{"id":196378,"date":"2026-03-18T14:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T14:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/196378\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T14:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T14:03:11","slug":"the-scoop-wed-mar-18-2026-tampa-bay-and-florida-headlines-by-wmnf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/196378\/","title":{"rendered":"The Scoop: Wed. Mar. 18, 2026 Tampa Bay and Florida headlines by WMNF"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2048\" height=\"2048\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/The-Scoop-color-2048x2048-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-255438 size-255438 wp-post-image\" alt=\"WMNF The Scoop\" large=\"\" decoding=\"async\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court will hear arguments about possibly ending TPS for Haitians and Syrians<\/p>\n<p>Haitian leaders gathered at a press conference on Tuesday to raise alarms about the risks faced if people are forced back into the country.<\/p>\n<p>Gov. DeSantis to sign Florida\u2019s version of the SAVE Act, Florida might be sued<\/p>\n<p>Democratic elections lawyer Marc Elias said that if Florida\u2019s version of the SAVE Act is signed the state will be sued.<\/p>\n<p>Three counties in Florida begin legislative elections after months with vacant seats<\/p>\n<p>Hillsborough County began an election for state Senate, while Palm Beach and Polk County are voting on two House seats. Senate District 14 in Hillsborough County and House District 87 in Palm Beach County have been vacant for seven months.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. blockade of Cuba has led to blackouts and limited access to basic resources<\/p>\n<p>Leo Gonzalez, with the Party for Socialism and Liberation of Tampa Bay, says, \u201cThe Cuban people are aware of what\u2019s being done. They know it\u2019s not their own government causing these shortages \u2014 they believe it\u2019s the blockade and U.S. pressure that\u2019s been in place since the 1960s.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Older low-income residents of Tampa Bay struggle with health insurance<\/p>\n<p>Almost one in five low-income residents under the age of 65 in Tampa Bay lives without health insurance. Across the state, the rate is similar and above the national average.<\/p>\n<p>The Scoop: Tampa Bay &amp; Florida headlines by WMNF<\/p>\n<p>The Scoop, produced by Se\u00e1n Kinane.<\/p>\n<p>WMNF anchors Chris Young, Juanita Hurtado Hu\u00e9rfano, Se\u00e1n Kinane, Lisa Marzilli, Josh Holton.\u00a0<br \/>WMNF News Director Se\u00e1n Kinane<br \/>WMNF reporters Chris Young, Juanita Hurtado Hu\u00e9rfano, Lisa Marzilli, Se\u00e1n Kinane, Leah Burdick, Sofia Caballero, Josh Holton<br \/>Special thanks to Taylor Lovejoy and Corey Beltran.<\/p>\n<p>Theme music, Fresh06, by Stian via archive.org \u2013 CC-BY-NC-SA 2.5<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/jamendo-001084\/02.mp3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/jamendo-001084\/02.mp3<\/a><br \/>The Scoop logo by Robin Milcowitz \/ Greener Pixels \/\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/greenerpixels.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">greenerpixels.com<\/a>\u00a0\/ WMNF<\/p>\n<p>information from News Service of Florida, the Associated Press and Florida Public Media was used in this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Supreme Court will hear arguments about possibly ending TPS for Haitians and Syrians Haitian leaders gathered at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47499,91104,1016,100,8367,1841,30415,36512,135,137,136,416,31201,4220],"class_list":["post-196378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-2026-elections","tag-blockade","tag-cuba","tag-florida-legislature","tag-haiti","tag-immigration","tag-news-and-public-affairs","tag-state-government","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-the-scoop","tag-tps","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}