Florida lawmakers head into the trenches this week to fight the culture wars launched by the US state’s governor and likely presidential candidate Ron DeSantis as the Republican-led legislature begins a new term.
DeSantis has devoted much of his agenda since his re-election in November last year to criticizing “wokeness,” describing an over-moralizing form of liberalism.
During the 60-day legislative session, lawmakers are to consider a bill to outlaw diversity and equality programs at state-run universities, and another to make it easier for public figures to sue the media for defamation.
Photo: AFP
They will look at extending a ban on classroom discussion of sexuality and gender identity — currently in effect through third grade — to eighth grade children, who are typically 12 or 13 years old.
Also among the proposals is a ban on giving youngsters pronouns that do not correspond to their sex.
Each of these proposals is expected to become law, as DeSantis has the loyalty of the state congress.
The 44-year-old governor enjoys enormous influence over his party, bolstered by his resounding defeat of former Florida governor Charlie Crist, his Democratic challenger in last year’s midterm elections.
“The bills that he is asking us to send through the legislature are the things that we’ve been talking about for years and haven’t had the courage to do,” Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo said last month, adding: “He has.“
“We’re going to get his agenda across the finish line,” Passidomo said.
DeSantis’ education initiatives and other proposals, such as one to allow Floridians to carry concealed weapons, ought to keep his allies happy.
Moreover, they guarantee him more of the headlines he started getting during the COVID-19 pandemic, when his opposition to US President Joe Biden’s health curbs made him one of the most popular Republicans.
The publicity will be seen in his camp as a godsend at a time when he is widely thought to be preparing a challenge to former US president Donald Trump’s status as comfortable frontrunner for the Republican White House nomination.
However, the former US representative is keeping his powder dry for now, preferring to tout his new memoir to joining the primary season fray.
At an event at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library west of Los Angeles on Sunday, DeSantis took an apparent swipe at California Governor Gavin Newsom by defending the “anti-woke” policies he has pursued in what he likes to call the “Free State of Florida.”
“We’ve witnessed a great American exodus from states governed by leftist politicians imposing leftist ideologies and delivering poor results,” he said.
He is vindicated by recent US Census data showing hundreds of thousands more people saying goodbye to states such as California and New York than moving into them.
California lost nearly 350,000 residents last year, while New York lost about 300,000.
“And you can see massive gains in states like Florida, who are governing according to the tried and true principles that [former US] president Reagan held dear,” DeSantis said.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS