Florida's Latest News

State reports lowest number of new COVID-19 cases since June 17

On Monday, the state Department of Health reported 2,678 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the statewide total to 576,094. It was the lowest single-day increase in cases since June 17, News4Jax records show.

The drop follows Sunday’s decline which was the first day since June 23 that Florida reported a daily increase of fewer than 4,000 cases. (Note: The number of cases reported on Monday is typically lower than other days during the week)

There were two deaths reported in Northeast Florida on Monday: a 71-year-old woman in Alachua County and a 68-year-old woman in St. Johns County.

Here are Florida’s most competitive primary races

Republican and Democratic voters on Tuesday will take major steps toward deciding the makeup of Florida’s congressional and legislative delegations for the next two years. While most seats will be contested in November, the outcomes of primaries in Republican and Democratic strongholds will go a long way toward determining the ultimate winners. Meanwhile, some incumbent lawmakers will try to fend off challengers Tuesday. Here are 10 congressional and legislative primaries to watch:

CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 3: A decision by U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., to not seek another term this year has led to a cast-of-thousands race in his North Florida district, which is made up of Alachua, Bradford, Clay, Putnam, Union and part of Marion counties. With the area long represented by Republicans, 10 GOP candidates qualified to run for the seat, along with three Democrats.

Jose Oliva’s vendetta forces Daniel Perez to defend HD 116 in an expensive primary

There wasn’t supposed to be much of a Republican primary for House District 116.

Rep. Danny Perez won a 2017 special election for the seat by a landslide, easily dispatching former Rep. Alex Diaz de la Portilla in the primary and trouncing his Democratic challenger with two thirds of the vote in the general.

His reelection a year later was similarly lopsided — HD 116, after all, is a safe Republican seat that Jose “Pepe” Diaz had held since before it was redrawn.

Law Grads ‘Left Hanging’ After Florida Bar Exam Called Off

After moving the test online because of COVID-19, the Florida Board of Bar Examiners has called off a plan to hold the Bar exam on Wednesday because it was not “technically feasible.”

The board announced late Sunday that the exam will take place “on a date to be determined in October.” Applicants who signed up for the exam, originally slated to be in person in late July, can also wait until February to take the test, the announcement said.

The last-minute cancellation, issued on the eve of a scheduled live trial of the examination software, ignited a frenzy on social media among people planning to take the exam and their supporters, who have urged the Board of Bar Examiners to drop the test altogether this year or to replace the multiple-choice exam with essays submitted by email, as some other states have done amid the COVID-19 pandemic.