A man convicted of killing two women, one in Florida and another in California, has been scheduled for execution in Florida under a death warrant signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, the fifth this year.

Glen Edward Rogers, 62, is set to die by lethal injection May 15 at Florida State Prison near the city of Starke.

Rogers was convicted in 1997 and sentenced to death for the murder of Tina Marie Cribbs. The two were seen leaving a Gibsonton, Florida, bar together in November 1995. The woman was found stabbed to death in a hotel bathroom two days later.

Rogers received another death sentence in California in 1999. He met Sandra Gallagher at a Van Nuys, California, bar in September 1995. Her badly burned corpse was found in her truck a day later near Rogers’ apartment.

Rogers is also suspected in several other homicides throughout the United States.

Three other executions have taken place in Florida this year, with a fourth upcoming May 1, all by lethal injection.

On March 20, Edward James, 63, was executed for killing an 8-year-old girl and her grandmother in 1993. James Dennis Ford, 64, was put to death Feb. 13 for the 1997 murders of a married couple while out on a fishing trip. Earlier this month, Michael Tanzi, 48, died by lethal injection April 8 for kidnapping and murdering a woman in the Florida Keys in 2000.

Gulf War Army veteran Jeffrey Hutchinson, 59, is set to die by lethal injection May 1. He’s convicted of killing his girlfriend and her three children with a shotgun.

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Republished with permission of the Associated Press.

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A MAGA icon isn’t backing down from his decision to interview the chair of the Florida Democrats, saying her critiques of Gov. Ron DeSantis are “legitimate.”

Roger Stone said Friday that Nikki Fried was a “legitimate critic” of the Governor, and said the $10 million slotted to Hope Florida in a political settlement last year, which ended up in part funding a campaign backed by the Governor’s Office to stop a constitutional amendment legalizing adult-use pot, was a “legitimate scandal.”

Stone accused the Governor and First Lady Casey DeSantis of “epic corruption,” alleging that they “have been caught red handed diverting, I believe, $10 million from Medicaid.”

“You know, we go wherever the facts lead us. We go wherever the truth leads us,” Stone told OANN host Matt Gaetz on Friday.

Stone, a staunch Donald Trump loyalist, called Fried a “longtime friend” ahead of her segment on WABC, in which they discussed what Stone said might be the “greatest single corruption scandal in Florida history.” (And it’s worth noting that Gaetz and Fried are longtime friends as well.)

The agreement between Stone and Fried went beyond the allegations regarding Hope Florida.

“I’ve been bringing to light all of this corruption that Ron and Casey and his executive office has been doing for six years. And it’s good to see that the Republican Legislature, specifically in the Florida House, is finally understanding that this is not partisan. You know, uncovering corruption and making sure that we’re holding our elected officials to some type of standards and no one’s (above) the law,” Fried said.

“It’s almost as if Ron and Casey DeSantis think the law doesn’t apply to them,” Stone remarked, before bemoaning how the current administration has “gutted the Sunshine Laws.”

Ahead of the broadcast Thursday night, a DeSantis spox called this evidence of a “contrived, politically motivated astroturf campaign against the Governor and First Lady.” And Florida GOP Chair Evan Power called it “extremely disappointing,” given that Fried “has said horrible things about our President and Governor.”

DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier have said the executive branch did nothing wrong.

“Maybe it’s because it conflicts with their vision of government first. Maybe they just don’t like seeing other people have success in the political sphere. Maybe they have their own agenda or their own ax to grind. But I can tell you, the program has been fantastic,” DeSantis said, calling the House probe into the matter a “total flop.”

Uthmeier said Hope Florida “made its own decision to give generous support to other not-for-profits,” with “some of the organizations already involved in the fight” to keep marijuana illegal for recreational use.

“Hope Florida didn’t do anything wrong,” he said.

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A bill requiring students to learn about financial literacy and career readiness at public school doesn’t seem destined to pass this Legislative Session.

Under current law, students are required to learn about nutrition, personal health, Internet safety, substance abuse and other life skills. A pair of Democrats sought to amend the law to add financial literacy, home economics and career readiness to the list. 

However, SB 816/HB 737 hasn’t been called to a vote in committee with an important deadline looming ahead.

With the Regular Session ending May 2, Tuesday marks the 50th day of Session. 

Senate rules say, “Unless approved by the President, no committee shall meet after the fiftieth day of a regular session except the Rules Committee.”

Sen. Kristen Arrington, a Kissimmee Democrat, sponsored SB 816 while Rep. Daryl Campbell, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat, sponsored HB 737.

Neither bill had been called to a vote at the committee level yet.

The Senate version of the bill was referred to three committees: the Education Pre-K-12; Appropriations Committee on Pre-K -12 Education; and Rules.

Meanwhile the House bill appears to have died in the Careers & Workforce Subcommittee without getting a vote so far. The bill was also referred to the Pre-K-12 Budget Subcommittee and Education & Employment Committee.

Campbell and Arrington’s bills are one of several pieces of legislation that haven’t moved forward this Session.

Other proposals that don’t seem likely to get passed include a bill to make it easier to pay for public records and a bill to require the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to set up a “quality certification” program so Floridians know their fish and shrimp isn’t foreign or farmed fish.

Sen. Clay Yarborough confirmed Saturday his bill to allow photographs to be taken in polling places under select circumstances doesn’t have a path forward either.

His bill would have allowed “members of the public to photograph in a polling room or early voting area before the polls open and after the polls close when voting has ended,” while banning “the mounting of any camera or recording device that remains inside a polling room or early voting area during the time any voter is voting.”

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