Craig Pittman, journalist, blogger and author of Oh, Florida!: How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country (St. Martin's Press, 2016), explores the reasons for Florida's reputation as a state of extremes, from recent tragic events to oddities like sinkholes and hanging chads.

Pittman said weird events in Florida have often set precedents in other parts of the U.S. 

"We had a couple of crooked Miami Beach cops who were going back and breaking into the businesses they were protecting on their beat during the day, and they were caught because a hand radio operator couldn't sleep and woke up in the middle of night and turned on his hand radio and picked up their walkie talkie conversations," he said. "When they went to trial they were convicted and their attorney appealed the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, just because there was a TV camera in the courtroom. The Supreme Court ruled it was ok to have TV cameras in the court and that's why we now have cameras in America's courtroom showing us the O.J. trial, Caylee Anthony etc."