Florida's Latest News

Gov. DeSantis signs ‘Condo 3.0’ bill aimed at boosting board accountability, building safety

Unscrupulous and malfeasant condo board members and associations that for years skirted Florida law through loopholes in state statutes may soon have a tougher time getting away with it.

Gov. Ron DeSantis just signed HB 1021, which on July 1 will overhaul state laws governing condo oversight and management. The measure, which the Legislature passed unanimously in March, is meant to strengthen oversight of condo buildings and their boards, making them more accountable for maintenance, repairs, reserves and recordkeeping.

Miami Republican Rep. Vicki Lopez, the legislation’s House sponsor, nicknamed it “Condo 3.0,” as it builds on a pair of prior measures lawmakers passed since the deadly June 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside.

Among other things, it creates new educational requirements for condo managers and mandates that building records must be available online to owners. 

Florida Bar convention this week strives for collaboration among lawyers

Thousands of lawyers will descend on Orlando this week for the Annual Florida Bar Convention, and this year’s theme will be “The Power of Us, Collaborating for Tomorrow.”

The 2024 Florida Bar Convention will be held Wednesday through Saturday at the Signia by Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek and Waldorf Astoria Hotels. The event will focus on the importance of cooperation among Sunshine State lawyers and how that can influence the future of practicing law.

While many of the events and seminars for the four-day event will focus on elements of being a practicing lawyer, Florida Bar members will also install their top representatives in the organization. Roland Sanchez-Medina Jr., a Miami lawyer, will be installed as the 76th President of the Florida Bar. Lawyer Rosalyn Sia Baker-Barnes of West Palm Beach will be installed as President-elect.

There is a large lineup of events through the duration of the event. A judicial luncheon on Thursday will honor top members of the judiciary branch in Florida. Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Carlos G. Muñiz will deliver the State of the Judiciary address.

Florida officials hear suggestions on updating felon voting process

State election officials on Friday listened to suggestions about how to update the process for convicted felons to seek what are known as advisory opinions about their eligibility to vote, with advocates calling for a procedure that provides “certainty” for people who have completed their sentences.

A rule-development workshop came after mediation between elections officials and plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging how the state carried out a 2018 constitutional amendment aimed at restoring voting rights of felons.

The lawsuit, filed in July by the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and individual plaintiffs, described a “bureaucratic morass” encountered by felons trying to find out if they were eligible to vote.

Neil Volz, deputy director of the rights-restoration group, laid out his organization’s general goals for the advisory opinion process during Friday’s hourlong meeting.

Demolition of the Parkland classroom building where 17 died in 2018 shooting begins

A large excavator stretched to the top floor of the three-story building where 17 people died in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, punching its first hole Friday into the classroom where teacher Scott Beigel perished saving students.

Beginning a weekslong demolition, the excavator made a whiny, wrenching noise as it broke off concrete from the building, now no longer needed as evidence in the shooter’s trial. Some victims’ family members stood 100 yards (90 meters) away, holding up their cellphones to record the moment.

Linda Beigel Schulman, the geography teacher’s mother, was not among them — she stayed home in New York. She toured the building last year, seeing the comparative religion papers he was grading when the shooting began that Valentine’s Day still sitting on his desk.

Beigel, who also coached cross-country, went into the hallway and herded students to safety in his classroom, doing that as the gunman approached until he was shot.