A video, which can be seen here, shows Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno driving south on six-lane South Tamiami Trail in a black Lamborghini Huracan convertible with the top down on a sunny day in Estero. Shooting the video is Marceno’s former friend, Bonita Springs jeweler Ken Romano, who drives in the lane to the right of the sheriff in the same direction. A brief race begins at Romano’s prompting.

Amid support from hunters and warnings of a “slaughter” from animal-rights advocates, state wildlife officials Wednesday moved forward with Florida’s first black bear hunt in a decade.Before a crowd that spread into at least four extra rooms at the College of Central Florida in Ocala, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted 4-1 for staff members to return with rules for a December hunt that would be held in four parts of the state and could lead to as many as 187 bears being killed.Hunters could receive permits through a lottery system.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted 4-1 at a meeting in favor of a bear hunt in December and annually into the future, allowing the use of up to six dogs to corner the bears.

The race to become the governor of Florida is beginning to bubble, with U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds leading what is becoming a crowded field of hopefuls, all jockeying to assume the mantle.It’s way too early to divine who will win the open governor’s seat next November, but Donalds, who is Black and represents Florida’s 19th Congressional district, is bumping up against the reality that in its 180-year history, Florida has never elected a Black governor, man or woman, Democrat or Republican.

Conservation photographer Ian Wilson-Navarro was born in Miami but has lived his entire life in Key Largo. He got his first camera as a teenager, and first visited the Dry Tortugas around that same time camping and fishing with his father. In 2021, he and a friend were chosen for a National Parks Arts Foundation artist residency in the Dry Tortugas on Loggerhead Key. His proposal for the residency pitched the idea of capturing images to create a book, and that book is now out. "Dry Tortugas: Stronghold of Nature" was published last month by University Press of Florida. It features about 200 of his photographs along with essays by people with intimate knowledge of the park who explore its history, culture, and environment.

The president says a third term is "not something I'm looking to do," and the U.S. economy is in a "transition period."

The newly elected vice chair of the Republican Party of Florida was convicted in 2019 as part of a state felony investigation into whether he had a sexual relationship with an inmate when he was a jail guard. Details of the court case and its outcome haven’t previously been reported.

A proposal to carve an exemption in the state’s voter-approved minimum wage isn’t expected to pass during this year’s legislative session, Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, told reporters last week.

This comes as Hegseth is again mired in controversy over sharing military operational details in a group chat.

Students dropped off balloons, candles and teddy bears at a memorial Friday morning near Florida State University’s student union where a 20-year-old opened fire, killing two men and wounding six others.Some returned to retrieve their belongings less than a day after after they had barricaded classroom doors and fled across campus, abandoning chemistry notes and even shoes. A pair of vigils were planned for the afternoon.