The Florida House Civil Justice Subcommittee approved three bills that are designed to reform the Sunshine State’s civil litigation system.
House Bill 1035, also known as the “Teachers Bill of Rights,” was presented by state Rep. Karen Gonzalez-Pittman, R-Tampa, who stated that education is a fundamental value of the people of Florida.
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A recent Florida audit of the state’s charter school administration still shows a lack of oversight and business dealings that could be seen as conflicts of interest.
The Florida Auditor General recently released a follow-up report into the day-to-day management and transparency of charter schools in the Sunshine State and there were several issues that still needed to be addressed.
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An audit recently released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General gave the state of Florida low marks for its stewardship of children in its foster care system.
The OIG audit found that state agencies were failing to properly report missing foster care children in accordance with federal law and some didn’t report them missing at all.
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Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody called President Joe Biden “trafficker-in-chief” Thursday in response to a White House spokesperson saying there’s no need to designate Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, “Designating these cartels as FTOs would not grant us any additional authorities that we don’t really have at this time. The United States has powerful sanctions authorities specifically designated to combat narcotics trafficking organizations and the individuals and entities that enable them.”
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The Florida House Ethics, Elections and Open Government Subcommittee approved two election-related bills and another bill that would allow the recall of county officials by voters at their meeting on Wednesday.
House Joint Resolution 31 was presented by state Rep. Spencer Roach, R-North Fort Myers, who said the resolution would allow voters to change the Florida Constitution to require members of a district school board to be subject to a partisan election.
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Republican lawmakers in Florida filed bills Tuesday that would ban abortion after six weeks pregnancy.
On the first day of the legislative session, GOP legislators introduced such bills to the House and Senate – with a Republican supermajority – that would cut down the abortion window from the previously approved 15-week mark. The bills also allow for exceptions in the case that a mother was raped or fell victim to incest so long as they could prove such a crime.
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Election issues continue in Orange County, Fla., where, a whistleblower alleges, felons illegally voted, deceased voters requested and received mail-in ballots, voter addresses are changed without the voters requesting it, and multiple ballots are allowed to be dropped off without question.
In a new affidavit filed with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), Brian Freid, a whistleblower in the Orange County Supervisor of Elections (SOE) office, alleges that since the SOE was notified last year by the state’s Office of Election Crimes and Security that felons illegally voted in the county in the 2020 election, there have been “no apparent changes implemented … to effectively ensure this does not happen again in the future.”
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University of Florida (UF) health centers reported an uptick in the number of transgender patients, fulfilling a request by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration in January, UF student newspaper the Independent Florida Alligator reported.
The Florida Office of Policy and Budget sent a memo to university leaders on Jan. 11 demanding reports about the number of patients treated for gender dysphoria at affiliated health centers. UF Health reported an increase in sex change treatments including puberty blocker prescription, hormone therapy, surgery and behavioral services at its various clinics since 2018, according to the reports obtained by the Alligator.
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Florida’s legislative session will reconvene on Tuesday, and several GOP-backed bills are set to make their way to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk ahead of a possible 2024 campaign launch, according to Politico.
The Republican supermajority legislature will propose various conservative bills over the next two months, including legislation relating largely to education, along with other gun rights, immigration and death penalty proposals, Politico reported. These GOP-led efforts come before a likely presidential announcement by the governor to give him more legislative successes to campaign on, according to Politico.
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With the exception of a dip during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Florida’s tourism industry has continued to grow since 2019 and predictions are that the good times will continue to roll for the Sunshine State.
A report from Visit Florida, showed that the Sunshine State had approximately 33.2 million visitors in total during the fourth quarter of 2022. This is 6% higher than the same time period in 2021, and 7.8% higher than October 2019 through December 2019.
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Two bills have been filed in the Florida Legislature in advance of the upcoming session that would extend protections for human trafficking victims in court proceedings, including for minors or victims of certain crimes.
The bills filed by state Sen. Danny Burgess, R-Tampa, and state Rep. Taylor Yarkosky, R-Clermont, Senate Bill 1208 and House Bill 1037, respectively, have the support of Attorney General Ashley Moody.
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Florida’s Legislature will be serving up a smorgasbord of issues during the upcoming 60-day regular session that begins on Tuesday.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has said many times that Florida is the place where “woke goes to die” and passage of laws to stop it tops the agenda for the Republican supermajority in 2023.
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The New College of Florida (NCF) Board of Trustees voted Tuesday to disband an office tasked with advancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) on campus, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported.
The trustees voted to abolish the Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence, which prioritized diversity, community outreach and inclusivity, during Tuesday’s board meeting and will offer its four employees new jobs at the college, according to the Tribune. The board also voted to eliminate the use of diversity statements in the hiring process and to ask interim President Richard Corcoran, former state education commissioner, to issue a ban on employee diversity training.
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A Florida Republican this week introduced a bill to require the state Division of Elections to reject the electoral filings of a political party that previously advocated for slavery.
Dubbed “The Ultimate Cancel Act,” state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia’s plan would automatically notify members of a “canceled” party that it had been dissolved and to change their party affiliations to “no party affiliation,” NBC News reported.
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Jimmy Patronis, the state of Florida’s chief financial officer, is warning the top executives of a so-called “disinformation” tracking group it’s playing with fire in targeting conservative organizations in what has been described as a defunding campaign. In a letter to NewsGuard CEOs and Editors-in-Chiefs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, Patronis warns that he will not hesitate to “use the full force” of his office to shed light on an organization that has financially hurt conservative outlets with its rating system. “In short, your enterprise may affect the finances of your clients through triggering Florida’s divestment laws, and it may be subject to legislative scrutiny in the upcoming legislative session,” Florida’s CFO wrote. As the Washington Examiner reported last month in its series, “Disinformation Inc.,” NewsGuard is part of a growing army of self-styled “disinformation tracking organizations that are cracking down on conservative media and part of a lucrative operation that aims to defund disfavored speech.” As the Examiner reported: Major ad companies are increasingly seeking guidance from purportedly “nonpartisan” groups claiming to be detecting and fighting online “disinformation.” These same “disinformation” monitors are compiling secret website blacklists and feeding them to ad companies, with the aim of defunding and…
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A record number of foreign nationals attempting to enter Florida illegally by sea continue to be apprehended by federal, state and local law enforcement agents who are breaking up violent altercations, rescuing people from overloaded and sinking boats, and arresting MS-13 gang members and child sex offenders – the majority of whom are single military age men.
U.S. Coast Guard crews have apprehended a record number of Cubans attempting to enter Florida illegally. Since Oct. 1, 2022, they’ve apprehended 5,740 Cubans. That’s nearly as many as they did in all of fiscal 2022 – 6,182.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a bill ending the Walt Disney Company’s special self-governing status.
“Allowing a corporation to control its own government is bad policy, especially when the corporation makes decisions that impact an entire region,” DeSantis said in an announcement about the new law, which came largely in response to Disney’s advocacy against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill, called the “Don’t say gay bill” by critics.
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The Lee County Republican Party Executive Committee passed a resolution Tuesday night, asking the Florida Legislature to outlaw the COVID injections and the Attorney General’s Office to confiscate all doses within the state.
The “Ban the Jab” resolution, which passed with the required two-thirds majority, will now head to Governor Ron DeSantis’ desk (where he can ignore it) and to the State Legislature.
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Taxpayers spent nearly $340 million for foreign nationals illegally in the U.S. who were admitted to Florida hospitals during fiscal 2021, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office says. This is after taxpayers spent $312 million on illegal foreign nationals admitted to Florida hospitals in fiscal 2020.
According to the findings, donations from charities were used to help pay for illegal foreign nationals’ hospital bills.
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ feud with the College Board is calling attention to alternatives in standardized testing methods, including the Classical Learning Test (CLT).
DeSantis began pushing back against the College Board, which administers the SAT entrance exam and Advanced Placement (AP) curricula, in January when his administration rejected the trial-run of the AP African American Studies course in the state of Florida.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Thursday an extensive legislative plan to address the border crisis.
His proposal comes as record numbers of foreign nationals have illegally entered through the southern border and made their way to Florida or are continuing to be apprehended by state and federal law enforcement officers as they attempt to enter Florida illegally by sea.
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The Florida House Subcommittee on Children, Families and Seniors met in Tallahassee Wednesday and discussed the phenomena of benefit cliffs with several programs and how they can provide a disincentive for work.
The subcommittee was given a presentation on the barriers that are present for Florida families, with the main focus being benefit cliffs — which refers to the sudden and often unexpected decrease in public benefits due to a small increase in earnings.
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The Florida Senate Education Committee approved a bill that will further expand education choice in the Sunshine State on Tuesday.
Education Committee Chairman Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee, introduced Senate Bill 202 which will give additional access and support to parents and students.
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A multiagency operation led to the arrest of more than 200 people allegedly engaging in human trafficking in Polk County, Florida. More than half of the victims were smuggled into the U.S. illegally through the southern border, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.
Of the 24 victims identified as being trafficked, “14 of these females are illegally in this country,” Judd said. “Did you hear that? Did you hear clearly what I said?
“Fourteen of them are here illegally in the country. To me the bombshell is 13 of them are Cuban, one is Mexican, all of them came to us through the southern border.”
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A recent report from the Florida Auditor General has turned up three issues regarding the use of taxes retained by the Escambia County Board of County Commissioners and Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller.
Florida state law allows counties to levy and impose five separate local option taxes, referred to as the Tourist Development Tax, which allows rates of up to 6% of each dollar collected from short-term rentals of up to six months.
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A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a challenge to a Florida law that restricts the discussion of sexuality and gender identity with younger students, and that critics have maligned as an anti-LGBT “Don’t Say Gay” law.
U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor determined that the group of Florida students, parents and teachers who brought the challenge failed to prove that they had standing to bring the case to the federal bench.
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According to the official in charge of Florida’s medical marijuana program, the number of active patients has increased 71% over the past two years.
Christopher Kimball, the Director of the Office of Medical Marijuana Use, provided statistics to the Florida House Healthcare Regulation Subcommittee Tallahassee Wednesday as they discussed the medical marijuana industry in the Sunshine State.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and legislative leaders want reforms to take on frivolous lawsuits and put a stop to what the governor calls “predatory” practices by trial lawyers.
DeSantis held a news conference in Jacksonville Tuesday with House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples about the proposals which would eliminate one-way attorney fees and fee multipliers for all lines of insurance, modernize Florida’s “bad faith” law, and put caps on damage claims to protect small businesses.
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Ohio Senator JD Vance (R-OH) and Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) sent a letter to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday amid the ongoing situation surrounding the recent train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants the Legislature to restrict politically motivated banking and investment policies with taxpayer funds and protect Floridians from discrimination from the banking industry in the upcoming session.
DeSantis held a news conference in Naples Monday to discuss legislative proposals to address environmental, social and governance investment policies. While ESG was prohibited in investment decisions for the state’s pension program through the State Board of Administration last year, DeSantis wants more restrictions.
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In January, Border Patrol agents apprehended 1,402 foreign nationals illegally entering Florida, according to preliminary data obtained by The Center Square from a Border Patrol agent on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
They also reported 58 gotaways, those who were known and reported to have illegally entered and got evaded capture by law enforcement. Combined, these totaled 1,460.
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Florida schools will no longer ask student-athletes to share their menstrual histories to play high school sports, after an effort to make the optional questions mandatory.
The state’s High School Athletic Association’s board of directors voted 14-2 Thursday in an emergency session to adopt a proposal to remove the questions from a pre-participation physical evaluation form, according to NBC News.
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The Florida Legislature concluded its special session on Friday, passing bills regarding Disney’s autonomy, transport of foreign nationals and election fraud.
Florida House Speaker Paul Renner said at a news conference before the House’s final meeting that the special session was successful and that lawmakers addressed “the complete abdication by the federal government in defending our border and stopping the flow of illegal immigrants so that the state can take action to protect our citizens.”
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants $2 billion in tax relief to lower the burden of inflation on state residents.
The second-term Republican held a news conference in Ocala Wednesday to discuss his tax relief plan.
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration has requested the College Board release all of its materials regarding its revised Advanced Placement African American Studies (APAAS) curriculum following an NPR interview in which the College Board president touted radical leftist material would still be very much available to high school students taking the course.
With Florida’s Stop WOKE Act banning the promotion of the tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in grades K-12, the DeSantis administration rejected the initial APAAS course because it included writings such as those by radical Marxist and former Communist Party member Angela Davis, and others associated with portions of the course called the “Movement for Black Lives,” and “Black Queer Studies.”
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Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposal to transport foreign nationals out of Florida to sanctuary cities passed a key hurdle in the state Senate on Tuesday.
The Florida Senate Committee on Fiscal Policy approved Senate Bill 6-B by a 14-6 margin that will authorize the state to procure contractors to transport foreign nationals around the United States through a specialized program.
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In Florida, a campaign supporting a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana, Smart and Safe Florida, has raised $20 million. Funding is from Trulieve Cannabis Corp., a marijuana business that operates in several states, including Florida. The campaign is collecting signatures to place the initiative on the ballot for Nov. 5, 2024.
The initiative would legalize marijuana for adults 21 years old and older. Individuals would be allowed to possess up to three ounces of marijuana (about 85 grams), with up to five grams in the form of concentrate. Existing Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers would be authorized under the initiative to sell marijuana to adults for personal use. The Florida State Legislature could provide by state law for the licensure of entities other than existing Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers to cultivate and sell marijuana products.
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A Florida Democrat lawmaker who admitted in a Twitter post Saturday she takes her teenage daughter to drag shows condemned Governor Ron DeSantis’s (R) move to revoke the liquor license of an Orlando venue that allowed minors to attend drag show performances.
State Representative Angie Nixon (D-Jacksonville), who self-describes as a “community organizer,” denied the sexual nature of drag shows, claiming, instead, the issue is one of “parental rights,” whereby parents can decide to take their children to these performances.
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Scratch-off tickets accounted for 75 percent of sales, helping The Florida Lottery to an 11th consecutive year of breaking records and sending $2.3 billion into public education.
Total sales for the fiscal year ending June 30 were $9.32 billion, says the recently released annual comprehensive financial report. Second in sales is the Pick Family, which at 9 percent was down slightly from 10 percent the previous year. Third was Powerball with Power Play at 5 percent, up from 4 percent in 2021.
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Companies with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are purchasing private schools with junior ROTC [Reserve Officers’ Training Corps] programs and military academies in the United States, warns Representative Mike Waltz (R-FL).
“It’s incredibly concerning that there are American private schools owned by companies with strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party,” said Waltz in a press statement. “From Florida to New York, there is clear evidence that the ownership of these schools are linked to our greatest adversary and it’s ridiculous that we are developing potential future military leaders through JROTC programs where the CCP could be shaping school curriculum and activities.”
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Disney’s autonomous status and several other projects will be tackled by the Florida Legislature in a special session starting Monday and scheduled to end on Feb. 17.
House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, issued the proclamation on Friday.
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Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration moved to revoke an Orlando venue’s liquor license after it allowed minors to attend a “sexual” drag performance, according to a complaint filed by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco.
The department said Friday that the venue violated Florida statute and would move, therefore, to “enter a penalty revoking [its] license,” according to the complaint. The decision came after the DeSantis administration warned in December it would revoke the venue’s liquor license if it did not age-restrict its “A Drag Queen Christmas” show which featured “sexual” acts.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday he’s calling a special session that will deal with Disney’s autonomy and other issues “in a week or two.”
He made the announcement during a news conference in Milton concerning broadband infrastructure grants through the Department of Economic Opportunity for rural areas.
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The New York Times is lamenting the College Board’s revised curriculum for its course in Advanced Placement African American Studies (APAAS) – its abandonment of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the move to make Black Lives Matter (BLM) merely an optional topic of study – both changes that suggest Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s (R) firm rejection of the radical content of the prior version significantly contributed to the new direction.
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Leon County Commissioner Bill Proctor, a black Florida Democrat, said the AP African American Studies course is “trash,” siding with Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in opposition to the class due to its focus on queer and feminist ideology.
Florida rejected the College Board AP course from the state’s curriculum last month because it was “filled with Critical Race Theory and other obvious violations of Florida law,” State Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. said.
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis held a news conference in Tallahassee Wednesday to discuss his “Framework for Freedom” budget.
DeSantis’ proposed $114.8 billion budget contains some tax relief measures as the economy in the Sunshine State has performed far better than other states. Last year the state surplus was over $20 billion, and DeSantis stated that this money needs to go back to the people.
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Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis pledged to defund all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at public universities during a Tuesday press conference in Bradenton, Florida.
DeSantis outlined several higher education reforms for state public universities including defunding DEI programs, which he referred to as “ideological” and “political filters,” readdressing required courses to teach western civilization and restructure tenure review. Tuesday’s announcement expanded on the administration’s recent work to prevent taxpayer dollars from funding so-called woke initiatives on college campuses.
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Florida Auditor General Sherrill Norman would support the addition of sworn law enforcement officers to her office by lawmakers.
These officers can help state auditors by making arrests and maintaining transparency over the state and local governments and their stewardship of taxpayer funds. At present, Norman doesn’t have any in her office like Ohio State Auditor Keith Faber as one example.
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Socialism “fails wherever it has been tried, and we don’t want it” in the United States,” Florida Republican Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL-27) declared Thursday.
Salazar has teamed up with Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) to reintroduce a House resolution that denounces the “horrors and failures of socialism.”
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Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis promised Thursday that his state would deem possessing fentanyl or other drugs made to resemble candy a first-degree felony, and send those targeting children with such fentanyl to prison for life.
DeSantis said during a “Preserving Law & Order in Florida” press conference that the state’s government would “make it a first-degree felony to possess, sell or manufacture fentanyl or other controlled substances to look like candy” and punish targeting that type of fentanyl to children with a mandatory life sentence and $1 million fine. He also pledged to add $20 million of local support funding for law enforcement to stop fentanyl’s illicit spread in his upcoming budget proposals.
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