Earlier this week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced $11 million will be going to supporting rural infrastructure in three counties: Madison, Suwannee, and Putnam. He made the announcement from Madison, Fla., as the money will come from the Community Development Block Grant program administered by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO).
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A proposed amendment to the already controversial Parental Rights in Education bill to require parental involvement on sensitive student issues has drawn more criticism from LGBTQ advocates.
The sponsor of the bill, Republican Representative Joe Harding, introduced an amendment on Friday which would require school officials to facilitate a meeting between a student and parents to disclose child-specific information.
The amendment states that the “school principal or his or her designee shall develop a plan, using all available governmental resources, to disclose such information within 6 weeks after the decision to withhold such information from the parent.”
The six-week provision gives school officials a time frame to decide a student is facing unsupportive or abusive parents related to specific issues. If there is a determination by school officials that a student could be in danger from the parents the amendment details a course of action.
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Two Florida business owners were indicted on charges related to a fraud scheme that allowed them to collect more than $12 million.
Matthew Pardi and Ashley Lynn Hars allegedly created a series of fake moving companies, often stealing the identity of real businesses. Additionally, they would inflate their record with fake 5-star reviews and dubious claims.
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Congressman Carlos Gimenez (R-FL-26) called for reduced coronavirus regulations on the cruise industry, penning a letter to Jeffrey Zients, the White House COVID coordinator.
The letter, which gathered bipartisan support, criticized a new program implemented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that will require cruise lines to report the vaccination status of passengers and crew for each ship, if they opt into the program.
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Republican state lawmakers on Thursday said they introduced what would be the single-largest tax cut package in Florida history.
As Floridians, and all Americans, pay more for every day purchases due to surging inflation and depleted supply stemming from supply chain issues, some lawmakers are seeking to reduce the state’s tax burden.
The package, submitted to the House Ways and Means Committee, would reduce sales taxes and property taxes for some Floridians and expand several tax holidays.
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The entire Florida congressional delegation, led by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), signed a letter to National Guard Bureau Chief General Daniel Hokanson, urging additional resources for the Florida National Guard (FLNG).
The letter explains that, despite a high population, the state has a relatively low number of Guard personnel. Furthermore, in recent years, Florida has witnessed numerous events that required the attention of the Guard.
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday called on President Joe Biden and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to change their decision to deny the state’s Individual Assistance request.
The governor’s comments followed meetings with Florida Division of Emergency Management Director (FDEM) Kevin Guthrie and victims of tornadoes that impacted the state.
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The Florida State House approved a ban on abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy Thursday morning, adding to the list of Republican-led states that have modeled legislation after the Mississippi law that has been challenged and is now awaiting a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.
HB 5, titled “Reducing Fetal and Infant Mortality,” which prohibits physicians from performing abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, passed the Florida House by a vote of 78-39 following hours of debate.
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) submitted a second round of maps for congressional redistricting earlier this week. It comes as the redistricting process has been stalled in the Florida Legislature.
The most controversial part of DeSantis’ first submission was the inclusion of boundaries eliminating District 5 as it currently stands, held by Congressman Al Lawson (R-FL-5), which stretches from Tallahassee to Jacksonville along Florida’s northern boundary with Georgia.
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On Thursday, Florida House Representative Allison Tant (District-9, Tallahassee) appeared on The Steve Stewart Show on RealTalk93.3 to discuss the 2022 Florida legislative session.
Tant’s district covers most of downtown Tallahassee and the northern Tallahassee metropolitan area. The district includes Florida State University and the Florida State Capitol. A large college and urban population coupled with a significant number of state employees makes the district an easy win for Democrats. In 2020 Tant beat her Republican opponent by 15%.
As an elected official, Tant, who is a former chair of the Florida Democratic Party, must work with Republicans who control the Florida House. Tant noted that there are “more things that we agree on than we disagree on. It’s just that the splashy issues get all the attention.”
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The Florida House and Senate have each passed HB 5001, known as Florida’s budget entitled “General Appropriations Act.” The total amount in Florida’s budget for the 2022-2023 Fiscal Year is $105 billion in the House version, and $108 billion in the Senate version.
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A Florida U.S. senator Wednesday called for accountability after bombshell reports from Special Counsel John Durham that the intelligence community and Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, spied on former President Donald Trump’s campaign, and continued spying on him once he entered the White House.
“For years the media parroted the Democrat narrative about Russian collusion,” Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) said. “And now as we’re learning, week after week, that was a complete lie. “The latest with the Durham report is that the Clinton campaign, the same group that fearmongered this Russian collusion, actually spied on the President of the United States.”
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) announced that Florida’s domestic tourism levels have returned to pre-pandemic levels and have even reached an all-time high. In 2021, Florida had a total of 118 million domestic visitors.
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A new report released Wednesday that provides reviews and grades of the nation’s leading civics programs has rated the proposed Florida K-12 Civics and Government Standards with a grade of “A.”
Dr. David Randall, author of “Learning for Self-Government: A K-12 Civics Report Card,” published at the Boston-based Pioneer Institute, told The Florida Capital Star during a phone interview the “social studies standards in the states really matter.”
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Emails from a Florida Capital Star information request show that Florida school officials in districts across the state have been recruited by Equality Florida to promote LGBTQ issues.
Equality Florida is a left-wing political group that advocates for civil rights and protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBQT+) residents in Florida. The group has come out against the current Parental Rights in Education bill now being considered in the Florida Legislature.
The emails, covering 2016 to 2020, show how De Palazzo, the Safe & Healthy Schools director for Equality Florida, engaged one school district official form Leon County to help with Equality Florida’s mission.
In 2016, Palazzo reached out to Dr. Kathleen Rodgers and wrote “I am working and meeting in about 20 school districts and would be happy to assist your district as well in the form of direct service, meeting with teams, etc. A friendly reminder that there is no fee for service because I know that budgets are tight and for this important subject, fees could be a deterrent.”
Later emails indicate Rodgers became part of what Palazzo often referred to as a “team”
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In a series of interviews, Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R) warned about an impending “new world order.” He specifically said an invasion of Ukraine from Russia would be an indicator of a new global order with China and Russia as the leaders.
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A recently released poll from CNN shows Republican party voters are split between former President Donald Trump (R) and another Republican candidate, primarily Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
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Florida legislators, led by Republican leaders, are considering changes (SB 524, HB 7067) to the absentee ballot verification process that has one critic calling the proposal “a recipe for disaster” and another implying the new rules are racist.
Under current law, voters enclose completed mail-in ballots inside “secrecy” envelopes or sleeves before putting them inside another envelope to be mailed to county supervisors of elections or submitted at drop boxes manned by supervisors’ staff.
The new legislative proposals would require voters to put their double-enveloped ballots inside a third envelope and mark the last four digits of their driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers, or state ID numbers – whichever number is on file with the election supervisor’s office – to be counted.
Lake County Supervisor of Elections Alan Hays, a Republican who is a former state senator, said the proposal is “a recipe for disaster.”
“Getting voters to follow instructions is not easy,” Hays told the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee on Feb. 1. “If you think they’re going to follow the instructions with all of these envelopes, you’ve got another thought coming.”
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Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis (R) issued a proclamation offering his support for the Canadian Freedom Convoy. Patronis announced the proclamation through Twitter.
“Florida stands with the truckers of Canada,” Patronis said. “May Trudeau’s repression come to an end. #CanadaTruckersForFreedom”
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Equality Florida, an LGBTQ advocacy group, released a television advertisement on Monday “blasting” Governor DeSantis over the Parental Rights in Education Bill (SB 1834), which the group describes as “LGBTQ censorship and surveillance agenda.”
Critics of the Parental Rights in Education legislation labeled it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and have refused to answer questions about the other provisions of the bill, focused on parental rights. These provisions require parental notification related to certain actions taken at school and “adopt procedures that reinforce the fundamental right of parents to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of their children.”
The ad, shown below, refers to a provision in the Parental Rights in Education bill that “prohibits a school district from encouraging classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.”
The ad shows a student giving a classroom presentation. When the student mentions she has two moms, alarms start going off in the classroom and she is asked to report to the office.
Equality Florida contends that “the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, which bans discussion of LGBTQ in primary grades, would further stigmatize the LGBTQ community, chill efforts to create inclusive school environments, and isolate LGBTQ young people who are already at staggeringly higher risk of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation than their peers.”
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More than three years after Hurricane Michael made landfall in the Florida Panhandle, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) announced another wave of recovery dollars for rural communities. DeSantis said over $91 million will be distributed to numerous communities through the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity’s (DEO) Rebuild Florida Mitigation General Infrastructure Program.
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On Thursday, the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) proposed a rule that would end participation in a federal program sheltering Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) who enter the U.S.
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Ana Goni-Lessan, a Florida education reporter with the Gannett-owned Tallahassee Democrat, has adopted the “Don’t Say Gay” moniker when referencing the Parental Rights in Education bill which is working its way through the Florida Legislature.
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Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (D), running for Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial nomination, raised a combined total of $313,000 in January. Fried’s campaign raised a total of $171,502 and her political action committee, Florida Consumers First, raised $141,854.
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The Florida House of Representatives voted to pass a bill that will enact term limits on elected public school board members. CS/BS 1467 by Florida Representative Sam Garrison (R-District 18) originally included a provision that would have eliminated salaries for school board members. However, that provision was axed after an late-arriving amendment.
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As a proposal (SB 1024) moves through the Florida Legislature that would allow investor-owned utilities to pay less for electricity generated by residential rooftop solar, critics of the legislation and of investor-owned utilities have ignored the fact that many Florida municipal-managed electric utilities are already paying residential customers less for solar generated electricity.
Under current law, solar panel owners who have excess energy generated can sell it back to investor-owned utilities at the retail rate the utilities charge other customers. However, the proposal sponsored by Fleming Island Republican Sen. Jennifer Bradley, would allow investor-owned utilities to pay a cheaper price for roof-top solar generated electricity.
The bill’s supporters claim solar customers are being subsidized by other utility customers because they rely on the underlying electric grid — and its lines, maintenance and other infrastructure costs — when the panels don’t generate enough electricity.
The issue has become partisan as Democrats attack the bill and investor-owned utilities, who are frequent campaign donors to Republican candidates.
U.S. Representative and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist said the anti-solar legislation is just another example of how utilities rig the system against the people of Florida in favor of corporations, and “Tallahassee is marching on.” He said as governor would fight utility companies to prevent them from getting unfair rate increases and make it easier to install solar power for homeowners.
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Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN) members have scheduled an event in Orlando on Saturday and Sunday, and organizers say they will train parents how to flip their local school boards. Organizers call the event Taking Back America’s Children, Florida Summit.
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Thursday morning on Outside the Beltway with John Fredericks, host Fredricks welcomed Proclaiming Justice to the Nation’s Laurie Cardoza-Moore to the program to discuss how parents can take over local school boards and her Taking Back America’s Children’s Summit this weekend in Orlando, Florida.
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Florida’s constitutional carry bill, HB 103, is likely dead, as the Florida legislature is over halfway through its 2022 Legislative Session, which concludes the first week of March. The bill has yet to be heard by its first committee stop or received companion Senate legislation. Rarely do bills get fast-tracked through the legislature if they have not even reached committee.
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The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office is looking into allegations that North Miami voters were receiving help in completing ballots in voting booths from election officials and other government employees.
The findings were first reported by the Miami Herald.
Florida law allows voters to request assistance in the voting booth if proper procedures are followed. The procedure requires voting assistants to complete a form swearing that the voter sought their help. The voters, if they have never previously asked for assistance, must fill out a separate form swearing that they requested it.
However, the concern in North Miami is with the number of people seeking assistance and those who are helping the voters. Records indicate that more than two-thirds of the assisted voters were helped by city employees or campaign workers.
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A preschool teacher in West Palm Beach has deleted a TikTok video wherein she explained that she was teaching her students – younger than 5 years old – about racism.
Fortunately, the video was archived by another TikTok account dedicated to exposing far-Left teachers in America’s schools.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (D) have simultaneously called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to issue a Disaster Declaration for farmers and growers in counties impacted by the recent, uncharacteristic hard freeze.
DeSantis penned a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack where he reinforced Florida’s agricultural impact to the American economy, and how much Florida’s farmers have had to endure.
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President Joe Biden (D) and the White House entered the debate focused on Florida House Bill 7 by Representative Bryan Avila (R-District 111). On Twitter Tuesday, both the White House account and the president’s account chimed in, criticizing Florida’s Republican lawmakers for their support of the legislation.
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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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No, this is not another Qanon or Pizzagate conspiracy theory. It’s a sober recitation of the facts and incidents that can support no other conclusion.
Let’s start with one important stage-setting fact: According to OpenSecrets.org two organizations account for practically all of the contributions made by teachers unions: The National Education Association (about $20 million in 2016) and the American Federation of Teachers (almost $12 million). Both groups — which compete for members, but also collaborate with each other through the NEA-AFT Partnership — are consistently among the organizations that contribute the most money to candidates and political groups. From 2004 to 2016, their donations grew from $4.3 million to more than $32 million — an all-time high.
Even more than most labor unions, they have little use for Republicans, giving Democrats at least 94 percent of the funds they contributed to candidates and parties since as far back as 1990, where the Open Secrets’ data begins. Go here for a detailed breakdown of teachers union political giving.
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Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani has been a vocal critic of the the Parental Rights in Education bill, however – when given the opportunity – she refused to answer specific questions about the proposed legislation.
Eskamani told CNN that she “whole-heartedly opposes” the legislation, affirming that “it’s always appropriate to acknowledge that LGBTQ+ people and families exist, and any effort to erase them is rooted in homophobia and transphobia.”
Eskamani and other progressive leaders and organizations have labeled the proposal the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, based on a provision that prohibits a school district from encouraging classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels.
State Representative Carlos Guillermo-Smith (D-District 49), an openly LGBTQ Latino legislator, said, “We should and we are encouraging these types of conversations in our schools.”
However, the bill address a number of issues related to parental rights.
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Democrats in Florida have a while to go to decide who they’ll vote for during the primary election scheduled for Aug. 23. So far, six candidates are running ahead of the filing deadline of June 17. Three have held public office, three have never run for any public office.
Long-term Florida politician Charlie Crist is running for governor a third time after having lost his bid in 2014. He’s the only candidate in state history to run for governor as both a Republican and a Democrat. Crist was elected as Florida’s 44th governor as a Republican in 2006. He ran for governor as a Democrat in 2014 and lost.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) was a featured speaker at the Federalist Society’s convention in Florida late last week. DeSantis participated in a “fireside chat” with former President Donald J. Trump’s White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany.
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Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) said on Fox News on Sunday that she, along with the approval of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), will investigate GoFundMe, one of the largest fundraising platforms in the world.
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Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee responded to the concerns of the chair of the Democratic party over alleged voter registration irregularities in Miami-Dade County by endorsing Governor Ron DeSantis’ proposal to create an Office of Election Crimes and Security.
Manual Diaz, the Chair of the Democratic Party, sent a letter to Lee on February 3 seeking an investigation into allegations that voters were unknowingly having their voter registrations changed from Democrat to Republican. Diaz added, ” I trust that you are as alarmed as I am by these reports and will uphold you duty as Chief Elections Officer of the State of Florida by ensuring that Florida seniors are not duped or taken advantage of by third party voter registration organizations.
Secretary of State responded to Diaz’s request on Twitter by stating, “Reports like this are why the Ofc of Election Crimes & Security proposed by @GovRonDeSantis is a big step forward for protecting voters in Florida. We want to review ALL claims and ensure that those engaged in elections activity in Florida follow the law.”
The allegations were first noted by a local media outlet which reported that “more victims of third-party registrations are coming forward to report that their voter registration was altered without their permission. All of the victims were older than 65 years old, live in Miami-Dade County, and all of them were outraged when they learned they were registered as Republicans.”
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Two ballot measures in Florida concerning sports betting (sponsored by Florida Education Champions) and additional casinos (sponsored by Florida Voters in Charge) failed to qualify for the 2022 ballot. Each initiative needed 891,589 signatures to be validated by county elections officials by Feb. 1. Florida also has a signature distribution requirement, which requires that signatures equaling at least 8% of the district-wide vote in the last presidential election be collected from at least half (14) of the state’s 27 congressional districts.
Florida Education Champions’ measure was designed to authorize sports betting at sports venues, pari-mutuel facilities, and online in Florida. The Florida State Legislature would have needed to pass legislation to implement the constitutional amendment to provide for licensing, regulation, consumer protection, and taxation. Under the amendment, all online sports betting tax revenue would have been required to be dedicated to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund of the Department of Education.
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Amid a debate over parental rights in education legislation (HB 1557/SB 1834), a review of policies across several Florida school boards indicates there is inconsistent guidance related to parental rights and student confidentiality.
For example, recent reports about elementary school officials in Clay County engaging in the counseling of a student without notifying parents revealed competing views about parental rights within the school district.
Clay county school officials allegedly defended their actions by invoking “confidentiality rules” to justify not including the parents in the counseling sessions.
However, a lawsuit filed notes that the Clay County Public Schools written guidance expressly contradicts the use of “confidentiality rules.” An exhibit attached to the lawsuit notes that children do not have a confidentiality right and that school officials must obtain parental consent before guaranteeing confidentiality to a child.
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Currently operating under personnel totals appropriate to Florida’s population in 1958, a memorial passed by the Florida Senate would ask the federal government to consider increasing the size of the Florida National Guard.
SM 826 sponsored by State Sen. Tom Wright (R-FL-14) would “impel the United States National Guard Bureau to examine the resource allocations of the Florida National Guard and allow an increase in its force structure.”
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has announced recommendations for Florida to invest $100 million in cancer research. However, Florida lawmakers have proposed healthcare budgets that do not meet the $100 million threshold.
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On Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a state of emergency executive order for almost all of Central and South Florida after the extreme cold weather threatened Florida’s farmers and growers.
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Florida lawmakers have suspended talks of Florida’s congressional districts until after the Florida Supreme Court issued an opinion on Congressional District 5. Florida State Rep. Tyler Sirois (R-FL-51), chair of the House panel leading the congressional redistricting, said the committee is not currently discussing the matter.
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A new poll from Suffolk University shows Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) is leading Congresswoman Val Demings (D-FL-10) in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup. The in-depth look at the data shows Rubio leads Demings in most demographics, except black Floridians.
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The 2020 FBI tracking of hate crimes show that Florida hate crime incidents have decreased 23% from 2018 to 2020 while hate crimes in the United States have increased 15.5%. In addition, the state comparison data (2019) shows that Florida ranks 47 in hate crime incidents with 0.53 incidents per 100,000 population.The national rate of hate crimes per 100,000 population is 2.4.
The five states reporting the most incidents per 100,000 population were Washington (7.1), New Mexico (6.1), Massachusetts (5.7), New Jersey (5.4) and Vermont (5.2). The five states reporting the fewest number of incidents per 100,000 population were Maryland (0.3), Iowa (0.3), Arkansas (0.3), Pennsylvania (0.3), and Florida (0.5).
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program serves as the national repository for crime data and is used to generate reliable information for use in law enforcement administration, operation, and management.
The data, which was updated and released in October 2021, shows that nationwide hate crime incidents have increased from 7,036 in 2018 to 7,103 in 2019 to 8,052 in 2020. Over the period from 2018-2020 hate crime incidents increased 14.5%.
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Erika Donalds, a former school board member and the wife of Florida U.S. Congressman Byron Donalds, recently launched a virtual charter school called Optima Classical Academy.
Erika and her husband have been active in the fight to expand the reach of charter schools. Byron Donalds, while serving in the Florida House was an enthusiastic supporter of Governor DeSantis school choice proposals.
Erika Donalds, who served as the vice chair of the Collier County School Board, is described as a “relentless advocate for charter schools and non-public education.” During her time as an elected school official she led the conservative Florida Coalition of School Board Members and pressed for school board term limits. More recently, she started School Choice Movement, an organization aimed at paving the path for more school options for parents.
“My time on the School Board really led me to conclude that the best prescription for school reform is the free market,” said Donalds.
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Florida Congresswoman Val Demings (D-FL-10) announced on social media that her senate campaign raised more than $ 7 million during the last four months of 2021. Demings thanked her contributors in her message.
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