This Week on NewsNight
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A new Florida chief resilience officer is appointed to head the state’s climate change mitigation efforts. But without a statewide clean energy plan, is Florida’s long-term resilience strategy sustainable? And the Governor pledges more than $50 million dollars to improve water quality in the Indian River Lagoon as manatees die in Florida in record numbers.
NewsNight airs Friday nights at 8:30 p.m. on WUCF. Join the conversation about the stories in your community.
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A challenging year for local arts organizations
Central Florida arts organizations emerge from the pandemic.
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NewsNight en Español
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Voting legislation to be discussed in special session
NewsNight’s Steve Mort spoke with Democratic State Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith about the special session, and the governor’s plans for a new round of voting legislation next year.
University changes course on banning professors from voting laws case
Last week, the University of Florida reversed course on plans to prohibit three professors from taking paid outside work on a case challenging the state on voting laws.
The school called the work "a conflict of interest" because the university is a state of Florida institution. However, critics charge that the ban was a political attack on academic freedom and First Amendment rights.
NewsNight's Steve Mort spoke with the President of the United Faculty of Florida Union.
Florida legislature's special session
As Governor DeSantis files his paperwork to run for reelection next year, two important political issues face Florida lawmakers.
A special session of the legislature starts on Monday in response to the federal government's vaccine mandate.
And Governor DeSantis is planning a new round of voting legislation for next year.
NewsNight’s Steve Mort spoke with Republican State Senator Dennis Baxley and started by asking him about the bills lined up for the special session next week.
Will the private space sector bring more to Florida?
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says he thinks the private space sector will bring more to Florida than previous programs, including the Apollo missions.
It’s a bold statement, but is it realistic?
NewsNight’s Steve Mort spoke with Space Florida’s Dale Ketcham and started by asking him about a recent announcement that satellite maker Terran Orbital will open a new factory on Merritt Island employing more than 2,000 workers.
NewsNight en Español | El caso de Miya Marcano
La presentadora de NewsNight, Nancy Alvarez, habló con su colega de WFTV, Alexa Lorenzo, sobre el caso de Miya Marcano y su reciente entrevista con los padres de Miya en sur de la Florida.
Protestas en Cuba y en Florida Central
Steve Mort presentador de NewsNight habló con Luis Martinez-Fernández, Profesor de Historia en UCF y experto en asuntos cubanos, acerca de las recientes protestas en Cuba y en Florida Central.
About the Show
NewsNight Wins FABJ Award
NewsNight is a weekly, taped 30-minute segment, featuring WFTV’s Nancy Alvarez as the moderator along with a team of journalists in radio, tv, newspaper, and blogs across Central Florida. The show is a weekly round-table discussion that highlights local journalism around important community topics. It is the story behind the story. The panel will break down the big story or stories of the week and discuss what and how they’ll impact the community.
Your community.
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Your journalists.
NewsNight airs every Friday at 8:30 p.m. on WUCF.
NewsNight Wins Florida Association of Broadcast Journalists
WUCF’s weekly news program NewsNight took home an award during the Florida Association of Broadcast Journalists virtual awards ceremony on Saturday, May 9. NewsNight won first place in the transportation and traffic category in the large television market division for its work on transportation reporting in 2019.
About Moderator Nancy Alvarez
Nancy Alvarez is a bilingual news anchor and reporter for Central Florida’s ABC affiliate, WFTV Channel 9, and host of NewsNight on WUCF, Central Florida's PBS station.
Over the last 20 years, she has played a role in covering every major story in the region including hurricanes, political events, and the tragedy at the Pulse nightclub in June of 2016.
Nancy began her career as a reporter covering the space program in Brevard County providing live coverage of countless launches and landings. She was on the runway in Florida waiting for the space shuttle Columbia when it broke apart over Texas during re-entry. She was among the first reporters on the air covering the tragedy from the Kennedy Space Center.
Nancy was also on the front line for the infamous 2004 Hurricane Season when three hurricanes hit Florida in less than two months.
More recently, Nancy was one of the first reporters on the ground in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017. Over the course of multiple trips, she provided coverage of the impacts of the storm both on the island and in Florida as storm evacuees moved to the mainland. She was also there for the political unrest that led to the resignation of the island’s governor in 2019.
She also works as a public speaker and has used her reporting experience to advocate for issues including domestic violence and the challenges facing special needs kids in schools. Nancy is a first-generation Cuban American and lives in Orlando with her husband and two children.
Follow Nancy on Twitter here.