Florida Bill Would Ban Communities From Flying LGBTQ Pride Flags

New legislation offered by a Republican lawmaker in Florida could bar local governments and their offices from flying LGBTQ Pride Flags.

House Bill 901, authored by far right Rep. David Borrero (R), does not directly state that it is targeting Pride Flags in particular, but critics have pointed out that Borrero and other GOP lawmakers attempted to pass similar legislation earlier this year, and that his public statements strongly suggest that LGBTQ flags are the likely targets of the bill.

Abortion rights are winning in red states. Florida may be the exception.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Prominent Orlando trial attorney John Morgan could be considered the kingmaker of Democratic-focused ballot initiatives, having poured millions of dollars of his own money into successfully getting medical marijuana and a minimum wage increase passed.

But when it comes to the push in Florida that aims to create a right to abortion up to at least 24 weeks of pregnancy — and undo the state’s 6-week ban — Morgan said he’s not getting involved.

“I am pro-choice but this is not my fight,” he said via email when he was asked if he would come out of retirement from funding ballot initiatives.

Florida orders universities to ‘deactivate’ pro-Palestinian group

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s university system chancellor, responding to a push by Gov. Ron DeSantis, directed state universities Tuesday to disband campus groups with ties to the national Students for Justice in Palestine organization, marking the first punishments handed down to colleges here amid the Israel-Hamas war.

In a memo to school leaders, the state ordered a “crack down” on campus events led by the pro-Palestinian organization that the DeSantis administration claims amount to “harmful support for terrorist groups” like Hamas, which attacked Israel in early October. Florida, under Republican presidential candidate DeSantis, has staunchly supported Israel during the ongoing war and was monitoring college protests that have since ignited.

DeSantis' Florida Redistricting Map Is Unconstitutional And Must Be Redrawn: Judge

A Florida redistricting plan pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis violates the state constitution and is prohibited from being used for any future U.S. congressional elections since it diminishes the ability of Black voters in north Florida to pick a representative of their choice, a state judge ruled Saturday.

Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh sent the plan back to the Florida Legislature with instructions that lawmakers should draw a new congressional map that complies with the Florida Constitution.

Ron DeSantis Warns Trespassers In Hurricane Idalia Aftermath: 'You Loot, We Shoot'

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday warned looters that his state’s residents could gun them down if they catch them invading their properties following the devastating impact of Hurricane Idalia.

“I’ve seen signs in different people’s yards in the past after these disasters, and I would say it’s probably here: ‘you loot, we shoot,’” he said during a press conference in Perry. “You never know what’s behind that door if you go break into somebody’s house.”

Ron DeSantis’s Florida is a dangerous and hostile place for Black Americans

On Saturday, three Black lives were stolen in Jacksonville, Florida, at a dollar store just blocks away from Edward Waters University, a historically Black university. Anolt Joseph “AJ” Laguerre Jr, 19; Jerrald De’Shaun Gallion, 29; and Angela Michelle Carr, 52, were assassinated by a 21-year-old white supremacist who “hated Black people”, in the words of the local sheriff.

This intentional murder – like the many which came before it – was not only experienced by those whose lives were stolen and their families, but by every Black person in America. This murder and those like it are a constant reminder that Black people are nowhere safe. It is reminder that our presence, our absence, our movement, our stillness, our attempts to enjoy basic citizenship or complete the routine duties of human life – like grocery shopping – are liable to result in our death.

Florida’s Poop Nightmare Has Come True

In the days and hours before Hurricane Irma slammed into Florida, its residents were treated to copious media speculation about nightmare scenarios. This monster storm, journalists said, could bring a 15-foot storm surge, blow roofs off of buildings, and cause tens of billions of dollars in damage. But perhaps no scenario seemed more dire than the one Quartz warned about the day before Irma made landfall: “Hurricane Irma will likely cover South Florida with a film of poop.”

This Florida Sheriff's Message to Heroin Dealers Looks an Awful Lot Like an ISIS Video

Surrounded by a masked militant posse, Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell issued a terrifying video warning for local heroin dealers Monday:

    We’re coming for you... Enjoy looking over your shoulder constantly wondering if today’s the day we come for you. Enjoy trying to sleep tonight wondering if tonight’s the night our SWAT team blows your front door off the hinges. We’re coming for you... Run.

Florida Governor Rick Scott Is Punishing a Prosecutor for Opposing the Death Penalty

The top prosecutor in Orlando, Florida, took to a podium outside the Orange County courthouse last week to outline a new policy: Her office would no longer seek the death penalty in any capital case.

The prosecutor, State Attorney Aramis Ayala, told assembled reporters that seeking the death penalty is “not in the best interests of this community or in the interest of justice.” After considerable research, she said, she had concluded that capital punishment offers no empirical benefits to society: It is not a deterrent, it neither enhances public safety nor protects law enforcement officers from violence, and it costs millions more — in litigation and housing — to kill a defendant than it does to confine them behind bars for life.

Florida Mayors Rush To Prepare For Rising Seas

Cindy Lerner and Carlos Gimenez are, in many ways, typical local politicians. Both are mayors, and both are intimately familiar with the trials and tribulations that their constituents face on a daily basis, from trash pickup to traffic. Both serve communities along the southeastern Florida coast — Gimenez is mayor of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in the United States, while Lerner is mayor of the village of Pinecrest, a suburban village of about 18,000 residents located within Miami-Dade County.

The Shady Backstory Behind The Florida Attorney General’s Endorsement Of Donald Trump

A day ahead of the crucial Florida primary, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi endorsed Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump at a rally in Tampa.

Bondi’s Monday endorsement comes more than two years after she decided not to follow the New York attorney general’s lead and sue Trump over accusations Trump University seminars swindled people. The timeline of that fall 2013 episode raised eyebrows. Three days after a Bondi spokeswoman said the attorney general was studying New York’s lawsuit to see whether she wanted to take similar action in Florida, Trump cut a $25,000 check to a committee associated with Bondi’s campaign. That seeming conflict of interest was criticized in the Florida press at the time, but a Bondi spokesperson justified her decision by suggesting no action was necessary because the affected Florida consumers would be compensated if New York won that case.

More Than 1.5 Million Florida Voters Will Be Missing From Tuesday’s Primary

MIAMI, FLORIDA — Sheena Meade is campaigning to be the youngest African-American woman to ever represent Central Florida in the state legislature, and her husband Desmond Meade couldn’t be prouder.

“I know she would be a great public servant,” he told ThinkProgress, smoothing his tie over his belly and beaming.

Florida’s war on women: State passes massive anti-choice bill to shut down access to abortion and contraception

Even though a law almost exactly like it is still being reviewed in the Supreme Court, the state of Florida just passed a massive anti-choice bill that, under the guise of supporting women’s health, is aimed at cutting off as many women as possible from abortion, contraception, and STI prevention and treatment services. Most of the bill is modeled after the one in Texas, the one the court is currently reviewing, which uses medically unnecessary red tape to regulate abortion clinics out of existence.

Florida Officials Drain Lake Full Of ‘Toilet’ Water To Coast

With tourist season just around the corner, Florida’s beach communities would normally be preparing for a happy, healthy summer. Instead, they’re reeling from polluted water that is likely to inflict severe damage to the local economy and environment.

Lake Okeechobee, a large inland lake in southern Florida, is experiencing its highest water levels in nearly a century due to heavy rains that fell during the month of January. This should not be suprising, because heavy rainfall events are increasing as the planet warms. But after water levels reached a foot above normal, public officials began to worry that the excess water was putting too much stress on the lake’s aging dike. Officials then made the decision to drain the lake out toward Florida’s coasts. There was one problem: Lake Okeechobee’s waters are toxic.

How the 2000 Election in Florida Led to a New Wave of Voter Disenfranchisement

On November 7, 2000, Willie Steen, a Navy vet who had served in the Persian Gulf during Desert Storm, went to cast his ballot for president at the St. Francis Episcopal Church in Tampa, Florida.

He brought his 10-year-old son, Willie Jr., to the polls for the first time. They waited a half hour to reach a poll worker. When Steen gave the poll worker his name, she searched a list of registered voters in the precinct and told him, “You can’t vote. You’re a convicted felon.”

Florida House Rejects Plan To Expand Health Care For Hundreds Of Thousands

The Florida House of Representatives voted Friday to reject a state Senate bill that would have expanded Medicaid for thousands, marking a victory for Republican Gov. Rick Scott.

Following a heated six-hour debate, the Republican-controlled House voted 72-41 against the measure, which passed in the state Senate earlier this week. The proposal would have used $18 billion in federal funds over a decade to help low-income workers purchase health care plans from private providers. The program would have expanded Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of Floridians.

Florida's State Employees are Preparing for Climate Change, Even as Their Governor Bans the Phrase

From years of reporting on government employees, I know that they're in it for the long haul. Governors and news cycles come and go. The public's attention is beagle-fickle. But there are 25 years to go before pension. So I wasn't expecting any heroes to rock the boat from inside the vast bureaucracy that is Florida's government when I began to investigate the silent treatment given the terms "climate change" and "global warming" within state agencies.

After we at the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (FCIR) broke that story, I still found the idea galling: that professionals, many of them scientists, allowed themselves to be cowed from using basic scientific language. After all, that keep-your-head-down mentality has allowed the administration of Republican Gov. Rick Scott to get away with this for the past four years. But perhaps it's also comforting. The employees I've found during my reporting are nonetheless the ones doing the long thinking, working to address the effects of climate change, even as they have to hunker to avoid political interference. They know they'll be here when Rick Scott is gone. So will the problems they're working on.

How A Traveling Consultant Helps America Hide The Homeless

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Robert Marbut hadn't shaved, and he looked terrible. His bushy brown hair, normally parted neatly, stuck out at odd angles. His clothes stank of beer. Standing in line for lunch at the Halifax Urban Ministries building downtown last spring, Marbut looked much like the hundreds of homeless people who assemble there daily for a free hot meal.

"He just blended right in with the homeless in line," said Michael Pastore, 60, a local activist who works with the homeless. "He was disheveled and had his hair messed up and was wearing dirty clothes, but I recognized him."

The difference between Marbut and the others was that he was a welcome guest in the city. Daytona Beach has been trying to rid its streets of homeless people for years. Finding the problem insurmountable, however, the Daytona Beach City Commission decided last year to bring in an expert. They're paying Marbut six figures to investigate the city’s homelessness problem and devise a solution.

Florida Officials Were Barred From Using The Term 'Climate Change' Once Rick Scott Took Power

Officials responsible for making sure Florida is prepared to respond to the earth's changing climate are barred from using the terms "global warming" and "climate change" in official communications, emails and reports, according to new findings from the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.

"We were told that we were not allowed to discuss anything that was not a true fact," said Kristina Trotta, a former Florida Department of Environmental Protection employee.

New Rule Prohibits Voters In Miami-Dade County From Using The Restroom, No Matter How Long The Line

During the 2012 presidential election, voters reportedly waited on line for upwards of six hours. That wait alone is enough to deter would-be voters from going to the polls. But now residents in Florida’s most populous county will have another disincentive: they won’t be able to go to the bathroom.