The Florida Legislature faces the difficult task of funding the country’s third largest state on a shoestring. Nick Evans reports lawmakers are putting their noses to the grindstone.
The future could get a bit brighter for some Florida college students. There’s a growing consensus to increase awards for some of the state’s highest academic performers. Lynn Hatter reports legislative and state leaders seem to be of the same mind when it comes to lowering the cost of higher education.
A philosophical debate is taking shape in the Florida capitol about what role the government should play in the economy. Kate Payne reports how lawmakers come down on economic development programs could have real consequences for Governor Rick Scott’s top priorities.
Home Rule is based on the idea that the government closest to the people is the best government. Members of the constitutional revision commission added the idea to the state’s constitution in 1968 but since then, Regan McCarthy reports state lawmakers have been slowly taking that power back—and this year is no exception.
Many people considered the rhetoric during 2016 campaign cycle brutal. After voters elected Donald Trump as president, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported more than a thousand hate incidents of white nationalism and harassment of minority groups. Sarah Mueller reports.
State Senate President Joe Negron’s $2.4 billion plan to protect South Florida waterways from another toxic algae sliming received a luke-warm legislative debut. Below the radar, Jim Ash tells us the South Florida Water Management District was launching torpedoes.