>>This week on NewsNight.

Hurricane season gets underway amid concern over the readiness of FEMA and the National Weathe Service.

Plus, a look at the lates on developments at NASA and the agency's leadership and prioritie to questions over funding.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Steve Mort, welcome to NewsNight, where we take an in-depth look at the top stories and issues in Central Florida and how they shape our community.

First, tonight, the president this week said a process of phasing out FEMA would take place after hurricane season.

It comes after a recent shake up of senior executives at the agency.

And this week, CBS News reported the head of FEMA's National Response Coordination Center would be leaving.

Both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceani and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service, have experienced cut under the Trump administration.

NOAA forecasts and track hurricanes and FEMA help states prepare and respond.

We'll get into the political issues in just a moment.

But first, let's hear from Jessie Schaper, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Melbourne.

She says hurricane prediction technology has improved dramatically in recent years.

>>This hurricane season, we are anticipating an active season like we've seen the las several years.

But it's important to kno that it only takes one storm, regardless of the seasonal forecast, whether we're expecting above normal or below normal.

It only takes one storm to impact a community, so you want to be prepared regardless.

Hurricane forecasting has exponentially improved over the last several years from the addition of more data that we're receiving fro both the NOAA and the Air Force Hurricane Hunters flying into hurricanes.

We also have, equipment that goes out into the sea that's able to record information from the storm.

All of that data is added into the hurricane forecasting models, and it's actually helping this forecast become more improved.

So the size of the cone of uncertainty, it's actually shrinking.

If you look back in years past, the cone has a much larger diameter than it does today.

So forecasting between the track and the timing is greatly increased in our confidence over the last several years.

>>Jessie Schaper from the National Weather Service, to note some 600 positions were eliminated at the weather service earlier this year, but the administration has since taken steps to hire some workers to stabilize operations.

Well, let's bring in our panel now to break it all down.

And joining us in the studio this week, Beth Kassab, editor of the Winter Park Voice good to see you Beth.

>>Yeah, good to be here.

Donovan Myrie coming bac to the program from WKMG News 6.

Good to see you, Donovan.

>>Thank you for having me, sir.

>>And Alexa Lorenzo from WFTV Channel 9.

Good to see you, Alexa.

>>Likewise.

>>Thanks for coming in.

Alexa, let me start with you.

What do we know about the Trump administration's vision for FEMA, if you like, and the changes so far and the acting director, David Richardson.

>>So we've heard since the election, and the campaign conversations that the presiden wanted to phase out FEMA.

And it was something that he sai from the beginning, but we never had a timeline of that.

And what that would look like.

Recently, he did say, after this year, after this hurricane season, he wants to phase out FEMA, putting the responsibility financially and boots on the ground resource wise in the hands of the states.

Some states say, we got this.

We can handle it.

Other states say this is going to be a difficult lift.

And at this point, they're looking at how they're going to handle thi hurricane season with less staff because as we just mentioned, they lost a chunk of that about 10% gone already.

It can be up to 30% by year's end.

And at this point under the current administrator, they're going off of last year's plan going into this year's season, which is going to be a difficult lift given the cut staff.

>>The fewer resources.

>>Correct.

>>Yeah.

Well, let's get into this a little bit.

Beth, I mean, how have these cuts to FEMA have been received by experts and in forecasting and storm recovery?

>>Well there's a lot of uncertainty because FEMA has never gon into a storm season, under this kin of staffing pressure before.

So, people are saying that, there, there could be issues.

And as we just heard all it really takes is one storm to wreak havoc.

It doesn't necessarily take what we saw in, you know, 2004, a big, long series of storms.

But on the state level, I've seen state officials try to provide some reassurance that everything will be okay.

But I do think there's there' even more uncertainty than usual heading into this season.

>>I want to talk a little bit more about the state in a momen before I come to you, Donovan.

I want to play a clip from the former FEMA acting administrator, Camero Hamilton, who was replaced a day after saying this at a congressional hearing.

>>As the senior adviser to the president on disasters and emergency management and to the Secretary of Homeland Security.

I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Having said that, I'm not in a position to make decisions and impact outcomes on whether or not the determinations, such as consequential is that should be made.

That is a conversation that should be had between the President of the United States and this governing body on identifying the exact ways and methodologies in which what is prudent for federal investment and what is not.

>>Cam Hamilton there, who lost his job after those remarks to a congressional panel.

Donovan, do we know how Congress feels about all of this?

>>Well, I think for Congress, they're looking at FEMA in the sense of this is a giant agency.

There's a lot of money.

I think the biggest thing abou FEMA is everything is temporary.

I'm going to temporaril fix this.

I'm going to temporaril fix that.

How do you get to the poin of I'm going to completely fix something?

And I think for we know that there are problems with FEMA and I think for Congress, they're trying to figure out how to solve those problems without just coming i and destroying the entire thing.

There's a bipartisan, grou that's basically making a pitch to take FEMA out of Homeland Security, make it a cabinet level position.

They're trying to move forward.

We don't know.

There's a lot of uncertainty with how are we going to go forward?

>>Don't know how the administration is going to view those or what plans they might have themselves.

A lot of a lot of unknowns, for sure.

What about the county and city level response?

Alexa, WFTV has looked at what these changes to FEMA might, might mean for those responses in Central Florida.

What do you guys find?

>>So FEMA's building resilien infrastructure and Communities program was cut.

A lot of our counties reach outreach through that program to get what they need.

We'll start in Seminole County.

They asked for $300,000 to get a generator for their shelters for individuals with special needs.

That money's no longer there because that program was cut.

We saw the same request in Marion County and Sumter County, asking for money for them to, in turn, get the infrastructure.

They need different resources and they're met with, sorry, we can't help you.

So a few of them are now dipping into their reserves.

Some have said we'll figure it out.

Others have been a bit more open and said, we're kind of scrambling right now and we're just scratching the surface.

If we do ask for more we know that we don't have that in our in our back pocket.

>>Just don't have it.

News 6 has been looking at this as well.

What are you guys finding, something similar?

>>Something similar?

To the effect of, my colleague Laverne McGee.

She was down in Osceola County, and basically the folks down there said, you know, we're wondering, like, who's going to pick up the slack?

Okay.

It's not as if you just have a pile of money going, you know what?

When there's a problem, we'll take care of it.

We've been used to relying on FEMA, but now not only is the money not there, the people aren't there.

You're talking 1,80 full time staffers took buyouts, 200 more who are on probatio were basically shown the door.

You may have people to fill in, but those might not be the peopl with the institutional knowledge to know what to do when it's time to do it.

So it's.

Yeah, and it's experience and it's so it's not just a matter of money.

This is all a whole new thing.

Hey, you're a great quarterback, by the way.

You need to be a tight end.

>>Yeah, well, let's talk a little bit more about that, relationship between FEMA and the states.

Governor DeSantis says he wants FEMA to shift to issuing block grants that can then be distributed by the states themselves for recovery efforts.

He's been critical of the federal response to Hurricanes Milton and Helen last year, and says he supports President Trump in reducing FEMA bureaucracy.

>>What he's objectin to is the FEMA bureaucracy.

I think it' the administration's intent to bloc grant money to the states.

And let us administer it.

So all the things that FEMA does where you have individual assistance, where you have, response or, reimbursement for things like debris removal, if you just calculated typical hurricane, how much?

And you gave us $0.80 on the dollar on that, but cut out the bureaucracy.

I bet you tha money would actually go further.

My message to the president send us the money, send us the money and let us administer.

Now, I don't think that's going to happen this hurricane season because I think the reality is there need there's going to need to be more lead up than the tim they've had in office thus far.

But if they eventually get to that place, I think you could potentially remove a lot of the heartache in these post-storm things.

You know, I' talking about Helene and Milton.

We're cleaning debris, restoring power.

We're doing all this.

Well, then what happens i these homeowners end up in this, out of this stasi with having to deal with FEMA.

Was this, FEMA this.

And it's all about bureaucracy and red tape.

>>Governor DeSantis there.

Beth, you mentioned the relationship with the states.

The governor has long said that Florida always takes the lead anyway, on storm recovery.

How are state officials, do you think viewing this sort of uncertainty about FEMA's readiness this year?

>>Yeah.

So you just heard it from the governor himself.

He's saying, look, we already do this work and will continue to do that work, and everyone would be better of if we were just given the funds and we disburse them.

And there's certainly perhaps, you know, some merits to that argument.

I think, though, what's important to know is that we will al wait and see how this turns out in a time of crisis.

So we're talking about, a situation as many of us know all too well, and Florida, where people are without power, without air conditioning-- >>For extended periods of time.

>>Without refrigeration for their food.

Yes.

Without homes, with roofs and and buildings being destroyed.

The reason people are dealin with FEMA for months and weeks after storms is because they are in great need.

So, you know, again, the level of uncertainty here is unprecedented.

>>There have been, reported discussions, Alexa, over making it harder for states t qualify for federal assistance.

What do we know from that reporting?

>>Reporting shows there was a memo sent out about how they'll be able to reduce the number of emergency declarations.

>>Yeah.

>>And they're just going to make it harder to get.

There is a per capita metric.

That's how they assess how much money would be needed to help the area for damage.

And that memo says, okay, we'll be able to drastically reduce the money we give out by essentially quadrupling the damage needed in an area for us to send out to money.

>>Changing the formula.

>>Which, all in all, essentially eliminates any sort of small disaster declaration.

They're saying, we'll give you money if the disaster is big enough, if the scale of it is large enough.

So that makes it really hard for those small communities impacted by tornadoes.

They're saying we got you in a big hurricane.

We're not going to do the small stuff anymore.

It's important to note, though, isn't it, Donovan, that it's not just during the Trump administration where FEMA has had funding issues?

>>This goes back a while.

I mean, we're talking all the way back to, you know, Hurricane Maria down in Puerto Rico.

>>Yeah.

>>There was one article I was reading and we keep hearing about mismanagement.

We keep hearing about the bureaucracy and in this article, two gentlemen had written a an opinion piece for the Hill.

They're part of a federal whistleblower lawsuit.

And they were going into details about how badly FEMA botched the response dow in Puerto Rico, about the people who were there rentin generators versus buying them.

And, you know, essentially, we don't know exactly how FEMA operates.

We think we do, but we're not workers in there seeing how it goes every day.

There is some merit to this.

And FEMA's not doing the best job they can do.

And, you know, part of this push, like anything else, is there should be a change.

How dramatic do you want that change?

Or do you do it bit by bit?

And I think for this administration, they have their foot on the gas and they're not letting up.

>>And as Beth mentioned, the immediate concern is what it means for all of us in Central Florida this hurricane season.

I guess we'll have to wait and see as we enter hurricane season, though.

This is a good time to remind you about Meet the Helpers.

It's a WUCF initiative designed to support the well-being of young children, helping them understand emergencies like hurricanes, and explain and using age appropriate language.

You can find more about it at Meetthehelpers.org.

Okay, next tonight the Florida Board of Governors will decide whether to approv new presidents at a number of stat universities soon.

They include forme Lieutenant Governor Janet Nunez at Florida International University and Florida Department of Education Commissioner Manny Diaz at the University of West Florida.

Last week the board rejected the candidate chosen to lead the flagshi University of Florida, despite unanimous support from UF's board of trustees.

The selection of Santa Ono, the former president of the University of Michigan followe the months-long search process, but concerns among some conservatives about his past positions on DEI programs and his handling of pro-Palestine protesters derailed the hiring at a meeting last week in Orlando.

>>Public universities exist to educate, not to indoctrinate Santa Ono, who was announced in May as the sole finalist for UF's top job, addressed questions from members of Florida's board of governors for some three hours, fielding questions on issues ranging from merit based admissions, climate change and Palestine protests to his views on gender affirming care and diversity equity and inclusion programs.

>>What was the renewed adversity you were speaking of if not the reforms taking place not just in Florida, Texas and other places?

>>Yeah I don't think we were referring to Florida or Texas I don't recall.

This has been I don't remembe what I was saying at that time.

>>You don't remember?

This is your last statement.

"We must not back down i the face of renewed adversity."

What were you referring to then?

>>I don't really remembe because I didn't know I was going to be talkin about this document until now.

>>If racism is America' original sin, and those are your words, I mean.

What does that mean?

>>I would say that that I regret the use of those words at that time.

I remember exactly when I said it, but, I should have been more precise-- >>It was 2023.

Yeah.

So I think I should have been much more careful about my use of words.

I hear where you're coming from.

>>Ono received the backing of UF leaders and has not been opposed by governor DeSantis whose focus on higher education has included strong oppositio to DEI in public institutions.

And Santa Ono supporters pushed back on his opponents last week.

>>I've been on this boar for five, six years and we have never used thi as a forum to interrogate, and in this case it feels to me patently unfair.

>>You all decided today is the day we're going to take somebody down.

>>In the end, a divided board of governors voted 10 to 6 to reject Ono, despite his pledges on DEI and other issues.

>>Yes, my visions have evolved, as you've heard, but over 18 months, since 2022.

And I'm here to ensure that DEI never returns to the University of Florida.

>>A disclaimer WUCF is licensed to th University of Central Florida, which is part of the state University system.

Donovan, let me start with you on this one, if I can.

How unusual was this decision by the Board of Governors?

>>Extraordinary.

>>Yeah.

>>This is, when I was goin through my notes last night, all I could kee thinking of was, this is the right gu at the wrong time.

Two years ago, this wouldn't have been a problem.

You're taking a president for one of the top universities in the country and bring him to UF.

So UF can get to that level of bein like a University of Michigan.

And he basically ran into a buzzsaw.

And that buzzsaw is the board of governors, 17 people, 14 of them who are appointed by governor DeSantis to seven year terms.

We haven't had a Democratic governor in this state since the late 90s.

So there is this fall in line thinking, you know, get in step with what I'm thinking or be shown the door.

>>Right candidate at the wrong time.

I mean, the Board of Trustees, Beth, did approve Santa Ono unanimously.

It did seem that he was on the same page as university leaders in Gainesville.

>>Oh, absolutely.

It looks like this candidate went to great length to align himself, align his thinking, show that-- >>Ye we just heeard that.

>>The trustees right.

And the state board, as you just heard there, that his thinking had evolved, that he was willing to stay in lin with some of these ideological, issues, that the governor ha made a priority for the state.

And then at the same time, also run the strongest university in the state in one of the strongest public universities in the country.

So I, I'm not sure what more he could have done there, for, for, to show that he was willing to walk that line.

>>I wonder what this means for UF.

Could this be a problem, do you think, Alexa, for the university as they go forward?

>>I think it's going depend o how long this is going to take.

>>Yeah.

>>It was a five mont long process to select.

Ono.

And we got where we got.

>>Yeah.

>>Ho long is UCF going to be with it - or UF rather going to be with an interim president.

It breeds some sort of a culture of instability.

Well, President Fox did elevate the university to incredible rankings and standings.

He resigned.

It's not a job that he wants to hold for a long time.

So how long is it going to take to find their person and the university hasn't given us a clear cut path of what's next, what measures they're going to take to find the right person for the job.

But they did say the integrity of the search, is not going anywhere.

They're going to do another deep dive to find the person.

But again, the clock is ticking.

We don't know how long an interim president is going to last.

>>And these hires do at state institutions do take a long time.

There seems to be a great deal of uncertainty about how this is going to play out going forward.

I think it's fair to say Beth, I mean, I wonder beyond UF whether this could become an issue for other state institutions, for other colleges and universities in the state who are trying to attract top level talent.

>>In Florida?

Certainly.

And I think across the country as well.

This will give, some leeway to boards that may have been, a little hesitant to take a step that went as far as this.

And they will feel emboldened by this, which is, kind of the climate we've seen take off nationally, when it comes to, trying to dilute the power of, of academic institutions in this country and certainly in the state o Florida, it's going to be rough.

I mean, the state has taken great pains to, cloak the process of selecting university president in as much secrecy as possible.

>>That was a piece of legislation.

>>Yes, the legislation.

And there had been pains to make the jobs more attractive by letting candidates stay in the dark while they're applying so they don't upset the institution they're currently at.

But now we've seen even that go wrong.

So, yeah, it's going to be hard to attract people in this climate.

And, especially people with the types with the type of academic credentials and wherewithal and leadership that the University of Florida is really looking for.

>>And it'll be really interesting to, to see.

But that is all the time we have for this part of the program.

My thanks to Beth Kassab, Donovan Myrie, Alexa Lorenzo, thank you guys so much for coming in.

Really appreciate your time.

Good conversation today.

Meanwhile be sure to join the conversation on social media, we're at WUCF TV on Facebook and Instagram.

You'll also find us @NewsNightWUCF on X.

Okay, finally tonight.

There's been a lot of attention in recent days on the public falling out betwee President Trump and Elon Musk.

But before that, the president's decision to withdraw Musk ally Jared Isaacman's nomination to head NAS took many observers by surprise.

The billionaire entrepreneur and pilot was just days from receiving a Senate confirmation vote.

The white House say a new nomination will come soon, sparking speculation about the future direction of NASA.

I talked about it recently with Brendan Byrne, who hosts the Space podcast "Are We There Yet?"

for Central Florida Public Media.

We recorded this discussion last week.

A reminde things can change by our time.

>>Jared Isaacman is an entrepreneur.

He started a compan called Shift4.

It's a payment processor.

But he really got an interes in in space and aeronautics.

He's a fighter jet pilot.

And he bankrolled quite a few, private space missions.

The first one Inspiration IV this was the first all private orbital mission tha flew in support of Saint Jude.

He's also bankrolled a series of of, missions, a Polaris program.

Polaris Dawn, the first one, we saw fly a few months ago where he he did the first, private spacewalk from a Dragon capsule, very close, closely knit with SpaceX.

Has a stake in the company, and, has purchased a lot of flights, to go to space.

So he's an astronaut.

>>Certainly collaborated with that company.

And what do we know, then about the president's decision to pull that nomination?

Do we know why?

>>We know what the president and the White House have publicly said.

And when they pulled the nomination, they said that the head of NASA needs to be in lockstep with policy decisions of the administration.

That is what they were saying, why they pulled.

We can make some assumptions, right?

Both, Jared Isaacma and Elon Musk were very close.

There has been a very public falling out between the president and Elon Musk, but this nomination was weeks, if not days away.

So so the timing of it is very suspect for them to not think that he aligned with their policies.

After all of this vetting that they did to get him in that position in the first place.

>>Well, what response have you been hearing fro inside and outside the agency?

>>That it's a terrible decision.

It's very difficult to find someone, within the agency or outside of the agency that thinks this is good.

Isaacman was a strong supporter of the space program.

There have been some talk that he was kind of supporting, not cutting certain things from from the budget.

From the private standpoint, you know, the commercial side was very much looking for someone who is a visionary, like, like Isaacman to to lea that agency into new territory.

So they were very much looking forward to him.

It's difficul to find someone who didn't agree with with the president or with, with Isaacman outside of the president.

>>Is there any speculation as to who may reply, replace Isaacman as the nominee?

And do we kno when an announcement may come?

>>We don't kno when an announcement may come.

There have been some rumblings almost immediately after the nomination, for a former, Air Force lieutenant general, Steven Kwast.

That has been the name that has been floated around.

He has been very public about, the militarization of space and taking thing on, on more of a, a warfighting domain, as opposed to the more of the civil side of things.

So that's caused some concerns, with him at the helm.

But again that has not been made official.

That's just kind of the rumblings that we have.

We don't know when that is going to be made official.

And it's taken u this long to get Isaacman as far so we know that we are at least months away from actually knowing who the next NASA administrator will be.

>>Well, the other thing that's on the minds of those that work for NASA is the budget.

The last time we talked, we talked about the White House's skinny budget, so-called that it sent to the Hill that had big NASA cuts in it, the full budget proposal from the White House has now been released.

What do we see in it?

How does it compare?

>>So it' very close to the skinny budget in the sense of of how much it is.

So we're looking at about 25% cut in the budget.

What we did see in this budget proposal that came out of the White House is the actual things that will be cut.

We're looking at a huge cut to science divisions.

We're looking at already functioning and exceeding and excelling missions, like Juno, which is exploring Jupiter, New Horizons, which is beyond Pluto, exploring the Kuiper Belt.

Those would be cut.

And it's not like you can just send another one back out, but there's already bee billions and billions of dollars invested in these things as well.

And also, there's the people we're looking at a third cut or a reduction in a third of the peopl that work for NASA's workforce.

This would be, a detrimental.

And has folks at like, the Planetary Society have said this is an extinction level even when it comes to NASA sciences.

>>Brendan Byrne before we go, we wanted to not that as we record this program on Thursday, familie and community members in Orlando are marking nine years since the tragedy at Pulse.

Florida lawmakers have approved $394,000 in state funding for a permanent memorial at the site, with construction expected soon.

Meanwhile, as progress is made on the memorial, we'd like to take a moment to remember the 49 who lost their lives on June 12th, 2016.