Florida's Senate race
We started the show with the US Senate race. Incumbent Republican Ashley Moody is facing her first statewide election for this role after being appointed to fill Marco Rubio’s seat in 2025. Democrat Angie Nixon is looking to unseat her after pulling off a big upset in the Democratic primary.
Moody did not return a request to join the show, but we spoke about her very cautious campaign strategy.
Nixon joined us to talk about her campaign.
Guests:
- Kimberly Leonard, politics writer for Politico and author of Florida Playbook newsletter
- Rep. Angie Nixon, Democratic candidate for US Senate
Florida Commissioner of Agriculture
Commissioner of Agriculture might be the statewide race voters are least focused on, but the position touches the lives of Floridians in so many ways. We spoke with the Democratic candidate for Commissioner of Agriculture about what the job entails and what kind of power it wields.
Guest:
- Joey Mendoza Atkins, Democratic candidate for Florida Commissioner of Agriculture
Fact Check: Amendment 3
We separated political fact from fiction on a number of claims about Florida's Amendment 3. Is public safety funding protected? What about schools?
Guest:
- Samantha Putterman, staff writer, Politifact.
Weekly news briefing
WLRN's Jenny Staletovich shares an idea researchers at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School have to address the problem caused by heaps of sargassum washing onshore. Instead of trucking it away to landfills or incinerators, why not use it to help feed the world?
Hurricane forecasters are increasingly using AI to make predictions. When Hurricane Isaias formed in the Gulf last week, artificial intelligence beat out traditional forecast models at predicting where it would go. aBut as WUSF's Jessica Meszaros tells us, it did not get everything right.
John Anderson, the country music star born and raised in Apopka, in Central Florida, passed away this week. He wrote the 1992 hit song "Seminole Wind" about the destruction of the Everglades and the displacement of the Seminole people. He was 71.