SOUTHWEST FLORIDA

A giant seaweed blob twice the size of the US is heading towards Florida. It's already causing health problems with red tide on the West coast of the state and scientists say it will also have an affect on the East coast.

State regulators moved forward Thursday with placing United Property & Casualty Insurance Co. into receivership after higher-than-expected losses from Hurricane Ian helped push the insurer into insolvency.

Florida citrus growers took another hit Thursday, more than three months after Hurricane Ian swept through the heart of the industry.

Nearly 50,000 property owners forced from their homes for more than a month by Hurricane Ian or Hurricane Nicole could be eligible for tax relief under a bill that was being prepared Friday for a special legislative session next week.

The secretary of Florida’s Dept. of Economic Opportunity is resigning at the end of the month.Dane Eagle sent a resignation letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis on Dec. 2.

Florida will disburse $5 million to help some South Floridians pay their home insurance deductibles after Hurricane Ian.

Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference in storm-ravaged Southwest Florida, just over a week after that part of the state took the brunt of Hurricane Ian.

With just 12 hours’ notice, a handful of volunteers and a few thousand dollars’ worth of supplies, outreach groups from Alive Church in Orlando and Gainesville made the journey to Southwest Florida to help Hurricane Ian victims.

Less than a week after Hurricane Ian knocked out power to large swaths of Florida, state regulators Tuesday approved utilities’ long-term plans to try to bolster the electric system.

Throughout a southwest Florida devastated by Hurricane Ian, Jews plan to hold worship services for Yom Kippur starting Tuesday night.

Hurricane Ian battered much of the state after making landfall in Southwest Florida as a powerful Category 4 storm, leaving significant damage and flooding virtually everywhere it touched.

Flagler County leaders are urging residents to prepare for "eventual" evacuations in the county as Hurricane Ian bears down on Florida.

A tourist is charged with hiding a video camera inside a beach park restroom, a Florida couple allegedly stole $8,000 from a senior under their care and Universal Orlando is in a legal battle with a Georgia-based theme park company over a plot of land.

Floridians can get up close to the largest existing land animal and help care for them at the Myakka Elephant Ranch in Manatee County.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida discovered and captured the largest python yet found in the state, measuring 18 feet long and weighing 215 pounds, according to a Wednesday news release.

In the wake of the worst year for manatee deaths on record, Florida wildlife officials last week found yet another potential killer of the threatened species in the Indian River Lagoon — red tide.

A roughly 12-foot reptile was found laying on the ground of a Charlotte County home early in the morning on March 14 in the Babcock Ranch community.

The man entered the tiger enclosure while it was being fed.

Gov. Ron DeSantis voices support for a Republican-led bill that would ban most abortions in Florida after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

A federal judge late Wednesday refused to put on hold a ruling that rejected a deal giving the Seminole Tribe control of online sports betting in Florida.

From Jan. 1 through Oct. 8, at least 968 manatees have died in Florida, including 321 in Brevard County.

An annual hunt started Friday to try to reduce the number of Burmese pythons that threaten native wildlife in the Everglades.

Pointing to a “legal fiction,” two pari-mutuel facilities have filed a federal lawsuit challenging a newly approved plan for the Seminole Tribe to operate sports betting in Florida.

A man from Southwest Florida is accused of taking part in the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. and conspiring with other members of the Oath Keepers from Central Florida head of the attacks, according to the FBI.

This Florida skunk has killer handstand moves but it's not just for show.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)NEW YORK – Major League Baseball revamped its spring training exhibition schedule because of the pandemic, cutting travel for Florida-based teams in an effort to minimize coronavirus risks. College baseball teams, which often play big league clubs but are not subject to major league testing protocols, were dropped from the revised schedules announced Friday. Split-squad games, traditionally used in the first half of the exhibition season to allow evaluation of more players, also were eliminated. Pitchers and catchers open spring training workouts Wednesday, and the exhibition season starts Feb. 28, two days later than initially announced on Sept. 16. The rejected plan would have pushed back the start of spring training until March 22.

“The COVID vaccine supply is limited,” DeSantis said Wednesday during an appearance at a Palm Beach County senior complex where 300 residents were being inoculated. A large part of the job to vaccinate seniors has fallen to hospitals and some county health departments. In addition to focusing on the 65-plus population, DeSantis included as a top priority health care workers who have direct contact with patients. Senior said his member facilities have “hundreds of sites running from Pensacola to Miami” that can be used to administer vaccinations. He said he anticipates that his members will work with county health departments but said details are still being worked out.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Pointing to the “erratic nature” of the storm as it threatened a large part of Florida’s west coast, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday expanded a state of emergency and asked President Donald Trump for a federal emergency declaration as Tropical Storm Eta prepared to make landfall Thursday. The hurricane center advisory said tropical-storm and storm-surge warnings were in effect from Bonita Beach in Southwest Florida to the Suwannee River in northern Florida. The governor on Saturday declared a state of emergency for counties in the southern part of the state, after Eta last week hit Nicaragua as a hurricane. In the request to Trump, which could bring federal financial assistance to Florida, DeSantis said some counties also had declared local states of emergency.

ORLANDO, Fla. – All eyes are on Eta, which has weakened from hurricane status back to a tropical storm before its expected landfall Thursday north of Tampa. Tropical storm force-winds greater than 40-50 mph will push through on Thursday. Rain chances increase to 80% on Thursday. Rain chances decrease as the system pushes up and away by the weekend, with highs in the upper 80s on Saturday. A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect until Nov 14 4:31AM for the following shaded counties: Lake #flwx #news6 pic.twitter.com/aA6EnfN3YV — News 6 WKMG (@news6wkmg) November 11, 2020

Some of the private laboratories are not reporting any negative tests but hundreds of positive COVID-19 tests. In recent days, the Florida Department of Health noticed that some smaller, private labs werent reporting negative test result data to the state. Health First, a Brevard County health care provider, has seven labs with only positive test results, per the state numbers. News 6 reached out to the facilities across Central Florida with high positivity rates in the state report. A review of the state report found that the hospitals testing data shared with News 6 does not match for St.

A day after Florida netted the highest positive cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic arrived in the state on March 1, doctors in Southwest Florida pleaded with the public to wear face masks and avoid large gatherings. On Friday, Florida reported nearly 9,000 new positive cases of the coronavirus with a 13% positivity rate compared to the number of tests. The recent cases in Florida have trended younger, the median age in Florida dropped from above 65 to 39 in the past few weeks. A surgical mask or medical mask protects the wearer’s nose and mouth from contact with droplets, splashes and sprays that may contain germs. “That’s my message to the public today is please wear a mask when you’re in a crowded area.

Sometimes referred to locally as the toll road, the project would create connector roads through corridors in three parts of the state. For Alva residents, a new highway through their part of the world threatens a lifestyle that changes little as time and generations pass. Ron DeSantis authorized the design and construction of bringing a toll road through rural Florida, and rural is the keyword here.”A bill signed by the governor in May would patch three corridors into the state highway system. Studies are underway to develop routes for a new Southwest-Central Florida connector from Collier County to Polk County. In Alva, residents fear a route will be recommended that will come close enough to forever change historically rural areas in Southwest Florida.

CAPE CORAL, Fla. – There’s a water crisis in Southwest Florida that is wreaking havoc on wildlife. Thousands of fish and several manatees have washed up dead because of red tide. On Tuesday, three manatees washed ashore, and WINK News reports that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission claims this year there are higher than normal manatee deaths from red tide. “I hate to say it, but it’s like a natural disaster if you ask me,” said Englewood resident Jane Tellor to WINK News. It’s so bad that Lee County commissioners declared a local state of emergency and need funding to remove the massive amounts of dead fish.