Florida's Latest News

DeSantis staffers continue to leave Florida government for 2024 campaign

To help Gov. Ron DeSantis carry out some of his most conservative policies, in 2021 the governor created the role of a Florida public safety czar. He gave that role to Larry Keefe, a former prosecutor, with some fanfare.

Keefe quietly resigned from his $125,000-a-year role in September, and since then has been volunteering for the DeSantis presidential campaign, according to the New York Times.

It is not clear what Keefe’s new role with the campaign is, and he did not appear on the payroll in the campaign’s latest financial filings.

But the move is the latest in a trend of high-profile DeSantis staffers leaving state government to go work for his campaign. Keefe is at least the fifth high-profile DeSantis administration employee to leave in the past five months and shift to the governor’s presidential campaign.

Florida agriculture commissioner seeks $300M for protecting rural land from development

Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson is seeking $300 million for a program designed to keep swaths of rural land from commercial and residential development, triple the amount vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis this year.

Meanwhile, the Department of Environmental Protection is asking lawmakers for a slight increase next year in funding for the separate Florida Forever land conservation program.

In outlining proposals by his Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for the 2024 legislative session, Simpson on Tuesday said the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program is a way for farmers and ranchers to continue operating amid the pressures of rising land values and a rapidly growing population.

“When you think about what farming of the future is going to look like … are we going to have farmland available?” Simpson told members of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee.

Other States Look to Florida in Big Tech Battle

Across state legislatures, there has been a recent shift in passing legislation regarding content moderation on social media platforms.  Despite the Supreme Court reviewing the constitutionality of this type of action, the state of Florida has been one of the only states to prevent social media companies, or "Big Tech," from removing "dangerous" content from their platforms.

A recent report from the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) demonstrated over 200 bills regarding moderating content on social media that is deemed dangerous per the respective law are actively in the process of being passed in state governments across the nation.

The question of social media in American society has become a more prominent one in politics the deeper the nation moves into the 21st Century.  After the January 6th riots in 2021 when President Trump's (R) Twitter and other social media accounts were silenced, and xas billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter, now X, the issue of free speech has hit closer to home for many Americans.

Once again, Florida is a political outlier, this time with SB 7072.  The 2021 bill recognizes the utility of social media in terms of communication and makes several augmentations to how this ought to be used.  The language of the bill further communicates users' rights over their personal information as well, protecting individuals from Big Tech.

Florida-Israel connection: How state cultivates its Jewish ties

Harry Cohen was in Jerusalem, enjoying an Italian dinner with Tampa and Israeli officials, when someone brought up the idea of converting the Fort Homer W. Hesterly Armory into a fitness and event space for the Tampa Jewish Community Centers & Federation.

“I don’t know if that was the first time it was ever discussed, but it was very early in the idea of doing that, and it was very, very memorable that we all sort of sat and talked about it around a dinner table,” the Hillsborough County commissioner said.

Five years later, in 2016, Tampa cut the ribbon on the $30 million Bryan Glazer Family JCC. That city leaders trace the genesis of a big West Tampa project like that back to dinner conversation in Israel, Cohen said, is not as odd as you’d think.

“In many cases, you bring back relationships that you can leverage in all kinds of different ways,” he said. “You make a relationship over there, and it can open doors to economic development, it can open doors to tourism, it can open doors to museum exchanges and cultural exchanges. It really can lead in all kinds of interesting directions.”