Hurricane Irma tore through Florida almost a month ago.

Videos, in the words of an administrative law judge, showed a “series of races involving --- as a rule --- tired, reluctant, skittish, or disinterested horses moving at a slow pace down the dust-choked path.”

But an appeals court Tuesday said regulators were wrong to try to punish a tiny North Florida pari-mutuel facility that in 2014 turned to slow-motion, two-horse races as it tried to meet the requirements of its state license.

Duke Energy Florida on Tuesday began seeking approval of a wide-ranging settlement agreement that would eliminate the possibility of building nuclear reactors in Levy County, boost solar-energy projects and help set base electricity rates for the coming years.

Grappling with the meaning of online friendship, a state appeals court Wednesday rejected a request to disqualify a Miami-Dade County circuit judge from a case in which a lawyer is one of the judge's Facebook friends.

The 10-page decision by the 3rd District Court of Appeal is at least the third time Florida appellate courts have faced similar questions, including a 2012 ruling in which another appeals court ruled that a judge should be disqualified because of being a Facebook friend with a prosecutor.

With legislative committees poised to start meeting again in less than a month, Senate President Joe Negron on Tuesday revamped the leadership of several key Senate panels.

The insurance industry and plaintiffs' attorneys are trying to help sway the Florida Supreme Court in a potentially high-stakes case stemming from a fatal auto accident in 2006 in Palm Beach County.

Insurance-industry groups and the Florida Justice Association, which represents plaintiffs' attorneys, have filed dueling briefs in recent weeks in the case centered on whether Geico General Insurance Co. acted in “bad faith” in handling a claim from the 2006 accident.

Landlines are quickly going the way of rotary-dial phones in Florida.

A state report released this week showed that large numbers of Floridians continue unplugging the types of phone lines that were a fixture of life for decades. Instead, they are reaching into their pockets for mobile phones or using internet technology to chat with friends and family.

A federal appeals court is poised to hear arguments in a class-action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a state law that has led to Florida Power & Light and Duke Energy Florida collecting money from customers for nuclear-power projects.

State regulators next week could give an initial boost to a Florida Power & Light proposal to build an estimated $888 million power plant in Broward County --- part of a series of FPL projects to add new natural gas-plants.

Attorneys for Gov. Rick Scott argued Monday the Florida Supreme Court should reject a lawsuit challenging the governor's veto of $37.4 million that would compensate homeowners for healthy citrus trees cut down by the state.