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Proposed rate increases that could have taken effect Jan. 1 for customers of the state’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. remain unresolved — with any hikes now unlikely to hit customers’ bills for months.The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has not ruled on the proposal, which the Citizens Board of Governors approved in June. The proposal, for example, could lead to an average 13.5 percent rate increase for the most-common type of Citizens policy, known as homeowners’ multi-peril coverage.

With inmate James Ford scheduled to be put to death Feb. 13, a Charlotte County circuit judge Thursday rejected an argument that the execution should be blocked because Ford had the mental and developmental age of a 14-year-old when he murdered a couple in 1997.The 22-page ruling by Circuit Judge Lisa Porter could be the first in a series of decisions as Ford’s attorneys try to prevent the execution. Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a death warrant on Jan. 10.

With school districts across the state expressing support, Florida senators Monday started moving forward with a bill that would repeal requirements aimed at later daily start times in many high schools.Lawmakers in 2023 approved the requirements, citing a need for older students to get more sleep. The requirements are slated to take effect in 2026, but as the deadline has neared, districts have said they are struggling to comply.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by Florida Death Row inmate James Ford, setting the stage for his execution Thursday in the 1997 murders of a couple in Charlotte County.The Supreme Court declined to issue a stay of execution or to take up an appeal by Ford. As is common, the Supreme Court did not explain its reasons.

A bill aimed at preventing a return of efforts to build golf courses, pickleball courts and resorts in state parks is ready to go to the full Florida House.The House State Affairs Committee on Tuesday unanimously supported the measure (HB 209), which sponsor John Snyder, R-Stuart, said seeks to prevent “unintended development within the state park system.” It came after widespread opposition last year to a plan dubbed the “Great Outdoors Initiative” by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

The Florida House on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill that would prevent local governments from adding fluoride to water supplies and take aim at labeling of plant-based products as milk, meat and eggs.The Republican-controlled House voted 88-27 to pass the bill (SB 700), which also includes a series of other issues related to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The Senate passed the bill April 16, which means it is now ready to go to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Days after a mass shooting at nearby Florida State University, the state Senate appears poised to scuttle a controversial proposal that would allow people under age 21 to buy rifles and other long guns.Senate Rules Chairwoman Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, said Monday her committee won’t take up a House measure (HB 759) that would lower the minimum age to 18.

As they continue to fight a legal effort by environmental groups to block an immigrant-detention center in the Everglades, lawyers for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration argued Monday that the lawsuit was filed in the wrong federal-court district.Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity are seeking a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction to stop state and federal officials from adding more detainees and additional construction at the remote facility, which the state built adjacent to an airstrip known as the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.

Citing “significant concerns about environmental degradation” and threats to “traditional and religious ceremonies,” members of the Miccosukee Tribe are trying to join a lawsuit challenging the immigrant-detention center in the Everglades.The facility, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican leaders, neighbors 10 villages that are home to the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida in the Big Cypress National Preserve — including a village 1,000 feet away from one of the detention center’s boundaries — as well as areas where tribal members work and attend school.

Amid an escalating feud between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled House, the chamber’s budget chairman on Friday sent letters to six state agencies seeking a broad array of documents as part of a probe into government spending.The inquiry into DeSantis-administration spending, ordered by House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, has raised questions about potentially missing state-owned vehicles, agency leaders earning six-figure salaries while living in other states and millions of dollars of interest paid on a prison facility that has not been built.