University of Central Florida researchers using genetic information say that, with intervention, depleted flamingo populations in Florida can recover. 

A study led by biology graduate student Jessica Folsom used genomic data in determining the flamingo population and its genetics in Florida and proposes strategies to restore the population. 

Researchers found that flamingos in Florida and around the Caribbean display few genetic differences, including those held in captivity. 

Flamingos in Florida often fly in for a few months, but building a long-term breeding population would pose a challenge. 

“For more than a century, there were almost no conservation measures for flamingos in the U.S.,” said Steven Whitfield, a co-author of the study and a director at the Audubon Nature Institute. “That’s partly because flamingos were long considered a non-native species to Florida. With our work, we want to show they have always belonged here and there’s a scientific basis to support their recovery.”

According to the research, the long-term outlook for flamingos is “good,” but the existing population is not sufficient for recovery. “Moreover, habitat destruction, pollution and warming temperatures add to the challenges they face.”

“Natural recovery of the flamingo is unlikely in Florida without intervention,” Whitfield said in a news release. “But our study shifts that conversation. We can now confidently say ex-situ [managed in zoos or aquariums] flamingos are genetically compatible with wild populations, which opens possibilities for a future release program, even though logistical hurdles remain.”

Reintroduction, although, must be guided by policy, the researchers said. 

Lawmakers, for at least five years, have proposed replacing the mockingbird with the flamingo as the state bird.

In advance of this coming session, SB 150, filed by Sen. Gayle Harrell, a Republican from Stuart, passed the Environment and Natural Resources committee unanimously last month and has two more committees dates.

HB 11, an identical bill filed in the House by Republican Reps. Jim Mooney from Islamorada and Chip LeMarca from Lighthouse Point, passed the Natural Resources & Disasters subcommittee last month and has two more committees to pass.

Those bills would designate the scrub-jay as the state songbird, too.

“The flamingo is iconic to Florida. When I was growing up it was flamingos and palm trees. … But the awareness really comes with the conservation. The flamingo is now thriving in Florida,” Mooney said during a December House committee meeting.

Extirpation

Hunting and habitat loss during the 1800s resulted in extirpation of Florida’s flamingos by the early 1900s. Since then, the bird has shown “only faint signs of a true comeback,” according to the research. 

“Despite high vagility and the presence of nearby flocks in the Caribbean, the Florida population has yet to show substantial recovery,” the report says. 

“The ex-situ [managed] population had higher diversity compared to wild birds and were not significantly differentiated from the wild population, making these flocks possible sources for reintroduction projects,” the study says.

Flamingo representation is common in Florida, being displayed, for example, on state lottery branding and a ginormous piece of art in the Tampa airport.

“As a native Floridian who grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, I was fascinated and a little surprised to see the flamingo as a prominent state icon, yet I had never seen one in the wild,” said Folsom, the researcher who led the study. 

Hoffman said that zoo flocks, including Zoo Miami’s, were founded after a Hialeah horse racetrack owner released about 20 flamingos in the wild in the 1920s to boost his business. 

Flamingos are protected by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service List of Birds Protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 2023. That law makes it illegal to hunt, kill, sell, export, or transport any migratory bird without a permit from the federal government.

The study was published in the American Ornithological Society’s Ornithological Applications journal. 

According to a 2024 Audubon Florida report, “Our iconic American Flamingos blown in from Hurricane Idalia in 2023 continue to remain in Everglades National Park thanks to available forage and quality habitat—a bright pink indicator of the success of our Everglades conservation efforts.”

An Audubon survey found 101 wild American Flamingos in Florida in February 2024, nearly half in Florida Bay.

“Flamingos were historically numerous in Florida until the 19th century plume trade—when an ounce of feathers was worth more than gold—decimated wading birds in South Florida,” the Audubon report states.

“Even after legislation and Audubon wardens protected these birds, extensive draining and ditching of the Everglades destroyed their habitat. Now that restoration momentum is flowing in the River of Grass, we are hopeful that protected wetlands and improved water flow will create enough habitat resources for the Hurricane Idalia flamingos to survive and thrive here.”

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Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried is blasting proposed legislation introduced this week by Florida Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Blaise Ingoglia aimed at increasing local government spending transparency—specifically, a provision that would allow removal of local officials found to have committed “financial abuse.”

The legislation, scheduled to be filed ahead of the coming legislative session in the Florida House by Rep. Monique Miller, R-Palm Bay, and in the Senate by Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, would increase local government transparency and formally establish Ingoglia’s Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight (FAFO) effort into statute.

The proposal includes a provision that would codify the state’s CFO’s ability to recommend removal of any elected official who is found to have committed “financial abuse, malfeasance or misfeasance.”

“I have heard zero from our new CFO about what he plans on doing to hold our property insurance companies accountable,” Fried said on a Zoom conference call on Thursday. “Instead, he’s bullying our local governments, creating fictitious formulas, and now he wants to overreach even more by putting a clause in there about removing elected local officials.”

More than any recent governor, Ron DeSantis has aggressively exercised the power within his office to remove elected officials from office, including school board members, sheriffs, and most controversially, two Democratic state prosecutors, Andrew Warren in Hillsborough County and Monique Worrell in Orange and Osceola counties.

Worrell rebounded from her 2023 suspension, winning re-election by a large margin in 2024.

“We see how Ron DeSantis has abused that power throughout his eight years in this administration, and so that is just them bullying our local governments that are the ones who are closest to the people,” Fried added.

In addition to those above listed suspensions, Attorney General James Uthmeier threatened other local governments officials in Florida earlier this year in Orange County and Key West when they raised objections to signing 287(g) agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In the case of Orange County, Mayor Jerry Demings said in August that he signed an updated agreement with ICE under “protest and extreme duress” after Uthmeier threatened the mayor and all six county commissioners that their failure to do so would result in their removal from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Other provisions in the legislation introduced by Ingoglia at a press conference in Tampa on Wednesday include allowing the Department of Financial Services to pursue financial penalties from local governments if they don’t respond to inquiries “promptly,” including by withholding any state funds until they do so.

“If we ask for the information on a Monday, and we’re giving you five days to compile the information — get it in five days; if you don’t, then you face a $1,000 a day penalty,” he said at the press conference.

The legislation comes as Ingoglia continues to make the case that local governments have been engaged in “excessive and wasteful spending” by comparing their fiscal year 2024-2025 budgets with what they were spending in 2019-2020. So far, after reviewing the budgets of 11 local governments this year, he says they have engaged collectively in $1.86 billion in alleged wasteful and excessive spending.

Local government officials who have received those FAFO audits have questioned the accuracy of the methodology used by the CFO’s auditors. Ingoglia has called such criticisms “bogus” and “not well thought out.”

Fried argued that if Ingoglia were serious about cutting excessive government spending, he should look inside the DeSantis administration’s own spending excesses. She referred to a Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald story published last week reporting that the DeSantis administration spent $36.2 million in taxpayer funds last year to purchase ads against the proposed marijuana and abortion ballot measures, both of which were contested by the governor.

“If [Ingoglia] wants to talk about saving dollars and making sure that the people are getting a return to the taxes they have put into this state, he should be focused on what’s happening in Tallahassee,” she said. “Ron DeSantis stole $38 million from the people of this state, and so that’s really where the attacks should be. That’s where his energy should be.”

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Legislation filed Thursday would set guidelines for local government rules involving the materials used for drinking straws and stirrers.

The measure (SB 958), sponsored by Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R- Fleming Island, says it is intended to “combat the harmful impacts of paper paper drinking straws” and “provide businesses and residents of this state with better alternatives to single-use plastic straws and stirrers.”

The proposal says the change is needed to “promote uniformity of drinking straw and stirrer regulations throughout this state, rather than forcing businesses to comply with a patchwork of local regulation.”

The bill would require local governments enacting straw regulations to “opt for ones that are renewable, home compostable certified, industrial compostable certified and marine biodegradable.”

The measure was filed for the legislative session that begins Jan. 13.

“Many businesses and communities in this state are using paper drinking straws and stirrers as a purportedly better option for public health and the environment. However, independent university studies have shown that most paper straws contain harmful PFAS chemicals, exposure to which is linked to concerning health risks,” the bill says.

A widely cited 2023 study by the University of Antwerp found PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” in many straws.

Many companies have replaced plastic straws with paper or plant-based straws due to environmental concerns. A number of Florida cities, including Orlando, West Palm Beach, Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale, over the past decade have banned single-use plastic straws by businesses or at city-owned venues, parks, and events.

In February, President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for a policy aimed at phasing out paper straws to “alleviate the forced use of paper straws nationwide.”

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A ban on state investments in Ben & Jerry’s will continue, but the ice-cream brand’s former parent company, Unilever, is no longer on the prohibited list.

State Board of Administration Executive Director Chris Spencer told Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state Cabinet on Tuesday that Unilever has been removed from Florida’s list of “Scrutinized Companies that Boycott Israel,” which prohibits state investments and contracts with the companies.

Meanwhile, Magnum Ice Cream Co., which now includes Ben & Jerry’s, has been added. “Quick note, for those that didn’t pay (attention) or didn’t notice last week, on Dec. 8, Unilever completed their spin-off of Magnum Ice Cream Co., which now includes Ben & Jerry’s,” said Spencer, whose agency manages the massive state pension fund and other investments.

“Ben & Jerry’s was the offending entity as part of the Unilever overall consolidated entity that was in violation of the statute. As a result of that, we have removed Unilever and all of their affiliated entities, which is 13 different legal entities, from the scrutinized list, and added Magnum Ice Cream to the scrutinized list.”

In 2021, DeSantis and other state officials took aim at Unilever based on a decision by Ben & Jerry’s to stop selling its products in the West Bank and Gaza. Ben & Jerry’s said its decision was consistent with its values and “concerns shared with us by our fans and trusted partners.”

At the time, the state had about $139 million in holdings in Unilever and its subsidiaries.

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Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet on Wednesday approved more than $2 million in immigration enforcement money for local agencies seeking AI language translators, pepper spray, GPS trackers, handcuffs, bonuses, and more.

The $2.4 million greenlit to 10 law enforcement agencies means Florida has now approved roughly $21 million of the original $250 million diverted by the Legislature in February to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

DeSantis and the Cabinet members, who make up the newly created State Board of Immigration Enforcement, approved the money unanimously.

The board is part of a broader Florida crackdown on undocumented immigration. In February, the GOP-dominated Legislature approved a sweeping measure demanding all counties partner with ICE, creating state-level penalties for entering Florida without proper documentation, and removing in-state tuition for undocumented college students.

The Florida law came right as President Donald Trump took office, ordering mass deportations and setting aside mass sums of money for states to set up migrant detention centers. Florida was the first state to do so with “Alligator Alcatraz,” a sprawling, controversial facility in the heart of the Everglades.

Where is the money going?

The largest lump of the $2.4 million will go to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, which requested the most money ($738,451) for the widest-ranging variety of immigration-related activity. 

After the Florida Highway Patrol, the South Florida county is responsible for the most encounters with suspected undocumented immigrants and the most non-citizens arrested on federal immigration charges, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s immigration dashboard.

Martin County’s breakdown includes:

$2,546 for 30 handcuffs and 30 leg irons; $13,153 for tactical goggles, ballistic helmets, and bulletproof vests; $1,639 for 10 canisters of high-volume pepper spray; $271,103 for a rapid DNA testing machine; $136,736 for license plate readers; $185,029 for tasers; and $859 for Bluetooth rechargeable shooting ear protectors.

The next highest grant is for Volusia County Corrections, totaling $505,789. The asks include $68,400 for detention beds, $22,400 to train 40 officers under the 287(g) program, $43,000 in bonuses for correctional officers, $183,760 for six detection screening systems to check migrants for “contraband,” $182,500 for a full-body security scanning system to check migrants for contraband, fevers, and health problems, $1,400 for 72 uniforms, and $4,100 for 50 mattresses.

GPS trackers, AI translators, and biometric scans

The remaining requests came from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, the Madison Police Department, the Fruitland Park Police Department, the City of Port Richey Police Department, the town of Havana, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, the town of Welaka Police Department, and the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office.

The majority of the money is for license plate readers, overtime, or bonuses for law enforcement or correctional officers. Fruitland Park received $22,300 for GPS trackers. According to the submitted request, the department plans to deploy the trackers against “a suspect vehicle … allowing officers to safely monitor vehicles suspected of transporting unauthorized aliens.”

Havana received $93,687 for body-worn cameras, $90,088 for tasers, and $6,201 for nine universal AI language translators. These translators will “facilitate effective communication with non-English [speaking] individuals during stops and immigration focused activities.”

Putnam County received $17,378 for six laptops; $5,793 for handcuffs, leg cuffs, and chains; $69,384 for 21 Rapid ID devices, and $2,557 for one “Rapid ID two finger biometric device accompanied by a DNA barcode.”

These would be used to determine “accurate biometric identification of detainees.

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Florida’s University Chancellor Ray Rodrigues was already the highest-paid state employee with his more than $441K salary, beating out the No. 2 employee (Education Commissioner Anastasios “Stasi” Kamoutsas) by roughly $110K.

But on Friday, that financial lead grew when the Board of Governors of the State University System approved a three-year contract extension including a $600,000 base salary with a chance at a 20% performance bonus. This makes Rodrigues the highest-paid state employee by far, according to the database of state employee salaries. The effective date is Jan. 1

He nearly doubles Kamoutsas’ $330K salary. But Kamoutsas was one of the biggest supporters of Rodrigues’ pay increase.

“When we talk about what a national model this state is in higher education and the envy of the country … I can’t emphasize enough how deserving he is,” Kamoutsas said during Friday’s Board of Governors meeting. “Not just of this pay increase, but honestly more.”

According to the contract amendment, raises in Rodrigues’ contract are paid from Board of Governors Foundation funds, which are considered private.

In July, as the state sets up its new university accrediting body, the BOG transferred $4 million in taxpayer money to the foundation — though that money is specifically appropriated for the accreditor and will not go to Rodrigues’ salary, a BOG spokesperson confirmed to the Phoenix.

The new contract expires in 2029 and provides a $75,000 annual housing stipend and $12,000 a car allowance.

Eric Silagy, former CEO of Florida Power & Light, was the lone BOG member to vote against the new contract — which he claimed was submitted to members at the 11th hour.

“I hear you loud and clear on the fact that taxpayers aren’t directly paying this increase, but it is coming through universities’ foundations,” he said, calling the increase “significant” and unprecedented for an employee staying in the same role. “And so, it is money that would otherwise be able to be spent for other things that would benefit students.”

Various university presidents make more than Rodrigues, but state law requires university president contracts to be paid by foundation funds once they exceed $200,000. 

The contract defines Rodrigues’ responsibilities as ensuring “the efficient operations of the Board” and he “is authorized to enter into any contract necessary for the operation of the Board to employ all personnel and establish policies and procedure, incident to Board personnel and operations, and to submit and annual legislative budget request and any amendments thereto for the Board office to the Board for approval.”

Rodrigues “shall serve as the Board’s liaison for communications with university boards of trustees, university presidents and other university officers and employees, the Governors and the Governor’s staff, the Legislature and the Legislature’s staff, the media, other state entities, and the public.”

Rodrigues has served as university chancellor since 2022. He’s now paid a $441,252 salary, some $40,000 more than under his first contract. Rodrigues previously served 12 years in the Florida Legislature. As of Dec. 2021 — his most recently available financial disclosure form — his net worth was $313,213.

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Florida professors, university faculty, and teaching assistants could soon be able to openly carry firearms on campus, thanks to a sweeping new measure filed by a Republican lawmaker.

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Crestview, is sponsoring the legislation, entitled “School Safety,” to address security concerns in higher education. If passed, the bill would remove college campuses as gun-free zones — marking a significant shift in how Florida handles gun issues.

It would become one of the few Second Amendment expansion bills adopted in Florida since the Parkland massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, which prompted a higher gun-purchasing age and red flag laws.

In an interview with the Phoenix, Gaetz called his legislation “sadly timed,” adding that he “never wanted” to file a bill like this.

He referred to a slate of violent incidents in the past few months, including a shooting spree at Florida State University in April, the assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in September, a shooting at Brown University over the weekend, and, most recently, an anti-Jewish shooting in Australia that left 15 dead.

“We’re living in a world where our institutions are being threatened,” Gaetz said, adding that he’s already filed another bill aimed at increasing protection outside of churches, mosques, and synagogues. “I’m sorry that I’m having to do this, but it just seems as though places in our society that we thought were safe, even sacrosanct, are now becoming targets.”

Although he anticipates objections that teachers may abuse the ability to bring a gun to school, Gaetz pointed out that there have been no instances of a school shooting sprouting from an unwell volunteer in the guardian program. This school safety initiative allows trained and vetted school employees to carry concealed weapons on K-12 campuses.

“None of the parade of terribles have happened that the opponents to the guardian program tried to advance,” he said. “While none of that has happened, people have been killed.”

What else is in the bill?
Gaetz isn’t this first Florida lawmaker to try to promote campus carry. At the start of the 2025 legislative session, then-Sen. Randy Fine brought his all-encompassing campus carry bill to its first committee — unlike Gaetz’s, Fine’s bill would have allowed all students to carry — but it was voted down. Fine later left to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Gaetz said that the heart of his bill is hardening Florida’s state colleges and universities by requiring better threat assessments, better responses to threats, and better communications between first responders and faculty in emergencies.

SB 896 would allow university employees, faculty, and students who are also working for a college to either openly carry or carry conceal weapons on campus. It also would expand the school guardian program to the university level and create an offense of discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of school.

Gaetz said his measure also would require universities to ensure all classroom doors lock during an emergency — especially after FSU students discovered during the April school shooting that their doors could not lock. He estimates that around $60 million will end up being appropriated for the effort, in line with what Gov. Ron DeSantis requested in his budget proposal last week.

An identical bill has been filed in the House by Rep. Michelle Salzman.

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Gov. Ron DeSantis is confident that his proposed “AI Bill of Rights” to crack down on unfettered artificial intelligence would not violate President Donald Trump’s new executive order invalidating certain state-level AI regulations.

But if it does draw a lawsuit from the Department of Justice, DeSantis thinks Florida would win.

“I’m not concerned about the recent executive order, because it doesn’t apply against the states directly,” DeSantis said Monday, speaking during a Jupiter roundtable alongside three parents whose children were harmed by AI chatbots.

“I don’t think we’re gonna be doing anything that would even give rise to a Dormant Commerce Clause lawsuit from the U.S. DOJ but, to the extent we did, I’m confident that we’d be able to win that because, clearly, we’d be legislating within the confines of our 10th Amendment rights as states,” he continued.

The anti-AI panel was DeSantis’ latest stab at raising the alarm over unregulated artificial intelligence. For months, he has hinted at proposing legislation—revealing an outline last week—and has long spoken out against the costs of AI data centers, the danger AI presents to children, and the hazard of foreign-owned AI models being adopted by Americans.

He continued to hammer away at those points Monday, pausing briefly to deride the U.S. House of Representatives for approving a 10-year moratorium on states regulating AI.

Although the U.S. Senate stripped that provision out of the “Big Beautiful Bill” before Trump signed it into law, the move signaled a deepening split on the right over whether to fan the AI flames or stifle them. This divide became apparent when Trump early in his second term allied himself with tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

“What [Congress said] is, we don’t want California doing things that are woke or all this other stuff. Like, yeah, I mean, I don’t either, but that’s not a reason to take away Florida’s rights,” DeSantis said. “Are you kidding me? And second of all, these [tech] companies, their muscle memory is to be woke. They don’t need California to tell them.”

Megan Garcia and her husband Sewell Setzter joined DeSantis to tell the story of how their 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzter III, was sexually groomed by an AI chatbot nicknamed “Daenerys Targaryen.” The bot, created through the platform Character.AI, tried to convince Setzter to “come home to her.” He committed suicide in February.

Another mom, Mandi Furness from Texas, explained how her autistic son was groomed by one of these chatbots. The bot told her son to call child protective services on his parents when they attempted to take his phone away, encouraged him to self-harm, and even claimed that cutting off his access to the app justified killing them.

The teenager attempted to commit suicide, and only recently was released from a mental institution, Furness said.

“We lost our son. He’s still alive, but I don’t know if he’ll ever be the same,” she added.

What’s in Trump’s executive order?

Trump signed his executive order on AI last week. The document aims to create a federal standard for AI regulation that isn’t undermined by a “patchwork” of varying state laws.

It directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to create an “AI Litigation Task Force” within 30 days whose “sole responsibility shall be to challenge State AI laws” that run afoul of the order; Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to identify which laws require “AI models to alter their truthful outputs;” and White House AI czar David Sacks and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy Michael Kratsios to recommend language for a federal statute preempting state laws regulating AI, NBC reported.

These recommendations won’t touch state AI laws regulating child-safety protections, data center infrastructure, or state procurement of AI—all matters DeSantis has emphasized in his “Bill of Rights.”

“To win, United States AI companies must be free to innovate without cumbersome regulation.  But excessive State regulation thwarts this imperative,” Trump’s order reads.

“The resulting framework must forbid State laws that conflict with the policy set forth in this order.  That framework should also ensure that children are protected, censorship is prevented, copyrights are respected, and communities are safeguarded.”

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The push by Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo to repeal some of the state’s vaccine requirements for public schools and day care kicked off last Friday with a lengthy and contentious hearing held in a hotel in Florida’s Panhandle.

Ladapo made the call to get rid of all vaccine mandates contained in both state rule and state law even though many of those mandates have been considered a public health success.

About 90 people attended the Department of Health three-hour public meeting on the proposed changes to Rule 64D-3.046, specifically removing the requirements for children to receive the hepatitis B, varicella (chicken pox), and haemophilus influenza B or Hib vaccine. The proposal would remove those vaccines, along with the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, for admission to a licensed day care facility.

Emma Spencer, DOH division director for public health statistics and performance management, and facilitator of the meeting, described the workshop as an opportunity for “public input” as “part of an ongoing efforts to ensure the health and safety of Florida students and communities.”

And there was lots of input, ranging from medical professionals to parental rights advocates to those who questioned whether a measles outbreak is underway in South Carolina. More than 280 people are in quarantine there for measles after a significant influx in cases following the Thanksgiving holiday, Phoenix affiliate South Carolina Daily Gazette reports.

Susan Sweeten, chief marketing officer for the National Vaccine Information Center and a Florida resident, was first to testify. The center’s website says the group is “dedicated to preventing vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and advocating for informed consent protections in medical policies and public health laws.“

Sweeten said her son, just five hours old, was injured when he was given a hepatitis B vaccine in the hospital. 

“When I questioned it, she said, ‘If you don’t give your baby the vaccine, your pediatrician won’t see him, and you won’t know if he’s deaf, dumb, or blind,’” Sweeten told the DOH panel. “This is not informed consent. That is coercion. Vaccines should never be tied to a child’s education. Nothing that pierces the skin should ever be used as leverage over a child’s opportunity to education and to learn,” she said.

Doctors who showed up insisted vaccines work and that elimination of the mandates would lead to a resurgence of controllable childhood diseases.

“As a pediatric infectious disease physician, I cared for children before the varicella vaccine and saw ‘simple chickenpox’ turn into pneumonia, encephalitis, and needless hospitalizations — outcomes we can now prevent because of vaccines,” said Dr. Nectar Aintablian, a pediatric infectious disease specialist in Tallahassee. “Vaccines are victims of their own success; because they work, we forget the suffering they avert.”

Rick Frye, another Florida resident, said he’s been beseeching people not to vaccinate their children for about the past 20 years.

“Now, any pediatrician in this room who tells you that a kid needs 80 shots shouldn’t be trusted to put a band aid on a kid’s knee,” he said. “It’s obviously about freedom, but it’s also about the children these pediatricians damage because they get paid to to vaccinate these kids.”

More hearings coming

The meeting was the first one held on the proposed changes, but likely won’t be the last given the administrative rulemaking process and the requirements for public input.

The department did not say when the next meeting will occur, only that it would be announced in advance in the Florida Administrative Register.

DOH staff asked that public comment on the proposed rule changes be sent to the DOH at vaccinerule@flhealth.gov by Dec. 22, although Spencer acknowledged comments would remain open as the state works on the proposed changes.

The League of Women Voters of Florida didn’t focus on the science behind the vaccines, adverse reactions to vaccines, or parental rights. LWV representativeMary Winn focused her testimony instead on how the proposed changes conflict with the DOH’s statutory mission.

“This rule could probably be updated to reflect current practice and the responsibilities of the state, the Department of Health, private-practicing medical professionals, parents, and the public at large. But any changes must be consistent with the public health mission of the Department of Health as stated in Florida law,” she said. 

Winn noted that statutes require the DOH to conduct a communicable disease prevention and control program, which includes school immunization programs. The agency is charged by statute to ensure that “all children in this state” are immunized against vaccine-preventable diseases, she said.

“Eliminating the mandatory requirement will result in lower levels of immunization, which is contrary to that law stating that you are responsible for all of the children to be vaccinated in the state,” she said.

‘Tremendous damage’

Dr. Frederick Southwick testified that he has been an infectious disease specialist for 45 years. Although he worked with adult populations for much of his career, Southwick recalled helping cover pediatric infectious diseases in 1983 and 1984, before introduction of the Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) bacteria, which would be eliminated under the DOH proposal.

“What did I see?” he asked. 

Before the Hib vaccine, “I saw cases of orbital cellulitis, infections that went from the sinus causing bulging-eye blindness. I saw severe cases of pneumonia. I saw severe cases of otitis media. I saw bone infections, osteomyelitis that damaged the growth plate of the children so their bones could no longer grow. I saw sepsis, where patients got hypotension and died,” Southwick said.

“And the most feared was bacterial meningitis, and that had carried a 20% mortality. And this was the leading cause of deafness before the HiB vaccine. In 1985, the Hib vaccine came in, we went from 20,000 hospitalizations to 30, and today we don’t see any of those diseases. You are ending that vaccine. It’s going to cause tremendous damage.”

The proposed rule would change the existing religious exemption people can claim to refuse vaccines, removing language prohibiting exemptions based on personal or philosophical reasons.

Additionally, the proposed rule would allow parents, guardians, and college and university applicants aged 18-23 to decline to participate in documenting their vaccination status in the Florida SHOTS program, which is how the state collects vaccination data.

DeSantis and Ladapo made national headlines in September when they announced they’d like to eliminate all vaccine mandates from Florida statutes and rules, a move that could affect schoolchildren but also college students and even nursing home residents.

Ladapo said at the time that mandates drip “with disdain and slavery.” 

The proposed rule only removes the vaccines the DOH has authorized through its rules. The proposal cannot eliminate the school vaccines mandated by statute. 

The Legislature’s reaction

To date there’s been no legislation filed on behalf of the DeSantis administration to eliminate vaccine mandates from Florida statutes. Even Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott distanced himself from the idea. 

Meanwhile, Senate President Ben Albritton told reporters this week that he’s a believer in what he called “the vaccines of old,” but that he has never gotten an mRNA vaccine — used during the COVID-19 epidemic — because “he doesn’t trust the technology.”

He said he and his wife support parental rights.

“Missy and I believe we’re going to separate the mRNA stuff from the traditional stuff. And let’s be thoughtful about what works and what we know.”

Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Democrat from Orlando, is pushing a proposal (SB 626) to amend statutes to require the vaccines (hepatitis B, chickenpox, haemophilus influenzae type b, and pneumococcal disease) Ladapo is trying to eliminate via rule.

SB 626 has been referred to the Senate Health Policy, Education Pre-K – 12, and Rules committees.

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A debate on racism, sexism, and in-context quotations erupted Tuesday over a bill that would make Charlie Kirk only the second person—after Ronald Reagan—to be commemorated in Florida statute.

Republican Sen. Jonathan Martin would memorialize Kirk’s birthday, Oct. 14, as “Charlie Kirk Day of Remembrance.” It comes three months after Kirk, a 31-year-old podcaster and right-wing debater, was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University.

It would slate him alongside Reagan as the only two people to have a special observance day in Florida law. Unlike holidays, observance days don’t allow for time off from school or work, and are generally just a day of recognition for a figure or event.

“I think that anybody who saw the video of Charlie Kirk getting—at his last speech, his last rally … ” Martin said before the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee, appearing to get choked up as he took a lengthy pause and cleared his throat. “… Would agree that it’s important to remember somebody who lived a peaceful life.”

He continued, “I think that Ronald Reagan would be 100% OK with a Charlie Kirk Remembrance Day in the state of Florida.”

Following Kirk’s assassination on Sep. 10, Vice President J.D. Vance canceled his 9/11 memorial visit to fly out west. A week later, President Donald Trump and top Cabinet members spoke at his memorial service, held at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

The political ramifications were massive. Teachers nationwide were suspended or fired for either applauding Kirk’s death or publicly claiming he was hateful. Some in the Trump administration, along with all of the Florida Cabinet, supported visa revocations for visa holders celebrating his death.

In Florida, pro-Kirk bills flooded in. Aside from Martin’s legislation, Rep. Kevin Steele—a candidate for chief financial officer—is sponsoring a measure to rename a road at every state university after Kirk. Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez and Rep. Juan Porras have proposed a “Charlie Kirk Memorial Avenue” in Miami-Dade County. And Rep. Yvette Benarroch is carrying an identical form of Martin’s bill in the House.

‘Does not deserve the honor’

Although Martin emphasized that his bill was designed to signal to Floridians that political violence is wrong, Democrats raised serious concerns about some of Kirk’s comments—which Martin claimed were “spliced” and out-of-context.

They included quotes deriding Michelle Obama, Joy Reid, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Ketanji Brown Jackson as lacking “the brain processing power” to be taken seriously; claiming “prowling Blacks” target white Americans; questioning whether certain Black people received a job because of affirmative action; asking Taylor Swift to “submit” to Travis Kelce; and suggesting some gun deaths might be worth it to keep the Second Amendment “to protect our other God-given rights.”

“If you have to go through such mental and verbal gymnastics to explain away what this man said, how does he deserve a day of remembrance?” Sen. Tina Polsky asked.

“He was a provocateur. He was a podcaster. He did go on these college campuses, and it’s great that he was debating with people—that’s what we do all the time, that’s fine. But he’s still responsible for his own statements, no matter how you try to justify it,” she continued. “He does not deserve this honor.”

The bill passed along party lines, and will advance to the Education Postsecondary Committee.

“I went back and watched the debates,” Martin said. “If you look at the context, there’s not a single thing that he said that would disgust any reasonable American. … I don’t arrive at the same conclusion that those in the media that were trying to attack Charlie arrived at.”

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Contact Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.

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