Florida's Latest News

City of West Palm Beach backs proposed Senate water bill

The city of West Palm Beach is endorsing a Senate proposal aiming to protect the current water supply for “existing legal users.”

The measure (SB 2508) emerged from the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this month. As part of the ongoing tussling over Lake Okeechobee’s water supply, the Senate bill would look to ensure existing legal users of that water source don’t have their respective supplies diminished.

“Thanks to the bipartisan group of FL Senators for supporting #SB2508, which prioritizes safe drinking water for nearly 130,000 residents, customers and visitors to our city & the towns of Palm Beach and South Palm Beach,” reads a tweet from the city of West Palm Beach Twitter account.

City officials then thanked a bipartisan collection of Senators backing the bill, such as Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book and Sen. Audrey Gibson on the Democratic side, as well as Republican Sens. Ben Albritton and Kathleen Passidomo.

Florida voters: ‘Modernize’ nursing home staffing rules

Nearly four in five Florida voters want lawmakers to pass a bill that would change staffing requirements at nursing homes, a new poll found.

The McLaughlin & Associates poll asked 500 likely General Election voters who live in battleground state House districts whether lawmakers should approve a proposal that would change the 20-year-old rules regulating care hours at facilities.

A plan currently moving through the House, HB 1239 by Naples Republican Rep. Lauren Melo, would allow staff without nursing degrees to fulfill a portion of direct care hour requirements.

Proponents of the bill describe it as a necessary modernization of current regulations and assert that it would provide nursing home residents with more personalized care, including physical rehabilitation, mental health services, spiritual 

Watchdog report criticizes campaign donations to Pinellas sheriff

A new watchdog report has uncovered potential conflicts of interest in dozens of sheriffs’ offices nationwide, including in Pinellas County. The research shows Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri has received campaign donations from a group connected to private security firm G4S Secure Solutions while renewing county contracts with the company.

Researchers from Washington nonprofits Common Cause and Communities for Sheriff Accountability assessed campaign finance records from nearly 50 sheriffs’ offices nationwide.

Roughly 40 percent of all examined donations, totaling upward of $6 million, create possible conflicts of interests, the groups’ January report said. These contributions come from incarceration-specific businesses in construction, technology, health and others, according to the report.

Mysterious Tallahassee organization donates $100,000 in Sarasota County’s single-member districts referendum

A Tallahassee-based PAC with a mysterious funding source is running a campaign to encourage Sarasota County voters to repeal single-member County Commission district representation in a referendum this March.

Sarasota County commissioners are currently elected solely by the citizens of the district in which they live – a system commonly called single-member districts – after county voters in 2018 overwhelmingly agreed to switch to that election method.

But Sun Coast Alliance, a Tallahassee-based political action committee, is pushing for this system to be replaced with one in which commissioners are elected by voters countywide.

The PAC’s views match those of the Sarasota County commissioners, who voted in December to hold a special county charter referendum in a bid to overturn that single-member district system. The referendum is on the ballot for the March 8 election, along with a question asking voters if they want to renew an optional property tax for schools.