Rep. Maxwell Frost
U.S. Representative Maxwell Frost from Orlando is vocal with his concerns about the power President Trump has given to Elon Musk over taxpayer information and money. The SpaceX and Tesla founder and owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, has been given unprecedented access to federal agencies in the administration’s quest to identify and eliminate any government waste. On Tuesday, Musk and his team plugged into computer systems at the U.S. Treasury, giving them access to trillions of dollars earmarked for government spending on things like Social Security, veteran’s benefits and tax refunds. Congressman Frost, the Democrat representing Florida’s 10th congressional district, joins Engage and details his experience when he led a delegation to the Treasury and was denied entry.
Churches Not Protected from ICE Arrests
A new Trump administration policy allows agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection to enter churches to make arrests. Central Florida Public Media’s Joe Byrnes spoke to pastors and religious leaders in the region about the impact of this new policy.
One Small Step School Segregation
In the decades before the Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional, and in the years that followed that historic 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision, there was a separate system of schools for Black students in Orange County. Jones High School was one of the first public schools for African American students in Orlando. Walter Hawkins graduated from Jones in the Parramore neighborhood in 1971, just two years after the school integrated and opened to white students. Hawkins sat down for a One Small Step conversation.
Central Florida Public Media and StoryCorps are inviting people to take part in this initiative to bring communities together one conversation at a time. Central Florida Public Media’s Abe Aboraya brings us the One Small Step conversation with Hawkins and Prateek Seela, a high school senior at Lake Highland Preparatory School in Orlando, about the history of integration in Orange County.
Famous Family Feud
When talking about family feuds in Central Florida, there's one worth mentioning: the Barber-Mizell feud between two powerful families that developed in the mid-1800's and lasted well into the 20th Century. Billy Morgan, CFO of the Orange County Regional History Center and a keen historian of local lore, will be speaking about the infamous Barber-Mizell Feud on Friday as part of the History Center’s monthly “Lunch & Learn” series. He joins Engage to talk about this feud and the lasting impact it had across the region.
