Search results for

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and the state legislature — which is dominated by Republicans who have supermajorities in both chambers — have implemented a series of policies and laws in recent years that critics say are demonstrating tendencies toward autocracy. We speak with three people who count themselves among the critics who are decrying what they see as autocratic tendencies in Tallahassee and here in Florida. They are all members of the nonprofit, Floridians for Democracy, which was formed in April, 2023 to bring together voices from across the political spectrum to push back against this rising trend.

According to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, as of late 2023, the U.S. immigration court system faced a backlog of more than 3 million pending cases. This number has more than doubled since 2019 and continues to grow, placing immense pressure on the system. Immigration judges are currently being asked to handle an average of 4,500 cases each and so struggle to manage their caseloads effectively. This backlog includes a mix of individuals seeking asylum, appealing deportation orders, or addressing other immigration-related issues. To get some insight into the challenges the system faces we talk with a retired Immigration Judge who spent 24 years hearing cases.

Websites of the Florida Center for Government Accountability and the Florida Trident were hit by what was described as a “massive and sophisticated” cyber attack Sunday.Barbara A. Petersen, CEO and publisher of the center and the Trident, said the denial-of-service attack on the flcga.org and floridatrident.org websites were discovered early on and caused only minor disruptions.

Terminal roadway improvements that are part of the Terminal Expansion Project Phase 2 at Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) will mean some changes in the location of ground transportation at the airport.Travelers will notice construction fencing on the lower level roadways involved with those changes now in effect.

The Triple A Auto Club is again offering its Tow-To-Go program, now through January 2nd.As a last resort, Floridians who have had too much to drink can request a tow truck to pick them up along with their vehicle. The number to request the service is 1-855-2 TOW 2 GO or 855-286-9246. That’s 855-286-9246.

This time on the Gulf Coast Life Book Club, we hear from Lydia Conklin, author of the short story collection Rainbow Rainbow, which Time magazine named one of the most anticipated books of the year.

A powerful story of a young woman overcoming huge obstacles to succeed... but maybe not in the way you might think.

A propulsive novel from the point of view of a man convinced of his own cleverness and appeal.

Lightning comes in different varieties, the most common kinds don't reach the ground, called intra-cloud and cloud-to-cloud. Cloud to ground lightning actually only makes up about 10-20% of strikes. About 1% is ground to cloud. Then one of the outlier forms of lightning stretches for miles (sometimes dozens of miles) horizontally and can resemble a spider web, and that’s why it’s called spider lightning. We learn about ongoing research at Florida Gulf Coast University into this form of lightning with the instructor who is leading it and a student who helped her work with the data.