Emoji-Meter: Florida Teachers Union, Fred Piccolo, COVID-19, and more!

by Jordan Kirkland | Jul 24, 2020

🔥 EMOJI-METER 🔥 Sometimes words just aren’t enough.
Fred Piccolo
Governor Ron DeSantis is pushing the reset button on his communications team, starting with installment of Piccolo as his new communications director, who served in a similar role for the last two Florida House speakers — Jose Oliva and Richard Corcoran. The job is tough enough under normal circumstances, but Piccolo takes over as the primary message man for DeSantis at a time the state faces an unprecedented health, economic and public confidence crisis. We think he’s up to the task.
COVID-19
While Florida’s COVID-19 crisis is far from over, the massive surge in new cases we saw in early July now appears to be waning. Though there’s still a ways to go, Florida won’t see a New York City-like crisis with tens of thousands of deaths after all, despite the media wishing it were so.
Florida’s Media
Daily new case counts and sensational headlines over irrelevant coronavirus infections do nothing but create irrational fear. The stat that really matters is hospitalizations, and the state is doing just fine managing the rising number of serious cases. We need fewer fearmongers and more focus on facts. Also, why is the discredited Rebecca Jones still in the news? Ugh.
Florida Teachers Union
Grocery baggers and fast-food workers are essential, but teachers aren’t?…. The world has gone stark-raving mad. Or at least America has. Apparently some of our teachers never learned the definition of “duty.”
Bob Cortes
It’s been a good week for the former state representative. Eyeing his return to the House, the Republican kicked off the week with a pair of straw poll victories over his opponent, Democrat Joy Goff-Marcil. Cortes would quickly follow this up by announcing two new endorsements — the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association Political Action Committee (CFHLA-PAC) and Red Sox great Johnny Damon — adding to his already robust list.