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TPO.

Opinions expressed on the First Coast Connect week in review are those of our panelists and do not reflec the views of WJC News 89 nine.

Good morning.

I'm Anne Schindler.

And it's Friday, which mean it's time for our first coast.

We can review.

Among our topics, Don gives an early look at damage caused by Hurricane Helene's devastation.

A nearly $2 billion city budget gets lawmakers stamp of approval.

Election official pledge to notify inactive voters before they're removed from the voter rolls.

And guns and threats continu to paralyze school operations.

To talk about all that and more, I am joined by Tricia Booker, author former reporter and journalism professor at the University of North Florida.

Hi, Tricia.

Good morning and thanks for coming in.

Despite no power today.

Absolutely.

Will brown, race and poverty reporter at jacksonville today will brown.

Good morning Good morning.

Nice to see you.

Dan scanlon, reporter at wjct news.

Hey, dan.

Hey, good morning.

And david bauerlein, metro reporter at the Florida times-union.

Hey, David.

Good morning.

And Patricia, I'm going to start with you.

As a child of New Orleans, you know, from hurricanes, from what we've seen so far what do we know about the extent of Helene's damage?

I think it's fortunate that it didn't hit a more populated area, but I think the areas it did hit are pretty flattened and flooded.

Fortunately, Tallahassee, I don't think, took as big a hit as everybody was predicting.

But those coastal areas, Apalachicola, Perry, I don't think we've seen the exten of what has been done there, but I think it's going to be a long long time before they recover.

The storms that I saw, the meteorologist, chie meteorologist Tim Deegan, cite when I was watching were Camille and Katrina, which are storms that you personally have experience with.

Katrina had a 28 foot storm surge.

I mean, we were talking abou a 20 foot storm surge here.

So comparable in some ways in terms of just the amount, the volume of water that they're seeing.

I think it's totally comparable.

I mean, the the thing with Katrina is that New Orleans of course, is below sea level.

And, of course, it was just flooded for days and days, well, weeks on end.

But in terms of the size of the storm and the force of the winds and the ability for it to to really devastate an area totally on the same palm.

So the force of this is hard to describe.

Well, when we're talking about, you know, a single cubic yard of water weighs 1700 pounds and you're talking about a surge that's miles long, four yards high in some cases.

I mean, it really is a powerful and an unstoppable force when it's happening.

Yes, it is.

But I was a see, we'll see you through student it when it comes to science.

So you started mentioning cubic yards and were like, oh, dear, Oh, this is my forte.

But I've lived in Florida enough to know to not trifle with storm surge.

And so when when I hear those high numbers, that's always like the Q like that to me is always the indicato of how severe a storm could be and how much damage it could have.

And so we are still, you know, waiting, I think, to see the extent of the damage in the panhandle, in the Big Bend area.

A lot of those areas obviously without power, but a lot of people here are also without power.

Yes, there are a lot of people without power.

Dan has some of those numbers, but I can say that right before he got on air, I spoke with my favorite Tallahassee resident, my only younger brother, and he did not lose power.

And that was a surprising blessing that I will accept.

Was he in Tallahassee?

Yes, he he lives in Tallahassee, a little bit north of Hartsfield and high.

But, you know, sort of north part of Tallahassee.

He lives in a a little bit of a hilly neighborhood, but didn't lose power.

A couple of branches were down.

I mean, he literally called it like a Netflix and chill kind of night.

So those are literall his words that I can say on air.

But he he's doing okay.

And my nieces are doing okay.

Now, not everyone in Tallahassee is doing the same, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear from him.

20 minutes ago.

I mean, he must have been concerned that he had chosen not to evacuate.

That was kind of against what the advice was.

It was you know, I was I was getting a little bit of pushback from some people, my family of, hey, you should talk to hi since you're the older brother.

I'm like, well, he's he's a grown ma with kids and a mortgage, so he knows what he's doing.

So but I'm thankful that he is okay.

I have some other friends in Tallahassee I'm going to be hoping to hear from later today.

But Tallahassee really was was spared from what it could have been and what, frankly, they were expecting.

Yeah.

So, Dan Scanlan, what about those numbers?

What do we know about how many people remain without power?

Well, the last check is at 21% of the customers are about 112,000 plus are affected with power outages.

I'm one of them.

We lost power at 1030, came bac on the south side and it's out still, 533,000 people are getting power.

So that's a fairly decent number.

What I'm intrigued it is that Jay has posted that they're in a restoration 1 to 3 a program, whereas emergency services and those that require power restoration will get it first and then the customers will follow.

They're asking for us to be patient.

On my commute in from the south Side along Beach Boulevard through San Marco.

There were eight crews out.

There were a few trees down.

And what I'm most amazed me is it was a little messy in San Marco, but every road, including the usual suspects, as the mayor calls it, were open with only some minor signs of flooding.

And I've seen some photo of trees down in Avondale, etc..

So it looks like we dodged some fairly serious winds.

But the winds that we had did cut some power.

Yeah.

And will they have to basically focus on things like getting streetlight back up, making sure hospitals, emergency centers have power?

Yes, that's exactly what what JJ mentioned to me.

Like I spoke with J.T.

moment before I spoke with my brother.

So this has been a prosperous morning already.

But, you know, they said they sent crews out as early as 3 a.m. this morning and they brought in about 200 line workers from out of state contractors to as part of their 400 total line workers.

And yet, like you said, you know, the grid, the police fire, JFR support is really what they is really what they know is really what they're focusing on.

And then they also mentioned that for the most part they know about the outages.

So if you're a if you live in like, you know, San Marco or where Dan was, they know where your home is without power right now for the most part.

So if your power is still out later, then maybe still call.

But the calls are are coming in.

But they want to stress that they kno the people who don't have power.

Well, Jay just texted me and i says now 107,000 customers out.

They've restored 120,000.

So far.

Lots That's in caps of trees down and damag working as quickly as possible.

Crews out 24 hours a day.

They've got 54 additional contract crews brought in for over 400.

So they are out there working.

I mean, certainly the homeowners know they're out because it is hot, it is humid.

Tricia and I understand there was a bit of a line at Starbucks this morning.

Yes.

You can judge how many people are out of power by the people who are desperate at Starbucks for coffee.

What I find really interesting is the number of people who were complaining via Facebook and social media about schools being out for Thursday and Friday, because, of course compared to the Big Bend area, we weren't expected to get very much at all.

And I think that people don't understand how important it i for us to prepare for the worst.

Not I mean, we can hope for the best, but we've got to prepare for the worst.

And certainly it would not be appropriate for kids to be going to school right now with no power.

And some of the schools have to be used as shelters.

And I think we're really wise and we've learned over the decades that you've got to prepare for what could happen rather than just assum everything is going to work out, you know?

David Bauerlein, I was surprised to hear that some schools were really late to announcing a closure and then some schools like the University of Florida is one I know of where they gave students one day.

So for kids who are from Florida or maybe could evacuate, that's not real helpful.

I mean, if you can only be off campus on that Thursday and you have to be back for class on Friday, you're really going to stay.

Yeah, it is surprising you wouldn't get more advance time given Florida's experience with hurricanes.

The flipside of it is perhaps people are just still getting used to this idea that these hurricanes form out there and they don't you don't see them halfway across the Atlantic Ocean coming your way.

They really form with this rapid intensifying nation.

And peopl just have to get used to that.

Now, with the warmer waters out there, that's what's not.

A hurricane becomes a hurricane and then becomes a Category four or hurricane in a matter of days.

And so that's an adjustment I think, in terms of what Trish is talking about, of planning for the worst in a year.

And I will say to you, if you look at the satellite map of Florida at night and you see where there's just this line of lights encircling the state and you think, what are the odds that this Category four hurricanes are going to go through the one part of Florida wher there's not a lot of development really been lucky.

But look, Tampa had record high storm surge because and it didn't get a direct hit.

So there's some real lessons here about how vulnerable Florida i to these rapid intensification hurricane that, yes, the forecast was really good, really well done.

But you have to get used to the fact that Hurricane hurricane's goin to be there in a matter of days, not weeks of planning in terms of seeing it coming.

Yeah, it takes a little wobble.

We were very fortunate that there was a very accurate forecast in this case.

But to your point, I mean, I spoke to a former colleague who's working in Tampa now, and, you know, all of their beaches, communities are underwater.

It's not maybe the devastatio from the wind, but we all know the damage that flood causes.

And it's enormous in a months, if not years long process to restore.

So in the parts of that where the storm really hit, I mean, that was almost similar path toward a W hit was it last year Hasn't even been two years.

Right.

And Debby also right right through there too many times.

And they're really, really been crushed.

But the update here looks like the Main Street bridge is closed after it was right in front of me as I was coming in, waiting for confirmation on when and how long.

And almost all of the departures at Jacksonville International have been canceled this morning.

There's maybe one or two departing again because of everything else being hammered around us.

So this storm is on the move.

It is out of Florida, bu it is dumping rain on Georgia.

It is headed to the mountains of North Carolina.

They're expecting high winds as far inland as Indiana.

It really is a seemingly new era of storm impacts.

People are not able to just say, well, it's only Florida and it's not going to impact me here.

And it's it's a changing narrative.

Tricia.

Absolutely.

My sister called me last night actually, to tell me that there i another storm in the Caribbean.

And I said, Really?

And she said, Don't worry, we got this one.

She's in New Orleans.

But it is a changing narrative.

Things happen.

I mean, to to David's point, I mean, it just went from a tropical stor to Category four in a hot minute and they have become as good as forecasting has gotten.

They are unpredictable.

It just takes a tiny wobble and and things could dramatically shift for vast areas.

The state, well, we're obviously going to be keeping a close eye on storm developments and storm news.

We are, I think not on the radio this morning.

At this point.

We are live streaming and hopefully our transmitter will pop back on soon.

But here at GCT, we've got, you know, same issues a lot of people are facing around town, which is dealing with some power outages and other technical issues.

If you're just joining us, I'm talking to Dan Scanlon, Tricia Booker, David Bauerlei and Wil Brown about the week's biggest headlines.

You can join our conversation at 9045492937.

Or you can email first Coast Connect to WJCT dawg.

You can also comment on social media.

You can watch our livestream on Facebook and the WJCT YouTube page.

I want to move on now David Bauerlein, and talk about an issue that you've been covering heavily probably more hours than you care to.

Steve Budget was approved this week after, you know, a long and difficult process as as per usual.

Was this the budget mostl that Mayor Donna Deegan wanted most of what she wanted?

Definitely.

I mean, there's this one person described this as very pro law enforcement, pro public safety budget.

There's big raises in there for police, firefighters corrections officers, additional police officers for the sheriff's office so that was something she proposed.

Council approve that she got some money in there for some of the park projects she wants to do downtown.

The riverfront park at the former site of the landing, as well as some of the other parks up and down the that part of the downtown riverfront.

She also got a big bump in funding for University of Health Jacksonville.

So that's one that over the years there's been you know, the universities kep saying you're not paying enough.

They really jacked up.

That doubled i really over the last five years.

So that was something she got.

What she didn't get wa she was pushing for more money for fighting homelessness.

She she asked for $10 million.

Council cut it down to 1 million.

And she wanted more money fo the affordable housing crisis.

She wanted $10 million to match with some nonprofits in this program that would have, you know, brought i like tens of millions of dollars for nonprofits and the city council.

No to that.

They didn't think they had enough information to really make a good decision on that.

So there's the problems aren't going away.

And so the expectation will be that the mayor come back later and try and get that funding during the budget year, but did not get it in the budget.

I want to come back to the homeless spending in just a minute, but I want to stick briefly with that.

You have health funding because as you say, there have been serious deficits in recent years.

You have health feeling very much starved for survival money and they take care of the city's indigent.

They take care of the city's jail population.

They take care of trauma patients.

So a very important health agent in the city.

What is the role of USF health's plan to build a campus here?

Like how do the politics of that play into this new infusion of money for U.S. health?

I think indirectly it does have an impact.

I mean, obviously there are two different projects you have Health.

Jacksonville is the hospital.

The University of Florida grad campus would be new, but it would have some overlap in terms of offering graduate programs in medical technology.

I think the main thing and it's just this idea that you know, the city is delivering its additional money that the University of Florida kind of bond it in the University of Florida, I think is this institution that when they want to go in, they want to be all in.

They don't want half measures.

So excuse me.

I think that doe make a difference there for sure in terms of fostering that relationship.

And Dan, the public service first responder commitment, huge in this budget, you know, corrections officers is going to see a 25% raise immediately.

Police officers going to see about that much in tha least over the next three years.

So a big bump in salaries.

And, you know, also for firefighters going to see this, a return to pension.

Is it surprising to anyone that this mayor has come in with such a strong commitment to first responders when that was not a group that backed her campaign or backed her politically?

I think she's getting some good suppor from the sheriff and vice versa.

And I think the proof is in the pudding.

We had 25 new officers signed in this week, including believe the sheriff's own son.

And according to what I'm hearing, they're they've they've got a few more classes ready to rock and roll.

So they are well in route to filling the deficit of police officers.

And I'm sure the inducement is the fact that there is the pension and the massive increase that goes on for three years in paycheck.

I mean, that's a nice amount of money if you're a 25 year old criminal justice student somewhere, and this could be a job, a career for you.

So, Tricia to the homelessness spending, I want to touch on that because on Tuesday, the state law kicks in that basically makes public sleeping illegal in Florida.

It makes it an arrestable offense.

And, you know, there are peopl who don't have anywhere to sleep because they're homeless.

So this budget has included $10 million for affordable housing that Dan mentioned.

I mean, excuse me that David mentioned that was taken out of the budget and then nine of the $10 million that the mayor had proposed to respond specifically to this publi camping ban were also removed.

And so what is the city going to be doing to manage this state law when it goes into effect?

I thin that's a really good question.

The people I've spoken with who are homeless advocates are kind of gobsmacked.

I mean, the state has basically said you've got to solve this homelessness problem.

You've got to create an area where homeless people can g where it's legal for them to go.

And we have conservatively twice as many homeless people as we do beds for them.

And so I think that people in the in the community have no idea what's going to happen.

It's going to be illegal to be sleeping, illegal to sleep in your car, illegal to be camping when you're homeless.

And like we were saying earlier, it's legal to be homeless.

You just can't sleep.

I mean, you just can't rest anywhere.

I don't know.

I think it's it' going to be a it's this problem is going to encroach more and more on the city.

So one question I have about that, will, I mean, to her point, you know, they the people who support this measure have said it doesn't criminalize homelessness, but it certainly criminalizes one aspect of a human's life which is sleeping.

So if you're homeless an you don't have a place to sleep, it is sort of by default illegal.

How can someone live when they can't rest?

Just the question I would ask.

The one thing I' when I listen to Tricia and I, I've done some of the reading, I haven't done a lot of reporting on.

This is I wonder where the people are going to go.

I, i when I speak with people who live north and west of downtown, there's this concern that some unhoused people will just be foisted onto their community because they're not as affluen as other parts of Jacksonville.

That's that's the question I have.

Are we going to.

And the second question is, are we going to actually just act like there ar we don't have unhoused people.

I mean, anybody who was just driving her yesterday, yesterday and today, the only people I really saw in downtown were unhoused.

Where are they going to go?

So those are the questions that I have.

Just as as a person who reports the news on, I would point out that one of the provisions of the state law makes it provides a wa for people who think that there are too many homeless people in their area for a certain amount of time, whether they're sleeping or not, can literally sue the state to make that go away or for damages.

So, I mean, it's not even just sleeping.

It's just kind of hanging out, like you said, resting.

I know that a lot of the the some of the solutions that have come at the beaches have been all private, who have just done who have volunteered voluntarily, trying to help people gain shelter and and eat.

I just don't see very much government intervention here.

Well, it's interesting that you say that, Tricia.

I know that council member Ron Salem said during the budget meeting that he thinks homelessness i beyond the role of government.

Dan Scanlon Which I guess just raises th question like, whose role is it?

It's a matter of the the private sector of of charities, of churches.

Well, the mayor's original pla had a lot of interconnectivity with the nonprofits and the churches, with the desig to try to find better places for and not just a tent city, as we've seen in major cities like New York, that really didn't work or putting them in hotels.

And now $1,000,000 won't go that far.

And my question is when the Anti-Camping law comes in, will police start arresting more of these people?

Are jail and our medical facilities through Baker acting or whatever, suddenly fill up, which is going to be an extra added cost for them.

Because it's true said we see them.

We've seen them yesterday and today.

They're the only ones out there in this storm.

I don't know if if the solution has been met and to have Ron Salem say, thinking that ending homelessness is beyon the role of government is indeed if your sheriff' office and your fire department are having to deal with them, then that's an extra budget.

Yeah, although David Bauerlein, there is no government in the States that seems to have found a solution to homelessness.

And I think to Ron Salem's point, you know, that is not necessarily something the government is going to and solve.

We've seen every city try to do that in its own way and it has not worked.

So it it just really begs the question, what next and whether these measures are funded immediatel or funded further down the road.

What will that solution look like?

Yeah, I think Ron Salem has talked about in some of the council meetings that he feels like the focus should be comply with the state law and that means that if someone is sleeping on a sidewalk, for instance, the sheriff's office comes out there and they give them a choice between, you know, going to jail or they'd had some fire and rescue people who woul take them to a homeless shelter.

And I think the larger question is, can you really solve that problem of camping, sleeping in public spaces without solving a much larger problem of homelessness and or you just kind of like picking people up?

They come back.

Come back.

What is you know, how do you ultimately get your arms around that?

And to the extent that you want to be more bold or have a higher goal an it costs more money to do that.

Well, you know, that anti soliciting law that came in a year ag seems to have had some effect.

I'm not seeing people trying to sell or ask for donations as much on street corners, but they're still there, obviously, an they're still looking for money.

Yeah.

I want to ask yo just briefly, David, about the the garbage fee.

So that did not go up again this year.

But as your paper has done some really good reporting on those costs of picking up garbage and recycling far outstrip the money that is currently set aside to provide those services.

No momentum at all to try to make those that fee is sufficient to to provide those services.

No, there's not.

And it's sort of one of thos things where it's kind of like, well, we need to do it after, you know, after you.

And so there's nobody ou there is really taking the lead.

The mayor's office has not said we're going to get it done.

City council members have no said we're going to initiate it.

You know, it's just it's a fee.

Nobody wants to be the person who raised a fee, even though other cities have done this repeatedly.

Jacksonville hasn't done it since 2010.

And It's taking a lot of money from the general fund, which is propert taxes to subsidize that service, which, you know, mayb that's good, maybe that's bad, maybe it's not a bad thing if you're a low income person that property taxes are helping you to not have to pay a higher fee, a garbage fee.

But it really is it structurally it's a big cause of the deficits that the city is facing in terms of budget.

I want to continue talking about it, but if you're interested in joining our conversation you can reach out at 9045492937.

You can email comments or questions to First Coast Connect to WJCT dawg.

We are talking budget.

One element of the budget Will Brown was the job that dare not speak its name.

It is the position of diversity, equity and inclusion Chief formerl the title held by Parvez Ahmed.

He was Deacon's chief of DEI.

He no longer is.

The cit stripped out the ability for her to spend on DTI initiatives so now he has a different title.

It's a data analyst of some kind.

You know, I spent Tuesday nights instead of being being a dad and watching my child's fencing practice, listening to the city council spend an hour bickering about one position in the mayor's office and it was that position.

Here we are as a city in a country.

It it was an interesting listen to hear well, we don't want to fund DTI.

Well some or some members of the city council saying, well, we don't want to fund DTI.

Well, we already too this position out of the budget.

It is a it was a lo of bickering for one position.

I guess there was a Councilmember Robin Johnson introduced the floor amendment, which would have added to the number of people that Mayor Donna Deacon could have on her staff.

I think she can have 22 now, but that this additional would have given it 23.

It didn't really go anywhere.

But the idea that all because it was just this one person and this one position for lack of I usually don't try to give my opinion here, but it seems like a tremendous waste of our time to spend that kind of time on a night when a $1.7 billion budget was going to be approve to discuss how much somebody who at their most might make $350,000, it's it' literally a drop in the bucket.

One last item I want to talk about when it comes to money is the Jaguars.

So this budget comes on th heels of this historic agreement that the mayor worked out with the Jaguars leadership.

It is expensive.

It involves a new stadium, but it locks the team down.

And now we own them and they're not doing great.

So I'm curious like, how is it is it a convenient thing that that deal went through before this season began?

Well, so it it for me doesn't matter like they were either going to do the deal or not whether they were three two, no or a three, it was going to get done.

Now I found it.

I mean, yes the Jaguars offense is pitiful right now.

I'll say I'll sell my jokes for off air.

But, you know, I was speaking with a University of Michigan professor yesterday, literally, and she mentioned that the amount of money that municipal governments pay to support NFL stadiums i very connected to market size.

The New York's the Chicagos.

LA's are not going to spend as much on a stadium as a Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Cincinnati.

Well, frankly, because those other large markets have the ability and Dallas is a large market to because everybody loves or hates the Cowboys, but those large markets have the ability to raise more revenue as opposed to Jacksonville.

And so that's always been the thing that Jags have mentioned, is we're always trying to raise more local revenue and they believe that the stadium renovation helped do that.

But it also means that smaller NFL cities like Jacksonville, like Cincinnati, like tennis, like Nashville have to spend more money.

New Orleans City is a little bit different because they're spending state money.

That's the difference between Jacksonville and some of these other places, is that we're spending it's all local projects.

You know, Buffalo, Tennessee, New Orleans, they're all getting state money in addition to local money.

And Florida doesn't allow that Florida us to do that anymore.

Right.

Well, we own them one way or the other.

David Bauerlein, I mean, maybe it builds a fan base mor akin to the Green Bay Packers.

You know, when you have this investment in a team when they do, but they haven't always, you know, and they've always had very, very faithful fans.

Yeah.

If you're a casual fan, maybe you say, gee, I don't know, we really commit to 30 years to a team that that that I don't care about in December because they're already out of playoff contention And but I think I think Will's right the bigger issue was we're an NFL town.

We want to be an NFL town.

That was the motivation.

It probably helpe that they were to the playoffs two seasons ag and kind of were in contention.

And they, you know, have a franchise quarterback and all that.

But I think ultimately it was really not so much the one loss record, which not been good over a decade as it was just you know we like the idea of saying is an NFL team in our town it was perhaps a little early to rename the stadium.

Trevor Bank Stadium.

Wasn't that interesting?

I just want to welcome back our listeners on on air We had our transmitter was out for a little bit but thanks so much for sticking with us.

We are talking with our panel of journalists on our Friday We can review.

I'm talking to Will Brown, Dan Scanlon, Tricia Booker and David Bauerlein.

And we've been talking budget.

I want to talk about money still will, but I want to switch gears to talk about elections.

This is a story that you've been reporting on about and you were the first to report on this city council actually approved some money to address this issue.

So remind us for people who may not be up to speed, what was the issue with voters being rendered inactive?

So in the state of Florida, there were some new election laws that have been passed in recent years, which meant that if the supervisor of elections office did not have a way to contact you through your address and you didn't participate in a couple of local a couple of general federal general elections, which was presidential elections, then you might be able then you might be removed from the voter rolls at that number as that numbe heading into the August primary was 94,000 people into early September, i was down to about 90,000 people.

It's now down to about 88,000 people.

So people are getting their address information updated with the supervisor of elections.

Now, what happened on Tuesday night was there was an additional $25,000 allocated to the supervisor of elections office so that they could reach some of those inactive voters through phone numbers and email addresses that they already filed with with the supervisors office because the thinking might being if someone's moved their address, they might not have a physical address.

But phone numbers don't change, email addresses don't change.

And so they're going to reach out that way.

And then was an additional, I think, $7,000 of that 25 to reach out to people through black media like the Florida Star and other blac newspapers, as well as Spanish speaking media, which is lik magazines, newspapers and radio, just to encourage people to update their or update their address information so they can become an active voter once again.

Yeah.

And so your original reportin found that it was basically 15% of registered voters in Duval had become labeled inactive.

And that reporting sparked some concerns.

There was a couple of groups, including the League of Women Voters in Duval, that appealed to the supervisor of elections office and said, hey, we feel like something more needs to be done about this.

And the supervisor appealed to the city council.

He you know, he made that ask to the city council for some additional funding to reach out to voter and to be transparently clear.

Yes, there's an overrepresentation of black and Hispanic voters.

Yes.

The gap the percentage gap, I think was about 10% difference in terms of more registered Democrats were inactive in 2020 and then Republicans and now it's 18%.

However, the supervisor of election, Jerry Holland, has said repeatedly, consistently he wants everyon who's eligible to vote to vote.

He didn't say party, he didn't say race, he didn't say socioeconomic status.

He said, if you are eligible, I want you to vote.

And he believed, Holland has said that he believes that the best way to get people registered to vote is to be able to connect with them.

He also specifically mentioned that if you are about your status as an active or an inactive voter and there's a link to whether you are an activ or inactive voter on our website today of that vote early, because that wa you're still a registered voter and by voting early you can vote at any precinct in Duval County regardless of wher your address is in Duval County.

And you can get your address resolved by voting early.

But if you try and wait till Election Day, that's where you might run into problems because you can only vote at your precinct.

So if you have any concer about being an inactive voter, vote early and that way you can get that when you vote early and earl voting starts on October 21st.

Is that right?

That Monday was 26th.

It's a great question.

The answer to see if maybe my producer can check on that.

David, some people will blame this on Senate Bill 7050, which had included some tough electio reforms in the state of Florida.

I guess there was a little bit of grumbling at the budget meeting about whether or whether this was an appropriate expenditure coming too late.

Um, what was the concern there?

Yeah, there was just the idea that it's coming on budget night.

If this was an issue, it should have come up during the budget workshops when they were actually looking at that budget.

Of course, Will's came up after that and so they're reacting to a valid, well, well done reportin that moved the needle on that.

I yeah, there's all the election reforms or crackdowns.

I don't really understand quite frankly, why someone who just chooses not to vote risk is losing, becoming an inactive voter.

I mean, that just I mean what I mean is there some larger problem this is correcting?

I mean, if someone decides register to vote and decides not to vote in a couple of general election cycles, well, that's their righ as an American not to vote to.

And that shouldn't have them to go through hoops just to be able to do it.

When they do decide, they go and cast a ballot and to be to be fair and transparent, like it's usually when you vote, then that's when you usually update your stat, your your, your address.

Because when you you know, when you go in the register, is this your address an you confirm this is my address.

And so that is like so Holland is said, oh, well, it's not that people don't vote, it's tha we can't confirm their address.

But when you go to vote you're confirming your address.

Thus you're eradicating the issue of then of the supervisors offic having a valid address for you.

So it's it's more abou addresses and not about voting.

But when you vote, you obviously are saying, hey, I live her and I affirm that I live here.

Well, it does.

I think you're right, David.

It does seem to b kind of a trend, a larger trend, not just in Florida, but across the country that is making i a little more difficult to vote.

I mean, I don't think we can deny that it becoming harder for people, particularly people who live in urban areas, perhaps to vote.

I mean, I tell you what I in front of you draw I have to wait about 3.5 seconds to vote.

I know that there are parts of Jacksonville where people are going to be waiting for hours and hours to vote and to get up there and then have to kind of prov that you are registered to vote.

I don't know.

It's to me it is definitely and perhaps not an organized effort, but it is leaning toward a trend of making it more difficult for people to vote.

My producer, Stacey, did chime in.

Early voting in Duva County does start October 21st.

And to those point, that is going to solve a lot of problems.

I want to move on no to the topic of school threats.

It's a story that Dan Scanlon has been covering this week.

But if you would like to join our conversation, you can give us a call at 9045492937.

Or you can email questions o comments to First Coast Connect.

WJ BackTalk and you can also reach out on social.

Dan Scanlo This problem of school threats, school lockdowns student arrests just seems to be continuing apace.

After the incident in Atlanta about a month ago, we saw a large increase in threats in schools all over the first coast, children as young as 11 in Flagler, Putnam, Nassau, I mean St Johns and Duval, and a number of arrests, a lot of arrests.

But then earlier this week, the threat became a little more real.

When a student at Englewoo High School who apparently had a crime issue, a police report on him was found on campus.

The police school police brought in a dog and they found an AK style weapon, an air style weapon and two loaded handguns, a ski mask and gloves in his vehicle.

And so the presumption is that something was planned more than jus I don't know what was happening the next day because of that in Englewood there was a lot of scared kids and it was on lockdown because of the rumor of a threat of a school shooting.

So that was a real incident.

School district would not respond as t what they thought was happening or their response to the level of armament that was in this vehicle on campus.

But that is a little scary to think of that amount of firepower at a major high school in Duval County.

And that's differen when you say it's a real threat, because a lot of the ones that we've been talking about in these high profile arrests of 1 year olds have been online or, you know, text threats, they've been verbal threats.

They have not involved, to our knowledge, necessaril caches of actual real weapons.

The only weapon, quote unquote was a banana that a little girl pointed at someone and went pupu.

Well, there was also, I think, a number of kind of knives and in some photos, airsoft.

Yes, guns that were.

Yeah, but those were photos.

This was this was three weapons in a vehicl that was found by a search dog.

And they were fully loaded.

And one of those was an assault style rifle, which again, is fairly common on the streets but still a 17 year old has it And no explanation as to where they came from.

Was this young man selling them for his father or was there something else nefarious in there?

I don't know, David.

I know a lot of peopl have been trying to figure out, you know, is this an actual increase?

Is this just an increased response?

Is this just law enforcement trying to publicize their response to get people to take it more seriously?

But the folks that I've talking I've spoken to in law enforcement has said this is an actual increase.

We are seeing a flood adjust to kind of a new day in terms of the threat that exists.

And yet a lot of young kids caught in the system.

I know that they refused bail to the kid, the 11 year old down, and it was in Flagler County, despite a number of people you know, a couple dozen people showing up, his mother speaking on his behalf.

They refused to let him out.

Yeah.

And that was one where it was, I guess, a hoax and trying to make an example of that, to deter people, young people from doing something like that.

And it it does seem like it's more happening, more and more of these school shootings.

You know, I remember when Columbine happened, it was just one of those chilling effect where you kind of felt like it's never going to be the same again.

And that really hit deep with people.

And now we see these incidences of oftentimes sometimes hoax.

Sometimes these plots are foiled by good law enforcement work, but there's never a way to stop all of them.

And it just feels like every school year, somewhere in this country, we're going to read about something like this happening.

You know, I was in high school and Columbine happened.

And that was wild.

It just it I still remember some of the things that were happening around that time because I was a freshman in high school.

But the what the incident that really, like, opened my eyes to this could happen was there was a shooting in Arkansas, I want to say, a couple of years before that, an 11 year old and a 13 year old and they killed a teacher and a few others.

And I was about their age.

And I said, who would do that, these serious who does that?

And clearly there were people who did.

But but to your point, like post Columbine High School was you didn't make jokes you didn't like do all sorts of stuff like that because and this is the Pre-Social media era.

This is where before, like people had cell phones or like mass communicatio and rapidly like, you can't now.

So I can only imagine that it's the blessing of being able to spread information rapidly is also in some ways a curse because you can spread information and threats.

And some school districts are now mandating that students are not allowed to carry cell phones, that they end up getting locked up before and after school.

So students will not have that mass social media ability.

I just want to make a note.

My producer is saying that AT&T is experiencing outages that are currently affecting Jay USO's non-emergency line.

So just be aware of that.

People with a non-emergency that doesn't involve law enforcement necessarily, but a storm related can always call that sixth city numbe in order to get some assistance and to get some awareness to whatever the problem is.

Dan Scanlon, I just briefly want to talk about Arthur Crofton, who is a legendary radio voice in this market, well-known to peopl who've lived here for a while, But for people who didn't kno him and it didn't listen to him.

And perhaps our new arrivals remind us of who Arthur Crofton was.

Arthur Crossman way before he died two days ago.

And Arthur Arthur was 30 plus years on the radio in Jacksonville.

He was a noted host.

He did many fundraising events.

He actually was the co-host of our WJCT TV auction for a number of years, and I got the pleasure and honor of working with him as a back up radio news guy.

Some mornings at that station, he was at like 96.1, a wonderful, warm, funny guy, a Yorkshireman who had this lovely cultured accent.

And actually corresponded with him three weeks ago on Ontex.

He was in England not feeling well and said he was coming home feeling better.

And I gather he he passed away and I found out there is a funeral planned next week, which I will certainly be part of.

And speaking about British stars just learned that Maggie Smith passed away at age 89.

So not a good week for th gentle Brits that we have known.

Yeah, well, our thoughts go out to the family of Arthur Crafton, obviously a beloved voice in Jacksonville and will be fondly remembered.

I want to thank you all for being here today.

That is our roundtable.

David Bauerlein, Wil Brown, Dan Scanlon, Tricia Booker, thank you all so much for being her and weighing through the storm and putting up with the power outage and all of that.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

Up next, engaging students in world affairs through global learning.

Scenic Jacksonville presents the annual Great Cities Symposium on October 10th.

Speaker Carol Coletta has le the transformation of downtown's parks and river fronts across the U.S. from Memphis to Chicago.

Join the Community Conversation.

Tickets available at Scenic Jacksonville Dot org.

This week on Science Friday, the story of an unusual fish the sea robin that comes for hidden prey by tasting with its six legs.

It's a very clear behavior.

Anyone can appreciate it.

It's this weird animal weird trait.

So let's try and it out.

That's on Science Friday from WNYC Studios this afternoon at three.

Here on WJCT News 89 nine.

Hi, I'm Domenico MONTANARO, senior political editor and correspondent for NPR, where responsibly covering the presidential election means consulting many sources.

We hard questions to th campaigns, pundits and experts.

We carefully analyzed polls, but most importantly, we listened to voters seeking out varied perspective on the issues that matter most.

You can support NPR's coverag today by giving to this station.

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Please call 3539528 or visit us at WJC.

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A scathing report raises new questions for the Secret Service.

No operable radio, no drone detection system, no counter surveillance unit.

Eric Adams becomes the first sitting New York Cit mayor to face criminal charges.

And in Florida.

Oh, yeah, I'm very worried.

Millions braced for the impact of Hurricane Helene.

We get to all of it on the roundup.

Next time on money today, starting at ten on WJCT news 89 nine.

Welcome back.

Celebrating international awareness, global perspectives and diverse cultures.

That's the goal, the International Education Conference.

It's an annual event at Florida State College at Jacksonville South campus.

And here to tell us about this effort to boost international study is Cindy Robinson, conference organizer and director of the Center for International Education.

Welcome, Cindy.

Good morning.

Good morning.

And Lourdes.

Norman Mackay, director of FSU Diplomacy Lab Program.

Hi, Lourdes.

Hi.

Good.

As we've talked about the diplomacy lab on this program before, but for those who aren't familia or maybe don't remember, remind what it is, what it does, why it's unique.

Yeah, thank you for that.

Well, it's a public private partnership between the U.S. Department of State and Academic, and we're very pleased that FSC is the first enforce so far only workforc focused school that is a partner through the Diplomacy Lab program and academic institutions in the U.S. can qualify to apply to become a partner.

And then once they are a partner, then the State Department can source projects, the faculty and students at that institution to pursue and actually to hel shape American foreign policy.

And so these students are able to work kind of with the State Department on some priorities that they have.

But they do it as a student.

They can do research, they can do examinations of different cultural challenges that places are happening and then make recommendations to the State Department about solutions.

Exactly right.

And they're real world problems.

They're coming from offices, embassies, bureaus within the State Department and now also U.S. Treasury has added some projects to that for counterterrorism stuff.

And they do present their findings to the State Department officials.

And often those things then go forward and have an influenc on the policies in those areas.

And so it's worth pointing out, you say it's a workforce college.

A lot of, you know, efforts used to b known as the community college is now a state college.

But the goal of those schools is to be affordable to be accessible and, you know, having an opportunity to connect with really high profile or well-connected people in the State Department, for instance, or in international studies is an opportunity that sometimes isn't afforded to schools that are, you know, like state schools.

It's sometimes more rarified universities.

And so it really is unusual and special that the students have this connective opportunity.

Absolutely.

And that was actually one of the things that we mentioned in our application to the State Department about the importance of involving the community and state colleges in these kinds of partnerships, because at the end of the day, over half U.S. citizens who do get a college degree of some sort come through state and community colleges at some point.

And so it is a very important part of touching, you know, the American citizen citizens rather than, like you said, just focusing on the traditional, you know, tier one institutions for research.

Yeah.

And certainly some of the best reporters I know and some of the best professionals I know attended FSG.

So it's indeed this event that's coming up, it's put on by the Center for International Education.

And so this is a way to platform the diplomacy lab in part, but also a study abroad opportunity.

Is that right?

Yeah, the center really focuse on bringing global perspectives and global opportunitie to faculty, staff and students within the college.

And so every we have the conference and our theme this year a study abroad at J because this earlier in the spring we launched our study abroad program and we started with the service trip to Puerto Rico where we ha students go into the community and do wor as a community service project.

And we had a political science course in May, go to London and Wales.

And so now next year we're excited.

We're using this conference as a platform to launch our study abroad program.

We're partnering with Diplomacy lab projects to go to South Africa in May for 16 days and do some work and visi the consulate and actually get hands on for some of the work that one of those diplomacy lab projects is actually involved in.

So, so interesting.

So students who are doing this State Department sponsored research in South Africa can actually do some of that research the ground on this study abroad trip.

Yeah, it's a real good follow up.

We're going to go to severa different areas of South Africa.

We also have our interior design group to France.

So this is a good opportunity for study abroad for our students.

We know that less than 2% of community college students study abroad.

And so we're trying to d our part to bring study abroad.

And so if students at the school are perhaps, you know, financially challenged or have other, you know, lifestyle situations, if they've got a family, if they've got children, sometimes that can be difficult for them to.

Certainly afford, I would think, to to study abroad.

So are there any programs in place to help kids connect with that opportunity to finance, to find housing, that kind of stuff?

Yeah, for us, we're trying to develop programing that is sometimes as short as seven days and as long as 16 days.

Kind of give a variety for people to afford and take off work.

And then also our foundation has been very supportive to help offset some of the cost.

We're reaching out to community members who want to donate and provide that opportunity to our student body and our faculty and staff.

So study abroad is definitely something we're focusing on as part of this broader conference, which is focused on diplomacy, lab and international topics as well.

All right.

Well, you can find out more information about that at the Diplomacy Lab site in the FCA website.

Cindy Robinson, Lords, Mic Norman.

Okay, sorry about that.

Thank you both so muc for being here.

Appreciate It.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

And join us Monday.

We're going to be talking abou the one year anniversary since Duval County Schools Police Chief Greg Burton suffered a near-fatal stroke.

We're going to be talking to his wife and former city official Lakeisha Burto about his remarkable recovery.

I'm Ian Schindler.

You've been listening to First Coast Connect on WJC News 89 nine.

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