Saying he refuses to “fashion a remedy in the dark,” a federal judge Thursday turned down a request by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to extend recount deadlines in last week’s elections.

As machine recounts and legal fights continued in three statewide races in the Nov. 6 election, candidates leading the contests started to act like winners.

After National Security Advisor John Bolton came to Miami at the start of the month to announced additional restrictions on the Cuban regime, this week, the U.S. State Department expanded the list, adding around 30 new businesses and organizations facing restrictions. 

With seven election-related lawsuits pending, a federal judge clashed Wednesday with lawyers for state officials, national Republicans and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s campaign in a case about whether voters whose ballot signatures don’t match those on file should be able to “cure” the ballots.

With Republicans staying in control of the Florida Senate, incoming Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, tapped Sen. David Simmons, R-Longwood, to be his top subordinate. 

Gov. Rick Scott intends to recuse himself from a state panel that is scheduled next week to certify the results of Florida’s 2018 elections, the governor’s lawyer told a federal judge Wednesday.

Democrats will take control of the U.S. House in the new year but the question of who leads them remains up in the air--and members of the Florida delegation can play a major role on who wields the gavel. 

Ballots postmarked before the polls closed at 7 p.m. on Election Day should be counted. Ballots with mismatched signatures should be counted. Ballots where voters made mistakes but where their intentions were clear should be counted. And deadlines to tally ballots in machine and manual recounts should be ignored.

Recounts wrapping up in small and mid-sized counties are showing few changes to initial results in the races for governor, U.S. Senate and agriculture commissioner.

While a ceasefire has been called after Hamas launched hundreds of rockets into the southern part of Israel from Gaza, members of the Florida congressional delegation continue to champion that country’s right to defend itself against terrorism.