Tag Archives: Florida

The Often Overlooked Problem With Electric Vehicles

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On Wednesday, Hot Air posted an article about an often overlooked problem with electric vehicles. Lithium batteries are prone to catch fire when exposed to salt water. So if you live on the coast, you need to get very far away from any incoming hurricane. Unfortunately, the problem does not seem to be limited to exposure to salt water.

The article reports:

Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) going boom in the worst places and what to do when that happens.

On Thursday, the 26th of September, on the freeway outside of the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, California, one of “those accidents” happened.

A tractor-trailer carrying large lithium-ion batteries overturned and caught on fire on a highway near the Port of Los Angeles on Thursday, snarling traffic and leading to road closures and the shuttering of several terminals at the port.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said in a statement Thursday night that the fire was expected to burn for at least another 24 to 48 hours and that a roughly seven-mile stretch of California State Route 47, from the Vincent Thomas Bridge to Long Beach,would be closed in that period.

The Port of Los Angeles, the busiest port in the Western Hemisphere, said that several terminals would be closed on Friday.

The crash in the San Pedro neighborhood on Thursday morning did not result in any injuries, but fire crews were taking precautions to block hazardous materials from potentially spreading from the batteries, one of which exploded, the department said.

The article notes:

In the meanwhile, Hurricane Helene was making a beeline for the Florida Coast, and FL officials were out with warnings about EVs and saltwater not mixing. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged EV owners this week to get their vehicles to higher ground before Hurricane Helene arrived. Although the problem is rare, there have been a number of instances in recent years of electric vehicles igniting after hurricanes.

Keeping electric vehicles out of standing water is the best way to avoid the possibility of a fire.

Tesla offers similar advice about avoiding letting its vehicles become submerged if at all possible, but if that does happen the carmaker suggests towing the vehicle at least 50 feet away from structures or anything combustible until it can be inspected by a mechanic.

The article also notes that the vehicle may ignite well after you thought the danger was over. There is also the issue of what fumes may be released during the fire or the fact that a lithium fire is very difficult to put out. It really is time to re-evaluate the value of the current generation of electric vehicles.

Priorities, People!

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On Thursday, The EconoTimes posted an article about the role of the government in providing relief to the victims of Hurricane Helene. The Biden/Harris administration has warned Americans that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) may run out of money before the end of the hurricane season.

The article reports:

In a shocking development, the Biden-Harris administration announced that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) may not have enough resources to make it through the rest of hurricane season. This warning comes on the heels of billions of dollars being allocated to foreign aid, raising concerns about the government’s ability to respond to domestic natural disasters.

“FEMA’s Running Dry — And They Just Sent Billions Overseas! How Are We Supposed to Get Through This?”

The administration’s statement was made public on Monday, September 30, raising alarm about the depleted state of FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund (DRF). With hurricane season still in full swing, this could leave millions of Americans vulnerable in the event of further catastrophic weather events.

In June 2023, The New York Post reported:

New York City is set to receive $104.6 million in grant funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help cover its growing expenses related to the ongoing migrant crisis, Sen. Charles Schumer’s office confirmed to The Post.

That’s a third of the $363 million left in the pot allocated by FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program, dedicated to helping municipalities around the US and nonprofits providing shelter and other services to homeless migrants who crossed into the country from the southern border. 

Although it’s also far less than the $650 million total initially requested by NYC Mayor Eric Adams earlier this year, the Big Apple has now received the largest grant from the program compared to other jurisdictions.

The migrant crisis in New York City is a crisis caused by the open-border policies of the Biden/Harris administration. The devastation in western North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida is caused by a natural disaster. FEMA money should be reserved for natural disasters–not man-made crises.

The Plan To Turn Florida Into A Blue State

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The population of Florida is growing as people flee the high taxes and high cost of living in many of the northern states. That immigration is not turning Florida blue–most of the arrivals know what they are fleeing. However, the Biden administration has another way of making sure that Florida becomes a reliable Democrat state.

On Tuesday, Fox News posted an article detailing where the migrants who are being flown into America by the Biden administration are being placed. Two Florida cities top the list–Miami with 91,821, and Ft. Lauderdale with 60,461.

The article reports:

During an eight-month period from January through August 2023, roughly 200,000 migrants flew into the U.S. via the program. Of those, 80% of them, (161,562) arrived in the state of Florida in four cities: Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa Bay, according to DHS data obtained via a subpoena by the House Homeland Security Committee and provided to Fox News.

The policy was first announced for Venezuelans in October 2022, which allowed a limited number to fly or travel directly into the U.S. as long as they had not entered illegally, had a sponsor in the U.S. already, and passed certain biometric and biographical vetting. The program does not itself facilitate flights, and migrants are responsible for their own travel.

On April 18th, I posted an article about voter information being given to the people who are illegally crossing our southern border. Flyers are posted at the migrant services center near Brownsville, Texas, that tell illegal aliens: “Reminder to vote for President Biden when you are in the United States.” Voting by illegals is illegal, but these illegal border crossers are not being told that.

The article at Fox News concludes:

DHS has said that those who enter the U.S. under the program undergo and clear a “robust security vetting” as well as other eligibility criteria. 

“These processes are publicly available online, and DHS has been providing regular updates on their use to the public. These processes are part of the administration’s strategy to combine expanded lawful pathways with stronger consequences to reduce irregular migration, and have kept hundreds of thousands of people from migrating irregularly,” a spokesperson told Fox News Digital this month.

Remember that at the same time this is going on, Democrats are trying to prevent voter ID laws from being enacted and enforced. All Americans need to do all they can to fight for fair elections. Every illegal vote cancels out a legal vote.

Protesting Is Legal; Civil Disobedience Should Have Consequences

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On April 16th, Townhall posted an article illustrating how the pro-Palestinian protestors that tried to block roads on Monday were treated in Florida.

The article reports:

Pro-Palestinian protesters shut down major bridges, roads, and highways across the United States on Monday, with CNN reporting that over 150 arrests were made. But whether in Chicago, where demonstrators blocked a road to Terminal 1 at O’Hare, or in San Francisco, where protesters brought traffic to a halt on the Golden Gate bridge, there was generally tolerance of the disruptive and dangerous demonstrations by those tasked with upholding law and order.

…Traffic was also affected in two other areas in the Bay area by the protesters, with California Highway Patrol Chief Don Goodbrand saying “it was an orchestrated event.” 

“They blocked three separate locations on freeways. They prevented law enforcement, paramedics, ambulances from getting to their points of destination,” he added. 

The article includes a screenshot of how these protestors were treated in Florida (this is the address if you want to watch the video–  https://twitter.com/i/status/1779976321629565433):

Protesting is legal under the First Amendment; blocking roads and bridges is not.

 

Why They Should Still Teach Geography In School

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On April 1, The New York Post posted an article some changes in the population of Florida.

The headline reads:

Florida transplants fleeing in droves over relentless heat, damaging hurricanes

What did they expect? Come to North Carolina, we also have relentless heat and damaging hurricanes, but we don’t have blizzards or severe winters.

The article notes:

Thousands of Florida transplants who moved to the Sunshine State during the pandemic are packing up to move elsewhere, complaining of the relentless heat, damaging hurricanes and dangerous wildlife.

More than 700,000 people drawn by the promise of sunny weather, no income tax and lower costs moved to Florida in 2022 — including 90,000 from New York state, according to census data cited by NBC News.

But nearly 500,000 gave up on Florida and left in 2022, according to NBC News, which interviewed several disillusioned transplants who decided to head back north.

One of them was New Yorker Louis Rotkowitz, who lasted two years in the state.

“Like every good New Yorker, this is where you want to go,” the physician told NBC News by phone while driving to his new home in Charlotte, North Carolina. “It’s a complete fallacy.”

The article tells the story of a number of people who decided that Florida was too expensive, too hot, and too full of destructive and dangerous critters. Florida may be more expensive day to day than New York and other northern states, but how much do you pay in taxes in the northern states? The difference may well be the fact that you don’t really see the money taken away from your paycheck in taxes–you see the money you spend on housing and groceries. However, inflation has hit all fifty states–not just Florida. I wonder if the people leaving will be happy with what they find when they get back home.

Taking Pre-Emptive Action

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As I reported in a previous article, America is about to experience an epidemic of ‘squatters.’ There have already been cases in New York, and I am sure other states are also experiencing people with no right to a property deciding to live there rent-free. Well, at least one state is prepared to take action.

On Thursday, Legal Insurrection reported the following:

For some inexplicable reason, squatters’ rights laws are commonplace throughout these United States. In many states, a person or persons can enter and inhabit another person’s vacant property, set up house, and after—in most cases—a mere 30 days claim some form of bizarre “right” to inhabit the home in which they did not pay a day’s rent nor a single mortgage payment: a home they do not own, did not buy, and have no right to occupy.

But states, including red states, have an array of “squatters’ rights” rules and laws that will offend—nay, even assault—the senses of all normal, law-abiding Americans.

The article cites a few examples. This is only one of many:

A Georgia man claims he returned home from caring for his sick wife to find that squatters had changed the locks on his home and moved in — and now local laws are blocking him from evicting the alleged freeloaders.

“Basically, these people came in Friday, broke into my house and had a U-Haul move all their stuff in. It’s frustrating. It’s very frustrating. I can’t even sleep,” DeKalb man Paul Callins told WSB-TV.

Callins had sunk thousands of dollars into the home and renovated it with his own hands after he inherited it from his late father, but since squatters moved in, he’s found himself facing nothing but obstacles to evicting the alleged intruders.

. . . . Rather than forcibly evicting the squatters, Georgia law requires homeowners file an “Affidavit of Intruder,” which then needs to work its way through the court system before police can act, Callins explained.

Situations like Callins’ have become all too common in Georgia.

About 1,200 homes across DeKalb County are occupied by squatters, according to the National Rental Home Council trade group.

There is a solution:

Fox Business reports (archive link):

The Florida Legislature unanimously passed a bill that would allow police to immediately remove squatters — a departure from the lengthy court cases required in most states.

“It gives me a real feeling of positive hope that we still have the ability to discuss challenges in our society and work with our legislatures in a bipartisan way,” Patti Peeples, a Sunshine State property owner who was barred from her own home after squatters refused to leave, told News4Jax.

The legislation, which passed both chambers earlier this month, would allow police to remove squatters without a lease authorized by the property owner and adds criminal penalties.

And that, my friends, is how it’s done.

If This Is True, Is It Over?

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On Thursday, The Federalist reported the following:

Democrat Fani Willis’ legal troubles extend beyond recent revelations that she deceptively hired her otherwise under-qualified, secret, married lover to run the political prosecution of former President Donald Trump and other Republicans in Georgia. A new book from Mike Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman admits that a widely misunderstood phone call, on which Willis’ political prosecution rests, was illegally recorded. That means the entire prosecution could crumble with defendants having a new avenue to challenge Democrat lawfare.

Find Me the Votes: A Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot to Steal an American Election is a fawning political biography of Willis. For context on the bias of the authors, Isikoff was an original Russia-collusion hoaxer, and his articles to that end were used to secure warrants for the FBI to spy on innocent Republican presidential campaign advisers such as Carter Page.

The article explains the problem with recording the phone call:

However, the person who recorded the phone call wasn’t in Fulton County or even in Georgia. That’s a problem. Jordan Fuchs, a political activist who serves as Raffensperger’s chief of staff, was in Florida, where it is illegal to record a call without all parties to the call consenting to the recording. She neither asked for nor received consent to record.

This could get interesting. If it were anyone but Donald Trump, the case would be thrown out immediately. However, since Donald Trump is involved, the evidence may be ignored.

 

People Vote With Their Feet

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On Saturday, The New York Post reported that in the past four years, ten billionaires have changed their residences from New York to Florida.

The article reports:

New York has lost 10 billionaires in the last four years — three of whom fled to Florida — leaving tax coffers lighter by tens of millions of dollars annually.

This year 62 New York-based billionaires appeared on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans, compared to 72 in 2019 and 65 last year. 

Investor and Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris, whose net worth was valued at $5.7 billion last year, has grown his fortune to $6.9 billion — but he packed his bags for Florida.

Other billionaires who have relocated from Gotham to the Sunshine State in the last four years include hedge funder Daniel Och — whose net worth now stands at $3.6 billion — and investor Carl Icahn, who’s worth $6.9 billion. 

“You have this incredibly high rate imposed on all of the income of the highest earners [in New York], and living just about anywhere else will substantially reduce your tax burden. Going to Florida will obviously eliminate your individual tax burden, and many of these billionaires clearly have that flexibility,” the National Tax Foundation’s vice president, Jared Walczak, explained.

The article notes:

New York relies on the top 1% of taxpayers to pay for 42% of its tax receipts, and billionaires’ incomes are taxed at the state’s highest rate — a staggering 14.8%, according to Walczak.

Although it’s impossible to quantify the exact loss in state taxes from billionaires’ fleeing without access to private income documents, “If you had someone who was earning $100 million [a year] in New York suddenly move to Florida, that’s something like a $11 million-a-year hit per year recurring to the state,” said Ken Girardin, the research director for the Albany-based think tank, Empire Center for Public Policy.

Even with the tax accountants and tax lawyers that billionaires can afford to hire, eventually they reach the point where it is not worth it to stay in a state that takes more money from them then the Medieval Lords took from the peasants. I just hope that when the leave New York, they leave their big spending government ideas behind.

Some American Children Will Actually Be Educated

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On September 7, The New American reported the following:

On Tuesday, the State of Oklahoma announced that it will allow educational videos by the conservative media organization PragerU to be used in its public schools.

Oklahoma joins Florida, which announced in August that it will also use videos from PragerU’s children’s content division PragerU Kids, which creates lesson plans and videos for children in grades K-12 on a variety of subjects, including civics, financial literacy, and climate change.

PragerU announced the new partnership in a statement: “We are proud to announce that PragerU Kids will have an ongoing educational partnership with the State of Oklahoma. Now, many more American students will have the opportunity to learn from PragerU’s wholesome, patriotic, and age-appropriate content.”

State superintendent Ryan Walters announced the Sooner State’s new partnership.

“I am thrilled to announce this partnership with PragerU,” Walters said. “This expansion of our available resources will help ensure high-quality materials rich in American history and values will be available to our teachers and students. We will work together to find ways for PragerU to create content that will enrich the education of Oklahoma students.”

“I cannot be more excited to get this content in our classrooms, to get this understanding of American history without any indoctrination, but actually the facts of what happened, so that our kids can know the principles this country was founded on,” he added.

The article concludes:

What’s actually happening is that now Oklahoma’s teachers will have one tool that counters some of the left-wing dogma that passes for educational curricula in today’s public schools. There’s nothing a true propagandist hates more than a dissenting opinion. That’s what these attacks are about.

Texas is also said to be considering the use of PragerU videos, although they are receiving considerable pushback from left-wing organizations.

PragerU videos are well-researched, informative, and interesting. They are a good tool in providing information to our children in an entertaining way that captures their attention. Today’s children are a video generation with a short attention span. PragerU videos are perfect for that learning style.

The Attack On Children Continues

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On June 6th, The Daily Caller reported that a federal judge has blocked the rule restricting minors from accessing surgical sex change procedures.

The article reports:

A federal judge sided Tuesday with families who sued over Florida’s ban on gender transition procedures for minors, declaring that “gender identity is real.”

A group of families, backed by several LGBT activist groups, sued Florida in March shortly after the rule restricting minors from accessing surgical sex change procedures, puberty blockers and hormone therapy took effect. Northern District of Florida Judge Robert L. Hinkle, a Clinton appointee, granted a preliminary injunction against the law to prohibit it from being enforced against the plaintiffs, and proceeded to make the claim that “great weight of medical authority supports these treatments.”

In much of the developed world, including many Scandinavian countries, sex change interventions for minors are seen as lacking evidence and as largely experimental treatments. Additionally, pioneers in gender dysphoria treatment have come out against modern philosophies that emphasize immediately “affirming” gender-confused minors, while experts have repeatedly poked holes in much of the scholarship claiming child sex changes are medically necessary.

Just for the record–I am not opposed to any adult who wants transgender surgery, hormone treatments, etc., to accessing those treatments. I simply question the wisdom of making those treatments available to children under the age of 18. Adolescence is hard, and it is a confusing time for many teenagers. It is a time when teenagers are not necessarily making wise choices. One hopes that their parents would guide them into wise choices, but that is not always the case. Right now, transgender is a fad. Unfortunately it is a fad with lifelong consequences. Eating goldfish was also a fad at one time. It was not necessarily smart, but it generally did not have lifelong consequences.

There is a reason we do not allow teenagers to smoke or drink before age 21. Why in the world are we letting them make permanent life-altering decisions before they are mature enough to understand fully the consequences of those decisions?

Some Good News About Our Southern Border

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On Wednesday, The Epoch Times posted an article about a ruling byU.S. District Judge Judge T. Kent Wetherell regarding the Biden administration’s catch and release policy (which is really a simple release policy).

The article reports:

The federal government’s program of releasing many illegal immigrants rather than holding them until their cases are resolved violates federal law, a U.S. judge ruled on March 8.

“The evidence establishes that Defendants have effectively turned the Southwest Border into a meaningless line in the sand and little more than a speedbump for aliens flooding into the country,” U.S. District Judge Judge T. Kent Wetherell, a Trump appointee, said in the ruling.

Wetherell struck down Alternatives to Detention, a program through which President Joe Biden’s administration has released more than one million aliens into the U.S. interior.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, a Republican, sued the government in 2021 over the policy, arguing the catch-and-release policy violated federal law.

Biden administration officials have claimed they had the discretion not to hold immigrants and that Florida lacked standing.

Under Supreme Court precedent, immigration officials have “broad discretion” in carrying out immigration laws, but must adhere to laws established by Congress. The Immigration and Nationality Act, one such law, states that immigrants who arrive at the border without proper documents are subject to quick removal without a hearing or review. Immigrants who claim asylum can have their claims heard but “shall be detained” until the claims are resolved.

The “shall be detained” wording “means what it says and that is a mandatory requirement,” Wetherell said in the new ruling.

The government’s position “would render mandatory detention under” the law “meaningless,” he added later.

Hopefully this will at least slow down the flow of illegal immigrants into America via our southern border.

When Parents Fight For Their Rights As Parents

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On Friday, The Patriot Journal (quoting Fox News) reported the following:

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Florida’s parental rights bill…

U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor, a judge in Tallahassee, Florida, ruled on Wednesday that students, parents, and teachers didn’t prove that they have legal standing in challenging the law after filing a revised lawsuit.

The article at The Patriot Journal notes:

This is actually the second attempt by leftists; the judge tossed the earlier version last September. Another lawsuit, alleging something similar, was filed in Orlando and also dismissed by the court.

Judge Winsor said the plaintiffs couldn’t show they suffered any harm from the law, and said their claims of harm “are from the law’s existence versus its enforcement.”

The North Carolina Senate has recently passed a Parents’ Bill of Rights. It passed the Senate in a party-line vote–Democrats voted no and Republicans voted yes. It now will go to the North Carolina House.

Parents should be in control of the content of their children’s education. If a child commits a crime, the parents are held responsible. When schools teach children that they are victims and are entitled, bad things happen. When schools sexualize young children, bad things happen. Schools and parents should work together to train the next generation of citizens to have moral values, patriotism and a work ethic. That would go a long way into cleaning up the mess our country currently is in.

 

Amazing Progress

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On Tuesday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about Florida’s ongoing recovery from Hurricane Ian.

The article reports:

No one imagined this was feasible. Every expert put the timeline for repair at around a year.  However, the git r’ done crews and the Florida Dept of Transportation have accomplished a massive feat of reconstruction in phenomenal time.  Major kudos to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the construction crews who worked every hour of every day, day and night, for two straight weeks and have created/built a temporary bridge to Sanibel Island.

Trust me, having seen the aftermath, this is absolutely remarkable.  The causeway is made up of three bridge spans (A, B, and C) and three spoil islands.

The rapid response construction crews just kept bringing truck after truck of everything imaginable including rocks, concrete slabs, gravel, sand and more to fill in the missing parts of the roadway and spoil islands.  Then they surfaced the road and are now working on paving it in record time.  Today restoration emergency crews drove across the bridges, and they anticipate opening the causeway to residents of Sanibel for civilian use on October 21st.

Here are the pictures:

The article reports:

During a news conference Tuesday in Fort Myers, trucks were seen slowly driving across the bridge — beginning the journey to the island on the Sanibel Causeway.

“Ahead of schedule, it was supposed to be 3 o’clock today they thought they’d get it,” the governor said. “But we’re happy that is something that is being done.”

DeSantis explains the convoy now able to travel on Sanibel Island is a large group, including:

    • 200 bucket trucks
    • 150 line and pickup trucks towing 50 trailers
    • Two tractor trailers
    • First responders

This also includes crews from across the state, Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC), Florida Power and Light and members of the Florida Electric Cooperative Association.

After crews reach the island, the Florida Department of Transportation will be able to continue with repairs to restore access to the island for residents.

This isn’t the first time relief made its way to the island. DeSantis said barges were deployed last week to move equipment and supplies to the area to restore power and running water.  The governor’s office says barges continue to move daily to transport equipment, personnel and supplies.

Kudos to a very effective Governor and to everyone else who worked hard to complete this task so quickly.

Getting Things Done

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On Thursday, The Gateway Pundit posted an article about some of the recovery work being done in Florida after the damage caused by Hurricane Ian.

This is a picture of the Matlacha Pass Bridge which connects Pine Island to the mainland taken after the hurricane:

The article reports:

The Florida Department of Transportation completed a temporary land bridge to Pine Island on Wednesday, two days ahead of schedule. Emergency responders will be able use the bridge as of Wednesday afternoon, with the general public to follow a few hours later.

This is the bridge now:

Amazing.

Florida Is Fighting Human Trafficking

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On Sunday, The Conservative Review posted an article about recent arrests in Florida for human trafficking.

The article reports:

There were 160 people arrested during an undercover sting targeting human trafficking. A Disney employee, corrections officer, a former deputy police chief, and teachers were among those arrested.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office led several law enforcement agencies in an undercover investigation called “Operation Fall Haul 2.” The seven-day sting operation focused on cracking down on human trafficking crimes.

During the press conference about Operation Fall Haul, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd joked, “Where would we be with an undercover operation and no Disney employees? Oh yes, we always have Disney employees.”

Disney bellhop Guillermo Perez, 57, was arrested after trying to have sex with an undercover detective for $80, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

Samy Claude, 26, who was often contracted by Disney as a photographer, was also arrested. He reportedly attempted to have sex with an undercover cop and offered her a bag of sour Skittles.

Keith Nieves, 24, was arrested for two counts of soliciting a prostitute. Nieves is a correctional officer at the Lake County Correctional Institution.

Jason DiPrima, 49, allegedly gave an undercover detective $180 and a multi-pack of White Claw Hard Seltzer. At the time of his arrest, DiPrima was the Deputy Chief of Administration for the Cartersville Police Department in Georgia. DiPrima has since resigned from his position.

The article concludes:

Law enforcement seized cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, MDMA (Ecstasy), and marijuana during the undercover sting.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said seven people were arrested and suspected of being in the country illegally.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said it had encountered two human trafficking victims during the operation, along with five other possible victims.

WFLA reported, “One of the victims deputies encountered was a woman who was 10 weeks pregnant and was given drugs and fentanyl in hopes to abort her unborn child, who she did not want.”

For the human trafficking victims, the operation had the following social service organizations to assist: One More Child, Heartland for Children, My Name My Voice, and the Children’s Home Society of Florida.

“From the moment they come into the operation, we want to immediately hand them off to our social service friends and our counselors so they can begin working with these victims of human trafficking,” Judd noted.

Thank God they arrested the people they arrested and are helping the victims, but this is the tip of the iceberg. We need every state to do the kind of detective work that ends this practice.

It’s A Whole New World For Students Out There

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Back in the age of dinosaurs when I was in school, pornography was considered a bad thing. Parents and schools worked together to keep children (and teenagers) away from it. There was an understanding that pornography was not a victimless crime and had repercussions far beyond just looking at it. Well, things have obviously changed. Parents who are trying to get pornography removed from their school libraries are accused of wanting to burn books (obviously supporting tyrannical government control). When parents bring up the content of some of the inappropriate books at school board meetings, they are silenced.

On Tuesday, The Daily Caller reported the following:

A Florida school board muted the microphone of a concerned parent attempting to read a “pornography” book allegedly available to students in the district’s library, according to video footage of a school board meeting.

The Clay County School Board barred an unnamed parent from “sampling” three books allegedly available to students in high school libraries during a school board meeting. The parent claimed that a district employee was paid to review and input pornographic books into the school libraries.

One book he attempted to read was “Lucky,” by Alice Sebold. The book discusses the brutal rape and beating of Sebold as an 18-year-old college freshman, according to a book description from Amazon. The book is available at Fleming Island High School and Orange Park High School, according to the district’s Library Media resources.

“If there’s children watching, cover their ears,” the parent said. The school board immediately cut his microphone and told him to “hush [his] mouth.”

If it’s appropriate to have this book in a public school library, why isn’t it appropriate to read the content at a school board meeting? What are we doing to our children?

The article includes the following:

“Turn off his microphone, please. I told you, I’m stopping you,” the school board attorney said. “The reason I’m stopping you is because these meetings are — if you’ll hush your mouth for a minute, and listen, instead of just talking, you may learn something.”

When the parent requested his time back, the school official said that the parent will get his time back to discuss something other than “pornography.”

“You’ll get it back. But, you’ll get it back to talk about something besides reading pornography into a public television set,” the school official said.

The article concludes:

Ashley Gilhousen, a Clay County School Board member, told the Daily Caller that the board is working to remove the content that this parent brought forth “prior to the return of students in August.” Gilhousen condemned the school board attorney’s tone, but also noted that she speaks only for herself and not the entire school board.

“The School Board Attorney should not have responded in the tone and manner in which he did,” Gilhousen said. “It was condescending and disrespectful to the speaker … I have every confidence that any objectionable material will be removed.”

The school board attorney should be fired.

The Rate Of Recovery

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On of the principles in the founding of America was that each state would be run individually and become a laboratory for new ideas. If a state had policies that were succeeding, other states would then be free to copy the ideas that worked. However, we are not necessarily seeing that concept currently put in practice. If it were, California would be copying the policies of Florida rather than trashing the Governor of Florida.

On July 5th, The Wall Street Journal posted an article illustrating the contrast in the economic conditions of blue and red states.

The article reports:

The pandemic has changed the geography of the American economy.

By many measures, red states—those that lean Republican—have recovered faster economically than Democratic-leaning blue ones, with workers and employers moving from the coasts to the middle of the country and Florida.

Since February 2020, the month before the pandemic began, the share of all U.S. jobs located in red states has grown by more than half a percentage point, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by the Brookings Institution think tank. Red states have added 341,000 jobs over that time, while blue states were still short 1.3 million jobs as of May.

Several major companies have recently announced moves of their headquarters from blue to red states. Hedge-fund company Citadel said recently it would move its headquarters from Chicago to Miami, and Caterpillar Inc. plans to move from Illinois to Texas.

The article includes the following:

Pandemic Recovery

The economic recovery of states since March 2020 has been uneven. Index of state progress, based on 13 metrics including economic output, employment, retail sales and new-home listings.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. It is fascinating.

The article concludes:

California’s public-school enrollment has fallen 4.4% since the pandemic, according to American Enterprise Institute. In Oakland, the school board recently voted to close schools because of declining enrollment.

Florida saw a surge in new residents, many from the Northeast, where Covid-19 related restrictions such as school closures were stricter.

At the Ohana Institute, a private school in Florida’s Panhandle, for kindergarten through 12th grade, the waiting list for students grew from 95 just before the pandemic to 393 last fall, Executive Director Lettye Burgtorf said.

Mrs. Burgtorf said the school fielded requests from hundreds of parents around the U.S. who wanted to move to Florida to be closer to the beach. Many were also unhappy that their children’s schools in other states had moved to remote learning. The Ohana Institute went remote for several weeks, then reopened, with mask mandates. “The parents were really like, ‘We cannot educate our kids at home,’ ” Mrs. Burgtorf said.

For years, a real estate boom in coastal cities made many families wealthy because their homes appreciated. Now, that is happening in red states. Florida led all states with a 31% jump in the median home price in the 12 months through January, with prices soaring in the Panhandle.

Such price increases can narrow the cost-of-living differential with the blue states that the migrants are fleeing, and increase living costs for longtime residents who don’t own homes,

These days, Mr. DeSantis’s spokeswoman said, one of the top complaints the governor’s office receives is soaring rent.

The law of supply and demand is at work in the Florida housing market.

Breaking The Budget In California

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On July 4th, The U.K. Daily Mail reported that California Governor Newsom has proposed a budget that offers all illegal immigrants in the state, regardless of age, health insurance. At the same time he is doing this, he is paying for ads in Florida encouraging Florida residents to move to California. California residents are also fleeing California for Texas.

Below is a chart from June 2019 posted by fee.org:There seems to be a pattern there.

The article at The U.K. Daily Mail reports:

The expansion in healthcare is part of Medi-Cal, which already offers coverage for illegal immigrants younger than 26 and over 50 – as well as recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Now, the state is expanding that coverage option to 700,000 undocumented residents in the Golden State between the ages of 26-49 starting January 2024.

Migration continues to surge at the southern border with the third straight month of increased crossings in May.

Thousands of migrants part of a caravan that started in southern Mexico ended their travels toward the U.S. border just two days after setting off when they were handed permits to stay in the country for 30 days.

Mexican officials handed out 3,000 temporary residence permits on Sunday and ended the march of mostly Venezuelans and Central Americans.

The move comes after a United Nations Missing Migrants Project report revealed that more migrants died in 2021 in America than in any other year since it started recording data in 2014.

How many American citizens don’t have health insurance because they can’t afford it? We need to take care of uninsured Americans and veterans before we insure people who are here illegally.

 

It’s Not Good To Mess With Mother Nature

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Over the years, men have done things in the realm of nature that have not exactly worked out as they planned. The Marine Mammals Protection Act of 1972 resulted in a dramatic increase of the seal population off off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. That was a nice gesture to save the seals, but it resulted in an influx of great white sharks in the area because of the increased food supply for the sharks. There is also the example of kudzu, which was introduced to Americans during the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 where it was touted as a great ornamental plant for its sweet-smelling blooms and sturdy vines. From the 1930’s to the 1950’s the Soil Conservation Service promoted it as a great tool for soil erosion control and planting it was encouraged throughout the south. Kudzu is now recognized as an invasive plant and has killed multiple trees throughout the southern United States. Gypsy moths came from a scientist in Massachusetts who was trying to breed a more hearty breed of silkworm to create silk for America. A few escaped and have the resulting moths have now gone as far south as New Jersey.  It’s not good to mess with mother nature.

On Wednesday,The Daily Caller reported the following:

Field biologists discovered an 18-foot invasive Burmese python weighing 215 pounds in the Florida Everglades.

Researchers from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida believed their scale was broken when they weighed the beast, as none of them could comprehend a Burmese python would ever grow so huge, National Geographic reported Tuesday. The snake, the largest ever discovered in Florida, was captured using a male scout snake with a GPS tracker attached to it, the outlet continued. Burmese pythons are effectively impossible to spot without scout snakes, according to BroBible.

The article explains that these snakes are not native to Florida. The snakes were probably introduced by pet owners whose pets excaped or who let their pets loose because they got too big. It is frightening to me that they found deer hoof cores inside the animal. Please follow the link to read the entire article for further details.

How Disney Corporation Built In Florida

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The Daily Wire recently posted an article titled, “‘Shell Companies And Shady Lawyers’: Why Did Disney Get To Govern Itself In Florida?”

The article reports:

Why does a giant entertainment conglomerate get to self-govern on its very own slice of land in the Sunshine State — and who is left better off as that privilege appears to be coming to a close?

…If you have ever visited Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, you have been to the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Sitting in central Florida to the southwest of Orlando, the area was feverishly pursued by Walt Disney himself as the home of his company’s second theme park.

Frustrated by the businesses that crowded Disneyland in California, Walt Disney set up multiple shell companies — with names like Latin-American Development and Management Corp., Tomahawk Properties, and M.T. Lott Co. — to grab tens of thousands of acres in Florida. According to journalist and author David Koenig, who has spent years covering the rise of Disney, the strategy was meant to mask Disney’s intentions in the region and thereby keep real estate as inexpensive as possible.

“There were dozens of landholders, and as soon as someone heard that Disney bought lot one, they knew the price on lots two through 50 would go through the roof,” Koenig explained to the Los Angeles Times. “It had to appear as if it were just a coincidence that there were 10 different companies buying land in the same area.”

Disney took other measures to hide the fact that it was the “mystery” land buyer acquiring uninhabited swampland at a breakneck pace. A blog post from Disney acknowledges that legal counsel Bob Foster — working under the pseudonym “Bob Price” — took steps to obfuscate Disney’s intentions from citizens of Florida. 

The article explains the Reedy Creek Improvement Act:

For several decades, Disney has been a powerful political influence in Florida. According to data from Open Secrets, the company gave $350,000 to $610,000 to seven firms lobbying in Florida during the 2020 election year, followed by $460,000 to $719,974 to eight firms in 2021.

Still, Disney’s greatest lobbying victory came in the years after it acquired the large tracts of land in central Florida.

Gov. Claude Kirk (R-FL) signed the Reedy Creek Improvement Act in 1967 — the year after Walt Disney passed away — in response to the company’s lobby. The legislation allowed the state legislature to establish the Reedy Creek Improvement District, allowing Disney to act with the same authority as a county government for its 39-square-mile property. The district encompasses the cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, as well as 175 lane miles of roadway, 67 miles of waterway, various power and water plants, hundreds of restaurants and retail properties, and more than 40,000 hotel rooms.

Most importantly, Reedy Creek has permission to levy taxes, issue bonds, and write its own construction and wastewater management laws — avoiding the regulatory headaches with which other companies throughout the state must wrestle. 

The article concludes:

No matter how the magic stars align, University of Central Florida historian James Clark concluded that there is only one “clear winner” from the situation.

“If taxpayers get stuck with the bonds, then the counties will be the big losers from this bill, and Disney loses a lot by losing the control they get from having Reedy Creek,” Clark said. “The only clear winner if this bill passes is Ron DeSantis.”

“Whatever you do,” Walt Disney once said, “do it well.” It seems that DeSantis has taken that advice to heart.

When lobbyists get their way, the result does not always favor the voters and taxpayers. The Reedy Creek Improvement Act was not a good thing–no business should be able to set up their own fiefdom making their own laws in the middle of a state.

Playing With Fire

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On Thursday, Hot Air posted an article about genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida. Yes, you read that right.

The article reports:

…But now there’s a new type of mosquito hanging out in the Florida Keys. It’s one that’s never been seen before because scientists genetically modified the species in an effort to use them in a genocidal war against their own kin. Thus far, the scientists seem to be declaring the experiment a success. But that sort of ignores the fact that there are now five million genetically modified super-mosquitoes roaming around Florida. (Nature Journal)

Researchers have completed the first open-air study of genetically engineered mosquitoes in the United States. The results, according to the biotechnology firm running the experiment, are positive. But larger tests are still needed to determine whether the insects can achieve the ultimate goal of suppressing a wild population of potentially virus-carrying mosquitoes.

The experiment has been underway since April 2021 in the Florida Keys, a chain of tropical islands near the southern tip of Florida. Oxitec, which developed the insects, released nearly five million engineered Aedes aegypti mosquitoes over the course of seven months, and has now almost completed monitoring the release sites.

Based in Abingdon, UK, the firm reported the first results from the experiment during a webinar on 6 April, although it has not yet published the data.

The article explains how the modification is supposed to work:

Okay, so let’s see how this is supposed to work, shall we? This British company, Oxitec, genetically engineered some of the A. aegypti mosquito (also known as the Yellow Fever Mosquito) so that the males inherited a particular new gene. When the males fertilize the eggs of females, the offspring inherit the gene. The gene has no effect on the male offspring but it causes a destructive mutation in all of the female offspring, leading them to die before they can reproduce. In theory, they would begin drastically reducing the population of female mosquitoes until there were so few mating options for the males that the population should shrink drastically.

I don’t want to be anti-science here, but this scares me to death. I realize that scientists know a lot about genetics, but I think they are in dangerous territory here.

As reported by gypsy moth alert:

The gypsy moth was brought to North America from France by Mr. E. Leopold Trouvelot. His purpose was to breed hybrid silkworms that would be hardier than the Chinese species and that could be used to establish a silk industry in the United States. By 1865 he had a million caterpillars feeding under protective netting at his home in Medford Massachussets. In 1869 some of them escaped and were apparently scattered by a windstorm.

Gypsy moths have now spread into most of New England, down the east coast to Virginia, to Michigan and Wisconsin, and to Oregon. They have done tremendous damage to trees in those areas. I am hoping that the genetically modified mosquitoes will at least stay in Florida, but I doubt it.

A Tribute To A Future President

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Our Founding Fathers regarded the states as laboratories for successful governing. If a state did something that was successful, it was assumed that other states would follow. Unfortunately party politics has gotten in the way of that concept, but somehow one state occasionally manages to lead the way in successful governance. Right now, Florida is that state. The following video is only one example of the appreciation residents of Florida have for their Governor. The video is posted on YouTube.

You do not have to be a genius to see Governor Ron DeSantis as a future candidate for President. The only question is what dirty tricks the Democrats and the media will attempt to prevent that from happening. I personally would love to see a Trump/DeSantis ticket in 2024.

A Long Overdue Idea

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There have been rumblings about what goes on in Disney’s Magic Kingdom in Florida for years. I had a friend tell me once that when she took her children there, she took pictures of what they were wearing and specifically of their shoes because she feared kidnapping. That seems a little extreme, but she was genuinely concerned.

On Saturday, PJ Media posted an article about changes that may be coming to Disney in Florida.

The article reports:

On Friday, my PJ Media colleague Rick Moran wrote that DeSantis and other GOP legislators in the Sunshine State have mused about repealing the legislation that gave Disney its own governmental authority over the Walt Disney Word property over 50 years ago.

I predicted that this could be a nuclear option for DeSantis last month when I wrote, “If Disney did criticize Florida too harshly, the state could play hardball and threaten to revoke the legislation that created the company’s special quasi-governmental designation, the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which allows the company to operate with less interference from the state and county governments.”

Many of you have wondered what exactly that means, but first, let me give you a little background into Disney’s special governing authority, which is called the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

I’ve written tons about Disney history here at PJ Media and in my book Neon Crosses (which you really should buy). In Neon Crosses, I explained the concept behind the creation of the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

“Before Walt died, the legal team discovered a somewhat obscure Florida law that allowed for the creation of special improvement districts with a different form of governance than a traditional municipality. Bob Foster convinced Walt that petitioning the state legislature to allow Disney to govern its own property under that law was the way to go. An improvement district would grant the company exemptions from local building codes and would allow Disney to create its own first response and telecommunications services.”

Creating the Reedy Creek Improvement District allowed Disney to develop state-of-the-art communications systems that no one else had ever tried, implement innovative environmental control measures, and build unique buildings all without local government interference.

With recent attacks by Disney executives on the Florida law that reaffirms parents’ rights and prevents exposing young children to sexual issues beyond their understanding, Disney has put its special status in jeopardy.

The article notes:

Another thing Disney could lose is immense tax breaks that could cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars, although DeSantis has hinted that he’s inclined to leave those alone.

“DeSantis said Friday those tax benefits likely aren’t at any risk of going away, however, claiming those tax breaks are ones “that any business would be eligible for” and there are “no special tax breaks that are Disney-specific that we would contemplate’ taking away,” Durkee writes.

Disney still sees opposing the Parental Rights in Education law as a matter of “right and wrong,” as former CEO Bob Iger called it.

…But, as National Review‘s Jim Geraghty points out, “This is a law, again, that forbids teaching sexual topics such as “gender identity” to children between the ages of four and nine. For all their blathering, not a single Disney executive has attempted to explain what precisely is so ‘harmful’ and ‘immoral” about that.”

DeSantis and Florida’s Republicans are certain about the right and wrong of protecting the state’s children from sexualization in schools against parents’ permission. They’re willing to do everything they can to combat Disney’s wokeness, and they have some powerful tools they can use if they need to. But will it come down to those nuclear options?

Some recent comments by Disney executives in charge of Disney entertainment might cause parents to rethink any support they might have had for Disney and its products.

Incompetent Or Political?

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On Tuesday, America got a chance to see how badly the FBI has handled the Hunter Biden laptop case. This article is based on two articles–one posted by The New York Post on Tuesday and one posted by The U.K. Daily Mail on Tuesday and updated on Wednesday. At this point, I would like to note that The U.K. Daily Mail does a better job of reporting on politics in America than most of the American media.

The U.K. Daily Mail reports:

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) got into a heated spat over the whereabouts of Hunter Biden‘s laptop during a House Judiciary hearing on oversight of the FBI‘s Cyber Division on Tuesday. 

The Republican firebrand used his allotted time to grill the division’s assistant director Bryan Vorndran, who repeatedly told Gaetz he didn’t have any information on where the hard drive belonging to President Joe Biden‘s son is currently located.

At one point Gaetz tried to enter the hard drive into the Congressional record but was blocked by House Judiciary Chair Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), who changed his mind a short while later.

The New York Post reports:

Material from Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop was entered into the Congressional Record on Tuesday at the request of Rep. Matt Gaetz.

The Florida Republican made the move during a hearing on oversight of the FBI’s Cyber Division after its assistant director, Bryan Vorndran, testified that he didn’t “have any information about the Hunter Biden laptop,” which the bureau seized from a Delaware repair shop in December 2019.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) initially blocked Gaetz’s request but relented a short time later.

Nadler’s change of heart came after what Gaetz described as “consultation with majority staff.”

“I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record of this committee, content from, files from and copies from the Hunter Biden laptop,” Gaetz said.

Nadler responded, “Without objection.”

Now that the information from the laptop has been entered into the Congressional Record, is it public information? If it is, does anyone want to wager how many of the American news media outlets will cover the story?

The Social Police Are Coming For All Of Us

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On Monday, The Wall Street Journal posted an article about a new policy in Walmart.

The article reports:

Walmart Inc. is ending cigarette sales in some U.S. stores after years of debate within the retail company’s leadership ranks about the sale of tobacco products, according to people familiar with the matter.

Cigarettes are being removed in various markets, including some stores in California, Florida, Arkansas and New Mexico, according to the people and store visits. In some of these stores, Walmart has rolled out a design with more self-checkout registers, as well as other items such as grab-and-go food or candy sold near the front of stores in place of Marlboro, Newport and other tobacco products.

Walmart, which has more than 4,700 U.S. stores, is removing tobacco products from select locations where the retailer has decided to use the space more efficiently, a spokeswoman said. “We are always looking at ways to meet our customers’ needs while still operating an efficient business,” she said. She declined to say how many locations will continue to sell cigarettes but said Walmart isn’t halting all tobacco sales.

I am not a smoker and hate the smell of cigarette smoke. However, tobacco is a legal substance. People are addicted to it, but it is a legal substance. Any retail outlet has the right to sell or not to sell any product it wants to; however, I wonder if this is a portent of things to come. Will bookstores stop selling conservative books (many already avoid putting them in prominent places)? Will grocery stores decide meat is bad for you and stop selling it? Will drug stores stop selling over-the-counter pain medication because some people become addicted? The decision by Walmart may lead to equally bad decisions by other retail outlets.

The article also notes:

As with tobacco, Walmart has pulled back on sales of firearms in recent years after similar internal discussions. It raised the age to purchase guns to 21 after the 2018 high-school shooting in Parkland, Fla., and discontinued sales of ammunition used in semiautomatic weapons and handguns after a 2019 shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.

At Walmart, sales of cigarettes are generally less profitable than some other items sold near the front of stores such as candy, according to the people familiar with the situation. It is also an operationally complex sale, eating into profits. Tobacco is kept in a locked case or blocked from shoppers. Food and Drug Administration regulations require that an employee make the sale. At Walmart, that employee must be over a specific age based on local laws and trained in tobacco sales. Theft is high throughout the supply chain, said some of these people.

Was this a decision based on principle or profit?