TOP STORIES - Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart says health care subsidies could be preserved if Democrats allow the government to reopen. Florida student test scores are up following the classroom cellphone ban, and Governor Ron DeSantis says python removals have tripled since partnering with a leather company. Plus, lawmakers focus on affordability ahead of the 2026 session, a Polk County teacher remains on staff after a birthday song investigation, and a man steals a fire truck from a Tampa hospital before crashing it in a hit-and-run.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good to today's top stories, brought to you by my
friends over at on Koshore for a simple, accurate, non
invasive test that texts all cancers called eight seven seven
twenty four tests. Now, good morning, Natalie.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good morning. Well, it is now day twenty two of
the partial federal government shutdown, and we're hearing from officials
like Mario Diaz, Billart, the highly representative who posted on
x that more than four million Medicare patients are losing
access to telehealth because of the Schumer shutdown, forcing Americans
(00:33):
to pay out of pocket for basic care, which is
he says exactly why shutdowns are devastating, and he says,
quote reminder, House GOP did not cause this shutdown. We
passed a clean funding bill a month ago to keep
the government open and avoid disruptions like this. Schumer must
end the shutdown now. In an interview, he did say
(00:53):
that Schumer, who in the past said shutting down the
government was irresponsible for any reason, voted against the extension
to the iard of November, adding that and when he
was referring to the House pass budget resolution, you know
that the legislation would allow lawmakers to get back to
work more than a month before the ac subsidies disappear
in December. He says they're not going to expire until then.
(01:14):
The issue is still alive, and it just proves that
this shutdown has nothing to do with healthcare, as Democrats
are claiming.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I do find it fascinating that, you know, in the past,
we've seen some of the very people who are very
against government shutdowns now be very much for it in
those circumstances, and some of the same people who are
very much for it this time around very much against
it last time.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
It's just it's very fickle.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, it's fascinating to watch now. Diaz Billard he represents
more Obamacare enrollees than any other House member. In fact,
four of the top five Obamacare and rolled districts are
located in Miami Dade County. Now, that doesn't mean that
every person who's enrolled in Obamacare would experience that huge
(02:04):
increase in premiums. It would be the ones who became
eligible when the subsidies were expanded during the pandemic. I
also thought it was notable because you could really get
a sense based on the comments from DS Ballard and
some recent comments from Maria Elvier Salazar and also Carlo
Simenez that you know, there is a recognition that this
(02:28):
could be a problem, especially here in Florida where you
have so many Obamacare and rollees. But Carlo Simenez, he noted,
when he was talking about this recently, they co sponsored
a one year subsidy extension bill that hasn't gone anywhere.
And that's what I've been saying, just you know, if
you extend them for a year, then battle it out
in the midterms, and whoever wins, then then you go
(02:49):
forward with the plan. And Diaz Blard he noted that
he wants to reform, not eliminate, the Affordable Care Act,
which is a big shift for Republicans from you know,
a few years ago when it was repeal and replace.
But we still don't know exactly what that plan would be,
what that reform would look like. You know, I'm just
sitting here. I just want a little transparency when it
(03:09):
comes to our healthcare. I got one hundred and seventy
one dollars bill for my urging care visit. I had
no idea, I said at the time I went there.
I had I thought I had one type of insurance.
I did, and I had a different type. So I
didn't even know that. And then nobody told me anything
about the cost of the visit.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
You have no idea. It could be one hundred bucks,
it could be six hundred.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, never know. I asked when I was leaving, you know,
is there anything I got to do now? Pay? Or nope? Nope,
you're good.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I know I do the same thing. How much do
I know?
Speaker 4 (03:41):
You are?
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Nothing?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
No?
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So I walk out and then sure enough the other day,
one hundred and seventy one bucks.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
You have no idea exactly that's for how much did
insurance cover? What were you even paying for?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Nothing? I mean a little, that's all. I'm asking a
little transparency so I know what the hell is going on.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
And you know how much a big mac is and
how much and if you're getting a combo deal.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Right with this you know nothing. You don't know anything.
And then you try to figure it out or you
call to find out about your coverage, and you know,
sometimes you'll go and then after you go, that's when
the insurance and the doctor and everybody battles things out.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, because it's a different price, right, And if you're
not insured and you want to go to get like
mental health counseling or something like that. You you end
up paying less because you're uninsured than what the insurance
company is gonna is going to end up paying for
that appointment.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah. So, uh, you know, forget about shutting the government down.
We need to shut the whole healthcare system down and
figure this out because it ain't working. It's a giant
it's a giant disaster. I mean, my god, what else
is going on this morning, Natalie.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well, not a disaster. Apparently things are looking good in
the classrooms. There's a new study out and it's showing
that students are doing better without their cell phones. Overall
test scores, yeah, when they went up about six tenths
of a percent compared to scores nationwide. And according to
this study, the ban increased spring test scores one point
one percentiles in the second year relative to the spring
(05:11):
test right before the band took effect. The only thing
that it does point out where that there were more suspensions,
and I guess these are students who are not adhering
to the policies and not bringing the cell phones to
their schools or in their classrooms whatnot. And so that
was taken into consideration. This isn't really an official study
that's going to be taken into consideration by the education
(05:34):
board or anything, but it's still reflective of something that
people have been talking about. Specialty parents that have to
deal with these issues of their kids having cell phones.
Some of them are concerned about emergencies breaking out. Are
they going to contact their kids because they forgot that
back in the day when we didn't have cell phones,
our parents got in touch with the office because go figure, yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Exactly got called to the office on the overhead speaker.
It was a very embarrassing moment. Everybody looked at you
and you got there. You had to go to the
office to call mall yeah right now. This I don't
think this study is very surprising. The impact was strongest
than middle and high schools, and the suspensions went down
in the second year. They were turned back.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
To normal that they weren't going to get away with it,
in that the policy was going to be enforced.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Like I think this is nothing but a net positive
And in fact, I wish they'd put a cell phone
band here in the workplace where we weren't allowed to
be on I tell you what say email band. Yeah,
if we weren't allowed to be on the phone, the
show would be so much better. You have no idea
our performance would improve a whole lot. All right, let's
get to one more quick story, Natalie. Oh.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, efforts to remove the Burmese pythons from the Everglades
being super charged. The governor says that the removal of
the giant invasive snakes from the everglades here in the
state has tripled compared with last year.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
These species are under a unique threat from one particular
invasive invasive species that threatens the survival and the balance
of the whole ecosystem, and that is the dreaded Burmese python.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
And he's calling on lawmakers to fund the program annually,
saying that investing in this proven strategy will protect our
Everglades for many years to come.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah, it's pretty incredible the work this group is doing
to remove these pythons. I mean a huge increase in removals.
It's freed up the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
to do you know, other work. And I do want
to keep a few in the Everglades, just you know,
so we could watch that hot little four foot eleven
blonde woman go wrangle them. Yeah, who is the woman
(07:35):
who won the Python challenge? But this in versa leathers?
Who's behind this? Have you checked out their products? Oh?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I have not seen what they sell.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Oh yeah, I need some new boots. I mean, I
tell you what. You look at some of these products.
And if I saw a woman walking down the street
in that Burmese Python outfit.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Like a suit, it's like a busy Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
There are all kinds of different things, heels and accessories,
I would be all over it. I mean that is
that is sexy with that, you know, Burmese Python. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Oh there's a nice pair of men's shoes.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Right, Yeah, I might get some So in verse eleven, Friday,
All right, Natalie Rodriguez with today's Top Stories. Natalie, thanks
so much. He got it. Time now for today's Top Stories,
brought to you by my friends over at the Holland
Group Retirement and wealth advisors. You worked hard to save
for your future, they can help you make the most
of it. Find them online at Askthehollands dot com.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Good morning, Chris, Good morning, So Florida lawmakers keep promising
affordable property insurance and yet the same concerns still around
this year as lawmakers head into the twenty twenty six
legislative session. So Democrats say that this is a Republican
issue because they have been in power and haven't done
anything to solve the problem. But that's not stopping Democrats
(08:55):
from proposing bills. Even though they don't have the ability
to pass any they are proposing some ideas. So one
of the ideas is to file a legislation that would
prevent any more rate increases above ten to fifteen percent.
In other words, you shouldn't be getting these rate increases
of thirty forty percent or more without more accountability from
(09:17):
the insurance industry. The bill SB thirty that's been filed
by Senator Barbara Sharif suggests that they have to get
details from the insurance industry before that they can before
they can just start charging people more money. We've seen
these reports come out that the insurance industry is actually
making a lot of money in Florida, yeah, despite claims
(09:39):
that they can't make money right, and so that has
led to criticism from groups like these Democratic leaders. Another
proposal would create an insurance Council where they would analyze
and compile the data about the insurance industry, and they
would have to then go before the legislature and justify
their actions based on the information that had been researched
(10:02):
by the legislature.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Okay, I thought that would have already been happening where
there'd be some oversight.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Well, I think one of the things is you have
an insurance commissioner, but if they're not going to look
into these matters, then it doesn't really matter. You need
to put it into a legislative statute to make it happen,
as opposed to sort of trusting that office to do
the right thing. So you've got Democrats they've proposed, like
Chris just laid out a couple different property insurance reforms.
(10:28):
You've got Republicans they've proposed a number of property tax reforms.
And then you've got me saying, hey, why don't we
do both?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, yeah, we can do it all.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Why don't we do all of it in this upcoming session?
To make it all about affordability the number one issue
here in the state. And well, here's a criticism, though,
you can do property cut property tax cuts, right, but
that has nothing to do with the insurance crisis. So
saying that that's what they're working on when you're asking
them what are you doing about the insurance crisis, and
(11:01):
they're like, well, we're working on property taxes. That's that's
not the same thing. No, No, I feel like.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
The property tax thing is a distraction from the property
insurance because the main thing that everybody's been talking about
for a long time, the thing that people get really
upset about is the property insurance, and then all of
a sudden, out of nowhere, not too long ago, the
property tax things started becoming a talking point for them.
But I don't really hear people complaining about their property
tax nearly as much as they're upset about the property insurance.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
I think a lot of people want to see a
property tax test.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
I was love it, it's expensive, it's a lot. But
the property insurance thing, I feel like is a much
bigger issue because the rates keep going up so much
and what you get for it, if you have a problem,
it's that they don't pay.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
No.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Absolutely, I think both need to be tackled in this
session because again, affordability the number one issue among Claridians.
They're struggling to keep up, and these are you know,
issues that state government can tackle. You know, one of
the things that I think is frustrating. Right now, all
you hear about are price increases.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Oh yeah, constantly, everything keeps going on.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah, there was a story that we didn't get to earlier.
HBO Max raising their prices across all their I saw that.
I got the notice.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Really, I really need to go through all of my
subscriptions because I have so many, and I don't watch
that much TV.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
And they keep increasing the cost. Disney Plus just did
it recently, during that whole Jimmy Kimmel.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
I just don't watch it.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
You've got the Disney theme park tickets. I remember we
just talked about that. They went up health insurance premiums.
We got our notice, so anden'rellment about to start. Premiums
are going to be up. Electricity bills. We've talked about that,
prices up. I mean, my god, you don't see anything
saying we're doing a price cut for anything.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
I mean, we're going to cut your prices.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
I think Progressive had to lower some rates, but that's
because they have been overcharging.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Yeah, my car insurance too, because my car insurance just
went up again. I'm like, what the heck.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah, and even that is annoying because in order to
get your rates long, you have to switch, So you've
got to be proactive about all of this. It's just.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
To do list to make a call it try to
get a lower rate of.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
My car injer All right, what else is going on?
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Chris So an elementary school teacher, will remain in the
classroom despite the district investigating her after she sang a
controversial birthday song to a student. Poule County Schools said
they found no evidence that the teacher meant any harm.
The version of the song, according to the parent of
the child, said it was offensive and racially insensitive, but
(13:36):
what they determined was that the teacher, Kimberly Langston, had
sung this song to other students in the exact same way,
and they couldn't find any evidence that this was some
sort of racist slur against the child. And we're talking
about singing the birthday song with the part about you
look like a monkey and you smell like one too, Yeah,
exact zoo right.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Remember singing that as a kid or having people sing
it to me, and it was just it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Really a big deal, no no, And this teacher apparently
sang that version of that song to video. Yeah, students
of all races, not just this particular black student, but.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Items like the kid probably had their feelings hard at
six years old, may not have even seen the racial
component of it and maybe went home to mommy.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
And showed her the video monkey. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, and the mom was upset.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
The teacher sent the video. And that's actually what the
teacher was reprimanded for, not for the song, but for
sending the photographing and sharing student videos and all of that.
She sent it to the mom. The mom's outrage and
we got a lot of reaction to this conversation because
we talked about it recently. Now this is the update
that nothing's going to happen to the teacher, that there
was no racial intent. But what did people say about
(14:52):
just the issue itself on TikTok?
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, so this was on our TikTok, our WFLA news
TikTok for the Tampa station. So somebody said, who sang that?
I've never heard of this happy birthday song? Another said,
another said, wow, it's been sung that way for at
least the last forty five years.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Another person said never heard it sung that way. Another
said it wasn't offensive. Yeah, so it's kind of crazy
that some people were very familiar with it and thought,
this is no big deal. This has been sung to
everything forever. It's just kind of a little stupid twist
on the song, while other people were like, I've never
heard of this before. What's going on.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
The teacher can't sing or record students anymore, so there's
no more birthday songs in that classroom because of this.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Another person said black people have never sung that lyric
or added those lyrics to the happy Birthday song, like
this is the white people think. I don't know if
that's true or not.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
The family's attorney they planned to file notice of intent
to sue Ben Crump. Where is Ben Gram Yeah, it's
not him in this case, but I mean, come on,
you can assue the school district over this.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Yeah, and this is why teacher and the teacher shouldn't
have done it. But I don't think she mentioned anything
by it. But this is why teachers are leaving, like
my son's hospital. This principal, my son's principal just resigned
from the school because she's had enough of the nonsense. Yeah,
was a teacher at another teacher just quit at my
son's school because of the nonsense.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Now, this teacher says she's been doing it for twenty
two years. It's never been a problem.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Now she did get a.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Reprimand, and that's where the school district is. If people
want to sue over that stuff. Yeah, you know, you're
just contributing to the further decline of the school exactly.
A man was arrested on Tuesday after Tampa police say
he stole a fire truck and then crashed it in
a hit and run. Fifty nine year old Warren Scudder
(16:38):
stole the fire engine while firefighters were inside Saint Joseph's
Hospital in the morning. He drove away, crashed into a
Great Lexus suv near Doctor King Boulevard and McDill and
then the driver of the Lexus had to be taken
to the hospital because of the crash. They eventually found
the fire truck in a location and blocked it at
Poplar Avenue, and then because he couldn't get away, they
(17:02):
were able to arrest it.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yeah. I mean, I'm laughing just because of how ridiculous
it is.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Do you think it Away was stealing a fire engine?
Speaker 1 (17:09):
You freaking They just wanted to run the siren.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Yeah, on a joy ride somebody, because this was like
a crime of opportunities.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Yeah, exactly, lunch sitting there, man, why not? I mean
I've always wanted to run the siren and run red light. Yeah,
that's cool. We had the guy who took an ambulance
for a joy ride not long ago in the Tampa
Bay area, one who stole an ambulance recently in South Florida.
Now you've got this with a fire truck, which obviously
(17:37):
he wasn't able to control. I mean the most outrageous
part of this story as Alexis owners that had crashed
into Alexis. I mean, I feel bad for that driver.
But you know, firefighters EMTs, they a lot of times,
you know, they they leave the keys, they leave it,
but I mean, you know it's an emergency situation. They're
gonna be able to come and go really fast. And
(17:58):
you just assumed that nobody's actually steal it. Was there
a dalmatian on board? And was the latter on Yeah? Exactly,
all right. Chris Trenkman with Today's top stories. Chris, Thanks amaning.
We the Ryan Gorman Show five to nine every weekday
morning on news radio w f l a
Good to today's top stories, brought to you by my
friends over at on Koshore for a simple, accurate, non
invasive test that texts all cancers called eight seven seven
twenty four tests. Now, good morning, Natalie.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good morning. Well, it is now day twenty two of
the partial federal government shutdown, and we're hearing from officials
like Mario Diaz, Billart, the highly representative who posted on
x that more than four million Medicare patients are losing
access to telehealth because of the Schumer shutdown, forcing Americans
(00:33):
to pay out of pocket for basic care, which is
he says exactly why shutdowns are devastating, and he says,
quote reminder, House GOP did not cause this shutdown. We
passed a clean funding bill a month ago to keep
the government open and avoid disruptions like this. Schumer must
end the shutdown now. In an interview, he did say
(00:53):
that Schumer, who in the past said shutting down the
government was irresponsible for any reason, voted against the extension
to the iard of November, adding that and when he
was referring to the House pass budget resolution, you know
that the legislation would allow lawmakers to get back to
work more than a month before the ac subsidies disappear
in December. He says they're not going to expire until then.
(01:14):
The issue is still alive, and it just proves that
this shutdown has nothing to do with healthcare, as Democrats
are claiming.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I do find it fascinating that, you know, in the past,
we've seen some of the very people who are very
against government shutdowns now be very much for it in
those circumstances, and some of the same people who are
very much for it this time around very much against
it last time.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
It's just it's very fickle.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, it's fascinating to watch now. Diaz Billard he represents
more Obamacare enrollees than any other House member. In fact,
four of the top five Obamacare and rolled districts are
located in Miami Dade County. Now, that doesn't mean that
every person who's enrolled in Obamacare would experience that huge
(02:04):
increase in premiums. It would be the ones who became
eligible when the subsidies were expanded during the pandemic. I
also thought it was notable because you could really get
a sense based on the comments from DS Ballard and
some recent comments from Maria Elvier Salazar and also Carlo
Simenez that you know, there is a recognition that this
(02:28):
could be a problem, especially here in Florida where you
have so many Obamacare and rollees. But Carlo Simenez, he noted,
when he was talking about this recently, they co sponsored
a one year subsidy extension bill that hasn't gone anywhere.
And that's what I've been saying, just you know, if
you extend them for a year, then battle it out
in the midterms, and whoever wins, then then you go
(02:49):
forward with the plan. And Diaz Blard he noted that
he wants to reform, not eliminate, the Affordable Care Act,
which is a big shift for Republicans from you know,
a few years ago when it was repeal and replace.
But we still don't know exactly what that plan would be,
what that reform would look like. You know, I'm just
sitting here. I just want a little transparency when it
(03:09):
comes to our healthcare. I got one hundred and seventy
one dollars bill for my urging care visit. I had
no idea, I said at the time I went there.
I had I thought I had one type of insurance.
I did, and I had a different type. So I
didn't even know that. And then nobody told me anything
about the cost of the visit.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
You have no idea. It could be one hundred bucks,
it could be six hundred.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, never know. I asked when I was leaving, you know,
is there anything I got to do now? Pay? Or nope? Nope,
you're good.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I know I do the same thing. How much do
I know?
Speaker 4 (03:41):
You are?
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Nothing?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
No?
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So I walk out and then sure enough the other day,
one hundred and seventy one bucks.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
You have no idea exactly that's for how much did
insurance cover? What were you even paying for?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Nothing? I mean a little, that's all. I'm asking a
little transparency so I know what the hell is going on.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
And you know how much a big mac is and
how much and if you're getting a combo deal.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Right with this you know nothing. You don't know anything.
And then you try to figure it out or you
call to find out about your coverage, and you know,
sometimes you'll go and then after you go, that's when
the insurance and the doctor and everybody battles things out.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, because it's a different price, right, And if you're
not insured and you want to go to get like
mental health counseling or something like that. You you end
up paying less because you're uninsured than what the insurance
company is gonna is going to end up paying for
that appointment.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah. So, uh, you know, forget about shutting the government down.
We need to shut the whole healthcare system down and
figure this out because it ain't working. It's a giant
it's a giant disaster. I mean, my god, what else
is going on this morning, Natalie.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well, not a disaster. Apparently things are looking good in
the classrooms. There's a new study out and it's showing
that students are doing better without their cell phones. Overall
test scores, yeah, when they went up about six tenths
of a percent compared to scores nationwide. And according to
this study, the ban increased spring test scores one point
one percentiles in the second year relative to the spring
(05:11):
test right before the band took effect. The only thing
that it does point out where that there were more suspensions,
and I guess these are students who are not adhering
to the policies and not bringing the cell phones to
their schools or in their classrooms whatnot. And so that
was taken into consideration. This isn't really an official study
that's going to be taken into consideration by the education
(05:34):
board or anything, but it's still reflective of something that
people have been talking about. Specialty parents that have to
deal with these issues of their kids having cell phones.
Some of them are concerned about emergencies breaking out. Are
they going to contact their kids because they forgot that
back in the day when we didn't have cell phones,
our parents got in touch with the office because go figure, yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Exactly got called to the office on the overhead speaker.
It was a very embarrassing moment. Everybody looked at you
and you got there. You had to go to the
office to call mall yeah right now. This I don't
think this study is very surprising. The impact was strongest
than middle and high schools, and the suspensions went down
in the second year. They were turned back.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
To normal that they weren't going to get away with it,
in that the policy was going to be enforced.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Like I think this is nothing but a net positive
And in fact, I wish they'd put a cell phone
band here in the workplace where we weren't allowed to
be on I tell you what say email band. Yeah,
if we weren't allowed to be on the phone, the
show would be so much better. You have no idea
our performance would improve a whole lot. All right, let's
get to one more quick story, Natalie. Oh.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, efforts to remove the Burmese pythons from the Everglades
being super charged. The governor says that the removal of
the giant invasive snakes from the everglades here in the
state has tripled compared with last year.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
These species are under a unique threat from one particular
invasive invasive species that threatens the survival and the balance
of the whole ecosystem, and that is the dreaded Burmese python.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
And he's calling on lawmakers to fund the program annually,
saying that investing in this proven strategy will protect our
Everglades for many years to come.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah, it's pretty incredible the work this group is doing
to remove these pythons. I mean a huge increase in removals.
It's freed up the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
to do you know, other work. And I do want
to keep a few in the Everglades, just you know,
so we could watch that hot little four foot eleven
blonde woman go wrangle them. Yeah, who is the woman
(07:35):
who won the Python challenge? But this in versa leathers?
Who's behind this? Have you checked out their products? Oh?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I have not seen what they sell.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Oh yeah, I need some new boots. I mean, I
tell you what. You look at some of these products.
And if I saw a woman walking down the street
in that Burmese Python outfit.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Like a suit, it's like a busy Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
There are all kinds of different things, heels and accessories,
I would be all over it. I mean that is
that is sexy with that, you know, Burmese Python. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Oh there's a nice pair of men's shoes.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Right, Yeah, I might get some So in verse eleven, Friday,
All right, Natalie Rodriguez with today's Top Stories. Natalie, thanks
so much. He got it. Time now for today's Top Stories,
brought to you by my friends over at the Holland
Group Retirement and wealth advisors. You worked hard to save
for your future, they can help you make the most
of it. Find them online at Askthehollands dot com.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Good morning, Chris, Good morning, So Florida lawmakers keep promising
affordable property insurance and yet the same concerns still around
this year as lawmakers head into the twenty twenty six
legislative session. So Democrats say that this is a Republican
issue because they have been in power and haven't done
anything to solve the problem. But that's not stopping Democrats
(08:55):
from proposing bills. Even though they don't have the ability
to pass any they are proposing some ideas. So one
of the ideas is to file a legislation that would
prevent any more rate increases above ten to fifteen percent.
In other words, you shouldn't be getting these rate increases
of thirty forty percent or more without more accountability from
(09:17):
the insurance industry. The bill SB thirty that's been filed
by Senator Barbara Sharif suggests that they have to get
details from the insurance industry before that they can before
they can just start charging people more money. We've seen
these reports come out that the insurance industry is actually
making a lot of money in Florida, yeah, despite claims
(09:39):
that they can't make money right, and so that has
led to criticism from groups like these Democratic leaders. Another
proposal would create an insurance Council where they would analyze
and compile the data about the insurance industry, and they
would have to then go before the legislature and justify
their actions based on the information that had been researched
(10:02):
by the legislature.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Okay, I thought that would have already been happening where
there'd be some oversight.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Well, I think one of the things is you have
an insurance commissioner, but if they're not going to look
into these matters, then it doesn't really matter. You need
to put it into a legislative statute to make it happen,
as opposed to sort of trusting that office to do
the right thing. So you've got Democrats they've proposed, like
Chris just laid out a couple different property insurance reforms.
(10:28):
You've got Republicans they've proposed a number of property tax reforms.
And then you've got me saying, hey, why don't we
do both?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, yeah, we can do it all.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Why don't we do all of it in this upcoming session?
To make it all about affordability the number one issue
here in the state. And well, here's a criticism, though,
you can do property cut property tax cuts, right, but
that has nothing to do with the insurance crisis. So
saying that that's what they're working on when you're asking
them what are you doing about the insurance crisis, and
(11:01):
they're like, well, we're working on property taxes. That's that's
not the same thing. No, No, I feel like.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
The property tax thing is a distraction from the property
insurance because the main thing that everybody's been talking about
for a long time, the thing that people get really
upset about is the property insurance, and then all of
a sudden, out of nowhere, not too long ago, the
property tax things started becoming a talking point for them.
But I don't really hear people complaining about their property
tax nearly as much as they're upset about the property insurance.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
I think a lot of people want to see a
property tax test.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
I was love it, it's expensive, it's a lot. But
the property insurance thing, I feel like is a much
bigger issue because the rates keep going up so much
and what you get for it, if you have a problem,
it's that they don't pay.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
No.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Absolutely, I think both need to be tackled in this
session because again, affordability the number one issue among Claridians.
They're struggling to keep up, and these are you know,
issues that state government can tackle. You know, one of
the things that I think is frustrating. Right now, all
you hear about are price increases.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Oh yeah, constantly, everything keeps going on.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah, there was a story that we didn't get to earlier.
HBO Max raising their prices across all their I saw that.
I got the notice.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Really, I really need to go through all of my
subscriptions because I have so many, and I don't watch
that much TV.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
And they keep increasing the cost. Disney Plus just did
it recently, during that whole Jimmy Kimmel.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
I just don't watch it.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
You've got the Disney theme park tickets. I remember we
just talked about that. They went up health insurance premiums.
We got our notice, so anden'rellment about to start. Premiums
are going to be up. Electricity bills. We've talked about that,
prices up. I mean, my god, you don't see anything
saying we're doing a price cut for anything.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
I mean, we're going to cut your prices.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
I think Progressive had to lower some rates, but that's
because they have been overcharging.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Yeah, my car insurance too, because my car insurance just
went up again. I'm like, what the heck.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah, and even that is annoying because in order to
get your rates long, you have to switch, So you've
got to be proactive about all of this. It's just.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
To do list to make a call it try to
get a lower rate of.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
My car injer All right, what else is going on?
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Chris So an elementary school teacher, will remain in the
classroom despite the district investigating her after she sang a
controversial birthday song to a student. Poule County Schools said
they found no evidence that the teacher meant any harm.
The version of the song, according to the parent of
the child, said it was offensive and racially insensitive, but
(13:36):
what they determined was that the teacher, Kimberly Langston, had
sung this song to other students in the exact same way,
and they couldn't find any evidence that this was some
sort of racist slur against the child. And we're talking
about singing the birthday song with the part about you
look like a monkey and you smell like one too, Yeah,
exact zoo right.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Remember singing that as a kid or having people sing
it to me, and it was just it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Really a big deal, no no, And this teacher apparently
sang that version of that song to video. Yeah, students
of all races, not just this particular black student, but.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Items like the kid probably had their feelings hard at
six years old, may not have even seen the racial
component of it and maybe went home to mommy.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
And showed her the video monkey. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, and the mom was upset.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
The teacher sent the video. And that's actually what the
teacher was reprimanded for, not for the song, but for
sending the photographing and sharing student videos and all of that.
She sent it to the mom. The mom's outrage and
we got a lot of reaction to this conversation because
we talked about it recently. Now this is the update
that nothing's going to happen to the teacher, that there
was no racial intent. But what did people say about
(14:52):
just the issue itself on TikTok?
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, so this was on our TikTok, our WFLA news
TikTok for the Tampa station. So somebody said, who sang that?
I've never heard of this happy birthday song? Another said,
another said, wow, it's been sung that way for at
least the last forty five years.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Another person said never heard it sung that way. Another
said it wasn't offensive. Yeah, so it's kind of crazy
that some people were very familiar with it and thought,
this is no big deal. This has been sung to
everything forever. It's just kind of a little stupid twist
on the song, while other people were like, I've never
heard of this before. What's going on.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
The teacher can't sing or record students anymore, so there's
no more birthday songs in that classroom because of this.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Another person said black people have never sung that lyric
or added those lyrics to the happy Birthday song, like
this is the white people think. I don't know if
that's true or not.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
The family's attorney they planned to file notice of intent
to sue Ben Crump. Where is Ben Gram Yeah, it's
not him in this case, but I mean, come on,
you can assue the school district over this.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Yeah, and this is why teacher and the teacher shouldn't
have done it. But I don't think she mentioned anything
by it. But this is why teachers are leaving, like
my son's hospital. This principal, my son's principal just resigned
from the school because she's had enough of the nonsense. Yeah,
was a teacher at another teacher just quit at my
son's school because of the nonsense.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Now, this teacher says she's been doing it for twenty
two years. It's never been a problem.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Now she did get a.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Reprimand, and that's where the school district is. If people
want to sue over that stuff. Yeah, you know, you're
just contributing to the further decline of the school exactly.
A man was arrested on Tuesday after Tampa police say
he stole a fire truck and then crashed it in
a hit and run. Fifty nine year old Warren Scudder
(16:38):
stole the fire engine while firefighters were inside Saint Joseph's
Hospital in the morning. He drove away, crashed into a
Great Lexus suv near Doctor King Boulevard and McDill and
then the driver of the Lexus had to be taken
to the hospital because of the crash. They eventually found
the fire truck in a location and blocked it at
Poplar Avenue, and then because he couldn't get away, they
(17:02):
were able to arrest it.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yeah. I mean, I'm laughing just because of how ridiculous
it is.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Do you think it Away was stealing a fire engine?
Speaker 1 (17:09):
You freaking They just wanted to run the siren.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Yeah, on a joy ride somebody, because this was like
a crime of opportunities.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Yeah, exactly, lunch sitting there, man, why not? I mean
I've always wanted to run the siren and run red light. Yeah,
that's cool. We had the guy who took an ambulance
for a joy ride not long ago in the Tampa
Bay area, one who stole an ambulance recently in South Florida.
Now you've got this with a fire truck, which obviously
(17:37):
he wasn't able to control. I mean the most outrageous
part of this story as Alexis owners that had crashed
into Alexis. I mean, I feel bad for that driver.
But you know, firefighters EMTs, they a lot of times,
you know, they they leave the keys, they leave it,
but I mean, you know it's an emergency situation. They're
gonna be able to come and go really fast. And
(17:58):
you just assumed that nobody's actually steal it. Was there
a dalmatian on board? And was the latter on Yeah? Exactly,
all right. Chris Trenkman with Today's top stories. Chris, Thanks amaning.
We the Ryan Gorman Show five to nine every weekday
morning on news radio w f l a
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