Leon County Indivisible
Activism for Busy People
Editor’s Note: Ron DeSantis is wasting your tax dollars on right-wing crusades. Again. The state owes nearly half a million dollars to a biologist fired after reposting on social media […]
The latest findings by researchers at Harvard and Stanford are based on 2024-25 state test results, combined with national assessment data, to pinpoint trends in learning.
Students in Florida are falling behind in reading and math, compared to other states, and one in three children miss too much school, according to a nationwide report called the Education Scorecard, released on Wednesday.
While some states made post-pandemic gains in reading, Florida students’ reading ability declined the most in the last four years. The average Florida student is more than half a grade level behind where the average student was in 2022.
That downward trend shows scores are “declining rapidly,” said co-author Sean Reardon, a professor at Stanford University.
A Leon County Circuit Judge heard arguments that Florida’s new congressional group should be put on hold until after the Midterms.
Attorneys for voting rights groups argued that a clear partisan intent behind the map — which dismantles four Democratic-leaning districts while leaving most seats held by Republicans intact — violates a ban on partisan intent by mapmakers in Florida’s Constitution.
Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes, an appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis, said he will issue a decision in writing in coming days. He combined all lawsuits challenging the current map into one case this week, and said he would review all briefs and a transcript of a Friday hearing before making his decision.
David Jolly and Jerry Demings are vying to become the first Democratic governor to lead Florida in nearly three decades. If elected, they’ll face an additional challenge — working with an opposition Republican Party that enjoys a supermajority in the Legislature.
Speaking during a campaign event in Clearwater Wednesday night, Jolly mentioned a couple of specific ways he believes he could overcome that problem to deliver his policy goals, beginning with the power to name agency heads.
Under the guise of “freedom,” the DeSantis administration including Surgeon General Joe Ladapo has established policies that have directly contributed to the measles outbreak that has spread across the state.
Yet, despite the proliferation of this disease, which has placed Florida fourth in the United States with 152 confirmed cases in 2025-26 and 145 confirmed cases so far this year, state officials have acted as if “there’s nothing to see here.”
Editor’s Note: Could YOU make it on $275 per week? These days, that will fill your gas tank and buy a pretty meager basket of groceries to last a week. […]
The 15 largest systems charged an average of 282 percent more than the Medicare rate, the study found, resulting in $22 million in profit per hospital per year.
Executives are charging patients the most in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, where average corporate hospital prices are even higher, between 320 and 365 percent more than the Medicare rate.
Florida is moving to close the infamous “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center in the Everglades because it has grown too expensive to operate, according to The New York Times.
The embattled facility—which has cost the state of Florida $1 million a day to run—has been beset with allegations of unsafe living conditions, abusive treatment, and protests from Native American groups over its environmental harms. Now the facility that was framed as a huge success by President Trump and Governor DeSantis may collapse in failure.
Editor’s Note: Publix announced its ‘open carry’ policy very loudly last year. A boycott by a significant number of lifelong Publix shoppers ensued. Yesterday, it appears they have started back-pedaling […]
Unemployment shot up to 4.7% — higher than the national average. Florida lost almost 38K jobs year over year in March,” Scott posted to social media Friday.
Heavily criticized this week for saying high gas prices are “worth it” to him given the threat posed by Iran, Scott changed the conversation with this diss of the Ron DeSantis employment picture, one that amplifies previous concerns about the intersection of rising prices and diminishing job prospects.
“Florida’s unemployment rate is ABOVE the national average and it’s only GROWING. The latest state jobs numbers show we lost over 43k jobs all in critical industries. Florida had one of the worst performing job markets over the past year.
Gov. Ron DeSantis got to put the finishing touches on one of his 2026 legislative priorities Friday, signing a union-restricting bill that had been subject to intense debate in Florida’s Capitol.
DeSantis signed SB 1296 at Fort Myers High School on May Day, a worldwide holiday observing the labor movement.
Although the focus of the news conference was on education and teacher unions, the state teachers’ union, Florida Education Association; and AFL-CIO, said the law will touch an array of sectors.
FEA President Andrew Spar said DeSantis and “anti-union, anti-worker legislators” are “chipping away at the constitutionally enshrined rights of thousands of workers in the state.”
lorida voters and pro-voting group Equal Ground Education Fund filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the GOP’s new congressional gerrymander, urging a court to block the map for violating the state constitution’s ban on partisan gerrymandering.
The map was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who led the unusual mid-decade redistricting as part of President Donald Trump’s broader effort to tilt the 2026 midterm elections.
Florida Republicans raced to enact the map with minimal public input and despite sharp criticism from Democrats — as well as unease within their own party.