As Florida’s Division of Emergency Management continues to respond to the pandemic, it now faces a new threat, with Tropical Storm Laura projected to impact the panhandle.
The State Emergency Operations Center remains at level one activation level.
DEM Director Jared Moskowitz said anytime a storm heads for the Gulf of Mexico it demands serious attention.
“The models don’t show a lot of intensity, but at the end of the day we’re just worried about a storm getting into the Gulf of Mexico for a day and a half. The weather is really warm and so you know everyone is getting prepared obviously. We’re remembering Hurricane Michael, you know wanting to build off the lessons learned from that, you know not waiting until the last couple of moments,” said Moskowitz.
Moskowitz said now is the time to prepare your seven day hurricane supply kit and check your evacuation zone.
He also added that supply kits should include masks and sanitation supplies.
Those items will also be available at hurricane shelters.
Classes at FSU start Monday, but students and staff are already testing positive for COVID-19.
Before stepping foot in a classroom, FSU students living on campus are have to take their first exam of the semester: A COVID-19 test.
“Honestly I’m a really anxious person when it comes to any medical procedure, but it was really fast and easy,” said FSU student Samantha Zimm.
And the students like we spoke with like Matthew Mckey told us the mandatory testing is a comforting precaution.
“I mean you might as well catch the cases before they all get in the dorms and that kind of stuff,” said Mckey.
Of the 3,222 tests conducted so far, 42 students and five staff members have tested positive.
The university isn’t commenting on the results, but confirmed contract tracing efforts are underway.
Students see it as both a positive and a negative.
“It’s a little concerning, but I know that they set aside the dorm for self-quarantining and you know, that gets that out of the way. It’s good that they’re catching them really early,” said Zimm.
Students told us their test results are expected back within 72 hours.
While they wait, they’re free to move into the residence halls.
And that is concerning to students like Kristina Robinette.
“I’m about to move in an hour from now and I’m going to be around lots of people. So if I have it and I don’t know, I’m gonna give it to lots of people before I know,” said Robinette.
But she noted there is likely no perfect solution.
“You can never be safe enough because I mean, I could get a negative test now and then go meet someone at a store 30 minutes from now and get it,” said Robinette.
Still, she’s determined to push forward living on campus, even though her classes are exclusively online.
“I want to get as much of the college experience as I can. I already had my senior year ruined a little bit so I’m trying to take whatever I can get,” said Robinette.
Despite the recent cases, the university intends to go forward with its planned schedule Monday.
More than one third of classes will be in person.
FSU is planning a dashboard that will track case numbers identified by the university.
We’re told it will be up and running no later than Wednesday.
Florida reached 10,000 deaths from the Coronavirus Thursday after adding 117 fatalities.
It was also day two of a hearing in which the state teachers union is asking a judge to stop schools from opening.
Hillsborough Special Education Teacher Lindsey Arthur was called by the state.
She testified that just ten of her 40 special ed students participated when the state virtual in March.
“They need to be with their teacher if they can, with the their friends to grown and to learn,” said Arthur.
Jennifer Tribble is a working mother of rising third and fourth graders.
“If I ever failed at anything, it’s this,” said Tribble.
She said her kids have changed dramatically with distance learning.
“I had to very active kids who never shut down. Never stopped playing. Who never- And now they are so lazy,” said Tribble.
Laura Pope, mother of a 16-year-old autistic son, told the court her son doesn’t understand distance learning.
“We put the iPad in front of him and say, hey, we’re going to start doing school work and immediately the reaction of anxiety. No school, no school, no school. And then the iPad goes across the room,” said Pope.
The state and the union lawyers spent a lot of time arguing over whether a five percent positivity rate was required before schools could open.
The CDC doesn’t recommend it, but that is the recommendation of by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
A Stanford medical economist called by the state spent more than three hours testifying.
He cited an Icelandic study showing adults are at low risk of being infected by children.
“They found not one instance of a child passing the disease onto an adult in that study,” said Dr. Jay Bhattacharaya.
But the study only covered kids ten and under.
The judge isn’t expected to rule on the injunction seeking to keep schools closed until next week, when more than a dozen districts begin classes.
The July Florida Bar examination been postponed once again and is now set for October, but this latest round of delays has law school graduates at their wits end.
Prospective attorneys who have been studying and racking up debt for years, protested in front of the Florida Supreme Court demanding action.
As late as Sunday, FIU Law graduate Michael Ellis was expecting Wednesday would be the day he would cross his last hurdle to becoming a lawyer.
“I should be, I think, on a lunch break right now,” said Ellis.
But late Sunday night he got the news the bar exam would be delayed until October.
“I believe the term was technical difficulties. And that’s it,” said Ellis.
This is the third time the exam has been delayed.
Each day that goes by means more studying and more debt for grads like Kristen Overstreet.
“You put your life on hold. People take out loans to do this exam and study for three or four months. Now these people can’t pay their, what they call ‘bar loans’ back,” said Overstreet who is a graduate of Stetson Law.
A few dozen grads took to the State Supreme Court to make their dissatisfaction known.
“These aren’t subjective criticisms. These are objective failures,” said Ellis to the crowd.
They’re asking for a test to be administered sooner, or automatic entry to the Florida Bar for grads based on their school’s success rate on the last examination.
“A different alternative to this exam or somehow just go ahead and take it so we can move on with our lives,” said Overstreet.
More than anything the protesters said they want more transparency from the Florida Board of Bar Examiners.
“They vow to make us respectful of the time of others and those commitments are not reciprocated by the Florida Board of Bar Examiners,” said Ellis.
The exact date of the October examination is still to be determined, leaving some of the grads skeptical it will happen at all.
We reached out to the Florida Board of Bar Examiners for comment on this story, but didn’t hear back.
However, a statement posted to The Florida Supreme Court’s Facebook Page Monday said: “The board remains committed to offering an examination to applicants in 2020 and will reschedule the examination for a date to be determined in October.”
A state added 4,201 new virus cases Wednesday, as Florida’s teachers union was back in court seeking an injunction to keep in-class learning closed after failing to reach a compromise in court-ordered mediation.
The union told the court, state health officials aren’t doing their job to help make safe decisions.
The first witness was Hillsborough County school board member Tamara Shamburger.
The Florida Education Association is trying to prove local districts are being forced to make unsafe reopening decisions or face the threat of losing millions in state funding.
“My understanding of the testimony from the medical experts was that it was simply unsafe to open our school building, or any building, for anyone at that time,” said Shamburger.
Hillsborough submitted a plan to reopen August 24th, then voted to push back the opening a month.
The State objected.
Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran told us the county would loose funding if it delayed in a interview last week.
“They automatically lose the categorical of transportation because they are considered virtual students. They automatically lose class size categorical because they are not in classes,” said Corcoran.
Then the union called 51-year-old Biology teacher James Lis.
“I do not feel safe personally,” said Lis.
Lis and his family live with his 81-year-old mother in law.
He broke down on the stand when asked if he would report to school Friday as ordered.
“I can’t put my family at risk. I can’t put my mother in law at risk. And it’s as serious risk, but more so for her. And I would resign,” said Lis.
The reopening order says decisions are supposed to be made with advice from local health officials, but during testimony Department of Health Chief of Staff Courtney Coppola testified the department wouldn’t advise schools whether it is safe to reopen.
“You’re not going to say whether or not school districts should be open or reopen, correct?” Asked FEA attorney Kendall Coffey.
“Correct,” replied Coppola.
The case will continue Thursday, with a quick decision expected from the judge.
19 districts are slated to open next week and ten more on August 31st.
Since August 5th, there have been 7,472 positive cases in children 17 and under.
As Floridians headed to the polls Tuesday morning, the fate of an estimated 700,000 felons’ voting rights was considered in a federal appeals court.
The state is asking the court to reverse a decision that found felons too poor to pay fines, fees and restitution must be allowed to vote.
Attorneys representing the felons argued that tying voting rights to payment is in essence, a poll tax.
“When it comes to voting, the size of a person’s pocketbook alone should never dictate access to the ballot box,” said Nancy Abudu, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The State argued because felons have committed a crime, the financial obligations shouldn’t be considered a tax.
“There is nothing more germane to conditioning their eligibility on than that they pay their debt to society,” said the state’s attorney Charles Cooper.
Another issue in the case is the difficulty felons face even determining how much they owe.
The state is offering advisory opinions to help felons determine if their eligible to vote.
Only nine opinions have been rendered so far.
“This is a setup for failure and essentially will result in people, if there is any question, erring on the side probably of not voting,” said Abudu.
But until the case is resolved, Secretary of State Laurel Lee said the state will continue requiring felons to pay before they can vote.
“The amendment is in force as it was written and as it was given to us by voters,” said Lee.
Several judges questioned whether the voting rights amendment itself was unconstitutional, but both the state and the plaintiffs made it clear they don’t want to see it struck down.
No matter how the court rules an appeal is expected, all but guaranteeing felons voting rights will remain in question until the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in.
Voting was going smoothly across the state as of Tuesday afternoon, despite fewer polling places due to the Coronavirus.
Far more people will have voted early or by mail than will vote on Election Day.
By the time polls opened, 2.7 million voters had already cast a ballot.
Three out of four were by mail.
Just over two million more mail ballots were outstanding.
One of them was in Dustin Dailey’s hands until he dropped it off at a drive thru site.
“I felt like this is a safer environment, and pretty convenient, actually to be able to drive through the parking lot and drop it off,” said Dailey.
While polls were open, traffic was light.
“All polling locations opened on time this morning,” said Secretary of State Laurel Lee.
Bob Dodson told us he’s always voted in person and wasn’t going to change now.
“I have for forty something years come to this one spot,” said Dodson.
Ballots were being processed throughout the day.
The Leon County canvassing board was dealing with one mail ballot that was ripped, another that was blank and yet another envelope that had two ballots in it.
Only one was counted.
“I think this is actually a fine tuning of our procedures and I think we are in good stead for November,” said Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley.
At midday, the Secretary of State said there was no sign that someone was trying to hack this election.
Lee also noted she wouldn’t have a job if it weren’t for the ratification of the 19th amendment, which celebrated its 100th anniversary Tuesday.
“I might not be lawfully allowed to vote today, let alone to serve as Florida’s Chief Elections Official,” said Lee.
Nationwide, 29.2 percent of state legislatures are women.
Here in Florida, 23 women are running for Congress, 25 are seeking state senate seats and 98 women are seeking a state house seat.
Despite the pandemic, this primary saw more contested races than recent history.
Just ten state lawmakers were elected without opposition, down from 31 four years ago.
Just over two million Floridians have already cast their ballot through the mail for Tuesday’s primary election, but as reports of the United States Postal Service expecting shipping delays continue to mount, voting rights activists and election supervisors are growing increasingly concerned for the November election.
Election supervisors are continuing to collect mail ballots in drop boxes.
Since Friday almost 200,000 mail ballots were received, but more than 2.1 million are still outstanding.
That’s why reports of budget cuts and delays at the post office have Supervisors of Elections like Mark Earley concerned.
“When I did hear about sorters being taken out, I don’t know if that was accurate or not, but that raised concerns. You know that’s an obvious target for Russians or the Chinese or any of our national adversaries that might want to undermine our elections,” said Earley, who serves as Vice President of the Florida supervisors of Elections.
In Washington DC, the House Speaker called representatives back early from their August recess to address post office funding.
Their hope is to provide USPS with 25 billion additional dollars.
Patricia Brigham, President of the League of Women Voters of Florida said that funding is critical because even a day or two of postal delays could have significant repercussions.
“You could see hundreds of thousands of ballots not counted as a result,” said Patricia Brigham, President of the League of Women Voters of Florida.
In late July, the Postmaster General sent a letter to Florida Supervisors of Elections and the Secretary of State, warning voters who request mail ballots late face a significant risk of their vote arriving too late to be counted if they return it through the mail.
As a result of that warning, the League has asked the Governor to consider allowing mail ballots received up to 10 days after election day to be counted in the General Election.
“Floridians that get their ballots in, they mail those ballots way ahead of time, for them to be disenfranchised that way, that is an attack on our democracy and should not be tolerated,” said Brigham.
However Earley doesn’t think such a move is necessary.
He and other election officials But election officials say mailing your ballot at least two to three weeks before election day will ensure it’s counted.
You can also return your ballot in person to your supervisor’s office before 7 PM on Election Day.
In Tuesday’s primary several incumbent Democrats are under attack from those in their own caucus, and a feud between the outgoing Republican Speaker of the House and the man slated to lead the chamber in 2024 has already cost a million dollars.
Both point to fractures within inner party workings.
Representative Danny Perez is set to become Speaker of the Florida House in 2024, but only if he survives the $660,000 mail and tv onslaught against him in Tuesday’s primary.
What’s unusual is the thousands being used against Perez have come from outgoing House Speaker Jose Oliva.
On its face, the feud is over Perez’s trip to Cuba to shoot engagement photos, but political scientist Susan MacManus thinks there’s more.
“Republicans have a split between the really, really, really Trump supporters, and the sort of lukewarm Trump supporters,” said MacManus.
Perez is fighting back with his own half million dollar war chest.
In an exclusive phone interview he also said the opposition is about more than just the Cuba trip, but doesn’t know what.
He told us he expects to win Tuesday and become Speaker in 2024.
On the Democrat side, rising star Anna Eskamani is actively opposing three incumbent Democrats over their votes limiting abortion and promoting school choice.
“These Democrats don’t align with any major elements of our party structure. They really do stand with the Republican caucus. If they want to run as Republicans, I think they should,” said Eskamani.
This year there are a record number of inter-party challenges.
MacManus believes it is a sign of the times.
“Each party has a deep schism at the moment,” said MacManus.
An increasing number of voters aren’t choosing either party, and MacManus said inner-party squabbles will on push more not to choose a side.
House Speaker Jose Oliva did not respond to our requests for an interview.
President Donald Trump raised concerns over Democrats’ ask for $25 billion to boost the United States Postal Service in the next federal stimulus during and interview with FOX Business Thursday.
While the President’s critiques centered on universal mail in voting, even in Florida where that isn’t the case, an underfunded post office could cause head aches in the General Election.
The President suggested that House Democrats’ ask for the postal service funding boost was an effort to support universal vote by mail in other states.
“Because the post office is going to have to go to town to get these ridiculous ballots in,” said Trump.
The President later clarified he wouldn’t veto additional funding for the post office.
That came as a relief to Vice President of the Florida Supervisors of Elections Mark Earley.
“It doesn’t make sense to me not to fund what is a critical component of our elections,” said Earley.
Of the 2.3 million Floridians who have cast a ballot in the primary election, eight out of ten voted by mail.
Based on the latest statistics, the number of Floridians casting their ballot through the mail in this primary has seen a 42 percent increase over the 2018 primary election.
At this point, it’s too late to mail your ballot and expect it to be counted in Tuesday’s Primary, but you can still return your signed ballot in person.
“Which will not involve you, in most cases, going inside,” said Patricia Brigham, President of the League of Women Voters of Florida.
If you mailed your ballot and want to ensure its been received, you can track it on your supervisor of elections’ website.
“If you do not see that it has been received we urge you to contact that supervisor’s office,” said Brigham.
If there’s an issue with validating your ballot you should be notified and can fix it as late as 5 PM next Thursday.
“Copy of the drivers license, sign the form, fill out the information on the form, so that we can use that as further substantiation that your vote by mail ballot is actually from you,” said Earley.
And looking ahead to the General Election, Supervisors recommend requesting your mail ballot as early as possible and returning it at least two to three weeks before Election Day to ensure it’s counted.
The Florida Education Association’s lawsuit to keep classrooms closed is moving ahead after a judge denied the state’s motion to dismiss Friday.
Both sides have been ordered to try to settle the case and if they can’t, a judge will hear arguments next week.
The state argued that not dismissing the case would invalidate the choice of Florida’s parents who weren’t being represented in court.
“Parents of one million six hundred thousand students have decided they want to go. Roughly one million four have decided they don’t want to go,” said the Governor’s Attorney David Wells.
There have been more than 8,300 COVID cases in kids under 18 since the beginning of August.
One hundred have been hospitalized.
The teachers union told the judge he was facing a life or death decision for both students and teachers.
“And school districts are being pressured with this zeal to open schools without regard for the continuing expansion of the pandemic,” said FEA Attorney Ron Meyer.
“There is a clear and present danger for children and teachers and support staff in our school systems,” said Jacob Stuart, an attorney representing parents and student in the case.
Circuit Judge Charles Dobson wasted no time, saying his hands were tied by procedure.
“I’m denying the motion to dismiss. By denying the motion to dismiss I am not in any way saving the plaintiffs will be successful with their case,” said Dobson.
The judge has ordered the both sides to sit down and try to negotiate a settlement
“And If the case doesn’t settle, it will be back in court Wednesday morning,” said Dobson.
The union’s hope is the state will agree to let each local school board decide when it’s safe to open in person learning without facing the loss of funding.
More than a dozen school districts opened this week.
Another dozen will open next week, with the final districts opening by August 31st.
A judge will decide on Friday if a lawsuit seeking to keep schools closed is dead in the water or will go forward.
The first order of business for the court will be to hear the state’s motion to dismiss.
Thursday’s hearing was just for scheduling, but both sides worked to get their main points in the judge’s mind.
“Plaintiffs allege are putting people at risk,” said Ron Meyer, Attorney for the Florida Education Association.
“We think they’re asking the court to do things that are most impossible. It asks you to act as the Governor of the State of Florida,” said David Wells, an Attorney representing the Governor.
A hundred miles to the south, Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran toured Dixie County High School.
It opened Monday.
Superintendent Mike Thomas was pleasantly surprised by the attendance.
“We’ve had over 90 percent turnout in our four schools in our district,” said Thomas.
But on day two in Martin County on the other side of the state, nine students were sent home to quarantine after one student showed symptoms.
“we know we are going to have Covid cases. Of course it’s going to happen,” said Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran.
Corcoran said what’s important is how schools respond when there is a case.
“What we are saying is number one, don’t panic because we know those facts, and number two, be surgical, not sweeping. So I think Martin County has done a great job,” said Corcoran.
Both the Governor and Education Commissioner continue to argue that they believe kids will be better off in class than stuck at home.
“They are avoiding those things that are of huge consequence, whether its suicide, drug overdoses, food insecurity,” said Corcoran.
During a Thursday press conference, the Governor clarified his comparison of teachers to the Navy Seal team that took out Bin Laden.
“it was more about inspiration and about figuring out a way to get it done than any thing about comparing the danger,” said Governor Ron DeSantis.
By mid day Friday, the judge will likely have ruled whether the suit seeking to keep school closed goes forward.
The Education Commissioner said districts that don’t open classrooms during August face the loss of transportation and class size funding totaling thousands of dollars.
The Florida Secretary of State quietly published guidance for people with felon convictions to determine whether they are eligible to register to vote.
There was no press release.
The Felon Voting Rights guidance just appeared on the Division of Elections website.
It even caught Desmond Meade by surprise.
He led the charge for the 2018 felons voting rights amendment.
“They didn’t give notice to any of the organizations that they know are working to help returning citizens participate in our democracy,” said Meade, who serves as Executive Director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition.
The new guidance clarifies as long as a felon has paid the total of what the originally owed they can register.
Additional fees or interest added to their original debt can’t count against them.
Felons can also ask the Secretary of State to determine if they’re eligible, but Meade said even with the new guidance that process hasn’t been fleshed out.
“They’re not telling a person exactly what to do and in addition they’re not even giving the timeline for a person to get a response,” said Meade.
Meade called the guidance too little too late.
“We have hundreds of thousands of returning citizens in the State of Florida who wish they could have been participating in the primary elections that’s going on right now in their community,” said Meade.
In a press conference Thursday, the Governor blamed the delay on pending litigation against the 2019 law that requires felons pay all fines, fees and restitution before the can register to vote.
The Governor said more will be known once the case is settled.
“And I’m sure they’re going to provide appropriate guidance at that time,” said Governor Ron DeSantis.
The lawsuit against requiring the fines and fees will be heard in a federal appeals court next week.
A federal judge in a lower court previously ruled the law amounted to a poll tax.
The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition is still working to help felons pay back their debts.
They’ve spent $2 million so far to help 2,000 felons.
Another $2 million is expected to go out the door by the end of the week.
The Public Service Commission has allowed Gulf Power, one of Florida’s five investor owned electric utility companies, to start tacking COVID related costs.
The approval could be used to increase rates in the future and us other power companies are considering following Gulf’s lead.
COVID has spared few.
Even utility companies are feeling the sting.
“Personal protective equipment or scanning devices to check temperatures. Things like that, but also the biggest portion of it is what is called ‘bad debt’, which is uncollected customer bills,” said Gulf Power spokesperson Sarah Gatewood.
That’s why Gulf Power asked the Public Service Commission for the ability to track those losses.
“So that we may come back in the future and possibly ask for cost recovery,” said Gatewood.
The request was approved, but J.R. Kelly with the Office of Public Counsel worries tracking COVID costs will result in higher rate hikes if they’re requested.
“Instead of getting a $1,000 increase, they’d get $1,000 plus,” said Kelly.
Kelly said at least two other companies have also asked to track COVID costs and he expects more will follow.
“Gulf Power got it. If the commission ends up giving it to Peoples Gas and ends up giving it to Utilities, Inc. of Florida, the wastewater utility, why wouldn’t the other utilities come in and ask for this?” said Kelly.
We reached out to other energy providers and asked if they plan to follow Gulf Power’s lead.
TECO and FPL said they don’t at this time, but Duke Energy said it is reviewing the option.
“Duke Energy Florida (DEF) has been experiencing effects from COVID-19. DEF has not been disconnecting customers for non-payment and has been waiving certain customer fees. It also has incurred some incremental costs related to additional personal protective equipment to protect its employees while still providing reliable electric service. We are monitoring those impacts to determine whether to make any filing with the Florida Public Service Commission,” said Duke Energy Spokesperson Ana Gibbs.
These requests won’t immediately hit your wallet, but potential rate increases could be seen a year or two down the line.
In the meantime, power companies want customers to reach out if they can’t pay their bills.
“So we can try and come up with other solutions that would avoid any bad debt,” said Gatewood.
The Office of Public Counsel has requested the PSC reconsider it’s decision to allow Gulf Power to track its COVID costs.
It expects the issue to come up in the commission’s September or October agenda.
Donald Trump carried the vast majority of counties there in 2016, and Team Trump is on the road with a swing across northern Florida looking for a repeat.
Team trump pulled into a small strip shopping mall minutes after volunteers lined the sidewalk with Black Voices for Trump signs.
On the bus, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Trump’s former campaign manager Cory Lewandowski.
“So, do we have work to do. You bet we do. Did he create the greatest economy that the world has ever seen, shutting it down to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic. The answer is yes, and he’s the only one who can bring our economy back,” said Lewandowski.
Bondi told us the rioting around Black Lives matter is raising safety concerns among African Americans.
“People want their kids safe,” said Bondi.
She said black voters are turning to Trump in greater numbers.
“We can’t defund the police, and that’s what Joe Biden says he wants to redirect funds, and that’s defunding the police,” said Bondi.
In a small office packed with volunteers, Bondi pushed mail voting, drawing a distinction between Florida’s method and other states.
“Mass mailing of course happens in other states, but that’s what we’ve gotta let people know here in Florida that absentee voting is a great thing. Its safe,” said Bondi.
Musician Michael Collins performed a song he said he wrote after losing his job at an African American Church because he supports Trump.
“My church is ninety, ninety-five percent Democratic,” said Collins.
Four years ago, the Panhandle accounted for half the President’s victory margin in Florida.
The campaign expects even bigger results this time.
In a release, Florida Democrats accused the bus tour of “recklessly endangering public safety” during the pandemic”.
Florida Democrats also said in that statement that the bus tour was being used to distract people from the President’s handling of the pandemic.
No Comments »
