A Leon County circuit judge has rejected arguments by teacher unions that a controversial 2018 education law violates collective-bargaining rights and improperly singles out teachers among public employees.

Judge Angela Dempsey on Friday issued an eight-page decision siding with the state’s arguments on the constitutionality of the law, which can require teacher unions to be recertified to represent employees. Such recertification is required if fewer than 50 percent of the employees eligible for representation are dues-paying members.

After a mass shooting in Texas intensified a partisan divide about immigration, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida has decided to postpone a statewide “listening tour” focused on the controversial topic.

“The rhetoric is so charged across the political spectrum that in order to have a truly productive listening tour we’ve decided to delay to a later date,” state Sen. Joe Gruters, who also serves as chairman of the state GOP, told The News Service of Florida in a text message Monday.

Last week, two members of the Florida delegation called for more follow up from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Russian attempts to interfere in elections in the Sunshine State. 

Biscayne Bay, known in Miami-Dade as "the crown jewel of our environment," is "at a tipping point" and gasping for life, according to a 33-page grand jury report released last week. “Without corrective action, the declining quality of this body of water may become irreversible.”

The grand jury, convened by the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, began its work last November.

Gov. Ron DeSantis wants the Florida Supreme Court to issue an advisory opinion on whether convicted felons must pay all fines and fees before their voting rights are restored under Amendment 4, the November 2018 ballot measure approved by 64.5 percent of state voters.

In a Friday letter addressed to Chief Justice Charles Canady, DeSantis asked for the court’s opinion on what, exactly, “completion of all terms of sentence including parole or probation" means in context of the measure.

Follow the money.

A cliché? Sure. But in the world of Florida government and politics, it’s also a pretty good rule to follow.

That will be on display during the coming week when state political candidates and committees face a deadline for disclosing July financial information and lobbyists have to provide details about their compensation in the year’s second quarter.

Combined, the reports will show tens of millions of dollars flowing through the political system, often in large chunks from deep-pocketed donors.

Wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein held in a New York federal prison on sex trafficking charges, was found unresponsive in his cell early Saturday morning and later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Death was by hanging; foul play was not suspected.

The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), representing more than 1,000 traditional rabbis in matters of public policy, on Friday condemned the planned “Never Again Action Noise Rally” intended to disrupt operations at private prison contractor GEO in Boca Raton Monday. GEO is a federal contractor that helps process undocumented immigrants entering the United States. 

After praising Senate President Bill Galvano for authorizing a review to “better understand the various factors involved in mass shootings,” including “white nationalism,” Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando, pre-filed a 2020 bill seeking to ban three types of semi-automatic firearms.

The bill is the fourth filed in four years by Stewart proposing to prohibit specific semi-automatic so-called “assault weapons” and restrict magazine capacities.

The tragedy of two mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, over the weekend has reignited a national debate on gun control and the solutions to ending gun violence.

In Florida, where two deadly mass shootings happened at a high school in Parkland and a nightclub in Orlando, state lawmakers are once again exploring the issue.