Politics

Voters support Gov. DeSantis’ effort to make it harder for special interests to put issues on the ballot

Published

7 hours ago

February 13, 2025

A new statewide survey from the Florida Chamber of Commerce shows voters overwhelmingly support efforts to tighten the state’s process for putting constitutional amendments on the ballot.

The poll found more than three-quarters of voters (76%) would be more likely to support a lawmaker who voted to restrict the constitutional amendment process. That sentiment transcended party lines, with 78% of Republicans and no-party voters saying they would back lawmakers who vote in favor of tightening up the ballot initiative process, compared to 73% of Democrats.

The Chamber poll, released Thursday, did not include survey language, but its rundown of results suggests the failed effort to legalize cannabis for adult use (Amendment 3) is a driving factor. The polling memo specifically references “returning the process to the citizens and taking it out of the hands of special interests.”

“Out of state and special interest groups have attempted to circumvent the Florida Legislature by spending hundreds of millions of dollars pushing amendments to Florida’s Constitution,” Florida Chamber President and CEO Mark Wilson said. “Our poll shows Florida voters want Legislators to return the ballot initiative process to citizens initiatives and not those run by special interests.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis in January suggested changes to the constitutional amendment process as part of his call for a Special Session. In his comments, he pointed not to Amendment 3 and the $150 million spent to support the initiative, but to Amendment 4, the effort to enshrine abortion access into the state constitution.

“To have the amount of fraudulent petitions that were verified as fraudulent … that is a huge, huge problem,” he said at the time, according to Axios. That references DeSantis and his allies’ claims that at least some of the nearly 1 million petition signatures gathered to place the issue on the 2024 ballot were fraudulent.

DeSantis didn’t outline specifics for tightening the process, but it wouldn’t be the first time leaders in Tallahassee have sought to make it harder for anyone but the Legislature to put a question to voters.

The efforts date back to at least 2006 when lawmakers voted to put a referendum on the ballot increasing the threshold for constitutional amendment passage from 50% to 60%. Ironically, the referendum passed with less than the 60% threshold it sought to impose.

More recently, in 2020, lawmakers approved a measure that DeSantis approved to raise the threshold for citizen initiatives to trigger judicial review and prevented petition signatures gathered from being used in a future ballot. Critics at the time argued the measure would leave the process open only to wealthy individuals or deep pocketed special interests, with some nicknaming the measure a “ballot for billionaires.” That’s because it shortened the amount of time campaigns had to raise funds for the onerous petition gathering process.

The year prior, DeSantis led an effort cracking down on the petition gathering process by requiring petition gatherers to be paid by the hour, not by the petition. It also required petitions to include who was sponsoring them and how much was raised by in-state donors, with violations carrying steep fines.

The Chamber poll was taken Feb. 2-8 by Cherry Communications among 600 respondents. It has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

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Politics

JD Vance visits the Dachau concentration camp memorial with Holocaust survivor before meeting with Ukrainians

Published

9 minutes ago

February 13, 2025

May Greene

Vance laid a wreath with a red, white and blue ribbon stenciled with “We remember” and “United States of America” embossed in gold lettering at a large sculpture known as the International Monument. Inaugurated in 1968, the monument was designed by Nandor Glid, who was persecuted as a Jew by the Nazis in his home country Yugoslavia and joined the resistance to Nazi occupation forces.

On Friday, Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, are set to sit down with Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. They’ll discuss Trump’s intensifying push for Ukraine and Russia to begin negotiations to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.

Talk of the current conflict followed Vance getting a firsthand look at the memorial demonstrating Nazis’ World War II-era atrocities and the U.S. and Western allies’ slowness to take decisive action to confront Adolf Hitler and the rise of his violent nationalist ideology.

Dachau was established in 1933, the year Hitler took power, as one of the first concentration camps. More than 200,000 people from across Europe were held at the camp, and more than 40,000 prisoners died there in horrendous conditions. U.S. soldiers completed the liberation on April 29, 1945.

Vance, a Republican, is on a five-day visit to France and Germany, his first overseas travel since becoming vice president last month.

The moment at Dachau gave Vance a chance to reflect on the scourges of war just as Trump is ratcheting up his efforts to end the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Trump on Wednesday spoke separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy. Trump said that he and Putin agreed it was time to “start negotiations immediately” to end the war.

And, as Trump announced his agreement on negotiations with Putin, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that NATO membership for Ukraine was unrealistic and suggested Kyiv should abandon hopes of winning all its territory back from Russia and instead prepare for a negotiated peace settlement to be backed up by international troops.

Trump subsequently said he thought that analysis was correct, and he was noncommittal about if Ukraine should be an equal partner if the U.S. and Russia engage in more substantive negotiations to end the war on its soil.

Besides his talks with Zelenskyy, Vance is scheduled to deliver a Friday address to the security conference. The war in Europe and NATO members’ defense spending are expected to be front and center for the world leaders gathering in Munich.

Vance, like Trump, has been a sharp critic of U.S. allies’ spending what the administration deems too little on their defense budgets.

“The Trump administration has been clear that we care a lot about Europe,” Vance said during a meeting this week with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “But we also want to make sure that we’re engaged in a security partnership that’s both good for Europe and the United States.”

Over nearly three years of war, 50 countries, known as the Ukraine Contact Group, have collectively provided Ukraine with more than $126 billion in weapons and military assistance, including more than $66.5 billion from the U.S., which has served as chair of the group since its creation.

Trump in his 2024 campaign derided the enormous amount of U.S. military aid poured into Ukraine and vowed to end the conflict within 24 hours of returning to the White House.

Since his November election victory over Democrat Kamala Harris, Trump and his advisers have dialed back on their boldest timelines and set a goal of ending the war in about six months.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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Politics

Florida’s new unemployment claims go up for the first time in weeks

Published

1 hour ago

February 13, 2025

May Greene

Florida cut against the grain of the national trend, which saw weekly unemployment claims decline.

Florida’s new unemployment claims have increased for the first time in about a month.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) reports there were 6,486 new jobless filings for the week ending Feb. 8 in Florida. That’s up from the 5,962 claims for the week ending Feb. 1, or an increase of 524 claims.

The latest Florida report is reversed from a relatively upbeat January that mostly saw declines in first-time unemployment filings. The final three full weeks of January each saw new claims drop.

The newest Florida report was also not in line with the national trend. First-time jobless claims decreased last week across the country. There were 231,006 new filings nationwide for the week ending Feb. 8. That’s down by 10,095 from the previous week, or a 4.2% drop.

DOL officials said that decline was larger than expected. DOL officials had expected a drop in new claims of 1,761, or a 0.7% drop.

National unemployment claim filings also declined year-over-year. There were only 223,985 new jobless filings in the comparable week in 2024.

Florida’s unemployment picture remains relatively solid, despite the slight uptick in first-time claims in the past week. The latest general unemployment rate is 3.4%, just a small uptick from the 3.3% rate seen in Florida through the Spring and Summer months.

Florida’s general unemployment rate has remained under the national jobless figure for 50 straight months. As of January, the national jobless rate was 4%.

Florida, meanwhile, continues to add jobs to the workforce, according to FloridaCommerce. December saw 17,900 private-sector jobs added compared to November. The number of private-sector jobs compared to a year ago has increased by 122,800. That increase outpaced the national private-sector job growth rate of 1.3% in the same time span.

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Florida industry coalition sets sights on shaping AI public policy

Published

2 hours ago

February 13, 2025

May Greene

The Coalition for the Future Artificial Intelligence in Business moves toward more recommendations for dealing with AI in Florida.

As the rapid development of artificial intelligence continues to raise questions about its impact, one leading business organization is looking to help formulate policies to deal with upcoming challenges.

The Associated Industries of Florida (AIF) says it is progressing with recommendations it produced in the past year that outline concerns about artificial intelligence and the technology’s effect on business.

AIF held a meeting of the “Coalition for the Future Artificial Intelligence in Business” in Tallahassee this week as part of its ongoing analysis called “Artificial Intelligence in Business.” That’s an advisory document and advocacy outline with recommendations on how the business community in Florida can incorporate AI.

The coalition addresses AI policy with several elements on their agenda. Some of those elements include definitions of AI, transparency, and enforcement in Florida. It raises many concerns about how AI will impact businesses and adds recommendations for public policymakers as government comes to grips with the technology.

The coalition is also formulating guidelines on how to fold AI into the commercial landscape.

“As AI use continues to rapidly expand, Florida stands at a critical juncture,” said AIF President and CEO Brewster Bevis. “Recognizing the enormous impact this technology will have on all sectors of the business community, AIF launched the Coalition for the Future of AI in Business last year to ensure we were at the front of this important issue.”

“The thoughtful policy recommendations outlined in this report are the culmination of the Coalition’s hard work and will assist the state in responsibly embracing AI opportunities, educate policymakers on the concerns of employers, and help develop guidelines for accountable and innovative AI policies,” Bevis added.

The coalition held updated discussions this week about the report that was produced in the past year. The latest coalition meeting is one of many that has taken place throughout the past since the analytical report was published about a year ago. That report addresses recommendations for state and federal government actions on AI and challenges for employers.

Some of the coalition members include Elizabeth Chernow, executive director of public policy at Comcast; Chris Hein, head of engineering for Google Public Sector; and Diya Wynn, lead of AI at Amazon.

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