TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—As part of National Consumer Protection Week, Attorney General Ashley Moody is releasing a new Scams at a Glance resource to help Floridians spot and avoid travel scams. During the spring break season, many Floridians and tourists will be traveling. Florida is a hot destination where more than 130 million tourists visited in 2022. Unfortunately, scammers know this and may try to exploit consumers, casting a wide net to try and trap unwary travelers. Attorney General Moody is releasing Scams at a Glance: Travel Traps to help consumers avoid falling for fraudsters’ tricks during this busy travel season and beyond.

Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “As spring break gets underway and we continue to recognize National Consumer Protection Week, I am releasing a new resource to help protect travelers. Scams at a Glance: Travel Traps highlights common schemes designed to rip off tourists, as well as helpful tips to avoid falling victim. Download it for free before you leave on spring break or plan a summer getaway.” Continue reading →

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Attorney General Ashley Moody is releasing the 2023 Government-in-the-Sunshine Manual in recognition of National Sunshine Week. The manual is available to download for free on the Florida Attorney General’s website at MyFloridaLegal.com.

The manual is compiled and written by the Florida Attorney General’s Office to assist the public, journalists and governmental agencies in understanding the requirements and exemptions of state open government laws.

Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “In recognition of National Sunshine Week, I am publishing the 2023 Government-in-the-Sunshine Manual on our website, MyFloridaLegal.com. The manual is free to download and accessible to anyone seeking more information about open government laws in Florida.”

The 2023 edition of the Government-In-The-Sunshine Manual incorporates laws, judicial decisions and Attorney General opinions in place as of Oct. 1, 2022. Additional information about Florida’s open government laws is available at MyFloridaLegal.com.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Attorney General Ashley Moody is continuing the 2023 Tax-Season Scams Series with a warning for Floridians about Tax Identity Theft. In 2021, the Federal Trade Commission received 1.4 million reports of identity theft, and the FTC reports that the tax-filing season is the most common time for identity theft.

Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “Identity thieves love tax season and as we continue our series warning about common tax-related scams, I want filers to be extra cautious and take proactive steps to guard their personal information.”

Securing personal information, both online and offline, is one of the best ways to guard against tax identity theft. Physical documents containing sensitive information should be shredded before being thrown away into the trash. If a personal shredder is not available, communities often host local shredding days. Utilizing multi-factor authentication, as well as incorporating strong passwords, can spoil an online scammer’s plan of obtaining personal information. Continue reading →

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Attorney General Ashley Moody, the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service today announced the dismantling of a massive drug trafficking ring—arresting 35 suspects and seizing millions of dollars’ worth of drugs. These defendants made up one of the largest cocaine trafficking rings in Florida history, transporting drugs from Puerto Rico to sell in Florida. The defendants also trafficked illicit fentanyl and are responsible for violent crimes, including torture.

Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “This massive drug-trafficking organization moved millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine from Puerto Rico into the United States. They used torture to intimidate and maintain a stranglehold on the market, and supplied Central Florida with so much cocaine that the price of the illicit substance in that area actually dropped. I am proud of my Statewide Prosecutors for working with Florida and federal law enforcement to dismantle this dangerous drug-trafficking ring and ensure these suspects face justice.” Continue reading →

By TomL

I am going back many years where some people I knew help me understand the process of Immigration. The story starts where a family came to the Promise land, the United States of America!

You could get a job, work hard and live a life out of poverty. I won’t put a name on them because some are still alive. An Immigrant got a job on the Rail Road and later married his sweetheart and had five children. The father died in a Rail Road Car accident, where he was knocked off the top of a rail road car, laid in bed over night and passed away.

One of the daughters told the story. She was the second oldest and was not yet a teen. The mother was working any job she could to make money. Taking in washing, altering clothes, ironing clothes, scrubbing floors to feed the children. The daughter telling the story said  that “They were never were so poor as they were in America”. On the way home from school the children would walk the railroad track to pickup up coal that fell off the Railroad cars. Some of the local people did not like that, why because they were immigrants and poor, so they stopped them every day until they stopped walking the tracks home. Continue reading →

Dear Friends,

The 2023 Legislative Session will officially kick off this month, and we are excited to continue our work on behalf of Florida’s citizens. We say, “Continue,” because we have already concluded seven weeks of committee meetings and most recently, a second special session, which will be the topic of our column this month.

Special Session B took place earlier in February and addressed a few areas that required immediate attention from the Florida Legislature. In summation, four bills were filed to address Immigration, Reedy Creek Improvement District (Disney), Hurricane Relief, Collegiate Athletics, and Election Integrity. Continue reading →

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that Florida had record visitation in 2022. VISIT FLORIDA estimates that Florida welcomed 137.6 million visitors in 2022, an increase of five percent over 2019 and 12.9 percent over 2021. Florida welcomed 33.2 million travelers between October and December 2022, marking a six percent increase from Q4 2021, and the sixth consecutive quarter of overall visitation surpassing pre-pandemic levels. According to VISIT FLORIDA, 30.1 million domestic visitors traveled to Florida in Q4 2022, representing 21 months of domestic visitation growth from 2019.

“People continue to make Florida their vacation destination because they know that in the Free State of Florida, they can enjoy all that we have to offer without mandates or restrictions,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “Despite the federal government’s attempts to keep our economy stagnant, Florida’s freedom first approach has created an environment that attracts new visitors, fosters new businesses and drives our economy forward.” Continue reading →

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced his proposal to protect Floridians’ digital rights and privacy from Big Tech companies by creating a Digital Bill of Rights that focuses on protecting Floridians’ privacy, protecting minors from online harms, and eliminating unfair censorship. The proposal also bans the use of TikTok and other social media platforms with ties to China from all state government devices, and through internet services at colleges, universities, and public schools, and prohibits state and local government employees from coordinating with Big Tech companies to censor protected speech. This proposal is for the 2023 Florida Legislative Session that begins in March.

“Our Digital Bill of Rights will ensure Floridians are protected from the overreach and surveillance we have seen from Big Tech companies,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “Today’s proposal builds on our efforts to stop Big Tech censorship and combat the malign influence of China through the removal of nefarious platforms like TikTok from any state supported activity.” Continue reading →

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis was joined by student-athletes from Florida State University and the University of Florida to sign House Bill (HB) 7-B, revising Florida’s laws relating to Name, Image and Likeness (NIL). HB 7-B removes barriers for NIL while expanding financial literacy, life skills and entrepreneurship workshop requirements for athletes, requiring agents representing student-athletes to protect them from unauthorized use and exploitation of their NIL and specifying that postsecondary educational institutions are not liable for damages as a result of routine actions taken in the course of intercollegiate athletics.

“In 2020, we took a commonsense approach to ensure that student-athletes could control their name, image and likeness and be paid fairly for it,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “Now that the NCAA has taken necessary steps to ensure fairness for student-athletes, we can focus on making sure that those athletes are supported and protected under the law.”  Continue reading →

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congresswoman Cammack’s bill, H.R. 750—the “Chinese-owned Applications Using The Information of Our Nation Act of 2023” (CAUTION Act)—passed out of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce.

The bill requires any person that sells or distributes a mobile application that the federal government has prohibited for use on government-owned devices must disclose the fact to any individual who downloads, updates, or otherwise uses such an application.
“The CAUTION Act is a critical piece of legislation that warns against the dangers of applications with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). For years, we’ve known about TikTok and its parent company ByteDance’s connections to the Chinese government and their intentional use of Americans’ data. Applications that have been banned on U.S. government devices, including TikTok, represent real threats and it is only right that such disclaimers be required for users to know the risks involved,” said Congresswoman Cammack.  Continue reading →