TOP STORIES - Tampa Bay and South Florida election results are in — we break down the key takeaways. Plus, TECO customers are set to pay more next year following a rate hike approval, and two Florida insurers face penalties for misconduct during hurricanes. Also in the headlines: a Florida driver accused of killing a 6-year-old in a tragic school-zone crash, a Hillsborough County school safety monitor hit with 207 child porn and bestiality charges, and a Miami-Dade man caught on video abusing a 6-year-old boy who avoids prison time.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Tom Ryan Gorman with Dan McKay, Jason Barringer, and Chris
Trenkman from our newsroom. Coming up on the show this hour,
the Democrats win big in elections across the country. We're
going to run through the results before five twenty And
with Orange County Mayor Jerry Demmings now officially running for governor,
how does that impact the twenty twenty six race here
in Florida? The publisher of Florida Politics, Peter Shoreschel of
(00:21):
the Inside Screw for us at five thirty five, and finally,
Snap benefits confusion, air travel warnings, a lot of shutdown
developments since yesterday's show. We'll get to all of that
for you at around five forty seven. Right now, we
kick things off with today's top stories and Chris Trenkman,
Good morning, Chris.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
So Tuesday was election day and voters around Tampa Bay
had some races that they could participate in. In particular,
Lakeland voters took to the polls to choose the city's
next mayor. Sarah Roberts McCary narrowly avoided a runoff election,
earning fifty point two eight percent of the vote. That
solidified her position as the city's first female mayor. She
(01:02):
had served as city commissioner for the last seven years,
and she beat out three other candidates, including Southeastern professor
Cedric Valery, who got nineteen percent, Kay Climcoe was seventeen percent,
and Hooter's manager Caitlin Gracie Kramer, who finished fourth with
thirteen percent of the vote and about fifteen hundred total votes.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, she got quite a few votes.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I think one of the problems, you know, a note
that I saw about this race was that McCary appeared
to have raised the most money of any candidate in
the city's history. And you wonder if, like those events
that I know Caitlyn Gracie Kramer was doing at Hooters,
if perhaps too much of the money from people who
(01:45):
attended the events went to wings and beer and not allow.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
She should just do an only fans, then she could
raise some serious.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Campaigns with a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
But Sarah Roberts McCarley she won, But boy, just avoided
that runoff.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That is really close.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Two point two eight percent under fifty percent, and it
would have been a runoff between her and the professor
from Southeastern University.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
Now.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Voter turnout was about seventeen percent, which isn't horrible now
to consider the time of year, and you know, being
that this is an off year. I mean, obviously you'd
like to see the turnout be higher, but we've seen
races where it's under ten percent, So seventeen percent wasn't
a horrific turnout. And if you drive around Lakeland, I
mean the signs were all over the place. Yeah, there
(02:28):
was clearly a lot of you know, attention being paid,
I think to this particular race. And yeah, it was
fairly close. I mean, the other candidates weren't that bad.
I mean, they had their they had their supporters. It's
just that, you know, Roberts McCary clearly had the name
recognition and the money. She had the backing too, and
the backing as well, so you know, she's an establishment figure.
(02:50):
If you saw the interview with her, you know she
talks a lot about city commission type issues and things
like that.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah, really exciting clips. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Well, here's the thing, say, the city mayor of Lakeland
is not a strong mayor like you have in Tampa
or Orlando's similar.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
To Miami, where it's a weak mayor position. Yes, so Miami,
that's right.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
So the city manager pretty much runs the day to
day and the mayor is more of a front person
for the city and also serves much like what a
commissioner would do. And so from that standpoint, it's really
a job where you have to kind of get into
the weeds a little bit, and if you're not interested
in that, it's not a great job you have.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Now, there were about eighteen thousand ballots cast, so that
gives you a sense. That's that seventeen percent turnout number.
It gives you a senses to how many people voted,
and these kinds of local races, it really is all
about turning out the vote at a very local, grassroots level,
trying to get as many of your friends and family
(03:48):
and acquaintances and you know, all of that out to
the polls on election day as possible, because that could
make all the difference. I mean, let's say Sarah Roberts
mccarly felt just a little bit short with her turnout,
then we'd be doing a runoff. Now she probably easily
win the runoff, but still she was able to avoid it.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Because she got enough people out of the bulls.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
I think we're starting to see also the effects of
some of the state laws that were passed where they
don't automatically send out mail in ballots anymore. You have
to request them essentially for every election. So that could
have effected turnout for people who are used to just
sort of getting the you know, they used to be
able to us to sign up for it and it
would get sent to you every election. Now you have
to pay attention and request that yourself. Whether that had
(04:29):
an effect on turnout, we'll see. It'll probably be more
of a significant issue in the midterms next year. Just
another mention. In Seminole, there was another mayor's race. Leslie
Waters was elected mayor and she was able to get
fifty seven percent of the vote, defeating Marcus Barber. A
six year old girl is dead, her mother and ten
year old brother in the hospital after being hit by
(04:51):
a vehicle in Tampa on Tuesday morning. The Hillsborough Sheriff's
Office says a forty five year old mother was walking
her two children to school as she crossed Sheldon Road
in a crosswalk, so a driver turning from More Road
onto Sheldon struck the trio. The driver was a seventy
seven year old man. He was in a Dodge pickup truck.
(05:13):
He did have the green light, but pedestrians always have
the right of way.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah, and they the family had the signal that's right.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
And so he has now been sighted with a one
thousand dollars fine in the automatic six month suspension of
his license for violating a right of way where people
are involved.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
This is something that I think we've all experienced before,
where you have the green light, you're making that turn.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I know I've done it, and like, oh crap, I
didn't see them.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Unfortunately, there's one intersection in Riverview that's really bad for that.
It's a major intersection and I almost hit somebody once
because I was just making a right turn.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
But they crossed right.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
This was a case where they just they happen to
be like in the crosswalk, and so he plowed right
into them. It was interesting the under Sheriff Thomas Saint
John he in some of his comments, urged drivers to
put down their phones and pay closer attention near crosswalks.
I don't know if that had anything directly to do
(06:16):
with what happened here. If the seventy seven year old
man was on his phone or just wasn't paying attention,
But that did stand out to me. Could also just
be a message, because obviously, if you're making a turn
like that and you're on your phone, you're not paying attention,
you're more likely to hit somebody.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I see it all the time.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I'll be at an intersection and I'll be waiting for
the green light and There'll be one car ahead of me,
and one car doesn't go because he's obviously on the phone. Yeah,
I mean people are doing it all the time. Now,
obviously you would hope that they're not doing it when
they're making turns into crosswalk intersections. But I think you're right.
I think the under sheriff is probably just making a
point because they encounter it so often and it's such
(06:52):
a huge problem. A campus safety monitor at Spoto High
School is facing two hundred charges after the Hillsborough Sheriff's
Office found hundreds of pictures and videos showing the sexual
abuse of infants and young children, oh as well as
sex acts with animals. Twenty five year old Tyree Fields
taken into custody after deputies found the materials on his
(07:15):
digital accounts. An investigation was launched after they received a
tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
and they were tracing the uploads of child sex abuse
materials to an online account that they linked to Fields.
So he has resigned from his position at the schools
no longer an employee. Sheriff Chack Cronister called Field's actions
(07:39):
pure evil.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Oh yeah, Now that was Spoto High School, right, So
that's the same high school where the former principal was
just arrested for not reporting the abuse of a four
year old yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
And I guess he passed background checks back when he
was hired in twenty twenty one, so it wasn't like
anything showed up there. But this is another case. It's
another day ending and why and we have another child
porn case tied to a school. And what exactly does
a campus safety monitor do that's not a school resource officer?
Speaker 2 (08:13):
What are they doing? Hmmm, that's a good question. I
have no idea, no clue.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, are those like the hall monitors if you have
those in high school where these guys just sort of
hang out in the hallway and make sure nobody is
like wandering in between us, that's what is Yeah, maybe
it's something of bad nature, you know, not a super act.
School resource officers are more interacting, right right, So I'm
thinking that maybe it's more along the lines. You're more
like a guard. Yeah, you know, you're just watching out
(08:38):
for what's going on, because they did have those when
I was in high school, and I assume they have
similar people today. So, a music producer living in Penelas
County revealed that he's the John Doe in a civil
complaint in California's La County accusing music mogul Sean Diddy
Combs of sexual assault. Largo resident Jonathan hay was contracted
(09:00):
in twenty twenty to work as a covers album producer,
reworking the music by Notorious Big as an instrumental house
and techno track artist. Now, he claims in court records
that the unreleased project Ready to Dance put him in
contact with Colmbs on several occasions, and in one particular case,
they were alone in a room with racks of BIG's clothes.
(09:23):
According to Hayes complaint, that Colmbs was watching porn on
his phone, pleasuring himself under a shirt once owned by
the late rapper before throwing it at him. He told
others on the project that the encounter was so disturbing
that it nearly derailed his participation in the project. And
(09:44):
at one point when he showed up there, he was
like grabbed by these two goons and put something over
his head and brought inside to be part of the party.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Who would have thought there'd be a local connection to
all things Diddy?
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Yeah, and the story about what happened to this guy
is so crazy with the Biggie T shirt and all
that just bizarre.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Doesn't it sound like Diddy based on everything that we
tell everything, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
I wouldn't believe it if it was just this like
phone incident. But everything we've heard about him, all the testimony,
all the stories.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, the guy's just as sick of Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
You've got Largo police assistant. Can you imagine those police
officers all of a sudden, they're like working on.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
A Diddy involved cass Uh, can you believe it?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
But yeah, well, they makes sense that he would be
over here instead of out there in La after that
exactly Like I got to get as far away from
that place as possible.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yep. All right.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Chris Trankman with Today's Top Stories. Chris, thanks so much,
Thank you, Tom Ryan Gorman with Dana McKay, Jason Baron,
Sherbrey on the Torrez, and Natalie Rodriguez from our news room.
Coming up this hour, we'll get to today's forecast with
Weather Channel mediarologist Race Age before six fifteen. Right after that,
we've got our Bloomberg Business Report, Plus the Democrats win
big in elections across the country. We're going to run
(10:54):
through the results with GOP strategist Pete Gidarelli at six
thirty five. Right now, let's get to today's top stories
with Natalie ron Reaganz.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Good morning, Natalie, Good morning, Well.
Speaker 6 (11:06):
Decision twenty twenty five, another round of voting needed to
determine Miami's next mayor. Eileen Higgins and Emilia Gonzalez advancing
to a runoff. They finished in the top two, even
though neither one got a majority. Former County Commissioner Higgins
got the most votes at about thirty six percent or so,
and then former city manager Gonzales got about twenty percent.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
That runoff is happening on December ninth.
Speaker 6 (11:30):
There's also going to be a runoff needed in the
District three commission rais between former Commissioner Frank Gotrojol and
Rolandos Galoona. In District five, Christine King won with over
eighty four percent of the vote.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Hialia setting a record.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
With a new mayor, Brian Calvo, winning yesterday's election, making
history as the city's youngest mayor ever. The twenty seven
year old beat Intra mayor Jackie Garcia Robes with about
fifty three percent of the vote. There were also four
city council seats on the ballot. Interim councilwoman Melinda de
la Vega won the Group six race to the Vegus
(12:05):
no relation there.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
He was re elected to Group seven.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
Group three is headed to a runoff between Galen Perez
and Jessica Gastillo, and they'll also be a runoff in
Group four between Willie Morero and Javier morre Jone. Now,
there are some changes that are coming to Miami's constitution.
This is where it gets really interesting. Voters waited on
four ballot referendums. The first one was to form a
(12:29):
Charter Review Commission that would meet every ten years. That passed,
but they did reject Referendum number two that would have
made it easier for the city to sell some of
its land and the first thing that popped into mind
was the issue with the land and the property sell
and transfer for the Presidential Library in downtown Miami. Now,
voters also banned Jerry Mandarin by passing Referendum three and
(12:52):
establishing a citizen's Redistricting Committee. And they also passed Referendum four,
and that one imposes a two term limit for a officials,
so we wouldn't see a repeat of the Suarez dynasty
or any other such thing happening in local cities. Previously,
people were limited to consecutive terms, but they could run
again after sitting out one.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
With the Suarez dynasty. That came to an end too,
with this race for Miami Mayor's Javior Suarez only getting
about five percent of the vote. It went pretty much
like we thought it was going to. If you listened
to the show yesterday, Eileen Higgins, we were pretty confident
that she was going to make it into a runoff.
We were also pretty confident there was going to be
a runoff, that nobody was going to get a majority
(13:34):
of the vote. Now many have that many candidates, it
just makes it very difficult to get over that fifty
percent threshold. And you know, we went through the top
six candidates and basically had Eileen Higgins Emlio Gonzalez right
there as the likely candidates for that December ninth runoff.
I did think it was interesting Brian Calvo in Hialia winning,
(13:57):
like you said, with fifty three percent of the vote,
youngest mayor and highly as history, youngest mayor currently serving
in Florida and only twenty seven years old. First entered
local politics at twenty three as the city's youngest council members,
so just setting all kinds of records and obviously interested
in politics at a very young age. And he ran
(14:17):
on a highly A first platform, so the whole America
first thing localized, which I thought was pretty interesting.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, it worked for him. Yep.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Overall basically what we expected, and now we'll see where
things go as we head into this stretch run before
that big runoff for Miami mayor and the Miami City
Commission race coming up in December.
Speaker 6 (14:41):
Absolutely shifting gears. A Southwest Miami father stepfather really taking
a plea deal and avoiding prison time after allegedly torturing
his six year old step son. He defended had.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Been punched in in the face multiple times.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
He is in for a tree rares from also heat for.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Where the call was.
Speaker 6 (15:04):
Forty two year old Zachary Perez's mother testified that her
son suffers from PTSD from military service and May. Perez
was arrested for hitting and kicking the six year old
and dragging him around with a dog collar and a leash,
and the judge sentenced him to ten years probation.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Do not understand, Yeah, I do not understand. Maybe there's
something I'm missing here, but I don't get how you
could be caught on video yanking your six year old
steps on by a dog collar, repeatedly hitting and kicking him,
and then you also had the boys mother. Several of
this person's former partners, they came forward. They described him
(15:47):
as abusive and threatening. Prosecutors called him a ticking time bomb.
They said he made death threats and yet he won't
serve a day in prison.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Yeah, it's outragious. And this is the type of guy
that will eventually end up really really like killing someone
or really seriously injuring someone. And that little boy is
going to have PTSD over this for the rest of
his life.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
That kind of abuse, No question, he's going to do
this again.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
The judge overseeing the case that he accepted the plea
based on the recommendation of the Guardian ATLTAM program, but
he said it's not a plea he would have approved
on his own. So why in the world did this
plea get made? I mean, if convicted, he could have
faced four to thirty years behind bars. That's where he
deserves to be. I think there are serious questions were
(16:34):
what happened here? Well?
Speaker 4 (16:35):
And who's the guardian ATLTUM? I thought was usually somebody
representing a child?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Does that have that?
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Is that somebody representing him because he had PTSD.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
I don't know how this went down, but I think
some questions need to be answered because this should not happen.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
I mean, especially it's on video.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Yeah, absolutely guess rights.
Speaker 6 (16:54):
In the last twenty four hours, believe it or not,
three different cases that have made headlines because of child abuse.
This one is with the stepfather. We had a homestead
mother accused of beating her daughter with a belt and
threatening to cut her hands off because she was disrespectful.
And then we had a derow mother accused of beating
her kid, ripping out a fistful of hair and then
just dropping him off because the child went to a
(17:16):
stranger for help.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Oh my god. Yeah, I hope these people get what
they deserve, But I don't know. I'm a little less
confident after hearing about this story.
Speaker 6 (17:24):
Yeah yeah, and a mcflurry of emotions flaring. A McDonald's
worker accused of pulling a gun in the drive through
lane on a car with a mother and some kids
in the car. Her name is Cheating Timmins, and she
says she was waiting for like over an hour at
the mickey D's for the food, which led to an
(17:45):
argument with the cashier, nineteen year old Anthony Markeith Elliott,
who wouldn't give them the food.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Oh, I said, listen, his mama wanted to make make
griddles a mat chicken. Because this about to be a
friend McDonald's. I don't play any step a game. This
ain't that.
Speaker 6 (18:01):
Cheaton Timmans, who's already survived a shooting, said when she
when the when the guy flashed the gun, she went
into defense mode.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
And this is what she said about that where men
are children, what can we possibly do to you?
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Well? Yeah, she uh, She said nobody was going to
threaten her family over McNuggets.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
She said it was about to be a mcfuneral.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Yeah, funeral. Here's the thing who waits an hour for
food to McDonald's.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Yeah, that's really crazy.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
I mean Chick Fly, Chick fl A.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Maybe it gets you know, the line gets really long
at Chick fil A. But I mean, yeah, why was
it taking so long?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yeah, I mean I would say probably if I were
a McDonald's and let's say I was really craving it.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Fifteen minutes, I'm out of there.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
I'm going to the new Yeah, there's another McDonald's right
around the corner.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Like you say that. But once you're in that line
the way design, you can't get out. Okay.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
I've been stuck in a Starbucks line before when I
was laid for something, and I don't know what the
hell the hold up was about, Like I need to
get Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah, if you're stuck in the line and you can't
get out, and yeah, it's a real problem. But luckily
it didn't end up being a mc funeral. Well, but
it did mccharges.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (19:09):
Last year, Athony Elliott is facing five counts if aggravated
assault with a firearm.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Unbelievable, all right.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Natalie Rodriguez with Today's Stop Stories, Natalie, thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Now let's bringing Weather Channel mediorologists Race Digic for today's forecast,
brought to you by arch Well Health. Arch Well Health's
preventative care for adults age sixty plus means catching small
issues before they become big problems. So Ray, I want
to start with this final stretch of king tides for
the year.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Continues to be a problem in South Florida. This is
going to be it, right, Yeah, it'll be at some
inundation along the coast.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
Weather Service has a statement out about that, especially during
high tide, and I think it's the either this morning
or tomorrow morning. The super Beaver moon too, so that's
simply not helping. So there's that that helps push the
tides up even further. In South Flotus, let's there. It's
actually in the mid upper seventies this morning. The interior
is a little bit cooler or not as warm, but
(20:06):
starting off for Miami lod to mid eighties in the
next few days. A big front coming though early next week,
may spend Tuesday Veterans Day in the lot to mid
seventies with lows in the fifties. Now up here Tampa
this morning, we do have some fifties, but they're away
from Tampa Bay into the interior, even a little Patchee Fogg.
That big coll fronts also on the way by early
next week, and we may see some numbers in the
(20:27):
forties for a night. Low temperatures, Yeah, but it's that
time of year, but coming quick they leave. Click should
be pleasant up until about Monday issue when this front's
come to arrive.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
But the bad.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
News is no rain with the front, and we desperately
need some rain across I'd say most of the stay.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah. All right, Weather Channel Media Roley just raced agic
with this ray. We'll talk to you in a bit,
Thanks so much.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
All right.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I'm Ryan Gorman with Dana McKay, Jason Barringer, preonatorres and
Chris Trankman from our newsroom.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Coming up this hour.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
The government shutdown continues now setting an all time record
here on day thirty six. I'm the latest for you
before seven twenty plus lots more on yesterday's election results
with our national correspondent Rory O'Neil. He'll join us at
seven thirty five. But now it's time for today's top stories,
prompt to you by my friends over at the Holland
Group Retirement and wealth advisors. You worked hard to save
(21:17):
for your future, they can help you make the most
of it. Find them online at Askdehollands dot com. Good morning, Chris,
Good morning.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
So it's no secret that Governor DeSantis wants to eliminate
property taxes throughout the state, but he has taken his
time releasing an actual proposal for doing that. And one
of the reasons is possibly because he would have to
answer a lot of questions about how you're going to
pay for that once you eliminate them. So, Lieutenant Governor
(21:45):
Jake Hollins was asked about this and he didn't really
have any answer as to when the administration's going to
roll out its concrete plan. He said it is likely
that there will be more delays while they're working on it.
But he did say something that is obviously of interest
to the legislature. He does not believe the governor likes
anything that the legislature has been working on, and they
have up to eight proposals. Yeah, they could potentially go
(22:07):
on the ballot for changing property tax laws. He thinks
that it has to be something that is more cut
and dry. It eliminates them outright, and it's a ballot initiative.
That will be one initiative. That's it, so that you
don't have this like confusion on there. And he made
an odd reference. He said, it's like the old movie
The Highlander. There can only be one.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
I didn't get that any any idea what he's well, yeah,
I think this is maybe Dane would know.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
This is kind of a gen X thing Highlander, you know,
Sean Connery, it's it kind of works for kind of
works for boomers maybe, Okay, but I.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Think that's a movie reference, right, Yeah, I'm all, so
you're gonna go like Wayne's World or Austin Powers. Like,
I don't get the movie references.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
I know what's what's Jay Collins going for with the
Highlander reference. I guess he's going for the older crowd.
I guess so, not the gen Z's or the Alphas.
But yeah, this is the governor's top issue. I mean,
this is his goal for his final year in office.
I find it interesting that he hasn't released his plan.
(23:13):
He knew that the legislature was going to be getting
together in Tallahassee and working on this recently, he didn't
seem to be interested in working with them on a plan.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
He didn't release his own plan in advance.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Of them getting to Tallahassee to give them some guidance
as to what specifically he's looking for. He's talked about
it in generalities.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
I agree with them.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I don't think the house plan having eight different options
is feasible. He can't put eight different options on the
ballot for twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
But if this is your.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Big issue and you're putting all your eggs in this
basket going into the twenty twenty six legislative session, how
come we don't know what his plan is just yet?
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Like, I think that is a real question.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Now I get the whole wanting to the eyes across
the t's, but again, he's got to have an idea
of what he wants to do.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
What's the delay?
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yeah, I think the delay is that there's a lot
of questions as to what would happen to local services.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Yeah, if you eliminate property.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Taxes like okay, public schools, infrastructure, health and social services,
recreational programs, and waste management. So who's going to pay
to pick up the trash? If they get rid of
property taxes? That's what I don't understand.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
And then what carve outs are there going to be
in the plan? Will there be a carve out where
it won't impact law enforcement? That will be a carve out, Yeah,
won't impact schools to what extent? So there are a
lot of questions, but I just would have thought by now, again,
this is his big issue. This is what he's going
around the state talking about and getting rid of, in particular,
you know, eliminating property taxes on homestead properties.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Where's the plan?
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Yeah, Governor de Santas doesn't have a reputation of working
well with the legislature and because of their empowered position
from last year. Yeah, it's only getting more strong because
he's a lay decent land up and he is going
to have to work with them if he wants to
get his plan passed. Yeah, and he's not showing a
lot of signs that he's very good at doing that.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
It's going to be a fascinating legislative session to see
how this all on false and see what ends up.
I do think something involving property tax is going to
be on the ballot in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I just don't know what.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Yeah, Well, I think with the reason there so many
from the legislature is they have a lot of disagreements
on the to do it. You know, there are a
lot of concerns and questions about how to do it
and whether or not you can actually put a proposal
on there that'll benefit voters and not hurt some of
the services in the community. So Tampa Electric customers will
pay more starting in January after the Florida Public Service
(25:38):
Commission approved a rate hike on Tuesday. So a consumer group,
the Food and Water Watch Analysis Group, came out and
criticized the PSC and Governor de Santus for appointing the
people who sit on that board. And they say that
the average TIKO customer bill will be eighty two percent
(25:58):
higher nine hundred dollars more a year than they were
in December of twenty twenty And if you look at
twenty twenty five alone, there have been substantial increases because
of a number of issues. They increased the rates nine
to thirteen dollars more because of the approved rate hikes
for last year, twenty to twenty five dollars more for
(26:19):
eighteen months because of approved storm recovery issues, and then
in June they had another ten percent increase because of
the fuel charges based on the cost to run the
power plants. So they've had numerous increases and then they
just got another rate increase yesterday.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yep, because the Florida Public Service Commission basically a rubber
stamp for what these utilities want.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Hey, we want another rate increase? How much? Okay, yeah,
you got it.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
I was actually shocked by how low my electric bill was,
like my first electric bill in the new house, because
I thought it was going to be so much more
than my other house and it wasn't. And I'm like,
all right, something's got to be off here. So I
have a feeling I'm gonna get hit with something like bad.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Really, like it was less than what my last electric
bill was in a much.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Smaller was it a partial month?
Speaker 4 (27:04):
It was like five days off okay, but I was
totally stuck. I thought it was going to be like
four hundred dollars yeah, and it was like just over
one hundred.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Just like, yeah, I su enough with these rate increases and.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
It'll be well, there goes my relief from that problem.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
There was a poll from FAU that came out and
it found nearly half of Floridians have thought about moving
out of the state because of rising costs. Twenty six
percent say they're considering it very seriously. You've got more
than four and ten Floridians living paycheck to paycheck, and
then you add in these increases with utilities and insurance
costs and stuff like that, and they.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Just keep up. Yeah, they cannot keep up.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Less than half of Floridians have an emergency fund that
would last three months. So it's reaching that point where
it's like a breaking point here. We saw so many
people come into the state, uh, you know, in the
aftermath of the pandemic. Uh, and now I think a
lot of them are finding themselves struggling to keep up.
Not expecting Florida to be that expensive, but it's what
(28:01):
we're seeing.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Florida didn't seem like there's any insight that's right. Florida
is no longer the good deal rice to be. Florida
Insurance Commissioner Mike Yuwarski ordered penalties against two insurance companies
for their handling of claims during hurricanes in recent years.
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation announced two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars penalties against KIN inter Insurance Network and
(28:24):
Slide Insurance Company for how they handle claims in the
wakes of Hurricanes Ian and Idalia. So they found that
KIN failed to provide disclosure statements for the hurricanes and
then failed to pay out claims within ninety days of
Hurricane Ian, and that Slide used unappointed adjusters and then
failed to provide the disclosure statements that are required. Now,
(28:48):
that's a good thing that they're cracking down on these
mishandling of claims following the hurricanes. The bad news is
like two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per insurance company.
I mean, did they even notice that. No, it's like
a blink of an eye. It's a drop in the bucket.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
In the Office of Insurance Regulation, they claim they've secured
over fourteen million dollars in consumer restitution. I feel like
if they were more aggressive and they really looked into
what some of these insurance companies were doing, that could
probably secure a whole lot more for consumers. And this
is hurricanes Ian and Adalia. That was a couple of
(29:23):
years ago. What's the deal with with Milton and Helene?
Because just anecdotally, I've heard some of the nightmare stories
about what people have gone through in the aftermath of
those storms. So again, I feel like there could be
a lot more of an aggressive posture taken towards these
(29:44):
insurance companies to crack down on some of this nonsense.
And like you said, I don't know that two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars is going to cut it.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Yeah, a lot of homeowners feel like the state just
isn't on their.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Side, yeah, and certainly aren't right. Yeah, So it's a
big problem, all right. Chris Trankman with today's top story. Chris,
thanks him, Thank you.
Tom Ryan Gorman with Dan McKay, Jason Barringer, and Chris
Trenkman from our newsroom. Coming up on the show this hour,
the Democrats win big in elections across the country. We're
going to run through the results before five twenty And
with Orange County Mayor Jerry Demmings now officially running for governor,
how does that impact the twenty twenty six race here
in Florida? The publisher of Florida Politics, Peter Shoreschel of
(00:21):
the Inside Screw for us at five thirty five, and finally,
Snap benefits confusion, air travel warnings, a lot of shutdown
developments since yesterday's show. We'll get to all of that
for you at around five forty seven. Right now, we
kick things off with today's top stories and Chris Trenkman,
Good morning, Chris.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
So Tuesday was election day and voters around Tampa Bay
had some races that they could participate in. In particular,
Lakeland voters took to the polls to choose the city's
next mayor. Sarah Roberts McCary narrowly avoided a runoff election,
earning fifty point two eight percent of the vote. That
solidified her position as the city's first female mayor. She
(01:02):
had served as city commissioner for the last seven years,
and she beat out three other candidates, including Southeastern professor
Cedric Valery, who got nineteen percent, Kay Climcoe was seventeen percent,
and Hooter's manager Caitlin Gracie Kramer, who finished fourth with
thirteen percent of the vote and about fifteen hundred total votes.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, she got quite a few votes.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I think one of the problems, you know, a note
that I saw about this race was that McCary appeared
to have raised the most money of any candidate in
the city's history. And you wonder if, like those events
that I know Caitlyn Gracie Kramer was doing at Hooters,
if perhaps too much of the money from people who
(01:45):
attended the events went to wings and beer and not allow.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
She should just do an only fans, then she could
raise some serious.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Campaigns with a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
But Sarah Roberts McCarley she won, But boy, just avoided
that runoff.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That is really close.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Two point two eight percent under fifty percent, and it
would have been a runoff between her and the professor
from Southeastern University.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
Now.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Voter turnout was about seventeen percent, which isn't horrible now
to consider the time of year, and you know, being
that this is an off year. I mean, obviously you'd
like to see the turnout be higher, but we've seen
races where it's under ten percent, So seventeen percent wasn't
a horrific turnout. And if you drive around Lakeland, I
mean the signs were all over the place. Yeah, there
(02:28):
was clearly a lot of you know, attention being paid,
I think to this particular race. And yeah, it was
fairly close. I mean, the other candidates weren't that bad.
I mean, they had their they had their supporters. It's
just that, you know, Roberts McCary clearly had the name
recognition and the money. She had the backing too, and
the backing as well, so you know, she's an establishment figure.
(02:50):
If you saw the interview with her, you know she
talks a lot about city commission type issues and things
like that.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah, really exciting clips. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Well, here's the thing, say, the city mayor of Lakeland
is not a strong mayor like you have in Tampa
or Orlando's similar.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
To Miami, where it's a weak mayor position. Yes, so Miami,
that's right.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
So the city manager pretty much runs the day to
day and the mayor is more of a front person
for the city and also serves much like what a
commissioner would do. And so from that standpoint, it's really
a job where you have to kind of get into
the weeds a little bit, and if you're not interested
in that, it's not a great job you have.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Now, there were about eighteen thousand ballots cast, so that
gives you a sense. That's that seventeen percent turnout number.
It gives you a senses to how many people voted,
and these kinds of local races, it really is all
about turning out the vote at a very local, grassroots level,
trying to get as many of your friends and family
(03:48):
and acquaintances and you know, all of that out to
the polls on election day as possible, because that could
make all the difference. I mean, let's say Sarah Roberts
mccarly felt just a little bit short with her turnout,
then we'd be doing a runoff. Now she probably easily
win the runoff, but still she was able to avoid it.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Because she got enough people out of the bulls.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
I think we're starting to see also the effects of
some of the state laws that were passed where they
don't automatically send out mail in ballots anymore. You have
to request them essentially for every election. So that could
have effected turnout for people who are used to just
sort of getting the you know, they used to be
able to us to sign up for it and it
would get sent to you every election. Now you have
to pay attention and request that yourself. Whether that had
(04:29):
an effect on turnout, we'll see. It'll probably be more
of a significant issue in the midterms next year. Just
another mention. In Seminole, there was another mayor's race. Leslie
Waters was elected mayor and she was able to get
fifty seven percent of the vote, defeating Marcus Barber. A
six year old girl is dead, her mother and ten
year old brother in the hospital after being hit by
(04:51):
a vehicle in Tampa on Tuesday morning. The Hillsborough Sheriff's
Office says a forty five year old mother was walking
her two children to school as she crossed Sheldon Road
in a crosswalk, so a driver turning from More Road
onto Sheldon struck the trio. The driver was a seventy
seven year old man. He was in a Dodge pickup truck.
(05:13):
He did have the green light, but pedestrians always have
the right of way.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah, and they the family had the signal that's right.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
And so he has now been sighted with a one
thousand dollars fine in the automatic six month suspension of
his license for violating a right of way where people
are involved.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
This is something that I think we've all experienced before,
where you have the green light, you're making that turn.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I know I've done it, and like, oh crap, I
didn't see them.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Unfortunately, there's one intersection in Riverview that's really bad for that.
It's a major intersection and I almost hit somebody once
because I was just making a right turn.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
But they crossed right.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
This was a case where they just they happen to
be like in the crosswalk, and so he plowed right
into them. It was interesting the under Sheriff Thomas Saint
John he in some of his comments, urged drivers to
put down their phones and pay closer attention near crosswalks.
I don't know if that had anything directly to do
(06:16):
with what happened here. If the seventy seven year old
man was on his phone or just wasn't paying attention,
But that did stand out to me. Could also just
be a message, because obviously, if you're making a turn
like that and you're on your phone, you're not paying attention,
you're more likely to hit somebody.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I see it all the time.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I'll be at an intersection and I'll be waiting for
the green light and There'll be one car ahead of me,
and one car doesn't go because he's obviously on the phone. Yeah,
I mean people are doing it all the time. Now,
obviously you would hope that they're not doing it when
they're making turns into crosswalk intersections. But I think you're right.
I think the under sheriff is probably just making a
point because they encounter it so often and it's such
(06:52):
a huge problem. A campus safety monitor at Spoto High
School is facing two hundred charges after the Hillsborough Sheriff's
Office found hundreds of pictures and videos showing the sexual
abuse of infants and young children, oh as well as
sex acts with animals. Twenty five year old Tyree Fields
taken into custody after deputies found the materials on his
(07:15):
digital accounts. An investigation was launched after they received a
tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
and they were tracing the uploads of child sex abuse
materials to an online account that they linked to Fields.
So he has resigned from his position at the schools
no longer an employee. Sheriff Chack Cronister called Field's actions
(07:39):
pure evil.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Oh yeah, Now that was Spoto High School, right, So
that's the same high school where the former principal was
just arrested for not reporting the abuse of a four
year old yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
And I guess he passed background checks back when he
was hired in twenty twenty one, so it wasn't like
anything showed up there. But this is another case. It's
another day ending and why and we have another child
porn case tied to a school. And what exactly does
a campus safety monitor do that's not a school resource officer?
Speaker 2 (08:13):
What are they doing? Hmmm, that's a good question. I
have no idea, no clue.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, are those like the hall monitors if you have
those in high school where these guys just sort of
hang out in the hallway and make sure nobody is
like wandering in between us, that's what is Yeah, maybe
it's something of bad nature, you know, not a super act.
School resource officers are more interacting, right right, So I'm
thinking that maybe it's more along the lines. You're more
like a guard. Yeah, you know, you're just watching out
(08:38):
for what's going on, because they did have those when
I was in high school, and I assume they have
similar people today. So, a music producer living in Penelas
County revealed that he's the John Doe in a civil
complaint in California's La County accusing music mogul Sean Diddy
Combs of sexual assault. Largo resident Jonathan hay was contracted
(09:00):
in twenty twenty to work as a covers album producer,
reworking the music by Notorious Big as an instrumental house
and techno track artist. Now, he claims in court records
that the unreleased project Ready to Dance put him in
contact with Colmbs on several occasions, and in one particular case,
they were alone in a room with racks of BIG's clothes.
(09:23):
According to Hayes complaint, that Colmbs was watching porn on
his phone, pleasuring himself under a shirt once owned by
the late rapper before throwing it at him. He told
others on the project that the encounter was so disturbing
that it nearly derailed his participation in the project. And
(09:44):
at one point when he showed up there, he was
like grabbed by these two goons and put something over
his head and brought inside to be part of the party.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Who would have thought there'd be a local connection to
all things Diddy?
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Yeah, and the story about what happened to this guy
is so crazy with the Biggie T shirt and all
that just bizarre.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Doesn't it sound like Diddy based on everything that we
tell everything, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
I wouldn't believe it if it was just this like
phone incident. But everything we've heard about him, all the testimony,
all the stories.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, the guy's just as sick of Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
You've got Largo police assistant. Can you imagine those police
officers all of a sudden, they're like working on.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
A Diddy involved cass Uh, can you believe it?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
But yeah, well, they makes sense that he would be
over here instead of out there in La after that
exactly Like I got to get as far away from
that place as possible.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yep. All right.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Chris Trankman with Today's Top Stories. Chris, thanks so much,
Thank you, Tom Ryan Gorman with Dana McKay, Jason Baron,
Sherbrey on the Torrez, and Natalie Rodriguez from our news room.
Coming up this hour, we'll get to today's forecast with
Weather Channel mediarologist Race Age before six fifteen. Right after that,
we've got our Bloomberg Business Report, Plus the Democrats win
big in elections across the country. We're going to run
(10:54):
through the results with GOP strategist Pete Gidarelli at six
thirty five. Right now, let's get to today's top stories
with Natalie ron Reaganz.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Good morning, Natalie, Good morning, Well.
Speaker 6 (11:06):
Decision twenty twenty five, another round of voting needed to
determine Miami's next mayor. Eileen Higgins and Emilia Gonzalez advancing
to a runoff. They finished in the top two, even
though neither one got a majority. Former County Commissioner Higgins
got the most votes at about thirty six percent or so,
and then former city manager Gonzales got about twenty percent.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
That runoff is happening on December ninth.
Speaker 6 (11:30):
There's also going to be a runoff needed in the
District three commission rais between former Commissioner Frank Gotrojol and
Rolandos Galoona. In District five, Christine King won with over
eighty four percent of the vote.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Hialia setting a record.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
With a new mayor, Brian Calvo, winning yesterday's election, making
history as the city's youngest mayor ever. The twenty seven
year old beat Intra mayor Jackie Garcia Robes with about
fifty three percent of the vote. There were also four
city council seats on the ballot. Interim councilwoman Melinda de
la Vega won the Group six race to the Vegus
(12:05):
no relation there.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
He was re elected to Group seven.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
Group three is headed to a runoff between Galen Perez
and Jessica Gastillo, and they'll also be a runoff in
Group four between Willie Morero and Javier morre Jone. Now,
there are some changes that are coming to Miami's constitution.
This is where it gets really interesting. Voters waited on
four ballot referendums. The first one was to form a
(12:29):
Charter Review Commission that would meet every ten years. That passed,
but they did reject Referendum number two that would have
made it easier for the city to sell some of
its land and the first thing that popped into mind
was the issue with the land and the property sell
and transfer for the Presidential Library in downtown Miami. Now,
voters also banned Jerry Mandarin by passing Referendum three and
(12:52):
establishing a citizen's Redistricting Committee. And they also passed Referendum four,
and that one imposes a two term limit for a officials,
so we wouldn't see a repeat of the Suarez dynasty
or any other such thing happening in local cities. Previously,
people were limited to consecutive terms, but they could run
again after sitting out one.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
With the Suarez dynasty. That came to an end too,
with this race for Miami Mayor's Javior Suarez only getting
about five percent of the vote. It went pretty much
like we thought it was going to. If you listened
to the show yesterday, Eileen Higgins, we were pretty confident
that she was going to make it into a runoff.
We were also pretty confident there was going to be
a runoff, that nobody was going to get a majority
(13:34):
of the vote. Now many have that many candidates, it
just makes it very difficult to get over that fifty
percent threshold. And you know, we went through the top
six candidates and basically had Eileen Higgins Emlio Gonzalez right
there as the likely candidates for that December ninth runoff.
I did think it was interesting Brian Calvo in Hialia winning,
(13:57):
like you said, with fifty three percent of the vote,
youngest mayor and highly as history, youngest mayor currently serving
in Florida and only twenty seven years old. First entered
local politics at twenty three as the city's youngest council members,
so just setting all kinds of records and obviously interested
in politics at a very young age. And he ran
(14:17):
on a highly A first platform, so the whole America
first thing localized, which I thought was pretty interesting.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, it worked for him. Yep.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Overall basically what we expected, and now we'll see where
things go as we head into this stretch run before
that big runoff for Miami mayor and the Miami City
Commission race coming up in December.
Speaker 6 (14:41):
Absolutely shifting gears. A Southwest Miami father stepfather really taking
a plea deal and avoiding prison time after allegedly torturing
his six year old step son. He defended had.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Been punched in in the face multiple times.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
He is in for a tree rares from also heat for.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Where the call was.
Speaker 6 (15:04):
Forty two year old Zachary Perez's mother testified that her
son suffers from PTSD from military service and May. Perez
was arrested for hitting and kicking the six year old
and dragging him around with a dog collar and a leash,
and the judge sentenced him to ten years probation.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Do not understand, Yeah, I do not understand. Maybe there's
something I'm missing here, but I don't get how you
could be caught on video yanking your six year old
steps on by a dog collar, repeatedly hitting and kicking him,
and then you also had the boys mother. Several of
this person's former partners, they came forward. They described him
(15:47):
as abusive and threatening. Prosecutors called him a ticking time bomb.
They said he made death threats and yet he won't
serve a day in prison.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Yeah, it's outragious. And this is the type of guy
that will eventually end up really really like killing someone
or really seriously injuring someone. And that little boy is
going to have PTSD over this for the rest of
his life.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
That kind of abuse, No question, he's going to do
this again.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
The judge overseeing the case that he accepted the plea
based on the recommendation of the Guardian ATLTAM program, but
he said it's not a plea he would have approved
on his own. So why in the world did this
plea get made? I mean, if convicted, he could have
faced four to thirty years behind bars. That's where he
deserves to be. I think there are serious questions were
(16:34):
what happened here? Well?
Speaker 4 (16:35):
And who's the guardian ATLTUM? I thought was usually somebody
representing a child?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Does that have that?
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Is that somebody representing him because he had PTSD.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
I don't know how this went down, but I think
some questions need to be answered because this should not happen.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
I mean, especially it's on video.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Yeah, absolutely guess rights.
Speaker 6 (16:54):
In the last twenty four hours, believe it or not,
three different cases that have made headlines because of child abuse.
This one is with the stepfather. We had a homestead
mother accused of beating her daughter with a belt and
threatening to cut her hands off because she was disrespectful.
And then we had a derow mother accused of beating
her kid, ripping out a fistful of hair and then
just dropping him off because the child went to a
(17:16):
stranger for help.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Oh my god. Yeah, I hope these people get what
they deserve, But I don't know. I'm a little less
confident after hearing about this story.
Speaker 6 (17:24):
Yeah yeah, and a mcflurry of emotions flaring. A McDonald's
worker accused of pulling a gun in the drive through
lane on a car with a mother and some kids
in the car. Her name is Cheating Timmins, and she
says she was waiting for like over an hour at
the mickey D's for the food, which led to an
(17:45):
argument with the cashier, nineteen year old Anthony Markeith Elliott,
who wouldn't give them the food.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Oh, I said, listen, his mama wanted to make make
griddles a mat chicken. Because this about to be a
friend McDonald's. I don't play any step a game. This
ain't that.
Speaker 6 (18:01):
Cheaton Timmans, who's already survived a shooting, said when she
when the when the guy flashed the gun, she went
into defense mode.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
And this is what she said about that where men
are children, what can we possibly do to you?
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Well? Yeah, she uh, She said nobody was going to
threaten her family over McNuggets.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
She said it was about to be a mcfuneral.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Yeah, funeral. Here's the thing who waits an hour for
food to McDonald's.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Yeah, that's really crazy.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
I mean Chick Fly, Chick fl A.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Maybe it gets you know, the line gets really long
at Chick fil A. But I mean, yeah, why was
it taking so long?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yeah, I mean I would say probably if I were
a McDonald's and let's say I was really craving it.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Fifteen minutes, I'm out of there.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
I'm going to the new Yeah, there's another McDonald's right
around the corner.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Like you say that. But once you're in that line
the way design, you can't get out. Okay.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
I've been stuck in a Starbucks line before when I
was laid for something, and I don't know what the
hell the hold up was about, Like I need to
get Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah, if you're stuck in the line and you can't
get out, and yeah, it's a real problem. But luckily
it didn't end up being a mc funeral. Well, but
it did mccharges.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (19:09):
Last year, Athony Elliott is facing five counts if aggravated
assault with a firearm.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Unbelievable, all right.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Natalie Rodriguez with Today's Stop Stories, Natalie, thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Now let's bringing Weather Channel mediorologists Race Digic for today's forecast,
brought to you by arch Well Health. Arch Well Health's
preventative care for adults age sixty plus means catching small
issues before they become big problems. So Ray, I want
to start with this final stretch of king tides for
the year.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Continues to be a problem in South Florida. This is
going to be it, right, Yeah, it'll be at some
inundation along the coast.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
Weather Service has a statement out about that, especially during
high tide, and I think it's the either this morning
or tomorrow morning. The super Beaver moon too, so that's
simply not helping. So there's that that helps push the
tides up even further. In South Flotus, let's there. It's
actually in the mid upper seventies this morning. The interior
is a little bit cooler or not as warm, but
(20:06):
starting off for Miami lod to mid eighties in the
next few days. A big front coming though early next week,
may spend Tuesday Veterans Day in the lot to mid
seventies with lows in the fifties. Now up here Tampa
this morning, we do have some fifties, but they're away
from Tampa Bay into the interior, even a little Patchee Fogg.
That big coll fronts also on the way by early
next week, and we may see some numbers in the
(20:27):
forties for a night. Low temperatures, Yeah, but it's that
time of year, but coming quick they leave. Click should
be pleasant up until about Monday issue when this front's
come to arrive.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
But the bad.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
News is no rain with the front, and we desperately
need some rain across I'd say most of the stay.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah. All right, Weather Channel Media Roley just raced agic
with this ray. We'll talk to you in a bit,
Thanks so much.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
All right.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I'm Ryan Gorman with Dana McKay, Jason Barringer, preonatorres and
Chris Trankman from our newsroom.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Coming up this hour.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
The government shutdown continues now setting an all time record
here on day thirty six. I'm the latest for you
before seven twenty plus lots more on yesterday's election results
with our national correspondent Rory O'Neil. He'll join us at
seven thirty five. But now it's time for today's top stories,
prompt to you by my friends over at the Holland
Group Retirement and wealth advisors. You worked hard to save
(21:17):
for your future, they can help you make the most
of it. Find them online at Askdehollands dot com. Good morning, Chris,
Good morning.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
So it's no secret that Governor DeSantis wants to eliminate
property taxes throughout the state, but he has taken his
time releasing an actual proposal for doing that. And one
of the reasons is possibly because he would have to
answer a lot of questions about how you're going to
pay for that once you eliminate them. So, Lieutenant Governor
(21:45):
Jake Hollins was asked about this and he didn't really
have any answer as to when the administration's going to
roll out its concrete plan. He said it is likely
that there will be more delays while they're working on it.
But he did say something that is obviously of interest
to the legislature. He does not believe the governor likes
anything that the legislature has been working on, and they
have up to eight proposals. Yeah, they could potentially go
(22:07):
on the ballot for changing property tax laws. He thinks
that it has to be something that is more cut
and dry. It eliminates them outright, and it's a ballot initiative.
That will be one initiative. That's it, so that you
don't have this like confusion on there. And he made
an odd reference. He said, it's like the old movie
The Highlander. There can only be one.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
I didn't get that any any idea what he's well, yeah,
I think this is maybe Dane would know.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
This is kind of a gen X thing Highlander, you know,
Sean Connery, it's it kind of works for kind of
works for boomers maybe, Okay, but I.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Think that's a movie reference, right, Yeah, I'm all, so
you're gonna go like Wayne's World or Austin Powers. Like,
I don't get the movie references.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
I know what's what's Jay Collins going for with the
Highlander reference. I guess he's going for the older crowd.
I guess so, not the gen Z's or the Alphas.
But yeah, this is the governor's top issue. I mean,
this is his goal for his final year in office.
I find it interesting that he hasn't released his plan.
(23:13):
He knew that the legislature was going to be getting
together in Tallahassee and working on this recently, he didn't
seem to be interested in working with them on a plan.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
He didn't release his own plan in advance.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Of them getting to Tallahassee to give them some guidance
as to what specifically he's looking for. He's talked about
it in generalities.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
I agree with them.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I don't think the house plan having eight different options
is feasible. He can't put eight different options on the
ballot for twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
But if this is your.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Big issue and you're putting all your eggs in this
basket going into the twenty twenty six legislative session, how
come we don't know what his plan is just yet?
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Like, I think that is a real question.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Now I get the whole wanting to the eyes across
the t's, but again, he's got to have an idea
of what he wants to do.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
What's the delay?
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yeah, I think the delay is that there's a lot
of questions as to what would happen to local services.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Yeah, if you eliminate property.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Taxes like okay, public schools, infrastructure, health and social services,
recreational programs, and waste management. So who's going to pay
to pick up the trash? If they get rid of
property taxes? That's what I don't understand.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
And then what carve outs are there going to be
in the plan? Will there be a carve out where
it won't impact law enforcement? That will be a carve out, Yeah,
won't impact schools to what extent? So there are a
lot of questions, but I just would have thought by now, again,
this is his big issue. This is what he's going
around the state talking about and getting rid of, in particular,
you know, eliminating property taxes on homestead properties.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Where's the plan?
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Yeah, Governor de Santas doesn't have a reputation of working
well with the legislature and because of their empowered position
from last year. Yeah, it's only getting more strong because
he's a lay decent land up and he is going
to have to work with them if he wants to
get his plan passed. Yeah, and he's not showing a
lot of signs that he's very good at doing that.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
It's going to be a fascinating legislative session to see
how this all on false and see what ends up.
I do think something involving property tax is going to
be on the ballot in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I just don't know what.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Yeah, Well, I think with the reason there so many
from the legislature is they have a lot of disagreements
on the to do it. You know, there are a
lot of concerns and questions about how to do it
and whether or not you can actually put a proposal
on there that'll benefit voters and not hurt some of
the services in the community. So Tampa Electric customers will
pay more starting in January after the Florida Public Service
(25:38):
Commission approved a rate hike on Tuesday. So a consumer group,
the Food and Water Watch Analysis Group, came out and
criticized the PSC and Governor de Santus for appointing the
people who sit on that board. And they say that
the average TIKO customer bill will be eighty two percent
(25:58):
higher nine hundred dollars more a year than they were
in December of twenty twenty And if you look at
twenty twenty five alone, there have been substantial increases because
of a number of issues. They increased the rates nine
to thirteen dollars more because of the approved rate hikes
for last year, twenty to twenty five dollars more for
(26:19):
eighteen months because of approved storm recovery issues, and then
in June they had another ten percent increase because of
the fuel charges based on the cost to run the
power plants. So they've had numerous increases and then they
just got another rate increase yesterday.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yep, because the Florida Public Service Commission basically a rubber
stamp for what these utilities want.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Hey, we want another rate increase? How much? Okay, yeah,
you got it.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
I was actually shocked by how low my electric bill was,
like my first electric bill in the new house, because
I thought it was going to be so much more
than my other house and it wasn't. And I'm like,
all right, something's got to be off here. So I
have a feeling I'm gonna get hit with something like bad.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Really, like it was less than what my last electric
bill was in a much.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Smaller was it a partial month?
Speaker 4 (27:04):
It was like five days off okay, but I was
totally stuck. I thought it was going to be like
four hundred dollars yeah, and it was like just over
one hundred.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Just like, yeah, I su enough with these rate increases and.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
It'll be well, there goes my relief from that problem.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
There was a poll from FAU that came out and
it found nearly half of Floridians have thought about moving
out of the state because of rising costs. Twenty six
percent say they're considering it very seriously. You've got more
than four and ten Floridians living paycheck to paycheck, and
then you add in these increases with utilities and insurance
costs and stuff like that, and they.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Just keep up. Yeah, they cannot keep up.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Less than half of Floridians have an emergency fund that
would last three months. So it's reaching that point where
it's like a breaking point here. We saw so many
people come into the state, uh, you know, in the
aftermath of the pandemic. Uh, and now I think a
lot of them are finding themselves struggling to keep up.
Not expecting Florida to be that expensive, but it's what
(28:01):
we're seeing.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Florida didn't seem like there's any insight that's right. Florida
is no longer the good deal rice to be. Florida
Insurance Commissioner Mike Yuwarski ordered penalties against two insurance companies
for their handling of claims during hurricanes in recent years.
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation announced two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars penalties against KIN inter Insurance Network and
(28:24):
Slide Insurance Company for how they handle claims in the
wakes of Hurricanes Ian and Idalia. So they found that
KIN failed to provide disclosure statements for the hurricanes and
then failed to pay out claims within ninety days of
Hurricane Ian, and that Slide used unappointed adjusters and then
failed to provide the disclosure statements that are required. Now,
(28:48):
that's a good thing that they're cracking down on these
mishandling of claims following the hurricanes. The bad news is
like two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per insurance company.
I mean, did they even notice that. No, it's like
a blink of an eye. It's a drop in the bucket.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
In the Office of Insurance Regulation, they claim they've secured
over fourteen million dollars in consumer restitution. I feel like
if they were more aggressive and they really looked into
what some of these insurance companies were doing, that could
probably secure a whole lot more for consumers. And this
is hurricanes Ian and Adalia. That was a couple of
(29:23):
years ago. What's the deal with with Milton and Helene?
Because just anecdotally, I've heard some of the nightmare stories
about what people have gone through in the aftermath of
those storms. So again, I feel like there could be
a lot more of an aggressive posture taken towards these
(29:44):
insurance companies to crack down on some of this nonsense.
And like you said, I don't know that two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars is going to cut it.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Yeah, a lot of homeowners feel like the state just
isn't on their.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Side, yeah, and certainly aren't right. Yeah, So it's a
big problem, all right. Chris Trankman with today's top story. Chris,
thanks him, Thank you.
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