Florida's Latest News

DeSantis ends his term as Florida governor in 2026. Can he run again?

The sun is slowly setting on Gov. Ron DeSantis' second term.

Florida voters will elect their next governor on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, during the state's gubernatorial election. The winner will be sworn into office in January 2027 for a four-year term.

DeSantis has been the governor of Florida since January 2019. Can he run again?

DeSantis was first elected in 2018 and began his term in office on Jan. 8, 2019. He was re-elected by a landslide in 2022.

He is ineligible to run again in the 2026 Florida gubernatorial election and will leave office in January 2027. 

Florida, like 22 other states, limits governors to two consecutive, four-year terms.

The Florida Constitution says, "No person who has, or but for resignation would have, served as governor or acting governor for more than six years in two consecutive terms shall be elected governor for the succeeding term."

Broxson Named to Board of Governors

Former Senate Appropriations Chairman Doug Broxson, R-Gulf Breeze, was named Monday by Gov. Ron DeSantis to serve on the state university system’s Board of Governors. Broxson, who left the Legislature last year because of term limits, will replace longtime Board of Governors member Patricia Frost.

UF Health Jacksonville Breaks Ground on New Emergency & Urgent Care Center - UF Health Jacksonville

UF Health Jacksonville broke ground Sept. 24 on its fourth state-of-the-art emergency and urgent care center in the region. The three current emergency and urgent care centers spread throughout Jacksonville have brought cutting-edge health care and technology closer to home in three different communities, giving residents multiple choices to receive care.

This newest EUC will be located along Atlantic Boulevard, just west of the Intracoastal Waterway and minutes away from Atlantic and Neptune beaches. The two-story facility will be approximately 25,000 square feet and offer the same 24/7 full emergency and urgent care services under one roof, complete with a dedicated ambulance entrance, on-site imaging (CT, X-ray, ultrasound and EKG), and laboratory services. The second floor will be home to primary care offices.

“These centers have been incredibly popular throughout Jacksonville because of the unique services they offer to patients and their families,” said Patrick L. Green, FACHE, senior vice president and Northeast Florida regional president of UF Health

2 more Florida corals are ‘functionally extinct’ after 2023 heat wave

The marine heat wave that gripped Florida in 2023 was hotter than anything the state has seen in 150 years, and claimed at least two victims — species of corals now marked “functionally extinct” from Florida’s reefs.

That finding comes from a newly published scientific paper that reads more like an obituary for two of the most visible and important coral species on Florida’s reefs: elkhorn and staghorn corals. In 2023, the ocean was warmer than it had ever been. When corals spend too long in hot water, they spit out the algae that live within their bodies, providing them food and shade.

Without them, corals are ghostly white and bleached. If they stay bleached for too long, they starve and sunburn to death over a few weeks. But in 2023, scientists saw something new for Florida. The water got so hot so fast that corals cooked to death in a matter of days. 

Category 5 Hurricane Melissa rears up for record-setting strike on Jamaica

Hurricane Melissa — now a deadly Category 5 storm — is winding up to strike Jamaica with what could be the strongest winds ever recorded on the Caribbean island.

As of 8 a.m. Monday, the National Hurricane Center found the hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 160 mph. And it forecasts the storm to strengthen even more over the record-warm waters of the Caribbean before it makes landfall in Jamaica, with winds potentially reaching 165 mph.

While Jamaica has been battered by hurricanes for centuries, it has never seen direct landfall of a Category 4 hurricane, much less a Category 5, said Evan Thompson, the chief meteorologist of Meteorological Service of Jamaica.

“We have not had this experience before, so it’s important for us to consider this as an extraordinary situation,” Thompson told the Jamaica Gleaner.