WOKC Local News – March 24, 2026, 7:40 AM
Transcript
WOKC News. School bell will ring at the same time. With WOKC News, I’m Charles Murphy. A vast majority of those surveys by the Yogochebe School Board were against changing school start times. The state is requiring high schools to begin at 8.30 as of July 1st, but allowed county schools to opt out of the law, and the Yogochebe School Board has voted to do so. The district was concerned about having small kids waiting for school buses. With their start time at 7, they’d be on the roadside at 6 a.m. They also noted with change, after-school child care programs with older kids still in school unable to watch younger siblings as parents work. Superintendent Dylan Tedders says the vast majority surveyed were against changing the high school start time to 8.30 a.m. Everybody was a little startled when that survey came out, but it was a complaint. I mean, we had to give that survey. And we pretty much predicted the results. People don’t like that much change, and I do not like students, especially elementary students, being out in the dark. The Florida Legislature put in some comprehensive requirements for data centers. The data centers would have to bear their own costs and require consumptive use permits for water. Adam Bastro told the Senate Committee that a lot of education needs to be done on these facilities, pro and con. Data center operators do pay their full electricity costs under rate structures designed to prevent cost shifting to other customers. And many of the concerns about water use and noise don’t match how the facilities actually operate. Governor Ron DeSantis does not want the Florida Immigration Enforcement Council to send President Trump a letter asking for a change in immigration policy. DeSantis says illegals are costing all Floridian taxpayers money and wants them all gone. This idea that unless you’re an axe murderer you should be able to stay, that is not consistent with our laws, and it’s also not good policy. We have different people that are victimized by illegal aliens every day in this country. Not all of them have criminal records at the time. In fact, probably most of them don’t. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd and other sheriffs were for a path for those behaving themselves to gain citizenship. He did blame the media for not reporting his position right. That’s just not true. It’s media rhetoric. Indiantown Village Council approves the annexation of 5,722 acres for Florida Power and Light into the village. There’s also concern about a proposed Silver Fox data center. Karen Onsinger says she has no problem with that idea. The only lawsuits and problems that I could find were the data centers suing municipalities that didn’t do what they said they were going to do and didn’t allow them to come. She has a very large data center there in Charlotte, North Carolina, and they have had zero issues with it. Indiantown Village Council also was criticized for allowing a grant for the Civic Center renovations to go away. St. Lucie County lifting their county-wide burn ban. They say they’ll continue to monitor conditions. I’m Charles Murphy, WOKC News.
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).