Tag Archives: Florida

DeSantis: Don’t Be CDC’s “Guinea Pig” – Avoid Boosters

The Hill reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and the state’s surgeon general are advising against the use of updated COVID-19 vaccines for anyone under the age of 65, a move that counters a new recommendation from the CDC. “I will not stand by and let the FDA and CDC use healthy Floridians as guinea pigs for new booster shots …

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Florida Police Arrest Pro-DeSantis Neo-Nazi In Orlando

Florida Politics reports: Florida law enforcement officials arrested a Cape Canaveral man who led a Nazi demonstration in Orlando in June. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) announced Jason Brown, 48, was arrested for violating a new Florida law forbidding the display of images on structures without permission. Officials said Brown has claimed membership in the Order of the …

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Ron DeSantis Doubles Down On Shooting Migrants

“You have to identify them as being hostile. I mean, if there’s a woman with a baby, they are not a cartel member. There’s not going to be authorization to just shoot somebody like that. But when somebody’s got a backpack on and they’re breaking through the wall, you know that that’s hostile intent, and you have every right to …

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Florida County Bans Kids Book About “Hugging Lion”

The Tallahassee Democrat reports: Manatee County officials have removed “Christian, the Hugging Lion” by Justin Richardson, a 32-page children’s book about two men who raise a lion named Christian in a London apartment. When Christian becomes too big, the two men release the lion into the wild in Africa. When the men go to visit Christian in Africa, they find …

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FL Surgeon General: Don’t Get “Unsafe” New Booster

Fox News reports: While speaking at a Thursday news conference for Gov. Ron DeSantis in Jacksonville, Florida, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, that state’s surgeon general, advised people to steer clear of the updated booster vaccine for COVID-19. “There’s a new vaccine that’s coming around the corner, a new mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, and there’s essentially no evidence for it,” Ladapo said during …

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FL Youth Pastor Gets 35 Years On Child Porn Charges

Tampa’s CBS affiliate reports: A Polk County man who spent much of his professional and church life working with children was arrested in November 2020 after investigators found more than 700 pictures and videos of child porn on his phone, the sheriff’s office reported. Shawn Fitzgerald, 49, — a former Lakeland High School teacher, soccer coach and youth minister — …

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Feds Investigate DeSantis’ Pet College Over Civil Rights

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports: The U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation into New College of Florida’s trustees and administration following a civil rights complaint filed on Aug. 22, according to a letter sent Friday from the agency to college Interim President Richard Corcoran. The DOE’s Office of Civil Rights said it plans to investigate the college on the …

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FL Universities To Accept “Christian SAT” Test Results

Axios reports: Florida’s public universities will now permit the Classic Learning Test in admissions, offering a conservative-backed alternative to the SAT and ACT. Florida is now the first state university system in the country to allow for the Classic Learning Test (CLT), which has gained recent popularity among the state’s Christian and charter schools. The classical education model — not …

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Florida Principal Resigns After Segregated Assembly

Jacksonville’s NBC affiliate reports: Donelle Evensen, principal at Bunnell Elementary School, informed Superintendent LaShakia Moore that she is resigning from her post, the Flagler County School District said in a news release Thursday morning. Evensen and a teacher were placed on leave following the assembly that was held for “African American students that scored below a three on testing.” Furious …

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DeSantis Rages After Black Man Says He’s Unleashed Extremists “To Hunt People Like Me In Broad Daylight”

Florida Politics reports: Florida’s Governor and Surgeon General came to Jacksonville to talk COVID-19, but ended up talking about the killing of three Black people by a White gunman with swastikas drawn on his AR-15. However, the state leaders had more criticism for the man asking about how state laws led to an avoidable racist mass murder than they did …

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Moms For Liberty Founder Named To FL Ethics Panel

Florida Politics reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis is appointing Tina Descovich, a leader of one of the nation’s leading parental rights groups, to the Florida Ethics Commission. The Governor’s Office notes that Descovich, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, “was previously elected to the School Board of Brevard County in 2016 and served as the President of the Florida Coalition of …

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FL Town Becomes State’s First “LGBTQ+ Sanctuary City”

West Palm Beach’s NBC affiliate reports: The city of Lake Worth Beach has become a sanctuary city for the LGBTQ+ community and their families, the first of its kind in the Sunshine State. On Tuesday, Sept. 5, commissioners voted unanimously for the declaration. “I think it’s time to take a stand that we affirmatively accept the people as they are,” …

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Dems Blast DeSantis’s Silence On Florida Nazi Rallies

Via email from the Florida Democratic Party: In response to the delivery of antisemitic propaganda to homes and multiple neo-Nazi demonstrations across Florida, the Florida Democratic Party has issued the following statement: “Ron has failed time and time again to denounce neo-Nazis — even when they’re chanting “Jews get the rope” in front of his campaign signs,” said FDP Chair …

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DeSantis Vetoed $346M In “Woke” Consumer Rebates

The Miami Herald reports: Homeowners, which of these consumes more energy in your house: space heating or water heating? Either way, Uncle Sam is ready to help you pay for some energy-efficient upgrades. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Biden a year ago, created two energy-efficiency rebate programs that could pay some, or even all, of the …

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Orlando Paper Condemns “Poisonous” GOP Reps For Attacking Small Town’s LGBTQ “Safe Space” Stickers

From the editorial board of the Orlando Sentinel: Even after all the news coverage, it’s hard to fathom the depths of toxic, illogical thinking behind a missive sent to Mount Dora city leaders by the Lake County legislative delegation, in response to the city’s approval of a “safe spaces” program that encourages business leaders to offer refuge to people threatened …

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Rick Scott Hails Biden For “Quick” Idalia Response

The Daily Beast reports: Even though Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is no fan of President Joe Biden, and vice-versa, the right-wing lawmaker had nothing but praise for the commander-in-chief over the federal government’s response to Hurricane Idalia. With Florida Gov. (and GOP presidential hopeful) Ron DeSantis apparently looking to avoid a Chris Christie-Barack Obama photo-op on Saturday, Scott—a former governor …

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Dozens Of Nazis Sieg Heil On Orlando Area Overpass

The Daily Mail reports: Multiple groups of professed neo-Nazis were spotted marching through parks in the Orlando area Saturday. Social media videos showed the groups – known as ‘Blood Tribe’ and ‘The Goyim Defense League’ – taking to the streets in Cranes Roost Park in Altamonte Spring. The marchers, caught on video by State Representative Anna V. Eskamani, were raising …

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State Judge Strikes Down DeSantis’s US House Map

The Miami Herald reports: A state judge struck down North Florida’s congressional districts Saturday, rebuffing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ open defiance of anti-gerrymandering protections, finding the governor’s map illegally reduced Black voters’ electoral power. DeSantis had wagered the state’s Fair Districts Amendment against the U.S. Constitution, arguing mandatory protections for Black voters violated the Equal Protection Clause. Second Judicial Circuit Judge …

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GOP Targets Small FL Town Over “Safe Space” Stickers

The Associated Press reports: Some central Florida lawmakers said they were considering “all legislative, legal and executive options available” to stop business owners in a small town from voluntarily displaying rainbow decals in their windows indicating that they are “safe place” for LGBTQ+ people who feel threatened. Four Republican lawmakers wrote a letter to officials in Mount Dora two weeks …

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Pro-DeSantis Nazis Rally Again Outside Disney World

Florida Politics reports: Labor Day Weekend may present the latest in a series of existential threats to Floridians from the White power movement. That’s the claim from the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Center on Extremism, which believes that a number of antisemitic, neo-Nazi groups will yet again mobilize in the Sunshine State. “Two extremist groups, the Goyim Defense League (GDL) and …

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