Florida's Latest News

‘Fueling America’s freedom’: Ron DeSantis rolls out energy policy

Gov. Ron DeSantis visited Texas’ Permian Basin to roll out energy policy proposals for his 2024 presidential campaign after having promised recently to cut gas prices back to “$2 a gallon.”

DeSantis was in the heart of oil country in Midland, where he told supporters that he wanted more domestic oil and gas production and less focus on electric vehicle mandates, promising a dramatic break from the policies of the Joe Biden administration.

Wearing a suit jacket and jeans, the Governor reprised his “$2 in 2025” promise behind a sign that promoted “fueling America’s freedom,” saying the way to do it is “achieving American energy dominance.”

Saying Biden policies have “exacerbated inflation” due to increasing energy costs, the Governor said the simple act of canceling the Keystone Pipeline cost $10 billion, lost 59,000 jobs and was a benefit to America’s rivals.

“We have the cleanest and most advanced energy technology in the world,” DeSantis said.

New Florida Emergency Operations Center will be built to withstand Cat 5 hurricane

The Florida Department of Management Services broke ground Wednesday on a new state Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee. The $180 million complex will be built on 40 acres of scrub land across the highway of the current facility; on the west side of Capital Circle East near Tram Road.  

When built the corner of the intersection of Shumard Blvd, and Capital Circle East will be filled with the Department of Revenue's office complex on the northwest corner, the state's Southwood office campus on the north and east corners, and the new operations center across Shumard from DOR at the southwest corner.

Division of Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie said the construction project will provide responders with much needed additional space, better technology for a quicker response, and a more secure facility – one built to withstand wind from a Category 5 hurricane. 

“We just saw Hurricane Idalia narrowly miss a direct hit on Tallahassee. We need an EOC that can withstand up to 200 miles an hour winds, well over a Category 5 wind speed,” said Guthrie.  

Parkland school shooting survivor develops Joy, an app built on AI that helps people heal

Kai Koerber was a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when a gunman murdered 14 students and three staff members there on Valentine’s Day in 2018. Seeing his peers — and himself — struggle with returning to normal, he wanted to do something to help people manage their emotions on their own terms.

While some of his classmates at the Parkland school have worked on advocating for gun control, entered politics or simply took a step back to heal and focus on their studies, Koerber’s background in technology — he’d originally wanted to be a rocket scientist — led him in a different direction: to build a smartphone app.

The result was Joy, which uses artificial intelligence to suggest bite-sized mindfulness activities for people based on how they are feeling. The algorithm Koerber’s team built is designed to recognize how a person feels from the sound of their voice — regardless of the words or language they speak.

“In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, the first thing that came to mind after we’ve experienced this horrible, traumatic event — how are we going to personally recover?” he said. “It’s great to say OK, we’re going to build a better legal infrastructure to prevent gun sales, increased background checks, all the legislative things. But people really weren’t thinking about … the mental health side of things.”

Jimmy Patronis calls on cash transfer apps to stop IRS Reporting on $600+ transfers

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis on Wednesday urged a quartet of cash transfer apps to refrain from developing technology that would enable taxing transfers of $600 or more, triggering reporting to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for taxation purposes.

During a roundtable event in West Palm Beach, Patronis publicized a letter sent to Venmo, Zelle, Cash App, and Paypal demanding that the companies cease all operations relating to the development of technologies taxing Floridians from transactions exceeding $600 in value.

“The State of Florida will not sit idly by while Big Tech is building technologies to violate Floridians’ privacy, nor shakedown small business owners who are just trying to make a buck in an economy where everything is expensive,” said Patronis.

Patronis also requested the financial services to publicly release all communications between their apps and the federal government, asserting that the lines of communication are being guided by the IRS.