Florida's Latest News

Here’s why inflation will decide our next president.

Historically, the strength of America’s economy has been among the most reliable predictors of electoral outcomes, particularly in the case of incumbent presidents. Over the past 45 years, only three sitting presidents have seen their bids for reelection falter, and in each case, weak economic indicators foretold their demise.

Amid the “stagflation” crisis of the late 1970s, Jimmy Carter’s loss to Ronald Reagan was cemented by a decline in GDP during the lead-up to the 1980 election. Just over a decade later, George H.W. Bush lost to an upstart Bill Clinton when unemployment rose substantially and the economy slipped into a recession during Bush’s only term as president.

And at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden after GDP plummeted in the second quarter of 2020. During the same period, no incumbent president has been unseated while governing over a strong economy.

At a glance, it might seem that the historical trend bodes well for President Biden. After all, America’s economy has set a global pace over the past year, with unemployment falling (and holding) below 4%, wage growth exceeding forecasted estimates and GDP expanding at a “blistering” pace. After two quarters of substantial inflation-adjusted GDP growth (4.9% and 3.3% in the third and fourth quarter of 2023, respectively), Axios declared that the United States is “winning the world economic war.”

Wanted: A real Florida homeless strategy

Florida’s affordability crisis only exacerbates the challenge of addressing homelessness across the state. Nobody should want tent cities popping up in parks, streets or sidewalks, and nobody should believe that cities and the police can deal with this problem alone. But a plan gaining steam in the Legislature is a pinched, punitive approach that could actually make it harder to steer the homeless into better settings.

Lawmakers are advancing bills in the House and Senate that would require counties to ban homeless people from sleeping or camping in public places and instead allow them to stay in designated camps with security, sanitation and access to social services.

While Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday that the legislation was still a “work in progress,” he endorsed the plan that Republican legislators described as the first of its kind in the country, as the Times’ Lawrence Mower reported.

Sponsors say the legislation will lead to better housing for homeless people who currently bunk down on streets and in parks, while sparing public spaces from being overrun by tent encampments and hordes of vagrants. Those stark visuals may provoke attention, but they oversimplify the problem and overstate how this strategy could help. It’s why many housing advocates are pleased with the Legislature’s interest but unsettled about where lawmakers are headed.

Two Florida universities have more than $1 billion in endowments to invest on campus

How much money a university receives from donors can play a big role in how well it serves its students — making the size of a school’s endowment an important factor. Schools use endowments for a wide range of things, from financing extra professorships and doling out scholarships to constructing new buildings or entire degree programs.

Endowments are financed by donations from many sources, but the most prominent are donations from former students looking to give back to the institutions that helped to form them.

Such donations typically include “stipulations from the donor on how the institution can access its resources," according to Best Colleges, an online college-admissions publication.

"These guidelines usually restrict use to certain schools or colleges within the university, or even to specific academic departments and programs." The university with the largest endowment in the United States is Harvard University, which as of last summer was a reported $50.7 billion.

Florida’s outdoor workers want heat safety. Why it’s an uphill battle.

Florida lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have sponsored bills over the past six of seven years that would protect Floridians who work outside in the heat.

The bills have stalled each time. People and groups who speak up for Florida workers say they expect the same during this legislative session.

And now, a double whammy: Another bill proposed this session would ban Florida cities and counties from implementing their own heat protections. Workers’ rights groups say the bill is likely a reaction to a measure in Miami-Dade County that seeks heat protections for some workers.

The absence of statewide protections in concert with local governments potentially being unable to enact their own rules puts workers in danger as climate change fuels record-breaking temperatures in Florida, including the hottest summer on record last year, advocates say.