Florida's Latest News

Manny Diaz raises $20K in July, holds more than $450K to defend SD 36 seat

Republican Sen. Manny Diaz holds nearly $456,000 in available cash as he seeks a second term representing Senate District 36.

Diaz actually ate into that war chest in July. He hauled in $20,000 in donations but showed nearly $36,000 in expenditures. Still, the incumbent is sitting on plenty of cash as he remains the only candidate filed in the contest so far.

Diaz added $3,000 through his campaign account in July. That came courtesy of three maxed-out $1,000 donations from Realtor PACs. Diaz brought in another $17,000 through his political committee, Better Florida Education. That includes $5,000 from Tallahassee lobbyist Christopher Moya and another $5,000 from the Firefighter FACT PAC, a group that has donated to both Republican and Democratic candidates in the past.

As kids return to school, most Florida counties report COVID-19 cases four times higher than last year

Most Florida children are returning to school in areas where COVID-19 outbreaks are far more intense than they were when school started last year.

In most counties, cases are at least four times higher than a year ago, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. Five counties report a more than tenfold increase.

Cases among children are surging, too, raising questions about the health consequences of students returning to campuses and a state ban on school mask mandates while vaccines are available for only some of the schoolchildren.

Higher water levels in Lake Okeechobee may be part of new Army Corps plan

Lake Okeechobee may be kept at higher levels for longer periods of time under a new management plan the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is refining now that a $1.8 billion upgrade of the Herbert Hoover Dike is nearly completed.

The Corps picked a preferred alternative, called “CC,” out of six choices and will now work on fine-tuning the plan based on extensive feedback from environmentalists, agriculture representatives, Native American tribes and other leaders on how to balance the conflicting demands on lake waters..

“We are building on the CC foundation in order to get every ounce of benefit out of the new plan,” Col. Andrew Kelly, the Corps commander for Florida, said during a presentation outlining the basics on Monday. “The technical team is now running optimization models and they will come back in September with a better defined plan,” he said.

Overdose deaths in Polk County were up in 2020. Specialists don't see it getting better

Polk County saw a 39% surge in overdose deaths in 2020, a scourge that local specialists say was caused by users being stuck in their homes more often and locked out of critical in-person treatment programs.

In Polk County, there were 195 overdose deaths last year, up from 140 in 2019, according to the Medical Examiner's Office for the Tenth Judicial Circuit.

That followed a national trend. Across the U.S., more than 92,000 people died from overdoses in 2020, the most ever recorded in a 12-month period, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 30% more than the previous high of 70,630 set in 2019. In Florida, there were 7,555 overdose deaths in 2020, a 36.8% increase from 2019, according to the CDC.