The Morning Dispatch: ‘Hurricane Governor’ Jeb Bush on Governing in a Crisis

Plus: The upcoming transition to commercialized COVID care.

By and
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Happy Friday! Pour one out for—we swear this is his real name—Frankie Lasagna, the restaurateur and Toronto Blue Jays fan who on Wednesday night was inches away from catching Aaron Judge’s historic 61st home run of the season. The ball would have been worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“I would never ever bring a glove [to the game] other than this situation,” Lasagna said. “I needed a bigger one.”

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

  • Hurricane Ian weakened to a tropical storm on Thursday as it dumped rain across the Florida peninsula, but began intensifying again over the Atlantic Ocean and is expected to make landfall near Charleston, South Carolina, as a Category 1 hurricane this morning or early afternoon. More than 2.1 million homes in Florida were without power Friday morning, and the storm’s official death count stands at 12—but it’s expected to rise well beyond that. President Joe Biden suggested yesterday his team was hearing early reports of “substantial” loss of life that could make Ian the “deadliest hurricane in Florida’s history,” while Gov. Ron DeSantis described the storm as “basically a 500-year flood event” that “changed the character of our state.” The National Hurricane Center warned residents of Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Virginia they could see effects of the storm this weekend, and Biden on Thursday approved emergency declarations for South Carolina and Florida.

  • The Department of Education announced Thursday it was scaling back the scope of President Biden’s student loan cancellation plan, now excluding borrowers with federal student loans held by private entities—including Federal Family Education Loans or Federal Perkins Loan Program loans—from accessing the debt forgiveness. The tweak is expected to affect millions of borrowers otherwise eligible for the program, and is almost assuredly an effort to head off mounting legal challenges. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Young on Thursday denied a request from the Pacific Legal Foundation for a temporary injunction blocking Biden’s proposal, but the PLF made clear it will file an amended complaint. Republican attorneys general in six states—Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolina—also filed a lawsuit seeking to block Biden’s action from going into effect.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Citizen60

    When there’s a crisis, Americans have historically come together to help each other because it’s in our DNA. When the acute phase has passed, “normal daily living” resumes, which includes the hating by haters.
    Ron DeSantis will find holes in the federal response when Florida’s immediate needs have been taken care of to bash Democrats and Biden with. He’ll claim Biden wanted Floridians to suffer and die. So sad

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  2. Marla Hughes

    JEB (The best governor in my life time) seems to like DeSantis, which is a mark in DeSantis' favor.
    I'm a Floridian and a huge fan of DeSantis. Even when I don't agree with his moves, I understand why he makes them, but most of them I agree with. Especially Disney. Talk to the old timers about Disney and you'll understand why outsiders care a lot more about finally curtailing its overbearing presence in Florida politics more than we did/do.

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    1. Marla Hughes

      Also keep in mind that JEB knew and dealt with Trump on an official basis long before he became a problem with the rest of us. Apparently DeSantis isn't 'worse than Trump' to him.

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  3. Brendan Bossard

    To Ms. Lvova-Belova: I hope you are prepared for the millstone that God will hang around your neck at the Throne unless you repent.

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    Realwoodies

    QOTD: I object to the whole premise of this question.

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    Donald E. L. Johnson

    Mixed doubles in tennis get such high ratings. Everybody makes millions. It's the only thing sports writers want to cover.

    When's the next Aaron Judge match with Serena Williams?

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  6. Avatar photo
    Donald E. L. Johnson

    Every state needs help when nature strikes with catastrophic effects. In this case, as Yogi Bera said, if you don't go to their funerals, they won't come to yours.

    Farmers support welfare programs that buy their products to feed the poor. So urban Congressmen support ag subsidies in return.

    Florida politicians support Texas, California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado in times of need and vise versa.

    We''ll support your pork of you vote for ours.

    Nothing new here, and it doesn't change anything, I think.

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  7. Avatar photo
    Michael Dan Martin

    "... but later, that negative attitude turned into love for Russia." This is the most horrifying thing I have read in a long while.

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  8. Avatar photo
    Michael Dan Martin

    "Given that reality, a gender-neutral playing field wouldn’t necessarily be the most equitable." Parsing that statement is giving me a headache. A gender-neutral playing field in sports, where men and women compete against each other with no restrictions, would be absolutely equitable. What is inequitable is carving out a special place where women athletes are protected from the competition of males. Whether this inequitable treatment of men and women is a good thing or a bad thing doesn't change what it is.

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  9. Brocka121

    The bipartisan nature of the response to Ian is how things should be run generally. We are too fractured with too many varying incentives, period. We're like broken families whom only reconvene for a funeral.

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  10. Kaybmorrow

    Not so true for Katrina, GWB was criticized for stepping in, then for not doing it sooner, when the incompetent Governor of Louisiana and the corrupt mayor of New Orleans were to blame. In Florida the response has been excellent under Bush, Scott, and DESANTIS. I don’t remember a hurricane under Crist. Hurricanes seem worst now because of more building everywhere.

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