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Florida’s Gulf Coast could see a Category 2 hurricane this week after Helene forms

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Florida’s Gulf Coast could see a Category 2 hurricane this week after Helene forms


Florida’s Panhandle and Big Bend area could see a landfalling hurricane on Thursday, potential a Category 2 or stronger.

Monday morning, the National Hurricane Center issued its first forecast track for a disturbance hovering west of Jamaica, now classified as potential tropical cyclone 9. The track takes it between Mexico and Cuba, into the Gulf of Mexico and into Florida’s west coast in three days.

Mexico issued a tropical storm warning for the Yucatan Peninsula, and Cuba issued one for the Isle of Youth and Artemisia, as well as a hurricane watch for Pinar del Rio. Both spots could see up to four feet of storm surge and several inches of rain from the storm.

Florida’s panhandle could see a hurricane landfall Thursday evening.

Florida’s panhandle could see a hurricane landfall Thursday evening.

Because the system has not formed yet and lacks a defined center, forecasters warned that the forecast was more uncertain than usual. They expect Helene to develop in the next day or two and then rapidly strengthen as it heads toward Florida.

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“Given the large size of the tropical-storm-force wind field and fast forward speed that is forecast, storm surge, wind, and rainfall impacts will likely extend well away from the center, particularly to the east of the system,” the 11 a.m. discussion read.

South Florida could see rain, potentially heavy, beginning as soon as Wednesday and lasting into the weekend.

Helene’s path forward is lined with some of the warmest waters in the Atlantic basin, which could fuel its growth into a strong hurricane. The first forecast called for Helen to top out with 110 mph sustained winds right before landfall, a strong Category 2 verging on Category 3.

The waters in the northeast Gulf are about 2 degrees Celsius warmer than average, posted Ben Noll, a meteorologist with New Zealand’s National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, on Twitter.

“It’s concerning from a potential intensity and moisture availability perspective!” he wrote.

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Florida House Speaker, Governor clash over controversial Immigration Bill

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Florida House Speaker, Governor clash over controversial Immigration Bill


TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida House Speaker Danny Perez is challenging Governor Ron DeSantis about the true reason behind his opposition to a controversial immigration reform bill. As tensions escalate between the legislative and executive branches over this sweeping policy, Perez says he’s hopeful that the governor will pick up the phone to find a resolution.

Despite a reported lack of dialogue, in a chat about the ongoing infighting, Perez said this week he remains focused on turning that big immigration bill lawmakers passed Tuesday, known as the TRUMP Act, into Florida law.

“The legislature’s bill is significantly more conservative and tougher on crime when it comes to illegal immigration,” Perez said.

The 84-page proposal includes mandatory death sentences for undocumented individuals convicted of capital crimes, the elimination of in-state tuition for DACA recipients, and a half-billion-dollar allocation for state and city police to enforce immigration laws. It also proposes giving Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner the authority to oversee immigration enforcement.

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Perez noted not only is the commissioner an elected official, but the post has a statewide network and its own law enforcement.

“This is too important of a position to not be held accountable,” said Speaker Perez. “I wanted to ensure that it was a person elected statewide. The Commissioner of Agriculture’s job here is to make sure that local law enforcement and all levels of law enforcement are cooperating with the federal government and President Trump.”

However, Governor DeSantis has sharply criticized the bill, calling it “a very, very grotesque weak piece of legislation.” According to DeSantis, the bill was crafted too hastily and is potentially unconstitutional due to its siphoning of immigration authority away from the governor’s office.

“You have to do a ‘mother may I’ with the Commissioner of Agriculture about whether you can bring in the federal immigration authorities,” he said during one of four immigration roundtables this week. “How ridiculous is that? How does that help us do what we need to do?”

The controversy has escalated into a public battle, with Republicans openly criticizing each other through TV interviews, podcasts, and across social platforms. Accusations of being “Republican In Name Only” are rampant, along with personal attacks and recall petitions.

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“If the governor disagrees by calling the bill weak and liberal and all these other things that are just not true,” said Perez. “At that point, it is hard to collaborate with a partner that is unwilling to communicate.”

When asked what he would say to Governor DeSantis directly, Perez said. “I would ask him, what’s, ‘What’s the real reason that you’re against my bill?’ What is it? What don’t you like about the bill? Be honest about it. There’s no Twitter here. You know, he goes on Hannity and Laura Ingraham and like, three times a week. I would ask him to be honest with me: what is the real problem with the bill? Because this is not a weak bill. He knows it’s not a weak bill.”

DeSantis’s team has consistently said they want more stringent measures, like making illegal immigration a state crime, granting deportation powers to Florida, and establishing an immigration czar under the governor’s authority. DeSantis has threatened to veto the bill, and while lawmakers can override it, the necessary Senate votes might not be there.

Perez acknowledged the potential for a veto, saying, “You have to think about what he’s about to veto. He’s about to veto a bill that gives the death penalty to illegal immigrants that rape children. I mean, put that into perspective for a second. Think about that. We did our job. We made the best, most conservative bill that anyone could have ever imagined, the best in the country, and we passed it with a super majority of Republicans and not one Democrat.”

Despite the possibility of a legislative logjam, Perez remained unfazed about his relationship with the governor, emphasizing that in his mind, the rift isn’t a feud; it’s a “disagreement.”

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“There’s nothing wrong with disagreeing with someone,” said the Speaker. “The important part is that once you realize that you are in a disagreement, that you were able to converse in order to try and find a solution. That’s the part that’s missing this disagreement. That’s it, right there. So, I mean, eventually, it has to happen. It’s just a matter of when. I would have it tonight. I’d have it after this interview. I would do it whenever.”

“I’ve gotten exhausted from FEMA. We’re 62 and 72 years old, and we’re on Social Security/Disability. What the hell does this country want from us?”
John King shared with ABC Action News the flooding in his Zephyrhills community – more than 3 months after Hurricane Milton.

Pasco County community remains flooded months after Milton





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Florida scales back college general education classes covering systemic racism, privilege, sexism

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Florida scales back college general education classes covering systemic racism, privilege, sexism


JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – General education courses at Florida colleges and universities are going to be significantly reduced.

The Board of Governors voted Thursday to approve a new course list that it believes is not based on theories of systemic racism and privilege, among others.

The board meeting, held in the student union building at the University of North Florida, got some pushback.

About 30 minutes before the six-hour meeting started, a group of professors and students protested the changes and wanted the board of governors to reconsider before voting.

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The change to the course list dates back to 2023 when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law changes that allow the Board of Governors to have the authority to remove courses from the general education track that they find to be based on “theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United State and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequalities.”

During Thursday’s meeting, State University System of Florida Chancellor Ray Rodrigues mentioned a poll that was recently taken that asked if people had confidence in higher education and pointed out why a large number of people said they did not have confidence.

“If you did not have confidence, why did you not have confidence in higher education? There were three main reasons,” Rodrigues said. “The No. 1 reason was political agenda, a belief that higher education has turned into indoctrination and faculty members were pushing their own personal liberal agendas.

Rodrigues also mentioned the other two reasons in the poll, including people believing higher education had the wrong purpose. Some polled said graduates cannot find jobs and the degrees they are earning are meaningless. The other reasons were cost and debt.

Before Thursday’s meeting started, more than a dozen UNF professors and students gathered along the walkway of the student union building to express that they feel like they are being limited in what they can teach and learn.

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Dr. Matthew Leon, a business professor, said he has already had to make a drastic change in one of his courses.

“I teach a bunch of human resources courses,” Leon said. “Right now, I have a disclaimer in my syllabus that students do not have to believe what I say, which is insane for me to say, ‘there is federal law that has been established for 60 years, but if you don’t like it, don’t let it stress you out.’ The world is a challenging place. We are doing our students a disservice by not giving them an education that allows them to navigate it.”

Leon said he attended the organized news conference to plead with the Board of Governors to rethink the choice it was bound to make.

“What I am here to do is really to ask the board to allow the experts and the people on the ground to give the education to our students in our workforce that they need to remain world-class,” he said.

During the meeting, Rodrigues also said the board is not prohibiting colleges or universities from offering all of the courses on those topics.

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But none of the classes can be included as a part of any general education requirements in order to graduate from a state college or university.

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.



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Florida Republican Party members put House speaker Perez on defense

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Florida Republican Party members put House speaker Perez on defense


TALLAHASSEE — House Speaker Daniel Perez was on the defensive, fielding questions from rank-and-file members of the Republican Party of Florida in a 45-minute video call Thursday about why he is battling with the governor over immigration enforcement.

Carmen Edmonds, the chairwoman of the Republican Party of Hillsborough County, said she and her members were concerned about the “optics” of Perez and the Senate president rejecting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ special session on assisting the president with immigration enforcement only to hold their own.

“If there were things that still needed to be worked out with the governor, people are wondering why you didn’t just adjourn, go back to the drawing board, bring the White House and the governor’s house in and make this the best bill it could be on the front end?” Edmonds asked.

She added: “It looks underhanded. It looks like, unfortunately, our (Legislature) in Tallahassee is trying to pit the president against the governor. And, you know, people in Florida still love our governor. But we also love President Trump. So, I think it’s just the optics of it all.”

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Perez said: “The reason that didn’t happen is because the governor didn’t want to.”

The conference, which the state party chairperson estimates was attended by roughly 200 members, represents a political flashpoint in the Republican Party of Florida, which for decades has had a reputation for being efficient, effective, on message and in lock-step with its top-down leadership.

The feud between Perez, a Miami Republican, and DeSantis over who has the best plan to assist the president with deporting immigrants living in the country illegally has already roiled the intricate ecosystem of veteran politicos and conservative media. It is now extending to the boots-on-the-ground members who are integral to winning elections and spreading conservative talking points, as both sides have been using the party to message their case to Republican constituents.

A main sticking point in the conflict is that Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton pushed a bill the Legislature passed in a matter of two days this week to transfer the power to oversee Florida’s immigration enforcement system from DeSantis to one of his top political rivals — the Republican agriculture commissioner, who is a likely gubernatorial candidate in 2026.

The governor’s chief of staff, James Uthmeier, posted on social media Thursday morning that DeSantis’ office “has not declined any effort to discuss policy” and has been “open to any legislative member that would like to sit down and talk policy.”

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The speaker is adamant, though, that it is DeSantis who won’t work with Perez, not the other way around.

“The reason we are in this position is there’s been a lack of communication between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature,” Perez said. “And it’s been like that for six years.”

He reiterated what he’s told the Times/Herald as well: Two weeks ago, he got off a plane in Tallahassee and was greeted by a voicemail from DeSantis that he was planning a special session to help the Trump administration carry out a sweeping deportation program.

Perez said he called DeSantis back but the governor didn’t answer. He said he’s still not heard from the governor.

“I mean, guys, put yourself in my position for a second. As soon as I landed I got blindsided by this,” Perez said. “Completely blindsided.”

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Vic Baker, a Republican state committeeman from Volusia County, asked why lawmakers were limiting Desantis’ power to enforce immigration laws in Florida.

“The chief law enforcement officer in the United States is the president,” Baker said. “Drawing from that, I’d say that the chief law enforcement officer in Florida is our governor who manages the executive branch, and that’s where it belongs.”

Baker added: “And I don’t see how the agriculture commissioner, who is operating in the interest of the farming community, doesn’t find a conflict of interest in also enforcing immigration, which the farming community obviously relies upon immigrants, in many cases, to run their farms.”

Perez said the immigration program wouldn’t be run by the “chief law enforcement officer” but rather by the “chief immigration officer that is going to administer the program with the federal government and in conjunction with law enforcement.”

“The enforcers are going to be the law enforcement officers. They’re the ones who are going to catch the bad guys and make sure that we deport the bad guys,” Perez said, noting the sheriffs were supporting the Legislature’s proposal. “That’s why we have so much money going towards the resources to make sure that law enforcement can do their job.”

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Republican State Committeewoman Kathryn “Kat” Gates-Skipper from Polk County said she, too, had concerns about a potential conflict of interest for the commissioner.

“As a veteran, immigration’s important to me. As a cattlewoman, agriculture is important to me,” Gates-Skipper said. “Why would you put a department impacted by immigration in charge of immigration?”

Perez said that it was his “understanding” from working with the federal government that “of the illegal immigrants that are being caught and sent back to their country, 1% works in agriculture.”

“Look, that 1% should be gone,” Perez said. “But there’s another 99% that no one’s talking about that aren’t in agriculture.”

Duval County School Board Member April Carney said that the biggest concern she’s heard from parents and grandparents was regarding a potential deal legislative leaders may strike with Democrats to put money in the budget for students living in the country illegally who will be losing in-state college tuition under the bill.

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“I want to know if there was any truth to that,” Carney said. “A lot of parents that I’ve spoken to are concerned about funding continuing for illegals and not for Florida residents.”

Perez said he will “never negotiate with the Democrats to take out the in-state tuition portion for illegal immigrants that we repealed. Never. You can take that to the bank.”

“Every Democrat in our chamber voted against this bill,” Perez said. “That’s ridiculous.”

It is not Perez who would need to strike a deal with Democrats to override the governor’s impending veto to the bill the Legislature passed late Tuesday night — it is the Senate president, who doesn’t have the necessary votes after six Republicans went against the bill, three of whom are DeSantis loyalists.

It’s unclear whether those exact deals will center on funding tuition for students in the country illegally or other Democratic priorities. That will likely be worked out during the regular legislative session starting March 4.

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“I don’t believe that any illegal immigrant in the state of Florida should be getting in-state tuition, which is essentially given by the government,” Perez said. “I want to make sure that is something you all completely understand.”



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