- [Announcer] This is a production of WEDU PBS.

Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

"Florida this Week" is made possible in part by support from the Tampa Bay Times.

- Coming up next, the Florida house passes a bill to add more penalties against people who participate in protests that turn violent.

Florida is lowering the age to get the COVID vaccine.

Large rowdy crowds gathered for spring break in Miami.

What's it like to be a COVID long-hauler?

And a new investigation finds a Tampa factory that may be poisoning its workers.

All coming up next on Florida this week.

(upbeat music) Welcome back.

Governor Ron DeSantis is dropping the eligibility age for the COVID vaccine from 50 to 40 on Monday.

And the week after the vaccine age will drop to 18.

- [Reporter] The governor says more than 70% of the roughly 4.4 million seniors living in Florida have already been vaccinated.

The governor has been a big proponent of opening the state, boasting that he reopened the state more quickly than most other States.

Apparently spring breakers are listening with huge crowds showing up in Florida, especially in Miami beach, where the crowds were so large this week that a SWAT team was called out to control them.

- This week those large spring break crowds in Miami Beach prompted police to take extraordinary measures to crack down on the revelers.

Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber imposed and 8PM curfew to try to control the largely maskless crowd.

Mayor Gelber is a former State Legislator and has been the Mayor of Miami since 2017.

And he joins us now.

Dan Gelber, welcome to "Florida this Week".

- Glad to be here.

- The Governor has continuously said over the last few months that Florida is open for business.

Do you tie the large crowds there in Miami Beach this week to the Governor saying we're open for business?

- Well, yeah, I mean, certainly there's a lot of people here because there's that, and there's no other destinations out there.

So I think that typical amount of people we get which is a lot in spring break has been really redoubled or even higher because we're the only game in town.

Of course the Governor is saying we're in a oasis of freedom here.

So I think we're getting a lot of people.

- So you've imposed a temporary curfew in South beach several days a week.

What's been the situation since you imposed a curfew?

- Well, I think we've hopefully cluttered it off a little bit.

We think that people are gonna be a little bit more compliant with our laws.

Of course, they're not gonna really have a choice because after 8:00 PM nobody's allowed really out in the entertainment district.

And this is a pretty small area of our city.

It's really only about four blocks by 10 blocks.

The city is about 75 miles wide.

So it's really a very discreet area.

And of course at 10:00 PM during the weekends we're also not letting, we're sort of closing our causeways other than to local and hotel traffic and workers and residents.

So we're trying to just limit the number of people.

We're sort of a big venue as a city.

We're an Island, and when we hit capacity, it just creates management problems, security problems, gridlock, and things like that.

So it's something we've got to be aware of.

- This week, SWAT teams were called out earlier this week to try to quell the crowds.

And some people in the black community have said, you wouldn't have treated...

The city of Miami Beach would not have treated the GLBTQ community the same way as it's treated this majority black group that's come out.

What do you say to the critics?

- You know, we've been responding to conduct not to race.

If you look at the videos, it's very hard to, you know, really question whether or not they're merited some kind of response we had.

We've had people bring guns.

The people who are bringing guns are driving cars without standing warrants.

So we know they shouldn't even have guns.

We've had a lot of open brawling.

We've had worse than that, by the way.

So these are security issues that you cannot leave unattended.

That's the first order of government is to secure everybody.

It's not a race issue, it's a conduct issue.

And we would respond to any group that's throwing rocks, that's brawling, that's discharging weapons in large crowds.

That's just not behavior that's gonna go unresponded to.

- The Governor has told businesses that have been fine previously for not policing the mask ordinance and social distance regulations or recommendations.

He said to those businesses, you don't have to pay the fines.

What does that do to your job as a Mayor to try to help keep people safe?

- You know, the frustration is that my city was the first city in the country to impose a mask mandate after the CDC said to do so.

And we had issued 1000 citations.

But the purpose isn't to get money, it's not a fundraiser for our city.

It's to sort of inspire a culture of compliance.

It's the reason there are seatbelt laws.

You know, we don't arrest a lot of people for violating seatbelt laws, but the moment we made it a law and everybody said to do it, everybody started doing it.

Probably what the Governor has done is it's not just that we can enforce it, but it's just that we've lost the voice, the most prominent voice in the state, in urging people to comply.

When a hurricane is coming to us from the Governor to the lowliest Mayor, we are all on the same page.

And people I think, respond to that because they see, well, if they're all agreeing about this, then there must be something to it.

Now people can select what they want in there.

A lot of them are agreeing with the governor just saying, well, if he says I don't need a mask, then I don't want one.

So the problem is one of the compliance, because really government has not had a unified voice.

Fortunately, I think the Governor follows an ideology about this and not a science.

- As you know there's a lot of masks skeptics out there.

And there's people that are saying, well if you're outdoors, it's not as crucial to wear a mask or socially distance, because they say that the virus isn't that transmissible outdoors.

And that you know, if people want to congregate outdoors, let them, what do you say?

- Look, you know, there are a lot of opinions.

You can find any opinion you want on the internet or with political leaders.

The overwhelming number of scientists say you should wear masks.

For my city, we tend to have typically very large gatherings.

Unfortunately like the once you'd seen on videos of the city most recently, that's not a good thing to have in a pandemic.

My residents have been quite good by the way, but the problem is you have so many people coming from all over the state and the nation, if not the world.

And what we don't wanna do is become a super spreader.

And we have a lot of variant, a lot of the British variant in Dade County and in Florida.

So we're just trying to be good stewards of everybody's health.

And I wish the Governor would help a little bit more, because we're near the end of this.

And his voice is an important one.

And I wish it was pushing people to at least follow what is recommended by the vast majority of scientists - Dan, over the years, your name comes up over and over again as a possible contender for a statewide office.

Do you have any thoughts about running for either the US Senate next year or the Governor's race next year?

- You know, I always love when these questions are asked of me or anyone else, and there's a level of coyness that nobody thinks is real.

Like the truth of matter is you've got to have a abiding hunger to put aside everything else in your life to run for statewide office.

Florida's too big and broad a state, and the issues are too important.

And I don't know that I have that a hunger right now.

Will I get that?

I don't know.

But right now I'm happy in the city, the only hometown I've ever known, where I get to, you know, do my kid's homework with him.

Not too much of it though, I want the teachers to know.

You know, to be part of his life and my wife's life and my family's life.

So I like being here.

If that changes, you'll be in the top 50 to know.

(Rob and Dan laughing) - Dan Gelber Mayor.

Thank you very much for coming on "Florida this Week".

- Sure.

(upbeat music) - Governor Ron DeSantis is lowering the age for COVID-19 vaccinations to those 40 and older, beginning on Monday.

The week after that anyone 18 and over will be eligible.

Our next guest did not get the benefits of the vaccine.

He's a COVID long-hauler.

Our guest is Rush Roberts.

He's a Tampa Bay area firefighter and a paramedic and an Ironman athlete who contracted COVID-19 a year ago.

And since then he suffered with the symptoms for 11 of the last 12 months.

He's just 37 years old, Rush joins us now on the road.

He's taking his family on vacation.

Rush Roberts, welcome to "Florida this Week".

- Hi, how are you doing?

Thanks for having me on.

- How are you feeling now?

- I am happy to say that I am at 100% and I've been feeling good.

I have been off of medication for three weeks and get life back to normalcy.

That's why the family and I are hitting the road to enjoy the weekend.

- So you're the last person I think of many people would think of as a COVID long-hauler.

You suffered the symptoms for 11 of the last 12 months.

How bad was it?

And only what you feel comfortable telling us, but how bad were your symptoms?

- It definitely came in stages originally.

And I was one of the earlier ones to get it.

I had bilateral pneumonia, which ended up giving me asthma and bronchitis, which wasn't horrible but wasn't easy to deal with at the time.

After three months, I had battled and beat through all that and had gone back to work for about two months and then developed a lung infection with some pleurisy.

And directly after that, I contracted several blood clots in both my upper and lower lungs, which took about six months to recover from.

- A lot of younger people feel they're impervious to the disease, and you know, we're seeing a lot of people show up in Miami Beach this week.

We're seeing people out at bars, some bars are crowded, they're indoors.

What do you say to young people based on your experience?

What do you say to young people who feel impervious to COVID-19?

- Okay, you know, I was as healthy as they came.

I was training for a Half Ironman.

I was biking up to about 200 miles a week and running at least 26 to 30 miles a week, swimming on top of that.

And I went from all of that to laying in bed propped up with pillows, trying to breathe.

Nobody is im', well, that's not true.

People can be impervious to it.

People might not even notice how sick they are, or that they're even that sick, but you don't wanna be part of the 2% like I was.

I never would have imagined it would have affected me the way it did.

- What does your doctor say about long-term?

I mean, you're a COVID long-hauler.

What does your doctor say about long-term?

Could the symptoms come back that you experienced over the last 11 months?

- That's the hard part with it all.

On top of all the doctors that I had, it always ends up the same way.

At some point they say, we just don't know.

You know, there's just not enough data out there.

When I was released back to work, it's been great, but they're always ready for me to come back if I need it, or if anything changes they're fully prepared to see me again, if it happens.

But we're hoping we don't have to go that route.

- So what would you say to folks that think masks are unnecessary and think that they can go back right now to life as it was before everybody's vaccinated?

- I definitely, I think everyone needs to just listen to the CDC guidelines with the masks, but you know, most of all, just be responsible.

I know you gotta live your lives, I understand wanting to go to the beach, to the family and friends or any of that stuff, but you still have to do it responsibly.

You don't need to go with 20 people, you know.

Still keep your distance, just live your life, but be responsible, follow the rules.

And hopefully we can get out of this soon.

- So when are you doing the next Ironman event?

- I am scheduled for April 18th for the Half Ironman in Haines city.

It has been a very tough road from being able to start to exercise as little as four or five months ago, to actually getting the mileage down.

If I actually make it, it'll be by the skin of my teeth but it'll probably be the most proud I've ever been.

- Well, Rush Roberts, thanks a lot.

Have a safe trip to Fort Myers and a good luck in the Ironman.

- I appreciate that.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for having me on.

(upbeat music) - The Florida House on Friday passed HB 1, the so-called anti-rioting legislation that is one of the top priorities of Governor Ron DeSantis.

Tara Newsom is an attorney and a professor at St. Petersburg College.

She teaches her students about the law and has given a TEDx talk entitled, The Constitution: It's Personal.

Tara, welcome back to "Florida this Week".

- Great to see you, Rob.

Thanks for having me.

- Good to see you too.

First of all, let's talk about HB 1.

The Governor and others say we have to pass this bill in Florida, because we don't want Florida to become another Seattle or Portland.

What do you think about adding more penalties on top of the penalties we already have against violent protests?

- You know, I think HB 1, which is the anti-riot bill, has some intended consequences some unintended consequences.

But as an academician I think it's important for viewers to understand that the United States has a storied history in protecting freedom of speech.

All the way back from the Sedition Act, which said, anytime you critically say anything about the United United States government you could be penalized.

And that was struck down as unconstitutional to making sure that if you say anything clear and present danger might not protected by the first amendment or anytime you say something that would incite violence as a protected by the first amendment.

But the truth is that the courts have given us a fine line on whether, you know, the freedom of speech and the freedom of assemble and petition are protected.

And often when it comes to freedom of speech we have that fine line, but when it comes to assembly and protest, it gets a little bit murkier.

And so I think that the legislature would be wise to pay attention to what we call the chilling doctrine.

And that's any time the government has a piece of legislation that creates a chilling effect on our freedom of expression, that it really is suspect from a constitutional perspective.

- I'm wondering whether or not this might backfire on those Republicans and conservatives who support the Capitol protests.

Not those who breached the Capitol, but those who stood outside.

The proposed Florida laws says that if you're part of a protest and it turns violent, everybody who's involved in that protest gets charged with a felony.

So if we look at the example of the Capitol protest, how do you think the Florida law might apply?

- You know, I think we need to contextualize this in terms of how it could apply to everyone.

So imagine I have a son who's at University of Florida.

Go Gators, and imagine the Gators in the fall win a national football championship, okay?

And they spill out into the streets and they celebrate and unintended activities occur.

Or you're at the Capitol and you're passionate, an unintended activities occur.

Will this legislation be applied to them or is the sole intent of this legislation to go after social justice and Black Lives Matter?

And I think what we need to really stop and consider is, why is there a Black Lives Matter Movement?

The movement stemmed from either legislation or the application of laws in a disproportionate way to people of color.

And what I worry about and many people worry about is, does this law, is it going to fall into a category that isn't necessarily applied to everyone equally?

Will it be applied to those protesting at the Capitol?

Is it the ideology that will be dependent on whether it's being applied or not?

Will be the color of your skin?

That's the kind of things Floridians need to contextualize when they're looking at this bill?

- Well, speaking of contextualize the state legislature also appears ready to curtail some aspects of voting by mail.

And when you put these two things together, HB 1, the anti-riot bill and this effort to at least limit some parts of mailing voting, how do you see it?

- You know, I think the cachet of legislation that's coming out of Tallahassee right now needs to be looked at as a whole.

And so HB 1, the anti-riot bill standing alone is worrisome, but it becomes incredibly worrisome when you combine it with the movement of Senate Bill 90, which is really this bill that seeks to create a greater integrity in the Florida election system.

It is without a doubt that in 2020, we had the most safe, most effective election that we've ever had.

And for 20 years, from 2000 to 2020 Republicans utilized mail-in ballot, which is what Senate bill 90 is going after, mail-in ballots, dropping off mail ballots and then of course, the drop boxes.

We had a wonderful success.

And it seems to, from its face look like Republicans were very happy with mail-in ballots until the 2020 election, when a disproportionate amount of mail-in ballots favored Democratic candidates.

And so you got to look at HB 1, combined with Senate bill 90 and sort of start to color in the lines.

And Florida voters need to look at that and say, what is this really saying to us?

What is the Florida legislature really saying?

And not look at these bills necessarily in silos.

- Tara, I wish we had more time, but it's always great to see you.

Thanks for coming on "Florida this Week".

- Thanks so much for having me, Rob.

Take care.

- Take care.

(upbeat music) - For years, hundreds of workers at the Gopher Resource, lead smelting plant in East Tampa were exposed to dangerous levels of lead in the air.

"Poisoned" is a new investigative series from the Tampa Bay Times in collaboration with the PBS Frontline Local Journalism Initiative.

Times investigative reporter Corey G. Johnson is part of the team that gained access to thousands of documents showing the health problems at the plant.

And he joins us now.

Corey, welcome to 'Florida this Week".

- Thank you for having me.

Let's show the viewers some of the opening video in your series, that is part of the frontline series.

(indistinct) - [Corey] About 300 people work at Gopher Resource.

Workers take old car batteries and recycle them.

They remove the lead and melt it down in furnaces that burn at 1500 degrees.

It's dangerous work.

- All I hear is boom and next thing I know I'm hopping on one foot out in the building.

- Corey, that looks like dangerous work.

It looks like something out of 100 years ago in a sweatshop.

What is that dust?

Is that lead dust and how dangerous is that dust for the people that work there?

- Yes, that that dust is lead.

It's not dirty.

It looks like dirt, but it's lead.

There's also other toxins in there.

On some days it's cadmium, some days it's arsenic as well, but it's mostly mainly lead.

And lead is a neurotoxin.

When it gets into the body, there's no use for it in the body at any level.

It can damage your kidneys.

It can damage your cardiovascular systems.

For kids it can damage their brains.

It's a very, very dangerous substance and it's supposed to be highly regulated.

- Did you find workers who had long-term illnesses as a result of working in that factory?

- Yes, and the number is still growing.

within the last five years we found at least 14 workers who've had either heart attacks or strokes that can very much be associated or potentially associated with their lead exposure.

At least the numbers are staggering in terms of then the hundreds of workers who had high lead in their blood.

And well, one of the things that we found as well is for many, many years the level of exposure exceeded what their respirators, the workers respirators could protect sometimes hundreds of times higher than what the federal limit was up for exposure.

So and as the story runs, we're hearing from more and more workers each day.

And so some of the things that we're reporting may likely end up being an under count of the harm.

- When I see these clouds of lead dust, I wonder where's OSHA?

Where's the occupational safety and health administration?

Have they come in and have they told the plant managers it's too dangerous?

- Well, what our reporting found is that OSHA hadn't inspected the plant for lead since 2014.

And what's intriguing about that, which is gonna come out in the days ahead is that the local office, the Tampa office was under orders basically from both the national OSHA and the regional office to do increased inspections of businesses who dealt with lead.

And so during the time period of these orders, we're actually seeing that the plant got no inspections or no visits.

And we're trying to wrap our arms around why that happened.

- I've read your series, that many of the people that work at this plant are people of color.

Are they afraid to speak out?

Or what have they said about why these conditions continue?

- Many workers were afraid for various different reasons.

Some fear retaliation, some really like the job and they like the comradery with their workers.

And they fear that a lot of scrutiny could end up closing the plant, which could hamper their ability to feed themselves and their family.

So there has been a lot of fear about airing out what some of these workers knew, yes.

- Is there a union at the plant?

- For most of the time that plant has existed they did not have a union.

In late 2019, the workers actually voted for the first time to bring a union.

My understanding is that the union is still trying to get on its feet.

It may not even have a contract with the company yet.

So the union there is in its infancy.

But during the time period of most of the reporting that we're finding over this decade, there was no union in place to give these workers protections - Corey Johnson, thanks a lot.

It's a really important series.

And thank you for doing it.

- Thank you for having me.

- You can view the Tampa Bay Times in Frontline Series "Poisoned" on our Facebook page and at wedu.org/floridathisweek.

(upbeat music) Finally, the Alt-Country Texas band the Vandoliers are based in the Dallas Fort Worth area.

And like all of us, during the pandemic they miss playing in front of a real live audience.

Here they are looking forward to the good times again.

Stay safe.

We'll see you next week.

♪ I took it for granted every Saturday night ♪ ♪ With my rowdy friends in all my life ♪ ♪ We shouldn't dance till they turn on the lights ♪ ♪ I took it for granted every Saturday night ♪ ♪ I took advantage of every Saturday night ♪ ♪ With my rowdy friends never with my life ♪ ♪ We shouldn't dance till they turn on the lights ♪ ♪ I took advantage of every Saturday night ♪ ♪ I took advantage every Saturday night ♪ ♪ I took for granted every Saturday night ♪ ♪ I took advantage every Saturday night ♪ ♪ I took advantage every Saturday night ♪ (upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Florida this Week" is a production of WEDU, who is solely responsible for its content.

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