>>This week on NewsNight, part one of our look back at some of the top stories of 2023, including the impact of crime in the Pine Hills area and what's being done about it.

Redistricting and the upcoming elections.

What's next for the historic town of Eatonville and how newly enacted immigration laws are affecting Florida.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello and welcome to NewsNight I'm Steve Mort.

With the help of journalists from outlets across central Florida, we've covered a lot of territory in the last 12 months.

For our final two programs of 2023, we'd like to look back at some of the discussions that focused on the issues that have had a great deal of impact on our community.

>>We started off the year with a tragic story that affected the close knit but troubled community of Pine Hills.

As a local journalist, his photographer on assignment and a seven year old girl were gunned down in broad daylight.

NewsNight's Krystel Knowles spoke to Pine Hills community leaders about gun violence and some of the potential causes, which we followed up with an in-depth discussion with journalist Daralene Jones from WFTV, Curtis McCloud from Spectrum News 13 and Joe Mario Pederson of 90.7 WMFE News.

>>I'm a fabric of this community, a fabric of this community that knows the good and the bad.

And I'm doing everything possible with the village to do what we can to turn that around.

And with the recent happenings, it's even more work to be done.

I won't give up.

Absolutely not.

Servant, leader, Servant leaders can't give up.

We have hard times that people are facing.

We have health issues, but we're willing to work with them.

We talk about resources that are there every single day.

But I also think that we can do a better job of pushing it out there for the people that really need it.

We don't want to do a handout.

We want to do a hand up.

>>We hear so many theories about the causes of violence, you know, whether it's poverty, food insecurity, health, gangs, drugs and so on.

When you talk to people in the community, to what do they attribute the causes of these violent incidents that we see all too often?

>>Well, you know, the first thing I want to make clear, as we have discussed previously, Pine Hills is not this rampant crime ridden community that people think it out to be.

In fact, I live literally a mile and a half, two miles from what is considered Pine Hills.

I feel very safe every single day.

I go home and there are many people who feel very safe living in the Pine Hills community and other communities where we experience crime.

But what the people in these communities would attribute to the crime is the fact that in some instances they have been forgotten.

They are often on the outskirts of community where government leaders sometimes have forgotten about the resources that they also need.

When you think about a community like a Pine Hills or a Paramore, even areas on the east side of Orange County, think about the food insecurities that exists there.

Some of those communities don't even have a grocery store within walking distance.

They don't have great access to health care.

They don't have great access to jobs, transportation to get to to jobs.

And so there are layered issues within these communities where we are experiencing some crime problems.

>>I hope we can get to some of those issues.

Curtis, let me ask you this.

In the wake of the shootings last month, the community held a gathering right in Pine Hills to sort of try to find some solutions to this gun violence issue.

What kinds of solutions are community leaders eyeing there?

>>They're eyeing a number of things.

Some of those talked about at one of those meetings, particularly, you know, providing more mental health resources for people there.

Also, some of those resources, including some afterschool programs, things that students may be able to get involved in, people in the community to just help deter them from some of the the violent nature that may be on the streets there.

Now, I will also say that some of the ideas that people kind of proposed as a way to kind of deter crime or, you know, some ways is they're talked about putting cameras up and maybe having a more watchful eye so that they can have these cameras in the community to help law enforcement with, you know, trying to track down people that may be responsible for crimes or even to deter people that may want to come into those communities and do or commit some sort of criminal activities.

>>Cameras of course, have their own set of problems when it comes to people sort of being surveilled a lot.

>>Right.

Right.

>>All of our networks have covered this issue a lot.

What are you hearing from people in that community?

>>That community just isn't getting the resources that it needs.

And we're not just talking about money that's going to companies that's going to help develop Pine Hills, but specifically companies from Pine Hills who know Pine Hills that can develop around Pine Hills the way that that community needs them.

Right.

So we're talking about how having more jobs back in that community, having an outlet for recreational resources.

Right.

The other big thing that we keep hearing is changing the perception of Pine Hills.

Right.

That has a really unfavorable nickname, right?

Crime Hills.

And that's very much something that the community wants to take back because they're not "Crime Hills" They are much more than that.

They have a lot of things that they're proud of and there's a lot of things that are coming soon, right?

There's a multicultural center that's in development right now.

There's a Korean - Caribbean supermarket.

That's huge.

It's awesome.

There's a Chinese market over there.

Chinatown, Right.

In fact, the Chinatown gate on Colonial just celebrated its 10th anniversary.

>>Orange County leaders approved a recommendation by the Citizens Safety Task Force for Violence Prevention, which includes a crisis response team to help victims at crime scenes and a community violence intervention program which focuses on people who are most likely to become involved in gun violence as either a perpetrator or a victim.

Meanwhile, be sure to join the conversation on social media.

We're at WUCF TV on Facebook, X, and Instagram.

For this next story, it's worth noting that this show is prerecorded and things might change by the time this airs.

The legal fights over redistricting made headlines more than once this year.

The map put forward by Governor DeSantis and approved by the state legislature was derided by Democrats and voting activist groups alike as a blatant attempt to dilute the voting power of black residents.

Daralene Jones and Curtis McCloud were once again in our studio, along with Skyler Swisher from the Orlando Sentinel, to talk about the importance of a Florida judge rejecting the congressional map drawn up by Governor DeSantis and what that means for the 2024 election >>Fair districts Amendment five and six state that you can't draw maps that diminish the voting powers of black and brown people, and you can't draw a map that favors one political party over another.

And now black voters have an opportunity to get a new map that will be redrawn and it will allow them to elect the candidate of their choice.

Numerically, what this means is that 360,000 black people who were distributed across four different congressional districts all only being considered white performing will now be able to come back together as a voting bloc and elect the candidate of their choice and that way, a elected candidate won't be able to choose their voters.

The voters will be able to choose the candidate they want to represent them in Congress.

>>Curtis, let me start with you on this one.

And if we can step back a second and just give us a little primer on what we mean by Black Access or Black Opportunity districts, I feel some people might not quite understand what we mean by that.

>>Exactly Steve I mean when you got to go back to 1965, the Voting Rights Act and look at what it did and what it was supposed to do, give access to black communities, give them more people that could be elected into, of course, positions of power.

And people are saying now, we heard from Jasmine Burne-Clark that blacks or African-Americans or people in that specific block aren't getting a fair shake.

>>Skyler, this map was largely drawn up by the governor's office.

Right.

Which rejected a map that had already been drawn up by the legislature that preserved the previous district five in North Florida.

Remind us why the DeSantis administration says that district is, you know, has to be eliminated.

>>Well, the stated reason is that Governor DeSantis says that this district violates constitutional standards dealing with the compactness of districts.

You know, it spans along North Florida.

The governor's critics say, you know, the reason is to increase the number of Republican representatives here in from Florida and to ultimately give Republicans control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

>>You know, it's interesting looking at this, Daralene.

you know, it's a kind of a pattern of federal judge just this week threw out Alabama's latest congressional map for failing to comply with the Voting Rights Act.

The Supreme Court, I think, had already tossed out an earlier map from the Alabama legislature.

I mean, is this part of a of a pattern you think we're seeing in some states?

Can we say that?

>>It's happening in other states?

We have it here in Florida.

We also know what's happening in Alabama.

Georgia also impacted Ohio.

It's happening in other states-- >>Louisiana.

>>Louisiana, as well, because what you have is Republicans across the country trying to work.

And I think in some cases they thought the courts would be on their side because, you know, some of these courts are stacked with, you know, Republican leaning justices.

But what happened is the justices have decided that, no, the law is what it is.

>>In September, a Leon County circuit judge agreed the map violated the state constitution.

And now it seems the first District court of appeals might be questioning the 2015 Supreme Court approval of a district map that favored black Democrat Al Lawson by stating that keeping the map unchanged would be gerrymandering.

Both sides hoped for a swift appeals court ruling to give the Florida Supreme Court time to consider the matter before next year's legislative session.

Next, we turn to the historic town of Eatonville, where the fight over the property where the Hungerford school once stood still continues.

A lawsuit filed by a civil rights group, the Southern Poverty Law Center against the Orange County School Board, said the sale of the land should be halted until a judge could decide once and for all if a 1950 restriction that requires the land to be used only for the education of black children is still valid.

First, we'll hear from John Beecham from the Land Back campaign, followed by our panel discussion with Desiree Stennett of the Orlando Sentinel, Danielle Prieur of 90.7 WMFE News as well.

>>You see sweat out here, You see love out here, You see family out here.

This land that we're looking at, the Hungerford properties where I have my sweat, my parents have their sweat.

All my ancestors, uncles, cousins, grandparents, all have their sweat here.

Eatonville was a community where we did everything as a community.

So if there was like a special holiday, it was all established right here on this land.

We all met here.

This is where my brothers played football.

This is where Deacon Jones played football.

This is where a lot of greats came was all called the Hungerford Bobcats.

So we all bobcats through and through.

This is where Robert Hungerford died.

He was out here as the indigenous people have their relationship with their land.

Thankfully, we have a relationship with this land.

We are.

I'm a steward of this land.

And that's why the fight is so heavy and so hard is that it's a stewardship.

It's a relationship is more than just an empty land to me or just a school existed here.

This is.

This is Eatonville.

First we put this land either in a land trust or a land patent.

So that way this crime never happen again.

Then we would build around a destination.

What does that look like?

A school hub out here.

So we can teach culinary skills.

We can teach hospitality skills so that people in Eatonville can work and get the economic impact and raise thier income.

And then what I'd like to see on Main Street, kind of like Nashville and Recreational Hub.

And we're going to we're not only going to win, but we're gonna get our land completely back and we're going to put it in the right context so that this will never happen again.

>>Eatonville resident John Beecham there.

Well, this is a really interesting story that you guys have been following closely.

Desiree, let me start with you on this one before we get to the details specifically of this development that that fell through.

Just remind us about the historical significance of Eatonville to the African-American community, not only in central Florida, but also beyond nationally.

>>Absolutely.

Eatonville was one of the very first black communities that were there was created after slavery.

It was.

There were many black towns that that were or black communities that were created immediately post slavery, but this was one of the first one that was incorporated that that was able to create their own town and their own government.

And and then it was even more catapulted into fame because of the renowned write Zora - Zora Neale Hurston depicting Eatonville in her in her writing.

>>The folklorist, yeah.

>>Exactly.

And, and really creating this or really sharing this beauty that this town was this black town that had really managed to thrive against so many different circumstances that could have made it not exist today already.

>>I guess that's where the phrase "the town that Freedom built" came from, right, Because it was such an early example of that.

>>Absolutely.

And that's literally like freedom from slavery built this town.

>>Yeah.

Danielle, I mean, the Hungerford land was the location of that the Robert Hungerford normal and industrial school, correct.

That was established in 1889.

Just describe the intention behind that school and sort of how OCPS came to own that land, I think, what, in the 1950s.

>>That's right.

So as we've both written about, it was the first school for black children in this area.

And that was the the whole goal of donating this land.

The stipulation was it could only be used to educate black children.

And so that's what it did.

When it was started, it was kind of modeled after Booker T Washington's Tuskegee Institute, which is now the Tuskegee University.

And it was a boarding school, but also a day school.

And kids would come from all over Florida and Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina to not just to learn vocational skills, but also to receive a really solid liberal arts education.

And so generations of kids were were brought up and went to school there and have wonderful memories of going to school there.

And teachers also have great memories of teaching there in World War Two, I think it was the enrollment kind of dipped a bit and that was when the trustees decided to sell the land to the district, and the district demolished the old buildings, built the new buildings, and the school continued for many, many years after that.

But it is a school that was really built on a dream and a promise of equality.

>>While Orange County does retain ownership of the land, the future of the property is still in question.

The school board attorney is arguing that the only way to honor the 1950 restriction is to open a segregated school on the site, since it was awarded solely for the education of black children.

We'll keep an eye on that in the year ahead.

A reminder, to be sure to head on over to our website as well to see this or any previous episode of NewsNight, plus lots more content.

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

Finally tonight, new immigration laws passed during the legislative session require private employers with 25 or more employees to use E-Verify during the hiring process to reduce the number of undocumented immigrants working in Florida.

It's forecast to have a significant impact on the farming industry, which in turn may create a ripple effect for consumers.

According to migrationpolicy.org, for the more than half a million undocumented workers in Florida.

About 70,000 work in food service and the arts and entertainment industry.

NewsNight's Krystel Knowles spoke with a restaurant manager who explained how this year's new hiring requirement, in her opinion, will hurt the hospitality industry and the pockets of Floridians.

For our panel discussion, we welcome Chantelle Navarro from WFTV, Danielle Prieur from 90.7 WMFE and Natalia Jaramillo of the Orlando Sentinel.

>>We're still suffering the inflation from COVID.

So now you put on top of that the products are being more expensive.

>>For the past five years, Nancy Alva has managed a small restaurant.

She says Latin flavor in Brevard County barely survived the pandemic.

Now Alva believes Florida's new law targeting unauthorized immigration will hit agriculture, creating a financial ripple effect throughout the economy and hurting small businesses like hers.

>>Products will not be available as before because farmers are leaving.

That puts a lot of pressure on us to keep up working, to keep our business going.

As a regular person, I go to the store and I find that the products there, they don't have the good quality as before.

And the other thing is they were more expensive.

>>Even before Florida's new law took effect.

The agriculture industry had long complained about a labor shortage.

>>The single biggest issue we face is the unprecedented shortage of domestic labor and the restricted access to a H-2A guest workforce.

>>Florida accounts for the largest share of visas issued under the H-2A program for seasonal work, lasting less than a year at a time.

Some in the agriculture industry complain the program is expensive, time consuming and inflexible.

>>There are no American workers willing to do these jobs.

In fact, American families are the ones being adversely affected as our workforce crisis will continue to drive food prices, even higher.

>>Adam Lytch from L&M Farms addressed a U.S. Senate committee hearing on the issue in May.

>>The H-2A program is currently our only option.

The program is greatly flawed and made even more challenging by the federal agency entrusted to administer it.

With a volatile wage structure and program restrictions such as seasonal need, which does not work well in this era of modern agriculture.

>>Florida's new law mandates all businesses with 25 or more employees verify the status of their workers through the federal E-Verify system or face hefty fines.

>>The Migration Policy Institute says Florida is home to more than 750,000 undocumented immigrants and predicts the new law will impact the service industry.

Nancy Alva says those effects are already being felt in places that rely on tourism.

As workers leave the state.

>>They have a lot of employees that unfortunately, they're undocumented because they can pay less.

Even though it's incorrect, they will pay less amount of money.

And the owners of those hotels and resorts are very concerned.

>>Governor DeSantis has made immigration a key part of his presidential campaign.

He's touted Florida's new law as a model for the nation.

>>What you want to do is say there's not benefits for coming illegally.

You're either here as a native or you come legally and as or to two fine things.

But to come across the border and end up getting benefits in Florida, you know, does not make sense.

>>Republican state Representative Randy Fine says undocumented people should not get a free pass to work.

He says laws should exist to protect American workers.

>>If there's a problem with our immigration policies, then we need to deal with that.

But we shouldn't be saying don't do laws.

I need to operate a criminal enterprise in order to make money because that's what people are doing when they're knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

That's not the way I was an entrepreneur for 22 years.

I didn't make my money by breaking the law.

No one should.

>>Why do opponents of this new law say it will hurt immigrant communities and the state at large?

>>Well, it's going to be a domino effect is what a lot of people are saying right.

It's like we're going to have these people who are at risk of deportation.

If they get deported, then it's going to be families that are separated.

A lot of these families have kids that, you know, don't know anything other than the US, and either they go to another state or they're going to go out of the country.

And it's it's going to be there's going to be job losses.

It's a lot.

>>Yeah.

Danielle, on the flip side, those that support this, why do they say it's necessary?

>>Yeah.

So for our series that we've done, Central Florida seen and heard immigration divide.

We spoke with a few Republican voters who support the law.

And they basically said they want restrictions in place.

They feel like the federal government hasn't put comprehensive immigration in form or excuse me, reform in place.

And so they support these kind of state and local measures instead.

>>You referred to it the Chantal.

There's been sort of speculation about an exodus of labor from the state.

I want to talk a little bit more about that a little later in the show.

But I mean, is there any evidence that migrants are leaving in significant numbers since July 1st when this law came into effect?

>>Yeah, in our coverage, we've already seen a lot of people.

They started leaving even before the law took effect, even before July 1st when it was first announced, because a lot of these people are scared because certain certain aspects of this, you know, the the the part about the licenses.

Right.

So that they can't drive here, that they're afraid to get into their car because they're going to risk deportation.

We were talking to some groups, Mi Familia Vota said that they had families that that left.

They didn't sign up their kids for school.

So far, they personally had 100 people that that didn't that didn't come back.

>>And Natalia before I come to you.

I want to play another excerpt from our interview with Republican State Representative Randy Fine.

Take a listen.

>>I don't think it'll change things much at all because I'd like to believe that most Floridians run their businesses legally.

They're not operating criminal enterprises.

And if it turns out that a huge percentage of our businesses are actually criminal enterprises, then we have a much bigger problem that we have to deal with.

But the answer is not to facilitate criminality.

The solution is to solve the problem.

>>Representative Fine there.

Natalia is Representative Fine correct that we won't see much impact on businesses.

I mean, is it overblown or are we seeing signs of strain?

And if so, which sectors are feeling the fallout so far?

>>We are seeing signs of strain.

So the a lot of the agricultural industry has hospitality industry, restaurants.

They're losing a lot of workers because of the law.

They're leaving the state, like Chantelle said.

And it's it's affecting the business of the lot.

I spoke with one business owner who owns his own technology company, an Indian Immigrant, and he's saying that if people leave and the hospitality industry, too, they don't have the people to come and clean your rooms.

So that could impact the economy overall and especially central Florida.

>>And as we heard in Krystel's piece, of course, restaurants are also saying it will affect their food supply.

Right?

>>Right.

There's a lot of restaurants that are losing their immigrants.

I've spoken to some who a lot of Venezuelan immigrants, for example, are under asylum.

And they're worried that even though they are here legally, that it's up to the law enforcement to enforce this new law.

And they're worried that they could be discriminated against.

And so they're leaving the state, too.

>>That's a really interesting point.

I want to pivot to talk about the H-2A visa system that, as we heard in Krystel's piece just now, many farmers say is a flawed system.

Here's South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.

>>I am not antagonistic to trying to find a solution to the agricultural dilemma of creating a more robust legal system so you can access legal workers and some can stay because it would add value to our country.

But if we legalize everybody here in the agricultural sector without first securing our border and changing the magnets that are drawing 6 million people in the last couple of years to our country, then we will have made the problem worse.

And of course, there's the lack of flexibility because farmers don't know oftentimes how their season is going to go.

They don't know how many workers they're going to need until pretty close to time, Natalia you wrote about a change in the H-2A rules, right, issued by the Biden administration.

What changed and how are employers responding, especially in the current environment in Florida?

>>So the change was an increase in wages.

So before last year, they were charging or paying immigrants from the H-2A visa program, 12 just about $12 an hour.

Now it's up to 14.

So, you know, it's good on one point for these immigrants who are coming to work and pick crops, which not many other people will do.

But now the employers are saying that they're having a difficult time getting these people because they can't afford to pay them that much more wages.

And so now it's kind of up to, you know, themselves.

They've transitioned down to the U-Pick model, a lot of these local farms, especially to just kind of be able to pick up enough berries to not have that, you know, rotten berry spread diseases to other berries.

>>Labor costs, along with strict immigration rules, make it harder for undocumented people to get a seasonal work visa.

Some farmers are switching to a u-pick business model to prevent food waste.

A reminder be sure to head on over to our website to see this or any previous episode of NewsNight Plus, lots more content as well.

Visit us online at wucf.org/newsnight.

But that is all the time we have for tonight.

I hope you'll join us next week as we continue our look back at some of the most important issues that we have the opportunity to explore in central Florida this year, including new gun laws, home insurance hikes.

And we talk with astronaut Winston Scott.

But until then, take care and have a great week.