Florida

The House Ways & Means Committee late Wednesday unanimously approved its package (PCB WMC 23-02), which includes such things as sales-tax “holidays” and cutting a commercial-lease tax that businesses have long criticized. Some parts of the House package mirror requests by Gov. Ron DeSantis, such as holding a series of tax holidays and providing sales-tax exemptions on products for babies and toddlers.

A measure designed to carry out parts of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ higher-education agenda moved forward Wednesday in the Senate, after changes that included a proposal to give university presidents ultimate hiring authority at their schools.

Lawyers for Florida Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Jason Weida went to the 11th U.S, Circuit Court of Appeals this week after U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle rejected a request to prevent Weida from being deposed by plaintiffs’ attorneys.

The proposal comes after decades of U.S. Supreme Court and Florida Supreme Court rulings that have said it is unconstitutional to execute defendants in rape cases. A Senate staff analysis said nobody has been executed for a non-murder crime in the United States since 1964.

While the proposal (SB 1438) doesn’t specifically mention drag shows, the bill defines “adult live performances” as “any show, exhibition, or other presentation that is performed in front of a live audience and in whole or in part, depicts or simulates nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, specific sexual activities, … lewd conduct, or the lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts.”

A proposal to ban merchant codes for gun and ammunition sales in Florida is ready for the full House. It’s already been approved by the Senate, largely along party lines.

The names of certain guests at the governor’s mansion would not be disclosed to the public under Senate and House bills that also would shield travel records of the governor and other state leaders.In party-line votes Tuesday, the Republican-controlled Senate Rules Committee and House Judiciary Committee approved the bills (SB 1616 and HB 1495), positioning them to go to the full Senate and House.The bills would create a public-records exemption involving information held by law-enforcement agencies related to “security or transportation services” provided to the governor, the governor’s immediate family, the lieutenant governor, Cabinet members, the House speaker, the Senate president and the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court.

Tampa Bay Times reporter Chris O'Donnell discusses his findings from a report that key data was withheld when Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo recommended that young men not get the shot.

Rep. Webster Barnaby, R-Deltona, said before the House Commerce Committee approved a bill that seeks to prevent transgender men and women from using bathrooms that don’t line up with their sex assigned at birth, “This is the planet Earth where God created men male and women female. I’m a proud Christian conservative Republican. I’m not on the fence, not on the fence.”Barnaby’s comments came after transgender people testified against the bill. He called them “demons and imps who come and parade before us and pretend that you are part of this world. So, I’m saying my righteous indignation is stirred. I am sick and tired of this. I’m not going to put up with it. You can test me and try to take me on. But I promise you I’ll win every time.”Later, Barnaby apologized for describing transgender people as “demons.”

“The further south you go, the drier it is,” State Forester Rick Dolan said. “Southwest Florida is the driest part of the state, around the Fort Myers area, very dry right now.”