Outrage Over Plans To Build Golf Courses In State Parks Grows #Florida #news

good morning so protests in various state parks across the state over the Florida Department of Environmental Protections plan to put things like pickle ball golf courses and hotels on public parks the plan has been uh put out there as a as a way to get people involved in the Parks they claim that in some cases this will encourage the use of the parks but most people don't seem to agree with that they think it's junking the place the places up and they had these uh public hearings set up for Tuesday sort of in small venues around the state and all at the same time essentially one for each park around the state all at 3:00 just one hour and that was all they were going to take as far as input on this issue it's almost like they were trying to sneak this by yeah and maybe get it passed without anybody noticing well it's totally blown up in their face uh the state is now having to move these hearings to next week to much larger venues where it's very likely a lot of people are going to show up and voice opposition and really it's one of the biggest scandals that the danus administrations had to deal with since he came into office and what's different about it is he's getting blowback really for the first time from Republicans in his own party they are not coming to his defense in fact they're going on the attack saying this that this was just a bad idea all the way across the board you know I haven't seen anything quite like this during uh desantis's time in office where uh you've got the Senate President you've got Congressman Matt Gates you've got Rick Scott I mean the list goes on and on again like you said from the Republican side of the aisle that's what makes this notable uh there's there's been bipartisan push back to this but saying this is just a a bad idea and the way that they framed uh the change in venues they said you know because of so much interest in all of this right like everybody is just clamoring for a pickle ball court in a state park yeah really about interest it's it's it's push back it's a significant push back to this idea and um I think a lot of it seems to have to do with again I'm not a person who goes to the state parks I'm not really an outdoorsy type so I don't I don't have a dog in this fight I don't care what they do with the state parks but uh people who go there they like the peace and Tranquility course they do they like to go for a hike in nature and silence nobody wants to hear a pickle ball court like there's been complaints about how loud they are why would you want to put that in a place where it's supposed to be nice and quiet Honeymoon Island I mean just changed the name to pickle ball Island yeah yeah uh and then the golf courses I think there's this thought and I said this when the story first broke like don't we have enough golf courses uh around the state do we need them on state parks uh and golf courses have a huge impact on the environment so putting them in a state park which is supposed to preserve land yeah uh highly controversial and and the story continues to develop the group that had been pushing for golf courses three of them and in fact on the Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County uh was tied to Jack Nicholas and uh and his people uh to design and and put forth these these uh these new golf courses they've now withdrawn that idea because of all this public blowback yeah and it was an wasn't it a charitable organization which is a really really great one folds of Honor was somehow involved in in the initial idea to put these golf courses on state parks folds of Honor does tremendous work I've interviewed them a number of times I don't know how exactly they got uh wrapped up in all of this but I got to tell you I don't see this happening now I mean there's just been too much push back uh from again all angles all sides I don't see this moving forward yeah I don't know if Dand has helped himself he put out a spokesman on Friday who said something like well Teddy Roosevelt you know supported uh you know parks and and he was all about you know making them accessible to people but I don't think Teddy Roosevelt supported pickle ball in golf courses in the national park building them yeah like turning them into like industrial yeah it's one thing to create the park and to create them as places where people can go visit as you know national monuments it's another thing to develop them and commercialize them but put a hotel on there it just doesn't make sense I do think if if there is a reason behind this um a good reason then Des santis himself is going to have to come out and make the case and I'd be open to hearing what he has to say about this um but again uh I mean the Senate President uh when when you've got got Kathleen paseda come right out like right away and say I don't think so and then just one after another after another we have not seen Republicans in the state speak out openly against something that the santis has proposed like this uh at any point during his uh time in office so this is uh definitely new territory for the governor and we'll see where it goes so both the Trump and Harris campaigns are awaiting the results of new polling now that a candidate that could make a difference in close States is no longer in the race in dependent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr announced in Phoenix on Friday he's suspending his campaign and endorsing Trump now his name will remain on the ballot in many states even though he's no longer in the race and it's not entirely clear exactly how this is going to help or hurt the Harrison Trump campaigns he made it so confusing uh by not just getting out of the race he's like I'm suspending my campaign but we're not getting out of the race and if you're in certain States you could vote for us you should vote vote for us if you're in other States then don't and they're trying to get his name off the ballot like I I don't know it seemed very yeah why not just drop out well there's there's a reason for that you say you're suspending your campaign so you can keep all the money you've raised because maybe you come back in at a later time or maybe you want to save that money for a future campaign if you drop out then I think you know there's some you have to talk to the election lawyers but that suggests that you need to end the campaign and then the money needs to go back to where it came from I think it looked like when you dive really deep into the data his his vote probably splits like you know 45 25 Trump uh Trump's definitely going to get a little bit more of a benefit out of this than than Harris well which is why he's getting out of the Rays to I mean he was very open about it to help Trump in those swing States I just don't know how much of a difference it's going to end up making because he's lost so much support you know when he was pulling a 20% well then it's yeah you know a much bigger deal if he's out of the race when you're polling at four five some cases depending on the state even lower it could make a difference in the swing state could that that's the key and that's what we just don't know it could make a bit of a difference in uh in some really tight swing States uh so we'll see I think uh you are giving the Harris campaign a new line of attack uh you know which is essentially to come back with this we told you they're weird like now they're weird and they're together now they've got the the guy with the Dead Worm in his brain and you know uh Dead bears in Central Park and all of that kind of stuff so uh I don't know how much of an it's going to have an impact I don't know how much of an impact talk to a couple of RFK supporters and granted not many cu there just aren't very many uh and he told me that he was a lifelong Republican but he just didn't like Trump uh and he definitely didn't like Biden sort of a double hater and he just is not clear what he's going to do yeah some of may not vote at all yeah they may not vote at all now and when you think about the uh the impact of that that could have a big impact on Senate RAC like here in Florida you got those amendments just because there isn't someone at the top of the ticket is not a reason to not show up at all you know you may not like either one but I think what the campaigns want to do is somehow convince those voters to come into their Camp right we'll see uh we'll see how it plays out and probably be like uh a week and a half or so before we have a good handle on it in terms of the latest polling Chris tankman with today's top stories Chris thanks so much thank you