Florida....? oh yeah, Florida.

[China]

Miami Police Department to Host Back-to-School Drive at Strip Club

 

The Miami Police Department is hosting a back-to-school drive at an unlikely venue: iconic downtown Miami strip joint and nightclub E11EVEN. “Brunch with a Cop” goes down at the “24-hour ultraclub” on Tuesday at 11 a.m. The “lavish” event will feature a “diverse menu,” with organizers encouraging donations from attendees. Some social media users were quick to point out the ironic site for such an occasion, with one calling it the “most Miami thing that’s ever happened.” In 2018, a Miami cop was charged after he was seen snorting cocaine in the same nightclub.

[Cooked Crack]

Florida mosquitoes test positive for malaria as officials spray area

 

Quote

Three mosquitoes collected near Sarasota, Florida, have tested positive for malaria amid an unusual cluster of locally acquired cases. It is the first time in two decades that US mosquitoes have tested positive for malaria in connection to US-based cases. 

 

Further Reading Malaria spreading in Texas and Florida; first US-based cases in two decades Four cases have so far been confirmed in Florida, all in close geographic proximity, health officials reported on Monday. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported Wednesday that officials are investigating a possible fifth case. 

 

With outbreak response efforts ongoing, officials have been trapping and testing local mosquitoes. In a statement to CBS News, Sarasota County Mosquito Management Services manager said the three positive insects were among more than a hundred sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for testing.

 

[China]

Gov. DeSantis signs bill to test use of controversial radioactive road material

 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law Thursday that will allow researchers to study road construction, using a controversial material, phosphogypsum.

 

"Phosphogypsum is a byproduct of the fertilizer production process. Synthetic fertilizers are made with phosphate rock, which is dug out from under the ground here in Florida," Elise Bennett, the Florida and Caribbean director, and attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said.

 

The Center for Biological Diversity advocated against the law, noting that the waste product phosphogypsum is described by the EPA as a "radioactive material" that contains "small amounts" of uranium and radium.

 

"Which can let off radon gas, which can cause cancer in people. There are also heavy metals and many other things that are toxic to people that are in that waste," Bennett said.

 

Because of that risk, phosphogypsum is federally required to be stored in gypstack systems. This is meant to prevent it from coming in contact with and harming people and the environment.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

[LD0506]

Helping the trogs mutate even more assures continued Republican control

[China]

2 top public health positions in Ron DeSantis' administration are vacant

 

Two of the top public health officials in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration — responsible for tracking and preventing the spread of communicable diseases — have left their positions in recent months.

 

The departures come as public health is increasingly being politicized, and some experts say it leaves the state facing a "serious health risk."

 

Late last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an alert after four cases of malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes, were found in Florida for the first time in two decades. As a result, the Florida Health Department has issued an advisory on mosquito-borne illnesses. 

 

DeSantis’ hands-off approach during the height of the Covid pandemic made him a star with conservatives nationally, and he regularly touts his strategy in his 2024 presidential campaign. But the approach has also given Florida the reputation of being ground zero for how the division in public health administration is treated.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

So Florida is more backwards than Belize, Azerbaijan, and Tajikistan.  Florida has malaria, but Belize, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan have been declared malaria-free by the WHO

[China]

Ron DeSantis Under Pressure as Florida Malaria Cases Spread

 

lorida Gov. Ron DeSantis is facing pressure amid a growing number of malaria cases in the state, after reports emerged that two public-health roles related to combating the spread of diseases have been left vacant for months.

 

Two more cases of the mosquito-borne virus were detected in Sarasota County, to the south of Tampa, between June 25 and July 1, according to the latest Florida Health Department virus-monitoring report. It brings the total number of cases of the disease that were contracted inside the U.S. this year to six in Florida. The county, along with neighboring Manatee County and Miami-Dade, are now under alerts.

 

The discovery of the malaria infections marks the first time in two decades that the virus has been locally acquired in the U.S., as opposed to being linked to international travel.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

[Bang]

Pfft. Disease. What a crock

 

~Biff

[China]

DeSantis is the disease.

[Jabbyrwock]

13 minutes ago, China said:

DeSantis is the disease.

 

Ignorance is the disease.  In most cases of the sincere and/or wanton variants.  Frequently coupled with conscientious stupidity.

 

DeSantis is just a symptom.

[LD0506]

11 hours ago, Jabbyrwock said:

 

Ignorance is the disease.  In most cases of the sincere and/or wanton variants.  Frequently coupled with conscientious stupidity.

 

DeSantis is just a symptom.

 

It's not just ignorance, it's willful ignorance, a rejection of civilization itself. How does anyone flat out deny math or science or medicine? Words aren't words, numbers aren't numbers, "alternative facts" fer crissakes! It is some atavistic embrace of barbarism and its unfettered freedom to rape and kill and eat without question or consequence. There is something dark and dangerous in the soul of our species. 

 

[EmirOfShmo]

Farmers Insurance pulls out of Florida, affecting 100,000 homeowners

 

TALLAHASSEE — Farmers Insurance Group announced Tuesday that it would no longer write new policies or renew existing homeowner, auto and umbrella policies, a day after Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis took to Twitter to threaten to take action if it did.

“Hearing rumors @WeAreFarmers might pull out of Florida,” Patronis tweeted Monday afternoon. “If that’s true my office is going to explore every avenue possible for holding them accountable. Don’t get to leave after taking policyholder money.”

A spokesman for Patronis declined to explain what action he would take to hold the agency accountable, directing all questions to the Office of Insurance Regulation, which Patronis oversees as CFO.

The state agency on Tuesday received a “market reduction notice from Farmers Insurance Group,” communications director Samantha Bequer said in an email to the Orlando Sentinel. “OIR is reviewing the notice in accordance with applicable Florida Statutes.”

 

https://news.yahoo.com/farmers-insurance-pulls-florida-angering-170200183.html

[Larry]

Maybe they can pass a law to take the insurance company's land from them.  

 

Or a special tax, just on them.  

[Cooked Crack]

Florida Japanese steak house closing after meth found in soy sauce

 

Quote

PACE, Fla. (WKRG) — A Japanese steak house in Pace has announced they are closing just weeks after an investigation by the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office found that some of the soy sauce was contaminated with methamphetamine. 

 

An investigation into Nikko Japanese Steak House began when seven people were hospitalized after eating at the restaurant.

 

Detectives did test two soy sauce bottles and unopened to-go packets of soy sauce which came back as positive for meth. On July 7, the owners of the restaurant made a Facebook post that said they would be closing because they were “unable to sustain the cost to stay open.”

 

[TradeTheBeal!]

No worries.

 

 

[China]

Cops: Busted Man Hid Bullet Behind His Balls

 

An accused fraudster had a bullet hidden beneath his testicles, according to jail personnel who last night found the live round while conducting a strip search, records show.

 

Police allege that Michael Keanu Brennen, 24, “utilized stolen information on a credit card” to pay for a $3000, 17-night stay at a vacation home in Indian Rocks Beach, two blocks from the Gulf of Mexico.

 

While being booked into jail, Brennen was warned that additional penalties would apply if he was hiding drugs or contraband. Though Brennen claimed not to be carrying, an unfortunate jail deputy located “a .22 caliber round of ammunition” that was “positioned underneath the suspect’s testicles,” according to a court affidavit.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Veterans quit DeSantis’ Florida State Guard over militialike training

 

When the first recruiting class of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new Florida State Guard showed up for training last month, they had varied experiences and expectations.

 

Over 30 days in June, teenagers out of high school and retired military veterans came to Camp Blanding, the National Guard base near Jacksonville.

 

Many were told they would volunteer for a revived State Guard with a nonmilitary mission: help Floridians in times of need or disaster.

 

Instead, the state’s National Guard trained the volunteers for combat. Khakis and polos were replaced by camouflaged uniforms. Volunteers assured they could keep their facial hair were ordered to shave. And they were drilled on how to rappel with ropes, navigate through the woods and respond to incidents under military command.

 

When DeSantis announced in 2021 that he wanted to revive the long-dormant State Guard, he vowed it would help Floridians during emergencies. But in the year since its launch, key personnel and a defined mission remain elusive. The state is looking for the program’s third leader in eight months. According to records reviewed by the Times/Herald and interviews with program volunteers, a number of recruits quit after the first training class last month because they feared it was becoming too militaristic.

 

Weeks into that inaugural June training, one volunteer, a disabled retired Marine Corps captain, called the local sheriff’s office to report he was battered by Florida National Guard instructors when they forcibly shoved him into a van after he questioned the program and its leadership.

 

DeSantis’ office referred questions to Maj. Gen. John D. Haas, Florida’s adjutant general overseeing the Florida National Guard.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[LD0506]

[China]

Florida's 'Joker' cut off GPS tracker, rearrested one day after being released from 9-year sentence

 

Albert Lee Gardner, also referred to as "Joker" in court records going back to when he was 18-years-old, reportedly was found overdosed by sheriff deputies after he cut off his court-mandated GPS tracking device.

 

The 29-year-old survived after being administered Narcan and was taken to the Hernando County Detention Center with the charges of violating his probation -- from a previous guilty adjudication of lewd or lascivious battery with a victim between 12-and-15-years-old -- and tampering with an electronic monitoring device, per the Hernando County Sheriff's Office (HCSO).

 

On July 8, a probation and parole officer was at a 7-Eleven gas station off South Broad Street in Brooksville just before 2 a.m.

 

It was noticed that Gardner's GPS tracker showed him at this location for an unusual amount of time, according to HCSO. But Joker was nowhere to be found.

 

Deputies returned to the gas station after looking for the missing parole around the city then found the tracking device in a garbage can at the location.

 

Shortly after HCSO deputies found the tracker, a call came in about an overdose less than a mile down the street.

 

Authorities responded to this call and quickly realized it was their missing man.

 

Narcan was administered to Joker, reversing the overdose and saving his life, HCSO said.

 

Evolution of The Joker

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

On 5/5/2023 at 8:18 PM, China said:

Firing of librarian is yet another irrational act by New College Board of Trustees

 

I grew up in Sarasota, and I graduated from Pine View and then New College of Florida before moving away to pursue a career up north. Because of my deep local ties, I have feelings of both anger and sadness as I watch from afar while my alma mater continues to be transformed through a takeover led by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

 

During the relatively short period since DeSantis overhauled the New College Board of Trustees, we've seen:

• The firing of Patricia Okker, a president who actually espoused the same views on political diversity that the board trustees claim to possess.
• The firing of the college's diversity officer, for no compelling reason.
• The firing of the college's provost, also for no compelling reason.
• The raiding of the college's foundation fund to pay the outsized salaries of the interim president and new foundation appointees.
• The denial of tenure to several faculty members.
• The posting of religious propaganda on New College's social media platform.
• The commitment of huge sums of money toward creating an athletics program that no one at the college –other than the trustees board – believes is vital or necessary.
• The distasteful mocking of New College students who have expressed concerns about the radical and rapid changes taking place at the school.

And now the trustees have taken yet another unfortunate step by firing Helene Gold, New College's information librarian and associate dean of academic engagement, as part of what they have called a restructuring plan.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

On 5/5/2023 at 8:49 PM, China said:

In related news...

 

New College scores millions in Florida’s budget amid DeSantis revamp

 

Florida GOP lawmakers this week supported the drastic changes Gov. Ron DeSantis is seeking to transform New College of Florida into a conservative-leaning school by agreeing to send more than $34 million to the school and backing a slate of controversial trustees who are now leading it.

 

The money is meant to provide scholarships for enticing potential students, help with building repairs and bolster school operations. The DeSantis-picked trustees, meanwhile, were confirmed by Republican state senators to run the school and have already made a noticeable impact on the Sarasota campus to the dismay of students, faculty and Democrats.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

At New College of Florida, a ‘ridiculously high’ number of faculty are gone

 

More than one-third of New College of Florida faculty will not be returning in the fall.

 

That’s according to Provost Bradley Thiessen, who called the 36 departures in a single year a “ridiculously high” number for a school with fewer than 100 full-time teachers.

 

Some of those were retirements or sabbaticals that were planned long before the school made national headlines in January, when Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed six trustees with a mission to transform the small liberal arts school.

 

But many are teachers and researchers who — frustrated and dismayed by the school’s new leadership — saw no other option but to resign or take leave to look for opportunities elsewhere.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[88Comrade2000]

Florida Schools Will Teach How Slavery Brought ‘Personal Benefit’ to Black People

 

 

 

Edited July 21, 2023 by 88Comrade2000

[EmirOfShmo]

A leprosy endemic? So far this year, eight people got leprosy in Florida

 

Leprosy, the infectious disease most commonly known for its biblical associations, has become more common in Florida, researchers warn.

In 2020, the Sunshine State was among the states with the highest number of leprosy cases, contributing to evidence that the infection is becoming endemic in the southeastern region of the country, according to a journal published in an August edition from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Leprosy, scientifically referred to as Hansen’s disease, damages the skin and peripheral nervous system.

Although leprosy has been historically uncommon in the U.S. since the early 1980s, the report states that cases have more than doubled in the region over the past decade.

Central Florida seems to be the focus of the rise in cases, with researchers pointing out that 81% of leprosy cases in Florida between 2002 and 2021 came from the area. Nationally, Central Florida accounted for almost one-fifth of cases.

 

https://www.rawstory.com/florida-leprosy/

[China]

6 hours ago, EmirOfShmo said:

A leprosy endemic? So far this year, eight people got leprosy in Florida

 

Leprosy, the infectious disease most commonly known for its biblical associations, has become more common in Florida, researchers warn.

In 2020, the Sunshine State was among the states with the highest number of leprosy cases, contributing to evidence that the infection is becoming endemic in the southeastern region of the country, according to a journal published in an August edition from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Leprosy, scientifically referred to as Hansen’s disease, damages the skin and peripheral nervous system.

Although leprosy has been historically uncommon in the U.S. since the early 1980s, the report states that cases have more than doubled in the region over the past decade.

Central Florida seems to be the focus of the rise in cases, with researchers pointing out that 81% of leprosy cases in Florida between 2002 and 2021 came from the area. Nationally, Central Florida accounted for almost one-fifth of cases.

 

https://www.rawstory.com/florida-leprosy/

 

Maybe they got it from armadillos.

[Larry]

Leprosy. 
Half my body's falling off of me. 
I'm not .. half the man I used to be. 

[Long n Left]

8 hours ago, EmirOfShmo said:

A leprosy endemic? So far this year, eight people got leprosy in Florida

 

Leprosy, the infectious disease most commonly known for its biblical associations, has become more common in Florida, researchers warn.

In 2020, the Sunshine State was among the states with the highest number of leprosy cases, contributing to evidence that the infection is becoming endemic in the southeastern region of the country, according to a journal published in an August edition from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Leprosy, scientifically referred to as Hansen’s disease, damages the skin and peripheral nervous system.

Although leprosy has been historically uncommon in the U.S. since the early 1980s, the report states that cases have more than doubled in the region over the past decade.

Central Florida seems to be the focus of the rise in cases, with researchers pointing out that 81% of leprosy cases in Florida between 2002 and 2021 came from the area. Nationally, Central Florida accounted for almost one-fifth of cases.

 

https://www.rawstory.com/florida-leprosy/

The Villages strike again!

[PleaseBlitz]

Make America Florida, Lepers!