Staff Reports
Last Call — A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.
First Shot
The coronavirus pandemic has changed a lot of things, but it hasn’t changed whether Floridians believe in climate change.
A new poll from Florida Atlantic University’s Center for Environmental Studies and Business and Economics Polling Initiative found 89% of Floridians believe climate change is happening, a three-point increase over January.
“Almost overnight, the coronavirus dramatically transformed American life, but it’s encouraging to see that climate change remained a hot-button issue for Floridians despite the public health crisis that shifted everyone’s priorities,” said Colin Polsky, Ph.D., director of the FAU Center for Environmental Studies, and lead author of the study.
Floridians’ belief in climate change was considerably higher than the nation at large. An April survey by Yale and George Mason universities found 73% of respondents believed global warming was occurring.
As far as the cause, 55% of Floridians say climate change is human-made, which is consistent with past FAU polls. However, only 29% of those polled say the government is doing enough to combat the issue, a dip from 33% in FAU’s January survey and similar the 28% it recorded in October.
The poll also found 89% of Democrats and 86% of Republicans believe in climate change. That’s a five-point increase for the latter.
“Because Florida is a political bellwether state, this solidifying of public opinion among Florida Republicans about the reality of climate change may signal a similar change in coming years for the GOP across the nation,” Polsky said.
Coronavirus Numbers
Positive cases:
— 111,724 FL residents (+4,981 since Wednesday)
— 2,294 Non-FL residents (+23 since Wednesday)
Origin:
— 2,423 Travel related
— 45,592 Contact with a confirmed case
— 2,364 Both
— 61,345 Under investigation
Hospitalizations:
— 13,775 in FL
Deaths:
— 3,327 in FL
Unemployment numbers
As of Wednesday:
Total claims: 2,668,497
— Confirmed unique claims: 2,463,690
— Claim verification queue: 144,829
— Claims processed: 2,318,861
— Claims paid: 1,547,067 (+11,690 since Tuesday)
Total paid out: $7.56 billion (+$270 million since Tuesday)
Evening Reads
“How the virus won” via Derek Watkins, Josh Holder, James Glanz, Weiyi Cai, Benedict Carey and Jeremy White of The New York Times
“CDC chief says coronavirus cases may be 10 times higher than reported” via Lena H. Sun and Joel Achenbach of The Washington Post
“Reopenings, record cases and full hospitals: America’s dissonant response to the pandemic” via Reis Thebault and Abigail Hauslohner of The Washington Post
“Why Joe Biden’s polling lead is different from Hillary Clinton’s in 2016” via Nathaniel Rachich of FiveThirtyEight
“Another 5K COVID-19 cases reported in Florida Thursday” via Florida Politics
“Orange County adds 730 COVID-19 cases, breaking record for second day in a row” via Scott Powers of Florida Politics
“The surge in Florida coronavirus cases wasn’t caused just by an increase in testing” via David Fleshler and Aric Chokey of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
“Leon County GOP chairman challenges mask mandate” via Jason Delgado of Florida Politics
“Poll: Climate change concerns Floridians even in the face of COVID-19” via AG Gancarski of Florida Politics
“Florida jobless claims inch up” via Gary Fineout of POLITICO
“Florida schools now must teach the Ocoee Election Day Massacre. Here’s why that matters.” via Kirby Wilson of the Tampa Bay Times
“Central Florida police forces whiter than communities they serve” via Monivette Cordeiro, Adelaide Chen, Tess Sheets, Cristobal Reyes and Dana Cassidy of the Orlando Sentinel
“Disney Seeks to Remove Racist Themes at Splash Mountain Rides” via Erich Schwartzel of The Wall Street Journal
“A testing ground for genetically modified ‘friendly’ mosquitoes in the Florida Keys?” via Craig Pittman for Florida Phoenix
Quote of the Day
“This is common sense, violates no one’s liberties, and follows the lead of 18 other states like North Carolina, Kentucky, and New York. If we’re to beat this virus together, we must all act together, with all Floridians doing their part.” — Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, urging the Governor to issue a statewide mask order.
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