The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - #BecauseMiami: Home Grown

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

Billy Corben is finally back from doing his actual job. Joining him is Florida state senator Joe Gruters (R) to talk about Florida Amendment 3, legalization of recreational marijuana, which is up for vote in the 2024 election. Glenna Milberg of Local10 updates Billy about a "scheme" to confuse voters in an election for Florida Senate District 37 by using a ghost candidate with the same last name as the Democratic incumbent in an effort to steal votes from him. Plus, Billy will give you his voting guide to the Florida state amendments currently on the ballot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Remember to follow all traffic signals. Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. After decades of shaky hands caused by debilitating tremors, Sunnybrook was the only hospital in Canada who could provide Andy with something special. Three neurosurgeons, two scientists, one movement disorders coordinator, 58 answered questions, two focused ultrasound procedures, one specially developed helmet, thousands of high intensity focused ultrasound waves, zero incisions, and that very same day two steady hands. From innovation to action, Sunnybrook is special. Learn more at sunnybrook.ca special. I'm a Republican and I'm a Democrat. We don't agree on much, hardly

anything, but we do agree on this. Amendment 3 is good for Florida. That's right. Vote yes on Amendment 3. It's not about politics. It's about Florida. That was Florida State Senator Democrat and Chairman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Executive Committee Chevron Jones and Florida State Senator Republican Joe Gruters. They are both coming together to support Amendment 3, which is for the legalization of adult

use of marijuana, not just for medical purposes, but for recreational purposes as well. Roy, for our long time listeners and our long suffering producer, I'm gonna give you three guesses. Which of those two guys do you think is gonna be our next guest on the Because Miami podcast? Will it be the Democrat, Chevron Jones,

or will it be Republican State Senator Joe Gruters? What do you think? Normally I would say neither one of them. If you're familiar with this program you'd be right they would they would be heading for the hills right about now if they got our invitation. That's correct. So we got the Republican today. But would you have guessed that though? If you didn't know... Knowing how this world works. Yes. Well, knowing how this show works. Yeah. Shepard Jones isn't going to get within

a thousand yards of this program. But Republican Florida state senator Joe Gruters was good enough or is good enough to join us right now on the Because Miami podcast. Before we get on to marijuana, Senator, let's check in because

obviously there's a lot of your constituents who probably need recreational marijuana right now. You represent Sarasota County, parts of Manatee County as well. These are the areas hardest hit by not just Hurricane Milton last week, but two weeks prior to that hurricane. Helene, how are your constituents doing in their recovery efforts? Well, listen, we live in a resilient area. First, thanks so much for allowing me to be on here, Billy.

As I said, we've engaged once before and I told some of my friends back then how cool it was for me to have somebody as influential as you talking to me on Twitter. But I forget what the subject was, but I don't think it was all high in the sky stuff. I don't think we agreed, whatever it was. But listen, Sarasota is an amazing community. We've been hit with three storms actually, because Debbie, although it was off our coast, did a considerable amount of damage. And we had about 850 homes flooded inland. And then we had Helene, now we had Milton. And it's been, it wasn't as catastrophic as everybody expected and so but there's a lot of

work to be done a lot of damage especially the barrier islands residential and commercial if you had anything on any of the barrier islands all the way from Longboat Key to Lido to Siesta to Manasota Key a really complete devastation out there the inland communities didn't get hit as hard but it's a listen, we're coming together as a community and we're starting to rebuild, but if you drive through Sarasota right now, there's literally trash piles everywhere. And it's, but listen, I'm glad it wasn't worse. Yeah, certainly saying it's not as bad as we feared it was going to be a small solace to people who are faced with that devastation. People who are faced with record number of dangerous and even deadly tornadoes that struck

here. What do you think of our last two governors, Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis, got it right by trying to eliminate climate change from state law? Or do we have a problem we need to address here in this state? Listen, climate change is real at the end of the day. It is constantly changing. We have to figure out a better way to maneuver through the system. But I think that, listen, as a government here in Florida, I think we're doing everything we can. I personally passed a bill that hardened the entire electrical grid and that will be hardening it over the next 30 years.

It's undergrounding. So all the utility lines you see, over the next 30 years is undergrounding. So all the utility lines you see over the next 30 years, we're going to bury those lines. And so we're going to make our state a lot more resilient as a result. And that's partly why you already see some of the work that we've done over the last couple of years on this. Some of these communities get up and running much faster because if you have a single day where a third of our state's out of power,

it's like a one point two2 billion economic loss. It's terrible. But we have to we can always do better. And listen, that's excellent legislation. It's also like the bare minimum. It's the place that we have to start undergrounding the the the power lines, the power grid to be able to get more customers back online after listen in Miami in a light windstorm, we can lose electricity down here, I always refer to our infrastructure as popsicle sticks and Elmer's glue were built on you know down

here in Miami so that's just the beginning let me ask you though in light of the recent 60 minutes report about what some watchdog groups are calling systemic massive insurance fraud and reducing the basically changing the findings of the adjusters on the ground who are coming up with estimates to fix your constituents homes and then the insurance companies turning around and slashing those as much as 98% in a potentially fraudulent way. What are we doing to ensure that the insurance companies are doing their part here? Well,

listen, there's a lot of greed in the system and we have to do a better job at regulating these guys. And people that do that and commit those crimes, they should go to jail and there should be hard penalties and they should throw the book at them. Because certainly when you pay into the system, you expect that when the bad day when it does finally arrive, that they're going to be there for you. How's your foray into the insurance industry going? And

how do I and how do I get in on that? Yeah. Well, listen, after we passed those laws, what we did is we reformed the whole system two years ago. This insurance industry as a whole is a mess. Rates are skyrocketing. And yes, the only way to drive down rates at the end of the day is to get more capital in the system,

more companies involved. And for a while, I was trying to help in that effort to try to get more companies because that's competition drives prices down. But as I was going through this, this was like an 18-month ordeal experience. I've learned so much about the insurance market. I've learned so much about the industry itself and the greed and all the other issues that we're facing as a result of it. There's some great companies out there, by the way, and then there's some not so great companies. I've decided to run for Chief Financial Officer.

I announced back in March, I was endorsed by the president, President Donald J. Trump, only candidate in the 2026 cycle to be endorsed by him. And so I've passed on that effort and my entire focus is trying to reform the system so we can get these rates back to a manageable way for Floridians out there, they're already hurting. So for clarity, is that an aborted effort that you made into the insurance industry

or is that still in effect? I essentially punted. When the more I studied, the more I wanted to help it. And so the more I want to regulate it. And so the more I want to regulate it. And so I decided instead of being a part of it, I'm going to go ahead and try to be the chief regulator of the insurance industry. It's okay. You could have used the word aborted

if you wanted to. It's not like climate change in the state law. You can actually, you can actually say it, but am I being led to believe that a Florida state legislature has finally found some place that was an even greater cesspool than the Florida legislature. You took one look at the insurance industry and you're like, no, that is, I can,

there's only so much a man can take. I mean, come on now. But let me ask you this though, because you said you reformed the insurance industry, and this will be my last question on this. I wanna talk marijuana, believe you me. But you say you reformed the insurance industry, but what appears as though has happened,

and the 60 Minutes Report investigation bears this out, is that as a result of removing the one-way legal fees, where people, if they win their claims against insurance companies, could get their attorney's fees paid. Instead, what happens is everybody pays their own way, which not only disincentivizes customers from attempting to enforce their insurance policies against their carrier, but it seems to incentivize insurance companies from to screw over their clients basically and their customers and say, what if we just don't pay at all and basically dare them to sue us? We know they're not going to sue us because if the adjuster says we owe them 50

and we give them 10 grand, what are they going to do spend 40 grand trying to sue us for 40 grand and come out net zero? So how does this really help customers and not the insurance companies? And I encourage all these people to contact the CFO's office. Jimmy Petronas has an office specifically set up

as a there's insurance people there that will help these people through the process. And if people are, if these companies are, are greedy and committing fraud, not all companies are equal. Some are better than others, but those that are, that are really screwing the public need to be held accountable

and they need to have their feet be held to the fire at the end of the day. And that's what needs to happen. And yes, are more reforms coming? Absolutely. Are we completely done? No. There's a lot of work to be done, but I'm, I Absolutely. Are we completely done? No. There's a lot of work to be done, but I feel like I'm up for the challenge.

Let's talk marijuana because this is an issue that I'm not a smoker. I've tried it a couple of times. I'm not a big fan. I remember trying it for the first time in Colorado of all places in 2017, I believe was the first time I ever smoked. And I remember turning to my then girlfriend and saying, this will never catch on. Of course, a multi-trillion dollar industry

that I just couldn't find myself interested in as a product. But that aside, as someone who's interested in criminal justice reform and civil rights in smaller government, in the government not infringing upon our ability to partake in a plant that grows out of the earth that is less dangerous than poison ivy It just struck me that this was the right thing to do in an endeavor. I've been involved with from the decriminalization Referendum in the city of Miami Beach dating back to 2010 all the way to present-day You have now jumped into what is now on the ballot as amendment 3

Why have you come out in support of this much to the chagrin of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, no doubt? Listen, it's all about safety at the end of the day. It's about protecting our children. Basically, what you have now, you have a system where we allow medical use of marijuana. There's about 850,000 people that utilize or consume marijuana based on the medical license card.

There's another almost 2 million people that use it by getting their marijuana through other ways. And it's usually illicit markets. The problem with that, those illicit markets, is it could be laced with fentanyl and other dangerous materials. And as a result, people are dying. And so we don't have an access problem.

If you go all the way, when I go back to when I was in high school, college, my friends today, anybody that wants to consume marijuana, if they want it, they can get it. What we're trying to do is provide a safe product that people could use without having to go through the illicit market. And so for me, it's all about safety, access. And then 16,000 Floridians got arrested last year for minor possession of marijuana. I mean, it's ludicrous that we're still talking about that. It seems like everybody agrees that

we should decriminalize marijuana, but it still hasn't happened. 16,000 people arrested last year alone. And of course, living in the state of Florida, I think we can do it the Florida way. We'll put the necessary guardrails up. We could do this the right way. Unlike states that went early, like Colorado and New York, they failed on a couple things, but states like Missouri, Ohio, Arizona have implemented the right regulations and we'll be able to do the same thing here in Florida and so we can control the time, place and manner that people do this. Now some of the critics have said that this is basically the culmination of Matt Ga Gates's vision for the solidification of a monopoly for politically connected growers, and that this may preclude

the opportunity for people to enjoy home grows or home cultivation, as it's called. How do you respond to that? And the idea that you have the husband of the CEO of Trulieve, the largest by a long shot, the largest marijuana supplier in the state of Florida, who was arrested, convicted and sentenced on corruption and bribery related charges, who boasted to undercover FBI agents that he was able to manipulate Florida's medical marijuana law way back when in 2014 along with a state legislator and his brother who owned one of these farms who went on to create this mammoth monopoly in the state of Florida. What do you what do you say to that? And incidentally they donated over 90 million of the approximately 100 million that has gone into supporting this amendment three effort. So what do you say that

this is just another kind of bought and paid for corporate law in the state of Florida? Well, first off, let's talk about the monopoly issue. Then we can go to home grow. But monopoly, think about this. There's 25 medical licensed companies that are allowed to distribute, you know, grow, sell and distribute this product right now. There's another 22 licenses that are on the governor's desk. So there's a total of 47. Just the 25 that are out there right now, not one, 25. There's more medical license holders for marijuana than there are grocery store chains in the state of Florida. There's definitely not a monopoly. We can go up to 47 and the legislature can adjust that

to make it even more. In terms of the home-grow issue, you can only have a single subject related to each amendment, right? And so passing amendment three is the first step for Homegrown. I am all for Homegrown. I've talked to the proponents of Amendment 3. They're all for Homegrown because it's

a complementary type business. They can help each other. But at the end of the day, listen, all that stuff at the beginning, well, if you want to talk about that original implementation law, I was one of five members to vote against that law. I didn't like some of the things about it. But ultimately, after we've seen it grow,

ultimately, the vertical integration system works. The license system works. The medical marijuana system is not going away. We're going to keep that there. This whole amendment's about the 2 million people that use marijuana today, buying their product through illicit markets. We got to make that safe and we got to make sure they don't go to jail for doing

that. I agree with most of what you said. Governor DeSantis to his credit said early on that the regulatory system put in place by Gracias, Matt Gaetz was a cartel, quote unquote. I understand that you did not necessarily agree with that system, but it has kind of created a top heavy. And again, pivot to publics, smart move.

Obviously we have monopolies and other kind of crucial areas of the state and the private sector. I guess my concern here is that we're relying a lot on the Florida legislature to come up with a regulatory scheme here. And what that reminds me of is the way in which they disenfranchise voters with, for example, the restoration of voting rights for felons,

or we're relying on the Florida legislature to do something they've never done, which they always could have done, which is to legalize or decriminalize marijuana in the state. And now we're gonna trust them with you, with all due respect, with being able to effectively regulate marijuana in the state of Florida,

which you made the point earlier has always been our largest cash crop even when it was illegal. Yeah, listen, and ultimately I do have confidence in Ron DeSantis. I have confidence in my fellow conservative members. I think we could do this right away. I don't want public consumption of marijuana. I don't want public smoking. I want zero exceptions when it comes to driving and impaired driving. Listen, we could do all these things. We can do it. And yes, the legislature has full authority to do all these things. And at the end of the day,

I do think that we'll do it right because most of my colleagues, right, they're against this, right? Most of Republican colleagues. And so what's going to happen is we're going to have some of the toughest laws that come out of this new implementing bill that I think you'll see in the country. I think it will go it will far exceed Missouri's and Ohio's and Arizona's but I think those states have done it well and listen the model's there we're going to do it the Florida way and ultimately everybody wins as a result. That's what frightens me doing it the Florida way the the trust us we can we can handle it is a bit petrifying. My producer Roy has one last question before we go. Yeah moving this up to a

federal level the reason why I would like to see a legalization of marijuana is the actual taxing because what's the money the money coming into the coffers of this government that's going to knock down a tremendous amount of this debt. Is that going to work at a state level? Yeah, and that's exactly right. For the people that continue to use the medical marijuana license, they will not have to worry about it. They don't have to pay taxes. But the people who choose to buy it through the regulated market that's recreational, there will be a tax. And the Florida Estimated Conference already came out and said that between 150 and 400 million in year one, that's a lot of resources that will go to the bottom line.

And again, I trust my fellow conservatives and Ron DeSantis to do the right thing. The one thing we do here at Welland Florida is balance the budget. We have $18 billion surplus, and we prioritize spending. And I think that education, law enforcement, all this money can go towards the things we certainly need. But yes, it's a win at the end of the day for the state coffers as well. Absolutely, no, the revenue is a big, big deal. This has always been a Florida industry.

When I traveled to Colorado for a cannabis cup one year, I was so pissed when I saw the amount of money and revenue being generated in Colorado. And I was like, this is ours. These are Florida businesses. This is medicine. This is conventions. This is retail.

This is agriculture. And I was pissed that we had a governor who would go at the time, Rick Scott, who would go to the opening of a Wawa gas station, which I love by the way, but creating 19 new jobs when with the stroke of a pen, he could have created a multi-billion dollar industry overnight in our state with revenue that in my opinion, we are entitled to because these are Florida jobs.

These are Florida industries and this should be Florida money. Before we go, I know you're one man in one vote, but will you commit? Because I get visions. I don't know if you remember the canker scare back in 1995. This was about as big intrusive government as I could imagine when you had big citrus coming up with this bullshit scare about canker and this disease is gonna spread,

and you had government contractors going into people's private properties while they weren't home, and cutting down their citrus trees that had been in the family and on their property for generations, probably longer than many people, many of us have even been alive in the state of Florida. They took a lime tree out of my backyard.

A lime tree, I mean, it was an outrage and it was anti-conservatism and it was anti, it was pro-big government and I have visions of this with the legislature coming in, solidifying the so-called cartel as Ron DeSantis called it for marijuana medical and now hopefully adult use of recreational. I'm concerned that our government is going to

legislate that and maybe come in and basically punish people for doing at home what we're saying truly even these other licensed growers can do. No and I know you keep on bringing up truly but let's talk about truly. That's the way you know they are active in this campaign. They've given more money. They've done a great job overall, but you know, it's like life, you know, some people do the majority of the work. I'm so thankful that a company like that will step up and actually put their money where their mouth is

because at the end of the day, it goes back to access. Everything goes back to access. Homegrown is gonna happen at the end of the day. I'm committed to filing a bill. As a matter of fact, the Republican Party of Florida, my colleagues are all saying that they are in favor of Homegrow and don't vote against for this amendment because they're for Homegrow

and this amendment doesn't include it. You can't have two subjects in a single amendment. That's why it's not in there. But ultimately- It's a silly argument to be fair. I asked the question, but it's a silly argument. Yeah, I'm committed to bringing home grogues to the forefront. And I'm glad that people have stepped up and said, Yes, let's take these 2 million people that access marijuana today.

Let's make sure they buy it from a safe, regulated system. And yes, the state will win. But ultimately, everybody wins decriminalization, all those people that are arrested at the end of the day, that have a hard time finding jobs, getting housing, it stays with you forever for a minor possession of marijuana. It's insane. That needs to go and we need to make the product safe. And we will do this the Florida way, the right way,

and have some trust in the system. There are good guys out there and we're gonna do a good job. Oh, that's BS. No, totally, totally BS. Florida way. So, I listen, and I have to hand it to you, we found a lot of common ground here today, Roy, with Florida Republican State Senator Joe Gruters, who also beat Shep Jones to the program as well. I don't know that there are Democrats who would be so bold and be so brave as Senator Gruters.

Thanks so much. Best of luck to your constituents in your hurricane recovery efforts. And join us back here sometime on Because Miami. Still got more muscular. I have lost 10 pounds. Have you? Yeah, using my Peloton. I've had the Peloton in my house. So my daughter, she wanted me to get a Peloton I did she used it a couple of times endorsement But once she left to college and the Peloton was just sitting there in my office and it wasn't being used

I said, you know what? I got to use this and I have lost 10 to 12 pounds Billy So I started using Peloton as a bike Obviously, that's like what they're known for but recently I discovered all of the other classes that they have they have like a series of weightlifting Classes they have programs which for me the programs is great because I don't have to think about what I'm doing. If not I just go and I pick a class at random and I don't know that I'm actually accomplishing anything. I would like some recommendations on classes because I keep going to the same class.

It's the Grateful Dead class by the way. You do like a four week core program with Emma Lovewell. I would recommend that one. Anyone can do that. Any level starts out easy and then you work your way up, and then there's like a core program two that you can do after a core program one, if you wanna do that.

Yeah, if you graduate. Wait a second, you have to graduate course one to get to course two, the harder course? Well, you can start a course two if you want, but I eased my way in, I did course one first. Then you can do some strength classes with Andy, love a strength class with Andy, he really puts me through it.

I get up and I'm like a sweaty mess and I'm kind of disgusting and I love it. You know anything about Peloton, Stugats? What? Peloton coaches, they walk the walk. Really? Yeah. Do they talk the talk? They have sub three hour marathon runner coaches.

They have military trained athlete coaches, former college basketball player coaches and so many other well rounded coaches on their team. All this experience really shows in their classes. You're never short of challenging. You can do some resistance band classes. I got some resistance bands lately. You're my teacher.

Am I? Yeah. You know, no, I'm not. Well, I just go with the program so that I don't have to think because I don't know. I don't actually know what I'm doing. Anyways, what's the like Mr. Olympia, right? Is that what it's called? Yes.

The one where you go and you're like lifting like shining boulders. Yeah. Hey, we should talk to Magnus again. That's Mr. Olympia. Yeah. Yes. What did I say? Olympus. Did I? I don't know. Anyways, find your push, find your power with Peloton at OnePeloton.com. No. Alex Rodriguez lied to us when we found him last November. That's no crime. Lying on campaign documents is, and so is taking money to file as a no party candidate to rig an election. But Rodriguez is the small fish here. He flipped to testify against the accused mastermind

and money man, former state Senator Frank Artiles, who's accused of recruiting and paying off Rodriguez to be a shill candidate. Prosecutors began their investigation the day after our first report last November detailing the shill scheme. Since then, they've uncovered a money train and a people trail that include connections to Republican operatives and big money donors. That's how it started four years ago in November of 2020. Different Alex Rodriguez, by the way, Roy, than the one that you're probably thinking it is.

And this is how it's going just a few weeks ago. The defendant is guilty of making excessive campaign contributions. Miami-Dade jurors finding former Florida state Senator Frank Artilis guilty of making campaign contributions in excess of $1,000, on conspiring to make campaign contributions over $1,000, and procuring the falsification of a candidate oath form. Prosecutors accuse the Republican of spearheading a scheme made to confuse Florida Senate District 37 voters

with a no-party ghost candidate named Alex Rodriguez in order to siphon votes from a Democratic challenger with the same last name. Rodriguez testified he was offered $25,000 before the election and another $25,000 to be paid out after. So Roy, back in the summer of 2020 when then United States President Donald J. Trump was yelling about election fraud and they're going to steal the election. He was right. It happened right here in Miami-Dade County. And the people who did it were actually Republicans who helped to finance a shill or ghost candidate by the name of Alex Rodriguez

Who was paid the dirt basement to challenge the three? Who is paid to challenge? Democratic incumbent state senator Jose Javier Rodriguez notice The last names there. Yeah, deliberately designed to create confusion He was running against a newcomer, a Republican, Ileana Garcia, who did not mount a very effective campaign, and Alex Rodriguez mounted no campaign whatsoever. There wasn't even a photo of him on the internet, but there were mailers that went out

portraying him as a progressive, espousing democratic values, and he got 6,000 votes, a man who did no campaigning and guess how many votes Jose Javier Rodriguez, the Democratic incumbent lost by to newcomer Republican challenger Ileana Garcia. I'm gonna play the Stugat's game and go with one. 32 votes. What? 32. So you tell me did the 6,000 votes siphoned away by this scheme impact the outcome? Was an election stolen here in Dade County? The jury certainly thought so a few weeks ago when they convicted former state Senator

Frank Artilles of quote unquote masterminding the scheme. But here's the thing, he's no mastermind. And none of this would have happened. This investigation, this conviction without the work of intrepid reporter Glenn Milberg of WPLG Local 10 here who is for those of you not watching on video full intrepid reporter mode in the front seat of her car obviously on assignment. She's on the move. Doing the work, doing the journalism. Not driving. Not driving. Not driving, not using recreational medical marijuana.

But you're gonna need it after this segment. But I will tell you Glenn was knocking on doors of these ghost candidates because that's the thing, Glenn. It wasn't just one in that cycle, was it? It was not. It was not. It was, well, it was two in South Florida, a third in Orlando. I just want to rewind a little bit because I want to make you my agent, because you're

giving me all this credit. There were reporters around the state who had been working on this too. And piece by piece, it all came together. I think what we were able to do that nobody else was able to do, and pretty much by sheer luck, is find them. And they just happened to be there when we showed up.

And that's the thing about television. And the funniest moment. They weren't there when we showed up. Who knows? It's tough to get this. It's tough to get this over audio, but Glennon knocks on the door. There is Alex Rodriguez. Now, of course, nobody knew what he looked like

because this man was running for office, got 6,000 votes and didn't have so much as a photo on the internet or in any of his mailers. And so he lies to Glennon. He's like Alexis Rodriguez here. And he's like, no, ma'am, Alex isn't here. And he's like, oh, like, did you know he was running for state Senate and do you know what?

And he was just pretending like he wasn't A-Rod and he was in fact, A-Rod. It's an amazing piece. He was a Yankee, yes. He was a Yankee, that's true. So it was incredible. But so Glenny, you knocked on the door. So I'm giving you credit because that kind of work

is not the, a lot of, listen, a lot of journalists, we work from home. We're Google reporters. You know, we do, we do the research and we, and we make some phone calls, but you did the shoe leather work and it was extraordinary. So again, as state attorney, Katherine Fernandez Rundle refers to Frank Artilles as the mastermind, anybody who has one conversation with this guy knows that he's not the mastermind of a damn thing.

So who was behind this? Do you think, and did they break any laws? Maybe not, it turns out. That's what's so interesting about Florida campaign finance as a whole is there's so many things you can do to get into loopholes and create these Byzantine political action committees and all kinds of places to store money

that is perfectly legal, which is kind of in every election I've ever seen. I'm trying to think of one I haven't seen. That kind of money is in all the big races. But the word mastermind, I think early on, we thought that was the case because we didn't know how deep and how far the well went while we were reporting piece by piece. So in fact, the first day those stories that you showed, our very first stories, we had no idea Frank Artulas was involved at all. That came later. And the very interesting way that came about was, I want to credit, I think it was a Miami Herald reporter sitting in a bar election night when the returns started coming in and it was clear the scheme had worked. And some guy sitting

there who happened to be Frank Artilas jumped up and out loud said, that was me, I did that, I did that. And that's how he linked himself to the whole investigation. So little by little, as all of this unfolded, we realized, no, he's not the mastermind at all. The mastermind appears from the financial trail to go right up to FP&L's parent company, NextEra Energy. As soon as those links were revealed, and again, the reporters who do print work around the state really get credit for uncovering a lot of that, the then head of FP&L, Eric Szilagyi, very well politically connected and likely still is, he resigned. Why did he resign? I don't know.

Ask them. But the timing of that shows that there, where there's smoke, there's fire. So you ask, well, why on earth would FPNL or Next Energy get involved to the tunes of hundreds of thousands of dollars to get rid of a candidate? Well, because Jose Javier Rodriguez, the incumbent Democrat who lost, was arguably the most vocal climate change resiliency, sea level rise environmental advocate at the time in the state Senate, putting forth all kinds of ideas that people who get energy other ways and make money as a energy monopoly may not have liked. So get rid of him was the mandate. Few things to unpack there first, Glenn is right. You know,

the definition of money laundering is to effectively conceal or disguise the origin or nature of money. So you can't really trace back what the original source was. And these political committees, it's almost, I would say, legalized money laundering because they're able to move it around and you're able to conceal the origins and the source of it totally legally. Because of course, the people who make the laws, Roy, are the people who benefit, of course, from these campaign finance schemes. And sometimes break them. And sometimes break them. But who's going to enforce that? Catherine Fernandez-Rundle? Come now.

No. Come now, Roy. And here's the thing, Roy threw his hands up in the air, Glenna, your anecdote about Frank Artilles shooting his mouth off at a bar on election night. But let me tell you something. This is all so Florida. So Frank Artilles, he was involved in the PAC,

Veterans for Conservative Principles. He paid former Hooters model and a former Playboy model a couple grand each as consultants for this Veterans for Conservative Principles and went out partying with them, allegedly. He also eventually resigned, resigned as a Florida, Republican Florida State Senator, Roy, when he was having drinks at the Governor's Club

in Tallahassee with some black lawmakers and told them he dropped the N-bomb is what he did. That's a conservative principle right there. He dropped the N-bomb and was forced to resign from office. So this is a guy who apparently goes out to bars, shoots his mouth off. And this is what I'm saying. He's not a mastermind of anything.

And let me add to the fun of the previous Hooters related story is that some of those young women involved were posting on social media of the benefit and the largesse they were receiving from this person. So the hashtag thanks Frank kind of thing. So if you look up hashtag thanks Frank, you may find some of those postings unless you know by now they're all taken down but. You've got Roy's new t-shirt there hashtag thanks Frank. I'll get that tattooed on my neck. Absolutely. Glenna, so I guess the question is what now?

I understand people are being prosecuted I think in central Florida as well related to this scheme. Is this the end of the road though? Does the buck stop in the middle here? Is no one else going, other than of course, the FP&L CEO who obviously dove off with a golden parachute. Is there any gonna be anybody else held accountable

for what Donald Trump rightfully would call a stolen election? That's such a great question. And I have no idea. And here's why is because a lot of well, the reason Frank Artilis was prosecuted wasn't because of finding a candidate to to fake. It was because of the money trail they were about to find. So the money trail, the illegal money trail is what hung him up. The rest of the money trail, I don't know if there's more, but if there is no other

money illegalities, unless they find something else, no, everybody will walk. And I'm not going to name names and give the benefit of the doubt, but there are certain other middlemen who kind of played pawnbroker who are gloating over the fact that they've gotten away with this. They were all interviewed by Kathy Rundle's office, I don't know about all, but most of them were, at least on the list to be deposed. But yeah, but they're high-fiving each other that they walk away scot-free to potentially be doing it right now as long as nobody gives bribes

or accepts illegal money. So you know, if in central Florida, I don't know the details of the central Florida case, but I do know that someone pretty high up actually pleaded guilty and is convicted for that. Will they go after more and do that work and find that money? If I were a prosecutor with not 1,000 things on my caseload, I might take a stab at that. I don't know.

Follow the money. Follow the money. Glennon Milberg, find her at local10.com. Also, every Sunday morning this week in South Florida, also WPLG or localten.com. Keep up the great work. I look forward to whatever story you're working on from your car today.

Thanks, Glenna. Thank you. The Dan Levitard Show with Stu Gatz is sponsored by BetterHelp. What's something that scares you? Halloween is all about having fun with what scares us. But what about those fears that don't show up and cost costume? Like fear of failure, rejection, or change. Therapy can be a powerful tool for facing fears that we just can't laugh off. It helps us build positive coping

skills, set boundaries, and become the best versions of ourselves. It's not just for those who've experienced trauma. Sometimes the scariest thing is holding ourselves back by avoiding what we're really afraid of. So this Halloween, why not think about facing your fears? Not the ones dressed as monsters, but the ones that keep you from moving forward. Therapy might be just the place to start. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist

and switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. Overcome your fears with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash DLB today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, h-e-l-p dot com slash DLB. The Dan LeBotard show with StuGots is sponsored by BetterHelp. What's something that scares you? Halloween is all about having fun with what scares us. But what about those fears that don't show up in costume? Like fear of failure, rejection, or change. Therapy can be a powerful tool for facing fears

that we just can't laugh off. It helps us build positive coping skills, set boundaries, and become the best versions of ourselves. It's not just for those who've experienced trauma. Sometimes the scariest thing is holding ourselves back by avoiding what we're really afraid of. So this Halloween, why not think about facing your fears? Not the ones dressed as monsters, but the ones that keep you from moving forward. Therapy might be just the place to start. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be

convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. Overcome your fears with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash DLB today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash D-L-B. If you're in Miami this weekend or Coral Gables, home to the University of Miami Hurricanes, we are having a free event at the Books and Bookstore at 265 Aragon Avenue to celebrate the release of Jim DeFede, our friend, great local journalist down here for CBS Now, formerly Miami Herald and Miami New Times. His new book is called The Willie and Sal Chronicles,

Miami's Cocaine Cowboys. These are the original stories that inspired our Netflix documentary mini series, Cocaine Cowboys, the Kings of Miami, about Willie Falcone and Sal Magluta, a kind of multi-generational, like Godfather-esque Cuban crime family story, some of the biggest cocaine traffickers in the history of Miami.

Without this journalism, we never would have been able to make that documentary, and Jim played a big role in that. Come out, books and books, Saturday at 6 p.m. This event, Roy, is kind of a hurricanes pregame from six to seven, and then we'll go somewhere and watch the Canes. And also, our new documentary, Raconteur Pop Doc, Men of War,

which premiered to amazing reviews, actually some of the best of our career, somehow, reviews out of the Toronto Film Festival in September. It is a batshit tale of Florida fuckery about a former Green Beret who planned an epic fail coup of Venezuela to overthrow Nicolas Maduro from a Miami we work right here

of course because hashtag because Miami. Anyway the press called it Bay of Piglets it screens at the Miami Film Festival gems series on Friday November 1st at 7 p.m. at the Regal Lincoln Road. Go to MiamiFilmFestival.com. Also at the Key West Film Festival,

which is an amazing, amazing film festival. It's gonna be screening there November 16th. Happy birthday to somebody. Jason. Key West, is it Jason's? It's Jason's birthday. Happy birthday, Jason. November 16th, you'll be my guest at the Key West Film. Is it Jason's? Happy birthday Jason. November 16th you'll be my

guest at the Key West Film Festival. I got you free tickets to see Men of War. Roy, what do you got? Alright, we got the amendments. We're going to go over this right quickly. We have four from the Florida legislature and we have two ballot initiatives. We're going to start with the first one. Yes, there are six potential Florida State constitutional amendments on the ballot for November Numero uno. All right, we got a partisan election of members of district school boards That is from the Florida House and Senate vote. No, just don't do it. This is a bipartisan

Piece of shit. So just don't it's there's no reason for it Local races are supposed to be and are traditionally here in Florida partisan. I think we screwed up majorly by passing a state constitutional amendment that not only required a sheriff's race in every single county, but demanded that it be partisan. I think we should keep partisan politics out of as much of our campaigns and political races as possible. And that certainly includes the school board.

All right, also coming from the state, the right to fish and hunt. No, we already have that right. It's totally redundant, and there's a lot of hunters, by the way, who also think that it's stupid and there's just no need for it. It just creates, instead of clarity, it just creates a lot of questions and a lot of uncertainty that is just not worth it. It just creates, instead of clarity, it just creates a lot of questions and a lot

of uncertainty that is just not worth it. So when in doubt, don't amend the state constitution if you don't have to. And this is one of those cases where it's just a bridge too far. No, vote no on amendment two. All right, we got a ballot initiative from Smart in C, Florida. This is adult personal use of marijuana. This is something I've always traditionally supported as we talked about with the state senator Joe Gruters. This was a little bit tougher for me because it's kind of like some of the worst people

in the world are on both sides of this issue. And if you're like, oh, well, DeSantis is against it, so it must be good. It's like, well, look who's for it. And the truth is, everybody's for it. It is a bipartisan amendment. It is conservative. It is libertarian. It is a bipartisan amendment. It is conservative. It is libertarian. It is liberal.

It's kind of everything you'd want it to be. And vote yes on Florida Amendment 3. Amendment 4 is a ballot initiative. I'm sorry, I don't want to seem like I'm being hypocritical as I just said, don't amend the Constitution if you don't have to, right? I just said that. When in doubt, don't.

Here's the thing. There's no doubt here. There's no doubt. The Florida legislature has failed to take action on the legalization or at least decriminalization of recreational and medical marijuana we needed a constitutional amendment just to legalize medical marijuana so people could get medicine that's less toxic than some of the shit you get at every single corner pharmacy in this state so this is actually an essential amendment for the state constitution.

Yes on three. All right. So amendment four is a ballot initiative from Floridians, protecting freedom incorporated. This is the amendment to limit government interference with abortion. That's what it is. People call it the abortion amendment, but that's really what it is. It's in the title. It limits government interference with abortion. Okay, it's not pro-abortion, taxpayers won't be funding abortions, it's nothing like that. It just says government cannot intervene, cannot usurp the authority of healthcare providers

to ensure that they can protect the life and safety and health of their patients. Vote yes on Florida amendment 4. Amendment 5 is from the state. This one is annual adjustments to the value of certain homestead exemptions. Vote yes if you're a homeowner and vote no if you're a renter. That, that, see you know. So what, I mean, I'm giving recommendations here. I'm voting no. How are you voting, Roy? I'm voting yes.

I own my house. I don't. So what I'm saying is, Florida Constitutional Amendment 5, if you are a homeowner, you'll want to vote yes. And if you are not a homeowner, if you're a renter, you'll want to vote no. Now that said, if you own a second home or an investment property or an Airbnb

or something that you rent out or make money on, your taxes are probably going to go up over there on that one. That's the problem. That's why it's like a tariff. That expense has to be passed along to the end user. In this case, I'm saying a renter or a business, they'll have to pay more. So everybody else's taxes are going to go up. But if you're a homeowner on the one property that you take your homestead exemption on, you might get a little bit of a break. Why couldn't they separate that out? Because fuck you, that's why.

Or fuck me, really. That's why. Fuck everybody else, except for you rich property owners, Roy. You think I'm rich? It's like, Jesus Christ. Please. Last and certainly least.

All right, amendment six. This one is coming from the House as well. Repeal of public campaign financing requirement. No, just no. This is a proposal that would take away a provision in the state constitution. That's already in the state constitution, which requires public financing for campaigns

of candidates for elective statewide office who agree to certain campaign spending limits. This is supposed to increase the possible stable of candidates who will enter politics and run for office instead of just those who are financed by special interests and lobbyists and big business. So it's already in the Constitution. Don't repeal something that's already in there. We did the right thing the first time. Leave it be, vote no on Florida Amendment 6.

So that is a one through six. That is a no, no, yes, yes on five. Yes, if you're a homeowner, no, if you're not. And six, no. Cocaine? Damn right, that's why there's all this cocaine piled up on here. No, I'm sorry, these are fake cobwebs. I thought this was Stu Gottz's secret stash here getting high in his own supply, but let's beat Louisville, huh? Yeah. Cocaines.

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Fewer cows and carbs than premium regular beer. The Dan Levitard Show with Stu gots is sponsored by BetterHelp. What's something that scares you? Halloween is all about having fun with what scares us. But what about those fears that don't show up in costume, like fear of failure, rejection or change? Therapy can be a powerful tool for facing fears that we just can't laugh off. It helps us build positive coping skills,

set boundaries, and become the best versions of ourselves. It's not just for those who've experienced trauma. Sometimes the scariest thing is holding ourselves back by avoiding what we're really afraid of. So this Halloween, why not think about facing your fears? Not the ones dressed as monsters, but the ones that keep you from moving forward. Therapy might be just the place to start. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. Overcome your fears with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash DLB today to get

10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash D-L-B.