The Department of Education on Thursday repaid a group of Florida school board members whose salaries were withheld for implementing mask mandates in defiance of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' executive order that parents, not school officials, must decide how to protect their children in the pandemic.

The Alachua County School Board, one of the school districts with mask requirements, was awarded $147,719 in grants under the Project to Support America's Families and Educators (Project SAFE) grant program, the Education Department announced. The school board is the first to receive the award under the program that was created to help school districts facing financial penalties by implementing "strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19 consistent with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance" such as masking, according to the department.

"We should be thanking districts for using proven strategies that will keep schools open and safe, not punishing them. We stand with the dedicated educators in Alachua and across the country doing the right thing to protect their school communities," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement issued Thursday. "With these grants, we're making sure schools and communities across the country that are committed to safely returning to in-person learning know that we have their backs. I commend Alachua for protecting its students and educators, and I look forward to working with them to provide students their best year yet."

Dr. Carlee Simon, superintendent for Alachua County Public Schools, thanked Cardona and President Joe Biden on Thursday.

Fired Fox News Digital Politics Editor Chris Stirewalt, who played an instrumental role in calling Arizona for President Joe Biden before any other broadcast network, discussed the results of the Arizona election audit on Sunday, telling CNN’s Jim Acosta that he takes “no satisfaction or pleasure from seeing this outcome that roughly correspondents with the real results.”

Prior to 2020, Arizona had not voted for a Democratic president since 1996, and the call greatly upset former President Donald Trump‘s campaign team. According to the New York Times, Trump political adviser Jason Miller unsuccessfully requested that the network retract the call on Twitter, and Jared Kushner was in contact Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News.

A review of the election results released last week not only affirmed Biden’s victory, but also said that Trump received 261 fewer votes than the official results.

Stirewalt, however, said he did not feel any “vindication” from the audit’s results because “they’re doing their damage anyway.”

“The point of these [audits] is to undermine confidence. It’s not what the finding is,” Stirewalt said. “So I take no satisfaction or pleasure from seeing this outcome that roughly corresponds with the real results. They’re doing their damage

Ex-FedEx employee Vincent Paterno mocked Kamala Harris’ name with a vulgar term via TikTok

A former FedEx driver who vowed in a profanity-laced video to never deliver packages to houses championing the Black Lives Matter movement, Joe Biden, or Kamala Harris has since been fired — and now won’t be delivering packages to any houses at all.

First reported by TooFab on Friday, the delivery company terminated employee Vincent Paterno, 39, after catching wind of a TikTok video in which Paterno smugly states he will not extend services to any house with a flag representing BLM, the President or VP, using a vulgar term to mock Harris’ first name.

https://twitter.com/LivingBlueTX/status/1439053086971019268