 But first is Friday and here to discuss a busy news week. We welcome Claire Hattles enterprise reporter Jacksonville today. Hello Claire Hi, I do Tim Gibbons of the Jacksonville Business Journal Good to be here. Thanks, Tim. Dave Bearline of Florida Times Union in studio. Good morning, everybody and Rounding out the four some blogger and regular contributor Fred Matthews Fred. How you doing? Good morning, A. G. Great Fred. Well, let's talk about this week. We'll go to your calls in a moment 904-549-2937 You can also email us at firstcoastconnect at wjct.org Connect on our Facebook page or tweet at wjct.news. We're gonna begin with our top story Jacksonville today reporter Claire Hattles outlined how some of the laws new laws will affect Northeast, Florida Let's start with the big one a new abortion law Claire go ahead and tell us about that law Right, so this is Florida's 15 week abortion ban this was going into effect with almost 150 other new laws today and We saw these hearings this week and in really a late-hour decision yesterday afternoon a Leon County judge ruled that the law violates Florida Florida's privacy clause Florida Constitution Privacy Clause and Will file an injunction so he gave this verbal ruling but said that it won't take effect until he can file it Which won't be until Tuesday so Technically that law is an effect for three or four days But he is planning to file this injunction on Tuesday repealing the law Yeah, and you know regarding the the gap between Filing the injunction the inevitable appeal from the governor's office. I mean does that mean the procedure is already? Illegal basically, I mean how long will it be between those two filings? Right, so I mean I guess I should clarify not repealing a law blocking the law probably temporarily because the state will definitely appeal and Based on what the judge was saying yesterday, you know, really he felt like the state did not provide very good experts Very good argument, but the state could absolutely change that and they pellet court and with another judge It could go into effect within the next few weeks again So I think many Abortion activists felt like this was a win especially after Roe v. Wade last week But it's it's not necessarily a long-term win and and his ruling could be overturned Yeah, I mean in the coming weeks. That's very likely. I mean Dave through this the sans administration We've seen time and time again these new laws. They get preliminary Strictened down and then they're upheld that looks like the trajectory here How is it? Why is it working this way and how is it a sans administration able to basically overturn judicial precedent and legal precedent? Well, what remains to be seen if they do obviously the issue here is that there was this prior Supreme Court ruling Florida Supreme Court ruling that this privacy provision the Constitution Protects abortion access in Florida and so that was what this particular ruling was hang on So we've seen this before where a district judge in Tallahassee rules against the Santas administration that it goes to the appeals court who does rule in favor of the DeSantis administration now this time You know what does the appeals court do do they make their own? precedent and overturn a previous Florida Supreme Court ruling or is this something that's going to go all the way to the State Supreme Court. Look, it's a different state Supreme Court now than it was. This is a Court that's full of DeSantis appointees. So it's different judges different justices and could very well be a different ruling Yeah, and Tim, I want to get you in list too You know when when you look at this particular law the 15 week abortion ban I mean we obviously had legislation on the local level Trying to protect the right of city employees to circumvent that ban How does this play into the culture war here in Jacksonville this this abortion? Decision and this change in the law and what does the future look like in our city? You know what the future would look like. I think that's the big question where cultural issues have you know swallowed pretty much all of politics and You saw the protests in the streets after the Roe v. Wade decision Obviously, they're a local activist on both sides of this issue who are continuing the fight and Like like everything else in politics now it becomes the motivating thing of does this get people to the polls? Does this become anything that takes over elections? Yeah, I mean that that's a big question with this and we're taking your calls here 904 549 2937 It's a holiday weekend. So there's there's room in the queue. I want to move on with some of these other laws I'm Fred. I want to get you in here on the stop woke act that Governor DeSantis He he calls the bill that it bans ways of teaching about race and racism in schools and workplaces Fred what do you think drove the governor to to push this kind of legislation the base The base of the Republican Party here in Florida those who will vote for Republicans and anybody with the red shirt no matter what and There is a feeling as you travel around Florida, especially certain areas of Florida that that they are quite frankly offended by the number of people who are Or not heterosexual that are moving up in government that are That are involved in politics in a deep way and and quite frankly people a number of people are offended by that and That that have those people that are offended by that largely are members of the Republican Party part of his base And it certainly doesn't hurt For him to to move with that because and by stealing the word woke he's stealing it from From young rappers. It is that's where it came from the Rappable, but he's stealing that from them from their end of it to to make this to make this work It's just an appeal to the base. That's all that's all it is That's all the governor has been doing for the last year and a half to shore up his conservative credentials When we you know, again, we get the government we voted for Yeah, and that's that's very true and we do have a version of democracy in the state Five four nine two nine three seven four calls. I'm clear I want to get you in here Fred made a really interesting point about Inverted the previously positive adjective woke to mean something negative and sinister Is that the cultural war plate of Republicans make here? I mean Why did they use this terminology and how did this bill come to be? right, I mean, I think With a lot of the laws that we're seeing taking effect We saw Democrats criticized the Republican supermajority for focusing on these issues that appeal to the Santas's base These issues that he was heavily advocating for rather than things like affordable housing or other issues that are impacting people's daily lives and so for him to name it stop woke is really I think a signal to his base as To what his motivations were the language of the law You know is can be really broadly interpreted and what the plaintiffs who are suing over it and tried to block it this week And a judge, you know rejected their their request for an injunction What they're saying is that this will really have a chilling effect because it's it's not really specific about what you Can teach and so it will likely lead teachers and workplaces to cut back on discussions about race Yeah, which I think was the goal of the Santas. Yeah, I mean and I want to get this this corollary issue in here Also, this this book challenging thing that's happening We're seeing this in school boards and and Dave I want to get you in on this I mean you're you're apparent obviously you don't have any intention of challenging any books clearly, but what Are people doing the challenge books and what kind of books are being called out for potentially problematic content? You know it often deals with sexuality I think that's some of the books that have been banned but you know there's also been moves to ban books to talk about race and I think it is a effort to kind of control What kind of art let's face there are books young people are exposed to at schools and it highlights this idea that this sort of fear factor that when children are outside of the home that parents have lost control of what kind of cultural exposure they have to different ideas different thoughts different viewpoints and that does resonate in some part with parents who feel like you know, there's That we do live in a culture that's got a lot going on in terms of online, etc. etc, so I think that's part of it, but it's also just this idea that You know that they are out there trying to indoctrinate your children and you should be very afraid of that And that does resonate with a certain amount of people. Yeah Got a couple more here. Obviously got 150 of them Fred I want to get you in on this act of shooter drill schools are gonna be required to hold emergency and active shooter drills at least once a year You know, can you talk a little bit about about this and what it says about the evolving Mindset of schools. I mean, obviously we were in school decades ago. It's a little bit different then You know, so what's the mindset between behind these active shooter drills? Well, the mindset behind them is is fairly obvious and clear it is to get everyone prepared for what Today seems to be Inevitable activities in randoms what could be inevitable in your school. Nobody knows when or where It's it's taking the place of the fire drill Frankly, it could take the place of the old fire drill or if we go back to the early 60s It could take the place of ducking under your desk in Preparation for the next nuclear strike a civil defense Act remember that I mean well, I know you don't remember it But there's some of us do ducking under the desk and actually Actually preparing for that nuclear strike. This is the new normal now That is happening and this is a preparation for it for For our getting our kids and the teachers prepared for what could happen at any time It's unfortunate, but these are the times we live in. I don't think anybody can really oppose this Because we just don't know when aware so It's probably a decent thing for the legislature to have done. We'll see how it plays out We'll see if it does take the place of the fire drill Yeah, and it's interesting. I mean we we've seen this evolution in our lifetime is read from being worried about external enemies this country to the enemy with them and We're seeing that as a subtext of a lot of this legislation that came through also the stop look act particularly I got one more. I want to get you in here in this Tim Local governments are gonna be able to ban the smoking of filter cigarettes on on beaches Fernandina Beach is going to do this You know, what's what's the logic here? Why can't I smoke my Winston light on the beach? well, and and you can still smoke on filtered cigars, which is the The ideas that the filters themselves Are litter that the beach gurus don't want Just real quick. I'm going to circle back to the stop work act Yes, a lot of the attention is focused on the educational system. There's actually a big concern for businesses because it Many of us have gone through various Sensitivity training and things that The DEI space is huge in American corporations now and there is a real fear that All of that mandated HR training sort of thing suddenly is going to open up companies to lawsuits. So One of the things I find ironic from a pro-business state is many of the Things the legislator take legislature takes up is designed to insulate businesses from lawsuits This opens up a whole new can of worms that companies actually are concerned about Yeah, and we saw that with the Santa's vetoing the bill that ban local governments from posing honoris Ordnances on local The ban on that would end up and the veto on that was I was not familiar people expected me that bill would have opened up Governments to a range of lawsuits from companies Obviously had had business backing on that but various government agencies were very very opposed Yeah, and that was a priority of of local Travis Hudson of St. John's County So, yeah, a lot of bills went into effect today. There's About 150 others we could go into them further. We're not going to we got a busy agenda 5 4 9 2 9 3 7 for your calls and I want to stay with Tim here because we're talking about a new train that could be happening Commuter rail from Jackson, Augustine could happen before the close of the 2020s according to Jackson Business Journal It would take hundreds of millions of dollars and the federal government make this happen the JTA Jackson Transportation Authority says that it could happen anyway Director of economic development Richard Clark told the St. Augustine City Commission There could be service between Jackson was saying Augustine three to five years the most difficult parts getting the local Government's aligned and getting the north with six hundred million dollars needed no big deal, right? But in a perfect world Clark says you could have an operating train in three years Laying track is a less than 12 month process He says commuter traffic I-95 is a mess Tim We we've been here before we've been on the show together for over a decade I think we're on the same panel where somebody discussed moving this having the skyway run to knock a T So people have some great ideas about this. Is this more feasible? I Here's the thing and I as you know Both of us try not to let cynicism ever enter the Conversation but but it it's hard to look at light rail and say it's something that Um Voters on the first coast would support that state government, which is not a fan of mass transit would support You look at the issues that the bright line has in central Florida, but the bright line is underway and you know, there is You know, they have trains running and they're they're looking to expand it So there are obviously are people across Florida who have gotten Transit projects like this done what I think JTA is saying and it is an interesting point that the actual infrastructure Building is not the biggest deal the right of way is there the the Ability to lay track and that's pretty easy. I mean I find estimations of a year God knows how many projects we cover that that timeline ends up stretching But it really is a political will and a money issue and the economic impact could be huge I mean you think of all of the workforce needs you think of all the people who are traveling back and forth from st John's County to downtown having another way of doing that without building more highway lanes could have a huge impact Okay, thanks Tim. Um, we're gonna We're gonna take a call here. We got Greg Burton on line one Greg Burton school space safety specialist. He wants to weigh in on an active shooter drills Go ahead Greg Good morning. Thank you for taking my call and I'm also the chief of school police at the ball County I just wanted to give more clarity on the active shooter drills been doing these drills That's 2018 with the introduction of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Act also state schools We not only do active shooter drills. We're required to do one a month and two in the month of August and Then we also do emergency drills which include fire drills So you end up doing two drills a month one for active shooter and then one for either hurricanes other drills or or fire drills and Also, the office of safe schools Faith in the consideration the fact that these drills are sometimes Traumatized they sometimes from traumatized young kids and so we're taking active We're being active in ensuring that we have less of an impact on the Mental trauma side of what these drills that cause there's a lot of Resources being built into that some of these we may do tabletop drills not all would be active drills that People are actually physically going into so the office a school that's looking into this and for the parents out there who who are concerned about Very young children in effect that we are looking at that and making steps to to make sure that their children are Less traumatized Greg. I've got a comment here from another listener in a Tom McGuire I wanted to get your take on this Active shooter drills are just a signal for failure to prevent weapons getting to the hands of those who would harm them These drills cannot help but be traumatizing to our children Greg I'm going to ask you is the problem here guns You've got a wife who's running for sheriffs. So I mean this is a salient question politically So I can't speak to the fact whether it's guns or not I wouldn't touch that because that's a very Controversial issue my job is to ensure that if guns are involved to ensure that we take all Actions to prevent the guns from coming in and we're doing that by a number of means the We live in a gun culture Is that a positive thing? I mean, you know, we we're in a country that has most mass murders of any in the world And we call the gun culture. Is that positive? I I I'm not going to say if positive or negative, but that's the culture we live in like as Fred said These are the times that we live in and because these are the times that we live in We can't On an individual basis in our school system change that but what we can do is address the possibility of Because we are in a gun culture Society address the Everything we can to ensure that our children are safe. I get that but I want to push back a little bit because I mean we've been discussing I mean clearly the state believes has compelling interest in anti-woke education education about gender about race And all these issues is very prescriptive and we see it with like government instituted civics training But on gun culture were suddenly agnostic. I mean that that seems like a cop-out Well, it's not a cop-out. It's the world that I live in in the world of safety and My job is to ensure that the children are safe and we do this by many means either by hardening the school by addressing mental health by Ensuring that schools the children are not bringing or young people are not bringing guns to school Okay This is the society that we live in and It's been created over years and years and years, but we are here and because we are here We simply have to do our part Not just in the school district, but the parents as well Yeah, and and speaking of that as the next sheriff need to do something about guns on the street I mean do we need to do more aggressive gun confiscations or you know Just I'll leave that to the candidates for sheriff. Okay understood. All right. Thank you Greg. I appreciate your call We're gonna move on appreciate it So I want to get you back in here on the train thing Claire Moving on What with this train would you take it the same Augustine? I mean you're relatively new to the area I mean something that would appeal to you. I Mean maybe I might take it to the beach I think when you open to this segment, you know, you said train in vain question, which I think is a great point Really, they're thinking about it for these commuters that are coming from st John's there's more commuters coming from st John's and to do vault and the other way of course, but Jacksonville is such a sprawling city I think many of those commuters aren't going to downtown. We have all of these parking garages What will happen with those and downtown? It's I just have a hard time imagining the demand for a workday commute from st John's County to Jacksonville for everyday residents. I want to go to the beach that sounds great But for a 600 million dollar project, it's hard to imagine the band demand is there Yeah, this sounds like sounds like Richard Clark dream weaving a little bit Dave. I want to get you in on this I mean st. John's County. It's a car culture You know that their solution almost anything is to expand a road Would people be really trainable to take this commuting option? Given the fact that when they get to Jacksonville There's really not reliable ground change rotation in a way commensurate with other big cities. Yeah trainable That's a good way of putting it a G. I you know, I no pun intended I think I've seen over the years all sorts of different studies that have been floated on this Now, I don't think the demand is there I think it would be running empty trains with empty seats Yeah, I was driving around town the other day at rush hour and they built these Express lanes where people can, you know pay a toll to be able to get there faster Very few people that I saw in those toll lanes So if you're not having people using toll lanes to get from point A to point B faster Why are they going to get in a train? In order to quote beat traffic that you know, they they're they're not getting into toll lanes right now That I've seen in great numbers. So I just don't see it really happening It's probably fine to plan for it. But the idea that by 2030 You know, there's gonna be a train running between Jacksonville and St. Augustine for commuters I just don't see it. Yeah, and there's also the right away issues. I mean, this is developed land So to get these kind of easements and everything you're gonna pay top dollar to whoever owns this land You know that that creates another issue. I don't think mr. Clark is mentioning Right, I mean, you know, even right now to do people ride the buses in great numbers in Jacksonville I mean, I just don't see it as being transit and You know, are there really that many people from Southern Augustine to go to Jacksonville? You know, maybe from Northern St. John's County for work But St. Augustine's its own little sort of ecosystem down there in terms of where people work and live and our people in a kitty gonna drive to a Train station and then chop on a computer train to go downtown Which isn't as big of an employment hub as it used to be. It just feels a little bit of Wishful thinking going on here. Yeah, and and that's that's a very interesting point I think that's where we're at. We'll wait and see how this develops obviously, but You know, they've got a show improve. I guess is what we're saying. I'm speaking of showing improving. We've got Corinne Brown She's running for office again. Can Corinne deliver? Politico playbook has covered the story this week I brown has jumped into the race for Florida's 10th congressional district That's the Orlando area as we know but there are unresolved issues with her qualification for the ballot. Go figure Brown was in Congress until 2016. She was defeated by a loss in the primaries We know after her district was reconfigured then convicted in the one drawer for education charity fraud case The commission was thrown thrown out, but then she pleaded out on one count Before there was a new trial. She owe $62,000 in restitution She was dropped from Florida's voter rolls and she registered to vote again in Duval County in November 2021 Also, she signed a candidate oath on June 14th of this year That said that she'd been a registered member of Democratic Party for 365 days for qualifying Which would supersede that oath? The State Department is saying that they basically accept the oath is provided to their office. They don't confirm or deny Brown's campaign manager Corey Bradford who is local has not responded to Politico's questions on this Florida's voting laws concerning people with felony convictions requires that these people must pay off all fees Fines and restitution for they can vote Is brown an eligible candidate? That's an open question Fred I want to get you in here on this Cory Brown's political comeback. How do you think it's going? Well, if you listen to Cory and Brown, it's going well Now, you know that those are all of the Questions that you know that most voters and folks who are just observing this story Were all would be all puzzled about paying the fines back that would be there Certainly, she got a great deal and accepted a great deal that gets her out of the judicial system per se But it just still goes to the core question of how can a convicted felon be running for office? And of course those of us in the know know that she's a federally convicted felon and and she's running for a federal office and that does not The federal laws do not prevent her from running for that office now the key here is That realize that you know, koreen is not doing this by herself I've had a couple of conversations with her over the last week or so and basically Her and her daughter chanterelle are the ones trying to work through these machinations to get this done So they can you know get on the ballot in time and I mean she's registered But but get through all of this and make sure she's on the ballot to run in this district where she where there A lot of democratic candidates already in there running So it's going to be interesting to see in the end if she makes the ballot But I haven't seen any ads no political activity That's going on yet that says that this can this candidacy is actually for real But again in talking with koreen and those it's real for her. She's bounded determined to do it And um, you know if they can work through these last all the things you talked about to get to make sure she's on the ballot She'll be there, but her winning is going to be a whole entirely different thing Yeah, I want to get you in here this claire. Um, you know because koreen browns kind of a new commodity to you Um, you know, but she's got some hurdles here. I mean she's running in orlando She's served orlando for parts of her congressional career, obviously Um, and her statement of filing for candidacy said her heart has always been with the people of orlando um, that's that's a claim that may or may not be true, but As a voter if you saw a jacksonville candidate come into an orlando primary with jacksonville campaign managers and this and that Would you be inclined to support that candidate or would you as an orlando voter? Say maybe not go with somebody who's spent the last four few years dealing with felony charges I mean, I will say if nothing else she does have the name recognition Probably across the state not just in jacksonville even if it is notoriety from the felony charges so I think you know, she probably will have some of that name recognition to voters in orlando the The question of her candidacy. I think you know based on federal law It's clear that she can run this question of whether or not she was registered to vote in time As far as I can tell from the state law It seems to require that you're not registered with any other party within the last year But not necessarily that she had to have been registered with the democratic party for the full year So I think Legally, it seems like she is a qualified candidate can run Absolutely It's these questions that really will come down to voters whether or not they see these as as suspect And I think that's hard to say. I mean, she did do some good things But of course that's been overshadowed in recent years over these felony convictions Yeah, and and dave and this is an interesting interesting point here I mean one of the opponents she has in this race is natalie jackson I mean we we covered the corine brown trial the first one and natalie jackson was briefly a defense attorney for corine brown Could that come into play in this race or Or no It's coming into play right now agey I mean, it's kind of unusual to run against your old defense attorney But I didn't realize that what a small world. Okay. Um, yeah, it could I mean the the deal there is They have so many people running that you just need a plurality Uh, you don't have to get 50 you just have to get the most votes Of the bunch. So this pile gets sliced a lot of different ways. Maybe corine brown has some hardcore base that puts her over the top My sense of it is that she's uh, She hasn't been there in several years Yes, she did some good things in orlando in that area, but you know memories fade And I just know my sense when I saw her in doing some of her interviews In some ways she seems like A different person. I mean she's older That's going to be a real grueling campaign If she's not up already doing a lot of barnstorming It's just hard to see her coming into a district that is not in her hometown And pulling it off through some sympathy tour of unbacked type of Approval over getting back in the ring. Yeah, I mean that's the thing about it and um You know when you look at the situation at corine brown, it seems like she is diminished Um from the trial time and we we saw her in the trial and she basically did a one woman defense it was like performance art as her as her defense and It was an amazing performance that didn't do her any good legally, but I don't think she could pull that off today And you know in a race with younger candidates with candidates that have more local connections More local motivation. We we have to ask is if there's any there there with this campaign I think that's the question got another comment from um A listener once again corine brown bends and breaks the rules her long history of doing this is well known I think that is why she's seeking office in orlando where her various scandals may be less well known Um, we will see we will follow this race obviously from afar Five four nine two nine three seven four calls This has not been a banner day for calls, but if you want to get in you still have time We have another story here to get to Silences golden for jackson old city council Cheering foot stomping sign waving Out of bounds for the public a jackson old city council meetings under new rules approved this week The council voted up a bill 14 to 4 defying and abandoning disruptive behavior at meetings including making shows of support for political candidates using threatening language Making offensive gestures ignoring time limits on speaking The the cruelest cut of all or making any other display of excessive noise sounds or movements This bill was introduced in march by council president sam newbie. Who's no longer council president Saying it was necessary to define disruptive behavior um so So dav I want to get you in here. Um, this is part of a long trend of sort of clipping the wings of commenters, right? Yeah, it's obviously they have 90 minutes for people talk about everything under the sun and uh, so that does happen to some extent in those Uh, those meetings, but you know, the real disruptive stuff is when you have really hot button issues and people show up in groups and they Uh, they respond to some of the comments and it can get a little bit unruly It seems like it's almost right a passage now every council president has to close the chambers and throw everybody out in order to show that they're They're tough at running the meetings You know, it's going to be open to interpretation You know some of the You know making gestures. I mean, how does that get enforced? But uh You know to the extent that it's a collegial meeting and everybody has a chance to say it and isn't drowned out by anybody I guess it can be it can be good as long as it's applied evenly and nobody is singled out in terms of how it's enforced Yeah, and fred I want to get you in and hear on this too. Um Will this be fairly enforced? I mean because it seems like the people who make the controversial comments are the hard right people or people Objecting to some A curtailing of civil liberties by the city council. I mean so Is there a prospect of this being evenly and fairly enforced in a way that makes People who aren't on the city council currently happy Well No You know, honestly, I mean this is a stop me from expressing my opinion And my my concern about your act that the city council is not a courtroom Where uh, you don't want to influence the jury by having comments of someone standing up um and making comments back in the uh back in the audience to That may influence the jury one way or the other and the judge wraps his gavel and has that person thrown out You have the the council and all public meetings without throughout the state have a period of time where folks can speak Uh for a period of time three minutes And it can be 90 minutes total for the public hearing at the beginning and then each bill Had that is uh For a vote at a certain time has a public comment A period available for that bill It's just surprising That at a time in which we're going to have back-to-back African-american presidents of the city council We get a we get a we get a some legislation that adventure that essentially says we don't want to hear it And we want you to stop now clearly we've always had cops in the in the in the room to stop any unruly behavior Any uncivilized behavior and if you're going over your time limit the bell rings there you have to stop But this business of I don't want to hear anything. I don't want to see anything I don't want any noise while we're doing it It's purely a measure to protect the sensitivity of the elected city council members Who are supposed to be in tune with their constituents who are in that audience? I think it's a bad idea, but that's what we got again We get the government we vote for and for some reason the city council members at least 13 of them feel threatened by these outbursts Yeah, I mean that 14 to 4 vote. I mean that that cross-party line So um, we don't have to break down on that vote, but that was pretty unanimous. Um, tim I want to get you in here sort of a devil's advocate thing I mean we Jacksonville has been a city for a long time dealt with a lot of controversial issues over the years um, you know the school integration issue like 50 years ago was A really tough issue for the city to endure Um, but it seems like in the last few years, you know really since the end of the human rights ordinance expansion debate We've seen the ratcheting up of these restrictions the scott wilson presidency May have been when it really started when when scott wilson got upset over some outbursts in the crowd Um, but it feels like we're on a slippery slope here. Um You know, why now why why can't the current council presidents the current council leadership Run the city council in the way that it used to be before where you didn't need all of these rules That's what surprised me about all of this having sat through interminable hro um Council meetings and all the debate that went on all of the Um, you know, frankly people who felt very passionate on both sides of that and yet they were able to Have city council meetings and go through without having to put in these additional restrictions I do wonder how much of this is a post pandemic sort of thing though You know, you talk to people who work in the service industry and they'll complain about people, you know Forgetting how to be out at bars forgetting how to act in a restaurant that after a period of time where people couldn't be in Council chambers now they're back You know, does the council forget when it's like to deal with actual voters Though do the people who are showing up to voice their opinions and how they should behave at a council meeting? I don't know if that comes into play as well. Yeah, and um, claire I want to get you in here We got a second part of story too the council rejected to build a pushback public comment to later in the schedule um Right now a public comment is pretty early in the in the agenda Before a lot of things actually happen So you get to hear the usual suspects room for 90 minutes. Why didn't they want to push it back? Well, one odd thing about this bill is that the person who filed it. I believe it was terence freeman But the person who filed it had filed it as an emergency measure Which really didn't make sense for it to have been an emergency and so I mean they rejected the bill and This this request to make it an emergency measure, but really it seemed to be an effort to Save time for the people that they're granting awards to or that are there for really short consent agenda sort of business But you know, most of the council agreed that our schedule is that people come for comment And we shouldn't be doing more business before public comment as to the The the one about how to behave in council meetings I think the context of that bill is important. It wasn't written by sam newbie himself I was written by the legal department in reaction to a lawsuit against the city When erin bowman was council president of free speech lawsuit someone who was kicked out and says it was unfair. So really this This new rule is about protecting the city's legal interests more than it is about protecting People's free speech rights and it's you know, a direct outcome of someone suing the city over over free speech violations As as they're claiming So it's hard to imagine these rules being evenly enforced because it's such a wide range of Of demonstrations, but I think it's important to to recognize that it really is For the purpose of protecting the city's legal interests. Yeah I want to give you a little bit of good news here. Um, it's freedom week and you know what that means You got tax savings Consumers in florida are going to have the chance for some relief by saving more than half a billion dollars By not having to pay sales tax on kayaks diapers energy to fish and appliances starting july 1st Um, you know, these tax holidays have varying spans of time One last a week another last two years Freedom week runs through july 7th that applies the fishing equipment camping gear Pull supplies other necessities for enjoying the outdoors The first such tax holiday was approved last year Um, tim, I want to get you in here on this on these tax holidays. Um, do they really say people money? I mean, what what's the point of these tax holidays? Are they good for politics or good for people? I mean, we see estimated savings there Um, you know, they they add up, but are they really savings that people take advantage of reliably? They people do take advantage of them small retailers tend to like them Because it can drive people into stores the the actual impact on the economy though is fairly mixed the Economists who who look at sales tax holidays Generally say that they don't have any sort of long-term growth It just it moves around when people are are buying things now Obviously if you're getting a kayak for you know, 600 hours, you know, take sales tax on it that that that saves you some money, but the the Reason for the proliferation of these sales tax holidays is it's a great easy way for a politician to say look We're doing something without necessarily having, you know, any huge amount of impact Um, you know, see making the strawberry shortcake the the state dessert You know same sort of thing it makes somebody happy, but the impact is is muted Yeah, and there's some others too. We've got a year-long tax holiday for energy star appliances and for diapers and baby clothes This runs through june 30th of next year Um, there's a two-year tax holiday and hurricane hardening for your home Impact resistant windows doors and garage doors that run through june 30th 2024 When you look at these appliance and hurricane hardening things Claire Um, are these regressive tax breaks? I mean, they see the benefit people actually own things But if you're renting, um, you don't really make out on the tax break to you Not necessarily and it does seem like The state celebrates these tax breaks Maybe more than people really benefit from them. I mean you might save 10 or 15 dollars this weekend I mean, maybe the hurricane hardening for homeowners, but it's hard to imagine it materially Improving people's lives to have a sales tax-free weekend. Yeah, and there's a couple more to there's three more here I've got a slow slow scroll on my screen story A two week back to school holiday from july 25th at august 7th That'll be your schools your school stuff like clothes shoes backpacks, etc I'm a week-long sales tax holiday and equipment used by skilled trade workers from gloves to power tools to safety glasses And then you've got your fuel tax holiday. That's in october That'll save you 25.3 cents per gallon. We'll see what 25 cents is worth Um in october. It's not worth much right now I think it's about time for us to go to our lightning round right on cue Okay, um fred matthews. Um, give me your lightning round. What are you doing this slave this independence weekend? I am going to enjoy the city. I'm going to get out and roll around a bit But I've got I've got a bit of history florida jacksonville tied together real quick The time jay brown jackson takes her seat as associate justice at the u.s. Supreme court She's from florida by the way the two florida senators voted against her val demics congressman. She's from jacksonville She's running for the senate. Uh, she was the representative of the orlando area and his representative of orlando area in For this past term and interesting enough. She's a former police chief Also running as a former police chief from jacksonville running for sheriff Of course is lakisha burton who would be the first female to run We just talked to her husband. Yeah, you just talked to her husband to run and I and uh, and ironically you've got uh, She's from jacksonville born and raised and surprise surprise the next sheriff. That's a lot of lightning Will be an african-american All right. Um, thank you fred for that. Um, tim tell us what's on your mind. What's your working for independence day? Oh, uh, looking at what's happening in downtown jackson. A lot a lot of activity of, uh Buildings training changing hands and uh development plans that uh, if it all comes to be uh, could really be transformational Right on uh, dave. What are you doing for independence day? Or where are you looking at? Well, so among the laws that took effect today is uh, strawberry shortcake is now the official dessert for florida So I will be eating some strawberry shortcake and putting down the key lime pie for this uh, fourth of july weekend Pictures or it didn't happen claire. What's up with you? You know, I don't really have plans for the weekend But I will point out great reporting this week for my jacksonville today colleague will brown On how black workers are central to the maritime industry check that out at jacks today dot org Check out the whole jacks today and that's not all you need to check out We've also got a medical show this weekend doctors as physician citizens This means that medical professionals extend their sphere of influence from daily practice into the public arena This is not for power's sake But for the sake of community health Tune in saturday at 4 p.m. Thank you so much to our round table Participants, uh, fred matthews and tim gibbons remote in studio. Dave bearline claire heddles. Thank you so much For making a great round table. Have a great fourth of july