The Florida Roundup - ‘NIL’ deals for high school athletes, teacher apprenticeships and meteorologists on climate change

Episode Date: June 7, 2024

This week on The Florida Roundup, we spoke with the Chief executive officer of the Florida High School Athletic Association Craig Damon about the board’s approval of NIL deals (02:48). Then, we heard from Rep. Karen Gonzalez Pittman about the bill she sponsored that created a state teacher apprentice program (13:22). Later, we spoke with meteorologists John Morales and Jeff Berardelli about how they are incorporating climate change science into their forecasts (19:00). Plus, scientists look to combat citrus greening with genetic engineering (37:07), a first for Florida’s space coast (41:21), new hurricane forecasting (43:00) and spelling bee news (46:35).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being with us this week. Is there a difference between being a dishwasher at a restaurant and being quarterback of a high school football team? What about bagging groceries after school at Publix or playing goalie on a high school soccer team? The leader of Florida's High School Athletic Association does not think so. This week, Florida's high school athletes are one step closer to being able to be paid for their use of their name, image, and likeness. The next order of business... This was Monday in Gainesville, as the Florida High School Athletic Association board met.

...image and likeness. Gainesville, as the Florida High School Athletic Association board met. The main agenda item was a proposal allowing high school players to accept sponsorship money. College athletes have been able to cash in on it since 2021. This new policy would allow high school athletes to do the same, but with some different rules. Kimberly Ritchie is a senior chancellor for the Department of Education and a member of the High School Athletic Association Board. I think what we're okay with is supporting the athletic program and directly engaging in NIL activities. We might be allowing them to engage in collectives, which we would not be okay with. Collectives are used in college sports.

They are money pooled together by donors helping a student athlete with sponsorships. Some have complained that collectives essentially pay college athletes. Florida's high school athletes would also be banned from taking money to sponsor weapons, drugs, and alcohol. They couldn't do that. They also would not be able to wear their team uniform or school logo. So the motion carries unanimously. The measure passed unanimously this week, and there have been reports of high schoolers already signing up sponsors. What do you think about high school student-athletes being able to be paid for advertisements? 305-995-1800. 305-995-1800.

Call now or email us, radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Your calls in just a few moments. Two rising high school senior wide receivers in Florida, one in Orlando, the other from Jacksonville, signed deals with clothing retailer American Eagle, according to a social media post from their club football team. That may be premature. The policy has been okayed by the High School Athletic Association.

The State Board of Education still needs to sign off on it in order for it to become official. They could deny the language, and if so, now you're putting yourself in jeopardy of being ineligible because right now current rules are still in place where there is no NIL and you can't sign with agents. That's Craig Damon. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the Florida High School Athletic Association. Craig, thank you for joining us here on the program. Why is now the time to allow Florida high school student-athletes to profit off their name, image, and likeness? Our association, we've been studying the NILs that other states have put in place over the years, and with the new board, they felt that the need to, let's go ahead and try it.

I mean, we were not one to lose our kids to Georgia and some of the other neighboring states that already have something in place, and we've done enough research on it and took our time about putting together language to try to put enough parameters around it so that we could do the best for our student athletes here in the state of Florida. How does this policy ensure that student athletes are receiving money for actual use of their name, image, or likeness versus just being paid as an athlete? And that's the challenge that we have as an association staff is to make sure that our parents and our communities don't get mixed up with what's happening at the collegiate level where there's basically a roster type NIL contract that's out there. So we're trying to get out to our member schools and put information out

to educate our parents and our communities that this is not pay for play or pay for performance. This is basically like having a part-time job where a task or service is being performed, and a student athlete is getting paid for the task or service that they perform. The roster payment you refer to is becoming somewhat common practice in Division I college athletics through these collective organizations, which are generally independent from universities but are put together by big, deep-pocketed donors that say they are going to provide introductions or opportunities for NIL and student athletes, but then essentially provide an opportunity for those athletes to receive money without necessarily having a name image likeness contract. Is that

what you want to avoid? That's what we're trying to avoid. I mean, we spent a lot of time when we were developing the policy that's in place to make sure that we did not include collectives. And that's something that's consistent with all of the other state associations. How do you expect the name image likeness to work in Florida high schools alongside open enrollment policies that so many school districts have? There's another challenge there. Unlike the 35 other state associations or states that have NIL already in place, Florida we believe in school choice and allowing our parents to have the right Like the 35 other state associations or states that have NIL already in place, Florida, we

believe in school choice and allowing our parents to have the right to what school a kid attends. So, with that, we've got to make sure that we put out a message that this is not a guise for recruiting kids or enticing kids to attend a particular school based on our open enrollment. How do you police that? How do you enforce something like that? It's tough. I mean, recruiting is very hard to prove here in the state of Florida.

We have had some instances where we've been successful with schools that were recruiting kids. And most of the time it comes back to the family or the kid where they were promised something, and when they get to the school, it doesn't work out the way they were told, and they will share text messages or any type of information, evidence that they've received that, I guess, aligns or attaches a coach or someone from the school to that that entices them to a school. You mentioned instances maybe where a parent would feel they were promised something or their child was promised something to play at another school, and that promise was unfulfilled. So that's kind of

self-policing. What you may not hear is when the promise is fulfilled, right, Craig? Correct. When the thing actually happens, because there's already rules that prohibit recruiting of student athletes in high school in Florida. And that's true. Are private schools the subject to the same rules and regulations under this policy as public schools in Florida? Yes. If a private school is a member of our association, they follow the same rules as our public schools. There's been a lot of consternation about the success of athletics at private schools versus public schools in Florida. I think the majority of state football champions in the state of Florida now are from private schools as opposed to from public schools.

There are long-simmering tensions in high school athletics in Florida between private schools and public schools. Usually it gets down to resources, that the schools can apply financial resources. We're talking about money here, Craig, that they can provide for their teams, their facilities, and their coaches. With the advent of name image likeness for high school student-athletes, is it possible that a student-athlete would be paid more than his or her coach? That's always a possibility when you look at some of the examples of that's happening in other states that it that has happened not as often as most think.

We've worked with our coaches association we spoke with some some of our legislative folks to try to find a way to increase the pay of coaches in the state of Florida because when you look at the coaches the salary that our coaches make in the state of Florida, public and probably for most of our private schools, it's nowhere near what some of the coaches are making in other states. Florida public high school coaches pay, I think, is ranked in the bottom 10 percent of states in terms of high school coaches. Craig, how do you think this new policy

allowing student athletes in high school in Florida to profit off of their name, image, or likeness, even if there's just a few of them that have the stature to do that, how do you think that new policy affects a student athlete's Florida high school education? I think it could provide some opportunities for some of our student athletes to put their families in a better situation, that if they are at that talent level or have the follower or the influence that, you know, will be attracted to a business, it could help from a financial standpoint change their family dynamics. But the key to all of it is making sure everybody understands that this is not pay to play or pay for performance, that it's merely a job that our student athletes are taking

on, and they just have a contract for the work that they're supposed to be performing to receive the compensation for it. Does it somehow minimize or reduce the student piece of student-athlete? I don't think it's much different because a lot of our student-athletes right now already have part-time jobs where they're working. They're going to practice after school. They're going to a job and working three, four, five hours in the evening and then heading home and trying to do homework. I compare it to a student having a part-time job and the number of hours that they would spend at a job site working, you know, after school or before school or on the weekends. The name of the likeness part of their contract would be very similar. Craig Damon is the chief executive officer of the Florida High School

Athletic Association. Craig, thanks for your time today. Appreciate it. Thank you for having me on. Anthony has been listening to the conversation from Hollywood. He joins us now. Anthony, welcome to the program. You're on the radio. Thanks.

Thank you for having me. So I'm in the entertainment industry, and in front of the camera I've also produced stuff. And let's just talk about kids at any age with any talent, whether it's the ability to fire a rifle or to catch a football or to shoot a basketball or to do an Irish accent, they can be compensated for those skills that they have. And I don't see a difference, frankly, between somebody who's in a high school as an athlete. That's another tool that that child would

potentially have. They could go outside of this organization that you were speaking of or their school and still use those skills to be able to get that job. So you don't see a difference between a student athlete who has as their stage the school athletic system or a student actor or musician that then goes and stars with you in some Hollywood film? No, there's no difference whatsoever. That person is going to use those skills that they have to get the job with or without saying that they're from that school. Being from that school doesn't make a difference at all. Yeah. And if you want to look at it again, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but if you want to look at it again, every school has its own merit and why parents want to go to.

So my wife is a teacher in an elementary school. That school is not an A school. Anyone can ask for a thing to go to a school that gives more advantageous opportunities to them. Yeah. This isn't school-based, though. If the State Board of Education does approve it, it would be statewide. But, Anthony, I appreciate that perspective there from Hollywood.wood john listening in in jacksonville john you're on the radio go ahead uh thank you look i think this is ridiculous the purpose of primary school and

secondary school physical education should be to engender a love of physical activity in the students that will last them their lifetime and improve their health over the course of their life. Picking winners and losers and naming champions and rewarding one or two individuals is a misuse of our tax dollars. Well, how are tax dollars involved with this in terms of the support of the facilities? We provide the funds for a football team. Now, if the person picked quarterback is going to earn a high salary for it, all the focus is going to be on the money and not the sport and the love of sport itself. We'll mark you up as a fan of amateur athletics, John.

Appreciate the phone call there in Jacksonville. You can also put me down as against Little League and Pop Warner. You should put a bunch of kids in a field with the proper equipment, let them organize the game, make the rules, resolve their disputes, keep score, and then have it erased at the end of the day when they all go home. Fair enough. Everybody gets ice cream. Everybody is a winner.

John in Jacksonville joining the conversation. We will note here the State Board of Education will decide the fate of this high school student-athletes and name-image likeness in late July. If it is approved, high school players will be able to sign endorsement deals for the next school year. Now, among Florida's neighbors, only Georgia currently allows its high school student-athletes to sign endorsement deals. School is out in all but one public school district in the state. Students in Broward County, they still have one more day. They have to go back on Monday for a single day. Many districts may be scrambling, though, over the upcoming summer break to hire teachers and staff. Florida has thousands of job openings at public schools.

Last week on this program, we spoke about a reporting project from our partner station, WLRN, called Roll Call. It examines government-funded incentive programs aiming to address the ongoing and pervasive shortage of teachers in Florida. Some of the first participants of a new state teacher apprenticeship program graduated this spring. This program hopes to eventually train 200 teachers-to-be each year. Karen Gonzalez-Pittman is a Republican representative from the Tampa area, and she joins us from our partner station, WUSF. Representative, welcome to the program. Thank you for having me. The state provided $5 million for this program back in December. What has it led to?

Well, we're increasing teacher recruitment, and what this bill shows is that we in Florida believe that education is critically important in the development of children in the state. So I think it puts a focus back on the importance of education and that we do have a problem recruiting teachers. So what this bill does is provides a number of avenues to recruit teachers. It has state-approved teacher preparation programs to be eligible for buy one, get one for tuition and fee waiver qualifications. It establishes dual enrollment educator scholarship programs to assist high school teachers in obtaining a graduate degree and credentials necessary to provide dual enrollment coursework,

as well as the teacher apprenticeship program as alternative pathways for individuals to enter the teaching profession and authorizes a five-year temporary apprenticeship certificate. So this is the front of the pipeline of getting new teachers into the profession. What about addressing existing teachers and retaining them? Right. What we're doing there is we provided salary increases. However, we do need to make up for that crunch that there's other teachers that were working longer and did not get the bonuses and salary increases. So that is something that we'll be looking at in the upcoming legislation session. We got an email from a

listener last week from Elliot, and I want to read this to your representative because I think it gets to exactly your efforts here. Elliot wrote us, is there a need for retired persons in Florida public schools who don't have a teaching certification but have college degrees in other fields to address the shortage of public school teachers? Yes. And the bill, HB 1035, did address that. Heroes in the Classroom, which bonuses one-time sign-on bonuses to retired first responders, veterans. And with specified service duties, we also have waivers for teacher certifications on initial exams and certification fees. And it also has for other people and other professions to be able to come into the classroom. So we did that by waiving the initial exam and certification fees for these other

professionals to be able to come into classrooms. And for those other professionals, are those waivers permanent or is there a point if they continue with teaching that they do need a certification and state license? They will still need. It waives the certification initial exam, but once that first year is over, they will have to take the certification exams. But the fees will be waived. We got another note from Terry in Melbourne who asked, in considering factors that discourage teachers from locating in Florida, Terry writes, one has to include the book bans, LGBTQT rules, and the insistence on not teaching true black history. How do you respond to those kinds of criticisms when it comes to public education and the shortage of teachers that Florida has been experiencing? I personally don't think that that is a deterrent.

We do believe in Florida to teach authentic history and real history. So we do not have a problem with teaching African-American history. And I think we're having enough of a deficit in our reading scores, our mathematics scores, science. And I think we need to focus on reading and mathematics and the basics before we get into these other areas. What is your hope? We have just 30 seconds left here, Representative, but what's your hope of the number of apprentice teachers that your legislation, this program, attracts per year? Well, I do not have a goal for that. I can look into that and be willing to give you a number on the number it's attracting. Fair enough.

Representative, thank you for sharing your perspective on this legislation in trying to attract teachers to the classroom in Florida. Representative Karen Gonzalez-Pittman, Republican representative from Tampa, from our Tampa member station, WUSF. Thank you for having me. Thank you for coming in and making the effort to come to the studio for a conversation. We've got more to come here, including climate change reporting in your television weather forecast. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station.

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. It is hot. All weekend long in through next week. We're looking at tomorrow a possible record high. We're going to be very close to it. Same deal for Monday. It is humid. So while it will only be 95 in Sanford, it's going to feel like about 105 with humidity.

Across the state, TV weather forecasters are showing viewers temperature maps with lots of red and orange slashed across the screen i mean i'm not even exaggerating it is hot it's going to be dangerous so we've got a look at mayport okay speaking of look at june every day in june so far has been above normal with uh irene sands is a meteorologist with our florida public radio emergency network not only record high temperatures return to much of florida starting late this week and staying with us through the weekend but also highs could feel as high as 110 degrees as deep moisture takes over florida but it's not just this weekend it has been hot, very hot already in Florida and beyond. We are already scorching and officially the hottest May on record in Key West, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and the planet Earth.

Heat advisories, record high temperatures, more active than normal storm season. Some local television meteorologists are weaving climate change reporting into their regular weather forecasts. State agencies here in Florida will no longer have to consider climate change under a new state law taking effect next month. So how do you feel about climate change reporting in your TV weather forecast? How do TV meteorologists here in the Sunshine State impact opinions about climate change and efforts to address it? 305-995-1800. 305-995-1800. We'd love to hear from you. You can also email us your thoughts. Our inbox is open, radio at thefloridaroundup.org. The email address again, radio at thefloridaroundup.org.

John Morales is with us now, founder and certified consulting meteorologist at Climate Data and hurricane specialist for NBC6 in Miami. John, welcome back to Florida Public Radio. It's been a long time, but let's talk about the role that TV meteorologists are playing in reporting the effects of climate change within the daily weather forecast. How is it going? than the daily weather forecast. How is it going? Well, it's improving. You know, for a veteran that has been doing this and providing that climate context to TV audiences probably for over 20 years, you know, at first there was less than a handful of us really across the country. You know, I can name Mike Nelson in Denver and Jim Gandy in Columbia, South Carolina. But now there's a growing number of us out there providing that climate context. But more is needed. More is needed. What role do meteorologists such as yourself

and others play in that kind of communication? Well, listen, I mean, first off, you have to realize when you look at the broadcast meteorologists, what does the newsroom ask the broadcast meteorologists to do? We're not just doing, you know, weather forecasts and weather warnings. And when the weather becomes dangerous, carrying people through that emergency, you know, sometimes we're asked to talk about meteor showers or talk about a volcanic eruption or rocket launches. Wildfires, for instance. Yeah. Yeah. So listen, if we are going to be the station scientists, in other words, the one person in the

newsroom that knows more science and earth science than anybody else, well, then within that realm, we would most definitely need to be talking about the changing climate because it's a very close fit to the weather, of course. And I would expect broadcast meteorologists to not just talk about meteor showers regularly. climate regularly and provide that context so that viewers can understand the connections that exist, particularly between extreme weather events and the warming planet. Jeff Raridelli is with us. He's a chief meteorologist and a climate specialist at WFLA News Channel 8 in Tampa. Jeff, thanks for joining the conversation. What do you think about being the local TV science specialist, the scientist on staff there in those newsrooms?

Jeff, are you with us? We'll try to connect to Jeff here in a moment. John Morales, what are the appropriate ways to weave that science in to those daily forecasts that folks wake up with and go to bed with, for instance? Well, listen, I mean, it's not something that necessarily needs to arise every single day. But the opportunities to show that connection are definitely increasing. So, for example, you know, at the start of this segment, you provided all these examples of broadcast meteorologists talking about the heat that we've been experiencing in the state of Florida since last year,

which was the hottest year in history for many cities in Florida. And now this year, which spring became the hottest one in history for many, many cities in Florida. And now this year, which spring became the hottest one in history for many, many cities in Florida. These are opportunities where the broadcast meteorologists should go ahead and provide that connection, make people realize that, hey, you see this heat wave we're living through? This is consistent with what you would expect in a warming climate. It's a simple connection. It's supported by science. And the audience needs to realize that they need to be reminded that more of this is coming unless we change our ways. And more than likely, it's going to get worse in terms of the threats to, well, to health and to ecosystems and to everything that surrounds us.

We're talking about climate change reporting in television weather forecast. John Morales is a hurricane specialist for NBC6 in Miami. 305-995-1800 is our phone number. Jeff Rardelli is the chief meteorologist at WFLA News Channel 8 in Tampa. Jeff, you with us? Yeah, I've been here. Yeah, sorry about that. It was a misconnection on our end.

How do you discern, to John's point, how do you discern that difference between the daily weather forecasts and the climate science that may be influencing some of these much larger trends? I mean, it's not that hard because it's happening almost every day now where we're seeing this extreme weather happen not only locally but across the country and across the world. So I actually separate it out. I have one segment that I do every day now where we're seeing this extreme weather happen not only locally but across the country and across the world so i actually separate it out i have one segment that i do every day i call it the vera delhi bonus and it's about a minute and a half long and a lot of those talk about climate change because there's so many huge things going on in the world right now that i think we're being irresponsible if we're not providing context we're

not doing our job if we're not educating the public. I mean, who better than a local TV meteorologist and what better platform in place than a weathercast to talk about the connection between extreme weather and climate change? There isn't one, in my belief. And so, you know, John is one of my mentors, by the way. I learned from the best. And the truth really is, is there's nobody in a better position. And I don't think there's anyone who has more responsibility than the local meteorologist to provide this context. Why do you say that, Jeff, that there's no one who has a higher responsibility than someone in your position, for instance, for your Tampa audience? Because we're at the intersection between science and broadcasting. We're the ones who have the platform. We're the ones with the scientific knowledge. Oh, and by the way, we're also the ones who can figure out how to communicate complex topics

and make them simple so that people can understand them. Someone's got to tell this story, right? Who else is going to do it if we're not going to do it? Talking about climate change and television weather forecasting with Jeff Baradelli, the chief meteorologist at WFLA News Channel 8 in Tampa, and John Morales, hurricane specialist for a meteorologist and hurricane specialist for NBC6 in Miami. Rachel in Fort Lauderdale has been listening in to the conversation. Rachel, go ahead. You're on the radio.

Hi. Thank you for having me on. Sure. Thanks for listening. Thanks for calling. Go ahead. Yeah, no, when you said earlier asking about if people had comments, I completely 100% agree with both John and Jess. Having not providing information about climate change on the forecast is completely irresponsible and, quite frankly, absurd. The fact that the state is rolling back climate change restrictions on companies and whatnot just to make it convenient for certain political parties is absolutely insane. We live in a state that is already below sea level. insane. We live in a state that is already below sea level. You know, we are on the forefront of the ones who are going to be suffering and gaining the repercussions of the climate change. We're already seeing it every single year, every single day, like Jeff just said, that it's worse and

worse. Every year the storms get worse and it's not going to change if we ignore the facts. We have to bring it to the public's attention. We have to explain it in a way that's engaging and understanding for some that may not understand the complexities of science. And it needs to be in the forefront because it's not going away if we don't address it. Rachel, thanks for adding your perspective there from Fort Lauderdale. Charles is up I-95 listening in in Jacksonville. Go ahead, Charles. You're on the radio. Good afternoon, everybody. Charles, you're on the radio.

Good afternoon, everybody. I heartily approve of my local surfer weather dude, Tim Deegan, on First Coast News, bringing up climate change podcasts because somebody has to counter the propaganda, the negative climate denial that's put out by the state. And, you know, who else but our trusted local weather guy that we've been listening to. I'm not following you, Charles. So you do not appreciate. I approve of the local weather guys bringing up climate change because they are trusted and they need to counter the propaganda of the state. I see. I see what you're saying. Thanks, Charles.

need to counter the propaganda of this i see i see what you're saying thanks charles there has to be a you know something to counter these this uh negative uh denialism that's being put out by the state and i think who else but your local trusted weatherman they are among the most trusted voices charles thanks for adding your voice to the conversation here for john morales and for jeff redelli let me ask you about those two comments there. And how do you, Jeff, in your daily and nightly forecasts and reporting, how do you separate reporting from advocacy or advocating a point of view or a policy, for instance? Yeah, I don't advocate anything. I'm just simply trying to tell the truth. I see the science. I see what's happening in front of me. I realize just how quickly we're changing the climate and how much of a big an impact we're having on planet Earth and on ourselves. And I'm just being honest

about the science. I'm not even trying to counter the state. I'm just simply getting up there every day and saying, hey, folks, take a look at this alarming stuff. This is due to human caused climate change. And this is going to cause us big problems, which in some cases it already is. This effort to have television weather forecasters talk about climate on their TV forecasts is not new. It goes back to the Clinton administration. The men and women of America who tune in and listen to you talk about the weather and rely upon you are either enlightened or entertained or disappointed by whatever it is you say and

however you say it. Most of them are sort of like Sergeant Joe Friday. They just want the facts. That was 1997 with President Bill Clinton. John Morales, you were, I think, in the White House. You were in person for that speech. What's changed in the 27 years since President Clinton made those remarks? Well, not enough in terms of communicating the state of the science of climate, in my opinion. I mean, so, you know, I left that event inspired to try to communicate climate context to audiences. And it was difficult at first. I was in Spanish language TV. You know, the rundowns, the news rundowns are packed. There was really little time for weather. But then I transitioned, of course, to NBC and more opportunities arose. And then at the same time, more extreme weather started to occur. Right.

So more opportunities, therefore, arose for me to provide that climate context to the audience. for me to provide that climate context to the audience. Listen, they recognized, the White House recognized back 25, 30 years ago that we were that trusted source. And all they were trying to do was make sure that we communicated the alarming changes that were already being observed in the 1990s in terms of increasing carbon dioxide and temperatures around the planet and, you know, and the likelihood of more extreme weather happening in the future. I think they were visionary in that sense. You know, not every

single broadcast meteorologist who was present there that day necessarily left as inspired as I did, but it made me pivot to that subject matter. And modesty aside, made me a pioneer in that area of communicating this to my audiences. And I want to say one last thing regarding these callers that you've had. This is the type of reaction that I get on the street. I want people to realize that, you know, at least in Miami, I do not get pushback from the audience. You know, people are not calling me or emailing me, you know, saying, why are you doing this? You know, just give us the weather forecast. Don't talk about it. I don't get that at all. Instead, people thank me for being the one that provides that very critical information that they need to know. And it plays especially like Miami, which down the line faces an existential threat

from the changing climate. John Morales is a hurricane specialist for NBC6 in Miami. We're talking about climate change reporting and television weather forecasting. My name is Tom Hudson. You are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Jeff Berardelli is also with us, the chief meteorologist and climate specialist at wfla news channel 8 in tampa jeff how about the responses that you get from audiences we've seen an instance where a tv meteorologist received death threats in des moines iowa for his climate change reporting and he wound up leaving the industry

yeah you know i've gotten some negative comments, but I think the number of positive comments definitely over more. More so I get a lot more of those positive comments and I get negative comments. That's the truth. And also what it does is it kind of brands me as the guy in the market who is willing to talk about this stuff. And I think I have a very loyal audience because of it. I will tell you that it's definitely working in our favor. And I think TV stations see the value in it because they realize that, you know, people appreciate the people who are willing to be honest, tell the truth and be bold. And John has a saying, John, what's the saying about being bold? This is the saying is this is a time like no other to be courageous. I mean, if not, if not now, actually, if not 20 or 30 years ago, then when? Because, you know, we're going off a cliff here unless we change course. Miami-Dade County. Heat indices in some places across the state will be or are already in the triple digits as we're live in the noon hour Eastern time.

New Florida laws are banning governments, local governments, from putting in protective measures for outdoor workers during hot weather. And a new law in July will delete climate change from most state laws. We talked about how you avoid advocacy, but how do these political decisions impact how you report on the climate within the context of those daily forecasts? John? Well, listen, I mean, policy has everything to do with where we're headed in this. You know, are we going to slow this train down or is it just going to head off the rails? And because policy has a lot to do with it, that intersection between what we do, which is communicate the state of the science and asking people to act on climate, to act on it, which is yes, that is advocating. If I'm asking people to act on climate, I am advocating.

I try to avoid, you know, the blues and the reds and whatnot, because this is not a blue or red issue. This is an issue for all of mankind and all of Floridians, right? So, yeah, what you'll see me is, yes, rubbing up right against that political realm. You've seen that from me on X over the years. You know, on TV, I'm a bit more careful, especially when I was employed there. But that doesn't mean, though, that I haven't, you know, advocated for climate action and asked people to vote. I've done that on TV.

John, let me interrupt. Jeff, I know you are used to working under tight deadlines. I got about 30 seconds here, but I want to get your thoughts on rubbing up against that line there that John talks about. Yeah, I stay away from politics. And if I advocate, I just simply say, do something, whatever it is that you can do, care. I'm not asking people to do something specific because once you tell them to do something specific, first of all, they do the opposite thing. And second of all, that gets them angry. So I'm just simply saying it's amazing that we're in a stage of the world right now where advocating to try to save the planet is actually considered a negative thing in some spaces.

Fellas, we got to leave it there. Jeff Berardelli, chief meteorologist, climate specialist, WFLA, News Channel 8 in Tampa, John Morales chief meteorologist, climate specialist, WFLA News Channel 8 in Tampa. John Morales, meteorologist and hurricane specialist for NBC6 in Miami. Fellas, thanks so much for sharing your time, your science and your expertise with us here on the Florida Roundup. More to come from your Florida Public Radio station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being with us this week. One would think a 33% jump in the price of frozen concentrate orange juice futures would have Florida orange growers celebrating. The trouble is high prices are a response to low supply as the Florida Valencia orange harvest season is wrapping up.

supply as the Florida Valencia orange harvest season is wrapping up. State data indicates production is down more than 90 percent from the peak bumper crop back in 2003. The main cause is bacteria. Citrus greening has no cure and it kills trees. Environment reporter Molly Duregg from our partner station Central Florida Public Media reports now that one promising solution may be genetic engineering. Steve Crump is a fourth generation Volusia County farmer. He says oranges were always his family's main crop ever since 1883 when Crump's ancestors resettled here in DeLeon Springs from Illinois. But nowadays, Crump says his orange production is down 80 percent compared to 15 years ago. For that, he blames one thing in particular, citrus greening, a bacterial disease spread by the

invasive Asian citrus psyllid insect. Most trees die a few years after being infected. Everything that should work and used to work isn't working like it's supposed to. So Crump is getting creative. He takes me inside the best citrus greening defense he's come up with so far, a two and a half acre enclosed screen house he built about four years ago, complete with roof and roll-up door. We're growing citrus inside to keep the insect out. Crump says the citrus trees in here grow much larger than they ever could outside this greenhouse, which so far is keeping out the invasive citrus psyllid. Or at least it was.

This is an unbelievably great way to grow trees until you have a hurricane, and then the roof splits and the sides blow in and the bugs come. That's what Crump says happened in 2022, when Hurricanes Ian and Nicole tore through the area just a few weeks apart. Back then, Crump had to repair the damaged screen house once, then twice. Still, he says he didn't notice anything wrong with these screen house trees until earlier this year. I saw citrus greening inside and some of the trees are infected. So that was discouraging. It takes about 14 months for the disease to show up in the tree.

So I guess it was it was on schedule. At the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, or UF IFAS, microbiology and cell science professor Nian Wang says his lab is the first in the world to develop citrus applications for the gene editing technology CRISPR. It can speed up the process. Wang says you can think of CRISPR as molecular scissors,

which cut citrus plant chromosomes, trying to remove genes that make the plant vulnerable to citrus greening. You want to make sure, hey, you know what is responsible for the disease, right? So far, Wang says his team's narrowed it down to 40 genes that could be causing citrus greening. With CRISPR, the tricky part is removing those genes without harming other good genes, like ones that help a tree yield good quality fruit. I think we're getting close. Wang says earlier this year, his team took more than 120 CRISPR trees out of the lab, planting them in central Florida fields to test their resistance to citrus greening.

Final results are still a ways off. It is kind of a long, slow process of the disease development, right? But Wang is optimistic. So far, he says all the crisper trees in the field are doing well, not showing any signs of citrus greening. He hopes to know more about their long-term resistance to the disease next year. We're going to drive just a couple hundred yards to an orange grove. Back at the DeLeon Springs farm, Steve Crump shows me one of the groves where he says his family first started planting orange trees more than 80 years ago. These orange trees used to live a long time. But citrus greening decimated those original orange trees, and today the ones growing in their place are much younger.

Crump says right now he needs to remove about half of all of his trees after citrus greening made them unproductive. of all of his trees after citrus greening made them unproductive. Meanwhile, as scientists keep searching for a citrus greening solution with CRISPR, Crump just hopes they can pick up the pace. It's very discouraging. I know how to grow an orange tree. Or at least I used to know how to grow an orange tree. I really don't anymore.

In Volusia County, I'm Molly Duregg. A first happened this week in Florida's long history of space exploration. Ten, nine, that countdown can mean only one thing, a rocket launch. But this was not just any old rocket launch on Wednesday from Cape Canaveral. And lift off of Starliner and Atlas 5 carrying two American heroes drawing a line to the stars for all of us. It was the first time the commercially built capsule is carrying humans. It was the third scheduled launch of Boeing's Starliner. The first two attempts were called off over the past month because of issues first with a valve, then a computer. It has been a turbulent trajectory for the Starliner project. It was delayed for years and then ran about $1.4 billion over budget.

But it blasted off with the United Launch Alliance rocket this week. Brendan Byrne has more from our partner, Central Florida Public Media. NASA's Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams launched a top ULA's Atlas V rocket on a mission to the space station and back. It comes after two launch attempts were scrubbed. Now that it has left the planet, the two astronauts are conducting a critical test flight of the Boeing-built Starliner capsule designed to transport astronauts to and from the station. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. Now Butch and Sonny do what they do best. They're test pilots and they're going to test this thing from izzard to gizzard. It will take about a day to catch up with the station.

The crew will spend about a week docked to the ISS before returning to Earth, touching down beneath a canopy of parachutes in the U.S. Southwest. I'm Brendan Byrne at the Kennedy Space Center. While we're talking about space here, Boeing's competitor in the commercial space race, SpaceX, is scheduled to carry a new government weather satellite into orbit later this month. It's part of a satellite fleet called GOES that stands for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite. They have dramatically improved forecasting hurricanes and other dangerous weather events. Environment Editor Jenny Stoletovich from our partner station WLRN reports.

Thanks to the fleet of GOES satellites, we get to see hurricanes in almost real time, with images from space beamed down every 30 seconds. As soon as something is even organized, I mean, it's not even a fully formed storm yet, we use the GOES satellite to watch it very, very closely. Jordan Gerth is a NOAA meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Now for the first time, this final GOES satellite will also include a solar telescope and sensors to forecast another increasing concern, space weather. El-Sayed Talat is director of NOAA's Office of Space Weather.

They will see and sense the solar wind, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections. Basically bubbles of super hot gases. That can send billions of tons of highly magnetized material hurtling towards Earth at several million miles an hour. A solar storm this month produced amazing northern lights visible in Florida, but also knocked out GPS systems. The school bus-sized satellite will become operational next spring, just in time for hurricane season. I'm Jenny Stiletovich in Miami. We are in June, so we are officially in storm season now and for the next six months.

The ocean water is very hot. La Nina and a lack of strong winds high up in the atmosphere is expected. And a busy season is forecast with up to seven major hurricanes. The National Hurricane Center will be adding a new forecast to its models this season. The HAVS model, H-A-F-S, Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System, HAVS. It was put in operation a year ago and tested out. This year, it will be one of the official hurricane forecast models from the National Hurricane Center. It's a zoom-in area that focuses on the hurricanes.

That's William Ranstrom. He goes by Bill. He's a senior software engineer at the University of Miami Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies. engineer at the University of Miami Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies. So just like you benefit on your iPhone camera or something of, you know, more megapixels, you see that your picture looks better and you see more detail. We have a higher resolution, a lot more points over the hurricane than we do for forecasting the rest of the atmosphere in, you know, the larger environment that controls steering flow and things like that. The model captures a lot more information around the eye wall and the center of storms. That higher resolution, he says, will help forecasters improve their predictions for a storm's path and intensity.

The new model had a 10 to 15 percent improvement in the predicted path of a storm last year compared to the existing models used by the Hurricane Center. And it has shown to be better at predicting rapid intensification. That's when a storm just explodes with higher winds in just a matter of hours. So the HAVS model, it will be the newest on the menu of spaghetti models we may have to get to know too well in the months ahead. I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Finally on the Roundup, your first word is brouette. B-R-O-U-E-T-T-E. Adelantado. A-D-E-L-A-N-T-A-D-O. Hyperkeem.

This is what it sounded like last week during the final round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. M-Y-C-T-E-R-S-E. Endecha. This audio is not sped up. S-E-R-S-E-I-N. Nyctalopi. This is how fast Bruhat Soma was firing off his spelling. Vencel. W-E-N-Z-E-L. This is how fast Bruhat Soma was firing off his spelling. He's 12 years old, finishing up the 7th grade at Turner Bartels K-8 school in Tampa. There he was on stage, standing at a microphone with his hands out in front of him,

moving his fingers as if he were typing the words he was spelling on a keyboard. This is his third year in the B. you are typing the words he was spelling on a keyboard. Nachschlage. N-A-C-H-S-C-H-L-A-G-E. This is his third year in the B. He tied for 163rd place in his first year. Last year, he tied for 74th. He spelled word after word after word correctly, getting 29 of 30 right. Asarotum.

A-S-A-R-O-T-U-M. Easily breaking the previous record, winning the B and more than $50,000. That's Brujah Sona. You are the 2024 Strix National Stadium. Congratulations.

Wow. His winning word was abseil. It means a descent in mountaineering by a rope looped over a projection above like a rock. Bruja, you certainly scaled a mountain of words to become champion. Congratulations. That is the Florida Roundup this week. It's produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF Public Media in Tampa by Bridget O'Brien and Grayson Docter. WLRN's Vice President of Radio is Peter Mertz.

Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Charles Michaels, and Jackson Harp. Richard Ives was our Technical Director. Our theme music is provided by Miami jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at AaronLeibos.com. If you missed any of today's program, you can download it, share it, and listen to past programs at WLRN.org slash podcasts. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening, and above all, supporting public media in your neighborhood. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend.