The Latest Florida News https://floridadailypost.com/florida-news/ Read first, then decide! Tue, 06 Aug 2024 14:41:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://i0.wp.com/floridadailypost.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/New-favicon-Florida-Daily-post-1.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 The Latest Florida News https://floridadailypost.com/florida-news/ 32 32 168275103 Tropical Storm Debby is flooding the Southeast. Here’s how much rain could fall https://floridadailypost.com/hurricane-debby-makes-landfall-in-florida-as-category-1-storm-and-threatens-catastrophic-flooding/ https://floridadailypost.com/hurricane-debby-makes-landfall-in-florida-as-category-1-storm-and-threatens-catastrophic-flooding/#respond Mon, 05 Aug 2024 14:55:52 +0000 https://floridadailypost.com/?p=64230 Northern Florida, the coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina and parts of North Carolina are bracing for severe rain and catastrophic flooding this week as the Debby storm system moves up and east. Debby made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on the Big Bend coast of Florida early Monday, first hitting the small […]

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Northern Florida, the coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina and parts of North Carolina are bracing for severe rain and catastrophic flooding this week as the Debby storm system moves up and east.

Debby made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on the Big Bend coast of Florida early Monday, first hitting the small community of Steinhatchee. It damaged homes and businesses, sent floodwaters rising, caused sweeping power outages across the state and Georgia and led to several fatalities. Debby was downgraded to a tropical storm midday Monday.

But experts say the worst is yet to come as the storm system is expected to stall over the Southeast region.

How much rain is expected?

Forecasters say the system could pummel the Southeast with widespread areas of up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain and some totaling up to 30 inches (76 centimeters).

That would be a record-setting rainfall, shattering the record from a tropical system in 2018’s Hurricane Florence. More than 23 inches (58 centimeters) of rain was recorded in South Carolina after that storm hit the Carolinas.

Although Debby was classified as a Category 1, “It really is worthy of a Category 3 or 4 rating, if you want to talk about rainfall impacts,” said Jeff Masters, founder of Weather Underground, now with Yale Climate Connections. “That’s going to cause a lot of damage.”

What areas are at risk?

Northern Florida as well as low-lying areas including Savannah, Georgia, and Hilton Head Island and Charleston, South Carolina, are expected to see the most severe flooding. North Carolina could also be impacted.

Officials in Savannah warned the area could see a month’s worth of rain in four days if the system stalls. There were also flooding concerns for Tybee Island, Georgia’s largest public beach 18 miles (28.97 kilometers) east of Savannah. On top of any torrential downpours that Debby dishes out, the island could get even wetter from 2 to 4 feet of storm surge, according to the National Hurricane Center.

“We don’t know how much rain is going to fall. But we have to prepare for the worst,” Hilton Head Island Mayor Alan Perry said on a video posted to Facebook. “If that happens, we will see an event we have never seen on Hilton Head before.”

Meanwhile, Charleston County Interim Emergency Director Ben Webster called Debby a “historic and potentially unprecedented event” three times in a 90-second briefing Monday morning.

Few places in South Carolina are as susceptible to flooding as Charleston. Much of the city and surrounding areas founded in 1670 were built on land created by using fill dirt and other debris. Rising sea levels cause a number of minor flooding events even without a storm and like many coastal cities, Charleston can’t drain well.

The city doesn’t expect a massive amount of flooding from the ocean, but the storm is still dangerous. Heavy rain can back up into the city, also causing flooding.

What’s causing this storm to stall?

Some hurricanes make landfall and move quickly, experts say, while others slow substantially.

“Really what happened, and why the storm has stalled, is because there’s basically high pressure areas to the west of the storm and to the northeast, and that’s kind of pinned the storm,” said Phil Klotzbach, senior research scientist at Colorado State University’s Department of Atmospheric Science. “With a hurricane you always have wind problems, but when you have a storm moving at 3 to 5 miles an hour, it’s going to be over any specific location for a very long period of time, so flash flooding and just tremendous rainfall totals are going to be very likely.”

Experts say the warming atmosphere plays a role in the severity of storm surges such as Debby.

Warming water in the northeast Gulf of Mexico is increasing Hurricane Debby’s heavy rains, as more moisture evaporates from the waters, Masters said. Some research says climate change can impact the forward motion of hurricanes, he added, making them go slower.

“It’s something we’ve been seeing more of lately,” Masters said.

How long could this last?

The worst of the rain is expected during the first half of the week, but it could last through Saturday, forecasters said.

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Broward County school board suspends employee who allowed her transgender daughter to play girls volleyball https://floridadailypost.com/broward-county-school-board-suspends-employee-who-allowed-her-transgender-daughter-to-play-girls-volleyball/ https://floridadailypost.com/broward-county-school-board-suspends-employee-who-allowed-her-transgender-daughter-to-play-girls-volleyball/#respond Wed, 31 Jul 2024 15:04:15 +0000 https://floridadailypost.com/?p=64136 A Florida school employee who let her transgender daughter play on her high school’s girls volleyball team is being suspended for 10 days after the district’s board found on Tuesday that she violated state law but said firing her would be too severe. The Broward County school board voted 5-4 to suspend without pay Jessica […]

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A Florida school employee who let her transgender daughter play on her high school’s girls volleyball team is being suspended for 10 days after the district’s board found on Tuesday that she violated state law but said firing her would be too severe.

The Broward County school board voted 5-4 to suspend without pay Jessica Norton ‘s employment at Monarch High School, where her 16-year-old daughter played on the varsity volleyball team the last two seasons. She can also no longer work as a computer information specialist but must be given a job with equal pay and responsibility.

The board found that Norton’s actions violated the state’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which bars transgender females from playing girls high school sports. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature adopted it in 2021, over the Broward board’s opposition.

“Our employee made a choice not to follow the law,” said board member Debbi Hixon, who proposed the censure. But, she said, “It was a first offense. We would not terminate someone on their first offense.”

Norton, who was removed from the school after the violation was discovered in November and then placed on paid leave, called the vote an “incorrect decision” but said it was better than being fired. She said she wasn’t sure if she would accept the punishment and return to work. She wanted to talk it over with her daughter, who left the school even though she had been her class president and a homecoming princess. Maybe they could return together, she said.

“I did nothing wrong. Nothing,” Norton said.

Treatment of transgender children has been a hot-button issue across the country over the last few years. Florida is among at least 25 states that adopted bans on gender-affirming care for minors and one of at least 24 states that’s adopted a law banning transgender women and girls from certain women’s and girls sports. The Nortons are plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit trying to block Florida’s law as a violation of their daughter’s civil rights. It remains pending.

During Tuesday’s hour-long debate, Hixon proposed Norton’s punishment after casting the deciding vote against an earlier motion, which called for a five-day suspension with no change in jobs. She said that was not severe enough. It failed by a 5-4 vote.

But, Hixon argued, firing Norton was too harsh for a seven-year employee with sterling evaluations and a caring reputation among students.

“This isn’t somebody who abused or harmed children,” Hixon said. “This is really about not following the law.”

Still, Hixon said, Norton put the district in a legally difficult spot by falsely attesting her child was born female on her state athletic eligibility form. The Florida athletic association fined Monarch $16,500 for violating the act, put the school on probation, and the district could be sued under the act if another student believes she was kept off the volleyball team and lost scholarship opportunities because of Norton’s daughter.

Hixon said she wanted Norton moved from her job as a computer information specialist because in that position she could learn of another transgender student who was playing girls sports and might not report that to administrators.

“That puts us as a school district in a bad place,” Hixon said.

The four other “yes” votes believed a five-day suspension or no punishment was appropriate but agreed to the 10-day ban as a compromise they could live with. They pointed to previous three-, five- and 10-day suspensions that were given to employees who had physically or verbally abused students as evidence Norton was being punished too harshly.

“I believe this case is unique,” member Allen Zeman said. “You can correctly surmise there have been problems with how we (the board) have dealt with it. You can also correctly surmise that rules and laws have been broken. But I think it is important that we come up with a solution that is consistent with the others.”

At least three board members supported Superintendent Howard Hepburn’s recommendation that Norton be fired because she had knowingly violated the law. Hepburn had overridden a committee’s recommendation that Norton be suspended 10 days.

Member Torey Alston said he believes the past suspensions cited by Norton’s supporters were too lax and shouldn’t preclude them from firing her. He said the board was sending the message that it would “go soft” on employees who violate statutes simply because they disagree with them.

“I have zero tolerance for breaking the law,” Alston said.

Norton and her husband stormed out of the meeting when member Brenda Fam repeatedly called her child a boy. Fam argued that Norton should face criminal charges though the Fairness act only carries civil penalties aimed at violating schools. She compared Norton to a parent who falsifies an address to get their child into a better school, an act that is a crime under Florida law.

Fam said she supports the Fairness act because it protects biological girls from having to compete against transgender girls who may be bigger and stronger. Norton and her supporters have argued her daughter has been on puberty blockers and estrogen for several years and has no physical advantages over her teammates or opposing teams.

“This was not a question about her son or her family, it was an issue about what she did as an employee and how she harmed others,” Fam said. She later denied misgendering Norton’s child, saying she was quoting from a newspaper article.

Norton, after the meeting, said Fam intentionally misgendered her child to anger her.

“It worked. I don’t think that a school board member should be misgendering children,” Norton said. “It’s a horrible thing.”

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Federal protections of transgender students are launching where courts haven’t blocked them https://floridadailypost.com/federal-protections-of-transgender-students-are-launching-where-courts-havent-blocked-them/ https://floridadailypost.com/federal-protections-of-transgender-students-are-launching-where-courts-havent-blocked-them/#respond Wed, 31 Jul 2024 14:56:18 +0000 https://floridadailypost.com/?p=64127 New federal protections for transgender students at U.S. schools and colleges will take effect Thursday with muted impact because judges have temporarily blocked enforcement in 21 states and hundreds of individual colleges and schools across the country. The regulation also adds protections for pregnant students and students who are parents, and details how schools must […]

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New federal protections for transgender students at U.S. schools and colleges will take effect Thursday with muted impact because judges have temporarily blocked enforcement in 21 states and hundreds of individual colleges and schools across the country.

The regulation also adds protections for pregnant students and students who are parents, and details how schools must respond to sexual misconduct complaints.

For schools, the impact of the court challenges could be a combination of confusion and inertia in terms of compliance as the academic year begins.

“I think it is likely that school district-to-school district or state-to-state, we’re going to see more or less a continuation of the current status quo,” said Elana Redfield, federal policy director at the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

The rights of transgender people — and especially young people — have become a major political battleground in recent years as trans visibility has increased. Most Republican-controlled states have banned gender-affirming health care for transgender minors, and several have adopted policies limiting which school bathrooms trans people can use and barring trans girls from some sports competitions.

In April, President Joe Biden’s administration sought to settle some of the contention with a regulation to safeguard rights of LGBTQ+ students under Title IX, the 1972 law against sex discrimination in schools that receive federal money. The rule was two years in the making and drew 240,000 responses — a record for the Education Department.

The rule declares that it’s unlawful discrimination to treat transgender students differently from their classmates, including by restricting bathroom access. It does not explicitly address sports participation, a particularly contentious topic.

It also enhances protections for students who are pregnant or have children, widens the scope of the sexual misconduct cases schools must investigate, and removes a Trump administration rule requiring schools to let the accused cross-examine their accusers in live hearings.

The U.S. Department of Justice has asked the Supreme Court for permission to enforce the elements of the new regulation that don’t address transgender rights, but it’s not clear when the justices might rule.

Meanwhile, Title IX enforcement remains highly unsettled.

In a series of rulings, federal courts have declared that the rule cannot be enforced in most of the Republican states that sued while the litigation continues. In a ruling Tuesday, a judge in Alabama went the other way, allowing enforcement to start in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

A Kansas-based federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump added another wrinkle, asserting power over states led by Democrats: He said the rule cannot be enforced in schools attended by the children of members of Moms for Liberty or colleges with members of Young America’s Foundation or Female Athletes United. That’s keeping the regulation from taking effect in hundreds of colleges and some 1,700 schools in states where it can otherwise be enforced.

In many school districts across the country, the rule is to be enforced in some schools but can’t be followed in others.

“There aren’t many other parallels I can give you of two different sets of rules applying in the very same place, one school on one side of the street operating from a different playbook from a school on the other side of the street,” said Brett Sokolow, chair of the Association of Title IX Administrators.

Administrators have been frustrated by lack of guidance from the Biden administration, he said. When the Education Department recently sent schools information about implementing the new policies, it noted that they don’t apply in many places. Sokolow said some districts may need to consider having two separate teams — one trained on the previous rules, the other on the 2024 version — to be prepared for either scenario.

Jay Warona, the deputy executive director and general counsel for the New York State School Boards Association, said his state already offers transgender students some similar protections, but not all of the other components of the new regulation are addressed in state policy.

Warona said he’s fielding messages from school districts wondering what to do, and he’s telling them to check with their district lawyers.

Caius Willingham, senior policy advocate at the National Center for Transgender Equality, said it’s important to note that the injunctions don’t prevent school districts from having similar policies, even as they bar the federal government from enforcing its new regulations in some places.

Meanwhile, students are facing real impacts. Some people barred from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender hold their bladder all day, avoid hydrating or even drop out of school, he said.

“If you can’t meaningfully participate in the educational systems as your true self,” Willingham said, “you’re not going to be able to thrive.”

For Kaemo Mainard O’Connell, a transgender and nonbinary high school senior in Arkansas, the lack of federal protections seems like a signal to encourage behavior such as deadnaming and bullying.

“It means I’m going to have to work much harder to be respected by teachers and by students,” they said. “What not having federal protection does is, it makes it seem like my issues are not real issues.”

Since Arkansas now prohibits transgender students from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity, Kaemo has instead been using a single-person restroom at the school, and is required to sign in and often wait before using it.

Similar worries are shared by families of trans kids in Utah, where lawmakers in June passed resolutions instructing state employees to disregard the Title IX directive. Utah is among the states challenging the rules in court, but is struggling to enforce its bathroom restrictions meanwhile: A tip form to report possible violations has been flooded with hoax submissions, and the state official tasked with filtering through them has made his lack of enthusiasm known.

“The bathroom law brought unpleasant conversations and definitely made our kiddo feel othered,” said Utah mom Grace Cooper, whose child is nonbinary. “It also brought a lot of allies out of the woodwork, but without federal protections, my worries as a mother are ever-present.”

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Florida’s population passes 23 million for the first time due to residents moving from other states https://floridadailypost.com/floridas-population-passes-23-million-for-the-first-time-due-to-residents-moving-from-other-states/ https://floridadailypost.com/floridas-population-passes-23-million-for-the-first-time-due-to-residents-moving-from-other-states/#respond Wed, 24 Jul 2024 13:34:16 +0000 https://floridadailypost.com/?p=64029 Florida’s population crossed the 23 million residents mark for the first time this year because of the influx of people moving from other states, according to state demographic estimates. As of April 1 of this year, Florida had 23,002,597 residents, according to estimates released earlier this month by the state Demographic Estimating Conference. Florida is […]

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Florida’s population crossed the 23 million residents mark for the first time this year because of the influx of people moving from other states, according to state demographic estimates.

As of April 1 of this year, Florida had 23,002,597 residents, according to estimates released earlier this month by the state Demographic Estimating Conference.

Florida is the third most populous state in the U.S., trailing only California’s 39.5 million residents and Texas’ 30.5 million inhabitants.

Florida added almost 359,000 people last year and has been adding about 350,000 to 375,000 people each year this decade, according to the estimates.

The population growth is expected to peak this year and get smaller with each following year for the rest of the 2020s as the final cohort of baby boomers entering retirement gets smaller, according to the estimates.

By the early 2030s, Florida’s growth rate will be under 1% after hitting an expected 1.6% this year.

Since a little bit before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, all of Florida’s growth has come from people moving to the Sunshine State from other parts of the United States or abroad. Deaths have outpaced births in Florida since late 2019 and early 2020, and that trend is predicted to continue well into the next decade.

Almost 10% of Florida’s residents are age 75 and older, second only to Puerto Rico among U.S. states and the territory.

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West Palm Beach zoo works to protect animals from summer heat https://floridadailypost.com/west-palm-beach-zoo-works-to-protect-animals-from-summer-heat/ https://floridadailypost.com/west-palm-beach-zoo-works-to-protect-animals-from-summer-heat/#respond Sun, 21 Jul 2024 20:48:20 +0000 https://floridadailypost.com/?p=63979 Malayan tigers and Aldabra tortoises are native to hot and humid lands, but that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy a frozen treat on a hot Florida summer day. Temperatures in South Florida this month have reached the upper 90s Fahrenheit (mid-30s Celsius) with humidity reaching 70%, combining for “feels like” temperatures regularly exceeding 100 F […]

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Malayan tigers and Aldabra tortoises are native to hot and humid lands, but that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy a frozen treat on a hot Florida summer day.

Temperatures in South Florida this month have reached the upper 90s Fahrenheit (mid-30s Celsius) with humidity reaching 70%, combining for “feels like” temperatures regularly exceeding 100 F (38 C).

Staff at the Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society use a variety of techniques to keep their animals cool. Zookeepers throw large piles of ice into the black bear enclosure for the animals to wallow in, chilling their pool to 74 F (23 C). The otters get ice blocks and frozen fish tossed into their water for playing and eating.

Tigers feast on more ingenious treats: They get frozen cow bones crammed into blocks of ice, along with a side of frozen goat milk. The big cats also like to swim.

Giant tortoises, native to the islands of the Indian Ocean, enjoy cool showers from a hose, which they can feel through their shells.

“Even though all of our animals are acclimatized to the South Florida weather, they look for ways to cool off during the hot days, just like we do,” said Mike Terrell, the zoo’s curator of animal experiences. “All of our animals that we have here at the zoo were specifically chosen because they’re used to warm climates. And so they’re totally happy in a high, high heat, high humidity environment.”

The zoo’s guests love to watch the animals cool down and children press their faces up against the glass for a better look, Terrell said.

“We absolutely love is nose prints,” Terrell said.

Figuring out what cooling activities the animals enjoy requires a bit of trial and error, he said.

“They really tell us what they like,” Terrell said. “We can take our best guess, but if we’re giving them something that they don’t like or they’re not interacting with, we’re not going to continue to give it to them.”

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Ernest Hemingway fans celebrate the author’s 125th birthday in his beloved Key West https://floridadailypost.com/ernest-hemingway-fans-celebrate-the-authors-125th-birthday-in-his-beloved-key-west/ https://floridadailypost.com/ernest-hemingway-fans-celebrate-the-authors-125th-birthday-in-his-beloved-key-west/#respond Sun, 21 Jul 2024 20:46:07 +0000 https://floridadailypost.com/?p=63976 Ernest Hemingway spent the 1930s in Key West, Florida, and more than six decades after his death, fans, scholars and relatives continue to congregate on the island city to celebrate the author’s award-winning novels and adventure-filled life. Hemingway Days started in 1981 with a short-story competition and a look-alike contest. This year’s celebration concluded Sunday […]

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Ernest Hemingway spent the 1930s in Key West, Florida, and more than six decades after his death, fans, scholars and relatives continue to congregate on the island city to celebrate the author’s award-winning novels and adventure-filled life.

Hemingway Days started in 1981 with a short-story competition and a look-alike contest. This year’s celebration concluded Sunday on the 125th anniversary of Hemingway’s birth on July 21, 1899.

As a novelist, short-story writer and journalist, Hemingway’s spot in the pantheon of American literature is undeniable and his legacy permeates the culture and character of Key West.

Hemingway’s great-grandson, Stephen Hemingway Adams, was born nearly three decades after Hemingway died. Adams said working with his grandfather, Patrick Hemingway, who was Ernest Hemingway’s second son, helped him gain a deeper understanding of his famous ancestor.

“I got to work with my granddad, and we put out a book called ‘Dear Papa,’ which was all of the letters between Ernest and my grandfather,” Adams said.

The difference between the public perception and the documented reality of Hemingway can be fuzzy. He loved big-game fishing in the Caribbean and hunting in Africa. He loved bullfighting, baseball, boxing and barhopping. But he also was a serious artist who won Pulitzer and Nobel prizes. He put so much of his life experiences into his writing that it can be tricky to separate the man from the myth.

Adams said he’s fine with some people loving the adventurer more than the writer.

“I think it’s a split, and I think that’s what’s fun,” Adams said of the throngs of look-alikes who visit Key West every year.

The Key West that Hemingway first visited in 1928 was a rustic fishing village, not a bustling tourist destination. Hemingway and his second wife, Pauline, had only planned a brief stop to pick up a car during their move from Paris to Arkansas, where Pauline’s family lived. But the car wasn’t ready and they had to wait several weeks.

Hemingway quickly made friends with local business owners and fishermen. The couple made frequent visits to the island and eventually bought a French Colonial home on a 1.5-acre (0.61-hectare) lot in 1931.

After spending most of his 20s in Paris, Hemingway embraced the vastly different island lifestyle, according to Cori Convertito, a curator at Key West Museum of Art & History at the Custom House.

“He doesn’t come here to act like a recluse and just write,” Convertito said. “He’s out at the bars all the time. He’s out fishing with people. He’s interacting in boxing matches.”

Convertito pointed out that Hemingway was in his 30s for most of the time he lived in Key West, not the white-bearded “Papa Hemingway” most look-alike contestants emulate. “A Farewell to Arms” was finished shortly after he began visiting Key West and that book’s reception, along with his coverage of the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s, increased his fame.

Much of Hemingway’s time in Key West was devoted to big-game fishing with friends. Convertito said Hemingway began to pioneer new techniques after getting his own boat, the Pilar, in 1934.

“He was desperate to land a fully intact marlin,” Convertito said.

The slow process of reeling in a trophy fish left them vulnerable to sharks, similar to the giant marlin caught in Hemingway’s 1952 novel, “The Old Man and the Sea.”

Hemingway focused on catching fish and removing them from the water quickly. He was an early member of the International Game Fish Association and named a vice president in 1940.

He also became an advocate for the Florida Keys and the people who lived there. “To Have and Have Not,” which was published in 1937, is set in a Key West ravaged by the Great Depression.

Hemingway was a vocal critic of how the federal government responded to the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. The official death toll was 423, but more than 250 of the fatalities were World War I veterans hired through a federal jobs program to build the Overseas Highway, which connects the Florida Keys to mainland Florida.

Hemingway drove an ambulance during World War I and felt a particular kinship with the veterans. Corey Malcom, a historian with the Florida Keys History Center, said Hemingway joined the recovery efforts and used his own boat to pull bodies out of the ocean.

Michael Morawski, CEO of the Hemingway Home & Museum, credits his great-aunt, Bernice Dixon, as one of the first people to help preserve Hemingway’s legacy in Key West. The local jewelry store owner bought the house for $80,000 in 1961, shortly after Hemingway’s death. The home became a museum in 1964 and eventually was designated a National Historic Landmark.

“The only reason that she did it was to create a living memorial to Ernest Hemingway,” Morawski said.

Besides the historical and literary significance of the home, the museum also is famous for housing the Hemingway cats. About 60 polydactyl cats with a genetic mutation for extra toes continue to live at the estate. Some of these cats are descendants of the original white, six-toed cat that Hemingway was gifted from a ship’s captain.

The Hemingway Days festival started as a promotional stunt for Sloppy Joe’s Bar, one of Hemingway’s favorite hangouts. Michael Whalton was working as a manager at the bar in 1980 when he read about a Bad Hemingway Contest, where writers parodied Hemingway’s sparse, blunt style.

Whalton decided a look-alike contest and other activities around Hemingway’s July birthday might be a great way to attract costumers during the island’s slow season, when hot and humid weather scares many tourists away.

“I really didn’t know what to expect,” Whalton said. “I was getting nervous because we didn’t have anybody signed up for the look-alike contest, so I called everybody I knew in Key West who had a beard.”

The turnout was better than expected. The author’s younger brother, Leicester Hemingway, contacted Whalton and agreed to judge the look-alike contest with his wife and daughters. Whalton convinced another granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, Lorian Hemingway, to judge a short story contest.

David Douglas, president of the Hemingway Look-Alike Society, began attending the competition in 2000 and won in 2009. The 70-year-old Houston resident continues to return every year as a judge.

“I love the contest, I love the camaraderie all the contestants,” Douglas said.

David “Bat” Masterson, of Daytona Beach, became the newest “Papa” on Saturday. The retired pilot beat out 121 others in this year’s look-alike contest.

The look-alike group has evolved over the years into a service organization with hundreds of members around the world that has funded more than $350,000 in scholarships for Florida Keys students. The organization also sponsors a youth baseball team in Cuba, where Hemingway moved after leaving Florida.

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Judge’s order dismissing Trump classified docs case won’t be final word as long court fight awaits https://floridadailypost.com/judges-order-dismissing-trump-classified-docs-case-wont-be-final-word-as-long-court-fight-awaits/ https://floridadailypost.com/judges-order-dismissing-trump-classified-docs-case-wont-be-final-word-as-long-court-fight-awaits/#respond Thu, 18 Jul 2024 13:27:02 +0000 https://floridadailypost.com/?p=63952 A judge’s stunning decision to dismiss the classified documents case against Donald Trump brought an abrupt halt to what experts have considered the strongest and most straightforward of the prosecutions of the former president. But it’s hardly the final word. Special counsel Jack Smith’s appeal of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s order is expected to […]

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A judge’s stunning decision to dismiss the classified documents case against Donald Trump brought an abrupt halt to what experts have considered the strongest and most straightforward of the prosecutions of the former president. But it’s hardly the final word.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s appeal of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s order is expected to tee up a court fight that might reach the U.S. Supreme Court and could result in the reinstatement of the indictment and even conceivably the reassignment of the case to a different judge.

There’s no scenario in which a revived prosecution could reach trial before the November election — and it presumably won’t take place at all in the event Trump is elected president and orders his Justice Department to dismiss it. Still, Cannon’s order ensures many more months of legal wrangling in a criminal case that became snarled over the last year by interminable delays.

“The only good thing about this is that it is finally a decision,” said Nancy Gertner, a former federal judge in Massachusetts who was nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. “The difficulty with Judge Cannon has been that she has made no decisions. She has simply sat on the case. And since she has made no decisions, there was nothing to appeal.”

The judge’s 93-page order held that Smith’s selection as special counsel violated the Constitution because he was named to the position directly by Attorney General Merrick Garland instead of being appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Prosecutors vigorously challenged that argument when it was raised by Trump’s lawyers, and filed a formal notice of appeal Wednesday to initiate the process.

It’s impossible to say whether the opinion will stand or be reversed on appeal, though other judges in other districts in recent years have reached opposite conclusions of Cannon, upholding the constitutionality of special counsels who were appointed by Justice Department leadership and funded by a permanent indefinite appropriation.

The Supreme Court, in a 50-year-old opinion involving President Richard Nixon, held that the Justice Department had the statutory authority to appoint a special prosecutor.

And even though Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas raised questions this month about the legality of Smith’s appointment, no other justice signed onto his concurring opinion in a case conferring broad immunity on former presidents.

The Smith team is likely to point to all of those court holdings in casting Cannon to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as an outlier who made not just a bad decision but one requiring swift reversal, said Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina law school professor.

A spokesman for Smith’s office, in announcing Monday that the Justice Department had authorized an appeal, said the opinion “deviates from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a Special Counsel.”

But Jesse Panuccio, a former associate attorney general in the Trump administration Justice Department, said anger over Cannon’s opinion — which he called a “careful and scholarly” analysis — was misplaced.

“If you took out of the equation the derangement that comes from anyone analyzing anything that has to do with Trump and you just asked legal scholars 10 years ago, ‘Hey, are there any issues involving independent counsels, special counsels?’” he said, the answer would be yes.

Panuccio added: “I think this is a very serious issue, and it’s an issue frankly that when I was at the Justice Department, I had reservations about.”

Trump on Monday said the dismissal “should be just the first step” and the three other cases against him, which he called “Witch Hunts,” should also be thrown out.

Cannon, a Trump appointee, has exasperated the Justice Department since even before the indictment was filed, meaning if prosecutors do seek her removal, they could presumably cite a laundry list of grievances with her handling of the case.

Weeks after the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago for classified documents in August 2022, Cannon granted a Trump team request to appoint an independent arbiter to review the seized records — a decision later overturned by a unanimous federal appeals panel. In April, prosecutors rebuked Cannon over potential jury instructions she floated that they said rested on a “fundamentally flawed legal premise.”

It is unclear if Smith’s team will seek to have Cannon reassigned in the event that the appeals court reinstates the case. A Smith spokesperson declined to comment Tuesday on that possibility. It’s an unusual request and one prosecutors in this case had avoided making.

But there is precedent for appeals courts taking that step, including in the same judicial district where the Florida case was charged.

“I think it would be quite a statement if the Circuit Court removes her from the case, but I think in this instance it would be warranted,” said Cheryl Bader, a Fordham University law school professor and former federal prosecutor. “There does seem to be a pattern of Judge Cannon bending over backwards to create delay and obstacles.”

In 1989, the 11th Circuit reinstated a criminal case in Florida of a man charged with trafficking counterfeit Rolex watches and reassigned the case to another judge after the trial judge described the case as “silly” and a waste of taxpayers’ money.

The court laid out three considerations for deciding whether to assign a case to a different judge, including whether such a move is “appropriate to preserve the appearance of justice” and “whether the original judge would have difficulty putting his previous views and findings aside.”

Gerhardt, the North Carolina professor, said he did not see a downside to Smith’s team making such a request.

“Judges do make bad decisions sometimes,” he said. “But not good judges do it more often than they should, and she’s done it more often than any judge should.”

But Panuccio said he didn’t think Cannon’s order gave Smith’s team sufficient cause to complain, especially given that Cannon’s position was backed by a member of the Supreme Court.

“I think Jack Smith would be flirting with fire if he were to make that request based on this opinion simply because he lost an issue,” he said.

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US homes find fewer foreign buyers as rising costs and a strong dollar leave market in record slump https://floridadailypost.com/us-homes-find-fewer-foreign-buyers-as-rising-costs-and-a-strong-dollar-leave-market-in-record-slump/ https://floridadailypost.com/us-homes-find-fewer-foreign-buyers-as-rising-costs-and-a-strong-dollar-leave-market-in-record-slump/#respond Thu, 18 Jul 2024 13:18:27 +0000 https://floridadailypost.com/?p=63939 Sales of U.S. homes to Chinese, Canadian and other foreign buyers have fallen to the lowest level in more than a decade, hampered by a strong dollar and more hurdles that have kept the housing market in a deep sales slump for over two years. Some 54,300 previously occupied U.S. homes were purchased by non-U.S. […]

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Sales of U.S. homes to Chinese, Canadian and other foreign buyers have fallen to the lowest level in more than a decade, hampered by a strong dollar and more hurdles that have kept the housing market in a deep sales slump for over two years.

Some 54,300 previously occupied U.S. homes were purchased by non-U.S. citizens in the 12 months ended in March, according to a report this week by the National Association of Realtors.

That’s the fewest homes sold to foreign nationals in data going back to 2009. Sales were down about 36% compared to the same period a year earlier.

Those transactions from April 2023 through March of this year totaled $42 billion, a 21.2% decline from the prior-year period, NAR said.

“International buyers face the same difficult market challenges as domestic buyers — lack of inventory, higher mortgage rates, the affordability condition,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “On top of that, for many international buyers the stronger dollar was not in their favor.”

The U.S. housing market has been stuck in a slump since 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Existing home sales sank to a nearly 30-year low last year as the average rate on a 30-year mortgage surged to a 23-year high of 7.79%, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac.

The average rate has mostly hovered around 7%, limiting home shoppers’ purchasing power. At the same time, the supply of homes for sale, though rising in recent months, remains close to historic lows. That’s kept the market competitive enough to lift home prices to new highs.

On top of those affordability challenges, foreign buyers have to factor in the potential for additional costs when the U.S. dollar is stronger than their currency. The U.S. Dollar Index, which tracks the value of the greenback relative to a basket of foreign currencies, has risen 3.9% over the past 12 months.

“The strong U.S. dollar makes international travel cheaper for Americans but makes U.S. homes much more expensive for foreigners,” said Yun. “Therefore, it’s not surprising to see a pullback in U.S. home sales from foreign buyers.”

All-cash sales accounted for half the international buyer transactions, compared to just 28% of all existing-home buyers, NAR said.

The report defined international buyers as non-U.S. citizens with permanent residences outside the country and immigrants who had been in the U.S. less than two years when they bought a home. It also included purchases by non-immigrants living in the U.S. for more than six months under professional or educational visas, among others.

The number of existing U.S. homes purchased by international buyers peaked in the 12 months ended March 2017 at 284,500 properties, according to NAR. That was fueled in part by a surge in Chinese nationals snapping up homes.

Among the foreign nationals who bought a U.S. home in the 12 months ended in March of this year, buyers from China accounted for 11% of purchases, matching Mexico, NAR said. Home shoppers from Canada topped the list with 13%.

Where did most of the international home shoppers end up buying a home? Florida drew the most at 20% of all sales to foreign buyers, followed by Texas (13%), California (11%) and Arizona (5%). Georgia, New Jersey, New York and North Carolina each accounted for 4%, NAR said.

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Scientists have confirmed a cave on the moon that could be used to shelter future explorers https://floridadailypost.com/scientists-have-confirmed-a-cave-on-the-moon-that-could-be-used-to-shelter-future-explorers/ https://floridadailypost.com/scientists-have-confirmed-a-cave-on-the-moon-that-could-be-used-to-shelter-future-explorers/#respond Tue, 16 Jul 2024 04:21:54 +0000 https://floridadailypost.com/?p=63890 Scientists have confirmed a cave on the moon, not far from where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed 55 years ago, and suspect there are hundreds more that could house future astronauts. An Italian-led team reported Monday that there’s evidence for a sizable cave accessible from the deepest known pit on the moon. It’s located […]

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Scientists have confirmed a cave on the moon, not far from where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed 55 years ago, and suspect there are hundreds more that could house future astronauts.

An Italian-led team reported Monday that there’s evidence for a sizable cave accessible from the deepest known pit on the moon. It’s located at the Sea of Tranquility, just 250 miles (400 kilometers) from Apollo 11’s landing site.

The pit, like the more than 200 others discovered up there, was created by the collapse of a lava tube.

Researchers analyzed radar measurements by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and compared the results with lava tubes on Earth. Their findings appeared in the journal Nature Astronomy.

The radar data reveals only the initial part of the underground cavity, according to the scientists. They estimate it’s at least 130 feet (40 meters) wide and tens of yards (meters) long, probably more.

“Lunar caves have remained a mystery for over 50 years. So it was exciting to be able to finally prove the existence” of one, Leonardo Carrer and Lorenzo Bruzzone of the University of Trento, wrote in an email.

Most of the pits seem to be located in the moon’s ancient lava plains, according to the scientists. There also could be some at the moon’s south pole, the planned location of NASA’s astronaut landings later this decade. Permanently shadowed craters there are believed to hold frozen water that could provide drinking water and rocket fuel.

During NASA’s Apollo program, 12 astronauts landed on the moon, beginning with Armstrong and Aldrin on July 20, 1969.

The findings suggest there could be hundreds of pits on the moon and thousands of lava tubes. Such places could serve as a natural shelter for astronauts, protecting them from cosmic rays and solar radiation as well as from micrometeorite strikes. Building habitats from scratch would be more time-consuming and challenging, even when factoring in the potential need of reinforcing the cave walls to prevent a collapse, the team said.

Rocks and other material inside these caves — unaltered by the harsh surface conditions over the eons — also can help scientists better understand how the moon evolved, especially involving its volcanic activity

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Battered by Hurricane Idalia last year, Florida village ponders future as hurricane season begins https://floridadailypost.com/battered-by-hurricane-idalia-last-year-florida-village-ponders-future-as-hurricane-season-begins/ https://floridadailypost.com/battered-by-hurricane-idalia-last-year-florida-village-ponders-future-as-hurricane-season-begins/#respond Tue, 16 Jul 2024 04:20:24 +0000 https://floridadailypost.com/?p=63887 Lisa Bregenzer’s waterfront home was her “little slice of heaven.” She watched sunsets and migrating birds from the porch, the Gulf of Mexico in the distance. There, she felt close to God and her late father. When Hurricane Idalia tore through Florida in late August, Bregenzer lost everything in the northwest fishing village of Horseshoe […]

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Lisa Bregenzer’s waterfront home was her “little slice of heaven.” She watched sunsets and migrating birds from the porch, the Gulf of Mexico in the distance. There, she felt close to God and her late father.

When Hurricane Idalia tore through Florida in late August, Bregenzer lost everything in the northwest fishing village of Horseshoe Beach. For months, she and her husband slept where they could with friends, neighbors and family: in Tennessee, Georgia, West Virginia, eastern Florida.

For nearly 11 months, Bregenzer felt she was no better off than after the storm.

“I’m spent. I’m tired. I’m weak. And I’m weary,” Bregenzer said in May inside a temporary, state-issued camper she lives in several miles away. “Everyday I am reminded of the storm.”

Almost a year later, many people in Horseshoe are asking themselves: Do I sell and move? Should I buy a recreational vehicle to live in on my property? Do I have the means to rebuild on stilts, as code requires? As they ask these questions, U.S. officials predict this year’s hurricane season in Florida will be busier than usual.

Coastal climate impacts
In the U.S., more than 128 million people – nearly 40% of the nation’s population – live in coastal counties along the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans, as well as the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. These seaside communities produce $10 trillion in goods and services annually, employ 54.6 million people, and pay $4 trillion in wages, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

To live along the coast in a time of climate change is to contend with increasing vulnerabilities. Seas are rising and warming up, eroding coastlines, intensifying storms and making floods a more frequent occurrence.

In Horseshoe, those who lost homes to Idalia have few options. They can either rebuild on pricey stilts — up to 19 feet (5.8 meters) above sea level as required for buildings closest to water — or live in RVs they can move from a hurricane’s path.

Located 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Gainesville, Horseshoe is a quiet town in Dixie County. Residents zip around in golf carts and move with the days’ rhythms — lounging when it’s hottest, fishing when the tide is right, watching sunsets, beers in hand. Less than 200 full-time residents, both recent retirees and long-timers, as well as weekenders and seasonal tourists, are spread over an area about three-quarters of a mile long and wide. There is one church, one firehouse and one restaurant. There is no gas station or grocery store, and only one road goes in and out.

Horseshoe residents say they are proud of strong community bonds and sunsets that paint the sky brilliant hues. Homes approaching $1 million are interspersed with some as low as $50,000. Historically, it’s a place where a blue collar worker could live by the sea.

Many residents are still reeling from last summer’s Category 3 storm that pummeled homes, businesses and other infrastructure, leaving debris and rubble in its wake. Recovery for some has been long and slow. Elevated homes withstood severe damage. Homes with little elevation were destroyed. Many weren’t insured, and those who did have flood insurance were not covered for repairs from wind-driven water. Scientists have said that Gulf waters warmed by climate change helped Idalia rapidly intensify

Today, the signs of destruction remain. A house lies flat like a pancake. Abandoned homes with shattered windows – some boarded up with wood – stand askew. Inside, washers and driers are turned on their sides. A tattered American flag flaps where a house was swept away and flags reading “Horseshoe Strong” hang from balconies, made after Idalia by a local who lost her business.

Storms reshape Horseshoe
People talk about keeping Horseshoe unchanged, but before Idalia storms had begun reshaping the town’s character and landscape.

Hurricane Hermine in 2016, and before that, the so-called Storm of the Century in 1993, caused widespread damage. People sold their properties. Some houses went up on stilts. In 1993, Tina Brotherton lost her marina and the cafe next door, and had to replace the floors and beds at her inn. Most of the damaged buildings were on the waterfront, she recalled.

Idalia dealt another blow.

Brotherton, 88, said she doesn’t plan to rebuild this time. Her business, Tina’s Dockside Inn, was completely destroyed, as was her home that she planned to put on the market days before the storm. She says she is tired and it’s expensive to rebuild.

“Once I got all my cats out, I don’t care to go back,” she said inside her home a couple of miles away, where she lives with her son and more than a dozen cats. “There’s nothing there for me anymore.”

Long road to recovery
By midcentury, more than 48,000 properties could be below the high tide lines, mostly in Louisiana, Florida and Texas, according to a 2022 study by Climate Central.

While Horseshoe residents say they know storms and flooding will continue, it’s hard to think about that when trying to survive the present.

Eileen Lilley, 75, is living in a camper after 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water damaged her home. On a recent day, she spoke of her late husband and missing the screened porch where she liked to paint. Despite the longing, she feels safe knowing her mobile home can be moved when another hurricane strikes.

“It’s better for me at my age to get somebody who can pull me out of here and move me to another area,” she said, while at her side snoozed Katy the cat and Kelly the dog laid at her feet.

Some residents are waiting to know if they qualify for state or federal loans and grants to help them rebuild. Mayor Jeff Williams said insuring new property will also be cost prohibitive for many. “In a town when you’re in a flood zone, you pay the highest rate,” he said. “And the rate of insurance over the last two to three years has just skyrocketed.”

All this added to Bregenzer’s anxiety. To rebuild they needed financial help. Her husband had a stroke and back surgery years ago, and medical bills and income loss sapped their savings. She’s grateful to have a roof over her head.

“It’s humbling,” she said.

They want to be homeowners again, she said while sitting inside her camper, tears in her eyes. To have a house to show for their lives’ work. For nearly a year, she didn’t know if that would happen or when. And she wondered: is it even worth it?

Then just last week, Bregenzer finally found hope. Her family was approved for a program that will help them build a new home. If all goes as planned, they’ll move into an stilted two-bedroom house on their lot by year’s end.

“After 11 months of what seemingly felt and appeared to be a nightmare, I just,” she said over the phone in July, her voice trailing off. “I lack words.”

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