Winners & Losers
This week’s biggest Winners & Losers
Who’s up and who’s down in the Sunshine State?
Of all the right ways to start off a presidential bid, breaking bread with an antisemitic rapper and an unabashed white nationalist ain’t one of them. We speak of Donald Trump’s dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, and Nick Fuentes, both of whom have praised Hitler. Even Trump’s former veep, Mike Pence, assailed him. And conservative commentator Ben Shapiro tweeted, “A good way not to accidentally dine with a vile racist and anti-Semite you don’t know is not to dine with a vile racist and anti-Semite you do know.” Here are a few more losers of the week – along with our weekly winners.
Maximo Alvarez, Carl Bolch Jr. & Chris Gheysens -
Respectively, they’re the heads of Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, RaceTrac and Wawa. The businesses they run are among the major convenience store and gas station chains that won a quiet battle over Gov. Ron DeSantis’ gas tax holiday. Their able lobbyists, as Jason Garcia reported this week, worked under the radar to “remove any threat of criminal punishment for failing to pass the tax savings on to consumers.”
Matthew Casey -
The former Hallandale Beach cop caught the worst of breaks: He helped respond to 2018’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, and the tragic episode left him with PTSD. Casey then applied for worker’s comp benefits, but he was turned down. Casey appealed, and this week a panel of appellate judges sided with him. Let’s hope it goes no further in the legal system and Casey gets the help he needs and deserves.
Travis Smith -
He’s the northeast Florida emergency medicine physician who will be the first dean of Jacksonville University’s new medical school, set to open in 2026. Jacksonville is currently the largest city in the country without a medical school. We won’t be a downer and complain about the name, which derives from its partner, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine: “LECOM at Jacksonville University.” Will it be pronounced LEE-com or luh-COMB?
Brennan Asplen -
The Sarasota superintendent is likely the first head to roll after conservatives took control of multiple school boards across the state. The Sarasota school board, which now has a 4-1 conservative lean, voted to negotiate his resignation after both Asplen and board members publicly exchanged words and predicted that his time with them would be short. Prior to the meeting, he sent a letter to district families and employees where he said he "accepted" that he would be separating from the district. That separation will happen any day now.
Joel Greenberg -
The former Seminole County tax collector who trafficked a teenager, spent taxpayer dollars on paid sex and cryptocurrency and committed other various crimes while in office has finally been sentenced to 11 years behind bars. Greenberg’s sentence was the most the judge could give him under the guidelines, thanks to his cooperation with investigators into a wider corruption probe into dozens of individuals. The sentencing closes the first chapter in one of the biggest corruption cases in Florida history.
Kelly Meggs -
This leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers was convicted of sedition along with Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes for their part in the Jan. 6 insurrection.The two-month-long trial that resulted in the convictions showcased the far-right extremist group’s efforts to keep Republican Donald Trump in the White House at all costs. The charge of sedition, which has rarely been used since the Civil War, could put Meggs behind bars for up to 20 years.