>>This week on NewsNight, the future direction of gun laws in Florida as a court finds the state' open carry ban unconstitutional.

Plus, what a 50% U.S.

tariff on imports from Brazil might mean for Florida's economy.

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 issue of firearms regulation.

An appeals court ruled Florida's open carry law unconstitutional earlier this month.

The Florida Supreme Court had backed Florida's ban in 2015.

Florida's First District Court of Appeal is now said the law runs afoul of a 2022 US Supreme Court opinion that state laws must fit with the country's, quote, historical tradition of firearm regulation.

In its decision, the Florida court said the constitution protects the right to carry arms openly for self-defense.

Florida's open carry ban, it said, cannot be reconciled with that guarantee.

I spoke about it this week with those on both sides of the issue.

First, let's hear from Luis Valdes from the Florida chapter of Gun Owners of America.

>>This ruling is a monumentous win for gun owners across the state of Florida.

And more importantly, this shows you the issues that Florida's gun owners have had with a Republican supermajority in the legislature.

They constantly proclaim that they're pro-gun, they campaign that they're pro-gun.

But when actions speak louder than words, they were silent.

And Florida's gun owners had to go through the courts to secure this fundamental civil rights.

And also, we would like to see gun free zone like campus bans be restricted.

If you're an adult and you're going to a university or college, you should be able to defend yourself because as we've seen specifically involving FSU twice now, that's a gun free zone.

And at no point that those gu free zone policy stop hardened criminals from committing wanton acts of violence.

And of course, we'd like to see red flags repealed, because that's an absolute violation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights, violation of due process in terms of our criminal justice system, from innocent until proven guilty to guilty until proven innocent.

>>Luis Valdes there.

I also spoke with Orlando' Democratic state Representative Anna Eskamani.

She says she's concerned over the implications of the decision.

>>Thi is creating a lot of confusion because there's a lot of just lack of clarity around where does open carry, if at all, stop.

So the legislature needs to step in and we need to provide a very clear definition on campus environments.

We need to provide clarity for businesses.

And that's going to be a priority for me going into the next legislative session.

>>So you think there needs to be some clarifying legislation passed when lawmakers get to Tallahassee next year on exactly what happens in these gun free zones like the ones you mentioned.

>>Correct.

You know, I have been in conversation with the Orange County sheriff, with the with my police chiefs across the region, with UCF security as well.

And, you know, interpretations vary.

You know, there was a situation where, the Florida Sheriffs Association and the Chiefs Association put out their own memos, and there was some conflict over how university administrators are defining the ruling.

And so the legislature needs to step in.

And candidly, there should be a special session to do this, because I am worried, Steve, that between now and session, someone's going to get hurt.

Between now and session you're also going to have law enforcement who are going to be in very confusing situations where they don't know if they can arrest this person, or should they let them continue on with open carry.

And even the notion of, threatening can be very subjective.

So to provide clarity to the listener, you can have open carry, but if it's threatening, then law enforcement can intervene.

But what defines threatening?

So there's just a hug need for legislative action here to provide that clarity.

Because if not, I do worry not only of us putting law enforcemen in, in really just difficult and and confusing situations for public safety.

But of course, it endangers all of us.

We don't have that clarity.

>>State Representative Anna Eskamani.

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

Joining us in the studio this week, Talia Blake, Morning Edition host at Central Florida Public Media.

Good to see you, Talia.

>>Always good to be here.

>>Thanks for being here.

Evening reporte at WFTV Channel 9 Geovany Dias.

Good to see you, Geovany.

>>Hi.

So good to be here.

>>Thank you for being here.

And for the first time, Cristóbal Reyes covers criminal justice for the Orlando Sentinel.

Good to see you, Cristobal.

>>Thanks for having me.

>>Appreciate it.

Thanks, guys, for coming in Geovany let me start with you.

What can people do now that they couldn't do before?

>>Yeah.

I think the the short answer for that is people can just carry their guns an like, openly carry their guns.

Right.

And show them and not have to conceal that which was something that had been in place for about 40 years in Florida.

You know, there are still restrictions.

People cannot bring their guns to schools, courthouses, law enforcement agencies and so forth.

>>Well that goes to the confusion that we were just talking about there with Representative Eskamani.

The Sentinel's written about that.

You know, over what this court decisio sort of means for Florida's gun free zones I guess that' where the carrying of firearms is restricted.

College campuses, that kind of thing.

What do we know about the implications there?

>>Well, for one thing, to remember, one thing to remember is that this has been a major wishlist item for gun rights advocates for many, many years.

And this is something that has come up in the legislature, but it's been rebuffed.

Issues of, open carry, campus carry, constitutional carry.

That's just been something that, continue to come up in the legislature.

And, it doesn't really go the way of gun rights advocates up to this point.

But it does it does raise very important questions about, where this open carry law, how this will be applied in areas that usually would not allow for guns to be, to allow for guns to be present.

The legislature is, is, where all those rules have to be determined.

And, you know, this i this is the sort of thing that.

Yeah, like legal experts are also trying to navigate.

But one thing to remember, too, is that, the judge in this case, even though they ruled that the ban was unconstitutional, they did say that the right to openly carry a firearm is not absolute or immune for regulation.

>>Do we know, Geo, where law enforcement agencies stand on this sheriffs and so on?

>>When it comes to law enforcement agencies, as soon as, Attorney general, James Uthmeier made that announcement posted on X tha the state is an open carry state and then the law enforcement agencies are not going to be prosecuting people who are openly carrying their guns.

Law enforcement agencies across the state and especially here, across Central Florida, have come forward, come forward.

Just explai that they're not going to like, you know, prosecute people or go after people who are openly carrying because they are following the rule that came from the court.

They did urge.

And that's something that it's very important to mention that they want folks to be, to pay attention to how they're doing that at carrying their guns, and also have responsibility as they do so.

>>Yeah.

Well, as we discussed recently, on the program, the Florida attorney general, James Uthmeier is also declining to defend another state statute, the age restriction on buying a long gun in Florida.

The Supreme Court is deciding whether to take up a challenge from the NRA on that law.

As we heard a moment ago, Luis Valdes from the Gun Owners of Americ faults lawmakers in Tallahassee for not eliminating other post Parkland measures such as Florida's red flag law.

Meanwhile, advocates for more restrictions on guns are pressing their case, too.

I spoke this week with Brandon Wolf, a Pulse survivor and national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign.

>>I think what the legislature needs to do is what the legislature has needed to do for a long time, which is strengthen gun safety laws in the state.

So I would be fully open an welcome to the state legislature doing what they did in the wake of the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Coming together in bipartisan fashion and passing laws that strengthen gun safety in the state.

And I will say this about the prospect of them taking up open carry, in the next session.

There is a reason that the state has not passed open carry legislation for the last several sessions, despite threatening to do so, and that is because Republican leadership in the legislature made clear that they will not take u policies that law enforcement in the state is opposed to.

And law enforcement has made very clear that open carry, peopl just wandering around with guns strapped to their ches makes their job very difficult.

>>Brandon Wolf there.

Talia, let me come to you first on this one.

And it does look like guns are going to come up again in the next session.

But lawmakers have taken very little action on this issue.

This year, most of the bills that we saw filed on on guns failed.

We just heard that from from Brandon Wolf saying he thinks, you know, about why he thinks that's the case.

Why do political watchers think that we're seeing that hesitancy?

>>You know, a lot of them agree with Brandon that there is a lot of hesitancy because law enforcemen themselves do not support this.

Senate president has come ou saying he does not support this.

And then on top of that, outside of guns, I think there's the bigger issu people are looking at in terms of property insurance and property taxes.

And I think people are more concerned with that being addressed than guns right now.

I mean, we just saw lawmakers even meet this week to start those conversations already.

And I think because there's that bigger issue that's still kind of hanging over everyone's head.

With property insurance being so high in Florida that guns is kind of taking a backseat to that.

>>Yeah, property tax is definitely a priority for the for the governor in the coming session.

Chris, your colleagues at the Sun Sentinel in South Florida have written about this recently.

The issue of guns seems to b bubbling up already in the 2026 gubernatorial race.

>>RIght.

And I mean, it's gun rights have been an issue in, in elections just about every single time.

But I suspect that with this ruling, especially by Democrats, it will be a particularly crucial one.

>>Yeah.

Well, it's interesting to note that the field of candidates for governor is getting potentially larger, Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins said this week in Orlando that he was nearing a decision on a run.

Meanwhile, you can find more on this subject and others on our website.

wucf.org/newsnight.

Next tonight, the De Santis administration and the state attorney for Orange and Osceola counties are at odds again, this time over a fatal roadside shooting in Orlando.

Attorney General James Uthmeier is pressuring State Attorney Monique Worrell to drop charges against Tina Algeo, citing self-defense and Florida's controversial Stand Your Ground law.

>>Our office is again putting Orlando's state attorney, Monique Worrell on notice.

You got it wrong.

In a recent case, you acted in error.

State attorney Worrell, wh historically has not prosecuted a lot of cases she should have, did so here in a case against a woman who justifiably engaged in self-defense, who justifiably stood her ground.

So we're calling on state attorney Worrell, fix this.

Right this wrong.

>>But Worrell, who won reelection after a prior suspension by the governor, insists the case merits prosecution.

In a statement, she says every day the attorney general's inexperience with criminal prosecutio becomes more abundantly clear.

She goes on Florida's self-defense laws, including the Stand Your Ground statute, provides certain immunities when the use of force is justified.

However, whether that justification applies in any given case is a matter for judicial determination, not partisan politics.

Well, let's get into this issue, and Geo I'll start with you on this one.

WFTV has covered this road rage incident in question pretty much since the beginning.

Just walk us through, if you can, what is alleged to have happened in this case that led up to that second degree murder charge and claims of self-defense.

>>So this case is so interesting because I actually was there just moments after it happened.

I literally was the first reporter on the scene there.

This whole thing happened just late last year, December 2nd.

If I'm not mistaken, here, that female driver, Algeo she was, she says that the man was tailgating her.

And then as she was trying to get the license plate and calling 911, she bumped into him.

They had her had the right in altercation before that, but then that that's what it kind of came down to as she did that, he somehow got out of his vehicle and was able to go to her vehicle opened her door and punched her.

That's all based on the records that we have, that's you know, the other person died.

So we ca you don't have the other side, but that's what the accounts that we have.

As he started to punch her, she grabbed her, allegedly grabbed her at her gun and shot at him.

The man was transported, but he ended up dying.

I actually spoke with the witness that was right behind, like a third person, the third vehicle that was right behind those two cars, and she kind of confirmed all she saw.

And it was a very unfortunate situation.

This whole thing happened on Colonial Drive, very close to Baldwin Park here in Orlando.

So initially, as we heard there, she was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

But now the state attorney's, the state attorney's office is prosecuting her with a second degree murder charge.

The reason for that i that she went after the vehicle.

So that kind of changed the narrative a little bit.

And that's what w we comes down to at this point to understand at what points that became, if at all, a second degree case.

>>Yeah.

A lot of it come down to the sequence of events that that led up to, shots being fired.

Chris you've covered Monique Worrell and her relationship with the state pretty closely on your beat.

What is the attorney general's reasoning here for wanting this prosecution dropped?

>>Well, attorney general, Attorney General Uthmeier's argument is that this is a clear and cut, stand your ground case.

Indeed.

When, the driver that Algeo was following, follows up, goes into the car and starts attacking her.

That's the moment when she fires.

And that's the moment that Uthmeier says that the case should have been-- >>Inside her car.

>>Inside her car.

Correct.

>>Yeah.

>>And there's already a motion to dismiss the charges already filed by her lawyer, Mark O'Mara.

And that's going to be, heard in on October 30th.

So, the interesting thing about this is, this is an instance where the attorney general is intervening on a stand your ground case.

But it's not quite clear ho this issue was flagged to him.

O'Mara says that he didn't bring the issue up with Uthmeier, he's like-- >>Attorney doesn't - the attorney in this case doesn't seem particularly thrilled about the intervention?

>>Yes.

>>No, he does not, because, I mean, this is ultimately, something that has to be decided by the judge.

Of course.

You know, the state attorney could, necessarily drop the charges, but on an issue of a stand your ground case that i within the purview of the judge.

So, you know, there's that there's some confusion as to how the attorney general found out about this case and why he's intervening when this is going to be, essentially heard later next month.

>>Well, what is that relationship, though, between the state attorney's office an the attorney general's office, does the State Attorney's Office report to the attorney general's office or are they independent?

>>So it's it's a bit of a mix of the two.

So ultimately, the state attorney is accountable to the constituents within their circuit.

Monique Worrell has won, bot of her elections rather handily.

But even though she's allowed to create certain policies within the office that kind of speak to the context of the circuit, the attorney general and the governor does have the right to remove her, as was the case in 2023, if they believe that there was, incompetence, neglect of duty or any other sort of malfeasance.

So, you know even though the attorney general and the governor have a right to or have the ability to remove a state attorney from office if they're not, if they feel that they're not doing their duties properly.

At the end of the day, they are accountable to the constituents of the circuit.

>>Interesting.

Well, let's talk about some of the other tensions that exist here.

At the same time, attorney general Uthmeier is asking, the state attorney to investigate former state Senator Linda Stewart.

What is Uthmeier's complain there and what does Stewart say?

>>Yeah.

So he basically posted on X that she was harassing law enforcement.

So Linda Stewart, she had posted on Facebook that ICE was at the downtown Orlando Lynx bus station, kind of warning people.

And Uthmeier said she was playing politics with lives and the safety of law enforcement.

But Stewart said, you know, no laws were broken when she posted that she doesn't know a law that says she can't pos about law enforcement activity and that basicall this was just freedom of speech.

And she's said she's kind of confused why Uthmeier is stepping in and why he would try to investigate.

But we're kind of seeing that pattern a little bit.

>>And there's been a lot of talk about potentia doxxing of ICE agents, certainly on the national level.

Before we wrap this one up, I just wanted to ask about something that, you wrote about this months Chris.

That's another case that's drawn attention, from the state.

The governor's got some thoughts, on the state attorney's work on drug trafficking cases.

In this instance, he thinks that Worrell is not being tough enough, right.

>>In this particular context this was at a press conference talking about the State Assistance for Fentanyl Eradication program.

And so while he was talkin to reporters about that, he was he made mention of an Orlando prosecutor that he feels is, putting her thumb on the scale in favor of the defendants.

So, you know, this is not an issue that's particularly new for Worrell, this was an issue that showed up in 2023 during her suspension.

In par through, claims by the Osceola County Sheriff's Office, which we looked at, claiming that, Worrell was either downgrading or dropping entirely cases against accuse drug traffickers, particularly those accused of trafficking fentanyl.

Even thoug he never really mentions Worrell specifically in this, it was enough for Worrell to put out her own numbers on this, talking about how, at least up to that point, since January 2020-- or since the beginning of the year, that, her prosecutors have handled about 100 drug trafficking cases.

Many of them have received mandatory minimum sentences.

And her argument is that she' going for a balanced approach, holding these trafficker to account while, taking folks struggling with, substance abuse, and putting them into treatment.

>>Well, it'll be really interesting to see what happens going forward, especially since we saw, the state attorney suspended in 2023.

Be fascinating to see what happens going forward.

But I'm afraid that's all the time we have for this part of the show.

My thanks to Talia Blake from Central Florida Public Media.

Thanks so much for coming in Talia.

>>Thanks for having me.

>>And Cristobal Reyes from the Orlando Sentinel.

Thanks for coming in, Chris.

>>Thanks for having me.

>>Great to be appreciated.

Geovany stick around.

We're going to tal about Brazil, in just a moment.

In the meantime, be sure to find us on social media we're at WUCF TV on Facebook and Instagram.

You'll also find us on X@NewsNightWUCF.

Okay, finally tonight, Florida's relationship with Brazil, one of our state's biggest overseas trading partners.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, addressed the UN General Assembly in New York this week amid political and trade tensions with the United States.

President Trump has levied a 50 tariff on many Brazilian goods amid his administration's criticism of the prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Brazil's regulation of U.S.

social media platforms.

So what does that 50% tariff mean for Florida?

According to the business organization Select Florida, Brazil is by far Florida's largest two way merchandise trading market accounting for 13% of such trade in 2024, totaling $25.7 billion.

Krystel Knowles has been speaking with businesses in our region that face impacts from the tariffs.

>>Brazilian steakhouse general manager Ricardo Olivera spends part of his day stopping by Adega Gaucha's three locations.

The rest of his time, he's crunching numbers, especially when it come to imported goods from Brazil.

>>Our major concern now is how is going to be the impact of the 50% tariff especially on certain products.

Then that would be very difficult, very har for the industry to replace it.

>>The White House says the tariffs are meant to address what it calls the Brazilian government's reckless actions, including what the Trump administratio sees as a politically motivated prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Executive director of the Brazil America Council, Laiz Rodriguez supports the 50% tariffs on imports despite the potential price impacts on items like coffee, certain fruits and a long list of imports.

According to Select Florida, Brazil traded $496 million worth of fruit juices with Florida in 2024.

>>Are you okay with paying more for those items?

>>Yes, I am okay because I thin if I'm paying more, I'm paying more to help an American family to get paid and get jobs.

It's going up to be tight for a little.

But Brazil right now is unfortunately not corresponding to the Democratic, you know, lite that the United States represents.

Ariane Tuskey on the other hand, is worried about how she's going to source budget friendly ingredients from Brazil for he restaurant, Cocoa Beach Brazil.

>>Something's coming from there, and we don't have any other choices.

We try to find a similar products here in the local farms and things, but many other things.

We don't find it because especially for our country.

>>Back in Brazil, the Brazilian government is offering tax credits and expanding insurance to companies affected by canceled U.S.

orders.

>>Krystel Knowles reporting.

We should mention that President Trump says he had a brief chance encounter with Brazil's President Lula at the U.N.

this week.

There's now talk of a potential meeting soon.

We record this program on Thursday morning so things can change by air time.

Well Geovany Dias from WFTV is still with us, Geovany used to work for the Brazilian broadcaster Globo and recently returned from a trip to Brazil.

Not a not a working trip.

I know I should add.

>>No this was a vacation.

>>You were there for a while.

Let's talk about this trade issue a moment.

It's interesting, isn't it, that Brazil is that or the US actually has a trade surplus with Brazil, one of a few countries, a handful of countries that the US has a trade surplus with.

>>Yeah.

And as you mentioned, the numbers there were just so remarkable what you're talking about.

13% of the trading, relationship that we have betwee Florida and Brazil, like Brazil, I imagin all the countries in the world, and Brazil is responsible for about 13% of that.

So it is an a very important partner for the for the to have that relationship with, with Brazil.

And what we see here is that the whole tariff war could damage that relationship.

And that's why we kind of expect tha that conversation to flourish.

And then maybe hopefully address that.

That has been a problem for for imports in Brazil.

>>Yeah.

And we see some concern amongst local business owners.

Of course, Brazilian also make up a sizable portion of international touris traffic here in Central Florida.

They also form a pretty large population here as well.

What do we know abou how many Brazilians reside here?

What do we know about that?

>>I mean, Brazil, the United States is the largest has the largest concentratio of Brazilians outside of Brazil.

We're talking about 1.5 millio people living in this country.

And that's what we can account for, right?

Because we don't actually know the specific number on that.

But most of of Brazilians in the U.S.

are in the Boston, Boston area and the Tri-State area, in New York City, in new Jersey, Connecticut, there and here in Florida, i fact, Florida has about 200,000 to 300,000 Brazilians living here, according to Brazilian organizations that kind of track that number here in Central Florida has about 60,000 Brazilians living here.

I myself am one of them.

So having that, community here is so important for kind of drive that, trading partnershi that we have been talking about.

So that's definitely a big deal to have that, that, that connection with the Brazilian community and kind of like engaging that, that the, the connection, the economic proces with, with Brazil at this point.

>>Well, you mentioned the importance of that economic relationship.

There are man Brazilian businesses that are in this state.

I cover the expansion of the airplane manufacture Embraer into Florida in 2009.

That company just last month announced that it was expanding its operations here.

What's happening there?

>>Yeah, we were talking about an investment of $90 million, in, in the United State and in fact, in Central Florida.

Embraer.

Embraer is a huge company in Brazil.

It's one of our largest companies there.

And one of the things we just talked about, the number of Brazilians who live outside of Brazil.

And one of the things that is a major need, and I'll tell you that fro a personal perspective, is the the chances that we have to go back and forth into Brazil you know, like easing that path and creating air traffic that allows Brazilians to go back and forth more easily.

And what Embraer was doing i trying to really help with that.

And they are investin about $90 million in expansion of the Melbourne, Orlando International Airport, which is going to help with air traffic.

But also create a lot of jobs here for central Floridians.

So that is expected to b a very interesting, investment for this community here.

We have heard from the CEO of Embraer not long ago, saying that he is concerned about the tariff issues that we have been seeing, but he hopes that that there will be some sort of effort from the United States' part from Brazil's, leadership.

>>Yeah.

>>To in hopes of kind of is that process out.

So we don't have an actual timeline for that investment yet.

We are expecting to see some of the developmen start happening already in 2026.

>>Very interesting conversation.

You can find our full conversation on the tariffs levied against Brazil and the relationship with the United States on our website, wucf.org/newsnight.

But that is all the time we have for this week.

My thanks to Geovany Dias from WFTV, channel 9.

Thanks so much for coming and- >>Thanks so much for having me.

>>Fascinating conversation.

Really appreciate it.

We'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 for a special edition of NewsNight Conversations here on WUCF.

In the meantime, from all of us here at NewsNight.

Take care and have a great week.