As if hurricane-affected St. Petersburg residents need another reason to participate in a free sign-up for FEMA benefits ... now there's Jameis Winston.

From his perch on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called on the Trump administration to remove all Cuban diplomats from the U.S. and consider closing the American embassy in Havana after American diplomats suffered acoustic attacks in that Caribbean nation. 

Florida universities climbed on U.S. News and World Report’s annual college ranking list, with the University of Florida cracking into the top 10 ranking for public universities while UF and the University of Miami ranked in the top 50 of colleges nationwide. 

On Thursday, the U.S. House passed a bill backed by a Central Florida Democrat to fund workshops for federal, state and local first responders training them to respond to terrorist attacks. 

A heated contest for an open Senate seat in Miami just got hotter --- literally.

With power knocked out in large parts of Miami-Dade County, Florida Democrats have asked Gov. Rick Scott to postpone the Sept. 26 special election in Senate District 40. Early voting in the runoff between Democrat Annette Taddeo and Republican former state Rep. Jose Felix Diaz begins Saturday.

Scott set the special election after former Sen. Frank Artiles resigned earlier this year after a racially tinged outburst at a private club near the Capitol.

President Trump arrived in Fort Myers at 10:30 a.m. Thursday just behind his first tweet of the day: "Am leaving now for Florida to see our GREAT first responders and to thank the U.S. Coast Guard, FEMA etc."

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., got one of his top priorities across the finish line in the U.S. House on Thursday as his proposal sending $8 million to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to fight red tide was passed as part of an appropriations measure which now heads to the U.S Senate. 

This week, U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., the vice chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee and the chairman of the U.S. House Asia and Pacific Subcommittee, continued his efforts to support Taiwan and ensure the U.S. maintains a strong relationship with that nation. 

Three St. Petersburg men, in partnership with NAACP St. Petersburg, have cobbled together a FEMA Disaster Recovery Registration site to help residents sign up for benefits that can help them seamlessly move past Hurricane Irma.

The Florida Board of Education on Wednesday approved a 2018-2019 budget request that includes a $200 per-student boost in the K-12 system, increased funding for the 28 state colleges and construction money for public schools, colleges and universities.