Government

ttorney General James Uthmeier said Wednesday his office will investigate Discord, a messaging platform, for allegedly putting children at risk of being groomed by predators online. The office issued a subpoena for information relating to the marketing of children, enforcing age-verification requirements, content moderation, parental control features and reporting of exploitative activity, according to the press release.

President Donald Trump on Thursday fired his embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, after mounting criticism over her leadership of the department, including the handling of the administration's immigration crackdown and disaster response. Trump says he'll nominate in Noem's place Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin. Trump made the announcement on social media Thursday, two days after Noem faced a grilling on Capitol Hill from GOP members as well as Democrats. Trump says he'll make Noem a "Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas," a new security initiative he says will focus on the Western Hemisphere.

The federal Transportation Department says more than 550 commercial driving schools in the U.S. that train truckers and bus drivers must close after investigators found they employed unqualified instructors, failed to adequately test students and other safety issues. The department plans to announce this latest move to improve safety in the trucking industry later Wednesday. And unlike the previous action last fall to decertify up to 7,500 schools that included many defunct operations, this is focused on active schools with significant shortcomings. The department has been aggressively going after states that handed out commercial driver's licenses to immigrants who shouldn't have qualified for them ever since a fatal crash in Florida in August.

Ahead of the Feb. 3, 2026, Naples City Council election, the League of Women Voters of Collier Council organized a candidate forum for all eight candidates seeking three open seats on the council. We’ll hear a condensed broadcast of the forum moderated by Naples Daily News Executive Editor Wendy Fullerton Powell and WGCU’s John Davis.

Payout limits for those wronged by the government haven't increased in 16 years.

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.

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 Town of Fort Myers Beach will begin issuing violation notices in the coming weeks to short-term rental properties that are not registered with the Town. The Town has identified approximately 500 short-term rentals currently operating without the required registration. Many of these rentals are managed by property management companies that have not completed the registration process.

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles is clarifying a new Florida statute regarding penalties for obscuring license plates with frames or covers. The statute went into effect October 1.