Competitive in the Convention Business industry. In florida, they hate little marco rubio so much, he couldnt be elected dog catcher. The insults fly as gop candidates get down and dirty. Will it attract or turnoff voters . We will take it to the round table. D and elevate the conversation as well. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. So great to have you aboard today. And i i glad you are back on board after your various assignments. President ial race we know is on your mind and on ours as wel well get to it. But first an important question on the primary ballot on miami beach. And its a questionf Development Versus quality of life and that should resonate all th way from Coral Springs to key west. Should the city of miami beach lease a parking lot to a developer to build a 28 stoary hotel there right next to the Convention Center. Portman holdings of atlanta wants to build it with 400 million of its own money. Million in rent in the early years, moror down the road. And its a very long road. 99 years. Kristen Rosen Gonzalez is a miami beach city commissioner. She is against the hotel. She says its too big, out of scale and a bad deal. Dan gelber say long time resident of miami beach who has also represented the city, state house and in the senate. He is a lawyer in private practice. Good morning. And thank you for being here. Great to you havav both come in. Lets begin with the proside and dan gelber what is the best reason to build a hotel this big on that site next to the cocoention center . Well, miami has struggled with its Current Convention center for decades. And the problem is it attracts these trade shows. So every day when there is a trade show there and its just a dollarified biz ar, 6,000 cars come into you are o city. If can change the con figure raise of the Convention Sr nferences, not just trade shows, you can reduce the traffic two or three thousand. If you look at this project what it is also going t do, because you need a Convention Center hotel next to it for it to really work, its going to create a huge five or six acre park where that ugly parking lot right now. On the west side. The west side. So its going to be its the best project we could hope for. And by the way, i have im not getting paid by anybody. Im justere cuz im interested in this. And i cant stand the lies going on about this thing. Including the stuff youre getting in the phone, robo calls. Well get to that presently. Andndou know, you brought up traffic right off the bad. I bat, i know commissioner gonzalez there, traffic is at the very top of the con list in the list of pros and cons. Explain why traffic despite what dan was talking about that it might reduce traffic, describe why that is the top of the opposition right now. Well, l think people are around the city the other day as part of the chamber. I heard a doctor say that it took h h ho minutes to go six blocks to get to mount s nai to perform an emergency procedure. Were in an emergency situation right now. The data and traffic study commissioned for this project is flawed. As you can see aton road d 17 street already is a failed intersection. And the traffic study is assuming that every guest that comes to the hotel is only going to take one trip. We know people come and they will stay at the hotel and they will walk around but theyre also going to travel tocean drive, bell harbor, visit winwood so it doesntake into account uber, lift, the fact that people are only going to stay at the hotelment and also the fact that we have consumer trade shows and that de fines miami beach. The auto show, the jewelry show. Art basal. Its going to affect dan gelber let me bring that up. For 13 years art basal has been at the Miami Beach Convention a lot of other wonderful people in the community. Mr. Braman says now it without a Convention Center hotel. But art basal has been there for 13 successful years without a hotel. So i mean how legal real is had . I think by the way, the reason Norman Braman support thisis project is i think he like i believe that it is a smart project. There is no use of city money for the hotel at all which is something that folks against it have been saying is just untrue. But the reason why it makes a lot of sense and i want to against traffic. Study. Traffic studies said what you would think common sense would tell you which is when you have a show that only attracts local people like a one of those furniture show there, home eck pos or something, youre gng to get and its true, we get 6,000 people making hese trips back and forth. Of,000 cars. By car. An when you have a convention all thesese auricle, all these other tech conferences want to come here but they wont because we dont have this hotel, you will have people coming in for three or four days. You might have an uber trip or two but what youre not going to have are people coming in and leaving every single day, not spending a dime here, not spending a night here, just using our roads. And so this traffic study whi is not flawed, its the only study that has been done, says it will reduce the number of cars substantially when you change the charactererf the Convention Center which by the way right now, 90 of what is in that Convention Center are trade shows. Theyre not conferences. There were 55, i believe, trade shows, consumer shows in the last year or so. And five big conventions. And im told that the plan i to simply reverse that. To have 25 or 30onventions and maybe 20, 25 trade shows. Can i just ask, this will sound like air contrarian question and i done mean it to be this way. You can be contrarian. And visiters bureau bill tal bert who is very much supportive of this project puts out a weekly newsletter that i read faithfully and hes always touting the astronomical numbers, 90 occupancy rate on the beach, people coming in and the percentages are going up. Why do we need Convention Business on miami beach. By the way, the problem we have right now is we have a Convention Center does the trafficking there is no question about that. We have this huge, you know, monolith in the middle of our city that attracts the worst kind of shows. So were not going to get rid of the whole thing. What they want to do is make it something thats thoughtful. And the reason why this deal i so good, and lets deal with what i think the two things that people want to know about traffic and cost, lets deal with cost. This is a, the hotel is a two acre site. And its a 400 Million Dollar project and not one penny is am coulding from the city. This is not a citysupported hotel. Its not subsidized. By the way, ive gotten in the mail now in robo calls a new 400 million taxpayer dollars. Thats not true. And shes not responsible. I know shes not. Can i ask you some of these questions. First of all you are assuming miami beach is paying no subsidy. This say land grab for taxpayer dollars. If you think about this, at the end of the day, were giving portman this site and were giving in 2013 he was getting this site at a cost of 138,000 per hotel room. Now were giving it to him at 95,000 dollars. That was a much bigger problem. That was a different deal, that had resarybltion the city was giving away 50 acres of land at that time and now theyre giving two acres. And by the way, lets be very clear. Look, you are an elected commissionerment people hope that you are going to do the research and be direct with them. Nonody can say that a new hoelt, we dont need costing, 400 million in taxes. Thats just a lie. This might be a good point for me to just tell everybody that we did invite commissioners who were very supportive of this and not one a dreed to come in. This has become a really sort im not going to get ugly. You have the right to your opinion. Why are you assuming that is me. Why are you. I have nothing to do with that. Im advocating for the people. I think i represent a silent majority right now an were very frustrated. We cant get around theity. I think glenna viet in terms of the fact that we dont necessarily want to be de fined as a major Convention Center city. We are not orlando or house thon. These are the places that bill tal bert keeps referring to. It is a huge. Kristen, first of all, im not saying this is you. But what i am saying is that by the way, this is some outside group is el iting the citizens of the city that it will cost them 400 million, and you as a commissioner know that is not true. You want to at least have the courage to say to people, that happens to not be true. That is not something you should be agreeing to, do you agree. Do you know what it will cost us. It will cost us quality of life, it will cost our ability to get around, an 800 room tower on 17th street which already failed, its way too narrow. The only traffic study, and by the way, to be very clear, i voted for you. When you were running, by the way, you said you were for this, okay. And now, and that deal was done. It was in december. You posted it on your facebook page, you liked it. And now somne has whispered in your ear and you changed your mind. No one whispered in my ear, i became educated and didnt understand all the numbers involved in this project, how out of scale this tower was. What numbers what. Let me flame the question this way. What does miami beach and its residents get out of this . What is the benefit . And as someone who oppose this project, can you speak to what are benefits. Well, ihink 10 to 20 years down the road we are going to begin to seeignificant financial benefits for. This but for the next ten years while we have no mass transity the first time well see any revenue at all i think is 2022. And that will be about 3 Million Dollars and that will be divided over education and some other benefits but the majority of these tax dollars have to be spent on Capital Improvement so while tour emand different, and the Convention Center and lincoln road district will benefit from this, our residents and people in north and south beach really are not going to benefit that much. Can i just i think we should point out that the least deal, and again, the question on the ballot is not do you want the hotel. Whether the city, its whether the city should lease two and a half acres of land where the hotel would be. Let me respond t this. Okay. Let me tell you. We need to go to a commercial right now. And were going to do that and pick up exactly where we left stay with us. Tt2watu sd bt q pl tt2watu sd a q3\ tt2watu sd bm q8w tt4watu sd dztq gxp tt4watu sd entq 7\0 tt4watu sd gzt h tt4watu sd hnt u tt4watu sd iztq t well, while you were away, the debate went on. Miami beach imhitioner dan gelber, former state senator, former house member. We should point out that the deal between the city of miami and Portman Holdings calls for the city to get 74 Million Dollars over 99 years. And maybe dan gelber that is why on the vote yes prosures, it says here, the average payment to the city would be 24. 6 million in lease andax payments, but in fact thats an average over 99 years. Theres no guarantee, no guarantee it is going to be 24. 6 million. Its a fair question. Les go over the finances. Lot thatight now gives the city of miami beach 300,000 a year. Now were go to lease it to rtland which is an architect and developer, very reputable. Very good person, has done a very good job at other places. A good buy. And there is no gambling in this facilities. He has already agrgrd to that and didnt want it. So the next thing that happens is werereiving up this parking lot that right now generates 300,000 and were leasing to him this same little spot that really serves only theurpose of cars right now. And the first year hes there, we believe that proforma rent will be about 400,000. But what also happens at that point is that now you have all the tax money, all the property tax money, all those things which come directly to the beach. Its first year, we get 4. 8 million. The firs year comes in. A few years later in 2021. Its 10 million, then 12 million and all that, let me finish, please, all that money is going to education enhance thes, flood mit gaition and traffic mit occupancy . These are filled occupants. The rent is notn there say base rent. Those numbers. By the way, a dollar, and this is what really, bothered me, kristen about the opponent. Its easy to dem agog issues. Miami beach has a great tradition of dem going ree and anonymous mailers and robo calls but people need to knowhehe strength of this. If you want to change your machine, you have a right. But you dont have a right to change the facts. This is not a deal that is going to cost miami voters any single dollar. I think we established that. I dont know. Lets give the commissioner a chance to respond here. I know you have lots to say. Well, this 4. 8 million there is the assumption that this is in some way going to benefit the residents of miami beach. But in reality its really going to benefit tour im. Because a lot of those dollars are committed and allocated to tourism and Capitol Improvement projects within the Convention Center lincoln rose district. I dont see how that is going to benefit me or you. Into education. If you look at our budget, its really insignificant. Loaded. Were not going to be able to see these large payments toward flooding and education so mayb 70 years old. So maybe your daughter who is now ten, will begin to benefit when shes 80 from some of these improvovents in this 99 year lease. Shes 17. So she will be 87 by then. Commissioner, if i can, one of the, ihink the serious and legitimate criticisms of the hotel is its on two and a half acres, but it is 28 stories high, 800 rooms, as a friend of mine in the Hotel Business has pointed out, it is twice, it is the same width as the fountain blue and twice as high on a much smaller lot. Let me explain. First of all, there are 19 buildings bigger and taller than this one. But not in the middle of the it a tie, two bloks east of it is taller. People have spread so much things. There are 19 buildings in little miami beach bigger than this building. The reason why they made it tall and thin had to be enough to at least take care of the Convention Center needs. So 800 rooms is aboutight. By the way, its with more than twice as big in terms of rooms. It is not this huge thing that is going to dominate. The reason its on two acres and it is a small and tall and thin building, the reason its like that, is for very simple reasons. We needed to have a hotel next to the Convention Center. And thi project is going to create an entire parking lot a six acre park, a scrupted park that i think the miami beach residents are going to love. And when you supported it, by the way, the tell plate of this project was set. Ere was nothing changed. The reason they did this was because the folks were putting the project together said we dont want to give away city land, and theyre not. We dont want to give control of a lot of it to a developer, and they want to give it a small area, let them built up, by a street that is abutted by a a steres and Government Centers so its not near residents. And its tbing to reduce probably 2 to 3,000 cars a dayp coming into the beach once it becomes a conference. And you dont believe thats the case,ight . Before i got elected i didnt realize how d dperate the residents of miami beach were in terms of traffic. I gecalls and emails all day long from residents who dont knowhat to do any more. And i dont think that putting this 800 room hotel on 17th street which is way too narrow is the answer. And now that i understand better, and also, this developer is actually going to be con pete all competing with the Convention Center because now that i studied the deal and look at i more, there say 100,000 square feet of Convention Center ace wiwiin this hotel. So it will be two Convention Centers competing at the same time. And this isnt supposed to cause any traffic . On the ballot on march 60 for this to be a positive vote. In other words, when its. Right. High threshhold and there might be half or more of these voters who say yes, but it wont meet the 60 . So what happens, myy question s what happens and maybe this goes to one of the commissioners who are supporting this who arent here to talk about that, but what happens if it fails the 60 . And this deal which sounds like ithas a very positive spin in a lot of ways, does not get done. Is there a chance that the commissioners will say look, we haha a 50 majority. We couldnt do this. Were going to do it this way. And maybe it will be something that will cost t residents of miami beach. Is that possible . Not only is it possible, other Convention Centers across the countryhat arent in tear1 communities like miami beach, their cities paid for the hotel. They give out 30, 40, 50 million and you hear these stories about themem and some of them are tanking. Because obviously the market wouldnt support it it is a loss leader for the city. Willing to shell out 400 millionto build on this very small plot of land, give us money, by the way, make a 300,000 Revenue Generation into a a huge amount of money for education, for flood mit gaition and traffic mit gaition, all that is going to happen and well have a beautiful park. In about 10 seconds. And by the way. Were miami beach, well be able to attract other developers. Well structure a better deal, a place the hotel in a better place, well get more than one bidder, for this deal we only had one bidder, hopefulul well bid it out. In 2024 we have ram and this time we is have a no name architect designing the building. Miami beach, we can do this bet are and i know on march 159 youll make the right choises and vote no. That is going to be the final word. Final word, thank you both for coming in. Great discussion. Love it when you are a contrarian. I thought. Well then, after the break, we are taking this all to the please do stick around. Before we get to the round table some breaks news, sad news to tell but right now. Former first Lady Nancy Reagan has died. The forr first lady was living in belair. You may know sheas been in ill health in recent years. That certainly has been documented. And this morning her family is confirming to several news outlets that she has passed a a that was video of a state a former florida or current florida senator marco rubio who was invited by nancy reagan to speak at the r agan library about what four years ago. And s stumbled a little bit as they entered. He caught her. Was a nice moment. And he was well we mourn the passing today of nancy reaga yeah. So this week we had a supertuesdayment we had a semisupersaturday, we had a debate that was r rated and renewed screut nie of the president s Upcoming Trip to cuba. So lets take it all to the round table. We have got a good one for you today, justin sappy say Fort Lauderdale attorney, his website he created is the goto source for political news for people like us. He was once Communications Welcome back to marlon hill. He hosts a radio talk program. And also glad to welcome back the one and only patricia mezai, lead political reporter for the miami herald. She has been on the roads coveng all the candidates in the campaigns. Good to see you, patty. We waved at a Bernie Sanders events somewhere. Yeah. In ray press gagelk glenna. We have had some fun. Its been a really interesting campaign. Patty, lets begin with you. And on i think the one of the most amazing weeks in president i politics that i can remember, where the formerstandard bearer for one party, in this case mitt romney takes out and delivers a scathing attack on the current standard bearer donald trump. I mean, nothing like this, i can remember, at all, except maybe if you go back to Barry Goldwater in 1964 and knellson you werent even alive then. I wasnt going to brg that up, but yeah. When you heard. It was unprecedented. Nominee. Basically taking down the partys presump tiff next nominee and then he getsoined by the previous nominee john mccain who issued a statent basically saying i agree with mitt romney. And it sun heard of. And yet the response from trump at that debate d at his rally that day was very trumpian which is now a new adjective. Hashtag. He didnt really respond on the facts or on the substance ofthe attack. He even called it irrelevant. He basically said thisuy is a loser which is a classic kind of trump putdown of someone, who begged for my endorsement four years ago. And who would dropped to his knees to do whatever i would have said to do. We have the sound bite ii think cu eed up and if we do, can listen to it if you show missed. Donald trump say phoney, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from trump university. Hes playing the members of the American Public for suckers. He gets a free ride to the white house and all we get is a lousy hat. M itt is a failed candidate. He failed. He failed horribly. He was begging for my endorsement. I could have said mitt, drop to your knees, he would have dropped to his knees. No, no, justin, why mitt romney . I will tell you, i had a chance to cover the night he lost. We were ins about ton, and he clearly said this is the end of my political career. Acted on that. Why him . And is that effective . Well,l, done think it was effective. I think donald trump is catching fire and catching momentum in the Republican Party because hes not part of the establishment. Hes not one of the inside players. And every time someone from the establishmentttacks donald reason why Republican Voters are supporting him. And its the same thing with Bernie Sanders on the democraticside. Hillary clinton is the establishment candidate over there. There is something going on in american politics right now. So i dont think the romney attack is going to beffective, i really dont. Not even as fiskt as a kkk nondenial. But you know what is interesting, can i just take at over the Marco Rubio Campaign for a moment, as we slide into the florida campaign, marco rubio has been racking up endorsement after endorsement of all of the Party Leaders in the establishment. And on any given year that would make a voter sayay wow, lets take another look at marco rubio. But this year, marlon, thats almost not such a good thing. No, and hes not even getting any endorsement from the Current Governor or a former governor, jeb bush, so thats very interesting to me as well. But no, with the passing of nancy reagan, maybe we have seen the footage there with him, with ncy reagan, he may be able to use that as som emotional uplift. Has to win florida. Well, and patty, i mean that is really the crucial question now for marco rubio. How he cant really go forward, can he, if he doesnt win florida march 15th and the 99 delegates, winner take all. And hes basically guaranteed a victory because i think they know you cant in general you cant lose your home state. Guaranteed by whom . He has said we will win florida, inoo Uncertain Terms period, full stop, we will win. I mean if he doesnt win, i think we all know that there is really no way to move forward and the flip side of that is if trump wins, floridand ohio or florida or ohio, he is really going to be, you know, almost uncatchable at that point. Well, and there is, justin, a think a fascinating kind of side light here because he is just su pesh at catching all the media, free media, donald trump has not but i saw on friday, he is spending 2 millionn tv time in florida because he is determined to beat marco rubio. Right. I mean as patty said. Marco rubio loses florida, thatsrobably going to be the end of his campaign. Its hard to sew howowe goes forward because he has only won one state. And florida is winner take all for the delegates. 99 delegates become the nominee of the Republican Party. Whoever wins florida, secretary place gets you no delegates whatsoever. So number one means enough to donald trump is he willing to spend money which he hasnt done inner states. That turnout was 41 in the last president ial primary. The energy right now is with the trumpians as you want to say, patty. They have the ng with regards to folks coming out, supportg him. It is going to very tough for rubio to win florida, in my opinion. Hes brought in a lot of peopleo the Republican Party. There is to doubt about that. Was interesting is you cant the protrump or also the antitrump that are kind of both driving this high turnout on the republican side and looking down through the e neral election, the democrats might have an issue there. I mean will Hillary Clinton iff shes the nominee be able to drive out the high turnout she might need against unusual candidates who could draw yims. Also i saw our friendana and a half aro, wonderful miamian who is commentator on cnn and on this week with george stephanopoulos. She pointed out about an hour ago that ted cruz is opening ten Campaign Offices in florida or has opened them. And he doesnt expect to win but he is also determined to deny marco rubio the victory. And that could be an effective strategy for ted cruz. Ted cruz h done very well in other states. Hes beaten donald trump or co in second place. There san element of the Republican Party that is with ted cruz. And thats going to make it much more difficult for rubio to win the state. Sort of kind of. Absolutely. As a former Communications Director for jeb bush, does he plan an endorsement. Does he plan a athing . You know, i think were going to have to wait and see what he decides to do obviously governor bush and marco rubio said during thth campaign, they each have a lot of Mutual Respect for each other. It is personal when you lose a president ial campaign, he is going to have to make that decision and if he does, im sure well be hear about it in the next two days. Well, it is an endorsement. Nice try. Nicely done, jeff. That was pretty that was pretty slick. And speaking of endorsements, patty. We saw what, three weeks ago, vernor rick scott wrote a glowing op ed in u. S. A. Today about donald trump saying a great businessman can be a great government leader. Hey, look at me. Was the implied message there. But he has decided, scott has endorse before the primary. Why is that . Well, he said that its because he remembersrs kind of what it feels like to i mean he didnt put it i this many words but he remembers being the outsider coming in and having the political establishment lined up against you and that he trusts the voters what he said on his Facebook Post announcing make the right decision. Like i said, he already kind of told people where he is. With that u. S. A. Today calm. But we really havent seen governor endorsements help much in this campaign. The rubio had the endorsement of the canvas governor. He came in third. Trump had the endorsement of the main governor, he came in second. So really, is this the year where endorsements matter. You know, this might be the time where we realize tt superpac money doesnt win you campaigns and neither do endorsement down is up and up is down. Quick break when we come right well be back if youre going to say better ingredients. Better pizza. You betttt deliver. Which is why im introducing our new papas quality guarantee ve your pizza, or get another one, absolutely free. Get any large pizza up to 5toppings for just 9. 99. Online only. At papajohns. C donkey sound elephant sound theres a big difference between making noise, tapping sound and making sense. elephant sound donkey sound when it comes to Social Security, we need more than lip service. Our next president needs a real plan to keep Social Security strong. elephant noise hey candidates. Enough talk. A major Public Traffic s4udy has confirmed our worst fears. Every time miami beach holds a local trade or consumer show instead of a flyin convention, an additional 3,200 vehicles come barreling into town. Creating a mess on our roads. But independent experts say a new Convention Center hotel could fix this. So people could walk not drive to conventions. On march 15th, vote yes for a world class Covention Center we e glad to have you with us live in our studio this morning. Membersp of our rocking round table, i have marlon hill, patty from the miami herald. Hillary clinton won a very easy victory in the primary yesterday, louisiana, but Bernie Sanders w w raised ho Million Dollars in february, so he will keep going, he won nebraska and delegate camp, this is going to go on. It looks like it is. I think if he doesnt win and win by large mgins, the delegate situation is just going to get wider. And so this is always what we grapple with trying to expla this complicated system to people without say well, but hes winning. I dont understand why you arent saying that he is ahead. Its because the delegates, she just won louisiana last night. And got a h he number of delegates out of this because of that huge margin. Well, she has, for what its worth, 11,014 delegates, she is going to have enough delegates by t t time they get to the convention, marlon. She, it apprs almost inevitable she will be the nominee. Tvs are superdelegate so they that supersizes her f winning streak. And that will hold. Which i think is interesting, though. So the Republican Party, we dont have this massive number of superdelegates. The Democratic Party has this massive number of superdelegates and these are delegates that are these are Party Establishment type people that have a chance to swing the nomination one way or another. So i think its really remarkable that the Democratic Party has a somewhat anandemocratic thod of picking their nominee with this massive amount of establishme based delegates that can swing the nomination. If i were a Berdie Sanders supporter on the Democratic Party i would be frustrated with the nomination process. They could lose, those superdelegates could lose move to sanders. I think it would be surprising if you had two candidates and one racked up the biggest number of pledged delegates and regular delegates and the superdelegates are like were not letting this happen. They could do that. They could. There is thog that binds them to vote for Bernie Sanders if he were to start winning more delegates. What is so interesting is who is voting for Bernie Sanders, he is getting these numbers based on largely people of not color, white people, and young people. I think thats a. Looking at the democrat demographic, even whe he loses he wins am those categories. There say revolution on both sides in the party in america right now with regards to folks not happy with the institutional establishment per se. I think were going to continue to see that. And ameri is i much different multicultural place than we were. It sure is. Which is why its so unusual see numbers like that. Sure. All right, well, if we can, lets kind of move the nversation on to president obama and cuba, justin this week you saw we all saw that secretary of state john kerry cancelled a trip this upcoming week touba. And i had it from some very good sources the reason he did is because the cuban government refused to say president obama when he comes can speak to this, this, that dissident and kerry said im not going. And then they tapered it over and it got spun. Mimey herald has a very strong editorial that says if mr. Obama cant speak to the dissidents he wants to speak to, he shouldnt go. Im very passionate about this issue. And i f fl that president obama cannot allow himself to be used as a propaganda tool of the cuban government. I understand he wts a legacy trip to go to cuba and really, i feel, is t desperate to go to cuba. He can not go to cuba if he doesnt meet with the head of the ladies in white. He can not go to cuba if he doesnt meet with the dissidents that he chooses to. It will make his Nobel Peace Prize that he won worthless to have a Nobel Peace Prize winner, president of the United States be dictated to by the cuban government who he has a you laked to meet with onon a trip, it sends a horrible message to the dissidents in cuba and not to mention the human rights advocates in china,n iran, in north korea around the world, the United States need toses stand for freedom and the americanresident should not go there if he cant meet with who he wants to meet with. December of 2014 when the new rules were put in place and thebiggest argument that you hear against president obama is that he got nothing in retn. The u. S. Got nothing in return and now since january 1400 plus disi dens have been arrested. You know, some very temporarily but still, there are no human rights mochs move the needle type of motion. This calculated diplomatic risk. The cat slr out of the bag. Justin is right. The president will have to pay very close attention ass to whether he will dictate this i tin area comingg up in a couple of weeks before easter sunday. March 27th. Will need to pay very close attention as to who he is abouting to meet, he has to demonstrate that repression needs to stop, first of all, in cuba, rig. And he needs to be able to speak to as many levels of dissidents, not just the lattes in white. There aremany, i was talking to my friend andy gomez, former university of miami professor recently spoken to the head of the ladies in white, antonio, another very brave dishe dent and i said who else do you think cospeak to and andy said in an email, oh, there may be 11 million repressed people e at he wants to speak to. So the question, patty, reaeay becomes in some ways, does mr. Obama speak to them privately in a public setting, in a large group with otherintellectuals and leaders in cuba that the government wants. All these questions are open. That was part of the issue when kerry went over there to open the embassy, that you know, that he met with some of themprivately and whether that was enough. The white house said back on fridayno, of course the president will meet with whoafer he wants. But by this point the story of kerry not traveling traveling in advance to cuba was a problem. And you her them say friday night, we report this, that they are sending the Deputy National security advisor, ben rodes who was one of the architects of this deal, to leaders, and its like, im sure theyre happy to sit down with him but they were left out of the process. Leading up to december 2014. And those. They will speak to carlous. Mike fernandez and which leaders is ben rodes going to speak to. Rht, they have a bit of a Public Relation situation. Who will determi the itinerary for that trip. All right f we can, before we run out of time, the state legislature which is closing, ending its session, thank goodness, had a couple of things they had to do. And one of them, marlon, youre the attorney in the group so is justin, but they had to they had to deal with the state Death Penalty statute which the Supreme Court said was unconstitutional because judges, not juries, were deciding am but then it got to be a question and they figured that. Nan mus jury on a conviction, on a Death Penalty conviction. And now the legislature says okay, 10 to 2 is good enough. Absolutely. No majorory any more. Ten out of 12. But were one of three states, are we not, that allows less than a unanimous Death Penalty verdict. Absolutely. I think its good, in terms of folks having the opportunity and the jury to decide it really takes a very big decision for any of your peers to make a decision like that i thinkten out of 12 seems reasonable to me. I think also, did you read the statute. I dont want to put anybody on the spotment but there is a component where the aggravating fact is the reason why the jurors are deciding death, has to be enumerated more clearly. Yeah, under the u. S. Constitution, you know there say certain standard by which the u. S. Supreme court has said there must be met, to condemn somebody to death. So the legislature in thisix death. They said they only have to have one aggravating factor they have to find whereas before it was a little moreimited. So that apparently is going to result in a Death Penalty opponents probably challenge it. Sign it. We should know the senate tried to make it unimous. Republicans in the senate tried to make it unanimous as well. And they didnt go for it because they thought the house was going turn them dowfnlt the counter argument was if they turn it down, they have no Death Penalty so we should put some pressure on the house. But it didnt end up going anywhere. Final note if i could, very good piece in todays herald tampa bay tri beun that says rick scott isnt getting buttkus from the legislature. He wanted. Did you say butt kus. I can say butt kus, i know a little yidish. Is this for the editorial thing. He is not getting 250 million to develop bring business here, not getting a 1 billion tax cut even override lineitem vetoes. Its a challenge. Look when are you a a governor and i worked for governor bush, in the second, in your seconon term at some point you start to lose some of your influence in the legislature. Governor scott is still only in the second year of his secretary fofo year templet he still has three more years to go. So it does look here legislature ising to push him back on some of his top initiatives. We will have a lot to talk about next week. Thank you so much for coming in today. Thank you all. Well be back in two. And on this sunday we have some breaking news, sad news to tell but right now. Former fst Lady Nancy Reagan has died in california. The former first lady was living in belair as you may knee she shas been in Failing Health recently. During the white house years she is best known for sponsoring major Drug Prevention crusade aimed at children and young adults. Just say no, that was Nancy Reagans campaign. Just say no. And the video you are looking at right here. We believe this s i think from 2012, shortly after he was elected to the u. S. Snalt, florida senator marco rubio was invited to the reagan library. Quite an honor and he was accompanied nancy reagan into that event. It was a picture which im sure and but it was a gracious moment it was a very nice moment. Glenna, i used to like to see the pictures of nancy and Ronald Reagan standing next to each other. Here they are with ann and mitt romney, or she is with ann and mitt romney. Butt when she would look at t r husband, it wasnt rehearsed. It was a genuine moment of love. They really had one of the great lo affairs of people in public life. I think its safe to say she will be an american icon, nancy reagan, rest in peace. Eah. Passed away at 94. All right, still toome, the price and pain of suffering, the state of florida is complicit, but it will not compensate one victims in the crimes against if youre going to say better ingredients. Better pizza. You better deliver. Which is why im introducing our new papas quality guarantee love your pizza, or get another one, absolutely free. Get any largpizza up to 5toppings for just 9. 99. Online only. Florida lawmakers wrapping up session this week have failed again. A now 15 ar old boy who lived a life of horrific abuse due to state nedges. He likely recognized the name victor barajona. The state agreed to compensate him 5 million, an amount that leaves lawmakers to lift a legal cap for most of that payment. For a secretary year now they did not. Valentines day five years ago the discovery of twins awash in chemicals in their fathers truck victor convulsing, his sister was dead, that lead to the back story of their lifelong nightmare. Of children and families allowed george and carmen to foster them and then adopt them. And over the course of six years, the twins endured physical and mental abuse, some described astor ture that went all but ignored by dcf. And the Department Time and time again ignored phone calls from concerned neighbors, concerned neighbors that heard the screams of the children from the beatings. Concerned teachers. During that state Committee Process lawmakers learned about significant red flags all but ignored by the state social workers who could have saved the twins. Dcf then secretary fully admitted the failures. So why wont the state release the money comment to meant to compensate victor. His and other claimed bills are held up in the house over concerns of the lawyer fees involved, a significant amount, as lawyers fees can be. Pressing, those harmed by the state would likelye all but ignored again. So that process may need changing but that is not a reason for the state to turn its back again on a boy whose suffering it helped cause. So what do you think . We invite to you weigh in on any topic you like. And we hope you can find us and reach out to us here on email, facebook, twitter, any of these addresses. Were easy to find. An guess what, we do respond. Remember, as always, stay informed, get involved, have a a beautiful sunday. And if youre around coral gables well be at miracle on the mile today so come out and see you then. Uhuhhello geico . Yeah, i was just talking about your emergency Roadside Service and how its avavaable 24 7 and then our car overheated. What are the chances . Can you send a tow truck please . Uh, the location . 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