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Florida’s new law against social media censorship could be blocked before it even goes into effect.

NetChoice, the group suing on behalf of internet giants, has asked a federal judge to put the law on hold as their lawsuit moves through the courts.

NetChoice hopes a federal judge will stop the social media censorship law before its July 1st effective date.

“This is government-compelled speech,” said NetChoice Vice President and General Council Carl Zsabo.

Zsabo argued tech companies would immediately lose advertisers and users if they are stripped of the ability to police their platforms.

“Look at some of the boycotts you saw in the past when there was abhorrent content running alongside advertisers’ products,” said Zsabo.

The issue at the heart of the case is whether tech companies’ first amendment rights are infringed by the new state law.

“Government can’t come in and tell your network what type of news to cover, what types of stories to promote,” said Zsabo. “And likewise it can’t come in and tell private businesses like Facebook, YouTube, Etsy or Reddit the type of content that they have to host.”

The Governor and other Republicans have made the case inconsistent Big Tech censorship is infringing on free speech rights of Floridians.

“We want them to treat Floridians equally and give all of our Florida citizens the opportunity to participate in the new virtual public square,” said bill sponsor State Senator Ray Rodriguez in a May interview.

The Governor’s Office declined to comment specifically on the pending lawsuit, but sent us a statement on the law itself saying in part: “It is recognized that government has a role in protecting consumers against discrimination and deceptive/unfair trade practices, and this law is within that authority to rein in a powerful entity that oversteps individuals’ free speech rights.”

Zsabo acknowledged the difficulty tech giants face when attempting to evenly apply their community standards.

He also empathized with the frustration felt by conservatives on the issue, but said if a user is wrongly deplatformed even without the new state law, the state Attorney General already has the ability to sue on their behalf.

Florida lawmakers have set aside nearly half a billion dollars in preparation for the potential return of tens of thousands of students who never showed up for school in the first year of the pandemic, but finding teachers for them is expected to be a challenge.

Florida’s economists estimate more than 87,000 students who were expected didn’t show for classes last fall.

School districts have worked to find them.

“Parents who were going to put their children in kindergarten this school year, may have chosen to just wait a year,” said Florida School Boards Association Executive Director Andrea Messina.

Those absent student have been given a nickname.

“They’re calling them red shirt kindergartners, I don’t know if you have heard that term, and so what we’re expecting is that in the fall we’re going to see a much larger kindergarten class than we would have seen here to for,” said Messina.

To handle the expected influx this year, state lawmakers put more than $400 million in the budget should they show.

But the Florida Education Association warns the influx will make an already short staffing problem worse.

“We expect not only a massive teacher shortage, but a bus driver shortage, cafeteria worker shortage, paraprofessional shortage, throughout our schools,” said FEA President Andrew Spar.

School districts are going to face the challenges resulting from the new and missing students showing up for the next decade.

“So, schools are going to have to staff up at the kindergarten level, but next year and the year after, it will be the first grade level, the second grade level,” said Messina.

On the upside, two years of cash to increase starting teachers salaries makes freshmen Florida teachers the highest paid in the nation, but pay for veteran teachers only moved up one notch from 49th to 48th nationally.

On top of the kids who stayed home last year, more than 900 people a day are moving to Florida, adding even more first time students.

Perpetrators of a potentially deadly prank known as ‘swatting’ will face stiffer penalties if the Governor approves a bill currently awaiting his signature.

Swatting is when a person falsely calls in a threat to law enforcement to get them to raid another person’s home.

In December of 2018 Wichita Police received a call from a man claiming to have killed his father and holding the rest of his family hostage.

They arrived at the home of Andrew Fintch, who was shot and killed by police as he came out of his front door.

But Fintch hadn’t committed a crime.

Instead, he was the victim of a so-called prank known as swatting.

“I don’t know what the intentions were or the mindset of those that kind of began this, if you will, phenomenon. But certainly they didn’t think through the ultimate potential repercussions. And in some cases people have died,” said State Senator Jim Boyd, who sponsored legislation to crack down on swatting in the 2021 Florida Legislative Session.

Swatting began in the online gaming community.

Generally, a person broadcasting their gameplay has their address leaked and someone calls in a threat, sending police to their residence.

Oftentimes the ensuing police raid on the unwitting streamer is captured on video.

But gamers aren’t the only targets of swatting.

Celebrities including Ashton Kutcher, Tom Cruise, Chris Brown, Miley Cyrus, Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber, and Clint Eastwood have also been victims of swatting incidents.

“We are seeing it become more prevalent,” said Fellsmere Police Chief Keith Touchberry.

Touchberry also works with the Florida Police Chiefs Association, which brought the issue to the attention of the State Legislature, and asked lawmakers to increase penalties for those who commit the crime.

“False reports to the police are happening all across the nation that are resulting in death or serious bodily injury to innocent people, putting officer’s lives in jeopardy and putting public safety in general in jeopardy,” said Touchberry.

If the Governor signs the bill, swatters would face five to 15 years in prison, depending on the cost incurred by law enforcement and whether the incident resulted in bodily harm or death.

“The penalties that we put in place will be a deterrent to this crime and hopefully save resources and save lives,” said Boyd.

The Governor has until June 18th to act on the legislation.

Former Governor Lawton Chiles fought the tobacco industry and won, getting a multi-billion dollar settlement in the mid 1990s that still continues to bring money into the state coffers to this day.

But a new state law terminates the fund tobacco companies send hundreds of millions of dollars to every year.

When then Governor Lawton Chiles signed a bill allowing the state to sue tobacco companies over the money it was spending on poor sick patients, he was told he was wasting his time.

“It’s time for those responsible to pay back,” said Governor Chiles in May of 1994.

But he was successful, winning billions.

All 49 other states soon followed his lead.

Fast forward 27 years and lawmakers this year terminated the fund.

The tobacco settlement money will continue flowing into anti-smoking programs, but there will no longer be a fund named for the former Governor.

Lawmakers justified the move arguing by putting all the state’s extra cash into one fund, the state’s bond rating would improve.

“Putting those funds into our budget stabilization,” said State Senator Kelli Stargel, presenting the bill on the floor on the final day of the 2021 Florida Legislative Session.

But the move brought an outcry from Democrats who felt their icon was being sullied.

“This tarnishes the legacy that has been there for our children,” said State Senator Gary Farmer.

“You know, it’s just not right. It’s not right,” said State Senator Loranne Ausley.

A dozen senators voted no.

Key Republicans have said they are going to find a way to continue honoring the former Governor.

For the time being, the late-Governor’s family has said don’t bother.

“I’m really glad he’s not around to see it, I’ll tell you the truth,” said Governor Chiles’ son, Lawton Chiles II. “He’s honored in the hearts of Florida’s people. What he did and the way he served, the way the he cared about average people and the way he fought for them, that’s the honor.”

Since the session ended just over a month ago, we’ve been told by Senator Stargel that there’s been no discussion on how the forward-thinking Governor will be honored in the future.

Florida is one of more than two dozen states planning to end federal unemployment benefits ahead of schedule.

Labor groups are hoping to convince the Governor to reverse course on the issue, arguing it will hurt the most vulnerable Floridians.

Floridians receiving $300 a week federal unemployment checks have just three more weeks before the benefits expire.

The Florida AFL-CIO said more than 116,000 Floridians will be impacted.

“There are a lot of people out there who need help and need saving,” said Rich Templin with the Florida AFL-CIO.

Jim Ricer, who suffers from a long list of medical ailments said he’s been unable to find a job despite searching for one in a virtual press conference Thursday.

“We are humans. We are not just numbers,” said Ricer.

Florida’s state unemployment benefits max out at $275 a week.

Lawmakers attempted to raise that by $100 this past legislative session, but it failed to pass the House after the Governor expressed his opposition.

Unions argue, like Ricer, most Floridians currently receiving unemployment are no longer getting benefits from the state, only from the federal government.

“So we’re being told that workers are not seeking employment because they want to sit at home eating bonbons for less than the minimum wage,” said Templin.

State data shows there are more than 460,000 available jobs in the Florida and only 150,000 Floridians looking for work.

“So if we’re talking about a worker shortage, this is much more complicated and much more nuanced than folks receiving unemployment benefits,” said State Representative Anna Eskamani.

Eskamani argued the jobs available either don’t align with the skills of those who remain unemployed or aren’t offering competitive salaries.

“It is a buyer’s market. You know, workers are the ones who are in demand so they get to decide where they want to go,” said Eskamani.

The unions have launched an online campaign and petition in hopes of swaying the Governor to keep the federal checks until their set expiration on September 6th.

A case before the Florida Supreme Court could make it harder for Floridian’s to sue tobacco companies for damages.

The case centers around whether smokers have to point to a specific misleading statement that led them to believe smoking was safe and whether findings from a previous class action lawsuit can be used in other cases.

John Price started smoking at 12 years old and died from a lung disease in 2010 at the age of 74.

“Had John Price known the truth, would he have acted differently?” Said attorney Celene Humphries, who is representing the Price Estate.

Humphries claims Price’s death was the result of a conspiracy to conceal information about the dangers of smoking by R.J. Reynolds.

“The cigarette companies actively suppressed scientific studies on the truth,” said Humphries.

But an Appellate Court overturned an initial ruling in favor of the Price Estate, arguing the plaintiffs failed to point to a specific statement that mislead Price.

The Price Estate’s attorney argued while there wasn’t a specific statement that misled him, his smoking behavior shows he was influenced by tobacco company misinformation campaigns.

“When the defendants marketed filters, filtered cigarettes, as safer, which they’re not, they’re more harmful, he responded. He followed their recommendation,” said Humphries.

R.J. Reynolds is not only asking the Florida Supreme Court to uphold the Appellate Court decision, but also reverse a 2006 ruling that established findings on the dangers of smoking and misinformation efforts of cigarette makers.

“Our jury had to assume all of that conclusively and we couldn’t dispute it,” said R.J. Reynolds attorney Michael Carvin.

The now entirely Republican-appointed court has shown a willingness to divert from previous court precedents.

If it does so in this case, thousands of pending tobacco lawsuits could be impacted.

The lower court initially awarded the Price Estate $6.4 million in damages, but this case’s potential impact on tobacco companies’ wallets is likely in the hundreds of millions.

Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law today the ‘Fairness in Women’s Sports Act’, which prohibits biological males from competing in women’s only sports at the high school and collegiate level.

The Governor said it’s about fairness, but transgender activists argue the bill discriminates against trans-women.

Florida is now the seventh state to enact a law prohibiting transgender women from competing in women’s only sports.

“Girls are gonna play girl’s sports and boys are gonna play boy’s sports,” said DeSantis.

During the bill signing, the Governor played a video of two trans athletes in Connecticut as evidence the policy is needed.

He also brought Selina Soule, a female athlete who competed against the trans-women in Connecticut.

She said she was deprived of a fair chance to compete.

“These two athletes won 15 women’s championship titles,” said Soule. “They set 17 new individual meet records. Records which we girls had no hope of breaking.”

Opponents of the policy like Democratic State Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith, said the law will deprive transgender women the opportunity to compete as their true selves.

“It erases her identity as a transgender female,” said Smith.

Transgender advocates also took particular note of the date the Governor picked to sign the bill into law.

“On the first day of LGBTQ Pride Month Governor DeSantis decided to use the power of his office to send a message of exclusion to vulnerable transgender youth,” said Smith.

The Human Rights Campaign has already vowed to sue in hopes of quashing the new law, but DeSantis maintains the policy is not intended to discriminate.

“It’s not a message to anything other than saying we’re going to protect fairness in women’s sports,” said DeSantis.

The Governor also scoffed at threats made by the NCAA to pull championship games from states that enact trans-athlete bans, saying if that’s price of ensuring fair competition for girls, he’d choose fair competition every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

The NCAA offered this statement when we asked if it intends to carry through with its threats to pull championship games out of Florida:

“NCAA policy directs that only locations where hosts can commit to providing an environment that is safe, healthy and free of discrimination should be selected. We will continue to closely monitor these situations to determine whether NCAA championships can be conducted in ways that are welcoming and respectful of all participants.”

Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried ended months of speculation and joined former Governor Charlie Crist in the Democratic Primary for Governor Tuesday.

The announcement was not so traditional and is aimed at a growing segment of the Democratic Party.

It was afternoon when the video announcement dropped.

“I’m Nikki Fried. And I’m here to break the rigged system here in Florida. It’s corrupt. It’s anti democratic, and it’s time for something new,” said Fried in the announcement video.

The video was Fried’s only appearance Tuesday.

There were no press conference or rallies.

Political scientist Susan MacManus told us the video will play well with a growing younger demographic in the Democratic Party.

“Social media, videos, technology, are essential to appealing to a part of the Democratic Party she must absolutely must have vote for her,” said MacManus.

Fried all but made the announcement on the day Charlie Crist became the first well know Democrat in the race.

“As the only statewide elected Democrat, it makes absolute sense for me to be running for Governor, but today is not the day for me to make that announcement,” said Fried in early May.

And Fried continues to be Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’ biggest critic.

“He must be a one term Governor,” said Fried.

Fried won a squeaker in 2018 and would likely have faced a substantial challenger this time around.

MacManus said there is no glory in losing a re-election bid, but losing an effort at higher office is something else.

“And actually, it is worse to stay and place and lose than it is to gamble and lose at a higher level. You keep yourself alive politically if you keep trying to go for a higher office,” said MacManus.

So, for now, Fried faces an uphill primary battle in both fundraising and name recognition.

“I’m unafraid. I’m tested. I’m ready,” said Fried.

At least one other Democrat, State Senator Annette Taddeo, who ran for Lt. Governor with Charlie Crist in 2014 is considering entering the race.

Dr. MacManus said it is still not too late for others with money or name recognition to get into the race.