State News

Rural Hospitals are having trouble providing health care to their patients, and officials say the Florida Legislature’s budget plan isn’t likely to help.

With about a week left of the 2018 legislative session, lawmakers are facing increased pressure to pass gun safety legislation—in response to last month’s mass school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. But, the process is pitting people within the same parties against one another.

The Florida House has passed a bill banning a particular medical procedure. Affiliates of Planned Parenthood and some lawmakers believe the measure is another unnecessary attempt to discard safe and legal abortions. 

Florida Senators have teed up a change to the state’s death penalty rules now heading to the chamber floor. It comes two years after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling declaring the previous system unconstitutional.

With no traction in the Florida House, a bill aiming to help those who say they survived abuse at the infamous Dozier school for Boys appears to be dead.

Florida Veterans are eligible for a number of discounts with proper identification, but some rules put in place negate some of those benefits. A bill in the Senate looks to tackle one of those rules.

It is standard protocol for police, firefighters, and paramedics to run toward the danger. Over time, that can take a toll on the mental health of first responders. Now, a measure in Florida’s Legislature is focusing on protecting first responders who experience PTSD as a result of such a stressful job. 

A number of public safety proposals have passed their first House committee, allowing them to now head to the floor. Like the Senate version bill, it does not include an assault weapons ban. Still, more people are starting to agree that while this isn’t the best bill, it’s not totally bad either.

Boat recovery potentially costs owners up to the same value of their vessels. Boat owners in Florida want to receive a warning from salvage companies informing them the possible labor prices could be expensive.

The Florida Legislature is moving ahead with a plan to provide prisoners with an education. The bill is headed to the Senate floor.

The Florida Legislature is on track to make raising taxes more difficult. A measure proposing a boost in requirements for increasing taxes is on its way to the Senate floor.

Some gun safety proposals passed their first Florida Senate committee without an assault weapons ban. While top GOP lawmakers are calling the effort bipartisan, some Democrats pushing for more gun reforms disagree.

The Aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting has Florida’s lawmakers changing their focus to debates on firearms and school safety. Supporters of gun reform rallied outside the Capitol Monday with one clear message: action. 

Florida lawmakers really only have one job they’re required to complete each year, and it’s not to make laws; it’s to pass a budget. But  the recent shooting at a South Florida high school and its resulting debate over gun control, has pushed the budgetary task to the back-burner, and could throw the legislature into overtime.

Governor Rick Scott as well as the Florida House and Senate leadership have unveiled their gun safety proposals, in response to last week’s mass school shooting. They include some differences and some similarities.

The tragic Parkland shooting is one of the most recent examples for a long running debate on gun control in this country. The spectrum of opinions can create either a stalemate or compromise, but at the moment a conversation is being had.

There have been nearly 100 threats leveled against schools in the wake of the Valentine's Day shooting at a South Florida High School. Many of those who issued the threats are teens and students themselves. Some have claimed they were just, "joking." Law enforcement officials say they take all threats seriously and many student have been arrested for them, some, are facing felony charges. But whether those charges will stick is another matter, and state prosecutors say there's no law on the books that bans threats against schools. The ones that are in place for general threats of violence, are in need of updates. Second Judicial Circuit State Attorney Jack Campbell says it comes down one question: Was the threat implicit, or explicit?