Jim Saunders/News Service of Florida

After getting hit with lawsuits and objections from local officials, a Florida Senate committee on Tuesday approved scaling back a 2025 law that included temporarily blocking cities and counties from approving "more restrictive or burdensome" changes to growth plans. The Senate Community Affairs Committee voted 8-0 to approve a bill (SB 840), sponsored by Sen. Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, that would revise the law.

A Leon County circuit judge has rejected a lawsuit filed by five Democratic lawmakers who sought access to the immigrant-detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” saying laws about access to state prisons and local jails do not apply to the Everglades facility. Judge Jonathan Sjostrom on Friday sided with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration in the lawsuit filed after lawmakers made an unannounced visit to the detention center in July but were denied access. The Democrats contended in the lawsuit the denial violated laws allowing access by legislators to correctional institutions.

Attorney General James Uthmeier and two major business groups have urged the Florida Supreme Court to reject a proposed recreational-marijuana constitutional amendment, arguing it is misleading and conflicts with federal law. Uthmeier, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Florida filed briefs Friday as the Supreme Court prepares to make a pivotal decision about whether the proposed constitutional amendment meets legal tests to go on the November ballot.

The Florida Supreme Court on Monday unanimously rejected a proposal by Attorney General James Uthmeier that would have allowed certain state government lawyers to practice in Florida for up to three years without taking the Florida Bar exam.

The federal government is trying to fend off a lawsuit challenging a boat speed limit designed to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales, which migrate each year to calving grounds off Northeast Florida and other parts of the Southeast.

With a judge slated to hear arguments this week, the state is trying to short-circuit constitutional challenges to a new law that blocks cities and counties from approving "more restrictive or burdensome" changes to growth plans.

A proposed constitutional amendment that would increase the homestead property-tax exemption for residents who have property insurance is ready to go to the Florida House after the 2026 legislative session starts in January. The Republican-controlled House Ways & Means Committee voted 10-5 along party lines Wednesday to approve the measure (HJR 209), which was part of eight property-tax proposals that the House released in October.

Unions representing college faculty members have challenged a state Department of Education plan that would expand requirements for professors to post syllabi and other course material online.

Bill Cotterell, a reporter and columnist who covered Florida government and politics for more than four decades with a blend of doggedness and humor, died Monday as he tried to recover at a rehabilitation center from norovirus and a bleeding ulcer.