Quite the rainfall. Fort Lauderdale International Airport now qualifies as Ocean Front Property. Video includes shots of planes completely surrounded by water. WOW. Fort Lauderdale airport closed until Friday, stranding hundreds of passengers https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/...0230413-wit3ymj7vnfapbrvjzmj2sfjfi-story.html
Remember to thank Ron DeSantis and the Florida GOP legislators for your insurance increases while not fixing the system whatsoever. Florida homeowners to pay more because of property insurer insolvencies https://www.tampabay.com/news/flori...rs-insurance-property-insolvent-rising-rates/
Once in a while authoritarians get something right. Of course, Florida offsets this with the highest residential home insurance rates in the nation. Ron DeSantis is right, Florida has one of the country’s lowest tax burdens https://www.politifact.com/factchec...santis-is-right-florida-has-one-of-the-count/
As Florida runs out of fuel, DeSantis heads to South Carolina to biatch about wokeness. That's a fine governor you got there. Ron DeSantis Went to South Carolina to Talk About Wokeness While His Florida Constituents Face a Fuel Shortage https://www.mediaite.com/politics/r...e-his-florida-constituents-cant-get-gasoline/
'That's not America': Retired military officer compares Florida's 'religious fascism' to 9/11 https://www.rawstory.com/florida-book-ban-2659895541/ A retired U.S. Navy officer has declared war on the "religious fanatics" in Florida who are flooding school boards with demands to ban books, arguing in front of one board that they are engaging in "religious fascism." According to a report from the Daily Beast's Michael Daly, 54-year-old Wess Rexrode appeared at a school board hearing in Florida's Martin County where he gave members of the board and supporters of book bans a piece of his mind. Rexrode, who was deployed on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt on 9/11, bluntly stated, "Religious fanatics, who wouldn’t even let women be educated, flew planes into the World Trade Center and my Pentagon. I spent the last decade of my naval career fighting religious fascism abroad. I never thought I’d have to fight it right here in the United States of America.” According to the Beast's Daly, "Rexrode was speaking specifically of those who used a new Florida law to have 92 books banned from the county’s public school classrooms and libraries. Books by Jodi Picoult and Toni Morrison were removed following an objection filed by a member of Moms for Liberty who had not even read them." Rexrode explained that he has a 14-year-old in middle school, before stating, “I don’t need anyone else telling my son what he can and cannot read. I’m perfectly capable of doing that myself.” “I grew up in rural South Carolina, and books got me out of the trailer parks,”he continued. “My parents trusted those educators and the librarians to let me read what I needed to read.” “I want my son exposed to different ideas and different viewpoints so that he can learn to think critically and not be force fed somebody else’s opinion. We’ve all been exposed to different opinions. It makes us better, makes us stronger,” he continued. "Diversity has made me stronger. And I didn’t sacrifice 21 years of my life to stand idly by while religious fanatics and other fanatics try to impose fascism on my country.” In an interview with the Beast, he admitted, "I’m not right or left. I think for myself, and my oath was to the Constitution, not a political party. I just want what’s best for America.” “I think my patriotism and my intelligence and my work ethic and my bonafides, I guess sort of speak to themselves. So then people typically have to debate me on the facts, instead of attacking me personally, which too many times a lot of debate these days devolves into," he added. You can read more here.
So let's take a look at how the typical Florida city with dysfunctional local government operates. The water inspector for a city finds that the water is full of shit and residents are getting sick. What does the city do? A) Fix the problem. B) Compliment the employ on finding the problem. C) Fire the employee, attempt to silence her, and hide the problem. A Florida city fired her for reporting sewage in drinking water. They owe her $818,000 https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article274647476.html Instead of promoting the experienced inspector who detected why the city’s drinking water was sickening people and pets, the city of Delray Beach harassed her and fired her, an OSHA investigation found. Last week, 15 months after marching Christine Ferrigan out of her office in front of co-workers, Delray Beach ratified a settlement to a whistleblower lawsuit that will pay Ferrigan $818,500. That’s on top of the $1 million in civil money penalties Delray paid the Florida Department of Health-Palm Beach County, as per a 2021 consent order, for failing to monitor and report issues that Ferrigan uncovered. “The City of Delray Beach’s actions toward this worker and its response to concerns about the municipal drinking water supply are deeply troubling,” said Lily Colon, assistant regional administrator for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. “Our investigation showed that the city harassed and ultimately fired an employee sworn to protect the public for doing their job,” she said. “No worker should fear being punished by their employer for reporting legitimate safety and health concerns, and OSHA will work vigorously to defend courageous people like this inspector.” Harassment over troubled water “After reports of smelly, discolored and sandy drinking water, [Ferrigan] investigated and identified faults in the municipal system that were allowing reclaimed sewer water to cross-contaminate the city’s drinking water supply,” the Department of Labor said. That’s what Ferrigan, hired in 2017 as an Industrial Pre-Treatment Inspector after what her lawsuit says were decades of experience in the profession, reported back to her superiors in December 2018. The city, her lawsuit says, tried to claim “ground disruptions” caused the funky water. “Reclaimed water is wastewater that has been partially treated to remove some harmful organisms and substances, such as bacteria, viruses, and heavy metals. But reclaimed water still contains elements that make the water unsafe to drink,” Ferrigan’s lawsuit said. “Thus, in Delray Beach, reclaimed water may be used only for irrigationand other purposes that do not involve the likely ingestion of the water.” In May 2019, Ferrigan told the acting utilities director “that residents reported getting sick, but that fact was not disclosed to DOH. During that time frame, concerned residents would periodically call the City and ask to speak to Ms. Ferrigan to relay their concerns about water quality.” Ferrigan also told the Palm Beach County Office of the Inspector General about Delray’s concealment when it began investigating the situation. Delray Beach eventually admitted to 12 years of failing to use a control plan that would have ameliorated or eliminated the problem entirely. That included, according to the city website: ▪ Not conducting “inspections to ensure the distribution system was protected from hazards;” ▪ Not making sure “backflow prevention was installed on all properties where a health, pollution or system hazard to drinking water exists;” ▪ Not checking “customer’s premises for cross-connections and adequate backflow protection whenever a customer connects to reclaimed water;” ▪ Not making “initial and follow-up inspections, testing and complaint investigations as well as periodic inspections of customer connections.” Meanwhile, the lawsuit said, Ferrigan was being told not to speak to county and state investigators and denied a promotion. One supervisor, the lawsuit said, told her to retire. In January 2022, Ferrigan reached out to the Department of Health when water treatment operators told her about “brownish water with suspended solids leaving the water treatment plant” and customer complaints. Ferrigan filed a retaliation complaint to the city’s human resources department on Jan. 21. She was fired Jan. 26, 2022. The city said Ferrigan’s position was eliminated.
Amorphous, decaying seaweed blob reaches Florida coastlines; residents eager to vote for it. Seaweed blob stretching from West Africa to Gulf of Mexico reaches FL beaches CNN - https://tinyurl.com/4jpp7d89