Florida Matters

About 200 Florida Panthers are alive today.

National Geographic magazine calls it "America's Most Endangered Cat." And in the magazine's April issue, the featured story is about the efforts to save the panther.

On this week’s Florida Matters, WUSF reporter Steve Newborn has a conversation with two Floridians profiled in the piece.

Carlton Ward Jr is a conservation photographer. Brian Kelly is a panther biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

We learn about the history of former Piney Point phosphate plant, what’s being done to fix its issues, and if there are similar sites in the region with the same problems.

In late March, a retention pond at the plant sprung a leak.

More than 200 million gallons of wastewater spilled into Tampa Bay, which could create environmental problems in the long run.

Since then, the leak has been temporarily fixed. And on Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the state will come up with a plan to close the site for good.

Piney Point has been a thorny issue for decades for Manatee County officials. The phosphate plant closed in the early 2000s. HRK Holdings went bankrupt after 2011 leak.

The Florida Legislature has been in session for a month. And so far, lawmakers have passed COVID-19 liability protections for businesses.

In the next six weeks, the House and Senate will also have to agree on a budget.

They will also debate a host of other issues: restrictions to mail-in voting, changes to the Bright Futures scholarship, and what to do with Florida’s share of federal COVID-19 relief money.

Host Bradley George breaks down the progress (or stalling) of bills on those issues with Mary Ellen Klas, Tallahassee bureau chief for the Miami Herald, and political reporter William March.

Tropicana Field has been home to the Tampa Bay Rays since 1998.

But the baseball stadium and surrounding parking lots was once a neighborhood.

On this week’s episode, we focus on the legacy of the Gas Plant neighborhood, and the promises made to its residents.

The neighborhood was the heart of St. Petersburg’s African American community for decades. In the early 80s, it was razed to make room for the ballpark.

On this week’s Florida Matters, we’re talking about what’s next for transportation in Hillsborough County, after the Florida Supreme Court struck down the county’s transportation sales tax.

In 2018, 57% of Hillsborough County voters approved a 1-cent sales tax to fund improvements — everything from sidewalks to better transit.

Now, voters might get to have their say on a replacement tax in 2022.

You’ll hear from Beth Alden, the executive director of the Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization, and Veronica Brezina-Smith, a reporter for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

It’s been a year since the COVID-19 pandemic changed our lives forever. And on today’s show, we look at COVID-19’s impact on Florida.

We check back in with three Tampa Bay residents who we first heard from late last year.

Also an update on the timeline of the pandemic with Health News Florida editor Julio Ochoa.

The Gulf of Mexico is the lifeblood of Florida’s west coast: beaches, fishing, shipping, cruises.

Our first guest calls it the hardest working body of water in the world...and it’s one that’s constantly under threat: from red tide, overfishing, pollution, hurricanes, and oil spills.

The Biden Administration has promised a new focus on confronting climate change and protecting the environment: what does that mean for the Gulf?

Originally aired Dec.8

We’re headed into peak agriculture season in Florida. That includes tomatoes and strawberries grown in Hillsborough County and oranges in Polk County.

Farm laborers — most of them are migrants from Mexico, Central America, and Haiti — will pick the bulk of those crops.

On this week's Florida Matters, we learn more about how the coronavirus is impacting Florida’s agricultural sector. We travel about two hours south of Tampa Bay to Immokalee.

It's a town with few resources: there is no hospital, and workers often live in close quarters.

Farm labor advocates have complained about these conditions for years, with the calls for change gaining new urgency during the ongoing pandemic.

You'll hear two perspectives about what’s being done to protect the health of farm workers.

First, Kelly Morgan, the director of the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center, which is part of the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. The center has developed a COVID safety training program for farmworkers.

After the break is Gerardo Reyes Chavez, a farmworker activist with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

Florida’s 2021 legislative session is now underway. Gov. Ron DeSantis kicked it off Tuesday morning with his State of the State address.

On this week's episode, you'll hear some excerpts of the governor’s speech. And breaking down what it all means — excerpt by excerpt — is host Bradley George and political journalist William March.

The pandemic has been hard on everyone. But for children, it’s catastrophic.

This week, we talk about Class of COVID-19, a recently launched project looking into the pandemic’s effect on disadvantaged children in Florida's education system. Reporters at public radio stations across Florida wrote stories for the project including WUSF's Kerry Sheridan.

Host Bradley George talks with her about how she reported her story on Hillsborough County's migrant education program. Also joining the conversation is Jessica Bakeman, a reporter and project editor at WLRN Miami.