>>This week on NewsNight, Marijuana and abortion could be on the ballot in Florida next year.

A look at the proposed constitutional amendments and the hurdles they face.

Plus, GOP presidential contenders Governor DeSantis and former President Trump battle for dominance in the Sunshine State.

NewsNight starts now.

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

First tonight, the constitutional amendments that could face Florida voters next year.

Ballot measures set to go before voters include changing school board elections from nonpartisan to partisan and establishing a constitutional right to hunt and fish.

But the state Supreme Court will decide the fate of two controversial proposals one that would prohibit laws that restrict abortions in Florida.

The other would legalize marijuana for recreational use.

The court held hearings this week on the marijuana measure.

I spoke about it this week with Cecile Scoon from the League of Women Voters of Florida.

>>And usually we produce something called the voter or the voting guide.

And we usually put the pros and cons and we go to the arguments of the proponents and those who are against it.

And we've heard and read some of the things pro is, you know, people want to they want to have recreation.

They want to relax.

I believe the age limit is 21 years.

So I think that they probably negated a lot of the naysayers by not dropping it to 18 people would be throwing their hands up at that point.

But this one, because it's not directly related to voting and the matters that we usually focus on, it's not one that we would automatically take a position, vote yes or no.

We would be probably more educational.

>>What about the abortion measure proposed for the ballot?

Would the League of Women Voters support an effort to put protections for abortion access in the state in the Constitution?

>>A woman's ability to control her fertility directly impacts on her civic engagement, directly impacts on the time that she has to research issues to be a voter, a voter with knowledge, her ability to finish her education.

So we are supporting a woman's right to choose, and we support this amendment.

>>Do you think the Florida Supreme Court is likely to allow those measures on the ballot, given the makeup of the court now?

>>We we try to analyze the different perspectives where the different justices have come from, who appointed them.

But we have seen on the trial level anyway, pretty impressive independence in terms of judges refusing to necessarily kowtow to the desires of the Senate or the governor or the legislators who have put bills forth.

And they've held several of their bills, the ones that the cases were involved with on a preliminary injunction, which is a very high standard.

They said they're just blatantly unconstitutional.

Well, that gives you, you know, some hope that people would the judges in the trial level and the justices would also follow suit, follow the law.

>>Cecile Scoon from the League of Women Voters of Florida.

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

Joining us in the studio this week, Matthew Petty, host of Florida Matters at WUSF in Tampa.

Thanks so much for being here, Matt.

Really appreciate-- >>Thanks Steve.

>>Your time today.

>>Talia Blake, host of Morning Edition on 90.7 WMFE News.

Thanks for being here, Talia.

Good to see you.

And Skyler Swisher from the Orlando Sentinel.

Always nice to see you as well Skyler.

>>Thanks.

>>Thanks for being here today, guys.

Matt, let me start with you on this one.

Before we get to marijuana and abortion, let's start with Amendment One on the school boards that I mentioned right at the the top of the show just now, The joint resolution that the legislature passed putting this on the ballot was almost entirely along partizan lines.

Why the Republican leaders support this idea?

>>I mean, there's a couple of reasons, essentially.

School boards, as you've noted, have become pretty much the front lines in the culture war and started with the start of the COVID 19 pandemic around masking issues, kind of disagreements over how to reopen schools safely.

And Republicans saw the opportunity to really jump on school boards as an issue and use that to drive out voter engagement.

So that's part of the piece.

The other thing is, and you hear the likes of Senator Joe Gruters, who's sponsoring this bill, saying, well, these races are partisan anyway.

Let's just make it transparent, because that's what people know they are.

And we want to make sure we're not kind of putting one over the voters.

>>I mean, what is the big pushback, Talia, on that transparency argument that seems to make sense?

>>One of the biggest arguments is that if you make it a partisan race, then you're kind of just catering to a particular political party.

And then another reason that they're very concerned about this is, as we know, Florida is a closed primary state.

People who are not affiliated with a party could kind of get x-ed out of part of that election process if they become partisan.

That's a good point.

Another amendment that is on the ballot so far is Amendment Two on hunting and fishing.

This is an interesting one.

You wrote about this ballot measure recently.

Skyler, just outline what it proposes and why supporters say it's needed.

>>Yes.

So this is really kind of flown under the radar.

I know a lot of the attention is on abortion, marijuana, but what this proposed amendment would do is it would forever preserve the right to hunt and fish using traditional means.

And it also states that hunting would be the preferred method of wildlife management.

And it also has a caveat that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission would retain its ability to regulate hunting and fishing.

>>I mean, is there much indication that this is needed?

Why why do proponents sort of say that this is a matter that needs to be addressed?

>>Well, so the supporters, they're saying this needs to be addressed because they just want this to be preserved for four generations, that it would be enshrined in the Constitution.

There already is a right to hunt and fish in state law, but this would put it in the Constitution and kind of give an added layer of protection.

>>Is there much opposition to it?

Do we know?

>>Yeah, there is some opposition like environmental activists are saying, like so for instance, let's say there's a proposed bear hunt, if you have it in the Constitution, perhaps people could say, look, the Constitution says that hunting is the preferred method of wildlife management.

So that could therefore trump, you know, non-lethal methods of controlling wildlife.

>>Interesting issue.

We'll talk about that again on the show.

Matt, let's switch to the proposed amendments that haven't made it onto the ballot yet.

The Supreme Court held hearings this week in Tallahassee on legalizing recreational marijuana.

What do we know about who's backing that initiative?

>>Well, essentially, most of the money for this initiative is coming from Trulieve, which is kind of a behemoth in the medical marijuana industry.

It's a Florida company.

It started relatively recently, but it's grown fairly quickly since the legalization of medical marijuana in the state and has a pretty big footprint nationwide as well.

They've poured almost $40 million into this, so they obviously see some value in kind of opening the doors to recreational marijuana.

There's a bit of pushback from marijuana advocates, though, who are worried that this could just be more of a cash grab for these big companies and not allow things like people to grow their own marijuana or small businesses to thrive.

>>That's interesting.

There's also pushback, of course, from the state, Talia.

Several states do allow recreational marijuana.

Why has the state here come out swinging against it?

>>Well, I mean, firstly, Governor DeSantis, he has been aggressively against recreational marijuana, although he's okay with the medical use of it, he's complained about the stench and said that, you know, he wants Floridians to, quote, be able to breathe freely.

Also, right now, as it's been mentioned, you know, it's kind of tied up in the Supreme Court, Attorney General Ashley Moody, right now is saying that the way it's written will mislead voters and basically financially benefit Trulieve, which Matt said is one of the biggest or the biggest medical marijuana operator in the state.

>>She's got an issue with that word "allow" saying that it doesn't reference that this remains illegal under federal law.

Interesting though, the justices seem skeptical about the attorney general's arguments this week.

So we'll see how that one comes out in the wash. Skyler, let's switch to abortion.

Voters in Ohio this week chose to put the rights to an abortion in the state's constitution.

The bar that they have to pass in those voter amendments is a bit lower in Ohio, it's worth noting.

But in Florida, the attorney general is opposing an amendment to ban the state from passing laws that restrict abortion, which, of course, as we know the legislature has done.

Ashley Moody recently outlined her case against that one.

What she's saying in her argument.

>>Yeah.

So her argument really comes down to viability.

What is the definition of viability?

And she's saying abortion opponents and abortion rights supporters have differing definitions and the proposed amendment doesn't define what viability is.

So she thinks, therefore it would be misleading to the voters.

Of course, critics of her say that, you know, it's pretty clear and there's a pretty good understanding of what viability would be.

>>Just finally, on this one Matt, I mean, you know, the governor has appointed five out of the seven justices on the Florida Supreme Court.

On abortion, is there much hope for abortion advocates that this is actually going to get on the ballot?

>>I mean, abortion advocates in the state of Florida, advocates for the right to abortion, I should say, would have taken some heart from that Ohio, you know, decision that came through.

Voters voted in favor of it in that state and saying that's kind of good for us.

It gives us some momentum.

But on the other hand, you do have a very conservative Supreme Court, as you pointed out, Steve.

And in the meantime, as well, I mean, lawmakers, Republican lawmakers have made it a lot harder to get these amendments on the ballot.

The time frame is shorter.

You've got to spend a lot more money to get the initiative on the ballot in the first place.

So I think probably the chances are not great, but we'll just have to see.

>>And there is a push, of course, in the legislature once again to try to increase that threshold of voters that are needed to pass a constitutional amendment.

So we will see what happens.

You can find the text of the proposed amendments on abortion and recreational marijuana on our website to read for yourself.

It's all at wucf.org/newsnight.

All right.

Next tonight, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer easily won reelection Tuesday night after 20 years in office.

He says this will be his last term, though we've put a link to the Orlando Sentinel page of election results, including the state House District 35 primary on our website along the bottom of your screen.

Meanwhile, this week saw ratcheting up in the GOP presidential race in Florida.

On Wednesday, the Republicans held their third debate in Miami.

Former President Trump did not attend, though, instead scheduling a rally in Hialeah.

But both men addressed the Republican faithful at the Florida Freedom Summit in Kissimmee at the weekend as Trump looked to undermine the governor on his home turf.

Courting Florida Republicans.

>>If you don't have the stomach for these fights, then you should probably find another line of work.

But it's just and just as important that we win these fights.

>>We're going to win this state in a landslide next November, just like we've done twice.

And we're going to defeat Crooked Joe Biden.

And we are going to make America great again.

>>Former President Trump and Governor DeSantis there.

It's been a week of mixed news for the governor's campaign.

On Monday, he picked up the endorsement of Iowa's governor Kim Reynolds, but new polling shows him well behind the former president in Florida amid several high profile endorsement switches from DeSantis to Trump.

Talia let me come to you first on this one.

Kim Reynolds had said that she would remain neutral in the GOP primary race.

Why does she say she finally decided to back DeSantis publicly?

>>Yeah, definitely broke tradition there.

But it really just boils down to her belief that DeSantis can beat Trump.

That's really the main thing right there.

She said she really couldn't sit any longer on the sidelines.

And although she and Trump haven't had the best of relationships, she said this doesn't really have to do with any insults Trump has thrown or anything like that.

She just really believes DeSantis can win over Trump.

>>I mean, electability against President Biden as well.

When it comes to the general, of course Matt, DeSantis is putting a lot of stock in Iowa.

He's been doing that over the last several months.

But given that both Trump and DeSantis are vital at battling hard, as we've seen this week for dominance in Florida, does that mean that our state is important too, do you think?

>>I think our state is very important.

And as you point out, that endorsement from Kim Reynolds could give DeSantis a bit of a tailwind.

But and he also point to his landslide election reelection last year.

But of course, he wasn't running against somebody like Donald Trump.

And as you point out, the polls in this primary show Trump the clear frontrunner over any of his opponents.

So who's who knows what's going to happen when it's a match up between Trump and DeSantis?

Maybe some of those endorsements will help.

Maybe they won't.

>>There's been a lot of defections as well.

Which brings me to the GOP's Freedom Summit, which took place last weekend in Kissimmee.

How did that go for the two candidates?

And what does the polling show specifically here in Florida about where the two stand?

>>Yes, I think what you're seeing going on is that Governor DeSantis is trying to make the argument that Florida is a success story.

And the Trump campaign is responding by trying to peel off some of these state lawmakers.

That would be central to his argument.

>>There were several defections announced at the freedom-- >>That's correct.

Yeah, about seven state lawmakers, of course, DeSantis still has the vast majority of the legislature supporting him.

But when you look at the polling, look, I mean, Governor DeSantis is 39 points behind President Trump in Florida.

So if you're looking at those poll numbers right now, it's not looking so great for Governor DeSantis.

>>And Senator Rick Scott, of course, also came out recently and endorsed former President Trump as well.

So that Republican debate this week in Miami, Trump skipped it, of course, in favor of holding that that rally in Hialeah, a large Cuban-American community.

I want to ask each of you what stood out to you and whether you think it moved the needle, Matt.

>>Well, what stood out to me was Vivek Ramaswamy coming out swing against absolutely everyone he's attacking the RNC.

He attacked his fellow debaters up on the stage there.

He was attacking Joe Biden.

Of course, Nikki Haley's daughter came in for some stick as well.

So there was that.

He was also talking about building a northern border wall as well.

So kind of extraordinary statements from him.

He also had a very kind of moderate line, I want to say, from Nikki Haley on the issue of abortion.

So quite interesting there.

And you have what we've heard a lot of the same kind of rhetoric from Governor DeSantis about the southern border and of essentially putting more resources into that.

And I think Haley and DeSantis supporters who say they both had good nights but doesn't really make a difference when the main candidate isn't even on that stage.

>>And that's the issue, isn't it?

Talia what do you think?

>>Yeah, I mean, to echo Matt, the fact that the main candidate wasn't even on the stage and the first couple of minutes of revolved around him, I feel like just continues to say a lot.

And then also Vivek Ramaswamy is comments on the three inch heels and a lot of other things that he said that to me were just so surprising to be said during a presidential debate.

So yeah, and as far as moving the needle, I feel like time will just kind of tell because with this, anything can happen tomorrow.

>>The three-inch Heels reference, of course, a dig at both Governor DeSantis and Nikki Haley, according to Vivek Ramaswamy.

What did you think, Skyler?

>>Yeah, I don't think the debate, you know, moved the needle at all.

And I think what Governor DeSantis keeps looking for is that eventually there's going to be this tipping point and Trump supporters are going to come over to him.

So far, we haven't seen that.

We also haven't seen the governor going aggressively after Trump.

I mean, he did make some statements in his opening remarks saying, you know, he didn't build the wall.

He ran up deficits.

>>And he should have been there on the stage.

>>Right.

Right.

But you haven't seen Governor DeSantis being aggressive throughout a debate as far as attacking Trump.

And it's hard to do that when the former president is not on the debate stage.

>>And there has been the criticism of the candidates that are there on the stage, that they've been pulling their punches when it comes to the former president.

As if that wasn't enough politics, there was a special session this week in Tallahassee to toughen up Iran sanctions, which were discussed here on the show and expressed support for Israel.

And there was a heated debate over a resolution by Democratic Representative Angie Nixon supporting the rights of pro-Palestinian protesters and calling for a cease fire in the Israel-Hamas war.

>>H.R.

31 C calls for not only a ceasefire, but de-escalation in both Israel and Palestine, along with the protection of the constitutionally protected right to protest and free speech and the dignity and safety of all Floridians.

This resolution states all it states explicitly.

All human life is precious and the targeting of civilians, no matter their religion.

This is what it states, no matter their religion or ethnicity, is a violation of international humanitarian law.

>>If you vote for this, you are putting my child and every Jewish child in this state at risk, because what you are doing is you are saying what these monsters that are parading through our college campuses or on the streets are doing is justified.

If you vote for this, you're an anti-Semite, and I would encourage you all to vote no.

>>Representatives Randy Fine and Angie Nixon there, That resolution was rejected 104 to 2 Only representatives Nixon and Eskamani voted in favor.

Skyler, emotions running high that in the House there was also an effort to beef up security for the Jewish community.

What kinds of resources were allocated there?

>>Yes, there's going to be $25 million set aside specifically for Jewish Day schools to improve security and harden those facilities.

There's also a $20 million grant program for for any sort of place of worship school that's deemed to be at a heightened risk.

>>There were also other issues on the table, Matt, beyond the Israel-Hamas war.

Lawmakers provided more money for some home hardening, right in an effort to reduce insurance premiums.

They also lifted the cap on school vouchers for special needs kids.

What's the anticipated impact of that?

>>So, right as you point out, school voucher expansion that was a pretty big deal in the most recent session for Florida.

And so we've had a flood of families rushing to those vouchers, wanting to send their kids to private schools.

However, kids with special needs, the voucher number has been capped at 41,000 and there's some 8,000 plus kids who are you know, they want to get those vouchers.

They can't.

So the idea is to put about $350 million of money from the state budget into lifting that cap, meeting the needs of those students who want to get those vouchers and some more too.

>>Certainly could make a difference for for a lot of people.

Talia, just finally, the Democrats wanted to get some other things done in this session.

They failed.

What do they want to do?

>>Yeah, they wanted to get some things done that Floridians have been dealing with for a long time now, like high housing costs, property insurance, Medicare for children, expanding that after, you know, we saw a lot of people lose coverage when that ended.

And then also curbing gun violence issues that we've been dealing with here in Florida for a long time.

>>Well, we'll see if they have any traction in getting some of those things on the agenda for the next session coming up.

Be sure to join the conversation on social media we're at WUCF TV, on Facebook, X and also on Instagram.

All right.

Florida lawmakers are set to consider a proposal to loosen the state's child labor laws.

A draft bill set to be considered by the 2024 Florida legislative session would eliminate all employment rules for 16 and 17 year olds in the state.

Federal law does not limit the hours people in that age group are allowed to work, but it does impose restrictions on jobs deemed hazardous by the Department of Labor.

>>Kyler Crafton works in a hardware business owned by his family.

For the last couple of years.

He's worked limited hours helping out in the store.

>>When I first started off probably a couple of days, like small four hour shifts.

>>Crafton is part of the age group for whom Florida's employment restrictions will be loosened under proposed legislation filed by Pinellas Republican Linda Cheney.

>>There's a lot of kids who do online schooling, so they have a lot of extra time.

Some kids that want to work more, that want the money or need the money.

And if they can, if they want to, probably should be able to.

>>Under current Florida law, 16 and 17 year olds are not allowed to work more than 30 hours per week during the school year before 6:30 in the morning or after 11:00 at night.

They're also prevented from working more than 8 hours in a shift if they have school the following day.

HB 49 would remove these limits and prohibits city and county governments from passing stricter child labor rules.

Crafton's mom, Stacy, says while putting in more hours won't work for everyone, she believes it should be their decision.

>>I think it should be up to the parent, the student and the employer.

If they can handle it and they can work their schedule to where it won't affect their school, I think they should be able to do it.

>>But the proposal is under fire from some lawmakers.

>>I think this legislation is going to exploit our children.

>>Orlando Democrat Ana Eskamani argues teens already have a great deal of flexibility when it comes to the hours they can work.

>>30 hours is a is almost full time.

You need to give space for our kids to focus and their academics to finish a high school diploma.

And ultimately this policy is going to lead to more minority kids and kids from low wealth families not be able to perform in school because they're going to be in situations where they have no choice but to work due to the economic environment that their families are in.

>>Federal youth employment provisions govern workers under 18 years of age, The US Department of Labor says in fiscal year 2023, it carried out 955 investigations into violations of federal child labor rules.

That's a 14% increase from the previous year, an 88% increase from 2019.

>>NewsNight requested comment from Representative Chaney, but did not hear back.

But in a statement to the Orlando Sentinel, she said her bill aims to, quote, provide teenagers with the flexibility to work whatever hours they deem fits best with their schedule and financial goals.

Families are struggling in the worst economy in decades, and I want to do what I can to help by providing opportunity.

If HB 49 passes, it would take effect in July next year.

NewsNight intern Mia Striegel compiled that report.

Okay, Matt, let's start with you on this one.

Why do opponents of this proposed legislation we heard Representative Eskamani there think that expanding those hours for 16 and 17 year olds can be harmful to them, and particularly people of color?

>>Right.

Well, there's some data suggesting that people in some of those sort of marginalized communities are more at risk for things like workplace, workplace health and safety issues.

So there's some concerns that increasing those hours, which has put them even more at risk, they're worried about their educational future as well.

Like if you were spending, you know, your full time high school student, you're also working longer hours.

That's going to be detrimental to your education.

That could affect your kind of long term employment opportunities if you can't get those those grades up.

So they're worried about that.

And also, frankly, saying, look, it's not safe for kids who are high school students who need their sleep to be spending hours at night as well.

On top of all of the study they're supposed to be doing at work, and that's going to lead to things like car accidents, workplace injuries.

So the concern about a whole range of things.

And I also think that essentially this is basically a bid for cheap labor.

>>I guess opponents would say that was the reason that this legislation was or these rules were in place in the first place.

Skyler I mean, Florida is not alone, right, in eyeing this kind of measure.

What is the reasoning from proponents?

Is it what Matt said there's sort of a labor shortage, maybe getting some cheaper labor?

>>Yeah, I mean, we've seen several states pursue similar legislation as this.

And I think the labor shortage definitely does play into it.

But there's also kind of a libertarian argument that's at play and they're saying, look, it shouldn't be the government that's making these decisions as to how much a teenager works.

It should be the families that make that decision and the government should get out of the way.

So that's kind of one of the arguments that we're seeing a lot from the supporters of this legislation.

>>And that's what we heard from our family in our piece just now.

As we heard there as well, there has been a large increase, Talia, in child labor violations recently, according to the federal government.

And there's a bipartisan move in the U.S. Senate to address that.

>>Yeah, absolutely.

This is definitely an issue that both sides of the aisle are taking up and want to address.

And just to kind of give an example.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio has teamed up with Democrat Alex Padilla out of California.

They've introduced a bill that kind of just asked the Labor Department to give them more details about who is actually committing these crimes and who are the victims in these cases.

They want a more detailed report there.

And then you also have, like Democrats Senator Cory Booker and Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who are sponsoring a bill that would require some companies to compete, that compete for federal contracts to disclose if they've had those infractions happen at their sites or within their companies.

>>Interesting move on the federal level.

We'll certainly be watching the issue in the 2024 Florida legislative session as well.

You can find links to Florida's current child labor laws and the text of HB 49 on our website.

wucf.org/newsnight along the bottom of your screen.

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

My thanks to Matthew Petty from WUSF, Talia Blake, 90.7 WMFE News, and Skyler Swisher from the Orlando Sentinel.

Thank you guys, so much for coming in.

Really appreciate your time today.

We'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

In the meantime, for all of us here at NewsNight take care and have a great week.