A $ 7.6 million update of the Naples Airport terminal has begun.
Among the renovations: an improved lobby, an expanded passenger lounge, a marketplace for food and drinks, road improvements, additional exterior roofs and upgraded office space
“By modernizing our facility, we can offer additional services and amenities that our customers are used to,” said Christopher Rozansky, executive director of the Naples Airport Authority. “We’re also excited to bring a modern coastal vision to life with elements of the Naples Pier and undulating canopies.
The terminal improvements were designed by SchenkelShultz Architecture, with the project by Owen-Ames-Kimball Co.
$ 300 million senior community
A $ 300 million senior community made its debut in Collier County.
Located near the Greek Church of St. Katherine on Airport-Pulling Road, Siena Lakes is the 20th parish of Erickson Senior Living based in Baltimore.
According to In the Know, it has more than 350 independent living units, 35 beds for assisted living and 30 qualified nursing and memory care beds.
Some of the amenities: medical care center, pool areas, fitness center, spa, theater and restaurants, said Fred Moschetta, Siena sales director.
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»Would you like to help local small businesses get back on their feet and rebuild? Here is a way.
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Trump supporters forced their way into the U.S. Senate Chamber on Jan 6, 2021. Lawmakers in session ran for their lives. Five people died as a result of the insurrection. Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House voted Wednesday to establish a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection, in which a mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol.
In a 222-190 vote that was almost entirely party-line, just two Republicans joined Democrats in passing the resolution, which calls for a probe into “one of the darkest days of our democracy.” The two were Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. Nineteen Republicans did not vote.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a written statement slammed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, for voting against the select committee and for urging his members to do the same.
“Minority Leader McCarthy dodged, disrespected, and denied Officer Michael Fanone most of the reasonable asks the hero officer made of him,” she said.
Fanone was one of the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police officers who responded to the attack on the Capitol. In a meeting with the minority leader, Fanone asked McCarthy to take the select committee seriously, according to The Associated Press.
“Opposing the creation of the select committee breaks the promise [McCarthy] made to Jan. 6 heroes and their families,” Pelosi said.
Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) Credit: Official photo
McCarthy told Roll Call that he had no regrets in opposing the panel and added that the FBI should be the agency investigating the attack.
“Nancy Pelosi has spent all the time and all these months playing politics with this, and now we’re finding [the] select committee will be more politics of what she wants to do,” he told Roll Call.
Senate Democrats tried last month to advance to a vote on a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the insurrection, but Senate Republicans blocked the measure on a 54-35 vote, six short of the required 60-vote threshold.
The FBI and Justice Department have already brought more than 500 charges against individuals involved in the violent attack that left five dead and dozens of law enforcement officials injured.
The panel voted on by the House Wednesday will be modeled after the commission established following the 9/11 attacks and will be made up of 13 members, eight selected by Pelosi and five by McCarthy. The committee will hold subpoena power.
Pelosi has not yet tapped a lawmaker to chair the panel.
During the vote, Fanone and MPD Officer Daniel Hodges watched from the speaker’s box, along with the family of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died of injuries sustained during the attack. Sicknick’s mother, Gladys Sicknick, and his partner, Sandra Garza, also attended the vote.
During debate of the resolution on the House floor, Republicans argued against the committee because other committees were already doing their own investigations and the select panel would be redundant.
Republicans also argued that it was “purely for political purposes,” as Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.) put it.
“The resolution itself is full of charged language that implies an outcome,” Fischbach said. “Democrats are injecting partisanship into the equation, hoping to stretch out an investigation long enough to distract from their abject failure to govern.”
Democrats argued that a commission is necessary to understanding the cause of the attack on the Capitol and to pass reforms to ensure that it never happens again.
“To be clear, this was a domestic terrorist attack on everyone who works in this Capitol complex,” Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) said.
“We need a select committee to understand what happened on Jan. 6, where many of our lives were at risk. We need to know the facts and circumstances, we need to know the truth so that it never happens again,” she said.
The insurrection was spurred by a mob of pro-Trump supporters who attempted to stop Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election after former President Donald Trump held a rally blocks from the Capitol. Trump in remarks to the crowd promoted the falsehood that the election was stolen from him.
House Republicans in May stripped Cheney of her leadership position after she continued to push back against Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud. At the time, Cheney gave a scathing speech on the House floor, warning her GOP colleagues to not ignore the rule of law.
“Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar,” she said. “I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence, while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy.”
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Wednesday that the panel needs to investigate “the very essence of what Jan. 6 was about.”
“The president recruited people to come to Washington, incited them in a fiery speech, and then deployed them to the Capitol,” he said. “Heaven forbid that we would look at him being the cause of that event.”
U.S. Rep. Val Demings, a Democrat representing the Orlando area. Credit: Wikipedia
Rep. Val Demings, a Florida Democrat who was chief of police for the city of Orlando and is a candidate for U.S. Senate, said Congress not only owed it to the American people to investigate the insurrection, but also to the officers who protected them during the attack.
“I care and so do my brothers and sisters in blue,” she said. “We will not forget, and we will not let you forget.”
Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said he did not support the resolution because one of his amendments was rejected. He wanted the commission to look into a June 14, 2017, incident in which several Republicans were shot during a practice for a congressional baseball game. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana was severely injured.
“This has been created as a partisan issue,” Wenstrup said. “And if you’re not partisan then you include all the things that threaten us, that threaten this body, that threaten this building, and that threaten the people that work in it.”
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) who managed debate on the Democratic side, told Wenstrup that Republicans controlled the House in 2017 and could have initiated a commission into that shooting. He added that the resolution was based on language written by Democrats and Republicans in a bipartisan manner.
McGovern, who presided over the House while the mob was attacking, said that he was disappointed that McCarthy did not speak on the House floor to justify himself and his vote against the commission.
“I was hoping that maybe the minority leader would come to the floor and explain to us why he objected to the bipartisan commission and why he objects to the select committee and why he objects to getting to the truth,” he said. “There is no rational explanation for putting up roadblocks to get to the truth, unless you’re trying to keep it hidden, and I’m reminded of that old line, ‘If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear.’”
As debate on the resolution wrapped up, Pelosi extended condolences to Sicknick’s mother and partner and reiterated the need for the bipartisan commission.
“The sheer scale of the violence that day was shocking,” she said. “We have a duty to the Constitution and to the American people to find the truth of Jan. 6 and to ensure that such an assault on our democracy can never happen again.”
According to the National Hurricane Center, a potential tropical cyclone 5 is expected to become a tropical cyclone soon.
According to the NHC, the system is located approximately 1,135 miles east of the Windward Islands and has a maximum wind speed of 35 miles per hour. The system moves from west to northwest at 21 miles per hour.
According to the NHC, the system will pass or run over parts of the Windward Islands or southern Leeward Islands on Friday and travel to the Caribbean on Friday night.
Chief meteorologist Dennis Phillips said the system is expected to be Elsa, the fifth-named storm of the season.
Warnings and Precautions:
Tropical cyclone monitoring activated …
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
St. Lucia
Barbados
Martinique
Guadeloupe
Hurricane resource
Potential Tropical Cyclone Five is expected to become a tropical storm soon
The ruins of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside. Credit: Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department
Two more bodies have been recovered from the ruins of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, and they are children, Miami Dade County Mayor Danielle Levine Cava announced Wednesday evening.
That brings the death count to 18.
The children were aged 10 years and 4 years, she said. That leaves 139 people accounted for and 145 not accounted for.
She did not mention the children’s names.
“Any loss of life, especially given the unexpected, unprecedented nature of this event is a tragedy. But the loss of our children is too great to bear,” Cava said during a news conference.
Earlier Wednesday, officials said they’re not giving up hope of recovering survivors from the remains of the condominium building, which pancaked early Thursday last week.
Naples biologist Ian Bartoszek said it took a lot of sweat and a little blood to catch the two heaviest Burmese pythons in Florida.
On June 10, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida published the largest study on invasive Burmese pythons. The study, which began in 2013, focused on tagging pythons with radio trackers to help biologists understand the animal’s habitat size, movement rates, and habitat selection.
During the study, two of the heaviest pythons were discovered on state records. According to Bartoszek, a record 185-pound female was captured along with a 140-pound male. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has yet to review the record, but the largest female python ever caught in Florida weighed 164.5 pounds.
Bartoszek and his team brought over 1,000 snakes to the Conservancy’s snake laboratory in Naples. Over half were females who can lay an average of 42 eggs per brood cycle.
“This is a tough job and we’ve been tracking these top invasive predators for the past eight years,” said Bartoszek on the Conservancy Southwest Florida website.
The study concluded that continued tracking of pythons in South Florida during the breeding season may help loosen the species’ stranglehold.
Previous studies have shown that Burmese pythons avoid urbanization. This latest study added that in urban areas, the pythons crowd around riverside alongside canals and large farms. The study also found that the snakes inhabit elevated areas.
Given the breeding season and habitats, the study speculated that snake discovery and removal rates of reproductive female pythons may increase.
The Burmese python problem in Florida is believed to result from humans releasing them as unwanted pets, which has resulted in decreased mammal populations and increased competition with endangered Florida panthers for food.
This story originally appeared on Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.
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Volunteers unfurl a giant banner printed with the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.
For months, Gov. Ron DeSantis has been riding a wave of conservative moves, such as banning Critical Race Theory, supporting proposed civic standards that don’t include the word slavery and requiring campus surveys to ensure conservative ideas are not suppressed.
Now, DeSantis has vetoed a civics education bill, SB 146 — which got bipartisan support from lawmakers — in part because of what’s called “action civics,” which critics consider leftist.
What does action civics mean?
According to a commentary posted on the website of The Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit, conservative think tank, action civics “encourages students to participate in protests and demonstrations more than study history and our founding ideals, and understand the structure of American government.”
In another article, from the conservative National Review said “the bill is likely to bring leftist ‘action civics’ to Florida.”
“Action civics inappropriately politicizes schooling by authorizing student political protests and lobbying for course credit,” the article reads. “That is wrong in principle. Also, through a combination of teacher bias, peer pressure, and the influence of politically biased non-profits, the action-civics ‘projects’ in question almost invariably support the political Left.”
The bill, SB 146, would have required high school students to participate in a practicum intended to “inspire meaningful civic engagement and help students learn how governmental entities at the local, state or federal level interact with the public which they represent and serve.”
But in a message about the veto, DeSantis says that SB 146 “seeks to further ‘action civics’ but does so in a way that risks promoting the preferred orthodoxy of two particular institutions.”
Two institutions are mentioned in the bill: The University of South Florida campus in St. Petersburg and a nonprofit YMCA.
The bill was sponsored by Sen. Jeff Brandes, a Republican who represents part of Pinellas County. During the 2021 session, SB 146 received unanimous support from both legislative chambers before it was sent to the governor’s desk.
State Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg. Credit: Colin Hackley.
Brandes told the Phoenix that he was “shocked” by the veto. He said that throughout the 2021 session, he had been in contact with the governor’s office about the legislation.
“They have never raised concerns,” he said. Brandes called the veto explanation “nebulous” and said he would need to speak with DeSantis himself to find out what would need to change in order to potentially propose similar legislation next session.
The bill would have established the Citizen Scholar Program, intended to combine “academic instruction with the implementation of concepts learned into the local community… to improve civic literacy and expand educational experiences for students.” High school students who completed the program could have received up to six undergraduate credit hours.
The program would have been created within the University of South Florida and headquartered at the St. Petersburg campus. That is because of the campus’s “commitment to enhancing civic literacy and community engagement in the next generation of leaders,” the bill language states.
The bill then would have had USF St. Petersburg contract with the nonprofit YMCA to “provide students participating in the YMCA Youth and Government program the opportunity to be designated Citizen Scholar and earn undergraduate credit.”
Also, high school students would have been required to participate in a civics activity, such as taking up an unpaid government internship, or learning about the U.S. citizenship naturalization process and attending a naturalization oath ceremony. Then the student would have been required to write a research paper reflecting on their experience.
According to the veto message, DeSantis wrote that his administration has worked to strengthen civics instruction.
Adam Freeman, a spokesperson for USF, responded to the governor’s veto Wednesday, saying in part that, “We recognize that the Governor has the authority to veto all bills passed through the Legislature and we understand he has done so with SB 146.”
DeSantis has been targeting civics education initiatives in Florida schools, including banning Critical Race Theory, which analyzes how America’s legal systems uphold oppression of people of color. Also banned is material from New York Times’ The 1619 Project, which explores American History by focusing the narratives, experiences, and contributions of Black people in America.
Meanwhile, DeSantis has already approved other civic education bills, such as mandating students to compare political ideologies, like communism and totalitarianism, that conflict with principles of freedom and democracy.
The governor also approved legislation requiring high school students to take a civics literacy exam, though it appears to be a low-stakes test. At the college level, post-secondary students must demonstrate civic literacy through passing an assessment and taking a course on civic literacy in order to graduate.
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Florida. – Hundreds of high-rise buildings in South Florida are under inspection after the Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside last week.
Two dozen of these buildings have been “red flagged” in Miami-Dade County, and two of these buildings, technically enforced by the county, are owned by the county.
Both are social housing of the district, which were marked as part of their 40-year recertification process due to open problems.
These are the Little River Plaza, a five-story building at 8255 Northwest Miami Court, and Ward Tower, a 15-story building at 2200 Northwest 54th Street.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daneilla Levine Cava’s emergency audit has put apartment buildings like these two high on the list of priorities.
Edward Rojas is the district’s construction clerk and spoke to Layron Livingston of Local 10 News.
“We’re an organization that does 1,000 inspections every single day of the week,” said Rojas. “We do 250,000 inspections every year, so we are prepared for such tasks when they come.”
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Livingston followed up with the question of why the county’s buildings are on the list when so many inspections are made each week?
“The county properties go through the same process as everyone else,” he said. “The county properties, projects pull permits like any other, and they follow the same rules.”
Rojas went on to have these district buildings conform to regulations, stressing that not every problem is structurally dangerous.
“The certification covers electrical components, lighting and parking lot lighting,” said Rojas.
Local 10 has learned that parking lot lights are the problem at Little River Plaza.
Rojas said the reviews are still ongoing.
“Given the urgency and the current atmosphere, we will work diligently to bring all of these properties together as quickly as possible,” he said.
The county has dispatched a team of Construction and Code compliance staff to conduct its ongoing review and is hoping to complete the review within the month.
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New limits on use of force by police, new training standards, and greater focus on identifying dangerous police practices are now in effect in Florida, though Black legislative leaders say those efforts don’t go far enough.
House Bill 7051, the package of policing reforms negotiated this spring by members of Florida’s Legislative Black Caucus and Republican leaders, was signed into law late Tuesday by Gov. Ron DeSantis, along with 93 other approved bills. The reforms take effect immediately and would impact not only minorities but other people facing trouble with the law.
State Rep. Fentrice Driskell, a key sponsor of the reforms, said they constitute a first step toward safer relations between police and people of color in Florida and that the bipartisan legislative effort is worthy of celebration.
“I’m very glad to see the governor sign this into law. The entire Legislature should be proud of it,” Driskell, a Hillsborough County Democrat, told the Phoenix in a phone interview.
George Floyd, in the hour he died. Screenshot: bystander video broadcast by CNN
That said, the new policing law doesn’t ban chokeholds and vascular neck restraints but limits the use of them to encounters when an officer “perceives an immediate threat of serious bodily injury or death to himself, herself, or another person.” That kind of restraint was used of by former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin, now convicted of murder, to kill George Floyd, an unarmed, handcuffed suspect in his custody.
The killing of Floyd in May 2020, recorded on video seen around the world, ignited national and international protests against police brutality and inspired a movement for policing reform.
Rep. Fentrice Driskell, flanked by Sen. Perry Thurston, Rep. Patricia Williams and other lawmakers in the Florida Legislative Black Caucus called for policing reforms last February, saying people of color are needlessly being killed by police. Screenshot: The Florida Channel
Members of the Black Caucus, led by Rep. Driskell and Sen. Randolph Bracy, an Orlando Democrat, said when the reforms were approved in the final days of the 2021 legislative session, they were considered a good first step for preventing deadly encounters between police and the policed.
The reforms do not include, for instance, requirements that Florida law enforcement officers use bodycams and dashboard cameras to record their activities, as was sought by Black Caucus members and their allies.
“Police reform is long overdue in this state and this country. … People of color are disproportionately affected and in some horrifying cases have cost someone their life,” House Co-leader Bobby DuBose, a Broward Democrat, said in a press statement on Wednesday. “We will continue having conversations with our communities and law enforcement agencies to propose new legislation at the state and federal levels to ensure there is fair and just policing for all.”
Sen. Bobby Powell, a Palm Beach Democrat and chair of the Florida Legislative Black Caucus, said [This law] acknowledges there is a systemic issue in the hiring, training and accountability of law enforcement and correctional officers. I am hopeful that this is the first step of many towards substantial change.”
Florida Police Chiefs Association President Jeff Pearson. Credit: FPCA
On Wednesday, Police Chiefs Association President and Satellite Beach Police Chief Jeff Pearson praised the new law in a statement to the Phoenix:
“In the wake of George Floyd’s murder last year, the Florida Police Chiefs Association established a Subcommittee on Accountability and Social Change that hosted over 23 meetings with community leaders to determine how law enforcement can better serve communities. Their recommendations largely formed the basis for HB 7051.”
Pearson wrote that the new law “approaches reform correctly — factual and balanced, ever mindful of the dedication and sacrifice of law enforcement officers, but equally committed to public safety and accountability.”
Pearson said the subcommittee is working to finalize a detailed report of additional recommendations “that law enforcement and community leaders can use to continue making progress together.”
The new law also:
/Requires an officer who observes another officer engaging or attempting to engage in excessive use of force to intervene;
/Require law enforcement agencies to report quarterly to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on use-of-force incidents that result in serious bodily injury, death, or the discharge of a firearm at a person;
/Require applicants for law-enforcement, corrections or probation jobs to disclose their history of any pending criminal, civil, or administrative investigation;
/Require a law enforcement or correctional agency to maintain records on why an officer was terminated, resigned or retired;
/Requires the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission to establish standards for police training in use of force, and requires agencies to develop policies in proportional use of force and de-escalation techniques;
/Establishes that an officer has a duty to render medical assistance to a person in custody who is injured by an officer’s use of force;
/Requires instruction on recognizing symptoms and characteristics of a person with a substance abuse disorder or mental illness and how to appropriately respond;
/Requires independent reviews of officers’ use of force resulting in a death or the intentional firing of a firearm resulting in injury or death;
/Prohibits children younger than seven from being arrested, except if the child commits a forcible felony.
The Police Chiefs Association is holding its annual summer conference in Plantation. Association President Pearson will step down, and his successor, Stephan Dembinsky, director of the Daytona Beach Shores Public Safety Department, will be installed as the new president tonight, said association spokesman William Stander.
Rep. Driskell was invited to speak at the conference but was unable to attend.
The Florida Sheriffs Association has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Two state officials from the Tampa Bay area have been named People’s Champions by Progress Florida for their voting results during the 2021 legislative session. Progressive advocacy gave most of the Democrats A marks, while Republicans got all Fs.
Listen:
Representatives Ben Diamond and Fentrice Driskell received two of the six “People’s Champion” awards.
“That is the job. It represents the people and the people we represent, not the strong special interest, ”said Diamond. “I mean, the powerful special interest parties in Tallahassee have armies of lobbyists lining up to try and convince you to come with them on various votes.”
Florida testimonial
Progress Florida publishes its Florida Report Card after each session. The group identifies certain bills that may have either Floridian interests or corporate interests at their center. Each lawmaker in the state is then rated based on how they voted on those bills. That year, 27 votes in the House of Representatives and 29 votes in the Senate were examined.
Amy Weintraub is the assistant director of communications for Progress Florida.
“The majority of our legislators seem to definitely bow to the wishes of large corporations. And of special interest rather than what’s best for Floridians, ”she said. “A quick glance at our testimony makes that clear to everyone.”
Republicans have a strong majority in both houses of the legislature. They outnumber the Democrats 78-42 in the House of Representatives and 24-16 in the Senate. Weintraub said Progress Florida is looking at the merits of bills and how they are voted regardless of party affiliation. Many of the votes analyzed, however, ran across party lines.
“I really wish the Republicans would vote differently,” said Weintraub. “I really wish Republicans would see people first.”
In an email to WMNF, Helen Ferre, executive director of the Florida GOP, said Republicans are not losing sleep over the grades. She said if Progress Florida gives them all Fs it means they did a great job.
“Our Republican lawmakers are right to enact measures that expand family choice of schools, protect our environment, promote change rights, our law enforcement agencies and the rule of law,” she said.
Vote for the people
But Weintraub said a number of bills endorsed and passed by Republican lawmakers were problematic, like HB1601.
“It was essentially set up to allow large sugars to pollute the areas around Lake Okeechobee. It prevents class actions against farmers. That includes big sugar. “
That was one of the bills Diamond was proud of, even if one version ultimately passed.
“I try to have a very good record on environmental issues. Even if there are great interests on the other side. “
The testimony shows a strong political and ideological divide in Florida politics. But Rep. Said there was still hope for bipartisanism. Driskell was recognized for her work which spanned the aisle this year. She will take over the chairmanship of the Democrats in the House of Representatives in 2024.
“We have been able to have these conversations and get people on all sides involved and really make some progress,” she said.
Driskell said the Democrats tried to defy bills like the HB1 protest bill; the ban on sports for transgender girls; and a parental consent law seen as an attack on women’s choice. But with such one-sided representation, they don’t have much power to do business. If more Floridians want to raise their voices, they can do so on Election Day.
“We need a more balanced legislature. That means voting more Democrats so that we are not so inferior. And so that more of these negotiations can take place even with the very big lots. “
A full list of lawmakers, their rankings, and votes considered is available at Floridareportcard.com.
from Daily Florida Press https://dailyfloridapress.com/wmnf-two-tampa-bay-state-representatives-receive-a-peoples-champion-nickname-after-progress-floridas-2021-meeting/
GAINESVILLE, Florida – One of Florida’s 2021 signatories was honored for his performance on the grate as a senior last fall.
Early entrant Christopher Thomas, who has been on campus since January and trains with the Gators in the spring, was named Football Player of the Year in Defense at the Southwest Florida High School Sports Awards, presented annually by The News-Press and the Naples Daily News.
Thomas was a star for Dunbar in Ft. Myers, where he collected an impressive 88 tackles as a defensive line.
He recorded nine sacks and 31 tackles for a loss when he reached the 6A regional finals with his high school roster. Thomas signed up in Florida on September 23, then was officially inked with the Gators in the early signing stage before re-enrolling in January.
He’s been through all of spring soccer practice with the Gators and is one of several younger interior aligners to be counted on for the next several years after three seniors retire from Florida’s 2020 squad.
Thomas is massive too; he is listed on Florida’s list at 6 feet 5,314 pounds.
The 247Composite, an industry-generated recruiting ranking, has ranked Thomas as the number 442 player in the country in the 2021 recruiting class. He was ranked the No. 56 defensive lineman while he was ranked the No. 68 overall player in the state of Florida.
See similar https://247sports.com/college/florida/Article/Florida-Gators-Football-Christopher-Thomas-named-Southwest-Florida-Football-Player-of-the-Year-on-Defense-167213374/
Secure your pet safely and buckle up. The July 4th celebrations are back in 2021 and they are likely to boom repeatedly. Here is a summary of what is happening in the area.
Tom Brown Park Fireworks on Nov.
Fireworks will once again dazzle the night sky over Tom Brown Park when the annual 4th of July celebration returns to town on Sunday.
This year the festival takes place from 7-10pm with two musical performances and family-friendly events and food stalls. The traditional naturalization ceremony does not take place.
The Tallahassee Billy Rigsby Band will take the stage from 7:15 pm to 8:00 pm, followed by the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra for the remainder of the event. TSO plays the national anthem at 9.45 p.m. with accompanying fireworks.
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Parking spaces will be available within the park, and parking spaces for the disabled will be moved closer to the venue this year. A shuttle bus service is not offered.
The basic rules for the Celebrate America event include:
All entrances to Tom Brown Park will be closed at 8:30 p.m. or earlier, depending on the availability of parking spaces.
No personal fireworks (including sparklers) or barbecues are allowed.
No personal tents are allowed in the concert area.
Pets (other than service animals) are not allowed at the Celebrate America event.
Firecrackers 5K at Cascades Park on Dec.
The Capital City Kiwanis Club Firecracker 5k & Fun Run takes place on Sunday, July 4th, from 7:30 am to 9:00 am at Cascades Park.
The Firecracker 5 km and 1 mile Sparkler Fun Run is a family-friendly 3 mile walk / run in support of the Capital City Kiwanis Club and the Virtual Kiwanis Club of the Big Bend. There will be games, activities and sno-cones for the kids. 10-30 dollars. Visit facebook.com/CCCCFirecracker5k/
Apalachicola’s Independence Celebration on July 3rd July
Apalachicola Main Street presents Apalachicola’s Independence Eve Celebration on Saturday July 3rd at Riverfront Park from 6pm. Enjoy live music, food trucks, a tribute to veterans, and a national anthem performance, all culminating in spectacular fireworks displays. This year’s entertainment is the Apalachicola Blues Authority with Bernard Simmons. Admission is free, deck chairs and picnic blankets are welcome.
For event information or to reserve a table, visit july3fireworks.com or call Apalachicola Main Street at 844-272-2523 or 850-899-8689.
17th Annual Red, White and Blue Parade in Apalachicola on July 3rd
Grab your bikes, handcarts, golf carts, trainers, whatever your mode of transport, and meet your friends on Saturday, July 3rd, between 6pm and 6.30pm in Apalachicola’s Lafayette Park
Franklin’s Promise Coalition will provide streamers and decorations that anyone can decorate. Participants will have posters available displaying the name of a veteran they wish to honor. For the 17th annual parade, the community will honor an accomplished military veteran as the Parade Grand Marshall.
The procession will travel down Avenue B, travel down Water Street to Bay Avenue, and then gather in Riverfront Park for the Independence Day on Apalachicola Main Street. The parade is organized by Franklin’s Promise Coalition and the crew of the Conservation Corps of the Forgotten Coast. If you have any questions, please contact Joe Taylor, Franklin’s Promise Coalition, 850-323-0176.
Celebrate the 4th on St. George Island
Everyone is invited to celebrate Independence Day on St. George Island. The festivities start on Sunday at 11.30am with a unique parade that has become an annual tradition.
Tourists and locals alike can meet for fun in the sun. ATTENTION: You will get wet! For more festivities and fireworks on the beach, stay behind the Blue Parrot Grill around 10:30. Enjoy music, drinks, and fun on the deck, or head down to the beach to find your spot in the sand for a spectacular show!
Sopchoppy 4th of July celebration
The 4th of July Sopchoppy celebration in the heart of downtown Sopchoppy has been a tradition since 1973. This year’s events begin with a parade at 10 a.m. on Saturday 3rd July. Myron B. Hodge City Park on the banks of the Sopchoppy River opens at 11:00 a.m. and closes at 10:00 p.m. The festivities for the all-day and all-night festival on Saturday – complete with handicrafts and food vendors are topped with fireworks that will light up the sky over the waterfront.
The fireworks return to Thomasville on Saturday, July 3rd
The Thomasville Independence Day fireworks will return to the skies of South Georgia on Saturday 3rd July. This year’s Independence Day event, sponsored by CNSNext, will take place in Remington Park at 9 p.m.
According to Madison Eaton, Special Events Coordinator, this year’s event has been redesigned to focus entirely on the fireworks. “This year’s event is a fireworks display where our resources are fully focused on a spectacular show that will really light up the sky,” said Eaton.
In the interests of public safety, event attendees are asked not to drive golf carts in Remington Park. Parking spaces are provided in the two front parking lots. “We ask all attendees to use the post-event transportation map available on our website www.thomasvillega.com to find the best route whether you’re attending the event or traveling around Thomasville,” said Eaton.
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Champlain Towers South, a 12-story beachfront condominium building in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida, partially collapsed on June 24, 2021. Credit: Wikipedia.
The death toll from the Surfside condominium building collapse has grown to 16, Miami Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced Wednesday, as search and rescue operations entered their seventh day.
That leaves 139 people believed to have been in the Champlain Towers South accounted for and 147 unaccounted for, Cava said.
Officials insisted they haven’t given up hope of finding survivors within the rubble.
The search and rescue efforts are difficult, one official said. “This is an extremely dangerous situation.”
from Daily Florida Press https://dailyfloridapress.com/deaths-at-condo-collapse-rise-to-16-officials-say-theyre-not-giving-up-hope-on-finding-survivors/
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – As the July 4th holiday weekend approaches, Tampa officials are giving residents safety tips for celebrations.
The city of Tampa is ready to bring back Boom by the Bay bigger than ever! However, given the anticipated excitement, officials want residents to be safe as they attend the waterfront Independence Day celebration.
Fireworks List for July 4th: Where to See in Tampa Bay
Below are safety tips residents should follow:
Use your smartphone to get event updates and traffic information alerts
Send the word BOOM to 888777. This will register you and send updates for everything related to Boom by the Bay straight to your phone
Plan your day in advance
Knowing where to park and your route can save you time
Leave the fireworks to city officials
Downtown and the Riverwalk will be crowded, so please don’t plan on setting off your own fireworks during the event or anywhere else in town
Celebratory shots are not only dangerous but also illegal
When you arrive, find a meeting place with friends and / or family so that in the event of a breakup you have a place to meet
Snap a photo of the cross street you’re parking on as a reminder when you want to get back to your car many hours later
If you are bringing a child, take a picture of your child on your smartphone that day
That way, if they’re lost, you can share the most current picture with law enforcement
Mary McLeod Bethune, 1915. A statue of a Confederate general from Florida will be replaced in 2021 with a statue of civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune. Credit: State Archives of Florida
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House voted Tuesday to remove from the Capitol a bust of the late Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney, a Marylander who wrote the despised Dred Scott decision—as well as evict statues and busts of men who fought for the Confederacy or served in its government.
The legislation passed on a vote of 285-120, with all the nay votes from Republicans and 67 of them voting with Democrats. It would replace the marble bust of Taney, which is displayed outside the old Supreme Court chamber on the first floor of the Capitol, with one of the late Thurgood Marshall, a fellow Marylander who was the first Black member of the Supreme Court.
Taney wrote the majority opinion in 1857 in Dred Scott, a case initiated in Missouri. The ruling, which provoked intense opposition in the North, said that people of African descent were not citizens and had no right to bring suit in federal court—effectively upholding slavery.
The House bill also would direct the Architect of the Capitol to remove other statues and busts of individuals connected with the Confederacy. The bill specifically mentions three men who promoted slavery and segregation — Charles B. Aycock, of North Carolina; John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina; and James P. Clarke, of Arkansas.
At least eight other statues and busts would be poised for removal under the measure, based on a preliminary assessment from staffers for Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, (D-Md.), who introduced the bill.
North Carolina’s statues also include Zebulon Baird Vance, who organized the Confederate Army’s Rough and Ready Guards and served as governor during the Civil War.
A similar bill passed the Democratic-controlled House last year on a bipartisan vote of 305-113, with 72 Republicans joining Democrats in support. But it did not advance in the Republican-controlled Senate, where Democrats now hold a slim majority.
“It is never too late to do the right thing,” Hoyer said during Tuesday’s floor debate, quoting Martin Luther King Jr. “And this, today, is the right thing. It reflects our growth as a state as we have confronted the most difficult parts of our history.”
Each state contributes two statues of people of historical importance to be displayed in the Capitol. Those statues can be replaced by state officials, who select who will be depicted and raise money for the statue’s creation.
The Joint Committee on the Library of Congress can approve or deny state requests to replace their statues, and determines where those statues are displayed in the Capitol.
Under the bill now awaiting a Senate vote, the statues with Confederate ties would be sent back to their respective states.
Confederate monuments, statutes and other commemorative symbols have undergone reconsideration across the South in recent years, particularly following the 2015 mass shooting in Charleston, S.C., in which a white supremacist fatally shot nine Black worshipers at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
A report earlier this year from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy group that has tracked Confederate symbols in public spaces since that 2015 shooting, found 169 Confederate symbols were removed across the United States in 2020. But more than 2,100 Confederate symbols are still publicly present, according to SPLC’s tracking data.
During Tuesday’s debate over the statue-removal bill, most Republicans who spoke said they planned to support the measure, but criticized Democrats for not moving to replace the statues more quickly.
“It’s important the statues we have here reflect the values of this nation,” said Rep. Barry Loudermilk, (R-Ga.), adding that he too does not support the ideas espoused by Stephens, commemorated in one of Georgia’s statues and that “to say he was a racist was an understatement.”
However, Loudermilk said the joint congressional committee that signs off on replacing statues has met too infrequently, and has let requests from North Carolina and other states linger.
Back in his home state, Georgia state lawmakers have filed a resolution to replace Stephens’ statue with one commemorating the late civil rights icon, former U.S. Rep. John Lewis, the Georgia Recorder has reported.
The idea of including Taney at the U.S. Capitol was controversial well before sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens even started carving the piece, according to Maryland Matters.
Just a few months after Taney’s death in 1864, the U.S. Senate considered legislation to commission a marble bust of Taney as Congress had done for previous chief justices. But U.S. Sen. Charles Sumner, an ardent anti-slavery lawmaker from Massachusetts, opposed the proposal, saying his name “is to be hooted down the page of history.”
The rebuke was only temporary, though. Seven years later, when Taney’s successor as chief justice died, Congress ordered commissions for both of the late judges.
Hoyer noted that a statue of Taney has been removed from the grounds of the Maryland state House. Rep. Jamie Raskin, another Maryland Democrat, said the city of Frederick also took down a memorial to Taney several years ago.
Raskin praised the decision to honor Marshall, calling him “a great Marylander who has stood the test of time,” and deeply involved in the legal strategy to dismantle Jim Crow laws enforcing racial segregation.
The effort is the latest move by congressional Democrats to undo Confederate symbols on Capitol Hill and other federal property.
Last year, Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered the removal of four portraits of previous House speakers who served in the Confederacy. A statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee of Virginia also was removed from the U.S. Capitol last year, after having been moved to a less-visible spot within the Capitol during Pelosi’s first stint as speaker.
Congress also voted last year to remove the names of Confederate generals from military bases across the South. A commission is beginning the process of renaming those bases, with a final report due to Congress in October 2022.
During Senator Kathleen Passidomo’s recent appearance before the Southwest Florida Community Advisory Board, it became clear why the Republican of Naples was nominated by her fellow legislators as the next President of the Florida Senate after the 2022 election.
During her nearly hour-long session with the Advisory Board, Passidomo reflected in a thoughtful and clear manner on the recent endeavors and future roles of the Florida legislature – a way that many of her colleagues in Tallahassee would well emulate.
While Passidomo, for example, raved about how much the legislature achieved during its just-concluded session – including converting an expected $ 6 billion deficit into an approved $ 101 billion budget with ample reserves, passing a major bill on reforming child protection and passing a COVID liability law to protect businesses and more – she also freely admitted to some frustration that many achievements were obscured by the attention devoted to various polarizing, divisive bills also on the Showed up.
More:Senator Kathleen Passidomo raised a number of issues in a meeting with the SWFL Community Advisory Board
More:Guest Opinion: Apart from politics, Sen. Passidomo is a role model for women who want to rule
“This past session was the most productive in my opinion, having been in the legislature for 11 years,” said Passidomo. “(But) a lot of important bills that we passed haven’t really been talked about. . . because of a couple of red meat bills that took the air out of the room. “
Such words from a legislator who clearly values realism more than conjuring up lively headlines – and Passidomo’s sensible pragmatism was also evident in other observations during the advisory board interview.
When asked to name the biggest problem that Floridians – and especially those in their district – face, Passidomo left nothing out: “(It is) water,” she said. “Water quality, water quality, blue-green algae, rottide. . . The water quality is (No. 1), No. 2 and No. 3 .. “
In the debate on the house rules of local communities, Passidomo said she was in favor of sensible legislation that would protect the flexibility of individual governments to make policies that fit their specific areas – but also provide controls and countermeasures to local communities prevent enforcement of ill-conceived laws that were impracticable and largely unenforceable.
“We have some jurisdictions (in Florida) that have ordinances that are stupid for lack of a better term,” Passidomo told the advisory board. “The problem you have is that if a local government issues such an ordinance, what legal remedies are available for the businesses involved?”
And in response to the challenges posed by Florida’s growing medical needs, Passidomo made a compelling, compelling case for simply expanding the number of health clinics across the state.
“When I was first elected, we basically closed our local health department clinics,” Passidomo said. “I think we threw the baby out there with the bath, so to speak. Instead of finding a way to get these clinics back to working as they should, we closed many of them. ”
In short, Passidomo acts like a breath of fresh air in a nationwide political environment that often seems to be constantly puffed up with hot air. Given this welcome departure from the pesky norm, Passidomo’s upcoming tenure as Senate president has the potential to be both productive and refreshing.
Editorials from The News-Press and Naples Daily News, part of the USA Today Network-Florida.
See similar https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/opinion/editorials/2021/06/30/kathleen-passidomo-florida-senate-naples-legislative-session-review/7794639002/
Screenshot of an out-of-state petition drive related to a school ballot initiative. Credit: YouTube.
Thirty-one active citizen initiatives to amend the Florida Constitution face a deadline Thursday that may, for some, dictate whether voters ever see them on a ballot.
That’s because a new state law, Senate Bill 1890, signed into law May 7 and effective July 1, curtails how much money initiative campaigns may accept in contributions from people and organizations that support their causes.
Workers demonstrate in Fort Lauderdale in support of a $15 minimum wage. Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images, 2019
Over the years, citizens have initiated numerous changes to the Florida Constitution, including reducing class size (2002), funding acquisition for sensitive land (2012), legalizing medical marijuana (2016), providing for voter control of gambling in Florida (2018), restoring voting rights to ex-felons (2018) and gradually increasing the state minimum wage to $15 per hour (2020).
Citizen initiatives require that prescribed numbers of voter signatures be gathered before the measure may appear on the ballot, and few succeed without spending substantial amounts of money on petition-gatherers and advertising.
Starting Thursday, donations to campaigns to collect petition signatures for proposed constitutional amendments initiated by citizens will be limited to $3,000 per person or entity in any given election. Presently, there is no limit.
The law was written to exempt political parties from the new limit. It also does not apply to Constitutional amendments sponsored by the Florida Legislature.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and others are fighting the law in federal court, arguing that citizen-initiated efforts to amend the Constitution represent protected exercise of free speech – and that successful initiatives typically cost millions of dollars in a state the size of Florida.
ACLU Florida is seeking a temporary injunction to suspend implementation of the new law and let campaign contributions continue. A hearing was held last Thursday. The court’s ruling on the injunction is pending.
“The Division of Elections website shows 31 currently active initiative efforts, and our lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of SB 1890 would benefit all of them – as well as every Floridian who wants to amend their Constitution through the ballot initiative process,” said Nicholas Warren, staff attorney with the ACLU and lead attorney in this lawsuit.
“The law is an infringement on the free speech rights of Floridians and seeks to undermine Floridians’ ability to directly participate in their democracy,” Warren wrote in answer to a Phoenix query.
Attorney General Ashley Moody is defending the new law, arguing it does not quell free speech because the cap on contributions applies only to the point when an initiative has gained enough voter signatures to be placed on the next general ballot. After that point, the limit no longer applies.
The 31 citizen initiatives are listed by the Division of Elections in connection with the 2022 general ballot. (While labeled active, some were begun as far back as 2013 and still have not qualified for a ballot).
Based on the current size of Florida’s electorate, each must collect nearly 900,000 voter signatures for its proposed amendment to be placed on the next ballot.
Joining the ACLU in the court challenge are three voting-rights committees pitching their own citizen initiatives:
Sean Shaw, attorney and former lawmaker. Credit: Wikipedia.
The committees are Fair Vote Florida, Our Votes Matter, and Florida Votes Matter, each chaired by Sean Shaw, an attorney, former state representative, 2018 candidate for state attorney general, and son of the late Leander J. Shaw Jr., the first African- American chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court.
The three measures aspire to expand voter participation in elections by making it easier to register to vote and by striking a legislative requirement added after the referendum that ex-felons pay all outstanding legal debts before they may vote.
One group that may have little to fear from the impending cap on contributions is an initiative to legalize sports betting statewide in Florida for the first time, regardless of the new gambling compact between the state and the Seminole Tribe of Florida that lawmakers approved in a recent special session on gambling. (The federal government has yet to approve the compact, which gives the tribal exclusive purview over sports betting.)
That’s because the sports betting ballot initiative, under the auspices of a political action committee titled “Florida Education Champions,” is backed by multi-billion-dollar sports-betting and fantasy-sports titans DraftKings and FanDuel, according to Christina Johnson, a spokeswoman for the sports-betting PAC.
With that kind of backing, the PAC — comprised of three CPAs, a registered agent who is lawyer, and a political consultant — could quickly build a huge financial war chest before the contribution limit takes effect on Thursday. The ballot initiative won approval from the state just last Thursday to begin collecting signatures and accepting contributions.
The sports-betting initiative pledges that any tax revenue from sports betting would be earmarked for education.
Charles O’Neal, chairman of political committees pitching five environmental conservation initiatives for the 2022 ballot, said his supporters hope to succeed with an all-volunteer effort. But he still wants to see the cap on contributions to citizen initiatives struck down.
“I support the ACLU’s effort to get rid of the $3,000 cap,” O’Neal said. “The Florida Legislature should be encouraging citizen involvement, especially through the citizen initiative process, if the goal is to represent the citizens of Florida.”
Campaign finance reports of contributions to and expenditures by political actions committees are due to be filed with the Florida Division of Elections on Thursday, July 1.
ST. PETERSBURG, June 30th (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – Marina Kokhal’s detention, charged with the murder of her husband, rapper Alexander Yushko, has again been extended to July 30, the United Press Service of the St. Petersburg Courts told RAPSI.
Investigators are said to be waiting for the results of an investigation necessary to complete the investigation.
According to the investigation, the woman had a conflict with Yushko on July 29, 2020 and subsequently killed him and dismembered his body to further wean him. Kokhal pleaded not guilty. During questioning, she said her husband died of a drug overdose. However, analysis of the victim’s hair and human tissues showed no medication.
The St. Petersburg investigators assume that the murder of the musician was planned by his wife. They previously said they found out that shortly before the crime, Kokhal was given drugs at a pharmacy that later killed her husband. It also found that the woman’s mother was at the scene, the investigation found.
Yushko, known as Andy Cartwright, took part in rap battles and released his only tracks on the internet.
“I came home, made breakfast and slept maybe five hours,” he said.
For the time being, concerned families were relocated from a community center to a neighboring hotel so that they could feel more comfortable. Authorities planned to brief her about the search and rescue operations every four hours.
And survivors continued to tell amazing stories about how they escaped harm.
Marian Smeraldi-Lopez, who lived with her family on the sixth floor, said she came out by stairs.
“There were no apartments to be seen on this north side,” she said. “Just air, rubble and rubble.”
Ms. Smeraldi-Lopez, her husband Alfredo Lopez and their 24-year-old son Michael Lopez grabbed a flashlight, cell phones and glasses and ran away in their pajamas. Dust had seeped in from the glass doors and windows. There was no electricity. An alarm went off somewhere. The apartment next to hers, she said, “was gone”.
She and her family stayed close to the wall and slowly moved past an elevator bench. At the stairs they joined a line of residents streaming down from the upper floors. Families called to keep an eye on the bereaved. The water in the garage was up to her ankles.
Outside, they climbed over a broken pool deck wall and wanted to reach the beach in case an earthquake destroyed it, which they still believed to be an earthquake: “I was convinced the aftershock would happen,” she said.
But when they reached a clearing, she turned. Only part of the building had collapsed and the buildings around them were unscathed.
She was terrified to understand her plight.
“It was just our building,” she said, “and it stopped in front of our apartment.”
The coverage was contributed by Richard Fausset, Giulia Heyward, Michael Majchrowicz and Joseph B. Treaster from Surfside. Coverage was also contributed by Mike Baker, Manny Fernandez, Christine Hauser, Sophie Kasakove, Alyssa Lukpat and Mitch Smith. Kitty Bennett contributed to the research.
