Gov. Ron DeSantis

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has asked an appeals court to block challenges filed by five school boards against a Department of Health rule aimed at preventing students from being forced to wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Starke Wednesday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the City of Jacksonville would be receiving $540,000 for its military bases.

Saying the state’s system of standardized testing in public schools is “quite frankly, outdated,” Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday announced that lawmakers will consider a proposal during the 2022 legislative session to end the Florida Standards Assessments.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday that Florida will fight local and federal COVID-19 vaccination mandates for public and private workers, warning that such requirements will have a “huge impact” on public safety.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and one of his Democratic gubernatorial challengers, state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, are butting heads over programs designed to help feed low-income children.

More than 30 Democratic state lawmakers, including Rep. Angie Nixon of Jacksonville, have signed a letter urging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to apply for a federal program that would provide $820 million to help feed low-income children.

An appeal filed Thursday by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration put on hold a Leon County circuit judge’s ruling against the state in a battle over school mask mandates --- but attorneys for a group of parents quickly requested that the ruling be allowed to take effect.

Starting this month the state of Florida will fine businesses that require proof of COVID-19 vaccination from customers.

Two Jacksonville women are continuing their lawsuit against the state of Florida and Gov. Ron DeSantis over a 2019 law restricting some residents with felony convictions from voting after those rights had been restored by a state constitutional amendment.

Florida’s lone statewide elected Democrat is urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto a handful of bills sent to him by the state Legislature.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is suspending all local COVID-19 emergency orders.

The Sierra Club of Florida has sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis urging him to veto twelve bills, including some that would make it harder for local governments to reduce fossil fuel emissions, the leading driver of climate change.

Florida has long been known as an environmental contradiction. It’s mostly a peninsula at risk from the severe impacts of climate change, including rising seas, warming temperatures, and worsening extreme-weather events; yet it’s also a state governed by Republican leaders who have refused to even publicly utter the words “climate change.”

Civil-rights attorneys are challenging a new set of state laws that establish a crime of “mob intimidation” and enhance penalties for riot-related violence and looting, arguing in a federal lawsuit that the measures unconstitutionally “seek to arrest the peaceful expression of free speech.”

House Republicans on Tuesday rejected Democratic efforts to increase unemployment assistance, days after Gov. Ron DeSantis opposed boosting benefits that are among the lowest in the nation.

Gov. Ron DeSantis late Monday signed into law a plan to require out-of-state online retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases made by Floridians, with the estimated $1 billion a year in revenue going to curb a pair of taxes on Florida businesses.

Brick by brick, the stucco shell of a new, flood-resilient public works building is taking shape blocks from the beach, the most visible sign yet of this small community’s enormous task of staving off the rising sea. 

Florida has put a halt to the administration of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines after the CDC and the FDA recommended a “pause” as they investigate reports of very rare, but potentially dangerous blood clots.

Mark Rains, director of the University of South Florida’s School of Geosciences, was named Tuesday as Florida’s chief science officer. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis would get more than he requested for Everglades restoration and water projects in the coming year under an initial Senate budget proposal that also would set up a grant program to address sea-level rise.

Speaking in Jacksonville Thursday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that 97 Walgreens around the state will begin offering all three vaccines beginning March 12.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis visited Jacksonville Tuesday to announce a new coronavirus vaccine partnership with Walmart pharmacies.