First Read for Friday, Feb. 3, 2023

Good morning. It’s National Take a Cruise Day. Over eight million people take a cruise out of Florida every year, with the state making up more than 50% of the industry in the U.S.

FIRST UP

Things haven’t changed much in the last few decades when it comes to one parental gripe: Get off the damn phone. Take Gov. Ron DeSantis, who keeps inveighing against kids’ addiction to phones and screens, though he’s probably not dealing with it – yet. He and wife Casey have three small kids: Madison (born in 2016), Mason (2018) and Mamie (2020). 

“As a father of a six, a four and a two year old, we don't want them mired on the internet or on these computers,” DeSantis said Thursday, at an appearance in Milton to announce grants to boost rural broadband access (though the sign at the event misspelled it as “broadbrand”). “Being buried in that thing, all during the day, I don't think is healthy and I think it’s going to be a continued battle with young people.”

The governor has previously discussed that he thinks schools should prohibit students from having phones in classrooms, instead leaving them in a “cubby” until class is over. The Centers for Disease Control has found that children aged 8-18 spend between 6-9 hours a day looking at a screen.

DeSantis added that phone and computer usage are keeping students from interacting with people in person and going outside. “When I was growing up, we had … Nintendo video games … but we were out there playing, we were out there doing all that. Now you really can just be doing devices and all this stuff, day after day, and that’s not healthy.”

– Tristan Wood

FROM CITY & STATE

* WHO’S UP? WHO’S DOWN? Find out in this week’s Winners & Losers.

* POT PROPOSAL: Backers of a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow recreational use of marijuana have passed the first hurdle to get on the 2024 ballot.

NEW THIS MORNING

* Florida could alter its voting by mail rules yet again ahead of the 2024 presidential election, including blocking voters from being able to request a mail-in-ballot by telephone, Politico Florida reports. 

* The Florida Supreme Court deleted part of a rule that has allowed judges to take courses in “fairness and diversity” to meet a continuing-education requirement, the News Service of Florida reports. 

* U.S. Sen. Rick Scott was removed from the Senate Commerce Committee, and he blames Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who he unsuccessfully challenged, Fox News reports.

* DeSantis said lawmakers will return to Tallahassee as soon as next week to get rid of Disney’s control over the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a special taxing district legislators gave to Disney in 1967, the Times-Herald Tallahassee Bureau reports.

* Florida could soon be the only state where a judge could override a jury’s recommendation for a life sentence and give the death penalty instead, under proposed legislation to recraft Florida’s capital punishment system, the Tampa Bay Times 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

***********

* U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz voted against removing U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar from a major committee, but he made clear he doesn’t support his Democratic colleague’s rhetoric about Israel and other matters, Florida Politics reports. 

* Vickie Cartwright, the embattled Broward Schools Superintendent, may leave the district next week with a severance package of roughly $365,000, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports. 

* DeSantis was the focus when Miami-Dade County’s Black Affairs Advisory Board convened in downtown Miami, with one of the board members calling the governor racist, the Miami Herald reports. 

* Jacksonville City Council President Terrance Freeman opened an investigation into whether fellow member LeAnna Cumber “deceived or misled” the council about her husband's involvement in a privatization effort of the city’s utility in 2019, the Florida Times-Union reports. 

* Those coming to speak at Palm Beach County school board meetings may be barred from bringing signs and flags and from directly addressing or insulting individual members of the board, the Palm Beach Post 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 only thing on his schedule Thursday was an early morning press conference in Santa Rosa County announcing grants for rural broadband expansion.

2024 ROUNDUP

* In the presidential Republican primary, it looks like it will be former President Donald Trump, DeSantis and a few other hopefuls in case they falter, but an entire generation of Republican stars seem determined to sit this one out, Politico’s Jonathan Martin writes. 

* DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, is visiting Texas in March to help raise money for county Republican parties, the Texas Tribune reports. 

* Trump says that if reelected he won't use the powers of the presidency to punish his enemies, but adds that he'd be “entitled to a revenge tour,” Business Insider reports. 

* Trump is raising the nightmare scenario for Republicans in the 2024 presidential election – that he might refuse to endorse the party’s nominee if he loses his primary race, CNN reports. 

ANALYSIS & OPINION 

* It may be hard to believe, but the performance of the S&P 500 under the Biden administration is similar to what it was at this point during the Trump administration, Bloomberg’s Robert Burgess writes.

* GOP leaders are threatening to create a deliberate economic catastrophe unless their demands are met, yet senators like Rick Scott are blaming the Biden Administration, MSNBC’s Steve Benen writes.

* Gas stoves are apparently so crucial for Florida families that they rank right next to baby diapers and clothing, strollers, cribs and pet medications, the Miami Herald editorial board writes.

* DeSantis’ announced plan to protect Florida’s environment and water quality sounds very encouraging, but a healthy amount of skepticism should be kept till more is learned about the governor’s plans, the South Florida Sun Sentinel editorial board writes. 

* Former Trump officials trying to enter the 2024 primary are all attempting the politically impossible: Separating themselves from their former boss while making the case that they can do better, the Washington Examiner’s Brady Leonard writes. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: To Central Credit Union of Florida CEO & former Tallahassee City Commission candidate Lisa Brown … to FAMU grad and Tallahassee Democrat & South Florida Sun Sentinel alum Anica Butler, now deputy managing editor of The Boston Globe … to Tampa attorney & former Florida Senate Democratic Leader Arthenia Joyner … to retired Tallahassee Democrat staff writer Kathleen Laufenberg. 

On SATURDAY, to Adrienne Arsht, business leader and philanthropist …  to former State Sen. Dwight Bullard. 

On SUNDAY, to former state Rep. Clay Ingram, now chief legislative affairs officer for Florida State University … to Michael Olenick, former member of the State Board of Education … to Michael Steel, partner at Hamilton Place Strategies. 

ON THE MOVE: The Southern Group is adding Avery Lopez to its Miami team. He most recently worked on the campaigns of state Rep. Demi Busatta Cabrera, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera and Miami-Dade County Vice Chairman Anthony Rodriguez.

HAPPENING TODAY: U.S. Sen. Rick Scott is scheduled to host “a roundtable discussion with local police chiefs, sheriffs and law enforcement leaders to discuss his efforts to secure the southern border and end the deadly fentanyl crisis.” That’s at 11 a.m. at West Palm Beach Police Headquarters.

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

“I asked for a ladder.”

– Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, to City & State, commenting on his appearance on Fox News with fellow U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, after host Bret Baier remarked the two were “trying to find common ground – if not common height.”