‘Staying engaged in the mayor and council affairs, as it relates to that, is more important now more than it ever has been,’ the attorney general said.

In front of a group of local business leaders, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody weighed in on the need to “back the blue,” using the city of Tallahassee as an example.

At a lunch meeting of the Network of Entrepreneurs and Business Advocates (NEBA), Moody praised the City Commission’s move to increase the police department’s budget but noted that the vote narrowly passed 3-2.

“A council’s engagement with and support for their law enforcement men and women and making sure that they have the resources and training and support that they need to do the job is probably one of the most vital things to a successful city,” Moody said.

Moody focused little on election issues: There were no mentions, for instance, of the constitutional amendments on the November ballot that would legalize marijuana and guarantee access to abortion in her speech.

Instead, Moody – a former circuit judge who has been the state’s chief legal officer since 2019 – spent about 20 minutes echoing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ efforts to make the Sunshine State the “law and order” state.

“I will not lose sight of making sure we stay that strong and safe state that attracts people from all over the nation,” she said. “And I hope that you will not lose sight and the will, and the enthusiasm, and the persistence to make sure that Tallahassee is a strong and safe city. Because Florida is strong when our cities are.”

Last year, city commissioners voted to increase their property tax rate some 8.5% — with millions in proceeds going to the Tallahassee Police Department. The tax hike, which inched the city’s 2024 budget to $1.12 billion, passed 3-2 along the usual lines, with Mayor John Dailey and City Commissioners Curtis Richardson and Dianne Williams-Cox voting in favor and Commissioners Jack Porter and Jeremy Matlow voting against.

The 3-2 voting dynamic has become a hallmark of the City Commission, with tit-for-tat remarks about almost every major issue, sometimes resulting in acrimonious, hours-long meetings. Porter and Richardson are both running for re-election this year in races that are shaping up to be contentious.

At the time of the property tax vote, some Tallahassee locals, including Evan Power, then-chair of the Leon County Republican Party and now the head of the state GOP, criticized the commission over the tax increase, noting they could support police by checking what he called “out-of-control spending” rather than raising taxes.

“Disgraceful,” Power said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The almost $10 million collected with the tax increase is slated to go to TPD for 20 new officers, higher police salaries and advanced technologies like artificial intelligence. 

A few weeks after the vote, City Manager Reese Goad spoke to NEBA to defend the tax hike, saying it was necessary to fight violent crime in the city. With Police Chief Lawrence Revell by his side, Goad said the city has seen a “stubborn, sticky rise” in violent crime over recent years. At the same time, he said, police staffing levels have dropped to half the national average.

On Tuesday afternoon, Moody said the city’s efforts to support police helped Revell lower the department’s vacancy rate to 4%.

Supporting the police “will ensure the prosperity and stability and environment for businesses to flourish if you support the blue and make sure that they feel supported from others like you and the community,” she said.

“Staying engaged in the mayor and council affairs, as it relates to that, is more important now more than it ever has been.”

Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at agonilessan@gannett.com.

If you’re a Floridian who’s ever sent a friend or family member your location before you go on a date with someone you’ve met online, here’s some less-than-stellar news for you.

Florida just ranked as one of the top five most dangerous states for online dating, according to a recent study from online security platform Privacy Journal. The good news is that the dangers of online dating are less about violence than they are about dating scams and catfishing, according to the study’s results.

Here’s where Florida ranked in Privacy Journal’s top five most dangerous states for online dating and why.

Are online dating sites dangerous?

Dating online isn’t always dangerous, but there’s always a risk when you agree to meet up with a stranger based on a profile that they’ve curated to look a certain way.

“Unlucky online lovers have reported romance scams and fraud, matches with registered sex offenders, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and even violent crime,” Privacy Journal’s study says. 

How safe online dating is for you also depends on how much information you put out there and who you are. Limiting the amount of personal, sensitive information you include in your public profile can help keep you safe from identity theft or romance scams.

And young women are more likely to have a negative experience in online dating, according to a 2023 study from the Pew Research Center.

“A majority of women under 50 who have used dating sites or apps (56%) say they have been sent a sexually explicit message or image they didn’t ask for, and about four-in-ten have had someone continue to contact them after they said they were not interested (43%) or have been called an offensive name (37%),” the study says. 

“Roughly one-in-ten of this group (11%) have received threats of physical harm. Each of these experiences is less common among women online dating users ages 50 and older, as well as among men of any age.”

Don’t get Tinder swindled: Here are 4 essential online dating safety tips

Is it dangerous to date online in Florida?

Privacy Journal’s study compared statistics on all of the factors that could lead to a dangerous online date for each 100,000 residents in each state to find the most and least dangerous states for online dating.

While Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Kentucky and Idaho took the top five rankings for being the least dangerous states for people looking for love online, Florida ranked in the bottom five as the fourth-most dangerous state.

Here are the five most dangerous states for online dating, according to Privacy Journal’s study:

1. Nevada
2. Alaska
3. Georgia
4. Florida
5. Arizona

But Florida’s low safety ranking for online dating isn’t because of violence, it’s due to scams and identity theft.

“Florida already has a bad reputation thanks to the Florida Man meme, and our numbers for online dating risk factors don’t help the situation,” the study said. “Florida is the second-worst state in the country for both identity theft and fraud, and the seventh worst for becoming a victim of romance scams.”

How can I be safe while online dating?

Here are five safety tips for online dating, from RAINN (The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network).

1. Don’t use your Instagram or Facebook photos on your dating profile: “It’s easy to do a reverse image search with Google. If your dating profile has a photo that also shows up on your Instagram or Facebook account, it will be easier for someone to find you on social media.”
2. Don’t share live or motion photos: “Photos taken in ‘live’ mode include geolocation information that can be passed on along with the photo. Exercise caution when sharing these images with matches and potential dates.”
3. Avoid interaction with suspicious profiles: “If the person you matched with has no bio, linked social media accounts, and has only posted one picture, it may be a fake account. It’s important to use caution if you choose to connect with someone you have so little information about.”
4. Check your potential date’s social media: “If you know your match’s name or handles on social media—or better yet if you have mutual friends online—look them up and make sure they aren’t ‘catfishing’ you by using a fake social media account to create their dating profile.”
5. Block and report suspicious profiles: “You can block and report another user if you feel their profile is suspicious or if they have acted inappropriately toward you. This can often be done anonymously before or after you’ve matched. As with any personal interaction, it is always possible for people to misrepresent themselves. Trust your instincts about whether you feel someone is representing themself truthfully or not.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is wading deeper into the fight over abortion rights that has energized Democrats since the fall of Roe vs. Wade, traveling to Florida to assail the state’s forthcoming ban and similar restrictions that have imperiled access to care for pregnant women nationwide.

Tuesday’s campaign visit to Tampa takes Biden to the epicenter of the latest battle over abortion restrictions. The state’s six-week abortion ban is poised to go into effect May 1 at the same time that Florida voters are gearing up for a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution.

Biden is seeking to capitalize on the unceasing momentum against abortion restrictions nationwide to not only buoy his reelection bid in battleground states he won in 2020, but also to go on the offensive against Donald Trump in states that the presumptive Republican nominee won four years ago. One of those states is Florida, where Biden lost by 3.3 percentage points to Trump.

At the same time, advocates on the ground say support for abortion access cuts across parties. They’re intent on making the issue as nonpartisan as possible as they work to scrounge up at least 60% support from voters for the ballot initiative.

That could mean in some cases, Florida voters would split their tickets, backing GOP candidates while supporting the abortion measure.

“I think that normal people are aware that a candidate campaign is really different than a ballot initiative,” said Lauren Brenzel, campaign director for Floridians Protecting Freedom, which gathered signatures to put the abortion question before voters. “You can vote for your preferred candidate of any political party and still not agree with them on every single issue.”

Brenzel continued, “This gives voters an opportunity to have their message heard on one policy platform.”

On the same day the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the ballot measure could go before voters, it also upheld the state’s 15-week abortion ban. That subsequently cleared the way for the new ban on the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, which is often before women know they are pregnant, to go into effect next week.

Organizers of the abortion ballot measure say they collected nearly 1.5 million signatures to put the issue before voters, although the state stopped counting at just under a million. Roughly 891,500 signatures were required. Of the total number of signatures, about 35% were from either registered Republican voters or those not affiliated with a party, organizers said.

State Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat, said if the abortion ballot initiative becomes branded as a partisan effort, “it just makes it more challenging to reach 60%.” Eskamani, who worked at Planned Parenthood before running for political office, said she is encouraging the Biden administration to focus broadly on the impact of a six-week ban and let the ballot measure speak for itself.

“At the end of the day, the ballot initiative is going to be a multimillion-dollar campaign that stands very strongly on its own,” Eskamani said.

While in Florida, Biden is sure to go on the attack against his general election challenger, who has said abortion is a matter for states to decide.

Trump’s campaign did not respond to a question on whether the former president, a Florida voter, would oppose or support the ballot measure. In an NBC interview last September, Trump called Florida’s six-week ban “terrible.” But he has repeatedly highlighted the justices he tapped for the U.S. Supreme Court who, through the 2022 ruling that ended a constitutional right to an abortion, cleared the way for such restrictions to be written.

Trump and other Republicans are aware that voter backlash against newfound abortion restrictions could be a serious liability this fall.

Abortion-rights supporters have won every time the issue has been put before voters, including in solidly conservative states such as Kansas, Kentucky and Ohio. Last month, a Democrat in a suburban state House district in Alabama flipped the seat from Republican control by campaigning on abortion rights, weeks after in vitro fertilization services had been paused in the state.

Nikki Fried, the chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, said Florida will be a competitive state on the presidential level “because of the extremism that has come out of Florida.” There are no Democrats in a statewide elected position and no Democrat has won the state on the presidential level since 2012, but state party officials have found some glimmers of political change in vastly smaller races, such as the open Jacksonville mayor’s race last May that saw a Democrat win in what was once a solidly Republican city.

Alongside the abortion initiative, Floridians will also vote on a ballot measure on whether to legalize recreational marijuana later this fall that could also juice turnout and enthusiasm in favor of Democrats.

Republicans were dismissive of the Biden campaign and the broader Democratic Party’s efforts to use abortion as a political cudgel, arguing that other issues will matter more with voters in November.

“Floridians’ top issues are immigration, the economy and inflation; in all three areas Joe Biden has failed,” said Evan Power, the chairman of the state Republican Party. “Instead of coming to talk to Floridians about manufactured issues, he should get to work solving the real issues that he has failed to lead on.”