Politics

Rick Scott tackles senior loneliness

Published

3 hours ago

February 8, 2025

The bill would require HHS to tackle the issue.

Older people are often neglected in their twilight years, and Florida’s senior Senator sees a federal role in making sure they aren’t.

Sen. Rick Scott is reintroducing the Social Engagement and Network Initiatives for Older Relief (SENIOR) Act.

The legislation would add “loneliness” to the definition of “disease prevention and health promotion services” under the Older Americans Act, which would create pathways for socialization programs to counter isolation.

Additionally, Scott’s bill would compel Robert Kennedy, if confirmed as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to dig into the impact of loneliness and draw up recommendations for solutions, with an eye on how “multigenerational family units” help.

“Florida is blessed to have a wonderful senior population, and in my state and across the nation, seniors contribute greatly when given opportunities to be active members in their communities. Combating the feeling of isolation and loneliness for our aging community has endless benefits – from better mental and physical health to stronger, multigenerational relationships with families and communities. As Chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, I’m proud to lead this bill and fight to better support American seniors,” Scott said Friday.

Scott’s bill is supported by the Foundation for Social Connection’s Action Network.

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Donald Trump taps cops for immigration enforcement. Florida leads the way.

Published

28 minutes ago

February 8, 2025

May Greene

Under President Donald Trump, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is reviving and expanding a decades-old program that trains local law officers to interrogate immigrants in their custody and detain them for potential deportation. The 287(g) program — named for a section of the 1996 law that created it — currently applies only to those already jailed or imprisoned on charges.

But Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, recently told sheriffs that he wants to expand it to include local task forces that can make arrests on the streets, reviving a model that former President Barack Obama discontinued amid concerns about racial profiling. It’s unclear whether that could allow local officers to stop people solely to check their immigration status.

On Friday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that the Florida Highway Patrol had struck an agreement with ICE to interrogate, arrest and detain immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally and deliver them to federal authorities.

The arrangement will help “fulfill the president’s mission to effectuate the largest deportation program in American history,” DeSantis said.

On his first day back in office, Trump ordered the Department of Homeland Security to maximize 287(g) agreements for local law officers to investigate, apprehend and detain immigrants. At a recent National Sheriffs’ Association conference, Homan said the administration is looking to lighten detention facility regulations and shorten the training to encourage greater collaboration with federal immigration officials.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement in 2002 was the first to sign a 287(g) agreement with the federal government, running a task force for immigration enforcement. Twenty years later, Florida became the first state to require all local agencies with county jails to join the program or inform the state why they couldn’t.

After a Venezuelan man who was illegally in the U.S. killed University of Georgia student Laken Riley, Georgia passed a law last year requiring local law enforcement agencies to apply for the program.

This year, Republican lawmakers in about a dozen states are seeking to require or incentivize cooperative agreements with ICE.

Already this year, Florida lawmakers have passed legislation that would allot millions of dollars for local immigration enforcement efforts.

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Republished with permission of the Associated Press.

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Ashley Moody not surprised Joe Biden’s security clearance got yanked

Published

3 hours ago

February 8, 2025

May Greene

Florida’s newest Senator is on board with the most recent former President being kept out of the loop on national security issues.

After all, she says the Joe Biden administration was leak prone and that the Delaware Democrat was cognitively compromised with people around him eager to exploit his issues.

“This is not surprising to me, and really, if you’ve been paying attention, this shouldn’t be surprising to anyone,” said Sen. Ashley Moody on Fox News Saturday.

The Plant City Republican appointed to replace current Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out the rationale.

“It was just three months ago that we saw an investigation launched over information that was leaked over Israeli’s plans to attack Iran. That might have come out of that administration. And it wasn’t too long ago that we had a report showing diminished faculties of the President and (he is) someone who has people around them that want to use information or relationships,” Moody said.

President Donald Trump says Biden did the same to him.

“There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information. Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden’s Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings,” Trump posted to Truth Social. “He set this precedent in 2021, when he instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop the 45th President of the United States (ME!) from accessing details on National Security, a courtesy provided to former Presidents.”

In further defense of Trump’s decision, Moody also said Saturday that “the security of this nation … has been put at risk over the last four years and you’ve had to have been asleep, not to notice that.”

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Byron Donalds talks Super Bowl end zones with Bill Maher

Published

4 hours ago

February 8, 2025

May Greene

A Florida Congressman went into ideologically adverse territory Friday with talk show host Bill Maher. And he used language one wouldn’t expect from the Sunday talk shows along the way.

Among the discussion points on “Real Time“: the removal of “End Racism” messages from end zones at the National Football League’s showcase game Sunday.

“I think if you write ‘Don’t be an a******’ in an end zone, everybody will agree with that,” Rep. Byron Donalds said, using an earthy scatological expression for the human anus after Maher and co-panelist Tara Palmeri embraced similar language.

It remains to be seen if the NFL will embrace that suggestion.

Donalds also broke with President Donald Trump on a State Department appointee who previously expressed controversial viewpoints on race: Darren Beattie.

The Congressman said he was “very concerned” about the pick when presented with a Beattie tweet saying “competent White men must be in charge if you want things to work.”

For his part, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has addressed the controversy, noting that Beattie’s role would be “ending the censorship programs that were being operated out of the State Department, which can no longer continue and will no longer continue.”

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