Florida’s urban and rural highway systems are fairly decent compared to the rest of the county, but their conditions fell a bit in the past year, at least that’s the finding in a new study.

The Sunshine State’s interstate roadways are not quite at the top, but they’re in the top 20, according to the Reason Foundation’s “Annual Highway Report.” The analysis found Florida was 14th in the country when it comes to safe interstate conditions. However, the study found that’s a six-spot decline for Florida, which was ranked eighth overall in the previous report.

The Reason Foundation 28th annual report examines the urban and rural pavement conditions, rural pavement, deficient bridges, traffic congestion, and spending on roads and bridges in all 50 states.

In terms of safety, the analysis found Florida still ranks highly for general safety of its roadways.

“In safety and condition categories, Florida’s highways rank ninth in urban interstate pavement condition, fourth in rural interstate pavement condition, fifth in urban arterial pavement condition, fifth in rural arterial pavement condition, 10th in structurally deficient bridges, 48th in urban fatality rate, and 38th in rural fatality rate,” the study concluded.

However, Florida faulters when it comes to funding for interstate projects.

“In spending and cost-effectiveness, Florida ranks 40th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Florida ranks 25th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Florida’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 23rd nationwide,” researchers said.

Florida improved the most in its rural fatality rate which increased from 45th to 38th and administrative financial disbursements, going from 28th to 23th.

Florida got worse in congestion with the urban traffic backup ranking going from 18th to 39th in the country. The urban fatality ranking is still pretty low as Florida ranks 48th in the nation.

The Carolinas apparently have the knack for handling highways. North Carolina was ranked first in the country for interstate wellbeing followed in second by South Carolina. North Dakota was ranked third followed by Virginia in fourth and Tennessee in fifth.

Alaska ranked 50th in the country for road safety and spending with California in 49th which was preceded by Hawaii, Washington, Louisiana and New York respectively.

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For parents of kids with disabilities, advocating for their child can be complicated, time-consuming — and expensive.

Changes at the Education Department are likely to make the process even more difficult, advocates for kids with disabilities say.

When a parent believes their child is not receiving proper services or school accommodations for a disability, they can seek remedies from their district. They can file complaints with their state, arguing the child’s rights have been taken away without due process of law, or even pursue litigation in state or federal courts.

Those processes often involve multiple sessions with hearing officers who are not required to be experts in disability law. Legal fees can cost tens of thousands of dollars for a single case. Legal aid and other advocacy organizations that can provide free assistance often have more demand for their services than they can meet.

But filing a complaint with the Education Department has long been an option for families who can’t afford a lawyer. They begin by filling out the Office for Civil Rights’ online form, documenting the alleged instances of discrimination. From there, the agency’s staff is supposed to investigate the complaint, often interviewing school district employees and examining district policies for broader possible violations.

“It’s known and has the weight of the federal government behind it,” said Dan Stewart, managing attorney for education and employment at the National Disability Rights Network. “The process, the complaint portal, as well as the processing manual are all in public, and it does not require or typically involve lawyers.”

That option seems increasingly out of reach, advocates say.

Under President Donald Trump, the Education Department’s staff has been cut approximately in half — including in the Office for Civil Rights, whose attorneys are charged with investigating complaints of discrimination against kids with disabilities. The staff has been directed to prioritize antisemitism cases. More than 20,000 pending cases — including those related to kids with disabilities, historically the largest share of the office’s work — largely sat idle for weeks after Trump took office. A freeze on processing the cases was lifted early this month, but advocates question whether the department can make progress on them with a smaller staff.

“The reduction in force is simply an evisceration of the Office for Civil Rights’ investigatory authority and responsibility,” Stewart said. “There’s no way that I can see that OCR can keep up with the backlog or with the incoming complaints.”

A federal lawsuit filed Friday challenges the layoffs at the Office for Civil Rights, saying they decimated the office’s ability to process and investigate complaints.

While the OCR process was not perfect, reducing the office’s investigative staff will only worsen the challenges families face when seeking support for their kids, said Nikki Carter, an advocate for kids with disabilities and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

“It makes them feel hopeless and helpless,” Carter said. “By reducing the number of employees to handle cases, by putting stipulations on certain cases, it only makes it feel intensified.”

Education Department officials insist the staff reductions will not affect civil rights investigations and the layoffs were “strategic decisions.”

In her state of Alabama, Carter said families face an uphill battle to finding legal representation.

“They don’t have the money for an attorney,” she said. “Or the representation they’re getting is not the representation they feel like will be best for their child.”

Even if families can afford the high costs, a limited number of attorneys have the expertise to take on disability discrimination cases. Programs that offer free representation often have limited capacity.

If the backlog of cases increases at the federal Office for Civil Rights, families may lose faith in how quickly the department will investigate their complaints, Stewart said. That may drive them to alternate pathways, such as filing state complaints.

But state and local agencies haven’t always had the capacity or understanding to handle education disability complaints, Stewart said, since those cases so often went to the U.S. Education Department.

“They might not have the infrastructure or the knowledge or the staffing to take on the influx of cases,” Stewart said.

In a separate federal lawsuit filed Thursday, Democratic attorneys general argued the staff reductions at the Education Department may embolden school districts to ignore complaints of discrimination or harassment.

“Students with current complaints will likely see no meaningful resolution, with cases backlogged due to the shortage of employees to resolve them,” the lawsuit said. “Students facing discrimination, sexual harassment or sexual assault will lose a critical avenue to report their case.”

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Last month, we asked the question: Could NASA headquarters make a landing here in the Sunshine State?

That was largely based on a push by Gov. Ron DeSantis to move the HQ to Cape Canaveral. Now, it seems like DeSantis has some allies in Washington on this issue.

Florida’s U.S. Senators, Ashley Moody and Rick Scott, are pushing a new bill to make the move out of Washington permanent. The Consolidating Aerospace Programs Efficiently (CAPE) at Canaveral Act would shift operations to Brevard County as a way of saving money, per Scott.

“Moving to Florida will not only save Americans’ tax dollars, it will enhance efficiency and streamline operations in this important industry with proximity to private-sector partners and a top-tier workforce ready to help America reach its space exploration goals,” Scott said.

As we argued previously, the move makes sense. Why lead operations from Washington when the action is at Kennedy Space Center? There are already renovations underway unrelated to this push. What’s a few more upgrades to make the location suitable for NASA’s headquarters?

President Donald Trump should check with advisor Elon Musk to see just how good Florida has been to SpaceX while hosting many launches from the Musk company.

This isn’t just a pipe dream of the Governor’s anymore. It looks like we may have liftoff.

Now, it’s onto our weekly game of winners and losers.

Winners

Honorable mention: Endangered Florida panthers. Big news for environmentalists, as Conservation Florida worked with the Department of Environmental Protection to expand Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park by adding 60 more protected acres.

Conservation Florida bought the land from Avatar Properties. It was then transferred to the state park system to be managed by the state. That means no additional construction on that land.

That’s good news for panthers, who are known to roam in the preserve. The panther population suffered 36 deaths in the past year, 29 from car’s striking them. Conservation Florida estimates that between 120 and 230 panthers remain in Florida.

That makes the move to protect more of this vital land even more important.

“The Fakahatchee Strand is a truly special place,” said Conservation Florida CEO Traci Deen. “In one visit alone to the parcels we acquired, our team encountered rare plants and animals we’ve spent our entire lives wishing to see. It fills us with pride to have helped conserve one of the state’s most extraordinary wild places and added to our award-winning state parks system.”

Almost (but not quite) the biggest winner: Anna Paulina Luna. Members of Congress love to tout their legislative wins. And they are important. We dedicate a good chunk of our twice weekly Delegation newsletters to covering those bills, however big or small.

But you deserve extra credit when you get a bill to the floor without going through the standard process of getting leadership to sign off.

Luna accomplished such a feat using something called a discharge petition. That requires the House to hold a vote on anything that 218 members agree should be voted upon.

You might think that would happen more often. But so much of Washington is structured around backroom deals and insulating members from difficult votes. There are plenty of items, if just given a chance to earn a majority vote, would pass in a second. Instead, they often never hit the floor due to Washington machinations.

And that’s why moves like this are so rare. Because in the event the majority party wants to vote on something, the Speaker will almost inevitably bring it to the floor.

That hasn’t been the case, however, with Luna’s push to allow proxy voting for brand new moms. Proxy voting was used during the COVID pandemic but fell out of favor with Republicans. Once they retook the chamber, proxy voting was out.

Luna, who gave birth during her first term, says an exception should be made for moms recovering from childbirth for the first six weeks.

This, again, is something that would likely pass via a majority. But Speaker Mike Johnson opposes it, as do a fair chunk of Republicans, so her bill is stuck in limbo.

That meant Luna turned to the discharge petition process and this week, she hit the 218 votes needed to force a vote, thanks largely to Democratic support. U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds was the only Republican member of Florida’s delegation to sign the petition.

The vote hasn’t happened yet, but Luna already deserves major credit for jumping through hoops and defying her party’s leadership to force a vote in the first place.

And she’s right on this issue. Your humble author of the column just welcomed a baby boy in January, and the idea that women are expected to rush back to Washington to participate in the legislative process so soon is absolutely insane. It’s somewhat incredible that the party of family values doesn’t see that inherently.

Good on Luna for her work on this.

The biggest winner: Donalds. Donalds lands here not for landing on the right side of Luna’s discharge petition, but for continuing his red-hot momentum in the Florida Governor’s race.

Again, we’re nearly a year and a half away from any votes being cast in this contest. But Donalds continues looking like the clear favorite to earn the Republican nomination and, in an increasingly red Florida, become the state’s next Governor.

Donalds already has the Donald Trump bump, and that’s arguably enough to seal this thing already among the GOP base.

But the benefit of securing the President’s endorsement isn’t just him speaking out in favor. It’s everyone in his orbit, and much of the existing Republican Party power structure, also falling in line behind Donalds.

We started to see some of that this week. Donald Trump Jr. is, unsurprisingly, endorsing Donalds’ bid. So too is Charlie Kirk, one of the largest conservative influencers in the country who runs the powerful Turning Points USA organization that has major sway among Republican voters.

But what kicked off this strong week from Donalds was the Club for Growth PAC announcing support for Donalds.

That’s notable not just because of Club for Growth’s status in the conservative movement, but also because the group supported DeSantis during his initial 2018 run. Now, with DeSantis floating his wife as a possible successor, the group is out on the DeSantis dynasty and backing Donalds instead.

Being able to flip a prominent group like that speaks well of Donalds’ ability in the year-plus ahead to continue securing support from various pillars of the Republican base. This is just the beginning.

Losers

Dishonorable mention: Dave Weldon. Weldon joins fellow Florida Men Chad Chronister and Matt Gaetz in earning nominations for premier posts in the second Trump administration … only to have those nominations blow up and be withdrawn.

Weldon was far along in the process to be the next Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But reports say as Weldon was on his way to his confirmation hearing Thursday morning, he got the call that the Trump administration was pulling Weldon’s name from consideration.

Ouch.

There hasn’t been official comment from Weldon or the White House on the reasoning for the move. But Weldon’s previous vaccine-skeptical views reportedly led to multiple key Senators opposed to his nomination. Weldon didn’t have the votes, so Team Trump looked to spare themselves the humiliation of their nominee going down.

That means the former Florida Congressman won’t return to Washington after all. It’s unclear who Trump’s next choice to lead the agency will be.

Almost (but not quite) the biggest loser: House Democrats. Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers of the Legislature, leaving Democrats in Tallahassee already embarrassed to some degree.

But somehow, they keep finding a way to dig up more bad press.

Recall that Democrats went on the offensive in 2024, running candidates in every seat on the ballot to try and break the GOP supermajority. They failed.

Then, following the election, two Democratic House members announced they were swapping parties. They gave various reasons, but the real reason is that the Democratic brand had become so toxic that they felt their odds of extending their respective political careers were better if they joined the red team.

Now this week, the Democrats had a private blowup go public. And the spat included the top Democrat in the House.

Our own Jacob Ogles broke the news of House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell confronting Rep. Jose Alvarez of Kissimmee after Alvarez voted during a committee hearing to advance legislation that would make it harder to get future petitions on the Florida ballot.

It wasn’t a vote on the floor, and Democrats at times play nice and vote to advance bills out of committee before voting down on them when it counts. Other times, Democratic leadership sees bills as being so toxic that they require disapproval throughout the entire process.

For Driskell, this bill reportedly fell into the latter camp. And Driskell said she wasn’t given a heads up on Alvarez’s decision to vote in favor.

“Part of the culture we are trying to develop here is, we understand the party in some ways is a coalition, and we may not vote the same on every bill,” Driskell said. “What I ask is that people let us know.”

Lobbyists indicated to Florida Politics that Alvarez also seemed to be down on the bill before praising it during the committee hearing and voting “yes.” Alvarez, for his part, said Driskell offended him during the confrontation.

“It was very disrespectful of her to speak to another member of the House that way,” Alvarez said, “for someone who calls herself a leader, to disrespect me in front of that, to tell me I vote whichever way she wants me to vote. I’ve been in public office long enough to know never to tell people to do a vote.”

That was just the beginning of the tea that spilled out of this meeting. And the big thing unclear to us — and likely to Democratic voters across the state — is if Democrats can’t even get their own caucus in line and work in unison on their own game plan, how are they ever going to dig out of the hole they’ve found themselves as they watch Republicans dominating the state?

Like we keep saying: Florida is a red state now. And it’s going to stay that way with Democrats continuing clown shows like this.

The biggest loser: Baseball in Tampa Bay. And that’s that. The deal to develop the Historic Gas Plant District and build a new stadium for the Rays is officially dead.

Rays owner Stuart Sternberg made the announcement in a social media post this week ahead of a March 31 deadline for the team to put its final signature to the deal.

And the face that the Rays no longer have a future home puts the team’s entire existence in the Tampa Bay area in doubt.

Now, there are some reassurances here. DeSantis said Friday that he spoke to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and that Manfred is “committed” to finding a way forward where the Rays stay put.

And while Sternberg pulled out of the existing deal, he left some sort of path open to constructing a new deal, though it’s unclear how that’s feasible. Is turning to Tampa, rather than St. Pete, a viable option? There’s also reportedly an investor group interested in purchasing the Rays and promising to keep them in the Tampa Bay area.

So there are possibilities where this ends well. But there is no longer certainty, and we’ve seen plenty of bad things happen when team owners don’t get the deal they want. Just look at the sad saga of another MLB franchise, the Oakland A’s.

For us and everyone else, this looked like a done deal last Summer, when St. Pete and Pinellas County got on board with the deal. But due to a series of freak events prompted by an act of nature, we somehow ended up here. Before Hurricane Milton hit, it looked like there were better odds of a Ray-Marlins 2025 World Series than this deal falling apart. Yet here we are.

This is documentary material at this point. Let’s hope there’s a happy ending that keeps the Rays at home. But until we have that set in stone — for real this time — fans have to wonder what the future holds for this team.

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