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Ian killed 75 people in Lee County, nearly half of the statewide death toll of 149, officials said. At that point, the National Hurricane Center flagged the possibility of a storm surge covering much of Cape Coral and Fort Myers. Parts of Fort Myers Beach had a 40 percent chance of a six-foot-high storm surge, according to the surge forecasts. In Lee County officials said they were waiting to make an assessment the next morning. Officials expanded their evacuation order later in the morning, and by the middle of the afternoon, Lee County officials were more urgent in their recommendation.

Persons: Ian, Lee County, Ron DeSantis, Lee, Fort Myers, ” Organizations: National Hurricane Service, National Hurricane Center, Fort Myers, Facebook Locations: Florida, Tampa, Fort Myers, Lee County, Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, State, Coral, Fort, Cape Coral, Neighboring Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, Charlotte, Sarasota County, Lee

Shortly before the shooting on Saturday, the gunman was spotted putting on the tactical vest in a parking lot at Edward Waters University, a small and private historically Black institution. The guard reported the gunman’s suspicious presence to a nearby sheriff’s deputy, Sheriff Waters said. In an interview, Sheriff Waters said the gunman did not shoot at one person inside the store who was also white. “I know for a fact that he did not like Black people,” said Sheriff Waters, who is Black. On the gunman’s laptop, his family found a last will and testament and a suicide note as part of more than 20 pages of racist writings, Sheriff Waters said in the interview.

Persons: Sheriff Waters, Edward Waters, ”, texted Organizations: Edward Waters University, Office Locations: Clay

☆ Christie Says DeSantis Should Drop Out if He Defends Trump at Debate
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | More About Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“If you’re running for president of the United States, are you really going to let some other group of people tell you what to say?” he said. On Friday, over more than 90 minutes of remarks and answers to questions, sprinkled with colorful language and jokes, Mr. Christie repeatedly jabbed Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Trump, the two Floridians who have dominated the state’s politics and rarely faced criticism from anyone in their own party. The receptive, bipartisan crowd sipping Cuban coffee and nibbling on pastries seemed a throwback to Republican politics before the Trump era. One man, a self-described “liberal Democrat,” said he would be open to supporting Mr. Christie. Another woman who said she was a lifelong Democrat said that she was dissatisfied with her party’s direction and unhappy with the possibility of having to choose between Mr. Trump and President Biden again, an opinion shared by many voters on the campaign trail.

Persons: ” Mr, DeSantis, Trump, Christie, jabbed, ”, Biden Organizations: Trump, Republican Locations: United States, Florida

☆ At Inter Miami, Lionel Messi’s Only Complaint Is the Humidity
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | More About Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The version of Lionel Messi who has become South Florida’s reigning sport king is not the playmaker in his prime that he was for Barcelona or the tortured captain-under-pressure that he was for Argentina. The Messi of Miami is, in his own words, happy. Happy to show his young new team, Inter Miami of M.L.S., how to win. Less happy, perhaps, to deal with South Florida’s crushing summer humidity. Inter Miami, which had the fewest points in M.L.S.

Persons: Lionel Messi, The Messi, Messi, David Beckham Organizations: Miami, Inter Miami, Leagues, Nashville S.C Locations: Barcelona, Argentina, M.L.S, United States

Ron DeSantis of Florida suspended the top state prosecutor in Orlando on Wednesday, accusing her of incompetence and neglect of duty for what he characterized as lenience against violent criminals. Mr. DeSantis suspended Monique H. Worrell, the elected state attorney of Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit, which includes Orange and Osceola counties, and cited her handling of three cases. It is the second time in a year that Mr. DeSantis, a Republican running for president, has taken the drastic and exceedingly rare step of removing an elected state attorney. Critics, and even a federal judge, blasted Mr. DeSantis’s ouster of Mr. Warren as politically motivated. But Mr. Warren remains out of office — and Mr. DeSantis mentions his removal in just about every campaign stump speech.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, DeSantis, Monique H, Worrell, Andrew H, Warren, DeSantis’s Organizations: Judicial Circuit, Orlando, Republican Locations: Florida, Orlando, Orange, Osceola, Tampa

Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager of Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald J. Trump’s private club and residence in Florida, appeared in court for the first time on Monday to face charges of conspiring with Mr. Trump to obstruct the government’s monthslong efforts to retrieve highly sensitive national security documents from the former president after he left office. Mr. De Oliveira did not enter a plea at his brief hearing in Federal District Court in Miami. The chief magistrate judge, Edwin G. Torres, released him on a $100,000 personal surety bond, and he was ordered to remain in the Southern District of Florida and to not have contact with any of the witnesses in the case. A slight man with gray hair, Mr. De Oliveira was met outside the courthouse by a throng of television cameras but made no public remarks. The arraignment is expected to be handled by a magistrate judge in Fort Pierce, Shaniek Mills Maynard.

Persons: Carlos De Oliveira, Donald J, Trump, De Oliveira, Edwin G, Torres, Aileen M, Cannon, Shaniek Mills Maynard Organizations: Mar, Federal, Court, Southern District of Locations: Florida, Miami, Southern District, Southern District of Florida, Palm Beach, Fla, Fort Pierce

☆ ‘Get Down’ From the Car. ‘Make’ the Line. Is Miami English a Dialect?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | More About Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The stereotype of how many Miamians speak involves a sing-songy rhythm with a heavy-sounding “L” and a generous sprinkling of Spanglish. But what if the conversational language of South Florida were more than a lively accent? What if it were a distinct regional dialect of American English? Miami English, he calls it. “This is probably the most important bilingual situation in the Americas today,” Dr. Carter said.

Persons: Phillip M, Carter, Dr Organizations: Florida International University, Miami Locations: South Florida, Americas, Miami, Spanish, New York, American

It was Dr. Scott Rivkees, the Florida surgeon general. Ron DeSantis had decided that the worst was over for Florida, he said. Mr. DeSantis had begun listening to doctors who believed the virus’s threat was overstated, and he no longer supported preventive measures like limiting indoor dining. Mr. DeSantis was going his own way on Covid. Nearly three years later, the governor now presents his Covid strategy not only as his biggest accomplishment, but as the foundation for his presidential campaign.

Persons: Deborah L, Scott Rivkees, “, ’ ”, Ron DeSantis, DeSantis, ” Organizations: White, Gov, The New York Times Locations: Florida, Covid, New York, California

☆ In Florida, Swimmers Brave an Ocean That Feels Like Steamy Syrup
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | More About Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The water temperature near Key Biscayne, a barrier island just east of Miami, had already passed 89 degrees one morning this week. And though the ocean off South Florida was slightly cooler than the recent record highs that had stunned scientists and threatened marine life, it remained phenomenally hot. But on this serene patch of the Atlantic Coast, it was still a summer day at the beach, when nothing satisfies quite like a dip — even when the ocean feels like a thick, simmering syrup. “I like it warm,” shrugged Niki Candela, 20, a Miami native, moments after a powerful siren warned of approaching lightning. The shallow water was a crystalline teal, rolling oh so gently, not a cresting wave in sight.

Persons: “, shrugged Niki Candela Locations: Key Biscayne, Miami, South Florida, Gulf of Mexico

☆ Lionel Messi Chose Miami, and Miami Loves Him for It
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | More About Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Miami’s Messi madness — over the arrival of the soccer superstar Lionel Messi, one of the most famous humans on the planet — reached a fever pitch last week when he was spotted at a Publix grocery store near Fort Lauderdale, buying Lucky Charms and Fruit Loops. Mr. Messi and his photogenic young family had landed in a soccer-crazy region that had been hoping to nab him for years. Already, Mr. Messi looked like a local, clad in shorts and flip-flops. South Florida has been consumed with a frenzied fandom for Mr. Messi, the Argentine whose signing on Saturday represented a coup for Inter Miami of Major League Soccer and for Miami itself, the unofficial capital of Latin America, with a penchant for celebrity. When the team presented Mr. Messi to a packed stadium in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday night, following a violent thunderstorm, he thanked the crowd in Spanish “for helping us feel at home so quickly.”

Persons: Miami’s Messi, Lionel Messi, —, Messi, ” Organizations: nab, Saturday, Inter Miami, Major League Soccer Locations: Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Argentine, Miami, Latin America, Spanish

WHY WE’RE HEREWe’re exploring how America defines itself one place at a time. In South Florida, mango lovers turn to fruit to build a sense of community during the grueling summer. July 8, 2023The air gets thick with humidity as summer arrives in South Florida. Then, something magical happens: The mango trees bear fruit. In good years, they produce so much that strangers give away mangoes on their lawns.

Persons: Zak Stern, Zak the Baker Locations: South Florida, Miami’s Wynwood

☆ Jury Acquits Deputy Who Failed to Confront Parkland Gunman
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A former Florida sheriff’s deputy who failed to confront the gunman at a Parkland high school five years ago, and instead backed away from the building while the students and teachers inside endured a deadly barrage, was found not guilty of child neglect and other crimes on Thursday. When Mr. Peterson’s behavior was revealed after the shooting, critics — including some fellow police officers — painted him as being too scared to face a heavily armed gunman. His actions outraged the Parkland community, and Mr. Peterson was cast as the central character in a morality tale about cowardice and law enforcement’s duty to protect children. The gunman was sentenced last year to life in prison. Mr. Peterson was the lone armed resource officer assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre.

Persons: Scot Peterson, —, Peterson, Marjory Stoneman Organizations: Broward County sheriff’s, ”, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Locations: Florida, Parkland, Broward County, Broward

☆ Francis Suarez, Miami Mayor, Files for a Republican Presidential Run
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Maggie Astor | Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mayor Francis X. Suarez of Miami filed the paperwork for a presidential campaign on Wednesday, setting him up to join an increasingly crowded field of candidates jockeying to overtake former President Donald J. Trump for the Republican nomination. Mr. Suarez, a 45-year-old Cuban American elected overwhelmingly twice to his post leading one of Florida’s biggest cities, is presenting himself as a fresh face for a party that has struggled in three consecutive elections as general-election voters soured on Mr. Trump. He is scheduled to give a speech on Thursday night at the Reagan Library in California. Supporters of Mr. Suarez announced a super PAC on Wednesday in tandem with his filing, beginning with an initial “six figure” ad buy in three early-voting states: Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. The committee, SOS America PAC, is starting off on solid financial footing, with almost $6 million left over from its previous iteration.

Persons: Francis X, Suarez, Donald J, Trump, Mr, Joe Biden’s Organizations: Miami, Republican, Cuban American, Mr, Reagan, SOS America PAC, Joe Biden’s America ” Locations: Florida’s, California, Iowa , New Hampshire, Nevada

☆ Miami Has Been in Vogue. Its City Hall Has Been in Turmoil.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mayor Francis X. Suarez of Miami has visited early primary states in recent weeks, mulling a Republican presidential run built on the premise that his in-vogue city has boomed in difficult times — “the Miami miracle,” he calls it. Techies have flocked to the city from San Francisco. Testimony from a parade of former public employees portrayed City Hall as a toxic workplace, rife with dysfunction. Miami has long been a city of confounding narratives, the airbrushed image it projects to outsiders often obscuring the complicated realities that lie beneath. But these days, the contrast between the Miami brand and the goings-on at City Hall seems especially stark.

Persons: Francis X, Suarez, mulling, ”, Techies, Joe Carollo Organizations: Suarez of Miami, Republican, Bankers, Miami, City Locations: Miami, San Francisco, New York

☆ DeSantis Signs Tall Stack of Right-Wing Bills as 2024 Entrance Nears
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Nicholas Nehamas | Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On Wednesday, Mr. DeSantis signed a slew of measures that hit all the culture-clash notes his base has rewarded him for, including bills banning gender-transition care for minors, preventing children from attending “adult live performances” like drag shows and restricting the use of preferred pronouns in schools. “We need to let our kids just be kids,” Mr. DeSantis said at a Christian school in Tampa. “What we’ve said in Florida is we are going to remain a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy.”It was his third consecutive day of holding public bill-signing ceremonies across the state. The ceremonies, which he hosts in his official capacity as governor, allow Mr. DeSantis to promote his political message in settings that he carefully stage-manages as a veritable M.C., calling up additional speakers and then thanking them for their contributions. These events sometimes take on the feel of political rallies.

☆ In Florida Upset, Democrat Wins Jacksonville Mayor’s Race
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

MIAMI — Donna Deegan, a Democrat, was elected mayor of Jacksonville on Tuesday, shaking up the politics of Florida’s largest city, where Republican mayors have been in power for all but four of the last 30 years. Ms. Deegan, a former television news anchor, defeated Daniel Davis, a Republican endorsed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had been seen as the likely favorite in the traditionally Republican stronghold. In recent years, Jacksonville had been the most populous city in the country with a Republican mayor, Lenny Curry, who is term-limited; that distinction now goes to Fort Worth, Texas. But while Florida has become decidedly more Republican — and while many have viewed Mr. DeSantis, a likely 2024 presidential contender, as all-powerful in state politics — Jacksonville has emerged as a swingy corner of the state.

☆ DeSantis Signs Bill Defunding Diversity Spending in State Schools
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Nicholas Nehamas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Republicans around the country are mounting similar efforts to restrict or eliminate diversity initiatives, which they believe are discriminatory. In Texas, state legislators passed a budget last month eliminating diversity offices and training at public universities. More than a dozen other states, including Tennessee and North and South Carolina, have proposed bills targeting diversity programs, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. What’s Next: For DeSantis, a likely presidential run will be tied to legislative victories in Florida. Last year, a federal judge granted a temporary injunction against a similar law, calling its limits on what faculty are allowed to teach “positively dystopian.”Patricia Mazzei contributed reporting.

☆ Florida Legislature Passes Bill Banning Gender-Transition Care for Minors
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Background: The Legislature has prioritized bills aimed at L.G.B.T.Q. Last month, the Florida Board of Education expanded through 12th grade a prohibition on classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity. Why It Matters: A growing number of states are passing similar restrictions. At least 13 states have passed laws or policies in recent months to ban or significantly limit the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and gender-transition surgery for people under 18. advocacy organization GLAAD has already sued Florida over the state health board’s prohibition of what experts call gender-affirming care.

☆ Pop-Up Grand Prix: The Formula 1 Race Fans Don’t Get to See
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — By late Sunday night in Baku, a few hours after Sergio Pérez of Red Bull had won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, much of the equipment necessary to stage a Formula 1 race had been methodically packed, wrapped and hoisted onto pallets, ready to fly halfway across the world. Chartered cargo planes did the heavy lifting from there, hauling disassembled 1,700-pound racecars — and almost anything else imaginable — to Miami International Airport, where, by Monday, the shipment had been offloaded onto trucks and delivered to the pop-up racetrack around Hard Rock Stadium, which will host the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday. Getting from the starting grid to the finish line is not, it turns out, the only high-stakes race against the clock in Formula 1. For the top tier of international open-wheel racing, putting on premier competitions on back-to-back weekends is a complicated logistical symphony. The lights’ flicking off at the start of each race are contingent on everything, somehow, arriving on time, every time.

☆ Florida Lawmakers Clear a Potential Presidential Roadblock for DeSantis
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Nicholas Nehamas | Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Although legal opinions varied, it might have compelled Mr. DeSantis, if he became a presidential candidate, to resign as governor in 2025 with two years still left in his term. Democrats countered that Mr. DeSantis was getting special treatment from his legislative buddies. “In November, December and January, Republicans all around the country were looking to DeSantis as the future of the party,” said Alex Conant, a Republican political strategist who worked as communications director for Senator Marco Rubio of Florida during his 2016 presidential campaign. “He was really hot coming off the midterms. But now it’s not so clear that Republican voters are ready to move beyond Trump.”

Proponents of the restrictions say their aims are to protect students from inappropriate materials and to give parents more control over their children’s education. In focusing on “parents’ rights,” Mr. DeSantis is trying to build on the popularity he amassed when he resisted Covid-19 restrictions, particularly in schools. His Parental Rights in Education law, for example, constrains instruction on gender and sexuality, which has led some districts to remove books with L.G.B.T.Q. Some teachers and librarians say the policies are vague, with imprecise language and broad requirements, leading to some confusion. “It is a whole new level of fear,” said Kathleen Daniels, the president of the Florida Association for Media in Education, a professional organization for school librarians and media educators.

☆ DeSantis Signs Law Lowering Death Penalty Threshold in Florida
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Nearly all of the 27 states that allow the death penalty require unanimous juries. The new Florida threshold will be lower than the 10-to-2 majority required in Alabama. At least 30 inmates who were sentenced to death in Florida have since been exonerated, more than in any other state, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit research organization that opposes capital punishment. “It should be hard to send someone to the death penalty,” said Randolph Bracy, a former Democratic state senator from Orlando, who sponsored legislation in 2017 to require a unanimous jury vote to impose a death sentence. Sparing the life of the Parkland high school gunman last October outraged many victims’ families, who felt that suffering through a grueling trial would at least result in a near-certain death sentence.

MIAMI — Florida lawmakers voted to prohibit abortions after six weeks of pregnancy on Thursday, culminating a rapid effort by elected Republicans and Gov. Ron DeSantis to transform the state to one of the most restrictive in the country. In the six months after the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion last year, no state saw a greater increase in the number of legal abortions performed each month than Florida, according to a report released on Tuesday. Mr. DeSantis is expected to sign the six-week ban despite the complicated politics the issue presents. The new restriction would help him, to an extent, with conservative Republicans in a presidential primary but would likely be far less appealing to many moderate Republicans and independent voters in a general election.

☆ ‘My Aching Heart Is Shattered Into Little Pieces’
▼ + stars: | 2022-06-24 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | Rose Marie Cromwell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

‘My Aching Heart Is Shattered Into Little Pieces’A year ago, Champlain Towers South collapsed in Surfside, Fla. The lives of those who lost loved ones and homes have never been the same. Leer en españolJune 24, 2022SURFSIDE, Fla. — A year later, the shock of the collapse of Champlain Towers South has not worn off. Not for the people whose loved ones died crushed in the rubble. “My aching heart is shattered into little pieces and beyond repair,” Eileen Rosenberg, whose daughter, Malky Weisz, was killed, said in court on Thursday.

Persons: Miamians, Heirlooms, ” Eileen Rosenberg, Malky Weisz Locations: Champlain Towers, Surfside, Fla, Leer, SURFSIDE, —, South Florida

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