Florida's Latest News

Offshore wind seeks lifeline with Trump-connected lobbyist

Ørsted, the Danish wind developer whose $6 billion project off New England was stopped for a month, recently hired Nick Iarossi, a Trump fundraiser and lobbyist at BRG Government Affairs. And Avangrid Inc. turned to Carlos Trujillo, the founder of Continental Strategy who served as Trump's ambassador to the Organization of American States during the president's firm term.

The moves make offshore wind the latest industry to turn to lobbyists with connections to Trump. Iarossi and Trujillo are among a wave of Florida-based lobbyists who moved to Washington after Trump won reelection last year.

In Iarossi, Ørsted is turning to one of the go-to lobbyists of Trump's second term. Iarossi spent years lobbying in Tallahassee, the Florida capital, before bundling campaign donations for Trump during last year's presidential campaign. The Wall Street Journal reported in March that Iarossi met with Trump several times in the final months of the campaign and during the transition, when Iarossi became a fixture at Mar-a-Lago. His client list includes Blackrock Fund Services Group, a political action committee associated with the investment bank, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Verizon Communications, according to Senate lobbying disclosures. He is often listed as working alongside other BGR lobbyists

Gov. DeSantis announces partnership with Turning Point USA

Florida leaders want students to be able to form chapters of the conservative group in high schools.

Charlie Kirk’s memory will inspire Florida students for years to come, both through a debate prize and state policy regarding the group he founded.

Gov. Ron DeSantis discussed the state’s Civics and Debate Initiative at New College of Florida—Sainer Auditorium, saying the prize for winning in April 2026 would be named after the conservative commentator who was assassinated this year when speaking on a college campus.

Describing Kirk as inspiring conservatives “going into the belly of the beast … to bring conservative ideas to these liberal campuses,” DeSantis noted that prize winners will get scholarships ranging from $10,000 for quarterfinalists to $50,000 for the winners.

Florida legislators begin filing education bills ahead of January session

The next legislative session doesn't begin until January, but already, legislators have filed a number of bills to be considered, including a handful of education bills. Among the education legislation are bills that would require K-12 students to learn cursive, and protect grade school and college students from being discriminated against for wearing natural hairstyles.

Other bills would require teachers to take an oath of loyalty to the state and its education laws, and prohibit teachers and staff from using corporal punishment on kids.

At the college level, a bill would require state universities and colleges to name at least one road on their campuses after conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

And, a bill aimed at making it easier for employers to pay teens less than the minimum wage, would allow college and high school students to opt out of a $14 dollar an hour wage.

It ain't pretty, but Florida needs to focus on wastewater infrastructure, Byron Donalds says

Donalds talked about everything from infrastructure improvements to property taxes at the Future of Florida Forum.

Acknowledging it is a “crappy” issue that polite society doesn’t like to talk about, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds warned that the state must improve its wastewater infrastructure amid Florida’s massive growth.

“This is a tough subject. Nobody wants to be engaged in it except, frankly, people who sit on City Councils and County Commissions,” Donalds said at the Future of Florida Forum in Orlando. “I believe that you have to have a sound plan, a strategy, of how you address these things going into the future. We cannot put our heads in the sand and ignore it because that crappy issue will back up, and I’m not joking.”

Donalds, who many peg as the leading candidate for Governor in 2026, talked for about 20 minutes at the JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek Report and Spa in Orlando. The Florida Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting runs Monday and Tuesday.