The Florida Department of State is investigating petitions signed by Florida voters to approve Amendment 4 for the ballot in November, and former President Donald Trump attends a press conference after his latest court appearance.
DeSantis administration begins investigation into abortion Amendment signatures
Florida’s Department of State is investigating petitions signed by Florida voters that were used to get Amendment 4 on the November ballot.
The Deputy Secretary of State asked supervisors in Hillsborough, Orange, Palm Beach and Osceola counties to gather around 36,000 signatures for review.
A deadline in state law to challenge the validity of the signatures has long passed, so it is unclear what will be done with signatures that are reviewed.
To get an amendment on the ballot in Florida, petition collectors must get nearly 900,000 verified signatures. They must also get a required number of valid petitions in at least half of Florida’s 28 congressional districts.
Floridians Protecting Freedom surpassed that requirement and got the proper amount of signatures in 17 districts.
It collected about 100,000 more valid petitions than was necessary for ballot placement, according to the Division of Election’s database.
In January, Secretary of State Cord Byrd certified the amendment for placement on the ballot.
Defeating the amendment has become a top priority for Gov. Ron DeSantis this fall. The governor has organized and supported one of the main groups opposing the initiative.
Trump attends press conference after court appearance
Shortly after appearing in court for an appeal of a decision that found him liable for sexual abuse, Donald Trump stepped Friday in front of television cameras and brought up a string of past allegations of other acts of sexual misconduct, potentially reminding voters of incidents that were little-known or forgotten.
A jury returned a $5 million verdict finding Trump liable of sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996. His legal team made its appeal arguments Friday morning.
Juries now have twice now awarded Carroll huge sums for Trump's claiming she made up a story about him attacking her in a department store dressing room in 1996 to help her sell a memoir.
But that hasn’t stopped Trump from continuing to make nearly identical statements to reporters. At his news briefing Friday, he said again that Carroll was telling a “made up, fabricated story.”
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, had a speedy response Friday to fresh comments former President Donald Trump made about her client that sounded like the kinds of things he said that led juries to conclude he owes Carroll $88.3 million.
“I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: all options are on the table,” Kaplan said in a statement shortly after Trump spoke at length during a Trump Tower news conference in midtown Manhattan.
Whenever Trump denies that he sexually assaulted Carroll, he runs the risk she will sue him again for defamation.
In one of the most startling moments of the news conference, Trump said that a woman who accused him of molesting her on an airline flight in the late 1970s “would not have been the chosen one” while saying she made up the story.
Trump is referring to an accusation made by Jessica Leeds, who testified last year in the same case that Trump grabbed her chest and ran his hand up her skirt as they sat side by side in first class on a New York City-bound jet.
Florida exploring more nuclear energy options
Florida is exploring opportunities to expand nuclear power.
The state is home to only two active nuclear power sites, both in South Florida — St. Lucie Nuclear Plant in Jensen Beach and Turkey Point Nuclear Plant in Biscayne Bay.
The state is also home to a decommissioning site in Crystal River, which shut down in 2013 after suffering damages.
According to the Florida House, the two remaining active sites in Florida provide roughly 13% of the state's power.
“We are a thousand miles away from any coal in Florida, and the cost of that doesn’t make good economics,” said Florida Electric Power Coordinating Group Board Chair Jacob Williams.
Nuclear energy got its second look Thursday at a meeting in Tallahassee involving Florida Public Service Commission staff members and electric-industry officials and experts after Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year signed legislation tasking the research.
The panel must deliver a research report, to be conducted in consultation with the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Emergency Management, to the Florida Legislature in April 2025. The panel will also take into account public comment.
“We just want to produce this report, provide it to the Legislature with any recommendations that we may come up with for how we can increase the use of advanced nuclear in the state,” said Cayce Hinton, director of the Florida Office of Industry Development and Market Analysis.
The panel has yet to release specifics, such as possible locations. However, the state is considering various nuclear possibilities, such as large- and small-scale reactors, as well as mobile nuclear power devices like microreactors or small modular reactors.