He’s only 17 years old, but is an in-your-face kind of teenager. He wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the American flag and Trump raising a middle finger (it might’ve looked something like this). He’d gone to a Harris rally with friends to heckle and antagonize Harris supporters. He w[...]
Posts Tagged ‘Florida’
November 3rd, 2024 - 1:33 am § in Law and Courts
Florida sheriff should say something about mishandled child rape case
The last time I wrote about Polk County, Florida, Sheriff Grady Judd (photo, left), I wasn’t complimentary. I noted that he “routinely goes on TV to pronounce suspects guilty before they’ve had a trial,” and he referred to “voters up north” as “stupid.” (S[...]
Governors don’t get to decide which political advertising is “false”
It’s now clear it was Gov. Ron DeSantis who ordered Florida TV stations to stop airing ads for an abortion-rights initiative. The cease-and-desist letter to TV stations was signed by the state health department’s top lawyer, who has since resigned and now says he was coerced to sign the [...]
Should we abandon climate ostriches to fate?
When Miami-based TV weatherman John Morales (profiled here) issued a dire warning last week about incoming Hurricane Milton, some viewers called him a “climate militant” and accused him of “overhyping emerging weather threats” (read story here). Many Floridians are paying hug[...]
Will Florida voters ditch the GOP in 2024?
You wouldn’t think so, and Democratic strategists didn’t believe it, until they saw some shocking polling results. There are a million more registered Republicans than Democrats in the Sunshine State, where about 11 million people voted in 2020. They’ve elected a radically rightwin[...]
Can states ban lab-grown meat?
That’s a complicated legal question the courts will have to answer. The closest analogy I can think of is Wisconsin’s margarine ban in effect from 1895 to 1967 (see story here); as far as I know, it was never struck down by the courts. That ban was enacted to protect Wisconsin’s da[...]
July 26th, 2024 - 11:49 pm § in Law and Courts, Republicans
What just happened to Florida’s “anti-woke” law?
It was carried into the ER on a litter and pronounced “really, really, dead on arrival.” Florida House Bill 7, a Gov. DeSantis venture passed in 2022, in essence banned critical race theory from schools and DEI training from workplaces, characterizing these forms of education as discrimi[...]
July 19th, 2024 - 6:39 pm § in Politics, Republicans
GOPers hijack ballot statement on Florida abortion rights
Florida Republicans tried but failed to keep an abortion rights initiative off the November 2024 ballot, losing by 4-3 in the state supreme court (read the court’s opinion here). It would amend the state constitution as follows: “SECTION __. Limiting government interference with abortio[...]
Florida’s gunning for “Cocaine Bear”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “signed a bill on Friday that makes it legal for people to kill ‘crack bears’ in self-defense,” News Nation reported on Sunday, June 23, 2024 (read story here). The story continues, “The bill was dubbed ‘the cocaine bear bill’ on so[...]
June 13th, 2024 - 12:00 am § in Environment, Politics
Florida’s social contract with climate change
Opinion by the Miami Herald Editorial Board, June 12, 2024: “It’s like an unspoken social contract. When people choose to live in South Florida, they must make peace with the possibility that, thanks to hurricanes, there will be flooding and they may incur thousands of dollars to fix their h[...]