Florida's Latest News

Ron DeSantis still rules out role as Donald Trump VP

Ron DeSantis says he still has no interest in being Donald Trump’s understudy, rejecting a potential role as Vice President.

“No, I’m running for President,” DeSantis said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”

“We need somebody that can serve two terms. We need somebody that can win states like Georgia and Arizona, which President Trump cannot do or did not do, even though candidates like John McCain and Mitt Romney had no problem winning those states,” DeSantis said.

As he has in recent weeks, the Governor also charged Trump with being absent from the campaign trail.

“I think that with all due respect to Donald Trump, we’re not going to beat the Democrats by adopting Joe Biden’s basement strategy. You can’t just be missing in action. You got to show up, you got to earn people’s votes. And if you’re not willing to do that, voters will take notice as we get closer to these contests.”

Most South Florida lawmakers vote in favor of House 45-day funding plan to avert shutdown

On the brink of a federal government shutdown, the House on Saturday swiftly approved a 45-day funding bill to keep federal agencies open as Speaker Kevin McCarthy dropped demands for steep spending cuts and relied on Democratic votes for passage to send the package to the Senate.

The new approach would leave behind aid to Ukraine, a White House priority opposed by a growing number of GOP lawmakers, but the plan would increase federal disaster assistance by $16 billion, meeting President Joe Biden’s full request. The House vote was 335-91.

Most of South Florida’s nine congressional lawmakers, including Republicans and Democrats, voted to approve the short−term funding bill. Only U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R−Fort Pierce, whose district includes part of north Palm Beach County, voted against the bill.

Writing on “X,” formerly Twitter, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz, D−Weston, said “Democrats stood firm, and House MAGA Republicans blinked.”

“We took out the GOP’s extreme policies from the House pending bill,” she wrote.

Contract talks progress amid teacher shortage across Florida

The Hillsborough County School District and its teachers union came close to a pay deal on Thursday, but talks ended late in the evening without a resolution.

The two sides are $5.7 million apart, down from $17 million earlier in the evening and about $50 million at the beginning of the month.

Another bargaining session is expected Monday.

Plans being proposed and counter-proposed call for a starting pay of either $47,500 or $48,000 for most teachers, and a ceiling after 25 years of $72,000 or slightly higher.

The district’s yearly operating budget, under the teacher’s latest proposal, would grow by $39.7 million. Teachers say the district can well afford that increase, as it ended the last three budget years with as much as $103 million in instructional money that went unspent.

Proposed conservation area could help protect the Florida Wildlife Corridor

The federal government is proposing a wildlife conservation area to include parts of twelve counties, ranging from Polk and Manatee south to Hendry and Collier. It includes the watersheds of the Peace River, Myakka River, Fisheating Creek and Caloosahatchee River.

It would use federal dollars to leverage existing projects, including a wildlife corridor that allows Florida panthers to migrate north from the Everglades.

This Everglades to Gulf Conservation Area would augment money from the state to preserve land.

Mallory Lykes Dimmitt is CEO of the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation. She says this could be another tool in the effort to create a wildlife corridor.

"It's a total opportunity for federal investment now to be able to be used in this protection boundary," she said. " It just gives more flexibility and another opportunity to say this is important. It ranks highly in the scores for programs that are out there."