Miami Herald • 9th November 2020

Experts wonder and warn: Is Florida the nation’s test case for COVID-19 herd immunity?

Whether Floridians know it or not, Gov. Ron DeSantis is pursuing a policy that will allow the virus to spread freely in the state until most of the population becomes infected — or is vaccinated vaccine — while attempting to protect those thought to be most vulnerable. Critics say it is an irresponsible herd immunity policy. Advocates call it "focused protection."

Miami Herald • 2nd October 2020

An ALF tragedy: COVID didn’t kill Rita at age 95, despair and loneliness did

An outgoing and healthy 95-year-old mother decided to stop eating after isolation in a Florida ALF left her lonely and confused. Her daughters blame flawed and inconsistent COVID restrictions.

Miami Herald • 23rd July 2020

COVID is leaking into Florida nursing homes as regulators allow exceptions

More than 6,700 staff and residents at nursing homes and assisted living facilities have been infected with COVID-19 in the month of July, a 129% rise that regulators blame on vendors and staff who unwittingly bring in the virus. But the state also played a role.

Miami Herald • 17th July 2020

DeSantis’ COVID strategy: Talk about the good, avoid talking about how to prevent the bad

Since the onset of COVID, even as infections and deaths have soared, Florida Gov. DeSantis has delivered a shifting narrative focused on defending his actions.

Miami Herald • 12th June 2020

The Florida COVID-19 data said one thing while Gov. DeSantis sometimes said another

When Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that most of the state would reopen for business on May 4, he cited his administration’s “data-driven strategy” and success at achieving “critical benchmarks in flattening the curve” to contain COVID-19. But a review of the data the governor was using shows his public pronouncements were often in conflict with real-time facts. He either wasn’t aware the data showed that community spread, regional outbreaks and death tolls were worse than he was telling Floridians, or he selectively focused on outdated statistics to make his case.

Miami Herald • 13th January 2021

Rosa Zamanillo hadn’t left her elder-care home in 3 years. COVID-19 got her anyway

In four days, Rosa Zamanillo went from singing Cuban ballads and eating well at the Residential Plaza assisted living facility in Miami, to being unrecognizable by her youngest son. They told her she didn't have COVID-19.

Miami Herald • 16th June 2020

Florida’s testing program offers snapshot of COVID-19’s deadly toll in long-term care

Gov. Ron DeSantis reversed course and ordered universal testing at nursing homes and assisted living facilities, revealing the devastation COVID-19 has wrought on facilities in Florida.

Miami Herald • 26th June 2020

Are legislators AWOL? State faces massive budget hole and no role for Legislature

Is the Florida Legislature ceding its oversight of the growing budget deficit and public health crisis over the coronavirus to the governor? Democrats say it is but the leaders of Florida’s Republican-controlled state House and Senate disagree. Florida’s elected leaders say they have no plans to return to Tallahassee until after the election.

Miami Herald • 22nd April 2020

Shark Tank investor among those who tried to sell N95 masks at a high price to state

A hefty offer, a special arrangement with a law firm, and a promise of 1 million N95 masks got Florida emergency management officials into a Shark Tank-style deal for the precious pieces of protective equipment.

Miami Herald • 14th April 2020

Which elder-care facilities have COVID-19? Florida won’t say, filling families with dread

Barred from visiting their relatives in the midst of a pandemic, people with relatives in nursing homes and assisted living facilities across the state say they are also being deprived of information that could reassure them that their loved ones are safe.

Miami Herald • 7th April 2020

Inside Florida’s frenzied, failed dash to dole out $600 million in no-bid mask deals

With its stockpile of protective masks low, Florida embarked on a buying frenzy three weeks into the state emergency. More than $600 million in deals have resulted in virtually no product.

Miami Herald • 21st March 2020

Has Gov. DeSantis been too cautious in moves to deal with coronavirus? Some experts say yes.

There is no handbook for governing in the time of the coronavirus, but as the number of positive cases of COVID-19 has grown more than seven-fold in Florida in the last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis has proven to be more cautious than governors in similarly situated states, including some with even fewer fatalities.

Miami Herald • 13th February 2020

$5 million in paid time off? Records show domestic violence agency CEO got that and more.

Florida legislators learned Thursday the cost of their decision to direct millions of taxpayer dollars to a private domestic violence agency and ask few questions. After months of obfuscation, the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence revealed for the first time that for the last three years it compensated its chief executive officer more than $7.5 million from state and federal funds — including nearly $5 million in cash compensation for “paid time off.”

7th March 2020

Was nonprofit CEO at home in $2M mountain retreat? We rang the bell. No one answered

The view from Tiffany Carr’s home in the Blue Ridge Mountains on Sunday offered a crystal clear panorama of six mountaintops and rolling hillsides and, at 4,000 feet in elevation, seemed a world away from the Florida Capitol where she has been the focus of investigation and outrage.

Miami Herald • 28th February 2020

Being well connected meant a $7.5 million payday for the head of this Florida nonprofit

Few government contractors could orchestrate getting the $7.5 million compensation package the head of the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence managed to obtain for three years of work, but Tiffany Carr did it by leveraging connections.

Nieman Reports • 12th January 2020

Less Local News Means Less Democracy

The decline in local journalism is having an insidious impact on democracy: diminished government accountability, reduced access to accurate information, and a decline in public trust. In this Nieman Reports piece, I explain how I've watched it play out in Tallahassee -- and how it's not unique to Florida.

Miami Herald • 1st December 2019

New head of Florida prisons sees dire warning signs. ‘Status quo is not sustainable’

Florida's new secretary of the Department of Corrections has a sober warning: Florida prisons are on the brink of collapse. They cannot sustain the understaffed, inexperienced crew of corrections officers in command of a penal system stripped of educational programs and housed in crumbling facilities. As I explain, years of budget cuts and legislative indifference have led to this problem.

miamiherald • 23rd August 2019

This secretive group is trying to create barriers to amending Florida’s Constitution

A secretive organization with the goal of thwarting amendments approved by voters after the 2020 election cycle has spent more than $800,000 on paid petition gatherers in the last four months, using funds from undisclosed sources and raising the specter of another high stakes fight over the future of energy regulation in Florida. The organization calls itself Keep Our Constitution Clean and says its purpose is to keep the state’s premier legal document uncluttered by special interest measures.

miamiherald • 9th August 2019

Guns are ‘the issue of our time.’ Florida Senate leaders talk of taking action.

Two mass shootings that left 31 dead and renewed a national call for better attention to the warning signs of homegrown terrorism have revived the debate in Florida’s Capitol over how to curb gun violence. Stirring the debate is Senate President Bill Galvano, the Bradenton Republican who this week sent signals he is prepared to use political capital to pass gun legislation in an election year.

miamiherald • 31st July 2019

‘Dump’ of thousands of petitions has election supervisors scrambling, others suspicious

As a new law took effect July 7, declaring that petition signatures are invalid if they are not certified within 30 days, Citizen Voters unloaded hundreds of thousands of petitions to elections offices. They’re calling it the “big dump” — and some are asking if it was an intentional ploy to sabotage liberal-leaning amendments.