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Vanessa Oliver measure to loosen wine keg regulations headed to House floor

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A bill to nix current law requiring “reusable” kegs for wine producers is now heading to the full House for a vote.

The House Commerce Committee heard the proposal (HB 6015) that would remove some limits for wineries in Florida. The committee voted unanimously in favor of the measure with little discussion.

Rep. Vanessa Oliver, a Port Charlotte Republican, filed the measure to end the requirements that wine producers use “reusable” kegs.

“It is unlawful for a person to sell within this state wine in an individual container holding more than 1 gallon of such wine, unless such wine is in a reusable container holding 5.16 gallons or a glass container holding 4.5 liters, 6 liters, 17.9 liters, 12 liters, or 15 liters,” the current law reads.

Oliver’s measure simply seeks to remove that one word, “reusable,” from the statute that was enacted about a decade ago.

The House bill is mirrored by a similar measure (SB 578) winding through the Senate. The bill in that chamber is sponsored by Sen. Tom Leek, a St. Augustine Republican representing coastal areas just north of Daytona into St. Johns County.

Oliver said it may seem like a small adjustment. But for winemakers in Florida, it’s an essential change and can make a difference in taste of the final product.

“This was actually brought to me by one of my constituents who is a blueberry farmer in DeSoto County,” Oliver said in a Florida Politics interview in February. “He is part owner of a winery and they make blueberry wine out of his blueberries and sell it throughout the Southeastern United States.”

The problem for the blueberry farmer is they cannot distribute the wine in large quantities in Florida because it can only be sold in reusable kegs, which are usually made of metal. Oliver said that negatively impacts the taste of the wine.

“It’s really hindering their ability to sell their products to restaurants in our state,” Oliver said. “They normally use a glass keg that’s recyclable, but not reusable.”

While Florida will never be known as a wine region like other states such as California or Washington, there are still about three dozen wine producers in the Sunshine State, according to the American Winery Guide.

Oliver’s proposal doesn’t change the size of the kegs that are permitted or the size of any container for wine sales. The proposed change would not eliminate “reusable” kegs. But it would make them optional and Oliver says the glass kegs are simply better for the taste of the product.


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Senate bill that could lead to execution of would-be political assassins begins to move

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The bill was inspired by the violence at a Donald Trump rally in Pennsylvania.

Those looking to harm Presidents, Governors and other heads of state may pay the ultimate price in Florida — even if they don’t succeed in killing their target.

Sen. Blaise Ingoglia’s measure (SB 776) which cleared the Criminal Justice Committee, contemplates adding to Florida law that the death sentence can be issued when a “capital felony was committed against the head of a state, including, but not limited to, the President or the Vice President of the United States or the Governor of this or another state, or in an attempt to commit such crime a capital felony was committed against another individual.”

Ingoglia noted that “the death penalty is reserved for those convicted of heinous crimes” and that his helps to facilitate that by adding aggravating factors of an assassination of a head of state or the killing of another person in attempting to do so. He described the attempted assassination of Donald Trump and the concomitant killing of Corey Comperatore as heinous and worthy of extraordinary sanction in law.

One citizen opposed the bill.

Grace Hannah of Floridians Opposed to the Death Penalty said the bill would fall under federal jurisdiction and that an incident like that contemplated by the bill is “extremely rare.”

The bill is also moving in the House.

Jeff Holcomb’s legislation (HB 653) has one stop to go before the floor.


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Linda McMahon says school choice expansion is ‘a continuing process,’ but will be up to states

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Education Secretary Linda McMahon says she and her boss in the White House are both “strong proponents” of school choice, but the federal government’s role in expanding it will be limited under President Donald Trump.

“It’s a continuing process” that must be pursued at the state level, not mandated by Washington, she said.

“The rub is that teacher unions say it’s going to bankrupt the public schools (and serve only students with no other options). I think we’re clearly proving that is not the case.”

McMahon’s comments came Tuesday afternoon during a roundtable discussion on education at the Kendall campus of True North Classical Academy, a charter network operating in Miami-Dade’s unincorporated Kendall neighborhood. It was one of multiple school visits she had planned in the county that day.

Other roundtable participants included, among others, Interim Florida International University President and immediate past Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, Miami Dade College President Madeline Pumariega, Miami-Dade School Board member Monical Colucci, former state Rep. Michael Bileca, charter school magnate Fernando Zuleta, and former Collier County School Board member Erika Donalds, a pro-charter education activist whose husband, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, is the presumptive GOP front-runner in the 2026 Governor’s race.

Zuleta, the founder and President of for-profit charter school management company Academica, said that while Florida has been a leader on school choice, many places in the U.S. remain “choice deserts.”

He urged McMahon to look into the matter. McMahon nodded while he spoke, but made no commitment to do so.

While the U.S. Department of Education’s (USDOE) role in implementing school choice policies will be limited, Donalds hinted that the agency isn’t taking a passive stance on the matter. She said people should “be on the lookout” in the coming days for federal guidance on further empowering parents.

McMahon, a 76-year-old former professional wrestling promoter, past Administrator of the Small Business Administration and ex-member of the Connecticut State Board of Education, reiterated that she has a “mandate” from Trump to abolish the USDOE. Last week, the Department announced it was cutting its staff from some 4,100 employees to 2,200.

That was a “first step” toward fulfilling the President’s wishes of shutting down the agency, she said. She referred to the layoffs as “trimming.”

McMahon said she’s tasking the remaining staff at USDOE staff with assembling a set of guiding principles from which state and local governments can take cues.

“We really want to leave best practice in place to provide states with the right tools,” she said, adding that if she is indeed America’s last Education Secretary, “I will have been successful at my job.”


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Derelict vessel bill requiring increased registration sails through second committee

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The proposals would stipulate long-term anchoring permits issued by FWC.

Owners of boats adrift in Florida waters will have to be more careful about keeping their vessels moored if a bill moving through the Senate floor gets approved.

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment and General Government gave preliminary approval to legislation (SB 164) that calls for increasing regulations on vessels. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Anna Maria Rodriguez, a Doral Republican, would require new registrations for long-term anchoring of vessels through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).

The bill proposes “requiring the commission to issue, at no cost, a permit for the long-term anchoring of a vessel which includes specified information; requiring the commission to use an electronic application and permitting system; requiring that a vessel subject to a specified number of violations within a 24-month period which result in certain dispositions be declared a public nuisance, etc.”

The bill has one more stop before the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee. There is also a companion bill (HB 1149) moving through the House. Rep. Fabian Basabe, a Miami Beach Republican, is sponsoring that measure, which still needs to navigate its first stop, the House Natural Resources and Disasters Subcommittee.

Derelict vessels have long been the bane of many local waterways. Along the Intracoastal Waterway or any one of hundreds of tributaries that run through the state, errant boats can go adrift and be found aground.

Some municipalities have already taken matters into their own hands. Indian River County, for instance, has a derelict vessel removal program that partners with the FWC to get those boats out of the way and allows residents to report such disabled watercraft.

And municipalities within that county have gotten increasingly aggressive about removing derelict boats, in cities such as Vero Beach and Indian River Shores.

The Senate measure also intends that those boat owners whose vessels go adrift during storms or natural disasters round up those vessels afterward. The FWC issued multiple advisories about derelict vessels in the Fall of 2024 due to hurricanes.


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