The Florida Roundup - ‘Yes, in God's Backyard,' Florida AG’s memo targets racial equity laws, and more

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

This week on The Florida Roundup, we spoke about a new state law that gives cities the option to allow churches and other religious institutions to build affordable housing on their property regardless of zoning. First, we spoke with the sponsor of the law Sen. Alexis Calatayud (00:00) and then we heard from a pastor of a church in St. Petersburg that is close to breaking ground on a new housing development (15:16) Plus, we took a closer look at a recent legal opinion from Florida’s Attorney General calling for the state to stop enforcing many state laws giving preferences, quotas and other considerations based on race (20:26). And we asked our partners at PolitiFact what is and isn’t legal to do at a protest (32:58). Plus, more news from across the state including new property tax proposals (37:34), campaign announcements (40:02) and an update on Florida’s unusually cold weather (41:32).

Support for Florida Roundup comes from the Everglades Foundation, working to restore and protect Florida's $1 trillion asset that helps to bring clean water to Floridians. Learn more at Everglades Foundation.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Terrific to have you this week with us. Oftentimes people use the acronym Yigbee, which stands for a yes in God's backyard. That's Derek Kilbourne. He's director of planning for the city of St. Petersburg.

He was speaking to the City Council last month as it unanimously passed zoning changes allowing churches and other religious organizations to build affordable housing on their land. Now, there are dozens, if not hundreds of lots of land in some communities that belong to churches, temples, and other faith-based organizations that are vacant. They are not zoned for residential use, but as state law passed last year gives cities the option of allowing religious groups to use that land for housing as long as it's considered affordable housing. That's Yigbee, religious groups inviting developers to build housing in their backyard. It stands in contrast to NIMBY, the idea that neighbors resist the building of new homes and apartments, not in my backyard. The city of Miami said no. Last week, the City of Miami Commission rejected the option of allowing churches to put housing on their land, despite efforts by housing advocates like Erica Scott of Miami Homes for All.

I want to highlight again that we're short 90,000 affordable rental homes for households earning up to $75,000 a year. The city has identified almost 700 civic use properties that would be eligible under this measure. St. Petersburg instead is the first Florida City to say yes. And one church has been waiting years to put up homes on its land. Some of us in this church, we said, oh, everybody in the world knows that affordable housing. Housing is a huge issue in this world. And we asked ourselves, well, how can we be a part of the solution? We said, aha, let's build affordable housing.

And the people will love it. This is Pastor Oscar Banks two weeks ago at Palm Lake Christian Church. No. The members can't afford to live near them. But instead of being excited about something that's good that God is doing in this community. Instead, we demonize it. We call it evil. We'll speak with the pastor in just a few minutes. So are you Yigby? Yes, in God's backyard? Or NIMBY? No in God's backyard. How should your community help make housing more affordable while protecting the value of what is probably your biggest investment if you're a

homeowner? Your house. Call us now 305-995-1800. 305-9-9-9-5-1-800. 305-9-9-9-5. 1,800, send us a quick email, radio at the Florida Roundup.org. First State Senator Alexis Colladdeude from Miami-Dade County helped push to open up church land for affordable homes. Senator, thank you for joining us here on our program. Why allow religious organizations, churches, synagogues, mosques to build homes on their vacant land? as we consider the vacant or underutilized land in our particularly our urban counties what we're finding is governmental entities and their political subdivisions so whether that's county municipality school districts they have the greatest amount of vacant underutilized lands in the urban communities the second most is our non-profit organizations and a decent percentage of that is our religious institutions and organizations. We've realized even in the faith communities

that there is a change of dynamic of congregation. And so what used to be large parcels with small, medium, or large-sized churches, there's a great question on how do we sustain community. And that may not only be meeting on Wednesdays or Sundays or Sundays, or Fridays. That could really be the continuation of the center of community that for a very long time religious groups have played. It could be in reshaping the local community to have more attainable housing for our working class and moderate income earners. So if religious organizations or other nonprofits do take advantage of the language that you helped put into law last legislative session, opening these open parcels up for housing developments. Who owns that home or apartment or townhouse once it's built?

We are allowing for, we're allowing for multifamily rentals. So the specific provisions that we've created are about attainable. So below market rate rental units. Yeah. And so is it the religious organization, the nonprofit that retains ownership of that new housing development, essentially? Yes. And the reason why is because the ability to create the affordability, what we call the depth of affordability, is because the development is able to absorb the property tax exemption of the nonprofit. So that's exactly what I was going to ask, Senator, is that it foregoes any property tax payment to local governments because it still is retained by a nonprofit and thus tax exempt?

There's no property tax on the land. Right. There is property tax on the improvements. So the units themselves. In our urban communities, we know the value of land is tremendous. And so this kind of acts as the way where we can provide not just what we call in the legislature the moderate income or the missing middle unit. but really go into deep affordability, which is people that make 50% of the areas meeting income on their plus or minus.

St. Petersburg has approved zoning changes to allow religious organizations to build affordable housing on their land. The city of Miami rejected a similar change just this month. One commissioner who opposed it worried that, quote, there was a whole host of unintended consequences if it was approved. Another who voted against it worried that changes would allow what's called by right real estate development, which is when a building project conforms to the existing zoning. And so there's no special approvals that are needed. What do you make of those worries that have been expressed in one of the largest cities of Florida? The particular provision that we created around religious organizations being able to work with municipalities and counties on development is an opt-in. So the reality is we intentionally created this provision as the opportunity for local governments to participate in the question of how do we meet the tremendous housing crisis of the state?

The city of Miami is next to your district that you represent, and it has said, no, it doesn't want to partake in this. It doesn't want to opt in to it. Any response? These religious institutions own the second largest amount of vacant and underutilized land in the state, and that includes the city of Miami. If they decided not to take this opportunity to help address the housing crisis in the city of Miami through this option, that's their choice. My job is to make these options possible to increase the amount of housing for our working class and our moderate income earners. And at the end of the day, I'm just trying to make it possible for as many units to come up that make it possible for seniors, for young families, for young people entering the workforce to decide that the communities that they grew up in and they've lived their lives in are a place that they can stay. Why do you think the government that is closest to the people have not embraced some of these affordable housing options, and in some cases requirements, that you and your colleagues in Tallahassee have approved over the past several years?

There are residents of our cities and counties who don't feel that this issue might affect them or don't feel that the solution of more units in their area is something. that is beneficial for their children or their grandparents or their future. It's indisputable that we have a housing crisis. It's not a Florida issue. It's not a South Florida issue. It's a national issue. And I feel a tremendous burden, particularly for folks my age, for it to be meaningfully addressed. And there are certain pressures that I don't experience that municipal and county leaders do. I want to be sensitive to that. I want to be sensitive to that. And that's why we have the optionality of some of these programs, like the religious institutions. How do you, as a legislator, think about the balance between the need for supply,

more homes, and balancing that with preserving the value of existing homes for your existing homeowner constituents? The biggest issue of the 2026 session is the question around reducing property taxes. And that is a completely homeowner driven issue of affordability. So I think there's a sensitivity in the legislature that there is a profound affordability problem for those who own homes and those who do not. So the balance is understanding when we're dealing with the workforce housing policy, we're talking about people who have yet to attain the capacity to purchase to purchase a home in Florida. That doesn't make them less of a Floridian.

We're changing the amount of units and ultimately will change the cost of market to make better the affordability crisis in housing for renters or those who have yet not been able to purchase. On the other side of the coin, homeowners have been letting us know loud and clear that they anticipate

from the legislature some sort of opportunity to vote and decide the future of their local property taxes. Senator, I appreciate the conversation. Thanks so much for joining us from Tallahassee. Thank you. Alexis Claddeud is a state senator from Miami-Dade County. Housing affordability here again this week on the Florida Roundup,

305-995-1800 or radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Terry sent us this email writing, Affordable Housing is a misnomer when you refer to rentals. You may be able to pay the rent, but that is never ending. Affordable housing, Terry Wrights, means housing that you own and can afford. Kevin has been listening in from the villages. Kevin, thanks for your patience.

Your turn. You are on the radio. Thank you for taking my call. Yeah, this has been an issue that I've been taken seriously. I actually created a website to try and get people to realize how important homeownership is. You will live on average four and a half years longer than renters. Renters have housing insecurity syndrome where they're forced to move every once in a while. And one thing I think that we need to do in America is prevent these big corporations from purchasing existing residential properties.

If we could just have them, if they want to own and rent out these residential properties, they should build new inventory only. That would work. And at the same time, we need to keep other investors that are foreign dollars out of our residential real estate. Because the appreciation allows people to get the health care that they need when they build the equity to send their kids to college and have some security. And there's, I've been a renter. I lost my house in 2007. And it's really frustrating. And it's so simple.

If we would just allow people to have access to residential and not compete, uh, with cash buyers, especially as a, there's a county in California that 36% of all homes sold in 2003 were from Asian buyers paying cash. Yeah, well, Kevin, I'll say you don't have to travel all the way to California to find a large portion of buyers being cash buyers. It happens in some areas in South Florida, for instance. And that foreign purchaser has been a significant driver of real estate throughout Florida, really, since that great recession.

I'm sorry to hear about you losing your home. You know, in terms of your thought about banning large investors from buying existing housing stock, President Trump did sign an executive order just this month banning large investors from purchasing single-family homes. And I asked the senator about that idea. She didn't have a strong opinion on it, but noted that only about 1% of homes in Florida are owned by those large investors. She also pivoted then and said, you know, a conversation should be had about short-term rentals, about purchasing homes and then using those homes for VRBOs and Airbnb's and whatnot. In Polk County, Joe has been hanging online too.

Joe, go ahead. We want to hear from you. You know, very great caller there. The gentleman in the villages, very educated, very bad on. I live in Polk County, Florida. I'm a business owner here. And the nature of my business, I travel across the United States, and we do aerial assessments of properties and land with my drone company.

So what I've noticed is, and what we see the problem here, especially in Polk County, and we're hearing this all the time from residents in my church and in other elsewhere, is these corporations, like he said, are buying up these manufactured home properties here. And then doing whatever they want to do with these seniors who have been in these properties. You know, they don't own the land so they can control the rent. And then they do that. But listen, I am a proponent of if the church, wants to do what they can to help their parishioners or others, you know, that's, that, God, come on,

that, that's what it's all about. It's helping each other here. Yeah, Joe, we want to talk to one of those pastors who's doing just that. Thanks for lending your voice from Polk County to this. Oscar Banks, you heard from him earlier. He's the pastor at Palm Lake Christian Church in St. Petersburg. That church will have a cornerstone blessing in a week, pastor, a week from today for your project, 86 new apartments on church land. Why did the church decide to use some of its land to build these apartments? Well, to me is quite simple. You know, Jesus, you know, he told us to love our neighbor

as we love ourselves. And so in that, in that vein, one thing that we believe is that if we have housing, the best way we could do to love our neighbors to make sure our neighbors have housing, Jesus also taught. He said that if whatever you've done to the least of these, you've done to me. And so we recognize that there are people without housing, and those people are representatives of who Jesus is. And if we're building houses for them, we're also doing it for him too. What's been the reaction of neighbors around the church? It's been mixed. And I'll be honest, overwhelmingly as I walk my dog through the neighborhood at the church, and I'll talk to certain neighbors. a lot of people are supportive, but there are some who aren't supportive. And it's not more so that

they're not supportive of affordable housing as so they may just not be supportive of their neighborhood changing. And so that's nuanced also in so many different conversations to be had. Yeah. Let's talk about these apartments. 86 of them, they're going to be reserved for folks making, let's see, about $60,000 or less or below. How much? How much? are they going to rent for? So those numbers, I'll be honest, I don't have those numbers, but that will be for our developer and our management company. But we will make sure that they are affordable. And I'm hearing the caller who is speaking about attainable housing. And attainable housing, of course, is affordable housing which you can own. But the reality is that there's

a large amount of consumers and people who live in our communities who don't. have the credit who don't have the income, nor the know-how of how to keep up a house. When you're talking about insurance and all those things that people have to do in order to own a house, we also have to make sure that we're looking out for those people who can't own and make sure that we're doing our job for them too. Pastor, is the church leasing the land? It'll retain ownership. What are kind of, is there income coming back to the church from this project? Yeah. So for us, the way we've designed it is that

The church will own the land. So we created our own nonprofit. So we'll be owning the land, but we are partnering to build it through Pinellas County Housing Authority as well as New Star development. Okay. Right. A New Star would be the developer, kind of the general contractor, not the general contractor, but the group that's kind of managing the project. Do you have additional land that you're looking at for a potential second project? No, my hope is that is that we are kind of a spearhead for other churches, at least in our community.

And I know I've spoken to a pastor up in Polk County, spoken to another pastor in Hillsborough. And so my hope is that we can just be that spearhead, that inspiration, that other churches can look at. And we can support them on their journey of doing the same thing. Well, Pastor Banks, I hear that you're going to be at the altar tomorrow. You're due to get married. Oh, yes, sir. We're making it happen. Well, congratulations to you and your spouse to be. That's wonderful news. Oscar Banks, pastor at the Palm Lake Christian Church in St. Petersburg, building some affordable housing apartments on church land.

We've got more to come here. Stick with us. You're listening to the Florida Rundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. Support for Florida Roundup comes from the Everglades Foundation, working to restore and protect Florida's $1 trillion asset that helps to bring to bring clean water to Floridians. Learn more at Everglades Foundation.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Next month, in one month, we'll be taking this program live to Orlando, live broadcast of the Florida Roundup on February 27th from Central Florida Public Media. We're going to have some special guests along with us, and as we always do when we do a live program in front of an audience, live music, and a lunch. Yeah, how about it? We'd love to see you there live in Orlando in person for the Florida Roundup. It's February 27th in Orlando at Central Florida Public Media. You can't argue with the

price. It is free. Space is limited, though. So we want to make sure that you have your seat reserved. You can register now at this website, CFpublic.org slash Florida Roundup Live. CFpublic.org slash Florida Roundup Live. A live program with a live audience. We'd love to see you there in Orlando, February 27th. Today, an examination of the decision this month by Florida's top law enforcement officer to stop enforcing dozens of state laws. Attorney General James Uthmiyer wrote that 83 state laws giving preferences, quotas, and other considerations based on race were unconstitutional in his opinion. He released his opinion on Martin Luther King Day. He defended the timing to Fox 30 in Jacksonville. It seemed like a fitting day because his vision at the end of the day was to ensure

that nobody would get discriminatory favorable treatment based on the color of their skin. Now, we'll talk about the legal principles involved in just a few minutes. The Attorney General's office declined our invitation for an interview this week. First, we wanted to talk about the impact of these laws no longer being enforced. The laws that set aside some government contracts for minority companies, require minority representation on some advisory boards and money for education. Just a few of those laws that the Attorney General says he will no longer enforce. Shaheewa Jared Gellon is with us now, Florida Association of Black Chambers of Commerce in the Broward County, Black Chamber of Commerce.

Shea, welcome to the program. Thanks for your time. Thank you for having me. What's been your reaction to the opinion from the Attorney General? Well, it's concerning. As I reviewed his opinion, and as you mentioned, there were 83 statutes listed in his appendix attached to the opinion, 50 of the statutes listed, specifically. target minority owned or specifically black owned businesses in procurement and that relationship with the state, how the processes that our businesses engage in attempting to work with the state. But I will say this, Tom, you know, in reviewing this, I'm seeing that a lot of these statutes, and I put a star next to some of them with DMS statute 287.094.

establishes a certification of minority business enterprises. That was put there for a reason. There's a history behind these types of laws that have created simply an opportunity for our businesses to engage. There's nothing in these statutes that has been listed that provides a guarantee that black businesses or minority businesses get contracts.

For instance, another statute, DMS 287.0943, creates a task force to establish criteria to increase minority business participation. That's the creation of a task force. Another one, Section 287.09431, statewide and local government agreement to remedy social and economic disadvantage suffer by certain groups. Once again, it's a statewide and local agreement. And so although his opinion tries to hit hard on quotas and things that he listed as quotas, on things that he listed as quotas and affirmative action type program.

When you go through the vast majority of the statutes that he listed in his memo, it's very vague mentions that local governments of the state may instead of shall or must engage in these practices. So not a command or a demand or requirement. Let me ask you, though, have these laws been robustly enforced before the Attorney General's opinion? And I think that that's my point, Tom. No. And given the current situation with black businesses in the state, under the current administration and with this governor, they haven't been widely enforced. We in fact host a black chamber day and have done so through the Florida Association of Black Chambers, where we bring about 15 Black Chambers to the Capitol to advocate. In our very first appearance, at the Capitol in 2022. We hosted a lunch and our speaker was then the Executive Director of the

Office of Supply Diversity, Bruce Roberts. And we asked those very questions, Tom. Are there any teeth? So you get a certification. What after that? What does the program hold for you? What did you hear back? I'm sorry? What did you hear back when you asked that question? It was like, no, there's no teeth. It's a May, not a shall. There's no requirement. There's no criteria. We even asked if there was tracking. Fine, it's not mandatory. We understand that. But is there any tracking to even understand the opportunities that are being offered and if folks are in fact contracting with the state and what those numbers look like? And once again, the response was no. Yeah. And as we all know, you track what you care about. So let me,

clearly they don't care about. Sheva, let me ask you with that with the lack of tracking, uh, what you're hearing back, the lack of accountability or teeth. what may be the impact for black businesses and other minority businesses of the opinion of the Attorney General that these laws are now unconstitutional? Well, I'll say this, Tom, for the last couple of years, after session, it's put local municipalities as well as counties on edge. And then with this decision, with his opinion saying, I'm not going to enforce these laws, it puts our local cities in. and counties on edge. And I'll tell you this specifically, because of the diversity of our state,

there are certain regions in our state, such as South Florida, Orlando, Hillsboro, where certain programs should be instituted because we have a very diverse and robust population, and therefore our businesses are diverse as well. And so some of these local municipalities and counties have put in place programs that after careful study and research and review, in addition

to disparity studies that have been conducted to back, you know, the programs with empirical evidence. They've created programs to say we were, you know, black companies were getting 0.43% of the contracts way out of tune and out of line with their representation of their businesses in our communities. And therefore, let's rectify, right? Let's rectify the disparity. These are not programs that have been put in place to discriminate, but remedy issues that have been seen before. And with this opinion, it does put our cities and counties and our elected officials and staff at cities and counties on edge. And I've seen that firsthand.

You can watch some of the commission meetings here even locally in Broward. Folks are scared to move forward because they're afraid of being, you know, reprisals are not getting funded. Shihua, thank you for sharing your perspective. Shihua, Jarek Gellon is with the Florida Association of Black Chambers of Commerce and the Broward County Black Chamber of Commerce. Now, in his opinion, the Attorney General saying that he won't enforce these laws, James Uthmeyer cited a ruling by the United States Supreme Court. That ruling banned the limited use of race in college admissions. A majority of the court decided that most affirmative action efforts in college admissions violated the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause.

And that ruling was central to Uthmeyer's opinion that he released this month that dozens of affirmative action laws in Florida were unconstitutional. This is what he told Fox 30 in Jacksonville. What I'm doing is implementing the United States Constitution. Melba Pearson is with us now, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida International University. Melba also is the chair of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section. Melba, welcome back to the Florida Roundup. Do you think the Attorney General is defending the Constitution by not enforcing these laws? Yeah, good afternoon, Tom, and that's absolutely not.

sadly, as we're seeing with Attorney Generals from the federal level on down, they don't seem to have a firm grasp of the law. And the Attorney General is misstating the law here because that's not what the Supreme Court held in terms of the types of scrutiny and the types of initiatives that would be considered unconstitutional. He's basically just giving a political argument that's dressed up as constitutional doctrine. I mean, the reality is the Supreme Court has not said that race can only be considered in the two distinct situations that he listed. Basically, he was saying that in terms of imminent of harm to a person that's in prison, you know, that sort of thing. Right. Or the second one was fixing a specific identified instance of past discrimination that was unconstitutional. Correct. And so the Supreme Court hasn't said that race can only be considered. considered in those two situations. I mean, that narrowing is ridiculous. And the Supreme Court, of course,

allows for certain instances where these type of initiatives are permissible. So the reality here is that the Attorney General is just being deliberately blind in terms of the patterns of government-driven discrimination that have occurred in the state of Florida in the past. I mean, we can look and look at Overtown. We can go even further back and look at Rosewood. So all of those, instances end up. It's not just impacting the people at the time. It has repercussions for generations to follow. And these laws and initiatives were put in place to address this generational harm. And by the attorney general turning his back on this, it's clear that he has no regard for marginalized communities in the state of Florida. And he seems to be on, you know, on a, you know, on

track where it's just making sure that marginalized communities stay marginalized, not that they're able to rise that and live healthy and beneficial lives. I mean, just to give one quick example, he has a number of, there's a number of initiatives listed there that basically attack medicine. So targeting minority physician networks. What's the harm in making sure that there are medical professionals that are diverse, that have had different life experiences, especially when you're looking at the black maternal health crisis, women dying in childbirth. This is not something that happens in another state. This happens in the state of Florida. We will say, again, we invited the Attorney General onto the program. They declined our invitation. Melba, I do want to ask

you, because in your long legal career, you used to be a prosecutor. You used to, you know, prosecute crimes. Is it the prerogative of a prosecutor? to decide what laws to defend, even those which may be impacted by United States Supreme Court ruling? Yes, it is within a prosecutor's power, discretion, to be able to decide what is going to serve their community best. However, what's very interesting is that in the state of Florida, under this current administration, prosecutors, state attorneys, Andrew Warren, and Monique Worell were removed from office for simply stating that they would not enforce a law which actually was not in existence. It was being discussed by the Florida legislature. The attorney general, sorry to interrupt Melva, the attorney

general has defended his action saying that he is citing and following Supreme Court jurisprudence, whereas those prosecutors were making just an ad hoc individual decision. Yeah, that again, that still doesn't hold water because he is bending the Supreme Court case law to fit his narrative and it's incorrect. Yeah. And, you know, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. If you're going to get up and say that Andrew Warren and Monique Worell did not have the right to be able to decide which laws they were going to enforce and which ones they weren't, well, then the same applies to you. And that's just bold hypocrisy that we're seeing here coming from Tallahassee. Melba Pearson is the chair of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice section.

She teaches as well at Florida International University. Melba, thanks so much for sharing your legal expertise with us. We appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me, Tom. We did invite the Attorney General James Uthmeyer on to the program. He declined our invitation. We will continue to invite him for future programs. I'm Tom Hudson.

You're listening to the Florida Rondo from your Florida Public Radio Station. In October, there were dozens of protests across the state as part of the national No Kings Day demonstrations. Marches are scheduled again in two months. They will come after all of us have seen videos of ICE agents shooting and killing two protesters in Minneapolis. After the social justice protests and demonstrations here in Florida in 2020, lawmakers passed what supporters called an anti-riot law. It changed the definition of a riot and increased penalties for crimes committed during protests. So what is legal? What is against the law during protests in Florida? And what about if ICE agents approach you? Samantha Putterman is with us, Florida reporter for our news partner, Politi Fact, as we do some fact checks every couple of weeks here on the Florida Rundum. So Sam, what rights to someone have when they're approached by an immigration enforcement officer? Yeah, so federal law gives immigration agents authority to arrest and detain people, you know, believed to have violated immigration law. But everyone, including immigrants, is protected against unreasonable searches, NCE.

under the Fourth Amendment. For example, you know, if officers can question someone in a public place, but more extensive interactions like a brief detention that's not a formal arrest, that requires a reasonable suspicion that someone has committed a crime. So this has to be more than a guess or presumption. So that threshold of reasonable suspicion for a detention. Yeah. Yep. Alex Prattie is the nurse who was shot last weekend by ICE agents in Minneapolis. He had a gun permit and was carrying a gun when he was killed. The FBI director, Cash Patel, was on Fox over the weekend making this claim. You cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want.

It's that simple. You don't have that right to break the law and incite violence. So Sam, let's pull this apart here. Insiding violence is illegal. That is against the law. But what about bringing a loaded gun to a protest? Is that against the law? Yeah.

So some states, some states have laws that ban guns at protests. But Minnesota's concealed carry law doesn't. And some states have even. more permissive laws, including Florida, which allow people with or without permits to carry firearms in certain public spaces, excluding, you know, some places like police stations, schools, courthouses, et cetera. But the Supreme Court, you know, they haven't ruled on the federal question of bringing guns to protests, but recent decisions have given widely way for gun rights. So here in Florida, we do have this 2021 law, the so-called anti-riot law. How is that changed what is

legal for protesters in the Sunshine State? Right. So a provision in the 2020. state law that, you know, Governor DeSantis has discussed before. It has to do with civil lawsuits, like one's seeking damages for personal injury or wrongful death. The defendant can use the plaintiff's participation in a riot as an affirmative defense, arguing their actions were justified because of the riot. But there are two important limits here. First, while this is a defense, it doesn't prevent, you know, a case from being filed and a court would still need to determine, of course, whether the defense was valid. And second, the law only addresses civil lawsuits, not criminal. So it doesn't prevent the driver from being criminally prosecuted.

The governor appeared on conservative Dave Rubin's podcast in June, and he made this claim about the law. If you're driving on one of those streets and a mob comes and surrounds your vehicle and threatens you, you have a right to flee for your safety. And so if you drive off and you hit one of these people, that's their fault for impinging on you. So there's a specific instance here, Sam. Can a driver in Florida run over a protester if they feel threatened? Right. No, not necessarily. I mean, the law does absolutely provide that affirmative defense where they can actually, you know, they can use the situation by being, you know, in a kind of a situation of a riot to say that they were justified. But again, a court has to determine it. Other legal experts told us that it very much depends, right, on the situation at hand. And that, again, that provision in that law has to do with civil lawsuits. So a criminal lawsuit can be, you know, brought against the driver. Something entirely different. Sam Puterman, our Politifact, Florida colleague, Sam, thanks so much. We are

Appreciate it. Great. Thanks for having me. We're always open to fact check any social media claims, any statements. Perhaps you've heard from an elected official. Just send us an email, radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. I'm Tom Hudson, and you're listening to the Florida Roundup from this Florida Public Radio Station. Support for Florida Roundup comes from the Everglades Foundation, working to restore and protect Florida's $1 trillion asset that helps to bring clean water to Floridians. Learn more at Everglades Foundation.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Great to have you this week. And now there are three. There are a trio of property tax proposals now headed to the floor of the Florida House in Tallahassee. Governor Ron DeSantis has made reducing or eliminating some local property taxes a top priority this year for him and for lawmakers. This week, the House Ways and Means Committee voted 10 to 4 right along party lines to support a proposed constitutional. constitutional amendment that would limit increases in taxable values for homesteaded properties to no more than 3% over three years.

Now, the current limit is 3% per year. The proposal would also limit increases in taxable values of non-homesteaded property. Republican Representative Griff Griffiths from the Panhandle sponsored the bill. Property taxes are not simply payments to the government. They're in investments in community safety infrastructure and the quality of life we live. Rather than seeking to eliminate them entirely, we should focus our efforts. and ensuring they're used efficiently and transparently. Democrats and some local government officials worry that reducing revenue from property taxes could lead to decreased services and shift the tax burden to renters and businesses. Democrat Kelly Skidmore from Delray Beach is against the plan.

It is a false narrative. You don't get to just cut all the revenue and still have everything that you've always had. You can't cut your budget and keep paying and providing the things you've always provided. One of the other proposals ready to go to the full House for a vote would phase out non-school homesteaded property taxes over the next decade. The second would increase the homestead property tax exemption for residents who have property insurance on their homes. Now, any measure that gets through the legislature and Governor on DeSanta signs would be on the ballot in November, and then 60% of Floridians who vote would have to approve it before it's added to the state constitution. Florida will have two open seats in Congress this year now.

Republican Vern Buchanan announced this week that he will not run for re-election to Congress. He has served parts of Manatee and Hillsborough counties for 20 years. He spoke with ABC 7 in Sarasota. We've been looking at this for the last 90 days, my wife and myself and our sons, to try to make the best decision. We went kind of back and forth, but it just seemed like it's a good time. Representative Neil Dunn announced his decision not to run for re-election two weeks ago. Dunn represents part of the panhandle.

Now, both Dunn and Buchanan are Republicans, each won re-election two years ago with 60% support. The roster of Democrats buying for one of Florida's U.S. Senate seats is growing. At least two candidates have joined in the past two weeks. Alex Vindman announced his plans to run for the nomination this week. He is an Army veteran who was on the National Security Council in 2019. He testified against then-President Trump in Trump's first impeachment trial regarding the president calling Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky asking him to investigate Joe Biden and his son. Vennman launched his campaign with a video highlighting

his role in that impeachment effort. My family came to America's refugees to escape tyranny, and I sure as hell was knocking about down to some wannabe tyrant. Former Brevard school board member Jennifer Jenkins was one of the other Democrats running for the U.S. Senate, but she dropped out on Thursday and endorsed Vindman's campaign. Last week, Jacksonville State Representative Angie Nixon entered the race. She spoke with First Coast Connect on our partner station, WJCT in Jacksonville. After traveling across the state for the last few months and speaking with Floridians all over the state, people are simply tired. They're tired of their paychecks, not spending the way they used to. They are tired of the

political rhetoric that is coming out of Washington, D.C. They are tired and they are struggling. Now, the Democratic nominee will face off against Republican Ashley Moody, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate seat when Marco Rubio left to become Secretary of State. So the election year may be heating up, but Florida is cooling off by like a lot this weekend. Low temperatures Sunday night are forecast to be in the low 20s near Tallahassee, 50 degrees in Key West. Wind chills, of 33 degrees in Palm Beach, 26 in Lakeland, a winchell of 19 degrees as forecast for near Jacksonville. Megan Borowski is the senior meteorologist

with our partner, Florida Public Radio Emergency Network. Megan, what the Florida. I know, that is exactly my reaction to you, Tom. Yeah, we've got extreme cold alerts in effect across the state from the National Weather Service, all thanks to this Arctic blast that is on, its way. So explain the meteorological underpinnings of this cold snap that the entire state's going to be experiencing. There's a nor'easter that's developing. It will impact the mid-Atlantic

states with heavy snow this weekend. So thankfully, we're not in for that compared to like what we had last year in the panhandle. There's a dip in the jet stream and we've got a pretty much an Arctic airmass outbreak that is going to seep all the way down into the state of Florida. Once that Northeaster starts to move northeastward up the Atlantic coast. Behind it is when we have that cold front drag through Florida. And that is going to send temperatures plummeting ahead of it, very windy. And then behind it, temperatures dropping to probably the coldest we've seen in about 15 years. I wanted to ask how historic is this?

Because here in South Florida, we have seen the iguana dropping from the tree temperatures this year already or this season already. We've seen that over the last couple of winters. were likely to break records. Last time we had a decent cold snap was back in 2010, but even I'm looking at some of the records that we could be breaking across the state. And some of them were set back in the 80s, back in the late 70s. So, yeah, certainly a not very frequent cold glass is coming for us.

I will take you back to January 2010. There was a guy who had just moved to Florida from Chicago, had just gotten off a plane with his family when it was nine degrees in Chicago. woke up in a rental house and walked outside with his wife and four-year-old and one-year-old, and all the iguanas were not moving. And then a few hours later, we went back to we, but there we go. That was the guy. We went back outside and all the iguanas were gone.

Holy cow. Wow. That probably was like, oh, my gosh, what did I move to? Welcome to Florida. So it's going to be that kind of weather across the peninsula panhandle. Yeah, absolutely. So we've got a couple things to worry about. first of all, really, the Panhandle, North Florida, Central Florida, and even as far south as the Fort Pierce area, our lows could drop to the 20s.

And, in North Florida, in the Panhandle, the teens, and this is on Sunday morning. In Miami, the 30s, potentially we could be waking up to. And then wind chills is something else. It will feel like the single digits toward North Florida, and we could feel like the 20s down in Miami. So how long will it last? We'll be cold Saturday night, Sunday throughout the day, probably Monday and Tuesday staying below average for our highs. I mean, it'll be a gradual warming. Monday's highs in the upper 50s for South Florida, the lower 50s in North Florida. But really by the time we get to Wednesday, we'll start to moderate things out a little bit.

Let me ask you about a three-word phrase I don't think I've ever uttered, Gulf effect snow. Yes, everybody is talking about it. Golf affects snow and ocean affects snow. Pretty much think of it like the Great Lakes with lake effect. snow. You get a very cold air mass moving over a warmer body of water. The body of water provides moisture. The cold air helps to condense that moisture out, produce precipitation. There is a chance. It's a low end chance, but there's a chance from Sixers County all the way down to Pinellas that we couldn't see wintery mix or a couple of flakes. Same with the Jacksonville area as well, right along Jacks beaches and down to Pontevada. There's a slight chance. And the timing for that

would be Saturday night into early Sunday morning. So if you want to catch the potential for it, be looking outside them, but I wouldn't put too much weight in it. Put those odds about the same odds of a snowball in Florida, perhaps. All right. Megan Borowski, senior meteorologist with the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network. And I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. Finally, in the roundup this week.

All right, the cold weather. It's just a reminder of how much of a hockey powerhouse Florida has become. After all, the Stanley Cup has made a home here in the Sunshine State in four of the past six in HL seasons. It only makes sense to play hockey here in Florida then, right? To play hockey outside in Florida. Yeah, first it was the winter classic back on January 2nd, outdoors in Miami. Once you open the roof, you know, all bets are off.

That's Andrew Higgins, senior manager for facility and hockey operations for the NHL. Now, that ice rink was built inside Lone Depot Park. That's the baseball stadium in Miami, which has a retreat. retractable roof. So that helped make sure the ice stayed, well, icy. Steve Meyer is the VP of events with the NHL. We've been in warmer markets before, but really nothing as south or as warm as this. All was fine on the January 2nd game. Now on Sunday, professional hockey returns to the Florida outdoors at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. No roof this time to help keep the ice cold,

but a temporary tent. That tent will come down a couple of hours before the first puck drops. The fact that we're building in a controlled environment and then exposing the rink for just the few hours of the game, I think we're going to be okay. Patrick Jesso is the manager of ice operations for the Tampa Bay Lightning. He's responsible for that ice as the sun sets on Sunday. At first I was like, oh boy, but to be honest, though, it's going to be a good challenge. He spoke with Florida Matters Live and Local on our partner station at WUSF in Tampa. Jesso says it isn't just luck that this weekend, this weekend, this weekend, was chosen for outdoor hockey in Tampa.

We've been studying this for the last three or four years on what would be the best day to do this, and you found it that this would be the good time to have this event happen. All right, lightning fans, the forecast for hockey night outside in Tampa on Sunday night, 40 degrees. And that's our program for today. It is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF in Tampa by Bridget O'Brien and Denise Royal.

WLRN's vice president of radio is Peter Merritt. The program's technical director is M.J. Smith. Engineering help each and every week. From Doug Peterson, Harvey Brassard, and Ernesto J. Our theme music is from Miami jazz guitarist, Aaron Leibos, at Aaron Leibos.com. Send us a quick email. Tell us how you are weathering this chill in Florida.

Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Where did you put your gloves and hat from last winter? Oh, by the way, if you're in the Orlando area, come see us live in a month, February 27th at Central Florida Public Media, a live Florida Roundup right at the end of the month. Be sure to register now at CFPublic.org slash Florida Roundup Live. We'll see you in Orlando. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening, and above all, supporting public media in your slice of Florida. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend.

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