(bright music) - [Announcer] This is a production of WEDU PBS.

Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

- Next on WEDU, what's the future of the agreement to build a new stadium for Rays Baseball in St. Petersburg?

How will the plans to round up and deport millions of undocumented immigrants affect Tampa Bay residents?

Matt Gaetz withdraws from consideration to be the new US Attorney General, and a powerful Republican politician in Tallahassee is blocking efforts to allow open carry of firearms in the state.

All this and more right now on "Florida This Week".

(bright exciting music) Welcome back.

The deal to build a new Rays baseball stadium in St. Petersburg may be in trouble.

After Hurricane Milton ripped apart the current stadium's dome roof causing the need for almost $60 million in repairs, and after the election of two stadium opponents to the Pinellas County Commission in November, there were further doubts cast on the deal.

The new members joined other opponents on the county commission this week to delay a vote on whether to issue bonds for the project.

That led the Rays to send a letter to Pinellas County officials saying the team ownership had halted all work on the project.

And joining us now by telephone, John Romano, sports columnist for the Tampa Bay Times, with an update.

Hey John, how are you?

- [John] I'm good Rob, how are you?

- I'm pretty good.

So let's start where everybody's talking about it, is the Rays baseball deal to build a new stadium, is the deal dead?

- [John] Well, a week ago, I wrote that it was all but dead, and since then, it's just kind of inched closer and closer to that.

I don't know if there's a designation worse than all but dead.

I mean, nobody has come out and completely killed it.

The Rays have not sent a termination letter.

The city and county have not agreed to say it's over, but yes, it is all but dead at this point.

- So the city council in St. Pete, and the Pinellas County commission both delayed votes on approving the bond deal, the county commission, until December, the mid part of December, the St. Pete city council until January.

How does that affect even the possibility that a deal will be reached?

- [John] Well, it was always gonna be a tight timeframe to get the stadium built in the first place.

The bigger issue here is not so much the month long delays, it's the fact that the team is looking at the new membership on the county commission, and it doesn't see the votes there to approve the bonds in the future, so basically, the team has halted all of its construction plans.

They don't wanna spend any more money, they don't wanna do any kind of initial purchases of equipment, things like that, moving people from the Hines group, and their architects, and all their other partners down to St. Pete to start working on it.

They've basically shut that all down because the Rays no longer see a path toward getting the finance and through the county commission any longer.

- And there are two new members coming up on the St. Pete city council.

How does that affect the possible deal?

- [John] The two new members on the St. Pete city council, like the two new members on the Pinellas County commission, have both seemed skeptical of the terms of the deal, which only leads the Rays to believe further that it's dead.

That's basically, the ball started rolling on October 29th when the county commission elected to delay their bond vote, and it wasn't so much the three or four week delay that killed it, it was the fact that when they delayed it, they delayed it past the election date, and that changed the makeup of the county commission, and again, that's where the Rays, once they saw that, they realized they no longer had a friendly majority on the county commission, and the deal was likely dead.

- St. Pete mayor Ken Welch says he's gonna present a plan that won't cost the city residents any more money.

Do we know any more details about what Welch might present?

- [John] No, he hasn't released any details on it.

And god bless him, I hope he has a plan, but I just don't see a way forward here, because the county commission does not want to spend any more money than they had already committed.

They actually wanna spend less.

They want a deal more favorable to the county.

The Rays say because it has been delayed now that the stadium can't open at the earliest now until 2029.

They say they've incurred hundreds of millions of dollars in construction costs that will go up, not to mention the money that they're gonna lose, the revenues that they're gonna lose in the intervening years while they're playing in spring training ball parks.

So you've got two different groups that are saying the money doesn't work for them now.

It's only gonna get worse in the future.

- So for sure the Rays' promise to play at Legends Field in Tampa in the coming season, what happens after that?

- [John] I think that's gonna be a one year deal at Steinbrenner Field for a couple of reasons.

One, it's summertime in Florida is hot, muggy, and has lots of rain.

They're concerned about the number of rainouts they may get.

They're more concerned about the possibility of every game being delayed because of summertime storms that are gonna push gains into the late hours.

The Miami Marlins got away with an open air stadium for a number of years down in South Florida, but that was a bigger stadium.

They were able to absorb it a little more, because they had more people attending the games.

In a smaller spring training park, the Rays were already losing money.

When you throw delays and rainouts on top of that, I don't think they see that as a longterm or even beyond 2025, a solution.

So my guess is by 2026, they are playing somewhere out of state at another, maybe a larger, triple A ballpark somewhere.

- And this idea of repairing the Tropicana Dome and spending $57 million to sort of repair it, is that idea dead?

- [John] Again, not completely dead, but I would say it's leaning in that direction.

The city council initially approved on Thursday repairing the roof.

They were willing to spend about $24 million just to get the roof up on it.

The Rays basically said we don't think that's a good idea because we don't think you're gonna get it done in time for the 2026 season, and we think repairs on Tropicana are actually gonna exceed the 56 million that the city thought it was gonna cost, so the Rays said we're not sure that's a good idea, so they've actually been pushing the city to come to some kind of agreement to let them out of their use agreement, which runs through the end of the 2027 season.

They think that's a better deal for the city.

They won't spend as much money just sort of paying the Rays off, and that way, the Rays would be able to at least get some sort of certainty about where they're playing for the next three years while they try to keep a new stadium deal alive down the road.

- Well John Romano, as always, thanks a lot for coming on "Florida This Week".

- [John] Thank you, Rob.

I appreciate it.

(bright music) - President elect Donald Trump confirmed this week that he planned to declare a national emergency and use the US military to begin deporting millions of undocumented immigrants on day one of his administration.

Using the US military as a domestic police force is illegal under the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the military from enforcing laws inside the country.

More than 900,000 immigrants without proper papers live in Florida.

By one estimate, more than a third of the state's agricultural workers, and nearly a quarter of its construction workers are not US citizens.

This includes both lawful and undocumented immigrants.

Additionally, many undocumented immigrants work in Florida's hotel, restaurant, and tourism industries.

And joining us now to discuss is Dr. Teresita Matas-Post, the executive director of the Beth-El Farmworker Ministry in Wimauma in Hillsborough County, and Dr., thanks for coming on the program.

- Thank you for the invitation.

- So any idea how many people who are undocumented live in our area, in maybe Manatee, Polk, Hillsborough County area?

- It's hard to quantify, as you know, the undocumented in Florida.

It's not easy, so a lot of families go under the radar, and are very skeptical about disclosing their immigration status.

So it's really hard, and in the industry that we particularly work with in Farmwork, we have a lot of families that travel and move quite often, so it's very difficult to quantify.

- Would you imagine thousands of people?

- For sure, for sure.

- Yeah.

So what are they saying to you when you meet them, and they've heard this information that incoming president Trump plans to deport undocumented immigrants, what do they say to you?

- Yeah, you know, to give a sense, all of us have neighbors who are undocumented, so that gives us a little bit of a sense of who is part of the fabric of our communities.

What we're hearing from families in our community particularly is a lot of fear and uncertainty.

I don't use this word often, but a sense of terror in the sense of imagining what would it look like for them to pick up their roots and leave family members behind, and not knowing when or where, and the resources necessary to make those transitions if they're forced or choose to move.

So yeah, a lot of fear.

And also, last week in conversations with some neighbors, there was a sense of what I would call helplessness.

Kind of like, well if it comes, and it happens, we will deal with it when it happens.

I've been here for a long time raising our kids, our kids are well, they went to school and are working.

That was our dream for them, so if we have to go back, we will, but obviously, it's not their first choice in what they would envision for themselves being separated from their loved ones.

- And speaking of kids, the children of undocumented immigrants who are born here are US citizens, but the czar who's in charge of deporting these people told 60 Minute the other day that he's gonna deport not just undocumented immigrants, but he's gonna deport the children who are US citizens.

What do you make of that?

- The only word that I have for that is inhumane.

Just the idea of what children that are listening to this news might be feeling in terms of not knowing what will happen to their parents or grandparents, and that their network of support will be broken, and the uncertainty of their safety and to the future, it's not something you want American citizen children to grow up with.

So that piece is heartbreaking, to say the least.

- So have some immigrants left the country already in anticipation that they might be deported?

Have you seen any evidence of that?

- We've seen for sure, immigrant families leave the state, for sure.

Especially since the bill was enacted last July 1st, and so it's in people's purview, and it's in people's possibilities.

The challenge is when you've been here for 20 or 30 years, many families don't have anywhere to go back to, you know?

Their country of origin is no longer the home they recall.

Their communities are not the same.

And maybe they don't have relatives waiting for them.

That imagination of going back is something that, unless you've been through that, you can't comprehend that basically if you're deported and sent back after being here for so many years, working and laboring, and being part of this community, you're not going back home.

You're going back to a country you no longer recognize.

- And of course if you were born here, you speak only English, you're not gonna know the domestic language when you go back home.

- That's for sure.

- To the parents' country.

- It's about food, it's about every, it's about the lifestyle.

It's challenging.

I was speaking with a mother last month, and she was saying that one of the reasons she raised her children eating the food that she grew up with was in the event that they would be deported, that they would not have culture shock, that they would eat the food from their country of origin.

So just thinking about the ways in which families here in United States, raising their children, have to think about these things, is something that we don't have access to on a daily basis.

- So the last question is what industries do these undocumented immigrants work in, and some Americans say, well, if we deport these people, Americans will come in and take these jobs, and take over, and they'll work in the industries where undocumented people are right now?

- Very unlikely.

Very unlikely.

You know, in the ministry that we work with most of the immigrant communities work in farm work, in the heat, picking fruits and vegetables, not working with a pay rate, and just by how much they pick, so it's an uncertain income.

It's hard work, it's hard labor.

Very unlikely that the average American citizen who is able to get other means of income would look that way.

We see families that work in construction.

I mean, think about any hard labor outdoors, this is the work that they're doing.

The service industry, cleaning homes, all those types of jobs that many families rely on, the workforce comes from the immigrant community, and will be affected.

- Well, Dr. Teresita Matos-post, thank you for coming on "Florida This Week".

- Thank you for the invitation.

(bright music) - President elect Trump said Thursday he will nominate former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi to lead the justice department, turning to a long time ally after his first choice, Matt Gaetz, withdrew his name from consideration amid scrutiny over sex trafficking allegations.

On Thursday, former Congressman Gaetz withdrew as president elect Trump's pick for attorney general following continued scrutiny over a federal sex trafficking and sex payoff investigation.

The allegations cast doubt on his ability to be confirmed as the nation's chief federal law enforcement officer.

The north Florida Republican's withdrawal came one day after meeting with senators in an effort to win their support for his confirmation, Gaetz issued a statement saying that while momentum was strong, his confirmation had unfairly become a distraction to the Trump Vance transition.

According to the New York Times, federal investigators found a trail of thousands of dollars in payments made by Gaetz to women who testified they were paid for sex.

Gaetz' replacement, Pam Bondi, who lives in Tampa has been an outspoken defender of Trump.

She was one of his lawyers during his first impeachment trial when he was accused but not convicted of abusing his power as he tried to condition US military aid to Ukraine on that country investigating then former vice president Joe Biden.

And she was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his New York City hush money criminal trial that ended in May with convictions on 34 felony counts.

Joining us now is April Schiff, a political consultant, and the Hillsborough Republican State committeewoman, and Victor Dimaio, who's a political consultant and a Democrat.

Nice to see both of you.

- Thank you.

- What do you think of the Bondi nomination?

- I think it's awesome.

Absolutely awesome.

I think she'll do a super job, and it's refreshing that she's gonna go up there, with the experience that she has, she will be a tremendous attorney general.

She should sail through the confirmation process as well.

But I think what you're gonna see through this administration, the talent that president Trump is pulling out of Florida is just incredible.

I mean, starting with Susie Wiles, who we've known in Florida for a long time.

He's tapped a lot of his campaign staff, his upper level campaign staff.

Pam Bondi, of course.

Congressman Waltz, and of course, Marco Rubio.

I mean, this Make America Florida thing is really going pretty strong.

But he's really tapped some top talent.

And I think what's gonna be interesting in Florida is all these open elected positions, so some of them will be appointments, like the Senate seat is an appointment to replace Rubio, and then a lot of them, we're gonna have a lot of special elections coming up in the future.

- Do you have a favorite for US Senate?

Who do you think should be in the position?

- I'll tell you what, personally, I'm not gonna say what I think, but I can tell you that there is a whole lot of support coming out for Laura Trump.

And she's done a phenomenal job as co-chair of the RNC, and she's expressed interest, so we'll see.

That's gonna be an interesting play between Governor DeSantis and President Trump, and how that all works itself out.

- Vic, is there a downside to Bondi?

Is there anything the Democrats can use to go after Bondi?

- Well, I mean, I grew up with Pam and her family, her entire family, here in Tampa, were Democrats.

She started out life as a Democrat, but the only disappointing part is that between her and the other Tampan who came up from Tampa to become attorney general of Florida, Ashley Moody, it's like they've changed their personalities, and once you get into that bubble of DeSantis and Republican administration, to me, they've gone to another route- - [Rob] They become more conservative?

- Exactly, exactly.

And now she's done, compared to Matt Gaetz, it's light years more, vast improvement.

A lot of people were scared, including, he just didn't have the votes, so I mean, this may be probably Susie Wiles a little bit of influence, who's from Florida and kinda knows the players to say this ain't working out.

You guys have to, and I don't know who made the call.

He's falling on a sword, Matt.

But there could've been a call the other way from Trump or Susie.

- On some of the other nominations, not the ones you've mentioned, April, but on some of the other ones, there are sexual misconduct allegations against Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy, Pete Hegseth at Department of Defense.

Is President Trump, or incoming President Trump, shooting from the hip a little bit in picking people that he likes to see on TV, as opposed to good administrators in some cases?

- I think he's picking people that he feels will be effective in a specific way that have some talents that we haven't seen in government before.

I mean, his whole goal is to change things.

There's no question about that.

His new DOGE division with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy is a prime example of that.

But these allegations are something that is kind of pervasive, and none of them have been charged or convicted of anything.

So you have to think, and they've all been investigated, right?

So you have to think how just one person making accusations can hurt someone's career, and that's unfortunate, but I think in some instances, that's what's happening, but then again, where there's smoke, there's fire.

So you really don't know what happened.

But I think that he's being very bold, and that he's trying to change the face of government so that it's not so entrenched as it has been in the past.

- Would you agree, Victor?

Is he being deliberative, or is he picking?

- No, he's picking people he sees on Fox TV, or he likes, you know, with his gut feeling.

I think the sad part is they could go through a vetting process before you make the final decision.

I think you're right, what you said, he shoots from the hip.

But that doesn't mean you're gonna get the best people.

Well, I mean, he's obviously going to go a non-traditional route and pick people that he feels comfortable with, and that's what we're seeing now.

But the problem, like Matt Gaetz was a perfect example, and all these other accusations you brought up, which are, are they factually, are they true?

We don't know yet, because they're accusations.

But you know, a lot of times, where there's smoke, there's fire.

We're just gonna have to see how it plays out.

Obviously, the Gaetz, to me, the overriding issue here is with a Gaetz nomination, it proves that there's a chink in the armor, because he's not, if Trump was all powerful, he would've gotten Matt Gaetz through, but there was enough senators to say you know what, this is over, this is too much.

You know, we're not gonna vote for this guy.

- So I'm gonna beg to differ with you a little bit.

There is a vetting process, and it's been going on for at least a year, if not months, and it's elaborate, and it's extensive, and it's intense.

So I'm gonna tell you- - Well it didn't help, with Matt Gaetz, because- - They knew exactly what they were getting with Matt Gaetz.

- I guess.

- There was no surprises there.

- Let's talk about another topic.

Florida gun rights advocates are criticizing incoming Florida Senate president, Ben Albritton, who's indicating he'll block plans to pass open carry gun laws in the legislative session that begins in March.

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, when the legislature held its organizational session this week, Albritton voiced opposition to the idea of changing Florida law to allow the open carry of firearms.

Albritton, who is a Republican from Wauchula, told reporters that as a lifelong and consistent supporter of law enforcement, he will oppose any open carry legislation in 2025.

He said, "I trust my law enforcement officials.

They oppose it, and I stand with them today in opposition."

39 states currently allow open carry.

Victor, is Senator Albritton doing the right thing?

- Absolutely.

I mean, my brother lives in Dallas where there's open carry, and you go up and down the grocery aisles, and you see guys with long arm shotguns and AK-47s, and it's an intimidation process.

It doesn't serve any purpose.

You can keep a gun in your purse, or whatever.

But what's been successful here for many, many years in Florida, as someone who's lobbied in Tallahassee, is the Florida Retail Federation, which has public supermarkets, they don't want people walking up and down the aisles to intimidate other customers, and they've been very successful in finding this for years.

So I think he's doing the right thing.

- April, 30 seconds.

- He's gonna stay with law enforcement, I think that's what he should do, because the law enforcement community absolutely the voice to listen to on this topic.

- Okay.

Well, before we go, what other news stories should we be paying attention to?

And April, let's start with you.

Your other big story of the week.

- So Nate Silver, who's a national pollster came out just a couple days ago, and he's not exactly conservative at all, calling for Biden's resignation.

And his reason for that is he feels that Biden's incompetent to continue as the president of the United States right now, and the fear is that if Biden continues on the path that he's on, that he could get us into World War III before January 20th.

- [Rob] Do you think that's a real possibility?

- It's frightening.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- [Rob] Victor, your other big story?

- I know the Rays are a hot topic right now because things could be falling apart across the Bay here.

But frankly, and I'm hanging by a thread now on this prediction, because we're such a large media market, and so much money involved in TV rights between Tampa, Orlando, and then all of north Florida, that's protected under the MOB Agreement, and the billion dollar contract is hanging on a thread.

Something's gotta be found to keep them here in the Bay Area.

I don't know where, it may be Tampa.

I doubt it, but they're gonna, they're flexing their muscles there now, and I really don't think the Rays are gonna leave us.

- All right, all right.

And my other big story of the week is this.

First reported by the Tampa Bay Times.

Citizens Insurance, Florida's state-run insurer, paid just under 50% of homeowners' claims last year.

That's the worst record of any insurance company in the state.

Private insurance companies, such as All State and State Farm, did not do much better, though.

They closed 46% of claims without payment.

The most recent data shows that Floridians who file homeowners insurance claims have the least chance in the country of being paid.

Politicians in Tallahassee have had special sessions and past laws supposedly to fix Florida's insurance crisis.

What these latest numbers show is that the crisis continues, putting the financial health of Floridians at risk.

Well that's it for us on this week's show.

Thanks to our guests, April Schiff and Vic Demaio.

If you have comments about this program, please send them to us at FTW@WEDU.org.

Our show is now available as a podcast, and from all of us here at WEDU, have a great weekend and a happy Thanksgiving.

(bright exciting music)