Combined dispatches

Vice President Kamala Harris picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. Walz is the chair of the Democratic Governors Association, an ex-Army National Guard leader and a former teacher.

The Florida Supreme Court on Monday upheld the state’s ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which means a subsequently passed six-week ban can soon take effect.The court that was reshaped by former presidential candidate and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ruled that the 15-week ban signed by DeSantis in 2022 can take effect. The ban has been enforced while it was being challenged in court. A six-week ban passed in the 2023 legislative session was written so that it would not take effect until a month after the 2022 law was upheld.The Court also ruled that the proposed constitutional amendment that would enshrine abortion access will be on the state’s November ballot.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered more than 250 law enforcement officers and soldiers to the Florida Keys on Wednesday to help stop what he anticipates to be an increase in Haitian migrants fleeing violence in their country.The Republican governor said in a news release he is sending a mix of 39 officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, 23 officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, 48 members of the Florida National Guard, 30 Florida Highway Patrol troopers and up to 133 members of the Florida State Guard.

This weekend turn your clocks forward and test your smoke alarms to prevent home fire tragedies. Home fires claim seven lives every day in U.S.

An appeals court Wednesday upheld a ruling that rejected a long-running legal battle over state conservation funding. Spokesmen for the Sierra Club and Florida Wildlife Federation criticized the ruling, saying the Court of Appeals disregarded the will of a majority of Florida voters again.“This is a disappointing result for the people of Florida, who clearly directed that their tax money go to preserving land for future generations,” said Earthjustice Attorney Alisa Coe.

The South Florida Water Management District on Tuesday issued a “water shortage order” for parts of Lee County and placed restrictions on landscape irrigation.

EagleWatch Report volunteers across the state determined that Hurricane Ian destroyed 148 bald eagle nests last September.

“The Atlantic is awfully warm this year,” said Kerry Emanuel, a meteorologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, adding that it’s partly a result of global warming, natural variability and the ocean’s recovering from sulfate aerosols pollution that cooled it decades ago. Emanuel noted that in the entire Atlantic Ocean, not just the tropical Atlantic, it’s not unusual to have storms in June.

A tropical wave that has moved off the coast of Africa since last week has strengthened into Tropical Depression Three. A second wave is now also moving into the Atlantic.

The first tropical depression of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season developed off the Florida Panhandle Thursday afternoon. Tropical Depression Two will bring rounds of heavy rain and the potential for flooding through late-week, especially across portions of South Florida.