I cover Florida and Puerto Rico as Miami bureau chief for @nytimes. @MiamiHerald alumna. A veces escribo en español.
Aug 5, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The relatives and friends of the 17 people killed in Parkland divulged the depths of their despair since losing loved ones to gunfire four years ago. They shared details that laid bare how massacres leave families with years of unresolved sorrow. nytimes.com/2022/08/05/us/…
Peter Wang’s mother has four tattoos memorializing her son, one inked on Feb. 14 each year since he was killed. Carmen Schentrup’s parents find sleep elusive. Nicholas Dworet’s mother hesitates every time someone asks her, “How many kids do you have?” nytimes.com/2022/08/05/us/…
Aug 4, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez was arrested on Thursday morning on corruption charges, according to a DOJ spokeswoman in San Juan. A news conference is scheduled for 11am. Vázquez had preemptively said in May that she was under investigation and denied any wrongdoing.
"No one is above the law in Puerto Rico," Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, who defeated Vázquez in a 2020 primary, says about her arrest.
Mr. DeSantis has been unyielding in his approach to the pandemic, refusing to change course or impose restrictions despite uncontrolled spread and spiking hospitalizations nytimes.com/2021/08/06/us/…
He reopened Florida’s economy last spring and kept it that way, defying coronavirus surges that filled hospitals, and then celebrated as a statewide vaccination campaign took hold and life in Florida began to look normal.
Now Mr. DeSantis is gambling again nytimes.com/2021/08/06/us/…
Aug 3, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
In a news conference in the Everglades on Tuesday, @GovRonDeSantis acknowledged more Covid-19 hospital admissions - "I don't think we've reached the peak yet" - but said hospitals are not overwhelmed and are open for non-Covid business.
(This after hospitals have limited visitors and in some cases scaled back elective surgeries. The AdventHealth hospital system in Orlando is at level "black," its most critical level.)
Jul 20, 2021 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Miami's Jackson Health System, Florida's largest public hospital, is raising its Covid-19 alert level to high and banning most visitors again because of the virus surge. Meanwhile, just 58 percent *of its staff* is vaccinated, a percentage the hospital's CEO called "low."
The number of Covid patients at Miami's Jackson hospital went from 66 on July 6 to 143 on July 20, a 117 percent increase over 14 days, per CEO Carlos Migoya. 91 percent of patients are not vaccinated. (That climbs to 95 percent for the Covid patients in the ICU.)
May 2, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
A teacher peddled a bogus conspiracy theory, warning students not to hug parents who had been vaccinated against the coronavirus for more than five seconds. “Hola Mami,” one girl wrote her mom, saying the teacher was “telling us to stay away from you guys” nytimes.com/2021/05/02/us/…
Nearly a week before, the school had threatened teachers’ employment if they got a vaccine before the end of the school year. Alarmed parents frantically texted one another on WhatsApp, trying to find a way to pull their children out at the end of the term nytimes.com/2021/05/02/us/…
Apr 9, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: Investigators have been told of a conversation where Gaetz and a lobbyist Chris Dorworth discussed arranging a sham candidate in a State Senate race to siphon votes from an ally’s opponent, according to two people familiar, w/ @ktbenner@nytmikenytimes.com/2021/04/08/us/…
The F.B.I. has widened its investigation to include questions about a trip to the Bahamas that Gaetz took with Republican allies from Florida and women who were asked to provide sex for them, according to four people familiar with the inquiry nytimes.com/2021/04/08/us/…
Apr 2, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
🚨 The Times has reviewed receipts from Cash App and Apple Pay that show payments from Gaetz and Greenberg to one of the women, and a payment from Greenberg to a second woman. The women told their friends that the payments were for sex with the two men nytimes.com/2021/04/01/us/…
Always read @ktbenner@nytmike
Feb 18, 2021 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Dr. Raul Pino, the health administrator in Orlando, Fla., said that two young women "dressed up as grannies" tried to get their second coronavirus vaccine doses on Wednesday. They wore bonnets, gloves and glasses, he said: "I don't know how they escaped the first time."
The women were probably in their 20s, Pino said. They had valid CDC vaccination cards, but "there were some issues with their ID's" and driver's licenses.
Nov 5, 2020 • 14 tweets • 5 min read
👋! Latina reporter here. I have a thread about how we gave our readers a more nuanced understanding of the vote in Florida. For inquiring minds. 1/x
“Despite a late push to court Latino voters over the last several weeks, Joe Biden is ending his presidential bid on shaky and perhaps perilous ground with this diverse, essential segment of the electorate...” 2/x
Early voting began today in Florida. There are usually lines on the first day because people are excited; elections supervisors expect to see that (despite the rain in South Florida). A thread:
Pinecrest (Miami-Dade):
The city of Jacksonville, Fla., has just announced that masks will be mandatory indoors and in public places where social distancing is not possible.
The city of Jacksonville, Fla., *which is hosting the Republican National Convention in August*
Apr 2, 2020 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
Terrifying Florida details in this story. Buckle up: nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Stay-at-home orders have nearly halted travel for most Americans, but people in Florida, the Southeast and other places that waited to enact such orders have continued to travel widely, potentially exposing more people as the outbreak accelerates. nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Mar 30, 2020 • 8 tweets • 1 min read
Sheriff Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County, Fla., says he has obtained an arrest warrant for Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne of The River at Tampa Bay Church for holding large services and "intentionally and repeatedly" disregarding orders to avoid large gatherings.
"His reckless disregard for human life put hundreds of people in his congregation at risk and thousands of residents who may interact with them this week in danger," Chronister says.
Mar 13, 2020 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
Florida @GovRonDeSantis bans all visitation to all nursing homes and similar facilities for seniors in Broward County for the next 30 days. The state has counted 11 positive coronavirus cases in Broward so far.
Florida has received 1,000 of 2,500 commercial coronavirus testing kits it has ordered, DeSantis says.
Mar 12, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Gov. @wandavazquezg of Puerto Rico says a Panamanian man with coronavirus started feeling sick and feverish over the weekend while he was in Puerto Rico. He went to a dance at the Sheraton hotel in San Juan and to a big national salsa concert on Sunday.
The man is back in Panama. The governor of Puerto Rico, citing CDC recommendations, is asking people who sat in the rows near where the man sat at the salsa concert to self-isolate as a precautionary measure.
Mar 2, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
COVID-19 has arrived in Florida: two presumptive positive cases, in Manatee and Hillsborough counties, per @GovRonDeSantis, who has declared a public health emergency.
@GovRonDeSantis The Florida Department of Health said in a statement that the Manatee County patient is an adult without a travel history to the countries restricted by the C.D.C. The Hillsborough County patient had traveled to Italy. Both patients are in isolation.
Feb 24, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Florida operatives said they were inundated with phone calls and text messages from elected officials, candidates and activists worried that down-ballot candidates could suffer. Some wondered privately if they should disavow Mr. Sanders now. nytimes.com/2020/02/24/us/…
Miami Democrats expected grainy clips of Mr. Sanders’s most objectionable commentary to resurface during the campaign. What galled them was that Mr. Sanders made new remarks showing no evolution on his opinions, in spite of decades of hardship in Cuba. nytimes.com/2020/02/24/us/…
Jul 18, 2019 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Been tough to file from the massive protest against Gov. @ricardorossello of Puerto Rico today. But Old San Juan is still teeming, at this hour, with people and their flags and chants, everywhere you look
You really need a view from high up like this one to start to get a sense of the many thousands of people protesting
Really important story here from @alexburnsNYT and @melbournecoal especially relevant to South Florida politics (short thread) nytimes.com/2019/05/17/us/…
When Democrats from elsewhere in the country ask me about 2020, I mention that a number of voters here who might want to vote for a Dem worry about the party's leftward shift. Many of them say they are Never Sanders people who would rather vote for Trump -- or not at all.
Mar 28, 2019 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
PARKLAND, Fla. — Kelly Plaur is still having nightmares almost every night. Even the sight of certain window blinds can put her on edge, reminding her of the bullet holes that pierced the classroom blinds on the day of the rampage.
nytimes.com/2019/03/28/us/…
Hollan Holm still avoids sitting with his back to the entrance of a room. At church, he said, he is “hyper-aware” of people he does not recognize. When he enters any space, he tends to conduct a threat assessment of his surroundings.
