Snowfall in Florida
This week, a historic winter storm brought record snowfall to the Sunshine State.
Pensacola saw more than 7 inches of snow. And other parts of the Panhandle saw even more snow.
Freeze warnings and cold advisories were issued across the state.
It has been a decade since any snow fell on Florida and that was only one inch.
Guest:
- Megan Borowski, meteorologist with the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network.
Special session ahead
Despite pushback from Florida’s Senate and House leaders, state lawmakers will head to Tallahassee next week for a special session.
In his call for the session, Gov. Ron DeSantis listed several issues for lawmakers to tackle but immigration is the central focus. And there are two special elections next week. Both are primaries leading to general elections this spring to replace two members of Congress.
Guest:
- Gary Fineout, reporter for POLITICO.
Trump and the Christian Right
This week, Donald Trump was sworn in as president of the United States. Evangelical Christian voters overwhelmingly voted to re-elect Trump.
During the campaign, he intertwined his policy positions with Evangelical themes and invoked his faith in his inauguration address on Monday.
So, how much of that Evangelical influence can we expect to see in President Trump’s second term?
Guest:
- Sarah McCammon, national political correspondent for NPR and co-host of the NPR Politics Podcast.
Struggling citrus crops and looming seaweed
Florida’s famed oranges are struggling. And have been for years.
Over the past two decades citrus production in Florida has dropped 90% according to a recent report by Florida TaxWatch.
Alico, Southwest Florida's biggest grower, announced in early January that it was getting out of the citrus growing business because of financial challenges stemming from citrus greening disease and hurricanes. For more on the state of the industry, we turned to WGCU’s Sandra Viktorova.
2025 is expected to be a major seaweed season this year.
Sargassum is the formal name of the leafy brown seaweed that floats on top of the ocean and is blown ashore in Florida beginning in the spring. There’s a lot of it out in the Atlantic now, according to experts at the University of South Florida's (USF) Optical Oceanography Laboratory.
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