Florida News Archive

TALLAHASSEE — Delivering what likely will be his final address to Florida State University’s Faculty Senate, President John Thrasher this week pledged to continue his efforts to keep guns off campus.

Thrasher, an FSU alum who announced earlier this year that he intends to step down as president, has long opposed proposals that would allow people with concealed-weapons licenses to carry firearms on Florida college and university campuses.

TALLAHASSEE — In the latest chapter in a long-running legal battle, a circuit judge has ruled that the Florida Department of Transportation cannot be forced to pay damages to bondholders because of lost toll revenues on a Panhandle bridge.

The ruling by Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper centered on the Garcon Point Bridge, which spans part of Pensacola Bay but has never produced enough money from tolls to pay off bonds that financed its construction.

The death toll of Florida prison inmates from COVID-19 has reached 189, with two additional deaths listed Wednesday on the state Department of Corrections website.

Attorney General Ashley Moody said Wednesday the state has recovered about $2 million for consumers after such things as price gouging and scams related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the Florida House and Senate early this year asked for a rehearing in the case, a federal appeals court Tuesday again cleared the way for a lawsuit that alleges the Legislature has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by not providing closed captioning on online videos of meetings.

As utilities continue moving forward with plans to expand solar energy, state regulators next week will take up a Duke Energy Florida proposal that would add 10 solar plants in the coming years.

The first Florida correctional officer to die after contracting the coronavirus was a 65-year-old sergeant who worked for the state Department of Corrections for three decades.

More than 21,500 lionfish were removed from state waters in just over five months through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s fifth-annual “Lionfish Challenge.”