Florida's Latest News

New senate bill seeks to require all school board meetings to be publicly livestreamed

A new bill filed by Senator Joe Gruters (Tampa) aims to require all school board meetings in Florida to be recorded and streamed live on a publicly available website as well as granting members of the public more freedom to participate in discussion.

Senate Bill 1300 (SB 1300) would mandate that a minimum of 30 minutes at the start of every school board meeting be allocated for individual members of the public and representatives of groups to freely speak on any topic relating to the meeting and its proceedings. Each speaker would be given at least 3 minutes to touch on each agenda item.

SB 1300 would additionally grant speakers the right to individually criticize members of a school board given that they maintain orderly conduct and actively contribute to the ongoing discussion of the meeting.

Florida’s COVID cases rising again, DeSantis calls it a seasonal spike

New data on Florida’s latest COVID-19 cases show a rapid increase in total confirmed cases, as the state’s seven-day average more than doubled over the last week, from 2,106 cases last Sunday to 4,991 cases yesterday. It’s not clear how many of the new Florida cases were related to the omicron variant, which is now dominating headlines around the world and triggering many governments to respond with controversial lockdowns.

Governor Ron DeSantis has dismissed the call for new lockdowns and said the rise in cases was expected.

“We do anticipate higher levels on January 1, probably higher levels of COVID than November 1, but this is the seasonal pattern,” DeSantis said Friday during an event at the Ocala Regional Medical Center. “And what you’re seeing in the Midwest and the Northeast is almost exactly the same seasonal pattern that they had last year. It’s about three to four weeks behind last year’s schedule, but the rise and the peak and everything is happening very similar to what happened then.”

The abortion debate is heating up in Florida

This upcoming legislative session, expect abortion to be a major talking point.

Because the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to strike down a Texas law banning most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, anti-abortion activists see an opportunity to pass a restrictive law in Florida.

But there’s a catch. New legislation would mean doing battle with the state’s constitution, which state judges have historically said contains strong abortion protections.

The courts are still weighing abortion laws passed in Texas and Mississippi, too. Those cases could have major implications for Florida.

An FIU study finds media coverage of disasters can harm kids' mental health

Media coverage of natural disasters like hurricanes can be vital to public safety, but it can also have negative impacts on kids' mental health, according to researchers at Florida International University.

They analyzed hundreds of kids who were already participating in a national long-term study known as the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, or ABCD, before Hurricane Irma wreaked havoc on parts of the country in 2017. Researchers then followed up with families months after the storm with questionnaires about how it affected them in terms of damage to property, disruptions to life and emotional trauma.

The study included kids from states directly affected like Florida and South Carolina as well as some from California, thousands of miles from impact.