Seeking Rents' most-read story of 2025 revealed that homebuilding giant Lennar Corp. was quietly lobbying Florida lawmakers to pass a bill that would have let the company lock homebuyers into never-ending fees. The rest of the top 10 to follow. jasongarcia.substack.com/p/a-homebuil...

Just posted: The Top Seeking Rents Stories of 2025 List includes our 10 most-read stories for the year, our 10 most-downloaded podcasts, and 10 more I'm particularly proud of or that I think were especially important. jasongarcia.substack.com/p/the-top-se...

New: Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature may turn husbands, fathers and brothers into bounty hunters who can block women from ending unwanted pregnancies. jasongarcia.substack.com/p/florida-ma...

Another normal day in the Free State of Florida. A GOP state lawmaker just filed a bill that would: 1) Force schools to accept unvaccinated students if a parent objects to vaccines on the basis of "conscience" 2) Let pharmacies sell Ivermectin without a prescription

The Republican-controlled #Florida Legislature may turn husbands, fathers and brothers into bounty hunters who can block women from ending unwanted pregnancies. jasongarcia.substack.com/p/florida-ma... via @jasongarcia.bsky.social

NEW from @jasongarcia.bsky.social at Seeking Rents... The FL GOP is looking to incentivize Florida spouses, parents or siblings to sue anyone, including other family members, who attempts to send a pregnant family member abortion medication through the mail. The payout is $100K plus legal fees.

Records show the #Florida food libel law was literally written by farm industry lobbyists -- and their intention was less about helping farmers and more about hurting environmentalists. jasongarcia.substack.com/p/they-said-... via @jasongarcia.bsky.social

#Florida legislators quietly working on a measure to give Big Sugar legal power to go after activists & news outlets and silence critics jasongarcia.substack.com/p/florida-po... via @jasongarcia.bsky.social

In these times, co-operation is more important than competition Jason Garcia @jasongarcia.bsky.social A force magnifier for #Florida journalism jasongarcia.substack.com/p/a-force-ma...

Jason Garcia @jasongarcia.bsky.social #Florida politicians may give Big Sugar legal power to go after activists and silence critics jasongarcia.substack.com/p/florida-po...

"A central mission here at Seeking Rents is to serve as a kind of force magnifier for Florida journalism at time when corporate-owned legacy media have imposed deep staffing cuts and dramatically scaled back their own local and state news-gathering operations." Support @jasongarcia.bsky.social.

#Florida Gov. Ron DeSastrous may have set a new record last week for passing the buck. He blamed FL lawmakers for forcing him to make an $83 million land deal in Destin — not once, not twice, but SIX times in 3 minutes. jasongarcia.substack.com/p/in-ron-des... via @jasongarcia.bsky.social

New podcast: Pushed by a potential future candidate for governor, Florida lawmakers could empower Florida’s Big Sugar companies to sue environmental groups that criticize the industry for Everglades destruction and toxic soot known as "black snow." jasongarcia.substack.com/p/florida-le...

Thanks ace reporter @jasongarcia.bsky.social for this investigation into a corporation and its political pals trying to kneecap the Water Quality Assurance Act in #Florida so they don't have to compensate pollution victims. Bill can still be stopped. jasongarcia.substack.com/p/lobbyists-...

Lobbyists for a mining company wrote a #Florida legislative bill to block lawsuits over radiation on former mine property jasongarcia.substack.com/p/lobbyists-... via @jasongarcia.bsky.social

I love the arguments they’re making over this: there’s nothing to worry about it’s harmless, also, these people need to be totally shielded from any future liability whatsoever. Doesn’t add up.

One of the world’s largest mining firms wrote a bill in the Florida Legislature that would help the company dodge lawsuits related to radiation on former mines — and make it easier to develop some of its vast land holdings around the state: jasongarcia.substack.com/p/lobbyists-...

Charter school companies have targeted 450 public schools in #Florida under a new privatization law that lets the charters use public facilities for free. jasongarcia.substack.com/p/charter-sy... via @jasongarcia.bsky.social

A 🧵 about more big government overreach in Florida by Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers in Tallahassee: A few months ago, the village council in Wellington, a wealthy enclave in Palm Beach County, voted to allow gasoline-powered boats on community lakes and canals...

“I know everyone is mad about it, and I get it. I’m mad, too." #Florida city that allowed only electric boats & motors on its waterways is now forced to allow gas engines b/c of orders from Legislature & Gov. Ron DeSastrous. jasongarcia.substack.com/p/orders-fro... via @jasongarcia.bsky.social

"Between this and a $5 billion rate increase FPL won in 2021, the average FPL customer will wind up paying hundreds of dollars more each year for electricity than they were five years ago." @jasongarcia.bsky.social does an excellent job explaining the latest and largest FPL rate hike.

The closest thing #Florida has ever had to state media was an online outlet called, “The Florida Standard.” Now it turns out that Gov. Ron DeSastrous hasn't just dictated its content but he's also funneled $$$ to it. jasongarcia.substack.com/p/the-myster... via @jasongarcia.bsky.social

A fascinating look from @jasongarcia.bsky.social into the short-lived life of something called The Florida Standard, a DeSantis propaganda media outlet that was funded by DeSantis pals and dark money groups.

Podcast: The real story behind a shady #Florida land deal where Gov. Ron DeSastrous repaid a campaign contributor jasongarcia.substack.com/p/the-story-... via @jasongarcia.bsky.social

Recommended weekend listening: in a growing # of states, education policy reflects the vision of individual billionaires. We head to Florida, where @jasongarcia.bsky.social & @flbaloney.bsky.social help us get to the bottom of a controversial school privatization plan soundcloud.com/haveyouheard...

#Florida lawmakers took orders from the lobbyist for a shady landowner, and now the taxpayers are paying $83 million for 4 acres in Destin that do NOT need to be preserved. jasongarcia.substack.com/p/florida-la... via @jasongarcia.bsky.social

In mid-June, just before Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature finalized this year’s state budget, GOP leaders in Tallahassee slipped a sentence into the spending plan authorizing state officials to acquire a piece of property in the Panhandle through a popular land-preservation program. 🧵...

A top Florida politician – a guy who was just endorsed by President Donald Trump – is now pushing a plan to help agriculture companies sue MAHA activists, environmental groups, news organizations, and others who criticize the ag industry... 🧵...

Last September – as Ron DeSantis was spending Florida taxpayer money on advertisements attacking citizen-led constitutional amendments that would have protected abortion rights and legalized marijuana – his administration made a $1.525 million payment for TV commercials. 🧵...

New: Ron DeSantis paid campaign strategists via hidden subcontracts, made rushed payments under misleading pretenses, and took millions of dollars from reserves, in a taxpayer-funded advertising war last fall against abortion and marijuana ballot measures: jasongarcia.substack.com/p/hidden-con...

BREAKING: Grand jury summoned in Hope Florida criminal probe: www.miamiherald.com/news/politic...

#Florida Gov. Ron DeSastrous is helping real estate developers exploit what was supposed to be a hurricane relief law. jasongarcia.substack.com/p/ron-desant... via @jasongarcia.bsky.social

Ron DeSantis is helping real estate developers exploit a hurricane relief law: jasongarcia.substack.com/p/ron-desant...

This is a crazy threat for the DeSantis administration to make. You have a DeSantis appointee and former chief of staff not-even-subtly hinting that the administration will withhold state funding from a county unless that county bows down to developers.

Last year, Manatee County voters united to force out the developer puppets on the BOCC and elect reasonable people who would not be a rubber stamp. DeSantis has basically been spitting on those (mostly deep red) voters for that "sin" ever since with local state reps going along. Locals are angry.

Ron DeSantis is actively helping some of the state's biggest developers – and Ron DeSantis donors – exploit a new state law that was supposed to ensure communities could rebuild after hurricanes... 🧵...

A Republican megadonor and homebuilder in southwest Florida (Pat Neal) has joined one of a several lawsuits that have been filed around the state in which developers are trying to use a new hurricane-recovery law (Senate Bill 180) to kill all kinds of local land-development rules.

Florida taxpayers are starting to pay the bills on the immigrant prison camp the DeSantis administration built in middle of the Everglades. The Governor's Office has approved nearly $30 million in payments to 'Alligator Alcatraz' contractors over the past 10 days:

#Florida is cutting funding for transit — and exposing the true cost of business tax breaks jasongarcia.substack.com/p/florida-is... via @jasongarcia.bsky.social

More evidence education policy is now being driven by whims of billionaires. Here's Florida, which is about to get a whole lot more Success Academy charter schools because one of its wealthiest residents likes them. @jasongarcia.bsky.social has the receipts jasongarcia.substack.com/p/lobbyists-...

New: A billionaire hedge-fund manager and a New York City charter network lobbied to expand a school-privatization program in Florida, according to records obtained by Seeking Rents. 🧵..

Lobbyists for a billionaire and a charter network pushed #Florida lawmakers to expand a school privatization program jasongarcia.substack.com/p/lobbyists-... via @jasongarcia.bsky.social

Deleted a sloppy hot take that served as a good reminder that I’m not the legal expert I like to think I am just because I took a constitutional law class 25 years ago

No, I think the 1DCA is right that Norman has been abrogated by Bruen.

This is a bad take. The FL Sp Ct 2017 Norman decision applied an analysis that the US Sp Ct later expressly rejected in Bruen. Bruen's test stinks, but a FL lower court is actually obligated to apply Bruen and not follow Norman, given that it is a federal const right at issue.

The state of Florida just updated its list of “persistently low-performing” schools – a key designation that opens to the door for privately managed “Schools of Hope” charters to move into an area and tap into giant public subsidies. The number of PLPs jumped from 51 to 267.

#Florida Gov. Ron DeSastrous' Everglades concentration camp pollutes his own River of Grass legacy with 20A of new pavement, lighting so bright it can be seen 20 miles away & daily shipments of jet fuel & human waste. jasongarcia.substack.com/p/as-the-end... via @jasongarcia.bsky.social

He spent a lot of tax money on Everglades restoration. Now it's like a fancy Lamborghini he paid for, but then put sand in the gas tank.

Ron DeSantis and Joe Ladapo doing some destination marketing for Florida: "Florida is ending vaccine mandates. What do Canadian travellers need to know?" www.cbc.ca/news/health/...

"The Tampa Bay Times identified 49 people with connections to the utility who testified in support of the rate hikes." Great digging by Emily Mahoney as Florida's biggest power company seeks a $10 billion rate increase from Ron DeSantis-appointed regulators: www.tampabay.com/news/busines...