Florida's Latest News

Florida’s big tech censorship bill clears second committee

Legislation seeking to increase transparency in big tech and fight back against social media censorship is moving quickly through the Florida House after it cleared its second committee stop Monday.

Republicans believe conservatives are being unfairly targeted by big tech censorship, but Democrats argue the GOP-sponsored legislation is a response to former President Donald Trump’s de-platforming from Twitter and Facebook.

“I think that everybody should, at least if we’re being intellectually honest, be able to agree that yeah, there is a double standard here,” State Sen. Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, said.

Rick Scott urges Ron DeSantis to give back surplus COVID-19 relief funds

If the latest round of COVID-19 relief funds includes extra money for Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ predecessor is urging him to give the surplus back to the federal government.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, offered the advisory comments Monday on the Fox News Channel’s “America Reports” with Sandra Smith and John Roberts.

The first-term Senator from Naples doubled down on a call made earlier this month to mayors and governors to reject and return money beyond what is needed specifically for COVID-19 relief, even when the question was framed as specific to Florida and Gov. Ron DeSantis being “hard-pressed not to accept that money” by Fox’s Roberts.

First doses help nursing home residents, report shows

Partial vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was 63% effective in preventing new infections in residents at two nursing facilities, a report released Monday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.

The findings are similar to other first-dose effectiveness estimates for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for the broader adult population in non-congregate settings.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires two doses.

“Even during a large disease outbreak in a long-term care setting, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provided protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection, including in older adults … with a high prevalence of underlying medical conditions,” the report said.

Florida's Manatees Are Dying At An Alarming Rate This Year And Contaminated Canals Are Partially To Blame

An alarming number of manatees have died in Florida already this year, on pace to be one of the deadliest years for the mammals in the past decade.

Scientists say the unusually high death count is due to a combination of cold weather and a decline in available sea grass for the vegetarians to feed on due to development, contaminated waterways and other human activity.

“It’s this combination we have of cold weather, we have a reduction of where manatees can go, and in the places where manatees can go, as a consequence of human development and other activities, we have poor water quality which has resulted in these grass die-offs,” said Jaclyn Lopez, Florida director of the Center for Biological Diversity.