Three people arrested late Sunday evening for using chalk to protest the state’s removal of the Pulse rainbow crosswalk were released from jail Monday pending charges from the state attorney’s office.
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Three people arrested late Sunday evening for using chalk to protest the state’s removal of the Pulse rainbow crosswalk were released from jail Monday pending charges from the state attorney’s office.
Will you be getting a refund on Florida home insurance premiums? As the states insurance market improves and insurers start becoming more profitable, there’s a law that could trigger refunds to customers. But don’t expect a check anytime soon. Here’s why.
After debuting the world’s largest cruise ship, it’s reasonable to think South Florida-based Royal Caribbean should pause for a moment of celebration. Instead, the announced plans for a new line of ships and new destinations. www.sun-sentinel.com
This one’s a talker. There’s a growing trend of diners bringing their own food and drinks to restaurants. Restaurant owners are pushing back.
After facing backlash over the state’s ordering of cities to remove rainbow street art, Gov. Ron DeSantis expanded the order to cover all street art — and said he’s just following a new law. But legislators on both sides of the aisle say the law the governor cited contains no such language.
Democratic elected officials in Broward, led by Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, detailed policy and spending priorities from the federal and state governments that they said would harm the public and degrade the quality of life. Reporting by @browardpolitics.bsky.social
At 6:32 p.m. on Friday night, Florida’s secretary of transportation sent a letter to the city of Fort Lauderdale demanding the removal of seven more street art designs. It comes two days after the city refused to comply with the state’s original demands.
Discount carrier Spirit Airlines, overwhelmed with continuing financial difficulty, returned to bankruptcy court to try a second reorganization under Chapter 11 protection, the company announced Friday.
JUST IN: The federal government is complying with a judge’s order and has stopped sending immigrants to the Alligator Alcatraz detention center, less than two months after Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration launched the facility in support of President Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
Our Editorial Board writes in Opinion: "If Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis were a vaudeville duo, their signature song (with apologies to Irving Berlin) might go: 'Anything mean you can do, I can do meaner'."
President Trump proposed getting rid of FEMA. But the 12-person review council he appointed is focused more on reforming the agency, not dismantling it.
After a federal judge’s shutdown order today, the Florida Division of Emergency Management stands to lose most of the value of the $218 million it has invested in turning a remote airport in the Everglades into Alligator Alcatraz, a state official said in court papers.
What’s the half we have not covered?
JUST IN: A federal judge in Miami has refused to pause her order requiring the winding down of the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” while the federal government appeals her ruling.
For most of the last decade, Florida schools have struggled to head off a growing challenge: more and more students are vaping. And it’s become so widespread, said Pasco Superintendent John Legg, that vaping has become a “big problem — believe it or not — in our elementary schools.”
Fort Lauderdale will not bow down to Florida's demand that it remove four street art designs — including a rainbow-colored pride flag painted on a street near the beach. Commissioners voted unanimously appeal the state’s order to remove the pavement art by Sept. 4 or risk the state removing it.
Florida’s chief financial officer said something was fishy during the state’s DOGE audit of Orange County and issued subpoenas to employees to get to the bottom of it. He said the state may bring in digital forensic investigators to route out staff who may have altered documents to obscure them.
A top Florida official suggested last week that Alligator Alcatraz could be empty in a matter of days, even as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration and the federal government fight a judge’s order to shutter the controversial Everglades immigrant detention facility by late October.
The New York Yankees drafted a player last month who admitted to having drawn a swastika on a Jewish student’s door as a freshman in college, according to The Athletic.
In May, two 4th graders won a Florida Department of Transportation art contest. Their prize: To see their designs painted on bike lanes outside their school in Lake Nona, FL. It didn't last long. This week, the same state agency ordered the colorful designs to be painted over — for safety reasons.
Scott Maxwell writes in Opinion: "After covering politics for more than three decades, I’ve seen a lot of lies. But I’m not sure I’ve seen any uglier and more provable than the ones Gov. Ron DeSantis and his transportation stooges are telling about rainbow-colored crosswalks."
JUST IN: Gov. Ron DeSantis defended the state’s eradication of LGBTQ+ rainbow crosswalks and said recalcitrant cities will be forced to get with the program. “It’s like they think that they should just be a law unto themselves,” DeSantis said at a press conference today.
This is not accurate information.
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis: "This is a culture war. Let’s call it what it is.” The city commission will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday night to discuss the city's official response to the state of Florida's order to remove its rainbow-designed section of street.
It’s a city street.
Make sure you pick up a copy of today’s @sun-sentinel.com, which has our college, pro and high school football previews!
A Florida Department of Transportation crew early Sunday painted the Pulse crosswalk back to black and white for a second time as supporters continued to try to restore the rainbow-colored crossing. Now, police agencies are monitoring the site.
Calling it “exactly the kind of disaster that Congress took pains to avoid,” attorneys for immigrants held at Alligator Alcatraz filed a lawsuit alleging Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration lacks the authority to run the facility.
This one bites (sorry). South Florida’s severe drought has unfortunately not meant a drought of mosquitoes. In fact, dry weather can tee up massive hatches of the thirsty bugs.
Opinion from our Editorial Board: Delray officials are fighting a state order to remove its rainbow intersection by demanding a hearing before the Florida Department of Transportation. No one has any doubt the city will lose. The state is judge, jury and executioner and there is no due process.
Reporting by @browardpolitics.bsky.social
U.S. Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick is in a position to command attention and effect change because Florida’s 20th Congressional District was crafted with boundaries that made it likely to send a Black lawmaker to Washington. Gov. Ron DeSantis wants that district eliminated before the 2026 elections.
At 11:24 p.m. Wednesday, a small road crew donning safety vests pulled up to intersection near the former Pulse nightclub. They were gone 34 minutes later, leaving behind a brand new black-and-white crosswalk — one that would outrage many Orlando residents when it was discovered early Thursday.
A day after the state painted over a rainbow crosswalk in front of the scene of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent Fort Lauderdale officials orders to paint over their city's rainbow intersections near the beach.
If you’ve been feeling anxious over the ominous tropical threats that have been spinning up on the horizon recently, you’ll be able to breathe a sigh of relief — at least for a little while.
The state of Florida quickly filed a notice of appeal of a federal judge's preliminary injunction that would close within 60 days the state's immigrant detention center in the Everglades known as Alligator Alcatraz.
South Florida patients are learning that their health insurer is suddenly out of network at nearby hospitals. If you're one of them, here's what your options are.
The ruling sides with a Native American tribe and environmental activists who challenged the site in a lawsuit based on environmental grounds.
BREAKING NEWS: A federal judge has ordered the DeSantis and Trump administrations to stop bringing new detainees to Alligator Alcatraz and demanded the state begin closing out operations at the immigration detention facility within 60 days.
In a highly unusual move, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier urged the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a 2018 state law that prevents people under 21 from buying rifles and other long guns. The law was pushed by then-Gov. Rick Scott and the GOP legislature after the Parkland school shooting.
A rainbow crosswalk was removed overnight outside of Pulse nightclub in Orlando, one of the most significant LGBTQ sites in Florida, as state and federal transportation officials aim to wipe “political banners” from public streets.
2022. Yes.
BREAKING: Gov. Ron DeSantis launched a multi-pronged attack on the state’s congressional districts on Wednesday, offering justifications for a mid-decade redistricting that is all-but-guaranteed to send more Republicans to Congress from Florida.
Delray Beach city officials remain insistent on keeping the city’s LGBTQ+ pride intersection, approving a decision Tuesday to proceed with an administrative hearing to determine the road display’s fate.
A divided appeals court Wednesday revived a lawsuit that alleges a South Florida city’s zoning restrictions on where a gun shop could operate violated a state law that prevents local regulation of firearms.
The non-profit Bear Warriors United filed a challenge to the hunt, arguing the state Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission failed to follow rules requiring that “sound research, science and management techniques should prevail over politics when it comes to wildlife conservation and management.”
Florida bear hunt opponents, unable to dissuade state wildlife commissioners last week from authorizing a sanctioned killing of the once imperiled species, are now trying their luck in court.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that a truck driver accused of making an illegal U-turn that killed three people in Florida was in the country illegally, fueling a verbal tussle with California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office over immigration.
Despite Hurricane Erin's offshore path, parts of the U.S. east coast face life-threatening surf and rip currents. In Florida, Erin will generate waves as high as 8 feet, forecasters said, Meanwhile, two new systems are being watching for potential formation in Erin's wake.
Florida DOGE officials entered Palm Beach County government offices Monday, spending hours with county officials to dissect how the nearly $9 billion budget is spent.
This past weekend, Hurricane Erin went through one of the most rapid intensifications of any Atlantic hurricane on record, something that may becoming more and more common.
The state of Florida told the city of Delray it has until Sept. 3 to remove the Pride rainbow painted on an intersection — or the state will remove it and bill the city.
Florida’s congressional districts are already crafted to lean Republican, especially after a 2022 move by Gov. Ron DeSantis to redraw the maps to help his party. Now, DeSantis is calling for more changes — and is targeting South Florida's historically Democratic districts.
Broward County saw a dramatic drop in its immunization rate for kindergartners in 2025, despite a recent outbreak of measles in a local elementary school. The declining rate reflects the heated debate about vaccines raging on social media and among South Florida parents. trib.al/6wdP76A
The Broward school district released preliminary data that shows that enrollment in both district-run and charter schools fell by nearly 10,000 students, despite efforts to improve performance and convert elementary schools into K-8 academies. Look up your school's enrollment data in our link.
TROPICS UPDATE: Hurricane Erin has weakened slightly to a Category 3 storm and, although it is slightly more south than originally forecast, is still expected to be east of the U.S. coast. Meanwhile a new system is being tracked right on Erin's heels. trib.al/pK3ErpT
BREAKING: Hurricane Erin became a “catastrophic” Category 5 hurricane on Saturday. In less than 24 hours, Erin’s wind speeds more than doubled. Here’s the latest update.
Our Editorial Board writes in opinion: Multiple public opinion surveys show that four out of five Floridians oppose “barbaric” bear hunts. Florida officials approved it anyway.
Florida home sellers are pulling their properties off the market in increasing numbers, frustrated that buyers aren’t biting at the asking prices. Real estate experts explain what’s happening.
Great idea.
Can you ride out a Category 5 hurricane in a skyscraper? Should you? Our reporter asked five experts to weigh in.
The city of Delray Beach has changed its mind and decided to keep its LGBTQ+ Pride intersection. It's not the only city that is defying Florida over rainbows on streets.
Reporting by @skylerswisher.bsky.social @orlandosentinel.com
NEW: On September 10, 2024, Florida health officials planned to brief Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office on a $67 million Medicaid settlement that could soon come Florida’s way, newly released records show. The next day, the settlement was redrafted to peel away $10 million for Casey DeSantis's Hope Florida.
Florida is dubbing their second migrant detention center “Deportation Depot.” It will join “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Fake grass: It's so green, so easy to maintain, and its taking over more and more lawns in South Florida — thanks to a new state law. But is it harming the environment? Here's what scientists have to say.
“It is unclear what the statute actually prohibits,” the judge wrote. “It might forbid material that states characters ‘spent the night together’ or ‘made love.’ Perhaps not. Defendants do not attempt to explain how the statute should work.”
Siding with publishers and authors, a federal judge Wednesday ruled that a key part of a 2023 Florida law that has led to books being removed from school library shelves is “overbroad and unconstitutional.”
ATTENTION FLORIDA VOTERS: If you've renewed your driver's license in the past year — or intend to soon — make sure your voter registration is updated. A new law means your license number will change, and that change may bump you off the voter rolls.
What rainy season? This has been one of the driest summers in South Florida in three decades. Read the story by @bill-kearney.bsky.social (gift link) to find out why: www.sun-sentinel.com/2025/08/12/2...
Attorneys for grassroots campaigners are again asking a federal judge to halt enforcement of parts of a new Florida law that restricts the state’s process to get citizens’ initiatives on the ballot.
Gov. Ron DeSantis selected Jay Collins as the state's new lieutenant governor. It's a largely ceremonial position but it's possible the selection of Collins indicates he may have the support of DeSantis to replace him when his term is up next year.
Driving in South Florida is stressful. Frequent hair-pulling situations include overly slow drivers, people who don’t signal, and the daily accidents that bring traffic to a standstill. For an upcoming story, send your pet peeves about driving to reporter Lois Solomon at AskLois@sunsentinel.com.
Shortly after requesting initial financial information, Florida DOGE officials are seeking more from Palm Beach County officials and will be visiting their offices next week for further review into the county’s spending.
About those home insurance rate decreases that Florida lawmakers and insurance executives have been crowing about for nearly a year: Data released by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation shows costs for coverage of single-family homes are continuing to increase for a most policyholders.
There's a lot of hype online about a possible hurricane forming and then moving toward the U.S. But it's early and forecasters warn a lot could change in the next 10 days. Here's what the so-called "spaghetti models" are showing now.
Under mounting pressure from President Trump to get more Republicans elected to Congress, Florida House Speaker Danny Perez has taken the rare step of putting together a committee to look at redistricting, to be convened in October. He stopped short of calling for a special session.
A federal judge hearing a lawsuit over the environmental impacts of Florida’s immigrant detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz ordered construction halted for two weeks, although it can continue to accept and hold detainees.
Here is a list of the books, which other districts in the state are also banning and include titles by authors such as Judy Bloom and George R.R. Martin.
Broward school administrators have given schools a list of 55 books that must be removed, the latest move in a statewide effort to ban certain materials from school libraries that the state feels could include pornography or are otherwise inappropriate for minors.
If you're willing to pay enough money, this Florida surgeon can make you taller.
Letters to the editor: A reader wants to eliminate "woke" ideology from the system used to name hurricanes and tropical storms. "We need to go back to just women’s names."
Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ administration has taken early steps to build a second immigration detention center in Florida to join Alligator Alcatraz, awarding at least one contract for what’s labeled in state records as the “North Detention Facility.”
Could Florida Republicans follow Texas and attempt a mid-decade redistricting to benefit their party in the midterms? Gov. Ron DeSantis seems open to considering it, but the GOP-led Legislature is skeptical. "All we’d have as an impetus for this is partisanship," one Republican lawmaker said.
After a judge issued an injunction that prevented Florida from enforcing its new drag-show law, the state asked for a new hearing. The state is now arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling that barred judges from issuing nationwide injunctions should also apply to statewide injunctions.
The Florida East Coast Railway, which owns the rail corridor from Jacksonville to Miami used by Brightline, has gone to court to stop the passenger line from teaming with South Florida's three counties to start a separate commuter railroad. It's rare criticism of Brightline by the FEC railway.
Car insurance rates are falling in Florida, thanks to improved company profits and lower costs from reforms aimed at ending excessive litigation.
Federal and state officials in Florida must produce agreements by Thursday showing which government agency or private contractor has legal authority to detain people or perform immigration officer roles at Alligator Alcatraz, the immigration detention facility, a federal judge said.
An online reading platform used by school districts to comply with Florida book laws is now under fire by the state’s top education official who accused it, without providing specifics, of trying to “push an ideology” and “subvert parental rights.”
That law was already passed in 2023 and is what enabled this arbitration process in the first place. An attempt in the Legislature earlier this year that would have allowed policyholders to choose how to handle disputes was defeated.
Since 2024, Citizens moved more than 1,300 claims to the arbitration court. Prior to July 10, the company prevailed in 47 of 51 cases that advanced to a final hearing, a Sun Sentinel analysis found.
Citizens Insurance’s use of an arbitration court that it pays for to settle claims disputes is likely against the Constitutional rights of policyholders to fair trials, a judge has ruled.
As Florida DOGE teams begin their DeSantis-ordered hunt for “wasteful spending” in the state’s cities and counties, little is known about precisely what they’re up to. @browardpolitics.bsky.social and other reporters are working to get to the bottom of it. Here’s what we know so far.
Can’t speak to other states. Florida’s governor has the authority under state law to suspend or remove elected municipal officials under specific circumstances. The state Senate has the authority to review and overturn those actions.
The governor has removed many elected officials including state attorneys, sheriffs, school board members and more.
The governor has removed many elected officials including state attorneys, sheriffs, school board members and more.
Mayor Jerry Demings said he feared DeSantis would oust him and county commissioners, then name “his minions” to lead the county. “Yes, I signed the damn thing because we really had to.”
A frustrated Orange County Mayor, threatened with suspension and removal from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis, said he signed an amendment to an agreement Friday with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “under protest and extreme duress.”
A 130-pound, Great Dane-husky mixed dog got into the bedroom where a 5-month-old was put while relatives were babysitting him, according a Florida sheriff. The dog was found sitting next to the bleeding and apparently lifeless baby.
With no fanfare, no protest, and no resistance, officials at the Broward County Governmental Center open their doors and books for the governor’s team of auditors looking for examples of wasteful spending to bolster their criticism of woke, green and DEI programs.