DeSoto County

The same Suncoast lawmakers who voted earlier this year to let charter schools move into underused public campuses have stayed quiet as a Miami-based charter operator’s early push to occupy local schools set off confusion and concern among parents and educators.Mater Academy, one of Florida’s largest charter school networks, filed notices last week to co-locate inside five Sarasota and Manatee county schools — part of a broader wave of early filings across the state that districts say were submitted prematurely. According to officials, charter operators must wait until Nov. 11 to submit a notice.

Marion County was riddled with storefront gambling dens — until it passed a local ordinance in 2021 that gave deputies more power to shut them down. Within months, the slot-machine parlors vanished.Sumter County saw similar results after adopting its own rules that same year. The 13 gambling businesses once scattered across the rural county are now gone, local officials said.Now Manatee County is preparing to follow their lead. Commissioners voted this week to move forward with a proposal modeled on those counties’ ordinances, hoping to replicate their success in wiping out illegal “arcades” that have long operated with little consequence.

August 21 is Fentanyl Awareness and Education Day in DeSoto County, as the Florida Department of Health reminds residents about the dangers of the drug.

One of the most historic small towns in Southwest Florida is undergoing a revitalization. Arcadia in DeSoto County is re-branding its downtown to attract new and younger visitors.

The Florida Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) seeks more information from local cities and counties.

By a narrow margin Tuesday night, a majority of the DeSoto County Commission voted to deny allowing biosolids sludge — the remains of human waste — to be brought into the county so it can be composted as fertilizer.The vote was 3 to 2 to deny a special exception for the sludge plan.

After successfully ending the practice of spreading biosolids, Desoto residents brace for the possibility it may return

Voting Rights organizations held a press briefing today to help Florida voters prepare for the coming elections.

Tampa-area non-profit Rebuilding Together to distribute free hurricane supplies Monday in Arcadia.