Legal action against congressional maps may not matter.
Several groups already say they are going to sue over Florida’s new Congressional map. But it may not change anything before the midterms. Lower courts are prohibited from changing Congressional maps close to elections.
Michael Morley, director of Florida State University Election Law Center, explains.
“You have to have the primary, you have to have the ballots printed. You have to know what candidates have qualified for the ballots. They have to have time to get signatures. Everybody needs to know what the districts actually are well in advance of both the primary and the general elections in order for those elections to be able to happen.”
The map that was approved Wednesday gives Republicans four more favored Congressional districts in Florida.
Space Force supported five different rocket launches.
The Space Force set a record in April - for the first time ever it supported orbital launches with five different rocket types in a single month from Cape Canaveral. This breaks a 60-year-old record of four unique launch vehicles, set in 1966.
Judge ok’s restrictions on citizen ballot initiatives.
A federal judge has rejected a legal challenge to Florida’s restrictions on ballot initiatives. US District Judge Mark Walker said Thursday lawmakers have the the power to pass limitations on citizen initiatives in order to combat fraud and protect the integrity of the ballot process. The judge went on to say the citizen initiative process, which gives Floridians a path to amend their Constitution, is “virtually dead save for the most controversial issues for which tens of millions of dollars can be raised.”
Ospreys say if we fits, we sits.
Despite deterrents, ospreys in Brevard County are nesting on traffic lights. WFIT’s Terri Wright tells us the birds often outwit human intervention.
Competition with other raptors and ongoing development have pushed ospreys to nest on man-made structures, but sites such as power poles and traffic signals can be hazardous to the birds and cause power outages.
The county installs deterrent devices to prevent nesting, though ospreys often adapt to them.
While ospreys are not listed as endangered, they are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. With a state permit, nests can be removed from man-made structures as long as they do not contain eggs or chicks.
Rain, rain, come this way…
A developing storm system is forecasted to impact Florida, including our area, this weekend. Meteorologist Megan Borowski from the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network says that rain chances will increase across the Space Coast late Saturday into Sunday,
“Right so an area of low pressure is developing over the northwestern Gulf and it’ll track through the Central Gulf Coast today before arriving to the Panhandle and North Central Florida tomorrow. By tomorrow night, a broken line of thunderstorms should push into the I-4 corridor, and storms could linger through late morning or early afternoon Sunday. Now while the risk for severe thunderstorms isn’t high, I can’t rule out the potential for an isolated storm that is capable of producing strong wind gusts.”
Megan says that between late Saturday and midday Sunday, localized rainfall amounts could approach one inch. While plenty of additional rainfall is needed to alleviate the drought, Megan says that at least some rainfall is better than none.
The National Weather Service in Melbourne says drought conditions are forecast to persist in East Central Florida through at least May. The wet season in late May/ early June should bring some relief.
