Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) Monday announced his appointment to fill the vacant seat on the five-member panel of the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC).
Attorney Gabriella Passidomo, daughter of state Sen. Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples) was selected, according to POLITICO. The elder Passidomo is the Senate president-elect in 2022.
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A high-profile Republican is expected to leave his post as Detroit’s Chief of Police, and run against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) in 2022’s gubernatorial race.
“Detroit Police Chief James Craig, a Republican and a veteran of police departments around the country, is preparing to challenge Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan, potentially giving the GOP a formidable candidate in one of the midterm election’s highest profile gubernatorial contests,” POLITICO reported.
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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) is being called out on the internet for apparently breaking his own mask mandate orders.
DeWine and his wife Fran unmasked for a photo opportunity inside a Findlay ice cream shop at the end of last week.
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The state of Florida will argue before a federal judge Wednesday that the federal government should not be allowed to interfere with the cruise ship industry, which seeks to get back on its feet after the COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequent lockdowns.
“Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, filed the lawsuit last month challenging restrictions imposed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and pointing to the economic impact on the state,” according to a CBS Miami report. “Moody’s office is seeking a preliminary injunction based, in part, on arguments that the CDC overstepped its legal authority in imposing the restrictions.”
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A former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida Thursday won an appeal of her 2017 conviction for corruption, according to several reports.
Former Democrat Rep. Corrine Brown, who represented Florida’s Fifth and Third Congressional Districts over a period of nearly 25 years, had her conviction overturned after the 11 Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the District Court wrongly dismissed a juror after learning that the “Holy Spirit” told him Brown was not guilty of the crimes.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) wants Senate Democrats to step to the plate and abolish the filibuster, which would pave the way for near-total Democrat control of Congress.
“Please stop asking us about bipartisanship when this is what the leader of the other party is focused on,” she said on Twitter. “Democrats can’t repeat the mistake of 2009, we must abolish the filibuster & move legislation that helps us deliver progress for the American people. Let’s grow a backbone.”
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Atlanta’s Mayor announced Thursday night that she will not run for a second term.
“As [husband] Derek and I have given thoughtful prayer and consideration to the season now before us, it is with deep emotions that I hold my head high, and choose not to seek another term as Mayor,” Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) said in a letter published Thursday.
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During the fall semester, Florida’s 12 public universities are set to return to normal, after a full school year of COVID-19 disruptions.
“An early evening news release signed by Syd Kitson, chairman of the university system’s Board of Governors, and Marshall Criser, chancellor of the system, said the 12 public universities ‘expect to increase classroom occupancy to pre-COVID capacity by the 2021-22 academic year and return to pre-COVID operations. Further, we anticipate returning to full in-person participation in athletic and social activities on our campuses, including fan participation in stadiums and arenas,'” News Service of Florida reported.
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A Democrat senator from Minnesota sided with Facebook, a multi-billion dollar international corporation, in its decision to ban former President Donald J. Trump from its platform for life.
“That was the right thing to do. He’s the disinformer-in-chief. He told the biggest lie of all time, which led to an insurrection by getting his followers to believe that the election was a fake,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said on “Late Night” with Seth Meyers. “It was an outrageous moment with a number of Republicans calling him out on it at the time.”
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Republicans are hitting back at Facebook and the Big Tech giants in Silicon Valley after Facebook’s Oversight Board announced Wednesday that it will uphold its ban of Former President Donald J. Trump.
Facebook claimed in a statement that Trump post “violated Facebook’s rules prohibiting praise or support of people engaged in violence,” when he called Capitol protestors “great patriots” and and “very special” on Jan. 6.
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After a jury found former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on charges of second and third degree murder, along with manslaughter for killing George Floyd, his attorney has made a motion requesting a hearing to argue that Chauvin’s conviction to be vacated, and a new trial granted.
In a motion filed Tuesday, attorney Eric Nelson argued that Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill’s failure to order the jury to be sequestered, and failure to allow the trial to be moved out of Minneapolis, along with the sheer amount of media coverage of the trial, amounts to a violation of Chauvin’s constitutional right to a fair trial.
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A lawsuit filed by two police officers after separate use-of-force incidents claiming that they are entitled to protection under Florida’s recently-adopted Marsy’s Law Constitutional amendment will head to the state Supreme Court for a decision.
“A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal last month sided with two Tallahassee police officers, who argued that, as victims, they were entitled to privacy protections included in Marsy’s Law,” WFSU reported.
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According to Minnesota’s governor, who held a Tuesday press conference announcing that he has a plan to reopen the state which will be announced Thursday, the state should prepare for a “very normal” summer.
“We are going to, potentially by June, have 70 percent of our people, 12 or 16 and above – whichever is authorized by CDC – vaccinated, and that changes the entire calculus,” Gov. Tim Walz (DFL) said Tuesday. “At that point in time, as I’ve said, I think Minnesotans should start assuming that they’re going to have a very normal looking summer.”
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Despite the fact that every American over the age of 15 is eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, Florida’s Democrats are not ready to return to normal.
Instead, they are bashing Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who Monday signed an executive order banning local governments from requiring mask mandates.
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During an online meeting, a member of the Minnesota Student Association Executive Board directed others to waste police resources in retaliation for perceived injustices.
“Make their lives hell. Annoy the shit out of them,” Lauren Meyers said during a Zoom meeting. “Like, use up their resources, make their officers show up to something.”
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Michigan Gov. Gretchen. Whitmer (D) announced here “Vacc to Normal” initiative last week, which is conspicuously missing a return to normal.
She said the plan will help Michigan “gradually get back to normal as we hit our vaccination targets,” and attached an images of the incentives for Michiganders to get vaccinated.
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Recently, multiple reports have chronicled how Florida has been a hotbed for GOP fundraising efforts ahead of the 2022 election cycle.
“Florida, with its deep bench of wealthy GOP donors, has become central to House Republicans’ early playbook for reclaiming the majority,” POLITICO reported at the end of April. “… Florida is a fundraising goldmine. It is, afterall [sic], where wealthy donors – and TV personalities – flock to homes in Palm Beach, Naples, Boca Grande and other high-income areas.”
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Nearly a year after the death of George Floyd, prompting calls from activists and Democrat leaders to defund the police, residents of Minneapolis are complaining that police won’t respond to their calls.
“George Floyd Square has been a place for mourning and healing for the thousands who pay a visit,” WCCO reported. “But for the people who live there, once night falls, they say it becomes a place where lawlessness abounds.”
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Friday marked the last day of the legislative session, and the state legislature agreed upon a record-setting budget bill.
“State lawmakers on Friday signed off on a record $101.5 billion on the state budget that has left both Republicans and Democrats happy — mostly,” The Tampa Bay Times reported.
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President Joe Biden visited Duluth and gave a speech to several parked cars at a “drive-in rally” Thursday, marking his 100th day in office.
Besides touting the meager success of passing a COVID-19 stimulus, which has been Biden’s only major legislative accomplishment in his first 100 days in office, the subject matter of the speech was rather general.
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On the second-to-last day of the legislative session, the Republican-controlled Florida state Senate Thursday passed a new law aimed at election integrity.
After SB 90 passed the Florida House Wednesday with a vote of 77-40, it did the same in the Senate Thursday by a vote of 23-17. It was passed mostly along partisan lines, with one Republican state Senator, Jeff Brandes of St. Petersburg, breaking with his party and voting against the measure.
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A Minnesota man will spend four years in prison after pleading guilty to crime related to the arson of a police station in Minneapolis during the riots over George Floyd’s death last summer.
“Dylan Shakespeare Robinson, 23, pleaded guilty in December to one count of conspiracy to commit arson. He was accused of lighting a Molotov cocktail that another person threw at the Third Precinct headquarters in Minneapolis,” Fox News reported.
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The term “Uncle Tim,” a play on the racist term “Uncle Tom” often used to deride African Americans perceived as working against their own racial interests, trended on Twitter Wednesday night after Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) gave his rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s joint address to Congress.
Country music star John Rich of “Big and Rich” blasted the microblogging site’s CEO Jack Dorsey over the trend:
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A foundation created to memorialize George Floyd has announced a three-day commemoration planned for the year anniversary of his death at the end of May.
“Over three consecutive days at the end of May, the George Floyd Memorial Foundation will host a series of events to commemorate Floyd’s death,” KMSP reported.
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Rumors are swirling that Florida’s 44th Governor, then a Republican, might enter the 2022 gubernatorial race, this time as a Democrat.
“U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist has opened a political committee named ‘Friends of Charlie Crist,’ which would allow him to start raising money for a 2022 state-level election,” one recent report said.
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The Republican-controlled Florida House of Representatives Wednesday passed a bill would ban “vaccine passports.”
SB 2006 passed by a vote of 76-40 in the House. It now heads back to the Florida Senate after the House added an amendment.
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The Clayton County Sheriff, who himself as a long history of run-ins with the law, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for alleged civil rights violations.
According to several reports, the charges relate to Sheriff Victor Hill’s use of a “restraint chair,” and he has been charged with four counts of deprivation of rights under color of law.
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The Florida Senate Monday passed a bill that would provide $200 million in state funds for school choice voucher programs, sending the bill to the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
As reported by The Florida Capital Star last week, the Florida House passed HB 7045 by a margin of 79-36, with four Democrats joining the Republican majority. The voucher program will allow 60,000 more students in Florida to attend an alternative to public school, usually in low-income areas.
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As COVID-19 cases surge in Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) is expanding her mask mandate order to include toddlers.
“The mask requirement previously exempted children younger than the age of 5. Expanding the mask rule to children ages 2 to 4 also requires ‘a good faith effort to ensure that these children wear masks while in gatherings at childcare facilities or camps,'” according to The Detroit News.
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The federal government is standing in the way of Florida restaurants that are in desperate need of employees as the COVID-19 pandemic winds down, and Floridians look to dine out.
“The biggest challenge out there is the federal government and the state government are going to continue with this unemployment, because that is truly creating the incentive to not work right now,” said Bill Casper, who owns 60 McDonald’s restaurants in the Tampa area. “And, how do you blame somebody? You can make more money on unemployment—and so, we’ve got to be at least above that.”
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Black Lives Matter’s official page on the death of Ma’Khia Bryant, who was fatally shot by a Columbus Police officer last week, is noticeably devoid of details regarding the incident.
“At the exact same time the verdict of Derek Chauvin was being read for murdering George Floyd, police wasted no time in senselessly taking another Black child,” the page says.
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Police dash camera video of the recent arrest of state Rep. Jewell Jones (D-MI-11) shows the drunken 25-year-old resisting arrest, and invoking the name of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) as a threat to the arresting officers.
In the video, police attempt to obtain Jones’ driver’s license, which he refuses to give them. Eventually, he begins struggling with the two arresting officers, ending up detained in the grass on the side of I-96.
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An alternate juror who heard evidence in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin admitted in an interview released Thursday that she was afraid of violent rioting and personal ramifications if Chauvin was not convicted of murder.
Lisa Christensen told KARE that she was apprehensive to even be a member of the jury, because, “I did not want to go through rioting and destruction again and I was concerned about people coming to my house if they were not happy with the verdict.”
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A mom from Georgia is going viral after demanding that her child’s school board lift mask mandates.
“Every month, I come here and I hear the same thing – social and emotional health,” Courtney Ann Taylor told the Gwinnett County School Board during an April 15 meeting. “”If you truly mean that you would end the mask requirement tonight.”
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Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is expected to reach an agreement with the Seminole Tribe to bring sports betting to the Sunshine State, as well as expanding current gambling rules.
“The broad parameters of the deal — as confirmed by multiple sources — are that the Seminole Tribe would control sports betting in the state and would offer it at their casinos, including the Hard Rock locations in Hollywood and Tampa,” according to POLITICO. “But sports betting would also be allowed at existing tracks and other poker rooms around the state where the tribe and other gambling operators would split the revenue generated.”
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According to a the most recent quarterly censorship report card from the Media Research Center (MRC), most of the major Silicon Valley tech titans are failing to protect freedom of expression.
“By almost any measure, the first three months of 2021 were the worst ever for online freedom. Amazon, Twitter, Apple, Google, Facebook, YouTube and others proved to the world that the Big Tech censorship of conservatives is a reality,” the group said. “And they did so in disturbing, authoritarian ways that highlight their unchecked power over information and our political process.”
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The saga over the departure and confidential settlement agreement between Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and the former head of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) continued Thursday.
Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Steve Johnson (R-MI-72) announced in a press release that his committee has subpoenaed former MDHHS Director Robert Gordon, who received a $155,000 severance package from the state and signed a non-disclosure agreement after he left his post under murky circumstances late February.
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A bill that was both supported and opposed on the grounds of accountability passed the Florida House Wednesday.
HB 7045, which will combine two school choice voucher programs and expand eligibility for parents too choose where their children go to school, passed by a vote of 79-36. It will expand Florida’s voucher program to enroll 60,000 more students.
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Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-07) blasted Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12) for reviving earmark spending in Congress, and said he plans to refuse to even participate in the earmarking process.
“It’s rare for Congress to get anything right, but in 2011 after Americans rose up to usher in the Tea Party wave, Congressional Republicans got it right and banned earmarks,” Green said in statement. “Today, at a time when our national debt is at record highs, the last thing Congress should do is resurrect earmarks—one of the Swamp’s most corrupt practices.”
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The superintendent of the Broward County School District has been arrested and charged with perjury, according to several reports.
“Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie was arrested Wednesday morning by Florida’s top law enforcement agency, according to records,” The Sun-Sentinel reported. “The sole charge is listed as perjury in an official proceeding.”
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Less than an hour after the murder conviction of former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, a Columbus Police officer fatally shot Ma’Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old girl.
Body camera footage of the incident was released shortly thereafter, and shows Bryant wielding a knife in what appears to be the attempted stabbing of at least one other girl:
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Reporter and filmmaker Ami Horowitz traveled to Minneapolis to interview residents about the trial of former Minneapolis Police officer, and killing of George Floyd.
He released a two-minute compilation of interviews Tuesday night, after Chauvin’s conviction for second and third degree murder, along with manslaughter.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) reportedly left Michigan to see her father in Florida, as cases of COVID-19 soar and strict pandemic measures remain in place.
According to Minnesota Information and Resource Center News:
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A bill that would limit the ability of Big Tech platforms like Facebook and YouTube to ban political candidates passed the Senate Appropriations Committee Monday, and will head to the Senate floor.
SB 7072, which according to its summary is aimed at “prohibiting a social media platform from knowingly deplatforming a candidate,” along with establishing civil liability guidelines for companies that do deplatorm candidates, passed the Committee with a 10-9 vote.
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Despite its ongoing censorship and banning of prominent conservatives from its platform, the CEO of Google-owned YouTube collected an award for “free expression” last week.
The nonprofit Freedom Forum, which describes itself as “celebrating the world’s champions of free expression,” decided that Susan Wojcicki met that high bar.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) appeared Sunday on NBC’s’ “Meet the Press” to make excuses about why cases of COVID-19 in Michigan are soaring while they decline across most of the rest of the country.
“We’re now in a much different position,” Whitmer said. “On top of that, in the waning months, I have been sued by my Legislature. I have lost in a Republican-controlled Supreme Court. And I don’t have all of the exact same tools.”
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Attorneys for the state and for former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, accused of killing George Floyd during an arrest last may, made their closing arguments in Chauvin’s murder trial Monday.
The state characterized Floyd as a compassionate family man, and argued that Chauvin did not behave humanely towards Floyd during his arrest. Prosecutors argued that Chauvin was uncaring and malicious towards Floyd.
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After delaying the return of in-person learning over COVID-19 concerns, Minneapolis Public Schools have announced their intention to return to the classroom Monday.
But they’ll soon return to virtual learning, according to a Friday statement.
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In the latest example of Silicon Valley censorship, Facebook has banned the sharing of a story about a high-profile Black Lives Matter member purchasing expensive real estate.
“Patrisse Khan-Cullors, the leader of Black Lives Matter and a self-described Marxist, recently purchased a $1.4 million home in an exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood where the vast majority of residents are white, according to reports,” The New York Post originally reported last weekend.
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After introducing legislation to pack the Supreme Court, a far-left congresswoman from Michigan justified the action with blatantly false statements.
“Republicans damaged the Supreme Court and stole the majority. It’s time to #ExpandTheCourt to ensure we restore power to the people and bring justice to the people,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) said on Twitter.
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