Florida
Backyard chickens may soon be allowed in this Florida city
The City Commission must vote on the idea, too.
STUART — Permission to have backyard chickens behind single-family homes and duplexes may soon be granted to homeowners here.
The city’s Community Redevelopment Board on May 5 voted 5-2 in favor recommending the City Commission approve the idea. It would give homeowners permission to have up to four chickens.
“I’m going to be really honest here,” Board Member Bonnie Moser said. “I have chickens in my backyard.”
She got them about 18 months ago, she said, with the permission of all of her neighbors.
Backyard chickens were approved by the City Commission in June 2017, but two weeks later a commissioner backtracked his “yes” vote, killing the deal that had passed 3-2.
“My 2-year-old son loves them,” Moser added. “We eat the eggs every day.”
The chickens are fed with the family’s food scraps, and the manure fertilizes her vegetable garden, she said.
Moser suggested two changes to the proposed ordinance. One, that allows the height of the coop to be increased to 7 feet and the other that allows the height of the required fence or hedge to be reduced to 5 feet. The Community Redevelopment Board also recommended the City Commission approve those changes.
Noise and smell
Concerns about noise are overstated, Moser continued. The chickens really make noise only when they’re laying eggs, which happens in the morning or midday.
“It’s a couple of clucks and then it goes away,” she said. “As long as they’re not being attacked by anything, they’re not making noise.”
The crows and dogs on her street make more noise than the chickens, Moser said.
Smell is another concern people have about allowing chickens behind homes, which Moser also addressed.
It’s only four chickens or less, she said.
Additionally, allowing chickens can be a great educational opportunity for children, Moser said, because children think food comes from the grocery store.
“So, cat’s out of the bag,” Moser said. “I’ve got chickens. Come and get them if you want them. But know that my 2-year-old would be very sad because the highlight of his day is going out there to collect eggs every day.”
Opposition to the idea
Board Chair Frank McChrystal and Board Member Frederick James opposed the idea.
“This will just lead us to a slippery slope,” James said. “If we allow chickens, why not allow pigs?”
Martin County got it right by prohibiting chickens, McChrystal said. He polled his neighbors, who said, “They’re bringing that up again?”
McChrystal said no more about why he opposed the idea.
The fee to have chickens would be $65 annually, Stuart Development Director Jodi Kugler said.
Keith Burbank is a watchdog reporter for TCPalm, usually covering Martin County. He can be reached at keith.burbank@tcpalm.com.
Florida
US appeals court strikes down key part of Florida law restricting campus race and gender discussions
A federal appeals panel struck down a significant chunk of Ron DeSantis’s so-called Stop Woke Act on Tuesday, delivering another rebuff to the Republican Florida governor’s efforts to stifle free speech in higher education.
In a scathing order, judges of the 11th circuit court of appeal said by a 2-1 majority that the higher education component of the law – which prevented college and university professors teaching or sharing thoughts on concepts of race and gender – breached the free expression rights guaranteed under the US constitution’s first amendment.
It accused the state of “puppeteering”: making the educators their mouthpieces by controlling what they can say or teach.
“Because the government pays the professors’ salaries, Florida says, their speech is the state’s speech,” Britt Grant, a Donald Trump-appointed judge who wrote the majority opinion, said. “Emphatically no.
“Florida’s salary-for-speech rule is a breathtaking assertion of power to ban unpopular ideas from public discourse in the very places the state’s own statutes recognize as centers of inquiry – classrooms where students are trusted to puzzle through ideas that are good and bad, easy and hard, ideally getting ever closer to the truth.”
It added: “The ideas Florida targets may well be noxious. Or maybe not. Either way, in this context the first amendment trusts students to figure it out for themselves.”
The ruling removes a flagship element of DeSantis’s second-term agenda aimed at perceived leftwing ideology on Florida’s state-run higher education campuses. Passed in 2022, the Stop Woke Act, formally branded the Individual Freedom Act, restricted how race and gender could be taught in schools and colleges, and discussed in the workplace.
Tuesday’s decision mirrors the same appeals court’s 2024 ruling blocking the workplace provision of the law on the grounds that the state was attempting, unconstitutionally, to recharacterize protected free speech as conduct it could ban.
It reinforces a district court’s November 2022 injunction against implementation of the law at Florida’s colleges and universities – and represents a considerable victory for civil rights and free speech advocacy groups that launched the legal action.
The lawsuit’s named plaintfill – LeRoy Pernell, a professor at Florida A&M University’s college of law – welcomed the ruling.
“We are thrilled the court has stopped the erasure of topics that have real implications for our students, allowing them to learn, discuss, and develop tools for combatting the complex issue of racism in our country without being gagged by those who would dictate that only state-approved thought may be promoted,” he said in a statement.
Jin Hee Lee, director of strategic initiatives at the Legal Defense Fund, said the Stop Woke Act was an “egregious” effort by the DeSantis administration to try to force the public higher education system in Florida to adopt the viewpoints of those in power.
“It is no coincidence that this state law aimed to censor the perspectives of Black people and LGBTQ+ people, the very same people who are currently under attack,” Lee said.
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“With this decision, the federal appeals court has made clear that Florida cannot actively erase their history of discrimination or their lived experiences without running afoul of our constitution.”
Carrie McNamara, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, also hailed the ruling as a victory for free speech.
“By upholding the district court’s ruling, the 11th circuit ensured that our system of higher education is guided by the principle of free speech, not government censorship,” she said.
“Our classrooms are meant to be rooms of curiosity, creativity, and learning. When we stifle this kind of critical thinking, we risk losing our education system as we know it.”
There was no immediate reaction to the ruling from the DeSantis administration or Florida’s unelected attorney general, James Uthmeier, the governor’s former chief of staff elevated by DeSantis in February 2025.
Florida
Miami ranks among top U.S. cities for debt collection calls as Florida places near top, study finds
Miami residents are among the Americans most likely to receive debt collection calls, according to a new study examining Federal Trade Commission complaint data.
The NumberBarn analysis ranked Miami fourth among the nation’s largest metro areas for debt collection complaints after adjusting for population. Florida also ranked fourth among all states for debt collection complaints per capita.
Nationwide, consumers filed more than 471,000 debt collection complaints with the FTC in 2025, more than twice the total reported a year earlier. Nearly 47% of those complaints described collectors as abusive, threatening or harassing.
Researchers caution that not every complaint involves a legitimate debt collector. Many consumers reported they believed the debt was inaccurate or that the calls were part of a scam.
Florida ranked behind Georgia, Texas and Louisiana for debt collection complaints per capita, underscoring the growing number of Floridians reporting issues with collection calls.
Among major metropolitan areas, Atlanta ranked first, followed by Dallas and Houston, with Miami placing fourth nationally. Miami also ranked among the five metro areas with the highest overall volume of complaints filed during 2025.
Researchers say the sharp increase in complaints may reflect rising household debt, more aggressive collection activity and greater public awareness of the FTC’s complaint system.
The study found Americans between ages 30 and 39 filed the largest number of complaints last year, followed by those ages 40 to 49 and 20 to 29, groups often managing mortgages, credit card balances, student loans and other major financial obligations.
Tips for consumers
Experts recommend taking several steps if you receive repeated debt collection calls:
- Ask the collector to provide written verification of the debt.
- Never give out sensitive financial information until you’ve confirmed the caller is legitimate.
- Learn your protections under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
- Report abusive or suspicious calls to the FTC.
- Consider using call-blocking features available through your phone carrier or a trusted app.
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