Voters in 2020 approved the constitutional amendment, which was spearheaded by prominent Orlando lawyer John Morgan.

The minimum wage went to $10 an hour on Sept. 30, 2021, $11 on Sept. 30, 2022, and $12 an hour on Sept. 30, 2023.

It is required to increase by $1 each year until it hits $15 an hour on Sept. 30, 2026. After that, it will increase based on inflation.

The minimum wage for tipped employees will go to $9.98 an hour Monday, an increase of $1. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.

A Miami Beach officer said he went into “dad mode” when he found a 2-year-old girl wandering alone in a building on Ocean Drive while her parents were allegedly out partying.

A picture captured the moment Officer Brandon Miller, of the Miami Beach Police Department, comforted the toddler he found screaming and searching for her parents at around 3 a.m. on Sept. 10.

“The little girl was just in her pamper and swimsuit top, completely soaked when we found her,” Miller said. “The person we received the call from actually works security across from the building and he said he could just hear her screaming, screaming, ‘Mama, papa.'”

Police body camera footage released Tuesday showed Miller and other officers responding to the building where the girl was found.

“Where’s mommy?” the officers ask the girl in the footage. “You’re ok, we’re here to help you, ok?”

At one point, Miller picks the girl up in his arms as officers begin searching the complex for the girl’s family.

“You alright?” he asks before the girl gives him a high-five.

Police said the couple was out clubbing and left the 2-year-old, as well as her 12, 11 and 5-year-old brothers alone, sleeping in the apartment they rented, for over four hours.

All four children were taken to the Department of Children and Families. The parents were arrested and then appeared in court, charged with child neglect.

Lentz and Hurd insisted they are good parents, saying the 12-year-old was supposed to be awake watching the younger three. They called this a horror story and a tragic mistake.

“It was a small, tragic mistake that I’m really hurt about and I don’t know what to do,” Lentz said. “We’ve been doing a lot of crying, a lot of crying, every time we see pictures we cry.”

While police searched for her parents, Miller comforted the toddler.

“I have a 2 and a 3-year-old at home and I guess I went into dad mode. I saw her, I thought about my son. I thought about my daughter,” he said.

Lentz and Hurd are desperate to get their children back.

“We are really good parents, we are good people, we don’t leave our children, this is not a regular thing for us,” Hurd said.

The judge said both parents are allowed to see their children while they’re in DCF custody. The couple is expected back in court in next month.

“I understand you want to come to Miami Beach on vacation, you want to have fun, but if you have your kids, obviously they take priority,” Miller said.

Other measures include creating a license plate for Parrot Heads living the life of the late singer Jimmy Buffett and requirements about flood disclosures for home buyers.

In all, 34 laws that passed during the 2024 legislative session will take effect, with the homeless changes (HB 1365) drawing the most attention.

“Florida has chosen to reject comfortable inaction and tackle this problem head on,” House bill sponsor Sam Garrison, R-Fleming Island, said in June after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of an Oregon city’s ordinance cracking down on public camping.

The new Florida law bars local governments from allowing people to sleep at places such as public buildings and in public rights of way. Local governments would be allowed to designate areas for homeless people to sleep.

Another part of the measure will give legal standing to residents and business owners to file civil lawsuits against local governments that allow sleeping or camping on public property. That part of the law will take effect Jan. 1.

Communities have scrambled in recent months to try to comply with the law. Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said he hoped Gov. Ron DeSantis would delay enforcement.

“We’re doing our best to try to address it. We’ve staffed our police department, our civilian homeless outreach program, we’ve doubled it this past year, because we feel it’s a priority,” Trantalis said during a Sept. 1 meeting. “But the mandate from the state is an onerous burden.”

Miami-Dade County has considered “tiny houses,” managed by a homeless agency, the Homeless Trust, as emergency accommodations to limit the impact of the changes on jails.

Jacksonville rolled out a $13.6 million plan to address the law that included a point person in the mayor’s office to address homeless issues, expanded outreach teams and an increase in beds at shelters.

“It’s not just about keeping people off the streets. It’s about making sure they can become viable members of our society,” Mayor Donna Deegan said in July.

Most bills passed during this year’s legislative session took effect July 1, including the budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. Here are some of the other measures that will take effect Oct. 1:

• HB 403: Creates several potential new license plates, including a “Margaritaville” plate — in honor of Buffett — to benefit the SFC Charitable Foundation, Inc. Other potential new plates include Universal Orlando Resort;” “Support General Aviation;” “Recycle Florida;” “Boating Capital of the World;” and “The Villages: May All Your Dreams Come True.”
• HB 549: Makes it a third-degree felony to be part of a group of five or more people who overwhelm a merchant to conduct retail theft.
• SB 718: Makes it a second-degree felony for people who possess fentanyl or similar drugs that result in first responders suffering overdoses or serious injuries.
• SB 758: Makes changes to laws about using tracking devices, with exemptions provided under certain circumstances for law-enforcement officers, parents of minors, caregivers of seniors and vehicle owners.
• SB 764: Requires medical facilities and rape crisis centers to transfer sexual-assault evidence kits to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement within 30 days.
• SB 1036: Increases criminal penalties for immigrants who are arrested for felonies after illegally re-entering the U.S. following deportation for earlier crimes.
• HB 1049: Requires disclosing information to home buyers such as whether the properties have had flood damage and notification that homeowners’ insurance policies don’t include coverage for flood damage.
• HB 1235: Makes a series of changes related to sexual offenders and sexual predators, including changing requirements about reporting to authorities at least 48 hours before moving to another state.
• HB 1389: Makes changes related to digital voyeurism, including increasing criminal penalties if offenders are age 19 or older and are family members or hold positions of authority over victims.
• SB 1628: Includes requiring local governments to complete business impact statements before adopting comprehensive plan amendments and land development regulations.

Helene had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph and was about 115 miles east-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Once it moves closer to the Yucatan channel, it’ll have the opportunity to strengthen into a hurricane and then a major hurricane, the NHC said.

HURRICANE SEASON LATEST

Hurricane season Sep 23

State of emergency in Florida as tropical system expected to become a hurricane

Hurricane season 14 hours ago

DeSantis expands Florida emergency declaration for Helene, urges preparation

The forecast currently has Helene getting up to a major Category 3 hurricane as it approaches landfall by Thursday afternoon and evening in the Big Bend of Florida.

A hurricane warning was issued for the Anclote River to Mexico Beach, Florida, while a hurricane watch was in effect for Englewood to the Anclote River, including Tampa Bay.

A tropical storm warning was issued for portions of Florida including the Lower and Middle Florida Keys west of the Channel 5 Bridge, while a tropical storm watch was in effect for Lake Okeechobee and the Palm Beach/Martin County line northward to the Savannah River.

Storm surge watches stretched along the state’s Gulf coast from the Big Bend all the way to the Florida Keys.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis expanded a state of emergency to 61 counties ahead of the storm, as some residents began to evacuate on Tuesday.

Tropical storm force wind is expected to extend well away from the center of the storm. South Florida's wind begins picking up tonight and into Wednesday morning. TS force conditions in the Lower Keys could last into Thursday! @nbc6 pic.twitter.com/Qzm5lWpGVy

— Chelsea Ambriz (@ChelseaAmbrizTV) September 24, 2024

Major impacts

Heavy rainfall will come with this system, increasing the flooding threat. The flooding rain looks to track well inland and into the midsouth into the weekend.

Due to how large this system is forecast to be, storm surge, wind and rainfall impacts will extend well away from the center, especially on the east side of the system.

Hurricane watches are place through the Big Bend of Florida while tropical storm watches extend down into the Lower Keys.

This system is forecast to strengthen into a major hurricane before making a landfall on Thursday! @nbc6 pic.twitter.com/tqsImqd1iW

— Chelsea Ambriz (@ChelseaAmbrizTV) September 24, 2024

Timeline

Wind will begin to pick up Tuesday afternoon and evening across the South Florida area.

Outer rain bands from this system could start to move through the overnight hours on Tuesday and into Wednesday morning. Surge in the Florida Keys could be 1-3 feet as the system passes.

For South Florida, wind will be the main thing we feel across Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Gusty conditions take over Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Wind could be sustained 20-25 mph and gust 35-40+ mph. 

Scattered tropical downpours are expected starting overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday morning.

The scattered outer bands will last off and on into Thursday and lingering showers into Friday. Isolated and quick tornadoes can’t be ruled out. Rain totals should be 2-4 inches with localized areas seeing up to 6 inches.

In the Keys, winds are already starting to pick up and will continue to do so through Thursday. Sustained wind of 20-30 mph is expected with gusts of 50+ mph.

Rainfall totals will range from 4-6 inches, especially as we go into Wednesday, and this system is west of the island chain.

Rain looks to linger into the weekend. Storm surge will also be possible, with heights of 1-3 feet.

Officials from the Florida Department of Education, led by an appointee of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, have been directing some of the state’s largest school districts to scale back their lesson plans not only on sexual activity, but on contraceptives, human development, abuse and domestic violence, as first reported by the Orlando Sentinel.

The shift reflects a nationwide push in conservative states to restrict what kids can learn about themselves and their bodies. Advocates are concerned that young people won’t reliably be taught about adolescence, safe sex or relationship violence at a time when sexually transmitted infections have been on the rise and access to abortion is being increasingly restricted.

Under recent changes to state law, it’s now up to the Florida Department of Education to sign off on school districts’ curriculum on reproductive health and disease education if they use teaching materials other than the state’s designated textbook.

About a dozen districts across Florida have been told by state officials to restrict their sex ed instruction plans, said Elissa Barr, a professor of public health at the University of North Florida and the chair of the Florida Healthy Youth Alliance, which advises school districts on developing and implementing comprehensive sex education programs.

Barr says comprehensive sex ed isn’t just about reducing teen pregnancy and protecting young people against HIV, at a time when Florida is reporting more HIV diagnoses than almost any other state, according to health policy research nonprofit KFF.

“Sex ed is sexual abuse prevention. It’s dating violence prevention. And it just helps young people develop healthier relationships and actually delay sexual initiation,” Barr told The Associated Press. “We still have 1 in 4 teens pregnant at least once before age 20. So for us to cut contraceptive information and education is really doing young people a disservice. It’s very harmful.”

Research has shown that comprehensive sex ed is associated with teens waiting longer to have sex for the first time, as well as reduced rates of teen pregnancy and STIs and the prevention of sexual abuse.

A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Education defended the state’s approach, highlighting the importance of abstinence and recent changes to state law that require schools to teach that “reproductive roles” are “binary, stable, and unchangeable.”

“Florida law requires schools to emphasize the benefits of sexual abstinence as the expected standard and the consequences of teenage pregnancy,” department communications director Sydney Booker said. “A state government should not be emphasizing or encouraging sexual activity among children or minors and is therefore right to emphasize abstinence.”

In Broward County Public Schools, which includes Fort Lauderdale and is the nation’s sixth largest school district, state officials told the district that pictures of reproductive anatomy and demonstrations on how to use contraceptives “should not be included in any grade level,” according to a staff memo that was shared with the AP.

Florida Department of Education officials also told the district to remove the words “abuse, consent, and domestic violence” from a proposed lesson for first graders and replace it with language that’s considered more age-appropriate, such as “talking to a trusted adult when they feel uncomfortable.”

Barr said the concerns expressed about curriculum were “inconsistent” from district to district and were communicated verbally, not over email.

A representative for Orange County Public Schools, which includes Orlando, said the district revised its teaching plans in response to “verbal feedback” from the department.

“FDOE strongly recommended the district utilize the state adopted text,” district spokesperson Michael Ollendorff said.

Under Florida law, schools don’t have to teach sex ed. If they do offer lessons, they must emphasize abstinence as the “expected standard.” Florida parents have the right to opt their students out of that instruction, though surveys show the general public overwhelmingly supports schools teaching sex ed.

“Take politics out of it, take religion out of it and really focus on the science and what works for young people,” Barr said. “We have the answer, and it’s comprehensive sex ed.”

___

Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

At 46th, FIU is the only South Florida school to make the top 50 in the list of 2025 Top Public Schools. This is its first time in the top 50, and it sits at 98th among all national universities, public and private, according to the report.

“FIU climbed 18 spots from last year among public universities and 26 spots overall to become one of the Top 100 universities in the nation,” the university wrote in a news release. 

FIU soars into the Top 50 among public universities and Top 100 overall @USNews, rising faster than any university in the last 10 years. We couldn’t have done it without you, Panthers! Read at more: https://t.co/CjOweJk8N0 pic.twitter.com/mC7zzYGmN3

— FIU (@FIU) September 24, 2024

Who took the top spots?

The top public school in the country is the University of California Los Angeles, the report says, followed by the University of California Berkeley. The University of Michigan Ann Arbor took the third spot.

How did Florida do?

The Florida school that ranked the highest on the list of best public schools was the University of Florida in Gainesville, which took the number 7 spot. 

Florida State University in Tallahassee and University of South Florida in Tampa, ranked 23rd and 45th, respectively.

The University of Miami ranked 63rd nationwide.

Miami Dade College made history with its highest ranking to date, placing 4th among Top Public Schools – Regional Colleges.

Rep. Carlos Gimenez took to X to congratulate his alma mater.

More reasons to have Panther pride

FIU also boasts the number 2 undergraduate international business program in the country, “a position that it has held for the last six years,” the school said in a news release.

“The success of our undergraduate business program, in particular, is a point of pride for FIU and our global city,” FIU Provost, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Elizabeth M. Béjar said. “FIU is preparing business leaders for South Florida and the world.”

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The system had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph as it moved north-northwest at 6 mph about 290 miles southeast of the western tip of Cuba, the latest update from the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

A tropical storm watch was issued for the Dry Tortugas and lower Florida Keys south of the Seven Mile Bridge and portions of the southwest.

Tropical storm warnings and hurricane watches were also issued for portions of Mexico and Cuba for the system, which was forecast to move across the northwestern Caribbean Sea and into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico during the next couple of days.

The system was forecast to become a hurricane on Wednesday and continue strengthening as it moves across the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the NHC said.

Portions of Florida’s west coast and Panhandle were in the NHC’s potential forecast cone, but forecasters said storm surge, wind, and rainfall impacts will likely extend well away from the center, particularly to the east of the system.

In a statement Monday afternoon, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he was issuing a state of emergency for 41 counties ahead of the storm. Miami-Dade and Broward weren’t part of the declaration but it did include Monroe County.

Residents from coastal Louisiana to the west coast of Florida are encouraged to monitor the forecast for the next several days. While it is too soon to pinpoint where the system will ultimately go, the Florida panhandle, through the Big Bend area, could be focal point for impact later in the week.

Locally heavy rainfall, isolated severe storms and a dangerous rip current risk for both sides of the Florida peninsula is possible. 

For South Florida, the weather will be determined by the anticipated storm’s position and intensity. This could include breezy conditions, passing downpours, high surf and dangerous marine conditions.

The next named system for the 2024 hurricane season will be “Helene.”

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The incident happened on the third floor of a garage at 1567 San Remo Avenue after officials said it appeared the woman driving the SUV accidentally hit the accelerator.

Coral Gables Fire Rescue officials said the crash sent the SUV through a concrete barrier.

Aerial footage from Chopper 6 showed the white SUV over the edge of the garage and against a tree.

Officials said there was a woman inside the vehicle that was hanging halfway out but was being held up by the tree.

Rescue workers used ropes to bring the woman to safety, and she was taken to a nearby hospital in stable condition.

“Pretty sure that she was pretty shaken up, but looking at it from outside, she was fairly calm considering how dramatic this incident was,” Coral Gables Fire Rescue Division Chief Xavier Jones said.

An employee of a doctor’s office across the street said they heard the moment of impact.

“I basically heard a car peeling out, like they hit the gas by accident or trying to go really fast. I heard a really hard crash, so I thought it was a car crash between two cars,” Katiana Polanco said.

Officials brought a crane in to remove the vehicle and said structural engineers would be taking a look at the garage.

The note was made public in a U.S. District Court filing asking that Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, be held in pre-trial detention. Later on Monday, a judge ordered he would remain in jail pending trial.

Law enforcement was contacted Sept. 18 by a civilian who said that Routh had dropped off a box at his residence several months earlier, the filing said. The witness opened the box after learning of the Sept. 15 incident at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. 

The box contained ammunition, four phones and letters. 

One handwritten letter addressed to “The World” said: “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you.”

The letter said in part: “He ended relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has unraveled.” 

Routh was arrested Sept. 15 after a Secret Service agent moving ahead of the former president as he was golfing at Trump International Golf Club spotted “the partially obscured face of a man” in the brush along the fence line and the barrel of a rifle “aimed directly at him.” The agent fired at the man, who fled. He was spotted by a witness and was soon after arrested on Interstate 95.

Donald Trump Sep 21

‘Ticking time bomb': Those who raised suspicions about Trump suspect question if enough was done

news Sep 16

Suspect in apparent Trump assassination attempt charged with two gun crimes, appears in court

Routh has since been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

The FBI searched Routh’s Nissan Xterra and found six cellphones — one of which contained a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.

Cell site records from two of the phones indicated Routh had traveled from Greensboro, North Carolina, to West Palm Beach on Aug. 14.

Further, on “multiple days and times from Aug. 18, 2024, to Sept. 15, 2024, Routh’s cellphone accessed cell towers located near Trump International and the former president’s residence at Mar-a-Lago,” the filing said.

Also found in the vehicle were 12 pairs of gloves, a Hawaii driver’s license in Routh’s name, passport and documents. One of the documents was a handwritten list of dates in August, September and October and venues where Trump had appeared or was expected to. 

Agents also found a notebook with “dozens of pages” filled with names and phone numbers about Ukraine, discussions on how to join the fight on behalf of Ukraine and notes criticizing the Chinese and Russian governments.

The filing said law enforcement learned that the license plate on the Nissan Xterra was not registered to the vehicle, and two additional license plates were found in the car. 

A search of the area where Routh had been hiding near the golf course led to the discovery of a rifle with a scope attached and obliterated serial number, an extended magazine, a backpack and a reusable shopping bag that contained plates “capable of stopping small arms fire.”

On the rifle, investigators found a latent fingerprint on a piece of tape attached to the firearm that preliminarily matched Routh. 

NBC News observed heavy police presence and tape near a row of palm trees and bushes lining the golf course on Summit Boulevard after the apparent assassination attempt last week.

On Thursday, after law enforcement re-opened the road to the public, NBC News identified an opening in the bushes behind the palm trees, which is easily accessible from the public sidewalk. The gap had a view of the golf course and was large enough for someone to occupy.

Routh appeared in Florida court for nearly three hours Monday, where prosecutors alleged he went to Trump International Golf Club with the goal of assassinating Trump. 

“Any established ties to southern district of Florida is for one reason only and that was to kill former President Trump,” the prosecutor said to the judge.

His defense attorney said Routh’s sister is a licensed attorney in North Carolina and was willing to house him if he was released on bail. Ultimately, U.S. Magistrate Judge Ryon M. McCabe ruled Routh would be held pending his trial.

Routh appeared emotionless throughout the hearing, wearing a blue jumpsuit and shackled at his hands and feet. He appeared to nod his head when the defense questioned an FBI special agent about Routh’s social media posts about fighting for Ukraine.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• The first graders who survived Sandy Hook will vote in their first presidential election
• Octopuses seen hunting together with fish in rare video — and punching fish that don’t cooperate
• Politicians are promising housing help. Homebuilders say the problems are many and the solutions scant.

WalletHub compared more than 180 U.S. cities to see where Hispanic entrepreneurs seemed to flourish the most, and took into account the purchasing power of Hispanic customers. 

More than half of the top 20 cities are in Florida. Four of them are in Miami-Dade and Broward. But still, the reasons why some cities and not others are in the most coveted spots may surprise you.

Let’s break down the results. 

What cities came out on top?

The number one spot for Hispanic entrepreneurs, according to WalletHub, is none other than Pembroke Pines.

It boasts “the fourth-highest share of businesses owned by Hispanic people, at around 30.5%. The city also has the highest Hispanic entrepreneurship rate in the country, on top of one of the best entrepreneurship rates for the general population,” the study says.

The city’s appeal may have something to do with the fact that it also has the 10th-lowest corporate tax rate among the cities studied.

“This helps entrepreneurs keep more money while avoiding burnout,” WalletHub says. “Over 47% of the population of Pembroke Pines is Hispanic, the 23rd-highest percentage in the nation, and the city has the third-highest share of Hispanic residents who own their homes rather than renting them.”

And not far behind are Orlando and Fort Lauderdale in the second and third spots, respectively.

About Fort Lauderdale, WalletHub says it “ranks at the top of the country when it comes to the share of startups between four and 15 years old that have five or more employees, which demonstrates that there’s a lot of potential for growth, especially for people starting a business by themselves.”

Where’s Miami on the list?

Miami comes in fifth in the ranking of best cities for Hispanic entrepreneurs, but that’s not the most surprising part.

While it ranks #1 for Hispanic business-friendliness (which takes into account things like revenue growth, business survival rate and the share of Hispanic-owned businesses), it ranks #128 in Hispanic purchasing power.

To get that variable, WalletHub considered things like affordability, the Hispanic unemployment rate and job security.

Take a look at the full list here.

U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza issued a 30-page ruling that rejected a motion by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to toss out the lawsuit filed in 2022 by the environmental group Bear Warriors United.

Bear Warriors United contends that the department has not adequately regulated sewage-treatment plants and septic systems, leading to discharges that killed seagrass — a vital food source for manatees — in a northern stretch of the Indian River Lagoon. Manatees have died in recent years because of starvation.

The state raised a series of arguments in seeking dismissal, including that Bear Warriors United did not have legal standing to pursue the case. But Mendoza wrote, for example, that the group is seeking a series of steps to curb manatee deaths and that he can “easily conclude that if this court were to find in favor of plaintiff, it is likely that fewer protected manatees would be harmed by pollutive sewage.”

“FDEP (the department) is responsible for regulating, permitting, and revoking (septic systems) and wastewater treatment facilities,” Mendoza wrote. “FDEP has designed and implemented remediation plans to address the nutrient pollution problem in the North IRL (Indian River Lagoon). The (lawsuit) alleged that FDEP’s ongoing failure to use its authority to regulate the sewage more efficiently continues to harm manatees, and thus constitutes an unlawful taking. Therefore, plaintiff has met its causation requirement for standing purposes because its alleged injury is fairly traceable to defendant’s action or inaction.”

The ruling does not resolve the underlying issues in the lawsuit. Bear Warriors United and the state in June filed competing motions for summary judgment. If Mendoza grants summary judgment to either side, it would short-circuit the need for a trial.

In its motion for summary judgment, Bear Warriors United said the department “has known for decades that the septic tanks and wastewater plants it authorizes release human nitrogen” that causes such problems as algae blooms in the lagoon.

“DEP thus authorizes the destruction of the lagoon’s ability to sustain seagrass and other macroalgae which are essential food sources for the manatees’ survival,” the group’s attorneys wrote. “As such, DEP’s regulatory regime for septic tanks and wastewater plants directly and indirectly results in the ongoing unlawful ‘take’ of manatees, in violation of (a section of the Endangered Species Act), and this court must issue an injunction requiring compliance with the ESA (Endangered Species Act) to prevent further take of manatees.”

But in the department’s motion for summary judgment, attorneys wrote that the state has taken steps in recent years to try to reduce discharges into the lagoon and disputed that it has violated the Endangered Species Act. The motion said the department’s “actions are not the proximate cause of any harm” to manatees, which are classified as a threatened species.

“The record shows that DEP has not authorized or entitled any party to cause a violation of water quality standards,” the state’s motion said. “It has, instead, worked diligently to restore an impaired water. There is no proximate cause. DEP is entitled to judgment as a matter of law because with no dispute of material fact, it has not violated the ESA.”

The lawsuit involves part of the Indian River Lagoon from the Melbourne Causeway in Brevard County to Turnbull Creek in southern Volusia County.

Florida had a record 1,100 manatee deaths in 2021, with the largest number, 358, in Brevard County, the focus of the lawsuit.

The state had 800 manatee deaths in 2022, before the number dropped to 555 in 2023, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission data. As of last week, the state had totaled 451 manatee deaths this year, with the most, 76, in Brevard County.

Ocala police said officers responded to the home of Marion County Deputy Leslie Boileau late Thursday and found a woman with a fatal gunshot wound to her forehead and a 9mm handgun in her lap. A rifle was also found at the scene.

“The Ocala Police Department is working with the State Attorney’s Office to ensure justice is served,” Ocala Police Chief Mike Balken said in a statement.

Boileau told officers that the shooting occurred while he and his girlfriend were handling and dry firing the guns. After being taken into custody, Boileau told detectives that he accidentally discharged a loaded round while demonstrating the use of a rifle, killing the woman.

A search warrant executed at Boileau’s home corroborated his account, police said. Officials didn’t immediately release the girlfriend’s name.

Boileau was arrested and charged with manslaughter. It wasn’t immediately known whether he had an attorney. Online jail records didn’t show a record of his booking, and his case wasn’t showing up in the county clerk of courts website Friday.

Boileau was immediately fired from the sheriff’s office, where he had served for eight years. Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said in a statement that the Ocala Police Department has the support of his office.

“Tens of thousands of law enforcement officers do their job commendably every day,” Sheriff Billy Woods said. “But unfortunately, the tragic actions of just one are felt through the entire law enforcement community.”

And according to an arrest affidavit, it wasn’t the first time the suspect, 29-year-old Damon Smith, showed up to the victim’s home.

It was on Thursday, Sept. 12 when a man and his wife sitting on their backyard porch in Palm Coast, about 25 miles south of St. Augustine, first noticed a man creeping through the trees near their home, the affidavit states. 

The couple yelled at the man and he took off, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said. 

But the father was uneasy, and the next night, sat in a dark space of his yard to keep watch. 

Smith allegedly returned, and started peeking through the teen’s bedroom window. 

“He literally just went out there to make us feel safe and it just so happens that [the suspect] came back,” the teen’s mother, who did not want to be identified, told NBC affiliate WESH. “Who comes back two nights in a row after being busted, you know? But he did… He came sneaking around the house, came right up to my daughter’s window–so I have a feeling that he knows that that’s her window–so he came up and he cupped his hands around his eyes and was looking in, and so my husband came up and was like, ‘Surprise expletive!’ And then whacked him with the bat, and then he ran.”

The father told authorities that he immediately struck Smith with a baseball bat in between his shoulder blades, according to the affidavit. The suspect allegedly took off running, and the father chased but eventually lost sight of him.

Video captured two people running from the home as the victim’s father yells, “Call the cops, call the cops!”

NBC affiliate WESH said investigators later went to Smith’s residence, which is just a block away from the victim’s. The suspect told officials he was chased that night by “some guy” who “said something about by his window, I guess.”

In bodycam video, deputies ask Smith if he has any questions before arresting him. “No,” he replies.

The teen’s mother said she’s seen Smith before.

“We see him walking around the neighborhood, walking his little dog,” she said.

The affidavit states that Smith admitted to being between two homes and near a window, but said he was not being nosey.

Additionally, Smith allegedly told deputies: “Most of the time, I’m not gonna lie, I do run through yards and other than that, I work my way back on the roads.”

Authorities said Smith told them he gets a thrill out of going around people’s homes.

“I have to anticipate what he meant by that was sexual gratification, and that’s usually what Peeping Toms are, especially when they’re looking into young children or even adults,” said Sheriff Rick Staly. “Who knows how long he’s been doing that?… This is, in my opinion, a textbook sex offender on the escalation.”

Smith faces charges of prowling, voyeurism and aggravated stalking of a person under 16. He’s being held on an $86,000 bail. He was also arrested in 2013 for making a bomb threat at Flagler Palm Coast High School, when he was 18, records show.

“I set a goal to catch over 1,000 pythons, and I am very close to that right now,” Donna Kalil told NBC affiliate WFLA. “By next Python Challenge, hopefully I’ll be able to win the grand prize. I tried real hard this year, and I’ll try even harder.”

Kalil, a contractor with the South Florida Water Management District who is also a python removal specialist that leads the group Everglades Avengers, became this year’s Florida Python Challenge runner-up by catching 19 snakes.

Burmese Pythons Aug 9

Invasive, enormous, insatiable: What we know about the pythons destroying Florida's ecosystem

Burmese Pythons Aug 12

Snake hunters wrangle invasive Burmese pythons in Everglades during 10-day challenge

Florida Sep 17

Winner removed 20 Burmese pythons from Florida Everglades during challenge

That’s just one shy of the crowned champion, Ronald Kiger, who took home the $10,000 grand prize after the 10-day hunt in the Florida Everglades.

But don’t feel too bad for her; Kalil still got a $2,500 prize for her bounty in the professional category. She said one of the very last pythons she caught was 12 feet and 1 inch long.

“They’re very difficult to catch because they’re very quick, so you have to be really careful on how you get to it, and don’t scare it away before you can come up to it and catch it right behind the head and wrestle it out of the swamp,” Kalil says.

In an Instagram post, she described helping native wildlife while on the hunt.

“I can’t tell you how many snakes and frogs we moved off the road saving them from car strikes,” she wrote. “We also moved dead animals off the road because one night we saw a banded water snake eating a squished frog that was on the road. He would have been road kill too had we not stopped to make sure cars went around us as he finished his meal.” 

This year, more than 800 people from 33 states and Canada participated in the challenge, which was meant to bring awareness to the threat that these pythons pose to the ecosystem. Hunters removed 195 Burmese pythons from the wild.

The challenge occurred in mid-August. Hunters were tasked with humanely killing the Burmese pythons and turning in the carcasses to any of the contest’s three check stations in South Florida.

The challenge wasn’t just meant for hunters to win the share of about $25,000 in prizes. It also served to raise awareness about the dangers of Burmese pythons, like how they affect native snakes, can spread diseases amongst native animals and have high mercury levels that are dangerous for human consumption.

Biologist Jeff Corwin was emphatic: “They have no native predators, so they have totally overtaken the ecosystem… They completely out compete the native wildlife. They either push it out or they eat it to extinction. How bad is it? This is how bad: 90% of the mammals that live in the Everglades have been eaten by pythons.”

As for Kalil, she remains dedicated to removing pythons from the Everglades.

“All in all, in my opinion, this event is a net positive for the environment because we have people who care about the environment getting out there and making a positive difference,” she wrote on Instagram. 

And if history is any indication, she’ll clinch that grand prize next year. This year’s grand-prize winner, Ronald Kiger, was last year’s runner-up.

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Justices in a unanimous opinion upheld a referee’s recommendation that Jeffrey Alan Norkin be held in contempt, but it went further than a recommendation that he receive a 10-day jail sentence.

The Supreme Court sentenced Norkin to 60 days in the Broward County Jail, with 50 days suspended if Norkin successfully completes five months of probation.

“This (Supreme) Court has exhausted all sanction options other than ordering a period of incarceration,” the opinion said. “Although the referee recommended a 10-day sentence, the (Florida) Bar argues that it is too lenient given the circumstances of this case and asks for a 60-day sentence without probation. Considering Norkin’s pattern of misconduct we believe a period of incarceration followed by probation during which Norkin is required to undergo a psychological evaluation would be appropriate.”

The opinion said Norkin was suspended from practicing law in 2013 for “acting in an ‘unprofessional and antagonistic manner during the course of litigating a civil case.’”

But it said Norkin acted as an attorney for a client during the suspension and did not comply with a Florida Bar rule. As a result, the Supreme Court in 2015 permanently disbarred Norkin.

But the opinion said Norkin continued to practice law and in 2022 pleaded no contest to a charge of unlicensed practice of law.

“Norkin has shown a blatant disregard for the authority of the courts, including this (Supreme) Court, by his refusal to abide by their and our orders,” the opinion said. “This is part of a larger pattern of disrespect for the courts, opposing counsel, and the judicial system as a whole that relates back to the initial misconduct that resulted in his suspension.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis made that announcment Thursday morning during a rountable discussion on the issue in Pinellas County.

After the Surfside tragedy new requirements were put in place for condo associations to conduct safety inspections and make necessary repairs.

The inpection process has to be completed by the end of this year.

Condo associations are now scrambling to try and meet the deadline, and figure out how to pay for the potential repairs.

DeSantis said in a lot of cases the financial burden is being passed along to condo owners through assessments, so he wants state lawmakers to figure out a new plan.

“The path forward would be by the end of the year generating the ideas that the legislature can then take, run with, and produce some reforms that are going to be sensible, that are going to continue to support transparency, that will support safety, but are also going to do that in a way that is not going to be something driving people out of their condo units,” DeSantis said.

One of the ideas the governor mentioned is offering no-interest loans to condo associations and owners to help pay for the needed repairs.

Nova Southeastern University and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi researchers packed up the corals Wednesday at the NSU’s Oceanographic Campus in Dania Beach. The sea creatures were then loaded onto a van, taken to a nearby airport and flown to Texas.

Researchers were taking extreme caution with the transfer of these delicate corals, NSU researcher Shane Wever said.

“The process that we’re undertaking today is a really great opportunity for us to expand the representation of the corals that we are working with and the locations where they’re stored,” Wever said. “Increasing the locations that they’re stored really acts as safeguards for us to protect them and to preserve them for the future.”

Each coral was packaged with fresh clean sea water and extra oxygen, inside of a protective case and inside of insulated and padded coolers, and was in transport for the shortest time possible.

NSU’s marine science research facility serves as a coral reef nursery, where rescued corals are stored, processed for restoration and transplanted back into the ocean. The school has shared corals with other universities, like the University of Miami, Florida Atlantic University and Texas State University, as well as the Coral Restoration Foundation in the Florida Keys.

Despite how important corals are, it is easy for people living on land to forget how important things in the ocean are, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi researcher Keisha Bahr said.

“Corals serve a lot of different purposes,” Bahr said. “First of all, they protect our coastlines, especially here in Florida, from wave energy and coastal erosion. They also supply us with a lot of the food that we get from our oceans. And they are nurseries for a lot of the organisms that come from the sea.”

Abnormally high ocean temperatures caused widespread coral bleaching in 2023, wiping out corals in the Florida Keys. Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi turned to NSU when its partners in the Keys were no longer able to provide corals for its research. Broward County was spared from the majority of the 2023 bleaching so the NSU offshore coral nursery had healthy corals to donate.

“We’re losing corals at an alarming rate,” Bahr said. “We lost about half of our corals in last three decades. So we need to make sure that we continue to have these girls into the future.”

Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi is using some of these corals to study the effects of sediment from Port Everglades on coral health. The rest will either help the university with its work creating a bleaching guide for the Caribbean or act as a genetic bank, representing nearly 100 genetically distinct Staghorn coral colonies from across South Florida’s reefs.

“We wanted to give them as many genotypes, which are genetic individuals, as we could to really act as a safeguard for these this super important species,” Wever said.

Among them is Amendment 4, which would make abortion under certain circumstances a state constitutional right. 

Here, we break down Amendment 4, its impacts and what Florida currently allows. 

Voting Sep 11

What you need to know about voting in Florida: Registration, polling places and more

Decision 2024 Sep 13

Amendment 1: Florida to decide on partisanship in school board elections

What is it?

Amendment 4 will ask voters whether or not Florida should protect the right to an abortion.

The summary you will see on the ballot reads: “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”

A “yes” vote supports adding the language to the Florida Constitution’s Declaration of Rights. A “no” vote opposes adding that amendment. 

“Viability” means “the capability of a fetus to survive outside the uterus,” according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. The patient’s healthcare provider would determine whether the fetus is viable, though it is generally around the 24-week mark, according to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service. 

It would end the six-week ban on abortion currently in place.

Where do things stand now?

Florida has banned abortions after the first six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they’re pregnant. There are some exceptions, including in the case that the woman’s life is in danger, or that she provides evidence that the pregnancy is the result of rape, incest or human trafficking. 

Fourteen states have banned abortion in most or all circumstances, according to the New York Times. Abortion is legal in 28 states and Washington, D.C., mostly until viability.  

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which offered federal abortion protections, in June 2022, meaning access to the procedure now varies from state to state.

The White House, however, says hospitals must offer abortions when needed to save a woman’s health, despite state bans. Texas is challenging that guidance and, earlier this summer, the Supreme Court declined to resolve the issue.

How many votes are needed for Amendment 4 to pass?

At least 60 percent of voters must vote yes for Amendment 4 to pass.

Current impact

There is some evidence to suggest that abortion bans complicate pregnancy care, as physicians worry about violating bans and subsequent criminal charges. An Associated Press analysis of federal hospital investigations found that more than 100 pregnant women in medical distress who sought help from emergency rooms were turned away or negligently treated since 2022.

Two women – one in Florida and one in Texas – were left to miscarry in public restrooms. In Arkansas, a woman went into septic shock and her fetus died after an emergency room sent her home. At least four other women with ectopic pregnancies had trouble getting any treatment, including one California woman who needed a blood transfusion after she sat for nine hours in an emergency waiting room.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s action brings the state in line with federal regulations protecting the migratory species, which has a distinctive pattern of mottled white markings on the tips of dorsal, pectoral, and tail fins.

NOAA Fisheries earlier this year prohibited the commercial and recreational harvest of oceanic whitetip sharks in U.S. waters of the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean, according to a memo sent to the commission this month by Jessica McCawley, the state director of Marine Fisheries Management.

Oceanic whitetip sharks are listed as threatened by federal officials, and are among more than two-dozen other shark species also protected under state law.

The $10,000 grand prize went to Ronald Kiger, who removed 20 Burmese pythons from the Florida Everglades during the 10-day hunt, which was meant to bring awareness to the threat that these pythons pose to the ecosystem. Last year, he was the direct runner-up to the grand prize winner.

Representatives from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced Kiger’s win in a Tuesday morning meeting in Duck Key. This year, more than 800 people from 33 states and Canada participated in the challenge, and hunters removed 195 Burmese pythons from the wild.

The rest of the prize money was divided amongst competitors in the contest’s three categories: novice, professional and military. Donna Kalil was one python away from a tie with Kiger. Kalil, a contractor with the South Florida Water Management District, got a $2,500 prize for catching 19 pythons in the professional category.

Also in the professional category, Marcos Rodriguez caught 16 pythons for the prize of $1,500, and Quentin Archie won a $1,000 prize for catching the longest python in this category at 8 feet 11 inches (2.7 meters).

Thomas Hobbs won $2,500 for leading the novice category by catching 16 Burmese pythons, while Dennis Krum caught the longest python in this category and also in the entire competition, at 9 feet 11 inches (3 meters).

Jeff Lince caught five pythons, winning $2,500 in the military category, and Antonio Ramos won $1,000 for catching the longest python in this group at 9 feet 7 inches (2.9 meters).

The challenge occurred in mid-August. Hunters were tasked with humanely killing the Burmese pythons and turning in the carcasses to any of the contest’s three check stations in South Florida.

The challenge wasn’t just meant for hunters to win the share of about $25,000 in prizes. It also served to raise awareness about the dangers of Burmese pythons, like how they affect native snakes, can spread diseases amongst native animals and have high mercury levels that are dangerous for human consumption.

“Over 14,000 pythons have been successfully removed by FWC and South Florida Water Management District contractors since 2017,” said Rodney Barreto, chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, in a news release. “This collective effort continues to have a direct positive impact on the Everglades and our native wildlife through removal and awareness.”

This year’s competition was a little bit smaller compared to last year. In 2023, more than 1,000 hunters participated and 209 pythons were removed.

Hunters contracted with the state’s wildlife commission and the South Florida Water Management District work year-round to remove the invasive pythons from the wild. A female python can lay about 50 to 100 eggs at a time, which is why the competition is held during hatching season in August. According to the wildlife agency, about 22,000 pythons have been removed from the state since 2000.

Frank Artiles, 51, was arrested back in March of 2021 on multiple charges including false swearing in connection with voting or elections, making or receiving two or more campaign contributions in excess of the limits, and conspiracy to make or receive two or more campaign contributions in excess of the limits, all third-degree felonies.

The alleged sham candidate, Alex Pedro Rodriguez, was arrested on the same charges.

Artiles has pleaded not guilty.

Miami-Dade prosecutors said Artiles helped to plant Rodriguez as a candidate in a Miami-area state Senate race to defeat the Democratic incumbent, offering to pay him $50,000 to run for the position.

The District 37 race was won by Republican Ileana Garcia by just 32 votes over Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez in the 2020 election out of about 215,000 votes cast. Alex Rodriguez, an auto parts dealer, ran as a non-party candidate and has the same last name as the Democrat.

“The election was 32 votes difference. 32 votes. You know what happened? They won. They were successful, they beat Jose Javier Rodriguez, they beat the incumbent. Not Alex Rodriguez, no no. They weren’t trying to get Alex Rodriguez to win the race, they wanted Ileana Garcia to win the race,” assistant state attorney Timothy VanderGiesen said during opening statements.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said Artiles reached out to Alex Rodriguez through Facebook Messenger about running for the position in May 2020. The two had known each other for about 20 years, and Alex Rodriguez said he was experiencing dire financial difficulties, Fernandez Rundle said.

Artiles helped Alex Rodriguez, who was living in Boca Raton, to falsify qualifying paperwork, using an old driver’s license that reflected Rodriguez’s old Palmetto Bay address, Fernandez Rundle said.

Artiles had Rodriguez change his party affiliation from Republican to Independent, gave Rodriguez $2,000 to open a campaign bank account, then flew to Tallahassee to file Rodriguez’s campaign paperwork with the state’s department of elections, Fernandez Rundle said.

Over the course of the election season, Artiles gave almost $45,000 to Alex Rodriguez, Fernandez Rundle said.

Artiles has denied paying Rodriguez for the campaign and defense attorneys told jurors the money transfers were legitimate business transactions.

So-called “ghost candidates” are not illegal under Florida law but making illegal campaign contributions to get a candidate to run is.

“If you conclude that Alex Rodrguez was a ghost candidate, we are telling you he is. Ghost candidate, that in it itself is not a crime. Nor is it a crime to encourage to assist to support or contribute with legal limits to such a candidate,” defense attorney Frank Quintero said.

Fernandez Rundle said there was no indication that Garcia was part of the alleged plot.

In 2017, the Republican Artiles resigned from the state Senate after using racial slurs in a conversation with two Black legislators in a Tallahassee bar. Then it was revealed Artiles used money from his political committee to hire a former Playboy model and Hooters girl as a consultant.

Artiles served three terms in the state House from a Miami-Dade district and then was elected to the Senate before his resignation. Before that, he served in the Marine Corps.

Law enforcement officials in Florida and across the country have seen a wave of school shooting hoaxes recently, including in the wake of the deadly attack at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., which killed two students and two teachers.

Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood on Florida’s Atlantic Coast said he’s tired of the hoaxes targeting students, disrupting schools and sapping law enforcement resources. In social media posts Monday, Chitwood warned parents that if their kids are arrested for making these threats, he’ll make sure the public knows.

“Since parents, you don’t want to raise your kids, I’m going to start raising them,” Chitwood said. “Every time we make an arrest, your kid’s photo is going to be put out there. And if I can do it, I’m going to perp walk your kid so that everybody can see what your kid’s up to.”

Chitwood made the announcement in a video highlighting the arrest of an 11-year-boy who was taken into custody for allegedly threatening to carry out a school shooting at Creekside or Silver Sands Middle School in Volusia County. Chitwood posted the boy’s full name and mugshot to his Facebook page.

In the video, which had more than 270,000 views on Facebook as of Monday afternoon, the camera pans across a conference table covered in airsoft guns, pistols, fake ammunition, knives and swords that law enforcement officers claim the boy was “showing off” to other students.

Later, the video cuts to officers letting the boy out of a squad car and leading him handcuffed into a secure facility, dressed in a blue flannel button-down shirt, black sweatpants and slip-on sandals. The boy’s face is fully visible at multiples points in the video.

“Right this way, young man,” an officer tells the boy, his hands shackled behind his back.

The boy is led into an empty cell, with metal cuffs around his wrists and ankles, before an officer closes the door and locks him inside.

“Do you have any questions?” the officer asks as he bolts the door.

“No sir,” the boy replies.

The video prompted a stream of reactions on social media, with many residents praising Chitwood, calling on him to publicly identify the parents as well — or press charges against them.

Others questioned the sheriff’s decision, saying the 11-year-old is just a child, and that the weight of the responsibility should fall on his parents.

Under Florida law, juvenile court records are generally exempt from public release — but not if the child is charged with a felony, as in this case.

Law enforcement officials across Florida have been tracking a stream of threats in the weeks since the 2024-2025 school year began. In Broward County, home to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, officials said last week they had already arrested nine students, ages 11 to 15, for making threats since August.

“For my parents, to the kids who are getting ready for school, I’m going to say this again,” Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony said at a press conference, “nothing about this is a laughing or joking matter.”

“Parents, students, it’s not a game,” he added.

Ryan Wesley Routh did not fire any shots, never had Trump in his line of sight and sped away after an agent who spotted him shot in his direction, officials said. He was arrested in a neighboring county.

Routh, 58, appeared in federal court in West Palm Beach to face federal firearms charges, starting a criminal case in the final weeks of a presidential race already touched by violence and upheaval. Though no one was injured, the episode marked the second attempt on Trump’s life in as many months, raising questions about the security provided to him during a time of amped-up political rhetoric and what the Secret Service chief called an “unprecedented and hyper-dynamic threat environment.”

Even as Trump’s Republican allies and some Democrats demanded answers about how a would-be shooter was able to get so close to Trump, Ronald Rowe Jr., the Secret Service’s acting director, offered a fiery defense of the agents he said were “rising to this moment” despite needing additional resources.

“The men and women of the Secret Service, right now, we are redlining them, and they are rising to this moment, and they are meeting the challenges,” Rowe said, citing recent political conventions and other major events that required extensive protective details.

Authorities were continuing to examine Routh’s potential motive and movements in the days and weeks leading up to Sunday, when a Secret Service agent assigned to Trump’s security detail spotted a firearm poking out of shrubbery on the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing.

The agent fired, and Routh escaped into a sport utility vehicle, leaving behind a digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope and a plastic bag containing food.

He had been at the golf course’s tree line from 1:59 a.m. to 2:31 p.m., according to an FBI affidavit that cited cellphone data to track his whereabouts. The FBI is investigating how long the Hawaii man had been in Florida, said Jeffrey Veltri, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami field office.

Coming just weeks after a July 13 shooting at a Pennsylvania campaign rally in which Trump was wounded by a gunman’s bullet, the latest assassination attempt accelerated concerns that violence continues to infect American presidential politics.

Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent in the November election, denounced the thwarted attack, with Harris saying in a post on X: “I am glad he is safe. Violence has no place in America.”

The FBI has interviewed family members, friends and colleagues and is working to collect evidence. No motive has been disclosed, and Routh invoked his right to an attorney when questioned, authorities said.

Investigators are also examining Routh’s large online footprint, which suggests a man of evolving political viewpoints, including recently an apparent disdain for Trump, as well as intense outrage at global events concerning China and especially Ukraine.

“You are free to assassinate Trump,” Routh wrote of Iran in an apparently self-published 2023 book titled “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War,” which described the former president as a “fool” and “buffoon” for both the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots and the “tremendous blunder” of leaving the Iran nuclear deal.

Routh wrote that he once voted for Trump and must take part of the blame for the “child that we elected for our next president that ended up being brainless.”

Donald Trump Sep 16

More charges likely for gunman in Trump apparent assassination attempt

news Sep 16

Suspect in apparent Trump assassination attempt charged with two gun crimes, appears in court

Decision 2024 Sep 16

Trump dispenses with unity and blames Democrats after apparent second assassination attempt

He also tried to recruit fighters for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia, and he had a website seeking to raise money and recruit volunteers to fight for Kyiv.

Voter records show he registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina in 2012, most recently voting in person during the state’s Democratic primary in March.

Routh also made 19 small donations totaling $140 since 2019 to ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates, according to federal campaign finance records.

One of the two criminal counts alleges that he illegally possessed his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions, including two charges of possessing stolen goods in 2002 in North Carolina. The other charge alleges that the weapon’s serial number was obliterated and unreadable to the naked eye, in violation of federal law.

His attorney declined to comment after Monday’s brief court appearance, when he was ordered to remain locked up after prosecutors argued that he was a flight risk.

Routh was the subject of a previously closed 2019 tip to the FBI that alleged that he was a felon in possession of a firearm, Veltri said. The FBI interviewed the tipster, who did not verify the initial information, he said. The FBI passed that information to local law enforcement in Honolulu.

The arrest focused fresh attention on the challenges of protecting Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, not only during campaign events but also when he is off the trail, often at his own clubs and properties. Sunday’s golf course outing was an off-the-record event, meaning in Secret Service terminology that it was not on Trump’s official calendar.

Even so, Rowe said, the Secret Service had in place the “highest levels of protection” as directed by Biden, including “counter sniper team elements” and “local tactical assets.”

The Trump shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, has made clear the need for a paradigm shift in how the Secret Service protects dignitaries, he said.

“We need to get out of a reactive model and get to a readiness model. There could be another geopolitical event that could put the United States into a kinetic conflict or some other issue that may result in additional responsibilities,” he said.

____

Tucker, Durkin Richer and Long reported from Washington. Michael Biesecker contributed to this report.

Helene had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph and was about 115 miles east-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Once it moves closer to the Yucatan channel, it’ll have the opportunity to strengthen into a hurricane and then a major hurricane, the NHC said.

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The forecast currently has Helene getting up to a major Category 3 hurricane as it approaches landfall by Thursday afternoon and evening in the Big Bend of Florida.

A hurricane warning was issued for the Anclote River to Mexico Beach, Florida, while a hurricane watch was in effect for Englewood to the Anclote River, including Tampa Bay.

A tropical storm warning was issued for portions of Florida including the Lower and Middle Florida Keys west of the Channel 5 Bridge, while a tropical storm watch was in effect for Lake Okeechobee and the Palm Beach/Martin County line northward to the Savannah River.

Storm surge watches stretched along the state’s Gulf coast from the Big Bend all the way to the Florida Keys.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis expanded a state of emergency to 61 counties ahead of the storm, as some residents began to evacuate on Tuesday.

Tropical storm force wind is expected to extend well away from the center of the storm. South Florida's wind begins picking up tonight and into Wednesday morning. TS force conditions in the Lower Keys could last into Thursday! @nbc6 pic.twitter.com/Qzm5lWpGVy

— Chelsea Ambriz (@ChelseaAmbrizTV) September 24, 2024

Major impacts

Heavy rainfall will come with this system, increasing the flooding threat. The flooding rain looks to track well inland and into the midsouth into the weekend.

Due to how large this system is forecast to be, storm surge, wind and rainfall impacts will extend well away from the center, especially on the east side of the system.

Hurricane watches are place through the Big Bend of Florida while tropical storm watches extend down into the Lower Keys.

This system is forecast to strengthen into a major hurricane before making a landfall on Thursday! @nbc6 pic.twitter.com/tqsImqd1iW

— Chelsea Ambriz (@ChelseaAmbrizTV) September 24, 2024

Timeline

Wind will begin to pick up Tuesday afternoon and evening across the South Florida area.

Outer rain bands from this system could start to move through the overnight hours on Tuesday and into Wednesday morning. Surge in the Florida Keys could be 1-3 feet as the system passes.

For South Florida, wind will be the main thing we feel across Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Gusty conditions take over Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Wind could be sustained 20-25 mph and gust 35-40+ mph. 

Scattered tropical downpours are expected starting overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday morning.

The scattered outer bands will last off and on into Thursday and lingering showers into Friday. Isolated and quick tornadoes can’t be ruled out. Rain totals should be 2-4 inches with localized areas seeing up to 6 inches.

In the Keys, winds are already starting to pick up and will continue to do so through Thursday. Sustained wind of 20-30 mph is expected with gusts of 50+ mph.

Rainfall totals will range from 4-6 inches, especially as we go into Wednesday, and this system is west of the island chain.

Rain looks to linger into the weekend. Storm surge will also be possible, with heights of 1-3 feet.

The former president said he was safe and well, and authorities held a man in custody.

In a post on X, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, said the state would do its own investigation, and that, “The people deserve the truth about the would be assassin and how he was able to get within 500 yards of the former president and current GOP nominee.”

The governor also addressed the investigation to reporters on Monday morning.

The governor was holding a news conference to discuss Florida PrePaid when he was asked about the attempted attack on Trump.

“We’re going to do a state level investigation,” DeSantis said. “We do believe that there were multiple violations of state law. We also believe there’s a need that the truth about all of this comes out in a way that is credible.”

DeSantis suggested concern that the same federal agencies that are prosecuting Trump are also handling this investigation into an apparent assassination attempt.

“I just think that may not be the best thing for this country,” the governor added.

U.S. Secret Service agents stationed a few holes up from where Trump was playing noticed the muzzle of an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lines the course, roughly 400 yards away.

An agent fired and the gunman dropped the rifle and fled in an SUV, leaving the firearm behind along with two backpacks, a scope used for aiming and a GoPro camera, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said. The man was later stopped by law enforcement in a neighboring county.

It was the latest jarring moment in a campaign year marked by unprecedented upheaval. On July 13, Trump was shot during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and a bullet grazed his ear. Eight days later, Democratic President Joe Biden withdrew from the race, giving way for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the party’s nominee.

And it spawned new questions about Secret Service protective operations after the agency’s admitted failures in preventing the assassination attempt this summer.

The man who was detained had a calm, flat demeanor and showed little emotion when he was stopped, according Martin County Sheriff William Snyder.

“He never asked, ‘What is this about?’ Obviously, law enforcement with long rifles, blue lights, a lot going on. He never questioned it,” Snyder said.

In an email to supporters, Trump said: “There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!” He wrote: “Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER!”

He returned to Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach where he lives, according to a person familiar with Trump’s movements who was not authorized to discuss them publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

It was not immediately clear how the development would affect his schedule or campaign dynamics. Trump was set to speak from Florida about cryptocurrency live on Monday night on the social media site X and had stops planned Tuesday and Wednesday in Michigan and on New York’s Long Island.

An email to Trump campaign staffers obtained by AP said, “We ask that you remain vigilant in your daily comings and goings.”

“As we enter the last 50 days of President Trump’s campaign, we must remember that we will only be able save America from those who seek to destroy it by working together as one team.”

Biden and Harris were briefed on the matter and each issued a statement condemning political violence. Harris’ added that she was “deeply disturbed” by the day’s events and that “we all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence.”

Biden said he had directed his team to ensure the Secret Service “has every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure the former President’s continued safety.”

In the aftermath, Trump checked in with allies, including running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and several Fox News hosts. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he spent several hours with Trump and called him “unstoppable.”

Fox News host Sean Hannity recounted on air his conversation with the former president’s golf partner, Steve Witkoff.

They had been on the fifth hole and about to go up to putt when they heard a “pop pop, pop pop.” Within seconds, he said Witkoff recounted, Secret Service agents “pounced” on Trump and “covered him” to protect him.

Trump had returned to Florida this weekend from a West Coast swing that included a Friday night rally in Las Vegas and a Utah fundraiser. His campaign had not announced any public plans for Trump on Sunday. He often spends the morning playing golf.

Trump has had a stepped-up security footprint since the assassination attempt in July. When he is at Trump Tower in New York, parked dump trucks have formed a wall outside the building. At outdoor rallies, he now speaks from behind bulletproof glass.

The Florida golf course was partially shut down for Trump as he played, but there are several areas around the perimeter of the property where golfers are visible from the fence line. Secret Service agents and officers in golf carts and on ATVs generally secure the area several holes ahead and behind Trump. Agents also usually bring an armored vehicle onto the course to shelter Trump quickly should a threat arise.

The Palm Beach County sheriff said the entire golf course would have been lined with law enforcement if Trump were the president, but because he is not, “security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible.”

“I would imagine that the next time he comes to the golf course, there will probably be a little more people around the perimeter,” Bradshaw said. “But the Secret Service did exactly what they should have done.”

Late Sunday, Trump posted a message on social media thanking the Secret Service and law enforcement for keeping him safe, calling them “brave and dedicated Patriots,” adding that it was “certainly an interesting day!”

He was to be briefed in person Monday by acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe about the investigation into the assassination attempt, according to a person familiar with the plan for the briefing who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Former presidents and their spouses have Secret Service protection for life, but the security around former presidents varies according to threat levels and exposure, with the toughest measures typically being taken in the immediate aftermath of their leaving office.

Trump’s protective detail has been higher than some other former presidents because of his high visibility and his campaign to seek the White House again.

The man in custody was Ryan Routh, three law enforcement officials told the AP. The officials who identified the suspect spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.

Records show Routh, 58, lived in North Carolina for most of his life before moving to Hawaii in 2018. In 2020, he made a social media post backing Trump’s reelection, but in more recent years his posts have expressed support for Biden and Harris.

Routh tried to recruit Afghan soldiers fleeing the Taliban to fight in Ukraine, and spent several months in the country, according to an interview with The New York Times last year.

The FBI was leading the investigation and working to determine any motive. Attorney General Merrick Garland was receiving regular updates. Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were helping investigate.

“The FBI has responded to West Palm Beach Florida and is investigating what appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump,” the bureau said.

News reporters were not with Trump on Sunday. Bucking tradition, Trump’s campaign has not arranged to have a protective pool of reporters travel with him, as is standard for major party nominees and for the president. Harris does not have a protective pool at all times, but does allow reporters to travel with her for public events.

Snyder, the Martin County sheriff, said the suspect was apprehended within minutes of the FBI, Secret Service and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office putting out a “very urgent BOLO” — or “be on the lookout” alert.

Snyder said his deputies “immediately flooded” northbound I-95 and “we pinched in on the car, got it safely stopped and got the driver in custody.”

Richer, Long, Tucker and Miller reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Lindsay Whitehurst and Michael Biesecker in Washington, Michael Balsamo, Jill Colvin, Michelle L. Price and Michael R. Sisak in New York, and Meg Kinnard in Houston contributed to this report.

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They’re pushing for people to vote ‘yes’ on Amendment 4, which would allow abortion access in the Sunshine State.

It would specifically allow the procedure to remain legal until the fetus is viable, which would be decided by a patient’s health care provider.

Local leaders such as Miami-Dade County’s Mayor – as well as residents of all ages – came out to echo the calls for change.

“When you see people coming together and when you see the impact that it has on people, it spreads awareness of issues,” a woman told NBC6.

“The right to choose for one’s body belongs to the person, who is going to make that choice – not to the government,” a man who attended the rally said.

Meanwhile, groups like Florida Right to Life are fighting Amendment 4, saying they want to protect the sanctity of life from conception, and are urging people to vote ‘no’ in November.

Aurelia aurita, also known as moon jellyfish, are in season in the Atlantic Ocean, and the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is reminding the public to stay vigilant. 

These critters are native to Florida, and are also common in ocean waters between 43 and 88 degrees Fahrenheit. Reports of jellyfish near Panama City Beach prompted officials to fly purple flags, which warn about dangerous marine life last week. 

Here’s what to look out for and how to do your best to avoid sparring with this salty sea creature. 

What do moon jellyfish look like?

According to the University of Maine’s Maine Sea Grant, this species of jellyfish is clear with four white or pinkish rings on its top. They can grow up to 15 3/4 inches in diameter, Florida State Parks says. 

They can also appear light pink or purple, the Key West Aquarium says.

How can I avoid getting stung?

“Always be mindful of your surroundings when entering or exiting the water,” Chantille Weber, UF/IFAS Extension Bay County coastal resources coordinator, said. “Wearing thin layers, such as an exposure suit like a rash guard, dive skin or wetsuit, helps minimize and prevent direct contact with tentacles while swimming or diving.”

What do I do if I’m stung?

Fortunately, though a moon jellyfish sting isn’t fun, they’re “minor” and “non-lethal,” UF/IFAS says.  

Still, you should seek immediate medical attention for “significant pain, spreading redness, difficulty breathing or signs of an allergic reaction,” the institute says.

Otherwise, you can take the following steps:

1. Rinse the affected area with saltwater to help loosen and release nematocysts (stinging cells) from the skin.
2. Rinse the affected area with vinegar to neutralize any remaining venom. Avoid using freshwater, as this can worsen the sting.
3. Use a credit card edge, stick or gloved hand to gently scrape off any visible tentacles. Avoid rubbing the area to prevent further venom release.
4. Apply hot water or a heat pack to the affected area to reduce pain. Hot water should be as hot as possible without scalding. If heat is not available, use a cold pack or ice in a dry plastic bag for temporary relief.

Fun facts

According to the Key West and South Carolina aquariums:

• Moon jellyfish are an important food source for other animals, including sea turtles
• The distinct clover shape seen through the bell is the gonads of this species
• They are actually considered plankton because their body is not strong enough to swim against currents

The study by the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion access, suggests that Florida clinics, abortion funds and support networks were better prepared than their counterparts in other states to help women get abortions legally by detecting pregnancies earlier and using out-of-state telehealth pill prescriptions.

It’s the latest report to underscore that women are still finding ways to end their pregnancies despite two years of bans and restrictions in Republican-controlled states since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended a nationwide right to abortion. Previous studies have found that the number of abortions nationally has risen slightly compared with the period before that ruling.

“An infrastructure of abortion funds and support organizations really has come into play to get patients to services as quickly as they can,” Guttmacher data scientist Isaac Maddow-Zimet said of the Florida findings.

Using a survey of brick-and-mortar abortion facilities as well as online prescribers, Guttmacher estimates that there were 30% fewer abortions in the state in May than there were on average for the first three months of the year, before an increase in abortions in April ahead of the new ban taking effect. In June, the number was slightly lower, at 35% fewer.

When similar bans kicked elsewhere, the number of monthly abortions fell more dramatically. It dropped by 45% in Georgia after its law took effect in November 2022, by nearly 80% in South Carolina, where it took hold in August 2023, and by about 50% in Texas after its law took effect in September 2021. Texas has since implemented a near-total ban on abortion. Iowa also has a six-week ban, but enforcement began only in July.

The availability of legally prescribed abortion pills in Florida and other states with bans is because some states with Democrats in charge of the governments have passed laws that allow providers to prescribe the pills via telehealth to patients in states with bans. One study found that by March — before the Florida ban took effect — the pills prescribed by telehealth providers in those states accounted for about one-tenth of the nation’s abortions.

The statutes, known as shield laws, have not yet faced a major test in court.

The Guttmacher survey includes those out-of-state prescriptions, but it doesn’t include people who received abortions outside of the formal medical system, such as by obtaining pills without a prescription.

Florida’s size and geography make it an important part of the abortion landscape. After Roe fell, strict bans — many of them barring abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with narrow exceptions — were implemented in most Republican-led states, including most of those in the South.

Florida had a new ban, too, but it was far more forgiving than most: It prohibited abortion after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy in most cases. Women from nearby states who could not legally obtain an abortion at home often traveled to Florida to get one. In 2023, about 1 in 11 abortions in Florida was for a patient who traveled from out of state, according to state data.

The six-week ban was adopted in 2023, and the state’s Supreme Court ruled on April 1 that enforcement could start in one month.

Bans everywhere affect people seeking abortions, but Florida has some added implications.

As the third-most populous state, it has more abortion-seekers than nearly anywhere else. And because of its geography, it is an 11-hour drive from Miami to the closest state that allows abortions later in a pregnancy, North Carolina. Even then, North Carolina has a 72-hour waiting period after a patient makes an in-person appointment before an abortion can proceed, making that an impractical destination for many Florida women, including those who might struggle to get enough time off work or arrange for several days’ of child care.

Michelle Quesada, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida, said the group’s clinics have been prioritizing getting patients appointments fast, especially if they’re close to the six-week cutoff, and cross-trained staff on ultrasounds to provide gestational dating as quickly as possible.

But she said there are still abortion seekers who are turned away. About 600 abortion seekers at the five abortion clinics in her group have gone to other states with the help of Planned Parenthood navigators. And she said that about 50 patients a week choose to self-navigate, possibly continuing a pregnancy they don’t want or obtaining an abortion outside a clinic.

She said one impact may be that some patients rush to have abortions that they may not have had with more time to think through their pregnancy options.

“Now you have patients coming to us at five weeks, five days,” she said, “and they literally have 24 hours to decide.”

Kelly Flynn, president and CEO of A Women’s Choice, which has abortion clinics in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, said the number of abortions at her Jacksonville, Florida, clinic has dropped by at least half since the ban took effect — though those patients are often seen by the organization’s other clinics.

“This ban has been devastating and cruel for patients who have desperately needed access to safe abortion care,” she said. And Flynn said the abortion funds that help with travel logistics and funding are finding that they’re not as flush with donations as they were after Roe was overturned.

Florida is one of nine states where voters in November will decide whether to add the right to abortion to their state constitution. In Florida, the proposed amendment would require 60% support to pass.

Do you like to gamble or place bets on your favorite sports teams?

Well, a lot has changed in just the last year in regard to how you can bet and the rules surrounding it.

34-year-old Alex Toniyevich spends his days buying and selling tickets for sports and concerts.

“I went to a concert, I realized I could sell it for more and then I just stuck with it,” said Toniyevich, who enjoys taking risks and making money. His Instagram page called @WeGamblin is dedicated to his love of casinos.

But he’s also passionate about sports and ever since he could, he’s been an avid Florida sports better.

“I would like to think I am responsible when I bet on games and sports. I don’t take it over the edge, I just need that little gamble so I have that sense of adrenaline,” he said from his home in Miami.

“I don’t like baseball so if I am forced to watch a game, I might bet on it so that I have a rooting interest and it makes the game more interesting for me.”

But the way Alex bets has changed. More than a decade ago there was only one way to place a wager back when he lived in New York.

“You would hear about a friend through a friend who is a bookie and he would have a website. You would do it through his website or through a friend and just tell them you want action on this game, I want action on whatever, they would take the bet. And whether you won or loss they would pay you weekly.”

Now, things look much different in Florida.

Things have changed

You might have seen promotions of the Seminole Tribe’s App, Hard Rock Bet.

It’s the only sports betting app available in the state that allows you to place a wager on the outcome of any professional or collegiate sporting event, or on individual players performances.

If you live in Florida and and you want to sports bet, the only options are the Hard Rock Bet app or going in person to the six Seminole Hard Rock Casinos.

“Yes that’s true and there might be a few other facilities, race track venues, that have entered into partnership with the Seminole Tribe, but in reality, you are betting through the Seminole Tribes website, not through the racetracks website,” said Daniel Wallach of Wallach Legal, a law firm specialized in sports betting.

But why is the Native American Tribe the only legal avenue?

Let’s take a quick history lesson.

Back in 2018, the US Supreme Court overturned a federal ban on state approved sports betting. In 2021, Governor Ron DeSantis decided to enter in a gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe, granting them complete exclusivity over sports betting in the state.

But some people didn’t like that.

West Flagler Associates, that own two other gaming properties, filed a lawsuit which overturned the gaming compact and shut down sports betting until 2023.

That’s when the courts reversed the decision.

And now the Seminole Tribe is back on with the gaming compact which will remain in effect until 2051.

“And until that date, the Seminole Tribe has a hammerlock and complete control over state wide sports betting,” said Wallach, explaining that this makes the market less competitive, impacting odds, prices and promotions.

While he believes the way things are now will remain in effect for some time, he still thinks a more varied market can happen in multiple ways.

One is West Flagler going back to court.

“Their argument would be that by granting a Native American tribe a monopoly to the exclusion of non-gaming stakeholders, you have violated the equal protection rights of all these other non-tribal stakeholders who are being excluded simply because they are not Native American.”

Another option could be Florida betters taking advantage of the ballot initiative process.

But sports betters like Alex don’t think much needs to change.

“It’s a pretty streamlined process now, at this point maybe they are going to offer in stadium betting like at Dolphins stadium for instance and you can bet there live at the windows or something.”

Compulsive gambling

Alex says the biggest difference he’s noticed with the sports betting landscape is that even the average person can weigh in: “Everybody is betting on everything.”

“It’s a lot more available to people, which is a good thing and a bad thing, I guess, because some people can’t control themselves. They are betting money they probably shouldn’t be betting.”

The Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling says that around 2.1% Floridians have a gambling addiction. 90% of their callers are male and 54% of them are under the age of 30.

Jennifer Kruse, the Executive Director of Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling said that “their lifetime losses are reported much higher than their incomes, around $147,000 and their incomes were around $105,000.”

“So they are males that are making more money but are also losing more money and I think that can be attributed to level of skill that some people think is involved in sports betting. They think they know a player, or a team and they think they can predict the outcome better than just a traditional form of gambling like playing a slot machine. So, there’s the unrealistic beliefs and expectations about their wins and odds of winning.”

She says the consequences for those who can’t stop are significant.

“It can affect your finances, money is the drug that keeps fueling the addiction, you have to have money to stay in action. So, a lot of times people will deplete their finances,” explains Kruse.

That’s why there is a help line to assist anyone who is triggered to keep betting.

The good news, according to Jennifer, is that the majority of the population place bets as a recreational activity.

That’s Alex, who depending on the sport bets around $500 to $1,000.

He’s made some money on some games, lost money in others, but he says for the average better like him, it’s just about having some fun.

“People are doing it just for enjoyment. You are at a party, and everyone is betting on one side, so you want to have rooting interest with your friends. Plus, money won is better than money earned.”

To operate the Hard Rock Bet app, you must login and put in a deposit of money into your account.

You will then see all of the sporting events you can bet on. If there’s a game that piques your interest you click on it, type in how much you want to bet and send it in.

You can only bet in the state of Florida as the app geo-tags your location.

If you or a loved one believe you are experiencing a gambling addiction, you can call the hotline at 888-ADMIT IT.

Lawyers in Moody’s office filed a 35-page motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed in July by operators of two nude-dancing establishments, a dancer and a retail store that sells adult-oriented items. The lawsuit primarily alleges that the ban on workers under 21 violates First Amendment rights.

But the state’s motion Friday disputed the arguments, saying, in part, that the law (HB 7063) “is narrowly drawn to further the state’s legitimate interest of protecting this vulnerable age group from human trafficking.”

“The statute furthers an important or substantial governmental interest unrelated to the suppression of free expression,” the motion said. “The statute is part of a larger bill designed to combat human trafficking. The statute prevents persons aged 18 to 20 from working in these establishments because this age group is vulnerable to the exploitation of human trafficking. It does not prevent adult entertainment establishments from hiring nude dancers, employees, and contractors altogether.”

But the lawsuit said the Legislature did not “consider any alternative forms of regulation which would burden First Amendment rights less severely; that is, the Legislature made no effort to solicit information in support of a more narrowly tailored law.” Also, it said the state had not shown a connection between human trafficking and adult-entertainment establishments.

“HB 7063 does not actually target human trafficking or the individuals responsible for those criminal acts,” the lawsuit said. “Instead, it regulates only the potential (if unlikely) victims of trafficking and only the subset of potential victims who are actively engaged in speech activities. The state considered no evidence or studies supporting the notion that human trafficking is associated with adult entertainment establishments or that trafficking is more common in such establishments; or, to the extent that such information was considered, it consisted of shoddy data which is insufficient to support the asserted government interest.”

The lawsuit was filed by operators of Cafe Risque, a nude-dancing establishment in Alachua County; operators of Sinsations, a nude-dancing establishment in Jacksonville; Serenity Michelle Bushey, who performed at Cafe Risque but is barred by the law from working there because she is under 21; and Exotic Fantasies, Inc., which operates a retail store in Jacksonville.

While most of the attention about the law has focused on strippers, it also prevents adult-entertainment establishments from employing other workers under age 21. That includes workers at retailers such as Exotic Fantasies, which does not have dancers.

“HB 7063 prohibits Café Risque, Sinsations and Erotic Fantasies from contracting with and employing individuals of their choosing to assist in the production, promotion and dissemination of their First Amendment protected communications,” said the lawsuit, filed by Gary Edinger, a longtime First Amendment attorney in Gainesville. “All of the plaintiffs’ speech rights have been chilled now, and in the future, as they risk prosecution and the loss of their livelihoods, if they continue to engage in the kind of speech to which the state of Florida objects; to-wit: exotic dance performances and the sale of adult retail goods.”

The Legislature passed the law in March, and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it in May. The law, which took effect July 1, includes second-degree felony charges for people who employ or allow dancers under 21 to perform nude in the establishments.

“While plaintiffs Café Risque and Sinsations will no longer be permitted to promote and produce entertainers between the ages of 18 to 20, these businesses are still permitted to promote and produce entertainers,” the state’s motion Friday said. “Removing 18-to-20 year-olds from their lineup serves a substantial governmental interest which is not substantially broader than necessary, while allowing for reasonable alternative avenues of expressive conduct. Bushey also has reasonable alternative avenues of communication at other establishments that are not adult entertainment establishments, such as bikini bars which are not included in the definition of adult entertainment establishments.”

The lawsuit names as defendants Moody, State Attorney Brian Kramer, who prosecutes cases in Alachua County, and State Attorney Melissa Nelson, who prosecutes cases in Jacksonville. In addition to disputing the First Amendment arguments, Moody’s motion Friday also argued that she is not a proper defendant because she does not have enforcement authority over the law.

The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor.

Keiontae Raneake Osean Smith, 35, was charged with grand theft and dealing in stolen property, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office officials said Friday.

Smith, of Tampa, had agreed to pay $53,750 for the treasue coins being sold by a resident of Bay Point in the Lower Keys.

The two agreed to a wire transfer in August and when they met to make the exchange, Smith showed a photo of what appeared to be a bank transfer, but no money was ever transferred, authorities said.

The victim learned Smith used a fake name during the sale negotiations and provided a fake bank tracking/trace number, and later gave the victim a fake credit card number, authorities said.

Warrants were later obtained for Smith’s arrest and he was booked into jail. Attorney information wasn’t available.

What does Amendment 1 do?

If voters vote yes, come 2026, the school board elections will become partisan. Political parties will be listed next to school board candidates on the ballot.

“It’s not unusual, but most places across the country when they run for school board, they do it without a party label,” political science professor Sean Foreman said.

Foreman says there’s a reason the state moved to non-partisan school board elections in 1998: to remove politics from decisions on education and curriculum.

How many states have partisan school board elections?

Currently, nine states have partisan school board races in the U.S. If the amendment applies in Florida, Foreman believes it will bring changes.

At the ballot box, Foreman thinks voters might be inclined to do less research.

“They’ll just follow the D and the R, and they’ll get the expected outcome,” he said.

Foreman says that voters who are independent would not be able to vote in the primaries. And those who want to run for school board elections and are not affiliated with a party won’t be as likely to campaign.

It could also impact those elected on the board.

“If somebody gets elected with a party label, they’re more likely to do with the party members want on the one hand is good for the party, but probably not good for education policy,” Foreman said.

Where do things stand now?

But routine school board meetings have already become a political battleground at times. Most recently, on Wednesday at Miami-Dade Public Schools, there were seven hours of public comment on whether the district should recognize LGBTQ+ History Month.

The board ultimately voted no.

Political analyst Brian Crowley says in the last two elections, Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsed candidates. Crowley says it already made it clear where their party loyalty lies without partisan elections.

“I think everybody knows if you pay attention to the school board meeting that who is a Democrat and who is a Republican,” he said. “I’m not sure if we go to races it’s going to make a really big difference because that’s where we are now.”

The amendment needs 60% of the vote to pass.

Under the agreement the School Board of Nassau County must restore access to three dozen titles including “And Tango Makes Three,” a children’s picture book based on a true story about two male penguins that raised a chick together at New York’s Central Park Zoo. Authors Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson were plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the district, which is about 35 miles (about 60 kilometers) northeast of Jacksonville along the Georgia border.

The suit was one of several challenges to so-called book bans since state lawmakers last year passed, and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law, legislation making it easier to challenge educational materials that opponents consider pornographic and obscene. Last month six major publishers and several well-known authors filed a federal lawsuit in Orlando arguing that some provisions of the law violate the First Amendment rights of publishers, authors and students.

“Fighting unconstitutional legislation in Florida and across the country is an urgent priority,” Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster and Sourcebooks said in a statement.

Among the books removed in Nassau County were titles by Toni Morrison, Khaled Hosseini, Jonathan Safran Foer, Jodi Picoult and Alice Sebold.

Under the settlement the school district agreed that “And Tango Makes Three” is not obscene, is appropriate for students of all ages and has value related to teaching.

“Students will once again have access to books from well-known and highly-lauded authors representing a broad range of viewpoints and ideas,” Lauren Zimmerman, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said in a statement.

Brett Steger, an attorney for the school district, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Sheriff Grady Judd in Polk County, Florida, described what he classified as the “cold-blooded murder” of the teen’s 39-year-old mother on Sunday at his grandmother’s home in Auburndale.

“And it’s not just a singular murder,” Judd said, explaining that the teen was charged in the Feb. 14, 2023, death of his father in Lincoln County, Oklahoma. The murder charge was dismissed after authorities in Oklahoma could not find evidence that disputed the teen’s claim of self-defense, Judd said.

Court documents do not indicate why the charge was dropped and Lincoln County District Attorney Adam Panter did not immediately return a phone call or email for comment on Thursday. The attorney for the teen in the Oklahoma case also did not immediately return a message left by The Associated Press.

In March 2023, the teen came to Charlotte County, Florida, to live with his mother.

Since then, he had attacked her multiple times, the sheriff said, including a case of domestic violence in which he “stomped” on her.

At one point, the teen was briefly held for mental health services under a Florida law that allows such detentions. As he was being released, the teen threatened to kill either himself or his mother, Judd said. Authorities then held him for three more days.

On Sunday, the teen called 911 from his grandmother’s home in Auburndale, telling the dispatcher that he and his mother got into a “very long fight” and she fell on a knife and was bleeding.

When he met arriving deputies in the front yard, “he was calm, cool and collected, not upset, and he had blood on him,” Judd said.

Inside the home, deputies found the woman and a knife. The grandmother was not home at the time.

“He didn’t say, ‘Mom’s in here, mom’s bleeding to death, mom needs help,’” the sheriff said. “He looked the deputy in the eye and said, ‘I know my rights. I want an attorney.’”

The sheriff said he did not know who the teen’s attorney is.

Judd said the teen has shown “zero emotion.”

Neighbors told investigators the mother and son started arguing after she arrived at the house that afternoon, Judd said. They said the teen grabbed the mother by the hair and “dragged” her into the house.

The medical examiner told investigators that based on an autopsy, “it was not reasonable or plausible that she died the way that he said she did,” Judd said.

The teen is being held in a juvenile facility in Polk County on charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and violation of a no-contact order. He is not listed in jail records. The sheriff has asked the state attorney’s office to charge him as an adult.

Judd questioned why authorities in Oklahoma dropped the charges in 2023.

“Because she took him and tried to do what a mother should do, she’s now dead,” he said of the teen’s mom. “Everybody that should be special to him in his life is dead when they crossed him.”

An Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent’s affidavit said the teen’s explanation of what happened did not match the evidence and that there was “probable cause to believe that” the teen committed first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of his father. The affidavit said the investigator tried to question the teen, who invoked his right to an attorney.

Judd said he hopes that if anyone has information about the father’s death, they will come forward.

“Florida is in play,” proclaimed Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a former representative from Miami, at the start of a bus tour in defense of women’s reproductive rights in Boynton Beach. Mucarsel-Powell is the choice of Florida Democrats to challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Rick Scott for one of a handful of Senate seats the GOP is defending this election cycle.

According to data from AdImpact, which tracks spending on advertising by political campaigns and their surrogates, Republicans have outspent Democrats on Florida’s U.S. Senate race by roughly a 4-to-1 margin through Sept. 11, $12.7 million to $3.2 million. Based on ad spots currently reserved through the general election, that margin is expected to grow.

The dynamics of the Senate race mirror what has happened in the presidential race in a state that used to be hotly contested by both parties’ top-of-the-ticket candidates. Vice President Kamala Harris did not attend the launch of the bus tour and has not been to Florida as a candidate since she replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee for president in the race against Republican former President Donald Trump.

The Republicans’ massive spending advantage may help to explain why Scott scoffs at the claims coming from Democrats about Florida being competitive.

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“They are so far from what Florida voters believe in, that they don’t have a chance in the world of winning Florida,” he said in an interview last week. “They don’t have a chance of beating Trump, and they don’t have a chance of beating me.”

Mucarsel-Powell says her side is more in touch with voters on issues such as reproductive rights. She says ballot amendments on both abortion rights and legalizing marijuana will help Democrats turn out voters. She also said the switch from Biden to Harris gave Florida Democrats a burst of fresh momentum.

“This is momentum that has been building for quite some time, and her announcement just was like the tip of the iceberg on the momentum and the energy that was building here around the state of Florida,” Mucarsel-Powell said in an interview.

A national AP-NORC survey conducted in July showed that about 8 in 10 Democrats said they’d be satisfied with Harris as the party’s nominee for president, versus 4 in 10 Democrats in March saying they’d be satisfied with Biden as the nominee.

But Mucarsel-Powell’s task remains formidable. Although some polling shows Scott leading narrowly in the Senate race, national Democrats have yet to invest heavily in Florida’s expensive media markets. Harris, who has proven to be a prolific fundraiser since she became the Democratic nominee, recently allocated $25 million of her own campaign funds to help down-ballot Democrats in November — with only $10 million of those funds going to U.S. Senate candidates. Harris’ campaign did not respond to questions on how these funds were being allocated.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said it has spent money on staffing and digital advertising on the race but didn’t specify how much. In a statement, they did not address plans for spending going forward but said: “Scott’s unpopularity coupled with the strength of Debbie Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign makes Florida one of Senate Democrats top offensive opportunities.”

Scott, who has his eye on a Senate leadership position if he wins, said he would welcome a bigger effort from national Democrats.

“I hope they spend a bunch of money and waste it, because they don’t have a chance of winning the Senate in Florida,” he said.

Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried said national Democrats showed their support by starting their bus tour in Florida and sending campaign representatives there to support Democratic candidates. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who is in a strong enough position in her own reelection bid to work on behalf of other Democrats around the country, was one of several Democrats who joined Mucarsel-Powell at the start of the bus tour.

“They could have started anywhere else in the country. They started here in Palm Beach County, in Donald Trump’s backyard,” Fried said. “That shows how important Florida is, and that they are going to continue to watch what is happening on the ground, send surrogates here and making sure that we are in play for November.”

About 150 people attended the bus tour event.

Fried acknowledged that Democrats have been outspent on advertising in Florida, but she said they’re putting their energy into campaigning at the grassroots level. She said 40,000 new volunteers signed up after Harris entered the race and were making an all-out effort to knock on doors and reach out to Florida voters by phone.

This year’s Florida ballot looks different from the one voters saw two years ago, where U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. Ron DeSantis led the top of Florida’s ticket. The governor had hoped to ride a wave of momentum from his emphatic 19-point victory to national prominence but was unable to loosen Trump’s grip on the Republican Party nationally.

Trump, now a Florida resident, defeated Biden in Florida by 3.3 percentage points in 2020, further diminishing its status as a swing state.

Brian Ballard, a Republican political strategist who was a top fundraiser for Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, said the lackluster spending effort by Democrats will make it harder for Mucarsel-Powell to introduce herself to people across the state who don’t recognize her — as opposed to Scott, who was Florida’s governor from 2010 to 2018 and has since then been serving in the Senate.

The lack of spending from the national party, Ballard said, is “usually a sign of a losing campaign.”

“Florida is not in play,” Ballard said. “I hope the Democrats commit and spend a lot of money in Florida on the presidential race. It’ll move the needle not at all. If she’s relying on Democrats spending on top of the ticket, she’s relying on fool’s gold.”

The Florida contest has not drawn much attention from national Democrats, who are trying to hold onto far more Senate seats than Republicans this year. Instead, they have focused much of their energy and resources on defending seats they already hold, including in the red states of Ohio and Montana. Still, the Florida U.S. Senate race was close in late July, just before the Florida Senate primaries, according to a poll of Florida voters conducted by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab.

Scott said in the interview that he isn’t “taking a chance” by treating his own race lightly. And yet he has spent at least some of his time campaigning for other Republicans, including a trip across state lines to battleground Georgia last week for a town hall in Braselton, northeast of Atlanta.

“This is a team sport,” Scott said of his efforts on behalf of other GOP candidates.

Tiffany Lanier, 36, attended the bus tour Tuesday morning in Boynton Beach. Lanier, a Lake Worth civic engagement public speaker, said that although Biden ran on a similar platform to Harris, she thinks Harris’ position and emphasis on abortion rights really excites and motivates people to turn out to vote.

“I think it was more like in my wilder dreams that Florida would be in play for this November,” Lanier said. “I know that we are so very tight in the polls, but I do see that there is an energetic shift. And so, I do see a lot of possibility here.”

___

Chief elections analyst Chad Day contributed to this report.

It happened on Sept. 7, as hundreds of swimmers competed in a charity swim to benefit the Alligator Reef Lighthouse.

The FWC helicopter was supporting the swimmers by air when a boat started heading straight for them, officials said.  

“Despite repeated requests from law enforcement, the vessel operator, Thomas Michael Reichert of Naples, did not change course,” FWC said in a news release. 

That’s when FWC pilot Chris Simons flew into action. 

Just seconds away from a potentially devastating collision, Simons was able to stop Reichert by lowering the chopper and hovering about 20 feet in front of the suspect. 

“At that point, the captain was maybe 15 to 20 yards away from the swimmers and I knew I had to do something,” Simons said in a statement. “I pulled my helicopter right in front of the boat to block him from hitting any swimmers or kayakers.”

Other boats moved in to help stop Reichert’s vessel, officials said.

Footage of the pilot’s heroic actions were released by FWC on Wednesday, along with a video statement from Senior Officer David Moss, who was on the helicopter with Simons.

“They definitely got very close and if it wasn’t for the helicopter and the other boats it definitely could have been bad,” Moss said.

Reichert, 55, was found to be boating under the influence, officials said. 

He was also allegedly “in possession of 12 wrung spiny lobster tails. Separating the tail from the body of a spiny lobster is prohibited in state waters.”

“All too often, FWC officers respond to incidents where divers and swimmers are struck by vessels,” Maj. Alberto Maza, FWC South B Regional Commander, said in a news release. “Thankfully, from his unique vantage point in the air, our aviation officer was able to anticipate and prevent a greater tragedy.”

Reichert was later arrested and is set to be arraigned on Sept. 24.   

Helene had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph and was about 115 miles east-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Once it moves closer to the Yucatan channel, it’ll have the opportunity to strengthen into a hurricane and then a major hurricane, the NHC said.

HURRICANE SEASON LATEST

Hurricane season Sep 23

State of emergency in Florida as tropical system expected to become a hurricane

Hurricane season 14 hours ago

DeSantis expands Florida emergency declaration for Helene, urges preparation

The forecast currently has Helene getting up to a major Category 3 hurricane as it approaches landfall by Thursday afternoon and evening in the Big Bend of Florida.

A hurricane warning was issued for the Anclote River to Mexico Beach, Florida, while a hurricane watch was in effect for Englewood to the Anclote River, including Tampa Bay.

A tropical storm warning was issued for portions of Florida including the Lower and Middle Florida Keys west of the Channel 5 Bridge, while a tropical storm watch was in effect for Lake Okeechobee and the Palm Beach/Martin County line northward to the Savannah River.

Storm surge watches stretched along the state’s Gulf coast from the Big Bend all the way to the Florida Keys.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis expanded a state of emergency to 61 counties ahead of the storm, as some residents began to evacuate on Tuesday.

Tropical storm force wind is expected to extend well away from the center of the storm. South Florida's wind begins picking up tonight and into Wednesday morning. TS force conditions in the Lower Keys could last into Thursday! @nbc6 pic.twitter.com/Qzm5lWpGVy

— Chelsea Ambriz (@ChelseaAmbrizTV) September 24, 2024

Major impacts

Heavy rainfall will come with this system, increasing the flooding threat. The flooding rain looks to track well inland and into the midsouth into the weekend.

Due to how large this system is forecast to be, storm surge, wind and rainfall impacts will extend well away from the center, especially on the east side of the system.

Hurricane watches are place through the Big Bend of Florida while tropical storm watches extend down into the Lower Keys.

This system is forecast to strengthen into a major hurricane before making a landfall on Thursday! @nbc6 pic.twitter.com/tqsImqd1iW

— Chelsea Ambriz (@ChelseaAmbrizTV) September 24, 2024

Timeline

Wind will begin to pick up Tuesday afternoon and evening across the South Florida area.

Outer rain bands from this system could start to move through the overnight hours on Tuesday and into Wednesday morning. Surge in the Florida Keys could be 1-3 feet as the system passes.

For South Florida, wind will be the main thing we feel across Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Gusty conditions take over Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Wind could be sustained 20-25 mph and gust 35-40+ mph. 

Scattered tropical downpours are expected starting overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday morning.

The scattered outer bands will last off and on into Thursday and lingering showers into Friday. Isolated and quick tornadoes can’t be ruled out. Rain totals should be 2-4 inches with localized areas seeing up to 6 inches.

In the Keys, winds are already starting to pick up and will continue to do so through Thursday. Sustained wind of 20-30 mph is expected with gusts of 50+ mph.

Rainfall totals will range from 4-6 inches, especially as we go into Wednesday, and this system is west of the island chain.

Rain looks to linger into the weekend. Storm surge will also be possible, with heights of 1-3 feet.

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker has scheduled a hearing Oct. 7 on a request by the California-based UPSIDE Foods, Inc. for a preliminary injunction against the law, which Gov. Ron DeSantis signed May 1, according to a court docket.

UPSIDE Foods filed a lawsuit last month challenging the constitutionality of the law and requested a preliminary injunction. The lawsuit contends, in part, that a federal poultry-products law preempts Florida from imposing such a ban.

The motion for a preliminary injunction pointed to what is known as the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which generally leads to federal laws trumping conflicting state laws.

“An injunction will not substantially injure others, because it will not compel the state to take any action or obligate any resources, and because the state has no legitimate interest in the continued operation of an unconstitutional law,” the motion said. “An injunction is in the public interest because it will permit UPSIDE to exercise its right to bring innovative products to the interstate market and allow consumers to exercise their freedom to decide for themselves what foods they want to eat.”

The state faces a deadline next week for filing a response to the motion for a preliminary injunction. Cultivated meat, often known as lab-grown meat, is made through a process that includes taking a small number of cultured cells from animals and growing them in controlled settings to make food.

State Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson last month called the lawsuit “ridiculous” and said “lab-grown meat is not proven to be safe enough for consumers.”

“Food security is a matter of national security, and our farmers are the first line of defense,” Simpson, a key supporter of the law, said in a statement. “As Florida’s commissioner of agriculture, I will fight every day to protect a safe, affordable, and abundant food supply. States are the laboratory of democracy, and Florida has the right to not be a corporate guinea pig. Leave the Frankenmeat experiment to California.”

In an Aug. 30 order, Walker wrote that the state can seek information about “the source or origin of the cells plaintiff uses to produce the cultivated chicken products it wishes to sell in Florida” and the company’s “plans to distribute its cultivated-meat product in Florida.”

The Legislature this year approved the ban as part of a broader Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services bill (SB 1084). The law, in part, makes it a second-degree misdemeanor to sell or manufacture cultivated meat.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture last year approved UPSIDE to manufacture and sell its products.

Critics say they’re the latest efforts by Florida’s Republican elected officials to leverage state resources to try to block the abortion rights measure, moves which some Democratic officials argue could violate state laws against voter intimidation.

“Ron (DeSantis) has repeatedly used state power to interfere with a citizen-led process to get reproductive freedom on the ballot,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried told reporters on Monday. “This is their latest desperate attempt before Election Day.”

The ballot initiative known as Amendment 4 would enshrine abortion rights in Florida law. If approved by 60% of voters, the procedure would remain legal until the fetus is viable, as determined by the patient’s health care provider.

Isaac Menasche, one of nearly a million people who signed the petition to get the measure on the ballot, said a law enforcement officer knocked on his door last week in Lee County in southwest Florida to ask him about signing it.

The officer said the questioning was part of an investigation into alleged petition fraud, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

“I’m not a person who is going out there protesting for abortion,” Menasche told the newspaper. “I just felt strongly, and I took the opportunity when the person asked me to say, ‘Yeah, I’ll sign that petition.’”

Critics say the investigation is a brazen attempt to intimidate voters in the country’s third-largest state from protecting access to abortion — and the latest in a series of efforts by the governor’s administration to target Amendment 4.

“Amendment 4 was placed on the ballot by nearly one million Floridians around the state and across party lines who believe that people, not politicians, deserve the freedom to make their own health care decisions,” Lauren Brenzel, the director of the Yes on 4 campaign, said in an email. “But the State will stop at nothing to keep in place their near-total abortion ban.”

Florida law currently bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant.

Speaking at a press event Monday in South Florida, DeSantis defended police visiting the homes of petition signers, and a separate move by a state health care agency to create a website targeting the ballot amendment, saying both are aimed at making sure November’s vote is fair.

DeSantis signed a law in 2022 creating a state police force dedicated to investigating voter fraud and elections crimes. Voter fraud is rare, typically occurs in isolated instances and is generally detected.

He said elections police are going to the homes of people who signed the petitions that got Amendment 4 on the ballot not to intimidate them, but because questions have been raised about the legitimacy of the signatures. He said the police have found evidence that some of the supposed signatures were from dead people.

“Anyone who submitted a petition that is a valid voter, that is totally within their rights to do it,” DeSantis said. “We are not investigating that. What they are investigating is fraudulent petitions. We know that this group did submit on behalf of dead people.”

A deadline in state law to challenge the validity of the signatures has long passed, but county-level election administrators across Florida say they have been receiving requests from state officials to turn over verified petition signatures as part of a state probe.

Mary Jane Arrington, a Democrat who has served as the Supervisor of Elections in Osceola County in central Florida for 16 years, told The Associated Press she had never received a request like this one before.

Arrington said she didn’t know what to make of the state’s request to review signatures her office had already verified.

“These are ones that we deemed the petition valid, both in completeness and in their signature matching what we had on file for the voter,” Arrington said. “They said they were investigating … signature petition fraud.”

The state’s elections crime unit has opened more than 40 investigations into paid petition gathers working for the Amendment 4 campaign, according to a letter from Deputy Secretary of State Brad McVay outlining allegedly fraudulent petitions in Palm Beach County that was shared with the AP.

Judges have tossed out previous criminal cases brought by the controversial Office of Election Crimes and Security.

Meanwhile, a state health care agency launched a new website last week targeting Amendment 4, with a landing page proclaiming that “Florida is Protecting Life” and warning “Don’t let the fearmongers lie to you.”

DeSantis said the page created by Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration is being paid through a budget the department has to do public service announcements. He said the page is not political but is giving Floridians “factual information” about the amendment.

“Everything that is put out is factual. It is not electioneering,” DeSantis said at the news conference, adding, “I am glad they are doing it.”

Florida is one of nine states where measures to protect abortion access have qualified to go before voters in 2024.

Florida Republicans have been using various other strategies to thwart the state abortion ballot measure. Republican Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody attempted to use the state Supreme Court to keep abortion off the ballot. Later, abortion rights advocates criticized a financial impact statement meant to be placed on the ballot beside the proposed amendment as an attempt to mislead voters. The state Supreme Court ruled in August to allow the language to remain on the ballot.

Meanwhile, anti-abortion groups and GOP allies across the country are using an array of strategies to counter proposed ballot initiatives aiming to protect reproductive rights. These tactics have included legislative pushes for competing ballot measures that could confuse voters and monthslong delays caused by lawsuits over ballot initiative language.

Nebraskans, for example, are awaiting rulings from the state Supreme Court on three lawsuits aimed at keeping abortion off the ballot. And the Missouri Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Tuesday in an appeal of a lower court ruling that an abortion rights campaign did not meet legal requirements to qualify for the November ballot. ___

This story was first published on Sep. 9, 2024. It was updated on Sep. 10, 2024 to correct that the letter outlining allegedly fraudulent petitions was about Palm Beach County, not to Palm Beach County.

___

Associated Press writers Christine Fernando in Chicago, Geoff Mulvihill in Philadelphia, and Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale contributed to this report.

___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

“You know, we have resources to do public-service announcements across a wide variety of fronts. That goes to the Department of Transportation, for example, on safe driving,” DeSantis said during an appearance in Miami Lakes. “It’s being used by the AHCA agency to basically provide people with accurate information. And I think that that’s something that’s really important, because, quite frankly, a lot of people don’t usually get that in the normal (information) bloodstream. So, everything that’s put out is factual. It’s not electioneering.”

But Democrats and other supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment on abortion rights contend the agency posted biased information online, as DeSantis fights the ballot initiative. The Agency for Health Care Administration also has released a 30-second video public-service announcement.

Democratic leaders argue, in part, that the agency has violated a state law that bars government employees from using their offices or authority to try to influence elections.

“We can have philosophical policy, lived-experience differences of opinion, but state agencies, all 26 of them, are really supposed to be completely agnostic and neutral,” incoming Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo, D-Sunny Isles Beach, said Monday. “And I would say that the plain reading of (the state law) speaks to, you know, employees not overreaching on their authority to go ahead and express either personal opinion or basically what amounts to coercion and influence of campaigning against a particular entity or ballot measure referendum. So, I think that’s clear overstepping.”

The proposed amendment, which will appear on the ballot as Amendment 4, has touched off perhaps the state’s fiercest political battle this year. In part, the proposal says, no ”law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.”

The political committee Floridians Protecting Freedom began the drive to pass the constitutional amendment after DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature last year passed a law to prevent abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. That law took effect May 1.

The Agency for Health Care Administration webpage that spurred the controversy includes statements such as, “Current Florida Law Protects Women, Amendment 4 Threatens Women’s Safety.”

Also, for example, it takes issue with wording of the amendment, such as the use of the term “healthcare provider,” which it contends “could include a wide range of professionals connected to healthcare which might differ from the current requirement that these important decisions be made only by a physician.”

Such statements echo arguments that opponents of the amendment have made for weeks — and that are refuted by supporters of the amendment.

The agency posted the 30-second video public-service announcement Monday on the social-media platform X. Fine print at the end of the video says, “This message is sponsored by the Agency for Health Care Administration, the Florida Association of Broadcasters and this television station.”

Florida Association of Broadcasters officials Monday afternoon did not immediately respond to an email that included questions about where the public-service announcement might appear on television stations.

“Florida cares about women and families,” an announcer says in the video. “Last year, Florida provided nearly $500 million to support pregnant women and their families. No woman can go to jail for having an abortion. And abortions are available before a child’s heartbeat is detected and in cases or rape or incest and at all points of pregnancy to save the life and health of the mother.”

The video refers viewers to the webpage, floridahealthfinder.com/FloridaCares.

State law about issues such as abortions to save the life and health of women is more nuanced than the video. For instance, one part of law says that in such situations, two physicians must certify in writing that an abortion “is necessary to save the pregnant woman’s life or avert a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman other than a psychological condition.”

Also, state law allows abortions up to 15 weeks of pregnancy in cases of rape, incest or human trafficking but includes certain requirements.

“At the time the woman schedules or arrives for her appointment to obtain the abortion, she must provide a copy of a restraining order, police report, medical record, or other court order or documentation providing evidence that she is obtaining the termination of pregnancy because she is a victim of rape, incest, or human trafficking,” the law says. “If the woman is 18 years of age or older, the physician must report any known or suspected human trafficking to a local law enforcement agency. If the woman is a minor, the physician must report the incident of rape, incest, or human trafficking to the central abuse hotline.”

The commonality reflects a major shift toward broad public support for legalization in recent years and marks the first time that both major-party presidential candidates support broad cannabis reform, according to the U.S. Cannabis Council.

The Republican presidential nominee posted on his social media platform late Sunday that he would “continue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug,” and also said he would be voting “yes” on a proposal to allow the sale of marijuana to adults for any reason in Florida.

Coming shortly before the two will meet for a pivotal debate, Trump’s post sets up the possibility that he could criticize Harris for her past cannabis prosecutions when she was district attorney in San Francisco. Because drug prosecutions disproportionately affect nonwhite defendants in the U.S., the line of attack could also fit with Trump’s efforts to increase his support among nonwhite men.

Harris backs decriminalization and has called it “absurd” that the Drug Enforcement Administration now has marijuana in the Schedule I category alongside heroin and LSD. Earlier in her career, she oversaw the enforcement of cannabis laws and opposed legalized recreational use for adults in California while running for attorney general in 2010.

Harris faced attacks on her prosecutorial record on the debate stage before, most notably from Democrat-turned-Trump supporter Tulsi Gabbard, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and announced in 2022 that she was leaving the party.

Trump said during his 2016 run that pot policy should be left up the states. During his term in the White House, though, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions lifted an Obama-era policy that kept federal authorities from cracking down on the marijuana trade in states where the drug is legal.

The DEA process to change the drug’s federal classification is already underway, kickstarted by President Joe Biden’s call for a review. But the DEA hasn’t made a final decision on the shift, which would not legalize recreational marijuana outright. It may not decide until the next presidential administration, putting a spotlight on the candidates’ positions.

Federal drug policy has lagged behind that of many states in recent years, with 38 having already legalized medical marijuana and 24 legalizing recreational use.

About 70% of adults supported legalization in a Gallup poll taken last year, the highest level yet recorded by the polling firm and more than double the roughly 3 in 10 who backed it in 2000. Support was even higher among young voters, a key demographic in seven main battleground states.

“We believe cannabis reform is a winning issue,” said David Culver, senior vice president of public affairs at the U.S. Cannabis Council, in a statement Monday.

The federal policy shift would wouldn’t legalize marijuana outright for recreational use. Instead, it would move marijuana out of Schedule I to the Schedule III category, alongside ketamine and some anabolic steroids.

The proposed shift is facing opposition from advocates who say there isn’t enough data and from attorneys general in more than a dozen states, according to the group Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

___

Associated Press writer Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

According to a news release from Florida International University (FIU) marine scientist Justin Campbell positively identified Halophila stipulacea growing in Crandon Marina and nearby areas of Biscayne Bay.

Halophila stipulacea, native to the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, is an adaptable variety of seagrass, making it a considerable threat to the environment. It can thrive in different conditions including salinity levels, temperature and light availability. 

“Just a small piece can float through water and grow. Once it settles into soil, it can take hold easily and grow at a variety of depths,” the news release reads. “While most seagrass species require shallower depths to attain sunlight, Halophila stipulacea has been observed flourishing at depths of 60 feet or more.”

So how did it get here, and why exactly does it pose a danger?

What’s so special about seagrass?

Seagrasses are “grass-like flowering plants that live completely submerged in marine and estuarine waters,” according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

And Florida’s recreational and commercial economies depend on full, healthy seagrass meadows, the department says.

That’s because the Sunshine State’s 2.2 million acres of native seagrasses feed our wildlife, including sea turtles and manatees, along with providing nursery habitats “for commercially and economically important fish as well as shrimp, stone crabs, scallops and other crustaceans and shellfish,” FIU says.

Second, they’re good for the health of the planet, as they suck carbon emissions out of the air and store them longterm.

When did Halophila stipulacea get here?

This invasive seagrass was spotted in August by a marina worker who reached out to Campbell about it, and he later confirmed it was Halophila stipulacea.

But Campell says that based on the current distribution, it could’ve started taking root several years ago. 

He explained that it “had gone unnoticed because, to the casual observer, it can be difficult to distinguish from native vegetation,” FIU says. 

Still, the dominant native species of seagrass, known as turtlegrass, looks very different from Halophila stipulacea. The invasive species is smaller, with small oval leaves and not much “canopy,” like turtlegrass. The rooting system is also much smaller and less extensive, Campbell says.

How did it spread?

Halophila stipulacea first started spreading out of its typical environments with the opening of the Suez Canal in the late 1800s, “hitching rides on the anchors and other parts of boats,” according to the FIU news release. 

But it doesn’t need a channel like the Suez Canal to spread. Crandon Marina will do just fine. 

“Crandon Marina can accommodate medium and large sized sailboats, likely capable of travel to and from areas where Stipulacea is well-established. This is one possible and likely way the non-native seagrass reached Biscayne Bay,” FIU says. 

What’s at stake?

Halophila stipulacea spread to the Caribbean by the early 2000s, and at least 19 islands there have reported the seagrass growing in nearby waters and even “overtaking meadows of native grass.”

Scientists still don’t know exactly how the invasive species could affect our waters and those around the U.S., but FIU says early research suggests some fish don’t like nesting in the shorter seagrass and sea turtles in the Caribbean don’t like eating it. They avoid Halophila stipulacea, “preferring native species as part of their regular diets.”

“Given the importance of seagrasses to a healthy South Florida, we now need to do what we can to limit the spread of this invasive species and be wary of disruptions to the natural order it may cause,” James Fourqurean, co-author of the research and director of the Coastlines and Oceans Division in FIU’s Institute of Environment, said.

Campbell said surveys and monitoring should be expanded now that the invasive species is confirmed to be in South Florida.

Gulf District Schools Superintendent Jim Norton confirmed that Chance Gainer, an 18-year-old wide receiver and defensive back at Port St. Joe High School, died following the away game at Liberty County High School. 

Norton described Gainer’s death as a “tragic loss” and said “our community is in profound sorrow.”

“He was a remarkable athlete, a beloved teammate, and an overall exceptional young man who loved Jesus,” Norton said in a statement from the district. “Chance was quiet but exuded captivating warmth and genuineness that drew people to him.”

Norton called Gainer’s death “perhaps the most heartbreaking situation imaginable for a family and a community.”

Port St. Joe High School Principal Sissy Godwin said in the statement that, “You may not have heard Chance in the crowd, but you could see his smile from across the room.”

Gainer was tended to on the field after he collapsed but did not have a pulse when EMTs first arrived at the scene, NBC News affiliate WJHG reported. Medical personnel were able to find a pulse before Gainer was rushed via ambulance to a hospital in Blountstown, Florida, where he later died.

The community gathered at the high school after Gainer’s death “just to be together,” Norton said, adding that it was “an indescribably heartwarming experience to watch the community pour their hearts of love on the family and Chance’s teammates and coaches.”

Gainer was playing defensive back when he collapsed, Tim Davis, the athletic director and assistant principal for Liberty County High School, where the game was being played, told Northwest Florida Daily News.

“He just went to the ground suddenly,” Davis told the outlet. He said coaches tended to Gainer on the field before calling EMS shortly thereafter.

In a Facebook post, Davis said it was “such an emotional night as the importance of football faded away.”

A verified GoFundMe page created to support Gainer’s family described the teen as a “star athlete” and a “well loved classmate.”

“A team, a school, a community and most importantly, a family is truly devastated by the loss of Chance,” the description on the GoFundMe page reads.

The Florida High School Athletic Association extended their “heartfelt sympathy” to Gainer’s family and the Port St. Joe community in a statement on Facebook.

According to WJHG, Gainer was an honors student with a better than 4.0 grade point average. He had recently visited Vanderbilt University where he discussed potentially attending college.

Port St. Joe High School was open Saturday afternoon to offer grief support to students and members of the community, the school said on Facebook. Extra counselors will be available Monday for those who need it.

Port St. Joe High School is located in the Florida Panhandle, a little over 100 miles southwest of Tallahassee. WJHG reported that the school’s upcoming game on Friday has been postponed.

Gainer’s is not the first death of a high school football player so far this season.

At least five high school football players and one middle school player have died this season alone. Of the high school players, three died either while they were practicing or shortly thereafter, one died during a preseason workout and another died after he was tackled and hit his head during a game.

The early-season deaths have prompted renewed calls for reform in the sport. 

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Multiple people shot near Kentucky highway, ‘armed and dangerous’ person of interest ID’d
• Trump threatens lawyers, donors and election officials with prison for ‘unscrupulous behavior’
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James “Jamie” Grover, 62, was arrested Thursday after special agents searched his home in Deltona, about 30 miles northeast of Orlando. They also searched his workplace at the Seminole Town Center Mall in nearby Sanford, NBC affiliate WFLA reported.

It was not immediately clear what materials were found at those locations.

Grover founded the Special Needs Advocacy Program (SNAP), and worked as the group director of Autism of the Seas, which according to its website offers vacations for adults and families living with disabilities.

“The FBI believes he primarily targeted boys between the timeframe of 2010 to the present” while working with these programs, authorities said.

The FBI mentions three victims, according to NBC affiliate WESH. Two are teenagers and the other is now an adult, but investigators say he operates as if he’s a pre-teen.

Grover allegedly denied the allegations in an interview with authorities.

Autism of the Seas CEO Michael Sobbell said in an email to WESH that at the time of the allegations of impropriety on cruises in 2022 and 2023, James Grover was not working with Autism on the Seas. Sobbell said the last time Grover cruised on an event they sponsored was 2013.

Anyone who believes they have been victimized, or has any information on this investigation is asked to fill out this form. Victims’ identities will remain confidential.

According to a SmartAsset analysis of IRS data, Florida was the state with the highest net migration of wealthy Americans from ages 26 to 35 with a net gain of 1,786 young households earning at least $200,000 in 2022.

And in the ranking of states that gained the most young and rich households, Texas took the number two spot.

In fact, these two states attract more than double of these households as any other state, the data shows.

And if you’re wondering why, it’s worth noting that half of states attracting the most young and rich households don’t charge state income tax, SmartAsset reports. Meanwhile, the states they’re leaving, like California, have notoriously high costs of living.

California lost the most young and rich households with a net loss of 3,226. It was followed by Illinois with a net loss of 1,323 households, Massachusetts with 1,102 households, and New York with a net loss of 345.

It’s important to note, however, that the migration happens at a much larger scale in California than Florida. The Golden State brought in over 7,400 households, but lost over 10,600. Florida by comparison only lost 2,084 households, but only brought in 3,870.

Check out the data for yourself here.

The video was released Thursday by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office and shows the frightening encounter that happened in Indiantown.

Officials said 22-year-old Jerquavious Jackson asked some parkgoers for money but they offered him food instead.

Jackson “exploded into a violent rage when he didn’t get the answer he wanted” and started violently attacking and stabbing the victims, authorities said.

One of the victims was able to record the attack as Jackson went on his rampage.

At one point in the video, Jackson goes after a man with a bicycle, grabbing the bike and throwing it at the man before picking the man up and body-slamming him to the ground.

Jackson stole the bicycle and fled the scene but was later found and taken into custody, the sheriff’s office said.

When he was arrested, he had a boxcutter stained with dried blood, authorities said.

Jackson was charged with armed robbery, aggravated battery, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Two victims suffered non-life threatening injuries in the incident.

Newly released state data showed that 44,771 abortions had been reported in 2024 as of Monday. That was down from 51,318 abortions reported in early September 2022 and 51,253 abortions reported at the beginning of September 2023, according to numbers compiled in the past by The News Service of Florida.

The six-week abortion limit began May 1, after a Florida Supreme Court opinion cleared the way for it to take effect.

During the first four months of this year, before the limit took effect, the number of abortions reported — 22,409 — was little changed from the number reported during the same period in 2023 — 22,516.

But monthly reports posted this summer by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration showed the number of abortions dipping after the six-week limit took effect.

Abortion clinics are required to submit reports to the Agency for Health Care Administration within 30 days after the end of each month. Lags in reporting made it somewhat unclear when the six-week abortion limit initially started affecting the totals.

The effects can be seen, however, in year-to-year comparisons.

This year, the 44,771 abortions reported as of Sept. 2 represented a 4,272-abortion increase over the 40,499 procedures reported by the state as of Aug. 1.

In 2022, reports from a comparable period showed a 7,617-abortion increase; in 2023, reports showed a 6,778-abortion increase.

The new Agency for Health Care Administration data showed Florida has seen a significant drop in the number of out-of-state residents getting abortions in the state.

During the first eight months of 2023, a reported 4,656 out-of-state residents obtained abortions in Florida; this year, the number was 3,247.

Of the 44,771 abortions reported so far this year, 41,803 were in the first trimester of pregnancy, 2,965 were in the second trimester, and three were in the third trimester, according to Agency for Health Care Administration. Two of the third-trimester abortions were performed because of “fatal fetal abnormality,” while one was performed because of what an agency report described as “serious fetal genetic defect, deformity or abnormality.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature approved the six-week abortion limit in 2023 after passing a 15-week limit in 2022. The state Supreme Court on April 1 rejected a constitutional challenge by abortion-rights supporters to the 15-week limit.

That ruling also had the effect of allowing the six-week limit to take effect May 1.

Voters in November will decide whether to pass a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the Florida Constitution. That proposal says, in part, that no “law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.”

Abortion-rights supporters have turned to ballot initiatives in Florida and other states after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 struck down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision and left abortion issues to be decided in states.

But Florida is looking at the possibility of adding nuclear power.

After state lawmakers this year required a study on the feasibility of expanding the use of nuclear energy, Florida Public Service Commission staff members Thursday met with experts and electric-industry officials to discuss what is known as “advanced” nuclear technology.

Myriad questions remain about issues such as costs and regulations. Also, future nuclear might not look like past nuclear. While advanced technology could include large nuclear plants, it also could involve small reactors that might be used by the military or industries.

It’s not just Florida studying the issue. The Biden administration said in May it was forming a working group as part of a goal of “delivering an efficient and cost-effective deployment of clean, reliable nuclear energy and ensuring that learnings translate to cost savings for future construction and deployment.” Also other states have been looking at advanced nuclear technology.

Lauren Sher, senior director for development at Florida Power & Light who chairs a nuclear working group for the Florida Electric Power Coordinating Group, described the Florida study as a “long-term view and a long game.”

“We think that this will help tee up these opportunities over the next several decades,” Sher said during Thursday’s meeting.

Jacob Williams, general manager and CEO of the Florida Municipal Power Agency and chairman of the Florida Electric Power Coordinating Group, said the state needs to diversify its energy sources, as about 75 percent of electricity is generated with natural gas. While utilities continue to build solar facilities, Williams said nuclear power could be important in meeting future needs.

“Florida sits like a sore thumb. We are the most dependent (part of the country) on a basically single source of electricity,” Williams said.

Thursday’s meeting was the first formal step as the Public Service Commission carries out a legislative directive to submit a report by April about the possibility of using advanced nuclear technology. That includes the possibility of adding nuclear power at military bases.

Lawmakers included the nuclear-power study in a bill (HB 1645) that drew attention for higher-profile issues such as eliminating references in state law to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and barring offshore wind-energy production.

Nuclear plants generate about 13 percent of Florida’s electricity, according to a state House analysis, with Florida Power & Light operating the St. Lucie and Turkey Point plants.

But the state hasn’t had new nuclear plants since the 1970s and 1980s. Also, Duke Energy Florida decided in 2013 to permanently shut down a Crystal River nuclear plant that had sustained damage in a containment building.

Cayce Hinton, director of the commission’s Office of Industry Development and Market Analysis, said Thursday the study will look at a variety of technologies. That includes large-scale reactors, known as AP1000 reactors, similar to generating units that began operating in 2003 and this year at a power plant in Georgia.

But Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar, a professor of nuclear engineering at Idaho State University, said technology also could include much-smaller reactors that would be more versatile. That includes “microreactors” that would fit on the backs of trucks and could be deployed quickly by users such as the military.

Hinton asked Dunzik-Gougar about safety, what he described as the “elephant in the room.”

“In layman’s terms, are we comfortable that a small modular reactor on the back of a truck being used in a mobile fashion, that we’re not looking at radiological disasters?” Hinton asked.

“You mean, like a mobile Chernobyl?” Dunzik-Gougar joked.

But she said nuclear has proven to be a safe source of electricity.

“We already know nuclear is the safest, and it’s not going to be changed by having a very small reactor on a truck,” Dunzik-Gougar said. “You can talk about transporting any sort of fuel, same idea, there’s risk, but it’s actually pretty much less with nuclear.”

But the plan hit a snag Tuesday, after local officials in coastal Okaloosa County in the Florida panhandle postponed a vote on the plan to buy and purposefully sink the SS United States.

The largest passenger ship ever built in the U.S., the SS United States shattered a record for the fastest trans-Atlantic crossing by a passenger liner on its maiden voyage in 1952, The Associated Press reported from aboard the ship.

Now the historic vessel is in a race against time to find a new resting place, after a court set a Sept. 12 deadline for the ship to vacate its current home at a pier in Philadelphia, following a yearslong legal dispute over rent and dockage fees.

Options include scrapping the massive ocean liner — which is more than 100 feet (30 meters) longer than the Titanic — or purposefully sinking it to create an artificial reef. Officials in Florida’s Okaloosa County hope to do just that: send the SS United States to the bottom of the Gulf to create the world’s largest artificial reef — a diving attraction that boosters hope will generate millions of dollars a year in local tourism spending for scuba shops, charter fishing boats and hotels.

“Most divers are going to be very excited,” said David Bailey, a member of the Emerald Coast Scubaholics dive club. “But any of the reefing program is about more than just diving. … Build the reefs, you get the fish.”

County staff have been tracking the status of the boat since 2022, with advocates arguing the SS United States could be a barnacle-encrusted star in the county’s constellation of more than 500 artificial reefs.

But at a meeting of Okaloosa’s Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday, staff asked that a vote on the proposal be postponed until the board’s next meeting on Sept. 17.

“We’ve hit a wrinkle with the pier operators,” County Administrator John Hofstad explained.

A spokesperson for the county said officials there are actively working with the SS United States Conservancy, the group behind the effort to save the ship, but declined to make further comments about the status of the proposal.

William Bryan, 70, of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, underwent surgery on Aug. 21, at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast hospital in Miramar, Florida, because of spleen abnormalities, according to a statement from the personal injury firm Zarzaur Law, based in Pensacola, Florida.

The Walton County Sheriff’s Office, in coordination with other authorities, said in a statement to NBC News on Wednesday it is investigating Bryan’s death.

William Bryan and his wife, Beverly Bryan, were in the Sunshine State visiting their rental property when he began experiencing “left-sided flank pain,” Beverly Bryan’s attorneys said.

He was admitted to the hospital for further evaluation, and although the Bryans were reluctant to have surgery in Florida, they were persuaded by Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, a general surgeon, and Dr. Christopher Bacani, the hospital’s chief medical officer, that he could experience serious complications if he left the hospital’s care.

Both Shaknovsky and Bacani appeared to be involved in discussions, according to records, for how to proceed with Bryan’s medical treatment, Beverly Bryan’s lawyer, Joe Zarzaur, said in the statement.

Shaknovsky performed a hand-assisted laparoscopic splenectomy on William Bryan, Zarzaur said, which had deadly consequences.

“Dr. Shaknovsky removed Mr. Bryan’s liver and, in so doing, transected the major vasculature supplying the liver, causing immediate and catastrophic blood loss resulting in death,” the statement said. “The surgeon proceeded with labeling the removed liver specimen as a ‘spleen,’ and it wasn’t until following the death that it was identified that the organ removed was actually Mr. Bryan’s liver, as opposed to the spleen.’”

Shaknovsky told Beverly Bryan her husband’s spleen was so diseased that it was four times bigger than normal and it had moved to the other side of his body, Zarzaur alleges. But in a typical human body the liver exists on the opposite side of the abdomen and it is much larger than a spleen, he said.

Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast hospital said in a statement Wednesday it’s “performing a thorough investigation” into Bryan’s death and takes allegations like the one made by his family “very seriously.”

“Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast has a longstanding history of providing safe, quality care since the hospital opened its doors in 2003,” the statement said. “Patient safety is and remains our number one priority. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the family. We hold the privacy of our patients in the highest regard. We do not comment on specific patient cases or active litigation.”

According to the Cleveland Clinic, the typical human spleen is roughly the size of an avocado, and the typical human liver is roughly the size of a football.

“The family was informed that Mr. Bryan’s spleen, the root of his original symptom profile upon presentation to the hospital, was still in his body and appeared with a small cyst on its surface,” the statement said.

Shaknovsky had made a similar mistake in 2023, removing portions of a pancreas instead of an adrenal gland, in a case that was settled privately, Zarzaur said.

The employment status of Shaknovsky and Bacani wasn’t immediately clear on Wednesday afternoon. They were not reached for comment.

The Walton County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that authorities are investigating the circumstances around Bryan’s death.

“Walton County Sheriff’s Office in conjunction with the District 1 Medical Examiner’s Office and Office of the State Attorney is reviewing the facts involving the death of William Bryan to determine if anything criminal took place.”

According to Zarzaur, Beverly Bryan doesn’t want Shaknovsky to perform any more surgeries.

“My husband died while helpless on the operating room table by Dr. Shaknovsky. I don’t want anyone else to die due to his incompetence at a hospital that should have known or knew he had previously made drastic, life-altering surgical mistakes,” according to the statement from her attorney.

 She is pushing for criminal and civil proceedings, Zarzaur said.

“Our goal at Zarzaur Law is to get justice for the Bryan family and make our community safer one case at a time,” he said. “While most doctors are doing excellent work to keep us healthy, there is a small percentage that should not be practicing medicine.”

According to a Wednesday afternoon search with the Florida Board of Medicine, Shaknovsky’s medical license is active. That is also the case for Bacani, records show.

NBC News’ Toby Lyles contributed

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

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