A state legislator is one of four Gov. Ron DeSantis picks for Florida’s Semiquincentennial Advisory Commission, as the United States readies to celebrate its 250th birthday next year.

As DeSantis says, they will be on “an advisory commission to work in conjunction with the Florida Department of State to make recommendations for Florida’s observance of the upcoming Semiquincentennial anniversary of America’s independence in 2026.”

Rep. Patt Maney of Okaloosa County is the only elected official of the four selections. The former judge was elected three times with more than 70% of the vote in each ballot test since 2020.

The three non-elected officials have resumes worth mentioning also.

Jacqueline Gay Gaines served as vice regent and regent of the the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. In that capacity, she worked to get pictures of President George Washington back in American classrooms.

Lucas Morel, the John K. Boardman, Jr. Professor of Politics and Head of the Politics Department at Washington and Lee University, got his doctorate at the conservative Claremont Institute.

He is perhaps best known for writing “Lincoln and the American Founding” and “Lincoln’s Sacred Effort: Defining Religion’s Role in American Self-Government” and editing “Lincoln and Liberty: Wisdom for the Ages.”

Matthew Spalding is a Claremont fellow who serves dual roles at Hillsdale College, which Gov. DeSantis sees as a model. To that end, he appointed Spalding to the board of New College, helping to drive that school’s transformation in recent years.

He is the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government and the Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at the school’s Washington, D.C. campus.

“I applaud Governor Ron DeSantis for appointing commissioners who will honor the exceptionalism of American history and American values,” said Secretary of State Cord Byrd, in a press release announcing the picks.

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Six Americans who had been detained in Venezuela in recent months were freed by the government of President Nicolás Maduro after he met Friday with a Trump administration official tasked with urging the authoritarian leader to take back deported migrants who have committed crimes in the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump and his envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, announced the release of the six men on social media. The visit by Grenell came as a shock to many Venezuelans who hoped that Trump would continue the “maximum pressure” campaign he pursued against Maduro during his first term.

Grenell’s hours long trip to Venezuela, according to the White House, was focused on Trump’s efforts to deport Venezuelans back to their home country, which currently does not accept them, and on the release of the detained Americans.

“We are wheels up and headed home with these 6 American citizens,” Grenell posted on X along with a photo showing him and the men aboard an aircraft. “They just spoke to @realDonaldTrump and they couldn’t stop thanking him.”

The meeting in Venezuela’s capital took place less than a month after Maduro was sworn in for a third six-year term despite credible evidence that he lost last year’s election. The U.S. government, along with several other Western nations, does not recognize Maduro’s claim to victory and instead points to tally sheets collected by the opposition coalition showing that its candidate, Edmundo González, won by a more than a two-to-one margin.

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Republished with permission of the Associated Press.

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