On this week’s Roundup: In the wake of the Parkland mass shooting, billionaire donor Tom Steyer has pledged a million dollars to register young Florida residents to vote.
New documents show the state had a long-running role in the collapsed bridge disaster at FIU.
And a "bill of rights" for nursing home residents is off the table in Florida, for now.
Billionaire Activist Works To Get Young Voters To The Polls
Tom Steyer founded the environmental advocacy group and Super PAC NextGen America.
You may have seen him on television in those “need to impeach” ads he’s running against President Trump.
Now Steyer is getting involved in the Florida gun debate.
He’s pledging more than $3 million to register young people to vote in this state. Steyer said it’s with the hope that they will help elect pro-gun control politicians in the midterm elections.
'March For Our Lives' Demonstrations Scheduled Around Florida, Nation
Saturday is the "March For Our Lives." Demonstrators will be on the streets in Washington DC and in cities around the world, including Florida. The students are calling for an end to gun violence and mass shootings at schools.
Carling Witt is a 20-year-old college student and the lead organizer of “March For Our Lives” in Fort Myers. She’s getting help from more than a dozen high school students in Lee County:
“I have no political background. I have no experience in everything that I’m doing. I just said that this needed to be done, and I stepped out and I started doing it, and me and my rag tag little group of high schoolers made something this amazing. This is gonna be so amazing, and if we can do something like this -- imagine what our generation is gonna do.”
Witt hopes 700 people will join the march in downtown Fort Myers at Centennial Park.
In north Florida, marches against gun violence are planned for Jacksonville, Gainesville, St. Augustine and Amelia Island.
Atlantic Coast High Schooler Adrena Forrest is among the organizers of the Jacksonville event in downtown Hemming Park.
She said at 17-years-old, she’s not old enough yet to buy a gun, but she rejects criticism that she’s too young to have her own opinion about the issue
More than 800 marches are expected to take place around the world on Saturday.
Julie Glenn, News Director at WGCU in Fort Myers and Jessica Palombo, News Director at WJCT in Jacksonville joined us to lend their voices to the discussion.
