Gov. Ron DeSantis

U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. says that while vaccines do not eliminate risks, not having them could be catastrophic, including to the people in the Caribbean that cruises visit.

Gov. Ron DeSantis acknowledged he expects a COVID surge this summer in the Sun Belt but not as much as last summer because of the number of vaccinations and increased immunity.

“Discussions have concluded and the parties have reached an impasse,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Anthony Porcelli, who has served as a mediator, said in a filing.

During the hearing, the judge chided the state for issuing a comment that mediation efforts had reached an “impasse” when they had not.

In a filing Wednesday, Attorney General Ashley Moody wrote that “cruise companies are trying their best to work with the CDC because they have no choice. But make no mistake - the CDC continues its overreach."

After an impasse in mediation, U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday will hold a hearing in Tampa on Florida’s request for a preliminary injunction against restrictions imposed by the CDC.

In a reversal, the cruise giant now says passengers are “strongly recommended” to receive the coronavirus vaccine on trips out of Florida ports.

Senate President Wilton Simpson "sprinkled in" the $2 million that would have gone toward increasing access for low-income girls and women to long-acting reversible contraception.

That stalemate comes after President Biden signed a “temporary fix” for ships carrying passengers between Washington state and Alaska. Federal attorneys say that act ratifies the CDC's sailing order.

The governor said the federal money had strings attached that made it unusable for the proposed emergency fund.