Local curfews were in place throughout the state, much of the Florida Keys remained closed and millions of people continued to lack electricity as cleanup work expected to reach into the billions of dollars began Monday in the wake of deadly Hurricane Irma.
Widespread and prolonged power outages will become part of life for most Floridians over the next few days as Hurricane Irma has started to make an anticipated northern turn that will result in a destructive run through the state starting Sunday.
Space Florida, the agency leading Florida's efforts in the reviving space industry at Cape Canaveral, praised President Donald Trump's new nominee to lead NASA.
Chances remain about zero that Republican leaders will be swayed by calls from the state's Democratic congressional delegation to hold a one-day special session to replace a statue of a Confederate general representing Florida in the U.S. Capitol.
With bills addressing the issue already filed for the 2018 regular legislative session, state Republican leaders gave no indication they will hold a special session after Florida's 11 congressional Democrats signed identical letters Wednesday to Gov. Rick Scott, state House Speaker Richard Corcoran and state Senate President Joe Negron.
House Speaker Richard Corcoran wants a dozen local tourist-development councils that have broken ties with Visit Florida --- over new state rules Corcoran helped impose --- to outline how they spend tax dollars.
Florida's business-recruitment agency isn't giving up on marketing to executives just because its budget has been slashed.
But it might not market to as many.
In scaling back marketing efforts after a cut in state funding, the public-private Enterprise Florida has outlined a $3 million marketing plan for this fiscal year that will reduce national newspaper ads and limit what the agency does at Major League Baseball spring-training games and with NASCAR.
Amid a national debate about monuments and statues, a South Florida lawmaker renewed his push Monday for a likeness of Mary McLeod Bethune --- an educator and civil-rights activist who founded what is now known as Bethune-Cookman University --- to represent Florida in the U.S. Capitol.
State Sen. Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale, proposed a resolution (SCR 184) to have Bethune replace Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith as one of Florida's two representatives in the National Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi, both strong supporters of President Donald Trump, decried racism and groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis as reverberations continued Wednesday across the country after a deadly weekend in Charlottesville, Va.
Florida is creeping through the middle of a sweltering summer in a non-election year.
Florida's stance against the Maduro regime in Venezuela touched off an exchange this week involving anticipated 2018 political rivals Rick Scott and Bill Nelson.
