First Read for Friday, Dec. 30, 2022

Good morning. It's National Bacon Day. Of course, there’s a Florida-based restaurant chain that specializes in the cured meat, but we can’t say its name in a family newsletter. 

FIRST UP 

Editor’s note – “First Up” is taking off today and “First Read” is taking the day off Monday. 

We’ll be back in your inbox Tuesday, Jan. 3. From all of us to all of you, a very Happy New Year. 

– Jim Rosica 

FROM CITY & STATE 

* Florida’s Winners & Losers of 2022: The big, bold, end-of-year edition. Who was up and who was down in Florida policy & politics?

* Saying the case is “moot,” University of Florida professors are asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit that challenged a controversial conflict-of-interest policy that gave school administrators discretion over allowing faculty members to serve as expert witnesses in litigation.

THIS MONTH’S MAGAZINE

The Florida Women Power 100

* Who are the most influential women in Florida politics and government? City & State Florida's Women Power 100 identifies the most important government officials, high-powered lobbyists, leaders of the worlds of business, nonprofits, strategic messaging and social justice in the arena of Sunshine State politics and policy.

 ▶ Read This Month's Issue

NEW THIS MORNING

* The Seminole Police Department and the Miccosukee Police Department were the only two agencies out of the 757 in Florida that submitted hate crime data for 2021 to the FBI, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports. 

* Incoming Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders named Jacob Oliva, a senior chancellor at the Florida Department of Education, as her pick to lead the state’s education agency, KAIT8 reports.

* Jason Garcia published his list of ten wins from 2022 that all Floridians should feel good about, Seeking Rents reports.

* Gov. Ron DeSantis’s two newest appointees to the Florida Board of Medicine are doctors from Orlando and Jacksonville who support conversion therapy for transgender and gender-nonconforming children and oppose widely accepted medical treatments for them, the Orlando Sentinel reports. 

* The multi-day chill in South Florida over the Christmas weekend was the best chance since the arctic blast of 2010 to cull the state’s burgeoning herd of invasive green iguanas, the Palm Beach Post reports. 

More news below …

************

YOUR MESSAGE HERE: City & State First Read is the must-read morning roundup of Florida politics and government. Reaching thousands of subscribers each morning, it's the most effective and targeted digital ad venue to get your message in front of city and state elected officials, agency and industry leaders, and the staff, advocates, media and operatives who drive the issues of the day – all by 7 a.m. each weekday. For advertising information, please email: advertising@cityandstatefl.com

***********

* The election results in Duval County can help explain what happened throughout the Sunshine State during the 2022 election in which Republicans dominated, NBC News reports.

* While thousands of Floridians continue to be infected by coronavirus, state health officials already are treating COVID-19 as an endemic disease as health experts cling to the hope that it has become more manageable and less deadly, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports.

* Miami Commissioner Ken Russell resigned his District 2 seat, leaving City Hall a few days before he had originally planned under a state law that requires elected officials to step down when they run for another office, the Miami Herald reports.

* Months after Hurricane Ian walloped Florida as one of the worst in state history, the number of victims who lost their lives continues to rise with its death toll reaching 144, the USA TODAY Network-Florida reports.

* Tampa Bay – which comprises Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater – took the No. 1 spot on Forbes Advisor's Best Places to Live in Florida 2022 list, ABC Action News reports.

************

Become a subscriber to News Service of Florida today for breaking news alerts straight from the Capitol. Join fellow professionals and civic leaders and get instant access to the News Service of Florida’s essential reporting on government, policy and politics in the Sunshine State. Request a 10-Day Trial

************

DESANTIS WATCH 

The governor had calls Thursday with Chief of Staff James Uthmeier and Communications Director Taryn Fenske, according to his official schedule. 

2024 ROUNDUP

* Donald Trump’s brutal start and disastrous 2024 campaign launch has opened the door for potential challengers like DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Time’s Brian Bennett writes. 

* Donald Trump Jr. detailed his efforts to convince his father to take a more forceful stand against the Capitol riot in his deposition with the House Jan. 6 panel, the Hill reports. 

* A day before former President Trump’s tax returns see the light of day, Republicans made a last-minute push to discredit the investigation, saying Democrats cherry-picked information from IRS documents, Politico reports. 

ANALYSIS & OPINION 

* 2022 was decidedly a rough year for LGBTQ rights, including Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, or what critics dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, NBC Out’s Matt Lavietes writes. 

* DeSantis and Florida Republicans managed a rare policy feat: Constructive insurance reform, preventing the state’s property insurance market from collapsing under a tidal wave of lawsuits, the Wall Street Journal editorial board writes.

* Broward County commissioners should reject Sheriff Gregory Tony’s ultimatum surrounding the county’s troubled 911 call center system, the South Florida Sun Sentinel editorial board writes.

* Miami needs to take a hard look at Grand Avenue in western Coconut Grove, a once vital economic engine of the historically Black neighborhood that is being erased, the Miami Herald editorial board writes.

* The state of Florida is putting politics ahead of science when it comes to COVID as Gov. DeSantis has decided to push his White House ambitions by running on an anti-science platform, bioethics professor Arthur Caplan writes for Medscape. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: To former state Rep. Trey Traviesa of Tampa.  

On SATURDAY (New Year’s Eve), to lawyer and lobbyist Natalie Kato … to former state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith of Orlando … to former state Rep. Priscilla Taylor of West Palm Beach. 

On SUNDAY (New Year’s Day), to Manatee County Supervisor of Elections and former state lawmaker Mike Bennett … to Ted Bridis, Rob Hiaasen Lecturer in Investigative Reporting in the Department of Journalism at the University of Florida … to online politics journalist Brian Crowley, formerly with the Palm Beach Post … to AARP of Florida state director Jeff Johnson … to USA TODAY managing editor Jennifer Portman … to currently suspended Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren. 

On MONDAY, to former state Rep. Tracy Stafford of Wilton Manors. 

ON THE MOVE: Julio Piti, vice president of development for the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, was recently elected as Miami-Dade Economic Advocacy Trust Board's 1st vice chairman. 

CONGRATULATIONS: The Office of the State Courts Administrator gave its annual Award of Excellence to Web Content Manager Josh Smith for “his meticulous work on web accessibility, the flcourts.gov redesign, and the refresh of OSCA's logo,” according to a press release.  

Have a birthday, career change, birth, death or life event to announce? Email us: editor@cityandstatefl.com. 

************

YOUR MESSAGE HERE: City & State First Read is the must-read morning roundup of Florida politics and government. Reaching thousands of subscribers each morning, it's the most effective and targeted digital ad venue to get your message in front of city and state elected officials, agency and industry leaders, and the staff, advocates, media and operatives who drive the issues of the day – all by 7 a.m. each weekday. For advertising information, please email: advertising@cityandstatefl.com

************

KICKER

“It looks like being a transphobe is a prerequisite for the Board of Medicine now.”

– State Rep. Anna Eskamani, via the Orlando Sentinel, on DeSantis’ new appointments to the Florida Board of Medicine.