Tag: florida

Gov. DeSantis Seeks Permanent Ban On mRNA Vaccine Mandates And Other Restrictions

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his wife Casey have called on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to stop recommending the COVID-19 vaccine for children, as well as for the state legislature to permanently prohibit mRNA mandates and to add vaccination status protections to the Patient’s Bill of Rights. 

“Guided by common sense and sound science, Florida has led the way in protecting patients’ rights. Now is the time to secure these protections and do even more to defend medical freedom,” said DeSantis (R-Fla.). “Let’s keep Florida the beacon of freedom in health care, where the rights of all patients are enshrined permanently in law.”

“Today, Governor DeSantis, Surgeon General Ladapo, and I called on the Florida Legislature to make permanent the prohibitions against the COVID mRNA vaccine mandate,” said First Lady Casey DeSantis. “Florida stood in the breach to protect people during COVID, now it’s time to make sure these protections last.”

“I am deeply grateful to Governor Ron and First Lady Casey DeSantis for continuing to put the needs and rights of Floridians first,” said State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo. “These proposals will strengthen the sovereignty of patients, and we look forward to advancing these issues with our federal partners at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.”

The call to ban mRNA vaccine mandates by DeSantis is a law that already exists in the Sunshine State but is set to expire in June. 

DeSantis said he has no idea why the Legislature added an expiration date in the bill, but he is calling on lawmakers to extend the ban and make it permanent.

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FEMA fired three supervisors following probe into crew told to avoid Trump-supporting homes hit by Hurricane Milton

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has fired three more supervisors following an internal probe into claims a crew of disaster relief workers were told to avoid Trump-supporting homes hit by Hurricane Milton in Florida, The Post can exclusively reveal.

Cameron Hamilton, the current acting administrator of the agency, announced in a Tuesday letter to Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) that an “exhaustive investigation” had concluded the supervisors failed to “meet our standards of conduct” or reign in their partisan underlings’ behavior.

“[I]t is essential that the entire workforce understand that this incident was reprehensible, and this type of behavior will not be tolerated at FEMA,” Hamilton wrote.

“Further, in accordance with my commitment, and that of President Trump and [Homeland Security] Secretary [Kristi] Noem, to ensure that Americans receive impartial assistance from FEMA, I have directed a comprehensive additional training for FEMA staff to reinforce that political affiliation should never be a consideration in the rendering of assistance.”

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‘Cody’s Law’: Florida Lawmakers Weigh First State Law to Compensate Vaccine Injury Victims

Florida lawmakers are considering a bill that would expedite the review and payment process for vaccine injury claims under the Medicare, Medicaid and Medicaid Medically Needy Programs.

If passed, “Cody’s Law: Florida No Vaccine-Injured Patient Left Behind” would be the first such law in the U.S. and could supplant federal vaccine injury compensation programs.

The bill, filed in the Florida House of Representatives in January and the Florida Senate last week, is named after Cody Hudson, a previously healthy college student who sustained serious — and now terminal — vaccine injuries in 2021.

Cody’s mother, Heather Hudson, advocated for and drafted the legislation. She said the law would fill the “gaps of all the vaccine injury compensation programs and Social Security disability.”

“It provides expedited claims processing, like is done for other severe and major illnesses, by Medicare and Medicaid, and affords the vaccine-injured and Emergency Use Authorization protocol-injured medical care at the onset of injury, when it is needed most,” Hudson said.

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Florida Bill Would Let People With Opioid Use Disorder Qualify For Medical Marijuana

A newly introduced bill in the Florida Senate would expand eligibility for the state’s medical marijuana program by adding as a qualifying condition “an addiction to or dependence on an opioid drug.”

The legislation, SB 778, was filed Monday by Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D). If enacted, it would take effect on July 1 of this year.

Current qualifying conditions for medical marijuana in Florida include cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, PTSD, ALS, Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, terminal conditions and chronic pain caused by a qualifying condition, according regulators at the state’s Office of Medical Marijuana Use (OMMU).

The new bill has not yet been referred to a committee, according to the state Senate website.

Smith has in the past also filed legislation to legalize cannabis for adults, and last year he criticized Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for spending the state’s opioid settlement funds on advertisements opposing Amendment 3, an industry-funded ballot measure that would have legalized adult-use cannabis in the state.

“Thousands of Floridians have died from opioid overdoses. ZERO Floridians have died from marijuana overdose,” he said on social media last October. “Yet DeSantis is spending MILLIONS of Florida’s opioid settlement money meant to fight the opioid crisis on his prohibitionist anti-freedom, anti-marijuana campaign.”

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Florida: Jewish Man Shoots Two Israelis ‘After Mistaking Them for Palestinians’

A Jewish man in Miami on Sunday shot two Israelis after “mistaking them for Palestinians” and yet the media is reporting on the incident as an “anti-Semitic attack.”

From NBC Miami, “Man faces attempted murder charges after shooting 2 in Miami Beach: Police”:

A man accused of shooting two people in Miami Beach was arrested on Sunday, police said.

Mordechai Brafman, 27, was charged with two counts of attempted second-degree murder.

Police said on Saturday, surveillance video in the 4800 block of Pine Tree captured Brafman’s car going southbound on Pine Road and then making a U-turn at 48th Street where a vehicle with two victims was stopped.

The arrest report said that Brafman drove past them and stopped directly in front of them.

Brafman then got out of his car, stayed near the driver’s side and started shooting the vehicle as it drove past him, the report said.

The victims’ vehicle, the report said, was shot 17 times and struck both people inside.

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Gov. Ron DeSantis signs illegal immigration bill into law

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a comprehensive immigration bill designed to bolster federal deportation efforts and implement stringent measures against illegal immigration within the state.

The law allocates approximately $298 million to hire over 50 additional law enforcement officers dedicated to immigration enforcement.

It also provides grants for equipping and training local agencies, offers bonuses for officers assisting in federal operations, and funds the leasing of detention facilities.

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GOP Florida Lawmaker Wonders If State’s Medical Marijuana Program Is ‘Causing More Harm Than Good’

With nearly 900,000 registered patients, Florida has the largest medical marijuana program in the country. While campaigning against a proposed constitutional amendment that would have legalized recreational cannabis last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) hailed the medical program, boasting that he had legalized smokeable weed in the state in 2019.

But that doesn’t mean the Florida GOP-controlled legislature is all in with medical marijuana, and on Tuesday one House member asked a state doctor charged with analyzing the effectiveness of cannabis as medicine if its use by Floridians poses more of a risk than a benefit.

“You’ve made it very clear that there needs to be more research across the gamut of this area, but you’ve also made it clear that a lot of the research that you do have shows this program to be of questionable medical value,” said Northeast Florida Republican Dean Black to Dr. Almut Winterstein, a professor in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Florida and director of the Consortium for Medical Marijuana Outcomes Research.

“My question is, do you fear that we’re causing more harm than good?”

Winterstein replied that the question illuminated the “conundrum” that exists when it comes to the medical efficacy of cannabis, which because it is listed as a Schedule I controlled substance by the federal government has always had restrictions placed on research. (The Biden administration proposed last year to reclassify the substance as a Schedule III controlled substance).

“That is concerning,” she said in response to Black’s query. “That doesn’t mean that there are not patients who might massively benefit from this, but we haven’t defined the benefit of this.”

In her presentation to the House Professions & Programs Subcommittee, Winterstein reported rapid growth among young adults up to age 25 in Florida in listing anxiety as the medical condition motivating them to seek a medical marijuana prescription. She said that was “fairly strong evidence that marijuana attacks the developing brain negatively—specifically, cognitively.”

But she said that was very different than looking at patients suffering from chronic pain or other medical conditions. 

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Florida Bill Would Let Medical Marijuana Patients Grow At Home And Crack Down On Hemp-Derived Cannabinoids

A Florida lawmaker has introduced legislation that would allow medical marijuana patients in the state to grow up to two cannabis plants at home while also outlawing certain hemp-derived cannabinoids.

SB 334, sponsored by Sen. Joe Gruters (R)—who endorsed last year’s ultimately unsuccessful ballot measure that would have legalized marijuana for adults 21 and older—would require that homegrown cannabis be cultivated out of public view, “including a view from another private property,” and in an “enclosed, locked space to prevent access by unauthorized persons and persons younger than 21.”

The two-plant limit would apply to a household regardless of how many qualified patients live in the residence. Violations would be a first degree criminal misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The proposal would expand the rights of medical marijuana patients in Florida while at the same time trying to rein in the state’s largely unregulated hemp-derived cannabinoid market. Specifically, it would ban from hemp products the cannabinoids delta-8 THC, delta-10 THC, tetrahydrocannabinol acetate (THCA), tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV), tetrahydrocannabiphorol (THCP) and hexahydrocannabinol (HHC).

Delta-9 THC, meanwhile—the chief psychoactive component in marijuana—would be capped at 2 milligrams per serving and 20 mg per package. Further, the bill clarifies that a product’s delta-9 THC content would be determined through a combination of delta-9 itself and THCA, which converts into delta-9 THC when heated.

The new bill would also impose certain additional restrictions on the sale and advertising of hemp extracts, for example banning street retail stalls, sales at festivals and businesses within 500 feet of a school, day care facility or other hemp business. Public advertisements would also be generally prohibited.

Gruters, a former chair of the Florida Republican Party, was a proponent of the backed legalization measure Amendment 3 last November, appearing in an ad alongside Sen. Shevrin Jones (D) to argue that the reform would be “good for Florida” despite strong pushback from Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Gruters and Kim Rivers—the CEO of Trulieve, a medical marijuana company that provided the bulk of funding for Amendment 3—also met with Trump ahead of his endorsement of the constitutional amendment, as well as federal rescheduling and industry banking access.

Notably, Amendment 3 would not have legalized home cultivation of marijuana—a detail seized on by some critics of the industry-backed proposal.

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Police: Florida Principal, Teacher Charged After Alcoholic House Party with 100 Juveniles

A principal and a teacher in Cocoa Beach, Florida, were arrested following a house party on January 19 involving over 100 juveniles, police said.

When police officers responded to a call about a house party, they arrived at the scene to find the young people wearing matching T-shirts and many of them were drinking alcohol, Cocoa Beach Police Detective Sergeant Taylor Payne explained, according to a Space Coast Daily report Saturday.

Authorities identified Roosevelt Elementary School Principal Elizabeth Hill-Brodigan, 47, as the homeowner. At the scene, officers found one juvenile on the home’s lawn heavily intoxicated and needing medical attention.

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Democrat Official Arrested on Child Sex Crime Charges.

The treasurer of the Orange County, Florida Democratic Party has been arrested on federal child sex crime charges. Matthew A. Inman, 39, from Orlando, was apprehended after allegedly distributing child sexual abuse material to an undercover officer, according to authorities. The Department of Justice (DOJ) states that he showed interest in boys as young as nine years old and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

According to the DOJ’s criminal complaint, Inman had allegedly saved numerous videos depicting child sexual abuse on his phone between August and October 2024. He reportedly traveled to Las Vegas in October last year, where he engaged in online communications with an undercover officer impersonating the father of a 9-year-old, expressing desires to meet the child for sexual purposes. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized his electronic devices while executing a search warrant at his residence. Officials noted that Inman attempted to erase the incriminating material from his phone and hid in his attic during the raid.

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