Gov. Ron DeSantis signed all of the bills passed this week during the Florida Legislature’s special session.
The special session was called in response to several pressing issues, including communities in need of relief from recent Hurricane Idalia, increasing access to education funding for disabled children and violence that has erupted in the Middle East.
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The state of Florida has placed another company, Morningstar-Sustainalytics, on its list of “Scrutinized Companies that Boycott Israel.” The company, which rejects the accusation, has 90 days to respond or be subjected to Florida’s divestment and contract prohibitions.
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The Florida Legislature has called a special legislative session to expand sanctions on Iran, express support for Israel and advance several legislative priorities.
Senate President Kathleen Passidomo and House Speaker Paul Renner issued a joint proclamation on Friday outlining eight agenda items including prioritizing tax relief and other financial assistance related to damages resulting from Hurricane Idalia. Other items on the agenda include expanding funding for recovery efforts related to natural disasters and expanding school choice for students with special needs.
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Third-quarter fundraising numbers released Sunday provide a glimpse into the strengths of the 2024 Republican presidential campaigns as the primary season is fast approaching.
Former President Donald Trump out-raised the entire GOP primary field, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and conservative businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) third-quarter filings. Trump also enters the year’s final fundraising quarter with the most cash on hand, with South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott next in line, followed by DeSantis and Haley.
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Within two days of announcing Florida would arrange transportation for Americans stranded in Israel and bring them to Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis welcomed home nearly 300 Sunday night.
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After Hamas attacked Israel, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the state would be advancing greater sanctions against Iran. He also declared a state of emergency and issued an executive order to activate the national and state guard and other agencies to help bring Americans home who are stranded in Israel.
According to some news reports, there are roughly 20,000 Americans, including many, who are stranded in Israel. They are unable to get out because of commercial flight cancellations and other travel and logistics disruptions due to the ongoing war with Hamas.
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The Florida Supreme Court is pondering the definition of a riot related to a law passed in 2021 designed to prevent violent protests like those seen in 2020 after the death of George Floyd.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil, Jacksonville/Duval County Sheriff Mike Williams, and Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony were named as defendants in the 2021 lawsuit filed by Dream Defenders and other social justice groups including Black Lives Matter.
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Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Wednesday blasted the lengthy sentences given to Proud Boys members and said that he is considering pardons to “ensure that everyone’s treated equally.”
Multiple members of the group were sentenced to prison terms of up to 22 years over their involvement in Jan. 6. DeSantis noted that similar sentences were not imposed over the riots that followed the death of George Floyd in May 2020, which resulted in at least 24 people being killed and caused nearly $1 billion in property damage.
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A Florida judge this weekend struck down a congressional map approved by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis, ruling it diluted minority voting power in the region, making it “unconstitutional.”
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Florida state officials say more than 476,000 electric customers have had their power restored 48 hours after Hurricane Idalia made landfall.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a news briefing on Thursday that there were 91,000 customers in Taylor, Madison, Lafayette, Hamilton, Suwannee, Dixie and Jefferson counties that awaited restoration after Idalia made landfall on Wednesday in the Big Bend as a Category 3 storm.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 46 counties in Florida on Monday as Tropical Storm Idalia is predicted to make landfall as soon as Wednesday as a major hurricane.
The National Hurricane Center predicts Idalia to stroke the Big Bend of Florida as a Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
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Former President Donald Trump on Sunday said he is not going to participate in the 2024 Republican presidential primary debates after a new poll showed that he is far ahead of all other GOP candidates.
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Presidential candidate and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called out President Joe Biden for opposing efforts to protect parental rights while ignoring his own granddaughter on Saturday at the Iowa State Fair.
DeSantis slammed Democrats for seeing parents as a roadblock to “indoctrination” in the school system during his Fair-Side Chat in Iowa, making a jab at Biden for taking “four and a half years to acknowledge” his granddaughter, Navy Joan Roberts. Biden opposed Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” bill, which bars discussions of gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade or “in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards,” when DeSantis signed it into law in March 2022.
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The largest individual donor to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign effort has said he will stop donating to DeSantis unless changes are made to the campaign, according to a report by Reuters.
Robert Bigelow, a multimillionaire and owner of the Budget Suites of America, has donated over $20 million to the Never Back Down PAC, the principal super PAC supporting DeSantis’ campaign — accounting for two-thirds of the PAC’s fundraising in the first half of 2023. On Friday, Bigelow said that he would stop funding DeSantis’ campaign until it exhibited a more moderate policy platform, according to comments made to Reuters.
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An internal memo circulated by the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign, and obtained by RealClearPolitics, outlines his pitch to donors ahead of the first GOP primary debate: The 37-year-old first-time candidate is surging as others stumble, going farther with fewer resources, and will soon “eclipse DeSantis.”
Until recently, those claims could be dismissed as so much bravado from an overeager, unknown biotech investor without any political experience whatsoever.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis announced this week that $487 million in state funds has been awarded to Florida communities impacted by recent hurricanes.
These grants are intended to help communities with infrastructure projects, rebuilding homes and providing better protection from storm surge flooding.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign has a new strategy to bolster the governor’s movement in the 2024 GOP primaries and catch up to former President Donald Trump, according to a July 6 campaign memo obtained by NBC News.
Trump continues to lead DeSantis in both state and national polls, and the campaign memo labeled “Confidential Friends and Family Update” details the governor’s plans to shore up support in key early primary states, insisting a large swath of the electorate is still up for grabs. As DeSantis remains particularly focused on New Hampshire, the campaign intends to delay efforts in Super Tuesday states to the fall.
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Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on Monday called on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to appear before the Statewide Council on Human Trafficking to account for how Meta is being used to facilitate human trafficking and sex exploitation.
Moody did so while announcing what she described as the “stunning” and “disturbing” findings of a statewide investigation that found that Meta platforms are being used more than any other social media platforms by human traffickers to commit crimes.
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A U.S. District court judge has blocked a Florida election law that criminalized noncitizens from collecting voter registration forms, a statute some say was aimed at Hispanic migrants and asylum seekers.
The law, which was overruled last week would have gone into effect this month, resulting in fines for as much as $50,000 against non-citizens “collecting or handling” voter registration forms.
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The usual suspects have weighed in on recent belated efforts to enforce U.S. immigration laws.
Our now bankrupt media, the corrupt government of Mexico, and the Diversity/Equity/Inclusion apparat have damned a series of laws recently passed by the Florida legislature and signed by Governor Ron DeSantis that enforce existing federal immigration laws.
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Tech mogul Vivek Ramaswamy is closing in on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Republican primary, placing just 6 points behind him in a recent poll. Ramaswamy claimed the support of 10 percent of likely voters in an Echelon Insights poll conducted June 26-29. DeSantis, meanwhile, claimed 16 percent support to former President Donald Trump’s 49 percent.
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Angel Mom Kiyan Michael, a Republican state representative from Jacksonville, Florida, has come full circle from running for office, endorsing Gov. Ron DeSantis for governor, getting elected, and now endorsing him for president. She celebrated her bittersweet victory and legislative accomplishments this year, joining DeSantis last week in Eagle Pass, Texas, as he unveiled his plan “to stop the invasion at the southern border.”
Angel parents are those whose children are killed by foreign nationals who’ve illegally entered the country.
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In a campaign stop in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis presented his border security plan as part of his platform to win the Republican nomination for president.
The plan includes reinstating several policies implemented by the Trump administration, including ending catch and release, reinstating the Remain in Mexico policy, among others. His plan also includes using the U.S. military to work with Border Patrol agents “on day one, and they’ll continue to help until the [border] wall is finished,” according to a campaign document obtained by The Center Square.
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The annual Faith and Freedom forum – considered the country’s largest public policy gathering of Christian conservative activists – concluded Saturday evening with a keynote speech from front-running GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump in which he spoke passionately to a key part of a coalition he must rebuild to win the GOP nomination.
But Trump, like the other top-tier 2024 GOP presidential candidates who spoke during the three-day event in Washington, D.C., faces a long road to Election Day in which the nominee will also have to win over independents, the undecideds and other voters for Republicans to retake the White House.
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Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California claimed Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida was among those who “weaponized” the issue of men competing in women’s sports.
“I think the trans issue has — has come on as a more divisive issue in the context, particularly of sports, where it’s also been weaponized, and issues around pronouns,” Newsom said during a Wednesday interview with Fox 11 reporter Elex Michaelson. “I remember the first time I was on Zoom, and all of a sudden I saw these different pronouns. And that even took me, I was like, ‘What’s this?’ I didn’t fully understand that.”
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Loyola Marymount University President Timothy Law Snyder recently wrote an op-ed for the Miami Herald arguing Ron DeSantis is on the losing end of the woke battle in education since most students today are already socially liberal by the time they enter college.
Snyder suggests that DeSantis is out of touch with undergraduates, stating, “Has DeSantis met the college students of the year 2023? If he has, he has somehow missed entirely their makeup and conviction.”
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Actress Denée Benton directly compared Republican Florida Governor and 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis to the “Grand Wizard” of the Denée Benton (KKK) in a speech delivered Sunday night at the 2023 Tony Awards show.
Benton made reference to “the current Grand Wizard — I’m sorry, excuse me — governor of my home state of Florida” at the Tony Awards, an annual ceremony for Broadway plays and musicals. Her equation of the conservative governor to the national leader of the KKK received applause from the New York City audience.
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The 2024 GOP presidential primary season in now in full swing with essentially all of the top, likely candidates having committed and key issues emerging such as the economy and the war in Ukraine – as well as election fraud and election integrity, which remain at the top on front-running former President Trump’s list.
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Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for the Republican presidential nomination on Saturday.
The two-term governor threw his support behind DeSantis during a speech in Tulsa, Oklahoma, following the endorsement from 20 of the state’s legislators and former Oklahoma Congressman and Trump-appointee Jim Bridenstine, according to a campaign press release. Stitt said he endorsed DeSantis because he’s a “strong conservative and principled leader.”
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Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law on Tuesday a bill that creates a Digital Bill of Rights for Floridians.
Senate Bill 262 sponsored by State Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island, creates the Digital Bill of Rights, which includes the right to control personal data and the right to delete, confirm, and access personal data on social media platforms.
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Republican Florida Gov. and 2024 presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis will travel to the southern border Wednesday, his office said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Two privately chartered planes carrying Latin American migrants from New Mexico have arrived in Sacramento since Friday, and California officials are blaming Florida for flying migrants to the state’s capital.
After the first plane arrived, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said Saturday that he met with the migrants and could confirm they possessed documents purporting to be from the Florida State government.
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New details have emerged about the legal battle between the state of Florida and the Walt Disney Company after the presiding judge recused himself from the case.
U.S. Judge Allen Winsor (appointed by former President Donald Trump) will take over the case after U.S. Judge Mark Walker (a former President Barack Obama appointee) recused himself on Thursday. On Friday, Winsor issued an order setting a deadline for June 26 for the state of Florida to file a motion to dismiss the case and gave a deadline of July 26 for Disney to file a counter filing.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law this week that will help protect Florida’s water resources and support conservation efforts in the Sunshine State.
House Bill 1379 was sponsored by Rep. Kevin Steele, R-Hudson, and Rep.Tobin Overdorf, R-Stuart, and will create designated funding for the state’s conservation efforts as part of DeSantis’ common sense conservation agenda.
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So far in 2023, six states signed school choice legislation into law, giving millions of families and their children education options, including access to taxpayer-funded vouchers.
Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Utah, South Carolina and Oklahoma all signed legislation into law that makes at least some, if not all students within the states, eligible for taxpayer funded vouchers or a tax credit that can be used on education expenses such as private school tuition, textbooks and transportation. Under the legislation enacted in 2023, millions of students across the country are now able to attend schools outside their designated zip code or apply to receive funding in order to seek a private or a homeschool education.
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by Harold Hutchison Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida ripped House Speaker Kevin McCarthy early Monday over the debt ceiling deal, calling it “totally inadequate” when it came to addressing spending. “Prior to this deal, Kayleigh, our country was careening toward bankruptcy and after this deal, our country will…
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis put his pen to work, signing 27 bills into law this week covering topics such as crime, regulation of drones and other issues.
Most of the new laws signed on Thursday will go into effect on July 1, the first day of the fiscal year.
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Florida National Guard, state troopers, and other personnel are in “full force,” assisting with Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star (OLS), at the Texas-Mexico border, Gov. Ron DeSantis says.
On May 16, Abbott requested aid from his fellow 49 governors to help secure its border. Within hours, DeSantis announced Florida’s pledge to help. Within a few more hours, 24 governors had pledged their support.
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The head of Twitter’s engineering operations has resigned after the platform’s hosting of Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis’ glitch-plagued 2024 presidential campaign launch.
“After almost four incredible years at Twitter, I decided to leave the nest yesterday,” Twitter’s Foad Dabiri tweeted. “The combination of the fantastic community, the impact it has, and its limitless potential sets Twitter apart.”
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Florida has become the first state in the nation to officially accept the Classic Learning Test as an alternative to SAT and ACT, the latter of which are considered ideologically slanted to the left.
The legislation, signed earlier this month by Gov. Ron DeSantis, makes the exam eligible as an option for students seeking to qualify for state-funded scholarships to Florida colleges and universities. It also allows school districts to offer the CLT to 11th graders.
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Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is demanding records from textbook publishers to determine if they have changed any content used in California’s schools to comply with Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ education laws.
The DeSantis’ administration has enacted several laws in the past year prohibiting Critical Race Theory (CRT) and certain lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation from K-12 classrooms. In addition to the textbook companies records, Newsom’s office sent a public records request Saturday to DeSantis’ office and the Florida Department of Education (DOE) asking for all communications between the governor’s administration and the textbook publishers relating to revisions made to content to ensure compliance with the Florida education laws.
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The NAACP ( National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Board of Directors issued a travel advisory for the state of Florida in what the civil rights organization says is in “direct response” to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ policies on black history and diversity, equity and inclusion programs in state schools.
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Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida fired back at Republican critics of his efforts to rein in big businesses, calling them “corporatists.”
DeSantis signed legislation May 2 that prohibited state agencies and local governments from considering Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors when issuing bonds, barred banks from considering “social credit” when making loan decisions and prohibited discrimination on the basis of political, social or religious ideology. Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump have criticized DeSantis, a potential 2024 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, over the feud with Disney that started after DeSantis signed parental rights legislation in March 2022 over the company’s opposition.
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New College of Florida (NCF) students raised more than $90,000 to hold an alternative commencement ceremony to oppose the “hostile takeover” prompted by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ appointment of conservative trustees earlier this year, according to its GoFundMe page.
The alternative commencement, titled “[NEW] Commencement: On Our Terms,” is scheduled to be held on May 18 at an alternative venue to recognize graduates on the students’ “own terms, separate from the official commencement ceremony,” its GoFundMe description reads. DeSantis appointed six new members to the Board of Trustees, which led to backlash from students who disagree with the conservative members.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a measure into law on Friday that bans the use of a central bank digital currency in the state of Florida and further bans the use of CBDCs issued from foreign government reserves and central banks, including China’s digital Yuan.
“I’m just glad we are thinking ahead here in the state of Florida because once this genie is out of the bottle, I think it will be very hard to put back in,” DeSantis said, adding that cash is king, and allows a person to control their own lives.
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The Florida legislative session has come to an end after state lawmakers made their final votes on the budget on Friday.
Senate Bill 2500, the General Appropriations Act, passed both chambers on day 60 of the regular session and is set to be far higher than initially planned, reaching an estimated $117 billion, $7 billion higher than the previous year’s budget.
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Former President Donald Trump is gaining support from minorities and both Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – the top two potential Republican candidates for 2024 – are poised to beat President Joe Biden, spelling trouble for the president as he runs for reelection, according to a poll released Sunday.
Biden is losing support from black and Hispanic Americans as Trump is gaining, according to a Langer Research Associates poll produced for ABC News.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law three anticrime bills on Monday that the Republican says will strengthen pre-trial detention and push back against “soft on crime” policies that have made other states less safe.
“One of the main things people say when they come, is that they just want to be in a place that takes public safety seriously.” DeSantis said, noting that Florida’s 50-year-low crime rate is a main driver for people who relocate to the Sunshine State.
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As part of the last leg of a four-country trade mission, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis met with political and business leaders in the U.K. to address ongoing and new trade relationships. He also secured a commitment from British companies to increase access to property insurance carriers to stabilize Florida’s market.
While in London, DeSantis met with Foreign Minister James Cleverly and MP Kemi Badenochs, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade and president of the Board of Trade in the UK.
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Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis launched a spoof beer advertisement on Monday night mocking male athletes who compete in women’s sports.
The advertisement, posted on the DeSantis War Room Twitter account, is a spin-off of the popular Bud Light commercial “Real Men of Genius” that aired in the early 2000s, and comes on the heels of a conservative-led boycott of the beer company after it revealed its partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. The ad features transgender athletes including former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas and mockingly congratulates them on their performances in the women’s division, according to the video.
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