This is how much Florida has paid an aviation company to relocate ‘unauthorized aliens’
MIAMI — Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration last week paid an aviation company $615,000 as part of a new Florida program to relocate undocumented immigrants out of the state, according to state records.
Records show the company, Vertol Systems Company Inc., was paid on Sept. 8. A week later, DeSantis took credit for sending a group of 48 migrants — most, if not all, from Venezuela — to Martha’s Vineyard, a summer island destination for the rich and powerful in Massachusetts.
Vertol Systems’ website shows it is based in Hillsboro, Oregon, but has operations in Destin in Florida’s Panhandle.
The payment, which records say was for a “relocation program of unauthorized aliens,” was made by the Florida Department of Transportation, which earlier this year received $12 million to transport “unauthorized aliens from this state” to other parts of the country.
—Miami Herald
Texas social-media law on web censorship upheld by federal appeals court
A federal appeals court upheld the validity of a Texas social media law that companies like Meta Platforms Inc. and Twitter Inc. say will prevent them from blocking hate speech and extremism.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Friday lifted a lower court injunction that had blocked the legislation from taking effect.
The Texas law bars social media platforms with more than 50 million users from discriminating on the basis of viewpoint. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republicans argue the legislation is needed to protect conservative voices from being silenced. But tech groups say the measure unconstitutionally bars platforms from removing neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan screeds or Russian propaganda about its invasion of Ukraine.
“We reject the platforms’ attempt to extract a freewheeling censorship right from the Constitution’s free speech guarantee,” a panel of judges on the appeals court said. “The platforms are not newspapers. Their censorship is not speech.”
—Bloomberg News
Fugitive had ‘enough Fentanyl to kill over 100,000 people,’ Flagler sheriff says
ORLANDO, Fla. — Deputies arrested a man wanted in two counties Wednesday after a traffic stop check revealed he was transporting a large supply of fentanyl and marijuana, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.
Adrian Kamai Rivers, 52, was arrested around 12:30 p.m. in Palm Coast after a deputy stopped him for a headlight violation and found 219 grams of Fentanyl and 533 grams of marijuana inside a backpack in his vehicle, according to FCSO.
A deputy inspected Rivers’ vehicle after detecting the smell of marijuana, according to the agency. Rivers told the deputy he had smoked an hour before and that held a medical marijuana card, but the deputy found his card was no longer active.
Authorities determined Rivers was a fugitive with active warrants for violating his probation in a cocaine possession case out of Volusia County and failure to pay child support in Orange County, according to FSCO.
—Orlando Sentinel
European Commission presents law to strengthen press freedom
BRUSSELS — The European Commission presented a proposal on Friday to further strengthen media freedom in the European Union.
"Journalists were killed for doing their job on European soil, journalists are spied on, public service media are under political pressure," Commission Vice President Věra Jourová said on Friday at a press conference in Brussels.
“Mafia-style” killings of journalists, hostilities at protests against COVID-19 measures, and national laws limiting press freedom were among issues in the E.U. listed in the 2022 Press Freedom Index published by the association Reporters Without Borders.
“This is the legislation for the times we live in, not for the times we would like to live in,” Jourová said.
The new legislation aims to increase transparency, strengthen editorial independence, protect public media from political influence, and protect journalists' sources better, according to a commission press release.
—dpa
