On this Tuesday, June 7, edition of Sundial:
Florida’s budget
Florida is growing, and not just by the number of people that have been moving here in recent years. Our most recent budget has grown to another record at $109.9 billion.
Yet, Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed more than $3 billion in projects that lawmakers had approved. In South Florida, people are looking a little more closely at the millions that he vetoed in regional projects.
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Miami Herald reporter Ana Ceballos covers politics and policy in the Tallahassee Bureau. She joined us to explain specific projects that got the ax.
She also spoke about what this means for the political dynamic in Tallahassee.
"This was a year where DeSantis really got most, if not everything, that he wanted from the lawmakers that he did not return the favor for when it came to budget requests," she noted.
You can hear the full conversation below:
Radio Poder
Five years ago, a radio station that broadcasts out of South Miami-Dade County was born. It has a different kind of mission beyond just keeping people informed.
Radio Poder (97.7 FM) describes itself as "La Chispa del Pueblo!" or "The spark of the community!" The station works to reach people in their indigenous languages from Mexico and Central America with public service announcements and music that ties to their audience's cultures.
Claudia Navarro is the co-executive director at WeCount!, the organization that runs Radio Poder. She joined Sundial to talk about why this work matters in her life.
"It is crucial to know that there's a community that has easy access to music that speaks to their culture, their heritage and information, that speaks to the lived issues that they experience every day," Navarro said.
You can hear the full conversation below:
Summer Shorts Festival returns
A traditional play takes anywhere from 60-90 minutes to hash out characters and a story, and usually, all of it is organized in three acts.
Not unless you’re watching a short play, of course, where it all gets condensed into a ten-minute scene.
One Miami company specializes in these short plays — City Theatre. And its annual Summer Shorts Festival returns this month, while the event is also celebrating 25 years.
It's the brainchild of playwright Susi Westfall. She founded City Theatre in 1996 — and the company has been putting on Summer Shorts ever since, with a break during the pandemic like many of the performing arts.
Westfall joined Sundial to talk about what this festival's anniversary looks like and how theater in South Florida has changed over time.
You can listen to the full conversation and read more coverage from the actors' perspectives by WLRN's Christine DiMattei.
