Florida
Florida governor candidate Fishback talks housing, abortion, Israel
Fishback is among 42 candidates running to succeed Gov. Ron DeSantis.
VERO BEACH — Over 100 people, mostly young men, packed a conference room the evening of April 11 at the Ocean Breeze Inn on Ocean Drive to hear James Fishback speak.
The 31-year-old who has never held political office is one of 42 candidates running to succeed Gov. Ron DeSantis, who cannot seek reelection because of term limits.
As soon as he took the podium, the Republican gubernatorial hopeful took jabs at the leading Republican candidate, Byron Donalds, who has the support of President Donald Trump.
He rattled off nicknames for Donalds, who is Black, including “By’rone Donalds” and “AIPAC Shakur” — a play on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and rapper Tupac Shakur.
Many in the mostly White crowd responded in laughter.
“If you want a data center in Vero Beach, Byron Donalds is your guy. If you want to stand up for cattle ranchers and citrus growers, I’d like to think I’m your man,” he said.
Emerson College polling shows Fishback is trailing with 5% support among Florida Republicans. He is getting national attention from young conservatives and far-right groups, including his January appearance on conservative political activist and commentator Tucker Carlson’s podcast. Carlson endorsed him.
Candidate qualifying in Florida begins June 8. The primary election is Aug. 18.
Florida’s affordability crisis
Audience members most frequently asked Fishback about the state’s affordability crisis, given Florida’s rising cost of living and some of the lowest wages in the country.
Fishback said his primary strategy would be to ban private equity firms from buying single-family homes.
If elected governor, he said he would not prioritize growth over quality of life, harkening back to the 1980s, when Florida was less developed.
“I will never worship GDP (gross domestic product),” he said. “But as a Christian, I will worship G-O-D.”
Education, abortion and guns
As for teachers, Fishback proposed an increase in pay but wanted to limit classroom discussions of race and gender identity.
Fishback said abortion laws in Florida were too lax, and he pledged to provide paid maternity leave for every woman in Florida as a way to reduce the procedure.
On firearms, he said he would lower the minimum purchasing age from 21 to 18.
“The tragedy of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018, and the killing of 17 souls by a sick, depraved man should have never been used as a pretext to disarm millions of 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds.”
The crowd erupted in its loudest applause of the evening.
Fishback’s thoughts on Israel
When an audience member asked about his thoughts on Israel, some members of the audience chuckled.
He said he does not “hate Israel or any country in the world.”
“Right now, our cup is not full, and we should not be in the business of filling up the cup for anyone else,” he said.
Who is James Fishback?
Fishback was born in Davie, a town in western Broward County.
His mother immigrated from Colombia, and his father owned a landscaping business and later became a bus driver. Fishback attended Georgetown University to study international economics, but dropped out sophomore year.
Before entering politics, Fishback worked at the hedge fund Greenlight Capital from 2021 to 2023. He said he had been the “head of macro,” but the firm said the highest role he obtained was a research analyst.
After Greenlight disputed Fishback’s title and accused him of sharing confidential portfolio information, the hedge fund sought to fire Fishback for low productivity, but he abruptly resigned, court records show.
He founded an investment management firm called Azoria Partners in 2023, which ran into legal trouble last year when a judge ordered him to turn over company stock and a list of luxury purchases.
Fishback also claimed to be an advisor for the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but its officials denied he had any role, Katie Miller, a spokesperson for DOGE head Elon Musk told ABC News.
Most recently, a viral video shows Fishback telling a Black man he “should be lynched” during an argument at the University of North Florida.
Jack Lemnus is a TCPalm enterprise reporter. Contact him at jack.lemnus@tcpalm.com, 772-409-1345, or follow him on X @JackLemnus.
Florida
US Coast Guard saves 8, including infant and child, after vessel capsizes off Fort Myers Beach
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A quick-thinking crew from U.S. Coast Guard Station Fort Myers Beach saved eight lives, including an infant and a child, after a boat capsized Friday afternoon near the Sanibel Causeway in Florida.
Responders rushed to the capsized vessel, executing a rapid, coordinated effort that resulted in every person being safely recovered from the water.
Officials credited the success of the operation to the crew’s “relentless” preparation and teamwork.
The U.S. Coast Guard shared photos of the boat nearly completely underwater following the swift rescue. (U.S. Coast Guard Station Fort Myers Beach via Facebook)
AT LEAST 6 PEOPLE INJURED AFTER BOSTON DUCK BOAT OVERTURNS NEAR ENTRANCE TO POPULAR TOURIST ATTRACTION
“A successful mission is measured by the lives brought home safely,” U.S. Coast Guard Station Fort Myers Beach wrote in a statement on Facebook.
The Coast Guard emphasized the high-stakes rescue serves as a powerful reminder of why its crews train constantly and remain ready to respond at any hour of the day or night.
Victims were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard in Florida on Fourth of July weekend. (U.S. Coast Guard Station Fort Myers Beach via Facebook)
CBP, COAST GUARD INTERCEPT MIGRANT VESSEL HEADING FOR PUERTO RICO; 40 APPREHENDED INCLUDING UZBEK NATIONAL
“When seconds matter, preparation, communication, and teamwork make all the difference,” the Coast Guard station wrote. “We are grateful for the opportunity to serve our community and thankful that this incident ended with everyone returning home safely. Our thoughts are with those involved, and we’re proud of every responder who played a role in this successful rescue.”
The U.S. Coast Guard shared photos of the boat sinking into the water near Fort Myers Beach. (U.S. Coast Guard Station Fort Myers Beach via Facebook)
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The Sanibel Causeway is in southwest Florida, just west of Fort Myers on the Gulf Coast.
The Florida Supreme Court is reversing legal precedent that previously required judges to throw out evidence collected by police, when they don’t knock and announce themselves.
Typically, when police conduct a raid with a search warrant without giving residents enough time to answer the door, the evidence gathered is not allowed in court.
The Justices overturned that procedure in a 6-1 ruling.
Justice Meredith Sasso wrote for the majority that Florida’s knock-and-announce statute does not give judges the authority to suppress that evidence.
The ruling stems from a investigation out of Leon County. State and local police obtained a search warrant for a residence connected to a suspected trafficking organization. During the raid, police knocked and announced themselves several times, but only said they had a search warrant moments before barreling through the door.
As the case moved along, a judge ruled to suppress evidence found during that raid.
That decision was appealed and the case made its way up to the state’s Supreme Court.
Maternal health care training
The University of South Florida is sending medical educators into rural Florida communities to provide critical maternal health care simulation training to local hospital staff and first responders. FOX 13’s Briona Arradondo reports.
TAMPA, Fla. – The University of South Florida is sending medical educators into rural Florida communities to provide critical maternal health care simulation training to local hospital staff and first responders.
Florida rural medical training
The backstory:
Fewer hospitals are delivering babies or providing maternity health care in rural Florida communities, forcing pregnant women to travel hours for care. In response, USF Health launched a state-funded maternal health care training program covering 16 rural counties.
The program is led by a partnership between Florida Center for EMS at USF, Florida Prenatal Quality Collaborative and Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation. It brings high-tech simulation mannequins directly into local patient rooms. These advanced simulators can mimic life-or-death scenarios like seizures, preeclampsia and postpartum hemorrhaging.
“I was really surprised, because my background as a firefighter-paramedic I worked in an urban environment where I had those resources. But going out to the rural communities in the Panhandle, sometimes the transport time is over two hours away,” said Penni Eggers, the director of education and assistant professor at the Florida Center for EMS at USF.
The program has already trained emergency personnel in Calhoun County, and the cities of Perry and Arcadia, teaching critical symptom management from the moment a patient enters an ambulance.
Saving mothers and babies
Why you should care:
According to Eggers, 80% of maternal deaths are preventable, and up to half happen after birth. Providing rural staff with hands-on tools builds the confidence needed to handle critical issues until a patient can be safely transferred to a specialized unit.
Emergency training sentiments
What they’re saying:
“This is actually going to touch more people and save more lives, I think. This is more to me, one of the most rewarding things we’ve ever done,” Eggers said.
She added that after training, “they feel much more confident that they can handle an emergency maternal problem, and they feel that they have some tools now and resources that they can actually do their job.”
Expanding medical simulation
What’s next:
The mobile USF Health training team plans to head to Wauchula next to conduct its next simulation exercises for local health care workers.
The initiative began in 2025 as a successful pilot program in Franklin County. The positive results secured a grant through the Florida Department of Health to expand operations, which will fund the training for the next year or two.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13’s Briona Arradondo with the director of education Penni Eggers at USF Health’s Florida Center for EMS.
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