Florida's Latest News

October 13th, 2026 

Here's your roundup of the important stories shaping Florida this week. Stay informed — and share with someone to keep them updated!

Byron Donalds Wants Your Vote To Make The Florida Dream Affordable

When U.S. Representative Byron Donalds first stepped onto the highest of seven hills at Florida A&M University (FAMU), he was a 17-year-old kid from inner-city Brooklyn bracing for a profound culture shock. As he walked the historic grounds of the illustrious HBCU, he was forced, for the first time, to navigate the complex nuances of a deeply diverse Black American diaspora—engaging with peers from California, Chicago, and the Deep South.

As he campaigns to be Florida’s next governor, Donalds credits his time at FAMU for teaching him how to navigate a state with such vastly different regional identities. “I always say we have seven states in one,” he explains, pointing to the stark geographic and cultural shifts across the map. “Whether you’re in the Panhandle like we are up here at FAMU, or whether you’re down in Miami and all points in between, Florida is a very diverse and dynamic state”. For Donalds, stepping into the state’s highest office means abandoning a one-size-fits-all approach. “You have to be able to know how to understand those differences,” he notes, in order to successfully lead the state into the future. For Congressman Donalds, his mother, Ms. Merry Brown, meticulously engineered that core decades ago in a Brooklyn apartment.

Federal error correction brings $173 million to St. Petersburg

A federal mapping error that left St. Petersburg without millions in Hurricane Milton recovery funding has been corrected, bringing an additional $173 million to the city two years after the storm.

Mayor Ken Welch, City Council Vice Chair Richie Floyd and U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna announced the funding Friday, the second anniversary of Milton’s landfall.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had incorrectly allocated money intended for St. Petersburg to Pinellas County because of a geocoding error.

The correction directs $126 million toward housing assistance through Sunrise St. Pete, the city’s federally funded disaster recovery program. Another $47.6 million will support infrastructure and storm mitigation projects in partnership with Pinellas County.

The additional money also resolves an eligibility problem that excluded some residents from receiving assistance.

122,000 still without power in Florida after Hurricane Isaias

Over 122,000 Florida customers remained without power Monday after Hurricane Isaias ripped through over the weekend, claiming the lives of four people.

Two fatalities related to the storm took place in Florida and another two in Alabama.

Power outage maps showed 122,110 Florida customers still without power Monday afternoon, with the largest chunk of outages located in Escambia County followed by Santa Rosa County.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a press conference Monday that “a lot of progress” has been made on power restoration.

“More than 70% of the accounts have been restored for power. We probably reached about 500,000 that were out at one point or another,” the governor said

Florida universities ranked among top 100 schools in the country

Florida universities ranked among the top 100 institutions on WalletHub's 2027 list of best colleges and universities in the country.

The personal finance company compared 738 US "higher-education institutions" across 30 metrics, grouped into categories including student selectivity, career outcomes and cost and financing. The metrics "range from student-faculty ratio to graduation rate to post-attendance median salary." The methodology used to compile the list is available on WalletHub's website.

Two Florida universities ranked among the top 100 colleges and universities on the company's list — the University of Florida, which ranked 25th and Florida State University, which ranked 48th.

The University of Florida received an overall score of 74.44. It achieved a student selectivity rank of 62, a cost and financing rank of 89, a faculty resources rank of 442, a campus safety rank of 78, a campus experience rank of 455, education outcomes rank of 37 and a career outcome rank of 295.