>>This week on NewsNight, the second of two programs looking back at the top stories of 2022.

We'll look back at the midterm elections in Florida and how our state compared to the rest of the nation.

Plus, the Supreme Court decision that overturn Roe versus Wade and the launch of Artemis I. NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Steve Mort, and welcome to NewsNight, were rounding out the year by looking back at the top stories of 2022 that we've been focused on here in central Florida.

It's been a busy year for our state, and tonight we bring you the second of two programs tackling some of those big issues.

Well, this evening, we'll start with Governor DeSantis pledge to make Florida, quote, the place where woke goes to die.

This year, the governor successfully pressed lawmakers to pass the so called Stop Woke Act, which takes aim at how issues around race, including critical race theory, were addressed in classrooms and private businesses.

But a federal judge, Mark Walker, recently blocked the law from being enforced in public higher education institutions.

I discussed it with our panel at the start of December Joe Mario Pederson, Alexa Lorenzo and Greg Angel.

Greg, let me start with you on this one.

I mean, this is likely to go to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has previously sided with the DeSantis administration in cases before.

Is there any reason to expect that will happen again?

>>I think it's still a wait and see.

I mean, look, Judge Walker had a 139 page ruling, so it shows some of the complexity.

I think it's also worth pointing out.

You know, again, people talk about critical race theory.

You ask a majority of people, they don't have a clue what it actually is.

They can't define it.

It is a high level law school theory that's not even really commonly taught.

I think more attention is really going to be on a different court, the court of public opinion.

That is where a lot of these politicians and lawmakers are really trying to make their cases, no matter what the outcome of any you know, judiciary actually says in the end.

>>Yeah, I mean Alexa, higher education institutions have already been implementing stop woke.

I mean, what are the immediate implications of this injunction?

>>So this has been heralded as a major win for those free speech groups who immediately push back.

But universities right now have to say, we know we told you to follow this a few months ago, but let's pause on that for a second while this all works itself out.

But tenured professors are also seeing this as a win because there was an immediate reaction from some of those tenured professors because this law allows the board of governors to create a review for all those tenured professors every five years and say, hey, if you're not following this law, we're going to look into it and you can get canned.

And a lot of these professors have said public discussion within class, challenging opinions, different beliefs is what creates such a vibrant educational system that allows people to learn more than just what is macroeconomics per say.

So a lot of universities and professors have been fighting back saying that review lacks due process.

How are you going to measure the indoctrination and bias in some of these lectures?

So with this on pause right now, it gives them a time to figure out that review process.

If this does move forward with that appeal.

>>I mean, it's right.

You know, there's a lot of real world implications to a lot of these policies.

I mean, on issues around higher education, I mean, remind us about the kinds of things that have been taking place over the last year.

>>The governor and his colleagues have made greater efforts to reshape higher education.

Other analysts would push that a bit further and say perhaps control higher education.

Senator Ben Sasse from Nebraska recently became the president over at the University of Florida and the process by which he took that seat many people had issue with because of a law that was pushed into power that really made that selection process very secretive.

Many students and faculty members had huge issues with this.

Resented it, in fact, because of stances that the senator had on same sex marriage or diversity.

So, yeah, the governor has really made some big claims or put some big stakes, rather, in higher education.

>>I mean, Alexa, has Ben Sasse, former Nebraska Republican, addressed that academic freedom issue.

>>His resume is his resume.

Right.

So everyone knows about the political career, but a lot of people don't know.

He was a history teacher.

He was in the classroom.

He had these vibrant discussions potentially with his students.

So in October, when he addressed students and staff members, other faculty at a forum, he discussed some of that academic freedom, saying in part that these differing points of opinion is what provides a robust academic system, saying that people who are opposed to indoctrination shouldn't be afraid of the fact that we want to have these vigorous debates and discussions within the walls of a classroom.

But that was October.

The injunction was issued in November, and since then we haven't heard.

>>But also too I mean, you brought up the point, too.

And when there was all that pushback, protests inside the meeting were basically said and the university quickly said, okay, we're going to start enforcing this old written protest prohibition that we have on the books.

So, you know, as you kind of talk about the challenges and the control, if you will, it's interesting to point that out as well.

>>Things certainly got pretty heated.

I mean, we often talk about those that are opposed to what the governor is doing in higher education.

But on the right, it's a pretty popular theme.

He's got a lot of supporters, right, Greg?

>>Oh, absolutely.

And we see it too.

Look at the turnout at school board meetings And look in Brevard County, you had several governor supported candidates who won their races, new members of the Brevard County School Board.

They are already taking action, shoving the tenured superintendent out the door.

They are making changes.

You've got parents involved in these processes that give them unilateral decision to ban books in school libraries.

And so for a lot of these parents who have felt frustrated with the public education system, they feel like they now actually have a role and some kind of power to step up to their kids school and say, this is how I want things done and they've got some authority to do.

>>You said governor supported candidates.

That's not something we typically see a governor in.

>>In school boards.

>>Supporting, so this is this is all new.

>>Official endorsements and everything.

>>And we're seeing that play out now in potential changes in discipline policies that we saw talked about this week in Brevard.

Joe Mario, finally on this one.

I mean, we're seeing the governor's influence also playing out, broadly speaking, in K through 12, as Greg mentioned there.

>>Hes really thrown his or he threw his weight ahead of the midterms behind those candidates.

Right.

And that was so interesting because those are positions that typically are nonpartisan positions.

Right.

And we've already seen the ramifications of those endorsements who did take those positions.

We've already seen those ramifications start to play out against superintendents who were either enforcing COVID 19 mandates.

I think it is the Sarasota superintendent who was ousted after just a couple of years.

It was a 4 to 1 vote.

But yeah, we are seeing those ramifications play out in Sarasota, Brevard, Lee, Broward.

All over the place.

>>Many people would say that school board boards are becoming progressively more political over the years-- >>But also important too they have the power to impact your property taxes and things like that.

And a lot of times town council races, city council races, school board are often overlooked.

But that's where arguably a lot of the real political power sits is at the local level.

>>Greg Angel there from Spectrum News 13.

A reminder, you can find all the past episodes of NewsNight, as well as full length interviews with newsmakers on our website.

It's all at wucf.org/newsnight.

Well, the governor's war on Woke was one of the key campaign issues in November's midterm elections.

The outcome in several key races offered a picture of solidifying Republican power even while the country as a whole showed a much more divided electorate.

Governor DeSantis and Senator Marco Rubio both easily won reelection, and the GOP swept the Cabinet positions of Attorney General, Agriculture Commissioner and Chief Financial Officer.

NewsNight talked about it with political science professor Aubrey Jewett from UCF.

>>For the past 20 years or so, Florida really has been the number one battleground state for presidential elections and for many statewide elections, not all, but many, you know, four presidential elections for six elections in a row.

We voted for the winner three times Democrat, three times Republicans.

The average margin of victory was only two and a half percent.

So, I mean, we were like the closest state and it was seesawing back and forth.

But in 2020, Florida broke its streak of six in a row voting for the winner.

And we voted for the person that lost nationally.

We voted for Donald Trump.

And not only we vote for him, but we voted for him by a wider margin than we had in 2016.

He just eked by with about 1% in 2016, but he won by about three and a half points in 2020.

And so that was sort of a signal that Florida seemed to be trending more Republican.

And that's been followed up by voter registration data.

Republicans, for the first time in Florida history, have taken the lead over Democrats.

They have about a two percentage point lead in this election and about about a 300,000, you know, 2-300,000 vote lead in terms of raw numbers and if you just look at the Florida legislature, I mean, it has actually been Republican that's not been competitive.

It's been Republican since the late nineties.

And even in the governor's races, we've had some really close races.

You know, the last three before the current one were decided by about one point or less.

And yet Republicans kept coming out on top right as they were close.

But Republicans kept winning.

So long winded way of saying that it does seem that Florida is trending Republican and it seems to be because Republicans are pushing issues that a majority of voters in the state already like.

Some of it is because of who is coming to the state.

We grow by 2 to 3 million people a decade.

And so it seems that some of particularly some of it's Governor DeSantis policies over the last few years have attracted Republican voters to the state and probably in terms of demographics in Florida, the biggest change we've seen is among Hispanic voters.

For a long time, it was sort of received political science wisdom that as Hispanic population grew in Florida, Democratic fortunes would grow as well.

And in fact, I just point out that back in 2008, when Barack Obama won the presidency and won Florida by like three percentage points, Democrats actually increased their registration lead to like six percentage points.

I mean, it went up a lot.

And people at the time were saying, is Florida going to be a blue state?

It's not going to be competitive anymore.

It's going to be Democratic.

And I at the time said, you know, we have to wait and see and maybe, but we have to wait and see.

That's what I will say about what's happening in Florida right now is Florida still going to be competitive?

I think potentially, absolutely.

It still could be competitive.

It will depend on the issues.

The candidate you know, it's not totally out of reach yet for Democrats.

We have to wait and see.

But the potential is there.

And Republicans, you know, really are hopeful that this is the case.

I mean, the potential is there that over the next few elections, it will become clear that Florida really is just a Republican state and that very rarely on occasion, you know, depending some odd circumstance, it might go Democratic in a national election.

But it's possible we could be going red.

But a little early to tell you.

But it could it could be going red for sure.

>>Aubrey Jewett from UCF.

Well, as always, you can join the conversations that we have here on NewsNight by visiting us on social media, were at WUCFTV on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We always want to hear from you.

Well, next tonight, one of the biggest stories on the national level this year was the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision in June overturning Roe versus Wade.

It was a seismic shift for the nation.

But as we discussed on the program immediately after the Supreme Court decision came down, also for states like Florida, which had recently passed abortion restrictions and where legislators have shown willingness to press for more.

Let's talk about the magnitude of this ruling from the Supreme Court, guys.

I mean, Daralene, all our outlets have been have been covering this ruling.

What have your colleagues broadly been hearing from both sides in this debate about the significance of this moment?

>>It is huge.

And certainly Florida is in an interesting position, as we just heard.

Pro-Life groups certainly are going to try to use this as ammunition for a full out ban.

But Florida's an interesting position because as of this week, it is prepared to put in legislation is supposed to go into effect that will limit abortions after 15 weeks.

But this is certainly ammunition likely for those pro-life groups.

But a hurdle, as you heard, they're going to have to try to get over is the amendment to the state constitution dating back to 1980, which was reaffirmed by Florida voters in 2012, which literally broadens privacy rights and has been interpreted to include abortion.

But on the other side of this, I believe that what we're hearing is more fight, if you will, from those groups who believe that women should have the right to choose.

It's their body, their rights.

And so I believe that you're probably going to hear an increased argument, a louder argument from them.

This is certainly ammunition.

>>Talia, WMFE has been gathering reactions this week that you've been airing on your program, Morning Edition.

What stood out to you from the local reaction that you've been hearing?

You had something on just today about mental health, for example.

>>Yeah, mental health.

And it's interesting that people on both sides of the issue are calling with concerns to their mental health.

People who are pro-choice are calling because, you know, they're angry and they're sad, but people who are pro-life are calling because they're feeling divided amongst their family.

And that's putting a lot of pressure on them.

There's two stories actually this week that we aired that really stand out to me.

One was of Michelle Herzog and another was Stephanie Pinedo.

And both of them had an abortion in their life and during their experience through that and after that led them either into pro-choice work or pro-life work.

To hear them tell their stories and the similarities and the differences really was astounding this week.

>>One of the anti-abortion campaigners that I spoke to said this is actually a seminal moment for us because our movement has been focused solely on overturning Roe for decades.

Well, now we've achieved it.

What do we actually do now?

What is our next step?

And I guess that goes to what you were saying, Daralene.

The next step seems to be making bans nationwide.

>>It is certainly fuel.

And it'll be interesting to see what the legislatures in those states that now like Florida, have limits in place.

So allowing abortions, but there are limitations to it.

And so it'll be interesting to see how those state legislatures across the country move forward to implement all out bans.

>>Yeah, Florida didn't have a trigger law.

In many states, though, women have just been left without any choice at all.

>>No option at all.

Now you have this scrambling, the scurrying in terms of where to go.

But another impact that we will see in certain communities are black and Hispanic communities.

And those communities where there is already a disparity when it comes to health care.

And so it will certainly-- >>Outcomes that we were just talking-- >>Absolutely.

And things that we've discussed here on the program in the past, you know, theres such a significant disparity already when it comes to health care for black and Hispanic communities.

And so this is certainly going to further impact that.

>>Yeah, we hosted a special program some months ago talking specifically about that.

I mean, you know, we heard, Talia, from Jenny Joseph sort of talking about the specifically the disproportionate impact on underserved communities.

That's a real concern amongst women's advocates.

>>Yeah, it is.

And to speak to what Daralene was saying, black and Hispanic women have traditionally already faced higher costs in health care.

Now, there's also this concern about the logistics of even getting reproductive health care.

Do you have the means for transportation there?

Do you have the means to take time out if you need to travel elsewhere to get an abortion?

There's also been some experts saying that women who are already low income could face potential lifetime financial struggles if they're forced to keep their baby.

>>Yeah.

How much of this is historic, Daralene, in terms of how black and brown people are treated in the health care system?

>>It is monumental, Steve, And it sort of it compounds what already exists in these communities when it comes to dis - disproportionate care.

And what's even more concerning for some people and black and Hispanic communities is that their voice, their voices are not being heard when it comes to the concerns they already have about getting appropriate health care.

And this compounds that.

>>You know, women are traveling into to our state from other places in the south, like Alabama, Mississippi, where it's very difficult, especially now, to get an abortion.

Is there a sense of confusion, do you think, about where abortion is available?

At what point, what time, given this ruling?

>>Yeah, absolutely.

Planned Parenthood, we actually spoke to Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, and their spokesperson said that they're receiving a lot of calls on whether, you know, they still even - patients still have an appointment if they have access to medication abortions, which usually involves taking a pill to terminate a pregnancy, whether they can even have access to their birth control.

There's a lot of confusion on what can I as a patient do now if I'm still looking for this kind of health care?

>>You know, people don't know that in Florida.

It's it's it's still permitted.

Daralene, both of the interviewees we heard at the top of the program on both sides of this debate, both pointed to a lack of care for women once they've given birth to the child.

First of all, a lack of prenatal care and the lack of care postpartum.

I mean, that is an issue, isn't it, that this country has, broadly speaking, as Jennie Joseph referred to?

>>It is indeed.

And I'll be quite frank, it is you know, there is a wider gap when it comes to lower income communities.

But overall, I can speak as a mom of three children myself.

If you don't have health insurance in this country, getting proper health care is just it's a problem and it's a problem with health care.

And so imagine what it is when you don't have proper health care.

And so these gaps that we continue to create within our country, it just creates it's a ripple effect in all aspects of our lives.

Daralene Jones and Talia Blake join me for that conversation.

You can find much more of our coverage of the abortion issue on our website at wucf.org/newsnight.

Well, finally tonight, after being delayed four times, Artemis I launched in November, returning to Earth in December after flying about a month around the moon.

It was a critical step in NASA's efforts to get astronauts back to the lunar surface earlier this year.

NewsNight hosted a discussion at the Orlando Science Center in collaboration with our Public media partners, 90.7 WMFE News, hosted by myself and Brendan Byrne, the host of WMFEs “Are we there yet?

” Space Podcast.

We wanted to finish tonight by bringing you a part of that discussion in September with Addie Dove, the planetary scientist from UCF, NASA's test director Dan Florez, and Dale Ketcham from Space, Florida.

We started by asking Dan Florez what it takes to launch a rocket the size of the space launch system.

>>It takes a massive, dedicated team, right?

And this is a team that that's undergoing several challenges.

Like you all know, right?

In the past couple of years, we've been going through a pandemic.

And that that's a challenge on its own to figure out how are we going to work and make progress during this time frame.

But other than that, you know, we've had other challenges with with resources.

We have a team that has experienced a small team that has experience from shuttle, and we have a lot of younger folks that that have come in over the past couple of years that are gaining that experience and learning from from the from the more senior folks to be ready to launch this vehicle.

But it takes a dedicated team to ensure that all the parts are ready to make sure that all the procedures, the schedules are right and to make sure that the hardware is built and tested properly ahead of launch.

>>And Dan, this is an important mission in itself, but it's also paving the way for Artemis II and Artemis III which will have crew on board.

>>So Orion is right now is the only manned spacecraft that's capable of sending astronauts to the moon or to deep space, for that matter, due to the radiation shielding.

That's that's that it has as part of its design process and also the radiation hardening as part of all the electronics on board the spacecraft.

So well be measuring the dosage that the crew may be exposed to in deep space, and we'll incorporate those lessons into into the Artemis as to design and also to the mission planning.

>>This mission is really pushing Orion to the limit, right?

I mean, this is a six week long mission, which is much longer than a human mission would be.

Right.

This is this is to get some really good data from-- >>Oh, yeah, we're going to be getting some great data.

It's a six week mission, like you said.

Right.

So it's going to test our capability to to have the the spacecraft Orion in orbit, the all the consumables that go along with it.

Right.

The fuel, the power consumption.

So it's going to we're going to get great data to support future Artemis missions.

And one of the main goals is going to be the reentry, right?

This this Orion is going to reenter Earth's atmosphere faster than any other spacecraft has ever have, has ever entered.

So it's a that that stresses the heat shield and the bottom of the spacecraft significantly.

So we're going to take some data after we splashdown in the Pacific Ocean to ensure that we have the proper design to support, you know, crewed flights in the future.

>>Obviously, going to the moon is one thing and then eventually the idea is that you go on to Mars, right?

>>Correct.

>>Can you extrapolate anything from that data that you gather on, on on what might face and astronaut eventually, if they were to go on to Mars?

>>You can extrapolate you can extrapolate some of the data for the radiation events.

Right.

And for for Earth reentry that that'll definitely help.

Right.

With what the missions the progress to Mars.

But right now, our goal is to get to the moon, to establish our our gateway in a few years around the moon and have a permanent presence on the moon so we can go beyond to Mars.

>>Addie, you know, the moon is such an important part of your life, and I just wonder how you're sort of feeling about this.

>>Sure.

Yeah.

I'm a lunar scientist and I have built a number of experiments that have really focused on understanding what's happening on the surface of the moon.

Right.

And so having this Artemis mission that's going to go back and sort of be the keystone, like you said, of all of these missions that are going to be going back is so exciting.

And a lot of the things I work on are going to fly on some of the smaller clips missions.

So the commercial payloads, they're flying a lot of the science instruments that are going to go alongside Artemis, but one of the great things about the Artemis program is how they're really involving science and scientists in all of the development of the missions.

So even in the very first, they just released the landing sites for Artemis III, there's a slew of landing sites, and those are all based on science and data that we have from current orbiting spacecraft and understanding ways we can use the lunar resources and really find the optimal ways to go to the surface.

So it's yeah, so it's just really exciting to and I like big rockets, so.

It's really exciting from that.

>>We want to talk a little bit more about about your work specifically a little bit later on but Dale I just have a question for you.

You know, I've been interviewing you for I feel for for many years.

You've been on the Space Coast and just take a step back if you can, and talk a little bit about how we got here.

>>Well, I think it's important to recognize that we when we ended the shuttle program, there was a recognition that we were going to fly with the Russians for a couple of years because we needed the resources that were going into shuttle to plan for our next program.

And Constellation was canceled.

We're now on the Artemis program that has led to the and we're still going to the moon.

But now we're taking a different approach.

The rest of the program involves an ever increasing association and engagement by the commercial sector.

And I think that sort of percolates and permeates throughout the community to really feel it.

Everybody's back in the sense that we're actually going somewhere.

We're doing something that's meaningful.

And, you know, all the commercial launches are great.

I mean, they're spectacular.

And that's what space Florida's mostly focused on, but that's sort of building the capability to do something.

And this is what it is we're doing.

>>Just a part of our discussion from September.

Looking ahead to the Artemis I mission which splashed down back on Earth earlier this month.

Well, that is all the time we have for this episode of NewsNight.

Be sure to join us again in 2023 as we continue to cover the issues that matter most to Central Florida and our diverse communities.

So until next Friday night at 8:30, take care and have a Happy New Year.

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