The Florida Roundup - Florida heatwave, investigation into Brightline deaths, and weekly news briefing

Episode Date: August 1, 2025

This week on The Florida Roundup, we spoke about what’s causing record-breaking heat in parts of the state with meteorologist Megan Borowski (01:40) and how extreme heat can affect your health with Dr. Cheryl Holder (08:04). Plus, a new investigation from WLRN and the Miami Herald looks into why Brightline is the deadliest passenger train in the nation, with WLRN reporter Joshua Ceballos and Aaron Leibowitz, reporter for the Miami Herald (20:00). And later, we bring you news from across the state including a look into why some mobile homeowners are being priced out (37:36), the standoff between the state and the city of Orlando over immigration policy (43:18), and a look into student protests at FAU over construction that threatens burrowing owls’ habitat (45:12). And we share some listener emails (46:52).

The Florida Roundup is sponsored by Covering Florida Navigator program, providing confidential assistance with health insurance enrollment through the health insurance marketplace. Assistance is available at 877-813 or coveringflora.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Matthew Petty. Tom Hudson is out this week. It's hot out there. Dangerous heat is stifling the southeast. On Tuesday, more than 11 million people were under an extreme heat. heat warning. And last Sunday in Tampa was the hottest ever recorded 100 degrees. It's not just hot, it's humid, too. Which you're seeing a lot of people respond to and say, like, it's like walking through P-Soo, like you barely breathe outside. That's Christina Dahl, Vice President for Science at

the Nonprofit Climate Central, talking with our partner station WUSF. And if you're struggling with the heat, how about your four-legged friends? Here's Chelsea Waldek with Hillsborough County Animal Shelter, also talking with WSF. If you are taking your dog out during the day, make sure that you're testing the asphalt or the concrete that you're walking them on with your own hand first. The best time to walk your dogs

is going to be early in the morning or later in the evening once that sun starts to go down. Well, coming up, we're going to talk about what's causing this heat wave and how extreme heat can affect your health. Also, how are you coping with the heat? Give us a call. We're at 305-9.

195-1800, that's 305-995-1800, send an email to radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Well, joining us is Megan Barowski, meteorologist, with our partner, the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network. Megan, thanks for being here. Absolutely. As always, it's great to be on with you. Indeed. Well, places inland like Gainesville, I should say, Orlando, they've seen 100-degree days before. That's not unheard of, but it is unusual for Tampa to head 100. Why is that? Well, so it's a couple things to think about. It's all really the location of Tampa Station, which is near the International Airport, which of course is right on old Tampa Bay, and it's

not far from the Gulf either. So the proximity to the water means that, you know, the sea breeze can kick in and keep a lid on temperatures, help them to not rise too much. And then also the proximity to the water means that we have higher humidity levels and believe it or not actually elevated humidity levels helps to keep temperatures in check it takes more energy to warm humid air than dry air last thing to think about too is that typically with the sea breeze will come seabree showers we did have storms on sunday but they occurred after we hit 100 degrees in tampa yeah it definitely feels a bit cooler after the rains come through but let me come back to that point you're making about humidity because you have the heat index too, right? So what does it actually mean when the

mercury says, say, 95, but it feels like it's over 100? Right. So the heat index or the apparent temperature as well is taking into account relative humidity levels, right? And so when humidity levels are higher, that actually prevents sweat from effectively evaporating from your body. And so then your body doesn't cool down. So it may feel even hotter than, say, 95 degrees if we have high humidity levels. And that's what makes the heat so dangerous is the fact that if we do also have those elevated humidity levels, we cannot cool our bodies effectively and that could lead to heat-related illnesses. Right. So on the one hand, you've got the humidity maybe tamped down the temperature a little bit, but at the same time, you're going to feel pretty hot

either way. So maybe not helping so much. Exactly. It's a double-edged sword. now what's considered normal for july august in florida as far as temperature goes generally across the state it's in the the lower 90s might be the upper 80s if you're right on the water but typically speaking july august lower 90s anywhere from 90 to about 92 degrees um anywhere from Tampa all the way north to jacksonville so we're we're above what is considered normal for this time absolutely yeah this this heat wave has driven temperatures to record levels obviously and, you know, above average levels we should be in the lower 90s, yes. So what's causing it?

What is the meteorological kind of phenomena that's causing the heat wave? And I guess it's not just Florida, right? There's other southeast states that are suffering to. Right. It all comes down to a dome of high pressure, we like to call it. It's a heat dome. And what happens in the vicinity of high pressure is you have sinking air. So as the air sinks, it's actually compressing and it's warming.

So the warming effects of the high pressure. Of course, it's summertime. We have that direct sunshine coming in with high pressure too. You're not going to have a whole lot of clouds. So you have the heating of the surface. You have the sinking air that's compressing and warming. And also with high pressure, it's going to limit the amount of showers that we have around. So that also helps to keep things hot through the afternoon and evening hours.

So it's just this pesky high pressure center that has been just sitting overhead and creating relentless and impressive. of heat for us across the southeast and especially here in Florida. What's the outlook then? When's it going to start cooling down? Well, we do have a front right now that's kind of sinking into South Carolina. It'll move into Georgia and get to North Florida over the weekend. It should increase our rain chances, at least for the northern half of the state. We are looking at temperatures sinking back down to near normal levels by the time we get to

Sunday and next week. So thankfully, this heat wave, at least for now, should be coming to a close relatively soon. And we're two months into hurricane season at this point. The season starts to ramp up in August. I guess the typical kind of peak season is somewhere in September. But what does all this hot air mean for the Atlantic? Well, I mean, you have to look at sea surface temperatures across the board. We do in the eastern Atlantic, we actually have cooler temperatures right near the coast of Africa.

But certainly the fact that we have all this sunshine coming in, we have the heat dome overhead, that certainly helps to keep temperatures warm over the land and over the water. I will say that at least the preliminary forecast for the short term is that we don't see any activity in the tropics. But, yeah, if we don't have storms now, there's nothing to turn up the water. And that means we should have a stark temperature gradient, very warm temperatures at the surface in the Atlantic, which could spell trouble by the time we get to the peak of season. And then there's the Gulf, too. That gets pretty warm as well.

So what's this heat doing for that? Same thing is you don't have, you know, you have all that sunshine coming on in. You don't have anything to help with upwelling of the cooler temperatures to bring it to the surface. And so it's creating warmer than the normal temperatures. It's already above average in the Gulf. And we expect that to continue well into the peak of season, which, of course, is not great news. But, you know, we do need a disturbance in order to take advantage of the warm sea surface temperature. So we'll keep an eye on it.

And there is a bit of dust still flying around, is there from the Sahara? Is that helping? Yes. It's helping to keep a lid on tropical activity. We should have another plume arriving here over the next couple of days. And you kind of see in the satellite imagery just a thin little ribbon over the Atlantic, which is helping to keep thunderstorms at bay. It helped to prevent a little bit of a wave over the Atlantic from developing earlier in the week.

So hopefully that sticks around. We will see, though. We know that hurricane seasons, at least last year, was backloaded. And so hopefully we don't have that scenario this year. Megan Barowski, meteorologist with our partner, the Florida Public Radio Moon. emergency network. Thank you so much for your insights. Really appreciate it. Absolutely. Thanks, Matthew. Now, you can call in as well. What is your strategy for dealing with the heat? What are your questions about it? We're at 305-995-1800. Send an email to radio at the Florida

roundup.org. I want to welcome Dr. Cheryl Holder into the conversation, co-founder and executive director of Florida Clinicians for Climate Action. Dr. Holder, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you. Good afternoon. Always happy to be here. So tell us about what's going on right now. What are you seeing? What does this extreme heat mean from a physician's point of view? Well, of course, we're seeing all the concerns, and especially for some of our patients who are sicker on medications, elderly, we are sounding the alarm so that they can protect themselves. But in general, we know that with protection prevention, we can get through this heat wave and just make people aware how dangerous it can be. And when you say dangerous, what can extreme heat do to make you sick?

Well, what happens? It's just generally, it's an additional stress on your body. So if you're out there working and moving a lot, you create your own internal heat. And then you have this external heat and with us the humidity as you heard from the weather from the meteorologist the humidity means that when you sweat you can't evaporate that heat that fluid on your body doesn't evaporate so you're not cooling so that puts everybody at risk yeah okay and if you've spent any time outside in the last week or so you know just how quickly you can start sweating and if you're not sweating as you point out dr holder that's a bad situational round let's go to the phones now we've got Vicki calling in from Sunrise.

Vicki, you're on the air. Hi, good morning, yes. So I wanted to mention that kids outdoors, I'm a coach. Kids outdoors are extremely affected by the heat, and sometimes the schedules don't allow for morning or evening games. And so coaches and parents need to be extremely aware and sensitive about bringing water, providing them shade, providing them proper water breaks. And in addition, because that's actually a legal thing,

depending on the age of the child and the index of the heat and the humidity, that should also be applied to workers like the doctor said, who work outside, farm workers, roofers. And when it's a high altitude and there is an incident or probability or a likelihood of falling if somebody passes out, that should be something that's on the mind of the employers. Indeed. Can I just ask you, too, Vicki, what do you coach?

I'm a soccer coach. Okay. Yeah, it's got to be tough out there in the heat. I feel for coaches and the kids and other people playing sports or, as you say, working in the heat. Thank you so much for your insights. I really appreciate that. Dr. Holder, what about that?

I mean, the notion of making sure that you are keeping people in your care safe. What's your advice then? Yeah, absolutely. I tell coaches that when kids come out from their been indoors for June, then they come out to do their coaching, that period, that early first week or two is very dangerous for kids because they have not acclimatized. And it takes about 10 to 14 days because they spent the whole June, May June in AC, and then they run out the field or all that. So it's important that they get rest and fluid. And you time how much physical activity for the first week so that they can adjust. Can you acclimatize to heat?

Yes, absolutely in 10 to 14 days, most people with moderate aerobic exercise will acclimatize, but you have to do it consistently, and you must just know that you don't run around for an hour. You may do 30 minutes rest, then gradually increase every day until the kids are fully acclimatized and well hydrated. and they have a pattern of knowing that they have to hydrate and the coaches, everyone stops them and puts the whole system in place. And that usually protects the athlete.

For the older people and everyone there, it's hard to adjust the climatization. So you just know when we're in a heat wave, be ready. Don't wait for thirst. Just have that cup of water. You're just out and about. Have a cup of water. Every hour, just drink something. and it doesn't have to be sugar or those Gatorade, just drink your water.

But also know your risk. Know if you're on medications. Know if you have heart disease. Know about your kidney disease. When you wake up in the morning, look at the color of your urine. Is it already dark and concentrated? That told me you got up a little dehydrated and you probably need more fluids before you go out in the heat. And then try and keep the urine light colored.

And that will give you a nice idea of how well you're able to be. maintain it. And don't overdo the fluids that you're feeling sick. We tell folks no more, the maximum anybody who's being a big athlete needs is a quart in one hour. And that's like four cups. And nobody really needs that much. I'm seeing folks with these Stanley cups. And that's always, that might be a little bit too much water for the average person. But paste yourself and check your urine. Right. So pay attention to the calorie of the P. That's a good tip. We're on with Dr. Cheryl Holder, co-founder and executive director of Florida, clinicians for climate action, talking about the extreme heat, the heat wave we're in currently in the state of Florida.

You can call in as well with your thoughts or questions 305-995-1800 or send us an email radio at the Florida Roundup.org. If you are looking out for, say, heat exhaustion or even a heat stroke, what symptoms should you be looking for? Well, heat exhaustion, that's when you start feeling the cramps. You may feel a little bit that your heart rate, you're feeling a little bit pressured, you're feeling you're sweating more because your body inside is trying to cool down. So that's a very good first sign to say, stop, let me go inside, let me start cooling down. Let me get some more fluids. That's an early side. You may feel a little weak, muscle crams, tired, and the sweating is a lot.

Use that as your first stop. And then there's a difference, right, between heat exhaustion and heat stroke. So what is that difference? Absolutely. Heat stroke is a medical emergency. That's like a heart attack. That's when if you get to the point where you're no longer just a little faint and weak and sweating a lot. Now you don't have any sweat because you've already sweat it out.

And you start getting headache and you're getting some confusion. And then you start feeling a little nausea. and the pulse is rapid and strong. Your heart is everything is bounding, trying to keep you cool, trying to cool you down. 911, 911, 911. That's the most important thing. Then you move the person and you try to do what you can, move the cooler place.

If they're confused, if they're not conscious, do not give them water because they may choke, but you put the water, you try and cool them down. But 911 first, that's the most important thing. if you're working outside i mean it can be hard to escape the heat and to keep cool i mean are there some other things but try besides taking a break trying to get into some shade drinking water when you can is there anything else you can do to keep yourself safe absolutely first you if you're working outside know that you're at risk just accept it wear your right kind of clothing

so don't layer up on the black clothes sometimes i see these folks outside and you're in hoodies and black hoodies and I'm like that is the worst dress light color clothing loose clothing so the air can move with you know where you're going to have to be so you can find somewhere cool if you're getting hot and use a buddy system have somebody check on you so you check on each other because you're at risk so dress properly take the fluids regularly stay fueled up get some rest because if you're working your body is making heat and you're getting heat on the outside so stop rest 10 20 minutes cool down drink your fluids and that will definitely help to protect you and have somebody look out for you we also have cooling towels and there's some new technology that's out there that you're

looking for firefighters and others that are sensors that you can put on your body and it senses and send the information in to your supervisor, and that can then tell them that your body is warming up. So there's some new technology that is coming, but in general, the watershed rest and checking on yourself and knowing that you're at risk and staying hydrated will definitely help. Also, most importantly, avoid alcohol. Forget that beer. I see folks that TV commercial, that shows that chugging down that beer after a long day. No, alcohol makes you pee more. Too much caffeine makes you pee more. So those things we want to avoid and just drink water. If you want those special sports drink, fine. If you're out there working, that's fine too. But water, no alcohol,

no excessive caffeine, and knowing that you're at risk. So some of those energy drinks, I guess, have quite a bit of caffeine. That would be something to possibly steer clear of if you're working out in the heat? Absolutely. That is way too much caffeine. I'm in Miami, so the Cuban coffee, and I'm like, one shot of that in the morning is sufficient. But if this kind of heat and you're out there, that should not be every hour, every afternoon. It really should be just in the morning, and the rest of the day, it's water. And you just keep your water available. In the last 20 seconds or so, what are some things that you're doing to keep yourself cool at the moment, Dr. Holder? Well, every morning I get, I check my weather app. I see what the heat index is.

I dress appropriately. I know where I'm going to be for that day. And so I know clearly that I can only tolerate so much. I take care of my mom who's 96. And so she can tolerate maybe five minutes a day. But we plan the day. We wear hats. I wear it. I have this wonderful UV umbrella that blocks the sun and also helps to keep a little bit cool. And just don't stay out as much. I'm not exercising during the day. I'm just doing everything as much as I can because this type of temperature puts everybody at risk. Inside if you can.

Yeah. Dr. Cheryl, Holder, co-founder and executive director of Florida clinicians for Climate Action. Thank you so much. This is the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Stay tuned. The Florida Roundup is sponsored by covering Florida Navigator program, providing confidential assistance with health insurance enrollment through the health insurance marketplace. Assistance is available at 87813-915 or covering Florida.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Matthew Petty.

Next week on our program, Congressional Redistricting. Redrawing congressional district boundaries typically hams once every 10 years, but Governor Rondy Sandus has raised the possibility of a mid-de-decentric. a redistricting process. What would you like to know about the redistricting process? Email, ask your questions. We're at Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Turning now to Brightline and an investigation by the Miami Herald and WLRN

into why people are dying on the train tracks. And I hope there will be some discussion of suicide during this conversation. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the suicide and crisis life. lifeline. Since it opened in 2018, Brightline has sold millions of tickets and the private rail service has been hailed as a model for success, but 183 people have been struck and killed by Brightline trains. The company has claimed most of the deaths are suicides, but the majority were found to be accidents or their causes were undetermined. This is all happening as Brightline is looking

into expanding to Tampa. WLRN and the Miami Herald spent a year on their investigation. Their podcast is called Killer Train. It's hosted by W. LRN's Danny Rivera and the Herald's Brittany Warman. In episode three, we hear from the loved ones of three people who died. One of them was 64-year-old Marine Corps veteran John Alexander, who died in 2022, after he was hit while driving's motorized wheelchair over the tracks in Hollywood. Here's his sister, Sandra White. This girl came pounding on my door, and I opened it, and she said, your brother was just hit. by a train. I pushed her out of it. I pushed her out of the way. And I ran all the way down there. Then there's Randy Johansson, a 62-year-old who died at a railroad crossing north of Vero Beach last year.

Here's his brother, Daniel Johansson. We found his hearing ate next to the bed. His lunch was on the counter, like he was on his way back. He went to the liquor store when Dixie, the policeman told me. And for some reason he didn't hear the two. train. I don't think he even knew what a bright line was when he got hit. Well, if you have questions or comments about Brightline and the death toll on the train tracks, call us 305-995-1800. That's 305-995-1800. You can send an email to radio at the Florida Roundup.org. We're joined now by two of the reporters from the team that produced the podcast, W. LR.N's Joshua Sabios, and the Miami Herald's Erin Leibowitz.

Josh, Aaron, thank you so much for being with us. Appreciate it. Thanks so much. So Josh, let me start with you. Tell us a little more about John Alexander. What did you learn about him from talking with his family? Yeah, so I got to spend a good amount of time with his, I got to spend a good amount of time with his sister, Sandra White. And I learned that John, they grew up in Connecticut.

You know, they were very active kids and very close to each other. They rode bikes into the river. and as an adult, John loved to feed squirrels. That's something that really stuck with me in my interview was that he would take his motorized wheelchair and go to Arts Park at Young Circle in Hollywood and feed the squirrels there. And that's what he was doing on the day that he was hit.

But he was clearly very close with his sister. They lived together and loved each other very much, and that definitely stuck with me. Yeah, there's the little details, too, that stand out. I mean, one thing I'd kind of noticed was his sister was talking about the bag. I think of a walnut she gave her brother to sort of take to feed the squirrels. Like little things like that are kind of, I suppose, what the family members kind of hold on to as they reflect on these things.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, she said the squirrels don't get walnuts here. So she gave him, she's the one that gave him a handful of walnuts to go to the park and feed the squirrels on that day. What more can you tell us about how he died? What do we know about what happened? Yeah, so we know that he was coming back from Arts Park at Young Circle and coming back home was about a mile walk or ride on his motorized wheelchair from the park to his house. And on that way, he had to cross over train tracks at Fillmore Street. So he was crossing over the train tracks when the arms came down and the bright line was coming through.

And according to police interviews, the police interviewed the conductor on the train, The conductor said that they made eye contact with John right before that he was hit. And so he was hit side-on. It wasn't like a full frontal impact. And he actually survived in the immediate and was taken to the hospital, although he was immediately intubated and couldn't speak. And after two weeks, his sister had to take him off of life support. Tell me about the significance of the fact that he was hit side-on rather than from the front.

yeah i i think that's that stuck out to me because in a lot of these cases you know the the people who are hit by a train are are dead pretty much immediately or declared uh dead on the scene um because the the impact is is straight on but the fact that he survived for two weeks i think his sister definitely attributes that to the fact that he wasn't it wasn't a direct impact she said he just had she said um he just had a little boo-boo on his head is how she described it so it was it was clearly not a direct impact, and that might have been why he was able to hang on for two weeks, but ultimately he passed away. Aaron, let me turn into you for a moment.

What did the investigation reveal about the safety measures in place along Brightline tracks? Yeah, so we took a close look at why Brightline is deadlier than other passenger railroads around the country. We really wanted to understand, you know, sort of what makes Brightline stand. out. And we found a number of factors. One would be the train is moving at fast speeds. It's going up to 79 miles an hour in South Florida, up to 110, a bit further north from West Palm Beach to Coco. Almost the entire route between Miami and Coco is what's known as at grade, which means it's running at street level. And so there are a ton of crossings where the train

is running through intersections. And, you know, that is one thing that makes it stick out. And, you know, there's a lot of opportunities for interaction with pedestrians and cars. Quiet zones is another thing that we took a close look at where communities, you know, who don't want the disruption of the train horn can request that the railroads not sound their horns. And that's something that the federal government can approve if they deem, you know, that there are enough safety measures in place. But we have found that within those quiet zones, which really is in most of South Florida, the trains do not have to sound their horns as they go through crossings. Fatalities have increased substantially in those areas.

Fencing was one other thing that we took a look at. a lot of these tracks are wide open. It's easy for people to walk across them, even not at formal crossings, and there hasn't been really a robust effort to address that. We're at 305-995-1800, talking about Brightline and people who've died on the Brightline tracks since the train service started operating in 2018. 305-995-1800. If you have a comment or a question, question. You also send us an email, radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Let's go to Alfred in Miami. Alfred, you're on the air. Yeah, I was just saying you have this 21st century technology with bullet train, and we still have safety features that are from the 18th century.

They didn't really upgrade to try to match them to make them comparable. And I don't know what they could do, but I mean, there's sensors, things like that could be done if anybody was near the track, cause a train to slow down or something. But, I mean, they didn't do anything. It's the same technology that I used when you had an old cattle train coming through at five miles an hour. Now you've got this bullet train at 60, 70 miles an hour, and so they need to upgrade it, but it hasn't been too expensive, I guess.

Alfred, thanks so much for your comment. we did get a statement from Brightline. They said the investigation was, and they're talking about the Miami Herald and W. LR.N. investigation. They say it's, quote, a news story that seeks to blame railroads for tragic decisions made by individuals

who in each case deliberately circumvented the safety mechanisms put in place for their own safety, end quote. Brightline says they've invested in and will continue to invest in safety and that they have never been found at fault for any accident. Josh, on that safety issue,

what has the company told you? Yeah, for sure. I mean, Brightline has been adamant from the beginning that they have invested, you know, tons of money into safety, and that is true. They have done safety improvements. They've added, in some intersections, they've added what's called quad gates,

where instead of just two gate arms coming down, there's four, so you can't really drive around it. And that is true. And also they make the point that they've never been found at fault for any of the accidents. And that's also true. by law, you are not allowed to cross or to go around gates or to cross over railroad tracks at an intersection when a train is coming.

And you're not allowed to cross over railroad tracks, not at a crossing. So if you're down road from a crossing and you're jumping over the railroad tracks, that's illegal and you are what's considered a trespasser. That is true. And so that's why Brightline has not been found at fault. But what we were looking at is just the sheer volume of deaths on this, this specific railroad and what's causing that. Why is this the deadliest passenger train?

And what kind of contributing factors are there? And Aaron mentioned a lot of them, the no fencing, the quiet zones. And so there's no question about, is it illegal to cross over railroad tracks when a train is coming 100%. But what methods are there in place or could there be in place to prevent people from doing that? because human nature is human nature. Alfred, who just called a moment ago, was saying that the technology of the train doesn't really match the sort of technology

of the crossings that's in place. And he was calling a bullet train. There's a higher speed train, right? But it's not per se a high speed train, if that makes sense. So it's not going as fast as maybe you might think for a high speed train, although it does get up over 100 miles an hour,

as you point out, on some stretches of the track. But is there the sense? from this investigation that you kind of lay out in the podcast, do you have the sense that maybe there is a bit of a mismatch between what's there in terms of safety technology and the train? Well, you mentioned the speed, and I think that's an important point, because under federal regulations, if the train is below 125 miles an hour, it can run through intersections, you know, legally and um bright line along most of its route while it is going at at fast speeds that are deadly if if a person or vehicles in the way um bright line is able to run you know right through

these really dense communities in south florida and you know further uh further north where the train runs from cocoa over to orlando that was an expansion part of an expansion in 23, the train does reach 125 miles an hour, and it's completely separated from highways. It's completely fenced off, and there haven't been any fatalities there. And so there are things that you can do short of that, you know, adding fencing, adding gate arms and sort of medians to prevent people from driving around. But I think the caller does make an interesting point about, you know, new technology that might be able to be explored that could that could prevent some of these things it's got to the fines again we've got katherine calling in from carl springs katherine go

ahead hi um i am a granddaughter of an engineer my grandfather worked for m track for 30 plus years and the rule he always gave us was stay off the track that's rule number one and And whenever you're in doubt, in any situation, you refer to rule number one. And I take it from his point of view, mainly because he had a situation very long time ago where four teenagers tried to beat the train and did not succeed. He literally was looking into the faces of these kids, and he never got over it. mm-hmm katherine thanks so much for your point there uh josh i mean what about that that there is uh obviously some some things around rail safety and as you both have pointed out

like crossing uh when you're not supposed to is is not allowed but what does your reporting tell you about uh you know the list of fatalities more than 180 so far yeah so i i want to be absolutely clear like you should not be trying to beat the train If, you know, if you want to be safe, do not try and go around gate arms, do not try and cross over the tracks. You should be following the law, and that's the ultimate way to stay safe. But I think what we found is people are going to do it anyway because that's human nature and that's unfortunate and it's illegal, but it's happening one way or another. And especially in South Florida, I think one thing that came up a lot was that people in South Florida are used to the FEC, the freight trains, which are slow and come a few times a day, maybe like 14 times a day.

And so they think the gate arms come down. They think, oh, it's a freight train. I can easily beat that, and I'm late for work. So let me just go around the gate arms or what have you. But now we have a higher speed train that's going 79 miles an hour, you know, 30 times a day. And so you might think that a freight train is coming. You can beat it. And then you don't see that this super fast train is coming and then you're hit.

Or in some cases, a freight train does pass by, and when that's done and gets, is gone, you think, oh, it's over, let me go ahead and cross the arms before they're up, and then a bright line comes the other way. And that's, we call that like a crisscross incident. So, unfortunately, human nature causes these unfortunate accidents. But if you want to stay safe, yeah, you're right, you know, stay off the tracks. There is an email here. Let me just read this. I'm not sure who this is from, but it seems like a suggestion that is at the moment. margins, but what about horns that are less loud as an option for quiet cities? Is that something

that they're looking into or could be explored? I have not personally heard that one, but quiet zones have been a point of discussion. The federal government came in a few years ago in Broward County and said that there's been such a spike in incidents within this quiet zone that we might actually, you know, they essentially threatened to force the train horns to resume. Ultimately, they reached an agreement with the, you know, with the county, with various agencies on measures that could be taken to try to improve safety at some of these crossings. But it's something that they've looked at seriously in terms of whether it is unsafe for, you know, for these quiet zones to be in place.

And that, you know, that might be something that gets talked about more if these fatalities continue. Just in the last 20 seconds or so, there has been a response from the likes of Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy. What has he said briefly? Yeah, so the day after our investigation published, there was a congressional hearing in which Congresswoman Frederica Wilson raised some concerns to the transportation secretary, Duffy, who did say there have been way too many fatalities related to Brightline

and that something needs to be done. We're going to have to leave it there, but we've been speaking with WLRN's Josh Sabaios and Miami Herald's Aaron Lieberwitz. They're part of the reporting team behind the investigation and podcast, Killer Train. Thank you both so very much. Thank you, Matt. Coming up next, why Floridians who own mobile homes are getting priced out of their communities, that plus a roundup of stories from across the state. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. The Florida Roundup is sponsored by Covering Florida Navigator Program, providing confidential

assistance with health insurance enrollment through the health insurance marketplace. Assistance is available at 87813-913 or coveringflora.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Matthew Petty. Mobile homeowners in Florida are being priced out of their communities. Since World War II, it's been one of the easiest paths to home ownership, buy a manufactured building and rent the lot underneath, especially for retired people on fixed incomes. That's changed as lot rents steadily climb. From our partner station,

WUSF, Gabriella Paul brings you the story with reporting from Octavio Jones. A lot of people buy manufactured homes for the same reasons. It's a way to live affordably with neighbors your age and a park that maintains public spaces like landscaping and a community. community clubhouse. Owners in parks across the Tampa Bay region say it felt like it would last forever. I bought my home in December of 2012. I like the way it looked at that time. Look tropical, quiet, serene, and it was 55 and older. That's Dara Brown. She cleaned out her 401K to buy a home in Riverview. Daniel Clearwater says he bought a place in Pinellas County to build some equity. It was his retirement plan. We started thinking, why do we want to live in a

condo when we could live in a mobile home and then own our own home instead of paying somebody else rent. Judy Schofield traveled from Connecticut to enjoy her golden years at Royal Palm Village in Haines City. I decided I'd come down here because my daughter lived in Claremont and we found this home and I loved this home. What's bothering me now is the fact that I'm probably going to have to leave. That's because she doesn't own the land her home sits on. Sarah, Daniel, and Judy bought their homes for a fraction of what a single-family home costs. And they rented a lot underneath their homes for roughly $400 a month. But in the last decade, Daniel says his lot rent doubled.

It was like $450, and that was back in 2010. Well, now here we are, and we are actually paying, I just paid the bill, $840 for the lot rent. This is part of a larger trend in Florida, where census data. show median lot rents have doubled since 2015. In the Tampa Metro, research shows lot rents at manufactured home parks are growing faster in the last decade than rents for single-family homes. Jeff Grable is a lawyer with Bay Area Legal Services. He helps residents deal with landlord disputes.

He says the jump in lot rents are pricing people out of the homes they own. $100, $200 extra per month might be doable for someone who's working, making a decent living. But if you're on Social Security or you have a money, modest income, that prices you out of the market. That's been the case for Dara and Riverview since her lot rent shot up to nearly $1,000 a month. It takes my whole Social Security just to pay my lot fee. Over in Polk County, Judy says she'd be okay with rent hikes if it meant better services

around the park. In Clearwater, Daniel agrees. He says the lack of management is putting him at Witt's end. We are just so tired of the lip service here and not getting any actual service. Grable says some homeowners are suing park management over situations similar to Daniels. There's a federal case brewing right now against dozens of parks across the country, and several of them are in Florida. If you read this class action lawsuit, they're talking about increased rents and decrease in services. Grable says manufactured homeowners have some other options to push back on parks, but it often requires legal expertise in organizing with other neighbors.

He says by the time he meets homeowners dealing with lot rent issues, it's already too late. You're either forced to try to come up with the money, try to sell your mobile home or face eviction. Moving the house is rarely an option. Forbes estimates it can cost up to $18,000 to move a manufactured home. That's why Dara and Riverview tried to sell. There's nothing else I can do, but to sell it and find somewhere where I don't know. She fell behind on rent and was evicted before she could find a buyer. Judy says for now she's paying bills with help from her daughter.

And she went back to work as a cashier. Judy is 86. I probably won't be able to stay. And I'm looking at places that I can move to, which is very emotional, because I really don't want to leave my home. But I don't think I'm going to have much of a choice. Daniel says rising lot rent is making it harder for him to sell too. We just want to get out of here.

And people come up now, they go, hey, how much you want for the place? And I tell them, well, we'd like to see 40,000. And they're like, how much? is a lot rent. $800, well, I can't afford that. Daniel, Dera, and Judy say they're nearly out of options. And there's no easy way out of their forever homes. I'm Gabriella Paul in Tampa.

You can hear more from the residents in this story and see their portraits at WUSF.org. Florida has now carried out nine executions this year. It's the most executions in a single year for the state since 1976 when the death penalty was reinstated. Edward Zekruski was put to death Thursday night. Zekruski, who was 60, was convicted of murdering his wife Sylvia, his seven-year-old son Edward, and five-year-old daughter, Anna, in Okalusa County in 1994.

Zekruski's attorneys had gone to the U.S. Supreme Court to try and halt his execution. Death penalty opponents, including Joseph Harmon, with the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, so the increasing pace of executions is concerning. In modern society, because we have the ability to, to confine people safely for life, we should pause before taking the drastic step of ending a human life.

Two more executions are scheduled for August. Governor Ron DeSantis says he's prepared to suspend the Orange County Mayor and the county commission if they don't sign onto an expanded agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agreement would require the county to transport ICE detainees to detention facilities like the one in South Florida known as Alligator Alcatraz.

DeSantis said it's against Florida law to act as a sanctuary city, which he and the Florida Attorney General accused the county of doing by not signing onto the agreement. He said he's ready to come down hard on Orange County if needed. If you don't do it, even though Florida banned sanctuary cities, if you don't have an affirmative duty, what I think some of those areas, the Gainesville's and the Orlando's and some of these little pockets around the state, they end up devolving into de facto sanctuary. Mayor Jerry Deming's office says the expanded agreement. will be taken up again at a meeting on August 5th.

I'm Matthew Petty, and you are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. The Trump administration is releasing more than $5 billion in grants for schools across the country. About $396 million in Florida education funds had been frozen during a spending review. From our partner station, Central Florida Public Media, here's education reporter Danielle Pryor.

Florida Education Association President Andrews, Spars says this means public schools won't have to lay off staff and make other cuts weeks ahead of a new school year. I know one school district in the central Florida area where they were talking about having teachers come in and starting to tell them they're going to be reassigned to other positions. And once the news came down that the money was coming, they stopped that and continued as they had planned. The Trump administration's Office of Management and Budget it will release $5.5 billion in formally frozen federal funds for schools across the country. In Orlando, I'm Danielle Pryor.

Burrowing owls have long been fixtures of Florida Atlantic University's campus life, and it's been the school's mascot since the mid-1980s. But as Wilklin Brutus from our partner station WLRN reports, FAU's construction plans could push out the iconic birds, sparking protests from students and advocates. Construction plans include building dorms and garages in areas around campus where the owls nest and at least one boroughs already been filled. The petition is urging FAU to stop the construction and to preserve the space for a protected viewing area that could help educate the public about the bird's habitat. The petition has over 5,000 signatures.

WLRN's Wilkin Brutus with that report. There are now 10 times more Florida Panthers in the wild than 30 years ago when Pumas from Texas were released into the Everglades. A new study shows the introduction of eight Pumas was a genetic success as well. Diana Aguilar-Gomez is a geneticist at UCLA in California. She says the inbreeding happening before Pumas arrived is largely eliminated. You always have two copies of your genes, one from your mother and one from your father. let's say one copy is bad has some defect,

but then the other copy, it kind of compensates for it. So that's what's happening in the Florida Panthers. They still have like these mutations that are harmful, but then they have the other copy that's kind of compensating. She says that means the species has a greater chance for long-term survival. As many as 230 Panthers roam the state, mostly in the Big Cyprus region of southwest Florida. And finally, a look into the Florida Roundup Mailbag.

Last week we talked on the show about funding cuts to public broadcasting, and we got a lot of comments afterwards. Here's just a few of them. Richard and Parmetto Bay wrote that he was disappointed that one of our callers, Steve and Fort Myers, didn't get to finish explaining why he thought NPR deserves defunding. You allowed Steve a chance to state his first two examples, but then you abruptly cut him off before he could even begin to talk about his third point, wrote Richard. surely you could have and should have permitted him a few more seconds to finish making his case I'm sure there were other listeners besides myself who wanted to hear all three of Steve's arguments even if we might not agree with them

Richard is correct we did hear from other listeners who shared their frustration that Steve was not able to finish his third point we should have allowed him to do so the Florida Roundup was created to allow people throughout the state to listen to each other's viewpoints that is still our goal even when we fall short of it We'll do better to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to be fully heard. We also heard from Maureen and Sarasota who wrote, Listening right now to the Florida Roundup, please stop apologising and trying to appeal to listeners like the angry caller you just played.

And Philip and Jacksonville had this to say. Push back on caller Steve today. He is totally off base. NPR does an excellent job of covering all points of view. If he fails to see that, it's his own internal bias that is simply not hearing the balanced perspective. Maureen, Richard and Philip, thanks for listening and taking the time to write in. And to Steve Meyer from Fort Myers, if you still want to share your third point with us, we welcome you and all of our listeners to write us at Radio at the Florida Roundup.org.

That's our program for today. The Florida Roundup is produced by WLR Public Media in Miami and WUSF in Tampa. The show is produced by Bridget O'Brien and Denise Royal. WLRN's vice president of radio is Peter Meertz. The program's technical director is M. Smith. Engineering help from Doug Peterson, Ernesto J. Blake Bass, and Gio Garvin. Our theme music is provided by Miami jazz guitarist, Erin Leibos, at Aaron Leibos.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. The Florida Roundup is sponsored by covering Florida Navigator program, providing confidential assistance with health insurance enrollment through the health insurance marketplace. Assistance is available at 877-813-921-15 or covering Florida.org.