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TALLAHASSEE — August came to a close with Gov. Ron DeSantis trying to douse a growing uproar about adding amenities such as golf to award-winning state parks.

The week ended as animosity between the governor’s office and Rep. Randy Fine, a Brevard County Republican, continued to simmer over DeSantis’ recent trip to Ireland.

Fine, one of the Legislature’s most-fierce debaters, called out DeSantis for meeting with companies and attending Florida State University’s football game in Dublin last weekend.

The Legislature’s sole Jewish Republican, Fine focused his ire on Ireland’s official recognition of Palestine as a country, a position also taken by Norway and Spain. Fine said he was “disappointed” about the trip and the football game.

When asked about Fine’s comments on Wednesday, DeSantis noted that “just about every lobbyist in Tallahassee made that trip” to the Emerald Isle.

“So, is Rep. Fine going to stop taking the money from all the lobbyists like he’s been doing?” DeSantis said.

DeSantis’ aides also took aim at the legislator on social media, drawing a sharp rebuke from the Fine.
“If one of my taxpayer-funded staff ever engaged another elected official in the manner in which three members of the Governor’s staff has tonight – and often and routinely does – I would fire them immediately,” Fine posted on X, formerly Twitter.

‘HALF-BAKED’ PARK PLANS

DeSantis sent the controversial Department of Environmental Protection’s “Great Outdoors Initiative” back to the drawing board this week, distancing himself from the controversial proposal that called for adding golf, 350-room lodges and disc golf to some of Florida’s most-cherished state parks.

DeSantis said the state agency will gather more public input before it could move forward with the plan.

“Here’s the thing, I’d rather not spend any money on this, right?” DeSantis said during an appearance at the Polk County Sheriff’s Office Operations Center in Winter Haven on Wednesday. “I mean, if people don’t want improvements, then don’t do it. And so, that’ll be something that citizens could be able to do.”

The uproar over the parks began after the department this month issued a news release announcing the initiative and later used social-media posts to briefly outline plans for nine parks. Perhaps the biggest target of opponents was a proposal to add three golf courses at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County.

DeSantis contended that plans were “leaked” to create a “narrative.”

“It was not approved by me,” DeSantis said. “I never saw that.”

The Department of Environmental Protection’s news release about the plans was titled, “DEP Announces 2024-25 Great Outdoors Initiative to Increase Public Access, Recreation and Lodging at Florida State Parks.”

Questions still linger over how the initiative to commercialize portions of nine state parks from Miami to the western Panhandle were able to advance with little notice before being rolled out on Aug. 20.

The initiative quickly drew sharp responses from residents, environmentalists, and politicians from both parties.

Critics of the initiative were pleased, but cautious, about DeSantis’ remarks this week.

“We won’t rest easy until the so-called Great Outdoors Initiative is completely dead,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades.

TRANS TREATMENT BAN BACKED

A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday temporarily allowed Florida to move forward with restrictions on treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender people.

The stay effectively means the restrictions can take effect while the appeals court considers an underlying appeal of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle that blocked the restrictions.

The law prevented minors from beginning to receive puberty blockers and hormone therapy for treatment of gender dysphoria. Also, it allowed only physicians — not nurse practitioners — to approve hormone therapy for adults and barred the use of telehealth for new prescriptions. Opponents argued that the restrictions severely reduced access to hormone therapy for adults.

Hinkle in June issued an injunction against the restrictions, finding, in part, that they were motivated by “animus” toward transgender people and violated equal-protection rights.

But in a 2-1 decision, the appeals-court panel said Hinkle likely misapplied a legal presumption that the Legislature “acted in good faith” when it passed the restrictions in 2023.

DeSantis, a fierce opponent of gender-affirming care for minors, took the appellate court’s decision in stride.

“We knew on appeal that we would win,” he said during an appearance Thursday in Crystal River.

STUDENT KILLER EXECUTED

Florida conducted its first execution in nearly 11 months as Loran Cole was put to death by lethal injection for the 1994 murder of a Florida State University student who was on a camping trip with his sister in the Ocala National Forest.

The execution came several hours after the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday morning refused to take up an appeal by Cole’s attorneys or grant a stay.

The court rejected arguments that the state’s lethal-injection procedures would cause “needless pain and suffering” because of Cole’s symptoms from Parkinson’s disease. Cole’s attorneys previously were unsuccessful at the state level when they argued he suffered abuse as a teen at the notorious Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna.

DeSantis on July 29 signed the death warrant for Cole, who was convicted of killing FSU student John Edwards, 18, in February 1994.

The Edwards family did not attend the execution. But the victims’ parents, Timothy and Victoria Edwards, released a statement that described the crime as “horrendous” and “senseless” and said it shattered the family.

The parents said their children asked for mercy, but that “Mr. Cole did not extend mercy to our children.” They added that Cole “does not deserve mercy.”

Cole, 57, could be seen breathing heavily and briefly trembling after the lethal-injection process started at 6 p.m. but did not move after 6:06 p.m.

Cole did not have any last words, though he looked up and appeared to nod to a witness who was seated in a viewing area.

STORY OF THE WEEK: Trying to quell a bipartisan uproar, Gov. Ron DeSantis said that “half-baked” plans to bring golf courses, resort-style lodges and pickleball courts to state parks will be revamped.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “As Governor, I am totally fine to just do nothing and do no improvements, if that’s what the general public wants, and that’s fine with me.” — Gov. Ron DeSantis, on the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s “Great Outdoors Initiative”