Florida News Archive

Florida this week surpassed 20,000 resident deaths from COVID-19. The largest numbers of deaths have happened in heavily populated Southeast Florida. But here are the dozen counties with the fewest COVID-19 resident deaths as of a Tuesday count:

— Franklin: 4

Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state Cabinet agreed Tuesday to spend more than $16.7 million to protect fields in Southwest Florida where federally endangered Florida panthers roam and land in Washington County that could be used for hunting and other recreation.

A day after President Donald Trump lost the Electoral College vote, Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested Tuesday that the exit of his close political ally from the White House could affect Florida on issues such as the coronavirus pandemic.

A new forecast for Medicaid shows state economists and health officials continue to predict a jump in the number of people enrolling in the coming year — bringing a dramatic surge in the amount of money needed for the safety-net program.

More than two years after lawmakers passed a measure to expand benefits for first responders who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, an appeals court Monday rejected a claim because it said a Palm Beach County Fire Rescue crew member did not file it in time.

Florida’s Electoral College voters Monday cast their 29 ballots for President Donald Trump with hopes the Republican incumbent can still find a way to overturn election results in other states.

The first wave of coronavirus vaccinations began in Florida on Monday, with health-care workers in Tampa and Jacksonville among the first to get inoculated.

TALLAHASSEE — Pointing to what they called “baseless” legal arguments, lawyers for Gov. Ron DeSantis have urged an appeals court to sanction a Northwest Florida attorney who filed a lawsuit to try to force DeSantis to close beaches to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

TALLAHASSEE — At this point, it seems almost like an afterthought.

Twenty-nine presidential electors will gather Monday in the state Senate chamber and formally put Florida in Republican President Donald Trump’s column.

A federal appeals court Friday rejected a lawsuit filed by current and former students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who alleged that Broward County officials had a “custodial” duty to protect them from the 2018 mass shooting at the Parkland school. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court decision that sided with a series of defendants, including Broward County, Superintendent of Schools Robert Runcie, former Sheriff Scott Israel and former school-resource officer Scot Peterson.