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Storm season 2024: Experts at Governor's Hurricane Conference braced for active six months

Florida’s emergency managers are fresh off a hurricane season that saw coast-to-coast action from Hurricane Hilary’s deluge in Death Valley to Lee's lathering of coastal Maine and Idalia’s Cat 3 blow to Florida’s Big Bend.

But it’s what’s careening toward them now that is on the agenda at this week's 38^th annual Governor’s Hurricane Conference in West Palm Beach as they face six months that threaten to test their mettle, endurance and patience.

About 2,000 catastrophe experts, meteorologists and first responders gathered at the Palm Beach County Convention Center to learn from past calamities and prepare for a season forecast to rival the most active on record.

Hurricane season officially begins June 1 and lasts through Nov. 30.

“This is one of our most important engagement opportunities,” said National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan on Wednesday, May 15. “We have representatives from across the state of Florida, across the country and even internationally, so the scope and breadth of this conference is a real opportunity for us.”

The root of the Florida State-ACC dispute: Money or success?

For the leaders of two organizations suing each other in a nine-figure dispute that threatens to dismember a 71-year-old institution, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips and Florida State athletic director Michael Alford sound awfully aligned.

Both know football is king. Both still stress the value of softball and soccer and every other sport. Both contend ACC football has been overlooked.

Why, then, did Phillips say Wednesday that he’s “optimistic” his league can salvage its relationships with Clemson and FSU while Alford danced around the same question Tuesday?

The easiest explanation is that Phillips sees the ACC getting better while FSU fears better still won’t be good enough.

Phillips’ pitch to reporters at the end of three days of meetings at The Ritz-Carlton:

Gov. DeSantis signs legislation to crackdown on China, forced labor, wind turbines

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed three measures that will push the state to divest from Chinese companies, bar contracts with companies engaging forced labor and overhaul the state’s energy policies.

“The legislation I signed today — HB 1645, HB 7071 and HB 1331 — will keep windmills off our beaches, gas in our tanks, and China out of our state,” DeSantis posted on X. “We’re restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots. Furthermore, we’re going to ensure foreign adversaries like China have no foothold in our state.”

The most contested bill in the trio was HB 1645, which includes a ban on windmills, both within the state and offshore and removes an incentive for state and local governments to purchase electric vehicles by eliminating a requirement that the most fuel-efficient vehicles be selected.

Those provisions garnered opposition from environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, which wrote to DeSantis in March urging a veto.

Federal court declines to dismiss challenge to Florida Senate map

A federal court has declined to dismiss a racial gerrymandering lawsuit challenging Florida’s Senate map.

A three-judge panel unanimously ruled against a motion to dismiss from Secretary of State Cord Byrd’s Office. A court order said after civil rights groups filed suit, attorneys for the state didn’t bother to respond to the central argument in the case.

“Defendants move to dismiss the Complaint, arguing that Plaintiffs have failed to state a plausible vote-dilution claim,” the order reads. “But Plaintiffs don’t bring a vote-dilution claim; they bring a racial-gerrymandering claim.”

The panel includes two Judges, Thomas Barber and Andrew Basher, appointed by former President Donald Trump and another, Charlene Honeywell, appointed by former President Barack Obama.