The Florida Roundup - What we know about 'Alligator Alcatraz,' public beach access, 2025 legislative wrap, weekly news briefing

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

This week on The Florida Roundup, we looked at what we know so far about “Alligator Alcatraz,” the immigration detention center being built in the Everglades, with the AP’s Kate Payne and Ted Hesson of Reuters (00:00). Plus, we spoke with POLITICO’s Bruce Ritchie about a new law that aims to put a long running dispute between property owners and beach goers to rest (19:20). Then, WUSF’s Douglas Soule joined us to recap the long and contentious 2025 legislative session (34:24). And later, we bring you a roundup of stories from around the state, including an update on the investigation into the Champlain Towers South condominium collapse in Surfside (37:22), a story about embattled shorebirds (40:45), and more changes to Florida’s higher education system (46:00).

I'm Matthew Petty. Tom Hudson is out this week. Well, you've heard it called Alligator Alcatraz. It's a remote airstrip in the Everglades that the state of Florida is moving quickly to transform into a migrant detention facility. Here's Governor Ron DeSantis talking about it in Tampa on Wednesday. Clearly, from a security perspective, if someone escapes, you know, there's a lot of alligators you're going to have to contend.

No one's going anywhere, you know, once you do that. It's as safe and secure as you can be. Well earlier in the week, Florida Attorney General James Uthmayer explained the rationale behind this detention facility in an interview with podcaster Benny Johnson. This 30 square mile area is completely surrounded by the Everglades. It presents a efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don't need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. Within just 30 to 60 days after we begin construction,

it could be up and running and could house as many as a thousand criminal aliens. Alligator Alcatraz, we're ready to go. Well, opponents are speaking out. Here's Orlando Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost. I went to Baker here in Florida unannounced and that's a building that has real infrastructure and the conditions are horrible. So I can only imagine what the conditions will be in a place that's being built up in about a month. Well, Frost of course is referring to Baker County ICE Detention Center in McClennie. It's about 50 minutes north of Gainesville. The ACLU of Florida meanwhile said in a post on

X quote the name alligator Alcatraz reflects an intent to treat people fleeing hardship and trying to build a better life for themselves and their families as dangerous criminals which is both unnecessary and abusive end quote and in a post on Blue Sky, Nanya Gupta, the policy director for the American Immigration Council, said that holding people in a facility surrounded by alligators and snakes in dangerous heat was, quote, an absolute horror show. Tribal nations, meanwhile, including the Seminole and Mtsuki tribes, have denounced the plans because of environmental and cultural impacts, and the Friends of the Everglades is urging the DeSantis administration to reverse course,

saying the land is part of one of the most fragile ecosystems in the country. We did email a list of questions about this detention facility to the Governor's office. Among other things, we wanted to know if it's a temporary facility, what's the timeline for closure? Is there an evacuation plan for detainees and staff? If there's a hurricane, how does the state plan to operate the facility without disturbing the sensitive ecology of the neighboring Everglades and how many new immigration detention facilities does the state want to build? The governor's office wrote back with some answers. They said the Florida Department

of Emergency Management offered to buy the day Collier Training and Transition Airport to run as a detention facility. They said Florida is eligible for reimbursement from the Department of Homeland Security for the site. And they said it will be self-contained and utilities like sewage, water, and power will be removed once it closes down. The state's also looking at Camp Blanding

near Jacksonville as another detention site. The governor's office also forwarded a copy of the state's immigration enforcement operation plan. Now this lays out the state's goals to support President Trump's immigration agenda. It says Florida has identified several sites around the state, typically near airstrips, where detainees could be housed,

and that vendors running the sites could have them operational within days. We'll post a link to that document online. Well meanwhile here's Dee Sanders in an interview with Fox News this morning giving a tour of the airstrip. He said the facility will be up and running by Tuesday. So I mean this is going to be, illegals will come in, they'll be processed, there'll be places for them to be housed, you'll have an ability for food, you'll have an ability for them to consult legal rights if they have that, because there is a process that's involved with this.

So this is really everything. This is going to be a self-contained little area. And then, of course, you also have stuff for the staff that work here. All right so you can weigh in as well the number is 305-995-1800. You can send us an email radio at the floridaroundup.org. We're joined by some reporters to help sort through what this facility is and what it means for the state of Florida's approach to immigration. First let me introduce Ted Hessen who covers immigration for Reuters. Ted, thank you so much for being here.

Appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Alright so let's talk about sort of how this fits into the kind of national picture of immigration enforcement under this federal administration because I mean are there other states trying similar approaches? President Trump has said that he wants to have historic levels of deportations and that's meant a very aggressive push by U.S. immigration and customs enforcement ICE. We've seen videos in cities around the country of arrests and with that has also come an increase in the detention population and the number of people that are now being detained.

It's risen very sharply under Trump from about 39,000 or so when he took office to 56,000 now. And they've said, for know, for some perspective, they're funded for 41,500 beds this year. So they're well over what they can afford to detain. So there's been this really real push around the country to find more detention facilities,

to ask dates and local jails if they will lend their space or participate. And then also there's a bill in Congress right now, a massive funding bill that would include money to fund at least 100,000 detention beds and potentially more. So they're sort of on this push at all fronts to find more space to detain people to increase deportations.

Yeah, okay. So look, when I look at some of the images and sort of look at the plan for this particular detention facility on the edge of the Everglades here, I'm kind of put in mind of like Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's tent city jail, and that was around from the early 90s to I think close down in 2017. Are you seeing some similar echoes to things like that? I mean, it certainly looks that way from a sort of symbolic perspective.

And I think there are real questions about why this is necessary. And yeah, they may need bed space, but why put it in the middle of the Everglades? Looking at the costs, the Department of Homeland Security has said that it could cost about $450 million annually to operate, which would come out to a daily average of about $247 a bed. The average in a normal ICE detention center for one bed one day is $165. So that's even if it's filled to the 5,000 person capacity, which is a question, it would be significantly more expensive and it would have to operate for a year to get to that price. And we've already heard that it's being dubbed as a temporary facility.

There are real questions about how long it will be up. So you could see that overall it may cost much, much more than what it's being billed at for the amount of use that it will actually get. Right. I should note too, I mean, the state of Florida says they'll be eligible for some reimbursements from the Department of Homeland Security. I imagine though, I mean, if DHS is reimbursing not just Florida but other states that are setting up these temporary facilities, that bill is going to run into the pretty high

numbers. Yeah, DHS has actually said themselves that they would reimburse a large part of the cost of the detention center and they're going to pull that money from FEMA, which is the Emergency Response Agency. In particular, they've said it will come from the shelter and services program that would typically be used to provide shelter after a disaster. And under the Biden administration, some of those funds were used for housing migrants in hotels and offering them other services when they arrived to help them adjust to life in the US. And that's something that really angered Trump officials and they still

rail on when they talk about it. And you could see almost a symbolic move to reverse that and now use that same pot of money to detain people and hold them in a place that has this symbolic value of being particularly harsh. Okay. Yeah. So we're going to bring Kate Payne into this conversation now. Kate covers state government for the Associated Press. Thanks for being here, Kate.

And I want to just talk through with you some of the details of this plan. It seems to be proceeding very quickly. We heard, you know, the governor say that he thinks it will be up and running in a matter of days. What do we know about who it will house and how that we housed? Yeah. So according to a U.S. official, immigrants arrested by Florida law enforcement under cooperations with the federal government known as 287G agreements will be detained at the facility, as well as folks who are in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. The governor has said that most of the people detained will likely be people who are apprehended in Florida. And so far as far as the facilities, folks on

the ground and satellite images show sort of heavy duty tents, trailer facilities. As has been mentioned, you know, officials have described this as temporary, but we haven't gotten a timeline on how long this facility is expected to be there and running. Yeah, I mean, we heard Attorney General Uthmayer describing it as more or less abandoned. Is that accurate though? This is an active airfield. It's owned by Miami-Dade County. It's used for training for some commercial pilots, private pilots, some small number of military flights. So it is an active airfield, although there aren't planes based at the airport. So there is some activity there, yeah.

Well, let's go to the phones now. We've got May calling in from Orlando. May, you're on the air. What's your question? Hey there. My question is how permanent or temporary do we know what this really is? Because I work in engineering here in Orlando and we have a saying in engineering, which is there's nothing more permanent than a temporary solution. So if we're going around rounding people up that are doing essential work in our communities, cooking our food, cleaning our messes

and taking care of our children, like do we know how long those people are going to be held? Because if it's any longer than necessary, like, that's horrific. That's a great question. Thank you so much for that, Mae. Well, Kate, sort of back to you, what has the state of Florida said about the temporary nature of this and how long it will last? We really haven't gotten a timeline on that. Again, they have described this as temporary and have really touted how quickly they've

been able to set up this and deploy this stream of resources to set up these tents and trailers at the site. But at this point, we don't have a timeline on what temporary means. What about the land around it too? I mean just how remote is this and what are the implications of housing thousands of detainees here and the people to guard the facility and keep it running? So the airfield is on Tamiami Trail in between Naples and Miami. It's about an hour or so drive from downtown Miami. And anybody who's driven that stretch of road knows it's very limited infrastructure there.

There aren't really gas stations or rest stops to speak of. You really are out in the wild. For the people who live out there, which people do, including members of the Miccosukee and Seminole tribes, it's home to them, it's sacred land to them, and they love it out there. But for folks who don't spend a lot of time there, it does feel quite remote and it's a real logistical challenge to get everything that's needed to support that number of people, of staff, to be detained again for a period of time, we don't know. But just for food and bathroom facilities, places for these folks to stay in the heat of summer in Florida, it's an incredible undertaking to raise up this kind of infrastructure on what's just

an airfield. Yeah. We're talking about Alligator Alcatraz as it's called. You can weigh in with your questions too. 305-995-1800. Send us an email. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. We're on with Kate Payne for the Associated Press and Ted Hessen with Reuters.

Ted, I wanted to kind of pick your brains a little bit on what the response has been from immigration advocates, because there has been an outcry. So what are you hearing? I think this just tracks generally with the pushback on Trump administration policies or Republican policies that seem targeted to send a message to migrants not to come if you're coming illegally. What I've seen is general opposition and the point of comparison really is the Trump administration's effort to send migrants to Guantanamo Bay. That's something else they've been doing more or less since Trump took office. And it came out about a month ago that the cost of that so far has been $100,000 per person per day to house someone, a migrant at Guantanamo, which is

very high, you know, by comparison. And I mentioned before the daily average is $165 typically in ICE custody. It's also unclear why they were doing that. The people have been flown to Guantanamo, but then flown back to the US and either staged for deportation in the US or sent to another detention center or even released after being sent there. So there is a question of kind of why they're doing this. And I think that will come up more and more. question of kind of why they're doing this and I think that will come up more and more. You have to, I think you mentioned it's a functional airport at the site that they're choosing and there is a functional airport there, but it's not like flying into a major metropolitan area where it's going to be more accessible and perhaps more affordable.

So we don't even know what the cost might be of getting people back and forth from there. of getting people back and forth from there. We did hear the governor say in his walk around with Fox News that there will be the ability for detainees to have some consultation with legal experts or something to that extent. So he said there is a process to follow, but I mean, what are the legal implications for a facility like this and what does due process actually mean for people who've come to the United States without legal paperwork and might end up in a place like alligator Alcatraz? It's a long-term complaint of immigration advocates that ICE detention centers are often

put in remote areas. And I think the same complaint would apply here in that it's not easily accessible for attorneys to get out there. In fact, it seems quite challenging in this case, or even for family members or friends who may want to visit the people who are being detained and see how they're doing. We don't know what sort of communication setup they'll have there. I think it's something that I'm sure immigration advocates will look at closely to make sure that they have some degree of access to the people being held there. And so I know I made the Guantanamo Bay comparison before, but for migrants who were being held

at the U.S. Naval base there, the issue at the start was whether they were getting adequate access to phones and communication lines so that they could call lawyers. So I do think that's something that could come up and even if people can't go in person that there's at least a remote way for them to be accessing their attorney. Indeed. Okay. We just learned this morning that the friends of the Everglades has actually filed a lawsuit. I'm just quoting from an email that was forwarded to us. Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity sued today in US District Court to protect the Florida Everglades from a reckless plan for a massive detention center to confine people who are routed up in immigration raids."

And quote, so Kate, just kind of walk us through the environmental arguments against this facility. Who's speaking out against it? What are they saying? Yeah, we've seen a number of groups speak out against this. Similar organizations and advocates who rallied against efforts to put development on state parks in Florida recently. But with this lawsuit this morning, this is the first legal action we're seeing where these advocates are saying, this is big Cy is Big Cypress, you know, is a

nationally protected area, that it's ecologically sensitive, it's a place that serves as habitat for endangered and threatened species, including the Florida panther, one of our, you know, signature native animals here in the state. And so there are a whole host of concerns from environmental advocates as far as building up this kind of infrastructure in the Everglades and especially what impacts there could be for water quality when you're handling human waste, frankly, in this area that there aren't those sorts of facilities to process that kind of thing. So that's one of the main concerns we're hearing.

Now, we've got about 30 seconds left here, but just quickly, I mean, what about the implications of setting up a camp like this in hurricane season? If the hurricane were to bear down, what have you heard about the plans there? That's certainly one of the concerns that activists have of what will the conditions be for people who are housed there, including the staff who are running the facility. The state has said that they're developing hurricane evacuation plans as is standard procedure for any state facility. They haven't given a lot of detail on that, but say they are intending to have you know some way to

evacuate folks there depending on the track of the storm on the wind speed but that remains to be seen. We have to leave it there but Kate Payne covering state government for the Associated Press thanks for joining us appreciate it. Thank you. And Ted Hesson covering immigration for Reuters, Ted appreciate you as well. Thank you for having me. Stay tuned. Up next we'll talk about a new bill aiming to better define the right of public access to the beach. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Matthew Petty. Well next week on our program, in case you missed it, we will revisit our summer bookshelf program.

Hear from the authors who write in or about Florida, including an eye-opening exploration of one of the state's least favorite reptiles. From the Panhandle to the Keys, Florida boasts some stunning beaches. There's about 630 miles of sandy beaches along our coast, and Floridians are justifiably proud of their beaches. And they're a big draw for our tourism economy as well. But chances are you might have seen a no trespassing sign at a beach or even been told to move along for treading on someone else's sand.

Floridians might agree on the quality of their beaches but they can't seem to agree on where private property ends and public access begins. A new law aims to put a long-running dispute between property owners and beachgoers to rest. Governor DeSantis just signed the law meant to protect public access and make it easier to restore eroded beaches. Here's Republican State Senator Jay Trumbull who sponsored the bill. It's about families. It's about tradition and it's about restoring something that never should have been taken away in the first place.

Where do you stand on the issue? Have you had to fight for access to your favorite beach? If you're a beachfront property owner, do you worry about trespassing or litter or noise in front of your home? Call in and share your story. We're at 305-995-1800. You can email radio at the florida roundup dot org. WLN intern Carla Mendez took a trip to Golden Beach and Hallandale Beach to see what sunseekers there had to say. It's a sunny and quiet morning here on Hallandale Beach. Families are lounging on towels and just a few feet away is the beginning of Golden Beach, a beach considered private. Camila Pena from Coler Bay says she was told to leave by police

after unknowingly stepping onto the private stretch just a few feet away. It made me feel uncomfortable because I wasn't doing anything. I was relaxed. I was reading my book and it's not fair and they were rude. Under Florida law, the wet sand, the area below the high tide line, is always public. But the dry sand above it can sometimes be privately owned. Glenda Jimenez from Hialeah says she didn't even know there were beaches people couldn't use. I feel like it's hurtful to the local people that live here and the tourists that come

to visit because our main attraction is the beach. So when you take that away, what's left of Miami? The bill now requires beachfront homeowners to prove that there has not been customary use of the beach and land in front of their homes in order to restrict people from using it. I'm Carla Mendez in Broward. We got this email from Charles. He wrote, the problem with the current law is the lack of clarity concerning the exact

location of the high tide line. Everyone has access to the beach below this line and property owners cannot deny access. However, I've been threatened for violating this elusive line by our rate property owners, security guards, police, even park rangers in our state parks. Thank you for sending us that email. Charles, if you want to weigh in as well the email is radio at the floridaroundup.org. you can call 305-995-1800. We're joined by Bruce Ritchie, he covers the environment, growth management and energy for Politico. He's been reporting on the beach access battle. Bruce, thanks for being here.

Thank you for having me. Alright, so just kind of break it down for us, what does this new law actually do? Because this is essentially kind of rolling back something that was in place since 2018. Yes, Senate Bill 1622 passed the House 108 to nothing and the Senate 35 to 2. It repeals a 2018 law that required counties to seek judicial review before they could establish by ordinance public access across private property on beaches. That repealed a long set of public access established in Walton County over virtually across all

the coastline there. Is it going to stop people from arguing over this though? Because it sounds like there's still kind of a point of contention about you know if you're on wet sand maybe you're, but if you're on the dry sand, like what is, what are your rights? Well, the county attorney in Walton County says it's not going to change anything there. They had to go through the courts and struck settlements with more than a thousand property owners there, but it, it will just simply change the way the local ground might goes through, through the process. It won't prevent property owners from challenging it

in court. It doesn't prevent a property owner from saying, you're on my property, you have to get off. Unless the county has come along and established that access. It's funny, it's something that people just take for granted that if you're on the beach, you're in a public area most of the time.

Indeed. We got this email from Loretta in West Palm Beach who wrote, Florida has curious laws regarding its beaches. My commute takes me along A1A into Palm Beach. There are some homes and clubs that are situated between the road and the ocean, naturally blocking beach access and a view of the ocean, but most infuriating are the mansions that are on the western side of the road,

who keep their hedges high along the ocean side, blocking not only beach access, but even a view of the ocean. These are generally seasonal, winter-only occupied homes. Their views are blocked 24-7, 365. I call this Don't Look at My Ocean. It's bad enough that most of the beaches are reserved for the super wealthy by restricted parking and lack of amenities, but in this case you cannot even look. And then she talks about growing up in New Jersey beaches where even the wealthy must enjoy the ocean with everyone else and also in Hawaii mentions the fact that it's considered legal to cross private property to access the ocean because access to ocean as a citizen's right.

And finishes out this email by saying the oceans belong to everyone and no one and that should include the beaches Loreta thank you so much for weighing in Bruce what about that does that kind of sum up what you've heard from folks because you've done some reporting out and kind of Walton County and talk to people who've you know been arguing with with security guards as as you're doing the report right right I went into out to Walton County went through parked in a public parking lot, walked through a public beach access with a local resident there to show me the issue, and we put down our beach chairs and thought, okay, and I thought, well this is gonna be

a boring day at the beach, no winter. We interviewed for a little while and suddenly, you know, there was a shadow blocking the sun and there was a property owner's representative, property manager telling us that we were on private beach and it didn't seem like that was the case at all. And they had a, the resident and the property manager had an enlightening discussion about, you know, where is the sand, where is the line, when does it move, is it the same all day long, is it the same for all property owners? Some don't care, some do. And then a little bit later on, a sheriff's department beach patrol

officer comes over and tells us we have to move about 18 inches closer to the water. And so the argument ensued again between the resident and the person while I was there taking notes and snapping pictures and wondering. Yeah, yeah. What is it about Walton Beach? Why Walton Beach in particular has this issue? Because you mentioned like thousands of disputes

that have had to be litigated. Yeah, you know, I've been trying to figure that out. It's sort of like peeling an onion and I keep learning more. I don't know if it goes back to the Spanish land grants of centuries ago or the fact that much of the property, what one time was owned by the federal government. At some point, there were landowners who went to the courthouse and got a quiet title action which extended their property line to the water Also the beach has been eroded so

So what was once you know your spot on the beach and this is my spot on the beach is now We're all compressed, you know and now you may be putting down a blanket and what somebody else thought was their front yard Yeah And now you may be putting down a blanket and what somebody else thought was their front yard. Yeah, 305-995-1800. If you've got a story about rubbing up against some property owners and your request to find a good spot of sand on the beach, 305-995-1800, send us an email too. We're at radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Now Now the governor has supported and signed bills that limited local government rule. For example, he signed a 2024 bill into law that prohibits local governments from enacting heat related regulations for outdoor workers that go beyond existing state and federal standards. But while signing this new beach access law, he said the legislation

was about restoring local control. What's going on here? Well, the governor says it doesn't change private property rights. Lawyers for property owners say, well, yes, it does. And it's interesting, the Republicans who are very vocal about private property rights, you know, were backing this bill and saying it just seems to to be an affront to them and to many longtime Floridians. It's one thing where the places they go have become developed, but it's another thing where they used to look for seashells or, or build sand castles or throw a line in the water.

Now someone's telling them to get off and, and, and it's a difficult, that's a difficult thing, I think, for long-time Floridians to comprehend. Yeah, I mean, I think if you grow up in Florida, you sort of see access to the beaches as something of a birthright, right? Well, think about Daytona Beach, with its wide, hard-packed sand,

where they at one time had NASCAR races, and they still have beach driving. That's where the issue first went to court and where the courts in 1974, the Florida Supreme Court, established this concept of customary use in public access. That's interesting. Okay, so we talked about Walton Beach, Daytona Beach. What about other parts of the state? I mean, what are you hearing from other places where people have had these kind of disputes with private property versus just the casual beachgoer? Well, I've heard about signs being put up by property owners in Palm Beach County that said,

stay off our beach, and people saying, well, it's not your beach. And in Reddington Beach, a tiny place I think in Pinellas County, they are in federal court fighting over their customary use ordinance that they argue predated the 2018 law. Their lawyers saying that this whole concept of customary use is flimsy at best and isn't established case law. Even a beach where I go in the middle of nowhere in Franklin County, I went a couple years ago just suddenly boom no no trespassing signs and some of them have been torn down and and I've heard recently they've been put back up so it could be coming to a beach near you. You mentioned the kind of erosion issue.

Now the 2018 legislation that you talked about at the top of our conversation, that was meant to establish legal beach access, but what about the environmental kind of implications of that? I mean how did that actually play out in reality? You know, that's kind of hard to pinpoint, but certainly if the beach is getting smaller, not only are you going to have more conflicts, more people in less area, but you're going to have less space for sea turtles to nest. You're going to have more people crowding areas where shorebirds would lay eggs and nest or forage along the water line.

And even the beach mice, probably most people don't know about, are rare little species that live in the dunes that can get wiped away by a hurricane. Yeah, beach mice didn't hear about that. I didn't realize that was a thing in Florida, but you learn something new about a landscape and ecology every day.

And you'll hear more about shorebirds later in the program. Just wanted to ask you real quick too, I mean, does this new law, does it kind of resolve some of those issues around access when it comes to erosion? Because there have been some disputes about, for example, the Army Corps of Engineers getting access to the beach to rebuild sand in some cases? Well even in Walton County the attorney who says that the land use the situation on the beach is not going to change that says it is an important aspect of the law that it establishes the mean high water line is also the erosion control line which basically is a boundary for where if the

government comes along and put sand beyond that toward the water if it widens the beach and that will become public beach so that is something that DEP touted this week with the bill signing. Let's get a word in from Mary in Sarasota. Mary you're on the air. Hi yes Sar, there's a great place and we're blessed with beautiful golf, public and private beaches. But we really have seen a shift from what is accessible to us locals.

And I grew up here and what's accessible to our very important tourists and hospitality visitors. I am fully in support of people's property rights, but the shift in Sarasota has been so severe since the time when we grew up. And basically what's happened to Sarasota's beaches is privatization where locals could go into, for example, the Gulf and Bay Club and sit by the pool and support their bar. Now it's all private. The mean high water line is one thing, but the hostility between the private beach owners and the locals who just want to take a walk and the tourists who just want to take a walk and the tourists who

just want to take a walk has really become severe. Mary thank you so much for weighing in. Bruce real quick before we close out here I mean does this new is this new law going to kind of push back a little bit of that sort of privatization push in some areas of the beaches? They believe that the 2018 law emboldened the property owners. The property owners would say that it was Walton County coming along in 2016 and privatizing many miles of beach, opening many miles of beach to public access that triggered their actions. So it may not, but it may give the local governments a little more push to keep public access.

Well, I've been speaking with Bruce Ritchie, covering the environment, energy and growth management for Politico. Thank you so much, Bruce. Appreciate it. Thank you. And you're listening to the Florida Roundup on your Florida public radio station Well, the beach access bill was just one piece of legislation to emerge from a long drawn-out legislative session lawmakers passed a 115 billion dollar budget and wrap things up nearly two weeks ago as they edged closer and closer to a state government shutdown To talk us through briefly the session that was here's Douglas soul who covered Tallahassee as part of WSF's your Florida team at Douglas Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me.

All right. So it's a big budget, but still a few billion dollars shy of last year. What are the takeaways for you? Yeah, so it is less than what passed last year, but there are important factors to consider here. The budget has grown substantially in recent years. A lot of that though is due to the surge of COVID-19 related federal dollars that poured into the state. That's of course drying out. Lawmakers

this session were also very aware that there may be federal spending cuts under the Trump administration, which could impact the money coming into the state. Mind you, about a third of the budget is federal dollars. That was also mixed with concerns of a future recession, so lawmakers thought it best to tone down spending. Now, Democrats are in the minority as we know. They weren't happy with some of the things that made it into the budget. A charter school expansion for one, giving Governor DeSantis the power to probe over

spending by local governments. Really quickly, what was the kind of pushback against those things? Yeah, yeah. So that was certainly some of it. And it's important to point out lawmakers from both parties voted for the budget, but all that is true. And another one of the bigger concerns heard from Democrats is that the budget doesn't meet the current needs of Floridians, especially with all these affordability issues in the state. Some Democrats disagree about having this conversation about cuts, for example, when they say more funding is needed in various areas, including things like prisons and schools.

Yeah. So the budget goes into effect July 1st. DeSantis has veto power though. Last year he slashed arts funding. He's about to cut $500 million at least from the budget. What are you anticipating this year? Yeah. So Governor DeSantis vetoed nearly a billion dollars worth of stuff from last year's

budget. I actually remember walking into a Tallahassee bar the night after that happened, and you could tell who was the lobbyist behind some of the cut appropriations by their grim, dejected face. We don't know what's going to happen exactly this year until he tells us, but I'm especially curious to see what he does with the projects of those he's been feuding with, especially in the House and under House Speaker Daniel Perez. Right. Okay. of those he's been feuding with, especially in the House, and under House Speaker Daniel Perez.

Right. OK, so lots to watch out for in the weeks to come. Douglas Solon, Tallahassee, governing state government for WSF's Your Florida. Well, still to come, we'll remember those who died in the Champlain Towers condo collapse four years ago, and talk about a standoff over pickleball. That's going to be part of our roundup of headlines

from around the state. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Stay with us. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Matthew Petty. In Surfside this week, a memorial service for the 98 people who died in the Champlain Tower's south condominium collapse. As Sophia Saran from our partner station WLRN reports, four years on, survivors and family members in the South Florida community are still searching for answers about why the massive building suddenly collapsed. For some mourners, the fourth anniversary of the deadly collapse of

Champlain Tower South felt heavier than previous years. Dozens gathered near the site and surfside to pay respect to the 98 who died. Devin Gonzalez was 16 when she, along with her mother and father, was inside the condominium building as it came down. Her father was killed. We all still feel. There's this assumption from people and outsiders that aren't a part of the Surfside community that because we received compensation after the collapse, our lives must be fine now. But what so many fail to see is that money came at a cost of everything I ever knew and we ever knew.

Many of the speakers openly aired their frustration with the lack of answers as to what caused the building to collapse. Fran Cebczak attended the ceremony to honor her late nephew, Gary Cohen. I thought it was a beautiful ceremony and paying trip, you know paying tribute to the people but There's a long way to go. This is something that really Was a big hole in our community and will remain so I think for many many years to come At the end of the ceremony the names of the 98 lives lost were read I'm Sophia Saran in Miami lives lost were red. I'm Sophia Saran in Miami. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has been investigating the condo collapse. The Institute's construction

safety team just released an update highlighting design and construction problems with the building and explaining some of the more likely theories about the collapse. Glenn Bell, one of the lead investigators, said there's strong evidence the collapse started in the building's pool deck, but they're also investigating the possibility something happened in the tower that caused the pool deck to fail. The final report is expected to be released next year. Meanwhile, Florida condo owners could soon see some financial relief. Condo owners have seen their assessments for maintenance and repairs balloon after laws passed in the wake of the Champlain Tower's collapse, requiring inspections and condo associations to carry enough reserves to cover major repairs.

From our partner station WUSF, Clada Hokita Garcia reports on a pair of bills signed in clear water on Monday. The bills were among the top priorities of Governor Ron DeSantis this session. One will hold condo board members accountable through enhanced review processes. The other will give condo owners financial help with weather-related repairs. The census says he backed the bills because some things are just obviously good for the state. People need relief.

People are dependent on us to get it done. So I'm really glad that that sentiment prevailed, but I do think that this is something that the folks that are concerned about the issue really did make a positive difference on. So thank you for making your voice heard." The census says he started taking residents' input on the issue last year. He called for a special session in January, but the bills were not taken up. Now that he's signed them, the census expects some legislative cleanup will be needed when lawmakers meet next year. I'm Claraahokita Garcia in Tampa. This time of year young shorebird families along Central Florida's coasts are starting to take flight. But species like the American oyster catcher are struggling with habitat loss as

Molly Durek from our partner station Central Florida Public Media reports. I'm on a boat in the Mosquito Lagoon where Linda Walters, a marine biology professor at the University of Central Florida, is leading a small crew working on what's called a living shoreline. It is the least destructive way to protect a shoreline. Walters calls it low-tech, using more natural materials like native plants and biodegradable wave breakers to stabilize the shore against erosion. As opposed to using any sort of hard armoring, which would be a seawall or putting really large rocks out.

Seawalls can also help fend off erosion, but one big drawback to that hardening approach is it can also harm valuable wildlife habitat. For oyster catchers, a species Florida classifies as threatened, the native mangrove trees and Spartina marshgrass being planted along this shoreline form one piece of a delicate puzzle, or to steal a term from Walters, a habitat mosaic.

The oyster catchers, they can use a living shoreline as the high ground that doesn't get wet at high tide. Oyster catchers also need to be near their favorite food. That means oyster reefs. Another critically imperiled Lagoon Habitat Walters works to restore. That's the biggest kind of like existential threat to the species is there is there going to be habitat

for them to live in. That's Shiloh Schulte, a senior shorebird scientist at Manomet Conservation Sciences and coordinator of a national oyster catcher working group. Shorebirds as a species group are declining rapidly and oyster catchers are one of the few that's not. Schulte says nationally, there are nearly 15,000 oyster catchers today

up from about 10,000 in 2008. That may not sound like a huge jump, but with populations declining for more than 200 other North American bird species, conservationists count it as a win. That said, it's a delicate balance. In Florida, oyster catchers are managing to hold steady despite shrinking habitat.

Janelle Brush leads seabird and shorebird research at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Habitat losses, it's on my mind a lot. That's the most critical threat that I think we're facing. Habitat loss, from things like storms, rising high tides that flood out nests, and human interference. The more developed an area you have,

the less suitable habitat that you have that's available for species like oyster catchers to nest. Just up the coast, about 25 miles north from the Mosquito Lagoon, construction crews in Ormond-by-the-Sea are building a buried seawall, covered up by sand dunes and vegetation. It's what Stetson University's Jason Evans would call a hybrid mechanism to combat erosion. Trying to figure out how to slow and stabilize erosion within a natural environment that

naturally erodes. That's like the really big dilemma. A dilemma Evans helps coastal communities to solve. Evans says, while theoretically, it makes sense to want to hold a shoreline in place to protect the property behind it. Just as soon as you stabilize something, there's going to be a follow on consequence somewhere else. Like two potential shorebird habitat. We've simplified these ecosystems, right? We've gone in, destroyed enormous amounts of coastal wetlands in Florida for putting in these seawalls. Evan says hybrid solutions, like the buried seawall, can be an effective middle ground. Right now, researchers at UCF are working on a model to help determine where in Florida

living shorelines might work best. Meanwhile, the future of federal funding that's long-fueled oyster catcher restoration work is in limbo. But brush with FWC is hopeful. She says in the world of conservation, uncertainty is nothing new. There's always opportunities. You just have to look for them. In Orlando, I'm Molly Durig. Before this story aired, Monomet senior shorebird scientist Shiloh Schulte died in a helicopter crash while working in Alaska. I'm Matthew Petty and you're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public

Radio station. We began the hour talking about immigration. It's a polarizing issue and as you'll hear in this next story, a Tampa Bay area faith leader took an unconventional approach to highlight the challenges facing the immigrant community. WUSF's Lily Belcher reports a politically active St. Petersburg church sent the sheriff's office a bill after deputies used the church's parking lot without permission.

Allendale United Methodist Church is known for putting progressively leaning political statements on its signs. And Pastor Andy Oliver protested immigration operations during a rally outside the Pinellas County Jail earlier this month. On June 17th, more than a dozen law enforcement vehicles pulled up outside the church to set up for an operation. Oliver says the officers told him it was not an immigration enforcement operation and left after he demanded they move. We serve people who are undocumented, black and brown people, LGBTQ people, and the sheriff's office is not really a safe space for

those groups. The church sent a $10,000 invoice to the Sheriff's Office. He says they aren't expecting the bill to be paid, but he wanted to send a message. The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office declined requests for comment. I'm Lily Belcher in Tampa. As part of a broader push for greater control over public universities, the State University System of Florida is joining five other southern states to launch a new accreditation body. It's called the Commission for Public Higher Education. Governor Ron DeSantis said at a press conference at Florida Atlantic University Thursday the new accreditor is part of his mission to challenge policy embracing diversity, equity and inclusion

initiatives. It'll upend the monopoly of the woke accreditation cartels and it will provide institutions with an alternative that focuses on student achievement rather than the ideological fads that have so permeated those accrediting bodies over the year. The Commission for Public Higher Education will need to earn federal recognition under U.S. Department of Education guidelines. DeSantis said he thinks the Trump administration will support the new accreditation body. It's the latest move by DeSantis and Republican lawmakers to reshape the public education

system. Other measures have included removing certain books from classrooms and libraries and recruiting politicians with close ties to DeSantis to serve as university presidents. And we'll talk more about it here on this show in the coming weeks. A SpaceX capsule carrying a crew of four astronauts is docked to the International Space Station. The astronauts are on a private mission brokered by Axiom Space, and as Central Florida Public Media's Brendan Byrne reports, they'll spend two weeks in orbit. The crew is made up of astronauts from the US, India, Poland and Hungary.

The four will live and work aboard the station, conducting roughly 60 experiments on the orbiting lab based in biology, material and physical sciences, as well as technology demonstrations. They'll return home in the same capsule that brought them to orbit, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. I'm Brendan Byrne in Orlando. And finally, a plan to convert basketball courts to pickleball in Fort Lauderdale Beach has landed the community in a bit of a pickle.

WLRN's Broward County reporter Carlton Gillespie has the latest on efforts from local advocates pushed to quash pickleball plans. The plans between the city and developers for the Bahia Mar, located across the street from the courts, have been approved for a year. but the controversy kicked off a month ago when the city placed signs on the court saying, quote, coming soon, basketball court conversion to pickleball. Since then, a group calling themselves Fort Lauderdale Beach Ballers have racked up more than a thousand followers on Instagram,

showing videos of the courts being used and interviewing outraged players. showing videos of the courts being used and interviewing outraged players. A pickleball court? Come on, bro. Meanwhile, they've also gotten nearly 7,000 signatures on a Change.org petition to keep the courts from being converted. District 4 Commissioner Ben Sorensen said he's fighting to keep the courts, while District 2 Steve Glassman says the city's hands are tied. Mayor Dean Trantalis has yet to respond to the group. I'm Carlton Gillespie in Fort Lauderdale. And the beach ballers plan to hold a field day this Saturday to raise awareness

for their cause. That's our program for today. The Florida Roundup is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF in Tampa. The show is produced by Bridgette O'Brien and Grace and Doctor with assistance from Denise Royal. WLRN's Vice President of Radio is Peter Mertz. The program's Technical Director is MJ Smith. Engineering help from Doug Peterson, Ernesto J and Jackson Harp. Our theme music is provided by Miami Jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at www.AaronLeibos.com. If you missed any of today's show, you can download it and pass programs on the NPR app. Thanks for calling in and listening.