Welcome to Florida

In what is sure to be the grossest episode of "Welcome to Florida" yet, Craig Pittman and Chadd Scott begin by discussing Craig's latest story for the Florida Phoenix which focuses on a toxic sludge disposal facility in Lakeland, aptly called the BS Ranch, that has neighbors upset and is looking to renew its permit to handle 5,000 tons of sludge PER DAY!

From there, Dr. Roberto M. Pereira joins us. He specializes in urban entomology, conducting research on different aspects of the biology and control of cockroaches, ants, bed bugs, flies, mosquitoes and other insects that live in and around houses and other human structures. He earned a Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Florida.

As always, this week's episode is sponsored by Hipcamp!

Hipcamp is a growing community of respectful people looking to get outside for camping, glamping, and RV stays on private land. Anyone with a property that helps people connect with nature can be a Hipcamp Host! Whether you have an acre of raw land near the Emerald Coast, an RV park on the way to the Everglades, a yurt in your backyard, or a farm outside of Daytona Beach, odds are our community can’t wait to visit!

Find out if your property is a fit to become a Hipcamp host.

Craig Pittman and Chadd Scott begin this week's episode talking briefly about the history of con men in Florida, the attempted overthrow of the federal government last week by white nationalists which prominently featured a Florida Man, and Craig's latest Florida Phoenix article about ecological catastrophe caused by a paper mill on the Fenholloway River in Perry.

This week's guest is Jeff Testerman, a now-retired former investigative reporter at the St. Petersburg Times (before it became the Tampa Bay Times) whose background as a mortgage banker gave him a unique ability among reporters to follow a paper trail and discern dirty deeds from a batch of documents. Exposing the Bobby Thompson scam was his finest hour, That story is told in his new book, "Call Me Commander: A Former Intelligence Officer and the Journalists Who Uncovered His Scheme to Fleece America."

"Welcome to Florida" is now sponsored by HipCamp. If you have property in Florida which will help campers, glampers or RV vacationers connect with nature, HipCamp needs your help as a host. Hosts in Florida are earning up to $1000 a month by offering their property through HipCamp. HipCamp allows you to rent your property on your schedule, pays via PayPal or direct deposit, and even handles the insurance. 

Learn more by visiting HipCamp.com/host.

This episode begins with exciting news about "Welcome to Florida's" first sponsor, Hipcamp. Hipcamp is a growing community of respectful people looking to get outside for camping, glamping, and RV stays on private land. 

Anyone with a property that helps people connect with nature can be a Hipcamp Host. Landowners across Florida are earning up to $1,000 a month. 

It’s free to list and Hipcamp takes care of everything including liability insurance! All you need is a flat spot where someone can pitch a tent or park an RV.

Got a place to share? Get started today at www.hipcamp.com/land or call (917)-563-2616.

Craig Pittman is sharing his weirdest stories of the year from across Florida.

This week's guest is Gilbert King who won the Pulitzer Prize for his book, "Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America," which featured a depiction of one of the most evil sheriffs in Ameircan history, Willis McCall. McCall also features in King's most recent book, "Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race and Justice Lost and Found," another harrowing Florida account. 

Craig and Chadd Scott close the show discussing the death penalty in Florida and Craig explains why the state has more overturned death sentances than any other.

This week's episode of "Welcome to Florida" begins with great news for Florida's critically endangered grasshopper sparrow. Being Florida, the story of course involves a long and twisty road with no shortage of "colorful" characters who Craig Pittman introduces us to.

Craig and Chadd Scott's guest this week is Les Standiford, author of "Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean."
Standiford provides the definitive account of an essential Florida story featuring one of the state's most prominent figures, an engineering marvel and a deadly natural disaster. Les is the founder of the writing program at FIU and the author of more than 20 books, including the recently released "Palm Beach, Mar-A-Lago and the Rise of America's Xanadu."

Merry Christmas everyone. Craig Pittman and Chadd Scott begin this week's episode of "Welcome to Florida" with unusual ways in which the holiday has been celebrated around the state.

20 years ago, a multi-billion dollar, bipartisan, multi-agency, decades-long plan to restore the Everglades to a more natural water flow and ecology was signed by President Bill Clinton and hailed as a fix for what ailed the 'Glades and a model of future ecosystem-scale conservation and environmental restoration globally. Since then, hardly a fraction of what was envisioned has been completed. Craig wrote about this in the Florida Phoenix online and we discuss.

Today's guest is Michael Ray FitzGerald, author of Jacksonville and the Roots of Southern Rock. Michael had a front row seat as a rock music fan living in Jacksonville when the musicians who would make up the Marshall Tucker Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet came through Jacksonville on their way to superstardom. Why Jacksonville? Why that name? How does an undercurrent of racist imagery haunt their work? We discuss all of this and more.

This week's episode begins with Craig Pittman offering advice to Governor Ron DeSantis.

Craig and Chadd Scott are joined by Nicholas Griffin, author of, "The Year of Dangerous Days: Riots, Refugees and Cocaine in Miami 1980." Griffin's book shares the remarkable, harrowing and history-altering interconnected stories of Cuba's Marielitos, the largest mass migration event in U.S. history, the explosion of the cocaine trade, and the race riots spawned by the acquital of four Miami-Dade police officers following their beating to death of Black resident Arthur McDuffie, all of which shook Miami to its foundations over a matter of weeks in 1980.

The episode closes with two noteworthy museum exhibitions worth your time, "Yesterday, This Was Home: The Ocoee Massacre of 1920" at the Orange County Regional History Center in Downtown Orlando, and an exhibit of the work of Ft. Myers resident Marcus Jansen at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College in Winter Park.

Craig Pittman and Chadd Scott begin this week's episode talking about the return of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to public view following a month in hiding. Craig and Chadd discuss the governor's handling of the Coronavirus pandemic.

This week's guest is renowned Florida landscape photographer Clyde Butcher, Clyde has been photographing the state for 30 years and shares his favorite spots to shoot, tips for hobbyist photographers, and how his career led him into environmental activism.

Craig Pittman shares good environmental news  with Chadd Scott to begin this episode and the two discuss a quirky feature of Fernandina Beach's local government.

This week's guest is best-selling author Monte Burke whose latest book, "Lords of the Fly: Madness, Obsession, and the Hunt for the World Record Tarpon," dives into the tarpon fly fishing craze around Homosassa in the early 1980s. From Flip Pallot, to Ted Williams, Jimmy Buffett to a hardened gangster, everyone wanted to take a crack at landing a world record tarpon on fly tackle. 

Craig Pittman and Chadd Scott begin this Thanksgiving Week episode discussing their favorite holiday traditions before engaging in a conversation with historian and author Gary Mormino about the influence immigrants have had, and continue to have, on Florida.

Mormino is the author of "The Immigrant World of Ybor City: Italians and their Latin Neighbors in tampa, 1885-1985."

Craig Pittman and Chadd Scott take a break from the anxiety of 2020 to discuss their favorite Florida TV shows and the shows which have shaped the state's image. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans joins to discuss everything from "I Dream of Jeannie" to "Miami Vice," "Golden Girls," "Dexter" and "Siesta Key."

Remember to follow Craig on Twitter and Facebook @CraigTimes and Chadd on Twitter @ChaddScott.