>>This week on NewsNight, the state's great outdoors initiative.

They'll look at the bipartisan controversy over proposals for development projects in some state parks, including adding hotels and pickleball courts and what it might say about the potential for future projects in central Florida.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Steve Mort and welcome to NewsNight where we take a deep dive into the top storie and issues in central Florida and how they shap our community.

First tonight, let's start with the top political news of the week here in Florida.

No stories made bigger waves than the proposals released by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to develop parts of nine Florida state parks.

They include proposals for a 350 room hotel at Anastasia State Park near Saint Augustine, just to our north, and now shelved plans for a golf course at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County to the south.

Several lawmakers, including Senators Scott and Rubio, wrote a letter describing it as, quote, ridiculous plans to rush through a vote by the states acquisition of Restoration Council on the proposals with minimal public input.

In response, the Department of Environmental Protection released what it called fact checks on claims about the developments and scrapped plans for public meetings this week in favor of more extensive public input.

It also set up a websit for public feedback, citing what it described as, quote, overwhelming public interest.

Well, NewsNight spoke this week with Ashley Chelberg, founder of Stella Maris, a Brevard-based environmental research organization.

>>I don't think how can go there and play racket sports or something that's going t immensely entertain me?

I think of a place that' going to rejuvenate me, and I don't think there's anything that's connecting or rejuvenating about placing golf, the golf courses of any type or even racket sports.

Now I am a person who plays tennis.

I play pickleball.

I very much enjoy it.

There is nothing connecting about putting that in a state park.

It would be surrounded by a giant metal cage with a windscreen.

So that's not somethin that's going to bring you closer to nature.

It's going to section you off from nature.

So being at a state park and doing those activities, they just don't seem like they go together.

There's also the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of the natural side to a state park would be like ecosystem services and that like natural landscape that's within a state park.

It's important for habitats, for wildlife, for water purification and for rejuvenation of aquifers.

There's a lot of different important aspects to a state park.

>>Ashley Chelberg there.

Meanwhile, Governor DeSantis addressed the state parks issue this week.

He said he didn't know about the plans and said the Department of Environmental Protection was going back to the drawing boards.

>>This was something that was leaked.

It was not approved by by me.

I never saw saw that.

It is they're going bac to the drawing board.

Talk to your local communities.

Here's the thing.

I'd rather not spend any money on this.

Right.

I mean, if people don't wan improvements, then don't do it.

And so that'll be somethin that citizens can be able to do.

They're not doing anything this year.

They're going to go bac and basically listen to folks.

A lot of that stuff was just half baked and it was not ready for primetime when it was.

And it was intentionally leaked out to a left wing group to try to create a narrative.

You know, we've since I've been governor, we've added over a quarter of a million acres to conservation land.

We establish a Florida wildlife corridor.

So we've done a lot of stuff.

And on the state parks, you know, if there does need to be improvements, we're not going to take away any green space.

You know, we're going to we have an existing footprint and you do.

But I mean, if we do nothing, then that's fine with me.

>>Governor DeSantis there, a reminder, we are recording the show on Thursday morning s things can change by air time.

They often do.

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

Joining us in the studio for the first time this week, Nick Georgoudiou from the Community Paper.

Good to see you, Nick.

>>Thanks for having me.

>>Thanks so much for coming in.

We always like to see new folks here on the show.

Steven Lemongello writes about politics for the Orlando Sentinel.

Good to see you.

>>Happy to be here.

>>Coming back to the program.

And Curtis McCloud Spectrum News 13, also cover a bit of politics in this time.

>>Happy to be here.

>>Good to see you Curtis.

Let me start with you on this one, Curtis, for a second.

I mean, the governor says there's not going to be a golf course at Jonathan Dickenson State Park.

Now, that was perhaps the mos controversial proposal, right?

What do we know about.

>>Yeah.

So you know this right here, Steve, of course, ruffled a lot of feathers.

A lot of people, you know, up in arms about all of this.

And we saw people saying tha they don't want the land touched and they don't want anything develop here.

A lot of environmental groups speaking out saying, hey, there are studies that need to be here.

We don't want this land touched.

So you got a lot of people saying that they don't want to see this happen.

And then, of course, there are there are those interest group who want to see this happen.

They have a vested interes here, but a lot of people picketing saying that thi this can't happen.

Ultimately, see, we have seen them draw back and say that we're not going to move forward with this plan, at least not right now.

We're still talking.

>>Yeah, we saw the protests around the state last week.

And I mean, the governor, Steve, says he didn't approve these plans, but his office has certainly been talking about them.

>>Oh, yeah.

His one of his spokespeople has been defending it online.

The DEP, you know, put out repeated statements about it.

It's sort of unclear to see how we could not know about it.

You know, so it's this is probably you know, it went really badly.

And there was a huge blowback.

So he's obviously distancing himself from it.

And but, of course, you know, whether he can continue to say that he totally did not know about this or nothing to do with it.

I mean, he admitted that he met with one of the groups in April as it was pitched about it.

So.

>>Yeah, that's the folds of the group that he said he met with.

I mean, talk about some of tha bipartisan political blowback.

What do you think that says about the governor's sway over his own party in the state, given the folks that we've seen come out about?

>>Oh, well, a year and a half ago, he was a reelected governor who won with 20 point and was running for president.

And now his presidential campaig has gone down in flames.

He's he's going to be ou as governor in two years.

And other Republicans are looking and says he's he' not as powerful as he once was.

We can we can oppose him on things.

You know, he' not going to be governor soon.

He's essentially like a lame duck.

And that sort of shows that, you know, where once anything he said, you know, was immediately backed by Republicans.

Now Republicans are looking and they're saying, you know, he's he's weak.

He's wounded, too.

We don't really need to follow him, you know, off a cliff.

>>Yeah, the governor had said he didn't know about this, but certainly folks in his office, Nick, have been talking about this being a way to improv access to Florida state parks.

How is the Departmen of Environmental Protection up to this point responded to this criticism itself?

>>Yeah, they took to X this week on a long thread and sort of gave some justification on why they were thinking this.

Some of it was there's already existin paved areas that they could easil turn into pickleball courts or in one case, cabins at Grayson Beach State Park, which is up in the panhandle, were booked all the time.

So more access to overnight stays were needed.

But then in the same statement they would talk about 175 state parks in Florida have nearly 30 million visitors a year.

This was according to around 2022-2023 stats, an annual economic impact of $3.6 billion and supporting 50,000 jobs.

So I guess the justification wasn't really there beyond we need more overnight stays.

>>Well, let's see how the Department of Environmental Protection eventually comes back down on this, now that they're back to the to the drawing board.

But I want to talk about another couple of political stories that have been making the news this week.

And I want to start with the elections, if I can, of the primaries that we had.

Orange County Commission races in your area, Nick, in districts three and five, there weren't any winners that were declared as no one got over 50%.

Can you remind u of the candidates in those races and what happens now?

>>Yeah.

So District three will be going to a runoff in November.

That is with Mayra Uribe, who is the incumbent.

She's been part of the commission since 2018 versus Linda Stewart, who got 34.7% of the vote.

Yeah.

Also of the Florida House an the county commission as well.

So they got about 20,000 total votes for that election in August.

And so they're looking for a bigger turnout, I think is what both candidates are looking for there.

And then in District five, Emily Bonilla, who is the current district commissioner, she is termed out.

So she won't be running again.

So it's between Dr. Kelly Semrad, UCF professor of tourism, and Steve Leary, who was formerly worked at or has been elected to the Winter Park City Commission and ha served as mayor there as well.

>>No race really was tight.

I think the district one possibly the tightest in the state Nicole Wilson against challenger Austin Arthur.

How did it shake out and what happens next?

>>Well, now, I mean, look, we started on election night.

We saw that it was they were down to five votes.

That was on election night.

Then by Thursday, separated by two votes here, two votes.

And I'm like, oh, my gosh, just two votes.

This is pretty interesting here and now what we will see happen is there won't be a recount, but a runoff, rather, for this particular race here.

And we'll see what happens.

I know that there have been and it's nonpartisan, particularly, but we know each have their political leanings here and even interest on either side.

But it will be interesting to see what happens during that runoff when that runoff does happen here.

I know it will be very interesting because we've got a lot going on in Orange County, a lot going on with additional seats potentially being added and everything.

So it'll be interesting to see what happens with this particular race.

>>And developmen has been a big issue in District one over the years.

Steve, I wanted to get your takeaways on these elections.

You wrote a piece actually about mai in voting falling significantly.

What did you find out and do we know why?

Oh it's just a lot of reasons for that.

First of all, 2020, obviously, Democrats voted by mail much more because of obvious what was going on with COVID and that sort of Republicans look to Trump.

Who Trump looked at that and said, obviously there's too many false claims of fraud and cheating and whatnot.

So that became like a major issue for Republicans and conservatives who are now a lot of them were against voting by mail.

So now Democrats went up, Republicans drop.

But at the same time, a lot of Democrats who did vote by mail in 2020 for whatever reason, decided not to do it this time, bringing that down and the other Republican who don't want to do it, fearing what they're hearing from Trump and that's bringing that down.

And plus, there's a new law that essentially your vote by mail reques like disappear after two years.

So before it was four years, you just signed up to vote by mail.

And just for the next, you know, two major elections, city elections, you know, for four years, you'll be getting these mail in ballots without thinking about it.

And now, as of 2023, January 1st, they just disappeared off the face of the earth and they will disappear again off the face of the earth after this election on January 25.

So you just a lot of people, especially since the Democratic Party, that was no presidential primary, who just haven't gotten around or didn't even realiz that they had to sign up again.

>>Well, we'll see if that tren holds for the general election.

Certainly, voters have got a lot of different rules to to navigate as we head towards November.

Meanwhile you can find links to Florida's great outdoors initiative, including details of the proposals and the survey for public feedback on our website at wucf.org/newsnight.

Okay.

Next tonight, let's get an update on the work of the Pulse Memorial Advisory Committee, which met again last week.

The aim of the most recent meeting to hear from survivors and family members who did not sit on the committee.

The body is tasked by the City of Orlando to develop a permanent memoria eight years after the tragedy.

>>For all the survivors I you know, I am grateful for you guys.

And, you know, this is this will b one of the moments in your life.

But for my mother, this was the last moment of her life.

And with that being said, I think that it should we should put more focus on the 49 people that didn't survive because there's no one here to tell their story.

>>Robert Pressley there, Nick you were at - you've attended these these meetings.

One of the issues that sort of stood out to me is kind of this this tension between whether they shoul mostly memorialize the victims, whether survivors should be included as well.

What stood out to you?

>>Yeah, there were a couple of conversations around that and several survivors called in those who weren't on the committee.

So the committee is 18 people and they're hearin from as many people as possible, not only survivors but family community members, etc.. And many of the survivors are saying the survivors can wai as far as being memorialized in whatever ends up being built on the Pulse property.

Another thing that they said was they wanted it to be a place to educate people on what happene there, but also a place of joy.

Some of the words that you were hearing from the community were faith and hope and a place where you can commune with loved ones for the places where they're survivors and the family members could go be there.

On the second day of the most recent meetings on August 22nd, they di an exercise, a persona exercise, where they aske not only the committee members, but people who were giving comments to sort of put yourself into a different role, whether that was a family member, a survivor, a patron or employee of Pulse, a community member.

And tell us what you would want to see as one of those personas.

And that was pretty interesting.

Many people actually chose children and students.

That was the overwhelming choice.

So because they fee that it was important to convey not only what happened, but what happened afterwards, what happened to the communit here, and how we came together, not only locally but nationally and internationally.

>>Certainly a lot of sensitivities here.

And there are concerns, it seems to me, from from family members over the makeup of that committee itself and sort of their connection to the tragedy.

What do you think are the main concerns that you see emerging during these meetings?

>>Yeah, there were 150 people who applied and 18 people chosen from a committee perspective.

They couldn't have everybody on there, is my understanding.

But it's a good sampling of the people and there are still opportunities for people to come in and be part of it.

>>Yeah.

Just remind us, Steve, about how Mayor Dyre has said he wants to see this process go forward.

>>Yes, obviously, you mentioned like the group that' made up of, you know, 18 people.

And a lot of these people, they include like, you know, architects and things like that and people like, you know, in terms of the design of it.

But those people also, you know, have new people, new sort of new victims and, you know, survivors.

So there's a even if the people who are you know, the professionals, they also have like you know, personal connections.

And I think that's sort of wha they want to do going forward.

I guess they're still burne by what happened with OnePulse.

And they want to make sure that the people in charge of this, you know, do have connections and do, you know, personal feelings about what happened and going forward.

>>Some news on the on the legal front regarding Pulse as well this week.

>>Yes.

Yes.

We learned that through an investigation with OPD, they determine that the owners will not face involuntary manslaughter charges.

One of the big crux of this, they cannot.

So they say that the owner had no idea that an individual was going to come in and and start doing what he did shooting people on that day.

So it's like they can't be held responsible for that.

And all of this, we know, was started once family members of the victim and some of their family members filed a police report saying that the owners should be held liable, should be held responsible and negligence lawsuits.

And that's what they were they were hoping for.

But, of course, this extensive investigation by the by OPD, several months, I don't think it was quite a year, but several months here that they looked into it and determined that the the owners, Barbara and Rosario Poma, will not be facing any involuntary manslaughter charges.

>>Which is of course, what they had wanted.

Meanwhile, we always want to hear your thoughts on the news of the week.

Be sure to visit us on social media we're at WUCFTV on Facebook and Instagram and you'll find us on X, @NewsNightWUCF.

[MUSIC] All right.

Finally tonight, developments affecting Florida's hospitality industry.

Let's talk about them one by one.

First, a federal judge in Texas last week threw out a Biden administratio ban on noncompete agreements that was due to take effec next Wednesday.

Several major player in hospitality, including groups representing the hotel and restaurant industries, had staunchly opposed the Federal Trade Commission rule.

The government could appeal the ruling, as Krystel Knowles reports.

>>Starting a new job can be exciting the beginning of a new chapter.

But what happens when that future involves an industry such as the hospitality and tourism sector, where non-compete are widely used?

Non-compete are also standard in the broadcasting industry.

Long time journalist Valerie Boey.

>>As a reporter, I would sign a contract and then I would have a non-compete meaning I would have to stay out for six months i I decided to leave the station or not renew my contract.

And so I think it's a really great thin to get rid of the non-compete.

>>In April, the Federal Trade Commission created a rule that would do just that.

The FTC's Dougla Farrar says the new rule aimed at giving lower wage earners a fighting chance at a time when the cost of living is so high.

>>Wages put back into million of Americans pockets.

We're talking about over $50 a year.

>>According to the FTC, about 18% of U.S. workers have non-compete, which is about on in five people.

And those industries can rang anywhere between the medical all the way to the hospitality industry.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, between 15 and 25% of hospitality workers are subject to one.

In central Florida alone, there are about 270,000 workers in the tourism industry.

Industry groups, including the Restaurant Association, are not on board with the FTC rule, claiming it will reduce competition.

During a recent congressiona meeting, Republican Dave Joyce questioned the FTC's authority to ban non-compete, paving the way for what was to come next.

>>Under what statutory authority di the FTC issue the final rule prohibitin non-compete agreements and essentially nullify such contracts between employees and employers across the country.

>>The FTC Act prohibit unfair methods of competition, and the FTC has determine that non-compete clauses constitut unfair methods of competition.

And so that was the authority that we did this under.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit joined by two Texas business groups, executives and a tax firm challenging the ban.

And just last week a federal judge in Texas blocked the FTC rule just days before it was set to take effect.

Here's what Ferrer said sometime before the ruling and what the game plan would be if the FTC did not prevail in the courts.

There will be appeals processe if if we somehow don't win.

Also, Congres has the ability to pass laws.

And in fact, several members of Congress have proposed non-compete bans similar to the one we proposed.

And on a bipartisan way, those members of Congress, the senators who wrote thos bills, have endorsed the FTC's actions and our legal authority to carry this forward.

>>Krystel Knowles reporting.

Nick, let me start with you on this one.

Why does the hospitality industry like the restaurant and lodging sectors, say it's opposed to these FTC rules and non-compete?

>>Yeah.

The industry groups say that these don't apply to the line workers, that people are workin in the restaurant front and back of house They mostly apply to the executive who know the secret sauce.

And they don't want that getting out.

They don't want necessarily anybod being able to take trade secrets or proprietary information from one organization to another.

So that's their justification behind this.

>>Yeah.

Curtis, I wanted to ask you about a separate case in the Villages.

A judge ruled against the FTC in this case as well.

Just tell us about that.

>>So essentially, Steve, here what they're looking for, they're tryin to protect their interests here and what's kind of what they say they prowled the company on since it was founded back in the eighties.

And they don't want, you know any any former sales associates or workers who work with the to be able to just start start immediately being abl to sell real estate in the area.

There is a 24 non-compete that they want in place that is in place and they want to keep that there so that, you know, they can't just immediately go across the street.

It's similar what we see and broadcast.

I mean, I've been in a news TV news business for about 15 years or more.

And pretty much every contract I've signed, there' a non-compete agreement in there where I can't just go across the street.

If for some reason I lose my employment I have an either, whether it be depending on the contract, six months to a year, some time one contract I think I remember was two years where you have to wait a period of time so that sure that taking those quote unquote, as we mentioned earlier, the trade secrets too, from one shop to another.

And, you know, taking advantage of a market.

>>I want to pivot to a couple of other issues in the tourism sector, if I can.

Both the presidential candidates have said that they favor ending taxes on tips.

Workers seem to like it.

Right.

But but economists don't.

Do we have an idea about how such a move might affect the economy in Florida?

>>Yeah, I would say at the outset it wouldn't have much of an effect because this would be federal taxes.

So it wouldn't affect the economy of the Florida government on a long term.

What some economists are saying it might affect income into the federal government of 10 billion to $25 billion a year, which those cuts would have to come from somewhere to make up that shortfall.

So those might be federal program or something along those lines.

There's also a question of whether that applies to payroll tax and whether the tips would still be taxed there for Social Security and Medicare as well.

So another long term issue.

>>I mean, it's really interesting that both of the presidential candidates have have got on this issue.

Do you think it's smart politics Steve?

>>It is popular with folks like initially, like oh, yeah, no tax on tips.

It's like I said, economist are sort of wary about the idea.

But, you know, I guess the idea i just get through the election and then worry about that afterwards, you know, So the other sid is never an advantage on that.

But yeah, there's a lot of question about, you know, will this impact California that has higher minimum wages and people's incomes are less that less, more wage and less tips out there, will that hurt to them as opposed to places with lower wage and like higher tips?

You know, look, again, like, you know, Social Security, taxes, things like that.

It's also the issue of like, you know, what counts as like a tip.

There's worries that like, you know, if you're a financial adviser instead of taking it straight, you know, you know, percentage or something like that, like, oh, now just just, you know, tip me.

What can be a ti is essentially a lot of people, if there are no taxes on tips will essentially just be you know, taking much less salary and like a lot more than just tips.

So that's the thing that reall has to be looked at like a lot.

>>Well with the vice president and the former president, both backing this idea.

It's something that we'l probably be talking about again.

Finally, a story that's made national news the disappearance of information for LGBTQ travelers to Florida on the Visit Florida website.

First, let's hear from the governor who said he didn't know about that issue either, and he addressed it on Wednesday.

>>I was aware after the fact.

I mean, look, our our view as a state i we're the best place to visit.

We're open to all.

But we're not going to b segregating people by these differen characteristics.

That's not how we've done business and any of the things that we've done, and that's just not how we're operating.

So we have people from all walks of life.

They come they enjoy the state of Florida and that's, I think, the way you know, the policy has been.

So I'm not sure how any of that stuff started or this.

I am aware of it now, but I think nothing really changes in the fact that Florida is going to remain a great place to be.

>>Governor DeSantis there.

Okay, Curtis, what information was removed from from visit Florida site and do we know why?

>>So we know that there was a landing page that was removed, Steve, and it provided information at Florida's gay friendly beaches, also information about pride event and also LGBTQ road trip ideas.

We know that that was moved.

Now, as far as to the the the the breath of the the deep meaning behind why it was all removed, I haven't been able to gleam or haven't found it from any information as to why it was removed.

I know that they are still I know the governor mentioned he was looking into it and trying to kind of see and saying that, you know, a lot of it, it doesn't really change a lot of things.

But I know there are a number of people, even in businesses, visit Florida.

You know, it was a it was a marketing tool, a marketing tool that they utilized.

>>I mean, Visit Orlando still has an LGBTQ section on on its site.

The governor says didn't know about it.

But certainly politically, it does seem to align with the prioritie of the DeSantis administration.

In fact, we heard him say that there.

>>Oh, yeah, this this essentially is in his wheelhouse of just, you know, like you said, like talking about, you know, advertising and marketing as sort of segregating like a marketing advertising or specifically, you know, towards different segments.

And that's so, yeah but this this goes along with, you know, his LGBTQ policies, you know, from almost from day one.

>>A reminde you can find much more NewsNight content on our website.

Visit us online at wucf.org/newsnigh along the bottom of your screen.

That is all the time we hav for this week.

My thanks to Nick Georgoudiou from the Community Paper, thanks so much for coming in.

>>Thanks for having.

>>Good to see you.

Steven Lemongello from the Orlando Sentinel and Curtis McCloud from Spectrum News 13.

Thank you guys, so much for coming in.

Really appreciate your time today.

NewsNight will be taking a break next week, but we'll see you back here the following Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

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