Florida's Latest News

Gov. DeSantis OKs academic surveys to ensure campuses aren’t ‘hotbeds for stale ideologies’

During a stop in Lee County, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation requiring university professors to be surveyed on ideology.

“It used to be thought that a university campus was a place where you would be exposed to a lot of different ideas,” DeSantis said. “Unfortunately, now the norm is really, these are more intellectually repressive environments. You have orthodoxies that are promoted and other viewpoints are shunned, or even suppressed. We don’t want that in Florida.”

He spoke at Three Oaks Middle School, where he signed multiple pieces of legislation involving Florida’s civics curriculum. He also signed a bill (HB 233) that requires annual intellectual diversity surveys of Florida’s university and college professors.

DeSantis gives Florida an extra $12 million in fight against Alzheimer’s, dementia

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a $12 million increase in funding for Alzheimer’s and dementia research and care.

“We look forward to the medical breakthrough that will eventually bring a cure,” said DeSantis, speaking Monday at Windsor at San Pablo in Jacksonville, an assisted living and memory care facility, Here’s where the additional money in the state’s $51 million budget for Alzheimer’s and dementia will go:

$6.7 million to support the Alzheimer’s disease initiative, which will allow 700 people and their families to receive supportive care and respite services. Some also will go towards funding the Alzheimer’s/dementia Initiative’s Brain Bank research program dedicated to collecting brain tissue donations for critical scientific research.

Florida Eliminates COVID-19 Flexibilities For Medicaid

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration announced Friday that the state will next month step back from flexibilities that were offered to Medicaid providers and beneficiaries during the COVID-19 pandemic, including allowing people to receive behavioral health services without first obtaining prior authorization.

The Agency for Health Care Administration issued eight Medicaid notices announcing that the policies designed to make it easier for patients to access health care and for providers to bill for the care were being rescinded.

“The state of Florida led the national effort to distribute COVID-19 vaccines and now maintains a sufficient supply of COVID-19 vaccines for every eligible Floridian who desires to be vaccinated. The data demonstrates that Florida is positioned to transition to pre-pandemic activities,” the email alerts began.

Florida's gas prices going down after double-digit increases last week

Florida’s average gas prices inched lower over the last week, dropping by 3 cents.

After several weeks of rising prices, Floridians could continue to see declines, the AAA-Auto Club South said in its weekly gasoline prices briefing. The average price of gas in Florida is now $2.94 a gallon.

The week before, the statewide average ballooned by 12 cents, mostly because of rising market prices. AAA officials say there may be some leveling out of markets connected to the most recent small declines. 

"Florida drivers got a break from rising gas prices last week, and it appears that trend could continue this week," AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins said. "Although crude oil prices notched another small weekly gain, wholesale gasoline prices declined.