Gov. Ron DeSantis has suspended elected Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, accusing him of nullifying state laws through refusal to prosecute violent offenders and to enforce criminal penalties against doctors providing abortions or gender-affirming care. In Warren’s place, the governor named Hillsborough County Judge Susan Lopez Thursday to serve pending a vote by the […]| Florida Phoenix
Organizers of the petition drive to enact a state constitutional right to abortion through a citizens’ initiative have collected enough petition signatures to merit a place on the November ballot, a state elections agency announced Friday. But one major hurdle remains: the Florida Supreme Court still must approve the description of the measure that would […]| Florida Phoenix
Ron DeSantis has publicly stated that one of the main reasons why Floridians should reject a measure legalizing recreational cannabis for adults in November is that the smell of people smoking the herb will make the state a less enjoyable place to live. “This state will start to smell like marijuana in our cities and […]| Florida Phoenix
Panelists appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and other political opponents of the proposed abortion-rights amendment pushed an administrative committee to abandon precedent and write an estimate boosting the potential cost to taxpayers should the amendment pass in November. During a meeting of the state Financial Impact Estimating Conference that stretched for 12 hours Monday, those […]| Florida Phoenix
Florida’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy for transgender minors and restrictions for adults are both unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle, who presided over the case in Tallahassee, sided with the plaintiffs in the class action — parents of transgender minors and transgender adults — who argued […]| Florida Phoenix
A new poll conducted by Florida Atlantic University Political Communication and Public Opinion Research Lab of more than 1,000 Florida registered likely voters shows that Democrat Kamala Harris is within striking distance of Donald Trump in the state. The former president leads the vice president by just three percentage points, 50%-47%, in the survey. Only 2% […]| Florida Phoenix
Former president Donald Trump said Monday that his policy on abortion is that the individual states in the country should make that decision, which means he wouldn’t be endorsing a federal ban on the procedure. In effect, he’s calling for the abortion issue to remain status quo, following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2022 […]| Florida Phoenix
LAWRENCE — Fourteen-year-old Iain Ellis gravitated to sights and sounds of punk music while growing up in a middle-class town outside London. He wasn’t alone in anticipating the genre would quickly die off like so many other trends in the industry. “I wasn’t a street punk like a lot of kids in the East End, […]| Florida Phoenix
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration launched a webpage Thursday bashing the proposed state constitutional amendment to restore abortion access beyond six weeks, prompting Florida Democrats to call out the use of state funds against the measure. The agency’s secretary, Jason Weida, wrote on X that the page is meant to “combat lies and […]| Florida Phoenix
In the Pinellas County city of Dunedin on Tuesday, dozens of people demonstrated in 95-degree heat at the entrance of Honeymoon Island State Park against a plan by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to construct lodges, golf courses, pickleball courts, and disc golf courses in nine state parks. While many of the speakers extolled […]| Florida Phoenix
School districts have shown little interest in welcoming volunteer chaplains to serve in their facilities, an initiative recently permitted by the Legislature that, according to the ACLU, could create legal liability for schools and risk creating an environment of “religious coercion and indoctrination of students.” Districts have no obligation to implement a chaplain program under […]| Florida Phoenix
Florida Democrats made a plea for relevance on Tuesday in Tallahassee as they hyped the feat of running a candidate in every congressional and legislative race. The party aims to win enough of those contests to crawl out of its super-minority status in the state Legislature in November. “Today, we’re putting Republicans on notice. You’re […]| Florida Phoenix
