Jim Saunders/News Service of Florida

As they consider a proposed settlement that would increase Florida Power & Light's base electric rates, state regulators will not take up a "counter proposal" offered by opponents.Florida Public Service Commission Chairman Mike La Rosa on Friday issued an order dismissing a competing settlement proposal filed by the state Office of Public Counsel — which is designated by law to represent utility customers — and some consumer groups.

Amid a flurry of legal fights, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration Tuesday asked a federal appeals court to put on hold a judge’s ruling that required winding down operations of the Everglades immigrant-detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”Attorneys for the state filed a 52-page motion at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking a stay of a preliminary injunction issued last week by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups and joined by the Miccosukee Tribe.

A U.S. district judge Wednesday said a 2023 Florida law restricting pronouns that transgender teachers can use to identify themselves violates a federal civil-rights law — but the outcome of the issue might ultimately hinge on an appeals-court ruling in a Georgia case.U.S. District Judge Mark Walker sided with Hillsborough County teacher Katie Wood and a Lee County teacher, identified as Jane Doe, in finding that the state law discriminates in violation of what is known as Section VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That section bars employment discrimination because of a person’s “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”

Siding with publishers and authors, a federal judge Wednesday ruled that a key part of a 2023 Florida law that has led to books being removed from school library shelves is “overbroad and unconstitutional.”U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza issued a 50-page decision in a First Amendment lawsuit filed last year against members of the State Board of Education and the school boards in Orange and Volusia counties. He focused primarily on part of the law that seeks to prevent the availability of reading material that “describes sexual conduct.”

Speaking to a hometown crowd, Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, tried to ease concerns about the effects of potential property-tax cuts — particularly the effects on financially strapped rural communities.

A federal judge last week approved ending a Hendry County school-desegregation lawsuit that started in 1970, after the U.S. Department of Justice and the district agreed that “vestiges of the prior de jure segregation” had been eliminated.

A Florida federal judge Wednesday refused to allow conservation groups to intervene in a lawsuit to help defend a rule aimed at protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales, after the groups expressed concerns about the Trump administration’s commitment to the protections.

Florida Power & Light says its proposed base-rate increases will provide stability and keep customers’ electric bills below the national average.Opponents describe the multibillion-dollar proposal in terms such as “extravagant” and “excessive” and say it needs to be reduced.

Environmental groups Friday gave formal notice that they could sue federal and state agencies over alleged violations of the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act at an immigrant-detention center in the Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”The notice was in addition to a lawsuit filed June 27 that alleges violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, a federal law that requires evaluating potential environmental impacts before such a project can move forward.