Why You Should Care?

In this episode, we discuss Statewide and Jacksonville redistricting efforts and why they are so important. We sit down with Andrew Pantazi of The Tributary who has been following these discussions very closely. Warning there is some math in this episode.  Andrew Pantazi edits and reports for The Tributary. He previously worked as a reporter at The Florida Times-Union where he helped organize the newsroom's union with the NewsGuild-CWA. He and his wife, Lauren, are both Jacksonville natives raising their two sons in the city. You can contact him at Andrew.Pantazi@JaxTrib.org.

This week we look at an attempt to renew the Eastside of Jacksonville with Will Brown of Jacksonville Today.  We discuss why this area is important to Jacksonville becoming a first-class city. **Sound quality issues with Wifi we have fixed for future episodes bear with us** Will Brown is a Report for America corps members focusing on race, poverty and inequality for Jacksonville Today.He previously reported for the Jacksonville Business Journal. And before that, he spent more than a decade as a sports reporter at The St. Augustine Record, Victoria (Texas) Advocate and the Tallahassee Democrat.Over his 15-year career, Brown has won awards for breaking news, social media and photography. And in 2020, he contributed photographs for WFSU News/Health News Florida's national Murrow Award-winning series “Committed: How and Why Children Became the Fastest Growing Group Under Florida's Baker Act.”

Why You Should Care is back ! We are back with all new episodes. This episode is with my friend  Evelyn Perez Verdia founder of "We Are Mas".  We talk about what campaigns get wrong about Hispanic voters, misinformation, and how to speak to immigrant communities. Evelyn has advised several gubernatorial campaigns, several elections supervisors, and worked with non-profit and civic institutions. In 2020, Pérez-Verdía worked on the presidential campaigns including Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden in messaging/engagement advisory with Hispanics and other exile communities. One of the examples of Evelyn's vision for activating communities was her donation of the logos of the Con Biden groups to the Joe Biden campaign in 2020.  She often contributes to CNN en Español, Univision, and Telemundo.  Evelyn has been quoted  in the Associated Press, EFE, NBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Miami Herald, Newsweek, and gives commentary to various reputable international media organizations with her analysis. She is frequently requested to train groups or invited to be a public speaker at conferences. You can find out more about her work here www.wearemasfl.com/**Had some sound quality issues on my end due to wifi but the convo was important and didn't want to scrap it.

On this episode of Why You Should Care?  We sit down with three of Florida's best consultants and talk everything about Florida Politics. We discuss what elected officials you should be talking about. What upcoming race they are excited about and some advice for people running for office.  Guests:Jasmine Burney-Clark @missburneysaysMaya Brown         @MsMayaBrownSiottis Jackson     @Siottis22Charities :   www.jamslife.org www.dontmissabeat.org

Nate Monroe from the Florida Time and I were invited to the Jax downtown Council to talk about media and downtown. I thought some of the topics we touched on were great and wanted to share it here. Bonus Episode - Give to charity. 

This episode is all about the vaccine rollout in Florida. People have nicknamed it the Vaccine Hungar Games because of the lack of planning that has gone into the rollout. So we have Ben Conarck, a reporter with the Miami Herald, who has been covering Covid 19 since it has appeared in Florida to discuss the state rollout.

As the vaccines are starting to become available to the general public I wanted to provide a forum to answer questions people may have about the Coronavirus vaccine So I invited Dr. Porter who is a Nephrology Specialist with the Mayo Clinic to discuss questions that I got from listeners. This is a rare non-political episode.

We are looking outside of Jacksonville as we talk about all things GA Senate Races with Tia Mitchell of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Tia Mitchell is the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Washington correspondent. In this role, she writes about Georgia’s congressional delegation, campaigns, elections and the impact that decisions made in D.C. have on residents of the Peach State.

Last season we had an episode about polling and this is the sequel. We sit down with Prof. Binder and discuss what happened with Presidential Polling and how to fix it. We then take a look at their newly released poll that discusses Lot J and other Jacksonville issues.Link to UNF POLLShttps://www.unf.edu/coas/porl/Recent_Polls.aspxLink to UNF Scholarshiphttps://give.unf.edu/nneka-z.-umunna-american-dream-scholarship

Welcome to the second season of Why You Should Care? This season we will look at more than just local issues but for this episode, we take a look at the last election through the eyes of Data with journalist Andrew Pantazi of The Tributary (former of the Florida Times-Union) about what the data showed us from the last election.If you want to subscribe to Andrew's non-profit https://thetributary.substack.com/We have shirts--Go to wyscpodcast.com to order

Welcome to the second season of Why You Should Care? This season we will look at more than just local issues but for the first episode, we stick to a familiar subject: The city working on a deal that doesn't feel right. So we bring on a friend of the show Award-winning columnist for the Florida Times-Union Nate Monroe. The and Jaguars want to develop "Lot J" into a mixed-use development. We break down the deal and what the city should do. If you need a refresher on how the city does real estate deals we covered this on an episode with Chris Hong https://www.buzzsprout.com/634930/3086488

So as we get closer to Election Day I want to continue to help educate the electorate on races and who to vote for. So I will start bringing on candidates as well as voters to talk about the election. Today I’m bringing on a candidate that I’m supporting for County Court Judge. Diversity on the bench is extremely important but that’s not the only reason why I’m supporting my guest for this episode, Rhonda Peeples Waters. She is the most qualified for the job and she should’ve been a judge along time ago but because of politics she wasn’t selected and so now she’s running for office to be the first black woman elected to judge in Duval County. Please listen!

This episode we sit down again with A.G Gancarski from Florida Politics to discuss the 2020 Florida Legislative Session. This is part 2 where look back at the session. We look specifically at the bills the Duval Delegation has filed and cover the implications the Legislative Session will have on Jacksonville. We spend a little time handicapping some of the upcoming races.

So on this episode of Why You Should Care? We sit down again with Nate Monroe, a columnist for the Florida Times-Union, and discuss the Republican National Convention (RNC) coming to Jax and why it is a horrible idea. We cant have Nate on without talking Jacksonville's Public Utility JEA and some of the latest developments. We are still recording remotely so there may be sound quality issues.

This our Tenth episode of WYSC. Due to this "awaking" people and companies are really trying to reach out and be allies to Black people. So I sat down with my friend Chevalier Lovett who is Sr. Vice President & Managing Director of Organize Florida. Organize Florida is the biggest organizing group in Florida which uplifts the voices of marginalized people. We have a conversation about how to be an effective ally to marginalized people.

Super-Sized episode! This episode on #WYSC we cover everything Coronavirus. As Cardi B has said this is real! For the first time, we have four guests. Im giving the times just in case you want to listen to specific information. Stephani Gray MPH, 1:55-23:04 -An actual epidemiologist to discuss the actual facts around COVID-19Darryl Willie, Duval County School Board Member 23:05-47:00 Discussing how Duval county schools became a leader in virtual school and future plans.Gerald Thomas Chief Executive Officer of the Red Cross North Florida Region - 47:00-1:05 Experts on what to do during emergencies and what you need to do during this pandemic. Asghar Syed- Attorney with Jacksonville's Gunster office 1:05- end. Breaks down the "Cares Act" and all the federal and statewide financial relief for families and businesses. His email asyed@gunster.comLinks www.redcross.org/local/florida/north-florida.htmlhttps://dcps.duvalschools.org/Paper Application for Unemployment http://www.floridajobs.org/Reemployment-Assistance-Service-Center/reemployment-assistance/claimants/rapaperapplication

This episode on #WYSC we sit down with Chris Hong from the Florida Times-Union to discuss downtown development. Jacksonville for as long as we could remember has been trying to do something about downtown. This episode we discuss the future of downtown and look closely at the deals the city uses to attract developers. Here is a link to Buzzsprout so if you want to start your own podcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=571882

This episode on #WYSC we talk everything polling. So we sit down with Dr. Binder from the University of North Florida. Prof Binder is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and is the Faculty Director of UNF’s Public Opinion Research Laboratory. He conducts polls all day every day. So who better to help us understand if we should care about polls. Their team just conducted a state-wide poll as we approach the presidential preference primary poll. We talk about what it takes to put on a poll and then go through the polling results. Here are their results to review https://www.unf.edu/uploadedFiles/aa/coas/porl/Feb20.2020.pdf538 polling index https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/pollster-ratings/

This episode we sit down with Andrew Pantazi from the Florida Times-Union and have a discussion about crime in Jacksonville. We talk about crime stats and what works and doesn't work when comes to crime prevention. Whenever you are doing a poll of issues, Crime is always at the top of the list in Jacksonville so we talk about the politics of crime and crime prevention. Remember we are collecting questions for our mailbag episode shoot us a question at wyscpodcast@gmail.com or on twitter #askwysc

This episode we sit down with A.G Gancarski from Florida Politics to discuss the 2020 Florida Legislative Session. We look specifically at the bills the Duval Delegation has filed and cover the implications the Legislative Session will have on Jacksonville.I want to give the listeners a chance to ask questions to the show. So you can send an email to our initials wyscpodcast@gmail.com or hit us on Twitter or our Facebook page with a question with #askwysc. Tell me what you care about.Here is the link to the Duval Delegation Tracker we mentioned in the episode. https://twitter.com/DuvalDelTracker

This episode we sit down with Shelton Hull, columnist for Folio Weekly, to talk about an ordinance that was presented by Councilman Garrett Dennis to Decriminalize Marijuana in Duval County. Duval is the only major county in Florida that has not passed a bill like this. This episode we discuss the outcome of that attempt to decriminalize. Statewide ORGS working on Legalization https://www.regulateflorida.com/https://makeitlegalflorida.com/Tweet your comments to any show with the hashtag #askwysc. I may mention them on the next show.

In this episode of Why You Should Care? We sit down with Emily Bloch. She works as The Florida Times-Union‘s education reporter. It well documented that Duval has the oldest school buildings in the state. And out of all the 67 counties, we are the only county without a dedicated funding source for school maintenance and construction. The Duval School Board with the power given to it by state statute decided to address it by putting a referendum on the ballot that would allow the voters to decide if they wanted a half-cent sales tax. This episode will discuss everything that happened and is still happening with that decision. Timeline for this episodehttps://www.jacksonville.com/news/20190813/timeline-half-cent-sales-tax-for-duval-schoolsState Statue Regulating Sales Tax.Fla. Stat. 212.055(6) (6) SCHOOL CAPITAL OUTLAY SURTAX.—(a) The school board in each county may levy, pursuant to resolution conditioned to take effect only upon approval by a majority vote of the electors of the county voting in a referendum, a discretionary sales surtax at a rate that may not exceed 0.5 percent.(b) The resolution shall include a statement that provides a brief and general description of the school capital outlay projects to be funded by the surtax. The statement shall conform to the requirements of s. 101.161 and shall be placed on the ballot by the governing body of the county.

In the first episode of "Why You Should Care?" We sit down with Nate Monroe, a columnist for the Florida Times-Union and discuss the possible sale of Jacksonville's Public Utility JEA. We go into what brought us to this point and what may happen next.Here is a link to Buzzsprout so if you want to start your own podcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=571882

Can't wait to bring you more episodes