Florida's Latest News

Florida’s longtime pension fund manager to step down

Ash Williams, the longtime head of Florida’s pension fund, is retiring at the end of September, with Gov. Ron DeSantis and Cabinet members expected to name an interim replacement next week.

As executive director of the State Board of Administration and chief investment officer, Williams leads an agency that invests money in the Florida Retirement System, along with 25 other funds, and manages the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund. The agency oversees $252.8 billion in assets, including $199.6 billion in the Florida Retirement System, which provides pensions to state and many local-government workers.

​Paid $575,000 a year by the state, Williams is required to step down based on his enrollment in the state’s deferred retirement program. His last day is Sept. 30.

Gov. DeSantis awards Bay of Pigs Invasion veteran with Florida Medal of Freedom

Gov. Ron DeSantis awarded the second-ever Florida Medal of Freedom to a Bay of Pigs Invasion veteran during a ceremony Thursday.

Felix Rodríguez, born in 1941, made it to Miami when "the communist government took control of Cuba and stole his family's home" in an effort to fight for freedom, the governor said. 

The State Board of Administration, made up of DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody and state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, is scheduled to appoint an interim executive director during a Sept. 21 meeting.

Representatives of DeSantis and Patronis did not immediately respond to requests for comments Tuesday about the interim replacement. Williams ran the state agency from 1991 to 1996, when he left to become president of New York-based Schroders, a global investment firm.

DeSantis Criticizes Biden Team For ‘Dramatically’ Cutting Florida’s Covid Treatment Supply Amid Nationwide Shortage

Speaking at a news conference at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, DeSantis, a frequent critic of the Biden administration, accused the federal government of “seizing control” of the supply of monoclonal antibody treatments. 

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced earlier this week it will be reverting to a system where it allots the drugs based on usage numbers and case rates, a move it has described as an effort to ensure more equitable distribution.

But DeSantis on Thursday said the action could lead to a “huge disruption” in his state, which has become increasingly reliant on the treatments as they reduce hospitalization and death among those who contract the virus. 

West Pasco spill dumps 18 million gallons of partially treated wastewater into the Gulf

Heavy rain in July led to an 18 million-gallon discharge of partially treated wastewater into the Gulf of Mexico from the Embassy Hills Waste Water Treatment Plant in Port Richey, officials have reported.

A pollution report issued by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection this week indicated that excess rain from Tropical Storm Elsa, which came ashore in the northern Gulf in July, “resulted in partially treated wastewater breaching the reject pond and going into a stormwater drainage ditch that flows to the Gulf.”

The extra rain plus diverted wastewater flows from another nearby treatment plant overloaded the system, according to Ryan Hughes, Pasco County spokesperson. He said the overflow did receive secondary treatment, including disinfection. “This should have minimal harm or impacts on the environment, and we are currently working with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on regulatory compliance,” he said.