(The Center Square) – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a pair of bills on Wednesday designed to bring reforms to the state’s behavioral health apparatus and assist with the mentally ill in the criminal justice system.

The second-term GOP governor signed Senate Bills 1620 and 168 in a ceremony in Tampa. 

SB1620 implements some of the key recommendations by the Florida Commission on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder. The measure will standardize clinical mental health assessments used by providers and school mental health programs; improves discharge planning from treatment facilities; requires plans to address access to long-lasting injectable medications for the mentally ill; mandates biennial reviews of telehealth availability with a focus on rural; and underserved areas and supports new training programs and stipends for behavioral health workers. 

SB1620 was sponsored by Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, who was honored by the governor on his legislative work on substance abuse and mental health by having the University of South Florida’s behavioral health services research institute named in his honor. 

“I’ll never forget 27 years, three months ago when I woke up in the Hanley-Hazelden treatment facility and the day I asked for help,” said Rouson, a recovering addict. “The hopelessness, the loneliness, the anger, the fear, the rage, the bottom became my gift of desperation. I became desperate to change and whether I believed I could or whether I couldn’t, I knew I was right. I’m very honored to be here today.”

Rouson also said that he told then-Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, who appointed him to lead the Florida Commission on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder in 2021, that he didn’t want to help author a report that would gather dust on a shelf, but do something that would lead to real, lasting change.

He also said SB1620 turns thoughtful recommendations by the commission into real policy and would help keep Florida a leader at treating people with mental illness and addiction. 

SB168, sponsored by Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island, is known as the Tristan Murphy Act. It was named after Murphy, a victim of suicide in 2021 at a state correctional facility work program during a mental health episode. 

“We talk about a lot of issues in Tallahassee, but mental health is a messy issue. It’s a difficult issue,” Bradley said. “It’s an issue that is hard to move the ball meaningfully because it takes a lot of resources, it involves the criminal justice system and our sheriffs on the ground. It involves our providers.”

The bill requires the state Department of Corrections to provide physical and mental screenings for inmates eligible for work assignments and allows screening within 24 hours for people detained by law enforcement for a crime. This can allow them to be diverted to a mental health facility instead. 

“And I think if you talk to a lot of people in law enforcement, and obviously you have a lot of really dangerous criminals, they just need to be kept off the street,” DeSantis said. “But a lot of people that interact with the justice system, the root cause is not that they’re bad people trying to harm others, it’s that they’ve got a lot of mental health problems that are leading to behavior that is antisocial, and so to the extent that we can do that and identify that and potentially provide solutions for that, that’s going to ultimately be better for taxpayers, it’ll be better for the entire justice system, and it’ll be better for the safety of our community.”

(The Center Square) − According to the latest data from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, there are currently 100 gigawatts of electricity generation awaiting connection approval across its footprint — including 36 gigawatts in the South region alone, which includes Louisiana.

Of the 36 GW sitting in MISO’s queue for their South region, 20 GW is is generated from solar.

The grid operator’s latest resource adequacy report warns that at least 3.1 gigawatts of new capacity will be needed beyond what’s already committed to meet reliability targets in the next several years. Without it, the risks of outages during extreme weather or peak demand events will grow.

“MISO’s projected capacity shortfall is meaningful, but there are a ton of tools to fix the problem,” said Casey Baker, a senior program manager at GridLab. “For context, 3.1 gigawatts is only about 2–3% of MISO’s total peak load. It’s significant in the energy world, but not unprecedented.”

Baker pointed out that other grid operators face even steeper challenges.

“ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas), for example, is forecasting a 75% increase in peak load by 2035 — that’s an increase of roughly 65 gigawatts. MISO is in good shape.”

MISO is facing mounting pressure to expand its electricity capacity as demand surges across its 15-state footprint, including Louisiana.

Rapid growth in energy-intensive industries, data centers, and electric vehicle adoption has accelerated the need for new power resources, with MISO warning that “immediate action” is needed to avoid future capacity shortfalls.

A key driver of this surge is Louisiana’s booming industrial sector. Entergy Louisiana alone has submitted more than $3 billion in grid upgrades to accommodate new facilities, including Meta’s $800 million data center in Richland Parish and Hyundai’s massive new steel plant in Ascension Parish.

In Louisiana, the demand spike could translate into higher costs without sufficient grid upgrades. Entergy Louisiana has forecast several potential rate hikes tied to various projects including the Hyundai facility.

To help manage the load, Entergy has proposed several new transmission lines and substations, as well as a series of demand-response programs aimed at reducing strain during peak hours.

These include smart thermostat incentives, EV charging programs, and large-scale commercial demand response agreements. Entergy estimates these programs could cut demand by 95 megawatts within two years, and up to 155 megawatts in five years.

“While a 100 MW solar plant does not provide 100 MW of resource adequacy benefit, there is a lot of opportunity for MISO utilities to rapidly expand their generation portfolios and meet this growing need,” GridLab’s Casey Baker told The Center Square.

And the pace of connecting new generation remains a hurdle.

While gas generation is one potential solution, supply chain constraints mean that few gas projects in MISO’s queue are likely to come online before 2030. Of the 18 gigawatts of gas submitted in the latest queue window, none have even begun the required grid impact studies.

Meanwhile, energy storage presents one of the most promising short-term solutions. Another 3 gigawatts of energy storage sits in MISO’s Surplus Interconnection Queue, a separate fast-track process that allows projects to connect within 12 to 18 months — far quicker than the typical multi-year process for new generation.

Energy storage refers to technologies—most commonly large-scale batteries—that can store electricity when supply is high and release it when demand is high or when other power sources aren’t available.

To visualize the space needed for batteries, Baker mentions a Florida project that fits 400 megawatts of storage on 40 acres. Expanding that to 4 gigawatts for MISO would need about 800 acres total — spread across the entire region.

Alternatively, a single high-voltage transmission project, such as the proposed Grain Belt Express, could deliver 5 gigawatts of power from other regions — enough to address the projected shortfall outright. However, MISO currently lacks a formal process to accredit transmission lines as a capacity resource, though that is under development, according to Baker.

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Education said Wednesday that both the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation are in violation of Title IX for allowing males into female spaces and sports.

“Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 requires schools to ensure equal opportunities for girls, including in athletic activities, but California has actively prevented this equality of opportunity by allowing males in girls’ sports and intimate spaces,” a U.S. Department of Education news release said.

Neither the California Department of Education (CDE) nor the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) responded to The Center Square’s request for comment.

The U.S. Department of Education’s findings follow investigations into both CDE and CIF, according to the department’s release.

“As a result of the noncompliance finding, [the Office of Civil Rights] has issued a proposed Resolution Agreement to CDE and CIF to resolve their Title IX violations,” the release said.

The Resolution Agreement requires a number of actions, including that “the CDE will issue a Notice to all recipients of federal funding (Recipients) that operate interscholastic athletic programs in California requiring them to comply with Title IX.”

Such federal funding recipients “must adopt biology-based definitions of the words ‘male’ and ‘female,’” the release said.

Additionally, the resolution states that, “the CDE and CIF will rescind any guidance that advised local school districts or CIF members to permit male athletes to participate in women’s and girls’ sports to reflect that Title IX preempts state law when state law conflicts with Title IX.”

“Individual records, titles, and awards misappropriated by male athletes competing in female competitions” must be restored to the female athletes who are the rightful winners. CDE must also send an apology letter to each of these girls whose recognition is restored, the release said.

If CDE and CIF do not change their unlawful practices in regards to Title IX as outlined in the Resolution within 10 days, they will both “risk imminent enforcement action, including referral to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for proceedings,” the release said.

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in the release: “Although Governor Gavin Newsom admitted months ago it was ‘deeply unfair’ to allow men to compete in women’s sports, both the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation continued as recently as a few weeks ago to allow men to steal female athletes’ well-deserved accolades and to subject them to the indignity of unfair and unsafe competitions.”

“The Trump Administration will relentlessly enforce Title IX protections for women and girls, and our findings today make clear that California has failed to adhere to its obligations under federal law,” McMahon said.

“The state must swiftly come into compliance with Title IX or face the consequences that follow,” McMahon said.

The Department of Education has not yet responded to The Center Square’s request for comment.

The finding of this Title IX violation also falls into line with the department announcement that June is “Title IX Month,” as reported by The Center Square.