Argentina got there the hard way<\/a>, scoring twice late to erase a deficit against England in Atlanta after knockout round nail-biters against Cape Verde, Egypt and Switzerland. Spain rolled past France 2-0 to reach its first final since winning it all in South Africa. Their squad has only conceded one goal this entire tournament.<\/p>\n The expanded 48-team format has produced no shortage of chaos<\/a>. Paraguay eliminated four-time champion Germany in a penalty shootout during the Round of 32, a result that ranks among this tournament\u2019s most stunning. Morocco needed a shootout of its own to send the Netherlands home in that same round.<\/p>\n Norway, behind Erling Haaland, toppled Brazil<\/a> to reach the quarterfinals. Lamine Yamal, at 18, notched the second-youngest goal in Spanish World Cup history during the group-stage demolition of Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n Cristiano Ronaldo played his final World Cup match along the way \u2014 a quieter ending to a different kind of legendary career.<\/p>\n Whatever the scoreline Sunday, the U.S. has already turned in a strong showing as host<\/a>. Visiting fans spent the tournament<\/a> posting from bars, diners and only-in-America pit stops like Buc-ee\u2019s, marveling at a hospitality many hadn\u2019t expected to find.<\/p>\n This was no doubt a win for the U.S. as a whole. And while our men\u2019s squad couldn\u2019t make it to the tournament\u2019s end, the final is set up to deliver history as a bookend to an outstanding sporting event. We know we\u2019ll be watching.<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s on to our weekly game of winners and losers.<\/p>\n Winners<\/p>\n Honorable mention: Heaven\u2019s gate.\u00a0The Process has lost four familiar faces recently, and St. Peter should brace for some colorful debriefings.<\/p>\n Ralph Haben died last month at 84<\/a>, capping a career that ran from local prosecutor and municipal Judge to Florida House Speaker, a post he held from 1980 until 1982.<\/p>\n Haben represented Palmetto in the House starting in 1972, delivered the funding behind what\u2019s now the Bradenton Area Convention Center, and left office only after a failed 1982 run for state comptroller \u2014 the one loss on an otherwise unbeaten political r\u00e9sum\u00e9. He spent his later decades as a respected Tallahassee lobbyist.<\/p>\n Then, earlier this month, we lost both lobbyist Dave Ericks and former Sen. Jack Latvala.<\/p>\n Ericks passed away at 77<\/a> after heart failure. He started out as a Broward County police officer before buying the beloved Clyde\u2019s and Costello\u2019s in 1976. Ericks then became President of the state\u2019s Fraternal Order of Police before parlaying that into a decades-long lobbying career he ran alongside his daughter, Candice.<\/p>\n He held onto Clyde\u2019s for 34 years, and by the time he sold it in 2020, it had become, in one former colleague\u2019s words, \u201cmore than a local watering hole\u201d for generations of Capitol staffers, lobbyists and Florida State students.<\/p>\n Latvala\u2019s passing, meanwhile, closed out one of Tallahassee\u2019s more complicated legacies<\/a>. Latvala built the direct-mail operation that helped Republicans finally flip the Florida Senate, a chamber the GOP hadn\u2019t controlled since Reconstruction, then represented Pinellas County there himself across two stints, from 1994to 2002 and from 2010 to 2018.<\/p>\n He rose to become the Senate\u2019s budget Chair and launched a 2018 run for Governor before sexual harassment allegations from staffers and lobbyists ended both the campaign and his Senate career. One accuser, Rachel Perrin Rogers, later settled with the Senate for nearly $1 million.<\/p>\n Then, just this week, Fred Dudley passed away at 81<\/a>. Dudley broke ground in 1982 as the first Republican elected to the Florida House out of Lee County, then spent 14 years in the Senate chairing the Judiciary Committee and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Education.<\/p>\n His lasting mark came in 1991, when he pushed through the legislation that established Florida Gulf Coast University down in Fort Myers, earning him a reputation as something like the school\u2019s founding father. He later chaired the state\u2019s High Speed Rail Authority and spent his final working years as a construction law lawyer.<\/p>\n Four very different careers, but all with lasting legacies in The Process. Undoubtedly, St. Peter has had some interesting conversations.<\/p>\n Almost (but not quite) the biggest winner: College faculty. A federal appeals court last week struck down the higher-education provisions of Florida\u2019s Stop WOKE Act this month, ruling 2-1 that the law\u2019s classroom speech restrictions violate the First Amendment.<\/p>\n That means professors can more comfortably avoid the state looking over their shoulder as the Fall term nears.<\/p>\n The majority opinion<\/a>, written by Judge Britt Grant of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, rejected Florida\u2019s argument that the state owns every word a public university professor says in class simply because taxpayers cover the paycheck.<\/p>\n Grant wrote that under the state\u2019s theory, government would gain \u201ctotal control\u201d over classroom speech, adding that while the state has other ways to push its own message, \u201cpuppeteering every university professor in the state is not one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n The law, passed in 2022, barred faculty at public colleges and universities from endorsing a list of disfavored ideas about race, sex and national origin while still letting them criticize those same ideas \u2014 the kind of one-sided rule courts have long treated as viewpoint discrimination.<\/p>\n Gov. Ron DeSantis championed the law\u2019s passage and counted it among his signature first-term achievements, but a Northern District of Florida Judge blocked its higher-education provisions almost immediately after enactment, and that injunction has stayed in place through more than three years of appeals.<\/p>\n The underlying case, Pernell v. Lamb, was filed on behalf of a group of Florida professors, including LeRoy Pernell of Florida A&M University\u2019s law school, by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Florida, the Legal Defense Fund and the law firm Ballard Spahr.<\/p>\n Florida can still ask the full 11th Circuit to rehear the case or petition the U.S. Supreme Court, but for now, the state\u2019s public college instructors can keep teaching material Tallahassee is trying to ban.<\/p>\n The biggest winner: Duke Energy. Clearwater\u2019s City Council delivered a unanimous vote<\/a> this week to keep the lights on with Duke Energy for another three decades, rejecting the push for the city to run its own power grid.<\/p>\n Council members had spent months weighing whether to break from Duke and stand up a city-owned electric utility instead. Dozens of residents packed Council chambers before the vote, split between those who wanted Duke gone and those who worried the city couldn\u2019t stomach the cost of taking over its own power system.<\/p>\n That cost turned out to be the deciding factor. A feasibility study pegged the price of buying Duke\u2019s local infrastructure at $572 million, and the company has said that infrastructure isn\u2019t for sale. Council members also flagged the risk of drawn-out litigation and the budget squeeze a potential property tax overhaul could bring this November.<\/p>\n Duke Energy Florida President Melissa Seixas framed the extension as building on \u201csuch a long history together,\u201d pointing to decades of investment in reliability and local nonprofits. Not every resident bought it. Shawn Meagher of the group Dump Duke St. Pete argued the city should have followed its own feasibility numbers toward public power instead of locking in another 30-year contract.<\/p>\n Clearwater\u2019s Council still needs a final vote at an upcoming meeting to seal the deal. But St. Petersburg faces the same decision soon<\/a> \u2014 its own franchise agreement with Duke expires Aug. 1, and the city already committed up to $590,000 to study whether it should build a municipal utility instead.<\/p>\n Clearwater just showed how that debate can end.<\/p>\n Losers<\/p>\n Dishonorable mention: City of Orlando. Orlando cratered in the latest American Fitness Index, sliding from No. 45 to No. 65 among the 100 largest U.S. cities. That\u2019s the largest decline in the newest report and one of the steepest single-year falls in the report\u2019s 19-year history.<\/p>\n The index, published this week<\/a> by ACSM and the Elevance Health Foundation, scores the 100 biggest U.S. cities using three dozen benchmarks that track everyday health habits, neighborhood infrastructure and environmental quality.<\/p>\n Arlington, Virginia, topped the list for a ninth straight year, and researchers found a widening split between cities like it and cities sliding the other direction. Stella Volpe, who chairs the index\u2019s advisory board, said the top performers have built \u201csystems that support healthier living over time\u201d by weaving movement into daily routines through transportation and community design \u2014 the kind of groundwork Orlando\u2019s tumble suggests it hasn\u2019t achieved.<\/p>\n The broader report points to conditions that could be working against Orlando. Food insecurity climbed nationally for a second straight year, with 99 of the index\u2019s 100 cities posting worse numbers than the year before. Air quality also swung widely city to city, with some places logging clean air on barely one day in ten across the year.<\/p>\n Three cities joined the rankings for the first time this year, and Cape Coral\u2019s debut ranking of No. 62 alone beat Orlando\u2019s, meaning a first-year entrant already outperforms one of Florida\u2019s most recognizable tourist cities.<\/p>\n Tourism is still booming in Central Florida, but trends like this aren\u2019t doing the region any favors in the long run.<\/p>\n Almost (but not quite) the biggest loser: Change Research. This week, Change Research had to retract a poll that generated headline-grabbing numbers in the Governor\u2019s race, admitting an error had crept into a survey.<\/p>\n The poll, fielded July 9-11 for Freedom Project USA, had David Jolly leading Byron Donalds 46% to 40% among likely voters \u2014 numbers Newsweek wrote up this week as a sign the open Governor\u2019s race had tightened. In the GOP Primary, Donalds led with 37% support, but both Jay Collins (14%) and James Fishback (12%) were said to have double-digit support.<\/p>\n Within days, the firm\u2019s own account posted a correction on X, saying it had \u201cidentified an error in the release of our July 11 Florida polling\u201d and confirming the survey had been pulled entirely<\/a>.<\/p>\n Change Research didn\u2019t specify what the actual error was, and no corrected numbers had gone out after the fact.<\/p>\n Donalds\u2019 campaign didn\u2019t wait around for an explanation. Communications Director Gates McGavick pointed to the pollster\u2019s 2020 record in Florida<\/a>, saying the firm missed by 13 points in Miami-Dade and in Florida\u2019s 15th Congressional District that cycle, and dismissed the new survey as \u201ca lazy psy op to swindle national Dems into lighting money on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n Before the retraction, podcast host Patrick Bet-David quote-tweeted the Republican Primary results, declaring \u201cthis is a real poll\u201d and suggesting the numbers were shifting the race.<\/p>\n Peter Schorsch, the publisher here at Florida Politics, wasn\u2019t having it. \u201cThis is not a real poll,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n John Cardillo, a Collins advisor desperate to gin up a narrative that his client isn\u2019t doomed in August, fired back the next morning, accusing Schorsch of printing \u201cwhatever fake news he is paid to print.\u201d<\/p>\n Turns out the poll itself was fake news. Cardillo swiftly apologized and admitted \u2026 just kidding, he\u2019s still rage posting through it.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t Change Research\u2019s first swing at the race this year. Working for the same client, the firm had Jolly up 4 points in May and as many as 6 points among likely voters in June, and both of those surveys already drew criticism<\/a> for using \u201cinformed\u201d ballot questions that describe the candidates before asking who voters support, rather than a standard head-to-head test.<\/p>\n In an era where polling credibility seems to be at its nadir, Change Research isn\u2019t doing the industry any favors.<\/p>\n The biggest loser: Fabi\u00e1n Basabe. A Leon County jury delivered its verdict against Fabian Basabe this week, finding him liable<\/a> on civil claims of battery, defamation and sexual harassment after barely two hours of deliberation.<\/p>\n Jurors ordered Basabe to pay $450,000<\/a> combined to a former legislative aide and a former intern. Nicolas Frevola and Jacob Cutbirth each drew $100,000 on the harassment claim and $75,000 on the battery claim, and Frevola alone added another $100,000<\/a> for defamation. The panel also found Basabe defamed Frevola\u2019s mother, Janette Frevola, but awarded her no damages.<\/p>\n The lawsuit dated back to 2023 and detailed a pattern of harassment, including a claim that Basabe assaulted a male friend of Frevola\u2019s who was staying overnight at his Miami home. A House-commissioned ethics review into the matter had come back \u201cinconclusive,\u201d and Basabe\u2019s social media response to that finding became the basis for the defamation claims.<\/p>\n Plaintiffs\u2019 attorney Cynthia Myers said afterward that her clients \u201chave been vindicated.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than hire a lawyer, Basabe argued his own defense in court, and by Wednesday morning he had rested without calling a single witness. Judge J. Lee Marsh admonished him repeatedly for breaking court orders, at one point calling the violations \u201cstaggering.\u201d<\/p>\n Basabe won his House District 106 seat by less than a point in 2022 and by 4 points in 2024, and he\u2019s running again this Fall, with Democrats Lucia B\u00e1ez-Geller and Ashley Litwin Diego seeking to challenge him.<\/p>\n Regardless of that outcome, it remains to be seen whether Republican leadership plans to do anything about a sitting member that a jury just found liable for harassing his own staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This weekend closes the book on arguably the biggest World Cup ever staged \u2014 and fittingly, the final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[118083,141441,141442,3401,16438,28,30,29,141443,71438,139,141444,9611],"class_list":["post-345133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-change-research","tag-college-faculty","tag-dave-ericks","tag-duke-energy","tag-fabian-basabe","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-fred-dudley","tag-jack-latvala","tag-orlando","tag-ralph-haben","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345133","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=345133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Singer-728x90DigitalAd-1.jpg\")
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