Brandon Larrabee - News Service of Florida

As he eyes a run for the U.S. Senate, Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday unveiled the first piece of his pending election-year budget proposal: a $30 million pay raise for state law-enforcement officers.

Calling Gov. Rick Scott's likely bid for the U.S. Senate an "open secret" would be a misnomer — there's no secret there, open or otherwise.

Two University of Florida alumni have filed a class-action lawsuit against the state, saying lawmakers and Gov. Rick Scott funneled money that should have gone to higher education into tax cuts and savings.

Despite a bipartisan backlash against a White House commission's request for information about states' voter rolls, Gov. Rick Scott's administration is still not saying whether Florida will provide the potentially sensitive information.

Rep. Paul Renner (R-Palm Coast) emerged Friday as the Republican choice for House speaker following the 2022 elections, giving Northeast Florida a much-desired spot for the first time in two decades.

Renner was supported by fellow members of his "class”— lawmakers elected to their first full term this past November — with 16 votes, two more than he needed for the win, according to the Florida Times-Union.

It took an extension to the regular session and a special session on top of that to finally get a state spending plan for the new fiscal year, but the budget that tied up lawmakers for months finally takes effect Saturday.

TALLAHASSEE — To the extent that any legislative session is remembered, the 2017 edition might be remembered as much for what lawmakers didn't do as for what they did.

TALLAHASSEE — In a sharply worded opinion, an appeals court Tuesday overturned a Leon County judge's 2016 decision that seemed to support the "opt-out" movement that encourages parents to defy standardized testing requirements.

A Florida House panel's decision to hear Thursday from a speaker with a history of inflammatory statements about minorities and immigrants roiled the normally peaceful legislative committee week in Tallahassee and prompted Democrats to walk out of the hearing.

TALLAHASSEE — Florida residents will have until Tuesday to register to vote, after a federal judge ordered an extension of the registration deadline because of Hurricane Matthew.

PANAMA CITY BEACH — With less than a month to go before Florida could decide the fate of his campaign, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump began a swing through the state Tuesday with a nearly apocalyptic warning of the stakes of the November election.

A federal judge ordered a one-day extension in Florida's voter registration deadline and seemed ready to consider a longer delay against the backdrops of the recovery from Hurricane Matthew and one of the most heated presidential races in decades.

Updated 9/30: Little more than a month before he was set to vie for re-election, state Rep. Reggie Fullwood pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts in a federal indictment.

TALLAHASSEE — U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, the Republican incumbent, will face Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy in November in a high-profile race that could decide control of the Senate.As votes continued to roll in Tuesday night, Rubio and Murphy were both cruising against their primary opponents.

TALLAHASSEE — A Miami-Dade County judge ruled Monday that a state law allowing the death penalty to be imposed without a unanimous jury decision is unconstitutional, adding to the challenges facing Florida's capital punishment structure.