1 of 3 | Florida officials in January opened the floodgates to fill the first cell of a 6,500-acre Everglades Agricultural Area storm water treatment system to help protect the Everglades and nearby communities, while improving local water quality. Photo by Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA-EFE
April 30 (UPI) — A potential crisis in Florida should ease after state lawmakers this month allocated $2.25 billion to improve water quality and restore the state’s imperiled biodiversity.
Gov. Ron DeSantis last week announced the allocation of $1.5 billion to restore the Everglades and improve water quality during the next fiscal year.
The funding comes in addition to DeSantis signing into law April 4 a measure that allocates the state’s share of profits from Seminole gaming revenue toward protecting the state’s natural resources and wildlife. Those comes to some$750 million annually, according to state officials.
“I made a promise to Floridians that we would leave this state better to God than we found it,” DeSantis said in the April 22 announcement. “We are doing that for out future and our children’s future.”
The $1.5 billion allocation provides $850 million for Everglades restoration projects, which includes $614 million to support the state’s Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir.
Some $530 million is allocated to support water improvement in the state, including $100 million toward completing a reservoir to provide better quality water for residents in Palm Beach and Broward counties and reduce the amount of freshwater discharged into the Lake Worth Lagoon.
Another $135 million funds a grant program that covers the costs of local projects that remove harmful nutrients from the state’s waterways. Such projects include wastewater treatment and septic-to-sewer improvements.
Indian River Lagoon projects will receive $100 million, and $45 million will go to water-quality improvements in Biscayne Bay and the Caloosahatchee Estuary.
Largest single investment
The allocation of $1.5 billion is the largest single-year investment Florida officials ever made to protect and improve the state’s natural resources.
The new funding will help counteract what environmentalists and others call one of the nation’s worst biodiversity crises.
Biodiversity refers to the many living species of animals, plants, fungi and bacteria on Earth and in local ecosystems, according to National Geographic.
Florida is one of the nation’s most biodiverse states and one of the most imperiled.
“Florida leads states in drivers of biodiversity loss,” Lindsay Rosa, vice president of conservation research and innovation at the Washington, D.C.-based Defenders of Wildlife, said during the organization’s April 12 webinar series called “Drivers of the Biodiversity Crisis: America at a Crossroads.”
“Humans are the driving force” of most of the biodiversity loss and potential species extinction in Florida and throughout the United States, Rosa said.
More than a million species globally are identified as at-risk of extinction, including about 40% of species that are native to Florida, according to Defenders of Wildlife.
Many of those species are found only in Florida, which makes them especially rare and vulnerable to changes in climate and habitat.
Florida has more than 4,000 species of animals, including many that are native only to the Sunshine State, according to the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension office.
Potential extinction
Without significant changes to the state’s natural resources, many of those species might become extinct.
Rosa and the Defenders of Wildlife identified five general threats to biodiversity that negatively impact Florida, the rest of the nation and the world.
Those are:
Rosa said habitat loss is a significant driver of biodiversity loss in Florida and the rest of the world.
Florida’s endemic species adapted to a particular type of habitat over several centuries. When habitat loss occurs due to development and changing climatic conditions, an equal percentage of native species also disappear, according to the IFAS Extension office.
Sometimes, the habitat loss might seem negligible, like the extending in 1950 of U.S. 41, which cuts through the Everglades while connecting Miami and Naples.
U.S. 41 is designated a National Scenic Byway, but the aboriginal Miccosukee Tribe has a different perspective.
Plumbing needs fixing
“U.S. 41 is a giant earthen dam,” Curtis Osceola, chief of staff for the Miccosukee Tribe, said during the Defenders of Wildlife webinar. “We need to fix the plumbing of the western Everglades.”
The western and central Everglades are experiencing water quality issues and losses of local tree-island habitats due to changing water and drainage conditions that endanger native animals, like the Florida panther, black bears and white tail deer, Osceola said.
Enrique Montes, an assistant scientist as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, agreed.
During the webinar, Montes said drastic changes to Florida’s population and resulting development over the past several decades have changed how the Everglades discharges water.
“It’s very important that we understand how the habitats respond to environmental change and human activities to be able to preserve the services that these ecosystems provide,” Montes said.
The wetlands initially discharged water on a north-to-south route toward the Florida Bay and the Keys.
Development largely disrupted that flow, which Montes said now splits into three directions, while greatly reducing the amount of water discharged at the state’s southern tip.
A water-seepage barrier wall project that is underway helps to restore natural water flow from north to south through the Everglades and into Florida Bay. It also protects local communities against potential flooding during tropical storms.
Climate change is another daunting threat that is especially dangerous for Florida, where 1.86 million properties have a 25% chance of being flooded over the next three decades, according to researchers at the Florida Atlantic University’s Archbold Biological Station.
The biological station on April 16 published a report titled, “The Florida Wildlife Corridor and Climate Change,” noting that flooding dangers are especially threatening as tropical storms become stronger and more frequent over time and rising sea levels inundate near-shore properties and freshwater supplies with saltwater.
The recent actions by state officials with support from environmentalists and stakeholders seek to mitigate the effects of climate change and other threats that are endangering Florida’s biodiversity and natural resources.
Entertainment
MIAMI (AP) — Two South Florida police officers claim Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s recent action thriller “The Rip” used too many real-life details in its fictionalized narrative, causing harm to the officers’ personal and professional reputations, according to a defamation lawsuit.
Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana, sergeants in the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, filed the lawsuit in Miami federal court earlier this month against Artists Equity, a film production company owned by Affleck and Damon. Court filings don’t say how much the officers are suing for, but the civil complaint says they’re seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorney fees, as well as a public retraction and correction.
“The Rip” features Affleck and Damon as South Florida police officers who find millions of dollars inside a house. Parts of the movie were inspired by a real 2016 case, where police found over $21 million linked to a suspected marijuana trafficker in a Miami Lakes home.
An attorney for Artists Equity declined to comment when reached Monday by The Associated Press. But in a March 19 response to the plaintiffs’ demand letter, Leita Walker, an attorney for Artists Equity, wrote that the film does not purport to tell the true story of that incident or portray real people, which had been stated by a disclaimer in the film’s credits.
Although Smith and Santana aren’t named in the film, the lawsuit claims that Santana was serving as the lead detective assigned to the real case, and Smith was the sergeant who supervised the investigative team. The film’s inclusion of real details about the case gives the impression that the characters are based on the plaintiffs, the suit said.
And this, the lawsuit claims, has given friends, family members and colleagues the impression that the plaintiffs committed the criminal acts that appear in the film, which include (SPOILER ALERT) conspiring to steal seized drug money, murdering a supervising officer, communicating with cartel members, committing arson in a residential neighborhood, endangering the lives of civilians, repeatedly violating core law-enforcement protocols and executing a federal agent rather than making an arrest.
Walker wrote in March that the plaintiffs haven’t even identified which particular character is supposed to be based on Smith or Santana, so even if “The Rip” was actually about a real-life narcotics team, there’s no way to connect any of the characters to the plaintiffs.
“The Rip,” directed by Joe Carnahan, debuted in January on Netflix. It’s currently rated 78% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
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Brevard County couple gets married in NICU after birth of premature twins
A Florida couple, told they may not be able to have children, welcomed premature twins and had an impromptu NICU wedding.
Provided by AdventHealth for Children
Ben and Danielle Cassidy were told they likely wouldn’t be able to have children.
But this year they will celebrate Mother’s Day just months after having an impromptu wedding in the AdventHealth for Children hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit shortly after Danielle gave birth to twins prematurely — a week before the Palm Bay couple was scheduled to get married.
Both babies, Joshua and Rhett, are doing well despite arriving nine weeks ahead of schedule on Jan. 19, 2026, just one day after their scheduled baby shower. With a proper wedding out of the question with two premature babies in the NICU, a nurse took action.
Issabel Kenkel, the nurse behind the ceremony, said she was already in wedding planning mode for her own upcoming nuptials when she found out the Cassidy family’s ceremony would be interrupted.
“I couldn’t just let them do something small. They needed decorations and something fun, so I spoke to the music therapist and the chaplain,” Kenkel said. In short order, a wedding was being planned for their hospital room and the couple was saying their vows in the company of their safely delivered newborns.
“When we found out we could request staff members to be on our team, that’s when we requested Issabel and having that kind of consistency from someone who has such a big heart and is so kind,” Danielle said.
The hospital ceremony was all the more special because of the Cassidy family’s own health struggles.
“I have five autoimmune diseases and didn’t really think I would have kids. It’s been a rough journey. When Ben and I met, we were floored at how much a miracle it was to have kids,” Danielle said.
Ben, who battled and beat cancer, said he was worried that his prior treatment would result in negative health outcomes for his future children. Having twins for him was an unexpected blessing.
“When we found out we were pregnant, we found it so shocking. We said, wouldn’t it be great if it was twins? It filled out our hopes and dreams list,” Ben said. “They’ve been miracles for sure.”
The Cassidy couple said there was so much fear and uncertainty when their twins were born nine weeks early. Being able to get married right away just made them feel all the better about the future.
“It was nice getting married because we didn’t have to wait any longer to make it official. It made it that much harder for her to get rid of me,” Ben said.
“The unknown made it scary,” Danielle added. “We had no idea how long we would be in the hospital. Our wedding was going to be at the beach with immediate family and parents. Having NICU babies, we realized we’d never be able to get to the beach. It was really special having the people who care for our babies be part of the ceremony.”
The couple hadn’t even planned to have a band at their wedding ceremony and now the hospital’s music therapist was performing live for them and the chaplain was conducting the ceremony, something nurse Kenkel said was just part of her job.
“The babies are going to have the best outcomes if the families are taken care of and going home happy,” she said. “Being in the NICU is already so stressful. This is just one more thing I could do to take care of my patients.”
Tyler Vazquez is the Growth and Development Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Vazquez at 321-480-0854 or tvazquez@floridatoday.com. X: @tyler_vazquez.
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