The Florida Roundup - Florida ‘Doge’ audits, DOJ questions Ghislaine Maxwell in Tallahassee, impacts of public media funding cuts, weekly news briefing 

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

This week on The Florida Roundup, we spoke with Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward about the state’s plans to audit the city in addition to other local municipalities as part of its effort to reduce unnecessary government spending (00:00). We also spoke about those efforts with the Miami Herald’s Alexandra Glorioso (09:22), who stuck around for our conversation about how Florida is once again at the center of the Epstein case (14:02). Then, we looked at how federal and state cuts to public broadcasting will impact public media in Florida with Paul Grove, president and CEO of WEDU — West Central Florida’s PBS station — and Judith Smelser, president and general manager of Central Florida Public Media, based in Orlando (19:32). Plus, a roundup of immigration news from across the state (37:24).

This is the Florida Roundup by Matthew Petty. Tom Hudson is out this week. Starting next week, Florida DOGE will take aim at local government spending. DOGE stands for Department of Government Efficiency and it's the state's version of a federal effort to slash spending and shrink the size of government. The target is waste, fraud and abuse. Also in the cross here is spending related to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Among the first targets of the state task force, the city of Gainesville, Broward County and Manatee

County. Housing affordability is a big issue here in the state of Florida. And this is us tackling that. We eventually want to get to property tax reform with the eventual goal of getting rid of homesteaded property taxes altogether. And that's Chief Financial Officer Blaisengolia talking at a press conference in Manatee County on Thursday. For me personally, as a fiscal watchdog and as a friend of the taxpayer it doesn't matter if a county or city is Republican-led or Democrat-led what matters to me is if you are spending over and above what you should be spending. CFO blaze in Golia there. Still there are questions about which cities and

counties are being audited and why. Well Harvey Ward is the mayor of Gainesville and joins us now. Thanks for being here Mayor Ward. Sure happy to be here with you. Now the newly appointed chief financial officer of Florida Blazingolia called Gainesville one of the quote worst offenders for wasteful spending and letter to the city he claims there's been an 80% increase in ad valorem taxes over the last four years. What's your response to that? So we have been looking, my staff has been looking and I've been asking for several days now.

We can't figure out how they arrive at those numbers. I'm going to assume that there is some, some way that some angle that you can look at that that might get close but I really don't understand that. So what is the accurate figure then? So it depends on how you're looking at it. We honestly can't figure out what the you know exactly how they're approaching the numbers because there's nothing we're near that. We have had growth in the tax rolls as every city in Florida has because property values have increased. We also two years ago increased the millage rate by almost one full

mill after the legislature removed our ability to determine a transfer from our utility. So we've had some adjustments to make and have moved, you know, how we pay for things around, but there have not been $360 million worth of growth in our budget over the last three years, as they've alleged. Can you put a figure on it then? I mean, is there a number that you could sort of put out there to say, this is more accurate? I'll stop on my head. No, I can't.

I would tell you our general fund in fiscal 2020, which is I believe where they want to start, was about $130-131 million. Our general fund for fiscal 25 is about $155 million. And the growth in that has been primarily in public safety. We've increased police salaries, We've changed the way that we compensate our firefighters. While we've cut everything else to the bone, we're a community that like very few communities in Florida, most of our city, most of our acreage is not taxable because the University of Florida sits in the middle of the city of Gainesville. We don't have the luxury of saying, oh, let's just spend however we want. We've always been a very fiscally conservative city. Now, of course,

we tend to be a socially liberal city. And that's been the case all my life. I've been in Gainesville my whole life. We've always had that reputation, which to me means we're there to serve the will of the people of Gainesville. And I believe we present tremendous value for our neighbors in Gainesville and for the taxes they pay. Well, let me ask about that kind of political stance. Among the things the CFO is asking for details about diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and documentation

of greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. I mean, how much would you say that Gainesville is spending on those things? Well, it depends on how you want to define those things. We were lucky enough to win some federal grants within the timeframe they're looking at to buy some electric buses, as have many other communities in Florida. And I assume that they'll they'll try to tell us that those are, you know, something we shouldn't be doing. I believe we should be pursuing alternate fuels at the very least. And electric buses for our regional transit system.

I think those are things we should pursue. That's the kind of thing that our community wants us to do. We have not moved as far as I would like on solar and things like that, because we haven't been able to afford it. When you say, you know, this is what the people of Gainesville want you to be spending things on. So when you hear Governor DeSantis saying that most residents, he's talking about Florida on the whole, most residents, he says, don't want property taxes being used to fund DEI or Green New Deal initiatives. Is that inaccurate? I mean, what do Gainesville residents want their property taxes spent on? Well, I assume that since they've been electing similar people for 40 years, to the Gainesville City Commission, that they probably want us to keep doing the things that we've been doing. I don't know what the rest of Florida wants

because I work for Gainesville. I work for my neighbors in the city of Gainesville and that's what mayors are supposed to do. We're supposed to listen to our community and provide government services based on what our community is looking for and provide some leadership and some direction along with that, which I'd like to think my colleagues

and I have been able to do. We have been responsive to everything the state has asked for, but I can't speak for, you know, for what Governor DeSantis is polling and other places and asking people about. I can respond to what the people of Gainesville tell me every day on the street. Now local governments are being told to turn over access to data systems, budget and personnel experts and access to physical premises. So what does this actually mean for the city of Gainesville? So it means that Thursday and Friday of next week, the July 31st and August 1st, we will do everything we can to make available all the things that they've asked for.

They send us seven pages of notes, some of them very, very broad requests, some of them very specific. We're an open book and we always have that. Certainly more than willing to work with the executive office of the governor and the CFO and provide what they're asking for. Do you get the sense that there are folks in Gainesville, like there needs to be more cost cutting, like they're unhappy with the way their tax dollars are being spent. I'm sure that there are people in our community there who would like us to spend differently. I'm sure that there are people in our community

who you know if there were an election tomorrow would not vote for those of us who are on the Gainesville City Commission but I'm also sure that a majority of folks in our community support the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state

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Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state of Kansas and the state more people to the commission that think and act and vote the same way. So I understand that Gainesville and some other communities in Florida vote differently than other communities in Florida would like us to. But we represent

the people of Gainesville, and I believe we do so very well. And by the way, it's important to note that our millage rate in Gainesville is almost dead in the middle of the millage rate compared to the other 20, the 20 largest cities in Florida. We're at 4.4296, I believe, which is pretty much dead in the middle of the pack compared to the other 19 largest cities in Florida. Do you have an idea of how much it's going to cost your city to give the state of Florida what it's asking for? We don't have an estimate for for what that will be. I will tell you that again we run a very lean operation because we have to. The city of Gainesville doesn't have a huge tax base so we're very careful with our spending and when we take a dozen or so

or maybe more of our high-level staff members off of the work that they're doing to serve our community to chase numbers in a 10 day period, that comes at a cost. That primary cost is, you know, the anxiety of staff members, but also the work that is not getting done for the people of Gainesville while we're doing that. Well, Mayor Harvey Ward of the city of Gainesville, thank you so much for your time, appreciate it. You're very welcome, thank you for reaching out. We did reach out also to the CFO's office. They directed us to comments he's made during press conferences in Gainesville,

Fort Lauderdale, and Bradenton. You heard a couple of those comments at the top of the program. We're joined now by reporter Alexandra Glorioso from Tallahassee. That's where she covers state government for the Miami Herald. Alexandra, thank you so much for being here. Let me ask first of all, Broward County, Manatee County, the City of Gainesville, three local governments under the Florida Doge Microscope for a start. I mean, what

can you tell us about the criteria for choosing which municipalities or counties to audit. Hi, thanks for having me. I'm really happy to be here. Well, I think that we can gather some information from Governor Ron DeSantis' remarks on Tuesday when he kicked off his announcement that he was gonna be doing on-site inspections in Fort Lauderdale and Broward. He said that he was really going after and targeting places

that hadn't complied with his office's requests. But then he said that while actually Broward had given them information that they wanted, but they hadn't passed a kind of resolution supporting his office's Doge efforts. That's specifically what Eric Soskin said, his head of Doge. Though it didn't seem as though the fact that Broward had gotten them information that they had originally asked for on July 11th really factored into his office's calculus too much on whether they would target

them for an on-site inspection. It was more that they hadn't passed a resolution saying that they were inviting the state government to come and do efficiency efforts or that they supported the efficiency efforts. And Soskin said at the press conference that there were 75 other jurisdictions in Florida that had passed DOGE resolutions, including Hillsborough County and Miami. So it seems like it's more about that and less about how much they've complied with information requests so far Yeah, I mean you did hear also from blazing goalie. He's like he doesn't care whether it's a

Democratic mayor of a city or a Republican mayor He just wants them to be kind of doing things by the book and and not spending wastefully But does it seem like there are some politics at play here? Yeah, I mean that's definitely what Broward County Commissioner Steve Geller accused them of. He called it a political stunt. He said that more or less to one of our reporters, Gainesville and Broward are both Democratic strongholds.

So they're definitely being accused of that. And, you know, the Santa said during the press conference that his office had decided to kick it off and Broward before they had ever even, you know, responded one way or another, by the deadline that they had given them. So, you know, one thing that they indicated is that they were looking at places where there's been modest population growth alongside a large increase in spending. You know, as the Mayor of Gainesville just pointed out on your program,

a lot of spending in local governments is related to property values. Property values are going up all over the state. So spending is bound to be going up all over the state except in, you know, areas where there's like a steep decline like in some of the rural areas. But for instance, like in Broward, you know, the total military rate remains flat at five point six six Though it's slightly higher than what the mayor of Gainesville just said, but they haven't raised that at all They also took issue with the way that DeSantis is administration

Calculated how much their spending had gone up. They said in a letter to Broward County that Their spending had gone up by four hundred in a letter to Broward County that their spending had gone up by $450 million a year. Whereas Geller calculated to one of our reporters that from 2021 to 2024, their county ad valorem taxes increased by $340 million total. So that's per year. So that's significantly less than what the state is accusing them of. I mean, we don't know what the right answer is.

We only know what they tell us. But they did provide us with documents that they shared with the state. And they shared an Excel spreadsheet with several tabs of information. It seemed as though they were in fact giving the state what they were requesting. And then the state quickly sent them an additional letter with seven pages of audit requests, much like the mayor of Gainesville just pointed out.

Right. So I guess we're going to have to sort of wait and see how things shake out as these audits get underway. We're talking with Miami Herald reporter Alexandra Glorioso. Alexandra, do stay with us. We're going to switch gears here though to another big story this week. It's the second day that Ghislaine Maxwell, the former associate of Jeffrey Epstein, is being questioned in Tallahassee.

Holly Belts, the investigations editor at the Palm Beach Post is with us. Holly, thanks for being here Just quickly a Ghislaine Maxwell subpoena to testify. Why do house lawmakers? New York House of Representatives, why do they want to hear from her? Oh I think everybody wants to hear who might be on the quote client list Who are their big profile people or participated in her and Epstein's crimes? Right and the Justice Department also has been subpoenaed for files related to the Epstein case. Can you share a little bit of information of what's going on there because it's kind of complex all these different subpoenas flying around. Do you mean the ones where the Justice Department is asking? Oh, or you mean from

Congress? I'm sorry. Yes. I'm trying to follow it too. Yeah, so they're trying to get the federal investigative files. Now, whether those are investigative files from the two criminal cases of which, you know, in the southern district of New York, which of course Epstein's was very short, there was also a disciplinary investigation of the early federal prosecutors that they might be interested in. You know, I don't know if they specified what files they wanted, but they're, they're a lot going around. Yeah, they certainly are. And in the meantime, Galeen Maxwell has been testifying, I believe is testifying again today. Alexandra, I believe you were covering that story too. Can you tell us a little bit about what happened in that meeting yesterday? Yeah, thank you.

So Glane Knoxwell is being held in a prison in Tallahassee, a federal prison, and she and her attorney David Oscar Marcus met with Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanch for several hours yesterday and there are meeting with him again today. I was with several reporters waiting outside the federal courthouse yesterday where they met looking to get any kind of comment. We did hear from David Oscar Marcus around five o'clock. He didn't say much about the substance of their meeting,

but he said that she answered every question, she never took a privilege, and that she is productively working with the Justice Department. They're going to continue to meet today. So I'm guessing that this will have some kind of effect on her testimony later in August, but we can't know at this point. Yeah. In the last minute or so here, Holly, I mean, the Epstein case started in Florida with an

investigation of Palm Beach County way back in 2005, but it wasn't until 2019, after Miami Herald investigative journalist, Julie Brown, dug into the sex trafficking case that more serious charges were brought against Epstein. It's back in Florida again. How has this kind of become, once again, the epicenter of this case? Well, you know, it always sort of has been the epicenter,

even though it was New York prosecutors who actually picked up the sex trafficking charges against him and Ghislaine. They were cases from Florida. Half of them were focused, were used in those cases. So it's always kind of been here. And, you know, in Palm Beach County, we just got a release last year of the grand jury transcripts in 2006, the one that charged them with only solicitation of prostitution and found out that the prosecutors had actually called the only two victims to testify, she called them prostitutes. She said, you know, you've committed a crime.

Right. In front of the grand jurps. So it keeps going. Yeah, it does indeed. Yeah, lots more to pay attention to. Thank you so much for your insights. We've been speaking to Holly Belts, who's the investigations editor at the Palm Beach Post. Also joining us at Miami Herald reporter, Alexandra Gl Glorioso who joined us from Tallahassee. Still to come on the Florida Roundup, what does Congress, Congress rather I should say, just voted to call back more than a billion dollars in funding from public media. This is the Florida Roundup. This is the Florida Roundup, I'm Matthew Petty.

Next week on our program, Kill a Train, a new podcast by WLRN News and the Miami Herald, we'll talk with the journalists who are digging into the reasons why people are dying on the Bright Line tracks. Back to this week though, Congress just voted to claw back at more than a billion dollars in federal funds from public media. The cuts are part of a rescissions package that also cut about $7 billion in foreign aid. The bill passed on mostly party lines with a few Republicans in both the House and Senate crossing the aisle to vote against it. How will the cuts affect public media programs that you watch and listen to?

What about the work that public media does during an emergency like hurricanes or floods? What should the federal government be doing to fund public media? We're at 305-995-1800. You can call and talk to us on air, 305-995-1800, or send an email, radio at thefloridaroundup.org. With me is Paul Grove, President and CEO of WEDU. That's West Central Florida's PBS station. Grove is also the Chair of Florida Public Media. Paul, thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks for having me. And we're also joined by Judith Smelser, President and General Manager of Central Florida Public Media based in Orlando. Judith, thank you so much as well. Thank you for having me, Matt. So Paul, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is losing $1.1 billion. That's over the course of two years. On top of that, Governor Rondy Sanders cut about $6 million in state funding for public media using his line item, VetoPower.

How does this one-two punch impact Florida public media stations? I think across the board, it's devastating. You look at the programming when we send out educational content, children's content, as you mentioned hurricanes and being there for those emergencies, all of these are now in jeopardy. We have to work together as a state and we have one of the strongest state collaborations in the country through the Florida Public Media Group. We have to look at innovation and ways to collaborate and we're looking at that right now. Right, yeah just give us a quick explainer for folks who maybe don't know. I mean they may be familiar with their own local public media

station but what does Florida Public Media do? So we work in collaborations, really programming collaborations, opportunities to share ideas. So a great example was during COVID, we had the class of COVID, which was a program that was produced by Florida Public Media stations together to share what we are doing across the state. The other things that we do in collaboration is we talk about best practices. For instance, when we have the Be My Neighbor Day at WEDU, we share that with the rest of the stations and share those opportunities.

And then of course, your program right now. Yeah. This is a collaboration of a number of NPR stations here in the state of Florida and it's a great example of how it can be done in a way that is very cost-effective. Judith, I was listening to Central Florida Public Media this morning and Natalia Blake, the morning edition host there, was talking about, she put a dollar figure on it right,? $400 million, I think was the figure mentioned. So that's no insignificant amount of money.

Can you give us a sense of what that loss means for central Florida public media? Well, it's actually $400,000. So it's not quite as bad as you just suggested. My apologies, $400 million is a lot of money. Yeah, $400,000. It is. That's much bigger than our total budget. But yes, we are losing $400,000 a year in combined state and federal funding.

What that means to us is that we have suspended a year-long fellowship program, our Emerging Journalist Fellowship Program, which was launching the careers of new journalists in the field. We've frozen two open positions. And we are reviewing our entire program schedule right now. What many people don't realize is that we pay for the national programming that we provide to our audiences.

So we pay NPR and the other program providers that we work with for the privilege of bringing that high-quality programming to our audiences. All of that costs money and we are looking at what we may not be able to afford to share with our audiences anymore after October when these funding cuts really hit. So today we are actually in the middle of a one day fund drive and we are seeing an outpouring of support from our community, which is extremely encouraging. I've never seen anything like what we are seeing from our community right now. And we need to raise $400,000 today in order to close that gap as we are working on the budget for our coming year and deciding what we're going to be able to continue to do and what we might not.

Yeah. And I'll say this. At WEDU, we also are ready to learn station. And those funds were cut along with the federal funding and the state funding. So we immediately had to look at our summer programs and look at how we can bring new funds to the table. And we did also, just like Judith mentioned, an outpouring support came from the community immediately when they heard about these devastating cuts.

Okay, so Central Florida Public Media is losing $400 million. What about WEDU? What does that money look like for you? Yes, so for us it's about 20% of our budget, and that is a total of about $3 million a year. So it's a large dollar amount and we're not gonna be able to just hold one pledge drive or two pledge drives to make that up. It's gonna have to be a real new evolved way

of long-term support from the community and innovative ways that we can partner in the community and bring those relationships that we already have. It's a new frontier for media itself as we see the evolution of streaming, going away from cable boxes, et cetera. Sure, yeah. We're gonna be looking at every innovative opportunity

to partner and bring in additional revenue streams. We're at 305-995-1800 at 305-995-1800. If you have some thoughts about how the cuts might affect the public media programs that you watch and listen to, we'd love to hear those thoughts. You can also send us an email, radio, at thefloridaroundup.org. I'm speaking with Paul Grove, President and CEO of WEDU, and Judith Smelser, President and General Manager of Central Florida Public Media. Paul, you mentioned a moment ago that you are a ready to learn station. What does that mean? So we get kids ready to learn with our education team at WEDU. They actually go out into the schools and they provide free educational resources that go along with those great programs that the kids love, like Daniel Tiger and Arthur

and all the other programs. We give out those opportunities and make sure that that they're going to be increasing their literacy their math skills across the board. But we actually have education team members that go out in the community and help those teachers, parents, homeschoolers. It's a really great program. And something like that, I mean, the $3 million figure you mentioned that you're losing, I mean, does that mean you can't then pay those folks? Are you looking to cut back on some

of those programs, or is it going to be more on the programming that goes out on the air? We'll see some delays in those programs. For instance, we'll continue the summer program because we still have the money from the Ready to Learn grant. But now we're going to be looking and leaning toward the community again and some of the foundations and individuals to help us fill that gap, right? We're going to look at those opportunities because we know people love education and they want to make sure that that educational, those materials are going to be out there. One fact that a lot of people don't know is more than 50% of our country's kids don't have a place and they don't have access to

preschool. In many cases their PBS station is their first classroom. Judith, NPR says that will take $8 million from operations and put it towards a needy station. What do you make of that? That seems like it's going to be good for some of those stations, but that's clearly probably not going to be enough. At this point, we don't expect to benefit from that fee relief. And I understand that NPR is putting that, focusing that fee relief on the neediest stations.

The fact of the matter is, in a place like Central Florida, where we are located, the wealth exists in our community. To invest more deeply and to fill this gap, that's not the case everywhere in the country. There is, especially in more rural places, there are stations that will go dark because they received a third or even a half of their funding from the federal government. And so NPR is focusing its fee relief that way.

Certainly, there are going to be ongoing conversations with NPR about reimagining how we work together as a public media system. But I think what we at Central Florida Public Media are really looking at right now is how we work with our own community here in Central Florida. What is our community willing to step up and invest in? Does our community share our belief that access to reliable, fact-based news and information is a fundamental right that shouldn't depend on your ability to pay? Does the community share that value that what we do is a piece of civic infrastructure? If so, then this is a call to action for the

community. This is a call to invest in central Florida public media and in access to trustworthy independent journalism in the same way that they have long invested in the arts and education and health care and social services. It's a mindset shift that we're talking about. It's a sea change and I'm encouraged by what I'm seeing because I think for decades we've been asking people during our fund drives and elsewhere to imagine what it might be Like if we didn't exist anymore And I think what's happening right now across our communities is that people are actually doing that and they don't like that prospect And they're and they're speaking out with their dollars

Well, we are getting a couple calls and emails. Let's go to Steve and Fort Myers Steve. You're on the air Yes, hi, I just want to say that NPR and Public Radio deserve the cuts that have been implemented upon you because you have stopped informing us listeners. You are attempting to influence us. And I'll give you three examples. Every time you guys talk about abortion, we only hear about the pro-choice side of things. Whenever you talk about immigration, you purposefully conflate illegal immigration and legal immigration, and only present us with stories about the trek

that these illegal immigrants are taking from their home countries to get to the US and so forth. You never, ever in depth talk about the fact that they committed an illegal act and that we're a country of laws. Thirdly, I appreciate you weighing in Steve, but I have to push back. I think we make great effort to present the views that cover all aspects of some of these issues. I can give you an example.

On the abortion case last year, we had a forum where we talked about the impending change to abortion laws. We brought on a pro-choice spokesperson, we also spoke to somebody who's very much pro-life, so we presented people with all the facts and let their listeners make the decision there. But I appreciate you weighing in with your input there, Steve. That issue, though, of bias is one that we have heard from folks, from listeners, like an accusation I should say.

What do you make of that poll? I think that we have to be very careful moving forward to make sure that we are providing credible information, incredible sources. I appreciate the fact that there's a lot of polls. Every poll that I've seen in regards to media puts NPR and PBS right at the center, sometimes leaning left. We have to be very careful about transparency. I think PBS NewsHour is a great example. We have to make sure that the local stations provide that information to those producers in Washington DC that

there may be a different thinking on some of these community issues and national issues. So the more we can help from the grassroots level, help our local, the local help the national, I think that's critical because we have seen a lot of feedback like you had from Steve there. Matthew Petty and we'll get to you in a moment, Judith. Thank you. I'm Matthew Petty. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Yeah, Judith, go for it. Yeah, sorry. I wanted to weigh in on

that as well. And I really appreciate Steve calling in and voicing his opinion because that's what we are about at Central Florida Public Media and public media in general. We are here to listen to our communities. I think in news organizations historically we've been really great at telling you what we think you need to know. We haven't been so great at asking you what you need to know. We haven't been so great at getting out into the community and listening to the community. And here at Central Florida Public Media we've made a real investment in that over the past few years to go out and do listening sessions in different parts of the community to ensure that we are telling not just

both sides of the story, but all sides of the story, because usually there's more than one side to the story. There's a great deal of nuance that gets missed in the tit for tat, he said, she said, left, right type of media that people have become so used to our job is to tell the nuance And to really amplify the voices of our communities that reflect all types of perspectives We want everyone to feel included in our content that is that is our our mandate And if we are not meeting that mandate then we we need to do a better job And if we're not meeting that mandate, then we need to do a better job. I got this email too from Jonathan who writes, I'm a daily listener for multiple hours every day and I support the defunding of NPR.

NPR will have to earn the public's support or increase its reliance on corporate sponsorship. The public should not be subsidizing with tax dollars media, which corporations also fund. I mean, what do you make of that Paul because that is a question like a bigger philosophical question like you know what should the what amount of taxpayer money should be going to something like public media. So it's a great question. At WEDU we started some nearly 70 years ago providing something beyond what was in commercial

television at the time right Newton Minow said it was a vast wasteland commercial television and there needed to be one place for dialogue and for community service public broadcasting service not station or system as a public good just like public parks, people are going to be not happy that their taxes go to something that they might not agree with. This is a service that was created for the public good moving forward where there wasn't a commercial lien and we weren't worried just about ratings. Instead we're producing content that hopefully is providing information and the emergency services we provide.

There's so much more we do beyond the television screen and beyond the radio signal. Yeah, Judith, to that point, I mean, when you drive out to the East Coast, I should say, you see the signs along the highway saying if there's an emergency, it's got the little hurricane symbol and says East Coast I should say you see you know the signs along the highway saying you know if there's an emergency it's got the little hurricane symbol and says you know tuned to 90.7 so there is a pretty important emergency function that the radio stations and public television stations play so thoughts on kind of the the greater value I guess beyond the programming but emergency information

that radio stations and and public television stations can play. Absolutely. Well, one of the ways that we collaborate through Florida Public Media is through the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network. And this is a network and a collaboration that we are, all of us radio stations in Florida are part of. We jointly employ some meteorologists who help all of our stations broadcast information in emergencies about storms, flooding, all of the dangers that people might face. And when those emergencies happen, we fill a public safety role that no other media outlet can fill because we have that resource, because the, the state directs people to our

frequencies as you just pointed out, and that's a mission that is very important. When everything else goes away, radio is still on the air. It is indeed. I've been speaking with Judith Smelter, the president and general manager of Central Florida Public Media, also with us Paul Grove, president and CEO of WEDU and chair of Florida Public Media. Still to come Paul Grove, President and CEO of WEDU and Chair of Florida Public Media. Still to come, we'll have a roundup of immigration news from around the state. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is the Florida Roundup.

I'm Matthew Petty. Immigration has been the driving force of national politics this year. We're going to take a few minutes to explore how that's playing out here in Florida. We begin on the edge of the Everglades and the Migrant Detention Center dubbed Alligator Alcatraz. Here's Tim Padgett from our partner station WLRN. Since it opened this month the Florida Migrant Detention Center known as Alligator Alcatraz, located out in the remote Everglades,

has come under intense scrutiny as detainees issue complaints about its controversial living conditions. But WLRN has learned that detainees are also now alleging controversial punishments they receive. They chained me to the ground. I was in the sunlight from 1 o'clock

to like 7 o'clock in the evening. We don't know water. This alligator Alcatraz detainee is a Nicaraguan migrant seeking asylum. He asked WLRN not to use his name in a phone call from inside the facility. The detainee, who is black, claimed that over the weekend he had

an argument with a guard who he says called him the N word. He says his hands and feet were then shackled and he was put in a four by four foot square in the recreation yard. He says the guards call it the box. He says he was directly in the Everglades sun and heat for several hours with no water. I don't deserve this. Nobody deserves this because this is unhuman.

They treataters like real criminals like murder. We just emigrate. The 21 year old came to the U. S. In 2023, he says, as a student protester escaping Nicaragua's brutal dictatorship. He has been arrested since then in Broward County, but he has no criminal convictions. Despite his pending asylum application, federal immigration agents detained him last month. He was one of the first people sent to alligator Alcatraz, and he claims other detainees there have also been punished in the so-called box.

Including, he says, one little friend that I got in the same cage that I'm in. He's from Honduras. A spokesperson for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which operates Alligator Alcatraz, called the Nicaraguan's claims false. She insisted, quote, no guards are punishing detainees. Officials are highly trained and follow all federal and state detention protocols.

The division also denies complaints about conditions there, like scant access to showers and bursting toilets. Republican Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez of Miami told Local 10 News to remember Alligator Alcatraz is a prison. I went and I saw this place in person. Look, it's no five-star resort, but we're holding criminals in these locations. That was originally the pitch about Alligator Alcatraz that its severe setup was meant for criminal undocumented migrants, But analyses by the Miami Herald and other media show that hundreds of detainees like the Nicaraguan migrant who alleges the box punishment do not have criminal records. Meanwhile, the nonprofits Human

Rights Watch and Americans for Immigrant Justice just released a report calling migrant detention centers in Florida under the Trump administration quote dehumanizing would not wish it on my worst enemy at all. Janice Mitchell is legislative aide to Democratic Florida state representative Angie Nixon of Jacksonville. Mitchell visited alligator Alcatraz last week with Nixon and other legislators. She argues the hastily constructed $450 million tent building structure on an Eidel Everglades airstrip is a disturbing project. I talked to different detainees who are telling me the same story. We have food that has maggots in it. We have a ceiling that's caved in. When they do get water, it's from the same

place that they use the bathroom. It's not a good place. Mitchell argues it's one thing for President Trump and other immigration enforcement hardliners like Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to want to detain and deport undocumented migrants. I get DeSantis and Trump and whomever else decided to do alligator Alcatraz. These people feel how they feel. Okay, you don't want them here. I get it. But do you have to torture them?

Why you send them to wherever you're gonna send them back? Last week, Democratic lawmakers in Florida and Congress introduced a bill called the No Cages in the Everglades Act that would prevent future immigration detention facilities like alligator Alcatraz. At the same time, non-criminal detainees, families and friends are pushing for their release. Fort Lauderdale restaurant server, LaShanti Gibson,

spoke by phone with the Nicaraguan detained and alligator Alcatraz after he claimed he was forced to stand in the hot sun for six hours as punishment for arguing with guards. He just told me that it just felt like he was being tortured, but every day is something new that's disturbing. And like the closer we get to his court date, the harder they get on him.

That court date to determine if he can at least be transferred out of alligator Alcatraz if not freed from deportation entirely is next Tuesday. WLRN's Tim Padgett with that report. Demonstrations have been commonplace along the Tamiami Trail in the tiny eastern Collier County town of Ochoppy. That's where the Immigrant Detention Center opened in the midst of a national preserve earlier this month. The state aggressively marketed the center as inescapable in the manner of the old Alcatraz Penitentiary. Environmental groups focus on shutting the centre down, and people from near and far protest regularly at the site. But Saturday was different. It was an

afternoon for the faithful of many religions. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me. He has sent me to be good news to the poor. He has sent me to be good news to the poor. That was Fr. Frank O'Loughlin. He's a Roman Catholic priest and founder of the Guatemalan Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach. He came across the Florida Peninsula with many children who also offered prayer in their native Mayan language. O'Loughlin said he hoped the prayers, especially those not in English, could be heard and understood by those caged across the street.

Our hope on coming here is that the victim will not feel totally isolated, that they will know that your love crosses fences and boundaries, and that they are supported in every way, not just by the wonderful prayers of our community here, but by all of us, that this terrible wrong will come to an end. And you can read more about that story on WGCU.org. I'm Matthew Petty and you're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Hondurans and Nicaraguans are the latest nationalities to have their temporary protected status revoked. TPS has allowed them to live and work in the US legally for 26 years after a hurricane

tore through their countries. But the Trump administration is ending that protection. From our partner station WUSF, Nancy Guan reports Honduran immigrants in the Greater Tampa Bay region say this could upend their lives. At La Casa Catracha, everywhere you look there's a reminder of Honduras. The country's blue and white-striped flag hangs by the register of the North Tampa restaurant. Coffee mugs with the names of Honduran cities are stacked on a shelf. And then there's the smell,

freshly grilled carne asada and plantains. People enjoy coming here to eat, to feel at home. Brenda Coto is the restaurant's owner. She says people come here to feel at home. My customers and employees are like family to me, she says. We're a community that has grown together. But lately, her community has felt a lot of anxiety, Coto says. Many of them are immigrants who have been affected by the Trump administration's

immigration policies, including his recent decision to cancel temporary protected status for Hondurans. Coto is a naturalized U.S. citizen by marriage. But for years, she relied on TPS to stay in the country. I was once in their shoes, she says. But now she says they're having to deal with so much more. Arnold is one of her regulars. We're withholding his full name because he fears being targeted for his immigration status. There's no jobs, there's no opportunity for us whatsoever in Honduras. That's the only reason why one day we decide to come to this country. Arnold arrived in the U.S. at age 17 without legal documentation. He was part of a wave of

migration in the 1990s, caused by a mix of poverty, climate change, and political instability. Then, in 1998, Hurricane Mitch decimated his country, killing thousands and plunging the economy into further turmoil. The U.S. government granted TPS to Honduran nationals who were already in the states. People like Arnold, who had no criminal record, were allowed to live and work here legally, as long as he continued to abide by the law and renew his status. For that, he says he's thankful. ARNOLD PINAR, President, Honduran National Security Council, United States Department

of State of the Union, United States Department of State of the Union, United States Department of State of the United States Department of State of the United States Department of State of the United States Department of State of the United States Department of State of the United States Department of State of the United States Department of State of the United States Department of State of the United States Department of State of the United States Department of State of the United States Department of State of the United States For that, he says he's thankful. Regardless what we're going through now, we've been protected for almost 30 years. But, during that time, he says he built a life. He owns his own trucking company and is the sole provider for his wife and three kids. Arnold says his plan was to apply for permanent residency through his U.S. citizen son, but he has to be at least 21. And his son is three years shy. Under the government's order, TPS for Hondurans is set to expire in September.

I am not ready to go back to Honduras, you know what I mean? I'm not ready because I have my family here. The New York Times reports about 21,000 Honduran TPS recipients have obtained green cards, but another 50,000 who haven't could be forced to leave the U.S. The Department of Homeland Security says that conditions in Honduras have improved enough for its citizens to return home. Secretary of DHS Kristi Noem adds, quote, temporary protected status was designed to be just that, temporary.

But a lawsuit filed by the National TPS Alliance calls the termination order political. The administration is trying to cancel TPS for neighboring Nicaragua and multiple other countries. And the group points to a still volatile economy and high crime rate in Honduras. It's why the U.S. State Department still has a travel advisory in place for U.S. citizens. Brenda Cotto says it's unfair that people like Arnold, who have worked and paid their taxes in the U.S. for decades, are suddenly being told to leave. It would make sense, she says, to give long-time

TPS recipients a more direct path to citizenship. Arnold wishes the same. I always thought that one day that was going to give us a pass to have a green card. I'm still hoping that something will change. I'm Nancy Guan in Tampa. That's our program for today. The Florida Roundup is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF in Tampa. The show is produced by Bridgette O'Brien and Denise Royal. WLRN's Vice President of Radio is Peter Mertz.

The program's technical director is MJ Smith. Engineering help from Doug Peterson, Ernesto J., Geo Garvin and Blake Bass. Our theme music is provided by Miami Jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at AaronLeibos.com. If you missed any of today's show, you can download it and pass programs on the NPR app. Thanks for calling in and listening.