DeSantis Signs Bill Banning Protests in Front of Private Residences

The governor of Florida Monday signed a bill into law that bans Floridians from protesting outside of private residences. 

“Sending unruly mobs to private residences, like we have seen with the angry crowds in front of the homes of Supreme Court justices, is inappropriate,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said just before signing HB 1571 into law. “This bill will provide protection to those living in residential communities and I am glad to sign it into law.”

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Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Filed Against DeSantis over Reedy Creek Special Status Abolishment

A lawsuit filed be residents of Orange and Osceola counties against Gov. Ron DeSantis in the wake of the Governor’s battle with Disney has been struck down. 

Chief United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida Cecilia Maria Altonaga Tuesday issued her order summarily dismissing the lawsuit, which challenged DeSantis after he stripped Reedy Creek, home to Disney’s theme park, of its special status. 

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DeSantis: Florida Prepared If U.S. Heads into Recession

Gov. Ron DeSantis, when suggesting President Joe Biden’s economic policies will “plunge the United States into a recession,” says Florida will be prepared.

At a news conference this week announcing funding for flood control and water management projects in Lee County, he said that while inflation continues to worsen, Florida’s economy is strong, with revenue exceeding expectations.

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DeSantis Signs Largest Tax Relief Bill in Florida History with More Than $1.2 Billion in Savings

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed the largest tax relief bill in Florida history, delivering $1.2 billion in savings to Floridians.

DeSantis signed HB 7071 into law, which includes permanent tax relief through a range of sales tax exemptions, corporate income tax credit expansions, and ad valorem tax and exemption provisions. They are expected to generate an additional $190 million in tax savings over two years and $140 million annually thereafter.

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Nikki Fried Campaign Consultant Acknowledges Overwhelming Republican Electoral Advantage, Says Fried Is the Answer

Kevin Cate, the campaign consultant for Florida gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried, recently noted the Republican electoral advantage facing Democrats running for statewide office. Cate previously worked on the 2014 Charlie Crist campaign and the 2018 Andrew Gillum campaign for Florida governor.

In a series of tweets, Cate provided his “perspective on the Florida Democratic primary for Governor and the general election environment.”

Cate tweeted, ” I cannot stress enough how tough of an environment the general will be.”

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Florida House Rep Accuses Candace Owens of Supporting DeSantis for ‘Coins’

In what appears to be a racially-motivated attack, a member of the Florida House of Representatives attacked conservative commentator Candace Owens for her support of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

“He knows how to break the law, violate constitutional rights, lie and bully. There I fixed it for you @RealCandaceO You should be ashamed of what #DeSantisDestroysFlorida is doing to Black communities in Florida. But of course…get them coins girls,” said State Rep. Angie Nixon (D-District 14) on Twitter.

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DeSantis Signs Bill Banning ‘Woke Indoctrination,’ Critical Race Theory from Workplaces, Public Schools

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 7 into law Friday, the first bill in the nation that bans “corporate wokeness” and Critical Race Theory from being used or taught in the workplace and public classrooms.

The bill includes provisions to prevent discriminatory instruction in the workplace and in public schools and defines individual freedoms “based on the fundamental truth that all individuals are equal before the law and have inalienable rights,” the governor’s office said.

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DeSantis Signs Bill to Increase Transparency in College Curriculum

Florida’s governor Tuesday signed into law a bill that will increase transparency into the curriculum at state-funded colleges, as well as updated guidelines for tenured faculty members.

SB 7044, signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis (R), ensures that colleges are openly disclosing textbooks, syllabi, and other course-related material on their websites. This way, the bill says, prospective students, as well as parents, can see what students are being taught.

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DeSantis Calls Special Session to Review Disney’s ‘Special District’ Status

In what is being viewed as an escalation in the conflict between Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and The Walt Disney Company, the Florida governor has called a special legislative session to review a 1968 law – designed for the company – that allows it to govern itself. 

According to a proclamation from the governor’s office, “it is necessary to review such independent special districts to ensure that they are appropriately serving the public interest,” and that it is “also necessary to consider whether such independent special districts should be subject to special law requirements of the Florida Constitution of 1968.”

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Florida Senators Rubio, Scott Vote ‘No’ on Brown-Jackson, Progressives Fawn

Florida’s progressive officials fawned over the recent confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson to the United States Supreme Court delighting in the first black woman being confirmed to the high court. Florida’s Senators, Marco Rubio (R) and Rick Scott (R), both voted “no” in Brown-Jackson’s final confirmation vote.

Rubio, when assessing Brown-Jackson’s judicial history, viewed her more as a political activist than a judge working within the law.

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DeSantis to Authorize Hamilton Center for Teaching the ‘Foundations of Western and American Civilization’

The University of Florida is set to receive $3 million to establish its Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education. 

“The purpose of the center is to support teaching and research concerning the ideas, traditions, and texts that form the foundations of western and American civilization,” the amendment to Florida’s SB 2524 reads, granting the authorization to the public university. 

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Florida Gov. DeSantis Signs Bill Requiring Curriculum Transparency

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law Friday that requires Florida school districts to be transparent in the selection of instructional materials, including library and reading materials.

As a part of the “Year of the Parent,” a commitment DeSantis has made to prioritize parental rights, DeSantis signed HB 1467, which includes several protections for parents, such as requiring school districts to allow parents to review all books in the school library, all required classroom book lists, and any instructional materials teachers use.

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DeSantis Signs Bill Requiring High School Students to Pass Financial Literacy Course

Ron DeSantis of Florida

Florida’s Governor Tuesday signed into law a bill that will require students to learn about finances and money in order to graduate from high school.

“Today, I think, is good, because what the bill’s doing with financial literacy is really providing a foundation for students that’s gonna be applicable in their lives regardless of what path they take, “DeSantis continued. “I mean, if they go the university route, post-graduate, any of that, they’re still gonna need these skills. If they go right into the workforce, they’re still gonna need these skills. And so any different endeavor that you do to be able to be well-versed in financial literacy, that is gonna help you.”

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Far-Left PAC Spends Six Figures on Billboards Opposing Anti-Grooming Bill

A far-left Political Action Committee (PAC) is spending six figures on billboards that say “Say Gay,” in response to a Florida bill that bans kindergarten through third grade teachers from talking to students about sex, gender and sexuality. 

“Starting Wednesday these will be going up all throughout Florida. Thank you to everyone who made this possible, especially Ron DeSantis for being a terrible person,” left-wing activist Ally Sammarco said on Twitter. 

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DeSantis Holds Roundtable with Doctors Who Say Pandemic Is Over

Led by Governor Ron DeSantis (R), a roundtable of doctors, scientists and academics gathered in-person and virtually Monday to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, and specifically the ramifications that lockdowns and other measures have had on American society. 

“There was time and again when the data would diverge from the [Dr. Anthony] Fauci pronouncements, or the corporate media, or the medical establishment – and whether that was having businesses open, whether that was having kids in school, whether that was about mandating cloth masks, whether that was about mandating vaccines – we always sided with the data and rejected the narrative,” DeSantis said during the proceedings, noting that the United States is close to the two-year anniversary of the “15 days to stop the spread” campaign by the federal government. 

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Trump Wins CPAC Poll While Support for DeSantis Grows

Former President Donald Trump won the CPAC 2022 straw poll for the 2024 presidential primary with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) coming in second.

The poll, conducted from Thursday to Sunday with 2,564 attendees, shows that 59% of people said they would vote for Trump in the 2024 primary. DeSantis has less than half the support of Trump, 28% as the second-highest-ranking primary candidate.

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Commentary: The Left’s Anti-Intellectual Problem

Last week in the Atlantic, David Graham took aim at smart conservative politicians who play dumb. He declares at the beginning of his piece, “This is the age of smart politicians pretending to be stupid.” As evidence, he mainly cites Gov. Ron DeSantis, senatorial candidates J.D. Vance and Eric Greitens, and Sen. Josh Hawley.

Graham argues that these men belie their impressive degrees from Ivy League universities by aligning themselves with the populist conservative movement in some capacity. DeSantis does not brag about COVID booster shots, Vance is critical of China and globalism, and Greitens and Hawley have doubts about the 2020 election. Surely, according to Graham, these must be poses to win over Trump supporters, not sincere positions stemming from valid objections. There’s just no way such educated people would actually believe what they’re pushing.

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Florida Officials Meet with ‘Pedro Pan’ Refugees to Discuss Border Crisis

The Biden administration is advancing immigration policies that are harming children, Gov. Ron DeSantis, Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, and Attorney General Ashley Moody say.

The statewide elected officials met Monday with Cuban Americans who came to Miami as children as part of the 1960-62 era humanitarian operation Peter Pan (“Pedro Pan”). Over a two-year period, more than 14,000 Cuban youths arrived alone in the U.S. in what was at the time the largest recorded exodus of unaccompanied minors in the Western Hemisphere fleeing from the communist dictatorship of Fidel Castro.

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Trucker ‘Freedom Convoy’ Sparks More Controversy After GoFundMe Refunds $10 Million

A Canadian movement of truckers protesting the country’s vaccine mandate has inspired a similar protest in the U.S., with a convoy expected to arrive at the nation’s capital next month. That movement, though, sparked controversy beyond its protest this weekend after a run-in with the popular online fundraiser, GoFundMe.

GoFundMe announced it would refund more than $10 million in donations to donors of the “Freedom Convoy” online fundraiser after threats of a fraud investigation from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis threatened the investigation after GoFundMe reportedly froze the fundraising account Friday and said they would give the funds to another charity of Freedom Convoy’s choice.

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FDA Cites Non-Peer Reviewed Study to Revoke Monoclonal Antibody Authorization

As reported Tuesday by The Florida Capital Star, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revoked the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for monoclonal antibodies as a treatment for COVID-19, but did not provide the data is cited in making its decision. 

Without the help of the FDA, which did not return a follow up comment request Wednesday, The Star was able to locate what appears to be the data used in the decision-making process. It is on the website for the National Institute of Health (NIH), which is headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci. 

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FDA Pulls Authorization for Antibody Treatment, Refuses to Answer Questions

SAN DIEGO (Jan 26, 2020) Lt. Cmdr. Raben Talvo, Naval Medical Center San Diego's (NMCSD) Office of Clinical Quality department head, administers the hospital’s first monoclonal antibody (mAb) treatment to a COVID-19-positive patient Jan. 26. Bamlanivimab, the mAb treatment, is administered under emergency use authorization (EUA) guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms in some adult and pediatric patients who are at high risk for progressing to severe COVID-19 symptoms. NMCSD's mission is to prepare service members to deploy in support of operational forces, deliver high quality healthcare services, and shape the future of military medicine through education, training, and research. NMCSD employs more than 6,000 active duty military personnel, civilians, and contractors in Southern California to provide patients withworld-class care anytime, anywhere. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Harley K. Sarmiento)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Monday unexpectedly pulled its Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19, dealing a blow to states like Florida which have been using the treatment effectively for months. 

“Without a shred of clinical data to support this action, Biden has forced trained medical professionals to choose between treating their patients or breaking the law,” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said in response to the FDA’s decree. “This indefensible edict takes treatment out of the hands of medical professionals and will cost some Americans their lives. There are real-world implications to Biden’s medical authoritarianism – Americans’ access to treatments is now subject to the whims of a failing president.”

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$10 Million Grants Awarded for Semiconductor Manufacturing in Central Florida

semiconductor

With chip and semiconductor shortages expected to last through the year, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida is continuing its investment in local technology initiatives to strengthen the economy and job growth and eventually offset future production delays.

Osceola County and Valencia College received nearly $10 million in funding through the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund to support semiconductor and other advanced technology manufacturing in the county.

The award includes $6 million to assist with developing infrastructure connecting the county’s emerging NeoCity technology district with its workforce, and $3.7 million to Valencia College to develop a new program that will train students in utilizing robotics technology for semiconductor manufacturing. The two awards are designed to help create manufacturing jobs and develop a talent pipeline to support industry growth.

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All Star Panelist Roger Simon Talks Blue State to Red State Migration and No State Income Tax

Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist and The Epoch Times Senior Editor-At-Large Roger Simon in-studio to discuss the migration of blue state citizens to red states and the consequences of a no income state tax.

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Roger Simon Talks About the Democrat’s Bleak Presidential Candidates and the Idea of Trump Running for Speaker of the House

Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist and Senior Editor-At-Large for The Epoch Times Roger Simon in-studio to weigh in on the lack of qualified Democratic presidential candidates and poked fun at a Trump run as Speaker of the House with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as president.

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Federal Court to Hear Challenge to Florida Gun Law

Rick Scott

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled a time when it will hear a challenge to a Florida law that bans 18 to 20-year-olds from purchasing rifles and shotguns. The court will hear the arguments during the week of March 21, 2022.

The law in question is the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, named after the school where the Parkland school shooting took place. The assailant was underage and used a modern sporting rifle during the shooting.

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Commentary: Escape to a Good State, but Don’t Ruin It

My elementary and high school teachers never did a good job of explaining American federalism. They left me and, I suspect, many of my fellow students confused. Perhaps they were a little confused themselves: If the federal government’s laws are supreme and can overrule state’s laws, why not just have all laws uniformly adopted at the federal level?

The federal government was not, of course, intended to be what it has become: the daily manager of every citizen’s life. The founders envisioned a federal government that remained in the background, available when it was necessary to get all the states fighting together to win a war, present to help explain a unified foreign policy, and above all to guarantee that goods and people could flow freely from one state to another with no impediment. (That last point is the reason for the interstate commerce clause.) Any national government more aggressive than that would never have been adopted by the liberty-minded states that had just won the Revolutionary War, and even that proved a hard sell: Two years and the addition of a Bill of Rights were required before a sufficient number of states were willing to ratify.

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Nikki Fried Consultant Wants FBI to Investigate Right Wingers Who Criticized Her on Twitter

Evelyn Perez-Verdia and Nikki Fried

A communications consultant for one of Florida’s Democrat candidates for Governor suggested Monday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation should investigate right wingers who criticized her on Twitter. 

“In the last days, after posting the above,I am also getting followed by retired police who follow Breitbart, people who work for the alt-right publication in Spanish The American, and other alt-right people,” Evelyn Perez-Verdia said on Twitter. 

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DeSantis’ Florida Offers In-N-Out Haven from Regulatory Overreach in Newsom’s California

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

Refusing to ask patrons if they got the COVID-19 shots or to show a negative test in order to eat in, the popular California-based burger chain In-N-Out is taking a stand — and paying for it. But the company may have a new place to call home, if it takes up an offer from the state of Florida.

If the besieged fast-food chain were to leave, it would follow Elon Musk’s recently decamped Tesla in a growing exodus of companies from a Golden State that has lost its luster for many business owners.

Currently, three Bay Area health jurisdictions — San Francisco County, Contra Costa County and the city of Berkeley — are requiring restaurants to screen customers for on-site indoor dining by either showing proof of a negative COVID test or of COVID vaccination status.

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DeSantis Administration Responds to Leon County Vaccination Mandate

The Florida Department of Health (FDOH) has responded to the reminder letters sent this week by Leon County Government informing employees that without proof of a COVID vaccination they would be terminated on October 4, 2021.

In response to Leon County’s communication, the letter from FDOH Division Director David Woodlief to County Administrator Vince Long seeks information about those impacted by Leon County’s vaccine mandate policy.

Specifically, FDOH is seeking the names of employees that received the letters and the names of employees who submitted documentation as proof of vaccination.

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Following Florida, Georgia Will Give $1,000 COVID Bonuses to First Responders

Silhouette of a firefighter in uniform

Gov. Brian P. Kemp (R) announced Monday that frontline public safety employees will receive $1000 bonuses for working during the COVID-19 pandemic, following Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) who similarly rewarded his public safety employees in May. 

“As long as I am governor and as long as these members of the general assembly here with me today continue to serve under this gold dome, we will stand with our public safety officials, period,” Kemp said of the decision. 

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All Bets Are Off on Mobile Sports Wagering Being Legal in Florida on October 15

Under the Florida-Seminole Tribe gaming compact signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and approved by lawmakers in May, mobile online sports wagering becomes officially legal in the Sunshine State on Oct. 15.

But after two Florida pari-mutuels filed a motion in federal court late Tuesday to block the sports wagering component of the 30-year gaming deal from being implemented, don’t bet on it.

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Feds Trim Florida’s Monoclonal Antibody Allotment After State Fueled National Surge in Demand

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has spent two months cross-crossing the state promoting sites and clinics that offer monoclonal antibody treatments, an increasingly popular alternative to vaccines for protection from COVID-19.

In fact, so popular that last week, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (DHS), while increasing overall supplies by 50%, from 100,000 to 150,000 doses a week nationwide, but capping the number of doses being delivered to Florida and six other Southern states that had previously consumed more than 70% of the nation’s monoclonal antibody treatments.

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States Prepare for Limits on Key COVID Treatment, Criticize Federal Rationing

Gov Ron SeSantis

Demand for a key COVID-19 treatment has led to a nationwide shortage, and as President Joe Biden’s administration rations how much each state receives, some governors are pushing back over having to decide how to use their limited supplies.

Many states are warning their residents that the treatment may not be available, and some are discussing offering it only to unvaccinated individuals. On Tuesday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, warned his states’ residents that there is “not going to be enough” of the treatment.

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DeSantis Demands Feds Account for All People ‘Resettled’ in Florida

During the first six months of 2021, more than 6,250 “unaccompanied alien minors” were transported to Florida by the federal government and released to sponsors with little oversight, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.

Other than that, the governor says there’s little information provided by the federal government about where people detained for attempting to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border are being housed and how many are now in Florida.

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Florida Board of Education Gives School Districts 48 Hours to Comply with Mask Order

The Florida Board of Education has notified officials at two school districts that they must comply with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order banning mask mandates within 48 hours or face financial penalties.

In a letter sent on Friday, Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran said both Broward County and Alachua County must comply with the order.

“It is important to remember that this issue is about ensuring local school board members, elected politicians, follow the law. These public officials have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Florida. We cannot have government officials pick and choose what laws they want to follow,” Corcoran said in a statement.

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Texas Starts Jailing Illegal Aliens on State Charges of Trespassing

Texas authorities announced on Thursday that state law enforcement has begun the process of arresting and jailing illegal aliens who cross the border on state trespassing charges, in a new effort to crack down on illegal immigration where the federal government is failing to do so, ABC News reports.

This latest step follows up on the promises of Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas), who first vowed in June to step up enforcement of immigration laws in the state in direct response to the Biden Administration’s open-borders approach. Abbott also declared that the state would continue building the border wall that was started by President Donald Trump, on which Biden had halted construction after taking power.

The arrested illegals are being detained at a state prison in the city of Dilley, roughly 100 miles north of the border. All of the illegals who have been arrested thus far are single adult men, who are the most likely to be a threat to society. The prison in question is capable of holding up to 950 illegals, but Abbott said in a visit to the border on Saturday that “the state jail commission has worked out a way to jail far more people than are currently being jailed.”

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Commentary: Florida’s DeSantis Is America’s Great Right Hope

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

Democratic Govs. Andrew Cuomo of New York, Gavin Newsom of California, and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan shatter everything they touch. Ron DeSantis, conversely, seems to get everything right. The Florida Republican has emerged as America’s governor. 

“We’re standing with our folks. We’re going to do the right thing. We leaned into it, and we stood strong,” DeSantis told Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently.

Rather than snip a tax, kill a regulation, and then doze off, as too many Republicans have done, DeSantis is a tireless, full-spectrum conservative. He has authorized a host of economic, cultural, and law enforcement initiatives that are buoying Florida and transforming him into the Great Right Hope.

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California Bans State-Funded Travel to Florida

California added Florida to a list of states where state-funded travel is prohibited, largely due to the fact the states have laws that supposedly “discriminate” against LGBTQ individuals.

In 2016, the California state legislature passed Assembly Bill 1887, which allows the state’s Attorney General Rob Bonta to revoke state-funded travel to the areas if the state enacts laws that allow discrimination “on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.”

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President Joe Biden to Visit Collapsed Building in South Florida

President Joe Biden will travel to Miami-Dade County, Florida on Thursday to examine the site of the muti-story building that collapsed to ruble — leaving nearly a dozen dead and over 100 still missing.

Further, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that Biden will thank first responders for sacrifices and attempt to comfort families who have fallen victim to the tragedy.

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Bill Introduced by Rep. Harshbarger Would Ban Federal Vaccine Passports

Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger (R-TN-01) introduced a bill in the House of Representatives on Tuesday that would prohibit the federal use of a COVID-19 vaccine passport or any other similar required proof of vaccination.

“Vaccine passports are a restriction on individual liberties, period,” Harshbarger said of the attempts by some governments to require proof of vaccination in certain circumstances. 

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Mediation Talks Between Florida, CDC Unsuccessful in Cruise Ship Battle

People boarding a cruise ship

Mediation talks between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the state of Florida have been unsuccessful, as the federal agency and the state duke it out in court over who controls the cruise ship industry’s return to business as usual. 

“Settlement talks have ended in the legal battle between Florida and the federal government about restrictions on the cruise-ship industry,” according to WKMG. “U.S. Magistrate Judge Anthony Porcelli, who has served as a mediator, said in a court filing Friday that a settlement conference was unsuccessful.”

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