Florida's Latest News

Florida sees 6,336 additional coronavirus cases, pushing total past 206,000

Florida’s Department of Health on Monday confirmed 6,336 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s total to 206,447. There were also 47 new deaths announced, raising the statewide death toll to 3,778.

One additional non-resident death was announced, bringing the statewide non-resident death total to 102.

Less than half of the new cases and new deaths were in South Florida. Miami-Dade County reported 1,981 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and eight new deaths. The county now has 48,992 confirmed cases and 1,051 deaths, the highest in the state.

Budget had to be cut to deal with COVID, but DeSantis kept money for new toll roads

Florida will spend at least $738 million over the next five years on three controversial new toll roads projects under a plan approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis last week.

While slashing more than $1 billion from the state budget because of the state’s sudden economic downturn, he left untouched state plans to move ahead on more than 300 miles of new toll roads.

Those plans include spending $382 million for engineering and planning consultants and $40 million acquiring land along the roads’ paths in the next three years. It does not include the cost of building the roads, which is supposed to start in 2022 with a price tag in the tens of billions of dollars.

Florida ‘Bed Tax’ Fight Goes To Supreme Court

A battle about whether Airbnb and similar vacation-rental platforms are required to collect and send in county tourist-development taxes could be decided by the Florida Supreme Court.

Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon is asking justices to take up the issue after a divided appeals court ruled in March that the online companies are not required to handle the so-called “bed taxes,” according to documents posted Monday on the Supreme Court website.

As is common, an initial notice filed by Gannon’s attorneys did not provide details about the tax collector’s arguments. But she is seeking to have the Supreme Court overturn a ruling by a panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal in favor of Airbnb, Tripadvisor and HomeAway.

Delta Airlines to Bring Back Alcoholic Beverages on Select Domestic Flights

Delta Airlines is raising a glass as they announce they will once again be serving alcoholic beverages on certain domestic flights.

Last week, the airline said they would bring back "complimentary beer and wine on all flights greater than 500 miles" starting July 2. Delta had banned alcoholic beverages on their flights in mid-March amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, only serving bottled water to customers.

"In keeping with the Delta CareStandard, our goal is to serve all of our food and beverage offerings in the safest way possible — both for our customers and employees," said Allison Ausband, Delta’s Senior Vice President of In-Flight Service said in a statement.