* No citizen-led ballot initiative will be on the ballot this November in the Free State of Florida.
* The Florida Bar didn’t reprimand Matt Gaetz over alleged sexual misbehavior. Takeaway: Being disturbingly, disgustingly sleazy just isn’t reason enough.
* 4th Amendment update: “Many live in a prolonged state of uncertainty, and this will only worsen the situation.” That was Isaret Jeffers, founder of Colectivo Arbol, a group that helps farm workers and Central American immigrants, on the revelation of an ICE memo allowing officers to forcibly enter homes without a judge’s warrant—just an administrative warrant.
* Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office sent out an ironic, unsettling message on MLK Day. It announced an opinion identifying more than 80 state DEI laws that “promote and require racial discrimination on its face.” Florida Sen. LaVon Bracy Davis, an Orlando Democrat, gave the proper response. “Eliminating these is not colorblind. It’s history blind.”
* Dems now trail Repugnicans by more than 1.4 million registered voters. As recently as 2018, Dems actually had a voter-registration lead. Purple never looked so good.
* As we well know, Florida has never had a governor of color, although Andrew Gillum came tantalizingly close in 2018. That could change in 2026. That would certainly happen if there’s an all-Black match-up between the Trump-endorsed GOPster Byron Donalds and Democrat Jerry Demings, the Orange County mayor.
* More than 4.7 million people in Florida receive health insurance through the federal marketplace. That is the largest number of people—many of whom remain anxious amid Trump’s protean priorities—in any state to be receiving federal health care.
* “Education is not indoctrination.”—Gov. Ron DisIngenuous.