State Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, filed a proposal Monday that calls for spending $4 million to bolster security at Jewish day schools in Florida --- an issue that also has drawn support from Gov. Ron DeSantis. Fine filed the request for the 2019-2020 budget, which will be negotiated this spring and will take effect […]
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday the White House is extending the number of days debris cleanup from Hurricane Michael will be fully reimbursed by the federal government.
TALLAHASSEE --- Local governments have spent $17.3 million the state provided to combat outbreaks of red tide and toxic blue-green algae, which have caused massive fish kills and fouled waters in coastal areas for more than a year. And as red tide lingers in some Southwest Florida areas, and just $1.7 million of $19 million […]
TALLAHASSEE --- A seemingly annual effort to turn off red-light traffic cameras is again on the move in the Florida House. The House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee voted 12-1 on Wednesday to support a measure (HB 6003) that calls for a repeal of the Mark Wandall Traffic Safety Program law, effective July 1, 2022. The […]
After a similar proposal emerged this month in the House, Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens, filed a proposal Thursday that would expand a needle-exchange program for intravenous drug users. Braynon filed the measure (SB 366) to build off a pilot program that has operated in Miami-Dade County in recent years. Under Braynon’s proposal, needle-exchange programs […]
Florida is once again advertising for a top financial regulator, who will require approval from Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state Cabinet. Applicants for the position of commissioner of the Office of Financial Regulation have until Feb. 14 to apply for the position, which carries a minimum $120,000-a-year salary. The office tweeted the opening and […]
TALLAHASSEE --- Doctors often ask patients to fill out medical histories. But before being licensed in Florida, doctors have to divulge their own medical histories to the state, including disclosing whether they have been treated for mental-health or substance-abuse disorders in the past five years. That could change soon. A committee of the Florida Board […]
Florida lawmakers continue to respond to the state’s opioid epidemic, with Rep. Joe Geller, D-Aventura, filing a bill Tuesday that, among other things, would require pharmacists to place red warning stickers on prescription drug bottles containing opioids or other controlled substances. The warning stickers would be required to flag the addictive nature of opioids and […]
With the idea getting support from Gov. Ron DeSantis, a House Republican has filed a proposal to ban the oil- and gas-drilling process known as “fracking” in Florida. Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen, R-Fort Myers, filed the bill (HB 239) on Thursday, the same day DeSantis released a series of environmental proposals that included opposition to fracking. […]
TALLAHASSEE --- Gov. Ron DeSantis called Thursday for the resignations of all members of the South Florida Water Management District Governing Board, which has been under fire since voting in late November to grant Florida Crystals a lease extension for land eyed for a reservoir. The eight members of the board --- one seat is […]
Former Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Allison Tant and two South Florida Democrats who lost re-election bids last year plan to run for legislative seats in 2020. Tant opened a campaign account Thursday to run in Leon County’s House District 9, which is expected to be open because Rep. Loranne Ausley, D-Tallahassee, is running for the […]
TALLAHASSEE --- For the first time in eight years, the Florida Cabinet has a Democratic member, who already intends to make waves when the revamped panel meets for the first time Friday. Gov. Ron DeSantis and the three Cabinet members, who were sworn into office Tuesday, are expected to have a discussion Friday about the […]
The chief judge of the 1st District Court of Appeal appeared skeptical Tuesday of a decision by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to block a Broward County landowner from drilling an exploratory oil well in the Everglades. A three-judge panel of the appellate court heard arguments in an appeal by Kanter Real Estate, LLC, […]
The Florida Supreme Court will hear arguments March 6 in a dispute about whether a controversial 2017 change to the state’s “stand your ground” self-defense law should apply to older cases. The 2017 change shifted a key burden of proof in “stand your ground” cases --- a shift that can play a role in determining […]
TALLAHASSEE --- Ron DeSantis will be Florida’s youngest governor in more than a century when he takes office on Tuesday. DeSantis, a former congressman from Ponte Vedra Beach, turned 40 about two weeks after he won the Aug. 28 Republican primary. He will be the youngest governor on Inauguration Day since Park Trammell took the […]
TALLAHASSEE --- Attorneys for a transgender inmate and the Florida Department of Corrections are battling in a federal appeals court about whether the state’s treatment of the inmate violated her constitutional rights. The Department of Corrections took the case to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in September after U.S. District Judge Mark Walker […]
TALLAHASSEE --- “Personal and system failures” culminated in the mass shooting that left 14 students and three faculty members dead and 17 people wounded at a Broward County high school, according to a report by a state panel that spent months investigating the Valentine’s Day massacre. The report, unanimously approved Wednesday by the Marjory Stoneman […]
TALLAHASSEE --- Minimum-wage workers will get a pay raise, businesses will get a break on insurance bills and a few new laws will take effect Tuesday as 2019 begins in Florida. Minimum-wage workers will start earning $8.46 an hour Tuesday, up from $8.25 an hour in 2018 --- and more than a dollar above the […]
