First-time jobless claims in Florida dropped for a second consecutive week.

The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday estimated 5,806 initial unemployment claims were filed last week, down from a revised count of 6,281 the week ending July 18 and 7,334 the week ending July 11.

The numbers remain close to the state’s weekly average since the start of the year. Including this past week, the average is 6,000 new claims per week.

The weekly estimate comes as the state Department of Commerce in the latter half of July received a series of layoff notifications that will affect more than 1,000 workers over the next several months.

Parallel Florida, LLC has already started to lay off 211 workers after closing cannabis facilities in Wimauma and Lakeland.

In September, Freight Handlers LLC, known as FHI, will eliminate 168 jobs as it stops providing third-party unloading services to some Publix distribution locations in Lakeland and Sarasota.

In October, Magic Leap, a tech company involved with AR glasses, intends to lay off nearly 200 engineering and product development workers in Plantation.

Also, Amazon is temporarily closing a distribution facility in Port St. Lucie on Sept. 17, which will affect nearly 500 employees. The company notes in its Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice to the state that some employees will be offered “internal transfer opportunities.”

Former House Speaker Paul Renner is attempting to climb up the polls and drag down U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds in the Republican gubernatorial primary, but he’s also trained his sights at Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Fauci, who was a top medical advisor to President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden during the COVID-19 pandemic, garnered headlines this week for invoking his Fifth Amendment right not to testify before a Congressional hearing.

“Was he involved in helping a foreign adversary to produce a deadly weapon basically that was unleashed on the rest of us?” Renner asked in an interview with the News Service of Florida.

Renner was referring to the allegation the National Institute of Health helped fund gain of function research, which tests how altered viruses act in the real world, at a lab in Wuhan, the Chinese city that saw the first outbreak of COVID-19. Fauci was a leader at NIH for decades and has previously denied the agency funded such research.

“If he did something that would be an act of treason, fundamentally, because tens of millions of people died from COVID – so he killed a lot more than serial killers and we know what we do to serial killers in Florida,” Renner said. “He needs to be held accountable.”

Other Republican gubernatorial hopefuls have slammed Fauci in a similar way.

Lt. Gov. Jay Collins called Fauci “one of the greatest mass murderers in American history.” Donalds has criticized Fauci as well, but noted former U.S. Rep. David Jolly, the frontrunner for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, has praised his efforts during the pandemic.

“In David Jolly’s Florida, frauds like Anthony Fauci are put in charge. Not in my Florida,” Donalds posted on X on Thursday.

The Aug. 18 primary is less than three weeks away. 

Renner said Donalds is ignoring base Republican voters in his campaign, especially by refusing to debate him, Collins and conservative activist and investor James Fishback.

But he also acknowledged Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is term-limited, hasn’t helped consolidate a coalition to defeat Donalds, who is the GOP frontrunner who has been endorsed by Trump. DeSantis, while being critical of Donalds, hasn’t endorsed anyone else in the race.

“Well, the governor obviously could help in consolidating,” Renner said. “Nonetheless, we see momentum and that people want the adult in the room.”

On the campaign trail, Renner touts his record as House Speaker from 2022-2024, when he helped shepherd much of DeSantis’ agenda into law. He listed off several major bills – legalizing the permitless carry of firearms; banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy; universal vouchers – passed under his watch.

And Renner noted Donalds, a former state House member who won a U.S. House seat in 2020, was in Congress during that time.

“Byron Donalds was up getting on cable news networks, self-promoting to become governor, and that’s what he’ll do as governor for the next higher office,” Renner said. “We need somebody who’s actually going to be here to govern.”

Sales have been brisk for state lottery games after a brief period where inflation apparently caused consumers to dial back purchases of scratch-off tickets.

The Florida Lottery reported $9.7 billion in sales for all games in the fiscal year that ended June 30, a 6.35 percent increase from the prior year.

“Scratch-Off games continued to be a strong contributor to the Lottery’s success, generating $7.14 billion in sales, an increase of more than $308 million compared to Fiscal Year 2025,” Lottery Director of Communications & Strategic Partnerships Alecia Collins wrote in an email. “Draw game sales also experienced significant growth, reaching $2.56 billion, an increase of more than $271 million.”

The draw game sales figure doesn’t include state revenue from the recent rollover jackpots in the multi-state games of Powerball and Mega Millions, where the winning ticket on Tuesday was sold at a Wawa in Bradenton.

But the overall total indicates a potential reversal of an expected two-year slowdown in play, with sales down to around $9.1 billion in fiscal year 2024-2025 and $9.4 billion in fiscal year 2023-2024 after reaching $9.8 billion in fiscal year 2022-2023.  

In September 2024, state economists attributed the drop in play to a decline in scratch-off sales as consumers faced inflationary pressures coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic period, which saw a spike in Lottery purchases.

At the time, the economic forecast for the games projected Lottery sales to decline to $8.8 billion in the 2024-2025 fiscal year and slowly return to the $9 billion mark by the 2027-2028 fiscal year.

By January of this year, however, the Revenue Estimating Conference noted the increase in people playing scratch-off games as it revised its economic outlook for the state.

“The gain to the (Lottery) forecast in the current year was largely attributable to higher-than-expected Scratch-Off sales,” the conference wrote on Jan. 15. “The new sales data suggests that there will be stronger year-over-year growth than originally anticipated.”

“In its new forecast, the Conference projects 5.2 percent growth in the current year, before a return in the outer years to growth rates that mirror population growth as expected in August 2025,” the conference report continued.

State economists will again look at the Lottery numbers on Aug. 7, ahead of an overall update of the state’s general revenue on Aug. 14.

Collins noted that sales in the past fiscal year, along with earnings on investments and unclaimed prizes, generated about $2.36 billion from the Lottery to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund.

Florida’s newest guidelines warn against prescribing psychotropic medications for children, echoing the Make America Healthy Again movement’s push to impose changes on childhood health care.

On Friday the Florida Department of Health issued guidance for psychotropic pharmacotherapy in children 5 to 17, recommending against the use of drugs to treat mental health conditions like depression, anxiety or attention-deficit related disorders in most cases.

Two months prior, at a Make America Healthy Again summit in Washington, D.C., Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said the agency would address the overuse of psychiatric medications among children.

Florida’s guidance follows suit.

“As more families seek support for conditions such as anxiety, depression, and attention-deficit disorders, treatment should be guided by a thorough understanding of each child’s unique circumstances and needs,” State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo said in Orange County on Friday. “Parents deserve access to clear information about the benefits, risks, and available alternatives so they can make informed decisions regarding their children’s health.”

It’s the latest instance of Florida channeling Kennedy’s MAHA agenda.

In the last year, First Lady Casey DeSantis and Ladapo have toured the state promoting the Healthy Florida First initiative, which tests for toxins and heavy metals in food.

A more controversial proposal was Ladapo’s call for the Legislature to repeal all vaccine mandates, and DeSantis’ push for pediatricians to accept all patients regardless of vaccination status. Lawmakers didn’t pass either plan in the legislative session earlier this year.

In the state’s new guidance statement, the DOH “cautions” health care providers in prescribing psychotropic medications for anxiety, depression, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and behavioral disorders.

Instead, the state recommends employing other strategies, including psychotherapy, evidence-based behavior management and deprescribing medications.

“Psychotropic medications can play an important role in treatment when they are clinically appropriate and medically necessary, but they should never be used as a substitute for individual therapy and other psychosocial care options,” said Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Shevaun Harris in a released statement. 

In response to HHS in May, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) said the agency’s statement “broadly and imprecisely challenges established psychiatric diagnoses and evidence?based treatments,” creating risk for children and families.

“AACAP urges policymakers to ensure that decisions affecting access to psychiatric medications and mental health services are grounded in evidence and informed by child and adolescent psychiatrists and other qualified clinicians,” said Dr. John Walkup, AACAP president.

The Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the AACAP could not be reached for comment.

A spokesperson for DOH said the state’s guidelines do not contradict the AACAP’s recommendation and are intended to raise awareness.

“The Department’s guidance emphasizes the importance of comprehensive assessment before psychotropic medications are prescribed, including evaluating underlying risk factors and ensuring appropriate clinical oversight,” said Nathalia Medina, deputy director of communications.

Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback will remain on the Aug. 18 primary ballot after a Leon Circuit Court judge ruled Monday his opponent, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, didn’t prove he lived outside the state within the last seven years.

The seven-year residency requirement to be eligible to run for governor is in the state constitution. Collins alleged Fishback voted in Washington D.C. in 2020 and established a homestead there when he bought an apartment in 2021, making him ineligible.

But Judge David Frank found that the burden of proof was on Collins to show Fishback abandoned his residence in Florida and the presumption in state law is to follow the candidate’s declared statement of residence.

“Florida residency law places great weight on the subjective intent of the person declaring residency,” Frank wrote. “That law may be imprudent, or it may give too much leeway to a person seeking or maintaining residency. But it is the law.”

The ruling means Fishback, who has trailed in polls along with Collins to the frontrunner, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Naples, will remain on the ballot and any votes for him will count. A fourth major GOP candidate, former state House Speaker Paul Renner, is also in the mix for the primary.

Mail ballots have already been returned throughout the state.

“This isn’t just a victory for our campaign. It’s a victory for the constitution and for every Floridians who believes elections should be decided by voters, not politicians trying to rig the system,” Fishback stated after the ruling was released.

Before a hearing in the case last week, Fishback declared he’d throw Collins campaign consultant John Cardillo, who attended the hearing, in jail when he became governor for pursuing the lawsuit.

Ultimately, Frank wrote in his ruling, Collins’ attorneys didn’t present enough concrete evidence to refute Fishback’s claim that he ended up being “stuck” in Washington D.C. during the Covid-19 pandemic and he was really living at his grandmother’s house in Broward County during that period.

The apartment he bought was only for investment purposes, Fishback maintained during the hearing, even though he acknowledged that meant he gave false information on mortgage papers he signed saying it would be his primary residence.

Frank stated the most compelling piece of evidence against Fishback was a letter regarding his purchase of a home in Madison County, Florida in 2022, which declared, “my new purchase will serve as my new primary residence. I plan to keep 2325 42nd St NW Washington DC as a second home or as a future investment property.”

Yet that piece of evidence wasn’t enough to overcome Fishback’s defense, which pointed to his background of being born and raised in Florida, along with his “family, social, and business ties to Florida.”

Collins “has not brought forth enough substantial and competent evidence to rebut these important presumptions,” Frank wrote. “This Court will not be deciding the race between the Lieutenant Governor and Mr. Fishback. That will be in the very sound hands of the voters.”

The Florida chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police is the latest public safety organization to oppose Amendment 3, the proposed constitutional amendment designed to provide property tax relief to homeowners but which critics allege could radically reduce revenues for local government essential services, including public safety.

“The Florida State Fraternal Order of Police believes Florida taxpayers deserve meaningful property tax relief,” the organization said in a written statement Friday. “We understand the financial pressures facing homeowners, and we support thoughtful, responsible reforms that provide relief while protecting the essential services our communities depend on.

“However, we oppose the current Amendment 3 because it creates far too much uncertainty about how local governments would continue to fund law enforcement, fire rescue, emergency medical services, and other critical public safety functions. Public safety should never become collateral damage with uncertain fiscal consequences.”

If approved, the proposed amendment would increase homestead exemptions for Floridians who own primary residences by the end of this year to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. Further increases would be tied to the Consumer Price Index.  The amendment would cap assessment increases on other property to 5% a year.

Last week, the Florida Fire Chiefs’ Association became the first major statewide public safety organization to formally oppose Amendment 3, saying providing tax relief and reliable emergency services “are not mutually exclusive, but both require responsible long-term planning.”

According to state economists, the proposed amendment would reduce local government property tax revenues by an estimated $5 billion in its first year and $11.8 billion per year after five years.

The Florida Democratic Party announced its opposition to the measure earlier this week, while the Republican Party of Florida has yet to take a public stance.

Gov. Ron DeSantis campaigned on providing major property tax reduction for homestead property owners over the past year, but didn’t unveil his own plan until less than a week before he called the Florida Legislature to convene for a special session in June.

After it was approved with some changes to his plan, he has said that, while he will vote yes on the amendment, he is not as enthused about it and will not head any political group championing the measure. That’s a noticeable difference from 2024, when he formed a political committee and actively campaigned against proposed constitutional amendments that would have legalized recreational cannabis and enshrined abortion rights into the Florida Constitution.

Since March, deportations ordered by immigration judges in Florida have increased 18 percent, according to recently released data.

In June, judges issued 5,415 removal orders, a 17.6 percent increase compared to March’s 4,605 removal orders, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a nonprofit that tracks immigration data.

Florida follows a national trend of an increase in deportation orders, which hit an all-time high of 79,000 in June, the most orders issued in a month so far in President Donald Trump’s second term.

Even though Florida remains one of the top states for overall deportations, it lagged behind an average national surge of 30 percent, as other states saw steeper climbs in the number of people ordered to be deported to their country of origin between the months of March to June.

For example, Illinois saw a 120 percent increase in removal orders, from 3,228 to 7,087 over the four-month period.

In June, removal orders were the most likely outcome in immigration court proceedings across the country, with 78 percent of the court cases resulting in deportation orders. Out of the 99,441 cases heard, 1,883 immigrants were allowed to remain in the country.

Nationally, Haitians saw one of the largest jumps in removal orders with a 96 percent increase over four months, according to the TRAC data. In late June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration could end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Syrian immigrants.

And while Mexico is the destination country for the largest share of removal orders in the U.S., with 121,001 since last October (the beginning of the federal fiscal year), in Florida the most removal orders were issued to those originally from Guatemala.

Out of the state’s approximately 35,300 removal orders issued since last October, 5,027 Guatemalans were ordered to be sent back to their country of origin. Venezuela ranked second, with 4,783; Honduras ranked third, with 4,220; and Cuba ranked fourth, with 4,007 removal orders.

There were 948 people were granted relief in that time frame.

With 3,934 detainees, Florida ranks fifth among states. About a quarter of immigrants detained in Florida are housed in a state-run immigration detention facility in Baker County dubbed Deportation Depot. Alligator Alcatraz, a billion-dollar tent facility located in the Everglades that was in operation for nearly a year, closed earlier this month.

Miami-Dade County still leads with the most pending immigration court deportation cases out of any court in the country, with 137,373.

High school students headed to college will have their disciplinary records transferred to the institution they attend, a policy prompted by the Legislature’s post-Florida State University shootings higher education safety package. 

The provision was part of HB 757, a package designed to prevent another tragedy such as the campus shootings at FSU in 2025, when two people were killed and more were injured. Most notably, that package arms trained college and university faculty.

Wednesday, the Florida Board of Education adopted a provision requiring the records transfer into administrative policy.

Under the language approved, when a student enrolls in a postsecondary institution, his or her school district must transfer disciplinary records for the student to the college. Those records include “verified reports of serious or recurrent behavior patterns, including all documentation and related information for reports of concerning behavior, concerning communication, or threats that are documented.”

Also, the report should include any “psychological evaluations, including therapeutic treatment plans and therapy progress notes created or maintained by district or charter school staff.”

“This builds on the system that we’ve developed over the past two or three years of providing a portal for our districts to be able to keep track of threats that are posed to the schools, and it just makes sense to be able to share that information more easily with other districts, because we have kids that move,” Board of Education Chair Ryan Petty said Wednesday at a meeting in Orlando. 

Petty’s daughter, Alaina, was killed in the Parkland shootings in 2018. Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Petty to the board following the 2018 mass shooting and he commonly advocates for school safety. 

State law already required threat assessments to be transferred with a student from K-12 school to K-12 school.

Board member Layla Collins asked questions about the sequence of college applications and forwarding the behavior reports to the university. She voiced concern about keeping students safe from other students with intent to harm while balancing the unintended implications of forwarding a student’s juvenile record into his or her adult life as a college student. 

Petty said the process is not meant to be “punitive,” but to “address the concerns or the grievances the student may have that’s causing them to think or plan some sort of violent activity.”

Petty conceded: “I can’t sit before you right now and say that a college that got this information couldn’t use that in some punitive way; perhaps they could. Maybe it could be a condition of admittance.”

Collins, a former military counterintelligence agent, said she is “all for the security aspect” but that the board might want to revisit the topic as it pertains to data collection.

“From my perspective as someone that was a collector that understands how things change, and perspective and so much is subjective, that at some point we say, ‘We might need to revisit that break between childhood and adulthood,’ to ensure that our students are not penalized for a rough patch that they had,” Collins said, offering a hypothetical of a young girl making comments about self harm affecting her as a college student.

The Florida Board of Education unanimously approved Henry Mack as the state’s new education commissioner on Wednesday.

Mack, a former senior chancellor at the Department of Education and most recently the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor, was recommended for the position by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday.

“It is an honor beyond words to be entrusted with stewarding Florida schools at this pivotal moment,” Mack told the Board.

Mack replaces Anastasios Kamoutsas, who recently became president of Polk State College, and interim commissioner Paul Burns, a senior chancellor at DOE. The position pays approximately $330,000 a year.

Burns said it was an honor to be the interim president for the three weeks he served and looked forward to working with Mack.

“As a parent himself, I know that he believes in parental rights and in school choice, and so board members I just wanted to share that today, you will be making an excellent choice for Florida’s students, for all of Florida’s educators and for Florida families by choosing Dr. Mack to be our next commissioner of education,” Burns said.

Mack worked for DOE from 2019-2023, led the state’s career and technical education initiatives and heavily supported DeSantis’ parental rights policies.

“I am confident Dr. Mack will build on Florida’s record of success in education,” DeSantis said in a statement. “He shares our commitment to parental rights, school choice, eliminating radical ideologies from the classroom, and preparing every student for success in the workforce and in life.”

Florida College System presidents, including those from Miami-Dade College, St. Petersburg College and Pasco-Hernando State College, spoke in favor of Mack as the new commissioner, as well as the head of the Florida Chamber of Commerce and career and technical education professionals throughout the state.

“Dr. Mack is a leader, I also believe he’s anointed. You’ve heard several people talk about his skill set, but I’ll close with he is also chosen for such a time as this,” said Mel Ponder, president of Northwest Florida State College.

During his time with DOE, Mack was critical of diversity, equity and inclusion programs and a proponent of “classical” education, a teaching approach backed by conservatives.

“Florida is restoring the classical aims of public education — starting by confining woke ideology to ‘the dustbin of history,’” he posted on social media in 2023.

Mack has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the Catholic University of America and a doctorate in education from the University of Miami.

He has taught courses in religion and philosophy at the University of Miami and Florida International University.

“Dr. Mack is a respected academic. He is very forward thinking, and I believe he will support our students and our parents,” said Vice Chairwoman MaryLynn Magar.

The Florida Department of Education is poised to direct all school districts to incorporate rules regarding artificial intelligence in their internet safety guidelines.

DOE will discuss the proposed rule change at a workshop on Aug. 5, according to state documents.

The department is citing Florida laws requiring adherence to Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and protecting private student information.

Florida law prevents an “operator” of an internet website “used primarily for K-12 purposes” from knowingly collecting and sharing data on students. That data includes biometric information, disabilities, socioeconomic information, food purchases, political affiliations, religious information, text messages, documents, student identifiers, search activity, photos, voice recordings or geolocation information.

The state Senate attempted to pass an AI Bill of Rights this year, but the measure failed after the House blocked multiple attempts to get it to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk.

The proposal called in part for establishing parents’ rights to control children’s interactions with AI chatbots, prohibiting state agencies from contracting with AI firms tied to a “foreign country of concern,” and setting rules about the unauthorized use of people’s names, images or likenesses.

A tropical storm watch was in place from Florida’s western border to Mississippi on Monday due to a depression expected to become a named storm later in the day.

If named, the system now designated Tropical Depression Two, would become Bertha.

The depression, located in the Gulf about 120 miles south of Panama City early Monday, was moving slowly northwestward.

According to the National Hurricane Center, the storm was sandwiched between two mid-level ridges: one to its northwest centered over the Rockies and one to its southeast centered near the Bahamas. According to the center, the ridges could steer the depression toward the Mississippi River within three days.

“This tropical rainstorm will likely move into the Florida Panhandle or the Big Bend area, bringing flooding rain across portions of the southeastern United States,” said Alex DaSilva, AccuWeather hurricane expert. “While rainfall will be welcome across portions of the Florida Panhandle due to an ongoing drought, the flooding risk can be increased due to dry soil. This dry, hard soil can allow the water to run off instead of being absorbed right away.” 

For the first time since the end of 2024, Florida’s unemployment rate went down last month.

A report released Friday by the Department of Commerce shows the state’s jobless rate for June at 4.7 percent, a reduction from 4.8 percent the prior two months. The rate is still 0.5 percentage points higher than the national average.

Driven by increases in restaurant, hotel, health care, transportation and warehousing jobs last month, the state saw an 11,100 increase, 0.1 percent, in overall new positions from May to June.

The June numbers show 525,000 Floridians qualified as out-of-work, up 107,000 from a year earlier, from a workforce of 11.14 million, up 56,000 in the same time.

The state’s unemployment rate had been on a gradual upward trend since ticking down from 3.5 percent in November 2024 to 3.4 percent in December 2024.

Nationally, the jobless rate stands at 4.2 percent, up from 4.1 percent a year earlier.

Even with the one-month decline, the state’s unemployment rate stands 0.9 percentage points higher than a year ago.

Construction jobs have decreased by 3,200 over the past year, including a 900 drop from May to June. Positions in the retail trade were up 100 from May to June but still are down 5,900 from a year earlier.

The field of finance and insurance reported adding 1,600 positions in the past month, but is still down 8,700 over the year.

Real estate jobs dropped by 1,000 and are down 4,200 over the last 12 months.

Governments in Florida shed 900 jobs in the past month and 10,500 over the year, with the federal government accounting for 7,700 of the decrease over the past year.

The biggest gain over the past year involved health care and social assistance, adding 5,500 in the past month and 32,400 on the year.

The area of transportation, warehousing, and utilities grew by 4,100 in June, which put the field at a positive 900 over the past year.

Manufacturing is up 400 on the year after reporting the addition of 600 positions in June.

Educational services, which are up 6,600 jobs on the year, posted a drop of 500 jobs in the June report.

Hotel and food service jobs grew by 4,000 in the June report but remain down 2,700 from a year earlier.

South Florida continues to have the lowest unemployment rate, with the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan statistical area at 3.9 percent, up from a revised 3.7 percent in May and 3.3 percent in June 2025.

The Orlando and Panama City regions were next at 4.6 percent.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area was at 4.7 percent. Jacksonville, Naples and Melbourne were at 4.8 percent. Pensacola and Sarasota both stood at 4.9 percent.

Tallahassee has a  5 percent unemployment rate, followed by Daytona Beach at 5.3 percent, Gainesville at 5.5 percent, Vero Beach at 5.6 percent and Lakeland at 5.7 percent.

The Wildwood region, including The Villages has the highest unemployment rate at 7.8 percent, followed by Homosassa Springs at 6.7 percent and Sebring at 6.6 percent.