The Florida Supreme Court on Monday issued an order directing the impanelment of a statewide grand jury on school safety. The order comes after Gov. Ron DeSantis filed a petition with the court on Feb. 13 requesting the grand jury.

“We know Broward has to be looked at. I don’t know if Hamilton County needs to be,” DeSantis said in announcing his request while surrounded by families who lost children in the Parkland shooting. “There’s more evidence in Broward than other districts. ...

This week, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, continued his efforts against Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, backing U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s, R-Tex., call to prohibit that company from working on the nation’s energy infrastructure.

On Monday morning, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., one of the cochairmen of the Florida delegation, said he was sponsoring a proposal from U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., to “allow billions of dollars’ worth of assets seized from Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán Loera to help secure the southern border.”

After a year plagued by problems such as red tide and algae blooms, water quality has become one of the highest-profile issues in Florida.

Gov. Ron DeSantis seized on the issue after getting sworn into office last month, releasing a wide-ranging water proposal and replacing members of the South Florida Water Management District Governing Board.

But a key player in the effort to clean up waterways and coastlines likely will be a holdover from former Gov. Rick Scott’s administration: Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Noah Valenstein.

Hate crimes are real. Just ask state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith.

Chicago’s police chief is accusing “Empire” star Jussie Smollett of using the “advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career” by paying two men to stage an attack on him last month.

The allegations concerning Smollett, who is black and gay, sparked an international avalanche of commentary and ignited concerns that reports of the bogus attack could have a chilling effect on victims of hate-related violence.

Firefly Aerospace is creating a launch and manufacturing project in Cape Canaveral, adding more than $50 million to Florida’s economy and adding more than 200 jobs in the area.  

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the news at a media event at Cape Canaveral on Friday as the Texas based company expanded its operations in the Sunshine State.  

“This new project will include the capability to locally manufacture, test and launch rockets delivering payloads that will harness the commercial potential of space exploration,” the governor’s office noted. 

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., now the chairman of the U.S. House Helsinki Commission, is teaming up with a high profile congressman to try and influence the Middle East peace process. 

The South Florida Water Management District Governing Board looks to be back in business.

Gov. Ron DeSantis named four new members to the nine-member board Thursday -- three in Naples and one in Stuart -- giving the board a quorum at its March 14 meeting if five members show up, avoiding a further delay in board business.

Sen. Manny Diaz, Jr.-R-Hialeah Gardens, chair of the Senate Committee on Education, Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education, and Sen. President Pro Tempore David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, announced Thursday key components of legislation the Senate will consider during the 2019 legislative session.

A broad proposal aimed at curbing local business regulations advanced in a House subcommittee Thursday, despite criticism that it could block ordinances that prohibit “puppy mills” or the regulation of fertilizer use near waterways.

The Republican-dominated House Business & Professions Subcommittee voted 9-5 along party lines to approve the measure (HB 3), which seeks to eliminate existing local business regulations as of July 1, 2021 and prevent new regulations.