Responding to the frustrations expressed by local residents, the St. Petersburg City Council has taken a major step towards potentially jettisoning its longtime relationship with Duke Energy Florida and creating its own city-run electric utility. The council voted 4-3 Thursday to spend up to $590,000 to hire Texas-based NewGen Strategies and Solutions to analyze whether […]

Florida voters will be asked to sharply curtail the property taxes cities and counties rely upon under a far-reaching resolution championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and approved Tuesday by a supermajority of the Florida Legislature. The proposed constitutional amendment must get a “yes” vote from 60% of voters in the November elections to become law. […]

The U.S. Department of Justice’s recent decision to downgrade the drug classification for medical cannabis will help medical marijuana businesses. Companies will be able to claim some federal tax benefits. New research can start up at state universities. But the broader divide between federal and state marijuana policy remains largely intact, leaving states to navigate […]

The Florida Legislature is moving quickly to put into play a revamped proposal pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to drastically reduce property taxes, homestead and otherwise, with potential final passage as early as Tuesday. Top legislative Republicans in the House and Senate altered the plan Monday to exempt from reduction or potential elimination the property […]

OpenAI should’ve known the damage its chatbot would cause, the state argues in a lawsuit against ChatGPT’s creators. In an 83-page filing in state circuit court in Highlands County, the Florida Department of Legal Affairs and Attorney General James Uthmeier laid ChatGPT’s rollout and management side-by-side with instances in which the technology has been consulted […]

Property tax plan details SJR 2F

One of the great joys of living in Florida is our access to fresh seafood — shrimp, scallops, grouper, you name it. I grilled some on Memorial Day and it was delicious! The source of all this bounty, the sea, may look like a limitless expanse, but it’s not. We have to be careful about […]

By Rebecka Pieder/Medill News Service WASHINGTON – In a deal that could provide a major trade boost for American farmers, the White House said that during the recent summit, China committed to buying at least $17 billion in additional U.S. agricultural products annually for three years. But Beijing has not confirmed the figure and farm […]

After failing for the second year in a row to pass a budget on time, the Florida Legislature has cobbled together this year’s Appropriations Act, to be voted on and sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis by the end of the week. The budget chairs for the House and Senate spent most of the Memorial Day […]

Immigrants seeking green cards will have to return first to their home countries and wait despite years of potential backlogs, the Trump administration announced Friday. “An alien who is in the U.S. temporarily and wants a Green Card must return to their home country to apply,” Zach Kahler, a spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration […]

WASHINGTON — Higher electric rates? Massive data centers looming over neighborhoods? Ugly political fights over what to do about them? The future of data centers and their huge appetite for electricity is quickly escalating as a political flashpoint from coast to coast, moving from cities and states now to the nation’s capital. Bills are under […]

After a week of behind-the-scenes negotiations, budget writers for the Florida House and Senate met Friday afternoon and early evening and produced apparent agreements on a $50 million investment for a Tampa Bay Rays stadium, pay raises for targeted state employees, and money for a state emergency fund. The chambers made no offers on one […]

WASHINGTON — Kevin Warsh assumed his new role as chair of the Federal Reserve Friday after a swearing-in ceremony in the White House East Room, where U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas delivered the oath of office. President Donald Trump said before a crowd of high-profile former and current lawmakers and officials that he wants […]

Billions of dollars for schools, healthcare for the state’s poor, and restoring the Everglades remain up in the air with just days left before the Florida Legislature is supposed to deliver a new state budget. Legislators returned to Tallahassee on May 12 to draft a new Appropriations Act. Ten days later, it’s not clear what’s […]

Back when dinosaurs ruled the earth and I was in high school, there was a popular song, played on the radio and even featured in the movie “All That Jazz” called “Everything Old is New Again.” “Don’t throw the past away,” singer Peter Allen warbled, “you might need it some rainy day.” I started humming […]

Large, immigrant-rich cities saw population fall back between mid-2024 and mid-2025 after nation-leading increases the year before. Mid-sized cities led the pack in U.S. Census Bureau estimates to be released May 14. The largest numeric increases for the year were in Charlotte, North Carolina (up 20,731); Fort Worth, Texas (up 19,512); the Dallas suburb of […]

Housing shortages have eased in most states since 2020, as new construction has made apartments and houses more affordable. Connecticut, New Jersey and Rhode Island are the only states that have lost housing units per capita since 2020, according to a Stateline analysis of housing data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Most other […]

NextEra Energy is seeking to acquire Dominion Energy, which could bring South Carolina customers under the umbrella of one of the largest power companies in the United States. The combined company would become the world’s largest regulated electric utility with about 10 million customers and 110 gigawatts worth of power on its system, executives said […]

Florida legislators wrapped up the first week of their budget special session Friday far apart on multiple spending priorities for schools, healthcare — and even whether Gov. Ron DeSantis deserves a security detail after he leaves office. “We’re at the midpoint in the negotiations,” Rep. Jason Shoaf of Port St. Joe, House budget chair for […]

House and Senate budget negotiators swapped multiple offers Thursday as they rushed to resolve differences in the roughly $115 billion spending plan they are working on. Legislators have been at it for three straight days tackling items ranging from affordable housing, money for schools and health care, Everglades restoration, and more. The budget special session […]

A federal judge imposed sanctions against a state agency supervisor for her testimony in a case regarding a state employee fired for a social media post following Charlie Kirk’s killing. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker determined that not correcting the record after exaggerating the number of complaints to the agency about the Florida Fish and […]

WASHINGTON — Kevin Warsh will officially take the lead at the Federal Reserve after U.S. senators voted Wednesday to confirm the economist and former central bank governor to replace Chair Jerome Powell. Senators approved Warsh 54-45 nearly along party lines. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., broke ranks with his party to join Republicans in support of […]

On paper it makes little sense. Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, roughly 7,000 miles from the United States, is restricted and gasoline prices in this country soar? The strait is the major export route for oil produced by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, Bahrain and Iran, according to the International Energy […]

President Trump says he wants to suspend the federal tax on gasoline to aid Americans contending with fuel price increases caused by the war in Iran, now in its third month. However, that would require a vote from Congress. The federal tax is set at 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon […]

As Florida state lawmakers return to Tallahassee this week to negotiate the state budget, attention is being focused on whether Florida’s economy is going in the wrong direction. The state’s unemployment rate for March was at 4.7%, tied with four other states at 35th in the nation. That’s above the national unemployment rate of 4.3%. There are now […]

The family of one of the victims of last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University have filed a lawsuit against the artificial intelligence chatbot the alleged shooter consulted before the attack. Lawyers representing 45-year-old Tiru Chabba’s estate announced the lawsuit filed Monday in Tallahassee federal court. The legal team alleges OpenAI, owner of ChatGPT, […]

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law on Friday restrictions on government contact with what the state lists as foreign “countries of concern” and prohibits public employees and officials from accepting gifts from those countries. The governor signed the measure (HB 905) into law at the Bay of Pigs Museum & Library in Miami, an appropriate […]

As summer vacations nears and the opportunity for travel increases, measles cases in Florida and across the United States continue to rise. Florida Department of Health data show that between the start of the year and May 1, 150 suspected and confirmed measles cases were reported to state health officials. Fourteen of Florida’s 67 counties […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s trade agenda faced another major setback Thursday when the U.S. Court of International Trade handed a win to two small businesses and the state of Washington after they challenged the president’s 10% global tariffs, imposed after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his previous emergency tariff regime. In a 2-1 […]

AI data centers will be required to pay for their own utilities and not shift the costs to customers now that SB 484 is law. Appearing Thursday in Lakeland with Florida Secretary of Commerce Alex Kelly, Gov. Ron DeSantis thanked the Legislature for passing the bill, even though it was less expansive than what the […]