Florida's Latest News

Aaron Bean wants to fix some long-standing health care budget woes

Sen. Aaron Bean, entering his final Session in the Florida Legislature, is hopeful Florida’s budget surplus can be used to fix long-standing holes in the state’s health care programs, some of which he said have gone unaddressed for decades.

The Fernandina Beach Republican is spending his last year in office as chair of the Senate committee overseeing health care spending, usually a job that requires legislators to grapple with budget deficits, waiting lists or enrollment surges.

It’s no different this year as Florida is projected to see its overall Medicaid enrollment surpass 5 million due to the turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

DeSantis continues push to end FSA testing

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced plans last week to end the Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) testing for students across the state.

On Monday, DeSantis and Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran sat down with educators in Niceville to talk about how his plan to ditch the FSA in favor of “progress monitoring” will affect them moving forward.

“We believe a system of progress monitoring where you have more streamlined periodic assessments would be much more student, parent and teacher friendly,” DeSantis said during the roundtable event. “Also what we’re proposing to do is going to reduce the amount of time dedicated to assessments by 75%. So we really believe that having more time for learning is going to be beneficial for our students and the parents and I think obviously the teachers. They want to teach and not be test preparation proctors.”

DeSantis announces new Florida surgeon general

Governor Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday that Florida has a new surgeon general.

Dr. Joseph Ladapo has been hired to replace Scott Rivkees who has not been seen in many months.

Ladapo comes to Florida from UCLA.

Last month Ladapo wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal headlined “Masks Are a Distraction From the Pandemic Reality,” saying that mask mandates may “have unintended consequences that outweigh the benefits.”

His bio on UCLA’s website says he graduated from Wake Forest University and received his MD from Harvard Medical School and his Ph.D. in Health Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Brian Laundrie search shifts, warrant served on parents’ home day after Gabby Petito’s body likely found

One day after the FBI announced a body discovered in Wyoming is believed to be Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito, police in North Port, Florida announced they do not intend to continue an extensive search of the wilderness where person of interest Brian Laundrie may be.

Meanwhile, the FBI executed a search warrant of Laundrie’s parents’ home, where both Petito and Laundrie lived before a summer road trip that ended up with a missing report filed for Petito after Laundrie returned home without her.

Officers served a search warrant, and local media reported that the parents were seen getting into a police van. Video showed at least a dozen law enforcement officers, including one wearing an FBI jacket, pulling up to the house in North Port and rushing inside. Later, a police officer could be seen taking a stack of cardboard boxes inside. Later, Laundrie’s Ford Mustang was towed from the home.