In this episode: With lobbyists for big corporations like Publix and Florida Power & Light cheering them on, Republican leaders in the Florida Legislature began advancing new plans this week that are meant to make it much harder — maybe even impossible — for everyday citizens in Florida to pass ballot measures through petition drives. Plus: An oversight fight that could have major implications for efforts to restore the Florida Everglades and an anti-abortion poison pill slipped inside a boat-safety bill.

Show notes:

Links to all the bills referenced in today’s show:

House Bill 1205 — Initiative Petitions for Constitutional Amendments

Senate Bill 7016 — Initiative Petitions Proposing an Amendment to the State Constitution

Senate Bill 7002 — Water Management Districts

House Bill 289 — Boating Safety

Senate Bill 628 — Boating Safety

Senate Bill 676 — Minimum Wage Requirements

Senate Bill 700 — Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services

Senate Bill 498 — Interest Rates Applicable to the Interest on Trust Accounts Program

Senate Bill 832 — Former Phosphate Mining Lands

Banks lobbyists want to slash funding for legal support programs

Florida lawmakers may help a mining giant fend off lawsuits

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In this episode: The Florida Legislature opened its 2025 session Tuesday — and Republican legislative leaders are already forcing Ron DeSantis onto some politically dangerous ground. Plus: Lawmakers move forward on a favor for one of the state’s biggest companies. And the most important battle of session is about to begin.

Show notes:

Secret study reveals insurance companies pocketed billions while crying poor in Florida

Florida lawmakers may help a mining giant fend off lawsuits

What to watch as Florida's 2025 session begins

HB 1205 — Initiative Petitions for Constitutional Amendments

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In this episode: Insurance companies in Florida have been quietly pocketing billions of dollars in profits while claiming to lose money, according to an explosive new report from the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald. The insurance industry used those “losses” as a pretense to lobby Florida politicians into passing a series of industry-written, anti-consumer laws that have left millions of Florida homeowners and business owners paying higher prices for poorer quality policies. And a taxpayer-funded study exposing it all was kept hidden from the public for two years. Tampa Bay Times reporter Lawrence Mower, the journalist who broke the story, joins the show to talk about it.

Show notes:

Florida insurance companies steered money to investors while claiming losses, study says

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In this episode: Ron DeSantis and Republicans in the Florida Legislature end a month of fighting over immigration by agreeing to a package of bills that crack down on college kids — but cower from big corporations. Florida’s new immigration legislation is most interesting for the way that Republican state lawmakers used the process to push back against DeSantis after years of playing a submissive second fiddle to the governor. And now the Republican-appointed Florida Supreme Court is kicking his butt, too.

Show notes:

Jim DeFede analysis: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis backs down on immigration

Debbie Mayfield vs. Secretary, Florida Department of State

Car dealers try to keep a chokehold on new car sales in Florida

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In this episode: Florida lawmakers are finding ways to reassert themselves after half a decade of cowering in a corner from Ron DeSantis. Meanwhile, Florida’s agriculture commissioner — a potential candidate for governor in 2026 — doesn’t think the state should use its power to protect farmworkers dying in 100-degree heat. But he does think the state should use its power to protect the dairy industry’s market share. An update from another week of hearings in Tallahassee as the Florida Legislature prepares for its 2025 session.

Show notes:

Senate Bill 108

Babies over bachelor’s degrees? DeSantis appointee says women should choose motherhood over higher ed

Why DeSantis vetoed a farmworker housing bill passed unanimously by state lawmakers

Milking the system: The dairy industry takes more of your money by erecting barriers to competition. Got rent-seeking?

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In this episode: One year ago, Ron DeSantis wiped out almost all state funding for arts and cultural programs across Florida because he claimed some of the shows getting to be funded were too “sexual.” Now, the Republican says he’s willing to restore arts funding in Florida — but only if he gets to deny money to any groups he doesn’t like. It’s part of a broader theme running through a new state budget DeSantis proposed this week, which could further empower the governor and his allies to block research grants, defund university programs, pull books from libraries, harass petition drives, and spread taxpayer-funded propaganda.

Show notes:

DeSantis said he cut Florida’s arts funding over ‘sexual’ festivals

Ron DeSantis wants lawmakers to sanction his election interference

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In this episode: In a wild 48 hours, Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature made clear that it is sick of Ron DeSantis’ self-promoting schtick. But as much fun as it was to watch the biggest bully in Florida politics get his head metaphorically dunked in a toilet, Florida’s two-day special session on immigration also saw a bunch of innocent kids get hurt by politicians who seem more interested in performative cruelty than solving root causes.

Show notes:

Selective outrage: DeSantis, GOP lawmakers give pass to companies violating immigration laws | Commentary

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In this episode: Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature just wrapped up its first week of hearings ahead of the state’s annual 60-day lawmaking session, which will begin in March. The week offered a sneak preview of some big coming battles on issues like abortion and immigration. But it also revealed important fights ahead over insurance industry secrets, rock mining in the Everglades, and favors for banks.

Show notes:

How Florida could try to stop voters from ever again voting on abortion access

Politicians weakened state ethics laws. Investigators are now closing cases.

How home insurance companies in Florida sidestep rules meant to prevent excess profits

Banks lobbyists want to slash funding for legal support programs

Ron DeSantis' top aide punished bank lobbyists for being disloyal

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In this episode: Florida has become a national leader…at kicking kids off health insurance. Over the past year or so, politicians in Tallahassee have presided over a brutish purge of state insurance rolls, defied federal rules meant to keep kids covered, and slow-walked a bipartisan expansion plan that was supposed to ensure medical care for more children. Joan Alker, a professor at Georgetown University and national health-policy expert, has has been sounding the alarm about Florida’s actions. She joins the show to explain what’s happened.

Show notes:

A few helpful resources and articles:

Florida’s children’s healthcare report card

What is the impact of unwinding on Medicaid enrollment?

Child Medicaid Disenrollment Data Shows Wide Variation in State Performance as Continuous Coverage Pandemic Protections Lifted

State of Florida Files Legal Challenge to Weaken Continuous Coverage Protection for Children in CHIP Nationwide

A Deeper Dive into Florida’s Lawsuit Seeking to Undermine the New Requirement for 12-Months Continuous Eligibility for Children in Separate State CHIP Programs

Florida’s Governor Spends Taxpayer Money on Lawyers to Further Delay Covering Children

Biden administration OKs Florida KidCare waiver

Thanks but no thanks: State turns down Florida KidCare waiver approval

DeSantis health officials to delay KidCare expansion until after Trump takes office

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In this episode: Since taking total control of state government 25 years ago, Florida Republicans have systematically rolled back reforms that once kept state courts independent. It was a project launched by Jeb Bush, expanded by Rick Scott, and that has now culminated under Ron DeSantis with a Florida Supreme Court that is a rubber stamp for the governor and Legislature — and a roadblock for anyone who dares to challenge them. Learn more about how it happened from Martin Dyckman, a Florida journalist and historian whose investigative reporting once exposed Supreme Court corruption and spurred some of the very reforms that have been undone.

Show notes:

Read this Dyckman column in the Sun-Sentinel explaining some of the history and changes in more detail.

And if you want to do a truly deep dive into the subject, check out his book: A Most Disorderly Court: Scandal and Reform in the Florida Judiciary (and don’t forget his biographies of Govs. Reubin Askew and Leroy Collins, too).

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