Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday endorsed GOP candidate Anna Paulina Luna in her campaign to represent Florida’s 13th Congressional District.
Citing her stance on border security and other key priorities, Trump awarded Luna his “complete and total endorsement.”
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced yesterday his intentions to end Florida’s yearly standardized testing requirements for public schools, known as the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA). The replacement for the FSA would be known as the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) and will be a progress monitoring system.
DeSantis made the announcement along with Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran with the hopes of reducing testing in the classrooms by up tot 75 percent, with the hopes of teachers being able to get back to traditional instruction and not concerning themselves with standardized test prep.
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Former Florida Supreme Court Justice Stephen Grimes passed away at 93. He was the 72nd justice to serve on Florida’s high court since Florida’s statehood. Grimes served from 1987 to 1997 and served as Chief Justice from 1994 to 1996.
Grimes was appointed by Florida Gov. Bob Martinez after a long career as a lawyer with Holland & Knight in Bartow, Fla. After his Supreme Court retirement in 1997, Grimes returned to Holland & Knight to continue practicing law.
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Governor DeSantis and other Republican leaders currently lead their Democratic counterparts in campaign funding by what gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist (D-FL-13) said was an “ungodly” amount.
August finance reports for the state candidates and political committees who are fundraising for the 2022 elections were filed on Friday to the Florida Division of Elections (FDE) part of the Florida Department of State (FDS).
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Alachua County officials have called upon the University of Florida (UF) and Santa Fe College (SFC) to mandate masks for all students, faculty, and staff. The higher education institutions have rejected the request from the county commissioners.
Alachua County sent a letter to UF and SFC, located within Alachua County, last week asking them to join the county, the county school board, and the City of Gainesville in an effort to be of one accord in mandating masks.
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In another step in the saga between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and local school districts, the 1st District Court of Appeal has given DeSantis a temporary victory by reinstating Florida’s mask mandate ban. The ban was initially signed by DeSantis through executive order in July.
The mask mandate ban has faced multiple steps in legal challenges by local school districts and parents seeking to have their school districts impose mask mandates for their students.
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President Joe Biden’s U.S. Department of Education (U.S. DOE) is opening an investigation into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ mask mandate ban. Specifically, the U.S. DOE’s civil rights office will be leading the probe after the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled in favor of reinstating DeSantis’ mask mandate ban.
The Acting Assistant Secretary for the civil rights office, Suzanne Goldberg, wrote a letter to Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran saying the federal government is concerned about Florida’s mask policies.
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Tommy Hazouri, Jacksonville native and Jacksonville City Council president who had served in multiple political positions over the last 47 years, died Saturday at the age of 76 from recent complications that traced back to a lung transplant he received last year.
Prior to his most recent position as a City Council member, Hazouri began his political career by spending 12 years in the Florida House of Representatives from 1974 to 1986. In 1987 he was elected as the first Arab-American mayor in Jacksonville history, where he would serve until 1991.
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The Biden Administration announced Thursday that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will require the COVID vaccine for healthcare workers at facilities that operate using Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement, or that are “CMS-regulated.”
The requirement will apply to approximately 50,000 healthcare providers which include, hospitals, dialysis facilities, ambulatory surgical settings, home health agencies, and any other CMS-regulated settings.
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On Wednesday U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle sentenced former Mayor and Tallahassee City Commissioner Scott Maddox to five years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to charges related to public corruption. Maddox was also the head of the Florida Democratic Party in 2003.
Maddox business associate, Paige Carte-Smith, was sentenced to two years for her role in the corruption scheme.
Judge Hinkle said Maddox and Carter-Smith were entitled to sentences below federal guidelines due to assistance offered to federal officials. Federal sentencing guidelines called for 5-7 years for Maddox and Carter-Smith.
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Florida’s farmers are still struggling even after the signing of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which received bipartisan support in Congress. Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried is also calling on Floridians to buy Florida-grown products after Mexico’s “unfair trade practices.”
A new report from the Florida Department of Agriculture shows Florida is losing its market share for seasonal produce while Mexico’s share has continued to increase. The tactic is being referred to as “crop dumping,” which is when Mexican producers intentionally flood the American market with lower priced blueberries, strawberries, and other seasonal crops.
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The Florida Supreme Court is taking up a gun-rights case related to a 2011 state law which implements penalties on local governments if they pass stricter gun-control laws.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and a group of municipal governments brought the case to Florida’s high court. Before Fried was elected in November 2018, a coalition of local officials filed suit against the law after the February 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
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U.S. District Judge Mark Walker has issued a preliminary injunction against Florida’s “anti-riot” law, at the request of the plaintiffs who have filed suit against the state. Walker called the law unconstitutional and could be a “a trap for the innocent.”
The law, originally known as HB 1, was signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a response to last year’s riots engulfing major American cities in the wake of the George Floyd incident.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, at multiple press conferences earlier this week, blasted President Joe Biden’s announcement of mandating Americans get vaccinated if they work for companies with over 100 employees.
DeSantis said nobody should lose their jobs based on vaccination status and felt Biden’s decision had no legal standing.
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After deciding between six finalists for two spots on the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC), Governor DeSantis decided on Wednesday to reappoint Arthur Graham and Andrew Fay, whose terms were to expire in January 2022.
Graham, of Jacksonville Beach, was first appointed to the PSC in 2010 and has served three terms as Chairman, while Fay, of Tallahassee, has served on the PSC since 2018, according to Wednesday’s announcement from Governor DeSantis Office.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has filed an appeal to reinstate a stay on Florida’s mask mandate ban. The filing was an emergency order after Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper lifted a stay after the state’s appeal, permitting school districts to impose mask mandates.
Cooper was the judge who struck down DeSantis’ mask mandate ban last month, siding with parents who have sued to have their districts be permitted to impose a mandate.
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Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-FL-49) filed suit against the Florida Department of Health (DOH) and outgoing Surgeon General Scott Rivkees over a public records request for Orange County pediatric COVID data.
Smith has said the DOH and Rivkees denied him the request and said they “falsely stated they were ‘confidential’ under state law, even after making those same records available for nearly a year on the Department’s daily COVID dashboard.”
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Surrounded by law enforcement officials and other members of the Legislature on Tuesday, Governor DeSantis announced the proposal of three new initiatives designed to recruit and retain law enforcement officers in Florida.
The three proposed initiatives include, new officer signing bonuses of $5,000, the Academy Scholarship Program for the Florida Law Enforcement Academy, and out-of-state relocation support.
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As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is appealing a ruling over the state’s mask mandate ban, three school districts are directly challenging the state’s rule by filing a challenge in the Florida Department of Administrative Hearings (DOAH).
Attorneys for the Alachua, Broward, and Orange counties filed the challenge targeting the Florida Department of Health’s (DOH) rule to block mask mandate bans. The ban keeps school districts from imposing a mask mandate so long as there is a parent permission opt-out.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dispelled speculation and rumors around his prospects of being a 2024 Republican presidential candidate. DeSantis was asked about if he and former President Donald J. Trump would run for president while visiting a monoclonal treatment site in St. Cloud, Fla.
“All the speculation about me is purely manufactured,” DeSantis said. “I just do my job. We work hard. Obviously, our state has led on a lot of things, including on this (monoclonal antibody treatment) now. Other states are copying us. But that’s what it’s really all about, just helping folks here. I hear all this stuff and, honestly, it’s nonsense.”
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A complaint has been filed against Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-23) by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT). The complaint is calling on the Office of Congressional Ethics to launch an investigation into Wasserman Schultz “for violating federal law and House ethics rules.”
The complaint alleges Wasserman Schultz failed to disclose financial transactions on time, along with a dependent child’s financial transactions.
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Funding for military projects out of Eglin Air Force Base in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, may get a boost after a bill by the U.S. House Armed Services Committee (USASC) was approved on Friday and sent to the House floor.
After applauding the passage of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a press release by Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL-01) – member of the USASC – says that the proposal includes a $600 million in defense spending, with $359 million being construction projects.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said last week he could see himself supporting Texas-style abortion legislation. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a “heartbeat bill” banning abortions as early as six weeks, which is considered the time when a fetus develops a heartbeat and can be heard through an ultrasound.
The Texas bill, SB 8, officially came into effect on September 1 after the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) denied an appeal from abortion providers.
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On Friday, September 3rd, the Legislative Budget Commission accepted a report that indicated Florida’s general revenue collections are projected to be above the pre-pandemic forecasted levels for Fiscal Year 2021-22 and Fiscal Year 2022-23.
Also, revenue collections are expected to increase approximately four percent per year throughout the forecast period.
Speaking Friday at the Joint Legislative Budget Commission, House budget leader Jay Trumbull credited Florida’s swift reopening and a history of prudent budgeting for getting the state’s finances back on track — and even above pre-pandemic estimates. Trumbull, a Panama City Republican who is co-chair of the Joint Legislative Budget Commission, said the report indicates “the state’s budget is in great shape.”
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The student Supreme Court at Florida State University has reinstated Jack Denton to his position as president of the Student Senate after he was removed for his Catholic beliefs. During Denton’s lawsuit against FSU, the student Supreme Court at the school ruled that the other senators were not tolerant of Denton’s religious beliefs.
Denton was removed from his position as senate president in June due to his Catholic beliefs about BLM and other leftist organizations, as Campus Reform previously reported.
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Senate President Wilton Simpson, a wealthy Republican from Pasco County whose business holdings include a large egg farm, filed paperwork Friday to run for state agriculture commissioner next year.
Based on his latest financial disclosure, Simpson is one of the wealthiest members in the Florida Legislature with a net worth of $31.5 million as of Dec. 31.
Simpson, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump earlier this year, is the highest profiled candidate to enter the race. Current Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, a Democrat, is running for governor.
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During a special Leon County School Board (LCSB) meeting on Thursday, Board member Rosanne Wood initiated a discussion about vaccine incentives focused on Leon County School (LCS) employees and students. The initiative could provide a monetary incentive for employees and students to get vaccinated.
Board member Wood opened the discussion by stating, “since we are the educators of Leon County, we need to be doing a better job of educating our kids, parents, and our families of the importance of this vaccine…”
Wood mentioned that SAIL High School is holding a vaccine clinic and will be offering Starbucks gift cards and Amazon gift cards to students and employees who get vaccinated.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced his administration has appealed a legal ruling striking down his July executive order banning mask mandates. DeSantis initially signed the order to prevent school districts from imposing district-wide mask mandates on students.
DeSantis has previously cited the recently signed “Parental Bill of Rights” legislation ensuring parents have the right to make healthcare decisions for their children, including wearing or not wearing masks.
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Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (D) took jabs at Congressman Charlie Crist (D-13) over his previous political affiliations and supporting pro-life policies when he was a Republican. Fried and Crist are both running to unseat Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2022 gubernatorial election.
On Twitter, Fried posted a YouTube clip with the added caption that she is the only candidate who has been “pro-choice” her entire life, referencing an old clip where Crist said “I am pro-life, I am pro-gun, and I am pro-family, and I am anti-tax and I always have been.”
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Florida joined a coalition with 17 other states to back an amicus brief asking the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to deny the Biden administration’s motion for a stay on the Texas Supreme Court ruling to reinstate Migrant Protection Protocols (MPPs), or the “Remain in Mexico” policy, established under former President Trump.
In the brief, it states, “The border is in crisis. This Administration is increasingly and alarmingly lawless. And the States continue to suffer escalating irreparable harm as the border slips further and further away from the Administration’s control.”
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Governor DeSantis announced Thursday that the 21 monoclonal antibody treatment centers he issued last month have positively resulted in a decrease in the number of hospitalizations in Florida that surged due to the COVID-19 delta variant.
Data from the Florida Hospital Association from Wednesday showed that 14,682 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Tuesday – a decrease of 9.9% in the last seven days.
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Governor DeSantis will make two appointments to the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) out of six finalists who were sent to the Governor on Tuesday by the Florida Public Service Commission Nominating Council (PSCNC).
The two positions are opening due to current commission members Art Graham and Andrew Fay’s terms expiring in January 2022 – both of whom are among the six finalists and looking for reappointment.
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The Florida Hospital Association President Mary Mayhew said she has been encouraged with the latest trends regarding COVID in Florida.
Mayhew appeared on MSNBC last week and said she is hopeful given the drop in hospitalization numbers.
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Florida’s Attorney General, Ashley Moody (R), has entered into the fight against rogue school districts defying state law. She voiced her opinion after a court decision earlier this week saying Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ mask mandate ban was unconstitutional and unenforceable.
DeSantis said they will be quickly filing an appeal to the decision in another attempt to “defend the law and parents’ rights in Florida.”
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been attracting national attention for his handling of the COVID pandemic and after taking different campaign trips across the country he has attracted some of the GOP’s biggest donors.
According to Friends of Ron DeSantis’ campaign documents, Kenneth Griffin, founder of Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund, as donated $5 million. David MacNeil, founder of WeatherTech, donated $500,000 in May, and Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus gave $250,000.
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Stephen Alford, a Florida developer and fraud convict, was arrested and charged for attempting to extort $25 million from former Florida Senate President Don Gaetz, father of embattled Congressman Matt Gaetz, according to POLITICO.
After Don Gaetz wore a wire for the FBI, it was found out that Alford would have ensured one of Gaetz’ family members received a presidential pardon, and no one would go to prison. The family member was identified as Don Gaetz’s son, Congressman Matt Gaetz.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has selected the next secretary for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP). DeSantis picked Shawn Hamilton who oversaw the state park system as deputy secretary. Hamilton was previously a superintendent in the Alabama Air National Guard and also served in the Iraq War who has also worked in environmental conservation.
Hamilton would be the first black man to lead the FDEP and DeSantis said he we would bring “a strong, proven record of environmental stewardship and management of award-winning state parks and conservation lands.”
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Florida Agriculture Commissioner and 2022 Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Nikki Fried, has filed her financial disclosure forms, showing updates to her 2019 financial forms and new changes.
Fried was hours away from racking up fines for potentially not filing by the September 1 deadline, which was the end of the extended grace period. Form 6, which Fried completed, was originally due on July 1.
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In an announcement made by the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) on Monday, the Department said it will officially withhold monthly salaries of school boards in Alachua and Broward counties for issuing mask mandates for their students in violation of state law.
In July, Governor DeSantis signed an executive order banning school boards and districts from placing mask mandates in Florida schools, referencing the Parents’ Bill of Rights that DeSantis established in the 2021 legislative session.
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The U.S. Department of Education (U.S. DOE) announced they are investigating state laws across the country pertaining to mask mandate bans. The states subject to investigation are Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. Notably, Florida was not included in the list regarding the initial investigation.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order banning mask mandates on July 30 kicking off a month of threats, legal action, and defiant school boards.
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Judge Layne Smith, a Circuit Judge in Leon County, sided with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration over the decision to cut off federal unemployment dollars for Floridians in June.
Smith ruled DeSantis was within his rights as governor as the state has attempted to get Floridians back to work during a national labor shortage.
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Florida Crystals’ Okeelanta Corp., U.S. Sugar, and the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative filed separate lawsuits and are suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over proposed reservoir water levels. The sugar companies say the proposed levels will be too low to supply enough water to their fields.
The Corps are attempting to keep the water low as part of an Everglades restoration project, but the growers would want to see the levels returned to a standard adopted in 2000.
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Floridians hospitalized for COVID has decreased for a fourth day in a row, according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data.
The data shows Florida’s hospitals are taking care of 15,778 COVID patients which accounts for only 27.5 percent of all Floridians hospitalized. Similarly, Florida’s ICU’s are helping 3,477 COVID patients, which was over 200 less COVID patients than Thursday, last week.
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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 Sen. Marco Rubio (R) criticized President Joe Biden for the alleged list the United States gave to Taliban leaders containing names of Americans and allied personnel still on the ground in Afghanistan seeking to evacuate.
Rubio’s comments were contained in a letter sent to the White House.
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Last week the Miami Herald published a story with a headline which garnered national attention, mainly from critics of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The headline read “Florida COVID update: 901 added deaths, largest single-day increase in pandemic history.”
The story was picked up by many predominantly left-leaning pundits and news sites to blast DeSantis for their claims of his poor effort in handling of the COVID pandemic.
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The Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) announced the temporary closure of three prisons in North Florida on Friday, Cross City Correctional Institution (CCCI), Baker Correctional Institution (BCI), and New River Correctional Institution (NRCI).
CCCI has been closed since August 7th when it was evacuated due to flooding, while BCI and NRCI have experienced significant staffing shortages and will be closed in the coming weeks.
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Florida State Rep. Jay Trumbull (R-6), House Appropriations Chair, is calling on the Florida Ports industry to lobby for more infrastructure cash while still waiting on federal COVID stimulus money.
Trumbull said he wishes he wishes “we could have done more” for the ports industry, but he is concerned Florida’s ports could lose out on commerce and industry to nearby Alabama and Georgia.
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In Jacksonville and Ocala, Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatment sites are seeing hundreds of people receive the therapy, and it is proving successful in its early treatment phase.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been pushing for the use of the treatment for COVID patients early in their infection. The design is to receive the monoclonal treatment before serious symptoms kick in.
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The state of Florida has restored more than 950,000 jobs that were lost due to the pandemic, according to Chief Economist and Director of Research for the Florida Chamber of Commerce (FCC), Dr. Jerry Parrish.
In an online presentation titled Florida By the Numbers published by the FCC, Parrish notes that the pandemic resulted in the loss of approximately 1.3 million jobs since April 2020, and that there are still 315,800 jobs to be restored in order to get back to “pre-COVID levels.”
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