Why Are We Like This?

For our main story this week, we're looking at a brewing scandal plaguing Gov. Ron DeSantis and Casey DeSantis. The Governor's Agency for Healthcare Administration is in hot water for allegedly directing a private healthcare company to shift a $10 million penalty to Hope Florida, a nonprofit with direct ties to his wife Casey. Before that, we look to the north and explore the de-Canadafication of the Sunshine State, as our northern snowbird neighbors swear off Florida en masse. We also talked about SB 7030, another Republican-approved assault on public schools which aims to significant reduce how much funding school districts receive for students enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP) courses.

We talked about the intersection of scamming, regulation, and public corruption against the backdrop of a recent petty scandal where Miami-Dade health inspectors were caught extorting restaurants for clean reports. After that, we get into recent news including more tariff chaos, DOGE moves, and the latest from Tallahassee.

On January 1, the so-called HALO Law went into effect across Florida, limiting and in many cases criminalizing citizens' ability to record police in public. The law is part-and-parcel with an ever more reactionary and authoritarian drift in a state that purports to support freedom but is, in practice, one of the least free places in the country. We were joined this week by journalist Carlos Miller, a Godfather of the First Amendment Auditor movement and creator of Photography Is Not A Crime. He shared his story of an almost 20-year fight to record police and the effects its had on his livelihood and health. Read Carlos' reporting at Atlanta Black Star:https://atlantablackstar.com/author/cmillerddm24/ And follow him on Facebook here:https://www.facebook.com/carlosmiller

When's a rug not a rug? When it's pulled right out from under ya, ya dummies. Fans of Javier Milei recently learned that hard lesson when they dropped millions of dollars of (presumably not) hard-earned cash into a meme coin fraud sponsored by the famously sister-curious Argentine president. We invited Andres Fidanza, editor-in-chief of El Observador USA, to talk about the curious case of South America's most prominent Milton Friedman acolyte and discuss how it affects the perception of a cunning, brass-tacks, no-nonsense economist when they out themselves as financially incompetent. You can read more of Andres' reporting at El Observador and follow him on X/Twitter.In the back half of the episode, we discuss Ron DeSantis' efforts to abolish property taxes in Florida (official vote count on the pod: 1 yay, 2 nays). Then we briefly catch up with two more of our favorite characters in Miami, Joe Carollo and Francis Suarez, who each have their own scandals firmly parked up their asses.

Happy MLK Jr. Day! Happy Inauguration-They're-Gonna-Write-About-In-History-Books-But-For-All-The-Wrong-Reasons Day! The WAWLT Boys return from a protracted break to bring you up to date on America's speed-run into full Florida status. We talked about the spasmodic, seemingly hourly new developments surrounding the TikTok ban and its implications for a Democratic Party left holding the bag and looking like enormous losers. We went in depth on the "Sunshine Cabinet", a cheery phrase we coined to describe one of the most repulsive collections of depraved animals to take executive power in U.S. history. Finally, we got into some Florida Democrat news and notes, including the diaspora of middling politicos like Susan Valdes, Hillary Cassell and Maureen Porras, who are scurrying away from the failing and flailing party, desperately grasping for their bag and sucking up to the modern MAGA movement.Your hosts are Thomas Kennedy, Gerald Doherty and David Quiñones. This episode was produced by David Quiñones.

Over the summer, Redfin released a report analyzing rent trends across the country and while the national average ticked up 1%, analysts were surprised to find many major metros across Florida cratering due to increased inventory, slowing migration, and myriad other factors. In this episode, we examine whether this is good news, bad news, or maybe a good news-bad news combo. We also got into the drama surrounding one of South Florida's weirder State Representative races in Miami Beach and discussed other items on the ballot.