Ron DeSantis

Hard times are on the horizon.

Unemployment rates are creeping up, especially in the public-service sector, and, like many others, Florida’s current governor will soon be out of a job.

He’s got only 15 months left to ride the taxpayer gravy train....

Florida’s announced push to eliminate all vaccine mandates drew fierce condemnation from Democrats, but it is also exposing a potential rift among Republicans.

Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott distanced himself from Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and their pledge to strip mandates and immunization requirements from both Florida law and rules carried out by state agencies.

Other prominent GOP officials, however, took a less clear stance and suggested they supported parental rights without explicitly endorsing the elimination of mandates....

Citing state policy on tenure, elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and the cost of living, Florida faculty laid out their frustrations in a recent survey.

In a Faculty in the South survey conducted by various conferences of the American Association of University Professors, 31% of Florida respondents said they have applied for a job outside of Florida since 2023. That number was 25% among all survey respondents in the South.

The same, 31% of Florida respondents, said they plan to seek employment in another state during the next hiring cycle....

Younger readers may be unaware there was a time when politicians followed the rules, almost as if they cared about good government.

Certainly there were liars, fraudsters, and zealots, your Sen. Joe McCarthys, your Sen. Styles Bridges, and, of course, the great-granddaddy of corruption and sleaze, Richard Nixon. But most lawmakers actually seemed to believe in, you know, the law.

Seems almost quaint....

Gov. Ron DeSantis threw out the V word on Thursday and warned state legislators he is getting ready to use his line-item veto power.

During a lengthy press conference on higher education held on the campus of Florida Atlantic University, the Republican governor took shots at the Legislature for not passing a budget on time. He also noted that the final $115.1 billion budget includes enough local projects for individual lawmakers to leave him “kind of numb.”

He will have to sign the budget and use any line-item vetoes before July 1....

The entire state of Florida should be declared an evacuation zone for human beings under 18. Not because ferocious hurricanes are bearing down, but because of the way its conservative “leaders” continue to endanger the youngest among us.

Florida is a crucible for casual violence foisted on children by egregious public policy which makes being a child or a young person in Florida dangerous.

This malign neglect directed towards children and teenagers is evident in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ continued pretense that there are no starving school-aged children, and that the state is more than capable of providing food and sustenance to them....

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) suggested over the weekend that a Trump administration official may have quietly contacted a federal appeals judge to stall a contempt inquiry, and the legal analyst interviewing him declared that if so, “people are going to jail.”

In a clip flagged by political video aggregator Acyn Torabi from the Legal AF podcast, Whitehouse laid out a hypothetical involving D.C. Circuit Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee.

“If some MAGA official communicated to Judge Rao or her chambers and that resulted in the administrative stay that held the door open and kept the facts from the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation and stalled investigation into misconduct by the DOJ,” Whitehouse began, “ask any judge how big a deal that is.”...

President Donald Trump cut off reporters and walked away after they repeatedly demanded evidence for his claim of widespread mail-in voting fraud in California.

Trump spoke to reporters outside the White House on Monday as he prepared to board Marine One for campaign events.

The midterm elections are less than a month away, on Nov. 3....

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) bragged about a road salt win at a Maine Senate debate, and her challenger's comeback had observers cheering.

On Tuesday, Collins faced Democratic challenger Troy Jackson in a debate weeks before the midterms. Asked what she would do about President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canada, Collins pointed to a specific victory.

"I was successful at getting road salt removed from the tariff list," Collins said. Jackson responded by pouncing on the answer....