The Kentucky Wildcats are getting set to play in what will not only be their biggest game of the season, but their toughest matchup to this point. Kentucky will take on the Florida Gators, who are ranked 14th in the entire country and have been on a very hot winning streak. Florida has not only been winning their games, they have been dominating opponents.

It will be a very tall task for Kentucky basketball to get the massive road win, but both teams also have a lot on the line. This game will decide first place in the SEC. With Florida currently being in first, the Wildcats will need to win if they want that top spot, what would complete an incredible turnaround job for this Kentucky team after starting SEC play with an 0-2 record. Florida has won their last four games by an average margin of 27.3 points, winning eight of their last nine games overall. Meanwhile, Kentucky has won nine of their last ten, looking to shock the college basketball world with an absolutely massive win.

The Kentucky Wildcats on SI staff is here to give their predictions for the big game between Kentucky and Florida in Gainesville.

Andrew Stefaniak

Florida has been on a tear over their last four games, winning by a point differential of 27.3 points over that stretch. They played three of those four games on the road, so this team might be the hottest in college basketball. While most are talking about the Gators being hot, Mark Pope’s Kentucky Wildcats are also hot having won eight of their last nine. This game is for first place in the SEC, so Pope’s team will be hoping to pull off the upset. Florida’s elite frontcourt will prove to be too much for the Wildcats, but Kentucky will play well enough to prove that they are capable of beating the defending National Champions in Rupp Arena to finish the regular season. 

Score prediction: Florida 78, Kentucky 69

Kentucky MVP: Malachi Moreno

Wyatt Huff

This one is obviously the toughest team Kentucky has faced and will have for the entire season when it’s all said and done. It’s hard for me to see Mark Pope and the Wildcats pulling off some magic this time around. Florida has been playing like a juggernaut lately and have shown no signs of slowing down. Not to mention, they are good on both sides of the ball. Kentucky has handled physicality well up to this point, but Florida is just on another level in that area. I say Florida wins this one easy, especially with it being on their home floor.

Score prediction: Florida 86, Kentucky 71

Kentucky MVP: Otega Oweh

The Kentucky Wildcats have already shocked the college basketball world with multiple comeback wins, including victories over Arkansas on the road and a regular-season sweep over Tennessee, but can they do it against the toughest competition they have faced yet? The Florida Gators have been playing the best basketball of anyone in the country over the last month. Kentucky has a tall task at hand, especially with the Florida bigs. Can they overcome the big challenge?

The budgets are out in Tallahassee, but that doesn’t mean the negotiations are over, and a key inflation measure falls to a nearly five-year low.

State Senate and House budgets reveal possible friction points

The budgets are out, but that doesn’t mean the negotiations are over.

In Tallahassee, the state Senate rolled out its proposed budget, one day after the house surprised everyone by releasing its proposed budget.

We’ve picked out some highlights and some of the possible friction points between the chambers.

The Senate is proposing a $115.1 billion budget, while the House spending plan comes in at $113.6 billion.

Here is one point where there could be a fight over dollars: the governor’s emergency fund.

The Florida House wants to prevent emergency dollars from being spent on immigration. That would be a big change. By declaring illegal immigration a state emergency, Gov. Ron DeSantis has spent more than $600 million from the emergency fund on immigration enforcement, including building Alligator Alcatraz.

The state has not been reimbursed so far by the federal government.

The House now wants that emergency fund limited to $100 million and to only be used for natural disasters.

Another DeSantis priority that the House’s budget does not fund is the Florida State Guard.

DeSantis revived the state guard and was requesting $63 million to fund it for the next year. The state guard has faced allegations of mismanagement, and the House currently has no money in budget to keep it going.

Another potential friction point is DOGE. Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia has been traveling the state and auditing local governments as part of the administration’s push to eliminate property taxes.

The House does not include funding for codifying DeSantis’ DOGE agenda. Instead, the House has proposed creating an accountability office that would report directly to the legislature and not to the governor.

As of right now, the House does not have money for improving the campus of Hillsborough College, the potential new home of the Tampa Bay Rays. DeSantis had said that while state dollars would not directly fund a new stadium, there would be money to improve HC’s campus. This could still be negotiated with the Senate, as Republican state Sen. Danny Burgess is requesting $50 million be appropriated for HC improvements.

We’ve told you recently how the state is looking at a $120 million shortfall in the Florida AIDS drug assistance program. That shortfall could lead to thousands of people being unable to afford life-saving medication.

The House is trying to alleviate the shortfall by providing $68 million for it in the budget.

Finally, it looks like the House is on board to transfer the University of South Florida Sarasota Manatee campus to New College. The House budget proposal directs nearly $37 million to New College while setting up a potential transfer of funds from USF.

— Holly Gregory, Spectrum News

DHS appears headed into shutdown. What will be affected?

The nation is stumbling toward another lapse in government funding this weekend as most lawmakers have left Washington with no agreement to keep the Department of Homeland Security fully running.

The likely partial shutdown that will take place after midnight Friday will mark the third during President Donald Trump’s second term in office. But unlike the record-long shutdown this past fall and the short lapse in funding for a handful of departments just weeks ago, this one will only affect the Department of Homeland Security.

DHS houses several agencies that will see the impacts of a funding lapse and directly affect Americans.   

Here is what we know about how the department and the public could feel the partial shutdown. 

What a DHS shutdown means for agencies and Americans

DHS is often associated with the border and immigration but, despite being the crux of the potential shutdown, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, is expected to be the least affected by a lapse in funding because of the influx of money Republicans and Trump allocated to it in their “one big, beautiful bill” signed into law this past summer. 

At a hearing on Capitol Hill this week on the impacts of a potential lapse in funding, Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., noted ICE and Customs and Border Protection “will be largely unaffected by a shutdown.”

The Coast Guard, on the other hand, also falls under the department and is expected to be affected. Appearing at the House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing this week, Vice Adm. Thomas Allan, the Coast Guard’s vice commandant, warned a shutdown at the department could disrupt pay for 56,000 active duty, reserve and civilian personnel and particularly affect morale. 

He said that a lapse in funding requires the Coast Guard to suspend all missions except for those essential for national security and protection of life and property. 

“Although missions like law enforcement, national defense, and emergency response continue, a funding lapse has severe and lasting challenges for the Coast Guard’s workforce, operational readiness, and long-term capabilities,” he said. He also noted certain training for those such as pilots and boat crews would also stop, adding, “A shutdown also erodes mission readiness.”

Meanwhile, the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, is often one of the most front-facing aspects of a government shutdown for many Americans and this one has the potential for the same. Past shutdowns have often led to major snags at airports across the nation — including flight cancellations and delays and longer wait times — as TSA employees, who must work without pay, call out sick or take other jobs.

At the House hearing this week, TSA acting Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill noted that the rate of TSA workers who left their jobs from October to November last year amid the fall’s shutdown was a 25% increase from the same period the previous year. McNeill noted the “strain” shutdowns pose on the agency’s workers and said it can be hard for them to justify staying in a job where they could not be paid for weeks. 

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which works to protect infrastructure around the country from cyberattacks and other physical risks, would also be affected. Acting CISA Director Madhu Gottumukkala said that under a shutdown at the department, work would be “strictly limited to those essential to protecting life and property” and noted many employees would work without pay. 

“A shutdown forces many of our frontline security experts and threat hunters to work without pay — even as nation-states and criminal organizations intensify efforts to exploit critical systems that Americans rely on — placing an unprecedented strain on our national defenses,” Gottumukkala’s opening statement for the House hearing this week read. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is already facing major changes in the Trump administration, would also be touched by a lapse in funding. Gregg Phillips, associate administrator of FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery, said “lifesaving missions for supporting disaster response efforts” would continue. But he warned in his written opening statement for the hearing that a delay in funding “could undermine our readiness for major incidents, including terrorism or large-scale disasters, by disrupting critical preparedness and response activities” and “erode public trust in the federal government’s ability to respond to emergencies.”

He also said it would affect FEMA’s ability to reimburse states for disaster relief costs and impact coordination with local partners. 

Where things stand

Lawmakers in the House and Senate have largely left the nation’s capital as of Friday, and both chambers are scheduled to be on break next week, with the short-term funding patch they passed to keep the Department of Homeland Security funded through Feb. 13 set to expire at midnight. 

Congress passed the last of its funding bills for the 2026 fiscal year last month, except for DHS, as Democrats push for changes to ICE following the shooting of two people in Minnesota by federal agents amid the administration’s immigration crackdown. 

Democrats, Republicans and the White House have all said they are open to negotiating an agreement. But proposals sent back and forth between Congressional Democrats and the White House have yet to result in a deal.

Trump said Thursday that Democrats are proposing things that would be “very hard” for him to approve and told reporters on Friday that we “have to protect our law enforcement” when asked about where things stand. 

Meanwhile, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said Friday that “Donald Trump and Republicans have decided that they have zero interest in getting ICE under control.”

— Maggie Gannon, Spectrum News

At least 21 U.S. states have confirmed cases of measles as outbreaks continue spread across the country.

At Ave Maria University near Naples, Florida, measles cases have soared to nearly 60. A sophomore at the school, who is unvaccinated, told CBS News he developed symptoms before he tested positive.

“Honestly, at first, it … kind of felt like a head cold,” the student said. “I started to get a little rash and then like I started to get a sore throat, a cough.”

At a clinic across the street from campus, Dr. Raul Enad said he’s treated two measles patients – a student and a professor, both of whom were vaccinated.

“The professor, she was in contact with a student who had a severe illness, severe manifestation,” Enad said. “She would have been more sick if she had not been vaccinated.”

In a statement on its website, the university said that its “ongoing priority remains the health, safety and well-being of every member of our campus community.”

Surging cases across U.S.

The U.S. is now at risk of losing its measles-elimination status for the first time in more than two decades.

“It’s just the cost of doing business with our borders being somewhat porous for global and international travel,” principal deputy director at the CDC, Ralph Abraham, said last month. “We have these communities that choose to be unvaccinated. That’s their personal freedom.”

CBS News has tracked more than 1,000 confirmed cases nationwide in 2026, which is approximately half of what was recorded in all of 2025.

Three years ago at this time, there were only two cases of the highly contagious virus, according to the CDC.

South Carolina continues to have the largest outbreak with more than 900 cases since September.

The CDC recommends children receive their first dose of the MMR vaccine between 12 and 15 months.

“I think it’s a good reminder that kids should get the measles shot,” FDA commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said. “We put out, the administration, what we consider core essential vaccines, measles is one of them.”

Symptoms of measles

According to the CDC, measles symptoms “appear 7 to 14 days after contact with the virus.”

Symptoms may include:

• High fever (may spike to more than 104° F)
• Cough
• Runny nose (coryza)
• Red, watery eyes (conjunctivitis)
• Rash

In some cases, serious complications can develop, including pneumonia or encephalitis, a swelling of the brain.