By Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — A divided federal appeals court Wednesday backed a 2023 Florida law that requires teachers to use pronouns that align with their sex assigned at birth, rejecting arguments that the law violated First Amendment rights of a transgender teacher in Hillsborough County. A panel of the […]
By Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — The U.S. Supreme Court should reject a request by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier to at least temporarily allow enforcement of a new law targeting undocumented immigrants who enter the state, attorneys for plaintiffs challenging the law argued Wednesday. Attorneys for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, […]
By Jim Turner and Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — With Gov. Ron DeSantis signing a state budget and a flurry of other bills, the dust has settled on the 2025 legislative session. Here are 10 laws that took effect Tuesday, the start the 2025-2026 fiscal year: BALLOT INITIATIVES: A law (HB […]
A new migrant detention center opened yesterday in the Florida Everglades, with President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in attendance. Nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” the 39-square-mile site located at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport can house up to 5,000 detainees and is surrounded by swampland filled with alligators and pythons, which officials say serves […]
By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed what he said was a $117.4 billion budget for the fiscal year that will start Tuesday and issued $567 million in line-item vetoes, while saying the plan better prepares the state for potential economic downturns. “I think what you […]
By Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — Additional restrictions on the state’s ballot-initiative process that take effect Tuesday could make it impossible for groups to gather enough signatures to place measures before voters next year, lawyers for plaintiffs challenging the new law argued Monday. Florida Decides Healthcare, a political committee sponsoring a […]
By Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — In a ruling that has implications for a battle over a similar Florida law, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld the constitutionality of a Texas law requiring age verification for access to websites with pornographic content. The court, in a 6-3 decision, said the […]
By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — Amid what Gov. Ron DeSantis called the “sauna stage of Tallahassee weather,” attention shifted this week to a proposed migrant detention center in the Everglades and speculation about what the governor will redline from the state’s 2025-2026 budget. During an appearance Thursday in Boca Raton, […]
By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — Florida is working with university leaders from five other Southern states to form a new higher-education accrediting body, Gov. Ron DeSantis and officials from the other states announced Thursday. The Commission for Public Higher Education, which will need federal approval, would be an alternative to […]
By The News Service of Florida Amid controversy about a plan to build a detention facility for undocumented immigrants in the Everglades, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday said a similar facility probably will be added at North Florida’s Camp Blanding. DeSantis said state Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie is working on the plan […]