You're watching Southwest Florida in focus.

Coming up, Florida lawmakers get back to work early as Governor Ron DeSantis calls a special session a preview of the important items on the agenda, including a push to join the white House, efforts to get tougher on illegal immigration.

New FEMA flood maps are coming for sections of Lee County.

What this could mean for insurance rates in these communities, and building empathy in tomorrow's medical professionals.

Students in a focus occupational therapy program learn from the challenges facing their future.

Patients.

Hello, I'm Sandra Victorova.

Thank you very much for joining us.

Well, an early surprise for Florida lawmakers this New year.

Governor Ron DeSantis calls legislators back to Tallahassee for a special session, set to begin on January 27th to tackle several items, from condo regulation to hurricane relief.

And getting the most attention on this agenda a tougher stance on illegal immigration.

DeSantis wants law enforcement and local governments to work in lockstep with President Donald Trump.

The president has pledged to deport millions of people who are not authorized to be in this country.

In a proclamation, DeSantis stated that Florida will play an important role in supporting the Trump administration and must be fully prepared with sufficient resources.

Joining me now to take a look at this issue and others that legislators will be tackling during the special session is WGCU host and reporter John Davis.

Welcome, John.

Thanks for having me.

So let's begin with this.

Legislators who are actually pushing back on this special legislative session.

Why?

And have they sort of changed how they feel about it?

So the same day that DeSantis announced the special session, Senate President Ben Albritton and House Speaker Manny Diaz issued a joint statement, strongly in opposition to holding the special legislative session.

Now, they were clear that they are on board with the new Trump administration's agenda, particularly when it comes to immigration.

But that given that this session was scheduled to start just one week after Trump was inaugurated, they were worried they might be passing laws that, as they said, were premature and even irresponsible, and they didn't want to pass something that might impede or potentially come into conflict with whatever executive orders might come out of the Trump administration or in the beginning days of the new administration.

And as we saw on day one, there was a slew.

Yeah.

So let's talk specifics.

What is the governor wanting from legislators?

Well, specifically when it comes to immigration reform, he wants some pretty specific things.

He wants to mandate participation among Florida law enforcement agencies, local law enforcement, and the 287 G program.

He's also looking for an expansion of the unauthorized alien transport program.

You'll remember that that was responsible for those, those flights of migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard and then to other places and California.

You know, those got a lot of headlines.

Sure.

He also wants lawmakers, to make unauthorized immigrants, students ineligible for in-state tuition rates at Florida colleges and universities.

So those are just a couple of things.

Can you give us a little bit of the background?

You mentioned the 287 program.

Can you give us a little bit of background on that?

Sure.

So the 287 G program has been around for about 30 years.

And this is through the Department of Homeland Security.

Basically, it allows local law enforcement agencies to work with immigration and Customs Enforcement.

So this can take the form of if they have somebody already in their jails, they can detain that they suspect of being undocumented.

They can detain them, they can collect fingerprints and other evidence.

They're basically acting almost as Ice agents in this role.

Now in Florida, nearly two thirds of the state's 67 counties already participate in this program, including the Collier County Sheriff's Office, which has been a part of 287 since 2007.

It should be noted also, though, that this is a voluntary program.

So I think it's interesting that one of the things the governor wants to do is to mandate local law enforcement agencies in Florida, participate in 287 G because I would be surprised if the legislature passes something and there isn't a legal challenge because I don't understand what authority DeSantis thinks.

The state has to mandate local participation in a federal program that is voluntary.

Real quick, I know that, immigration is not the only topic to be discussed in this special legislative session.

Real quick.

Hurricane recovery and condos are some big issues, right?

Yeah.

So hurricane recovery, that one shouldn't surprise anybody.

We all know that, you know, a lot of communities were heavily damaged by the tumultuous 2024 Atlantic storm season.

Florida agriculture across the board was also heavily hit.

So DeSantis is saying the special session could be an opportunity to, you know, get on top of making sure that there are financial resources available to help the agriculture industry recover.

It should be noted, though, that in that dissenting memo from Republican legislative leadership, they know that there's plenty of funds available.

They don't have to wait until July 1st, which is the start of the state's next fiscal year for those funds to become available.

And there should be noted that this is coming from Senate President Albritton, who's a fourth generation citrus grower.

This is someone who certainly has their thumb on the pulse of what's going on with agriculture in the state.

John Davis, we appreciate your reporting and we look forward to having you back so you can tell us, what legisla And then I think.

This week, song and celebration flooded the streets of Fort Myers as the community honored Doctor Martin Luther King Jr with a march from the Dunbar Jupiter Hammond Public Library to Centennial Park weeks.

Amanda.

Inscore Whitmore shares the sights and sounds of this Southwest Florida tradition.

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.

One of the reasons this march is so important for our city is because it's a way of us to keep everybody enlighten and ignite it, to let them know that even though we've come a long way and things are much better, we still have a lot of improvement that we continue to do.

Freedom is I'm gonna let it shine.

We have to stay active.

We have to pull together.

And we have to talk about rights and justice.

There's a lot of surface talk, but no deep substance.

And I think Doctor King would want to address the deep substance because, like he said in his speech and I have a dream, he said, you don't want to judge people by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.

We have to we have to.

We must toll on together.

We are together we stand.

Divided we fall.

Simple as that.

Shine.

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Okay.

Dozens of Southwest Floridians gathered recently for another rally, the Fort Myers Women's March, on January 18th.

The attendees united over a variety of political and social issues facing women and other groups.

For some, it's a painful sense of deja vu.

They say they're facing political and legal battles they thought and did decades ago.

It makes me very angry because this is the second time I've had to do this.

Well, the first time we've we managed to get abortion legalized.

I remember when it wasn't the first time, you know, it was not legal.

And it didn't stop abortion.

It just stopped safe abortion.

This is just a great turnout.

I wasn't expecting so many people.

I mean, it's wonderful.

Maybe there's enough people out there to make a difference, to change what's going on right now in our society, which is, I think, going in the wrong direction.

It can feel like the chasm between Americans on the left and right only gets bigger by the day.

And those opposing views can end in combative conversations at home, at work and in public.

But one group is hoping to buck that trend.

WGCUs Elizabeth Andarge recently attended a symposium hosted by the League of Women Voters, trying to teach the community ways we can build bridges with people who may see the world from a very different lens.

Many of us feel like we're going backwards.

We thought we had made all this progress.

And you know, we're going to build on the future.

And now we don't know what we're going to leave the legacy for our children and our grandchildren.

Over 50 people, both in person and via zoom, gathered on a Saturday morning for an event called Countering Polarized Nation.

The event was organized by the League of Women Voters of Lee County, creating a safe space for meaningful dialog and perhaps a bit of personal growth too.

You cannot resolve any significant policy matter, whether it's environmental or anything else, unless you are willing to engage those who disagree with you.

After everyone settled in, moderator Jack you binger with Braver Angels began the discussion by referencing a work that helped frame his understanding of America.

A guy named Robert Putnam wrote a book called Bowling Alone, a phenomenon that occurred where people just disengaged from civic activity.

The book argues that Americans have become increasingly disconnected from one another, referencing bowling leagues as an example.

The author witnessed an increase in bowling attendance, but a decrease in bowling leagues, citing a noticeable decline in community involvement.

Braver angels was created in 2017 to induce conversations between people who disagree with each other and part of the process.

They teach you skills about how to do that constructively.

The panel also featured Doctor John Maye, interim director of FCS Office of Public Policy Events.

He spoke about the role the community plays in fostering challenging debates.

What relationship do you want to have with your neighbor and what is your goal?

Is your goal trying to get them to you or to your side?

It's probably not going to work right, but if you want to genuinely understand asking those questions, it sort of helps.

This message resonated with audience members like Lorna Washington.

How can we get back as a country, as even families and friends, to be civil, to talk about these issues that affect all of us affordable housing, inflation, education.

And it affects all of us.

The panel didn't provide all the answers that conversation will need to keep going, ideally over shared experiences and a renewed sense of community.

For WGCU news, I'm Elizabeth Andarge or systemic Coming up, hundreds of Lee County homeowners might soon have to buy flood insurance, while others might not be required to have it anymore.

Up next, a look at proposed changes to a federal flood map.

Proposed changes to the flood maps in Lee County mean big impacts for some property owners in the village of Estero and the San Carlos Park area.

FEMA says if the map changes are finalized, hundreds of homes will be placed into a higher risk flood zone, while even more homes will be removed from it.

A stereo village leaders say the proposed changes are significant.

Jennifer Crawford explains.

You're looking at Mullet Creek Basin in south Lee County.

It's almost 7000 acres of land bordered by four major roadways, a lake, a road to the north, corkscrew Road to the south, U.S. 41 to the east, and I-75 to the west.

The area includes much of San Carlos Park and portions of the village of a Starro, and was the subject of a flood study that began in 2018, resulting in proposed changes to FEMA's flood insurance rate maps.

FEMA recently shared in an open house in Fort Myers everything that's blue is no longer in the special flood hazard area, and anywhere you see red would be where areas were moved to the special flood hazard area.

FEMA's Kristen Martin Enza is the risk analyst branch chief for eight states, including Florida.

She says a structure located in the high risk special flood hazard area means it has a 1% chance of flooding every year.

What's most important is really for people to understand their risk so that they can do something about it.

She says about 1700 homes or businesses are impacted by the proposed flood map changes.

As a general overview, there were about 1100 structures that were moved to a lower risk area and there are about 600 structures that were added to a higher risk area.

Of the 600 homes added to the special flood hazard area or a village of Estero, leaders say they found more than 100 are located inside two of their gated communities, Bella Lago, off of a sterile parkway, and the Vines Country Club off U.S. 41.

We can zoom in and we can see whether or not the red area touches the structures.

For example, this case, this house would not be added into the Ehi zone, which is where there could be a potential for a flood insurance requirement.

This house, because just the corner of it touches that essentially puts it inside the 80 zone consideration.

And so when you look at the whole area through here, you can start seeing some are impacted some or not.

Just depends on where the ground elevation is shown to be.

Village of a sterile manager Steve Sarkozy says they're working quickly to notify residents impacted.

The village is not directly involved in this.

But we want our residents to know, about this change because it will certainly affect their flood insurance.

Whether they are required to have flood insurance and if so, at what cost?

And that's a big deal.

Insurance expert Nate Tucci estimates the cost of adding a flood policy to a $500,000 primary home in the San Carlos area, to be about $1,500 on average.

But many variables can change the cost, regardless of the flood zone designation.

If you bought a brand new property, you tore down the house, you put a property up there and I'm your neighbor.

Built in 1975 and you have a 2024 construction, the rates on those two properties are going to be considerably different based on the year of construction.

The construction type one house could be a thousand bucks, and the next house 20ft away could be $4,500 for the more than 1100 properties identified to move out of the special flood hazard area, whose owners may have been required to carry flood insurance.

Martin enter cautions flood waters do not follow the lines that are drawn on the map, and we all can see that location of the flooding can change.

So the important thing is keep your flood insurance if you have it.

In the meantime, Lee County, in the village of a sterile leaders are working with FEMA to share information about the proposed flood map, changes, how they could impact each homeowner, and the appeal process.

FEMA says it could finalize the preliminary flood map changes in spring or summer of 2026.

I'm Jennifer Crawford reporting for WGCU news.

The destructive fires in Los Angeles seem to resonate with people across the country, especially here in Florida.

While California and the Sunshine State are on opposite sides of the country and have very different politics, we share many of the same problems.

Our geography is a blessing and at times a curse.

Our warming climate means our warming waters can make hurricanes more lethal.

And in California, a drier ecosystem means more fuel can make fires deadlier.

Is there anything we can learn from the fires in the Los Angeles area?

Joining us now to discuss is GCU environmental reporter Tom Bayliss.

Tom, welcome.

Hi.

Hi.

So you're the perfect person to talk to you about this topic because you've been reporting about wildfires for decades.

And you are a trained firefighter, correct?

Yes.

I went to the Wild Land firefighter school.

That's a federal program for a number of weeks.

There's one in Brooksville.

It was a very, very cold part of the year.

And, came out of that academy with, my grunt credentials so that I could get into the woods and work side by side with the Florida forest Service, for six months for a series I did, several years back.

So seeing the horrific pictures out of California, are there any things, lessons to be learned for us in our community regarding those fires?

How do we protect ourselves better here?

Things we can do.

What are the lessons to be learned?

Oh, absolutely.

Many of those houses, if not all of them, were in heavily wooded areas.

And with our coast basically built out, a lot of the subdivisions are moving inland, and they're moving into the trees and into the woods.

And what the homeowners are not doing in many cases is creating a defensible space around their house.

And that's on the homeowner to do.

The wildland firefighters do a great job, and they come in and they cut fire lines and save houses.

But if you don't trim back your trees, if you keep, you know, leaves in, in your gutters, even wood piles by the side of your house, you have a much greater chance of your house going up before they can even get there.

Even a wooden fence that's attached to your house can work like a, wick of a candle and bring the fire straight to your house.

And then your house would be the candle.

It happens.

What astonished me about this whole event has been the fact that, you know, we see homes that are not in, like, rural communities.

These are developed communities, especially seeing those homes that are right up against the water.

Do we expect to see more of this in the future where we see, you know, developed communities having terrible fires like this, not just in California, but in our state and across the country?

Actually, Florida is at times one of the hotspots for wildfires.

It's not as dramatic or as often as California, but when the wildfires get bad here, there's been certain years we've lost hundreds and hundreds of thousands and thousands of fires, small and large.

The main thing to realize is that, we have some of the same conditions California does.

For example, the, the cold fronts that just came through in these last couple weekends.

And we have all this stuff in the woods, all these trees and all this underbrush that fell down and was blown around by the hurricanes of the past few years.

It's been in the woods drying out for a year or 2 or 3.

And then we have cold fronts come in and and they take, you know, the wind and the cold and the low humidity suck what moisture is left out of those, logs and trees and just make the woods into a big tinderbox.

Tom Bayliss, thank you, as always, for your reporting.

We appreciate.

Absolutely.

When we come back, the next generation of health care providers leave the classroom to gain a new perspective on the challenges facing their future.

Patients.

As part of its occupational therapy program, Florida Gulf Coast University is trying to develop empathy in their future health care professionals.

Their training is giving them a real world perspective on people dealing with disabilities and mobility limitations.

As W GQ reporter Carrie Barber explains, that includes going more than a mile in someone else's shoes.

Each semester, students in Florida Gulf Coast University's Occupational Therapy program have an assignment that truly changes their perspective on the clients they will work with.

It's called they See Me role in, and it requires students to spend at least six hours navigating the campus in a wheelchair.

Required tasks include going to the line at Starbucks and making a purchase, using the ramp to get on to the Veterans Pavilion.

With that said, did you feel like you were going to topple backward and maneuvering into a handicapped bathroom stall?

The exercise was designed by professor admirers of the OT department at Fgcu.

Angelina Rodriguez is a graduate student in occupational therapy who participated in the assignment.

It was painful to push the chair.

It's a big physical effort, so I felt like a lot of my brainpower was focused on that.

It was focused on going straight and not, you know, running into something.

But I did definitely feel like there were eyes on me.

Which way you want to go?

This way or that way, making things more difficult.

Paths at Fgcu are sloped for rain runoff.

The reason?

It was difficult to go straight.

Rodriguez says that the most demanding thing about the exercise was how much advance planning it takes to get to places on time.

For example, she might have to change to a more wheelchair friendly route or use a different door that's farther away.

And piloting a wheelchair simply takes longer than walking.

I tend to run late to things, and there would be no way I would be able to be procrastinating with getting ready in the morning.

If I was using a wheelchair to get around.

Another issue was that life is designed for standing people.

I oh, look at that.

And both of them open.

That's all of you graduate student Vanessa Angelo noticed this difficulty at Starbucks.

The person who was asking what I wanted to drink kind of towering over me.

It was a lot difficult to get my wallet out of my backpack to pay.

And then as well, I couldn't really see the tap for to actually pay.

Yeah, I couldn't really see how much it was.

And I don't think she told me either.

Her classmate agreed.

Having a look up at everybody was very odd.

That didn't make anything easier.

Nor was accessing a very necessary aspect of life.

The bathroom wheelchairs don't make tight turns easily.

And sometimes the wheelchair stall was occupied even when empty stalls were available.

Both women agreed that the assignment gave them more empathy for their clients in wheelchairs.

Rodriguez said that she will better understand what clients are up against so you have to, like, imagine trying to get your kid out of the house when you're in one of these and having to gather like lunches, gather their backpacks.

Dark Angelo two feels more prepared to help her clients.

I would probably tell them more of what to expect if they do go into a wheelchair, and I'd be able to better help them maneuver the wheelchair as well.

For GCU news, I'm Carrie Barber, with help from Amanda and Score Whitmore.

Hurricanes have hit Florida's Gulf Coast especially hard these last few years.

Next week, we talk with one of the scientists who developed the annual hurricane forecast about what we can expect this season.

And in preparation for storms, we head out with a group that is looking to build a better first line of defense by rebuilding diminished sand dunes in southwest Florida.

Be sure to join us for that story and much more on Southwest Florida in focus.

Until then, have a great week.