VoteWater's getting ready for 2026; how about you?

With the 2026 primary just over a year away, we’re ramping up our electoral efforts. Our Q2 updates to the “Dirty Money Project” will soon be live, along with the latest list of who’s running. Behind the scenes, we’ve started meeting with candidates to identify those truly committed to clean water — and we’re putting the finishing touches on a comprehensive clean-water survey that every candidate will be asked to complete. The results will be posted publicly at VoteWater.org.

There’s much more on the way as we work to equip you with the facts and the power to vote for clean water — and hold polluters and their enablers accountable.

Billionaires get richer: Big wins for Big Sugar as Ag Secretary visits Clewiston

No doubt about it — one of the biggest winners in the President’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” was Big Sugar.

And U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’ visit to Clewiston Monday proved it.

Rollins met with Big Sugar employees and took part in a roundtable discussion with sugar farmers at the event (gee, our invitation must have gotten lost in the mail…)

Discussion touched on how the Big Beautiful Bill “will strengthen America’s sugar industry and support the long-term sustainability of Florida’s sugarcane farms,” Florida Politics reported.

Among other sugar-friendly provisions, the bill includes an increase in the loan rate for raw cane sugar, which amounts to a windfall for the industry.

And as we noted last week, the Agriculture Department recently announced it will allow “no additional imports of specialty sugars beyond what U.S. international obligations dictate” — handing Big Sugar yet another win.

The truth is, the Trump Administration’s “America First” agenda often puts Big Sugar first. And that might not be so surprising when you consider at how much "dirty money" the sugar industry has given the President, which includes more than $927,000 from Florida Crystals' Jose "Pepe" Fanjul to the Trump 47 Committee Inc. PAC in 2024 alone, along with another $1 million from Florida Crystals to the Make America Great Again Inc. PAC.

Looks like Florida Crystals is getting a nice return on its investment.

The sugar billionaires get richer — and the rest of us with no choice but to fight even harder for meaningful reform and an end to the industry's outsized political influence.

About that deal for Florida to take the lead on the EAA Reservoir...

We want to think the deal between Florida and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the state to take the lead on the EAA Reservoir — and ostensibly move the completion date up by five years — is a good thing.

The state might have resources available that a thinly-stretched Army Corps does not. And as with any huge bureaucracy, there are likely things the Corps could do more efficiently.

But...

Buried in the “Memorandum of Understanding” signed by the state and the Army is an assertion that because the process of obtaining 404 Clean Water Act permits from the Army “can cause delays of critical projects, the (federal) Government commits to expediting the review and issuance of 404 permits that support Federally authorized CERP projects when such permit is required.”

Full stop. What does this even mean? Will permit applications for CERP projects be fast-tracked, jumping ahead of other pending applications for unrelated projects?

Or will the Army ease its permitting standards simply because a project is deemed a priority?

Let’s be honest — protecting the environment has never been Florida’s strong suit. But with CERP, the Army Corps has always served as a crucial check and balance. 

We want to see CERP move along, too. But Clean Water Act wetlands protections aren’t some bureaucratic hurdle to dodge — they’re essential safeguards. So let's not "solve" environmental problems in the Everglades — while creating more at the same time.

The latest on 'Alligator Alcatraz'

The legal wrangling over the Everglades detention center goes on, as the original federal judge in the case recused himself and a new judge took it over. That judge, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, had recently found Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in contempt for ignoring her orders in another case. Subsequently — predictably — the state then asked for a change of venue, saying the case should be heard in Collier County (by a different judge) and not Miami-Dade. Williams scheduled a July 30 hearing to consider whether the suit is filed in the right court.

Plaintiffs Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity continue to seek an injunction and restraining order that would halt additional activity at the site. Williams said she will hear arguments at an Aug. 6 hearing in Miami.

Stay tuned.

New reports show the state has already spent upwards of $200 million on the detention center. When are “fiscal conservatives” going to start asking questions about this?

Meanwhile, our friends at Friends of the Everglades now say some 20 acres of new pavement have been added to the site, and industrial lighting installed - which, you know, kind of undermines Gov. DeSantis’ assertion that there is “zero environmental impact” on the Everglades.

Then there’s the separate issue of conditions for detainees, which has spawned a separate lawsuit, even diplomatic outrage.

What a debacle, all to score some partisan political points, and boost Attorney General Uthmeier’s political profile.

Remember this next time you’re in a voting booth. And click the button below to do something about it right now.

Become a WaveMaker!