Florida's Latest News

DeSantis signs online sales tax bill. It’s a $1 billion offset of business tax cuts.

Gov. Ron DeSantis late Monday signed into law a plan to require out-of-state online retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases made by Floridians, with the estimated $1 billion a year in revenue going to curb a pair of taxes on Florida businesses.

While the proposal (SB 50) was widely supported by Tallahassee business groups, DeSantis’ signature came with far less fanfare than when he appeared Monday morning in Polk County to sign a controversial bill (HB 1) about cracking down on violent protests.

During the Polk County appearance, DeSantis was flanked by Republican lawmakers and uniformed law-enforcement officers. But the signing of the online sales-tax bill was announced by the governor’s office just before 11:30 p.m. in an email without comment. The bill was one of five measures DeSantis signed Monday, including the protest bill.

Democrats pick another Broward senator to replace Thurston in leadership position

With Sen. Perry Thurston of Fort Lauderdale planning to run in a special election for Congress, Sen. Lauren Book of Plantation, was chosen Wednesday to serve as the next leader of Florida Senate Democrats.

Book will formally take over as Democratic leader after the November 2022 elections and serve two years in the post. Thurston had been scheduled to become Democratic leader but announced Monday he will run in a special election to try to succeed Congressman Alcee Hastings, who died this month after a battle with cancer.

Lighthouse Point Democrat Gary Farmer is the current Senate Democratic leader.

Gaetz sparked Barr to drop the f-bomb in a legal spat over Florida voting

Months before news broke that the feds were investigating him for sex trafficking, Rep. Matt Gaetz was at the center of a separate internal fight at the Justice Department. The sparring match involved an Oval Office meeting, a foul-mouthed threat from the attorney general and voting in Florida. It has not been previously reported.

In Aug. 2018, President Donald Trump nominated Larry Keefe — a former law partner of Gaetz’s at the firm Keefe, Anchors & Gordon — as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida. More than a year after he was sworn in, and as Joe Biden was locking up the Democratic nomination, Keefe looked to open a wide-ranging probe into voter fraud in Florida, according to two people familiar with the matter.

To open the probe, he needed approval from the Public Integrity Section at the Justice Department’s headquarters. The lawyers there blanched at the statewide scope of Keefe’s proposal, the sources said, and indicated they thought it would be too broad.

Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie accused of perjury; attorney Barbara Myrick also indicted

Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie and General Counsel Barbara Myrick were arrested Wednesday as part of a statewide grand jury probe into the district.

Runcie was arrested on a charge of perjury in an official proceeding, a third-degree felony. Myrick was arrested on a charge of unlawful disclosure of statewide grand jury proceedings, also a third-degree felony.

Agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested Runcie, 59, and Myrick, 72, for their testimony before the grand jury, which was impaneled to investigate possible failures in following school-related safety laws and mismanaging funds solicited for school safety initiatives.