Florida
Florida Prepaid College Board announces refunds, lowest prices in a decade
Florida parents, check your accounts. Florida Prepaid has announced price reductions for plans, which could mean refunds for your child’s college savings plan.
According to an announcement on Monday, more than 280,000 current customers with plans purchased since 2008 will receive $1.3 billion in price reductions; nearly 100,000 customers will receive over $330 million in refunds.
The rollback also means that current plan prices are at the lowest rates in 10 years, starting at just $34 a month for a newborn.
In the Miami area, 84,973 student plans will see reductions worth $436 million. In addition, 37,671 students will get a total of $112 million in refunds on their existing plans.
If you already submitted your application for the Contract Year 2024 Open Enrollment period between May 1, 2023, and Jan. 31, 2024, you would receive your final plan prices in February, and you will be included in this price reduction automatically.
For more information, click on this link.
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Wildlife researchers have found an unconventional way to help control invasive Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades – by using one of the snakes’ favorite prey.
Opossums are a key food source for Burmese pythons, which are top predators in the Everglades and have established a permanent breeding population in South Florida, severely harming the ecosystem by wiping out native animals, according to the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
In 2022, researchers discovered the new technique accidentally while studying the movements and behaviors of small mammals. The team had fitted GPS collars to opossums and raccoons on Florida’s southern coast and discovered an added side effect: They could also track the enormous snakes after they swallowed the tagged animals whole, LiveScience reported.
“We need everything that we can find to remove as many pythons as possible,” Michael Cove, one of the researchers and curator of mammals at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, told The South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 2023.
With that in mind, Cove, A.J. Sanjar and other researchers expanded the effort to track and euthanize invasive pythons as part of Florida’s conservation work. Here’s how they do it.
How the GPS-collared opossums are tracked
Researchers hope to have at least 40 GPS-collared opossums in their conservation program by later this summer. It’s almost a given that some of these furry creatures will meet their doom in the coils of an invasive python diet in the food chain, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.
Although the use of live prey as bait has drawn criticism, the scientists insist that they are researching natural behavior and that the collars do not limit the mammals’ range or raise their risk, but rather use predatory patterns as a means of detection.
“We’re not putting these animals out there and in harm’s way,” Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge manager Jeremy Dixon told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on April 19. “Harm’s way is there. We’re just documenting what’s happening.”
Where Burmese pythons have been reported in Florida
Burmese pythons in the Sunshine State have reduced the population of raccoons by 99%, opossums by 98% and bobcats by 88%, causing a massive ecological collapse in Florida’s Everglades.
A U.S. Geological Survey report shows that Burmese pythons are expanding their range so quickly that it can be marked in miles per year in some areas.
Here’s where they’re most prevalent in Florida:
About the invasive Burmese python
Originally from Southeast Asia, the Burmese python has been introduced to South Florida either through accidental escape or intentional release of captive animals.
In 1979, the first observation of a Burmese python in the wild in South Florida was recorded in Everglades National Park. The heaviest python ever caught in Florida was an 18-foot, 215-pound snake. It was caught by a biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples in 2022.
How big do pythons get?
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission keeps track of the length and weight of Burmese pythons after sightings are reported. The longest Burmese python ever captured in Florida, in July 2023, measured more than 19 feet.
Since their arrival in Florida, the snakes have brought harmful, non-native parasites and reduced medium-sized mammal numbers by more than 90%, changing the ecosystem, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Source: North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Popular Science, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Naples Daily News and USA TODAY research
Disease and cold temperatures killed nearly 30 sloths at a Florida animal import warehouse in 2024 and 2025, according to a report from state wildlife authorities.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation inspection report from August found that 21 sloths imported from Guyana died at an Orlando facility called Sanctuary World Imports in December 2024 when temperatures dropped into the 40-to-55 degree Fahrenheit (4.4 to 12.8 degrees Celsius) range.
Sloths are unable to regulate their body temperature as well as other mammals and do best in the 68-to-85 degree Fahrenheit (20 to 30 degrees Celsius) range, according to the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Peter Bandre, listed as the facility licensee in the report, said that the animals died of what he called a “cold stun.” The building had no water and no electricity and wasn’t ready to receive the animals, he said, but it was too late to cancel the shipment. The facility purchased space heaters but the heaters tripped a fuse and shut down, leaving the sloths alone without heat for at least one night.
The facility later ordered 10 sloths from Peru, which arrived in February 2025. Two were dead on arrival. The rest appeared emaciated and died of what the report termed “poor health issues.” Bandre said that he planned to interview for a new veterinarian, the facility’s third, according to the state report.
Bandre did not immediately return a message The Associated Press left at a number listed for Sanctuary World Imports on the August report.
According to reports detailing follow-up state inspections in March 2026, Sanctuary World President Benjamin Agresta said he had changed the name to Sloth World Inc. and that Bandre was no longer affiliated with the business. A voicemail and text that the AP left Sunday at the number listed in the March reports for Sloth World Inc. were not immediately returned.
Inspectors reported the March inspections at the facility where the sloths from Guyana died revealed independent heat and air conditioning with a temperature constantly set at 82 degrees Fahrenheit (27.8 degrees Celsisus). They did not observe any issues with the sloths the facility was holding.
Human remains have been found in the waterways of Tampa Bay, where authorities have been searching for the body of missing University of Florida doctoral student Nahida Bristy, Florida deputies announced late Sunday as new court documents allege the suspect in the killing of Bristy and another student appeared to ask ChatGPT how to dispose of a body.
The remains were found in Pinellas County and have not yet been identified. According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, the remains were found “in the area of Interstate 275 and 4th Street North,” which is at the St. Petersburg side of the Howard Frankland Bridge.
Bristy, 27, who is presumed dead, went missing last week along with 27-year-old Zamil Limon, whose remains were found Friday on a bridge near Tampa. Limon’s roommate, 26-year-old Hisham Abugharbieh, was arrested Saturday and is charged with two counts of premeditated first-degree murder with a weapon. He is being held without bond.
Court documents unveiled Sunday reveal Abugharbieh allegedly asked ChatGPT questions about how to dispose of a body in the days leading up to the disappearance of Brsity and Limon.
According to the documents, the suspect asked ChatGPT on April 13 what would happen if someone was “put in a black garbage bag and thrown in dumpster.” The AI chatbot responded that it sounds dangerous, prompting Abugharbieh to allegedly ask, “How would they find out.”
Limon’s body “was located within numerous black utility trash bags in advanced stages of decomposition” on the Howard Frankland Bridge, which spans part of Tampa Bay, according to the court documents. The documents also say prosecutors believe Bristy was “disposed of in a similar way.”
On April 15, the day before the doctoral students went missing, Abugharbie allegedly asked ChatGPT, “Can a VIN number on a car be changed?” and, “Can you keep a gun at home with out a license,” the documents said.
Then, just after midnight on April 17, the documents say Abugharbie asked if cars are “checked at the Hillsborough River state park,” a state park located just to the northeast of Tampa. That same night, the suspect’s phone pinged at the location on the bridge where Limon’s remains were discovered — to the west of Tampa — the court documents allege.
An autopsy by the Pinellas County Medical Examiner’s Office found that Limon’s body had sustained numerous lacerations and stab wounds. The manner of death was ruled a homicide due to “multiple sharp force injuries,” according to the court documents.
Abugharbie also had numerous lacerations on his body, including his left and right legs, the court documents state.
The court documents say detectives used an “enhancement agent” at the apartment Limon and Abugharbie shared and found “significant” blood patterns from the entry foyer, through the kitchen, into the hallway and in the suspect’s bedroom. The blood in the bedroom was found in “two distinct patterns on the floor which appeared to have a relatively human-sized shape,” the court documents state.
Abugharbie is being represented by a public defender. CBS News reached out for comment on Saturday after his arraignment, but has not heard back. He is due back in court on Tuesday.
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