A New Smyrna Beach curfew, lettuce-dependent manatees, gay Disney employee walkouts and other news you may have missed last week. »
Doctor caught in medical marijuana sting cleared of wrongdoing
»
New Smyrna institutes spring break curfew
»
Manatee feeding program working, but deaths still a concern
»
LGBTQ Disney employees stage walkouts over ‘Don’t Say Gay’ response
»
Florida voters seek to intervene in redistricting case
A Tallahassee doctor who ordered medical marijuana for two undercover investigators posing as patients didn’t do anything wrong, an administrative law judge decided last week. The Florida Department of Health sought to strip physician Joseph Dorn of his medical license for five years, permanently ban him from ordering medical marijuana for patients and impose a $10,000 fine. The proposed penalties against Dorn — who has practiced in Florida for more than three decades — stemmed from a 2019 complaint alleging that the physician violated state law by failing to conduct physical examinations of “Patient O.G.” and “Patient B.D.” But Administrative Law Judge W. David Watkins issued an order recommending that the complaint be dismissed, saying that health officials “failed to present competent substantial evidence in this case.” The New Smyrna Beach City Commission voted last week to enact a 60-day curfew for minors. The move comes after business owners and residents complained about visitors under 18 causing havoc. The New Smyrna Beach Police Chief presented a potential situation in which children are left to their own devices in the city’s core. “Parents have come over and either (got) short-term rental houses, or hotel rooms, piled up a whole bunch of kids, and walked away,” Mike Coffin said. Mayor Russ Owen said that children are creating chaos at area restaurants. “[C]hildren stealing a ladder from a restaurant, using it to climb on the roof of a restaurant and throw their furniture off that roof, that’s not [just] kids being kids,” Owen said. The curfew calls for fines for repeated violations and the potential of community service. It starts at 11 p.m. every night. Wildlife officials appeared optimistic last week that an unusual feeding program for starving manatees in the Indian River Lagoon has provided some relief for the sea cows as the cold-water season nears an end. But feeding manatees might be necessary again next winter because of the dwindling amount of seagrass in the lagoon, officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say. Tom Reinert, southern region director for the FWC, said a decision will come after a review of what worked and what didn’t in the feeding program. “We’re not going to solve the seagrass issues in the Indian River Lagoon over the course of this summer. So, we will have to see, but it feels likely that we may have to do this again,” Reinert said. Ron Mezich, leader of the commission’s imperiled species management section, said officials remain concerned that manatees will start to expect to be fed lettuce, a process that could soon end with the arrival of warm waters. A group of LGBTQ Disney employees are staging virtual and in-person walkouts in response to the company’s handling of Florida’s recently passed “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Organizers are posting about the planned interruptions via a Twitter account called Disney Walkout. They shared an open letter to the company stating their concerns and a website (whereischapek.com) that collects criticisms of CEO Bob Chapek, employee testimonies, a walkout schedule and their demands. “The recent statements by The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) leadership regarding the Florida legislature’s recent ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill … have indicated that leadership still does not truly understand the impact this legislation is having not only on cast members in the state of Florida, but on all members of the LGBTQIA+ community in the company and beyond,” organizers wrote. They demand that Disney immediately cease all donations to the architects of the legislation, including a list of names. The company has announced a temporary pause on all donations until they can rethink the way that they give to politicians, but “a temporary pause is not enough — we require a commitment,” organizers wrote.
A group of voters is seeking to join in a federal lawsuit asking judges to set new Florida congressional districts. The nine voters are the same group who filed a similar redistricting lawsuit of their own last week in Leon County circuit court. While that case continues, their attorneys say they should also be able to take part in the federal lawsuit filed by Common Cause Florida and FairDistricts Now. Both cases were filed after Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed to veto a congressional redistricting plan passed by the Legislature, creating uncertainty about how new districts will be drawn as part of the once-a-decade reapportionment process. “As registered Florida voters residing in overpopulated congressional districts, proposed Intervenors are directly governed by the unconstitutional malapportioned districting scheme that is the subject of this litigation and their parallel state court action,” attorneys for the nine voters argued in a document filed Wednesday. “Proposed intervenors’ right to an equal vote will be denied absent the implementation of a new congressional redistricting plan.” orlandoweekly.com ● MARCH 23-29, 2022 ● ORLANDO WEEKLY
9
