Samantha Putterman | PolitiFact
Samantha Putterman is a fact-checker for PolitiFact based in Florida reporting on misinformation with a focus on abortion and public health.
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The science about climate change’s role in hurricanes is still considered unsettled, experts told PolitiFact, but more recent studies looking at the past 40 years have found that the storms forming now tend to be stronger than in the past.
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PolitiFact FL: Florida's Amendment 4 on abortion is short. Does a lack of definitions mean no rules?If 60% of voters approve Amendment 4, terms such as "viability," "patient’s health" and "healthcare provider" may need clarifying as the state codifies the constitutional amendment. Some legal experts said this could lead to broad interpretations; others said these are well-defined words in the law.
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Backers of Amendment 4, which would enshrine abortion access and override the law if Florida voters approve it in November, argue the ban’s exceptions aren’t "real" because of vague language, criminal penalties and exception requirements that can make abortions difficult to obtain in these cases.
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The initiative to build golf courses, pickleball courts, disc golf courses, hotels and more in nine Florida’s state parks was not an undeveloped idea. There were publicly shared plans, documents and scheduled public meetings across the state.
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U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., wants lawmakers to vote on a federal bill that aims to prevent noncitizen voting. Congress blocked noncitizens from voting in federal elections in 1996.
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For years, more people move from upper Midwestern states to Florida than the inverse. Other states, some Republican-led, had similar if not higher out-migration numbers to Florida.
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Although Florida's Amendment 4 doesn’t define "health care provider," legal experts said it would not allow people who aren’t licensed to provide health care to determine whether a patient qualifies for a health risk exception.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis warned that a 2020 law requiring parental consent for abortions would be eliminated if voters approve a 2024 abortion ballot initiative. But this isn’t a foregone conclusion and would likely be decided by the courts.
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Experts say more robust data is necessary to better determine the link between gun storage and school shootings. But a few studies have shown that around half of these incidents are carried out with firearms that were considered unsecured.
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In a 12-minute address at Hillsborough Community College, Biden warned of "extreme" laws that restrict abortion access, and he blamed Trump, his predecessor and presumptive 2024 rival, for making those policies possible.
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A study by the Rand Corp., a nonpartisan research organization, found that, across all drugs, U.S. prices were 2.78 times higher than the prices in 33 OECD countries. The gap was even larger for brand-name drugs.
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Miami’s immigration court has a backlog of about 290,000 pending cases, according to February data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. This is more than any court in the country.