Florida's Latest News

Special session: Florida lawmakers heeding Gov. DeSantis' demand for new congressional map, enraging opponents

When 80-year-old Sam Palmer was growing up in Gadsden County, few Black Floridians were eligible to vote — not in those segregation days.

Because of racial violence and restrictive voting laws, there were only seven Black voters in a county of almost 11,000 Black people. Palmer had just turned 18.

Now, as president of the NAACP in the state’s only majority Black county, Palmer fears he’s seeing a form of that history of disenfranchisement threatening to repeat itself.

“What I’m hearing out of Tallahassee is that we can pay taxes, but we won’t have representation,” Palmer said. “The governor wants to turn North Florida Republican red. And if he does, we’re going to be an outcast, again.”

DeSantis signs bill to expand foster care financial aid to caregivers, children

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed a bill to financially benefit more people who care for needy children and help additional children who were in the foster care system attend a state college or university.

The bill will expand access for monthly payments to caregivers of foster children by giving relatives and non-relatives the same amount of money as licensed foster parents.

It will also make more foster care children exempt from paying tuition and fees at state colleges and universities. The state already allows certain foster youth to receive a tuition and fee exemption. But the bill, which takes effect July 1, will expand the criteria to the following kids who have gone through the shelter system, have been through dependency proceedings or have had their parents’ rights terminated:

‘Taxpayer Independence Day’ offers annual reminder of government’s real cost

Thursday is a day with symbolic weight for Floridians chafing under the burden of taxation, according to Florida TaxWatch.

The watchdog group proclaimed April 14 this year’s “Taxpayer Independence Day.”

“This symbolic occasion assumes that every dollar Floridians earned since the start of the year goes to pay local, state, and federal taxes, but now, they will finally begin earning for themselves. Based on the relative size of all taxes paid in Florida to the state’s total personal income, it took taxpayers an average of 103 days to satisfy their tax obligations this year, four more days than in 2021,” asserts TaxWatch in an email marking the occasion.

Florida TaxWatch President and CEO Dominic M. Calabro noted the irony, which seems to recur every year, of the day of independence coming so close to the day of obligation to the Internal Revenue Service.

Has Piney Point improved since 2021 disaster? 'No more putting Band-Aids on it.' 

Much has changed in one year at Piney Point, where harmful nutrients are no longer spilling into Tampa Bay and site operators finally feel optimistic about closing down for good.

Last spring, the former phosphate processing plant drew international headlines when a leak threatened to collapse the system and send contaminated water rushing into the surrounding area. State officials promised to close the site after releasing 215 million gallons of that water in order to avoid a larger disaster.

Since then, Piney Point has received the attention it deserves, said Herbert Donica, the man tasked with shutting it down more than 20 years after it was first abandoned. The water is cleaner, the site is properly staffed, and adequate funding means the beleaguered property is on track to close by the end of 2024, according to a new plan approved by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).