Tag: florida

Yet Another Conspiracy Theory Left Wing Media Loved Comes Crashing Down

A new internal report debunked the left-wing media’s promotion of false accusations that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis manipulated COVID-19 data throughout the height of the pandemic.

The Florida Department of Health’s former dashboard manager, Rebekah Jones, claimed she was fired in May 2020 for her refusal to forge COVID numbers at the governor’s behest. Florida’s COVID data had no significant flaws. After her firing, Jones created her own dashboard that contained heavily inflated statistics, National Review senior writer Charles C.W. Cooke reported in the New York Post.

Jones frequently appeared on MSNBC’s “TheReidOut” and CNN to promote her accusations against the governor. She joined at least 5 interviews with former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, the brother of former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who covered up nursing home deaths during the pandemic.

Digital media outlets also promoted Jones’ narrative in published headlines. NPR published a May 19, 2020, piece titled, “Florida Dismisses A Scientist For Her Refusal To Manipulate State’s Coronavirus Data.” “Rebekah Jones Tried To Warn Us About COVID-19. How Her Freedom Is On The Line,” wrote Cosmopolitan.”Florida Scientist Vows To Speak COVID-19 ‘Truth To Power’ Despite Police Raid,” wrote the Huffington Post.

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Florida Approves Release of Billions of GMO Mosquitoes

Overlooking potential public health risks, lingering scientific questions, and deficient public data, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) approved the extension of Oxitec’s two-year field trial on Wednesday, which includes releasing several billion more genetically engineered (GE) mosquitoes into the Florida Keys — one of Florida’s most ecologically sensitive areas.

FDACS’ approval comes on the heels of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granting the British biotechnology company Oxitec a two-year extension for its Experimental Use Permit for the release of a GE version of the species Aedes aegypti across Monroe County, Florida.

“FDACS should have required Oxitec to cease claiming as ‘confidential business information’ their data on the human health and environmental effects of the release of the mosquitoes,” said Jaydee Hanson, Policy Director at Center for Food Safety. “In Spain, when Oxitec withheld the data, the Spanish government told Oxitec to make public the health and environmental safety effects of their genetically engineered insect. Florida should have done the same. Moreover, FDACS should not have allowed a second major release without making public the data from the first trial and having it reviewed by unbiased scientists in the field.”

FDACS’ approval came despite unresolved public health and environmental concerns raised by scientists, public health experts and environmental groups about potential impacts of the release. The data from Florida’s 2021 field trial release of genetically engineered mosquitoes in the Florida Keys still has not been made public or reviewed by independent scientists.

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How the CIA Helped Disney Conquer Florida

Starting in the mid-1960s when Disney set out to establish the Disney World Theme Park, they were determined to get land at below market prices and Disney operatives engaged in a far-ranging conspiracy to make sure sellers had no idea who was buying their Central Florida property. By resorting to such tactics Disney acquired more than 40 square miles of land for less than $200 an acre, but how to maintain control once Disney’s empire had been acquired? The solution turned out to be cartoon-simple, thanks to the CIA.

Disney’s key contact was the consummate cloak-and-dagger operator, William “Wild Bill” Donovan. Sometimes called the “Father of the C.I.A,” he was also the founding partner of Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine, a New York law firm whose attorneys included future C.I.A. director William Casey. Donovan’s attorneys provided fake identities for Disney agents; they also set up a secret communications center, and orchestrated a disinformation campaign. In order to maintain “control over the overall development,” Disney and his advisers realized, “the company would have to find a way to limit the voting power of the private residents” even though, they acknowledged, their efforts “violated the Equal Protection Clause” of the U.S. Constitution. Here again the CIA was there to help. Disney’s principal legal strategist for Florida was a senior clandestine operative named Paul Helliwell. Having helped launch the C.I.A. secret war in Indochina, Helliwell relocated to Miami in 1960 in order to coordinate dirty tricks against Castro. At a secret “seminar” Disney convened in May 1965 Helliwell came up with the approach that to this day allows the Disney organization to avoid taxation and environmental regulation as well as maintain immunity from the U.S. Constitution. It was the same strategy the C.I.A. pursued in the foreign countries. Set up a puppet government; then use that regime to do your bidding.

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CDC Unilaterally Altered Florida’s Covid Death-Count Data, State’s Department of Health Alleges

The Florida Department of Health (DOH) is alleging that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) erroneously changed the state’s public-use Covid-19 data without consulting the DOH and failed to respond to multiple attempts to correct the error.

Jeremy Redfern, press secretary for the Florida DOH, explained that his agency transfers Covid data to the CDC several times a week. The data is then uploaded to the CDC’s database for third parties, which is “where everybody would go to download all of these data if they wanted to build their own system,” Redfern said.

Last week, the CDC unilaterally deleted roughly 20,000 Covid-caused deaths from its third-party database, but not from its own dashboard.

“Instead of calling us and verifying these data, they decided to switch to a different field in the data set and just delete a bunch of our deaths,” he told National Review. Redfern alleges that it took the DOH “about a week” to get ahold of the CDC to correct the error. Only on Thursday did the CDC send their data file back to DOH’s epidemiology team for correction.

Last week, Reuters reported that the CDC had removed “72,277 deaths previously reported across 26 states, including 416 pediatric deaths” from its data set “because its algorithm was accidentally counting deaths that were not COVID-19-related.” Redfern believes that missing deaths from Florida were included in that batch of deletions.

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Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Set to Be Released in California and Florida

Millions of genetically modified mosquitoes are set to be released in California and Florida in an effort to reduce the number of real, disease-carrying invasive mosquitoes.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday approved use of the genetically engineered insects in pilot projects in specific districts across both states.

The mosquitoes were made by UK-based biotechnology firm Oxitec, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in an effort to combat insect-borne diseases such as dengue fever, yellow fever, and the Zika virus.

According to Oxitec, its “sustainable and targeted biological pest control technology does not harm beneficial insects like bees and butterflies and is proven to control the disease-transmitting Aedes aegypti mosquito, which has invaded communities in Florida, California, and other U.S. states.”

Since it was first detected in California in 2013, the Aedes aegypti mosquito has spread rapidly to more than 20 counties throughout the state, increasing the risk of mosquito-borne diseases being transmitted to humans.

Oxitec’s new technology consists of genetically-modified male mosquitoes, which do not bite, that will be released into the wild where they are expected to mate with females, which do bite.

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Florida State Rep’s Aide Caught Tossing Stack of Newly Delivered Constitutional Carry Petitions Into Trashcan

Moments after delivering a stack of petitions to a Florida state congressman’s office, the people who gathered them returned to find the congressman’s aide had tossed them into a trashcan.

On Tuesday, Feb. 22, members from Gun Owners of America (GOA), the Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC), Capitol City Young Republicans (CCYR), the Republican Hispanic Assembly of Florida (RHAFL), and Florida Gun Rights (FLGR) held an impromptu rally at the Capitol Building in Tallahassee, Florida, in support of House Bill 103, the constitutional carry bill currently stalled in the Florida House. During the rally, they collected over 100 petitions asking state Rep. Chuck Brannan to bring the bill to the floor for a vote. When the rally concluded, some of the rally attendees went to Brannan’s office to personally deliver the petitions, never expecting that the results of their day-long effort would wind up in the trashcan within 30 minutes.

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Miami cops arrest ‘serial killer’ estate agent, 25, accused of murdering two homeless men and injuring a third in drive-by shootings: Police believe there may be other victims

Miami police suspect a 25-year-old, Cuban-born real estate agent of being a ‘serial killer’ after he was arrested in the killings of two homeless men and for critically wounding a third in a series of drive-by shootings from his Dodge Charger.

Willy Suarez Maceo allegedly shot a homeless man in the head near downtown Miami at 400 SW 2nd Avenue around 8 pm on Tuesday then pulled up alongside Jerome Antonio Price, 56,  two hours later and shot him dead as he slept on the sidewalk at Miami Avenue and 21st Street in Wynwood. The first victim survived.

He’s also suspected in the unsolved murder of another homeless man, 59-year-old Manuel Perez, at 27 SE 1st Street on October 16. 

A man pictured in surveillance footage at the scene closely resembles Maceo, and the vehicle seen driving away matches a black Dodge Charger caught in surveillance footage of the Tuesday shootings, police said. 

Maceo was arrested Thursday after he refused to drive away from an area with visible ‘no trespassing’ signs at 445 Northwest 4th Street, according to police reports. 

A rapid ballistics test of the firearm in his vehicle, which he had a permit to carry and conceal, linked him to Tuesday’s shootings, police said.

Miami Police Interim Chief Manuel A. Morales called Maceo a ‘ruthless killer’ who ‘brutally targeted’ the homeless in a press conference and suspects that ‘there may be other victims that suffered at the hands of this ruthless individual.’ 

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Florida School Board Moves to Censor Speakers and Prohibit Broadcast of Public Comments

In response to months of public backlash from parents and residents opposed to forced student masking, School Board members in Palm Beach County, Florida, are proposing new rules to censor and limit the public’s ability to voice their opinions and prohibit broadcasting of all public comments.

According to the School Board of Palm Beach County website, “speakers will not be denied the opportunity to speak on the basis of their viewpoint.” Pursuant to Florida statute § 286.0114, “the public shall be given a reasonable opportunity to be heard on a proposition before a board or commission.” Florida statute § 286.011 states that all meetings of public boards or commissions must be open to the public and the minutes of the meetings must be taken, promptly recorded, and open for public inspection.

The new policy, being drafted by school board attorneys, would limit the number of people who would be allowed to speak at public meetings and the amount of time they are allowed to speak. The new rules would also prohibit any speaker from addressing any board member by name, criticizing any board member, superintendent, or district staff member, and would prohibit the broadcasting of all public comments during all board meetings.

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Florida’s Civil Asset Forfeiture Reforms Haven’t Stopped the Shakedowns

On a May day in 2015, a task force of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents and Miami-Dade Police Department officers raided Miladis Salgado’s suburban Miami home and seized $15,000 in cash that they found in her closet.

The DEA agents were acting on a tip from a confidential informant that Salgado’s estranged husband was laundering drug money.

The cash in Salgado’s closet was not drug proceeds, however. It was money that Salgado, who worked at a duty-free store in the Miami airport, had been saving up for her daughter’s quinceañera, an important coming-of-age 15th birthday party. Salgado had been planning to book a banquet hall, D.J., and -photographer. Suddenly bereft of her savings, she had to cancel the party.

It took two years for Salgado to get her money back, even after a DEA agent admitted in a deposition that there was no connection between her cash and the alleged criminal activity. In the meantime, Florida passed a law reforming the state’s civil asset forfeiture process, which allows law enforcement to seize property—cash, cars, houses—even when the owner isn’t convicted of a crime. The 2016 law raised the burden of proof for forfeiting property and now requires at least an arrest before most property can be forfeited.

But despite tightening the rules for when police can keep seized property, Florida remains one of the most prolific practitioners of civil forfeiture. The Sunshine State took in more revenue through forfeitures than any other state in 2018, according to a survey by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian-leaning public interest law firm. Local and state police can evade the new restrictions by working with the federal government, just like the Miami-Dade police did in Salgado’s case. In return for calling in the feds, they get a cut of the proceeds.

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