Tuesday’s primary elections feature two top Florida Democrats squaring off for the right to face Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

A former state Department of Health employee who gained national attention for questioning the numbers in Florida’s COVID-19 dashboard can remain a candidate for now in the race to be the Democratic challenger to Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz.

Rebekah Jones turned herself in to police on Sunday after an investigation into an anonymous message sent to Department of Health employees. A raid on her home on Dec. 7, according to investigators, was regarding a message sent from a computer at her home address to health department employees. The anonymous alert, sent on Nov. 10 to workers at FDOH, read:“It’s time, to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead. Ron DeSantis said that Jones became known because she alleged a conspiracy theory at the Department of Health. Obviously, she has issues.”RELATED: Former data analyst home raidedBodycam video released of raid on COVID-19 data analyst’s homeRebekah Jones demands computers be returned

Rebekah Jones says she was fired from the Florida Department of Health after she refused to "manipulate" COVID-19 data (Photo: Courtesy photo)TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Former Florida Department of Health data analyst Rebekah Jones announced on Twitter that she will turn herself in to authorities on Sunday night. She has been vocal about her firing, saying that it was because she refused to go along with manipulating COVID-19 data. — Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah) January 16, 2021The raid was based on a lie. — Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah) January 16, 2021The search in early December, according to investigators, was regarding a message sent from a computer at her home address to health department employees. Obviously, she has issues.”RELATED: Former data analyst home raidedBodycam video released of raid on COVID-19 data analyst’s homeRebekah Jones demands computers be returned

Rebekah Jones said in a court filing on Wednesday that what the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is accusing her of doing isn’t a crime. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A former Florida Department of Health data analyst who says a raid on her home by state investigators was payback for speaking out is demanding that they return seized computer equipment and cell phones. Rebekah Jones said in a court filing on Wednesday that what the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is accusing her of doing isn’t a crime, according to the Miami Herald. Jones hasn’t been charged with a crime. State investigators raided her house earlier this month, saying in a search warrant that they had probable cause to believe Jones was behind an anonymous message sent on Nov. 10 to Jones’ former colleagues.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Former Florida Department of Health employee Rebekah Jones is suing the state over a search warrant executed on her house. The search came after investigators said they identified a message sent from a computer at the address to health department employees. Jones, who was fired in May for insubordination after repeatedly violating department policy about communicating with media, helped create the state’s coronavirus dashboard. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement served the search warrant earlier this month. Jones posted a video of officers entering her home, and authorities subsequently released body-worn camera footage.

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – The lone Democrat elected statewide is often the voice of opposition and it again at it this week. Nikki Fried, Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, has been a vocal critic of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ direction on coronavirus health and safety. This week, she was one of the first to come to the defense of data analyst Rebekah Jones, who was fired for insubordination last spring and was recently targeted with a search warrant. Fried joined This Week in South Florida hosts Michael Putney and Glenna Milberg to discuss, and their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.

Ron DeSantis is vigorously defending law enforcement officers on how they served a search warrant at the home of a former Department of Health employee being investigated for unauthorized use of an emergency alert system. DeSantis spoke Friday, addressing the search warrant served at the home of Rebekah Jones on Monday. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement released bodycam footage from the incident on Thursday. “Search warrants are one of the most dangerous events a law enforcement officer will engage in, and many officers are killed each year during the execution of search warrants,” he continued. Why did they do a search warrant on the house?

“This video demonstrates that FDLE agents exercised extreme patience,” Commissioner Rick Swearingen said in a statement along with the video’s release. “Agents afforded Ms. Jones ample time to come to the door and resolve this matter in a civil and professional manner. “At approximately 8:31, agents went to the back of the house and saw Ms. Jones’ husband going upstairs. The situation continued for 23 minutes without cooperation of Ms. Jones, including several phone calls to her.”The bodycam video shows her eventually coming out the door and putting her hands up. “I can only hope those same individuals who criticized these public safety heroes will now apologize and condemn the actions of Ms. Jones.

Ron DeSantis is resigning because of a search warrant served on a former Department of Health employee who has criticized the state’s COVID-19 data. Agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement served the search warrant Monday, saying a computer at Jones’s home was used to hack the Department of Health. At 8:30 am this morning, state police came into my house and took all my hardware and tech. “Agents knocked and called Ms. Jones both announcing the search warrant and encouraging her to cooperate. Ms. Jones refused to come to the door for 20 minutes and hung-up on agents.

Hong Kong on Wednesday reported an additional 100 cases, bringing its two-week total to 1,274. Hong Kong has reported a total of 7,075 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic, with 112 deaths. The Texas Department of State Health Services also said 9,028 people were hospitalized across the state. Since late November, the new daily cases have soared past 10,000 on several days, with 15,103 new cases reported Tuesday, according to state health officials. ___BOISE, Idaho — Idaho public health officials abruptly ended a meeting Tuesday evening after the Boise mayor and chief of police said intense anti-mask protests outside the health department building — as well as outside some health officials’ homes — were threatening public safety.

The home of former Florida Department of Health data scientist Rebekah Jones was raided Monday, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed after Jones posted video of the encounter with police on social media. “Agents knocked and called Ms. Jones both announcing the search warrant and encouraging her to cooperate. Ms. Jones refused to come to the door for 20 minutes and hung-up on agents. “After several attempts, Ms. Jones allowed agents inside. — Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah) December 7, 2020Read the search warrantClick here to get breaking news updates sent straight to your email inbox.

She said Health Department managers urged her to manipulate information to paint a rosier picture and that she pushed back. Asa Hutchinson announced plans Monday for a series of community meetings across Arkansas to address the growing surge of coronavirus cases. The state Department of Education is expected to give public school systems the green light to follow the relaxed quarantine rules. But the health department is sticking to a 14-day recommendation for prisons and nursing homes where people live together in tight quarters. When averaged out over seven days, South Carolina is seeing about 2,300 new COVID-19 cases a day.

Florida’s health department has begun releasing data showing COVID-19 cases in schools across the state. The 13-page document first released Tuesday lists schools and colleges that have had COVID-19 cases, but it doesn’t provide a cumulative total of cases reported in all Florida schools and is being criticized as incomplete. “The Department of Health is committed to transparency and providing the most up-to-date COVID-19 information to Floridians. The school report will be updated every Tuesday,” an FDOH spokesperson said in an email. Rebekah Jones, the former FDOH employee, tweeted that the state’s reporting is missing “hundreds of cases” from certain counties that self-report.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Florida reported another 2,610 cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday morning and saw its coronavirus death toll rise over 3,000. Florida is now up to 82,719 total cases and 3,018 deaths associated with COVID-19, according to the latest numbers released by the health department. Florida - testing is roughly holding steady and yet cases are climbing. And he went into detail about the states testing, which he said was among the best in the country. Worldwide, the number of COVID-19 cases reported has surpassed 8.2 million.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Florida reported another 1,758 cases of COVID-19 on Monday morning. Over the past day, Miami-Dade Countys confirmed cases increased by 280 to 22,197. As youre testing more youre going to find more cases and most of the cases are subclinical cases," DeSantis said. The United States has passed 2 million confirmed cases, with over 115,000 deaths from COVID-19, the highest numbers in the world. Worldwide, the number of COVID-19 cases reported has surpassed 7.9 million.

Ron DeSantis on Thursday for a lack of transparency as the state reopens during the coronavirus pandemic. “The common thread here with DeSantis is callousness, indifference and a lack of candor,” U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said. According to the U.S. Labor Department, Floridians filed 223,927 jobless claims last week, after 223,082 were filed the week before. Only California and New York had more new claims filed last week than Florida. The state’s tourism industry has been hardest hit, with almost a quarter of the workers who’ve filed jobless claims coming from that industry.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Rebekah Jones’ career as a geospatial data scientist with the Florida Department of Health began in late 2018 and ended recently. Her final e-mail raised questions about the transparency of Gov. It’s a transparency that a group of news organizations questioned in Leon County Circuit Court in a lawsuit filed April 27 to demand that DeSantis release data on cases at prisons and long-term care facilities. She was on supervised pretrial release when President Donald Trump’s coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, praised her work. “I will always be dedicated to truth and justice,” Jones wrote, adding she wanted to help others to “understand the world a little bit better.”THE TIMELINE