Tag Archives: Florida

Orlando’s NBC News affiliate reports: Florida Sen. Rick Scott announced Friday that he has tested positive for COVID-19. Scott said he came into contact with someone after returning to Florida on Nov. 13 who subsequently tested positive, and has been quarantining at his home in Naples since then. He said he took multiple negative rapid tests earlier in the week, …

Orlando’s NBC News affiliate reports: Each vaccine requires two doses. If approved, the federal government anticipates having enough vaccine for 20 million Americans by the end of December, said DeSantis. DeSantis went on to say that millions of doses are ready to ship. Once the FDA approves the vaccine, they will ship within 24 hours. DeSantis expects Florida hospitals to …

West Palm Beach’s ABC News affiliate reports: U.S. Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) says he will quarantine as a precaution. Florida’s junior senator in Washington wrote on Twitter after arriving in Florida Friday night he came into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Scott said he had a coronavirus test which came back negative. He’s also showing no symptoms …

The Miami Herald reports: When Gov. Ron DeSantis needed to hire a data analyst, his staff picked a little-known Ohio sports blogger and Uber driver whose only relevant experience is spreading harmful conspiracy theories about COVID-19 on the Internet. In his own words, Kyle Lamb of Columbus, Ohio, has few qualifications for the job at the state’s Office of Policy …

The Pensacola News Journal reports: A Pensacola man has been arrested for allegedly pulling off a woman’s face mask during a weekend rally in downtown Pensacola in support of President Donald Trump. Dan Orval Ditto Jr., 58, was arrested about 4:45 p.m. Tuesday and charged with simple battery, according to Pensacola Police Department spokesman Mike Wood. “He grabbed her mask …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: Twenty-five parents had turned out to Tuesday’s Pinellas County School Board meeting, some with their children, to argue against a masking policy to combat the coronavirus. Things were fine until they tried to leave. Several parents said school district police stopped them, saying they had to wear masks in order to walk through the building. …

The Miami Herald reports: Being vice president is a tough job. Especially one who has just been voted out of office and is fighting to stay in it. So we can’t blame Mike Pence for wanting a little R&R. Where is he going? Florida, of course. VPOTUS isn’t heading to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach or Disney World near Orlando. …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: The Florida Department of Health reported 6,820 coronavirus infections on Sunday and 22 deaths, bringing the state’s overall death toll throughout the pandemic to 17,333 lives lost. Since March 1, the day health officials recorded the first known coronavirus infection in Florida, the state has reported a total of 843,897 cases. About 25 percent of …

Miami’s CBS News affiliate reports: With all the vitriol that has surrounded this election season, there’s another claim of harassment – this time from the mayor of Fort Lauderdale.  He recalled how homophobic slurs were hurled at him while he was at an early vote location at Coral Ridge Mall. Trantalis is the city’s first openly gay mayor. “I encountered …

From an op-ed in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: I didn’t sign up to be threatened, harassed, taunted, harangued and even physically assaulted. But I got all of this, and more. Trump supporters treated the outside of my polling place in West Boca Raton like a college football tailgate party. There were overflowing coolers; cardboard cutouts of Trump and his wife …

Fox News reports: President Donald Trump has won Florida and its 29 electoral college votes, FOX News projects. With 91 percent of the vote counted, the president had 51.29 percent of the state’s vote to Joe Biden’s 47.81 percent. That’s a difference of 381,887 votes. The largest group of uncounted votes is in Osceola County, where an internet outage is …

Florida Politics reports: Rep. Lois Frankel swatted off a challenge from internet provocateur Laura Loomer. The West Palm Beach Democrat easily defeated her challenger in a race that drew national attention mostly thanks to the Republican candidate’s history of hateful commentary. Voters followed Twitter, Facebook and Uber in denying Loomer a platform for her rhetoric. With all early and vote-by-mail …

Tampa’s WMNF reports: A video showing the arrest of a Clearwater man during a political rally in Palm Harbor has raised concerns over a deputy’s use of force. The video shows deputies punching a Joe Biden supporter in the head and elbowing him in the back multiple times as he’s being held to the ground. Scott Rexroat draped himself in …

Just in from Quinninpiac Polling: On the eve of Election Day 2020, former Vice President Joe Biden has narrow leads over President Donald Trump in Florida and Ohio, according to the final Quinnipiac University polls conducted before the election. In a national poll, Biden holds an 11-point lead over Trump among likely voters, largely unchanged from the 10-point leads he …

Miami’s CBS News reports: President Donald Trump is defending supporters who were seen surrounding a Biden campaign bus in Texas, which led Democrats to cancel an event there and suggested the FBI should stop investigating the incident. Florida Senator Marco Rubio also announced his support of the incident. “I saw yesterday a video of these people in Texas,” Rubio said …

The Tallahassee Democrat reports: With days to go, Florida has failed to spend more than $10 million designated for election security, COVID-19 protection at the polls and a surge in mailed ballots. A large piece of that pie is $3.5 million that Secretary of State Laurel Lee requested from the Legislature earlier this year for the state’s 67 county supervisors …

The Villages News reports: The Villages saw a significant jump in COVID-19 patients on Friday as Florida surpassed 800,000 cases of the potentially deadly virus. Thirty-nine new COVID-19 cases were reported Friday in and around Florida’s Friendliest Hometown. The Villages continues to lead Sumter County with 778 cases – an increase of 20 in a 24-hour period. All told, Florida …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: An unknown person in Columbia, S.C., submitted at least 54 new voter applications in July in the same neat handwriting to the Broward elections office, several in each of 19 envelopes. Many of the voters were elderly, and had recently died in the Northeast. Almost all of them were flagged by Broward elections office staff as …

NBC News reports: Joe Biden holds a slight 4-point lead over President Donald Trump in the battleground of Florida, fueled by his standing among seniors and independents, according to the final NBC News/Marist poll of the state before Tuesday’s presidential election. Biden is supported by 51 percent of likely voters, while Trump gets 47 percent. Just a combined 2 percent …

Fort Myers’ CBS News affiliate reports: A 20-year-old Naples man was arrested Tuesday, accused of changing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ address in the voter database. DeSantis alerted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement after he went to vote Monday afternoon and was told that an unknown person had altered his primary address. DeSantis said he didn’t authorize the change and contacted …