Senate Judiciary Chairman Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, said his proposal to amend the state Constitution to allow the Legislature to exempt convicted felons and people under 21 from the new minimum-wage requirements would help them get jobs in the future.
Florida
Tampa’s Mayor Faces Twin Challenges of a Covid-Era Super Bowl and Ron DeSantis
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, a Democrat who switched from the Republican Party in 2015 and a former Tampa police chief, would like to take stronger action to stop the spread of the coronavirus. But Gov. Ron DeSantis has limited what local officials can do.
School Chancellor Jacob Oliva Makes English-Proficiency Exam Optional for Now
In a win for advocates of English-language learners, Florida is allowing students to opt out of taking an annual English proficiency exam that is administered in person. Florida has more than 265,000 students for whom English is not a first language. They collectively speak more than 300 languages.
Upholding Requirement, Court Compares Mask Mandate to Smoking Bans in Public Places
A state appeals court Wednesday rejected a challenge to a Palm Beach County requirement that people wear face masks in businesses and other public places to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Controversial Bill Requiring ‘Viewpoint Diversity’ Surveys on Florida Campuses Wins Senate Backing
A controversial Senate proposal that would require Florida state colleges and universities to survey students about “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” on campus cleared its first hurdle Tuesday.
7 Days, 11 Additional Covid Deaths in Flagler, Totaling 68 as County Passes 5,000 Cases; 2nd Dose Vaccines Begin
It was the deadliest seven-day stretch of the pandemic for Flagler County. Over the weekend the tally rose to 60, and today the Health Department reported eight additional deaths, all senior citizens, bringing Flagler County’s total to 68. Second-dose shot vaccines were set to begin this week, along with a new batch of first-dose vaccines.
Senate Pandemic Preparedness Chairman to Advocates of Covid-Safety Lockdowns: Drop Dead
Businesses will remain open for the economic well-being of the state even as covid-19 cases continue to surge in Florida, the head of a Senate select committee on the pandemic said this week.
Florida Senate Proposal Would Vastly Expand “School Choice” and Use of Tax Dollars for Private Schools
The legislation, filed by Republican Sen. Manny Diaz of Hialeah, would expand eligibility for school-voucher programs, consolidate existing school-choice programs and allow parents to use taxpayer-backed education savings accounts for private schools and other costs.
Surgeon General: No Idea When Florida Will Get More Vaccines, Or How Many Doses
Surgeon General Scott Rivkees said in the statewide phone call that he does not know when additional “first doses” of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will be sent to the state or how many doses would be in a potential future delivery.
Flagler’s Covid Deaths Jump by 4, to 57; 800 New Vaccines Delivered; Second Dose Shipment Due Friday
As has become almost ritualistically routine since before Christmas, grimmer reports of covid’s toll are colliding with more hopeful if fitful news. That was the case again today in Flagler with a new vaccine shipment and the first decline in confirmed covid cases in five weeks, though case loads remain very high.
FBI Arrests Army Veteran Allegedly Plotting Attack on Pro-Trump Demonstrators in Tallahassee
Federal authorities have arrested a self-described anarchist on charges related to his alleged attempt to recruit the “like-minded” to violently disrupt the expected gathering by supporters of President Trump at the Florida Capitol through Inauguration Day.
Biden Terms Vaccine Rollout ‘A Dismal Failure’ as He Unveils Pandemic Response Plan
During his Thursday speech outlining what he’s dubbed the “American Rescue Plan,” Biden made several claims about the current response to the pandemic and how it’s affecting Americans. Statements are fact-checked and given context.
Law Enforcement on Alert in Tallahassee In Response to FBI Warning of “Armed Protests” Ahead of Biden Inaugural
State and local law enforcement agencies in Tallahassee are bracing for potential protests at the Florida Capitol this weekend and early next week, although officials say there are no specific threats right now.
Bill Would Require Regular Florida Cabinet Meetings
Sen. Annette Taddeo, D-Miami, wants the governor to call Cabinet meetings at least once every two months. Taddeo filed a measure (SB 642) on Thursday that backs arguments by state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who repeatedly expressed frustration last year about a lack of Cabinet meetings amid the coronavirus pandemic.
2 Covid Deaths Raise Flagler’s Total to 52; State Emergency Management Chief Rips Federal Vaccine Rollout
Bob Snyder, who heads the state-controlled Flagler County Health Department, said he expects some more doses next week, but he doesn’t know how many, while the head of state emergency management blamed the federal government’s rollout, detailing its obstacles, in unusually blunt language for a member of the DeSantis administration.
Florida Bill Proposes Abortion Ban After 5 Months
Anti-abortion proponents are eager to test Roe v. Wade and other precedents in light of the the more conservative new make-up of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Leading Senate Republican Says DeSantis Hasn’t Been Forthcoming About Flawed Vaccine Rollout
Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, said during a meeting of the Senate Health Policy Committee that there is statewide frustration over the vaccine rollout and that DeSantis administration officials need to provide the public with a “clear direction” about the state’s plans.
Covid Vaccine Now Available to 65 and Over at 4 Publix Stores in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach
Publix Supermarkets is making “a limited number of Covid-19 vaccines” available at four Publix stores in Flagler County starting now. But as has been the case with vaccines offered by local health departments in Flagler and elsewhere, all available vaccine appointments were snapped up as soon as they were made available.
FPL Wants to Raise Rates 15% Over Next 4 Years and Raise $2 Billion
Florida Power & Light customers in Flagler County and elsewhere paying $99 now for 1,000 kilowatts per hour of electricity each month would pay $114 a month in 2025, based on a proposal FPL submitted Monday.
A Day of Grim Covid Records in Flagler County and the Nation as Local Hospital Is in ‘Red Status’ and Vaccines Dry Up
Flagler County’s coronavirus case load broke another record this week for the fourth successive week, with a quarter of the pandemic’s cases confirmed in just the last four weeks, overburdening local hospitals and triggering a “red status” there, meaning a triage system for certain procedures. Their vaccine supply depleted, Flagler officials have “no idea” when it will be replenished.
State Investigating Whether Members of Palm Beach Country Club Got Preferential Vaccine Treatment
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that MorseLife made the vaccinations “available not just to its residents but to board members and those who made generous donations to the facility, including members of the Palm Beach Country Club, according to multiple people who were offered access, some of whom accepted it.”
Questions Remain About Added Jobless Benefits for Floridians
Questions remained Wednesday about when extended unemployment benefits from a newly signed federal stimulus package will be available for Floridians out of work because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Festive New Year Atmosphere as Flagler County’s 1st Responders and Health Department Workers Get Vaccines
It was a festive atmosphere Tuesday afternoon in a classroom of Flagler County’s Emergency Operations Center, temporarily converted into a shooting gallery: over the course of an hour, some 20 people, most of them firefighter-paramedics, some of them Department of Health employees, sat for their first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine, Moderna edition.
New Laws Take Effect This Week: School Bus Safety, Politicians’ Ethics, Voting Equipment
New laws enact a voter-approved prohibition on public officials and employees using their offices to benefit themselves and fines for driving past stopped school buses and focus on insurance policy statements and election equipment used for recounts.
Going Against CDC, DeSantis Orders Vaccine Priority for 65 and Older, Not Teachers and Other Essential Workers
The DeSantis order contradicts Centers for Disease Control guidelines issued on Tuesday that recommend that, once health care and long-term care workers and residents have received the vaccine, the next groups should not be defined only by age, but also by critical front-line jobs, including teachers and school employees, and underlying conditions.
Local Governments Seek Re-Hearing in Federal Case That Allowed ‘Conversion Therapy’ Targeting LGBTQ Youths
Local Florida ordinances that a federal court found unconstitutional had barred therapists from providing treatment or counseling that is designed to change minors’ sexual orientation or gender identity. Critics of such therapy say it harms minors who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
Fired Analyst Rebekah Jones Sues FDLE Over Search of Her Home
Attorneys for fired Florida Department of Health analyst Rebekah Jones, who has drawn national attention for her battles with the DeSantis administration, argued in the lawsuit that a search warrant to enter her home Dec. 7 “was obtained in bad faith and with no legitimate object or purpose.”
Covid Deaths in Flagler at 47, Week’s Positive Cases Shatter Record in Evidence of Thanksgiving Spike as Vaccines Arrive
The 220 confirmed positive coronavirus cases in Flagler County in the week ending Saturday set a new single-week record in the county since the pandemic began in February. Local health officials caution that the numbers may get worse with Christmas and cold weather ahead, and broad-based vaccination still weeks away.
Flagler’s Unemployment Rate Ticks Back Up, Florida’s Stalls as Covid’s Effects Take Economic Toll
Flagler County’s unemployment rate in November rose slightly to 5.9 percent, from a revised 5.5 percent in October, as Florida’s rate remained unchanged at 6.4 percent, signaling a deepening stall of economic activity since summer’s end as the coronavirus continues to take a human and economic toll in the state: seasonal hiring has not materialized as it has in less diseased years.
Agriculture Commissioner Raises Alarms Over EPA Shifting Federal Wetlands Regulations to Florida
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the only statewide elected Democrat, and some environmental groups criticized the decision, saying it will reduce protections for wetlands. They also pointed to the announcement’s timing as Republican President Donald Trump is slated to leave office next month.
Florida Lawmakers Again Will Consider Requiring Moment of Silence in Schools
An effort to require public-school students to engage in a moment of silence at the start of each school day is back before the state Legislature. Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, refiled legislation (SB 282) on Thursday that would require principals to direct first-period teachers to set aside one to two minutes for “quiet reflection.”
‘Each Day Matters’: Covid Vaccinations Start at Nursing Homes in Florida
Florida received 179,400 doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week. About 100,000 were sent to five Florida hospitals, and tens of thousands of doses went to CVS and Walgreens, which signed agreements with the federal government to vaccinate residents and staff members at long-term care facilities.
‘Not For Me To Do,’ DeSantis Says of Congratulating Joe Biden
With Trump continuing to contest the results of last month’s election, DeSantis was asked Tuesday whether he would congratulate Biden. “It’s not for me to do,” DeSantis said.
Florida Electors Back Trump And Hold Out Hope For Victory Despite Crushing Evidence
Biden was lined up to receive 306 votes to 232 for Trump, whose campaign has lost dozens of legal challenges to the voting process and election results. Trump won Florida’s 29 electoral votes by beating Biden by more than three percentage points in the state on Nov. 3.
Hospitals Scramble to Prioritize Which Workers Are First for Scarce Covid Vaccine
An advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that top priority go to long-term care facilities and front-line health care workers, but the early allocation was always expected to fall far short of the need and require selective screening even among critical hospital workers.
Grand Jury Rips Florida’s Mental Health System, Citing ‘Deficiencies in Funding, Leadership and Services’
The statewide grand jury studying school safety said in the report that it is “clear to us that inadequately addressed mental health issues have the peculiar potential to spiral out over time into criminal acts and violent behavior resulting in serious injury and loss of life.”
As Covid Deaths Reach 46 in Flagler, Local Officials Detail Vaccination Plans and Refute Anti-Vaxxers’ Disinformation
Dr. Stephen Bickel and Bob Snyder of the Flagler Health Department outlined the logistics of vaccinating all residents and refuted disinformation about the dangers of vaccines, describing how individuals may feel after getting vaccinated and what the chances are of having adverse reactions.
Florida Joins 45 States in Lawsuit Accusing Facebook of Exploiting Its Dominance
The states’ lawsuit, also joined by Guam and the District of Columbia, focuses in part on Facebook’s acquisitions of message-sharing app WhatsApp and photo-sharing app Instagram, transactions the lawsuit alleges were predatory because the apps “each posed a unique and dire threat to Facebook’s monopoly” in the social-networking sphere.
Appeals Court Tosses GOP Challenge to Mask Mandate in Leon, But Doesn’t Address Constitutional Issues
Throughout the pandemic, Gov. Ron DeSantis has declined to issue a statewide mask mandate. He also issued an executive order in September that suspended collection of fines and penalties related to violations of mask requirements, but that did not prevent local governments from continuing to have the requirements.
State Police Raid Home of Rebekah Jones, Ex-Florida Health Department Whistleblower on Covid Stats
Rebekah Jones was fired earlier this year after complaining that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration was manipulating Covid-19 data to make the virus appear less prevalent as the governor pushed to reopen Florida’s economy.
Alcohol To Go With Food Orders Could Become Permanent Allowance After Covid
Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, and Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island, separately filed measures that would allow a business holding a state alcohol license to sell or deliver spirited beverages by the package for off-site consumption. The proposals would require the liquid to be in a sealed container and to be part of a food order.
43rd Flagler Resident Dies of Covid; Local Covid Hospitalizations at 15; Fire Chief Out Sick, County Refuses to Say Who’s In Charge
Some 47 Palm Coast city government employees are currently out either directly or indirectly affected by Covid, but the county is refusing to disclose numbers, or say who’s leading the fire department, whose interim chief, Joe King, has been out with a covid diagnosis.
Unemployment Payments Are Weeks Late in Florida and in Nearly Every State
A federal standard requires 87% of unemployment claims to be met within three weeks of filing. Florida wasn’t ,meeting the standard even before the pandemic, and since spring, saw the standard fall as low as 22 percent. Florida’s dismal record prompted a lawsuit.
Flagler Sees Highest 2-Week Tally Yet as Covid Hits School, County and City Leaders and Passes 1 Million Mark in State
Leaders in Palm Coast, the Flagler County Fire Department and the district’s largest school are battling Covid-19 in a two-week stretch that’s also seen the highest number of infections in schools, where the plan is to continue the option of remote learning past Christmas.
Florida (and Flagler) Can Thank ‘Luck’ as Most Active Hurricane Season on Record Ends Monday
In a season that overlapped the coronavirus pandemic, most storms spun away from Florida, sparing communities double-barreled crises of responding to a major storm while contending with restrictions and safety concerns imposed by the coronavirus.
Oral Arguments on Alachua’s Mask Mandate Evoke Hijabs, Nazis, KKK, Crime and, Finally, Public Health
Oral arguments about Alachua County’s mask mandate before a three-judge panel of the First Circuit Court of Appeal Monday was a spectacle of audacious leaps and strange analogies that nevertheless illustrated the sharp and far from resolved divide between mask proponents and anti-maskers, including on the judicial bench.
Supreme Court Rejects Red-Light Camera Case, Leaving System in Place
The Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to take up a case about whether a South Florida city’s red-light camera program violates state traffic laws, leaving in place a city’s camera and the enforcement system.
Court’s Trump Appointees Strike Down Florida Bans on Bigoted ‘Conversion Therapy’ Aimed at LGBTQ Children
Two South Florida ordinances barred therapists from providing treatment or counseling that is designed to change minors’ sexual orientation or gender identity. Critics of such therapy say it harms minors who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. The federal court ruled against the ban on First Amendment grounds.
Recovery Stalls in Flagler and Volusia as Job Gains Slow, Consumer Confidence Drops and Covid Cases Surge
Flagler County’s unemployment rate in October was 5.7 percent, down a statistically insignificant decimal point from the previous month, and consumer confidence statewide again dropped in a reflection of the sharply worsening covid pandemic locally and statewide.
How the ‘Massive’ Rollout of the Covid Vaccine Will Happen in Phases in Flagler and Palm Coast This Spring
Health care workers and first responders will get the vaccine first, followed by residents at large. The health department will use the same infrastructure it uses for Covid-19 testing, but on a more massive scale–assuming the more than 112,000 doses needed to approach herd immunity in Flagler are available by spring.