Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis keeps making news with his self-described campaign to fight “woke” ideology. The latest headlines came about two weeks ago, when the Republican announced that he was prohibiting public high schools from offering a new Advanced Placement course in African American history. The course, his administration explained, “lacks significant educational value.”

The announcement thrilled his supporters on the political right while infuriating his critics on the left. It’s safe to assume these were precisely the reactions that DeSantis wanted because they elevate his national profile and improve his chances of winning the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, which, as you may have heard, he is likely to seek.

But DeSantis has some other governing responsibilities, too. One of them is looking out for the health and economic well-being of Florida residents, including those who can’t pay for medical care on their own because they don’t have insurance.

Florida has quite a lot of them ― nearly 2.6 million as of 2021, according to the most recent U.S. census figures. That’s about 12% of its population, which is well above the national average of 8.6%. It’s also more than all but four other states.

LAKELAND, Fla. (WFLA) — Lakeland police are investigating a shooting that left at least nine people injured Monday afternoon.

Investigators said the shooting happened near Iowa Avenue North and Plum Street around 3:43 p.m.

Police believe there are nine victims, two with critical injuries and seven with non-life-threatening injuries.

As of this report, authorities have not identified a suspect or released a motive for the shooting.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A Republican candidate for a western North Carolina congressional seat in 2020 has been accused by federal prosecutors of a campaign finance violation, and she's signed a plea agreement, court records say.

Lynda Bennett is charged with willingly and knowingly accepting on her campaign's behalf $25,000 in contributions during 2019 from a relative that were provided in the name of another person, according to a criminal information filed by U.S. Justice Department attorneys on Friday.

Another document filed on Monday by one of the federal attorneys in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia requested a court hearing because Bennett "has signed a plea agreement and statement of offense."

Federal law during the 2019-20 election cycle limited an individual's campaign donation to a federal candidate to $2,800 per election, or $5,600 in total, the criminal information said. The document identifies neither the relative nor the name of the other person who actually made donations.

(Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday blocked New Jersey's recently enacted bans on carrying guns at beaches or casinos, though she left in place other restrictions passed by the state in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year expanding gun rights nationwide.

The order from U.S. District Judge Renee Marie Bumb in Camden, New Jersey, came in response to a lawsuit brought by seven people and the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs challenging parts of a law signed by Democratic New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy in December.

"This marks the beginning of the end for Governor Murphy's blatantly unconstitutional new carry law, which is going down in flames," said Scott Bach, executive director of the association, in a statement.

"We look forward to being able to appeal the ruling and are confident that it will be reversed," said Tyler Jones, a spokesperson for Murphy.

As soon as President Joe Biden entered the White House, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an unprecedented campaign of obstruction to block his agenda in the courts. Paxton took advantage of a quirk—really, a loophole—in the federal judiciary: A state can pick the specific judge who will oversee its case by filing in a small division where only one judge sits. Using this strategy, Paxton has positioned his cases before a rotating cast of the same conservative judges, most of them nominated by Donald Trump. They have dutifully played their role in this pantomime of litigation, issuing an unending series of sweeping injunctions that block Biden administration policies nationwide for months or years.

On Thursday, the administration finally said: enough. In response to yet another Texas lawsuit exploiting this loophole, Biden’s Justice Department called out Paxton—and, implicitly, the judges playing along with his scheme. The DOJ highlighted Texas’ “blatant” and shameless “judge-shopping,” urging a transfer to another court “in the interests of justice.” Naturally, Trump-nominated Judge Drew Tipton is unlikely to oblige; that is, after all, why Paxton hand-picked him for this lawsuit. But the DOJ’s filing marks a new phase of battle against Republicans’ judicial gamesmanship: The Justice Department is playing hardball in the lower courts, forcing compromised judges to address their own complicity in a cynical partisan chicanery.

The underlying lawsuit in Texas v. Department of Homeland Security is another frivolous effort to shift control over border policy from the executive branch to a single federal judge. Paxton has pulled this off before: In August 2021, he persuaded another Trump-nominated judge, Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, to block Biden’s repeal of a Trump policy that forced U.S.-bound migrants to remain in Mexico. Kacsmaryk even forced U.S. diplomats to negotiate with Mexican officials under threat of sanctions. Texas’ new suit, filed on Tuesday, seeks to do something similar. The state is infuriated by a new agreement between the Biden administration and Mexico regarding migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela. (The U.S. cannot send these migrants back to their home countries.) The agreement compels most of these migrants to stay on the Mexican side of the border. But it allows a small number of them to enter the U.S. legally—and remain here for a limited period—if they are vetted and have financial supporters in the country already.

A plan by the Kansas Chamber to implement a flat income tax would come with a price tag far bigger than the tax cuts of former Gov. Sam Brownback that were eventually repealed amid massive budget shortfalls.

The Kansas Chamber's plan would generally implement a 5% flat tax on both personal and business income. Fiscal estimates released Monday on HB 2061 put the cost to state revenues at about $1.5 billion a year.

"It's a little higher than anticipated," said Chamber lobbyist Eric Stafford, adding that the fiscal note does not change their stance on moving to a flat tax in some form.

Stafford said the high cost of the tax cut is largely due to a provision intended to keep a flat tax from raising taxes on poor Kansans.

A Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate and her husband are trying to open an indoor gun range that can host weddings and serve alcohol.

Waukesha County Judge Jennifer Dorow, a conservative candidate for the state's Supreme Court and her husband Brian Dorow, purchased the former Hartland Sportsman's Club in 2021 and renamed it Delafield Oaks Range, Jezebel reported.

The couple asked the city of Delafield to turn the space into an indoor shooting range that could also double as an events space that will "host weddings, conventions, and high-end meetings," and also feature outdoor hiking trails, horseshoes, bean bag toss," alongside other similar activities, per city records.

Dorow announced her candidacy for the Wisconsin Supreme Court in late November 2022. PBS Wisconsin reported that Dorow is one of four candidates running to take the seat of Justice Patience Roggensack, who is retiring. The state's highest court is currently made up of four conservatives and three liberals.

Additionally, the proposal includes plans to offer food, a liquor license, and outdoor holiday events like Easter egg hunts and Halloween festivities.

(Reuters) - A coalition of 25 U.S. states led by Texas and Utah filed a lawsuit seeking to strike down a Biden administration rule allowing retirement plans to consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors such as climate change and racial justice when selecting investments.

The states filed a complaint in a federal court in Amarillo, Texas, on Thursday arguing that the rule finalized in November will lead many retirement plans to focus on a social agenda rather than long-term financial stability for investors.

The rule, which takes effect on Monday, reverses restrictions on socially conscious investing that were adopted by the Trump administration.

The states in Thursday's lawsuit said the new rule fails to justify the departure from Trump-era regulations, in violation of the federal law governing rulemaking.

The lawsuit was assigned to U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who has struck down Biden administration rules on immigration and healthcare protections for LGBT people.

The case is Utah v. Walsh, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, No. 2:23-cv-00016.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is going to battle with the national College Board over what he calls “political grandstanding” by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The Chicago Democrat is warning the nonprofit that oversees the Advanced Placement program that Illinois will reject a revised African American Studies course if it doesn’t include “a factual accounting of history, including the role played by black queer Americans.”

Pritzker sent a sharply worded letter to the board over its decision to revise the Advanced Placement course in African American Studies after the Florida governor — and likely GOP presidential candidate — blocked Florida high schools from offering the course because it included segments on “queer theory” and “abolishing prisons,” among other topics.

Pritzker objected to any change “in order to fit Florida’s racist and homophobic laws.”

“In Illinois, we reject any curriculum modifications designed to appease extremists like the Florida Governor and his allies,” Pritzker wrote in the letter obtained by the Sun-Times.

Ask people to find the world’s rainforests on a globe, and most will probably point to South America. But North America has rainforests too – and like their tropical counterparts, these temperate rainforests are ecological treasures.

The Biden administration recently announced new policies to protect the Tongass National Forest, the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world and the biggest U.S. national forest. It spreads over more than 26,000 square miles (67,340 square kilometers) – roughly the size of West Virginia – and covers most of southeast Alaska. The Tongass has thousands of watersheds and fjords, and more than a thousand forested islands.

For over 20 years the Tongass has been at the center of political battles over two key conservation issues: old-growth logging and designating large forest zones as roadless areas to prevent development. As a scientist specializing in forest ecosystems, I see protecting the Tongass as the kind of bold action that’s needed to address climate change and biodiversity loss.