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Long form, primary sourced

Investigations

Investigations built from court records, state documents, and archived sources. Updated as the record changes, with every correction logged.

Entries below carry a verification chip. How we decide what publishes as fact is on our sources and method page.

  • Alligator Alcatraz, start to finish

    Florida built a detention camp in the Everglades with state employees and state money, ran it for under a year, and took it down. A federal appeals court found the state built it on its own initiative, and the Legislature responded by ordering quarterly reports on the spending.

    Verified
  • The 60% rule

    In 2006 Florida voters raised the bar for amending their constitution to 60 percent, approving that change with 57.78 percent of the vote. Since then thirteen measures have drawn a majority of Floridians and failed anyway.

    Verified
  • The Hope Florida money trail

    A $67 million Medicaid settlement signed on September 27, 2024 directed $10 million to a foundation tied to the governor's Hope Florida initiative. Within weeks, $8.5 million reached a political committee chaired by the governor's chief of staff and campaigning against Amendment 3 (2024).

    Verified
  • The Sunshine Fade

    Florida wrote the gold standard for open government. This is a running, sourced count of the exemptions carving it away, what each one hides, and who voted for it.

    Pending review
  • Two tiers: voting rights restoration in Florida

    In 2018 Florida voters restored the vote to as many as 1.4 million people by citizen initiative, and the Legislature then attached a price to it. Today an out-of-state felony conviction can leave a Floridian eligible to vote while an in-state one does not.

    Verified
  • Your insurance bill

    No claims, no flood, and your premium went up again. The policy choices, the litigation carve-outs, and the market exits behind what Floridians pay to insure a home.

    Pending review

In progress. All five launch investigations are stubs, and none has cleared verification yet.