Tallahassee – A federal judge Tuesday blocked a 2024 Florida law aimed at keeping children off social-media platforms, saying it likely violates First Amendment rights and pointing to the role of parents in policing social-media use.

Tallahassee – Former Florida State University President and House Speaker John Thrasher, whose career in politics and public service spanned more than three decades, died May 30 after a battle with cancer, his family announced.

Tallahassee – A federal judge has rejected a request by Florida corrections officials to dismiss a potential class-action lawsuit alleging the state has violated inmates’ rights because of hot conditions at a prison in Miami-Dade County.

Tallahassee – With another potentially active Atlantic hurricane season on the horizon, Florida is preparing for the possibility the federal government won’t respond like it has in the past.

Tallahassee – “Fear and uncertainty” about a new law targeting the state’s ballot-initiative process has led to a significant drop in people working to collect signatures for 2026 ballot measures, groups challenging the law told a federal judge on Thursday.

Tallahassee – A federal judge Thursday rejected an attempt by Florida to scuttle a constitutional challenge to a 2021 state law that placed restrictions on social-media platforms.

(By Jim Turner) Amid support from hunters and warnings of a “slaughter” from animal-rights advocates, state wildlife officials Wednesday moved forward with Florida’s first black bear hunt in a decade. Before a crowd that spread into at least four extra rooms at the College of Central Florida in Ocala, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted 4-1 for staff members to return with rules for a December hunt that would be held in four parts of the state and could lead to as many as 187 bears being killed.

Ocala – Amid support from hunters and warnings of a “slaughter” from animal-rights advocates, state wildlife officials Wednesday moved forward with Florida’s first black bear hunt in a decade.

Tallahassee – Records related to a state House probe of a nonprofit linked to First Lady Casey DeSantis’ signature Hope Florida assistance program are part of an “open” investigation, Leon County State Attorney Jack Campbell’s office said May 20.

Tallahassee – A federal judge Monday ordered the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to take a series of steps aimed at protecting manatees in the northern Indian River Lagoon, including requiring it to go through a federal permitting process and temporarily preventing new septic tanks in the area.