As of Monday, 11,863 inpatient beds in Florida were being used by Covid-19 patients, about 22 percent of all inpatient beds in the state, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data show. No other state had as high of a utilization rate. The number of in-patients at AdventHealth Palm Coast on Monday was 80, more than double the January peak.
Florida
DeSantis Adds Florida to 11 States’ Play to Overturn Roe v. Wade’s 2-Semester Abortion Standard
The governors filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of a 2018 Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks. The filing doesn’t make these states party to Mississippi’s defense of its statute, but voices their legal support for that state’s case.
Crisis at the Border: Sheriff Staly’s On-the-Ground Report on a ‘Failed Immigration Policy’ Affecting All Communities
Earlier this month Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly took part in a fact-finding trip along the Texas side of the border with Mexico with several other law enforcement officials and U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla. “The border crisis,” he argues, “is coming to you whether you like it or not.”
Race, Gender, Abortion: GOP Lawmakers Across the Country Are Waging a Counterrevolutionary War
Republicans were emboldened in the 23 states where they control the governorship and both houses of the legislature. Other factors include a newly conservative U.S. Supreme Court, GOP backlash over former President Donald Trump’s reelection loss and a tidal wave of social media campaigns and commentary aimed at galvanizing conservatives by playing up divisive cultural issues.
Federal Appeals Court Rejects Defamation Claim By Anti-Gay Florida Ministry Termed a Hate Group
Coral Ridge, a nonprofit organization based in Fort Lauderdale, sought to benefit from Amazon Smile’s program but was denied admission because it had been tagged by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group over its positions on LGBTQ issues,
Covid Breaks Flagler Infection Records Daily, Filling Half Advent’s Beds; Community and Local Governments Are Indifferent
While the Flagler Health Department and AdventHealth Palm Coast are overrun with Covid cases and in-patients, local governments have gone silent, indifferent to the worst wave of the pandemic yet, making a mockery of their claim of a “partnership” with the Health Department or the hospital and amplifying community apathy that multiplies infections.
Cautionary Tale for Coastal Towns: What Miami’s Sea Wall Will Not Protect
The sea wall the Army Corps is proposing – protecting only 6 miles of downtown and the financial district from a storm surge – can’t save Miami and Dade County. Most of the city will be outside the wall, unprotected; the wall will still trap water inside; and the Corps hasn’t closely studied what the construction of a high sea wall would do to water quality.
DeSantis Ducks Reporters, His Office Is Unforthcoming About his Whereabouts Again
Lack of notice to the press — intermediaries for the taxpayers the governor works for — has been a persistent problem for the DeSantis administration, though it’s not a problem specific to him. Other governors have played the same games.
No Sales Tax on School-Related Supplies for 10 Days, Beginning Saturday
With most students expected to be in classrooms next month, after many learned online for at least part of the 2020-2021 school year, retailers anticipate a surge in shopping during Florida’s upcoming back-to-school sales tax “holiday.”
DeSantis Holds Roundtable on Masks in Schools. Traditional Public School Teachers and Educators Aren’t Invited.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday afternoon held a roundtable discussion about masks at schools with representatives of charter and private schools, but not traditional public education. Media, the teachers’ union and even the Department of Education were not made aware.