Speaking to the Gulf Coast Citrus Growers Association annual dinner in Fort Myers at the end of last week, U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., went to bat for a bill to protect specialty crop growers from competition from Mexico. 

At the start of the year, three members of the Florida delegation--Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan and Democrat U.S. Rep. Al Lawson--brought back a bill to protect specialty crop growers from competition from Mexico. 

Two key Republicans from Florida on Capitol Hill are applauding the Trump administration’s efforts to help Taiwan’s defense. 

Last week, the administration announced it plans to sell F-16 fighters to Taiwan for $8 billion. 

From his perch on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., cheered the news. 

Barring a late legal reprieve, Gary Ray Bowles is slated Thursday to become the second Death Row inmate executed since Gov. Ron DeSantis took office in January.

In both cases, DeSantis has targeted men convicted of committing multiple murders.

In May, the state put to death Bobby Joe Long, who was sentenced to death in the May 1984 murder of Michelle Simms after picking her up on Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa. In 1985. Long also pleaded guilty to seven additional first-degree murder charges and numerous charges for sexual batteries and kidnappings in the Tampa Bay region.

Florida Senate Democratic Leader Audrey Gibson is pushing for gun control legislation to be included in Senate President Bill Galvano’s call for lawmakers to find ways to “better understand the various factors involved in mass shootings,” including “white nationalism,” during the 2020 legislative session.

As classes throughout the state kicked off again this week, the topic of safety was a heated one.

A state school-safety panel grew frustrated with charter schools that don’t have a long-term plan for having armed guards on site at all times, as required by Florida law.

The issue grabbed most of the spotlight during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission’s two-day meeting in Sunrise.

But “drilling fatigue” was also a big concern for the commission, and for local officials.

The question that emerged: How much safety prep is too much?

The unemployment rate in Florida dropped slightly in July, moving from 3.4 percent in June to 3.3. percent, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Friday. 

DeSantis announced more than 28,000 jobs were created across Florida in July and more than 218,000 were added to the Sunshine State in the past year. The private sector job rate in Florida stands at 2.8 percent, above the national average of 1.7 percent. Florida remains under the national unemployment rate which stood at 3.7 percent in July. 

The Florida congressman who leads Republicans on Asia issues in the U.S. House teamed up with a top Democrat to sound the alarm on China’s handling of protests in Hong Kong. 

This week, U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., the chairman of the U.S. House Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee, paired up with U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., who leads Republicans on the subcommittee, on the continued protests. The protests, which started over an extradition policy that could lead activists in Hong Kong to be deported to mainland China, have resulted in the shutdown of the Hong Kong airport.

In the aftermath of last week’s attacks in Philadelphia which left six police officers wounded U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., called on Congress to pass his “Thin Blue Line Act” to punish cop killers. 

At the start of the year, Buchanan brought back the legislation as the new Congress convened. The “Thin Blue Line Act” which would make murdering a police officer, firefighter or first responder killed in federal jurisdiction an aggravating factor in federal death penalty decision.

The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR Florida) on Thursday posted on Facebook sharp criticism of Israel and President Trump's support for the Jewish state's denying entry to U.S. Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar.

Amid a growing backlash against charter schools without a long-term plan to have armed guards onsite, a state commission on Thursday pressured Broward County Superintendent of Schools Robert Runcie to shut down charters that have failed to meet the state mandate.

But Runcie pushed back, telling members of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission that he has to take policies and procedures into consideration prior to shuttering schools.