A state cartographer was tasked with mapping out Florida's secret plan to bulldoze state park habitats to add pickleball and hotels. Instead, he leaked the plans, leading to a bipartisan outrage that preserved the parks. The state fired him today. DeSantis' plans to reward some of his donors by granting them the rights to build hotels, golf courses, and other venues to public state park lands --- basically blew up totally due to outrage from across the entire political spectrum in Florida. Whistleblower who warned about Florida state parks fired by state agency The employee’s dismissal letter, shared with the Tampa Bay Times, said he released ‘unauthorized’ information to the public. https://www.tampabay.com/news/envir...arks-whistleblower-james-gaddis-leaked-plans/
Fascist Ron continues his history of smearing state employees who reveal his secretive and illegal actions. Florida state parks whistleblower personnel files released by DeSantis admin The state agency that formerly employed James Gaddis released records showing a female colleague had filed a police report. https://www.tampabay.com/news/envir...ida-state-parks-whistleblower-fired-desantis/ Days after a state employee was fired for disclosinginformation about plans by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to build golf courses, hotels and more on state parks, the administration released portions of the employee’s personnel file that detailed issues from a previous state job. The documents were providedto a Gainesville TV news station, WCJB, which reported that they came from the DeSantis administration — specifically an unnamed source inside the Agency for Health Care Administration. That agency provided those records without being asked, an unusual step for an administration that typically takes months, evenyears, to provide public records when journalists request them, if the state turns them over at all. For instance, the Tampa Bay Times requested an unrelated personnel file from the Agency for Health Care Administration in May 2023. The agency has not yet produced it. The Times asked for a copy of any public records request made by WCJB that prompted the release of these documents, and an Agency for Health Care Administration spokesperson, who did not provide their name, said in an email that no such record exists. Jeremy Redfern, a DeSantis spokesperson, texted a Tampa Bay Times reporter a link to the WCJB story about an hour after it was published Wednesday night. The personnel documents detail how a woman submitted human resources complaints and filed a police report about James Gaddis when they both worked at the Agency for Health Care Administration, after their romantic relationship ended. The woman reported that Gaddis would not stop trying to contact her, making her “scared every day when I go to work,” according to apolice report. He was not criminally charged in the case. Gaddis resigned instead of being fired in early 2022. He was then hired by the Department of Environmental Protection two months later. Both agencies are part of the DeSantis administration. When asked whether the environmental agency had concerns about this issue when it hired him, spokesperson Alexandra Kuchta said the department “does not comment on personnel matters.” Gaddistold the Times the department never asked him about it before hiring him. “It looks like the WCJB article is a needless but somewhat expected hit piece, irrelevant to anything involving state parks, about an unfortunate situation from three years ago that involved a messy end to a brief workplace fling that resulted from a communication breakdown and hurt feelings on both sides,” Gaddis said. “Both parties involved moved on to greener pastures and have not interacted or communicated since my January 2022 resignation.” The name of the woman who submitted the complaints about Gaddis was redacted from the files. This isn’t the first time the DeSantis administration has released damaging information from an employee’s personnel file after they criticized the governor or his administration. Two former top employees at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, for example, were investigated by that agency after they filed complaints withconcerns about the agency’s refusal to turn over DeSantis’ travel records to The Washington Post. The agency compiled a 129-page report, according to Politico, that dug into allegations including conflicts-of-interest and workplace harassment. Investigators also wrote there was evidence to suggest the two employees were in a romantic relationship, Politico reported. The law enforcement agency took the findings to a Tallahassee prosecutor, but he declined to pursue charges.
Ve haf efidence that you zigned a zertain petition, citizen. Now show uz your papers, including proof of citizenship. NOW, citizen. DeSantis’ election police questioned people who signed abortion petitions Two residents of Lee County said they were questioned at their homes about the validity of petition signatures. https://www.tampabay.com/news/flori...on-amendment-petition-signature-fraud-voters/
This is the very definition of being an authoritarian... sending your police goons around to intimidate voters. Florida Rep. Accuses DeSantis of Corruption, “Unhinged and Undemocratic” https://2paragraphs.com/2024/09/flo...ntis-of-corruption-unhinged-and-undemocratic/ Florida State Representative Anna V. Eskamani has been serving her 42nd district — which includes her hometown of Orlando — since 2018, when she made history by becoming the first Iranian-American elected to any public office in Florida. Eskamani is encouraging Floridians to vote in favor of Amendment 4, which would overturn the state’s six-week abortion ban (signed by Governor Ron DeSantis) by enshrining the right to abortion in the state constitution. She is also amplifying a story of voter intimidation told by a Floridian who signed a petition to get Amendment 4 on the ballot this election year. Isaac Menasche reported (see below) that a detective, a plainclothes officer, who said he was investigating petition fraud, visited him in his home and “had a folder on me containing my personal information – about 10 pages.” Menasche said “the experience left me shaken” and he thought it was “troubling that so much resources were devoted to this.” He added, “I wonder if the same could be said if the petition were for some innocuous issue.” Rep. Eskamani responded: “This is unhinged and undemocratic behavior being pushed by DeSantis and his cronies in an effort to continue our state’s near total abortion ban. It’s clear voter intimidation and plain corruption — continue to call it out and fight back.” Justin Garcia of the Tampa Bay Times reports that he interviewed another Lee County resident, Becky Castellanos, who also said she “felt shaken after DeSantis’ election crime police” knocked on her door to question the validity of her signatures on a petition to get the abortion amendment on the ballot. ACLU of Florida spokesperson Keisha Mulfort told Garcia: “This is very clearly a fishing expedition.” She added: “It is more important than ever for Floridians to reject these authoritarian tactics and vote yes on Amendment 4 in November.””
DeSantis sends his goons to intimidate 36,000 voters. Ron DeSantis Insists Voter Intimidation Tactics Are No Big Deal The governor defended turning Florida into a police state over the abortion rights ballot initiative. https://newrepublic.com/post/185741/ron-desantis-voter-intimidation-police-abortion
This is the reminder to the residents of Florida that DeSantis does not give a f@ck about them and their need for assistance in recovering from a hurricane. DeSantis again skips meeting with Biden after hurricane hits state https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/03/ron-desantis-joe-biden-hurricane-helene-00182403
The authoritarian strikes again... Desantis Threatens to Prosecute Stations Running Ads for Abortion Amendment He continues to abuse state power to kill democracy. https://meidasnews.com/news/desanti...e-stations-running-ads-for-abortion-amendment
Some more details of DeSantis's abusive dictatorial attempt to silence outlets running ads in Florida which he does not like. DeSantis administration threatens local TV station for airing abortion rights campaign ads Florida governor accused of trying to punish local TV stations airing ads that support Amendment 4 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...tens-tv-station-abortion-advert-b2624767.html
The Nazi pseudo-science of Eugenics still has a fan club in white supremacists. So of course the DeSantis-remade New College of Florida has invited one to come and speak. Steve Sailer, a “eugenicon” who believes Black people are genetically inferior to whites, race is biological, interracial marriage is wrong, and “core Americans” are by definition white, has been invited to speak at one of the college’s “Socratic Stage Dialogues.” New College of Florida Invites a Eugenics Advocate to Speak https://factkeepers.com/new-college-of-florida-invites-a-eugenics-advocate-to-speak/