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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Signs 24 Bills Into Law

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed 24 bills into law late Friday, including a measure that limits local impact fees imposed on builders and developers to help pay for infrastructure to handle growth.

The latest group of bills earning DeSantis’ signature from the 2021 Legislative session were announced in an email with accompanying transmittal letters to Secretary of State Laurel Lee, lacking the fanfare of a trio of bills focused on military families and veterans the governor signed earlier in the day during a ceremony at American Legion Palm Valley Post 233 in St. Johns County.

The new laws include the creation of a 10-member task force to study unmarked and abandoned African-American cemeteries (HB 37); an effort to crack down on “swatting” by establishing felony charges for falsely reporting a crime in which a police response results in death or great bodily harm (HB 371); and a requirement that school districts notify parents they can exempt children from lessons on reproductive health or any disease, including HIV/AIDS (HB 545).

Ron DeSantis vows to get ‘political apparatus involved’ in Florida school board races

Gov. Ron DeSantis returned to the Fox News Channel Saturday night in a segment taped the evening before, but with a message relevant to the political cycle to come.

On “Unfiltered with Dan Bongino,” DeSantis vowed to turn his “political apparatus” against Republican school board candidates who oppose his educational reforms.

“We’re not going to support any Republican candidate for school board who supports Critical Race Theory in all 67 counties or supports mandatory masking of school children,” DeSantis told Bongino.

School board races in Florida are nonpartisan.

Coronavirus Live Updates: COVID Wards Are Emptying Out In South Florida. Doctors Say It’s Proof Vaccines Work

At the height of Florida’s summer COVID-19 surge, there were more than 2,000 people hospitalized with the novel illness in the epicenter of Miami-Dade County. Now, with 1.2 million people in the county fully vaccinated, that number has dropped to below 300 for the first time since mid-October.

The plummet comes as hospital COVID units are emptying out across the state, where fewer than 1,800 people are being treated for the disease statewide, compared to the late July height of about 9,500.

In South Florida, hospital leaders are attributing the patient plunge to the efficacy of the three federally authorized vaccines. About 60% of Floridians 25 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine. That percentage jumps to 66% for the 35-and-older bracket, and 70% for those 45 and older.

Florida Scientists Find Rare Bee Species In New Locations

Florida Museum of Natural History scientists have found the first nest of Florida’s extraordinarily rare blue calamintha bee and added a new location to its known range: the Ocala National Forest. They also confirmed the insect feeds on a second, but highly endangered, host plant.

Researchers made the discoveries during their second field season tracking the obscure bee in Central Florida’s sand pine scrub habitats. Their findings will help inform conservation and land management efforts and a federal assessment on whether the blue calamintha bee qualifies for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

“The ultimate goal is to keep this bee around for the foreseeable future,” said Jaret Daniels, Florida Museum curator of Lepidoptera and the project’s principal investigator. “Studying and understanding more about individual species is most impactful for us when it leads to steps for helping conserve the organism.”