Before reposting this editorial from The Orlando Sentinel, a personal note.
Jeffrey Schweers, The Sentinel’s Tallahassee bureau reporter, was a classmate at the University of Florida.
He helped break open the Hope Florida story and continued digging as questions grew over a $67 million Medicaid settlement, $10 million directed to the Hope Florida Foundation and what happened to that money afterward.
In June 2025, the Florida Department of Children and Families sent the Sentinel an unsigned cease-and-desist letter accusing Schweers of intimidation and demanding that he stop contacting foster families in connection with his reporting.
The Sentinel did not back down.
Its editorial board responded aggressively, defending not only Schweers, but also the First Amendment, Freedom of the Press and the Fourth Estate.
In August 2026, a previously sealed statewide grand jury report became public. The grand jury concluded that $10 million connected to the Medicaid settlement had been misappropriated and criticized officials and the Hope Florida Foundation board over their handling of the money. No criminal charges resulted from the grand jury investigation.
That does not make every allegation or every piece of reporting automatically correct. It does demonstrate why reporters keep asking questions, requesting records and following money even when powerful institutions would prefer that they stop.
I know Jeff. I know where he learned the craft. And as a fellow University of Florida journalism graduate, I am proud to see an old classmate doing the kind of public-records reporting journalism is supposed to do.
Here is today’s editorial from The Orlando Sentinel.
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