Florida's Latest News

DeSantis describes COVID-19 vaccination plan at White House summit

Participating in a White House vaccine summit on Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis described his COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan for the state.

DeSantis said the state’s proposal calls for vaccinating seniors in nursing homes before the end of December, while also getting vaccines into the hands of “high-contact” front line health-care workers in five urban areas by the end of next week.

“Then, we think, based on the numbers, at the end of December we can start getting it out into the broader senior population,” DeSantis said during a panel discussion with three other governors and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. “And then (in) January, really focus on vaccinating as many elderly people as we can.”

Florida officials defend raid on COVID-19 whistleblower as questions emerge about case

Florida’s law enforcement chief and state officials with the Department of Health said their internal emergency communication system was “hacked” on Nov. 10, conjuring images of a nefarious digital break-in.

But court records show officials suspect Rebekah Jones, a former DOH employee, simply used old login credentials to gain “unauthorized access” to an employee messaging platform and send a group text. The message encouraged DOH employees to “speak up” about COVID-19 deaths — and criticized how Gov. Ron DeSantis has handled the pandemic.

“It is a hacking statute that they’re invoking here, but this is about as much hacking as using an expired ID to get back into the place where you used to work is breaking in,” said Stewart Baker, former general counsel for the National Security Agency.

Wilton Simpson says water quality funding will remain a priority despite slimmer budget

Senate President Wilton Simpson told attendees at the Florida Chamber’s Transportation, Growth & Infrastructure Solution Summit on Tuesday that funding water quality initiatives would be a priority during his term despite budget challenges.

“There’s going to be less money, so there will be less government,” Simpson said, estimating the budget will be trimmed by $3 billion to $4 billion. “We’ve got a very large task ahead of us.”

“We know 900 or more people a day will be moving to Florida. People are voting with their feet and they’re leaving the higher regulated, overtaxed states and coming to Florida to build their future, their business, their families,” he said.

Florida universities to offer more in-person classes this spring, but many will remain online

Florida universities plan to offer more face-to-face instruction this spring, as the state has urged institutions to resume as many in-person activities as possible.

But many classes will still be online-only, with the number of in-person sections remaining far below what was offered before the pandemic.

The University of Central Florida, for example, anticipates it will have 3,100 classes that include at least some in-person instruction this spring. That’s more than the 2,100 offered during the fall semester but still significantly less than the 5,600 face-to-face or blended classes UCF had last spring, before the school switched to online-only instruction midway through the term.