TALLAHASSEE — A slate of bills aimed at reducing regulations on public schools began moving forward Wednesday, as a key Florida Senate panel signed off on changes such as eliminating testing requirements for earning high-school diplomas.

Tallahassee – In a whistleblower lawsuit involving two well-known Capitol insiders, a former high-ranking employee of Florida TaxWatch accused the non-profit organization’s leader of sexual harassment, drinking on the job and retaliation.

Four advocacy groups have gone to an appeals court after a federal judge rejected a lawsuit challenging a Florida requirement for “wet” signatures on voter-registration forms.

TALLAHASSEE — Florida lawmakers are looking at ways to take some regulations off the books for public schools.

The Senate Education Pre-K-12 Committee and the House Education Quality Subcommittee held workshops this week on the issue, after a deregulation effort was included in a law (HB 1) passed in March that massively expanded the state’s school-voucher programs.

A federal judge has awarded more than $372,000 in legal fees to attorneys who represented professors in a high-profile lawsuit against the University of Florida over being able to serve as expert witnesses in court cases.

It was heart-wrenching.

As the Florida House began a special legislative session Monday, Holocaust survivor David Schaecter offered an invocation and told of being an 11-year-old boy watching his mother and two younger sisters get gunned down by Nazis.

After Florida Power & Light said the tab for restoring electricity after Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole was lower than expected, state regulators Thursday approved a proposal that will reduce the amount of storm costs passed along to customers.

Fruit and vegetable growers who say they are combating “unfair foreign trade” from Mexico want support during the 2024 legislative session with issues such as artificial intelligence and mechanization that could reduce labor costs.

Peppering lawyers for the state and the Florida Chamber of Commerce with questions, some Florida Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical Wednesday of arguments that the court should reject a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow recreational use of marijuana by people 21 or older.

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday said state regulators did not adequately justify approval of a settlement that increased base electric rates for Florida Power & Light and ordered a new explanation. Justices, in a 4-2 opinion, sent a battle about the settlement back to the Florida Public Service Commission, saying regulators in a 2021 decision did not meet a legal requirement of showing why the agreement “is in the public interest and results in rates that are fair, just and reasonable.”