Florida's Latest News

Ron DeSantis picks up backing from 15 South Carolina lawmakers as he makes a campaign swing

Gov. Ron DeSantis is rolling out endorsements from 15 South Carolina lawmakers, hoping their support for his Republican presidential campaign will help him make his case to voters in the first-in-the-South Primary state.

The endorsements, shared first with The Associated Press ahead of DeSantis’ town hall in North Augusta, come from 11 state House members and four state Senators from across the state, with a heavy concentration in South Carolina’s conservative Upstate. It’s a show of force for DeSantis in a state that current Republican front-runner Donald Trump won handily in the 2016 Primary and where he has maintained popularity.

The list includes Sen. Josh Kimbrell, a Spartanburg Republican who has been bullish on DeSantis’ candidacy since before he officially entered the race. On Thursday, he called the Governor “the only candidate in this race who can defeat” President Joe Biden.

Many of the new endorsements are from lawmakers who have introduced DeSantis during previous appearances in the early voting state. One of them, North Charleston Rep. Chris Murphy, praised DeSantis, a former Navy judge advocate general, earlier this month at a Bluffton campaign event as “the only candidate that has worn our nation’s uniform.” There’s also Rep. Micah Caskey, a Marine veteran who hails from Lexington County, another strongly conservative area.

‘A huge crisis’: How spending millions will add affordable housing in South Florida

Broward County could use taxpayer money to pay as much as $20 million in the upcoming year to encourage developers to build affordable housing.

It’s among the latest multimillion-dollar initiatives in South Florida aimed at addressing the housing crisis. In Palm Beach County, voters have approved spending $200 million toward adding affordable housing.

The money in Broward is considered the “gap financing” and pays the difference between what the developer has to spend on construction and what they would be able to borrow. Without the subsidy, county leaders say the developments might otherwise never be built. It’s the go-to model for affordable housing nationally, county officials said.

That $20 million number was presented to county commissioners this past week in a budget workshop, as a preview of what's to come when they’ll be asked to sign off on the final budget this fall. If the budget is approved, the allocation would be funded by taxpayers through property taxes in the next fiscal year, which starts in October.

UF opens new $26M public safety facility to serve as community hub

It has taken nearly a century but the University of Florida finally has itself a sparkling new, state-of-the-art public safety facility for the campus' first responders.

UF officials held the grand opening for the $26.8-million, three-story building Wednesday, replacing a crumbling 93-year-old facility that some referred to as a "gingerbread house" where people have fallen through the wooden floor.

Prior to its construction, the UF Police Department staff were spread throughout five buildings. Now, the department is centrally located in two adjacent buildings that allow UFPD officers to quickly access necessary resources, such as security footage and card-reader access points.

“The location makes us accessible,” UFPD Capt. Latrell Simmons said. “We’re hoping that as we continue to highlight the resources that we offer here at the University of Florida Police Department, that everyone will come in and engage with us.”

Slimy Situation: What we know about invasive giant African snails causing a neighborhood quarantine in Florida

A quarantine zone has popped up for select neighborhoods throughout Broward County this week after sightings of the invasive giant African land snails, known to be one of the most dangerous species.

According to a statement from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the quarantine enacted aims to stop the spread of giant African land snails, one of which was spotted in the Miramar area of Broward County earlier this month.

Here's what we know so far:

The giant African land snail, known as giant African snails, is one of the most damaging snails in the world, consuming at least 500 different types of plants. The 8-inch long snails hail from Nigeria and were brought to the state back in the 1960s.

They eat leaves, flowers, bark, plants, vegetables, cucumbers, peppers — even dead animal bones. When they run out of their own food, they will eat the paint and stucco off a house, seeking calcium from it.