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Category: Florida Legislation
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Using Frederick Douglass to rationalize slavery? In Florida, Yes!

By Charles M. Blow, Opinion Columnist, New York Times, Aug. 16, 2023. Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign may be floundering as he struggles to win over Republican voters with his deadpan robotic demeanor, and he may be shuffling campaign staff like he’s taking a mulligan, but the damage he did to Florida to get himself to

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Florida Legislation

DeSantis, Republicans helped insurance firms

The following Letter to the Editor was published in The Daily Sun on July 23, 2023. Recent data from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation showed 521,819 Ian residential property claims have been opened with 23,818 still open without payment, 152,877 closed without payment, and who knows if adequate payments were made on the 287,021

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Florida Legislation

Republican assaults on LGBTQ+ Americans are failing in court

By Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post, June 29, 2023. As we draw to the close of Pride Month, attacks against the LGBTQ+ community from right-wing pols and their followers should shock the conscience. The Anti-Defamation League published a report finding that “between June 2022 and April 2023, ADL and GLAAD documented at least 356 anti-LGBTQ+ extremist

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Florida Legislation

DeSantis will travel in secret

The following editorial was published in The Daily Sun on May 17, 2023. OUR POSITION: A new law further erodes Florida’s sunshine laws by hiding the records on when and where Gov. Ron DeSantis travels. If our governor goes missing for a few days, don’t worry. His whereabouts are being protected for his own good. That’s

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Florida Legislation

Dispatch from the future about the Sunshine State

The following satirical editorial was published in The Daily Sun on May 15, 2023. Life sure has been a lot simpler here in the Free State of Florida since all political power has been consolidated in Tallahassee. Yes, it’s a shame that it took until 2034 for Gov. Tucker Carlson to assemble the super-duper-majority needed

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Florida Legislation

10 ways DeSantis is making LGBTQ, Black and immigrant communities feel welcome in Florida

Editor: The following opinion article contains satire. Read with caution 🙂 By the Sarasota Herald-Tribune Editorial Board, May 15, 2023. Some LGBTQ, immigrants rights and Black advocacy organizations have made a great show of issuing national “travel advisories” to warn, well, members of the LGBTQ, immigrant and African American communities that visiting the state of Florida could put their safety

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Florida Legislation

Florida remains stubborn on Medicaid expansion

The following editorial was published in The Daily Sun on April 1, 2023.  OUR POSITION: We implore the Legislature to consider expanding Medicaid before it adjourns this month. One more time. The Florida Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis need to embrace expansion of Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of needy Floridians. We’ve said it before and

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Florida Legislation

Florida Democratic Party chair & lawmaker Lauren Book among 11 detained at abortion rally

By Hannah Knowles  and Kelsey Ables Sen. Lauren Book, center, holds hands with roughly a dozen activists Monday while protesting legislation that would ban abortions after six weeks in Florida. (Alicia Devine/AP) TALLAHASSEE — Florida Democrats chair Nikki Fried and state Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book (D) were among 11 people arrested Monday night while

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Florida Legislation

DeSantis chopping away at democracy in Florida

The following Letter to the Editor was published in The Daily Sun on March 28, 2023. Submit your own letter to the editor by clicking HERE.  Be alert to the fascist strategies Governor Ron DeSantis is exerting on the public education system — our children and grandchildren — in the state of Florida! The voucher

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Florida Legislation

Politics is changing Florida’s brand

By David Houle, Special to the Herald-Tribune, March 27, 2023 About a year ago, in this space, I wrote a series of columns about how much Sarasota was changing.  These columns triggered more and longer emails than at any other time I have been a columnist here at the Herald-Tribune.  The thrust of the columns

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Florida Legislation

Legislature went too far to help insurers

The following editorial was published in The Daily Sun on March 25, 2023. OUR POSITION: The Florida Legislature’s laws giving insurance companies and businesses added protections against lawsuits will hurt too many Florida residents. By now the Florida Legislature will likely have passed House Bill 837 and Senate Bill 236 which cover how plaintiffs can recoup

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Florida Legislation

NRA conservative says gun law is a mistake

The following Letter to the Editor was published in The Daily Sun on March 25, 2023. Express your opinion on any topic; write your own letter to the editor by clicking HERE.  Our governor and Legislature are making a big mistake in advocating for open carry and permitless carry of firearms. I am a gun

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Florida Legislation

Affordable housing plan gets final approval

By JIM TURNER, NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA, March 25, 2023. TALLAHASSEE — With approval Friday from the Florida House, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo’s $711 million effort to make housing more affordable for working Floridians is headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis. The House voted 103-6 to pass a bill (SB 102) dubbed the “Live Local Act.”

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Florida Legislation

No taking back a death penalty

The following editorial was published in The Daily Sun on March 24, 2023. OUR POSITION: We would urge lawmakers in Tallahassee to take a step back and reconsider their zeal for making it easier to hand down the death penalty in Florida. The Florida Legislature is about to make a decision we believe is driven almost

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Florida Legislation

Contact legislators to protest anti-freedom bills

The following Letter to the Editor was published in The Daily Sun on March 23, 2024. HB 991 and SB 1220: Defamation, False Light, and Unauthorized Publication of Name or Likenesses must not become law. These anti-democratic bills silence the First Amendment right of free speech in seven ways: Chill speech critical of government. Make

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Florida Legislation

So many questions about school voucher bill

The following editorial was published in The Daily Sun on March 21, 2023. Any day now, the Florida Senate will side with their colleagues in the House and approve a voucher bill that will give money for any student in the state to attend a private school. Republican legislators want to expand the state’s voucher

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Environment

State wants power of oversight over water

The following letter to the editor was published in The Daily Sun on March 21, 2023. Communities across Florida have a huge stake in clean water. But if two bills filed and introduced in the state Legislature early this month become law, they will abolish local governments’ ability to fight pollution, inevitably leading to dirtier

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Florida Legislation

Is DeSantis darkening Florida’s sunny open-records laws?

By DAVID A. LIEB, ASSOCIATED PRESS, Mar 14, 2023. Florida has long been known for sunshine — not only the warm rays that brighten its beaches but also the light of public scrutiny afforded by some of the nation’s strongest meetings and records laws. Although years of rollbacks have gradually clouded the impact, advocates are ringing

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