This week, a Faculty Senate committee at the University of Florida alleged that researchers at the Gainesville campus felt pressure to destroy COVID-19 data and faced “barriers to accessing, analyzing and publishing” their findings after facing “challenges” while working with an unnamed state entity. Researchers also allege that they faced pressure not to criticize Gov. Ron DeSantis as the university receives state funding.
A panel is investigating the allegations.
Guest: Divya Kumar, Tampa Bay Times.
Resilience project
Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to spend more than a quarter of a billion dollars on what he calls resilience projects. The state money is designed to attract local spending on stormwater drainage, water pumps and fire stations, with more spending proposals in his overall budget released this week.
When DeSantis announced his resilience project spending list, he avoided talking about climate change. He then dismissed criticism that the spending does not address the causes of climate change.
Guests:
- State Rep. Tom Fabricio, Republican of Miramar, Florida House Natural Resources subcommittee.
- Dr. Tom Frazer, dean of the College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, and former chief science officer of the state of Florida.
- Jenny Staletovich, environmental reporter for WLRN.
