The abortion rights position has won on the ballot in 7 out of 7 states since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in mid-2022 — even in red-leaning ones such as Kansas, Kentucky, Montana and Ohio.
Florida
What’s new in Florida Department of Health COVID reports after the lawsuit? What’s missing?
FDA approves updated vaccine to fight COVID variants as cases rise
An updated COVID vaccine has been approved by the FDA, paving the way for a fight against variants as cases rise across the country.
Ryan Ross, USA TODAY
In October, the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) agreed to settle a nearly two-year-old lawsuit over COVID-19 data by releasing more detailed information spanning back three years on the state’s FLHealthCHARTS.gov site.
At about the same time, the state stopped issuing its biweekly COVID reports.
After years of slow-walking or refusing public records requests for specific COVID data and changing the way it counts cases, this is another big change for the state’s reporting. What information has been added? Is anything missing? Here’s a look at the new data.
What has been added to Florida’s COVID-19 reporting?
The COVID data in CHARTS now allows you to see data for cases, surveilled COVID-related deaths, and general vaccination status from the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 to the latest current numbers, visible by year, month or week. The data is broken down by county, with a state total at the bottom, and can be filtered for data by race, ethnicity and sex.
This can make researching trends for specific groups of people easier, just pick your filters and time intervals.
The COVID CHARTS also allows researchers to see how many people died of COVID-related conditions by county, something that has been missing from state reports since June 2021.
Previous reports only went back a year, so this is a lot of information that’s been made available to the general public. All data also is available to download in spreadsheets.
What is missing from the new Florida COVID data?
Convenience and context. While there is more data available, some information that has been included or curated on the state’s biweekly reports (still visible here) is no longer provided or is provided in a different format. That includes:
- Cumulative totals: You can find interval totals (year, month, week) for the state at the bottom of the chart, but there are no longer cumulative totals provided if you want to know, for example, how many people have died from COVID in Florida (92,292) or how many cases were logged in Sarasota County (126,763) since the pandemic started, numbers that were previously included in the biweekly reports. That information is there, you’ll just have to do the math yourself.
- Percentages: Same here. Easy-to-understand percentages of rising or falling cases, deaths and positivity are no longer provided for you.
- New case positivity: This is completely gone. Once a measure of the percentage of people testing positive for the first time out of everyone tested, it was a handy gauge of how quickly and intensely the virus was spreading. It’s less useful now that most people are testing at home and not reporting the results to the state.
- Data on booster doses: The biweekly reports included data on first doses, completed vaccination series, and booster doses. The CHARTS data shows only “Persons Vaccinated for COVID-19.” There is no indication of the percentage of Florida’s population that has been vaccinated, how many people have had boosters, or how many have received the most recent one.
- Charts: Again, the data is there. But the easy-to-understand charts which allowed average readers to see at a glance the increase or decrease in cases, positivity rates and doses administered are no longer provided.
- Overviews: Also no longer provided: curated overviews by county and demographics showing cumulative and previous week’s cases and vaccination numbers compared to the cumulative total and the total population, or recent and cumulative mortality rates compared to the population.
The result seems to be more data available but in a format less convenient for the average reader to easily and quickly comprehend, with much of the context removed.
Where can I find data on Florida COVID cases, deaths and vaccinations?
You can find a link to the CHARTS COVID dashboard on the state’s COVID page at floridahealthcovid19.gov or go directly to it here.
From the FDOH site at floridahealth.gov, click on Statistics & Data in the menu and then on the CHARTS logo on the right, or search for “COVID.” It’s also linked off the Respiratory Illness and COVID pages.
Florida
Analysis | Arizona and Florida could send a big message on abortion rights
The polling, from CBS News and YouGov, shows striking margins in Arizona and Florida for enshrining abortion rights into those states’ constitutions. That position leads 65 percent to 21 percent in Arizona and 60 percent to 20 percent in Florida. Previous polling in Florida also showed voters favoring the abortion rights amendment by wide margins — by 21 points in one poll and by 30 points in another.
Florida’s measure will be on the ballot; Arizona’s is still a work in progress, but organizers say they have more than enough signatures to get it there. Other states will feature such measures, but Arizona and Florida are the big ones.
The newest polling shows not only that voters overwhelmingly favor the amendments, but even Republicans lean in favor of them — 43-38 in Arizona and 43-34 in Florida.
That 60 percent overall number in Florida is notable because that’s the threshold for passage in the state — a higher bar than the one for most states.
It’s also notable because it suggests the potential for an even more resounding affirmation of abortion rights.
While abortion rights positions have won plenty of votes from Republican-leaning voters, they have done so to varying degrees. A good way to look at this is how they have performed relative to the 2020 presidential vote.
The best relative performance for an abortion rights amendment thus far? The most recent one. In Ohio last year, it over-performed Biden’s 2020 vote share by 11.6 points. Biden got 45 percent in 2020, but the abortion rights amendment got 57 percent.
The average overperformance across the four states: eight points.
The new Arizona and Florida polls already show support for the amendments outpacing Biden’s 2020 share in those states by 16 points and 12 points, respectively — even with a fair number of undecided voters.
There have been states where the abortion rights position over-performed Biden by more than it did in the four states above: Kansas, Kentucky and Montana. But importantly, those states weren’t voting directly on enshrining abortion rights.
Montana’s measure was narrowly about infants born after failed abortions. Kansas’s and Kentucky’s measures asked voters to affirmatively state that the state constitution didn’t protect abortion rights. In those last two states, the measures over-performed Biden by 17 and 16 points, respectively — the biggest overperformances to date.
And that could be instructive.
These were situations in which voters were effectively being asked not to add a right, but to foreclose one.
Indeed, what could set Arizona and Florida apart from the four states that have previously voted to enshrine abortion rights is how much those rights have been curtailed in those states.
The Florida Supreme Court last month greenlit the state’s six-week abortion ban, which even former president Donald Trump has sought to distance himself from. Then the Arizona Supreme Court last month revived a harsh 1864 law that banned nearly all abortions — even in the cases of rape and incest — and made providing one punishable by two to five years in prison. (This set off a panic in GOP circles which eventually led to the law’s repeal. A 15-week ban remains in place.)
This has set up a situation in which voters could effectively view the abortion rights amendments as referendums on the harsh GOP-backed laws and an opportunity to register their discontent. The same YouGov poll, for instance, shows 72 percent of Arizona voters approve of overturning the 1864 law.
Or, at the very least, the stakes of allowing their representatives to restrict abortion rights could be more real to them than to voters in California, Michigan, Vermont and Ohio, where similar laws weren’t in play.
It’s that dynamic that makes these potentially resounding votes in Florida and Arizona particularly important for the future of abortion rights in America.
Florida
Florida ranks in list’s top 10 states for most adults living with their parents. Here’s why
Report finds Americans are optimistic about buying a home in 2024
After years of feeling priced out of the market, potential homebuyers are feeling optimistic again, according to a new report.
Scripps News
In 2020, the Pew Research Center conducted a study that found more than 50% of young adults in the U.S. were living with their parents for the first time since the Great Depression.
And that trend hasn’t slowed down, according to a newer study.
Ahead of the mid-May Mother’s Day rush, trucking industry website Truckinfo.com analyzed data from the US Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Federal Reserve to find how many young adults would only have to step out of their bedroom to wish their mother a happy Mother’s Day.
The study revealed that the number of young adults who live with their parents has continued to increase. And Florida ranked in the top 10 states where the most young adults are still living at home.
Here’s where Florida ranked on this list and why.
What percentage of 25-34 year-olds live with parents?
“Both men and women between the ages of 25 and 34 are twice as likely to live with their parents than in 1967,” the study said.
“While there was a steady increase until the early 2010s, the figure has grown significantly in recent years.”
According to the study, around 32.1% of adults between the ages of 25 and 34 live at home with their parents. Florida’s state average is a little higher, at 34.8%, ranking the Sunshine State tenth in Truckinginfo.com’s list of states where the most young adults still live with their parents.
Which state has the largest percentage of adults still living with their parents?
New Jersey emerged as the state with the largest percentage of young adults living at home. California placed in second and Connecticut in third. Florida ranked at the bottom, in 10th place.
“Compared to the national average, adult children in coastal cities and the south are much more likely to live with their parents,” the study said.
“Conversely, states in the Midwest and Mountain West are more likely to live with their spouses than the rest of the country”
Here are the rankings, with the percentage of adults between 25 and 34 living with their parents in each state:
- New Jersey, 43.3%
- California, 38.6%
- Connecticut, 38.6%
- New Hampshire, 37.4%
- New York, 37.0%
- Delaware, 36.9%
- Maryland, 36.1%
- Rhode Island, 35.9%
- Mississippi, 35.8%
- Florida, 34.8%
The study also found that high housing costs have the biggest influence on why so many young adults are living at home for longer.
“Even for men gainfully employed, many struggle to afford a home. Since 1984, the home-price-to-income ratio in the U.S. has nearly doubled,” the study said. “Meaning homes are twice as expensive today than in 1984.”
Florida
Florida man drunkenly steals school bus, drives 4 hours to Miami: police
A Florida man allegedly stole a school bus while drunk and drove to Miami in a wild Saturday night outing, police said.
Land O’ Lakes resident Daniel Saez, 32, was charged with grand theft auto on Sunday, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay.
The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) told the outlet that the suspect stole the bus, which belonged to Hillsborough County Public Schools, near Tampa on Saturday night.
Saez then drove the vehicle to Miami, which is roughly 280 miles from Tampa. It’s about a four-hour drive.
FLORIDA MAN PRAISED BY POLICE FOR FATALLY STABBING INTRUDER WHO SHOT HIS WIFE
The suspect was stopped in Sarasota, the FHP said. He told authorities that he was on his way back to Tampa from Miami to return the stolen bus.
Sarasota is approximately 60 miles south of Tampa.
The suspect allegedly admitted to stealing the bus and was reportedly both drunk and high when the crime took place.
FLORIDA MAN LEARNS HE’S NOT A CITIZEN AFTER LIVING, VOTING IN US FOR DECADES: REPORT
After being arrested, Saez was placed in a county jail.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Fox News Digital reached out to FHP for additional information but did not immediately hear back.
-
News1 week ago
Skeletal remains found almost 40 years ago identified as woman who disappeared in 1968
-
World1 week ago
India Lok Sabha election 2024 Phase 4: Who votes and what’s at stake?
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”: Disney's New Kingdom is Far From Magical (Movie Review)
-
World1 week ago
Ukraine’s military chief admits ‘difficult situation’ in Kharkiv region
-
Politics1 week ago
Tales from the trail: The blue states Trump eyes to turn red in November
-
World1 week ago
Borrell: Spain, Ireland and others could recognise Palestine on 21 May
-
World1 week ago
Catalans vote in crucial regional election for the separatist movement
-
Politics1 week ago
North Dakota gov, former presidential candidate Doug Burgum front and center at Trump New Jersey rally