Dara Kam/News Service of Florida

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Florida education officials from enforcing a law requiring a transgender teacher to use pronouns that align with her sex assigned at birth, saying the law violated her First Amendment rights.The 2023 law restricts educators’ use of personal pronouns and titles in schools. Violations of the law — one of a number of measures backed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis targeting the LGBTQ community over the past few years — can result in teachers being stripped of certifications and hefty financial penalties for school districts.

John Passidomo, the husband of Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, died Wednesday after falling and suffering massive head trauma and other injuries, according to a memo distributed by the Florida Senate.

A divided Florida Supreme Court on Monday approved placing on the November ballot a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at allowing recreational use of marijuana.Trulieve, the state’s largest medical-marijuana company, has spent more than $40 million on the effort to get the proposed constitutional amendment before voters.

A federal judge on Friday heard arguments in a court battle over a law restricting educators’ use of personal pronouns and titles in schools, in one of a series of challenges to Florida policies targeting LGBTQ people.Plaintiffs Katie Wood, a transgender Hillsborough County teacher, and AV Schwandes, a nonbinary teacher fired last year by Florida Virtual School, are seeking preliminary injunctions as part of a lawsuit challenging the 2023 law, passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

A persistently contentious debate about regulating vacation rentals has escalated into a clash between two powerful industry groups after the Florida Legislature passed a measure that would significantly restrict how local governments can oversee the properties.The bill, finalized in the waning days of the 2024 legislative session, has drawn intense opposition from vacation-rental management companies, coastal community leaders and Florida Realtors, an influential real-estate industry group that is urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto the measure.

Amid what one critic called “an ongoing campaign to make Florida uninhabitable and unsafe for transgender individuals,” Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration quietly reversed a policy that allowed Floridians to obtain driver’s licenses that reflected their gender identity.Robert Kynoch, deputy executive director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, on Friday sent a memo outlining the changes to county tax collectors, who process driver’s licenses and state identification cards. The memo said that allowing people to change their gender on licenses and ID cards runs afoul of state law because gender “has historically been understood as a synonym for ‘sex,’ which is determined by innate and immutable biological and genetic characteristics.”

There are 21 cities in Florida that have police review boards, including Fort Myers and Bradenton, and bills introduced in the Florida legislature would prohibit them. A bill sponsor said the boards are divisive only second-guess police and don't have the experience to do that.

Less than a year after passing a measure that would ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, Republican lawmakers are pursuing an effort to allow parents to file civil lawsuits seeking damages for the wrongful death of an “unborn child.”The proposal, sponsored by a Fort Myers Republican lawmaker and approved Thursday by the House Civil Justice Subcommittee, would add “unborn child” to a law that allows family members to seek damages when a person's death is caused by such things as wrongful acts or negligence.

A legal battle has intensified about public records related to travel by Gov. Ron DeSantis, as The Washington Post accused the governor’s office of taking “control” of Florida Department of Law Enforcement compliance with the state’s Sunshine Law.A lawsuit about the records has roiled the FDLE, resulting in whistleblower complaints and the ouster of two high-ranking officials.

Three teachers on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit alleging a new state law restricting titles and pronouns at schools unconstitutionally discriminates against transgender and nonbinary educators.The plaintiffs are Hillsborough County high-school teacher Katie Wood; a Lee County teacher identified as “Jane Doe;” and AV Schwandes, a nonbinary Orange County teacher who was fired by Florida Virtual School in October.