Florida's Latest News

As pandemic wanes, Florida’s DeSantis seizes national stage

As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis struggled to contain the coronavirus pandemic, Democrats readied to pounce. The state’s economy was in tatters, infections and deaths were on the rise and there were doubts about the Republican’s plan to lead Florida out of crisis.

Now that the pandemic appears to be waning and DeSantis is heading into his reelection campaign next year, he has emerged from the political uncertainty as one of the most prominent Republican governors and an early White House front-runner in 2024 among Donald Trump’s acolytes, if the former president doesn’t run again.

As DeSantis’ national stature has risen, he has remained defiant in the face of continued attacks on his hard-line opposition to mask mandates and lockdowns.

To veto or not to veto: Five tough decisions facing Gov. DeSantis

Gov. Ron DeSantis will probably wear out a pen or two in the coming weeks.

But while signing a bill takes a matter of seconds, deciding whether a bill deserves his signature takes a lot of thought. Here are some of the bills and budget items the Governor should be thinking twice about.

Transgender sports ban

A bill (SB 1028) banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports landed on the Governor’s desk last week. DeSantis said in April that he planned to sign it. But if he does, there will likely be consequences.

Future looks good for fantasy sports games in Florida

The Legislature’s rejection of a fantasy sports bill turned out to be just what the fantasy sports business needed.

Officially, the big fantasy sports companies such as FanDuel, DraftKings, and Bet MGM lost big, twice, in the Special Session, when the Legislature refused to come up with a regulatory framework and then handed sports betting to the Seminole Tribe of Florida as a monopoly. Yet the Seminole Compact also gave fantasy sports what it needed.

The Seminole Compact now explicitly defines fantasy sports, saying they are games of skill, not games of chance.

Tech Industry Groups Challenge Florida Social Media Law

Describing the law as a “frontal assault on the First Amendment,” two online industry groups filed a federal lawsuit Thursday seeking to block a measure pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to crack down on large social-media companies.

NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association want a judge to prevent the law from taking effect July 1, contending that it is a “smorgasbord of constitutional violations” that would prevent companies from properly moderating content on their platforms.

“The act discriminates against and infringes the First Amendment rights of these targeted companies, which include plaintiffs’ members, by compelling them to host --- and punishing them for taking virtually any action to remove or make less prominent --- even highly objectionable or illegal content, no matter how much that content may conflict with their terms or policies,” said the 70-page lawsuit, filed in federal court in Tallahassee.