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      Florida board approves expansion of ‘don’t say gay’ ban to all school grades

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      Florida’s board of education has approved the expansion of the state’s so-called “don’t say gay” bill, which now prohibits discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity at school across all grade levels.Wednesday’s approval came at the request of the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, who in the past two years has waged what critics call a “culture war” across the state through his bans on gender-affirming care, Covid-19 precautionary measures and abortion rights, among other facets.According to an education department spokesperson, the proposal will take effect after a procedural notice period that lasts about a month, the Associated Press reports.The rule states that Florida educators “shall not intentionally provide classroom instruction to students in grades four through 12 on sexual orientation or gender identity unless such instruction is either expressly required by state academic standards … or is part of a reproductive health course or health lesson for which a student’s parent has the option to have his or her student not attend.”Previously, the Parental Rights in Education law focused on banning classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity only from kindergarten through third grade.Parents are allowed to sue school districts over violations and educators who violate the ban risk having their licenses revoked.The expansion is a part of a series of anti-LGBTQ+ being proposed in Florida, including a ban on gender affirming care that would allow the state to take “emergency” custody of a child whose parents allow them access to such care.Other bans include curtailing drag performances, banning pride flags from public buildings, as well as removing college majors and minors on gender studies and critical race theory, among other similar disciplines.In a statement to the Associated Press, Florida’s education commissioner, Manny Diaz Jr, said: “We’re not removing anything here. All we are doing is we are setting the expectations so our teachers are clear: that they are to teach to the standards.”As a result of DeSantis’s “don’t say gay” bill and his culture war against “wokeness”, the governor, who is widely expected to launch his 2024 presidential run, has found himself going head to head with Disney, one of the state’s largest private employers.Last month, Disney pushed back against DeSantis’s crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights by announcing its plans to host a major LGBTQ+ conference at Walt Disney World in Orlando. The announcement was widely regarded as a defiant response to DeSantis who assumed new powers in February that allow him to appoint members of the development board that supervises the theme park and its self-governing district. More

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      Ron DeSantis ally backs Trump for president in latest Florida defection

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      In a blow to Ron DeSantis, a prominent ally of the rightwing governor was on Tuesday one of two Florida Republicans in Congress to back Donald Trump for president, the latest in a string of such defections.The news came amid reports that DeSantis’s team has pressured US representatives from his state not to endorse Trump.Brian Mast told CNN he planned to endorse the former president and would chair a veterans committee in support of his re-election bid.Peter Schorsch, publisher of FloridaPolitics.com, said: “This is right up there with Byron Donalds picking Trump over DeSantis.”Donalds introduced DeSantis for his election night speech in November, after his landslide win over the Democrat Charlie Crist. Last week, though, Donalds told NBC he plumped for Trump because he was a candidate “ready for prime time”.Schorsch added: “Brian Mast has been DeSantis’s ally on environment and water issues in South Florida. Mast is at DeSantis’s hip during press conferences. They’re both veterans, too. Wow.”Mast and John Rutherford were the sixth and seventh congressional Florida Republicans to endorse Trump. Rutherford announced his decision in a tweet.“As a former sheriff,” he said, “I understand the importance of a fair and impartial system of justice. The systematic targeting of Americans with conservative ideals, especially our 45th president of the United States, disgraces our nation’s legacy.”He was referring to Trump’s criminal indictment in New York this month, on 34 counts of falsification of business records relating to his hush money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels.Trump also faces legal jeopardy over his election subversion and incitement of the deadly January 6 attack on Congress, his handling of classified material, his business and tax affairs and an allegation of rape. He denies all wrongdoing.His sheriff-turned-congressman supporter added: “As strong Republicans, we must restore law, order and justice to our country … under President Trump’s leadership, America was more safe, more secure, and more prosperous.”Trump lost conclusively to Joe Biden in 2020, a year of chaos amid the Covid pandemic and protests for racial justice.For inciting an insurrection in his attempt to overturn that defeat, fueled by the lie that Biden won thanks to electoral fraud, Trump was impeached a second time. But he escaped conviction and is now the clear leader in the race for the GOP nomination, leveraging his legal predicament to boost fundraising and support.DeSantis has not declared his candidacy but is widely expected to do so. He is Trump’s closest challenger but his numbers have stagnated as he has come under fire for extreme policies including a six-week abortion ban, school book bans and a drawn-out fight with Disney. Last week, a major donor said he was pausing support.By Tuesday, Trump had secured endorsements from one governor (Henry McMaster of South Carolina), nine senators and 47 House members. Lance Gooden, a Texas Republican, released his endorsement of Trump shortly after what he called “a positive meeting” with DeSantis in Washington.NBC first reported DeSantis allies calls to Florida Republicans. An unnamed source said: “There is clearly some angst from the DeSantis camp that so many members of the state’s congressional delegation are throwing their support behind Trump.”Rutherford and Mast were not among Republicans named. The New York Times, however, cited an official “familiar with the effort” when it said “others in the 20-member Republican delegation from Florida are almost certainly on the call list”.One Republican named by NBC, Laurel Lee, endorsed DeSantis on Tuesday. Another, Greg Steube, declared for Trump on Monday. More

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      Iowa state senate votes to allow children to work longer hours and serve alcohol

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      In a pre-dawn session on Tuesday, the Iowa state senate voted to allow children to work longer hours and serve alcohol, the latest move by Republican-controlled statehouses to combat a labor shortage by loosening child labor laws.The Iowa bill would expand the number of hours that children under 16 can work from four to six a day, allow minors to work in previously prohibited industries if they are part of a training program, and allow 16- and 17-year–olds to serve alcohol with a parent’s permission.It passed the state senate by a vote of 32-17, two Republicans joining every Democrat in opposition. The vote took place just before 5am, after protests and delay tactics by Democrats.“We do know slavery existed in the past but one place it doesn’t exist, that’s in this bill,” said Adrian Dickey, the Republican responsible for shepherding the bill to passage, according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch.“It simply is providing our youth an opportunity to earn and learn, at the same timeframe as his classmates do, while participating in sports and other fine arts.”Democrats and labor advocates decried the bill, which they say will endanger children by allowing them to work in dangerous fields such as roofing, excavation and demolition.“No Iowa teenager should be working in America’s deadliest jobs,” said Zach Wahls, the senate minority leader. “Iowa Republican politicians want to solve the … workforce crisis on the literal backs of children.”Labor unions have held protests against the bill. Charlie Wishman, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor, said efforts to loosen child labor laws around the US were “a lazy way of dealing with the fact that certain states don’t have enough workers”.In March, the Arkansas governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, signed legislation to roll back child labor protections. Lawmakers in Ohio, Minnesota and Wisconsin are also considering loosening regulations.“Can we let kids be kids?” Wishman asked. “It was about 120 years ago when we decided that we wanted to make sure that kids spent the majority of their time in school and not in a workplace, and especially not in a dangerous workplace.”Wishman cited research that has found serious adverse effects for teenagers working more than 20 hours a week.“These legislators don’t care about that because it’s not their kids,” he said. “This law is intended for somebody else’s kids.” More

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      George Santos, Republican who lied in his first election, announces second run

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      Disgraced Republican congressman George Santos, who has admitted to fabricating parts of his résumé in his successful bid for a seat in the House of Representatives, has announced he will stand for a second term representing his New York district.Santos, whose district is focused on New York City’s suburbs, is the subject of an inquiry by the House ethics committee, as well as complaints alleging sexual harassment and campaign finance violations.Shortly after he admitted to lying during his election campaign last year, Santos stepped down from all House committees. He is expected to face many challengers in the Republican primary for the district, which leans Democratic.Santos was characteristically forthright in his re-election announcement, ignoring the multiple scandals that have repeatedly emerged in the US media that range from puppy theft to lying about being a producer on a Broadway musical about Spider-Man and making claims to have lost family in the Holocaust.“Since the left is pushing radical agendas, the economy is struggling, and Washington is incapable of solving anything, we need a fighter who knows the district and can serve the people fearlessly, and independent of local or national party influence,” he said in a statement.He added: “Good is not good enough and I am not shy about getting the job done.”Santos has long faced calls to quit from fellow New York Republicans and voters in his Queens and Long Island district. Democrats are hopeful they will be able to grab the seat. More

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      Republican donor pauses Ron DeSantis funding over abortion and book banning

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      A top Republican donor said he had paused plans to fund Ron DeSantis’s expected presidential run because of the Florida governor’s “stance on abortion and book banning”.Thomas Peterffy, founder of Interactive Brokers, a digital trading platform, told the Financial Times: “I have put myself on hold. Because of his stance on abortion and book banning … myself, and a bunch of friends, are holding our powder dry.”Peterffy also noted that DeSantis “seems to have lost some momentum”.DeSantis has not declared a run but is widely expected to do so. He is the closest challenger to Donald Trump in polling of the Republican primary field but despite winning re-election in a landslide and signing into law a succession of hard-right policies, he has not closed on the former president.Last week, DeSantis signed a six-week abortion ban. Nationally, Democrats seized on the move, threats to abortion rights having worked to Republicans’ disadvantage in numerous recent elections.DeSantis has also tried to remove books dealing with LGBTQ+ issues from Florida public schools, while other laws have loosened gun rights and targeted Black voters.After Peterffy’s intervention, the New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, a leading voice on Trump and Republican electoral politics, noted: “A major donor finally goes on record with what has been a whisper: donors are getting worried.”But as Haberman also noted, Peterffy still gave himself “a lot of wiggle room to resume with DeSantis without fully breaking from him”.Peterffy said he still supported DeSantis in his fight with Disney, one of the largest employers in Florida, over LGBTQ+ rights.The company has pushed back against DeSantis over a “don’t say gay” law pertaining to the teaching of sexuality and gender in public schools.DeSantis retaliated by attacking Disney’s self-governing powers in the state. The entertainment giant responded, seeking to block the move.Petterfy said: “I think it’s insane that a company would take a stand on gender issues.”Nor did he say he would not support DeSantis at all.“I am more reluctant to back him,” he said. “We are waiting to see who among the primary candidates is most likely to be able to win the general, and then put all of our firepower behind them.” More

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      Lindsey Graham calls fellow Republican ‘irresponsible’ for defending Pentagon leaker

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      Senator Lindsey Graham condemned his fellow Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene as “terribly irresponsible” on Sunday, after the far-right congresswoman defended the air national guardsman charged with leaking Pentagon intelligence documents.Speaking on ABC’s This Week show, Graham said the leaks had “done a lot of damage to our standing” and criticized “those who are trying to sugarcoat this on the right”.Taylor Greene, a known conspiracy theorist and election denier who was controversially named to the homeland security committee in January, had suggested on Thursday that Jack Teixeira, an airman in the air national guard who has been charged under the Espionage Act after allegedly leaking hundreds of secret defence documents, had been treated unfairly.“There are military members serving today from Georgia and other places who are less safe because of what this airman did,” Graham told ABC.“There is no justification for this, and for any member of Congress to suggest it’s OK to leak classified information because you agree with the cause is terribly irresponsible and puts America in serious danger.”Teixeira published at least 300 documents, according to reports, to the Discord messaging platform. Some of the documents included details on Ukraine’s defense capabilities, while others pointed to how US intelligence has infiltrated the Russian military and appeared to show US spying on close allies including Ukraine, South Korea and Israel.After Teixeira was arrested at his home in North Dighton, Massachusetts, on Thursday, Taylor Greene said he had been targeted by the government.“Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime. And he told the truth about troops being on the ground in Ukraine and a lot more,” Greene, a congresswoman from Georgia, said on Twitter.“Ask yourself who is the real enemy? A young low level national guardsmen? Or the administration that is waging war in Ukraine, a non-Nato nation, against nuclear Russia without war powers?”Other rightwing figures have also defended Teixeira, with Tucker Carlson, the influential Fox News host, praising him as someone who “told Americans what’s actually happening in Ukraine”.Asked about Greene’s comments on Sunday, Graham said: “What they’re suggesting will destroy America’s ability to defend itself.”“That it’s OK to release classified information based on your political views. That the ends justify the means. It is not OK. If you’re a member of the military intelligence community and you disagree with American policy and you think you’re going to be OK when it comes to leaking classified information, you’re going to go to jail. It’s one of the most irresponsible statements you can make,” Graham said.He added: “There is no justification for this. And for any member of Congress to suggest it’s OK to leak classified information because you agree with the cause is terribly irresponsible. And puts America in serious danger.”Teixeira was charged in federal court in Boston on Friday with the unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information, and the unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents.Each charge under the act can carry up to a 10-year prison term, and prosecutors could treat each leaked document as a separate count in his indictment. More