News Service of Florida

The first weekend of early voting being available in every Florida county pushed the number of votes cast for the Nov. 3 election towards 2.8 million, more than 20 percent of the turnout in the prior midterm election in 2022.

DeSantis claimed the hecklers were “pre-staged” and argued back, saying: “If that’s what you want to focus on, pointing fingers about the Secretary of Education - I want to focus on relief for people.”

In a filing with the 10th Judicial Circuit Court in Highlands County on Monday, Uthmeier puts the situation in dire terms.

Even with a soft decline over the weekend, AAA put a gallon of gas at $4.14 on Monday, 23 cents higher than a week earlier.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Cabinet have scheduled a teleconference for Friday, the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack, to impose an emergency rule that spells out how Florida puts terrorist labels on various groups.

The rule applies to AI and AI instructional tools, which are defined as software applications or services that use AI.

The Florida Division of Elections on Monday morning posted that nearly 1.1 million mail ballots have been returned to county elections offices and more than 818,000 voted in-person at early voting locations.

A lawsuit was filed Wednesday over the need for the federal government to designate critical habitat for the threatened queen conch off the coast of Florida, along with the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed the budget in Tampa on Monday, locked in funding for Florida's AIDS Drug Assistance Program for the 2026-2027 fiscal year, which starts July 1.

Formal qualifying opened at noon Monday for those running in Florida for governor, the three Cabinet offices, all 120 state House seats and 21 state Senate seats.

A water shortage warning for most of Lee and Collier counties was lifted Thursday by the South Florida Water Management District.

President Donald Trump on Monday nominated Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez to be ambassador to Brazil.