With an amendment heading for the November ballot that would give future gambling decisions to voters, Florida lawmakers are pushing a raft of measures to overhaul the industry. But Regan McCarthy reports not everyone is on board.
Florida lawmakers want to weigh in on who really has access to Florida’s beaches. Kate Payne reports a bill moving in the House is meant to settle a long-running dispute between private landowners and the public.
Back in 2015, the “Every Student Succeeds Act” – “ESSA” for short – was signed into federal law. The measure passed both chambers of Congress with bipartisan support. It’s a long-term plan that succeeds the old “No Child Left Behind” Act. In a nutshell, it gives states like Florida more latitude in drafting plans for measuring student success. Still, the federal government has the final say. A majority of state proposals have been okay’d by the feds, but Florida’s plan is not among them. From member station WUSF in Tampa, Cathy Carter recently spoke with Natasha Ushomirsky (oo-show-MARE-skee) from the Education Trust, which advocates for minority students, about some issues the government wants Florida to address.
The Florida Department of Education says it will resubmit the state’s ESSA plan by Friday, February 16th.
The Florida House has passed a bill making it easier for law enforcement to return firearms to certain gun owners without a court order. Sascha Cordner reports.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s grassroots Poor People’s Campaign ended as soon as it started. But, nearly 50 years later, the coalition is reforming across the nation. A group in Florida has formed its own sect of the campaign, one of 32 states. And on Monday, at a press conference, the group announced its new objectives. Andrew Quintana reports.