WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — Florida’s bear hunt has roared back to life, with hunters expected to kill “several dozen” black bears as activists scramble to pay them not to.

For the next three weeks hunters are expected to kill “several dozen” Florida black bears, according to WESH.

Bear advocacy groups protested, petitioned and even dragged the state to court — all attempts to stop the hunt before it began. None worked. So activists pivoted to a new strategy: pay the hunters not to pull the trigger.

Florida non-profit Bear Warriors United is offering $2,000 to any hunter with a permit who’s willing to take the bench this season. Another local group, the Sierra Club of Florida says its members and allies have secured 52 of the states 172 permits.

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Sierra Club Florida Director Susannah Randolph told WESH she hopes that the FWC is keeping a close eye on how many bears each hunter kills. She noted that there has been chatter online among hunters wanting to “settle the score” now that dozens of hunters were bought out — even though taking more than one bear would amount to poaching.

“I don’t trophy hunt. When I deer hunt, I don’t hunt for antlers,” Hunter Jason Howard told WESH. “It’s for meat. I enjoy deer meat, wild hog meat, turkey meat and I hope to enjoy bear meat as well.”

For advocates, the debate doesn’t end when the season does. Randolph says she’s alarmed by FWC’s plans to eventually allow dog-hunting of black bears, calling it “extremely cruel” and noting that even former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi prosecuted dog-hunting cases.

The only certainty in this year’s hunt is that debate is far from hibernating.

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The cold war between Florida’s Governor and his predecessor is nearly seven years old and tensions show no signs of thawing.

On Friday, Sen. Rick Scott weighed in on Florida Politics’ reporting on the Agency for Health Care Administration’s apparent repayment of $10 million of Medicaid money from a settlement last year, which allegedly had been diverted to the Hope Florida Foundation, summarily filtered through non-profits through political committees, and spent on political purposes.

“I appreciate the efforts by the Florida legislature to hold Hope Florida accountable. Millions in tax dollars for poor kids have no business funding political ads. If any money was misspent, then it should be paid back by the entities responsible, not the taxpayers,” Scott posted to X.

While AHCA Deputy Chief of Staff Mallory McManus says that is an “incorrect” interpretation, she did not respond to a follow-up question asking for further detail.

The $10 million under scrutiny was part of a $67 million settlement from state Medicaid contractor Centene, which DeSantis said was “a cherry on top” in the settlement, arguing it wasn’t truly from Medicaid money.

But in terms of the Scott-DeSantis contretemps, it’s the latest example of tensions that seemed to start even before DeSantis was sworn in when Scott left the inauguration of his successor (the timing of that was due to the schedule set by then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and based on the availability of then Vice President Mike Pence), and which continue in the race to succeed DeSantis, with Scott enthusiastic about current front runner Byron Donalds.

Earlier this year, Scott criticized DeSantis’ call to repeal so-called vaccine mandates for school kids, saying parents could already opt out according to state law.

While running for re-election to the Senate in 2024, Scott critiqued the Heartbeat Protection Act, a law signed by DeSantis that banned abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy with some exceptions, saying the 15 week ban was “where the state’s at.”

In 2023 after Scott endorsed Donald Trump for President while DeSantis was still a candidate, DeSantis said it was an attempt to “short circuit” the voters.

That same year amid DeSantis’ conflict over parental rights legislation with The Walt Disney Co., Scott said it was important for governors to “work with” major companies in their states.

The critiques went both ways.

When running for office, DeSantis distanced himself from Scott amid controversy about the Senator’s blind trust for his assets as Governor.

“I basically made decisions to serve in uniform, as a prosecutor, and in Congress to my financial detriment,” DeSantis said in October 2018. “I’m not entering (office) with a big trust fund or anything like that, so I’m not going to be entering office with those issues.”

In 2020, when the state’s creaky unemployment website couldn’t handle the surge of applicants for reemployment assistance as the pandemic shut down businesses, DeSantis likened it to a “jalopy in the Daytona 500” and Scott urged him to “quit blaming others” for the website his administration inherited.

The chill between the former and current Governors didn’t abate in time for 2022’s hurricane season, when Scott said DeSantis didn’t talk to him after the fearsome Hurricane Ian ravaged the state. Scott’s camp said the Senator called the Governor multiple times to see how the federal government could assist the state’s efforts, but DeSantis did not return those phone calls.