Tag Archives: Florida

The Daily Beast reports: Anti-Muslim bigot and perpetual Republican Florida congressional candidate Laura Loomer ambushed the National Republican Congressional Committee and Republican leader Kevin McCarthy at a Saturday morning retreat in Miami. “During a staff NRCC briefing for donors, Laura Loomer stood up and asked why the party committee isn’t trying to defeat Liz Cheney and the others who voted …

From the Justice Department: Today, 60-year-old Paul Vernon Hoeffer pled guilty in federal court in Ft. Pierce to making threatening phone calls to two members of Congress and a district attorney. As part of the plea, Hoeffer admitted that in March 2019, he called a Congresswoman in Washington, D.C. and threatened to come a “long, long, way” to rattle her …

Tampa’s CBS News affiliate reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is again declining to say whether he has or would receive a COVID-19 booster shot. During a Friday morning news conference in Sarasota, DeSantis was asked by a reporter if he had gotten the booster. “That’s something that I think people should just make their own decisions on,” he said. “I’m …

Orlando’s NBC News affiliate reports: A man who was trying to protect his dogs was injured by a bear in Daytona Beach Wednesday. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission say the man sustained non-life-threatening injuries, while the dogs were unharmed. Law enforcement and bear biologists attempted to capture the bear but have been unable to. Wildlife officials say the …

Brody Levesque reports at the Washington Blade: A Republican majority Florida House Education & Employment Committee passed HB 1557, the Parental Rights in Education bill, colloquially referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill advancing the measure to the full House. HB 1557 and its companion Senate bill SB 1834, would ban classroom discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity …

Florida Politics reports: Senate President Wilton Simpson says he would support removing laws requiring a concealed-weapons permit to carry a gun if it comes to a vote. Simpson’s made the comment to reporters Wednesday after conservatives at the Republican Liberty Caucus said they met with the Senate President. The group has been among a cohort of pro-gun rights organizations pushing …

“Think about how ridiculous it is what they’re doing by trying to force the nurses with these vaxxes. You know a lot of these nurses have had COVID, a lot of them are younger, some of them. “They’re trying to have families, there’s a whole bunch of things that they have going on and so they don’t want to be …

Newsweek reports: An ad for a Florida-based window shutters company which tells customers if they “support Joe Biden and are a liberal, don’t call us” has gone viral. One clip of the ad, posted on TikTok by social media user @robertjackon392, has since been viewed more than 4.1 million times. In a statement to Newsweek concerning reactions to the ad, …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: Dr. Raul Pino, who became a trusted voice of the pandemic response in the nation’s tourist capital, has been placed on administrative leave from his post as the state’s chief health officer in Orange County as the Florida Department of Health conducts an investigation. Sources who spoke to the Orlando Sentinel on condition of anonymity because …

The Associated Press reports: A bill pushed by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that would prohibit public schools and private businesses from making white people feel “discomfort” when they teach students or train employees about discrimination in the nation’s past received its first approval Tuesday. The Senate Education Committee approved the bill that takes aim at critical race theory — …

Florida Politics reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis may have just joined the redistricting fray. Ryan Newman, general counsel to the Governor’s Office, on Sunday night submitted his own proposal for a congressional map in Florida. The draft (P 0079) was submitted days after the Florida Senate Reapportionment Committee advanced to the floor its own plan (S 8040) for how to divide …

The New York Post reports: In two decisions Thursday, the nation’s top court struck down the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for large businesses, but upheld its mandate for most healthcare workers. Roberts and Kavanaugh sided with the court’s liberal justices, upholding the the health care-worker vaccine mandate, five to four. “Honestly, Roberts and Kavanaugh did not have a backbone …

Law & Crime reports: The Florida doctor who lost his marriage, job, and home after he entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 and later bragged about it has been sentenced to one year of probation, including two months of home detention. Kenneth Kelly, 59, and his friend Leonard Gruppo had traveled together from Florida to attend Donald Trump’s rally on …

The Tallahassee Democrat reports: Jorge Diaz-Johnston, whose body was found Saturday in a Jackson County landfill, was a plaintiff in a historic lawsuit that ended with Miami-Dade becoming the first county in the state to legalize same-sex marriages. Jorge was last seen Jan. 3 in the 2800 block of Remington Green Circle near his workplace, according to the Tallahassee Police …

Via press release from the Justice Department: A Florida man pleaded guilty today in the Southern District of Florida to a $6.9 million conspiracy to defraud Medicare by paying kickbacks and bribes to obtain doctors’ orders for medically unnecessary lab tests that were then billed to Medicare. The defendant exploited the COVID-19 pandemic by bundling COVID-19 testing with other forms …

MSNBC reports: It was not expected to be a competitive contest — Democrats heavily outnumber Republicans in this South Florida district — and it wasn’t. President Joe Biden won Florida’s 20th with 77 percent support, and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick won the special election with 79 percent support. But as the CBS affiliate in Miami reported, the unusual part of this story …

Florida Politics reports: Students in Florida could soon observe a “Victims of Communism Day” under a measure OK’d Thursday by a House subcommittee. Under the proposal (HB 395), government and public schools would begin observing “Victims of Communism Day” on Nov. 7, 2023. The measure would require public school students to receive 45 minutes of instruction on communist leaders and …

Politico reports: Lawyers working for the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee late last week asked a judge overseeing a legal challenge to the controversial Florida voting law to take notice of three incidents of voter fraud that had surfaced in Florida over the last two years. The court filing has not previously been reported. “Fraud is …

Florida Politics reports: Republican Rep. Randy Maggard is sponsoring a bill that would outlaw protests outside of a person’s home. The measure (HB 1571) would penalize violators, classifying a first offense as a non-criminal violation and a second offense as a second degree misdemeanor. A first-time violator, the bill says, faces 16 hours of community service or a $25 fine. …

The Associated Press reports: Always remember to tip your server, if you know what’s good for you. A tourist made a big impression in a Key West bar by ordering drinks three times on New Year’s Eve without leaving a tip. That enabled the staff to easily track him down after police released webcam video showing vandals setting fire to …