DeSantis axes funding for Central Florida flood prevention, Black history fest
Gov. Ron DeSantis axed funding on Thursday for Central Florida projects to stop flooding during the next hurricane, strengthen government cybersecurity defenses, celebrate Black history and tackle gun violence.
The governor’s nearly $511 million veto list included about $15.3 million in projects for Orange, Osceola, Lake and Seminole counties.
DeSantis defended his veto list as showing fiscal restraint in a $116.5 billion budget that makes “historic investments in education, public safety, infrastructure, and the environment.”
“Unfortunately, many good projects that would have relieved Florida’s taxpayers with everything from flood water mitigation to neighborhood resource centers were vetoed because the governor is disconnected from the needs of average Floridians,” said state Rep. Rita Harris, D-Orlando.
Republican state Sen. Joe Gruters also slammed DeSantis, saying in a statement that the governor “took it out on Sarasota County” because Gruters endorsed former President Trump in the 2024 GOP primary.
DeSantis sues Biden administration over university accrediting system
Source: AP
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that the state has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration and the U.S. Department of Education over accreditation agencies, which control federal aid for students.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale federal court, challenges a federal law that requires colleges and universities to submit to private accreditors to qualify for federal funding. It targets the U.S. Department of Education, Secretary Miguel Cardona and other federal officials.
The lawsuit comes as DeSantis, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, imposes his conservative agenda on the state’s education system. Earlier this year, he appointed trustees to the board of New College of Florida, a tiny Sarasota school of about 1,000 students that was best known for its progressive thought and creative course offerings. The new board intends to turn the school into a classical liberal arts school modeled after conservative favorite Hillsdale College in Michigan.
Speaking about the accreditation lawsuit on Thursday, DeSantis said he refuses “to bow to unaccountable accreditors who think they should run Florida’s public universities.”
Let’s not beat around the bush. The Supreme Court’s decision in Biden v. Nebraska, the one canceling President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, is complete and utter nonsense. It rewrites a federal law which explicitly authorizes the loan forgiveness program, and it relies on a fake legal doctrine known as “major questions” which has no basis in any law or any provision of the Constitution.
If you were counting on loan forgiveness — and Biden’s loan forgiveness program would have forgiven $10,000 worth of loans for most student borrowers, and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients — you will not receive it because of a decision the Court handed down on Friday, in a 6-3 vote entirely along party lines.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for the Court’s majority of Republican-appointees. Justice Elena Kagan dissented on behalf of the Court’s Democratic appointees.
There are legitimate policy debates to be had over the Biden plan’s efficacy, fairness, and necessity. But one thing that should have been straightforward was its legality.
A 2003 federal law known as the Heroes Act gives the secretary of the Department of Education sweeping authority to “waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision applicable to the student financial assistance programs ... as the Secretary deems necessary in connection with a war or other military operation or national emergency.”
'We want dictator Trump': America First activist publicly calls for 'Trumpian Reich'
Tyler Russell, a Canadian nationalist leader of the America First movement, has called for Donald Trump to be installed as "dictator" in a "Trumpian Reich."
In a clip obtained by Right Wing Watch, Russell told the audience of his daily broadcast about his vision for a Trump government.
"All of these DeSantis, you know, libertarian populist people that are like, we need to actually have political substance," he complained. "No, I don't give a f--k about that, okay? I don't care about your political substance."
"I want a Trump Reich," he continued. "And I want Trump's face to be, you know, projected onto every single tallest skyscraper in every city around America, okay?"
Russell insisted that his followers did not want "freedom."
"We want a total Trumpian Reich, okay?" he said. "That's what we want. We want a total Trumpian Reich. We want dictator Trump."
