This week, several activist groups were asking a circuit court judge in Tallahassee to toss out the state’s congressional voting maps. They argue the maps amount to gerrymandering—and that political operatives influenced state legislators to draw districts favoring one political group over another. Lynn Hatter reports halfway through the trial—legislative leaders, staffers and operatives are pointing the finger at each other.
The whole matter of whether or not gerrymandering has occurred in the drawing up of Florida’s congressional districts is fiendishly complex. So Florida Public Radio’s [WFSU’s] Jessica Palombo talked to a Washington Post editor about what he found when he tried to answer that question.
The government watch dog group Florida Tax Watch has found about 120-million dollars of what it calls “turkeys” in the state budget lawmakers passed earlier this month. Regan McCarthy reports the “turkeys” are actually spending items that TaxWatch says were slipped into the budget without a full legislative overview.
Three weeks after the end of the 2014 Florida lawmaking session, Governor Rick Scott’s desk is starting to look a bit crowded. Sitting on it is a record setting budget of 77-billion dollars. The governor can exercise his veto line-by-line if he wants. In some cases, he’s already hinted at where some of those vetoes may occur. But one item that Scott has definitely promised to veto: a bill that could allow for the raising of speed limits on certain Florida highways. Sascha Cordner looks into what led up to that decision, and the response of the bill sponsor’s.
A twenty-year long battle between commercial fishers and environmentalists is once again back in a Florida court. Ryan Benk reports, the whole legal fight is over the state’s ban on certain types of gill nets.
Thousands of people are crowding onto Northwest Florida’s Santa Rosa Island for the Memorial Day weekend. Many are looking forward to the beach parties that mark the annual mostly LBGT gathering at Park East. From member station WUWF in Pensacola, Dave Dunwoody reports.