Jason Shoaf and Randy Maggard could be halfway to the Florida House.
Shoaf, a Port St. Joe Republican, and Maggard, a Dade City Republican, easily won GOP special primary elections Tuesday as they seek to replace former Rep. Halsey Beshears, R-Monticello, and former Rep. Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday during a press conference at Temple Kol Ami Emanu-El in Plantation that he will make a formal outreach trip to Israel, making it his first international trip as governor, precisely as he promised six months ago.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its latest look at orange production on Tuesday.
The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) lowered the forecast of total oranges 1 percent.
We’re still months away from the start of hurricane season, but Gov. Ron DeSantis is already taking Florida by storm. A recent Mason-Dixon poll has the governor at a 62 percent approval rating, making him one of the most popular governors in the nation.
President Donald Trump’s announcement that his administration will designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) is garnering strong support from Republicans in the Florida congressional delegation.
Marco Rubio, who sits on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, applauded the announcement.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday defended his selection for state surgeon general amid scrutiny about a past sexual-harassment investigation at the University of Florida.
“My thing is, if we have a public health issue, I want somebody that is going to be able to protect the people of Florida,” DeSantis said during a morning appearance at the Collier County Administrative Building in Naples. “If we have other challenges, like opioids, I want somebody that’s going to be able to do a good job. To me, that should be the focus of this.”
The U.S. House Oversight Committee (HOC), led by Rep. Elijah Cummings, has been moving in overdrive since the Democrats rose to power. They have already called President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen in to testify in a bid to find more charges to level at the White house; they are fighting against a perjury inquiry against Cohen so he can hang around until they need him again for another fishing expedition; and there's been a grandstanding subpoena for someone who already agreed to show for a hearing.
But, wait. There's a NEXT brash move:
No reasonable person would think Florida voters approved Amendment 4 to make it harder for felons to regain the right to vote than it was under former Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet in their role as Florida’s Clemency Board.
Despite other restrictions in the executive clemency process, that is where the Legislature is heading if it requires felons to pay all fines, fees and restitution before they could vote again.
A move to make it harder to change the Florida Constitution was backed along party lines Monday by a House committee, with supporters saying it would lessen the influence of “outside interests.”
But the proposal (HJR 57) to require a higher percentage of votes to approve constitutional amendments advanced without support from Democrats and --- according to bill sponsor Rep. Rick Roth --- lukewarm backing from House leaders.
