>>This week on NewsNight the second of our two part look back at 202 and the stories we've covered here on the program.

Tonight, some of the most consequentia bills signed into law in 2024, including som that have just taken effect at the start of January.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Steve Mort, welcome to NewsNight where we take an in-depth look at the top storie and issues in Central Florida and how they shap our community.

This week, we're bringing you the second of two special episodes of NewsNight, looking back at some of the top stories of 2024 that we've covered here on the program.

Florida lawmakers will begin 2025 by drawing up bills they hope will pass the legislative session that gets underway in Tallahassee in March.

The priorities for the new House and Senate leadership are taking shap following a busy session in 2024 that included the passage of a number of bills that came into effect just a couple of days ago on January 1st.

Among them, a ban on children younger than 16 from using certain social media services with an exception for 14 and 15 year olds who get parental consent.

It's a law that has First Amendmen and privacy advocates concerned.

After the bill was signed into law, Krystel Knowles talked with one family worried about the impact on parental rights.

Just days before th end of the legislative session, lawmakers reintroduced and passed a social media bill with modifications.

>>We know from all the research that the main place where crimes against children happen on online social media platforms.

We address that this year in a way that I think puts us ahead of other states.

Will be sustained both legally and is also effective.

We know that in addition to crimes against children, we see record, deterioration in the mental health of our kids, whether it's anorexi or self-harm or even having almos a third of high school women that have contemplated suicid in the last year.

>>For anyone under 16, social media is off limits except for 14 and 15 year olds with parental consent.

But that's not sitting well with Kelly Reidel, who supervises her ten yea old daughter's social media use.

>>I don't agree with the government telling me what I can d with my kids with social media.

So there are good parts to social media and the kids do use it sometimes to communicat with friends and or with their teacher for classes.

So there is some good and I believe that parent or the caretaker for the child should be in charge of their limitations on social media.

>>It's unclear which socia media sites will be restricted.

Reidel's ten year old daughter, Brooklyn, hopes to be a child actor.

She uses social media to follow other child actors and says she's okay with her mom supervising her when she's online.

>>They should have like, some sort of like supervision by their parents and like them knowing what they're posting because they could be posting like bad stuff that should not be posted when you're a kid under 15.

So like, I do think that it's fu to have it, but I think you need like supervision and you just need to make sure that you're doing the right thing on there and you're not doing anything that's like, not appropriate for your age or something.

>>The bill places responsibility for enforcing rules with social media platforms, which could face civil penalties if they fail to do so.

But legal challenges are likely as tech companies push back in Florida and other states.

>>Krystel Knowles reporting there.

The social media law is now in effect but the DeSantis administration says it won't immediately start enforcing it against major platforms until the courts have ruled on it.

Back in March, I discussed it when the bill passed with Gre Angel at the time with Spectrum News 13, Talia Blake from Central Florida Public Media, and Christopher Heath at that time with WFTV channel 9.

The governor vetoed a previous social media bill despite bipartisan support for it.

Right.

I mean, why do supporters think this effort is better?

>>I think they feel like on the margins, they've changed it enough by giving, some, you know, leeway for people who are 16, 15 to get parental authorization and then, you know banning it from there on down.

They feel like they've made enough changes to make the governor happy.

At the end of the day, you know, the governo may or may or may not sign it, but what we are going to have t wait and see is how do the court suss all this out?

Right now, the Fifth Circuit's alread taking up a Texas case dealing with some of these things.

Utah has had a couple bites of this apple trying to get it constitutionally correct, and they haven't been able to do it.

So I don't know that they've ultimately solved the problem of overreach, quite frankly, and intruding into people's private lives in the name of protecting children, which is why it got bipartisan support.

Everyone wants to protect children.

We all want to protect children.

But you can't bur the Constitution to the ground to protect children.

You've got to balance the two.

>>And some people would say children, of course, also have constitutional rights of free speech and so forth.

I mean, Greg I mean, there is confusion over which social media sites might even be wrapped up in this.

I mean how do they define social media?

>>Well, the legislature has put in broad bullet points, if you will, talk about, whether 10% of users are of or below a certain age, whether there's features within these apps include constant scrolling, sharing content, and viewing other people's content-- >>Page breaks.

>>Page breaks, pop up alerts.

It also goes a little bit further to the find that some some of these apps, where they are direct message from one person to another person would not be included.

So WhatsApp for example since that's a direct to direct, messaging.

But reall when you look at the language, it really includes the Twitter, the X, not sure what we're calling it these days.

Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok.

And whichever ones are, are still out there.

So it really kind of gives the broad language.

And of course, that's going to eventually come back to First Amendment and how it applies, because it's also the argument, you know, you talked about some of the challenges, Chris and some of the other, states.

It's that patchwork effect.

How is it one stat or this state can do something?

How do you enforce that?

>>I mean, there is a requirement for third party anonymous ag verification for social media.

I mean, first of all, and also for adult websites as well.

I mean, first of all what are the requirements there Talia?

>>Yeah.

So they want this anonymous.

Anonymous age verification, which we don't really exactly know how that's going to play out.

We're still going to have to wait and see what that's going to look like.

And one of the requirements is that after you put your information into whatever the verification site is, that that information immediately gets deleted.

After that, you've been verified.

How we're going to kno if that information gets deleted is still yet to be seen.

But the main thing is that, okay, yes, you're going to have to verify your information, but we're not going to store it anywhere.

It's not going to be stored in some outside databas somewhere else.

It's going to be deleted.

But we're not really sur if that's going to happen-- >>And the courts have referenced this in previous cases talking about you know, we're not opposed age verification if the technology exists, basically leaving that door open, that if we ever get the technology that's flawless enough that it protects everyone and doesn't violate the Constitution, we're fine with it.

But does that technology exist?

>>All right, a reminder you can find every episode of NewsNight any time on our website.

Be sure to catch us online at wucf.org/newsnight or wherever you get your podcasts.

Okay, next tonight, Florida's new ban on homeless people sleeping outside.

In October, we reported that local governments were well behind in their efforts to come up with solutions for providing shelter for the thousands of homeless people in Central Florida.

First, you'll hear my stor on that from October, followed by our conversation with Alex Lorenzo from WFTV, channel 9,.

Lilian Hernandez Caraballo from Central Florida Public Media, and Ryan Gillespie from the Orlando Sentinel.

Florida lawmakers passed legislation to ban homeless people from camping on city streets, sidewalks and parks.

>>From a state wide perspective we're not going to let any, city, turn into a San Francisc not on our watch.

We're not going to let that happen.

>>In June, the US Supreme Cour ruled that cities around the country could enforce ban like the one passed in Florida, which have drawn criticis from advocates for homeless people.

>>It's hard for me to be supportive of legislatio like that.

I, I personally would lik to see maybe some data on how that is an effective wa in helping to end homelessness.

>>The largest number of homeless people are in Orange County, particularl to the west of downtown Orlando, and finding shelters to help comply with the incoming law is proving tough.

This building is one example.

The city of Orlando had hoped to use this site in West Lakes as an emergency overnight shelter, but a barrage of local opposition forced the city to shelve its plans to spend $7.5 million to buy the unused warehouse.

But even had the plans been well received, there still wouldn't have been enough beds to meet demand.

Orange County recently added $10 million to its budget to fund homeless agencies.

But a Sentinel investigation shows efforts across the region are lagging well behind, with counties and cities unlikely to have enough facilitie in place to comply with the law.

All right, Lillian, first off, remind us exactly what the law passed earlier this year aims to prevent and what it requires from local agencies.

>>Cities and counties are no longer allowed to let people just sleep in publi in their cars.

Can't.

And little camps tents in the woods.

Anything that is public space.

The state says, no, you guy are not allowed to leave, that you let that happen anymore.

If you are going to let people camp somewhere, it has to be a designated zone.

You are allowed to give them designated zones to camp i and or sleep in if you want to.

But if you do that, then the state gives them a bit of a litany of-- >>Requirements.

>>Requirements.

Yes.

Standards and mandates that they must follow, including security.

They have to have drug rehab mental health resources, running water, which can be interprete in a number of ways, restrooms and so on.

>>Al of those sanitation facilities.

The Supreme Court did weigh in on on these kinds of bans, earlier this year on, you know, homeless people sleeping in public places.

What did the Supreme Court have to say about that?

Whether it was okay for local governments to punish peopl if they had nowhere else to go?

>>Yeah.

This was a decision that was highly anticipated.

People across the country were awaiting this, and in the opinion it was pretty cut and dry.

They found that findin and arresting does not violate, the amendmen for cruel and unusual punishment, allowing Florid the green light to move forward with this.

And this decision, I believe was in the summer.

So it gave them a few months to try to find their footing before this law took effect October 1st.

But I'll tell you, the morning of October 1st, we were reporting on this, and there were dozens upon dozens of people still sleeping in public.

There are right now this is not being at this point in forc because it's so fresh, so new.

There are so many question marks.

>>Well, that brings me to your reporting, Ryan, and how the implementation of this is, is going.

It sounds from what Alexa' saying, not particularly well.

You've been trying to get answers from local authorities about how their preparations are going.

What have you been finding?

>>So on the law enforcement side, I don't think I have come acros any law enforcement agency that's excite about the prospect of arresting peopl for sleeping outside.

You know, they don't see it and really, nobody sees it as an overly productive way to solve the problem.

All you're really doing is giving somebody the most expensive shelter bed that our society can offer for a couple of days, and then they're back out on the street in the same position they were, but now they have fines and fees associated with it.

So what everybody expected would happen when this bill was passed and signed is it would start a conversation on the need for more shelter beds.

Where can we send people that is not jail.

That conversation is very much in its infancy.

And in a lot of cases, I would say not happening.

We surveyed many of our citie and counties across the region very recently, and, and everybody was generally pointing the finger at each other of like, hey, we're waiting for Seminole County to come up with a plan or, hey, we'd like we'd like Osceola to be the leader down there where we've seen a little bit of progress, though nothing substantive.

The city of Orlando brought forward a plan for a shelter a month or two ago.

It died on the vine very quickly due to neighborhood feedback.

The city is is actively looking for place that would not be in paramour, where the rest of our region's shelter beds are for bed.

Orange County and set aside some funding as well for some places in East and West Orange but nobody has found a site yet.

Well you can always join the conversation on any of the issues we discussed here on NewsNight on social media.

We're at WUCF TV on Facebook and Instagram.

We're also @NewsNightWUCF on X.

Well another law tha passed in 2024, in Florida dealt with heat protection that came into effect in July, preempt local hea exposure protections for workers, and prevent local governments from imposing wag requirements on contractors.

More than 90 organizations signed a letter calling on the governor to veto the bill, amid a study by the Worker Compensation Research Institute finding, quote, strong and robust evidence that excessive heat increases the frequency of injuries.

First, let's see a repor that NewsNight's Krystel Knowles put together on the legislation back in May.

>>The Sunshine State is best known for its orange groves and year round beach weather, but it's never ending sunshine can be deadly, especially for those who work outside.

Ernesto Ruiz rom the Farm Worker Association of Florida explains that in the agriculture business, taking breaks can lead to lower income for farm workers.

>>Oftentimes, these workers are paid on a piece rate basis, meaning they're pai based on how much they produce.

So there's a disincentive against taking breaks.

And the workers tell us this they're like, no, I don't want to take a break because I want to mak more money.

>>Parts of Florida are continuing to experience record heat for this time of year, and Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show heat related deaths for field workers are becoming more prevalent.

Almost 100 workers died between 2020 and 2021.

>>Our legislator, our governor previously passed heat related protections for student athletes because, two high school athletes died tragically.

They shouldn't have.

So they understand the physiology, they understand the risk.

What they don't seem to share is, the ability t humanize different populations.

The nonprofit Worker Compensation Research Institute recently released a study looking at how temperatures affect the number of work related injuries amongst construction workers, landscapers, pavers and others exposed to the baking heat.

Ramona Tanabe is the institute's president.

>>What we found was that the data showed an increase in the probabilit of work related injuries, and about 5 to 6 when the maximum daily temperature was abov 90 degrees, compared to a day where it was between 65 and 70 degrees.

Not only direct injuries that you think of when you have excessive heat like, fainting from heat or heat exhaustion or heat cramps.

But it was also indirec injuries that where the heat has an effect on motor skills, perceptual skills and cognitive abilities.

>>But supporters of Florida's law preempting local heat protections say it's in the best interests of businesses to keep their employees safe.

The bill's co-sponsor, Fort Mye Republican State Representative Tiffany Esposito, says, adding government requirements is unnecessary.

>>It really came from here and concerns from the business communit and from business leaders throughout the stat about local mandates, and we wanted to make sur that we passed a bill to ensure worker safety, uphold federal OSHA standards.

My husband works construction.

He's worked construction for nearly 20 years.

So this is something that is near and dear to me.

And that I've had personal experience with my family.

Esposito says since the country is dealing with higher than normal costs of everyday items, including produce.

Any new regulations would create a negative financial ripple effect.

>>I think is a misconception is that we're harming workers which is absolutely inaccurate.

Let me be very clear, and that the safety of Florida's workers is our top priority.

And this bill strikes a balanc between upholding worker safety and giving businesses the ability to operate successfull without the threat of redundant red tape that drives up the cost for consumers.

>>Krystel Knowles reporting there.

Well, to discuss the issue of heat protections, I was joined in the studio by Talia Blake from Central Florida Public Media, Beth Kassab from the Winter Park Voice and Matthew Peddie from WUSF.

>>Water breaks, shade breaks, training for for worker things to kind of make sure they aren' getting heat exhaustion.

They're just local governments just aren't allowed to mandate any of that.

>>Representative Esposito, Beth told Krystel that employers can follow those sort of federal OSHA standards, but the federal government kind of lack specific heat rules for workers.

Does this sort of leave a lot of people without protections, at least for now?

>>For now, yes.

The OSHA rules that are in place right now do lack specificity, like you said.

And also they have found to be, really hard to enforce.

So OSHA is working on broader and more encompassing guidelines.

At least that's the signals that we've seen.

And that is happening now.

But the timeline is unclear.

So yes, without loca regulations for now, there's there's not much to enforce.

>>Talia you cover the economy right?

I mean, what are the opponents of of heat protection saying, why do they think it's not necessary to have those kinds of, protections in place?

>>Well, at the local level, they're kind of saying, like, what's the point if there are already federal protections?

OSHA alread has federal guidelines for work, related issues including heat risk.

So they're kind of like it' a little redundant for us to write it down at the local level as well.

Yeah.

Your colleague Jessica Meszaros, Matt, has discussed this issue with workers themselves that work in the heat.

What you've been hearing from them about their perspective?

>>Well, I mean, they're a bit concerned about this bill because one of the thing like she talked to a Sarasota, area agricultural worker, Lucia Lopez, and she was saying that essentially, you know, it's really hot.

You have to layer up against the kind of chemicals that you're working with.

If you're an agricultural worker and, probably other kinds of outdoor work as well.

So it's already quite kind of onerou having to have all these layers on you, working out in the heat.

And the other thing she pointed out was like, they're not salaried, so there's a disincentive for them to take breaks.

If they're taking a break, they're not getting paid.

And, one of the things that she said was she's concerned that this law will make it harder for the to get access to medical care, you know, if there is a heat emergency.

Because in her case, in this particular worker's case, the nearest clinic was about 30 minutes away.

And that, you know, she and other workers are kind of concerned about the access to medical care on top of everything else.

>>That's an interesting point, and also an interesting point about the way that pay is structured.

And something we heard that from the farm workers Association.

That's I mean, this Florida an outlier here, or are there other states that are followin suit or doing a similar thing?

>>So Texas is, you know, frequently a comparison point to Florida when it comes to regulations like this.

And that's the case her with heat regulations as well.

There are states that have taken a different point of view and have enacted regulations, primarily, states out west, Colorado, California is looking at strengthening their regulations.

>>There are also a lo of workers working in the heat.

>>Correct.

A lot of again, agriculture.

And so but I should point out it's it's not just agriculture, even, in, airports, peopl handling baggage, people working behind the scenes, those folks are often reporting, difficult heat conditions as well.

I think it's important to point out, too, in a state like Florida, you have not just a lot of outdoor workers, which is certainly the case year round, but also people in some indoo conditions where there's there's just not a lot of ventilation-- >>Packing houses.

>>Right.

Packing houses.

So indoor conditions to where because of the outdoor heat, they're even worse because maybe not a lot of AC or any AC and not a lot of ventilation.

>>Our conversatio back in May on heat protections.

The 2025 legislative session will begin in March, and we'll be following it closely here on NewsNight.

One of the issues facing lawmakers will again be condo safety and fees.

Governor DeSantis had asked for a special session on the spiraling costs facing condo owners since the legislature passed laws tightening up on maintenance requirements and condo association oversight in the wake of the 2021 Surfside collapse.

Lawmakers passed one of the sets of reforms in 2024 aimed at strengthening condo safety and oversight.

But critics say it's resulted in sky-high costs for owners and a feeding frenzy for developers.

Here's part of our discussion, previewing the debate on the 2024 bill that ended up being signed into law by the governor.

I was joined by Talia Blake from Central Florida Public Media Alexa Lorenzo from WFTV channel 9 and Curtis McCloud from Spectrum News 13.

>>They want accountability and they want assurances in place and oversights in there when it comes to, you know, having, you know, contractors or people come in.

They want a little bit more power so that they can have some say over some of these things.

So what they're looking for here is some things that that last bill they didn't kind of cover that.

So they're saying hey we need some things that are gonna make sur should something else happen, you know, God forbid that we are protected.

>>Filling in some of those gaps.

And it is a pretty chunky bill from my-- >>It's pretty, pretty extensive looking at all of it.

>>Which brings me on, Alexa to sort of some of the impacts, intentional or not, from these new roles that have been implemented so far.

I mean, what is ho what have we seen in the market?

>>So those associations, as Curtis was talking about for years, they've put off needed maintenance because of the price tag.

>>Yeah.

>>And someone's got to pay for this, right.

They confront a percentage of it, but they're expensive fixes.

So they need to go to those units, to those residents, those owners, renters, whatever they may be to get some of that money.

So we're starting to see some of these condo owners have increases in their maintenance fees.

Some people have reported as much as 30%.

They were paying $400 one month, 430 to 600.

Another month.

And that's a tremendous increase in the bill also allows some of these associations to do special assessments.

So some people are saying, okay, now we need a new roof.

So now that's another cost that people have to pay out of pocket.

And some of these people who live in these condos have a fixed income that they're living off of, a low income.

And it may make this condo living unaffordable for them.

>>And you guys at channel 9 have done some specific reporting about this.

>>Yeah.

They maybe priced ou when you put this with the increase we're seeing in HOA fees because of insurance >>I was just about to say.

>>It's just adding o where someone who gets X amount for however many year they've been receiving X amount, they're not going to get Y all of a sudden.

So they don't have that bucket to pull from to pay for these additional fees and they may be forced to sell.

>>And I know that there was one guy that I had spoken wit with a story we did out there, and this was like his retirement dream.

And this is when I say out there, I'm talking about Daytona Beach.

And he's like, okay, we're living in right here.

This is everything I've done.

I've sunk my entire life savings into this place and everything.

And now, you know, he's on fixed income like you mentioned, and then you've got fees because they're trying to build seawalls and they're racing against the clock.

And then it's like, okay, you got to you, you've got those fees from the condo associations.

Then you tack on insurance fees, which you just reached out to us two weeks ago and said, hey, look, I remember I told you a few months ago back in April, hey, we may have to see some of those fees.

Now he's experiencing that issues after issues and it happens with people.

It's almost kind of a little bit disproportionate for people who live on the coast then.

I mean, it's a ris that they take to live that far, to live that close to the coastline.

But one of the things that they deal wit are those issues and, you know, fighting the state, the department, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, just to try to get the access to get seawalls built following the storms that came through.

>>One of the concerns I've seen Alexa about some of these changes is that they make some of these older buildings where where people call home ripe for redevelopment, i.e.

knock down a new building is built.

That's a concern, correct?

>>And we're starting to see some of that coming from the live local act that was passed recently.

The intention was good, but we're starting to see some repercussions.

The idea behind the live local act was to increase the ability of affordable housing.

So with some of this these issues that we're seeing, we're seeing these area that are ripe for development.

And the live local act essentially encourage developers to get the job done.

But it kind of limit the impact that city and local, state leaders can have on the, essentially the rezoning and the housing, kind of developments.

So we're starting to see the city of Tampa, city of Saint Petersburg, city of Winter Park, try to figure out how they ca implement this live local, act legally to still kee the essence of that area alive.

>>Our discussion on condo safety and oversight that passed in 2024, an issue that's also likely to be high on the agenda in Florida in 2025.

But that is all the time we have for this week.

We'll retur with our first regular episode of the New Year next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

In the meantime, from all of us here at NewsNight, take care and have a great week.