Steve Bousquet

Supreme Court Justice Alan Lawson is retiring effective August 1 after only six years on the state's highest and most prestigious court. He was an appointee of former Gov. Rick Scott. Lawson leaves a fourth seat for DeSantis to fill on the seven-member court as he seeks reelection.

One of the largest gatherings of election officials in Florida history recently took outside Orlando. It happened right as voting experts got the surprising news that a federal judge had struck down major portions of an election law approved a year ago.

Roofing claims, property insurance, and Russian disinvestment: On Tuesday, for the first time in more than six months, the Florida Cabinet actually met in Tallahassee to tackle business on a variety of fronts.

Florida Realtors have launched a major political campaign to get a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot next year. It’s designed to prevent future legislatures from raiding a state housing trust fund for other expenses.

The regular legislative session ended two months ago. Even though it was not especially productive in terms of the number of bills passed, Gov. Ron DeSantis has not yet acted on more than a third of all 275 bills passed.

Grass-roots advocacy has gone virtual in Tallahassee because of the pandemic. An effort is underway by one of Florida's largest counties to connect with the Florida Capitol under these challenging conditions.

House Democrats are pushing what they call meaningful COVID relief and a solid plan for the next pandemic. Their 69-page proposal is largely the work of a young freshman, Representative Andrew Learned, a military officer and father of twins who runs a tutoring center near Tampa.

The Florida legislative session began Tuesday in a largely-deserted state Capitol amid unprecedented restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dozens of election law changes will be on the table when the Florida legislative session opens in a few weeks.

Since the day Gov. Ron DeSantis took office more than two years ago, Shane Strum has been in charge of day to day operations in the Governor's Office as his chief of staff. Now Strum is a finalist for a lucrative job in South Florida.

For much of the past year, state transportation officials heard strong opposition to plans for three major new toll roads in Florida. But the controversial projects aren’t dead. They were back before the Legislature just last week.

In a month or so, all 160 members of the Legislature are scheduled to return to Tallahassee, despite predictions that the COVID-19 pandemic could be worse than it is now. Some lawmakers say they're confident everything will be fine while others—especially those who've had the coronavirus—want to make sure safety is the top priority.