Florida News Archive

Sweet and salty, oysters from Apalachicola Bay are an epicure’s delight.

But the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a major blow to Franklin County’s crippled oyster industry this week, siding with Georgia in a years-long legal “water war” over the river system that flows into the Florida estuary where the tasty tidbits have spawned for centuries.

A survey of 5,110 people incarcerated in prisons and jails in four states — including Florida — shows that more than 45 percent, or 2,318 people, would refuse COVID-19 vaccinations, according to a new “Morbidity and Mortality” report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Another nearly 10 percent of people participating in the survey, or 498 people, said they would “hesitate to receive” vaccines while slightly more than 45 percent of the survey participants or, 2,294 people, said they would get the shots.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking the Florida Legislature to provide bonuses for public school principals and teachers, using $216 million in federal pandemic relief money earmarked for education. The governor is floating $1,000 bonuses for public school principals and classroom teachers in grades PreK-12, which he estimates would go to 3,600 principals and nearly 180,000 teachers throughout the state.

A Florida Senate panel Wednesday signed off on a proposal aimed at keeping most transgender females from participating in high-school and college sports, but the measure stops short of an all-out ban being considered by the House.

The House and Senate are advancing proposals that would create a public-records exemption for information about lawmakers, including their home addresses and phone numbers, but opponents question how the measures would interact with a requirement that lawmakers live in their districts.

A Northwest Florida attorney who drew national headlines by dressing as the Grim Reaper to criticize Gov. Ron DeSantis’ response to the coronavirus pandemic faces possible discipline after prosecutors filed a motion last week.

Lawmakers continued to move forward Tuesday with efforts to limit local-government emergency orders, despite arguments by Democrats that the proposals are a state overreach.

Proposals are moving through the Legislature that would allow Floridians to postpone jury duty for a year during public-health emergencies and states of emergency.

Over the past decade, Florida voters approved changes to the state Constitution that legalized medical marijuana, restored felons’ voting rights and directed more money to land and water conservation.

House and Senate budget leaders are eyeing cuts to higher education spending, but early recommendations would go about it in different ways.