Beyond its usual plagues of alligators, invasive snakes, sinkholes and crazy residents, Florida is in even worse shape than usual these days. Popular tourist beaches in places like Sanibel are clogged with dead sea creatures, killed by algae blooms and toxic red tides. The ecological destruction prompted a declaration of emergency from Gov. Rick Scott, who’s leading incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson in a key Senate race. Scott, it should be noted, has cut $700 million in funding from the state’s environmental agencies during his two terms as governor.
For political junkies, the most concerning news from Florida is that the state is showing few signs of an impending blue wave in the midterms. There’s been no increase in Democratic voter registrations, and if hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans have migrated to the state after the destruction of Hurricane Maria, they haven’t registered to vote — at least not as Democrats.
On the good-news side of Florida, Michael Drejka, the Delaware native who shot and killed a man during an altercation in a Florida convenience-store parking lot, has been charged with manslaughter. His arrest came three weeks after the county sheriff refused to charge him, citing the state’s Stand Your Ground law.
FBI agent Peter Strzok, whose emails to his mistress revealed his distaste for Donald Trump, was fired yesterday, demonstrating that the road to the unemployment office is paved with good intentions.
Josh Marshall found some interesting artifacts on an internet archeology dig: a series of short videos Trump recorded in 2012, before he took to Twitter. Marshall found many of the Trump themes were already being test-driven, but one was conspicuously absent — he had nothing to say about immigration.