Florida Phoenix

Republicans caution against complacency at 'Florida Freedom Forum' in Orlando • Florida Phoenix ORLANDO – The Republican Party of Florida has never been more powerful than right now. It has controlled the governor’s mansion for nearly three decades – and also currently holds all three Cabinet of...

“Don’t get high on your own supply. There is nothing permanent in politics."—Gov. Ron DeSantis
floridaphoenix.com/2025/08/03/r...

Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell moved from Tallahassee federal prison to one in Texas • Florida Phoenix Tallahassee’s most famous prisoner is no longer here. Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of notorious financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — and his  convicted co-conspirator — has been mo...

Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell moved from Tallahassee federal prison to one in Texas floridaphoenix.com/2025/08/01/e...

Under duress, Orange County mayor signs ICE addendum to ward off threat of removal from office • Florida Phoenix Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings signed an updated agreement with U.S. Immigration and Enforcement (ICE) on Friday, although he later said he did so under “protest and extreme duress.” It came days a...

“Yeah, we signed the damn thing because we really had to. We were put in a tough spot,” Demings said during a late afternoon press conference in Orlando. “I can’t let our entire board of county commissioners and myself be removed from office.” floridaphoenix.com/2025/08/01/u...

Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell moved from Tallahassee federal prison to one in Texas • Florida Phoenix Tallahassee’s most famous prisoner is no longer here. Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of notorious financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — and his  convicted co-conspirator — has been mo...

David Oscar Markus, Maxwell’s Florida lawyer, confirmed in an email that Maxwell had been moved but declined all further comment. Maxwell’s relocation — which happened on Thursday — was first reported by the New York Sun. floridaphoenix.com/2025/08/01/e...

Trump levies a host of new tariffs on U.S. trading partners • Florida Phoenix WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump pushed ahead with his promise to raise tariffs on foreign goods by Aug. 1, signing an order late Thursday increasing import taxes on products from nearly every U.S....

Trump’s directive, and new data on weaker job growth, sent markets tumbling Friday. floridaphoenix.com/2025/08/01/r...

Corporation for Public Broadcasting to close its doors after loss of funding • Florida Phoenix WASHINGTON — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced Friday that it will be shutting down. The announcement came just one day after a major Senate appropriations bill omitted funding for the...

“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations." floridaphoenix.com/2025/08/01/r...

Trump's 'truth seeking' AI executive order is a complex, expensive policy, experts say • Florida Phoenix An executive order signed by President Donald Trump last week seeks to remove “ideological agendas” from artificial intelligence models sold to the federal government, but it’s not exactly clear how t...

“It’s not at all clear to me, one, what exactly this executive order seeks to prevent, beyond sort of a gestalt of political speech that the administration found objectionable." floridaphoenix.com/2025/08/01/r...

DeSantis, some sheriffs not entirely flattered by ICE recruiting local officers • Florida Phoenix Gov. Ron DeSantis is questioning the federal government’s recruitment of Florida’s local and state police who are focused on enforcing immigration laws. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has be...

ICE is “dangling like a lot of bonus money and all this other stuff,” as the governor put it, to local and state officers who’ve received partial or full training in enforcing immigration laws and participating in 287(g) agreements. floridaphoenix.com/2025/08/01/d...

New nursing home regs for patient safety culture surveys are in the works • Florida Phoenix Florida health care regulators are developing rules to implement a new law that requires nursing homes to anonymously survey their staff about their patient safety culture — a move being heralded by o...

The new law requires long-term care facilities to conduct patient safety and culture surveys biennially. The surveys must be conducted anonymously “to encourage completion of the survey by staff working in or employed by the facility.” floridaphoenix.com/2025/08/01/n...

The Florida Office of Election Crimes and Security has a (not so) new director • Florida Phoenix The state agency charged with monitoring election fraud in Florida has new leadership. Jillian Pratt, a former assistant general counsel in the Florida Department of State, was appointed director of t...

Despite the fact that the change took place several months ago, the Department of State confirmed it only on Thursday, following an inquiry by the Phoenix. floridaphoenix.com/2025/07/31/t...

Teacher vacancies down 17%, Department of Education says • Florida Phoenix Teacher vacancies in Florida’s public schools are down 17.7% headed into the 2025-2026 school year, according to the Department of Education.  The department did not provide additional data or informa...

Last year, the department and the Florida Education Association disagreed on vacancy data, standing about 900 vacancies apart from each other. The FEA estimated more vacancies than the state. floridaphoenix.com/briefs/teach...

Trump’s big proposed cuts to health and education spending rebuffed by US Senate panel • Florida Phoenix WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations Thursday largely rejected Trump administration proposals to slash funding for education programs, medical research grants, health initiatives a...

“We all know President Trump cannot dismantle the Department of Education or ship education programs to other agencies. Authorizing laws prevent that.” floridaphoenix.com/2025/07/31/r...

Friday is 'Hulk Hogan Day in Florida'; flags ordered flown at half staff • Florida Phoenix Friday, per Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order, will be “Hulk Hogan Day in Florida” and flags will fly at half staff to honor pro wrestler and Florida resident Hulk Hogan, who died last week from a heart attack...

The wrestler spent much of his life in Florida and appeared with DeSantis recently and at the Republican National Convention last year in Milwaukee, endorsing Donald Trump. floridaphoenix.com/briefs/frida...

On a Florida beach, conservation land may yield to parking and shops • Florida Phoenix Back when I lived in Pensacola, one of my favorite beaches was at Navarre. I’d drive out there early in the morning before work and swim for an hour or so. I’d have the place pretty much to myself — j...

“I always say that the nastiest words in the English language are ‘vacant land,’” she told me. “Just because nothing’s been built on it doesn’t mean it’s not living up to its potential.” floridaphoenix.com/2025/07/31/o...

‘Half-baked’ USDA relocation irritates members of both parties on US Senate Ag panel • Florida Phoenix Members of both parties on the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee chastised a U.S. Department of Agriculture official Wednesday for not consulting Congress before proposing to shift thousands of jobs o...

The proposal calls for cutting 2,600USDA jobs DC,Maryland and Virginia and expanding the department’s footprint in five regional hubs: Raleigh, North Carolina; Indianapolis; Kansas City, Missouri; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Salt Lake City. floridaphoenix.com/2025/07/31/r...

University of Florida asks state Supreme Court to rehear COVID student fee case • Florida Phoenix University of Florida attorneys are asking the Florida Supreme Court to rehear a student’s legal demand for the flagship university to rebate all or part of student fees charged while campus was on CO...

Anthony Rojas, then a graduate student at UF, filed a class action in 2021 seeking to reclaim the fees he and other students paid during a virtual learning period. floridaphoenix.com/briefs/unive...

Miami election date change without voter approval ruled unconstitutional • Florida Phoenix The city of Miami’s proposal to delay its general municipal election scheduled for this November until next year without voter approval has been ruled unconstitutional by Florida’s Third District Cour...

Advocates argued the change would align with statewide elections, lowering costs and increasing voter turnout. But critics maintained it was a power grab giving elected officials an extra year in office without accountability to the voters. floridaphoenix.com/briefs/miami...

UCF, USF increase out-of-state tuition; UF only school to create carveout • Florida Phoenix University of Central Florida and University of South Florida trustees voted to raise out-of-state tuition Thursday, meaning Florida’s five highest-enrolled universities will charge more for out-of-st...

“Obviously, this was not a banner year for universities as it relates to recurring funds from the state,” USF trustee chair Will Weatherford said during a virtual special meeting. floridaphoenix.com/briefs/ucf-u...

Health problem drives Democrat Josh Weil out of U.S. Senate race • Florida Phoenix Florida Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Josh Weil announced Thursday that, due to health concerns, he is dropping out of the party primary to challenge Republican Ashley Moody next year. “In 2021 and...

I trust that both my run for the special election and for Senate has demonstrated to everyday working Americans that they can make a difference by running for office in their communities." floridaphoenix.com/2025/07/31/h...

Lawmakers must be allowed immigration detention visits, US House Dems’ suit says • Florida Phoenix WASHINGTON — A dozen Democratic members of Congress filed a lawsuit Wednesday charging that the Trump administration is blocking lawmakers from conducting congressional oversight of federal immigratio...

“Reports of mistreatment have been widespread and have included disturbing details of overcrowding, food shortages, lack of adequate medical care, and unsanitary conditions.” floridaphoenix.com/2025/07/30/r...

Epstein files must be released by Trump administration under obscure law, Democrats contend • Florida Phoenix WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats on Wednesday began charting a little-known legal path to force President Donald Trump’s administration to release the investigative files on the now deceased Florida...

“While protecting the victim’s identities can and must be of top importance, the public has a right to know who enabled, knew of or participated in one of the most heinous sex trafficking operations in history." floridaphoenix.com/2025/07/30/r...

FIU joins FSU, UF in raising out-of-state tuition; more schools may follow • Florida Phoenix Non-Florida residents will pay more to attend the state’s highest-performing institution of higher education, Florida International University.  Trustees at FIU voted Wednesday to raise tuition for ou...

Undergraduate out-of-state students taking 30 credit hours at FIU during the coming school year will pay an increase of about $1,240, or $39 per credit hour. The out-of-state financial aid fee is rising, too, by $58. floridaphoenix.com/briefs/fiu-j...

Maxwell Frost bashes FL AG's threat to remove Orange County officials over immigration enforcement • Florida Phoenix A day after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier threatened to remove Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and every member of the Orlando County Commission from office in a dispute over immigration e...

“The Governor’s office has a long track record of overstepping and playing these twisted political games to silence the opposition." floridaphoenix.com/2025/07/30/m...

No spoof: Florida's top agriculture regulator wants to define 'cartoon' • Florida Phoenix In a continued effort to crack down on the sale of hemp to minors, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is coming up with a new regulation. This one will define the word “cartoo...

“‘Attractive to children,’ means manufactured in the shape of humans, cartoons, or animals; manufactured in a form that bears any reasonable resemblance to an existing candy product that is familiar to the public ..." floridaphoenix.com/briefs/no-sp...

'Stay tuned,' DeSantis says on mid-decade congressional redistricting plan • Florida Phoenix TAMPA — Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday that he is looking “very seriously” at creating a mid-decade redistricting process in Florida, adding that he believes the state’s Fair District amendments, de...

"All Republicans will need to do is not plainly say ‘we are doing this for partisan reasons’ — and the court will give them a pass.” floridaphoenix.com/2025/07/30/s...

Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene labels Gaza crisis a ‘genocide’ in break from GOP colleagues • Florida Phoenix Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene became the first congressional Republican to use the word “genocide” to refer to Israel’s actions in Gaza Monday, and a Democratic member of the Georgia delega...

“It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza." floridaphoenix.com/2025/07/30/g...

‘Good government’ group urges blue states to back away from a redistricting arms race • Florida Phoenix States led by Democrats should resist the temptation to conduct their own mid-decade redistricting in response to Republicans in the Texas Legislature moving to redraw U.S. House lines before the 2026...

“Our election infrastructure is not supposed to have a thumb on the scale for either side,”— Emily Eby French, policy director for Common Cause Texas. floridaphoenix.com/2025/07/30/r...

Bove confirmed by US Senate as federal appeals judge, despite misconduct complaints • Florida Phoenix WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Tuesday night confirmed President Donald Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, Emil Bove, to a lifetime position on the federal appeals bench, in the face of whistl...

Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine joined with all Democrats in a 50-49 vote to oppose Emil Bove’s confirmation to the U.S. Appeals Court for the 3rd Circuit. floridaphoenix.com/2025/07/30/r...

US Senate confirms Trump pick to head Centers for Disease Control and Prevention • Florida Phoenix WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Susan Monarez as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday. Monarez — whom the Senate confirmed on a party-line vote, 51-47 — ...

The new head of the CDC, Susan Monarez, has Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology, but she doesn't have a medical degree. She is the first person without a medical degree to hold the title since 1953. floridaphoenix.com/2025/07/30/r...

Does the Florida Kidcare program comply with Trump's new 'Big Beautiful' law? • Florida Phoenix Is Florida’s children’s health insurance program compliant with the “big beautiful” law that President Donald Trump pushed through Congress? The answer to that question depends on whom you ask. While ...

‘It’s the only state we know of where it’s literally impossible to get from one program to another.’ floridaphoenix.com/2025/07/30/d...