Episode 5: Public Pressure

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Wimauma Mamas

News & Politics


Today's episode is a little heavier than most. We combined our News in Florida and the Around the World & Nation segments to talk about the child detention center in Homestead, Florida. This particular topic will NOT be easy to hear about. If you feel that you cannot listen to it, you can skip ahead to our Hillsborough Closeup segment after the recap. Here's what we talk about in today's episode: Public Service Announcement: You may have heard about how Amendment 4, the law that says that re-enfranchised ex-felons and reversed a Jim Crow-era law that kept 1 in 5 black Floridians from voting, is going to be virtually unenforceable because of a bill that the state legislature passed to require them to pay their fines. It's not going into effect until July 1st. Anyone that might be affected by the new bill should register to vote before July 1st! News in Florida/Around the Nation: WARNING- this segment will not be easy to hear about. It is about the for-profit child detention center in Homestead, Florida that is operated by Caliburn International Corporation. We talk about what life is like for the children right now and how their situation is about to get even worse because of the cuts to aid. Then, we discuss the financial and political side of the story. We tried to stay as closely as possible to the facts, but there comes a point where you have to say that you don't accept this. We cannot accept this and we should make it clear to our representatives that they shouldn't accept this, either. Hillsborough County Closeup: After the hard-hitting segment before, we thought we might lighten things up by talking about how your child can become a firefighter and what that process looks like. In our last podcast, we talked about how we don't have enough fire stations for the amount of people we have living in Hillsborough County. These guys are out risking their lives for us. We should do what we can to support them. All About Science: Debbie follows our theme of talking about firefighters and fire stations by talking about how fires get started. We do live in the lightning capital of the world, after all. Did You Know: Fran has been talking about voting and why people don't vote. In today's episode, she talks about voter suppression based on some of the bills our state legislature has passed and that Governor DeSantis has signed, including one that makes it harder for Floridians to vote on amendments to our state constitution. And finally, we had a wonderful interview with Barbara Scinta about the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and how Florida could be the state that ratifies it.