Former COVID data manager Rebekah Jones won’t be getting her old job back, nor will she receive back pay from the Department that terminated her.

Judge Angela C. Dempsey of the 2nd Judicial Circuit granted a motion for summary judgment this week to the Department of Health (DOH) and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo. She ruled that former DOH Deputy Secretary Shamariel Roberson, also a named defendant in a suit filed by Jones, did not violate Jones’ First Amendment rights by firing her in May 2020.

In a 20-page order, Dempsey dismissed all claims against the Department, Ladapo and Roberson. She concluded Jones did not qualify for whistleblower protections because she participated in publishing COVID data she later said was misleading and “therefore ‘committed or intentionally participated in committing the violation or suspected violation for which protections (under the Federal Whistleblower Act were) sought.’”

The anonymous X account, Max Nordau, first flagged the decision Thursday.

The ruling by Dempsey, who was appointed to the bench by ex-Gov. Jeb Bush, marks another legal defeat for Jones. In December 2022, just over a month after losing a congressional race against now-former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, Jones admitted to illegally accessing Florida’s computer system in an agreement with prosecutors that required her to pay $20,000, perform 150 hours of community service and attend mental health counseling in exchange for serving no prison time.

That ruling came seven months after a state Inspector General’s investigation into Jones’ allegations that she was fired for refusing to manipulate state COVID data concluded that her claims were “unfounded” or “unsubstantiated.”

Dempsey agreed with that assessment.

“After careful consideration of the motion papers, and the pertinent legal standards, the Court finds that there are no genuine disputes of material fact regarding the nature of the Plaintiff’s speech or the legitimate, non-retaliatory reason for her termination,” the Judge wrote.

“The evidence unequivocally demonstrates the Plaintiff’s termination was based on documented insubordination, including unauthorized communications with external entities that violated Department policies, and unauthorized disclosures that disrupted the Department’s ability to maintain data integrity and public trust during a public health crisis.”

Jones, whom Forbes named its 2020 Technology Person of the Year, has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars since her firing. She was granted whistleblower status by DOH Inspector General Michael Bennett in May 2021, five months after police raided her home in response to an unauthorized login at the Department’s emergency communications system.

She denied involvement and asked for criminal charges against her to be dropped. They weren’t. Jones sued the Florida Department of Law Enforcement over the raid, but later dropped the complaint.

Dempsey’s order cites testimony from Craig Curry, an IT Director at DOH, who said he became aware in April 2020 of since-deleted Facebook posts Jones made in which she identified herself as the person who maintained the state’s COVID dashboard and discussed the logic behind what was displayed on it.

Curry said he subsequently learned Jones had given an interview to DOH geographic information services vendor ESRI in which she discussed her COVID dashboard work and that she’d also published a blog post representing herself as the author of the COVID dashboard, displaying charts of DOH data she had created.

This was done without DOH approval, Curry said.

Jones testified that later the same month, Roberson told her to falsify some counties’ COVID positivity percentages to 10% so that Gov. Ron DeSantis could follow through on his plan to reopen most Florida counties. Jones refused and later resisted other changes to the dashboard she considered misleading. She did, however, admit to publishing new case positivity rates and data DOH gave her.

“Notwithstanding Roberson’s alleged directive,” Dempsey wrote, “there is no evidence that any COVID-19 data was ever falsified.”

On May 5, 2020, Dempsey’s order said, Roberson, Epidemiology Division Director Carina Blackmore and “several other epidemiologists” became concerned about Jones’ public posting. She was publishing both DOH data and information related to on-Florida resident deaths through the Open Data hub, an open-source site the state operates as a repository for disease-tracking information.

Jones was told to temporarily take the hub down. She resisted. The next day, she was removed from the dashboard project. The day after that, “Jones made changes to the dashboard files and removed several team members’ administrative software rights, which hindered their ability to do their jobs and contributed to the Dashboard malfunctioning,” Dempsey wrote.

“Curry instructed Jones to correct the administrative privileges for her colleagues and directed her not to ‘impede’ work with the Dashboard. … It is undisputed that Jones never complied, and that Curry had to contact the software vendor directly to get the privileges reinstated.”

After several email exchanges with Curry in which Jones questioned the abilities of her replacements, she was fired May 18, 2020. Two months later, she filed a complaint with the Florida Commission on Human Relations alleging whistleblower retaliation. She then accessed a DOH database without authorization and was subsequently arrested.

Jones, 35, has other legal woes aside from her issues with DOH. In June 2023, she pleaded no contest to cyberstalking a former boyfriend with whom she’d had an affair in 2017, when she was his married professor. Police cited a lengthy document Jones published online that included texts and nude photographs of the man.

Prosecutors had previously dropped another set of charges involving the same man, including felony robbery, trespass and contempt of court for violating a domestic violence injunction.

In April 2023, police arrested Jones’ teenage son for allegedly threatening to shoot up a middle school. Police and multiple Navarre schoolmates of the boy, identified as J.J. in court documents, said he’d spoken of planning to shoot and stab students.

Jones said her son had merely shared memes about school shootings and intimated that police interest in the boy and his subsequent arrest were retaliation for the whistleblower lawsuit she filed March 13, 2023.

Santa Rosa County Judge Steven Warrick sentenced J.J., who pleaded no contest, to indefinite probation until he turned 19, ordering the boy to do community service, write an essay, undergo therapy, adhere to a curfew and make better life choices.

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President Donald Trump shouted at Ukraine’s leader on Friday during an extraordinary meeting in the Oval Office, berating President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for “gambling with millions of lives” and suggesting his actions could trigger World War III.

The last 10 minutes of the nearly 45-minute engagement devolved into a tense back and forth between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Zelenskyy — who had urged skepticism about Russia’s commitment to diplomacy, citing Moscow’s years of broken commitments on the global stage.

It began with Vance telling Zelenskyy, “Mr. President, with respect. I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media.”

Zelensky tried to object, prompting Trump to raise his voice and say, “You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people.”

“You’re gambling with World War III, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people say they should have,” Trump said.

It was an astonishing display of open antagonism in the Oval Office, a setting better known for somber diplomacy. Trump laid bare his efforts to coerce Zelenskyy to agree to giving the U.S. an interest in his country’s valuable minerals and to push him toward a diplomatic resolution to the war on the American leader’s terms.

Earlier in the meeting Trump said the U.S. would continue to provide military assistance to Ukraine, but said he hoped that not too much aid would be forthcoming. “We’re not looking forward to sending a lot of arms,” Trump said. “We’re looking forward to getting the war finished so we can do other things.”

“You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now,” Trump said pointing his finger toward Zelenskyy. “With us you start having cards.”

He also accused Zelenskyy of being “disrespectful” to the U.S.

“It’s going to be a very hard thing to do business like this,” Trump told Zelenskyy at one point, as the two leaders talked over each other about past international support for Ukraine. The entire tense exchange was caught on video as the two began to argue in front of a room full of reporters.

“Again, just say thank you,” Vance interjected to Zelenskyy, blasting him for litigating “disagreements” in front of the press. Trump, though, suggested he was fine with the drama. “I think it’s good for the American people to see what’s going on,” he added.

“You’re not acting at all thankful,” Trump said, before adding, “This is going to be great television.”

The harsh words came at a pivotal and precarious moment for Ukraine. Zelenskyy had planned to try to convince the White House to provide some form of U.S. backing for Ukraine’s security against any future Russian aggression.

Zelenskyy is still expected to sign a landmark economic agreement with the U.S. aimed at financing the reconstruction of war-damaged Ukraine, a deal that would closely tie the two countries together for years to come.

The deal, which is seen as a step toward ending the three-year war, references the importance of Ukraine’s security. Earlier in the meeting, before tempers flared, Trump said the agreement would be signed soon in the East Room of the White House.

“We have something that is a very fair deal,” Trump said, adding, “It is a big commitment from the United States.”

He said the U.S. wants to see the killing in the war stopped, adding that U.S. money for Ukraine should be “put to different kinds of use like rebuilding.”

Earlier, Zelenskyy called Russian President Vladimir Putin a terrorist and told Trump that Ukraine and the world need “no compromises with a killer.”

“Even during the war there are rules,” he said.

As Ukrainian forces hold out against slow but steady advances by Russia’s larger and better-equipped army, leaders in Kyiv have pushed to ensure a potential U.S.-brokered peace plan would include guarantees for the country’s future security.

Many Ukrainians fear that a hastily negotiated peace — especially one that makes too many concessions to Russian demands — would allow Moscow to rearm and consolidate its forces for a future invasion after current hostilities cease.

According to the preliminary economic agreement, seen by The Associated Press, the U.S. and Ukraine will establish a co-owned, jointly managed investment fund to which Ukraine will contribute 50% of future revenues from natural resources, including minerals, hydrocarbons and other extractable materials.

Speaking about the rare earths agreement, Trump said the U.S. is lacking in many such minerals while Ukraine has among the best on the planet. He said U.S. interests plan to take those reserves and use them on everything from artificial intelligence operations to military weapons.

Asked about long-term security guarantee to guard against future Russian aggression, Trump says once the agreement is signed that a return to fighting was unlikely.

Trump, a Republican, has framed the emerging agreement as a chance for Kyiv to compensate the U.S. for wartime aid sent under his predecessor, Democratic President Joe Biden.

But Zelenskyy has remained firm that specific assurances for Ukraine’s security must accompany any agreement giving U.S. access to Ukraine’s resources.

This is Zelenskyy’s fifth White House visit, but his previous four came during the Biden administration. The Ukrainian president also was meeting with U.S. senators during his time in Washington.

Fears that Trump could broker a peace deal with Russia that is unfavorable to Ukraine have been amplified by recent precedent-busting actions by his administration. Trump held a lengthy phone call with Putin, and U.S. officials met with their Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia without inviting European or Ukrainian leaders — both dramatic breaks with previous U.S. policy to isolate Putin over his invasion.

Trump later seemed to falsely blame Ukraine for starting the war, and called Zelenskyy a “dictator” for not holding elections after the end of his regular term last year, though Ukrainian law prohibits elections while martial law is in place.

A formal press conference that was scheduled between Trump and Zelensky was cancelled along with any other meetings that were suppose to take place.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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Boynton Beach Democratic Sen. Lori Berman introduced a new bill (SB 1646) to enhance the Sunshine State’s water quality and protect public health.

The Legislature has found that the adverse health effects of lead exposure in children and adults have been well documented, and no safe blood-lead level in children has been identified.

Lead accumulates within the body and can be ingested in various ways, including water sources used for drinking, food preparation, or cooking. The bill further states that all lead sources should be controlled or eliminated to prevent lead poisoning.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), lead inhibits children’s bodies from absorbing essential minerals crucial for proper brain and nerve development, including iron, zinc, and calcium. Children often show no signs of lead poisoning until they reach school levels, and the CDC further notes that lead exposure in early childhood is connected to future criminal activity in adulthood.

The Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) would be required to conduct a study into the prevalence and effects of lead in Florida’s drinking water in all public facilities that receive state funding.

The study must include the amount of lead piping in public facilities, the health effects of lead exposure, the financial impact, and the cost of providing point-of-use water filters.

OPPAGA would consult with other entities while conducting the study and would be required to submit its findings to the Governor and the Legislature by Jan. 1, 2026.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection‘s water quality improvement grant program would be required to prioritize projects with maximum nutrient load reduction, project readiness, cost-effectiveness, and location in special flood hazard areas.

The Florida Department of Health would be required to develop a training program for health care professionals to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and reporting of harmful algal bloom-related illnesses.

The training program must contain separate components to address red tide and blue-green algae and include guidelines, protocols, and related training programs to protect the health of persons who regularly work near harmful algal blooms.

The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission would be required to consider the work of the Florida Red Tide Mitigation and Technology Development initiative to develop a model for implementing an early warning system for red tides. The model would need to be deployed by July 1, 2027.

After development, the water management district and each county and municipality would be required to provide a schedule for implementing the plan within their respective jurisdictions, including timelines of completion and anticipated fiscal impacts.

Furthermore, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the South Florida Water Management District would continue to work to introduce measures that reduce the nitrogen level in Lake Okeechobee and improve water quality in the Upper St. Johns River Basin. They must regularly monitor and report on best management practices and total maximum daily loads.

If passed, the bill would come into effect upon becoming law.

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