Jim Saunders | News Service of Florida

The Florida House on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill that would prevent local governments from adding fluoride to water supplies and take aim at labeling of plant-based products as milk, meat and eggs.

The Republican-controlled House voted 78-34 to pass the bill (HB 759), though it remains unclear whether the Senate will take up the issue. The House passed repeal bills in 2023 and 2024, but they did not get through the Senate.

The proposal provide “medical benefit plans” that would not be subject to the same state and federal regulations as health insurance.

DeSantis largely stuck to broad ideas, rather than detailed plans, during his annual State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature in the House chamber. The 60-day session will include myriad issues, including the House and Senate negotiating a budget that likely will exceed $115 billion.

Florida Power & Light on Friday filed a proposal that would lead to higher electric bills for customers over the next four years, with the utility pointing to issues such as growth and a need to build more solar-energy facilities.

The Senate president and House speaker issued a proclamation for a special session that will start Tuesday. They also released summaries of bills that include steps aimed at helping carry out President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

An FAU search committee picked former House Majority Leader Adam Hasner and two longtime academics as finalists following a bumpy process that started after former President John Kelly announced his resignation in 2022.

House meetings that had been scheduled Wednesday and Thursday will be shifted to Jan. 28 and Jan. 29 “with some slight adjustments.”

Among the restrictions are preventing minors from beginning to receive puberty blockers and hormone therapy for treatment of gender dysphoria.

A Florida appeals court has upheld a circuit judge's ruling that rejected five candidates for municipal offices in the Palm Beach County city of Riviera Beach because they used debit cards to pay qualifying fees instead of checks.

A federal judge sided with arguments by an environmental group that wastewater discharges into the Indian River Lagoon led to the demise of seagrass and, as a result, the deaths of manatees. But he also said a trial is needed to determine whether the Florida Department of Environmental Protection violated the Endangered Species Act.

Attorneys for several publishing companies, authors and other plaintiffs filed a document that, in part, disputed a state position that selection of school library books is “government speech” and, as a result, is not subject to the First Amendment.