Leon County Indivisible
Activism for Busy People
The Florida Senate has voted final approval of an amended tax bill (HB 1217) to ban local governments in Florida from using net-zero policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — the primary driver of climate change.
The vote was 24-12, with Miami Republican Alexis Alexis Calatayud joining all the Democrats in opposing the bill. The House had already approved the bill, which will head to the governor’s desk. If signed into law by DeSantis, it would go into effect on July 1.
The Florida House gave final approval Thursday, the second-to-last-day of the scheduled regular legislative session, to a package formulated in the aftermath of the shootings at Florida State University last year that would arm professors.
The House approval followed the Senate’s Wednesday.
One of the most contentious pieces of legislation this session — one that would ban local governments from supporting parades, festivals and other activities promoting diversity, equality and inclusion — is headed to the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The vote broke down mostly along party lines, with a handful of Republicans breaking with their colleagues to vote with Democrats against the bill, including Rep. Paula Stark of St. Cloud and Rep. Hillary Cassel of Hollywood.
DeSantis has been a driving force behind the move to dismantle DEI policies in Florida for the last several years, including bans on such efforts at the state’s universities and agencies.
Florida lawmakers are poised to approve sweeping new restrictions that would require voters to prove their citizenship status, as well as remove student ID as an acceptable form of voter identification.
In a 27-12 vote, the state Senate on Thursday passed its own version of the SAVE America Act, a piece of national anti-voting legislation pushed by President Donald Trump.
The state House, which approved the legislation last month, must now approve the amended version of the bill. After that, it will head to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for signature.
At Florida A&M University last week, critics of President Donald Trump’s administration took to the heart of campus to say no to what they believe is their university’s complicity with his immigration crackdown.
Dozens of students showed up to the protest organized by FAMU Students for a Democratic Society, a student coalition in Tallahassee, where the university is located.
The bill will allow untrained volunteers to provide armed security in churches, synagogues, and mosques. Currently, Florida requires armed security personnel to have a professional security license.
Editor’s Note: Bellingcat is among the most respected respected forensic investigative groups in the world. Their video reconstructions of events are considered the gold standard of establishing the truth. New […]
Use this database to explore potential conflicts of interest for President Donald Trump and his team. The documents disclose positions officials have held outside government, their assets and their debts, among other things.
The bill, which the Jacksonville Republican said “makes great strides to ensure Florida parents can make educated medical decisions for their school-aged children,” would prohibit the state health officers from mandating vaccines during public health emergencies. It would also expand religious and conscience-based exemptions for school entry and require new parental acknowledgment forms before minors receive vaccines.
“We’re making sure that parents have a choice. We’re not eliminating the vaccinations. We’re not eliminating the mandatory requirement. We already have the religious exemption, and now we would add in a conscience-based exemption, and treat it the same way that the religious exemption is treated under current law,” Yarborough said.
The Republican-controlled Florida Senate Friday voted down an effort to prod the state into finally expanding Medicaid to low-income, childless adults, as allowable under the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare.
The Senate once embraced the concept of expanding the safety net health care program to cover low-income workers but that effort — which occurred in 2015, when Rick Scott was governor — ultimately came up short.
The Florida Legislature will reach the end of its regular session Friday without having a new state budget ready.
What the Republican legislative leader did not say is what will happen after the clock strikes midnight on the 60th day and whether legislators will just extend their session or shut everything down and come back later to pass a budget.
City and county officials, law enforcement and community members came together Wednesday for a first-of-its-kind immigration forum hosted by Leon County Indivisible.
A full room of community members gathered to hear from a panel of elected officials and local leaders. Organizers with Leon County Indivisible say the goal of the forum was to bring people together and start open conversations about what kind of immigration enforcement has or hasn’t been happening in our city.