Florida's Latest News

DeSantis awards $9 million to workforce education initiatives

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday awarded South Florida State College, St. Petersburg College, and Daytona State College a total of $9 million for workforce education programs.

The funds will support programs that help students graduate and enter careers in emergency management, law enforcement, health care, and education. The funding allocation comes as the highlighted fields endure a critical shortage of workers dating back to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was great to award $9 million for workforce education programs that will help Floridians who were impacted by Hurricane Ian,” said DeSantis. “As we rebuild and recover from this storm, training highly skilled individuals to work in health care, law enforcement, emergency management, and education will help communities now and prepare them for the future.”

The trio of schools was selected due to their locations respective to the path of Hurricane Ian, exposing a need for additional first responder positions to be filled.

Chamber Forum: With the right strategy, the space industry could revolve around Florida

As advancements in tech continue looking toward the stars, Florida has emerged as one of the top launchpads for a surging industry. But the next decade will be crucial in determining whether the Sunshine State remains in a leadership position.

At the Florida Chamber Foundation’s 2022 Future of Florida Forum, the leader of state-backed aerospace industry booster Space Florida, Frank DiBello, led a panel examining where Florida stands in the global space race, how it got there and what it needs to do to continue rocketing toward the top of what is expected to become a $1 trillion industry within the next 10 years.

“We’ve come from, roughly 10 to 12 years ago, the retirement of another major federal program and the loss of almost 10,000 primary jobs and almost double that number of secondary jobs due to an overdependence on a large federal program that got canceled,” DiBello said.

Industry association petitions SCOTUS to rule on Florida social media law

A nonprofit representing communications and technology firms is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on Florida’s social media law after a lower court ruled the law unconstitutional.

The petition from the Computer & Communications Industry Association and co-plaintiff NetChoice comes after a similar petition from the state calling for a ruling on the law, which imposes new rules on online platforms.

The law would apply to companies such as Twitter, Google and Meta and would limit their ability to remove content or users that violate their policies. Gov. Ron DeSantis named the bill a priority ahead of the 2021 Legislative Session after Twitter and other prominent social media companies banished then-President Donald Trump and other conservatives from their platforms following the U.S. Capitol riot.

Flu and COVID are coming to Florida. Are you ready?

Florida’s flu season officially has arrived — and hospitals already are seeing patients with respiratory illnesses.

The state’s flu monitoring report shows Florida’s flu season started on Oct. 2, and emergency department visits with a discharge diagnosis of flu are already on the upswing.

While the season has just kicked off, by all forecasts, the situation is about to get worse.

Florida doctors are expecting the next few months to slam emergency rooms, urgent cares and doctors offices with cases of flu, COVID and aggressive respiratory illnesses.

“Everything is different since COVID,” said Dr. Francis Amador, medical director of the pediatric emergency department at Salah Foundation Children’s Hospital at Broward Health. “We are seeing different things we have never seen before, and that’s going on in every emergency room.”