Tag: ron desantis

DeSantis Has A ‘Big Problem’ With Florida Marijuana Ballot Measure, Citing ‘Smells’ In Other Places That Have Legalized

With the Florida Supreme Court weighing whether to allow an adult-use marijuana legalization measure to be on November’s ballot, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Friday reiterated his stance against the policy change, complaining that letting adults legally consume cannabis could impact businesses and communities—including as the result of odor.

“I’ve gone to some of these cities that have had this everywhere, it smells, there’s all these things,” he told reporters, complaining that the proposal wouldn’t give government officials enough power to control when and where marijuana businesses operate—a claim backers of the initiative deny.

“I don’t want to be able to go walk in front of shops and have this, I don’t want every hotel to really smell,” he added, “I don’t want all these things. But if you’re saying you can’t regulate it or you can’t limit it—which, that’s how I read that—that could be a big, big problem.”

Despite his opposition to the initiative, DeSantis, the former GOP presidential candidate who dropped out of the race in January, has predicted that the state’s highest court will ultimately allow the measure on November’s ballot.

“I think the court is going to approve that,” the governor said at his final campaign event in New Hampshire earlier this year, “so it’ll be on the ballot.”

Keep reading

Ron DeSantis to Sign Bill Into Law Allowing Release of Jeffrey Epstein’s Grand Jury Documents from 2006 Investigation

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is slated to sign a bill that would enable the release of grand jury documents related to the 2006 investigation of sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

For context, in July 2006, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) initiated an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, under the codename “Operation Leap Year“. The probe culminated in a 53-page indictment by June 2007, exposing the depths of Epstein’s alleged sex crimes involving minors.

However, the case took an unexpected turn when Alexander Acosta, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida at the time, brokered a plea deal. This agreement, negotiated with the assistance of attorney Alan Dershowitz, effectively granted Epstein immunity from all federal criminal charges, along with four named co-conspirators and any potential unnamed accomplices.

The Miami Herald reported that the non-prosecution agreement “essentially shut down an ongoing FBI probe” into the possibility of more victims and powerful individuals involved in Epstein’s crimes. The deal, which was kept secret from the victims in violation of federal law, halted further investigations and sealed the indictment.

Acosta later justified the leniency of the deal by claiming he was informed that Epstein “belonged to intelligence” and that the issue was above his “pay grade,” the Daily Beast reported.

Keep reading

Ron DeSantis Blocks Disabled Parking Spots at Iowa Event When Its -12 Degrees Outside – Then Kicks Out Handicapped Man in Wheelchair Inside

As reported earlier – A disabled man in a wheelchair and a conservative podcaster, Matt Kim, were removed from Ron DeSantis’s campaign event on the eve of the Iowa caucuses. The reasons behind this unexpected removal remain unclear, sparking confusion and frustration among the individuals involved.

The incident, which was caught on video, shows the disabled attendee, who had just entered the venue, being promptly escorted out by security personnel.

When asked for an explanation, the security guard could only mention that he was “following orders,” leaving the disabled man visibly confused by the unexpected turn of events.

The individual was reported to be wearing a hat bearing the name of Brenden Dilley, host of The Dilley Show and a Trump supporter. Dilley took to social media to express his disbelief.

“Ron DeSantis just had a man in a wheelchair thrown out of his event because he was wearing a hat with my name on it, while he was listening to the speeches. Unreal,” Dilley wrote.

Keep reading

DeSantis Says He Would ‘Respect The Decisions That States Make’ On Marijuana Legalization, Despite Personal Opposition

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) says he would “respect the decisions that states make” on marijuana legalization if he’s elected president, despite his personal view that the reform has a “negative impact.”

At a campaign event in Iowa on Saturday, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate briefly shared how he would navigate the growing state legalization movement from the White House, pledging to adopt a hands-off approach like that of prior administrations from both parties.

DeSantis started by noting that Florida voters enacted medical cannabis legalization as a constitutional amendment at the ballot, and then he criticized what he views as shortcomings of broader adult-use legalization before explaining how he’d address it as president.

“I think the places that have done it for recreational use like Colorado, I don’t think it’s worked well,” he said in comments first noted by Florida Politics. “I think it’s caused problems in the cities. I think it’s created a black market.”

“We’ll respect the decisions that the states make on that,” the governor said. “But I do think some of these places like California and Colorado—I don’t know what they did with it, but, I mean, it has definitely caused a negative impact on their workforce.”

Colorado has been a frequent target of DeSantis’s criticism, with the candidate also claiming recently that the state’s illicit cannabis market is “bigger” today than it was prior to voters approving legalization in 2012.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’s (D) office pushed back against that position in a statement to Marijuana Moment last week, asserting that the reform is “curbing the illicit market, getting dealers off the streets, reducing youth use, funding school construction, supporting jobs and Colorado’s economy.”

“Colorado is happy to provide the Florida governor advice on how to increase economic and personal freedom like we have in the free state of Colorado,” a spokesperson said.

Keep reading

Colorado Governor’s Office Slams DeSantis’s Marijuana Stance, Pushing Back Against Claim Legalization Led To ‘Bigger’ Illicit Market

If Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) needs some advice on how to promote “economic and personal freedom,” the state of Colorado is “happy” to explain the advantages of marijuana legalization, Gov. Jared Polis’s (D) office said after the Republican presidential candidate doubled down on his opposition to cannabis reform.

On Friday, DeSantis peddled a dubious claim that Colorado’s illicit market is “bigger” today than it was before legalizing adult-use cannabis in 2012, justifying his own personal opposition to the reform.

In response, a spokesperson for the Colorado governor’s office offered to correct the record for the 2024 GOP presidential hopeful in a statement to Marijuana Moment.

“The facts are that Colorado voters approved the legalization of marijuana which is curbing the illicit market, getting dealers off the streets, reducing youth use, funding school construction, supporting jobs and Colorado’s economy,” the governor’s spokesperson said. “Colorado is happy to provide the Florida governor advice on how to increase economic and personal freedom like we have in the free state of Colorado.”

In an interview on the radio station KCPS that aired on Friday, first noted by Florida Politics, DeSantis had challenged the idea that regulating marijuana sales puts illicit operators “out of business,” stating that it’s an “interesting” concept that he says hasn’t played out in Colorado, despite evidence to the contrary.

“There have been states like Colorado who’ve done things like legalized marijuana and the argument was, well, you want to have a black market? It will be above-board, taxed and all that stuff,” DeSantis said during the interview. “Yet Colorado has a bigger black market of marijuana since they’ve legalized it.”

It’s well-understood that enacting legalization doesn’t fully eliminate the illicit market, and states have had varying degrees of success to that end. But research indicates that Colorado has been among the most effective at transitioning people to the legal marketplace.

Keep reading

DeSantis vs. Disney: Florida’s Fight Over Private Governance

On April 22, 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill dissolving the Reedy Creek Improvement District, ending perhaps the most successful experiment in private governance in U.S. history. The bill ended an arrangement that turned a swamp on the edges of Orlando into the home of Walt Disney World, one of the busiest tourist destinations on Earth. The governor’s victory is not yet final—while the district was formally dissolved earlier this year, Disney attorneys quickly outfoxed DeSantis, delegating many of the district’s powers back to the company. The company is now suing to reverse the change altogether.

For all the media sound and fury over the duel between the would-be president and the Mouse, experts seem to agree that Disney will retain most of its longstanding autonomy when all the lawsuits are through.

Whatever your views of the “Don’t Say Gay” law that kicked off the DeSantis-Disney feud, or of the increasingly regrettable quality of the live-action Disney feature film reboots of its animated classics, DeSantis’ attempt to dissolve the district is a blatant effort to bully a private company because he disapproved of its constitutionally protected speech. At best, it reveals DeSantis as a culture warrior rather than a small-government conservative. At worst, it exposes DeSantis as a politician willing to toss out the rule of law and free markets to score cheap political points, in the lead-up to a Republican presidential primary in which he’s struggling to meet expectations.

For the most frivolous reasons imaginable, the fate of “the happiest place on Earth” now hangs in the balance.

Keep reading

Florida’s revival of death penalty fuels rise in US executions in 2023

The US saw a rise in executions in 2023 as a result of Florida’s revival of the death penalty, amid Ron DeSantis’s “tough on crime” campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

DeSantis scheduled six executions this year – the first time the state has judicially killed people since 2019 and the largest number in almost a decade. Florida also handed down five new death sentences this year, more than any other state.

Florida’s sudden return to the death business accounts for the increase in execution numbers nationwide, which rose to 24 in 2023 from 18 in 2022 – a startling reversal of the death penalty’s historical decline across the US.

The flurry of executions greenlit by DeSantis is highlighted in the annual review of capital punishment released on Friday by the authoritative Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). The report points to a sharp dichotomy that while the ultimate punishment is generally on the wane in the US – this year was the ninth in a row when fewer than 30 prisoners were put to death – there is rising concern about the visceral unfairness of the practice.

In Florida’s case, the number of executions carried out this year raises a disturbing ethical prospect: can the cost of DeSantis’s bid for the White House be counted not only in the millions of dollars spent on the campaign trail, but also in human lives?

This is not the first time that the death penalty has been injected into presidential posturing. Bill Clinton, keen to quash claims that he was soft on crime, memorably quit the campaign trail in 1992 to return to Arkansas, where he was then governor, for the execution of a mentally impaired prisoner, Rickey Ray Rector.

DeSantis has similarly made law and order a central pillar of his challenge to Donald Trump for the Republican nomination. In addition to increasing penalties for drug traffickers, DeSantis has passed two new death penalty laws this year designed to make it easier to send people to death row.

The first allows the death sentence to be meted out in cases of the non-fatal sexual assault of a child – a direct contravention of a 2008 US supreme court ruling that prohibits such penalties.

Keep reading

Official lay dying unnoticed in DeSantis’ office for 24 minutes: law enforcement report

Peter Antonacci left a meeting with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) on Sept. 23, 2022, and several moments later, he was dead mere steps from the room. No one noticed. It has been over a year, and the information about the incident is only now being revealed.

Florida Bulldog reported Sunday that the man DeSantis hired to head up his so-called “elections fraud unit” lay dead or dying in the governor’s office before anyone noticed. With security cameras turned to watch, for 24 minutes, Antonacci lay motionless on the ground.

At the time, authorities claimed “he died while at work in the Capitol building, of which the governor’s office is a part,” said the Bulldog.

The information is only coming to light now because the Florida Bulldog filed a public records request about the matter in February after being tipped off that Antonacci died in the governor’s office.

The report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) continues: “At approximately 1:46 p.m., Mr. Antonacci is observed standing up and walking out of the conference room [redacted]. … “He steadies himself on the left wall. The hall [redacted] when he falls and appears to strike his head on the door on the [redacted] (sic). There appeared to be no foul play in the Room (sic) or hallway. At approximately 2:10:05pm, FDL Comm. [Mark] Glass appears to notice Antonacci down the hallway to his aid (sic).”

The 911 call from a staffer in the governor’s office reported that someone was doing CPR and they were searching for a defibrillator. She thought he had a heart attack.

“By the time a Capitol police officer arrived a minute or two later and hooked the pulseless Antonacci up to an automated external defibrillator (AED), the machine that can administer a life-saving electrical shock to victims of sudden cardiac arrest, assessed Antonacci and advised that ‘no shock’ was needed,” the site explains.

His doctor confirmed that Antonacci had heart disease and other cardiac issues, signing off on the cause of death being related to that condition.

The local news site also observed that the report went into detail about what Antonacci was wearing, but couldn’t identify all 11 people who were in the meeting at the time. FDLE chief of staff Shane Desguin noted that he knew there was an emergency because he heard the “thud” of Antonacci hitting on the floor and then, about 25 minutes later, heard Glass shouting for help. The law enforcement official did not investigate the “thud.”

The Bulldog spoke to a Florida medical examiner who called it unusual not to have an autopsy in such a case.

Keep reading

Florida’s DeSantis bans pro-Palestinian group from state campuses

Florida’s university system, working with Governor Ron DeSantis, ordered colleges on Tuesday to shut down a pro-Palestinian student organization, marking the first U.S. state to outlaw the group whose national leadership backed Hamas’ attack on Israel.

The State University System of Florida said chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) had to be dismantled as part of a “crack down” in the Republican-led state on campus demonstrations that provide “harmful support for terrorist groups.”

“Based on the National SJP’s support of terrorism, in consultation with Governor DeSantis, the student chapters must be deactivated,” the system’s Chancellor Ray Rodrigues wrote in a memo to university leaders.

SJP is active in at least two Florida universities, Rodrigues said.

The University of North Florida in Jacksonville and Florida State University in Tallahassee have SJP chapters, based on Instagram sites. The National SJP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tensions between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian students have led to harassment and assaults at U.S. universities since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and Israel’s siege and bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Administrators at some U.S. universities criticized the National SJP after it called Hamas’ attack “a historic win for the Palestinian resistance” and called for a “day of resistance” on Oct. 12 with demonstrations by its chapters at over 200 colleges in America and Canada.

Keep reading

Here’s What the Hamas Attack Tells Us About U.S. Immigration Policy: Nothing

In the middle of his statement responding to last weekend’s barbaric attacks in Israel, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis veered sideways into a non-sequitur about American immigration policy.

In a post to X (formerly known as Twitter), DeSantis said President Joe Biden ought to freeze all foreign aid flowing to Hamas, the terrorist group responsible for Saturday’s attacks that left more than 1,000 people dead, and freeze money “made available to Iran.” Then, DeSantis added, Biden must “immediately shut down America’s wide-open southern border to ensure we are in a position to better protect Americans here at home from these real threats.”

That is…quite the jump.

Yes, it’s true that Saturday’s attack on Israel involved people crossing a border, and that immigrants coming to the U.S. also cross a border as part of that process. That’s literally the only similarity.

To be clear: Immigrants seeking to come to the U.S. to live and work are absolutely not terrorists conducting a paramilitary operation. Mexico and the U.S. are not Israel and Palestine. And, as Saturday’s attack makes obviously clear, even the most extreme measures designed to “shut down” a border can be defeated.

Keep reading