Florida's Latest News

Florida senators hold heated debate on elections restrictions

A key Senate committee spent hours Wednesday considering a sweeping elections package that would make it more difficult for Floridians to vote by mail but ran out of time before voting on the measure.

The Senate Rules Committee could take up the proposal later this week or next week, Chairwoman Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, said.

The bill (SB 90) would, among other things, curtail elections supervisors’ use of ballot drop boxes; change the process for verifying mail-in ballot signatures; and make it more difficult for voters to change registrations.

Florida Senate passes overhaul of auto insurance. Here’s what that could mean for drivers.

Florida’s unusual “no-fault” auto insurance system could soon be roadkill.

State lawmakers are poised to pass the most sweeping changes to the state’s automobile insurance laws in nearly 50 years, assigning fault in accidents and requiring every motorist to carry bodily injury coverage.

By Jan. 1, 2022, nearly every motorist in Florida would have a new insurance policy.

Whether those policies would be cheaper than they are today is unclear, though. The Florida Senate passed its bill without any independent analysis showing what effect it would have the state’s sky-high premiums, which consistently rank among the highest in the nation.

Masks should be voluntary in schools in the fall, says Florida education commissioner

Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran on Wednesday asked school superintendents to revise their school district’s mask policy, if they have one, to be voluntary instead of mandatory for the 2021-22 school year.

In a memo, Corcoran bolded and underlined reasons that he says are why districts should make masks voluntary: That data shows that districts’ face covering policies do not impact the spread of the coronavirus; that families and individuals should maintain their ability to make a decision unique to their circumstances; and that broad sweeping mandatory face covering policies “serve no remaining good at this point in our schools.”

Corcoran did not include any data to back up his claims in the letter.

FL House passes bill that bans transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports

In one of the most contentious votes of the legislative session, the Florida House voted Wednesday to ban transgender athletes from women’s and girls’ scholastic sports.

The bill passed by lawmakers, HB 1475, is aimed at maintaining the competitive balance in women’s sports, its supporters say. Detractors say it’s a thinly veiled attempt to marginalize already vulnerable transgender kids and young adults. The legislation is part of a national effort on the part of Republican state lawmakers to remove transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports. Florida is one of at least 30 states debating such a bill.

After an emotional hour of debate, it passed the House by a vote of 77-40, with just one Democrat supporting the measure. No Republican voted against it.