You're watching southwest Florida.

InFocus.

Coming up, Governor Ron DeSantis brings Doge to Florida.

A look at its potential impact on research and programs at university across the state, as well as local governments.

We examine the push to cut government spending in the Sunshine State and in southwest Florida.

At the end of the Florida Keys lies a hidden gem.

We show you the restoration efforts underway to save the historic Fort Jefferson from the elements and a colorful life.

Leona Lovegrove earned legions of fans with her vibrant works of art.

We take a look back on the legacy of the Matt Lashay artist.

Hello, I'm Sandra Victorova.

Thank you for being here.

Florida Doge begins its work with sweeping audits from local governments to universities across the state.

Governor Ron DeSantis created the new Florida Department of Government Efficiency Task Force in February, with a mission to eliminate waste within state government and save taxpayers money.

Several Southwest Florida counties have named Doge representatives to lead cost cutting measures or to deliver data requested by the state.

Kevin Karnes Lee county's clerk of court, a comptroller, says federal DOJ's efforts inspired him to appoint a new chief of government efficiency in his office.

Even before the governor's executive order, they've already identified ways to save about $500,000 by renegotiating contracts, reducing travel expenses and not filling vacancies.

Khan says he will not fire any of his 331 current employees in the cutbacks.

I think it's probably created a little bit of stress in the office.

I mean, I think if you ask him, some team members are going, we don't know what this means because they've seen what's happening at the state and federal level.

So I've communicated to staff that we're not the state and federal level of government.

We don't have that level of budget.

I mean, you look at the federal government, they are $1 trillion operation.

We're talking about $40 million.

And so I've really tried to explain to them that this is a project for us to just make sure that we're dotting the i's and crossing the T's.

I think you've heard the analogy.

Take a scalpel rather than a sledgehammer.

I mean, that's really similar to to what we're doing here at the clerk's office.

Just taking it one decision at a time and determining whether it's the right thing to do by the taxpayers that live here.

The Florida Doge team is also working to flag with the governor's office calls inefficiency within the state's university system.

With more on this is anchor and reporter Chris Young with WMNF, a community radio station in Tampa.

Chris, welcome.

Thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me, Sandra.

So I'm hoping you can describe sort of the scope of these audits happening right now at universities across the state.

Yeah, definitely.

So these audits are pretty sweeping, Florida public colleges and universities from across the state got letters from a letter from Governor Ron DeSantis asking for a lot of information, basically to root out what he calls inefficiencies.

He wants about six years worth of data on grants, research, staffing details, even how these universities and colleges calculate overhead cost.

And it goes it's a little bit more than a financial audit goes deep into hiring who's doing what, how research is funded, and even how jobs are structured.

Does it look at the sort of details of what's being researched and why?

Yes, yes, it's asking for funding behind grants.

What's being researched, why it's being researched for the past six years.

What has been the reaction from university staff?

So I did speak to a staff representative at the University of South Florida, and he said the universities are being asked to do this on a very short timeline, right.

They got their letter April 4th.

A lot of that information was due two weeks later.

So it takes up a lot, he says.

It takes up a lot of resources.

It takes up a lot of time and takes up a lot of money that could be used at these research universities, especially doing other things.

Another point that was mentioned by the University of South Florida representative and faculty representative was that all of this information, a lot of the research information, a lot of the grant information is publicly accessible.

He said professors want people to know about the research.

They can go on Google Scholar and other search databases and find it out pretty easily.

Did he express any concerns about what impact that might have on staff pursuin He's mentioned it will be a burden.

He mentioned that this is something that'll take up time.

So that was one of the things.

And do we know when action will be taken on these audits and who would take action?

Right now we don't know what action will be taken.

But Governor Ron DeSantis in the past has gone after diversity, equity and inclusion in Florida public colleges and universities.

In 2023, he signed a law that actually banned the use of state funds and taxpayer money on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

And again, if he's following a model of what we're seeing federally with those with Trump and Elon Musk, it maybe could lead to cuts.

But we have no certainty yet.

Chris Young with WMNF, we so appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Thank you Sandra.

So to gain a better sense of the potential ramifications of these audits on the university system statewide, we are joined by Mike Martin, FGCU President emeritus.

President Martin, welcome.

Thank you.

I'm glad to be connected again with you.

I was a through.

So a lot of folks are going to say making Florida's universities more efficient.

It sounds like a great idea.

So you were president of Fgcu from 2017 to 2023.

Are there areas where Fgcu and the entire university system can be made more efficient?

Well, I don't think there's any question that you are always seeking more efficiency.

That's what we do.

So we can always deliver the best possible programs with our resources to students and citizens.

But I think all in all, the system is well run, and I absolutely am certain that Fgcu is a very efficient and effective organization.

And so I'm not entirely sure what DOJ's likely to find.

But, at least from where I've sat, it certainly seems as though it's a excellent organization in serving its mission.

So is it typical for the state to request such information on, on, you know, where where we're staffing levels are, where research and grant funding is, is coming from, where it's going to?

Well, it's very unusual.

Obviously, this has not happened much in my 50 years of history, more than 50 years of history and public higher education.

I've never seen anything quite like this approach, and it's both startling and frustrating and hard to understand, because I'm not entirely sure what the point is.

I know that there was this grand announcement that the administration was going to create greater efficiencies across government, but I never understood what the metrics were.

I never understood the full rationale.

And to this day, I don't really understand the implementation.

So, yes, I think there are always opportunities and we've always been held accountable.

Public higher education in Florida and elsewhere.

I mean, we get audited all the time by the state and by everybody else along the way, just as you do at issue.

But this one is just, so hard to understand and hard to understand what the ultimate objective is that I can't tell whether it's making progress or not, or is it simply creating chaos?

So that when you have, DOJ's folks asking questions about what's being researched and how much money is going into research, do you have concerns about that impacting choices being made by staff and faculty on on what areas they decide to pursue to research?

Well, I don't think there's any question is having a chilling effect.

I mean, I certainly know that it's happening at other institutions.

I talk to colleagues around the country.

I'm here in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Minnesota.

I'm a graduate and former dean at Minnesota University of Minnesota, of a major research college at the University of Minnesota.

And from I hear my colleagues here and across the country, and certainly in Florida, there's a real chilling effect about what you pursue in the name of science, in the name of curiosity.

And I think that's a cost that's going to be very high to pay in the long run.

President Martin, we appreciate your time.

Thank you sir.

You're very welcome.

Good luck to everyone.

I hope to catch up with folks when I get back to Florida.

We're going to keep our footprint in both places.

So I'll look forward to catching up again.

But always good luck at WGCU.

You do great job, but I'm a big fan.

Thank you, president Martin.

We appreciate that.

Thanks.

Coming up, finding the funny in Southwest Florida news.

Up next, Douglas McGregor's cartoons have been featured in local newspapers for years, and now his work is getting a second chance to entertain and inspire.

File boxes are held all over the country, all over the world in some cases.

And, it's just something that people can pick up and decide they want to do one day and go out to a certain location and just see how many species they can find and make it a day of it.

In the spirit of Earth Month, Fgcu students and faculty members ventured into the wild to take part in a BioBlitz.

Groups made their way around the campus and surrounding wooded areas to catalog the variety of plants and animals in the region.

Using a program called iNaturalist, a person can take a photo of a species and it will be identified and cataloged into a larger database.

This annual nature archiving event helps conservationists keep track of how the local ecosystem has changed over the years.

It helps us realize how many species are on our campus.

It gets us a good list.

Doing it in one day, we can see.

Okay.

During this day of the year, we found X number of species.

And you see birds, you see lizards, you see mammals, you see plenty and plenty of plant life.

I know sometimes plant life is a little underappreciated here.

And that's the entire point of this event today, is we want people who maybe don't get to see it to to come out and appreciate it, but there's way more than you think there is.

There's a hidden gem in our state, one many locals have never visited, much less the millions of tourists who visit Florida each year.

The Dry Tortugas are a chain of islands west of the Keys.

They are rich in history and natural beauty.

As FGCUs Stef Kempton explains, advocates are working to save the crown jewel of this special place.

Welcome to the Dry Tortugas, one of the most picturesque places you've probably never heard of.

Dry Tortugas are one of the most remote parts of the United States.

Absolutely.

You feel like a little kid exploring a magical world out there.

It's amazing out there.

It really is.

It's hard to believe, you know, when you come from the sea, from the water, from a boat, and you see the fort on the horizon, it's the first thing you're going to see.

It's like there's a castle floating out in the ocean.

And I mean, it's really, phenomenal.

The Dry Tortugas are a chain of islands isolated in the Gulf, about 70 miles off the coast of Key West.

Though part of the state of Florida, they're only accessible by boat or seaplane.

The islands are anchored by the incredible Fort Jefferson, first built in the 1840s.

Now the focal point of one of the least visited but most spectacular national parks in the country, it is the largest masonry structure in the United States.

It is amazingly impressive.

It is so big way out there in the middle of the ocean.

It's hard to imagine how they ever did it, but they did.

And while Fort Jefferson towers above the horizon, 99% of Dry Tortugas National Park is underwater.

You have the wildlife out there.

The turtles are still out there.

All the seabirds are out there, all the ocean.

Life is still out there, though crystal clear seas may be one of the most stunning aspects of the Dry Tortugas, it's also one of its biggest threats, as changes to our oceans over time leave a lot of uncertainty.

The Dry Tortugas are honestly extremely vulnerable.

They're going to be some of the first places to go if, if we're not careful, it would just be a tragedy.

Doctor Joe Mueller is an expert in climatology as a professor and researcher at Florida Gulf Coast University.

She studies environmental impacts in the Sunshine State, from the mainland to the keys to the Dry Tortugas.

I think this is probably one of the most important conversations, about what we can do.

If you we want to persist in Florida and live here comfortably and moving forward, like trying to preserve green spaces.

The environment is a focal point for many scholars here at Fgcu.

Given the campus's mission for sustainability, hoping that this can be a living learning laboratory, that we could say, well, here's some things that we figured out and we're going to share them.

I felt like it was really important to connect our local community to the global conversation.

And that global conversation connects us all from Southwest Florida all the way to the dry Tortugas, a surreal place facing a very real threat.

But advocates are hopeful that those who visit these extraordinary islands will realize their worth protecting.

I'm Stef Kempton, reporting.

A Bonita Springs company is going green this Earth month.

Herc rentals is encouraging employees to get their hands dirty and give back by volunteering.

WGCUs Julie Perez stopped by the Wonder Gardens to see how that work is helping the environment.

Construction equipment company Herc Rentals is giving the Bonita Springs Wonder Gardens a lift.

Literally.

Last week, a group of 25 volunteers spent the day working on the Wonder Garden's soon to be order exhibit.

The collaboration marks the first of five volunteer events Herc Rentals has planned for Earth Month.

Neil Anderson, the CEO and president of the Wonder Gardens, says all the work contributes to one major goal.

When we came out for Ian, we developed a new master plan called Renew the Wonder.

And what you're seeing is us renewing the wonder right now.

Last year, Herc Rentals brought its Build a Brighter Future motto to life by contributing 530 volunteer hours to environmental nonprofits.

Herc says it's ready to do it again.

Every month last year, we removed about 200 pounds of litter.

We planted nearly 500 trees and native plants.

And we removed eight different types of, of invasive plant species.

So I think this year we're just excited about elevating our environmental stewardship commitment to the community, and continuing those efforts across all the communities where we live, work and play.

Leoni says that while her sustainability mission remains grounded, all the tools they've donated help their community partners reach new heights.

We have one of our scissor lifts, and we're going to also be using that donated equipment to trim some of the branches and, you know, really just rehabilitate this place where we're we're based out of that.

We love.

Jacob Henry runs the operations department at the Bonita Springs Wunder Gardens.

He says he's helping hand and heavy equipment provides major relief for the nonprofit.

It is amazing.

I only have a staff of three people.

So for everyone, for this big people to show up, it's immense.

Wonder garden CEO Neil Anderson says the help from Herc Rentals shaved off about two weeks of prep time for the new exhibit, and that very soon the habitat will house some new additions that are sure to make a splash.

However, we do have otters ready to go.

They are up in Ohio May and ivy to low females and we have them, they're in great care up there.

Families, looking after them, and they'll be ready to go soon, so we're ready to go.

The president and CEO of the Wonder Garden said it's going to take about two months to open up the new exhibit, but for now, Herc is hard at work building Man Ivy's new home.

For WGCU news, I'm Julie Perez.

Douglas MacGregor is an expert at turning chaos into comedy.

As an editorial cartoonist, he has spent 40 years perfecting his satirical look into politics.

The Florida lifestyle and environmental concerns Dana Harpster sat with McGregor to learn how his career's work is getting republished for a new generation.

You had to draw every possible building and every possible road that you could think of because the caption is y y.

There will be no brushfires in Florida in the future.

Well, if there's no trees, there's no brushfires.

It's Earth month.

A good time to appreciate a recent gift to the Fgcu archives by editorial cartoonist Doug McGregor.

For decades, McGregor has been drawing often humorous but also poignant attention to issues facing southwest Florida, including mainly its environmental challenges.

He has donated about 250 of his original drawings to Florida Gulf Coast University, where they will be housed in its special archives.

It's important to preserve the cartoons, first of all, and their original format and their original condition, and then to be able to share them, share them with the students who will benefit by looking at them, seeing the message it was trying to get across at the time because it's still relevant today.

Yes, some of them are, and make sure that they understand that these issues are their issues.

They may have been drawn 15, 20, 30 years ago, but they are now there issues.

How are they going to tackle those problems?

Topics not as relevant remain available to students who want to delve into Southwest Florida history.

Under McGregor's pen, the local issues go back to 1988, when he started editorial cartooning for the News-Press.

Today, his editorial cartoons appear once a week in the Naples press.

Most of the collection now in Fgcu archives, deals with ways to preserve the environment amid rampant modern development.

A lot of these cartoons pertain to water and then our backyard and loss of habitat is a big part of it.

The species that still exists and try to survive like panthers and and manatees and burrowing owl over in Cape Coral, you know, and development has taken its toll on these species and continue to do so.

It's said a picture is worth a thousand words.

And McGregor believes his most effective cartoons may have no words at all.

Sometimes humor was important to that message, and sometimes it was just a straightforward, very stark, very poignant, blast of of graphics just to get that point across.

FGC archivist Emily Murray has arranged McGregor's cartoons by date, and all are available in the archives and have been digitized online.

Looking through them is a walk through southwest Florida.

History classes are free to use them as source material, but you need not be affiliated with the university to see them.

Faculty and staff can come in, and like, talk to us about kind of incorporating the archives in their classes.

We do get requests to like, show different kinds of primary sources so that we can teach primary source literacy.

McGregor's cartoons are also available to peruse at the Cape Coral Historical Museum.

Collections are also at the Ohio State and Syracuse universities.

McGregor's next goal is to get them into presidential libraries as his work goes back to the administration of Jimmy Carter for Southwest Florida in Focus.

This is Dana Harpster with Andrea melendez.

Painting to a particular palette.

After the break, we take a look at the colorful legacy left behind by the one and only Liam Lovegrove.

Leona Lovegrove saw the world through a different spectrum of color.

The popular artist's unique style is instantly recognizable and helps spread southwest Flora vibes throughout the country.

Following a lengthy battle with stage four breast cancer, Lovegrove passed away earlier this month at the age of 72.

WGCUs Tom Hall takes a look at the vibrant and eccentric legacy she leaves behind.

So much better.

Sometimes I use other bright colors, but I try to use the water.

You know, the water and the sky and these.

It just, to me, makes more sense.

Over the course of her lengthy career, artist Leona Lovegrove championed numerous causes from art and film festivals to the Red cross and breast cancer awareness years before, she was diagnosed herself with cancer.

While she never formally celebrated Earth Day, her vibrant paintings attested to her heartfelt appreciation for Southwest Florida's flora, fauna, and subtropical environment.

Birds were a popular Lovegrove motif for flamingos, herons, parrots, toucans.

For a time, Friday birds were a regular appearance on her social media platform.

Lovegrove also paid homage to sea creatures ranging from amberjack, groupers, seahorses, lobsters and turtles to nature's most elusive denizens of the deep.

Mermaids.

Her love of palm trees bordered on obsessive.

Her Hearts of Palm series graced the cover of the Naples Charity Register for several years.

Other paintings featured the Royal Palms line, McGregor Boulevard, and the coconut palms that dot the salty shores of her beloved Mount Lucia.

This would be a true mountain show, so go like the.

Cashier said of her.

She also painted Coconuts Ball for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and for patrons to send his postcards to family and friends.

It was clear that Florida floated Little Miss Boat.

Her paintings belied an abiding respect for ecology, environment and the water life that attracts millions of tourists to southwest Florida each year.

Her art was a combination of distortion, exaggeration and fantasy.

She enlisted intense color, dramatic and agitated brushstrokes, and paint drips in an effort to create an emotionally charged representation of her subjects.

It's not that I'm unaware of the strictures of fine art.

The old once told me.

Instead, I view these principles as subservient to my highly subjective, very personal, spontaneous self-expression.

Most people equate painting with the slow, deliberate application of pigment to canvas.

Lima unabashedly occupied the opposite end of that spectrum.

On occasion, she painted with such a sense of urgency that she used her fingers and even the palm of her hands to move pigment across her canvas.

While Earth Day may not have been among the causes Lovegrove espoused, her work leaves little doubt that every day was Earth Day for William Lovegrove, as well as a call to action to protect the natural beauty that makes Southwest Florida Paradise.

Liam Lovegrove died at her North Fort Myers home on April 10th.

She was 72 years old for WGCU news.

This is Tom Hall.

Coming up next week, Florida's condo market is struggling.

We take a look at why so many homeowners are trying to put their units up for sale.

Join us for that story and much more next week.

Don't forget, we'd love for you to like and subscribe to our WGCU news YouTube channel, where you will find all of our stories, including those extended interviews, until next week.

Have a great weekend everyone!