Florida DOGE Hits Orange County
The Florida DOGE team rolled into Orange County in early September led by state CFO Blaise Ingoglia. The team requested more than 183-thousand documents pertaining to county appropriations, spending and programs encouraging anything the DeSantis Administration interprets as relating to diversity, equity and/or inclusion.
Last week, Ingoglia accused the county of overcharging homeowners by nearly 190 million dollars in property taxes.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings responded by saying Orange County homeowners weren’t overtaxed – that the rate has adjusted with the explosive population growth – more than 125,000 people in the last five years. Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings joins Engage to respond to CFO Ingoglia’s allegations.
Chris Carmody is an attorney with GrayRobinson, a lobbying firm with offices in Orlando and Tallahassee. Carmody joins Engage to parse out some of the nuance in these Florida DOGE audits.
Stripped for Parts Examines Newspaper Consolidation
Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink is a new documentary that looks at Alden Global Capital – a New York-based hedge fund established in 2007 - and it’s very successful business model of buying newspapers to later liquidate them of their assets, primarily their real estate holdings.
The liquidations begin with staff downsizing, then essential resources are sold off – computers, phone systems, industry subscriptions used by reporters and editors. When the papers are reduced to the bare bones, publishing little more than national wire copy, advertisers flee, the paper folds and the land is auctioned off. Alden and its shareholders profit – the newspaper staff is left unemployed and the community uninformed.
Rick Goldsmith is the director of Stripped for Parts – the documentary was shown on Sunday at the Enzian Theater in Winter Park – followed by a discussion focused on how the liquidation of these papers is impacting communities across America – including ours. The Orlando Sentinel’s parent company – Tribune Publishing – was acquired by Alden Global Capital in 2021.
That discussion was led by Goldsmith and Judith Smelser – president and general manager of Central Florida Public Media.
WWE’s Home in Central Florida
Central Florida has deep ties to the world of professional wrestling. The WWE Performance Center is in Orlando. It’s their official training facility and development hub where many of the biggest stars launch their careers.
You may not know it but Engage Host Cheryn Stone and Are We There Yet Host Brendan Byrne are both huge WWE fans. They tag team this discussion with Central Florida resident WWE Superstar Jacob Fatu about the region’s role in the ring.
