The Florida Roundup - Florida DOGE report, State tests some food for toxins, and weekly news briefing

Episode Date: February 13, 2026

This week on The Florida Roundup, we looked at the state’s report on local government spending with Sheila Weinberg, founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting (00:00). Then, we were joined by the Chair of the Hillsborough DOGE Liaison Committee Jake Hoffman to discuss the county’s fiscal accountability efforts (12:40). Plus, we looked at the state’s food contamination testing with an environmental scientist specializing in toxicology (20:38) and later with PolitiFact’s Samantha Putterman (32:14). And later, news from across the state including student protests against ICE (37:30), Florida’s dry weather outlook (40:16), and a possible new port project in Tampa Bay (42:40).

Support for Florida Roundup comes from the Everglades Foundation, working to restore and protect Florida's $1 trillion asset that helps to bring clean water to Floridians. Learn more at Everglades Foundation.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. I hope you've been having a terrific week. A year ago this month, Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order creating the Department of Government Efficiency, the so-called State Doge. We in the state of Florida take pride in how we run this. things. I say we were Doge before Doge was cool. Now, the department is not a formal state department. It actually is the Doge task force. The effort spent about 11 months examining budgets

of local governments. When it was announced, the governor's announcement promised it would, quote, uncover hidden waste and even audit the spending habits of local entities to shine the light on waste and bloat, end quote. The state legislature passed a bill to help pay for the examinations. That law required Doge to file a report by January 13th. The Doge group filed its report on January 28th. The Florida Doge initiative delivers value to Floridians by opening the books on local government spending and applying consistent. Data-driven methodologies to evaluate how taxpayer dollars are used. This is from the executive summary of the report as read through a text to speech software tool. This approach allows the state to identify spending trends and structural inefficiencies

that traditional audits often miss while maintaining fairness and objectivity. We'll get to the report's findings in just a moment. Now, this Doge examination is related to but different from the analysis of local government budgets led by state chief financial officer Blais Angolia. His effort is called the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight, FAAFO, which also happens to match a crude acronym that means there are consequences of ignoring warnings. Now, we invited the CFO on to the program, and his office reminded us that the Doge report comes from the governor's office, not from the chief financial officer's office. We contacted the governor's office, and it said the head of the Doge Task Force was unavailable for an interview.

Now, according to its report, the Doge project, quote, serves to uncover specific instances of wasteful spending and abuse in local governments, whereas the chief financial officers look focuses on what it calls the, quote, excessive local government spending through budget audits, end quote. Now, even though the two efforts come from different sources, the CFO's office acknowledged in an email to us that the Doge report did, quote, mention our publicly available FAAFO results, end quote. And this is how CFO Engolia explained his effort on this program when we spoke with him back in August. We're including everything. Everything that government is spending on right now, we are focused on general fund budgets. Now that phrase, general fund budgets, is important to Sheila Weinberg. She runs a group called Truth in Accounting. It's a nonpartisan think tank focused on government, fiscal transparency, and accountability. I have a tendency not to look at budget documents because I look at them more as a political document than an actual.

accounting document. The Doge report says that the local government budgets reviewed by the chief financial officer's financial analysis has identified $1.8 billion of what it calls wasteful spending. Back in August, this is how the chief financial officer in Golia defined wasteful spending. When I meet with the auditors and the reviewers, I tell them, I said, if you are a taxpayer that resides in whatever city or county that we're in that they're doing the audit in, if you found out that the government was paying for this, how would you feel? The Doge report singles out several budget items such as government salaries, spending on art, sports, and cultural activities, offering residents trees, bicycle lanes, and efforts the report describes as diversity, equity, and inclusion, DEI spending.

The Doge analysis spotlights the increase in the general funds of the 10 largest city governments in the state and finds they increase to combined 67% percent between 2017 and 2025. This is how the analysis characterizes that increase. While this increase is disproportionate to population and inflation increases, this underscores the need to protect the opportunity for families to own their own home by enacting property tax relief, as Governor DeSantis has urged. In August, before the chief financial officer released any results publicly of his office's efforts, we asked him about what his effort hope to accomplish. An informational campaign, number one, to let people in the jurisdiction know how they are spending their money, how much their government has grown in the general fund budgets

over the last four or five years, and a lot of this is going to be a prelude to a constitutional amendment to for property tax reform. Now, government accounting expert Sheila Weinberg, with truth in accounting, says instead of examining budgets, she recommends looking at total expenses paid by governments to get a sense of spending and to use audited financial statements, not budgets. Using publicly available data between 2017 and 2023, total expenses for the city of Jacksonville increased 38%. They were up 43% in Orlando, up 30% in the city of Miami, and Tampa's total expenses rose 52% over that same time period. Now, the total expenses reported by the state of Florida were up 62% according to Weinberg's analysis, faster than those large cities.

So what do you know about how your local government spends your tax dollars? What do you consider wasteful? What's frugal? 305-995-1800 or send us a quick email, radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Sheila Weinberg is the founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting. Sheila, what's your assessment of the methodology used in this Florida Doge report? I obviously strongly support any government efforts to be transparent and promote fiscal accountability, but accuracy and methodology is key. Unfortunately, this report like what many government officials do focuses only on general fund spending. So why is that distinction in?

important for taxpayers to understand? Because the general fund is the operating fund of the government, but it doesn't include all of the money that's being spent. For example, the largest issue would be the payroll. Payroll, they include the paychecks, but some governments do not include the earned benefits that the employees have earned and have been promised in the form of pensions and retiree health care. The strategy used by this Florida Doge analysis, are these generally accepted principles for assessing government spending? The government officials accept them. Again, a lot of government officials use this. It's a flaw in government budgeting and accounting. It's just not a holistic approach. Is it an effective and acceptable strategy when analyzing government

spending efficiency, which is what the Doge effort ultimately here in Florida is after? What I would say is if you and your spouse keep separate checking accounts and then you have a joint account. And when you're looking at your finances, you don't want your spouse to know what you're doing and she doesn't want to know what you're doing. So you only look at the joint account. So we'll just look at the joint account. And that that's pretty much what they're doing. looking at the overall spending, they're just looking at a portion of it. I will say in our household, as far as I know, we only have a joint account, at least on my end. I'll have to ask my wife. Well, I don't you might. Maybe, oh, I'm not going to get into that with you. Fair enough.

This Doge effort here in Florida, when the governor created it, it was pledged to focus on finding what it calls, overspending waste, fraud, and abuse. What is considered overspending waste, fraud and abuse from an accounting viewpoint for government finances. It's in the eye of the beholder. Obviously, this report wanted to focus on DEI programs and other programs like that and environmental programs. We look at this spending and is it efficient, is it wasteful? I think, you know, the listeners do need to pay attention to that because what has happened

is as people haven't paid attention to governments, they have continually continued to expand. and hire more and more. And they are taking up more and more people's lives, more and more of their taxes. So they need to pay attention. When you talk about the report and what they're looking at or not looking at, some people are referring to it as a audit. It is not a financial audit in any sense. They could look at it as a performance audit or a spending audit,

but it's nothing to do with a financial audit. Why is that word or that distinction important? Because financial audit looks at the overall finances, and they also have, usually an audit is done by an independent auditor, as an accountant is looking at the information, and obviously here they didn't have any independent auditor look at the information. The Doge effort looks at the inflation rate and the population. growth for it to come up with kind of a baseline growth rate. Is that a methodology that is useful? Most things look at the inflation weight. I guess they're also looking at the number of people moving there. They're saying government expenses might have to be a little bit higher because you have

more population. Using those type of metrics probably are good. But again, only looking at the isolated general fund expenses is problematic. This Doge analysis, Sheila, includes several recommendations for local governments in Florida, including what it calls for enhanced audit authority by the state chief financial officer. Is that kind of state oversight of local government finances common? I think it's getting more common. Is the state better at managing local government? Is a question to be answered?

Which I don't have an answer for that. When a financial analysis is focused, on that general fund, what are the benefits? What are the shortcomings of that? And I guess it's applied to this Doge report, for instance. I hesitate because I'm trying to think of a good benefit for it because I just don't look at the general fund because it is so limited. The accounting can be so misleading. I could understand why the report focused on that because unfortunately most government people do focus on that. Sheila Weinberg is the founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting.

That's a nonpartisan think tank focused on government financial transparency and accountability. Now, we invited the Florida Doge Task Force leader to the program. The governor's office declined the invitation and offered to answer specific questions. We replied with some specific questions and await the answers. Let's see. Marty sent us this email. He's been listening and wrote us, when asked how, I am in knowing how my tax dollars are spent, the honest answer is not very. We are repeatedly

told that certain administrations are rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse. Yet many of those claims have later been shown to be exaggerated, incomplete, or deliberately framed to tell a partisan story. It's hard to trust transparency from leaders who routinely rely on half-truths and manipulation. Marty Wrights at every level of government, including locally, we're largely dependent on officials, to be honest with us. But when those officials have clear partisan agendas, trust erodes. You can join the conversation by sending us a note, radio at the Florida roundup.org, radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Or live on the phone this Friday at 305-995-1800. 305-9-9-5-1800. We say hello to Jake Hoffman, the chairman of the Hillsborough-Dose

liaison committee. That's a committee that's the advisor between the Hillsborough County Commissioners and the Florida Doge team. Jake, welcome to the program. Thanks for your time. Yep, thanks for having me. So the Doge report is out from the state. It found that Hillsborough County budget increased 49% between 2021 and 2025. The report said that, quote, county budgets are growing at an excessive pace. Do you agree with these conclusions that the state made regarding Hillsborough County? Generally, you guys are talking about this a little bit earlier that there is a baseline here, you know, for the inflation to the population increase, all of those things that you're talking about the equation that was used.

Yep. I believe from what we've seen locally, and again, we are diving, maybe I can answer some better questions about what we're diving into locally and what we're seeing compared to what the state report is because they are separate things that we are working on right now. But generally, it's on point, and then it's up to us now to go in and really identify what is going to be considered wasteful. So I'll ask about your specific efforts with the liaison committee. but the state Doge report, which is kind of anchoring some of your work in Hillsborough County, it identified specific items that it called excessive spending in Hillsborough County, $204,000 for what it referred to as a Ferrari of Grand Pianos in the New Performing Arts Center, a half million dollars in film subsidies for what the report called forgettable projects,

such as films entitled She Wants, My Baby, Mother Nature, and the Doomsday Prepper, 1972 and Romance at the Derby. and it also identified 309 county employees with car allowances totaling $950,000. Do you consider those wasteful? So I could go into each one of those individually. We actually had a long conversation over like the car subsidy that I think that our committee was like, you know,

this isn't really that big of a deal. But then you talk about like the film commission, we had an entire meeting about the film commission and the way that they pick and choose who they just decide to give money to $50,000 here. hundred thousand dollars here these are not hillsborough county companies they're not filmed in hillsborough county and and there's nowhere to even go and get a film subsidy you have to know the guy who's the film commissioner so um we've got a you know there's a real issue there with the film

and the film and the amount of money that's flowing through that and in really not an accountable way and so there are individually piece by piece like again this really the state those report was very uh small like you you just named, there's only about four or five things that they named as example. And the Hillswell County part of it was two pages long in a 98-page report. Exactly. And so, you know, for us, you know, within the first month or two, once we're looking through, you know, we're looking at 15,000 line Excel sheets with, you know, line by line, all of the different contracts and how much they are and where they're going and that kind of stuff.

And it's a lot. It's definitely more than two pages. And so, you know, we expect to, in the next month or two come out with our own report. It's a little bit more detailed, a little bit more comprehensive on what we consider to be wasteful spending, and as well as the things that we consider to be maybe better practices from what we've identified working with that. Yeah, so give us an understanding of how you're approaching the definition of wasteful spending. I don't know if you heard the chief financial officer, Blazingolia, who was on this program in August, and we replayed his answer to that question, and he says that he tells his auditors and reviewers, quote, if you are a taxpayer that resides in whatever city or county

that we're in that you're doing an audit in, and if you found out that the government was paying for this, how would you feel? So kind of up to the investigator, how they would feel about those dollars being spent. Is that the metric that you will be using to decide what's wasteful and what's frugal? You know, I believe that there's different definitions. I think that that is obviously kind of a decent way to frame it as how to go in and look at, you know, what you're doing right now. But this really comes down to a few different things here. Like, you will see that there's items in Hillsborough County and ensure all of the other

counties as well where you, not just the taxpayer, like, is this a good use of money or bad use of money, but it's too something that you were like, are we overpaying for this? Are we, have we like done the right, you know, due diligence to figure out whether or not this is a, you know, this contract has been bid out correctly, that have we done this in a long time? That seems like project creep, though, a little bit for you, Jake, because that's around procurement, right, process. And my understanding is the Doge is looking at spending efficiency, not the process that is involved with requests for proposals and assessing those proposals. Sure. So there's that that goes into like where are we wasting money. I mean like ultimately the goal here is, you know, can we reduce the budget or like at least, you know, look, let me back up just a second. We are just, you know, from the Hillsborough County, Doge liaison committee. Like we are very limited in scope, you know, committee. Right. We are only, and maybe I'm not sure if you explain this to listeners, but our committee is only able to receive. received the report and then, you know, we've been able to take a look at what other things that are publicly available information, right? And we have not been looking into any of our constitutional

offices, right? We are not looking into the police sheriff's office. We're not looking into the tax collector. All of these other offices that are not outside of the general budget. And then also, we are not looking into people don't know that there's a difference, right? They don't know that we're not looking into the city of Tampa. They don't know that we're not looking into the school board. Right. So it's limited. So, sorry, we just have a few seconds left here. Jake, because we're on the clock here on radio, not like podcast, which you do, right? So just, you know, as you're doing your work, though, Sheila Weinberg, who we spoke to earlier, said it's more meaningful to look at audit expenses, not budget. Budget is a, is an aspirational.

Will you look at audit expenses? Can you do that? Again, we are very limited in what we can and can't do. I think that, again, we're going to come out with our own report that basically just point to line item that says, hey, this thing is a waste of money. Look, there are some that are there. Sorry to interrupt. I apologize for interrupting you. We're up against the clock. Jake Hoffman with the Hillsborough-Dose Liaison Committee. More to come after this.

Support for Florida Roundup comes from the Everglades Foundation, working to restore and protect Florida's $1 trillion asset that helps to bring clean water to Floridians. Learn more at Everglades Foundation.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. It is great to have you along for the ride this week. Now, late this month, we're going to be taking this program

to Orlando, a live broadcast in front of a studio audience, February 27th, at our friends, Central Florida, Public Media. We're going to have some special guests. We will have live music and lunch. Yes, lunch. We'd love to see you there. We're going to be talking about public school enrollment and spending. We'll be talking about really 2026, one of the most pivotal, important years in the space industry along the space coast for the entire state of Florida. We'll have some live music. We'll also be talking about Hidden Orlando. You think Orlando and Central Florida is all about theme parks? Well, just hold on, wait till you hear that program on February 27th. Live in person, if you're in the area, we'd love to see you at Central Florida Public Media,

February 27th. It is free, but space is limited, so please be sure to register at cfpublic.org slash Florida Roundup Live. CFpublic.org slash Florida Roundup Live. We will see you live at Central Florida of public media in Orlando, February 27th. Now, what's on your grocery list this weekend? Some candy bars, loaf of bread, perhaps, maybe some baby formula. Well, over the course of the past month, the First Lady of Florida, Casey DeSantis, has led an effort to test common food items for chemicals.

We are beginning with baby formula because it affects the most vulnerable among us, and we have an obligation that we absolutely must get this right. And so next, as promised, the attention has turned to another category, consumed by children and that is candy and now we're turning our attention to something else and bread why because this is something that a lot of people are consuming day in and day out the effort says it found mercury and lead in some baby formula arsenic and some candy and weed killer in some bread so how safe is the food in your kitchen what's in your cupboard what does the science say about these results 305 995 1800 your questions about food safety in florida right

now here on the florida round up 305 995-1800. Alex LeBow is with us. Alex is an environmental scientist specializing in toxicology and the owner of the exposure assessment consulting. He's with us from our partner Central Florida Public Media in Orlando. Alex, welcome to the program. Thanks for your time.

Tom, I appreciate you having me. Have you tested chemical levels and food before, like what the Department of Health has done here? I've been in participation in studying food as far as what we call generally recognize a safer grass determinations for the FDA. So what do you

about the process that's been used by the Department of Health to test baby formula candy and bread? I'd love to tell you more about the process. Unfortunately, I don't think there's a lot of information out there on it. I'd love more information. I think it's a great effort to know what's in your food, but I think it's important to understand what the process was for determining what's present in the food. Are there a lot of options for that kind of testing? Or, you know, they talk about an independent third-party test, I would, listen, I'm a Luddite, but I would think like there's one test to test for these chemicals in food products, but there's multiple different ways to do it?

It may be multiple ways depending on the type of food product, and I'll give you the example. Okay. When you're testing for something, you want to make sure that you can adequately test the actual product. From information that I've seen, and it's been secondary sources because, again, I love the state of Florida come out and give all this information out, give the raw, data and the actual lab reports, but they haven't done that. So I've seen other references allude to them testing using a method that's for environmental media, like soil or groundwater.

So I don't know how applicable that is going to be to a food product. And it may be they modified the method of the laboratory, but that information is not publicly available. I see. So a test to measure chemical exposure in soil might have been applied for these food substances. and says candy, bread, or baby formula. We just don't know. Exactly. We just don't know. Again, this is from a secondary source

from a media inquiry. I don't know the primary because they won't release that information as far as I've seen. Alex LeBow is with us, an environmental scientist specializing in toxicology. We're talking about the efforts

that have been launched by the first lady, Casey DeSantis here in the state of Florida, to test food. She began, and the Department of Health began with the baby formula, and then it was candy. And within the last week, results around bread. 305-995-1800 is our phone number. If you have questions about what some of these

results may mean. And in fact, Alex, how should consumers think about the results of these tests? Honestly, to me, as someone who does this in the interpreters, it's very difficult to interpret because there's a lot of unknowns that go with it. When I do these processes, I say, these are my methods, these are the lab results. This are the steps I did for recalculating. risk and exposure. None of that information is available that I've seen. It makes it very difficult for not only the general public, but even people who are familiar with this to interpret of how to apply that information. So the First Lady has been kind of leading this charge. She certainly has taken the mantle on this. This is among the ways that she kind of describes what has driven her.

You know, you go into the grocery store, you go into these places with this expectation of trust, that what you're buying on the store shelves is not contaminated with pesticides. and heavy metals. So, Alex, is that information readily available now about the level of pesticides and heavy metals in common foods and grocery store shelves? So I think it's important to understand that, you know, when these levels are evaluated, food manufacturers typically evaluate and establish specifications for their food products. They have tolerances that their ingredients have to be within, and those usually, you know, are

internal. They say, hey, we're going to keep this within there. I'm sorry, well, you mean internal? Do you mean like kept secret within the company? I don't want to say kept secret, but it's things that when they're determining whether, again, I go back to grass generally recognize as safe, they say, we're going to test our food products and we're going to make sure that they are within a certain tolerance level. Other organizations like EPA and FDA, they have tolerances that are allowed on food products that are entering the market. I think that's important understand, those are based on risk assessments that have been done to show, hey, these levels, we don't identify any elevated human health risk with.

So the fact that they're looking at these levels and putting them out there and saying, oh, they're bad, just because you see something, it must be taken into context with what they're discussing about the intake of that food product as well. Is there a difference between safe chemical exposure in food and no chemical exposure in the food? I think it's important to realize from a, and you've probably, some of your listeners may have heard this, the dose makes a poison. There's a safe intake and an unsafe intake of everything in life. You know, it's great to have six or eight glasses of water a day. That's great. You know, you're hydrating yourself. If you have 60 or 80 glasses, you're over hydrating yourself. So there's

always a risk. It is more intake you have, but it depends on the actual constituent that you're evaluating. Yeah. We're speaking with. Alex Leboe, environmental scientists specializing in toxicology about the Department of Health here in Florida results around testing for food chemical exposure in baby formula, candy and bread 305-995-1800 is our phone number. Scott in Orlando has been listening. Scott, you're on the radio. Go ahead. Thank you very much. Well, I'm going to echo what it has been since so far. I want to see the reports. I want to see the initial surveys. I want to see the scientific data. And I'll read and determine for myself if it's accurate, if it's cogent to what I need to purchase and what's

to be in my life. And I want to see the original science. Yeah. With all due respect, Scott, do you have a experience with food science? I am a food and beverage professional. I've been in the industry for 30 years. Okay. I owned restaurants. I was in catering. I'm I mean, I was responsible for the safe production of food served to the public at large. Yeah. So, yeah, I want to see the science. Yeah, you're an informed consumer, Scott. I appreciate you sharing that with.

The reason why I asked, right, is if I saw the scientific reports, to be perfectly frank with you, Scott, and Alex, I probably couldn't make any heads or tails of it. My dad was a high school chemistry teacher. I would not make him proud with that regard. I wouldn't really know what I'd be looking at if I were to be looking at these scientific reports. So, Alex, you know, Scott notwithstanding in his area of expertise, how do consumers make sense of this? Where does trust lie? The First Lady talks about wanting to have trust. Consumers should have trust when going shopping for groceries.

How does that, how does that trust get created when it comes to chemical exposure in our food? I completely agree. I think there should be trust. And part of that trust is an open and honest dialogue. You know, if you look at. For example, if you look at EPA and you go look up a risk assessment from any constituent, they'll have a 100-page document, how they got there, what process they followed, what inputs they use to assess exposure, the intake they evaluated, and they'll say,

this is our risk assessment model. And even if you may not understand it, it's there for you to look at. And they usually have an executive summary in the front of the document, and make it a little more digestible. But here, none of that information is available. Even if you go to the levels that say, talked about arsenic, and this has a dash. And the scientific realm, if I look at that, you know, it's almost like when you get a blood test and you see something, say, unable to detect. Well, there's a certain level where the laboratory says, we're going to report or be able to detect down to a certain limit. Does the dash mean it was detected zero?

Or does the dash mean that the lab couldn't detect it at their limit or detection or reporting limit? That data is not out there at all. So I have no idea with some of those. Yeah, it has more questions than the answers. Alex, let's squeeze in another call here from St. Augustine. Gerald has been listening. Go ahead, Gerald. Thanks for calling.

You're on the radio. Yes, thank you. And you did a good job on both of these. But this is just another of the DeSontes family's PR stunts. The last one was on Doge and, oh, we've got all this trouble with finances. But then they have an auditor and they don't really audit it. This is, oh, you have arsenic in your candy. Oh, my God, but they don't tell us, well, which candy and what candy and who put it in there?

Well, yeah, Gerald, they do, they do list the explicit candy and the baby formula that's for sale and the exact kind of bread that they do test. So those details are there. But I take your point overall, Gerald, and I'd like to put it to our expert here, Alex, this way. This initiative that started by the Department of Health says it, quote, focuses on clean, transparent food systems, accountability and restoring trust. in public health through evidence-based action. Do these three first tests accomplish that, in your opinion, Alex? I think it's a valiant effort, I'll say that. I think more information is necessary and context is necessary also.

You know, a lot of people don't realize it. You can go on the FDA's website and look up stuff for arsenic compounds and other ingredients. And arsenic, I'm using arsenic is the example. It's a naturally occurring element. It's scary sounding, Alex, but yes, it is very. It is naturally occurring. It is naturally occurring. And you can go look up on their table on FDA and see that carrots have arsenic in them

and sweet potatoes have arsenic in them, low levels, but it's still there. So how do they apply this in context of, hey, you know, are they trying to say that the sweet potato is safer than this candy? To me, it creates more questions and confusion than it actually provides clarity and transparency. Alex LeBoe has been our guest, environmental scientists specializing in toxicology. He's the owner of exposure assessment consulting. Alex, we appreciate you sharing your expertise with us. Thanks so much.

Sure, thank you. He joined us from our partner in Orlando, Central Florida Public Media. Just so happens, we will be there on February 27th for a live program here of the Florida Roundup. So be sure to join us February 27th live from Central Florida Public Media. It would be great to see you there. Got a free lunch and live music as well. I'm Tom Hudson, and you are listening to the Florida Rondup from your Florida Public Radio Station. Let's bring in Sam Putterman now, reporter with our news partner, Politifact, to separate fact from fiction in the case of bread in Florida, I guess, Sam. Welcome back. The first lady Casey DeSantis said this glyphosate levels found in bread was triple digit.

There is a major disconnect between a chemical labeled as unsafe to ingest and its quiet presence in everyday food like bread. So Sam, triple digit, quiet presence. How much? glyphosate was found in the bread that they tested. Yeah. So her group Healthy Florida First said its tests and which evaluated, you know, a lot of popular bread brands found glyphosate levels ranging from non-detectable to 191.04 parts per billion. Okay. Well, I don't have my conversion chart in front of me on the radio here, Sam.

So what does that mean, parts per billion? Right. So yeah. So while that highest 1901 parts per billion number, you know, it might sound scary, parts per billion is a measurement of extremely low concentrations. For example, one part per billion equals one cent in $10 million or one second in 32 years. And to put that into perspective, with bread at that highest level that Florida found, a person weighing about 150 pounds would need to eat around 18,850 slices of such bread every day for a lifetime. And they would just reach the allowable

glyphosate consumption safety limit. Okay. All right. Those proportions now make a little bit more sense for us. One of the criticisms, of course, is that the Department of Health doesn't provide that kind of comparison. It says this parts per billion number, is it high, is it low? What's acceptable? What is the legal limit for glyphosate in bread? Right. Yeah. So the amount of glyphosate, you know, Flores says it's found, as you just said, is nowhere near. It's the EPA's limit that sets what's allowable, the safety limit for the substances residue in food, for pesticide residue in food. And that is up to 30 parts per million, which is 30,000 parts per billion over a person's life. And what the Department of Health found was less than 200 parts per billion.

Correct, exactly. Okay, different scales altogether here. But important to note, it was found and under the legal limit of glyphosate in bread is set by the federal government. Okay. So the first lady, Casey DeSantis, when she has made these announcements about baby formula and then candy and then most recently this month about bread, she makes her case that this is about awareness for shoppers. This is exactly why transparency and accountability matters. Consumers deserve to know the truth and to make informed decisions about what they consume. So Sam, is the glyphosate in food the same as in weed killers? The first lady talked about the warning that's on weed killer containers.

Is it the same chemical? Right, no. So, you know, she did cite these product labels, right? They weren't about accidental exposure to chemicals such as glyphosate and said, you know, talked about the disconnect between these emergency labels. But, you know, experts said it's pretty misleading to compare these labels for raw or concentrated chemicals with the trace amounts that might be in food. You know, the concentration of glyphosate in commercial weed killers, for example, is estimated to be tens of thousands to millions of times higher than the trace is found in some

foods after environmental degradation and food processing. These chemical warnings, you know, they typically indicate hazards or risk from direct high-level exposure. So we're talking about swallowing pesticide solution or having it sprayed in your eyes. And basically, experts have consistently said, you know, the dose makes the poison, meaning that the toxicity of a substance in large raw amounts doesn't necessarily translate to it being broken down in minute, smaller amounts. So if it's the dose that makes the poison, who is it that's following the dose? What agency, what group is measuring this?

And I suppose, importantly, to the first lady's point, monitoring it. Right. So it's actually both the FDA and the EPA that regulate pesticides in the U.S. food supply. And the FDA has found some level, right, of pesticide residue in at least six. 60% of U.S. food samples, but the vast majority of those samples, more than 97% were within those federal regulatory limits. The EPA determines those limits, and they do that by looking at factors like a pesticide's toxicity and how it breaks down over time to figure out exactly how much residue food can contain without harming people. So the FDA enforces those limits and foods that are

found with unsafe levels of glyphosate are subject to government seizure. Sam Puterman, with our news partner, Politifact, there separating, I suppose, literature. the wheat from the shaft in this case with glyphosate and bread. Thank you for laughing at all puns intended here. But serious stuff nonetheless, Sam. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. I'm Tom Hudson.

You're listening to the Florida Roundup. Still more to come on our program this week. Stick with us from your Florida Public Radio Station. Support for Florida Roundup comes from the Everglades Foundation, working to restore and protect Florida's $1 trillion dollar asset that helps to bring clean water to Floridians. Learn more at Everglades Foundation.org. This is the Florida Roundup.

I'm Tom Hudson. Great to have you along. Some public high school students in Central Florida a plan to walk out again today in protest against the Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts. Students from 10 schools in Orange and Seminole counties are expected to stage the demonstrations

according to student organizers. And these follow student protests in other districts last week and earlier this week. Daniel Pryor begins our reporting from our partner Central Florida Public Media. No ice! No KKK! Students at Vieira Rockledge and Satellite High Schools walked out of class, they chanted and held signs protesting ice raids in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Preddy.

Loren, a satellite high school student, says she and her fellow protesters won't be silenced despite the district and the school board chair threatening disciplinary action. Fearing retribution, she asked that only her first name be used. There's so many Hispanic people at our school that are afraid and just it's ridiculous what's happening. There's no reason for it, and there's no reason to stop us from coming out here other than you disagree. Florida Education Commissioner Stasi Kamutsis in a letter to districts warned of disciplinary actions for students, but also teachers and district leaders during walkouts that become disorderly. In a tweet on X, he wrote, quote,

We will not tolerate educators encouraging school protests and pushing their political views on students, especially ones that disparage law enforcement. 11th grader Angel Vales goes to school in Seminole County. She's part of the group, the youth activists of Seminole County, who plan the walkouts. There's a lot of young voices that need to be heard, and there's a lot of people in Florida who come from families that are being targeted and being oppressed. She says the risk of punishment is less concerning for her than what's happening to immigrant families. Students in these districts could also face disciplinary actions up to and including suspension. According to Brevard Public Schools, no students have been suspended over last week's walkouts.

In Orlando, I'm Danielle Pryor. I'm Nancy Gwan in Tampa. In recent weeks, multiple rallies have taken place across the Tampa Bay region, with some students walking out during school hours. Students chanted outside of Wharton High School at an after-school protest against ICE Monday. Nicole Cochran is a senior who organized the Wharton protest. She says although theirs was done outside of school hours, she stands by those who walked out. You usually get pushback and protesting is to go against that pushback. State education officials have told districts if students disrupt instructional time, they'll face penalties.

The Hillsborough County School District says consequences vary based on the behavior or incident. They say they do not have a district-wide count of disciplinary actions. I'm Nancy Gwan in Tampa. Can we talk about the weather? It is the dry season here in Florida, of course, but this dry season is really dry. The entire state is experiencing some level of drought, including extreme drought in parts of the Everglades, south of Tampa Bay and from Tallahassee down the nature coast across to Jacksonville. It has led to some water management districts to declare a water shortage and raises the threat of wildfire.

So let's start with environmental reporter Molly Durek. Dyer, hotter, and longer-lasting dry seasons are another kind of. climate change outcome likely to persist in central Florida. Along with water shortage concerns, those longer dry seasons will also create more wildfire risk. Erica Smithwick is a Penn State University geography professor focused on land management and wildfire risk. Smithwick says the wildland urban interface where human development and natural lands meet

is much more dense in the east compared to out west. So even smaller fires can carry with them greater potential risks to infrastructure and to the built environment and to our communities and our homes. Molly Durrigg, Central Florida, public media. So exactly how dry is it? Well, areas of South Florida, for instance, have received only half the amount of rain that usually falls by this time in the dry season. A Warda shortage warning has been declared in half a dozen counties in South and Southwest Florida,

including Miami-Dade and Lee counties. The warning asks folks to take shorter showers, cut back on the number of loads of laundry, and run dishwashers only when they're full. The warning also asks golf courses and landscapers to conserve water. So what's causing all the dryness? Megan Borowski is senior meteorologist with the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network. Even during the quote-unquote dry season, we should at least see a couple of inches of rainfall each month.

And that rainfall usually comes from squalls along and approaching cold front. We've had multiple cold fronts coming through the state this season, but there's been a lack of significant rainfall from those fronts. So maybe the dry weather is a little bit better than the cold weather, but nonetheless, how long is this drought going to last? Overall, the next few months in their entirety should be drier than normal. That means our drought conditions and all the hazards that come with it, like the wildfire risk and water shortage risk,

those conditions will likely stick around at least through the end of April. Thanks, Megan. Megan Browski with the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network. I'm Tom Hudson, and you're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. Not only is it the dry season, but it's also the crucial. cruise season here in Florida, tens of thousands of people find their way to Port Miami, Port Everglades, and Port Canaveral every week to board some of the largest cruise ships in the world. And some of those enormous ships are just too big to fit under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to sail in and out of Port Tampa. So a private company has an idea, build a port on the Gulf side of the skyway to accommodate the biggest of the big cruise ships and capture some of that tourist activity. This possible port would be near the waters of an aquatic preserve.

Jessica Mazzaros reports from our partner station WUSF in Tampa. I'm on a 21-foot Carolina Skiff in Lower Tampa Bay. The shallow water is crystal clear and there isn't a cloud in the sky. Beside me is Reed Smith, owner of Calusa Oyster Company. Somebody who's grown up here loves a real briny oyster, and then because of the nature of the bay, we have a sweet finish. But his floating oyster farm has been bombarded with setbacks since the start four years ago. We were really, really impacted because of those storms.

Within a week of dropping their first oyster seedlings, Hurricane Ian blew through. Then came hurricanes Nicole, Idalia, Debbie, Helene, and Milton. We haven't had a normal straightforward year of growing. This is our first one. And it's been a successful year at that. About half a million oysters will sell to a dozen local restaurants this harvest. We think everything's going well and then we have the whole port issue. Cruise port developer SSA Marine announced its vision for a port that can hold several big ships near the south end of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

It's over 300 acres of coastal land right beside Teresia Aquatic Preserve, where people fish and grow oysters and clams. It could take up to five years to build, including dredging out the seafloor. That's just going to have a disastrous effect out here. Smith says construction would impact the water quality, diminishing the health of his farm and that of his nearby seedling supplier. Bay Shellfish Company is one of Florida's largest bivalve hatcheries, and it's located in Teresia. It would devastate most of the supply to the Gulf Coast. From Pensacola down to Tampa Bay, he says. Smith's boat passes a couple fishermen in clam farms before shallow water stops us.

We can only get about a mile and a half away from the proposed port location. Think how shallow it is here. So you're starting basically from this depth, which is right now it's probably 18 inches, to get some deep enough for a cruise ship. From here, you can see a silhouette of dense, bushy mangroves, tailing the end of the skyway. The port would be on the other side of those trees facing the Gulf. A few days before this boat ride, I was at that exact spot off the bridge

with Maya Burke of the Tampa Bay. Estuary Program. We're sort of sandwiched on one side by the Sunshine Skyway, but then, you know, behind me, it's really sort of the gateway to the Gulf of Mexico. She says this is one of the last sections of undeveloped shoreline in the Tampa Bay region. It's quite unspoiled and beautiful. Burke recounts how the bay only recently recovered from seagrass losses due to development and wastewater. For every part of the bay that, you know, we have a lot of worries about, it's hard for me to think about adding this part of lower Tampa Bay into that mix because it's been sort of our rock solid performer. This area's record high seagrass coverage helps to offset

climate warming emissions while the mangroves offer flood protection. If you want to go out in the boat with your family and have a killer day, like this is going to deliver every time. And to take that away from folks like that is a sacrifice that we need to think about and value. Burke says we'll have to trust the regulatory programs in place for a proposal like this. Manatee County says there would need to be a technical review, code compliance, and public hearings before commissioners would ultimately decide, not to mention state permitting. But from the looks of it, none of that has happened yet. Back on Reed Smith's boat, he pulls out some oysters fresh out of the water.

You know, there's a sense of pride. Smith thinks, by the next harvest, he'll have 700,000. 50,000 Calusa oysters and sell to triple the number of local restaurants. I'm Jessica Mazzaros in Teresia Aquatic Preserve. And finally on the roundup this week, Jean-Carlo Guerrero usually is in his tuxedo on a podium in front of about 75 musicians making up the Sarasota Orchestra, playing for maybe a couple thousand people at a time. Well, on Sunday, he was conducting a much smaller group of string players, but his audience

could be measured in the tens of millions. You see, Guerrero was the conductor for that small orchestra on the field of the Super Bowl playing Bad Bunny's song Monaco during the halftime show. Sarasota Orchestra president and CEO Joe McKenna said it was pretty special to have their director on such a big stage. A fantastic experience for the orchestra. There's one Super Bowl and they needed one conductor and our music director was there. What more can you say? Now, Guerrero is used to some attention. He has six Grammys already to his name.

And now he has played in the Super Bowl. Congratulations, Maestro. That's our program for today. It is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF in Tampa by Bridget O'Brien and Denise Royal. WLRN's vice president of radio is Peter Merritt. The program's technical director is M.J. Smith. Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Harvey Bressard, and Ernesto J. Our theme music comes from Miami Jazz guitarist Aaron Libos at Aaron Leibos.com.

Don't forget if you're in the Central Florida area in Orlando, come see us live February 27th. Last Friday of this month, we will be there live studio audience at Central Florida Public Media. The Florida Roundup Live in Orlando at the end of the month, be sure to register at CFPublic.org slash Florida Roundup Live. We will see you in Orlando at the end of February. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening, and of course supporting public media in your flies to the Sunshine State. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend. Support for Florida Roundup comes from the Everglades Foundation, working to restore and protect Florida's one trillion dollar asset that helps to bring clean water to Floridians. Learn more

at Everglades Foundation.org.