Florida State Sen. Annette Taddeo (D-FL-40) announced her bid for governor yesterday, totaling the number of Democrats in the gubernatorial race to three. Taddeo is joining her former gubernatorial running mate from 2014, Congressman Charlie Crist (D-FL-13), and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried in the Democratic primary race.
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On Friday, Governor Ron DeSantis announced more than $5.8 million in Florida Job Growth Grant Funds to support the opening of iTECH Glades Technical College in Moore Haven, a new location of Immokalee Technical College.
“When I took office, I asked DEO to focus on finding ways to support and invest in our rural communities – today, they delivered,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “I am proud to award $5.8 million through the Governor’s Job Growth Grant Fund to create a new technical college campus in Moore Haven.”
The new iTECH Glades campus in Moore Haven will serve an area that does not have any post-secondary training programs within 30 miles. The $5.8 million award will cover five years of startup costs for the technical college and will allow the campus to offer 12 career training programs. Workforce training will be offered in high-demand fields such as HVAC, diesel systems, accounting, nursing, welding and healthcare, and will be available to Floridians in Glades, Hendry, Highlands, Okeechobee and Collier counties.
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Leon County Circuit Judge Layne Smith has ruled against a business in Sarasota requesting to impose a vaccine mandate for its customers to enter.
The store, Bead Abode, requested that Smith grant their request for a mandate, but denied them saying Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ vaccine mandate ban “assures open markets.”
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the City of Winter Haven has been awarded with $9M for road improvement at the city’s Intermodal Logistics Center. The money was awarded to the city stemming from numerous sources, including: the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) and from the Florida Department of Transportation.
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Members within Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration have pushed back against Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried’s incomplete COVID data regarding Florida’s school districts. In the effort, Fried made the claim Florida’s schools that have mask mandates have fared better than schools without mask mandates. The DeSantis administration called the data “misinformation.”
The data Fried used stemmed from a sharable, view-only OneDrive Excel document containing week-by-week COVID data for each county’s school district. However, over half of Florida’s school districts were not included in the document.
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A Leon County circuit judge could make a ruling on the lawsuit against Florida’s vaccine passport ban as soon as late next week. The lawsuit was filed by Bead Abode Inc., a Sarasota-based craft store where attorneys for the company have argued it violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
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Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is “lying” about mask mandates in Florida’s schools and claims masks have been effective in stopping the spread of COVID.
“Ron DeSantis is lying to you about masks in schools … In every single case, kids were better off in school districts that required masks than school districts that did not,” Fried said.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he will defend Floridians after Attorney General Merrick Garland began “weaponizing” the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate supposed threats against school board members.
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President and CEO of Enterprise Florida Inc. (EFI), Jamal Sowell, announced that he will be stepping down at the position in late October to follow an order by the U.S. Navy Reserve to prepare for and participate in specialized military training.
Enterprise Florida is a public-private partnership of business and government leaders whose goal is to promote Florida as a premier business destination and expand the state’s economy through private-sector job creation.
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After Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won a temporary ruling last month, the parents suing the State of Florida over its mask mandate ban filed a notice in 11th Circuit Court of Appeal to overturn the previous decision.
The attorneys said DeSantis’ executive order banning mask mandates violates the Americans with Disabilities Act which is designed to protect students with disabilities who are more susceptible to illness or death, specifically to COVID.
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At the end of Friday, October 1, 14 Leon County government employees were terminated from their positions due to non-compliance with Leon County’s vaccine mandate.
In July, Leon County Administrator Vince Long notified all Leon County government employees that vaccinations against COVID-19 would become a condition of employment with the county, citing a “resurgence” of the virus in the county. According to the communication, all County employees were required to get vaccinated by October 1.
The employee notification stated:
“Today, as vaccinations stagnate and the delta variant has created a resurgence of the COVID 19 virus with the state of Florida at its epicenter, vaccinations against COVID 19 will now become a condition of employment at Leon County Government for new and existing employees under the supervision of the County Administrator and the County Attorney.”
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Former U.S. President Donald Trump made comments about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ potential presidential run in 2024, suggesting that he does not believe DeSantis will be able to compete against him, and that he will most likely drop out.
Although Trump has not officially announced his campaign for 2024 and was “coy about his intentions” during an interview with Yahoo Finance, he did not shy away from discussing the hypothetical matchup with Governor DeSantis.
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Governor DeSantis, along with Florida Attorney General, Ashley Moody, joined together on Tuesday to announce three actions Florida is taking to address what they call the “Biden Border Crisis.”
The three actions include the Biden Border Crisis Executive Order 21-223 (EO 21-223), the appointment of Larry Keefe, former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, as Public Safety Czar to carry out the order, and lastly, a lawsuit that was filed against the Biden Administration challenging its “catch and release” policy.
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Former lawmaker and director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Jared Moskowitz, spoke to the Tallahassee Capital Tiger Bay club and reflected on his time working with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
Moskowitz, who is currently in professional “purgatory,” said he feels the politics of today consist of people living in “bubbles.”
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Since the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban and the military blunder by the President Joe Biden administration, Afghan refugees coming to the Untied States could be as high as 125,000. South Florida is likely one of the new landing spots for a chunk of the refugees.
Approximately 300 families will be brought to South Florida and provided with training to learn about American customs like banking, health care, and the legal system. The training will come from the Refugee Assistance Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated in supporting refugees.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced yesterday the intentions to direct Florida Secretary of State, Laurel Lee, to launch an investigation into Facebook for alleged election interference. The allegations and subsequent investigation come after the Wall Street Journal published a report saying Facebook affected certain state and local races by exempting certain powerful users from their own rules.
DeSantis said he is not surprised to see a report about Facebook in this manner, but that some Florida elections might be compromised as a result of Facebook’s decisions.
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Last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced $114 million for wastewater treatments grants in order to improve water quality across Florida. The Wastewater Grant Program was a part of the Clean Waterways Act intended to reduce nutrient pollution in Florida’s waterways.
A large chunk of the money, $53 million, is going to the Indian River Lagoon to help with connecting approximately 3,000 septic thanks to central sewer and upgrading wastewater treatment facilities.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the appointment of Dr. Joseph Ladapo as Florida’s new Surgeon General earlier this week and made waves in his first few days as Florida’s top doctor.
Ladapo announced Florida is “done with fear” and signed off on new health department COVID rules for students in Florida’s public schools. Among the new rules is allowing parents to decide of their child should stay home from school if exposed to COVID and show no symptoms.
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Florida’s new Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, signed off on new COVID rules for students in Florida’s public schools. Among the new rules is a provision that students will no longer have to quarantine if they are exposed to COVID and remain asymptomatic.
Previously, based on contact tracing, the rules stated that Florida’s students would be required to stay home for at least four days if they were exposed to COVID. Now, the decision is entirely up to the parents.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis named a new chief of staff on Thursday. James Utheimer, of Destin, will take over the position after current Chief of Staff Adrian Lukis resigns on October 1.
The DeSantis administration thanked Lukis for his work and leadership.
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Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried is weighing legal action against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over his appointment of Shawn Hamilton to the position of secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
DeSantis and Fried have gone back and forth for weeks over an interpretation of the Florida Constitution related to the appointment power of the Florida Cabinet in comparison to the governor’s complete discretion of hiring and firing of secretaries.
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Florida State Rep. Paul Renner (R-FL-24) has been selected as the next Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. Renner will succeed current Speaker Chris Sprowls (R-FL-65) when Sprowls’ term ends after the 2022 legislative session.
After being selected, Renner touted traditional conservative policies, and moving toward policies rooted in freedom rather than a vision of moving away from freedom.
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The CEO of Tampa General Hospital has gone on the offensive, criticizing the President Joe Biden administration’s decision to ration monoclonal antibody treatments to states like Florida. The Department of Health and Humans Services (HHS) announced they will be handling the nationwide distribution of the treatments, earning much criticism from Florida officials who have been implementing the treatment for months.
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Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has offered her support for the plaintiffs suing the City of Gainesville over its vaccine mandate policy.
Moody filed an amicus brief in the 8th Circuit Court saying the vaccine mandate does not hold constitutional muster as well as acting as a deterrent for recruiting new members to Florida’s law enforcement agencies.
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Florida State Sen. Jeff Brandes (R-FL-24) filed a bill this week for the 2022 legislative session similar to a bill he previously filed during 2021’s session. The bill will seek to expand civics-education which would instruct high school students on how to engage as an educated citizen.
Students will be able to seek internships with governmental agencies or entities and would establish a “Citizen Scholar Program” at the University of South Florida’s St. Petersburg campus.
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The Florida Cabinet, comprised of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody, Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, and Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, are considering selling a tract of land in Miami-Dade County while buying and preserving land in Northeast Florida.
The South Florida land considering being sold is 82 acres located north of Hialeah to a private developer. The land is listed for over $12 million and the stipulations for the transaction would be the requirement of the land to provide at least 5,000 jobs over the next 10 years.
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After his administration bashed President Biden for cutting the supply of monoclonal antibody treatments (mAB’s) being sent to Florida, DeSantis sent a mass email to his supporters Thursday night to encourage them to help “fight back” by way of donation.
The email comes hours after data analyst for the Governor’s Office, Kyle Lamb, tweeted a statement from DeSantis that said, “‘We’re going to work like hell to overcome the restrictions and obstacles the HHS and Biden administration have put on us (with mABs distribution).'”
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Judge K. Michael Moore of the First U.S. District Court of Florida, decided Wednesday to deny a motion requested by a group of south Florida parents with disabled children, to block Governor DeSantis’ ban on mandating masks in schools.
Filed in Miami, the lawsuit alleges that Executive Order 21-175 (EO 21-175) violates the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as other laws that are meant to assure the rights for students with disabilities.
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Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, among other Florida Democrats, criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the DeSantis administration opting to decline application into the federally run Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program.
The program was developed by the President Donald J. Trump administration to provide states with grocery benefits for low-income children during the COVID pandemic. President Joe Biden’s administration continued the program. So far, Florida is the only state to decline the extension.
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The administration for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has blasted President Joe Biden for capping the amount of monoclonal antibody treatments states like Florida can receive. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has taken over the national distribution of the treatments.
The HHS says their leadership will provide “equitable distribution” and “with consistent, fairly distributed supply over the coming weeks.” However, DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw, said the move by the Biden administration was “regrettable.”
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Governor DeSantis along with Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson, House Speaker Chris Sprowls, and Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Secretary Kevin Thibuilt, joined together Monday to announce the development of three transportation projects aimed to improve “efficient, safe, and reliable” travel in Tampa’s interstate system.
According to a press release from Governor DeSantis’ office, the three projects will be enhancements to the Howard Frankland Bridge, the advancement of the Westshore Interchange, and the advancement of the I-275, I-4 Interchange.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced this week the state will be imposing $5,000 fines per violation toward cities and local municipalities that implement vaccine mandates for their employers.
“People that have put in 10, 15, 20 years, and now they’re just going to get cast aside by some onerous mandate? That is wrong, and so we let it be known today, we’re going to be enforcing Florida law against that,” DeSantis said.
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Florida Senate President Sen. Wilton Simpson (R-FL-10) has removed Democratic Minority Leader Sen. Lauren Book (D-FL-32) from her post as chair of Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee.
Simpson said the move was because of her dual leadership role.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced yesterday his intentions to end Florida’s yearly standardized testing requirements for public schools, known as the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA). The replacement for the FSA would be known as the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) and will be a progress monitoring system.
DeSantis made the announcement along with Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran with the hopes of reducing testing in the classrooms by up tot 75 percent, with the hopes of teachers being able to get back to traditional instruction and not concerning themselves with standardized test prep.
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Governor DeSantis and other Republican leaders currently lead their Democratic counterparts in campaign funding by what gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist (D-FL-13) said was an “ungodly” amount.
August finance reports for the state candidates and political committees who are fundraising for the 2022 elections were filed on Friday to the Florida Division of Elections (FDE) part of the Florida Department of State (FDS).
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In another step in the saga between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and local school districts, the 1st District Court of Appeal has given DeSantis a temporary victory by reinstating Florida’s mask mandate ban. The ban was initially signed by DeSantis through executive order in July.
The mask mandate ban has faced multiple steps in legal challenges by local school districts and parents seeking to have their school districts impose mask mandates for their students.
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President Joe Biden’s U.S. Department of Education (U.S. DOE) is opening an investigation into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ mask mandate ban. Specifically, the U.S. DOE’s civil rights office will be leading the probe after the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled in favor of reinstating DeSantis’ mask mandate ban.
The Acting Assistant Secretary for the civil rights office, Suzanne Goldberg, wrote a letter to Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran saying the federal government is concerned about Florida’s mask policies.
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U.S. District Judge Mark Walker has issued a preliminary injunction against Florida’s “anti-riot” law, at the request of the plaintiffs who have filed suit against the state. Walker called the law unconstitutional and could be a “a trap for the innocent.”
The law, originally known as HB 1, was signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a response to last year’s riots engulfing major American cities in the wake of the George Floyd incident.
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The Florida Supreme Court is taking up a gun-rights case related to a 2011 state law which implements penalties on local governments if they pass stricter gun-control laws.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and a group of municipal governments brought the case to Florida’s high court. Before Fried was elected in November 2018, a coalition of local officials filed suit against the law after the February 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, at multiple press conferences earlier this week, blasted President Joe Biden’s announcement of mandating Americans get vaccinated if they work for companies with over 100 employees.
DeSantis said nobody should lose their jobs based on vaccination status and felt Biden’s decision had no legal standing.
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Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-FL-49) filed suit against the Florida Department of Health (DOH) and outgoing Surgeon General Scott Rivkees over a public records request for Orange County pediatric COVID data.
Smith has said the DOH and Rivkees denied him the request and said they “falsely stated they were ‘confidential’ under state law, even after making those same records available for nearly a year on the Department’s daily COVID dashboard.”
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After deciding between six finalists for two spots on the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC), Governor DeSantis decided on Wednesday to reappoint Arthur Graham and Andrew Fay, whose terms were to expire in January 2022.
Graham, of Jacksonville Beach, was first appointed to the PSC in 2010 and has served three terms as Chairman, while Fay, of Tallahassee, has served on the PSC since 2018, according to Wednesday’s announcement from Governor DeSantis Office.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has filed an appeal to reinstate a stay on Florida’s mask mandate ban. The filing was an emergency order after Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper lifted a stay after the state’s appeal, permitting school districts to impose mask mandates.
Cooper was the judge who struck down DeSantis’ mask mandate ban last month, siding with parents who have sued to have their districts be permitted to impose a mandate.
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Surrounded by law enforcement officials and other members of the Legislature on Tuesday, Governor DeSantis announced the proposal of three new initiatives designed to recruit and retain law enforcement officers in Florida.
The three proposed initiatives include, new officer signing bonuses of $5,000, the Academy Scholarship Program for the Florida Law Enforcement Academy, and out-of-state relocation support.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dispelled speculation and rumors around his prospects of being a 2024 Republican presidential candidate. DeSantis was asked about if he and former President Donald J. Trump would run for president while visiting a monoclonal treatment site in St. Cloud, Fla.
“All the speculation about me is purely manufactured,” DeSantis said. “I just do my job. We work hard. Obviously, our state has led on a lot of things, including on this (monoclonal antibody treatment) now. Other states are copying us. But that’s what it’s really all about, just helping folks here. I hear all this stuff and, honestly, it’s nonsense.”
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As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is appealing a ruling over the state’s mask mandate ban, three school districts are directly challenging the state’s rule by filing a challenge in the Florida Department of Administrative Hearings (DOAH).
Attorneys for the Alachua, Broward, and Orange counties filed the challenge targeting the Florida Department of Health’s (DOH) rule to block mask mandate bans. The ban keeps school districts from imposing a mask mandate so long as there is a parent permission opt-out.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said last week he could see himself supporting Texas-style abortion legislation. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a “heartbeat bill” banning abortions as early as six weeks, which is considered the time when a fetus develops a heartbeat and can be heard through an ultrasound.
The Texas bill, SB 8, officially came into effect on September 1 after the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) denied an appeal from abortion providers.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced his administration has appealed a legal ruling striking down his July executive order banning mask mandates. DeSantis initially signed the order to prevent school districts from imposing district-wide mask mandates on students.
DeSantis has previously cited the recently signed “Parental Bill of Rights” legislation ensuring parents have the right to make healthcare decisions for their children, including wearing or not wearing masks.
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Governor DeSantis announced Thursday that the 21 monoclonal antibody treatment centers he issued last month have positively resulted in a decrease in the number of hospitalizations in Florida that surged due to the COVID-19 delta variant.
Data from the Florida Hospital Association from Wednesday showed that 14,682 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Tuesday – a decrease of 9.9% in the last seven days.
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Governor DeSantis will make two appointments to the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) out of six finalists who were sent to the Governor on Tuesday by the Florida Public Service Commission Nominating Council (PSCNC).
The two positions are opening due to current commission members Art Graham and Andrew Fay’s terms expiring in January 2022 – both of whom are among the six finalists and looking for reappointment.
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