Ron Desantis

Oct. 17 (UPI) — The Palm Bay City Council in central Florida censored council member Chandler Langevin after controversial remarks about the local Indian community on social media, including a call to “deport every Indian immediately” and “Indians are destroying the South.”

The 3-2 decision Thursday restricts his ability to introduce agenda items, speak during council reports and serve on city-appointed committees and boards. Langevin now has to receive majority approval from the council to place an item on the agenda.

Langevin voted against the measure.

Palm Bay, with a population of 142,000, is located about 50 miles south of the Kennedy Space Center.

Langevin is a 33-year-old Republican elected to a four-year term in November after serving in the U.S. Marines.

He has targeted others with incendiary, racist and xenophobic statements online though his X account.

Regarding Indians in the community, he wrote: “Indian migration has to cease immediately.”

He also wrote: “There is not a single Indian that cares about the United States. They are here to exploit us financially and enrich India and Indians.”

“I not only have a constitutional right, but I personally believe that I have a duty and an obligation to engage other elected officials, to have dialogue with my constituents and to drive policy in a matter that I deem best,” Langevin said, in describing the situation as a witchhunt.

Langevin, wearing a U.S. Flag around his neck during the meeting, said he would sue, alleging a violation of the First Amendment.

Anthony Sabatini, an attorney and Lake County commissioner, posted on X: “This textbook first amendment retaliation & totally illegal -tomorrow we will file a lawsuit and now they will pay.”

“The government cannot punish and limit your rights just purely based on your viewpoint,” Sabatini said in a report by WKMG-TV. “You can pass a censure motion, that’s fine, but you can’t limit his ability to speak based on his opinion.”

The council also voted 4-1 to look into hiring an outside attorney to investigate whether Langevin made any ethics violations.

Two weeks earlier, the commissioners wrote a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis asking to have Langevin removed from his elected seat.

Commissioners, as well as Mayor Rob Medina, said his comments are serious misconduct.

“I think if we represent the population at large, there’s some issues then we need to tailor our speech,” Medina said. “We represent everyone, right, so it is conduct unbecoming.”

Councilman Richard “Mike” Hammer voted against the censure. Hammer posted on Facebook that he did not agree with the things Langevin said about Indian Americans, but he did not agree with the restrictions placed on him, he said.

Indian American Chamber of Commerce President Jan Gautman told Spectrum News that he was satisfied with an apology.

“After meeting with several community leaders, he came to understand the tremendous value the Indian American community brings to this country — especially through business ownership, job creation, and contributions as one of the strongest economic drivers in our nation,” Gautman said. “Our community appreciates his apology and chooses to move forward with positivity, focusing on unity, understanding, and the betterment of our shared future.

“We wish him well and look forward to continued collaboration in building stronger communities together.”

On Oct. 6, Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said in a statement: “Chandler Langevin’s comments towards the Indian American community are vile and reprehensible. The people of Palm Bay deserve better leadership than someone who so proudly displays his hateful ignorance through divisive and racist rhetoric.

“The Florida Democratic Party proudly stands in solidarity with our Indian American neighbors and is grateful for their contributions to our State. We look forward to beating bigots like Mr. Langevin at the ballot box to ensure Florida’s elected officials represent the best of our shared values.”

Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott wrote on X on Oct. 1 that there is “no place for this kind of hate in Florida. As Governor and now as U.S. Senator, I’ve been proud to stand with our state’s incredible Indian American community, who are proud Americans and value the ideas that make our country great.”

Sept. 4 (UPI) — A federal appeals court Thursday overturned a judge’s order to shut down Florida’s immigration detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by Department of Homeland Security officials.

The opinion issued by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams to wind down operations at the South Florida Detention Facility at Cypress National Preserve in Ochopee.

Environmental groups led by Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Miccosukee Tribe sued over the construction of the facility in May, saying the government didn’t perform a required environmental review first. They cited a federal law called the National Environmental Policy Act, which says the government must conduct such reviews before construction.

In a 2-1 opinion, the Atlanta-based appellate court said the construction of the facility can’t be challenged under NEPA because the state of Florida runs the prison, not the federal government.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appealed the lower court’s August order based on these grounds. He praised the decision in a post on X accusing Williams of being a “leftist judge.”

“The mission continues at Alligator Alcatraz,” he wrote.

The Department of Homeland Security called it a “huge victory.”

“Today’s order is a win for the American people, the rule of law and common sense,” the department posted on X.

Friends of the Everglades issued a statement on Facebook saying environmental groups intend to continue “fighting” the case.

“While disappointing, we never expected ultimate success to be easy,” said Eve Samples, executive director of the group. “We’re hopeful the preliminary injunction will be affirmed when it’s reviewed on its merits during the appeal.”

The South Florida Detention Facility was the first of multiple prisons opened by the Trump administration in recent months as part of the president’s pledge to mass deport immigrants. Since “Alligator Alcatraz’s” opening in July, the DHS has opened or announced a number of other facilities with alliterative nicknames, including the “Speedway Slammer” at the Miami Correctional Center in Indiana; the “Cornhusker Clink” at the Work Ethic Camp in McCook, Neb.;, the “Deportation Depot” at the Baker Correctional Institution in north Florida; and the “Louisiana Lockup” at Angola Prison.

Immigrants’ rights groups have taken issue with the federal-state partnerships to open large-scale detention facilities and the “political spectacle” associated with the nicknames.

“The new agreements mark a new chapter in the level and scale of cooperation” between federal and state governments on immigration enforcement, the Marshall Project said in a statement in August.

The organization accused the DHS of preventing detainees from meeting confidentially with lawyers at the South Florida Detention Facility. The Marshall Project also alleged the conditions were filthy at the facility and detainees were treated inhumanely, both of which the Trump administration denied.

The DHS said Thursday that the legal challenge to the construction of the facility was about immigration policy, not the environment.

“This lawsuit was never about the environmental impacts of turning a developed airport into a detention facility. It has and will always be about open-borders activists and judges trying to keep law enforcement from removing dangerous criminal aliens from our communities, full stop.”

Aug. 28 (UPI) — The Trump administration is winding down operations at its Florida Everglades detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” per a court order, with all detainees to be removed within days, according to reports.

Florida Division of Emergency Management head Kevin Guthrie wrote in a Friday email obtained by both The New York Times and ABC News, but reported on Wednesday, that the South Florida Detention Facility in the Big Cypress National Preserve in Ochopee will probably “be down to 0 individuals within a few days.”

The news organizations reported that the email was sent in response to interfaith leaders who had asked to minister to the facility’s detainees.

It’s unclear exactly how many detainees are held — and were held — at the detention facility rapidly constructed at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport compound.

President Donald Trump has been channeling funds to expanded immigration detention capabilities nationwide as part of his pledge to mass deport immigrants, with several Republican-led states entering partnerships with the federal government to construct them.

Alligator Alcatraz opened July 1 and was met with Democratic opposition and lawsuits.

On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration and the state of Florida to essentially wind down operations at the facility within 60 days. No new detainees were allowed to be transferred to the site and much of it was ordered to be dismantled.

In her ruling, Judge Kathleen Williams sided with environmental groups who accused the state and federal governments of violating environmental protection laws, as no environmental review was performed before they started erecting the facility.

“There weren’t ‘deficiencies’ in the agency’s process. There was no process. The defendants consulted no stakeholders or experts and did no evaluation of the environmental risks and alternatives from which the court may glean the likelihood that the agency would choose the same course if it had done a NEPA-compliant evaluation,” she wrote in her order, referring to the National Environmental Policy Act.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has appealed the ruling.

Earlier this month, DeSantis, a Republican and a Trump ally, announced plans to open another detention facility, this one called “Deportation Depot.” It is to be housed in a shuttered state prison in North Florida.

Aug. 6 (UPI) — A federal judge in Florida on Wednesday heard arguments from two groups seeking an injunction to halt the operation and further construction of an immigration detention center in the Everglades called “Alligator Alcrataz.”

District Judge Kathleen Williams conducted a hearing in Miami on a lawsuit by environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe, claiming the state and federal government bypassed mandatory ecological reviews required under the National Environmental Policy Act during construction.

They also said the detention facility, which now houses 1,000 detainees with plans for up to 5,000, was built in less than two weeks without public notice or comment, and didn’t comply with other statutes, including the Endangered Species Act.

The detention center, which is about 75 miles west of Miami and 44 miles southwest of Naple, is amid swampland that includes alligators, pythons, snakes and other predators.

Randy Kautz, an expert in Florida wildlife, said 120 to 230 endangered panthers are in the “core area” and increased human activity will harm reproduction.

“There has been a stable reproducing population of panthers in this area in this range at least over the last 30 years,” he said in court. “Panthers have succeeded and resided here.”

Panthers were tracked in the 1,000 acres near the detention facility, which was built on a rarely used airstrip off U.S. 41 in Ochopee in Miami-Dade County near Collier County. The so-called Alligator Alley, which is part of Interstate 75, runs 80 miles across the state through the Everglades.

Attorneys say the work is exempt from the National Environmental Policy Act because it was initially funded, constructed and managed by the state. But Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani testified the Department of Homeland Security wants the facility.

More than 40,000 people opposed the detention center in a petition on the website of the Friends of the Everglades, a nonprofit, which is one of the parties in the lawsuit.

“We are very concerned about potential impacts of runoff” and “large, new industrial-style lights that are visible from 15 miles away, even though having a dark sky designation,” Eve Samples, the executive director of the group, told the court.

“Driving out there myself many times, the increased traffic is visible. I saw two dead gators last time I visited, so definitely a difference in the area.”

The detention facility neighbors land leased to the Miccosukee Indian Tribe with villages, a school, hunting areas and sacred sites.

Civil rights groups filed a second lawsuit alleging that detainees’ constitutional rights are being violated. A hearing in that case is scheduled for Aug. 18.

WTVJ-TV reported limited access to showers, spoiled food, extreme heat and mosquitoes. They also allege they are being barred from meeting lawyers with some held without any charges.

President Donald Trump toured the facility on July 1 with Gov. Ron DeSantis and Homeland Security Secretry Kristi Noem before the opening two days later.

The first deportation flights departed from the airstrip on July 25.

Legislators in Congress and the state, who initially were denied access, were allowed to visit on July 12 but couldn’t speak to the detainees and access to the property was limited.

“Rural immigrant detention camps — 750 people in cages like animals — is un-American, and it should be shut down,” state Sen. Carlo Guillermo Smith said.

State and federal officials defend the conditions.

“All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers,” Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told NBC News last month. “Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority.”

DeSantis has said the airport site, called the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Facility, won’t have any effect on the surrounding environment.

DeSantis and Noem have touted the location because it is in a relatively remote area and surrounded by swampland.

DeSantis utilized an emergency order in 2023 in response to Cuban and Haitian migrants arriving in the Florida Keys by boat, with the state offering to pay $20 million for the land.

Florida will seek reimbursement from the federal government for the $450 million yearly cost of running the facility, a senior Department of Homeland Security official told the Miami Herald.

County officials approve the use of the airstrip for immigrants.

The airstrip was envisioned to become an airport with construction to begin in 1968. Work was halted in 1970 because of environmental concerns, but not before one runway was finished. The runway was used for training flights.

The land later became Big Cyprus National Preserve, which encompasses 1,139 square miles. The preserve is north of Everglades National Park, which covers 2,356 square miles.

July 5 (UPI) — Five Florida state Democrat lawmakers on Thursday were denied access to the state’s newly opened “migrant” detention facility that has been dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

State Representatives Michele Rayner, Anna Eskamani and Angie Nixon and Senators Carlos Guillermo Smith and Shevrin Jones were turned away while attempting to tour the facility, The Hill reported.

State law enforcement officers from several agencies stopped the lawmakers from entering the facility after showing up for an unannounced inspection of the facility that President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis toured on Tuesday and before detainees arrived there.

Safety concerns cited

Eskamani said they were told they could not tour the facility due to “safety concerns,” CNN reported.

“If it’s unsafe for us, how is it safe for the detainees?” Eskamani said she asked the general counsel for the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

The Florida lawmakers said they have the legal authority to inspect the detention facility.

“Florida law gives legislators the authority to make unannounced visits to state-run facilities,” Jones said in a post on X made on Thursday afternoon.

Jones said the group went to the detention facility “to inspect conditions and check on the well-being of the people inside.”

A group statement issued on Thursday accuses state officials of a “blatant abuse of power and an attempt to conceal human rights violations from the public eye.”

The facility received its first 500 detainees midweek and eventually will be capable of holding up to 3,000 detainees while undergoing deportation proceedings.

Not a federal facility

The detention facility is located in the Everglades along U.S. 41, about 70 miles west of Miami.

A local airport previously occupied the site, which Florida officials converted into a detention facility in eight days, DeSantis said while touring it with Trump on Tuesday.

Although Trump toured it, the facility is not a federal operation.

“The Department of Homeland Security has not implemented, authorized, directed or funded Florida’s temporary detention center,” DHS attorneys said in a court filing made on Thursday, the Miami Herald reported.

The filing is in response to a lawsuit challenging the detention facility’s purpose, which prompted the Department of Justice to defend its existence.

The DOJ “has defended President Trump’s immigration agenda in court since day one and we are proud to protect ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ from baseless, politically motivated legal schemes,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement issued on Thursday.

Florida officials are considering adding two more such facilities to help hold and process detainees who are undergoing deportation proceedings.

The Department of Defense is deploying 200 Marines to Florida to assist with logistical and administrative support.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida officials are pursuing plans to build a second detention center to house immigrants, as part of the state’s aggressive push to support the federal government’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday he’s considering establishing a facility at a Florida National Guard training center known as Camp Blanding, about 30 miles southwest of Jacksonville in northeast Florida, in addition to the site under construction at a remote airstrip in the Everglades that state officials have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

The construction of that facility in the remote and ecologically sensitive wetland about 45 miles west of downtown Miami is alarming environmentalists, as well as human rights advocates who have slammed the plan as cruel and inhumane.

Speaking to reporters at an event in Tampa, DeSantis touted the state’s muscular approach to immigration enforcement and its willingness to help President Trump’s administration meet its goal of more than doubling its existing 41,000 beds for detaining migrants to at least 100,000 beds.

State officials have said the detention facility, which has been described as temporary, will rely on heavy-duty tents, trailers, and other impermanent buildings, allowing the state to operationalize 5,000 immigration detention beds by early July and free up space in local jails.

“I think the capacity that will be added there will help the overall national mission. It will also relieve some burdens of our state and local [law enforcement],” DeSantis said.

Managing the facility “via a team of vendors” will cost $245 a bed per day, or approximately $450 million a year, a U.S. official said. The expenses will be incurred by Florida and reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In the eyes of DeSantis and other state officials, the remoteness of the Everglades airfield, surrounded by mosquito- and alligator-filled wetlands that are seen as sacred to Native American tribes, makes it an ideal place to detain migrants.

“Clearly, from a security perspective, if someone escapes, you know, there’s a lot of alligators,” he said. “No one’s going anywhere.”

Democrats and activists have condemned the plan as a callous, politically motivated spectacle.

“What’s happening is very concerning, the level of dehumanization,” said Maria Asuncion Bilbao, Florida campaign coordinator at the immigration advocacy group American Friends Service Committee.

“It’s like a theatricalization of cruelty,” she said.

DeSantis is relying on state emergency powers to commandeer the county-owned airstrip and build the compound, over the concerns of county officials, environmentalists and human rights advocates.

Now the state is considering standing up another site at a National Guard training facility in northeast Florida as well.

“We’ll probably also do something similar up at Camp Blanding,” DeSantis said, adding that the state’s emergency management division is “working on that.”

Payne writes for the Associated Press.

June 14 (UPI) — Millions of people turned out for “No Kings” protests nationwide on Saturday that were largely peaceful though there were some arrests and police had to disperse unruly crowds, including in Georgia and Los Angeles.

In Texas, a credible threat led to the temporary closing of the Texas Capitol building in Austin on Saturday before a planned protest there. The Texas Department of Public Safety evacuated the building and grounds after learning of a threat made against state lawmakers planning to attend the, KXAN reported.

The DPS arrested one person during a traffic stop in La Grange and reopened the Capitol grounds shortly before 5 p.m. CDT, which is when the protest was scheduled to start.

Law enforcement did not identify the suspect or any charges against that person.

In Atlanta, members of the far-right Proud Boys appeared at the city’s protest, wearing the group’s distinctive black and yellow colors.

Police in Georgia arrested at least eight protesters after they entered a roadway in DeKalb County during the afternoon, WSB-TV reported.

Hundreds gathered to protest against President Donald Trump at a site near Chamblee Tucker Road, and many began marching in the road toward Interstate 285 northeast of Atlanta.

Local police ordered the crowd to return to the sidewalk and deployed tear gas when they did not.

Two motorists have been arrested in separate incidents on opposite ends of the country after driving into protesters, according to a report by The Guardian.

At least four protesters suffered non-life-threatening injuries at a protest in San Francisco when a motorist allegedly drove into them. The unidentified motorist was detained.

Police in Culpeper, Va., arrested Joseph Checklick Jr., 21, on reckless driving charges in an incident that caused no injuries.

1,500 protests scheduled nationwide

At least 1,500 “No Kings” protests nationwide were scheduled Saturday, the same day as President Donald Trump’s large-scale military parade in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the U.S. Army and his 79th birthday.

The protests across all 50 states and commonwealths were “largest single-day mobilization since President Trump returned to office — a mass, nationwide protest rejecting authoritarianism, billionaire-first politics, and the militarization of our democracy,” according to the organizers’ website.

The 50501 Movement — 50 protests, 50 states, one movement — is one of the main organizers of the demonstrations that are designed to be peaceful.

“The ‘No Kings’ mobilization is a direct response to Donald Trump’s self-aggrandizing $100 million military parade and birthday celebration, an event funded by taxpayers while millions are told there’s no money for Social Security, SNAP, Medicaid, or public schools,” according to the website.

The parade is officially celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States Army and has been planned for well over a year, although it has been expanded to meet Trump’s requests since he retook office.

The protests were organized by a coalition of more than 200 organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, American Federation of Teachers and the Communications Workers of America.

Protests nationwide began after Trump’s inauguration for his second presidency on Jan. 20 over several of the Trump administration’s moves, including its crackdown on immigrants and cuts to the federal workforce and services.

Where protests happened

A map shows where the events took place.

In New York, about 50,000 protesters marched a mile on Fifth Avenue from Bryant Park to Madison Square Park, an NYPD spokesperson told WNBC-TV. As of 4:30 p.m., the NYPD reported no arrests or incidents of note related to the demonstrations.

“Real power looks like the thousands of people that are going to gather here in Bryant Park and stand up to their neighbors and for their communities,” 50501 organizer Hannan Strauss told CNN during an interview in New York.

In Chicago, several thousand people packed streets in and around Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago. They then marched to Trump Tower, shouting “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go,” and “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.”

Events in Minnesota, including in Minneapolis, were canceled though several thousand showed up in the state capital, St. Paul. Minnesota State Patrol and Gov. Tim Walz asked people not to participate after State Rep. and Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were killed. State Sen. John Hoffman of Champlin and his wife Yvette were shot multiple times.

Despite triple-digit temperatures, a crowd demonstrated at the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix.

More than 75 protests were scheduled in Florida, including near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach where demonstrators marched to the Mar-a-Lago gates. They were met by Trump supporters.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state is ready to “quell any violence” at events in his state. During an interview on Fox News, he said local police, county sheriffs, highway patrol and the National Guard will be ready to stop any violence or “unrest” against federal anti-illegal immigration efforts.

The protests, large and small, are taking place everywhere except the nation’s capital “to draw a clear contrast between our people-powered movement and the costly, wasteful, and un-American birthday parade in Washington.”

“We’re showing up everywhere he isn’t — to say no thrones, no crowns, no kings,” the website reads. Trump on Thursday told reporters that, despite the protests’ title, “I don’t feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get stuff approved.”

Demonstrators gathered outside a Metro station in Arlington, Va.

D.C. residents were encouraged to go to a demonstration in Philadelphia, which is America’s first capital and the birthplace of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The protest includes plans to march from Love Park to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

A Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson told WCAU-TV an estimated 80,000 people attended the protect along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Situation in Los Angeles

Protests against immigration arrests have been going on for a week in downtown Los Angeles.

Some protesters in downtown Los Angeles threw objects at police officers as they attempted to clear the crowd using chemical irritants ahead of a nightly curfew, city police said.

The Los Angeles Police Department issued dispersal orders in downtown and approved the use of less lethal munitions that it said “may cause discomfort and pain.”

On Saturday, protesters in Los Angeles carried an enormous copy of the Constitution through the streets. The protest drew about 25,000, KCBS-TV reported.

And there was a 20-foot balloon of Trump wearing a diaper in downtown’s Gloria Molina Grand Park.

A nightly curfew that began Tuesday will remain in effect through the weekend, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said at a news conference Friday. It turns from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Trump has nationalized California’s National Guard at the opposition of Gov. Gavin Newsom. There are 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines.

June 3 (UPI) — Dr. Santa Ono, the former president at the University of Michigan, was rejected Tuesday as the next president at the University of Florida amid backlash from Republicans over his earlier support of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Tuesday’s decision by the 17-member Board of Governors comes one week after UF’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved Ono as the finalist.

Ono was on track to become one of the highest paid public university presidents in the country. He was due to sign a five-year contract with a base salary of $1.5 million and incentives to earn as much as $15 million over the life of the deal.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed the 2023 bill banning DEI initiatives in public colleges, delivered a lukewarm response when Ono became the presidential pick, saying Ono’s statements made him “cringe.”

Other Republicans, including Sen. Rick Scott and Reps. Byron Donalds and Greg Steube expressed outrage.

“The UF Board of Trustees has made a grave mistake,” Steube wrote in a post last week. “Dr. Ono gave it his best ‘college try’ walking back his woke past, claiming he’s now ‘evolved.’ But I’m not sold. This role is too important to gamble on convenient conversions.”

Republican state Rep. Jimmy Patronis also questioned the presidential search committee’s decision to make Ono the sole finalist.

“UF sets the benchmark for education nationwide. There’s too much smoke with Santa Ono. We need a leader, not a DEI acolyte. Leave the Ann Arbor thinking in Ann Arbor,” Patronis wrote on X.

During questioning for the role, Ono stated he believed DEI programs do more harm than good. He said he closed the University of Michigan’s DEI offices in March and vowed DEI would not return to Florida’s campus, if he were president.

“The fact is some of my past remarks about DEI do not reflect what I believe, and that evolution did not take place overnight and it was shaped over a year and a half of thinking, discussions, listening to faculty, staff and students and their thoughts on the DEI program,” Ono said.

Ono, who was criticized for allowing an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters to remain at the University of Michigan for a month, vowed last week during questioning to fight anti-Semitism at the University of Florida.

“Let me be very clear: based on my experience, I believe that anti-Semitism is not just one form of hatred among many,” Ono said. “It is a uniquely virulent and persistent threat, especially on college campuses today.”

May 23 (UPI) — State parks in Florida are now protected from commercial construction after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the State Park Preservation Act into law Thursday.

The act, which will take effect in July, prevents developers from constructing hotels, golf courses or other commercial enterprises in any of Florida’s 175 state parks.

Pinellas County Democratic Rep. Lindsay Cross, who also is an environmental scientist, posted to social media Friday that the act establishes “protections for all 175 state parks against commercial development,” and also thanked “everyone who fought for this bill, and who stood up to preserve our home.”

Republican Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, Highland Beach, called the passage of the act a “bipartisan, bicameral legislative victory,” on her X account Thursday, and then quoted “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss to close her post with “I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.”

The new law came after a backlash caused by a purported plan proposed by the state in 2024 and allegedly leaked by the Florida Wildlife Federation to allow commercial development at nine different state parks. All future developments are not completely banned but will instead need to be conservation-minded, and support nature-friendly activities such as camping, hiking and kayaking.

The Florida Wildlife Federation posted a note of appreciation to its website Thursday, with thanks given to the Florida Senate and House “for their unanimous support of this legislation every step of the way,” and it called the law “a massive win for wildlife, outdoor spaces, and future generations who will get to experience Florida’s natural wonders just as they should be: wild and natural.”

May 15 (UPI) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Thursday banning fluoride in public water, making it the second state to do so.

DeSantis signed SB 700, known as the Farm Bill, during a press conference. The law, which is to go into effect July 1, prohibits local governments from adding fluoride and other “water quality” additives from the water supply.

DeSantis equated the use of fluoride in water — which is heralded as a trusted and tested public health preventative medicine strategy — as “basically forced medication on people.”

“People want to use it on their teeth, great. But it’s readily available now,” he said.

“We have the ability to deliver fluoride through toothpaste and … all these others things. You don’t got to force it and take way people’s choices.”

DeSantis framed the issue as one of “informed consent,” stating “forcing this in the water supply is trying to take that away from people who may want a different decision rather than to have this in water.”

The bill reached DeSantis after having been overwhelming approved by the state’s House in a 88 to 27 vote late last month and the state’s Senate on April 16 in a 27 to 9 vote.

Florida’s ban comes after Utah in late March became the first state to prohibit fluoride in its public water and as the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Health and Human Services review potential health risks associated with the long-held medical practices.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has claimed that fluoride is associated with an assortment of diseases, including cancer, and he called it “an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer IQ loss, neurodevelopment disorders and thyroid disease.”

On Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced its intention to remove fluoride supplements from the market staring October.

U.S. cities have fluoridated their drinking water for decades in a effort to fight tooth decay, with Grand Rapids, Mich., becoming the first to do so in 1945.

The American Dental Association has been a vocal supported of fluoridated tap water amid the controversy and on Thursday published slides to its Facebook account showing that the practice reduces cavities by 25% in both adults and children, and is safe.

Its president, Brett Kessler, said in a statement issued following Utah’s ban that children will be the ones to suffer.

“Community water fluoridation programs save states money, save the federal government money and save people money,” he said. “I urge every dentist and community member to make their voices heard if there are proposals in your area that threaten the oral health of our communities.”