Florida
Florida athletic board bans transgender volleyball player from HS sports for a year, school fined
Florida’s state athletic board fined a high school and put it on probation Tuesday after a transgender student played on the girls volleyball team, a violation of a controversial law enacted by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature.
The Florida High School Athletic Association fined Monarch High $16,500, ordered the principal and athletic director to attend rules seminars and placed the suburban Fort Lauderdale school on probation for 11 months, meaning further violations could lead to increased punishments.
The association also barred the girl from participating in boys sports for 11 months.
The 2021 law, which supporters named “The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” bars transgender girls and women from playing on public school teams intended for student-athletes identified as girls at birth.
The student, a 10th grader who played in 33 matches over the last two seasons, was removed from the team last month after the Broward County School District was notified by an anonymous tipster about her participation.
Her removal led hundreds of Monarch students to walk out of class two weeks ago in protest.
The Associated Press is not naming the student to protect her privacy.
“Thanks to the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida passed legislation to protect girls’ sports and we will not tolerate any school that violates this law,” Education Commissioner Manny Diaz said in a statement. “We applaud the swift action taken by the Florida High School Athletic Association to ensure there are serious consequences for this illegal behavior.”
DeSantis’ office declined comment.
The governor was in Iowa on Tuesday, campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination.
He has made his enactment of the law and others that are similar a campaign cornerstone.
Jessica Norton, the girl’s mother and a Monarch information technician, went public last week. She reissued a statement Tuesday calling the outing of her daughter a “direct attempt to endanger” the girl.
The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ rights organization that has been supporting the family, said in a statement that Tuesday’s ruling “does not change the fact that the law preventing transgender girls from playing sports with their peers is unconstitutionally rooted in anti-transgender bias, and the Association’s claim to ensure equal opportunities for student-athletes rings hollow. ”
“The reckless indifference to the well-being of our client and her family, and all transgender students across the State, will not be ignored,” wrote Jason Starr, the group’s litigation strategist.
According to court documents filed with a 2021 federal suit challenging the law on the girl’s behalf, she has identified as female since before elementary school and has been using a girl’s name since second grade.
At age 11 she began taking testosterone blockers and at 13 started taking estrogen to begin puberty as a girl.
Her gender has also been changed on her birth certificate.
A judge dismissed the lawsuit last month but gave the family until next month to amend it for reconsideration.
Broward County Public Schools in a short statement acknowledged receiving the association’s ruling and said its own investigation is ongoing. The district has 10 days to appeal.
The association also ruled that Monarch Principal James Cecil and Athletic Director Dione Hester must attend rules compliance seminars the next two summers and the school must host an on-campus seminar for other staff before July.
The school district recently temporarily reassigned Cecil, Hester, Norton and the assistant athletic director and suspended the volleyball coach pending the outcome of its investigation.
After the group’s reassignments, Norton thanked students and others who protested on their behalf.
“The outpouring of love and support from our community … has been inspiring, selfless and brave,” Norton said in last week’s statement. “Watching our community’s resistance and display of love has been so joyous for our family — the light leading us through this darkness.”
Florida
Don Moreland inducted into the Florida Law Enforcement Hall of Fame
OCALA, Fla. (WCJB) – A former Marion County Sheriff was inducted into the Florida Law Enforcement Hall of Fame today.
Former sheriff Don Moreland got emotional giving his acceptance speech, more than fifty years after he was elected.
He was Marion County Sheriff for twenty years, from 1972 to 1992.
Once he left his post, former President Bill Clinton made him the Marshall for the Middle District of Florida.
“I am deeply honored being included in this whole thing. When you get to be 90 you really sincerely appreciate everything a little bit more,” said Don Moreland.
Moreland still holds the record for the ‘longest-serving sheriff’ in Marion County.
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Florida
Heat and storms forecast for Central Florida on Saturday
Heat indices are forecast to be reach the 100s in Central Florida on Saturday, the National Weather Service said.
Afternoon and evening storms are also expected in the area, NWS said. They are forecast to be strong to severe.
The high today will be 94 degrees and the low will be 73 degrees.
Florida
‘Bad Boys’ and ‘Road House’ Remind Filmmakers What Florida Has to Offer
The Sony Pictures sequel “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” made headlines as it rolled through a succession of Florida locations in late February and early March, with reports of crews “spark(ing) buzz” filming on the A1A Highway in Fort Lauderdale, fans catching a glimpse of stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in Brickell, and traffic tie-ups in Miami.
“If you look at the trailer, you’ll see anything that has to do with the beach is all us, with the stunt scene that they did on Ocean Drive in Fort Lauderdale,” boasts Sandy Lighterman, film commissioner for Broward County (Film Lauderdale) and president of Film Florida. “That was because we made it so easy for them.”
One of the reasons the presence of the latest “Bad Boys” movie was such big news is that while Florida has a wealth of TV production courtesy of Spanish language networks Telemundo and Univision, commercial shoots, and reality series such as “Selling Tampa” and “The Queen of Versailles Reigns Again” — all of which maintain a healthy crew base and industry infrastructure — shoots for scripted Hollywood movies and TV series are a rarity these days.
The state has served as the primary shooting location for many memorable projects, from movies such as “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” (1994) to the TV series “Miami Vice” (1984-1989) and “Burn Notice” (2007-2013). But these days, major Florida-set productions are more likely to resemble Apple TV+ series “Palm Royale,” which was only there long enough to do aerial shots of the Bath & Tennis Club in Palm Beach, and Netflix’s remake of “Road House,” which was filmed almost entirely in the Dominican Republic.
The reason is simple economics: since the sunset of the Sunshine State’s film and TV tax incentive in 2015, productions have gone elsewhere, most notably its neighbor to the north, Georgia, which offers a 20%-30% refundable tax credit.
With no sign of the state moving to revive its incentive, counties are taking matters into their own hands. In April, Miami-Dade County launched its High Impact Film Fund Program, offering a cash rebate of up to 20%. To qualify, projects must have a minimum budget of $5 million, base 90% of their Florida production in the county, and have 60% of their qualified labor be country residents and 70% of their vendors be locally registered businesses. With its annual cap of just $10 million, it’s unlikely to attract any tentpole movies, but it’s suitable for higher-end low budget films or a portion of a TV series. The county also has an incentive for projects with a minimum spend of $1 million that awards grants of up $100,000 per project.
“We worked very closely with a lot of industry stakeholders to research around the country and around the world as to what would make sense in terms of putting these percentages together,” says Marco Giron, chief of film and entertainment in Miami-Dade County.
In Broward County, located in the Miami metropolitan area, producers can choose from a menu of incentives, including the Sun-Screen Program ($1.5 to $5 million county spend; 20% rebate capped at $800,000) and the High Impact Film & TV ($5 million minimum county spend; 15% rebate capped at $2 million).
“Since I’ve been here, we’ve had 12 movies that fully shot here because of the incentive program,” says Lighterman, who preceded Giron in Miami-Dade before taking the top film job in Broward in December 2021.
But movies aren’t the only yardstick of success. The film and TV industry generated a record $247 million in local expenditures in Palm Beach County in 2023, up 3% from 2022, on the strength of unscripted shows such as “Hot Yachts” (ITV/Paramount+) and the Netflix docuseries “Break Point.”
One of the drivers of its success is the Palm Beach County Film and Television Commission’s sponsorship and development program, which encourages the production of content that promotes local tourism. To be considered for funding, shows must have distribution outside the county, reaching potential visitors. After airing on their original platforms, they become available on demand on the Palm Beaches TV channel. Projects participating in the program have included Travel Channel’s “Pets in Paradise” and PBS’ “Travels and Traditions” with Burt Wolf.
“In many cases, they wouldn’t have the budget to do these types of things, so it’s been an incredible success for us,” says Palm Beach County film commissioner Michelle Hillery.
In the case of actress of Julia Stiles’ directorial debut “Wish You Were Here,” however, the primary reason a large portion of the shoot took place in Florida was not incentives (it didn’t get any), the valuable help it received from the Palm Beach and Broward County film commissions or the connections producer Michelle Khan made shooting commercials in the state. It was, in fact, a boat.
“There’s a catamaran featured in one of the final scenes in the film that we were able to get for a relatively affordable price down there,” says Khan.
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