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Here's what Amendment 1 would mean for school board elections in Florida

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Here's what Amendment 1 would mean for school board elections in Florida


In November, Floridians will vote on an amendment to make school board elections partisan.

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Amendment 1 would make school board elections partisan beginning in the November 2026 general election and for primary elections nominating party candidates for the 2026 election.

Candidates would be nominated for the general election through party primaries, and would have a label of “Democrat” or “Republican” next to their name on the ballot.

“Students are not partisan, and certainly, our children are not partisan,” Hillsborough County school board member Lynn Gray said.

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READ: DeSantis-backed school board candidates defeated in several counties in Florida primaries

The amendment has received strong support and opposition from parents, teachers and legislators.

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“There’s so much politics in schools already right now being pushed in,” Julie Gebhards, a mother in Tampa Bay said.

Florida is currently one of 41 states with laws allowing non-partisan school board elections.

Florida had partisan school board elections until an amendment was approved in 1998.

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READ: Florida Dept. of State re-examining abortion rights amendment signatures

“If you put a stamp on someone, ‘Oh, you’re Republican, so therefore you’re thinking that way’, there’s a huge range of thoughts within the Republican arena. And Democrats, the same,” Gray said.

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Some Hillsborough County school board members who are also former teachers believe this would influence what’s being taught in the classroom every day.

“I think the most important information you need to have is what that person is about and what they represent and who they are as a person, and not about politics,” Hillsborough County school board member Nadia Combs said.

However, some parents who are in support of Amendment 1 believe politics are already infiltrating schools on a day-to-day basis.

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READ: Former Tampa middle school teacher, assistant principal arrested after student put in chokehold: HCSO

“I think it just provides a baseline for us to go into an election understanding the platform that the candidate is coming from, and knowing that those values are going to align closer with my own,” Gebhards said.

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The Florida Education Association says a partisan race would shift the focus of the school board.

“Rather than the focus on, ‘Hey, what do our kids need? Do we have the right music and art programs? Are our career and tech programs being funded appropriately?’” Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar said.

Dr. Joshua Scacco, the Director of the Center for Sustainable Democracy at USF, says the separation of politics and education isn’t necessarily clear, because school boards deal with political issues.

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READ: Several cases of ‘sloth fever’ confirmed in Florida: Here’s what to know

“All the issues that come before the school board are, indeed, political,” Scacco saod. “And that’s just because these are public entities. They’re funded by taxpayer dollars. So, inherently, they are political. Whether it’s taxing, whether it’s the content that children receive in schools or young adults receive in schools, it’s political.”

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Scacco says a partisan label could encourage more political polarization, which could make the decision-making by a school board a challenge.

Education is political,” Scacco said. “You can’t necessarily draw this sort of firewall between education being nonpolitical and what that looks like and what that means.”

READ: Hillsborough County student in custody after making school shooting threat: HCSO

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Gebhards says this amendment would only help voters make the most educated decision.

“And let people vote according to their values, you know, and whether that’s an ‘R’ or a ‘D’ next to the name, you can choose,” Gebhards said.

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Amendment 1 is on the ballot in the general election in November. If it passes, it would go into effect starting in 2026.

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Florida

Florida police release final report, interview on Hulk Hogan’s cause of death

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Florida police release final report, interview on Hulk Hogan’s cause of death


CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA) — The Clearwater Police Department announced Friday that it has completed its investigation into the death of WWE legend Hulk Hogan.

According to their findings, Clearwater police determined Hogan, whose legal name is Terry Bollea, died of an attended natural death.

“Under the circumstances, it fell to the Clearwater Police Department to address, challenge or validate some of the concerns in the case. Investigators had to interview multiple witnesses and review various recordings to answer questions central to our inquiry.”

The department also released a 72-page report on Bollea’s death, as well as interviews with Bollea’s occupational therapist.

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In the report, testimonies from various officers described what happened when Clearwater police were called to Bollea’s home on July 24, 2025.

The initial incident report stated that officers responded to the home on Eldorado Avenue at about 10:21 a.m. for a medical call.

Hulk Hogan’s home in Clearwater Beach

When officers entered the home, they found Bollea lying on the floor on his back, appearing pale with no signs of life.

Bollea’s home health aide, Dana Swinton, told police that she, Bollea’s wife Sky Daily, and his occupational therapist Justin McCamey were at the home when Hogan stopped breathing.

“I got here at 7,” Swinton told police, adding that he seemed “OK” at the time.

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McCamey said he arrived at the home at about 9:30 a.m. and was there for 10 minutes before Bollea began having his medical episode. Both he and the home health aide said Bollea was talking and ate yogurt before the medical episode.

When McCamey and Swinton returned, Daily noticed that her husband was not breathing. McCamey tried to get Bollea’s vitals but did not detect a pulse.

Daily called 911 and said, “My husband, it doesn’t seem like he’s breathing.”

Bollea’s home medical staff performed CPR on the retired wrestler until first responders arrived. According to the report, Bollea was taken to Morton Plant Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 11:17 p.m.

The report also stated that McCamey had been Bollea’s occupational therapist for two weeks and that this was his second visit with his patient.

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He told police Bollea was in “very poor health” since having surgery. The report stated Bollea had “approximately 20-30 various knee, hip, and back surgeries over the years.

Daily also told police that her husband had a spinal fusion surgery on his neck about six weeks before his death and a cardiac surgery three weeks before to fix a valve. He was also diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and had been undergoing chemotherapy.

Hogan was 71 at the time of his death. A cremation approval report from the District Six Medical Examiner’s Office described it as a natural death caused by a cardiac arrest.

The cremation approval report also noted the wrestling superstar had a history of “atrial fibrillation,” an irregular heartbeat in the upper chambers of the heart, and leukemia.

A private autopsy arranged by Bollea’s wife and his son, Nick, found that he died “exclusively from compelling natural disease, with no reasonable traumatic or terminal toxicologic
contributions.”

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After reviewing all the evidence, Clearwater police determined that Bollea’s death was natural and that there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

“We want to thank the family of Mr. Bollea – Sky, Nick and Brooke – and their attorney, Kevin Hayslett, for their cooperation,” the department said. “Their willingness to allow our investigators access to very personal information, at a time when they were grieving and struggling, was extremely helpful. We would not have had the legal justification to obtain much of the information without their cooperation.”



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WATCH: Deputies rescue elderly Florida driver after car plunges into canal

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WATCH: Deputies rescue elderly Florida driver after car plunges into canal


POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) — Body camera footage shows the moment deputies saved a woman after her car plunged into a Pompano Beach canal on Monday.

Officers arrived at the canal and spotted the car, which was rapidly taking on water with the driver trapped inside, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

Photo courtesy of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office

Video shows officers jumping into the canal and swimming toward the sinking car.

Photo courtesy of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office

Deputy Zachary Kerin shattered a window, allowing rescuers to pull the woman through the water to safety.

“An elderly woman is alive today thanks to the quick actions of BSO Detective Robert Rutkowski, Deputy Zachary Kerin and off-duty Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Captain Keith Costa, who raced against time,” BSO said.

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Photo courtesy of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office

The vehicle disappeared beneath the water’s surface moments after the woman reached the shore, BSO said.



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South Florida to see rising temperatures this weekend as rain chances start to drop

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South Florida to see rising temperatures this weekend as rain chances start to drop



The CBS News Miami NEXT Weather Team is tracking the return of drier air for the upcoming weekend with only a few stray showers in the mix.

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Scattered showers and isolated storms will be possible on Friday, but mostly in the Keys.

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The hour-by-hour forecast in South Florida on Friday, June 5, 2026.

CBS News Miami


Drier air continues to move into South Florida over the weekend with only 10-20% stray shower chances.

As rain chances go down, temperatures go up over the next several days.

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Mostly cloudy skies will keep highs in the mid-80s on Friday, but more sunshine arrives for the weekend and will cause highs to climb into the upper 80s.

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The 3-day forecast in South Florida.

CBS News Miami


Beachgoers should be aware of a high rip current risk at the coast for Friday through Sunday due to the easterly breeze.

Tropical moisture slowly starts to return on Sunday, leading to warmer and wetter conditions for the upcoming workweek.

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The forecast rainfall chances in South Florida over the next seven days.

CBS News Miami


Afternoon highs peak around 90 for Monday as scattered shower and storm chances linger through the first half of the workweek.



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