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Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature will revamp immigration laws this week but issued a sharp rebuke Monday to Gov. Ron DeSantis that included overriding a budget veto from last year.The House and Senate started and quickly ended a special legislative session that DeSantis called — and then immediately opened their own special session that will focus on immigration issues. The move came after DeSantis angered House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, and Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, by calling a special session that they said was premature.

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.

he U.S. House Committee on Ethics released a report Monday alleging that former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz “regularly” paid women for sex, used illegal drugs and violated state laws.The committee released the 37-page report more than a month after Gaetz, a Republican, resigned from Congress. The report followed years of allegations and investigations into Gaetz’s conduct, including accusations that he engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl.

With another potentially active Atlantic hurricane season on the horizon, Florida is preparing for the possibility the federal government won’t respond like it has in the past.After the state was hit by three hurricanes in 2024, Gov. Ron DeSantis jokes that Florida is due for a “break.” But he also said the state has the emergency-response infrastructure and financial reserves available in case Florida doesn’t catch a break and the Federal Emergency Management Agency scales back.

Seeking to “restore confidence” in its mission, directors of an embattled foundation affiliated with First Lady Casey DeSantis’ signature Hope Florida welfare-assistance program on Thursday agreed to strengthen the nonprofit’s structure amid widening scrutiny by the Florida House.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed what he said was a $117.4 billion budget for the fiscal year that will start Tuesday and issued $567 million in line-item vetoes, while saying the plan better prepares the state for potential economic downturns.The budget includes $580 million to pay off state debt, and lawmakers approved a separate bill (HB 5017) that requires an annual $250 million repayment of state bonds.

Nearly a month after leaving the Capitol without passing a budget, House and Senate leaders said Friday night they had reached an agreement that will clear the way for lawmakers to begin hammering out details of a spending plan Tuesday.

Calling it "exactly the kind of disaster that Congress took pains to avoid," attorneys for immigrants held at a detention center in the Everglades filed a lawsuit alleging Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration lacks the authority to run the facility.The lawsuit, filed Friday in the federal court’s Middle District of Florida, is the third major legal challenge to the detention center, erected by the DeSantis’ administration as part of the state’s support of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.

Praised by retailers, derided as a gimmick by critics, Florida on Friday will start a month-long sales-tax “holiday” for back-to-school shoppers, along with eliminating sales taxes on other types of items.While Florida has held back-to-school tax holidays of varying lengths in most years, lawmakers this spring approved making it an every-August occurrence. Shoppers will be able to avoid paying sales taxes on clothes, shoes and backpacks that cost $100 or less, school supplies that cost $50 or less, learning aids that cost $30 or less and personal computers that cost $1,500 or less.

Upping the ante in an increasingly acrimonious feud with House and Senate Republican leaders over immigration issues, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday vowed to channel “huge sums” of money to candidates he backs in next year’s GOP gubernatorial and legislative primary elections.The governor’s message drew condemnation from House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, as bitterness continued to fester about a bill passed by the Legislature this week amid a dispute over plans aimed at carrying out President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.