Orlando. Danielle, let's start with the social media regulations. There was a first version of this bill a few weeks ago. It was vetoed by Governor DeSantis. Lawmakers then reworked it here in the final week. So what's different with this latest version?

It's not as restrictive, Tom, as it was before. Now 14 and 15-year-olds can keep their social media and can use social media as long as they have parent permission and parent kind of, I guess you'd say, oversight to do so. Still, folks that are under 14 will not be able to have social media in the state, and those accounts will be deleted soon. So this bill still bans social media for Florida children who are 14 years old and younger? Yes, it does. So folks that are, you know, 14 and younger will have to get off TikTok to their chagrin. And then 14 and 15 year olds can stay as long as they have that parental permission and approval to be on those sites. Still unclear which platforms this actually refers to, Tom.

This could be TikTok and YouTube and Facebook and Instagram. It could be even more than that. It's not really specified in the bill's language. Why was this one of the legislative priorities this year? Absolutely. So I think there's a great concern with mental health and the mental health crisis that we're seeing here in the United States. One in four people facing a mental health challenge in their lifetime. And, you know, kids are not exempt from that. And there's been study upon study to show that the use of social media increases depression and anxiety and eating disorders, especially amongst young women. So the idea was to restrict the use and to make sure that folks are also not having access to things like adult websites,

like porn websites, which would be very detrimental for young people Florida Danielle meantime leads the nation in the number of school books challenged or removed and restricted in school libraries this is because of the parental rights and education law passed a couple of years ago this year lawmakers passed a bill that restricts some of those book challenges what do they do if you are a resident but you don't have a child in the district you're limited to one challenge a month now so that is restricting quite a bit those challenges again for folks who don't have a child in a specific school district but we don't see those fines or penalties yet in this bill language. And it's now headed to the governor's desk.

Governor DeSantis had originally kind of floated the idea of a hundred dollar penalty fine a few weeks back for folks who kept making these unsuccessful challenges of classics like To Kill a Mockingbird, Diary of Anne Frank, folks who are challenging the entire dictionary and encyclopedias. But right now, that penalty is not a part of the bill language. The parental rights and education bill was a Republican priority a couple of years back. Why did Republicans think that the book challenge process needed to be revisited this legislative session? You know, it's kind of what Governor DeSantis said a few weeks back here in Orlando. Some of the book challenges just went too far. He said there's no reason why entire school libraries and classroom libraries should

be covered up with paper or, you know, totally removing every single book or removing classic books that are really essential and important to student learning. So he said it's important to be able to challenge books that are age inappropriate, that might be sexually inappropriate or graphic, but not books that are and have always been and will always be a part of our education system here in the United States. Danielle Pryor with our partner station WMFE in Orlando. Always a pleasure, Danielle. Always a pleasure, Tom. Thank you so much. in Orlando. Always a pleasure, Danielle. Always a pleasure, Tom. Thank you so much. We asked you what issues you wanted lawmakers to tackle. Tom in Jacksonville sent us this email writing, it seems absurd that the Florida legislature can conclude that older teens

are not mature enough to handle social media on the internet, while at the same time concluding those same teens are responsible enough to balance a full-time job without restrictions while maintaining school attendance and keeping up with their class assignments. Now, Tom there is referring to a bill that allows 16 and 17-year-olds in Florida to work more than 40 hours a week during the school year. Charlene sent us an email writing, I wish the legislature had addressed homeowner property insurance. A family member left the state when the insurance rate quadrupled, and that doesn't include flood insurance. Charlene writes, moving on is on my radar too.

Steve sent us this. He said he's disappointed the legislation to protect our most vulnerable students failed to pass. A three-year pilot program to install cameras in special needs classrooms in Broward schools ends this year, and Steve writes, unfortunately, our legislature chose to focus on social issues instead of student safety. Gina Jordan is with our partner station WFSU in Tallahassee, and she's with us now. Gina, Florida voters may get the chance to decide this fall the fate of recreational marijuana, but lawmakers okayed some new rules over the past couple of weeks governing hemp, a plant that's in the same botanical class as marijuana. So what are these new rules they want

to put in place? They want to reduce the amount of euphoria-inducing THC in hemp products. So this boils down to all of these shops you see that sell CBD, for example. They're everywhere now. Lawmakers say that when the hemp industry was legalized, a program was created back in 2019, they were thinking in terms of, we'll have fabric, we'll have rope, we'll have a big industry that way. But instead, a loophole was discovered. And that's why we have all of these shops. And so the argument is that we can't have this sort of thing over the counter. A majority of lawmakers also approved some new preemption bills, legislation that essentially does away with local laws. One puts the state

in charge of local civilian oversight of local police departments. 21 cities have these review boards in place. What's the impact of this legislation? Well, the impact won't be significant because there are 21 cities or municipalities right now that have these boards, and none of them seem to have any kind of investigative power. But this is lawmakers saying, we don't want civilians who have no law enforcement experience being able to launch an investigation into police misconduct. So they can advise about policies and rules and that sort of thing, but they cannot investigate. Another bill bans local governments from allowing people who are homeless from sleeping and camping on public property. Tell us about the impact of this effort. This could be significant. So what lawmakers are saying is municipalities cannot allow people to

just sleep wherever they want in public spaces, and that would be sidewalks. That would be areas under interstate overpasses. They did say, though, that municipalities can set up specific designated areas for camping for up to a year. The problem is any municipality that sets up such an area has to make sure there are restrooms available. They have to make sure there's no alcohol or drugs. There has to be security. They have to offer social services. And these areas also can't impact neighborhood property values. But there's no money in the bill to help municipalities with that. So what options would local governments who are dealing with

people who are homeless have in this case? They simply have to move the people who are sleeping in those public spaces. And if there is a shelter, for example, a homeless shelter that's full, I don't know. I guess that would be up to the municipality to decide where to move people. Gina Jordan watching a few of the issues with our partner station WFSU in Tallahassee. Gina, thanks for sharing your reporting with us. Much appreciated. Thank you for having me. Now the cyber attack you may not have heard about, but is threatening the country's health care system. Change Healthcare is the name of a company that does not appear on your doctor's bill or your insurance company's explanation of benefits, but it is vital to the flow of money.

The company processes medical claims, matching up bills with insurance coverage. Change Healthcare, the company, is owned by one of the largest health insurers in the nation, UnitedHealthcare. Well, in February, Change Healthcare was the victim of a cyber attack. The attack has paralyzed healthcare payments. Money is not flowing between healthcare providers and insurance companies like it usually does. And Mary Mayhew is worried. She's the CEO of the Florida Hospital Association. If this was against the country's electrical grid, we would immediately understand it.

If we were talking about aviation control towers, we would immediately understand the magnitude, the implications. That is what this is, the country's largest cyber attack on our health care delivery system. This electronic hack means providers can't get paid. Patients cannot get pre-authorizations. They may have to pay full price for prescriptions until the payment system fully comes back online. The American Hospital Association has called this, quote,

the most significant cyber attack on the U.S. healthcare system in American history. Mary, welcome back to the Florida Roundup. Nice to have you again. What impact has this cyber attack had on Florida hospitals? Tom, it's hard to overstate the magnitude, the impact on Florida's hospitals from this cyber attack that occurred, was perpetrated against the country's largest health insurance company, UnitedHealthcare. But we have over 100 hospitals that directly contract with this claims clearinghouse that is owned by UnitedHealthcare. The fact of the matter is hospitals are unable to bill for care that's been provided. And when they don't have cash flow, that affects their payroll, their ability to pay

their doctors, their nurses, their staff throughout their operations. So have Florida hospitals had to go without in terms of fulfilling their payroll or their rent or utilities? You know, Tom, first of all, our hospitals, and I'm sure partly it's because of their experience with hurricanes and other crises, they keep it together for as long as they can keep it together. But we're talking hundreds of millions of dollars not being paid by insurance companies. There are certainly hospitals that will lean into their reserves if necessary, if it gets to that point. But the smaller you are as a hospital, you have a razor thin margin, your cash flow is already constrained. This is going to be fuel on the fire. Are any of your members at risk of having to curtail care because they simply don't have the cash to pay for the doctors, nurses, orderlies,

and others? They will exhaust other options. They will start delaying their payments to their vendors, which that's not a good situation either, but you're trying to do everything you can to minimize the impact on access to care. Are they having to ration care? Are they looking at that possibly if the cash crunch continues? If this persists, and unfortunately, the indications are this is going to go on for several more weeks, it may come to the fact that hospitals have to deal with rescheduling those procedures, just as we did at the beginning of the pandemic, electives that can safely be postponed. We are not there yet. And hospitals are so reluctant to go there. But at the end of the day, if we can't get financial relief from the federal government, from advance payments, from Medicare, from additional financial relief from Congress,

that is going to be part of the equation. United has offered up a loan program that is as pathetic as they come. This is called the temporary assistance program that it has offered for folks to apply for. Why do you call that a pathetic effort? Well, as one hospital has shared with me, it's 2% of their typical net payments from United, 2%. So if they were expecting $100, this temporary assistance program would give them two. Exactly. And the contractual, many of their lawyers are looking at the terms of the contract from United and it would not be in their best interests. But I'm fearful that it is being perceived as some great financial assistance to providers. And by the way, Tom, I'm sitting here representing

and talking about the impact on hospitals. This has such far-reaching impact on physician practices, on other healthcare providers that also use Change Healthcare, this claims clearinghouse owned by UnitedHealthcare, and they're smaller. They've got less flexibility to go without payments. What kind of federal financial relief would your Florida hospital members be requesting if they were to put a dollar figure on it as this thing wears on? It can take a number of forms. The way that it is being focused on currently federally are advanced payments. So this is not, we're just going to give you more money. It is a bridge. The advanced payment idea would be we'll pay for a service which is going to be delivered in the future.

Correct. And there will be a reconciliation process. So this is not more money. It is we're going to advance the payments. They did a lot of that during the pandemic. But so how much money, Mary, would we be talking about for your Florida members? Florida only being one state of, of course, 50 that's involved with this cyber attack? talking over a billion dollars in payments for healthcare services that have not been made by these insurance companies. Mary, we've been focused on the healthcare provider impact on the hospitals. What about patient information that's at risk with this cyber attack? What's the message ultimately to the folks who are receiving this health care, who are going into those hospitals for hip replacements or emergency surgery or an ER visit, whatever it may be?

We're getting a little too desensitized, I'm afraid, when it comes to cyber attacks and data breaches. But there's no doubt that data held by United in the claims clearinghouse, that data has been breached. In terms of patients, though, today coming in, accessing care, they should not be alarmed or concerned. If you've got scheduled procedures, if you need to go to your doctor, if you need to come to the emergency department, procedures, if you need to go to your doctor, if you need to come to the emergency department, not one thing should stand in the way of patients doing that and having confidence in getting the services that they need. The American consumer has experienced a number of cyber attacks in a regular basis. UnitedHealthcare reportedly paid $22 million in ransom because of this cyber attack on its unit,

on this claims processing unit called Change Healthcare. Do you support that action if UnitedHealthcare did it? UnitedHealthcare won't deny it, but they won't confirm it either. Should it pay it ransom? You know, I'm not the person to ask, Tom. I will readily admit, I do not know what I do not know as it relates to the sophistication of what is occurring from these cyber criminals. And certainly as it relates to

certainly as it relates to cyber criminals that may be affiliated with nation states, as one individual said to me, we might as well consider this almost an act of war, right? If we were thinking about this from another country and what it is potentially doing, It's almost to the point of not whether it will happen, but when the next. And here we are. It is a huge concern for our hospitals in Florida and around the country, but it is a larger issue that as a country, we have to think about from a national security perspective. Mary Mayhew is the boss at the Florida Hospital Association. Mary, always a pleasure. Thanks for your time. Thanks for reaching out, Tom. Good to talk with you. Still to come in our program, we'll talk about the economy, immigration, and social media regulation with a senior advisor to President Joe Biden. I'm Tom Hudson, and you're

listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. We're back on the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks, as always, for listening and supporting public radio in your community. President Joe Biden delivered his State of the Union speech Thursday night. The economy and immigration were some of the policy themes, issues that voters say are important to them this election year. Tom Perez is the former U.S. Secretary of Labor. He's now a senior advisor to President Biden, director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Tom, welcome to Florida Public Radio. Thanks for your time.

Oh, good afternoon. Tom, it's great to be with you and your listeners. I love your name. You as well. Spelled the same way, sure enough. Exactly. Let's start with the economy. Since the president finished his speech last night, some new data on the jobs market has been released here on this Friday morning. American companies added 275,000 new jobs in February. The unemployment rate increased a tad to 3.9 percent. The Florida numbers, I'll say, are released on Monday. So we don't have those yet. But, Tom, do these job gains mean that interest rates need to continue to remain up in order to cool inflation? Well, the job gains have

been consistent and the interest rate judgments will be made, obviously, by the Fed chair who indicated the other day that rates may come down. Those are his decisions. But I'll tell you, we've now had over two years of an unemployment rate under 4 percent. And frankly, down in South Florida, the unemployment rate is far lower. We haven't had a stretch like this, for your listeners' situational awareness, in quite literally 50 years. That's how long it's been since we've had unemployment this low. And wage growth is higher than inflation growth. That wasn't the case for a while early on when we had inflation at 9%. Inflation is now at 3%. So wages are growing faster than inflation.

We have good jobs. People, workers have leverage because employers are looking for workers. The president continues to invest in health care to make sure that people have access to critical health insurance. This is another really solid job report. And that's that's the reality. As the former secretary of labor, I know you're a data wonk. I enjoy the statistics as well as a longtime business and financial reporter myself. Full time workers fell in February, though, to the lowest

level in a year, and part-time workers hit a post-pandemic high. Is this dynamic, though, troubling, where we're seeing really full-time workers level off and slightly move down, where the job gains are really at the part-time level? Well, actually, I mean, I looked at the data a little bit differently. I mean, when you look at the number of full-time workers relative to where we were even pre-pandemic levels, we're still ahead and doing very, very well. You look at the onshoring of jobs across this country, now microchips, for instance, those are jobs that pay $100,000 in many cases, and you don't need a college degree for that. And so, you know, when I look at these job reports, I don't look at one month. You know, I look at the trend data. And where we've been going over the last literally two years

is absolutely in the right direction. You look at the Hispanic unemployment rate, the Black unemployment rate are at or near record lows. The racial wealth gap is narrowing as much as I've seen it in quite literally 10 years. So those are all really good data points, which shows what President Biden's doing is working. He wants to grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up. That means, you know, everyday Floridians getting access to good jobs that pay a fair wage and health care. Tom, I understand your point, but the data shows that that full-time worker level, while still a majority, a great majority of the workforce in the United States,

that the number of people working full-time, while larger than it was before the pandemic, it has been falling ever so slightly for the past year. So to your point about looking at those trends, you have seen the full-time worker level really move down ever so slightly. I think two days ago, there's another set of data that comes out, job openings. It's called the JOLTS report. Yes, yes. It outlines the job openings and labor turnover. That's what JOLTS stands for. And that's a really good indicator of the leverage that

workers have to work full-time, part-time, how many job openings there are. And the reality, again, that was another really, really solid report that buttresses what we've been seeing, which is that workers are able to have the leverage to move. That wasn't the case when I was labor secretary. The leverage was not where it was because we had a lot of long-term unemployed. We had a lot of systemic challenges that we made some progress on, but not nearly what we're making now. So, you know, when I look at all these data sets, I'm actually quite optimistic about where things are. And look at the unemployment rate in South Florida. You know, it's really, it is historically low. Yeah. In Miami-Dade County, below 2% and has been for a good number of months. And like I said,

we'll get those local and regional data on Monday Monday and we'll be talking about it here on Florida Public Radio. Tom Perez is with us, former secretary of labor, a senior advisor to President Biden. He's with us from the White House today. About one in five workers in the United States now are foreign-born workers, and that's been climbing. The U.S.-born workforce, meantime, has been falling down to a 14-month low. And I want to ask you, Tom, about how this dynamic influences the immigration reform efforts, the border security efforts that have been so front and present in the White House and in Congress. Well, our immigration system is broken, Tom. in the White House and in Congress? Well, our immigration system is broken, Tom. Candidate Biden said that. And President Biden, week one of his administration, introduced a bill for comprehensive immigration reform. I worked on the immigration reform in 1996. 27 years ago was the last time we had comprehensive immigration reform. The reason this is relevant to your question is we need to address the legal immigration system as well as combating those who come here through non-lawful pathways. You talk to businesses large and small. And the fact that we haven't reformed plus a legal pathway for people to come to this

country. Immigrants from the beginning of our nation, Tom, have been huge parts of our workforce. The first president that passed immigration reform in our nation's history was a guy named Abraham Lincoln. Ronald Reagan led the effort when he was president in 1986. And he understood that as we have more and more immigrants here, we are able to, and South Florida is a great example of it. There's so many sectors where, where would we be in the healthcare sector without immigrants? Where would we be in the health care sector without immigrants? Where would we be in the hospitality sectors, construction? And so what President Biden wants to do is create a balanced immigration system, comprehensive immigration reform. What he did a few months ago was to address the border security issues.

And we worked with Republicans and Democrats in the Senate. We came out with a very tough bill that was bipartisan and addressed the border security issues that are on the minds of, I'm sure, many Floridians. And the frustrating thing about it was, Tom, we had a bipartisan bill. And the reason the bill didn't pass was politics, plain and simple, which is that a certain someone called the Republicans in the Senate and the House and said, don't support the bill. You can't give Joe Biden the victory. This isn't about Joe Biden. It's about helping the American people and addressing a

critical issue. The president referred to as his predecessor during his State of the Union, of course, former President Donald Trump. Let me ask you about one of the proposals that was included in President Biden's State of the Union address. And we have just a couple minutes left here. But it relates to housing. Florida is home to some of the persistently highest inflation in the nation because housing is the culprit. The president has talked about a $10,000 in tax credits for first-time homebuyers. These tax credits would come after a homebuyer files his or her annual taxes. So how does it really help first-time buyers to qualify for a mortgage with home prices still climbing? Well, what we're trying to do here is reflect the reality

that interest rates are still very high and also reflect the reality that those who have bought their first home, say five, six years ago, have a very low interest rate. And so they can't sell that home to move up. They have two kids now instead of no kids and they need a little bit of a bigger house. These housing proposals actually help both that first-time home buyer by giving them a $400 a

month credit for two years. And the reason it's kept at two years is that our hope is that the interest rate environment will be better in two years. And again, that first-time home owner who has a 3% rate, they're sort of trapped because they don't want to get a new house at a 7% rate or a 6% rate. And this helps them as well. The president's very, very acutely aware that the housing crunch is very challenging. We've got a record number of homes, 1.7 million homes under construction right now. Another proposal here was to, we will save $1,000 by, if you're getting a federally insured loan, we will no longer have the title insurance. Tom, sorry to interrupt. We're also on a time crunch here on broadcast radio as well, but always a pleasure to be with you, Tom Perez, former Secretary of Labor of the United States, senior advisor with President Biden with us from the White House.

Thanks so much, Tom, for your time. Much appreciated. My pleasure. And you are listening to The Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. In his State of the Union address, President Biden repeated his pledge to restore abortion rights if approved by Congress, which is unlikely to happen. Here in Florida, voters may get the chance to decide the issue in a ballot referendum this fall. And the state Supreme Court is due to hand down its decision regarding the 15 week abortion restriction really any day now. Laura Morrell is a reporter with the public radio investigation program Reveal. She's been following Kelly Flynn for months. Flynn owns an abortion clinic in Jacksonville. Laura, thanks for joining us here.

Tell us about Kelly Flynn. Who is she and what does she do in Florida? Kelly Flynn has been an abortion provider in the South for nearly 30 years. She owns three clinics in North Carolina, and she also owns one in Florida in the Jacksonville area. Florida in particular and North Carolina, where she's also based, were once bastions of abortion access in the South, serving thousands of out-of-state patients. And of course, with the recent abortion restrictions that we've seen in both of these states, in Florida in particular, we have a 15-week ban. She's really sort of navigating all of this legislative chaos, right? And just trying to figure out what's going to happen to her patients, what might happen to her clinics. And then ultimately, she decided that her solution for now would be to open a new clinic in Virginia, because currently, Virginia does not have any restrictions on abortion. As of right now,

it's the state in the South with the most access to this kind of reproductive health. How has her Florida clinic in Jacksonville changed since Florida instituted the 15-week ban? Well, they're still operating. And of course, now they're operating under that 15-week ban. The other thing that I know has been an additional hurdle is a 24-hour waiting period, but also went into effect, I believe, more than a year ago now. They're also still dealing with some local protesters too. So it's still, you know, a very heightened and uncertain situation. And of course, now she and other abortion clinics around this

state are waiting for the Florida Supreme Court to issue its ruling on whether or not abortion is protected by the state constitution. So that's another thing weighing heavily on her. I'm Tom Hudson, and you're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. If the high court in Florida decides that the 15-week restriction is constitutional right away, the six-week ban actually goes into effect. So how is Kelly preparing for that possibility? The 15-week ban would stay in effect. The six-week ban would go into effect 30 days after the ruling. So essentially giving providers like Kelly 30 days to update their policies and notify patients if they have to cancel their

appointments. So that's definitely something that, you know, she's preparing for. When I spoke to her, you know, she's really, in a sense, and this might sound surprising, she's optimistic about the ballot initiative that has also gained momentum in the state. I know we're still waiting for that Florida Supreme Court to decide on the ballot summary, whether it passes legal muster, but it seems likely at this point that it might be on the ballot in November.

And so Kelly is hoping that that will be a way to restore abortion access in this state, not just for Floridians here, but for out-of-state patients that for decades have relied on the state for help. How is she just dealing with this on a daily basis as she tries to run a business that is squarely one of the hot button topics this political cycle and for many political cycles, but particularly this year here in Florida with the ballot initiative possibly coming up as a referendum and of course the 15-week ban and the six-week ban under judicial scrutiny? It's a lot to take on. And the way she explained it to me is

that she tries to focus on what she can control, which isn't much, right? You know, she and her clinics are at the mercy of whatever the legislature decides, whatever the Supreme Court decides. But in the meantime, looking at this messy map of reproductive health care that we're seeing in this country and in the South, the best case scenario, the thing that they could come up with as a solution right now is this clinic in Virginia. I was there a week ago when it opened, and it's already serving her patients in North Carolina who have been affected by the 12-week ban. One of her clinics is less than an hour away from this clinic in Virginia, so they can just drive north and get access to appointments. they can just drive north and get access to appointments. As she's an abortion provider in Florida, in Jacksonville, did she talk about the future

of her clinic in Florida? Should the 15-week ban be upheld and should the six-week restriction go into effect? She plans to stay open, obviously abiding by, you know, if there is a six week ban, or if there is a 15 week ban. You know, of course, with the six week ban, as we've seen in other states, including Texas, most women don't know they're pregnant until after six weeks. But at this point, she's just sort of bracing for whatever happens, for the uncertainty of it all. I think she spent, you know, honestly, a lot of time the last few months really focusing her efforts on this clinic in Danville, Virginia, so that she has a place where, you know, patients can go. Reveal, her story going through seven months plus with Kelly Flynn, an owner and operator of an abortion clinic in Jacksonville and a few in North Carolina, airs this weekend on most Florida public radio stations on Reveal.

Laura, thanks for sharing your reporting with us. Thank you. Still to come in our program, spring break season has sprung around the Sunshine State. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being along with us this week. Spring break season is now in full swing across the Sunshine State. This annual migration from college campuses to Florida beaches and bars is underway.

From Panama City in the Panhandle. Come here to have a good time. But if you act like a criminal, we're going to treat you like one. To Volusia County and Daytona Beach. We do not suffer fools gladly. Fort Lauderdale. We don't know who's going to come, but it's not the question of the number of people, but the attitude of people. To Miami Beach.

We are going to have a very visible law enforcement presence like we've never seen before. And even Governor Ron DeSantis. If you're coming here in order to enjoy Florida, fine. If you're coming for these other reasons, if you're committing crimes, causing havoc, you are going to pay the price. The governor traveled to Miami Beach this week to announce the state is deploying more than 140 state troopers in various locations in an attempt to crack down on spring break chaos. Yeah, a lot of hard talk this year trying to scare spring breakers straight. A show of force of police, increased patrols, checkpoints, alcohol bans, even parking bans. Panama City Beach likely will move up last call for alcohol.

Two years ago, the city saw almost 80 people arrested, gunfire, and crowds of people closing roads and businesses. New Smyrna Beach has been growing in popularity as a spring break destination. There will be an 11 o'clock curfew for teenagers there this year. In Miami Beach, well, Miami Beach just wants to break up with spring break. Hey, we need to talk. This isn't working anymore. And it's not us. It's you. We just want different things. This is a social media video Miami Beach released. The city saw two deadly shootings during last year's spring break, and one of its newest efforts is to make it a lot tougher to park. Jesse Bull moved to South Beach for the surfing. Doesn't break all the time, but when it does, it's really good.

He lived in a small apartment and could just walk out onto the sand when the waves were rolling. I have friends who tell me they'd come over to surf and they drive around for an hour and they can't find parking and they go home. Bull is an economist, so he sees these kinds of situations as trade-offs. He lived in a small apartment, no yard, but he could hoist his surfboard up on his shoulder and walk to the waves. His surfing buddies, they had to find parking. It's the kind of trade-off the city of Miami Beach is forcing upon spring breakers. The city will close nine of its parking garages and all of the city parking lots beginning Thursday

morning through Monday morning for the next two weekends. It's an extreme example of, you know, what behavioral economists might call friction. David Neal has a Ph.D. in psychology and is the founder of Catalyst Behavioral Sciences in Miami. Psychologists, policy people, behavioral economists typically try to find ways that subtly nudge people to do the right thing without causing huge amounts of pain. But there's nothing subtle about Miami Beach's efforts. The city is not nudging spring breakers. It's shoving them. Yeah, I think that'd be a fair description.

That's surfer and FIU economist Jesse Bulligan. They're saying let's disincentivize people who we don't want to come here. If we make it harder to park, it's less likely that somebody's going to show up, you know, maybe with a gun or other things we don't want people to bring. This is not a nudge. I wouldn't even call it a shove. It might fall into what behavioral scientists call sludge, which is usually a bad thing. Sarah Isaac is the chief strategist at Marketing for Change in Orlando, where she works on behavior change marketing.

Sludge makes something more difficult on purpose. But Isaac says that's not always a bad thing. If the locals feel really strongly that they are tired of the chaos and mess and expense of spring break, this is actually a good way of making it harder for all those behaviors to occur. South Beach towns are no stranger to trying to chill spring breakers. I'm walking along a stretch of A1A in Fort Lauderdale now. 40 years ago, this was the epicenter of the spring break crowds. It was the early and mid-1980s when Fort Lauderdale was wrestling

with its own spring break reputation. It had become known as Fort Lickerdale. In fact, by 1985, People magazine called this area on A1A a, quote, sleazy mile-and-a-half-long stretch of shops, bars, and hotels dead center in the salty armpit of Fort Lauderdale. Well, as you can hear, it's a busy afternoon. Lots of folks are on the sand, some folks braving the slight chop in the Atlantic Ocean.

The bars and restaurants are beginning to fill up here as I'm out on this stroll in the early afternoon. This area also tackled traffic in its fight against spring break four decades ago. The city brought in concrete jersey barriers, you know the kind that separate construction zones from highway traffic. It was called a wall, and it kept people from crossing and walking across A1A between the bars and the beach anywhere they wanted to. The city built this wall for a few years during spring break, and

it did help reduce traffic problems as Fort Lauderdale staged its own efforts to break up with spring break. Four decades later, it's plastic jersey barriers on one side of A1A and crowd control fencing on the other, doing the same job they were doing 40 years ago. All these statements from law enforcement officials and even the governor are anchoring expectations for any spring break visitors to Florida by talking about the higher costs and bigger hassles to get to the beach and the expected behavior once there. It's kind of like Bulls old surfer buddies and their expectations when the wind blew in the right direction to stir up the waves on South Beach. On good days, it's a barreling, fast, hollow wave, and it's super crowded, and it's really hard to find parking in that area. Florida's spring break season runs through about the end of the month. I'm Tom Hudson. You are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Florida has a men's college basketball team in the top 25, but it may not be the team you think it is.

It's the Bulls, the University of South Florida Bulls. It's the first time the team has been nationally ranked. Here's reporter Sky LeBron with our partner station WUSF in Tampa. Joey Johnston has been watching USF men's basketball since the mid-1970s. Now as the USF Athletics senior writer and a radio commentator for their games, he's seen the struggles the program has undergone in recent years. It's been a long siege of losing seasons and underachievement and not great crowds. This year, though, is different.

It's not a stretch to say this is a magical season. Recent games at the Yingling Center are showing how that magic and the buzz around the team translates to win. We'll see a banner up there and we're going to feel a part of it. Tyler Moss is a senior at USF and a student marketer for SoFlo Rodeo, USF's student fan section. He says the energy in the arena has been tangible, starting with the fans. I think it's just an easier summation to say a couple hundred versus a couple thousand. That's the difference. And it's not just students feeling energized.

Shea Bird is a longtime Bulls fan. Take that ball away. Take that ball away. Bird and her husband, Chester, went to every home game starti married for 47 years and and we always come to the support us and we support died in 2022 but she sti keep their tradition aliv

you many around the progra Defense! Defense! Defense! Many around the program attribute the team's success to first-year coach Amir Abdur-Rahim. The 42-year-old spent four seasons in Georgia coaching Kennesaw State before taking over the Bulls last spring. Corey Walker plays forward and center for USF. He spent the last three seasons with the program. He says Abdur-Rahim has a knack for caring about his players, whether they're talking about basketball or anything else. She don't have to give us a speech. He can just walk up to you and say, I love you. That's like a million words. Walker also says coach has made the players

be more intentional in their relationships with their faith and with each other. Making sure that we are getting that bond with each other, going out with each other, going to the movies, or like going bowling or anything. Or even just, we still all stay at the same apartment, so just going in apartments, just talking to each other. Abdul Rahim says those close connections have helped spur their current winning streak, the second longest active streak in the nation.

When they have those intentional relationships outside of the court, they're not going to give up on each other on the court. Like, you got to want to fight for somebody, man, you know? And it's not going to just happen because you wear the jersey that's the same color. And he's making sure his relationships with his players aren't just about what's on the court. I'm going to be pushing you in that classroom. I'm going to be pushing you to get extra work in. You got a girlfriend? Hey, bring her by the office. I'm going to be pushing you to get extra work in. You got a girlfriend? Hey, bring her by the office. I want to meet her, right? And we're going to talk about how to be men.

Abdur Rahim is also helping generate interest in the team on campus. The week before Sunday's game, he was handing out ice cream at the student center. After games, he'll go into the stands and celebrate with students. I just think our students, I think our staff, they deserve a human being as a head coach. You know, like, I got a title. I'm a human being, though. I was raised on a certain set of principles and values, and I want to be part of it. I want to be approachable.

USF is currently on top of the American Athletic Conference standings that sets them up pretty nicely to have a chance at an NCAA tournament berth for the first time since 2012. And Corey Walker says they can reach those heights as long as they stay humble and hungry. I just feel like we just take nothing for granted and just play as a team always. We make it as far as we want to be as we just do that. And it's safe to say the fans aren't taking for granted the history the team is making and the good vibes and culture they're building. I'm Sky LeBron in Tampa. And finally on the round up this week. For almost half a century, Gene Deckerhoff was the voice of Florida State football, including the 2013 National Championship. Knowles' third championship.

Deckerhoff also has been the radio play-by-play announcer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the past 35 years. Bucs win! Bucs win, Bucs win the Super Bowl 55. Tom Brady engineers the offense. In June, he will be among the first nine people inducted into the new Florida Association Broadcasters Hall of Fame. And there the cannons come. Fire them. Keep on firing them.

Fire the cannons. Congratulations. This is the Florida Roundup, and that's our program for today. It's produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF Public Media in Tampa by Bridget O'Brien and Grayson Docter. WLRN's Vice President of Radio and our Technical Director is Peter Mertz. Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Charles Michaels, and Jackson Harp.

Richard Ives answers our phones. Our theme music is provided by Miami jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at aaronleibos.com. If you missed any of today's program, download it, share it with others, listen to past programs, you can do it all. Go to WLRN.org slash podcasts. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening, and supporting public radio in your neighborhood. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend.