The state’s sole elected Democrat began the week attacking Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on cable news, another indication that national media is eyeing the Florida landscape heading into 2022.

Nikki Fried, the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, vented vexation over the Governor’s vaccine distribution efforts in an MSNBC interview. Coronavirus response has offered perhaps the most glaring example of political difference between the Governor and her, with Fried offering sharp critiques that DeSantis rarely honors with a direct response.

Fried, who has rehearsed claims of “pay to play” distribution and “corruption” in previous interviews, scaffolded off those claims on Monday, as DeSantis expanded vaccine distribution to those 60-64 years of age.

The Commissioner had previously criticized a vaccination pod in tony Ocean Reef, where resident and former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner donated $250,000 to the Governor’s “Friends of Ron DeSantis” political committee, with other locals donating also. Clearly, the bet is that issue still has legs.

For a whole year, as Floridians suffered and died by the tens of thousands from COVID-19, Florida’s government routinely kept the public from seeing detailed information about the course and intensity of the pandemic, often until the trend line had changed to better match the governor’s sunnier version.

That disgraceful behavior by a state known for its broad public-records laws is detailed in a story and accompanying timeline published by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times last week. That important reporting shows that Florida’s government spent a year stonewalling, obfuscating and evading requests for information about such vital matters as the number of COVID deaths recorded by medial examiners’ offices, details about contact tracing to see where transmission was occurring and which eldercare facilities had seen outbreaks among staff and residents.

Mounting such a pervasive and sustained attack on the state’s public-records law in the midst of a tragedy that has killed 31,000 people and infected more than 1.9 million in the state should outrage and offend every Florida taxpayer.

In some ways, this is no surprise. Under former Gov. Rick Scott, now Florida’s junior senator, the state became increasingly hostile to open- government principles. But current Gov. Ron DeSantis has expanded on Scott’s antagonism, chipping away at the public’s right to know what its government is doing — just when Floridians most needed to rely on their leaders on life-or-death issues. That is inexcusable.

MIAMI — The CVS Pharmacy chain is vaccinating Florida teachers under age 50, circumventing state orders that continue to limit coronavirus inoculations to those over that age.

The chain also began vaccinating day care and preschool teachers Wednesday, even though Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has not yet opened the vaccination program to them. CVS is giving inoculations in two dozen cities across the state.

CVS said it is following Biden administration guidelines released this week, which are broader for educators than Florida’s. For teachers, Florida limits the vaccine to classroom teachers 50 and older who work in kindergarten through 12th grade. The federal guidelines allow day care workers, preschool teachers and educators in elementary, middle and high schools to be vaccinated with no age limit.

The Florida Education Association, the state teachers union, said it was still trying to confirm younger teachers are getting shots.
Tracey Burger, a 49-year-old Miami high school English teacher, said Wednesday that she was disappointed when DeSantis announced last week that she would not make the cut. Burger has barely left her house since schools closed a year ago when the pandemic began.

MIAMI — As Florida’s eldest residents struggled to sign up to receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, nearly all those ages 65 years and older in a wealthy gated enclave in the Florida Keys had been vaccinated by mid-January, according to an emailed newsletter obtained by the Miami Herald.

The management of Ocean Reef Club, located in north Key Largo, also acknowledged in the Jan. 22 message to residents that the rest of the state was grappling to get its hands on the vaccine.

“Over the course of the last two weeks, the Medical Center has vaccinated over 1,200 homeowners who qualify under the State of Florida’s Governor’s current Order for those individuals who are 65 years of age or older,’’ the message reads.

“We are fortunate to have received enough vaccines to ensure both the first and second for those vaccinated. At this time, however, the majority of the State has not received an allocation of first doses of vaccines for this week and beyond, and the timing of any subsequent deliveries remains unclear.”

Neither Ocean Reef’s media relations representative nor officials from its medical center immediately returned phone and emailed messages to answer questions about how it received so many vaccines before much of the rest of the state.

Florida is the only state that hasn’t told its residents who will get shots next, when more doses are available, according to an analysis of state rollouts by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit focused on national health issues. Instead, Gov. Ron DeSantis has been laser-focused on vaccinating seniors, telling other groups to wait their turn.

“Most states are providing information,” said Jen Kates, Kaiser’s vice president. “Maybe they haven’t put it out for all phases, but at least for the next phase coming up. All but one state, and that’s Florida.” No clear statement on who’s next in line

DeSantis said at a Miami area news conference Tuesday that sworn law enforcement officers and classroom teachers will get access to vaccines next, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency opens new vaccination sites in Florida on March 3. But the statement, like many made by DeSantis through the pandemic, was non-specific — and his staff rarely responds to follow-up questions seeking more details.

The lack of clear messaging has left millions of essential workers confused about when they might have access to vaccines. Neither they nor other groups recommended as key for vaccination by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — like those younger than 65 who are medically vulnerable — have been told when their time will come.

TAMPA — Graydon Young, an Army and Navy reserve veteran from Sarasota County, stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 with thousands of others because he was working toward a “righteous cause,” his attorney said in federal court Monday.

Young, a brother, husband and a small business owner, only later realized “he had been duped by an organization he didn’t fully understand,” defense attorney Robert Foley argued in a federal probable cause hearing in Tampa. Young was arrested Feb. 15 and is among nine people accused as co-conspirators as members of the far-right, anti-government militia group the Oath Keepers. All nine face charges for conspiring to obstruct the U.S. Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election results by storming the Capitol building on Jan. 6.

Young’s actions that day were simply “inconceivable,” federal Magistrate Judge Thomas Wilson ruled. Young, 54, of Englewood, will be held in Pinellas County jail without bail until he can be tried on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, depredation against federal government property and unlawful entry, disorderly or violent conduct and destruction of records in a federal investigation, Wilson said.

According to the court documents, Young and his sister are alleged to have donned paramilitary gear and joined a “military-style stack” formation that marched up the center steps of the east side of the Capitol, breached the door at the top and then stormed inside. Young had planned for that moment since he joined the group in December, court records said, and even arranged for himself and three others to train with a “Florida company that conducts training on firearms and combat,” leading up to the insurrection.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent out a fundraising plea attacking the Biden administration for considering domestic travel restrictions in an effort to curb the spread of a highly contagious COVID-19 variant.

President Joe Biden “is trying to shut FL’s border,” DeSantis texted potential donors. In an accompanying email, DeSantis said: “Joe Biden is considering treating Florida like East Berlin and shutting down our border over ‘coronavirus concerns.’”

Is that so? We found no indication of anything so dramatic.

Desantis imposed travel restrictions on travelers from some states earlier in the pandemic. On March 23, 2020, he required travelers from coronavirus hot spots like New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to self-quarantine for 14 days. Later that month, he ordered the Florida Highway Patrol to set up checkpoints on a highway connecting Florida and Louisiana.

President Joe Biden made many promises on the campaign trail, from reducing high maternal mortality rates to creating 1 million auto industry jobs. He has already fulfilled his pledges to rescind the transgender military ban, rejoin the World Health Organization and reverse family separation policies that split parents from their children at the U.S. border, according to the fact-checkers at PolitiFact who are tracking 100 of the president’s top priorities.

Some of Biden’s broader promises have wide support. The devil, of course, is in the details, but who wouldn’t want to get COVID-19 under control or end pay discrimination? Some of the others are commendable, but not entirely within Biden’s immediate control. He wants, for instance, to nominate the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court, but he can’t do that unless a spot on the court becomes available.

Put Social Security on a path to long-run solvency
Allow import of prescription drugs from other countries
Repeal laws barring Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices
Create national center to reduce veteran suicide
Restore Cuba engagement

Tampa Bay Lightning celebrate title by taking Stanley Cup on a jet-ski
Associated Press

Turns out Rob Gronkowski wasn't the guy the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had to worry about when it came to the safety of the Lombardi Trophy.T

The Bucs set sail for a boat parade down Hillsborough River in Tampa on Wednesday to celebrate their Super Bowl LV victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, and Tom Brady arrived in style on his $2 million boat.

The parade featured the usual shenanigans -- until Brady decided to attempt an uncharacteristically risky throw. Here's the 43-year-old quarterback literally throwing the Lombardi Trophy over open water from his boat to a boat of Tampa Bay wide receivers.