Tag Archives: Gov. Ron DeSantis

Robin Opsahl, Florida Phoenix Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told Iowa Republicans Friday that standing strong in the culture wars around issues like education, criminal justice and health care in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic will help their party win elections. DeSantis, along with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, spoke to …

Diane Rado, Florida Phoenix The GOP-controlled Florida Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis approved a 15-week abortion ban just last year. On Tuesday, lawmakers filed a bill to reduce the ban to six weeks, creating significant new abortion restrictions in the state. State Sen. Erin Grall, who has been at the …

Michael Moline, Florida Phoenix Gov. Ron DeSantis has unveiled an anti-immigration agenda that would deny jobs, education, and possibly health care for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who call Florida home. If the governor gets his way with the state Legislature — as is likely — all private employers …

Danielle J. Brown, Florida Phoenix Hundreds of Floridians, civil rights activists and religious leaders from across the state marched Wednesday from Tallahassee’s Bethel Missionary Baptist Church to the Florida Capitol building complex in protest of efforts to “whitewash” Black history by rejecting an Advanced Placement course in high school on …

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he will completely defund diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at Florida universities during a press conference Tuesday morning. DeSantis addressed what he called “DEI bureaucracies,” or departments within universities that promote diversity, equality and inclusion, which he said impose a liberal agenda on university students and …

Issac Morgan, Florida Phoenix Gov. Ron DeSantis’ rejection of an Advanced Placement pilot course on African American studies elicited a resounding response from a crowd of at least a hundred people gathered in the state Capitol Wednesday, praying and loudly chanting about the importance of protecting Black history taught in …

Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday that he wants the Florida Legislature to change the state law that requires a unanimous jury to impose a death sentence. Speaking at the Florida Sheriffs Association Winter Conference in St. Johns County, the governor noted that mass shooter Nikolas …

Academics and Democratic lawmakers reacted angrily last week after the administration of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rejected a new high school Advanced Placement African-American studies course—without even seeing its syllabus—claiming it violates the state’s ban on “woke” education and “lacks educational value.” Some Republican Florida officials said they believe …

Michael Moline, Florida Phoenix In a direct challenge to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to his backyard Sunday to announce that President Joe Biden was signing an executive order designed to guarantee access to abortion rights, including abortion-inducing medications. During a roughly 20-minute address in Tallahassee …

Michael Moline, Florida Phoenix A state senator’s legal challenge to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ asylum-seeker airlifts will proceed to trial under a ruling that a state trial judge in Tallahassee handed down on Friday. “I think we need to just hear out these issues,” Circuit Judge John Cooper said following arguments …

Michael Moline, Florida Phoenix Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took his oath of office for a second time on Tuesday and delivered a pugnacious speech painting him as a champion of “freedom” and constitutional principles and vowing to vanquish a “woke” federal government, education unions, and “technocratic elites.” Coming off a …

Michael Moline, Florida Phoenix Democrat Charlie Crist used the occasion of his only scheduled debate with Gov. Ron DeSantis Monday evening to pummel the Republican governor over his restrictions on abortion rights, for ignoring science when writing COVID and transgender policy, for sidestepping 82,000 COVID deaths in Florida, and for …

The ACLU of Florida on Wednesday condemned Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis following the publication of police body camera videos showing sympathetic officers arresting confused people—most of them Black—who believed they were eligible to vote for alleged “voter fraud.” “The body camera footage reveals the real, human impact of these anti-voter …

Marilyn W. Thompson, ProPublica, and Perla Trevizo, The Texas Tribune and ProPublica This article is co-published with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for ProPublica’s Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published. District of …

Michael Moline, Florida Phoenix Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has loosened voting regulations in the counties most damaged by Hurricane Ian to account for disruptions to polling locations and early voting sites, loss of power and cellphone access, displaced voters, and unavailability of poll workers. The governor signed an executive order …