Federal prosecutors are seeking a hefty fine for J.T. Burnette after he was found guilty on five public corruption charges in August. The government issued a memo saying Burnette participated in extortion and bribery for so long and was unremorseful that the sentence should be extended.
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The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) will likely not be writing large checks to Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial challengers to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Congressman Charlie Crist (D-FL-13) and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (D) are the most likely candidates to face off against DeSantis in a general election.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a rally in Palm Beach earlier this week where he embraced the viral “Let’s Go Brandon” chants and called President Joe Biden the “Brandon Administration.”
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Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) is seeking an injunction against the federal government and President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate. The mandate would require federal contract workers to be vaccinated against COVID. Moody’s lawyers filed a motion for an injunction in federal court in Tampa.
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Three University of Florida professors are going to be fighting their employer’s order over testifying in a State of Florida election integrity law challenge. UF previously banned them altogether from testifying but backtracked their position and said they would permit the professors to testify if they remained unpaid.
“Prohibiting professors from giving standard expert testimony, and instead only allowing pro bono testimony, undermines their credibility as expert witnesses and chills their speech,” said the attorneys representing the professors.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) called a special session over President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate and Florida Democrats are criticizing the effort. DeSantis has, numerous times, worked to ban mask mandates in Florida’s schools and vaccine mandates, and is seeking the Florida Legislature to codify those bans even further.
“I think that we need to be making sure that people are healthy and safe, and that they can go to work and that our economy is booming, and that businesses are able to do what they need to do,” said Florida State Sen. Lauren Book (D-FL-32).
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The Seminole Tribe of Florida kicked off their recently approved online sports betting platform in Florida even during legal challenges. The Tribe rolled out the new entertainment option with little press.
The launch of the new platform, which operates through an app downloadable for smart devices, allows users to place bets and wagers on professional sports teams.
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As a result of an undercount in the 2020 census, Florida is projected to lose millions of dollars, and as much as $88 million in Medicaid payments alone. Florida is set to gain a seat in Congress as the population count indicates a substantial enough growth, but the undercounting will not affect congressional seats, just funding.
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Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) is calling for Republicans to break from big business in policy and polities when he spoke at the National Conservatism Conference yesterday. He also penned an op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel saying America’s largest companies have peddled “anti-American ideologies” and “wokeness” which has contributed to America’s growing partisan divide.
Rubio comments from the conference were pared down into another op-ed posted in The American Conservative where he said if conservatives do not fight back using “corporate patriotism,” Rubio said “we would lose America.”
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Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell spoke at a law enforcement retreat in North Carolina hosted by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and LGBT advocacy groups are calling for Revell to be removed from his post.
The groups are calling the BGEA “one of the nation’s most notorious anti-LGBTQ+ Christian right groups.”
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The University of Florida (UF) has modified their previous position prohibiting faculty and staff participating in activities in a professional capacity deemed against the interests of, or in conflict with, the state of Florida.
The Ocala Star Banner reported late Sunday that UF would allow three professors to serve as expert witnesses in a case that challenges a new state law restricting voting access if they are not paid and don’t use university time or resources.
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After Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) called for a special session last week to legislatively oppose President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates, the date has now been set and Florida’s top Republicans have said they are unified in their message and intent alongside DeSantis.
Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls (R-FL-65) and Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson (R-FL-10) issued a joint message ahead of the special session set to run from November 15 through November 19.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) defended Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo after he and State Sen. Tina Polsky had a back-and-forth over mask wearing that garnered much attention across statewide media.
Ladapo initially came under fire for not wearing a mask in a scheduled meeting with Polsky (D-FL-29) who cited her recent breast cancer diagnosis as the basis for her request. Ladapo preferred to not wear a mask and asked if they could meet outside, but Polsky insisted on meeting in her own office.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced this week he is suing the President Joe Biden administration over a vaccine mandate for federal contractors. The lawsuit says the president does not have the authority to impose such a mandate.
The mandate from Biden says that federal contract workers will have to be fully vaccinated by December 8, 2021, in order to keep their jobs. DeSantis said his administration’s decision to sue the federal government is a kept promise to rein in “federal overreach.”
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The Tallahassee City Commission passed a resolution urging the Florida Legislature to protect abortion policy and access to abortion. The resolution was passed with a 3-2 vote with Mayor John Dailey and Commissioners Jeremy Matlow and Jack Porter voting in the affirmative.
Commissioners Curtis Richardson and Dianne Williams-Cox did not support the resolution because they did not feel the city had the authority to request action from lawmakers.
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Judge Suzanne Van Wyk found, this week, that the ban on online medical marijuana purchases through third-party sites to be an unadopted rule and ordered the state to “immediately discontinue reliance on its policy … regarding online ordering of medical marijuana through third-party websites.”
Van Wyk is an administrative law judge who presided over the decision to reinstate the online purchases after the state banned the practice.
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The Broward County School District voted to remove their mask mandate for high schools and will go into effect on Monday, November 1. The mandate will be maintained in elementary and middle schools, but high school students will still be encouraged to wear masks.
“I’m proud of the School Board of Broward County for standing firm on keeping mask mandates in place for Broward County Public Schools’ elementary and middle school students, and strongly encouraging high school students to wear masks,” said Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco.
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State Sen. Tina Polsky (D-FL-29) recently scheduled a meeting with Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, where the meeting quickly went south.
It was reported over the weekend that Polsky asked Ladapo and his two legislative aides to leave her office because Ladapo did not want to wear a mask during their conversation. Polsky cited her breast cancer diagnosis as the reasoning for her desire to have all parties masked.
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The Florida School Boards Association (FSBA) has issued a letter to the National School Boards Association (NSBA) over their concerns of federal overreach in local school district meetings.
The original letter from the national organization to President Joe Biden said teachers were under “immediate threat” from parents over their vocal opposition to Critical Race Theory (CRT) and mask mandates in public schools and asked federal law enforcement agencies to launch investigations against the parents.
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The Florida state Ethics Commission ruled that the Federal Government’s effort to supplant lost income to the Broward County School Board would not violate state ethics law. However, the decision was split causing much debate. Commission member Don Gaetz, who also previously served as Florida Senate President, wanted to table the question.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spent the weekend making the rounds on Fox News programming where he lauded his work as governor and the varying efforts he is pushing. Notably, DeSantis spent time on Tucker Carlson Tonight on Friday where he said President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate is unconstitutional.
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The Florida Hospital Association (FHA) declared the COVID delta variant surge is over in Florida and daily hospitalization counts are no longer needed for the time. Mary Mayhew, President and CEO of the FHA, said the availability of treatments has helped lessen the impact of the variant and she maintained getting vaccinated is the still the best way to combat COVID.
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Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry is term limited in his current post, but he has already begun teasing his future political plans.
“I’m looking forward to the upcoming political season. 2022 & 2023 are coming at us fast,” Curry tweeted. “I’m as rested, rejuvenated & ready to roll as ever. & I’ve been in the middle of some tough campaigns. Elections matter. I am older, wiser, more experienced and have more energy & stamina now than any campaign I’ve been in or apart of. Got into this with purpose many years ago and will see it through.”
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has called for a special legislative session to resolve the issue of vaccine mandates in Florida. On Twitter, DeSantis said no one should lose their job over a vaccine.
“I am calling the Florida Legislature back for a Special Session to pursue stronger protections for Floridians against federal government mandates,” DeSantis said. “No one should lose their job over a COVID shot.”
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A group of Florida’s Supervisors of Elections have signed on to a letter entitled “Our Democracy, Our Priority” where they are asking officials across Florida to ease off of the rhetoric regarding questions of the validity of the 2020 presidential election.
They are asking Floridians to accept the results of the election: that then-President Donald Trump won Florida and President Joe Biden was elected president.
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Florida Department of Administrative Hearings Judge Brian Newman cleared a path, refusing to dismiss a challenge by six Florida school districts, challenging the Florida Department of Health’s rule against mask mandates.
The counties included in the challenge are: Miami-Dade, Broward, Orange, Duval, Alachua, and Leon Counties.
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The assailant in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. in 2018 plead guilty to all charges related to the tragedy at the school. He plead guilty to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.
The assailant is facing life in prison and a jury will determine if he will face the death penalty. The selection for that jury will be begin on Jan. 4, 2022.
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The Florida Board of Governors (BOG) has requested the Florida Legislature to allocate approximately $150 million more to funding three major Florida universities: University of South Florida (USF), University of Florida (UF), and Florida State University (FSU).
The request is a part of the BOG’s total $3.57 billion budget request for all of Florida’s college and universities. If approved by the Florida Legislature, each university would receive $50 million.
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Florida Judge Monica Brasington refused to dismiss a potential class-action lawsuit against the University of Florida which says the school should refund the fees to students who were forced to study from home during the COVID-induced school year.
If it is considered a class action lawsuit, then Anthony Rojas’ lawsuit against the university, would likely affect tens of thousands of students who were forced to study and learn from home when the university shut campus down during the pandemic.
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Numerous reports have been released revealing the President Joe Biden administration has been flying illegal aliens into states, including Florida, in the dead of night. On Saturday night, a Boeing 737 landed in Jacksonville, Fla., originating from Texas, after 10:00 p.m.
Soon after, the group of travelers were escorted onto charter buses and driven to the Twin Oaks Academy, a juvenile detention center in the Apalachicola National Forest, outside of Tallahassee, Fla.
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Florida State Sen. Annette Taddeo (D-FL-40) announced her bid for governor yesterday, totaling the number of Democrats in the gubernatorial race to three. Taddeo is joining her former gubernatorial running mate from 2014, Congressman Charlie Crist (D-FL-13), and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried in the Democratic primary race.
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Regulation over the vacation rental industry is teed up, once again for the upcoming Florida Legislative session. Sen. Jason Fischer (R-FL-4) filed legislation to grant the regulation of vacation-rental platforms, like Airbnb or Vrbo, to the state. The bill, HB 325, would remove the regulatory power away from local municipalities.
City and county governments have fought similar legislation, saying they should be able to regulate their properties on a local level.
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The Florida Department of Health (FDOH) is proposing a new long-term rule to ban mask mandates and enshrine its new quarantine rules for students in Florida’s public school system. Florida’s new surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, signed off on the first phase of the new rules last month which said students would no longer have to quarantine if they are exposed and asymptomatic.
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Leon County Circuit Judge Layne Smith has ruled against a business in Sarasota requesting to impose a vaccine mandate for its customers to enter.
The store, Bead Abode, requested that Smith grant their request for a mandate, but denied them saying Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ vaccine mandate ban “assures open markets.”
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Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist (D-FL-13) said earlier this week that if he is elected governor, he vowed to legalize recreational marijuana and expunge criminals with marijuana convictions.
The announcement came as part of the unveiling of Crist’s “Justice for All” criminal justice reform plan, which also included some gun control policies. Crist said the plan is for the communities who have felt left behind by the government.
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The Florida Commission on Ethics (FCE) will be asking the Florida Legislature for more funding for staffing shortages as the backlog of cases continues to pile on. Commissioner Don Gaetz requested the current funding remain the same but felt the commission might need to ask for more.
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Over 350 doctors from across Florida signed on to a letter asking the Florida Senate to scrutinize Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo. The doctors took part in the effort alongside the Committee to Protect Health Care (CPHC), as they outlined numerous questions regarding Ladapo’s positions.
Ladapo, upon announcing his appointment to the position, said Florida is “done with fear” and began a process of pushing back against universal mask mandates and vaccine mandates. He was appointed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and some DeSantis opponents called Ladapo “an anti-masker and a vaccine skeptic.”
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he will not be supporting an audit, or a review, into the 2020 election in Florida.
“What we do in Florida is, there’s a pre- and post-election audit that happens automatically,” DeSantis said. “So, that has happened. It passed with flying colors in terms of how that’s going.”
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Florida Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist (D-FL-13), earlier this week, announced his new campaign initiative entitled “Justice for All,” but Crist has had a back-and-forth history regarding criminal justice reform issues.
Prior to becoming a Democrat, Crist was an Independent, and before that was Florida’s one-term Republican governor from 2007-2011. He also served in the Florida Legislature as a Republican and in different executive positions during Jeb Bush’s tenure as governor.
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Monday was the federally recognized Christopher Columbus Day, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a declaration commemorating the historical event of Columbus’ landing in the New World. “Christopher Columbus displayed courage, determination, and perseverance when he sailed the ocean blue more than 500 years ago,” DeSantis tweeted. “Happy Columbus Day!” Christopher Columbus displayed courage, determination, and perseverance when he sailed the ocean blue more than 500 years ago. Happy Columbus Day! pic.twitter.com/6N0MlOkrvZ — Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) October 11, 2021 In the proclamation, DeSantis said the day was a time of commemoration for Americans of Italian ancestry and defended Columbus’ legacy from those who exclusively highlight the impact of the historical events of war and disease the Genoan and the colonists had on the natives of the Western Hemisphere. “WHEREAS, Columbus continues to be a historical figure who engenders the pride of nearly 17 million Italian Americans, a community whose warmth, generosity, patriotism, and love of family have made those characteristics even greater components of the broader American culture and way of life; and WHEREAS, we must learn from history and continue to discuss Columbus’ contributions, discoveries, and experiences rather than revise history, and acknowledge that individuals who seek to…
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the City of Winter Haven has been awarded with $9M for road improvement at the city’s Intermodal Logistics Center. The money was awarded to the city stemming from numerous sources, including: the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) and from the Florida Department of Transportation.
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Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist (D-FL-13) announced a “Justice for All” initiative, which he would support and push if elected as governor. Parts of the plan would include voting rights restoration and cracking down on gun violence.
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Members within Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration have pushed back against Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried’s incomplete COVID data regarding Florida’s school districts. In the effort, Fried made the claim Florida’s schools that have mask mandates have fared better than schools without mask mandates. The DeSantis administration called the data “misinformation.”
The data Fried used stemmed from a sharable, view-only OneDrive Excel document containing week-by-week COVID data for each county’s school district. However, over half of Florida’s school districts were not included in the document.
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A number of notable Florida congressional Republicans voted in favor of H.R. 4350, the National Defense Authorization Act, but included in the bill is a gun confiscation provision commonly referred to as a “Red Flag law” directed towards military members.
Within the text of the bill, gun confiscation would be permitted under a military court order and the court would be able to prevent a member of the United States armed forces from owning a firearm.
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A Leon County circuit judge could make a ruling on the lawsuit against Florida’s vaccine passport ban as soon as late next week. The lawsuit was filed by Bead Abode Inc., a Sarasota-based craft store where attorneys for the company have argued it violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
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The State of Florida has officially submitted its education plan to the U.S. Department of Education (U.S. DOE) outlining how the state intends to spend $7 billion in education funding stemming from the American Rescue Plan Act.
Approximately $2.3 billion was being withheld from the state because the state did not apply for the money. Florida notably became the last state in the county to apply for its final third apportionment from the U.S. DOE.
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Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is “lying” about mask mandates in Florida’s schools and claims masks have been effective in stopping the spread of COVID.
“Ron DeSantis is lying to you about masks in schools … In every single case, kids were better off in school districts that required masks than school districts that did not,” Fried said.
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Florida’s new jobless claims slightly dropped as the U.S. Department of Labor released new data this week. The numbers showed 7,713 new jobless claims were filed as of September 25, however the same metric is down to 6,509 as of October 2.
When the COVID-induced economic slowdown began in March and April 2020, the jobless claims were much higher, but since May 2021, the state has averaged just below 8,000 new jobless claims per week.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he will defend Floridians after Attorney General Merrick Garland began “weaponizing” the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate supposed threats against school board members.
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Tallahassee Community College (TCC) announced it will be paying off students’ financial accounts up to $6 million stemming from federal funding. Students eligible have to have been enrolled in TCC from March 2020 through this fall.
The money will be coming out of a grant from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, which was a part of the CARES Act legislation passed during 2020. The CARES Act was designed to provide economic relief during the slowed economy as a result of the COVID pandemic.
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