 But first this hour, it's Friday and here to round up all the week's news. We welcome Charles Griggs in studio. Good morning. News for Jack's reporter, Joe McClain, also next to me. Good morning. We've got Nikisha Williams of Jacksonville today. Hey, Dan. Hey, Jacksonville. And Shelton Hall will join us from Folio Weekly very soon. So remember, give us a yell at 549-2937 as we talk about these top stories. So let's get with our top story first. Again, Democrat Donna Degen holds a commanding lead in the race for Jacksonville mayor, but so many people are still undecided in the election that it's really anyone's game, according to a new poll from the University of Florida. Among registered voters who are likely to vote in the March 21st election, 37% said they'll vote for Degen far more than the next highest candidate. That's Republican Daniel Davis with 20%. Al Farrarro, the Republican, has 8%. Democrat Audrey Gibson has 7%. Republican Leanna Cumber has 5%. Omega Allen with no party affiliation, 1%. And Republican Frank Keesler also with 1%. Here's the big number, though, a whopping 22%. Say they still don't know who they're voting for. So as we wait your comments at 549-2937, let's just open it up. Charlie, first of all, I think that 22% unknown is the big question mark here. What's your thoughts? It is, and it should play a factor down the road, but from what I understand, many of these 22% are Republicans who haven't figured themselves out yet. So that number is likely not to have much of an impact on Donna Degen's numbers at this point. Here we are, just a few days away from early voting, and the rubber's about to hit the road here. We'll be able to tell some things here in just a few weeks. But at this point, Degen seems to be having the most success capitalizing on her name recognition. She's creating a gap with that while reassuring voters that her personality is sort of the thing that's carrying her. And it'll be interesting to see if she's able to turn her name recognition into how people kind of comport that into ability to lead the city of Jacksonville. Well, Nikisha, let me ask you this. I mean, obviously we've seen a lot of ads for Cumber and Daniel Davis and attack ads from those darker websites. And then suddenly Donna shows up with a somewhat issue-oriented, very calm commercial. So what are your thoughts as to what might be affecting this voter reaction in the poll? I mean, Donna Degen is a legend in the city of Jacksonville. People know who she is. They recognize the name. They recognize the face, not just from all of her years in television and full disclosure. I used to work with her at First Coast News, but also from all the work that she's done philanthropically through breast cancer. And a lot of people have connected with her side. They've participated in the marathon at today's place every year in downtown Jacksonville. Secondly, with all of the mudslinging between Cumber and Davis and talking about who and each other in the JEA mess, people are really sick of the nasty politics. And so somebody coming out and being an adult about how they want to run the city and not necessarily fighting with the other members they're running against is a welcome relief and a reprieve. However, as Charles said, the 22% that are still undecided, I don't really think those are people that are undecided. I think those are people who don't want to say who they're voting for for whatever reason. We saw that in 2016 nationally in the presidential election. And so I am encouraged by Degen taking a front-running position, but that doesn't mean that, you know, election day there couldn't be up since because of the big number of undecided-diving. News for Jack's reporter, Joe McLean, what do you think? I mean, obviously a latecomer onto the air with the commercial is Donna, but it's a fact-based or for her a fact-based and very calm issue-oriented versus dirty Dan, all the others. So what do you think? Is that 22% on the fence? Don't want to talk? Split down the middle? I legitimately think because, I mean, they answered the poll that they at least... I mean, I have a little bit of a different opinion. I think they probably are a little bit more undecided. I would probably agree with the idea that it's likely due to what we're seeing mostly play out in public in these media biases. Donna, Daniel Davis, Leanna Cumber, slug match just down in the mud, you know, absolute lawsuit-spurring ad fight whereas, you know, Donna Deegan is, you know, successfully kind of using her name recognition in ads and sort of having a more positive spin. And I think that's affecting those other candidates too because we're seeing more positive spots for Daniel Davis. It seems like there's been some tact changing, but I do want to say I want to throw a little bit of cold water on the idea of this type of poll. Nothing against UNF or anything like that, but it polls like this do give the perception that this is sort of a race, that it's a down the track sort of horse race and someone's ahead and someone's eking out. In a way, maybe there's changes in opinion, but just speaking on behalf of sort of how news for Jax is changing the way we use polls, I think steering more clear of outright just reporting that Donna Deegan is ahead of the other candidates just because of that reason, just because the only poll that really matters is the one when people are actually checking the box and the rest of it is just sort of, you know, it's great to talk about it and certainly it's worth studying, but really that information that comes out of polls should be mainly used by the campaigns to adjust their message, to change their strategy. And so, I mean, again, if you like reading polls, we love talking about them, but I think that I just want to throw a little bit of cold water on that as something that is an indicator of what's going to happen on election day. Well, before we get to the phone calls, before we get to Shelton, obviously Channel 4 is going to let everybody see these candidates on... March 8th, yes, on News for Jax and News for Jax Plus. Thank you for setting me up for the plug. Kent Justice is going to be with the seven of the mayoral candidates and putting questions to them for an hour, so that should be a great, great debate and I mean, Kent always does a fantastic job. And Shelton, here are seven candidates you can sit at home with your popcorn and watch or if you were lucky enough to get a ticket, you can be at J.U. I believe that's where it is. This could change the perception or the response to the next poll because finally everybody, not just those few who make it to those debates, can see and hear what these people have to say, right? Absolutely, it certainly could. That 22% undecided is almost as much as what the actual voter turnout is likely to be in March. The fact that 75% of the people in this city are sick of politics and don't really have any faith in any of our elected leaders is itself a big factor here. Another is that the old way of covering politics in this country doesn't work anymore. Polls are a non-effective barometer of a candidate's strength and neither is fundraising. Now as far as these dirty ads or these attack ads between Davis and Cumber, they've worked, they've both done well in the polls and they've done well in fundraising by going at each other as we'll get to the local media narrative which I think we all kind of bought into, the idea of it being a Davis versus Cumber horse race that worked to their benefit. Donna, for a while, the only way Donna was going to get on TV is if Davis or Cumber punched one or the other while wearing a Donna t-shirt. Now that she's introducing a commercial, the takeaway is, wow, she's so nice. She's not as mean as the rest of these people. Now moving forward, as far as the thing on the 8th, look for Davis and Cumber to try to do a knockout blow on each other because what's going to happen is, you know, all just guessing, what I'm guessing though is after this runoff, once we hit the runoff, it'll be Donna versus one of the Republicans and they'll all join forces, circle the wagons around their candidate and then Ron DeSantis will dip into some of that unused money from last year and he's going to flood the field and if I'm Donna, I'm hoping that the other candidates make some kind of fiasco of themselves that allows her to take it all the way. I would say that she should push to get the 51% right now in this first round, otherwise it's going to be Donna Deegan versus Ron DeSantis in May. And don't forget that on Wednesday, the JEA Special City Council group gets together to actually decide and announce what they're going to do as far as what if any ethics violations and what if any legislation they might meet up to do in the investigation until they end up covering her husband and the failed JEA sale, which could also turn the tables. Now, we've got a lot of calls waiting, so let's go first. Hector from San Marco, he supports Donna Deegan, so Hector, what are your thoughts? You're on the air. Yes, my thoughts. I'm going to support Donna Deegan, these other characters, just a regurgitation of corrupt politics in Jacksonville and how that goes and Donna Deegan is a fresh face. Someone we should really take a close look at and listen to and you know, that's who we should really just support families in the same Republicans who are just standing down their cronies and we need to go in another direction and she would be the perfect fit for the city at this time. All right, thank you Hector. Hey, we do have from Tom on our chat here says Donna Deegan wants to move the city forward. The Mudslinger, Mudslinging other candidates are just looking for a job. Let's go to Stanley. Stanley obviously says leadership is an issue, so Stanley, let's hear what you have to say. Yes, I'm doing fantastic. How y'all doing today? Wonderful. Yes, first of all, I have been at the last three child revision. I am one of the most civic engaged person in the city. Donna Deegan is on the right track. It's not because she had to cancel and other issues. She is the right person to bring this city together. That's why I am supporting her because last year I spent almost 300 hours in city hall. So I spent a lot of time down there at those different meetings and Donna Deegan will bring this city together. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Thank you. We've got Mark from San Augustine and he's talking about running a clean campaign. So Mark, your thoughts as we come into the home stretch of what I guess we could call the primary. Mark? Good morning. I just want to make a comment. I'm in sales and one of the top rules in sales is you don't sell your product by tearing down your competition. But it seems without whenever you go into politics and elections you're selling yourself. You don't believe in what you're going to do for them as an elected official. But that rule gets thrown out the window and so people end up spending more time telling what their competitors can't do as opposed to what they can do. I just think it's kind of interesting that Donna Deegan comes out. She has a pro Donna Deegan ad and she's talking about what she has done and can do, which I applaud. I think that's fantastic. And we look at it like that's something new which sadly it is something new. The candidate would waste airtime and money not talking about themselves and their own record what they've done in personal life or a public life or business life or something that people could latch on to and say, hey, I like this individual. No, we want to sit there and spend our money talking about what somebody else supposedly did and supported and all that kind of stuff. So I applaud her for being on the positive side. I hope she stays that way all the way through the campaign. All right. Thank you, Mark. Well, we got a lot of hands here. Let's go with Charlie. So let's just go back a little bit with this with a seven person candidate race. There is no expectation that someone is going to get 50% of the vote 50% plus one. The expectation is that you get into the runoff. Right. And with with two Republican candidates who have a lot of money their way of communication, their love language is negative campaigning. You know, that's what they do in order to move as far right as they can. They, you know, some of the issues that you hear both candidates speak on each other are issues that they were, you know, together on just last year this time. So it is, you know, it is really kind of comical watching these candidates speak this way about each other in a manner, but in the manner they're doing so because their only goal is to get into the runoff. They don't, they're not thinking about Donna Deegan right now. They're thinking about the runoff. And when, you know, after March 21st, and whoever comes out, if Donna Deegan happens to be the leading candidate in the runoff, then they will focus on what it is they need to do in order to get that 50%. Well, you know, it's interesting. I don't know if the computer or the internet is realizing what I'm looking at as a journalist, but I'm getting a lot of these attack-add placards from Cumber, but it's split down the middle. It's Cumber points on the left and it's right. And again, that's probably just going to me because that's the way the algorithms are seeing, but Joe, you had a hand raised. I think there's an aspect to, there's a perception on the part of maybe political campaigns, whether true or not that swing voters are disappearing, that there's fewer and fewer people who will say well, I liked the Republican in this in this race, but the next cycle I'm going to vote Democrat, there's fewer and fewer of those people and that because of the political environment we're in, which is a tribal political environment, that the perception on the part of political campaigns is that well, we need to focus on the Republicans are going to vote Republican. So all we have to do is make sure that people think that the other Republican is worse or the other Democrat is worse. And I think that's just a symptom of the political environment that we're in. Nikisha, did you have a virtual hand raised there for a comment? I think what Shelton had said earlier was pretty much head on that a lot of people are looking that if we're looking down the line to the runoff then it's going to be Donna Deegan versus Rhonda Sanchez and the bully pulpit and the trove of money from the governor's office and that is very concerning so it would be best for someone to get 51% but with a crowd of silas such as this for the mayoral race I don't see that happening but then again, you know I don't want to count on an underdog either so we'll see what happens come election day. And that's right we have to remember there are more than just three people on that ballot when you walk in or if you're doing early voting and they do deserve a fair shake and I'm expecting maybe one or two of them might have some higher profile ads as we get within the last two or three days because very simply their money can only go so far but Shelton you also had a hand raised. Yeah, I think well number one if Donna makes a runoff against one of these Republicans she could play this negativity to her favor by pointing out repeatedly and often in the ads coming towards the runoff that these are two people that were at each other's throats these are two people that both use proxies to initiate legal proceedings against them, against the other person allegedly and they're going to come in and part of taking that to Santas money there's no such thing as free money and part of that will come with the expectation that they campaign in the DeSantis style if they want to come out and say well Donna's a really nice person but I think I'm the best to lead the city that's one thing but that's not what they do you ask John Rutherford he when Donna got 30% against him a couple years ago some people wanted him to go dirty but he being someone from here as opposed to these DeSantis people they will be pushing them around if you go negative on Donna you could face a very strong backlash given how much a personal connection she has with this community and you know we've got Miss Cumber yesterday she skipped a candidate form in order to go out to books a million and get a picture of herself getting her book signed by Ron DeSantis and she couldn't even get he snubbed her she couldn't even get that crucial that crucial arm around DeSantis selfie that it is probably her only chance of getting past Davis in this primary and so I think that whoever, whatever Republican comes into the run out they're going to have a lot of money they're going to have a lot of support behind them but they're also going to be to have at least one of their knees thoroughly capped by their primary opponent it may run off election it's going to be simply about turnout if it's between a Democrat and Republican that is how these elections are won here in Duval County to get more people to vote for her in your area in your side Democrat and Republican that is how the elections are won every time we've had one of these local elections when you've seen the turnout for Democrats low they've lost big and that's just the way it is we've got two callers on hold so let's go to them and don't forget you can talk about the poll right now at 549-2937 give us a yell but first let's go to William on the south side who's a former teacher William hey good morning I just wanted to say for years I've tried to encourage my students particularly my young ladies to go into a political office to make positive changes that they see and inspire influence of the young ladies and women and it's great to see Donna Deegan doing this and being passionate about and running a good campaign and hopefully this will inspire girls and women in the future to run for these political offices where they would do a great job and I just wanted to get your idea on how this influences future generation of women to run for political office as well thank you I don't know that I can answer that the only thing I could bring up is as I've heard people say there's always a mute button on your TV remote if you don't like what's being said or you can turn it to another news station but these days these commercials are everywhere and like I said somewhere that algorithm knows that I'm looking at political stories and I don't want to jump on everything I do on Google so it happens. Let's go to Steven in Atlantic Beach Steven you got a comment about Donna Deegan hi yes I was just thinking that Donna Deegan actually could reach 51% in this primary particularly if Audrey Gibson who is also a Democrat would see or realize that she doesn't really have the chance to get into that runoff and before this primary throw her support behind Donna Deegan I think Donna could win right out in this primary you know the poll had a few other things in it first of all 84% of the respondents on that UNF poll said it's very important or somewhat important to have an NFL team but only 61% strongly or somewhat opposed the idea of spending up to $750 million in public funds to split the cost of renovating Tia Bank Field as I call it the Confederate monuments were a poll question people were about split whether they should come or go 45% strongly or somewhat support 51% opposed and the biggest problem well no surprise they are 37% of the respondents in the UNF poll said crime is the most important problem facing Jacksonville let's move on to another topic here also this week Jacksonville is considered one of the biggest boom towns in the country according to a new study lending tree says that Jacksonville's population increased by 5% from 2019 to 2021 during that same period median earnings rose by 12.8% and put 600 new jobs coming to the area that growth is expected to continue for the time being so boom town sounds like a rock and roll band name actually it is sort of but Joe we were discussing this before what are your thoughts and what did you find this week sort of related well yeah so this this came from this this report on Jacksonville being one of the biggest boom boom towns came from data that was drawn from the Bureau of Labor Statistics the American Community Survey and of course the U.S. Census Bureau and so it those are good sources of information of one thing that I found in our report we reported earlier this week is is how these migration into and out of states and metropolitan areas are occurring between the different generations and it was really interesting to find the differences between the older sets of generations like myself I'm millennial but the Gen Xers and the silent generation and and baby boomers were all mostly really flocking to more of the southern states including Florida was one of the and that was sort of the headline was that Florida was one of the biggest migration states of people moving into the state of Florida except for Gen Z Gen Z was basically reversing the trend of people leaving bigger metropolitan areas you know it was partly spurred because of the pandemic everybody was moving to work from home model you didn't have to work from home in like New York City Chicago these high high rent very very densely populated metros you could move out spread out and that was sort of the trend Gen Z though showed the trend was they were moving actually into these areas and that was the biggest exodus from Florida was Gen Z so I thought that was interesting. Well I'm a native New Yorker and the New York Post recently had a story that indicated that New York City's proposed budget for next year is higher larger bigger than the state of Florida's they're cracking down on speed limits it's costing more to live in New York City so if I was still living there I'd be coming down south too because I have a bigger house a two car garage and a bigger front lawn and I could ever afford in New York City but well well but then again there's other issues Charlie. Well I would say that you know there was a time when and that time may still be existing certainly still on the cusp as they say that you know you could come to Jacksonville and earn a decent wage and have a decent cost of living whether that was housing transportation you weren't getting hit across the head with those costs you could live here your earnings where you could come in and make a decent salary and all be well. Now housing costs are going through the roof it's very difficult for people to find affordable housing in this community and because of that I don't know how long we're going to be one of those biggest boom towns if we don't get this housing crisis solved it won't matter how much people are earning because they won't be able to keep up you know it's getting bad it's bad and it's getting worse in that respect so that's the main issue that's one of the main issues that we have to deal with in order to keep the momentum going and remain one of those cities on the cusp. Although my wife found gas for two dollars a gallon yesterday so there is some good news out there Shelton. Sure with as far as those demographic trends you point out like the lack of Gen Z and what not to a certain extent whether the people coming here the people not coming here I think both are somewhat influenced by politics when the pandemic happened Ron DeSantis took a big risk by keeping the state open to find the mandates and whatnot and yeah of course a lot of people died but we also made a lot of money and in Florida it's it works out just fine plus as a result of these demographic changes Florida has is majority Republican for the first time in quite some time the Jacksonville for decades one of our biggest problems ironically was our sheer physical size the size of our landmass people if you took everything happening in Jacksonville and you put it in a space that was half the physical size we'd be you know we'd be booming even more than we are people and so a lot of the young people they want it's times they want it's like when we had the Super Bowl here in 2005 and we had national media openly complaining about the lack of illegal things to do but now as we see with these trends and people coming in and this is something that the next mayor whoever they are can really make use of we can start to use that physical size to our advantage because there are very few large metro areas in the country especially in the south that can comfortably fit in more people you know like if you want to move to Atlanta unless you got a felony on your record forget about it look I remember moving here many years ago and the only thing I could find about it was that it was the largest city in land size in the continental US there's still wide open spaces drive 295 right now drive I-10 look around there's wide open spots somebody owns those somebody's ready and waiting to sell to the next highest bidder to put in the next department complex that's going to cost you more money than you can afford I did a film shoot recently in an apartment complex I would have killed to have lived there when I was single I could not have afforded to live there now then or ever with the amenities I didn't even ask so but you're fine with your two car garage though which is yes but again I bought that house 30 years ago right now which I probably couldn't do today so Nikisha any thoughts to you as to the boom town reputation that the city has the south has a lot to offer you're a native New Yorker I'm a native from Chicago but I think there are a lot of different factors at play the south is cheaper to live in generally however when it comes in terms of salary for like your entry level positions they are often lower than they are in you know those densely populated cities like New York or Chicago or even even LA so when you think about boom town it's about who has access to that boom town and it's people who are working remote jobs with high salary so they can do them anywhere and then they have chosen to do them in a place like Jacksonville because you know there's no snow it's great weather whatever the reason politics also plays a factor into it and that Shelton mentioned you know we have a large Republican majority in the state of Florida for the first time because during the pandemic with the state being open so many tech workers business owners entrepreneurs flocking to the state of Florida the city of Miami specifically you know they brought with them their businesses they brought with them their money and they brought with them their politics and it's showing in how the shape has been influenced and I think when you look at Gen Z that is like leaving the state of Florida it's because of the policy like I've even considered how long can I live in the state how long can I live in the city with the way that we are doing education in the state like it's not sustainable so I mean there are a lot of different factors at play but with the housing crisis as it is and wages pretty stagnant unless you are in one of those industries where it's remote working you have a large salary that can afford you the lifestyle the boom town is now it's cute it's great but if it's sustainable and I think that's the real question and I don't think that the infrastructure is there to sustain it in wages and policy and in many other ways and you're right you and I both come from cities where we could walk a few blocks and grab mass transit and get anywhere here nice bus system we've got but it doesn't reach everywhere and some of those new subdivisions like where I live is a 30 year old subdivision I'd have a long walk to the nearest bus stop if I didn't have a car so that's mass transit that gets you to your job and to your shopping is a necessity in a boom town and only X amount of people here do indeed have that we have time for one last call on this so we've got Jessica from Green Cove Springs Jessica your thoughts before covid coming from Colorado Springs and I was a huge advocate for affordable housing we were having a massive crisis out there and I'm seeing the same thing repeat out here they were having it due to the legalization of weed it was dubbed the green rush but out here we don't have near as much I want to say attention to the issue but that's not the right but we don't have as many programs and any Jacksonville is dealing with surrounding counties like my county Clay County there's next to nothing out here but housing developments no resources so I don't know what Jacksonville is doing about that alright I thank you for that well it's you know anywhere you drive go along Butler Boulevard go anywhere you'll see suddenly the wooden framework of a three-storey condo coming up and yeah there you've got a roadway there you've got bus systems there you've got a libraries next to you you've got a large shopping center everything you need is there almost within biking distance although I think on some of these roads it's dangerous no joke with our pedestrian and our bicycle fatality rate to tackle that historically so historically so and I do understand that because I used to cover that stuff too so that's good news well you know let's let's move on to the next and possibly most second most controversial thing right now and it's our update that school districts across Florida are taking very different approaches when it comes to dealing with a Republican back law for curriculum transparency that was signed last year by Governor DeSantis the book requires districts to catalog every book on their shelves and put a formal review process in place for complaints now we've seen those nefarious videos that show empty bookshelves we've heard of a substitute teacher fired because he showed that he says it's the real deal I attended the governor's news conference just about two weeks ago where he called that all fake and all made up but yet neither the governor nor the Florida Department of Education has officially asked for any specific book to be removed and like I said DeSantis calls the idea of state book bans a hoax perpetrated by the media but teachers across the state are afraid of consequences if books are found in their classroom libraries that are deemed quote-unquote harmful to minors under the new DOE media specialist training and according to that training a teacher can be charged with a third degree felony if materials are found to be harmful to minors and that's the big scare for some teachers at last check DOE has approved a list of more than 350 books for public schools but the clay county school district is holding a public hearing on Thursday to discuss the new policy so it's all across the board folks let's open it up who wants to talk about the latest the latest page being turned pun intended in the book ban well Joe story yeah I being the news for Jack's sort of the education reporter there I've been covering this extensively I mean with regards to the teacher the substitute teacher who was fired for that it was a video that went viral because you know everybody latched onto the idea of oh empty bookshelves but then the district came back and responded and say well those weren't the those weren't the only bookshelves if you turned the camera to the other side of the room you would have seen full bookshelves but they looked like they'd been at the same what somewhat emptied sure yeah at the same time this is one of those situations where yeah both can be true yeah there were books in in the shelves of course it was three weeks later when the district posted that video but there were they admitted there were empty shelves they came out the district came out and said some of our principals and administrators over interpreted the instructions that they were given be out of an abundance of caution because the message from the state in this and the message that trickled down to these superintendents was that teachers media specialists principals need to air on the side of caution that was the the whole idea and through that that's why you got such an incredible variety of different responses and then the other variable that needs to be mentioned is different districts have different resources Union County has a lot different resources than St. John's and St. John's has a lot different resources than Duvall Duvall County was working with 60 some odd media specialists for 150 schools across the district so they were basically strapped for that when a lot of districts have a media specialist in every classroom so it's more complicated than the schools are banning books or no that's just a media narrative it's a there's a lot more variables than just that binary it could just be simply some teacher saying I don't want to deal with this headache so I'll just dump everything and give it to Goodwill and that way I don't have to worry about anybody nosing around well one more thing I wanted to say was that when I talk to people about this who are really like looking at the issue that I mean no one has found pornography in a school library or a media center no one has I mean I haven't really heard any concrete example of a book that was demonstrably harmful for kids that was on because if that were the case there'd be reports I'd be the first to report that but it just a lot of people are observing that this seems to be a solution in search of a problem that people think is occurring and at that news conference the governor gave at the truck company on the west side he basically said that pornography is a no never ever and that's that is one thing that will never show up that's not controversial either but yet we have some news coverage that indicates that certain parents are griping about a two paragraph section of a book and once that gets into a school board and a record at a public meeting then nobody freaks out about it so Shelton you know we were just talking a man to go about this boom town this explosion of growth here in Jacksonville one area where the growth isn't happening is teachers you know we have in this situation now falls within a pattern going back at least five years of consistent steady uniformly abusive behavior towards the teachers and administrators in Duval County public schools and up and down the state they're chronically underpaid they're so chronically underpaid that even instituting that little bonus a few years ago did nothing the will of the teachers and the administrators was defied on the masking it was defied on social distancing it was defied on safety for those schools even after what happened down in south Florida a few years ago and what's happening now is I guess what it would come down to of course there are no kids listening to the show right now because you know we keep kids away from information that's going to help them in their lives well they're in school they're in class right now and you know they'd be better off listening to the show given the quality of education they're getting around here sometimes but what I would say to the kids from high school levels up into colleges and now we're starting to get the same things at universities across the state what I would say to the kids who are listening to this and this will be true five years from now ten years from now if you listen to it the fact is kids your parents cannot help you your teachers cannot help you your administrators cannot help you your political leaders so called will not help you if the if the students in these schools are upset about the books or upset about anything else the only option they have is direct action and you know now with this book thing we're in March the resolution of that situation it's too late for this current class of high school seniors it's you know who knows how that's going to affect them in some ways but we'll come back to the next school year and I expect that we will start to see more direct action more mass walkouts more forms of social protests by the students and then you can look to see a clamping down on the rights of students to express themselves individually as well because ever since ever since the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Marjorie Stoneman Douglas situation when those kids took the lead and made that such a big issue that was there was an immediate backlash of that and we're seeing we're going to keep seeing that for years to come you know I had assigned high school reading of the Hobbit somehow I doubt that would be assigned in a high school class these days and that got me into looking at other books and I guess ultimately was a seed to make me a journalist today so Charlie yeah so you can always tell when politicians are serious about creating good policy because they put money behind it they put resources behind it to make sure that policies follow up on there is a common sense way to address age appropriate literary content without this type of policy in place this is like using a sledgehammer to kill a mosquito it is inefficient and it's clumsy and at the same time you have all of these parents you know who are out there saying this is a bridge too far but nobody is going to hear them like Shelton said it's too late for this school year and they're already in you know knee deep into about to be leaning deep into the legislative session it's not going to be addressed the districts don't have definitive rules on how they should proceed with this this is why they are taking the steps some of the districts are approaching this differently because it affects them differently based on the resources they have you know no one's arguing that there may be a book or two out here that may be not age appropriate teachers are trained to find those books and they have a way for parents to object to those books out of the classroom you know we don't I don't want my child reading this book I got the note said I don't want my child participating in this and you can keep moving forward there's no need for this type of policy and then all is doing is harming people okay we're going to wrap this up with Peter who's on the south side and you're saying basically everyone is missing a point here Peter go ahead yes I think the real point to me is that individual parents who possibly don't even have a high school education are telling teachers and the school districts what books all the kids should not be reading none of the kids I don't mind them saying I don't want my kid reading this book but I do have an issue with them deciding what all the kids in the classroom should and should not read that was my comment all right thank you Peter well let's just move on to our last big topic and here we were discussing about prices going up in boomtown in case you didn't hear the jea board on Tuesday approved rate changes which for some could mean a lower bill but others particularly those on a budget the bill could go up this was done one month before the jea folks move into their new headquarters and apparently it has to do with um the base rate jumping from 550 months to $15 but that'll be offset by the fuel charge which is coming down so some folks who are lower income and well whatever who wants to jump in on on how some people pay more and less with about a minute or so to go well essentially people do need to understand that their bill is in several sections there's the administrative there's a service rate and then there's the fuel cost the fuel cost which they say they expect expect to go down over the next month uh that's a variable though the other part the service the administrative the first part that's what will be going up so going up probably yes the fuel cost offsetting that maybe so cold showers everyone uh jelton yeah you know uh bikini season is coming up and at this point in my life uh i've given up on having the six pack abs and i'm just going to put a solar panel across my torso and save a little money that way okay charlie i think that uh rate pay is expect um progress and they understand that there will be rate increases uh i think that they are they appreciate transparency about this at the same time uh they kind of scratched their head when they hear about j e a j e a spending or not spending but allowing allocating um dollars for other projects and in kind services that could those services could be coming back to the you know the rate payers and you know nakisha back in the good old days j a used to say that they were the cheapest rate in florida uh thoughts now as as a mother out there with a child nearby as i can hear huh yes um you know that was a one-time bragging it no longer holds true the question is you know when i think it's interesting how companies pass on increases when they get increases but they never pass on saving when they start saving money on fuel costs so i think that's the biggest question if rates go if wait for them go down will they lower everyone else's rates or will they keep trying to cash in on their customer that is a question for another show somewhere maybe we'll bring some j a folksy into talk now it is time for our much awaited lightning round and here's where i ask the gang that's here and on phone what are their top fun and products some things to talk about i can go first and i want to plug again the news for jack's mayoral debate seven mayoral candidates are going to be questioned by uh news for jack's anchor can't justice march 8 8 p.m mark your calendars it's going to be a can't miss if you're a voting citizen of jackson bill nakisha what do you say um still on the same vein i will be giving the keynote speech at the democratic women information network uh event tomorrow at wjct studio is talking about the election campaign and the reason to vote not who you should go for but why you should vote so if you're thinking about voting maybe come to that event tomorrow at wjct from 4 to 6 and my esteemed colleagues on my left shelton uh you know we've had a lot of fun things going on this year and a lot of fun things yet to come but as citizens of this city no more fun until after this first round of elections you sit down and uh sit down and do your homework and figure things out all these 19 city council seats it's very important uh you won't be asked for you and charlie this one might not be so much fun to uh bloggers and people who write about uh politics this is uh senate bill 1316 it's been filed by uh state senator jason broder uh who is uh requiring bloggers to uh writing about the government writing about government officials to register with the florida office of legislative services or that commission on ethics that's anyone who's writing about the governor or anyone in the cabinet or any elected officials so no look with that i could see a lawsuit coming on that one she'll see how far it gets well that's it i want to thank my esteemed colleagues here this has been a blast this is my first time doing the florida job and with guys that i hang out and women women that i hang out with a lot uh out on the front line as well as in here so media round table sorry so thank you everybody for being here um so thank you thank you