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Governor Ron DeSantis made three stops in Florida today, assuring parents and educators that opening classrooms poses far less risks than keeping them closed. 

As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the Governor says he is also committed to making sure parents know which schools have outbreaks.

Last week the state briefly published a report showing 900 K-12 teachers and students had tested positive for Covid.

At a roundtable designed to assure parents that sending kids back to the class was safe, Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran called the numbers:

“It’s a diminimus amount. Less than one percent of one percent.”

The report was up just a day. Surgeon General Scott Rivkees called its release

“It was a draft report that we are working on, It still needs some modification” said the state’s top Doctor.

And when we asked the Governor, he said raw numbers aren’t important…its who is sick.

“How many of those positive tests were actually…how many of those people are ill. Were any of them ill? How many of them? How many of them are symptomatic? I think that needs to be in there” says DeSantis.

As the final ten districts opened, just under sixty percent of kids are in classroom learning.  The other four in ten are learning virtually.”  

Michele Gregory has a six and ten year old who are back in the classroom on the first day of school.

“I’ve never seen children get dressed faster in my life. Or move quicker than they were to get back to brick and mortar schools” said the working mother,.

“There is no need for fear at this point” says Dr. Scott Atlas,  a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. He said kids faced more harm at home than in school.

“I mean there were over two hundred thousand cases that were estimated child abuse that were not picked up because the schools were closed” said Atlas.

And the overall final message of the day is that if teachers or students don’t feel well, or have symptoms

“Please don’t go to school” cautioned the Surgeon General.

The states most recent Pediatric case report was published August 26th. It showed 6,167 kids seventeen and under had tested positive for the Coronavirus since schools opened August tenth.

DEO Bomb Threat VO

Employees at the state Department of Economic Opportunity, the agency that processes unemployment claims, were evacuated around ten-thirty this morning after a bomb threat. A half hour later, the threat was cleared and employees returned inside. A spokesperson says anyone who wanted to work from home for the rest of the day were allowed to do so. The building is located across the street from the State Capitol building. 

In an unusual ruling the Florida Supreme Court said the Governor and Judicial Nominating Commission overstepped their authority by choosing an unqualified candidate to serve on the state’s highest court.

The court decided not to block the appointment, at least for now.

Prior to 2019, Florida’s Supreme Court had at least one black justice for four straight decades.

In May, the Governor picked Jamaican-American Renatha Francis to serve as justice, but her appointment is in question.

“She never should have been appointed,” said State Representative Geraldine Thompson.

Thompson sued to block the appointment because Francis hasn’t been a member of the Florida Bar for the required ten years.

“We should not have unqualified, ineligible individuals on the highest court,” said Thompson.

Thompson asked the State Supreme Court to require the JNC to produce a new list of candidates for the Governor to choose from, in hopes another black justice could be appointed.

In an odd ruling, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed the Governor and JNC were wrong to consider Francis.

“The court clearly recognized… that the governor’s office exceeded, or did not comply, with the applicable protocols,” said FSU law professor Mark Schlakman.

While the court said it couldn’t require a new list of candidates to be created, it did explain the correct remedy for Thompson to seek.

She’d have to ask for the Governor to pick from the existing list, which includes no black candidates.

“I want diversity. I also believe in meritocracy, where we all advanced based on our merits and we don’t play by the same rules,” said Thompson.

Thompson does intend to file a revised complaint before the Monday deadline, all but guaranteeing Francis’ appointment will be blocked.

Francis will reach her ten year bar membership mark on September 24th.

It is unclear if there still exists a pathway for her to keep her appointment at this time.

More legal maneuvering in the teachers verse DeSantis classroom reopening case transpired Friday.

Late Thursday, the Governor filed a motion at the First District Court of Appeal, seeking to reimpose a stay in the case.

The Florida Education Association filed its response Friday morning.

Attorney Ron Meyer said because the First DCA doesn’t rehear evidence, the appellate court must rely on what was presented in trial court and included in the circuit court’s order.

“If the facts that were found by the trial court are supported by record evidence, and they clearly are in this case, those facts are entitled to great weight. We feel relatively optimistic that the appellate court is going to leave the injunction in full force and effect and protect the school children and the school staff in the schools in Florida,” said Meyer.

The appellate court could rule as early as Friday.

The one thing both sides agree on: The First DCA should automatically bump the case up to the Florida Supreme Court, which would eventually get the case anyway.

Once again both the Democrat and Republican Presidential campaigns have Florida in their crosshairs and consider the state a must win if they hope for victory in November.

Both campaigns are spending big in the state and doing what they can to put Florida in the spotlight.

As a swing state holding 29 electoral votes, it’s no surprise both Biden and Trump have their sights set on Florida.

President Trump beat Hillary Clinton by more than 110,000 votes in 2016.

When Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney in 2012 he won the state by 74,000 votes, down from his 236,000 vote advantage over John McCain in 2008.

During night two of the RNC current and former Florida leaders were front and center.

“Together let’s ensure four more years for President Donald J. Trump,” said Florida’s Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez.

Biden’s team has set aside $39 million for tv spots in the sunshine state.

“We are taking no voter for granted, from Pensacola to Miami,” said Biden for President Florida press secretary Kevin Munoz.

At $60 million, Trump’s team has set aside even more, but Co-Chair of the National Republican Party Thomas Hicks Jr. told us television isn’t the only strategy.

“In 2016 you saw the best digital campaign in history. Now you’re going to combine that with the strongest ground game in history,” said Hicks.

Between the two camps $137 million has already been spent in Florida, breaking $133 million spent in 2016.

When it comes to the message the campaigns are sending, Biden’s team said it wants Floridians to know his plan for combating the pandemic.

“A national testing program that ensures that everyone can have testing and we can go back to things in a way that’s safe,” said Munoz.

Team Trump is leaning on support for the military, law and order and the economy.

“The President built the biggest economy we’ve ever seen and he’s the right man to rebuild it,” said Hicks.

And one thing the Trump campaign has this election cycle compared to 2016 is a record.

It’s a record that will be interpreted by both campaigns to their advantage.

After a judge threw out the requirement that brick and mortar schools must be open by August 31st, legal advice being given to districts across the state is to move cautiously after an appeal automatically put the ruling on hold.

However, the teachers union is going back to court to keep the order in effect.

The final nine school districts are scheduled to open classrooms next Monday.

Those districts and those already open are hearing from parents.

“Board members are hearing this morning, more than anything, they’re hearing from families that say, hey, we’ve made plans. We’re expecting to go back to school next week. Please don’t change this on us again,” said Andrea Messina, Executive Director of the Florida School Boards Association.

Attorneys for the Florida Education Association has filed a motion before the original judge.

“So, what we’re asking the judge initially to do, is vacate the automatic stay,” said FEA attorney Ron Meyer.

In his order returning opening decisions to local districts, Judge Charles Dodson found teachers, districts and the pubic faced irreparable harm.

“And we believe that judgement will be to vacate the automatic stay while the litigation plays out and protect the children of Florida,” said Meyer.

Lifting the stay will give local districts legal cover to change their start date.

Cobb Middle School in the state’s capital city isn’t assigning lockers this year.

The idea is to cut down on congestion in the hallway.

But teachers are still nervous.

“Super overwhelmed and anxious. Thank you for asking. Really, really overwhelmed and anxious,” said Cobb Middle School teacher Day Harrington.

At Cobb and across the state, the final planning for in-person learning is moving forward as the legal wrangling continues.

“I think we have done everything we can possible do. We’re distancing, we’re cleaning, We’re all masks. We’ve all been training all summer. I think we’ve done everything we possible can to keep our kids safe. Of course, I’m still really, really worried about it,” said Harrington.

The legal back and forth could last well into the weeks ahead before there is clarity on the injunction.

Classrooms in three of the state’s most populous counties, Miami Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach will remain distance learning only until the virus positivity rate subsides.

Census Bureau data shows Florida still lags behind the national response rate by seven percent.

Now as census workers attempt to follow up on nonrespondent households they face a new challenge.

One out of three census workers have either quit or didn’t show up for the job and that’s going to make it even harder to count historically underrepresented communities.

The Census Bureau reports that is has counted seven out of ten Floridians so far, but time is running out.

The deadline to finish is September 30th.

“Time is running out, but it’s not too late,” said Assistant Regional Census Manager Marilyn Stephens.

Reaching that hurdle will be difficult, one third of census workers have either quit or didn’t show up for the job.

The Bureau said it’s making up for the lost staff with longer shifts.

“We may not need as many people because we don’t look at our work in terms of bodies, it’s more that we look at it in terms of staff hours,” said Stephens.

But the lower than anticipated workforce is of great concern to State Rep Anna Eskamani.

She’s worried it’s those who could benefit the most from being counted who are most likely to go unreported.

“Especially in our communities of color and our communities that have been most directly impacted by COVID-19, which tends to be lower income,” said Eskamani.

The Census Bureau told us even in a normal year, lower income and minority groups are often less likely to return their census due to an inherent distrust of government.

But the Bureau asserts there’s nothing to fear.

Census information is highly confidential.

“That means no police, no FBI, no CIA. Not even the IRS,” said Stephens.

Eskamani added even a resident’s immigration status won’t be revealed in the census.

“When it comes to the US Census it does not matter. You will not be asked to disclose your documentation status,” said Eskamani.

And the census count won’t only influence funding for communities, but also the state’s representation in Congress with the potential of adding or taking away seats in the House.

It’s not too late to fill out your census form.

You can either return it by mail, over the phone by calling 844-330-2020 or for the first time ever you can respond online.

After hearing 14 witnesses, including a teacher afraid he would carry COVID-19 back to his elderly mother-in-law, a judge has issued an injunction giving the decision to open classrooms to local school boards without the fear of lost funding.

After two days of testimony, lawyers for the teachers union asked for a surgical decision: keep school funding in place, but allow districts to choose when and how to open.

“In this case that would mean a safety requirement, which is not in the order,” said Florida Education Association attorney Kendall Coffey.

In the ruling, the judge struck portions of the reopening order he deemed unconstitutional.

“The judge didn’t order all schools have to be closed. What he said was those parts of the Commissioner’s order that conditioned funding upon arbitrarily opening brick and mortar schools before the end of August is unconstitutional,” said FEA attorney Ron Meyer.

Our analysis of data from the 30, mostly smaller districts, that opened since Augusts 10th, showed a 10 percent increase in cases in kids 17 and under.

The data compares cases on August 11th and August 23rd.

In the end, the judge agreed that Hillsborough County became the poster child in this case.

The union described the state’s treatment of the county as ‘bullying’.

“The county did everything that it had in its power. It assembled a panel of doctors who unanimously, except fo the Department of Health doctor who said that he couldn’t weigh in, said that schools aren’t safe to be open right now,” said Meyer.

An appeal is likely and several days of legal wrangling will take place before districts get certainty.

The state’s contract with the outside attorneys it hired is paying each of them $450 an hour, up to a total of $550,000.

The union’s legal costs are also substantial, but unknown.

An appeal by the state will result in an automatic stay of the judge’s order.

The union expects the judge to reinstate the order because he determined the union’s case had a substantial chance of prevailing.

Florida restaurants and other businesses in the hospitality industry continue to suffer due to pandemic.

More than 2,000 restaurants have closed their doors and industry groups fear even more could be at risk if Floridians approve a minimum wage hike this November.

An opposition campaign to Amendment 2 is already underway.

John Horne owns four restaurants in and around Bradenton.

“We’ve been in business for almost 25 years,” said Horne, President of Anna Maria Oyster Bars.

He’s been able to make ends meet through the pandemic.

“We’ve got a good, local, loyal following,” said Horne.

But in November voters will weigh in on Amendment 2, which would raise Florida’s minimum wage from the current $8.56 an hour to $10 an hour on September 30th 2021.

It would increase $1 a year until reaching $15 an hour.

After that, it would increase each year based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers.

Horne told us if it passes, it could be a death blow.

“Can I raise my prices $651,000 a year? Not and keep the same number of guests. So when my guest count goes down, my hours will go down. So people will start losing jobs,” said Horne.

The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association has predicted the wage hike would cause one out of three Florida restaurants to close for good.

“It’s a lethal blow to Florida’s jobs, Florida’s economy, Florida’s businesses. We’re all on life support right now in our jobs. So why would we want to not have any job? Because that’s where we are headed,” said Carol Dover, President and CEO of the association.

But Raymer Maguire, Campaign Manager for Amendment 2, argued the job killing narrative is overblown.

“We have not seen job loss. We have seen individuals bring home more money and spend that money in the communities they live in. This has helped small and large businesses,” said Maguire.

Because of the pandemic, opposition groups have had a hard time raising money.

They face an uphill battle going forward.

Since 1996, voters approved nine out of ten minimum wage initiatives across the country.

After law school graduates protested in front of the State Supreme Court last week due to continuing Bar Examination delays, the court has issued an order that will allow them to work in their field.

The order will create a temporary program that will allow some grads to work under the supervision of a practicing attorney while they wait to take the exam.

Chief Justice Charles Canady issued an apology to grads after the exam was delayed last week.

“The three month delay in licensure is a serious matter: disruption in life that takes a financial toll and an emotional toll. And we know that for some applicants, such a delay will cause severe hardship. We are seeking to mitigate the impact of this delay through the supervised practice program that we are instituting, but we are keenly aware that this program is a stop-gap measure that will provide limited relief to a limited number of applicants,” said Canady.

The exam is now scheduled for October, but no official date has been set.

The supervised practice program must be in place by the end of August.

The latest jobs report released Friday brought some bad news.

After unemployment dropped in June, the state saw its unemployment rate increase by 1.2 percent in July.

The latest uptick comes as the state continues seeing unprecedented unemployment claims.

At 11.3 percent Florida’s unemployment rate is once again above national average.

While the state added almost 78,000 jobs, 122,000 were added to the pool of unemployed.

“This is an unprecedented level of joblessness,” said Adrienne Johnston, Chief Economist at the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.

And there seems to be little sign of slowing down.

More than 212,000 new unemployment claims have been filed since the start of August.

“Even when you go back and look during the last recession, we had a significant number of claims. It was at that time unprecedented, but it was over a much longer period of time,” said Johnston.

The state has identified 2.9 million unique claims and paid $14 billion to nearly 2 million people.

Florida Democrats aren’t satisfied with that progress.

“We have hundreds of thousands of Floridians who filed jobless claims since mid-March and have yet to receive benefits,” said State Senator Lori Berman.

Florida has indicated it won’t take the federal unemployment extension offered by the President, which requires the state to pick up one fourth of the cost.

Democrats disapprove of the President’s plan, but said if Congress approves something similar, the state should opt in.

“I think our state needs to go ahead and provide that match because the alternative is simply unacceptable,” said State Senator Gary Farmer.

And Democrats continue to implore the Governor to call special session to address the unemployment issue, but the Governor has made it clear that won’t be on the table until after the November election.

According to DEO’s latest report most metro areas added jobs in July.

Construction, information and manufacturing were industries that saw the largest job losses.

A six year old has become the 8th child to die with COVID-19 complications.

The death was contained in the daily report from the Department of Health.

The announcement came as lawyers were arguing whether children back in the classroom posed a threat to not only themselves but the community.

The death of the six year old was recorded this past Monday, but not reported until Friday.

An hour after the announcement, lawyers urged a judge to keep Florida classrooms from opening.

“Our most precious human value, our children, packing them into a disease factory,” said Florida Education Association attorney Kendall Coffey.

Over the past two days there has been 18 hours of testimony.

A biology teacher told the court he was being forced to go back to work, despite a statement from the Governor to the contrary.

“What happens to that teacher then?” Asked Circuit Judge Charles Dobson.

“I think that teacher can take medical leave under the Florida medical leave act,” replied David Wells, attorney for the Department of Education.

“Unpaid medical leave, right?” Asked Dobson.

“I don’t think there’s any question, your honor,” replied Wells.

The order opening classrooms does provide for local control, but Hillsborough County was told it would lose millions in lost state revenue if it delayed opening past August 31st.

“The day to day decisions to open or close a school must always rest locally,” said Judge Dobson.

“And even though they say there should be local input and local control, that’s not happening. And they’ve essentially held hostage local school boards to insure they open by August thirty-first,” said Billy Wieland, an attorney representing parents and teacher in the case.

The union wants the judge to invalidate the July order that requires classrooms to open by the end of the month.

If he were to agree, that control would then go back to local districts without fear of losing money.

The state argues it’s already too late.

“The schools have reopened, and the remainder are reopening,” said Wells.

The judge also took notice that local health departments have refused to offer guidance on classrooms reopening.

A ruling is expected early next week.

If the judge rules against the state and it appeals, the ruling would automatically be put on hold.

If he rules against the teachers and union, there is no automatic stay.

Just hours before a hearing on whether classrooms reopen began, a group of protestors gathered in front of the State Department of Education.

17-year-old Naddelena Kaji lost both her grandparents this spring from COVID.

Now she is afraid her friends will die if in class learning resumes.

“More innocent people will die. When we open schools, we create a super spreading event six hours a day, five days a week and there will undoubtedly be an outbreak. So our financially prosperous families can choose to return because they want to play sports, or they miss their friends,” said Kaji.

Lawyers arguing for and against classrooms opening made their final arguments in the hearing Friday afternoon.

A judge has promised a decision early next week.