By The News Service of Florida Average gasoline prices in Florida continue to linger around $3 a gallon, increasing 3 cents over the past week. The AAA auto club said Florida motorists Monday paid an average of $3.07 for a gallon of regular unleaded, up from $3.04 a week earlier. Average prices have remained around […]
By Jay Waagmeester, The Florida Phoenix Florida state troopers have charged a truck driver with three counts of vehicular manslaughter following a crash in St. Lucie County last week. The truck driver, Harjinder Singh, entered the United States illegally in 2018, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Singh holds a […]
By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s unemployment rate held at 3.7 percent in July, with a state economist saying demand remains high for workers. “The number of job openings is up from the same point in the year before,” Jimmy Heckman, chief of workforce statistics and economic research at the […]
Florida had 6,230 initial unemployment claims during the week that ended Aug. 9, down slightly from the previous week, according to a report issued Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor. The state had a revised count of 6,252 claims during the week that ended Aug. 2. The state has averaged 6,866 claims a week […]
By Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — Amid legal wrangling over a controversial immigrant-detention center in the Everglades, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday said the state plans to use a shuttered prison in North Florida to boost detention of people targeted for deportation. The conversion of Baker Correctional Institution, which state corrections […]
By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida HAVANA — Despite pleas from animal-rights advocates, Florida wildlife officials on Wednesday approved holding a 23-day bear hunt in December that could lead to 187 bears being killed. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission approved rules for the state’s first bear hunt in more than a […]
By Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — Siding with publishers and authors, a federal judge Wednesday ruled that a key part of a 2023 Florida law that has led to books being removed from school library shelves is “overbroad and unconstitutional.” U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza issued a 50-page decision in a […]
By The News Service of Florida Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson are expected this week to tout a new program that involves buying and distributing fresh food products to help people who are “food insecure.” Albritton said Monday during a Hardee County legislative delegation meeting that he and Simpson will […]
By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday appointed Sen. Jay Collins, a Tampa Republican and retired Army Green Beret, to the long-vacant position of lieutenant governor amid speculation that Collins could run for governor in 2026. DeSantis said he selected Collins, who served 23 years in the […]
The state’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. added more than 600 policies last week as it continues to slowly grow. Citizens had 783,344 policies on Friday, up from 782,728 policies a week earlier and 781,467 policies two weeks earlier, according to data posted on its website. The policy count has gradually increased in recent weeks amid […]