Tag Archives: Florida

Florida Politics reports: The House State Affairs Committee voted 16-8 Tuesday, along party lines, to advance a bill (HB 7) targeting class lessons and corporate trainings that teach cultural guilt, teachings proponents say insert ideology into history lessons. The legislation, filed in part at Gov. Ron DeSantis’ urging, is Florida Republicans’ effort to quell classroom or corporate training discussions they …

From the Miami Herald editorial board: Denounce the Nazi demonstrators in Orlando, Gov. Ron DeSantis. It’s that simple. Say they are abhorrent. Say they are despicable. Say they have no part in this society or this state. But no. Instead, our governor attacked Democrats during a press conference in Palm Beach County on Monday. Dragged in issues like immigration and …

Florida Politics reports: The Lake Worth Republican’s year-end report shows a total of $119,821 in contributions. Meanwhile, she spent $105,232 for the quarter, including sending $8,400 in refunds. But those expenditures primarily fueled a campaign apparatus seemingly built on spending money to raise more money. That means she netted just $6,189 in the quarter. That appears to be the consequence …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: After a group wearing Nazi symbols was seen demonstrating — and yelling antisemitic slurs — in the Orlando area over the weekend, local and statewide officials issued statements condemning their actions as hateful and disturbing. However, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis did not immediately add to the bipartisan denunciations — and his top spokesperson sparked controversy by …

The Jerusalem Post reports: Participants at a neo-Nazi rally in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday waved Nazi flags and shouted antisemitic and anti-Black slogans, according to StopAntisemitism.org. The rally was organized by the National Socialist Movement (NSM) and was live-streamed on the American Nazi Party’s website. NSM has a 25-point manifesto on its website and advocates an American “White” ethnostate in …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: A state appeals court Thursday said a family did not have a “legal right” to force Mayo Clinic Florida to administer the controversial drug ivermectin to try to keep alive a COVID-19 patient who was on a ventilator. A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal released a 12-page opinion that detailed reasons …

Florida Politics reports: In a crystallization of his argument for re-election, Gov,. Ron DeSantis on Friday night went on the offensive against “wokeness,” a “vicious ideology” and a variant of what he called “cultural Marxism.” “This wokeness is dangerous and we have to defeat it on all fronts,” DeSantis told the Common Sense Society during a speech Friday night. DeSantis …

Tampa’s ABC News affiliate reports: The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said its undercover detectives have been using dating apps to track down a number of people suspected of buying and selling drugs in the area. A 6-month undercover sting, called “Swipe Left for Meth,” yielded more than 60 arrests, the agency said. Detectives also obtained warrants for eight people. The …

The Lakeland Ledger reports: Polk County Public Schools Regional Assistant Superintendent John Hill and several of his colleagues spent Tuesday morning going to area middle and high schools to gather 16 books out of media centers after County Citizens Defending Freedom, a conservative political group, complained to Superintendent Frederick Heid that the novels, graphic novels, autobiographies, and sex education books …

Florida Politics reports: The “putrid” smell of marijuana is among the reasons Gov. Ron DeSantis may remain opposed to legalization in Florida. DeSantis shied away from offering a definitive answer on the issue Wednesday when asked by press at a campaign event in Tallahassee. He did, however, speak out against the smell of cannabis in public places. “What I don’t …

The Tallahassee Democrat reports: After a lengthy grilling on his merits and qualifications, the Senate Health Policy Committee voted — without its Democratic members — to recommend that Joseph Ladapo be confirmed as Florida’s Surgeon General. Frustrated by what her and her colleagues called a lack of honest answers from Ladapo after more than an hour of questioning, Senate Democratic …

Florida Politics reports: Urging supporters to “chip in now,” Gov. Ron DeSantis turned his fury over the FDA’s decision to cease monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19 into a fundraising appeal for his re-election campaign Wednesday. “Floridians are now at the whims of a floundering, failing President’s edicts,” DeSantis thundered, claiming as he did at a news conference earlier this week …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: Joe Ellicott — a close friend of disgraced Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg and a former radio talk show host — agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and distribution of a controlled substance, according to court documents filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Each charge carries a maximum prison sentence of …

Florida Politics reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis is condemning President Joe Biden’s administration for cutting off the federal supply of monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has now revoked its emergency use authorization for monoclonal antibody therapies created by Regeneron and Eli Lilly, calling it unlikely the drugs could treat the omicron variant of COVID-19. “Without …

Miami’s ABC News affiliate reports: Dozens of Florida sheriffs declared their support for Governor Ron DeSantis during a Monday morning press conference. According to Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey, 59 of Florida’s 67 sheriffs recognized that “Governor DeSantis’ support of law enforcement is why Florida’s crime rate is going down.” The eight sheriffs who did not announce their support for …

The Florida Phoenix reports: The legislative session is only two weeks old and the reliably witless Sen. Joe Gruters (R-Somewhere Up Trump’s Rump) is moving a bill to fine professional sports teams if they don’t play the national anthem. Wait, you say, aren’t the Heat and the Magic, the Bucs and the Jaguars, the Rays and the Marlins and the …

The Miami Herald reports: South Florida authorities are investigating the origin of anti-Semitic flyers that were distributed overnight in Miami Beach and Surfside neighborhoods, police said Sunday. Miami Beach police increased patrols in neighborhoods and religious institutions following the first report received shortly after 7 a.m., Ernesto Rodriguez, the department’s spokesperson, told Miami Herald via email. The anti-Semitic flyers appear …

NBC News reports: A Florida school district canceled a professor’s civil rights history seminar for teachers, citing in part concerns over “critical race theory” — even though his lecture had nothing to do with the topic. J. Michael Butler, a history professor at Flagler College in St. Augustine, was scheduled to give a presentation Saturday to Osceola County School District …

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 …