GOVERNMENT

The Florida Department of Education is gearing up to begin crafting rules to carry out a number of measures approved by state lawmakers and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, including some proposals that were among the most controversial issues from the 2023 legislative session.

The Florida State Guard may more than triple in size after Gov. DeSantis signed a new bill into law Friday.

There was a big shift Friday in who patrols the beach in Volusia County. Just the day before, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law that took immediate effect that says all unincorporated areas in a county now fall under the sheriff’s office.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday finally announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential race. Then came the interviews.

A Florida bill signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday would provide sweeping elections-rules changes — including allowing DeSantis to run for president without resigning from his position.

The state Board of Education on Wednesday approved a new rule that will lead to Florida officials publishing an annual list of library books and instructional materials that have drawn public objections.

As DeSantis prepares to run for president, Disney is likely to follow him in the campaign too, and the feud may influence how people see him.

Now in his fifth year as Florida governor, Ron DeSantis will have signed close to 1,000 bills by the time he is done with the 2023 legislative session’s measures.

Tuesday evening, Seminole County's inspector general released a final version of an audit report that investigated Winter Springs' spending of penny sales tax revenue — totaling $19 million.

Hamburger Mary’s owner John Paonessa said he is hanging a sign in front of his restaurant that reads no children under 18 allowed during drag shows.

Orange County’s mayor wants the NAACP to know the county is a welcoming community and not a danger to minority travelers.

A bill Gov. DeSantis signed into law involving adult entertainment and children, including drag shows, is already having a detrimental effect, one Orlando business says, and they are suing to stop the bill.

Attorneys for Florida’s governor are trying to remove the federal judge who will be handling the lawsuit filed by the Walt Disney Company against him.

This legislative session Florida lawmakers increased the budget for Governor Ron DeSantis’s election police.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said Florida “stands ready” and will send Florida National Guard troops and law-enforcement officers to Texas to help with border control as he nears an expected announcement of a White House bid.

At New College of Florida in Sarasota Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a measure that could change how public colleges and universities operate in the state.

Voters in Marion County will decide on Tuesday whether a Republican or a write-in candidate will represent them in the Florida Legislature.

According to the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, in Orange County alone, more than 1,600 people are considered homeless. That number includes people living in shelters.

A new citizens task force is sifting through dozens of requests from organizations on how to spend billions in Orange County tourist development tax dollars.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed 37 bills, including a measure that will prevent the release of past and future travel records of DeSantis and other state leaders.

The Florida Department of Transportation will soon have the duty to inspect Walt Disney World’s monorail system, one of several provisions enacted by the Florida Legislature as part of the state’s clash with the Walt Disney Company.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed a bill into law that would make changes to amusement rides in an effort to increase safety and prevent another tragedy like the death of a teenager on an Orlando attraction last year.

Documents released on Wednesday show 52 eligible projects that could receive funding from Orange County’s tourism development tax revenue.

On Monday morning, the board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District will meet to discuss one thing — Disney’s lawsuit against them.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is on his first international trade mission in four years and he can't get away from questions about his feud with Disney World.

With Democrats saying the proposal could lead to racial profiling, the Florida Senate on Friday passed an immigration package that Republican supporters said is aimed at forcing the federal government to address an “invasion” of migrants into the country.

The Florida House on Friday passed a measure that would lower the minimum age from 21 to 18 to buy rifles and other “long” guns, voting to scrap a high-profile change passed after a 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

As Florida grapples with a shortage of affordable housing, the Senate on Friday gave final approval to a bill that could lead to landlords collecting monthly fees instead of security deposits from renters.

A new law now in effect in Florida makes it a crime to distribute flyers onto private property with hate speech in them, or project hateful messages onto private property without permission.

The Florida Insurance Guaranty is adding a 1% assessment to policyholders starting in October to cover claims for insolvent companies.

The government’s report Thursday that the economy grew at a 1.1% annual rate last quarter signaled that one of the most-anticipated recessions in recent U.S. history has yet to arrive.

The Florida Senate on Wednesday approved a sweeping elections bill aimed at continuing Republican leaders’ efforts to crack down on voter-registration groups and ensuring Gov. Ron DeSantis doesn’t have to resign from office to run for president.

The four lawyers listed on the Walt Disney Company’s lawsuit against Gov. DeSantis include a legendary lawyer who handled cases for Disney and former President Trump, lawyers who focus on contract and constitutional law, and all of them are qualified in some form or fashion to work on the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd is the sole defendant in a federal lawsuit announced Wednesday that challenges the state’s uniform voter registration application.

The Walt Disney Company is going to court against Gov. DeSantis and the state of Florida, as the fight between DeSantis and Disney continues.

The Florida Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed a bill to make it a hate crime to distribute flyers containing hate speech onto private property, among other things, and sent the bill to Gov. Ron DeSantis for his signature.

A key Senate committee on Tuesday approved a scaled-back proposal aimed at requiring transgender men and women to use restrooms that line up with their sex assigned at birth, as protesters marched to the Capitol to speak out against bills targeting the LGBTQ community.

The body of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of Spain’s fascist Falange movement, has been exhumed from a Madrid mausoleum and transferred to a city cemetery.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is in Japan to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other officials.

A country renowned for its cuisine is turning to pots and pans to express its discontent with French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms.

A new report says books with LGBTQ+ themes remain the most complained about at public schools and libraries around the country.

A prosecutor says Proud Boys leaders charged with plotting to use violence to keep Donald Trump in power saw the far-right extremist group as the former president's “army.”.

The Chinese government says it respects the sovereignty of former Soviet Union republics after Beijing’s ambassador to France caused an uproar in Europe by saying they aren’t sovereign nations.

A growing number of developers are considering converting empty office towers into housing as part of an effort to revive struggling downtown business districts that emptied out during the pandemic.

A new sense of urgency is growing among Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ allies as emboldened critics within his own party — especially former President Donald Trump — work to undermine his presidential campaign before it begins.

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has been hiding in plain sight all along.

A government-commissioned report says Australia needs to spend more on defense and develop the ability to strike longer-range targets as China’s military buildup challenges regional security.

President Joe Biden is expected to tap Julie Rodriguez, a senior White House adviser, to manage his reelection campaign.

About 10,000 people bearing torches have marched through Armenia’s capital to commemorate the estimated 1.5 million Armenians killed in Ottoman Turkey more than a century ago.

Lizzo filled her stage with drag queens in a concert Friday night in Knoxville, Tennessee, in a glittery protest against the state’s legislation against public drag performances.

Russia says that the United States has denied visas to journalists who wanted to cover Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s trip to New York.

Tachlowini Gabriyesos fled his native Eritrea and walked the desert to reach Israel when he was just 12 years old.

Members of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party have narrowly approved a local coalition deal in Berlin with Germany’s main center-right opposition party.

Thousands of Alaskans who depend on government assistance have waited months for food stamp benefits, exacerbating a hunger crisis laid bare by the pandemic, inflation and the remnants of a typhoon.

Republican lawmakers in Missouri are pushing for a state takeover of the St. Louis police department.

A Washington-based think tank says that Ukrainian forces have successfully crossed the wide Dnieper river in the country's south to establish and maintain positions on its east bank.

An effort to create a national testing program for technology central to U.

In campaign 2024, Democrats are looking to find a successor for one of their top House candidates as they try to retake the majority in the House.

A top election official in Myanmar has been fatally shot in Yangon in the latest attack attributed to militants opposed to military rule.

Indian police have arrested a separatist leader who has revived calls for an independent Sikh homeland and the secession of India’s northern Punjab state, which has a history of violent insurgency.

The front door in America is one of the landscape's most intimate and personal of borders.

U.S. special operations forces have carried out a precarious evacuation of the American Embassy in Sudan, where fights has broken out between two warring factions.

The NAACP warns that “separate and unequal policing” will return to Mississippi’s majority-Black capital under a state-run police department.

Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, a longtime Donald Trump ally, will help lead a political action committee that's encouraging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

Former Vice President Mike Pence is not shying away from celebrating the Trump administration's efforts to restrict abortion rights.

Former President Donald Trump’s behavior toward women has long been a source of flashpoints in his political career.

Now that Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit against Fox News ended in a $787 million settlement, what will be the impact on media outlets that appeal to conservatives.

Imagine it’s April 22, 2027, and we're 72 hours into a first-strike Chinese attack against Taiwan.

China’s foreign minister says his country is willing to work with the Philippines to resolve their differences, as tensions rise over Beijing’s behavior in the disputed South China Sea and Manila’s deeping military cooperation with the U.S. Foreign Minister Qin Gang held talks in Manila with his Philippine counterpart, Enrique Manalo.

Witnesses say makeshift tents were deliberately set ablaze in a large camp of migrants in Mexico across the border from South Texas this week.

Nothing will change for now.

Nothing will change for now.

An overwhelming majority of people in the United States say they have recently experienced an extreme weather event, and most of them attribute that to climate change.

A second wave of Republican candidates is preparing to enter the presidential race later this spring following a monthslong lull as the GOP field finally takes shape.

Eight years after a Florida man was found dead in a coastal Alabama community, law enforcement officials say they've arrested and charged a suspect.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has agreed to let Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee question an ex-prosecutor about the criminal case against former President Donald Trump.

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles has indicted a Houston man for allegedly calling the office of California U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters several times last year and leaving voice mails threatening to harm the Democratic congresswoman.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland defended her department’s approval of the contentious Willow oil project on Friday, saying that despite President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to end new drilling on federal lands, “We’re not going to turn the faucet off and say we’re not drilling anymore.

The acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration is leaving this summer, putting pressure on the White House to find a replacement fast.

Jill Biden hopes a temporary art exhibit at the White House helps educate visitors about the lives of military children.

The Minnesota Senate has waded into the culture wars.

The latest instance of one party deciding who can be heard during legislative debate has ended for now after a judge denied a transgender lawmaker's bid to return to the Montana House floor.

As Ukrainian and Russian troops fight conventional battles on the front lines, Europe’s first major war of the internet age has also sparked a war of technology as both sides vie for advantage with their drones and satellite communications.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin says the American military has deployed forces and is developing options to assist in the potential evacuation of U.S. Embassy personnel from Sudan.

German climate activists best known for bringing traffic to a standstill by gluing themselves to the road instead staged a rare protest on the move Friday, marching through Berlin and causing gridlock in parts of the capital.

Korean American chef Edward Lee says food, at its best, tells a story.

Burkina Faso’s government has opened investigations into allegations of human rights abuses by its security forces after a video surfaced that appeared to show the extrajudicial killing of seven children in the country’s north.

A song featuring ex-President Donald Trump and a choir of prisoners charged with crimes related to the deadly Capitol insurrection briefly took the No. 1 spot on iTunes last month, edging out Taylor Swift.

President Joe Biden has signed an executive order that would create the White House Office of Environmental Justice.

U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has resigned after an investigation into complaints he bullied civil servants.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the United States will begin training Ukrainian forces on how to use and maintain Abrams tanks in the coming weeks, as the U.S. continues to speed up its effort to get them on the battlefield as quickly as possible.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has sought to tamp down any discord between the U.S. and its allies over the massive U.S. leak of classified documents.

China’s foreign minister has warned Taiwan and its supporters that they are “playing with fire” if they go against Beijing’s demand to exert control over the self-governing island democracy.

Fox Corp. chief executive Lachlan Murdoch has dropped his defamation lawsuit against Australian news website Crikey.

Sudan’s top general says the military is committed to a transition to civilian rule, in his first speech since brutal fighting started between his forces and its powerful paramilitary rival.

As the 2024 Republican field begins to take shape, the potential of a faceoff between Nikki Haley and Tim Scott is putting some of their mutual supporters in the critical early voting state of South Carolina in a conundrum as they weigh which candidate to support.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is working to round up the Republican votes needed to pass his debt ceiling package.

The Supreme Court has preserved women’s access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion, rejecting lower-court restrictions while a lawsuit continues.

A poll shows only about half of Democrats think President Joe Biden should run again in 2024, but a large majority say they’d be likely to support him if he became the nominee.

President Joe Biden will host Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for talks at the White House next month as the two countries look to continue to tighten relations.