Florida's Latest News

Prodigy Public Affairs merges into Capital City Consulting, becoming CCC Miami

Capital City Consulting and Prodigy Public Affairs of Miami are merging, with the latter rebranding as Capital City Consulting Miami. The merger will see Prodigy owners Rodney Barreto and Brian May become new partners at CCC, providing local government, public affairs, and business-to-business consulting services to clients in South Florida as they have done together for the past 25 years, while helping CCC expand its statewide presence.

“For nearly two decades, Capital City Consulting has been committed to delivering winning results for our clients at the state level and in select local markets, and we are excited to add a strong and established Miami presence,” said Nick Iarossi, co-founder of CCC.

“With this merger, we will add the biggest local market in the state to our portfolio; and with Brian, one of Florida’s top local government consultants, and Rodney’s reputation and experience as a business leader, there is no doubt they will take our service offering to a new level.”

Fellow CCC co-founder Ron LaFace added, “Brian and Rodney have a reputation for delivering successful outcomes for their clients, and they will be pivotal in helping us build Capital City Consulting. Their approach aligns well with our firm’s culture and work ethic, and their experience in the business-to-business space will add another dimension to the firm.”

Rash of overdoses ramps up fentanyl fight in Florida

State and local authorities are working “feverishly” to fight the distribution of fentanyl in Florida after a recent string of overdose deaths rocked the rural community of Gadsden County.

Nine deaths in the county are suspected to have been caused by fentanyl, likely involving people using other drugs that were laced with the potent synthetic opioid. Gadsden County Sheriff Morris Young said emergency responders were called to 19 overdoses over a four-day span earlier this month.

“For Gadsden County to have that number in such a short span, we were afraid that we’d wake up in a week’s time and have 30 to 40, 50 people dead. That’s a lot of folks for Gadsden County. We only have 46,000 people here,” Young told reporters during a news conference Thursday.

First lady Casey DeSantis, who joined Thursday’s meeting, announced that the state is ramping up messaging as part of efforts to prevent future mass overdoses.

Jay Trumbull trounces newcomer Regina Piazza in June fundraising

Large contributions have been pouring in for outgoing Rep. Jay Trumbull since he entered the race for Senate District 2 in June.

The Panama City Republican decided to run when Sen. George Gainer announced he wouldn’t seek re-election.

Since filing to run in early June Trumbull has raised $292,826 — $217,501 in the last two weeks of June alone. Most of his contributions have been $1,000 checks, including one from his political committee, Panhandle Prosperity. The Conservative Leadership Fund and Floridians for Economic Freedom were among the hundreds of $1,000 contributions.

The Trumbull campaign also received $4,629 from the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Rent increases begin to cool across Florida metros, according to Redfin report

Rent increases tapered off in June, with the easing of prices reaching three Florida metros, according to a new report from Redfin.

In its latest analysis released on Monday, Redfin found that the national median asking rent rose 14% from a year earlier — the smallest annual increase since October. The technology-powered real estate brokerage also noted in its report that rents were up 0.7% from May, the smallest month-over-month gain since the start of the year.

“Rent growth is likely slowing because landlords are seeing demand start to ease as renters get pinched by inflation. With the cost of gas, food and other products soaring, renters have less money to spend on housing,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. “This slowdown in rent increases is likely to continue, however rents are still climbing at unprecedented rates in strong job markets like New York and Seattle and in areas like San Antonio and Austin that soared in popularity during the pandemic.”