TALLAHASSEE — Saying they are trying to help President Donald Trump crack down on illegal immigration, Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature late Tuesday passed a plan that includes boosting criminal penalties for undocumented immigrants, ending in-state tuition rates for undocumented-immigrant students and creating a state “chief immigration officer.” The bill, which passed in a special legislative session, […]
By Jim Saunders, Dara Kam and Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature will revamp immigration laws this week but issued a sharp rebuke Monday to Gov. Ron DeSantis that included overriding a budget veto from last year. The House and Senate started and quickly ended a special legislative session […]
By Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — On the eve of a special legislative session called by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican lawmakers Sunday filed a flurry of bills to crack down on undocumented immigrants and place additional restrictions on the ballot initiative process. The bills, in part, would end in-state tuition at […]
By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida Florida lawmakers have started filing what are expected to be hundreds of proposals seeking money for local projects and programs — but legislative leaders are cautioning not to expect as much spending as in the past few years. As of Tuesday morning, House members had filed 40 […]
By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida With Florida school districts facing a 2026 deadline, a Senate Republican on Friday filed a proposal that would repeal requirements aimed at later start times for many high schools. The proposal (SB 296), filed by Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island, would undo changes that lawmakers passed in […]
TALLAHASSEE — Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody was named Thursday by Gov. Ron DeSantis to replace U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who is in line to become President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of state. Moody, a Republican who was first elected attorney general in 2018, has been a close ally of DeSantis in fights against the Biden […]
By Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — Two months after a similar measure failed to garner enough voter support to pass, a political committee bankrolled by the state’s largest medical-marijuana company has launched a new effort to allow recreational pot in Florida. The revamped proposal, filed Tuesday at the state Division of […]
By Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — More than two years after challenging his suspension by Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren hit a legal dead-end Friday. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the dismissal of Warren’s lawsuit against DeSantis, saying the […]
By Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — Two years after Republican lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis approved a controversial measure restricting the use of personal pronouns in schools, legislative debate about the gender-related issue could shift to cities and counties. John Labriola, a lobbyist for Christian Family Coalition Florida, told Marion County […]
By Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida The Florida Senate and Secretary of State Cord Byrd last week urged a panel of federal judges to reject a lawsuit alleging that part of a 2022 Senate redistricting plan is unconstitutional because two Tampa Bay-area districts were racially gerrymandered. Attorneys for Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, […]